How to Get Your Veggies... and Make Your Kids Eat Them Too

This past January, I finally conceded to something that Jonathan had been asking for years... to eat my vegetables. Those of you who know me know that I'm not a veggie girl. While I have perfected the talent of telling my kids they have to stay at the dinner table until they eat their carrots, even the thought of a spinach salad gives me shivers... and not in a good way.

My little sister introduced me to Naked Juice which admittedly does a pretty good job of making green stuff palatable, though it doesn't do much for my wallet. So I turned to my trusty friend Google for some advice and stumbled across a recipe to make my own green smoothie without sucking my bank account dry.

We tried a recipe from the blog No Meat Athlete that claimed to be very similar to Naked Juice and it didn't disappoint. This trusty fella has become my morning breakfast so long as I can sneak it before the wee ones notice... because they both chug this juice like it's the last drop of drink on the face of the Earth. AND MOM HAS TO SHARE. It's apparently a rule somewhere.

So if you're home alone or if you just don't mind sharing, give this a go. It's a pretty delicious way of eating spinach and algae.

Homemade Green Machine Smoothie

Begin by making the cubes that will become the base of the smoothie. Combine the following in a blender:

3 kiwi, peeled
1 mango, approx. 1 1/2 cups peeled and chopped
1/2 cup pineapple chunks
1/2 cup peach slices
1 tsp. minced ginger
1/2 cup greens powder (we use Amazing Grass Green Superfood powder)

Blend until smooth then freeze in ice cube trays. Once frozen, combine 2-3 cubes with 1 cup apple juice and 1 banana and blend. Feed to your kids and watch them actually enjoy their veggies.

My thanks to Matt over at No Meat Athlete for helping me eat my greens and for giving permission to reprint this recipe.