Well friends, I was SUPER excited to be introducing video to the blog today, showing you how I make my homemade baby food. I am just gaga for my Infantino Squeeze Station, and it makes it so incredibly easy to do baby food that I will probably never buy those expensive little pouches again.

I have absolutely no problem admitting I am an incredibly lame individual. Making baby food on a Saturday afternoon is probably about as lame as it gets. Having said that, imagine my devastation when I realized I’d been giddily making baby food and talking to myself in my kitchen, all while the batteries in my digital camera died. Ugh. Mental head slap. Apparently if you want to be a video blogger, the first and foremost thing you should do is validate that your battery supply is sufficient enough for your entire video segment. So we will not be doing the baby food montage today.

What I can tell you about is a much requested, easy-to-replicate and adapt smoothie recipe that I use for both myself and my kiddos. That requires no video 🙂 So here you go!

First off, know what you’re shooting for with the smoothie thing. Are you looking to sneak nutrients in to your littles or yourself? Then be sure to add greens. Looking more for protein, fiber, or thickness? Go with flaxseed meal and/or greek yogurt. (I know people love chia seeds, but my littles are never fooled by those boogers. We have to do flaxseed meal for stealth purposes.) And lastly know what goes together. I know it seems like a no-brainer. But just for the sake of putting it out there- peanut butter should go with your creamier smoothies and not your fruitier ones (go for greek yogurt for protein in your fruity stuff), and kale is best disguised by more acidic fruits than in chocolate/coffee-based smoothies (just use spinach or collards instead).

Here are the two AMAZING smoothies we ate this week, and both girls happily drank a full 8 oz.

Smoothie #1: Chocolate peanut butter

• 4 frozen yogurt ice cubes (we used plain yogurt- not vanilla- and each cube is about 1 T of yogurt)
• 1 frozen banana
• 2 T unsweetened cocoa- the organic kind is hard to find. We got our at Whole Foods, and we don’t use much, so it lasts a while.
• 2 T organic, unsweetened, creamy peanut butter

  

• 1 T ground organic flaxseed meal
• a handful of greens (spinach usually, but this week we had sweet potato greens)
• about 1 cup of milk (just to submerge about 3/4 of the blender)
• 2 T organic local honey (this is a great way to fight off allergies too)

We threw those all in the blender and processed on our smoothie cycle. The girls are absolutely cookoo for this stuff. The most important note for us is the type of greens- no matter what I do, I can’t get these girls to eat something with kale in it. They always know. It’s got to be spinach or another mild green that’s easily overpowered by other flavors if I want these babies to go down smooth. You can also thin it out or thicken it to your preference based on how much milk you add. And if you want it to really thicken, put the smoothie in the fridge and let it sit for about 30 minutes after you’ve made it. This lets the flaxseed meal expand, and it makes the smoothie taste more like a milkshake. And in this house, we will eat anything that resembles a milkshake.

Smoothie #2: Strawberry banana

• 6 yogurt ice cubes
• 1 frozen banana
• 8-10 strawberries, halved
• 2 T organic flaxseed meal
• a handful of greens (again, we did sweet potato greens, but you can do spinach or collards if you want)
• about 1 cup of milk to submerge everything
• 2 T local organic honey

See what I did there? We barely changed out any of the parts. This week’s smoothies were pretty basic and creamy vs. fruity. If I want to go more fruity, I forgo the yogurt and just use regular ice cubes, I replace milk with juice, and use a variety of frozen fruits (berries, watermelon, pineapple, mango, guava) to change it up. It’s totally up to you and what you like. We tend to be protein deficient in this house without some serious fortification, so I sneak in greek yogurt, peanut butter, and flaxseed wherever I can. Wanna make it simpler? Separate your greens and fruit bits into sandwich bags at the beginning of the week, so all you’re doing is dumping a bag of ingredients into your blender. It honestly takes us less than 5 minutes to pour up a smoothie for breakfast and get out the door in the mornings- using our handy-dandy monogrammed tumblers and flex-straws to have breakfast on-the-go. (I know that right now my husband is cringing at the realization I’m letting the kids eat something smoothie-ish in the car…sorry baby. The struggle is real.)

Last easy tip to get kids to eat these…let them help. My monsters love operating loud appliances, and the blender is probably at the top of that list. They don’t even care about seeing the greens go in, so long as everything gets blended out. I hope this gives you some great ideas for healthy breakfasts that are fast and delicious! Happy blending 🙂

xoxo~ LWH