A couple of weeks ago we gave you a little teaser to this post by introducing you to the author herself - Samantha Huddleston - and we couldn't be more psyched to have her in full to talk about how she makes greens work when they aren't always the favorite AND about making sacrifices. Hey, Dean just loves his mac 'n cheese.
Enjoy!
Everyday is a struggle or an adventure however you want to
look at it…to make sure everyone in the family is eating their green foods.
Especially for my 3-year old son Dean - he has recently become very
particular and aware of what kind & color of food is on his plate. My
daughter, Nora, who just turned 1, is completely the opposite and loves
anything & everything she can get her hands on. She will eat brussels
sprouts like nobody’s business and every other green food you will give her.
Dean on the other hand loves his mac and cheese, fruits
(blueberries, mangoes, strawberries, etc.) but will no longer give beans, green
veggies or anything that looks to be a vegetable a chance. Since this shift in
eating behavior I have had to become creative by making green juices that I
make into popsicles, or disguise as fruit smoothies that don’t have a “green”
taste. He started to pay attention to the colors of the cups and popsicles,
which led to boycotting anything green in color even if it was a store bought popsicle.
The only exception to the boycott is his daily avocado, which he is still enthusiastic
about eating! Hooray!
...I started
to make green juices and put them into cups that he couldn’t see through
because if didn’t see the color of the drink he would drink all of it…no
problem! Dean and I have been having a lot of conversations lately about how
green juice & food helps to make you grow bigger and stronger so we have
made some progress in that department because, of course, he wants to be tall
like his daddy.
As you can see from the photos included in this post, Dean
drank the green juice in a see through cup once I persuaded him to take one
sip…he then realized it wasn’t so bad because I had added kiwis and orange
juice to the regular green spinach juice recipe so it was sweeter than usual.
The green juice was disguised and was quite the success as he finished most of
his cup with delight.
Of course, I had to test out my green juice victory again a
few days later so I made another batch of green juice with cucumber, lemon,
kale, spinach & other mixed greens…I added some orange & mango juice
for flavor and again he still drank most of the cup. I feel like we are taking
steps in the right direction and we are winning our picky, non-green eating
Dean back over. Although I may have won a couple battles…I know I definitely
haven’t won the war and I need to continue finding new, creative ways to guarantee
greens foods are on the daily menu.
How do you or your children get your greens each day?
Enjoy your greens,
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