Is your kid like so many other kids that would rather eat pizza over your steamed veggies? Is having a debate over what to eat each day making you nuts? We get it! We’ve been there! Getting your child to eat healthy while maintaining “peace” is a challenge for most parents at some point during their kid’s development. After battling our own kids over this exact issue, we discovered a sneaky way to get our kids to eat those veggies under the guise of a dessert.
As infants our kids ate every conceivable vegetable we steamed and pureed. They ate things that we wouldn’t even eat like pureed beets with curry spice, and they really loved it. The smell made us wince, but hey we thought we were raising kids that would have an appetite for all things. Wrong!
As soon as they turned two-years-old, meals became a nightmare. If we made a meal they refused, we would prepare something else. After a while, we got so frustrated and burnt out that we gave into every request they asked. But a diet of carbohydrates and no vegetables, leads to constipation for them and a sudden since of parenting failure for us. How were we going to get them to eat vegetables again?
On our occasional weekend outings, we’d often find ourselves stopping in local Los Angeles shops selling delicious smoothies. Our kids loved them. For some reason, they thought they were having a treat or dessert. One smoothie was so cold that one of our girls thought it was ice cream. While we typically favored those smoothies that were less healthy, we knew that there were healthier ones that tasted just as good but have more nutritional value. As I watched our kids inhale these delicious treats, it gave me an idea: why don’t we make a smoothie with all those veggies they won’t eat?
It took a bit of time to figure out how to disguise the raw veggie taste from the smoothie, but now our kids ask for it daily thinking they are getting dessert. You should feel free to play around with your own ideas or adjust this recipe to your kid’s liking. As soon as our kids started having these, their digestion took a huge turn, AND we also felt like better and/or sneakier parents.
Veggie/ Fruit Smoothie
(This recipe is for 2 kids. Adjust for more or less.)
One banana
1 cup frozen blueberries1
1/4 cups Suja Essentials Organic Mighty Greens
½ cup Good Belly Probiotic Blueberry Acai
2 scoops of Sun Warrior vegan protein powder or any protein powder
2 tbsp of sunflower butter
Drizzle some honey
Blend until smooth and creamy