Saturday, July 21, 2012

Get more greens into your toddler

Sprout is not what I'd call a picky eater, however he does have one sticking point: leaves. Spinach, kale, chard, collard greens, cabbage, lettuce: he won't eat them. Sadly, they're a great source of vitamins & minerals. I've tried chopping them & 'hiding' them in pasta. No dice, he picks them out. Then I tried mincing them, which had better success.

Lately, I've found great success adding kale into smoothies. He doesn't seem to mind the greenish tinge that they all have. It's also a great way to use up overripe bananas--just peel them, break them into two or three pieces & toss them in the freezer in a container.

The many ways to consume a smoothie/moisturizing mask

Here's my recipe:
  • Two frozen bananas
  • a handful of frozen kale
  • a dash of vanilla
  • a shake of cinnamon
  • a few dollops of plain yogurt
  • a tablespoon or two of hemp hearts (or chia seeds, flax seeds, etc)
  • some other fruit--mango, strawberry, raspberry, blueberry--whatever you've got
  • some milk or juice to thin as needed

Makes enough for one adult & one toddler to have big servings--about 750mL, usually.

I just add all of this in the blender (gradually, with liquids near the beginning, as my blender is a bit persnickety) & keep pushing the button until it's whizzed up into a smooth consistency. I sometimes make it quite thick & give Sprout a spoon--he thinks it's ice cream. Shhhh.. don't tell him it's not!

Obviously you can change this recipe completely--though I'd leave in the bananas, at least. I find the overripe bananas give it a lot of sweetness & a nice creamy body.

Another thing you could do with this is make popsicles. Or if you have an ice cream maker, you could try it in there. Anyone want to experiment with that one & let me know how it goes?

- - - - - - - -
Psst... Have you LIKED the official Sprog Facebook page yet?

2 comments:

  1. I went to a birthday party where the host snuck kale into the cupcakes! No one seemed to notice. Just today we were at an Ethiopian Festival and Theo ate a plate of lentils and kale. He kept asking what the kale was like it was some kind of candy. Super random.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's awesome! Sprout can't get over the leafiness of kale or spinach. If it's minced or pureed, he doesn't mind the flavour at all, so I'm pretty sure it's the texture. Probably reminds him of the fruit skins he used to gag on... or it could be just random. LOL

      Delete

Thanks for commenting! (I've had to enable comment moderation on older posts to thwart spammers, so your post may not appear right away.)

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...