Getting kids to eat spinach: Green Mango Smoothies

My kids are begging for these and I honestly cannot taste the spinach at all. I blend the spinach and water together really well first, before adding the other ingredients. Also, with berry smoothies, kids' diapers can get a little messy, but this one without berries does not seem to have the same affect.

This smoothie tastes a lot like an orange julius or an orange dream machine smoothie from jamba juice, but it is bright green. Mmmm. It's a little sugary I guess, but it has a lot of spinach. In the words of Mary Poppins, "A little bit of sugar helps the medicine go down...."

Ingredients:

Spinach (2 cups packed...more or less, depending on how much your babies will tolerate)
Water (1 cup)
Orange juice concentrate (1/3 cup) (pineapple tastes good too)
Vanilla almond milk (2 cups)
Frozen mango (2 heaping cups)
Bananas (fresh or frozen 2)

Enjoy!

Love,

Kate

Sneaking vegetables in kids foods: Banana muffins with yellow squash

I enjoy modifying recipes to make them more healthy and try to hide vegetables in all types of places. Coconut oil is a great substitute for butter. Along with a green mango smoothie (recipe coming soon), these muffins make a nice summer breakfast. You can try this recipe or just add squash to your favorite banana muffin recipe :) If you are nervous about your kids liking them, feel free to start out with one yellow squash, and see how that goes. Let me know what you think :)

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
6 bananas, mashed
2 medium sized yellow squash, finely shredded
1 and 1/4 cup honey (you may use sugar if you prefer)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2/3 cup coconut oil (you may use melted butter if you prefer)

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 375. Lightly grease two muffin pans.

2) In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl beat together bananas, honey, coconut oil, and egg. Fold in the shredded squash. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Sall poon batter into prepared muffin cups.

*optional (not healthy, but delicious) step: in a small bowl mix together 2/3 cup brown sugar, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, and 4 TBSP flour. Cut in 2 TBSP butter until mixture resembles course cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.

3) Bake in preheated oven for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Makes about 24 muffins.

Enjoy!

Love,
Kate

Kate's raw "cookies" (making Lara bars at home)

Our mini food processor has been getting a workout lately. We have been enjoying these "cookies" and I have been having fun trying lots of different fruit and nut combinations. I food process the nuts first, so that the cookies won't have large chunks of nuts and then add the dried fruit and chop until the fruit and nuts are mixed well. Form into bars or roll into balls (perfect for kids). The "dough" is a bit sticky at first, but after 20 minutes in the refrigerator, these healthy treats are ready to enjoy.

3/4 cup raw nuts (almonds or walnuts work great)
3/4 cup pitted prunes
3/4 cup golden raisins
a dash of cinnamon

makes 12-16 cookies.

Feel free to play around with the recipe too. Really, i think any combination of dried fruits and nuts works well. Prunes are a great addition, because they hold everything together nicely. Dried tart cherries are my favorite addition. Also, a handful of dark chocolate chips is a yummy addition. And for a great source of zinc, try grinding up 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds in a coffee grinder and adding those too.

Let me know what you think :)

Love,
Kate

Chocolate chip cookies with garbanzo beans

I don't know if your kids will fall for these treats or not, but we made them tonight and we sure like them. Levi said they were "perfect." :) Truth be told, there were a couple of chunks of walnuts left on his plate. If I want want my kids to eat nuts (and I do) I just blend them up into powder in my mini-chopper. I have so gotten my money out of that thing. It's a Cuisinart and I purchased it several years ago at Costco for $25. This recipe was inspired by Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious. She writes:

These cookies are so easy and fast to make , but watch out for flying chick peas! If using a standard mixer, partially cover the bowl with a dish towel to keep the chick peas from flying out. (Of course my kids think this is hysterical when this happens.)

I just wanted to warn those of you who have been blessed with standing mixers :)

Prep time 20 minutes
Total 31-33 minutes
Makes 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup trans-fat-free soft tup margarine spread (like earth balance or smart balance or butter, if you want)
2 eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 (15 ounce can chick peas (garbanzo beans), drained and rinsed
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 to 1 cup of raisins (or dried tart cherries)
3/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
2 cups all-purpose flour (if you want to substitute whole wheat, i would recommend whole wheat pastry flour.)
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

1) Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease cookie sheets.

2) In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the sugar and margarine with a wooden spoon or on medium until smooth. Beat in the egg whites and vanilla, then the chick peas, chocolate chips, raisins, and walnuts. Add the dry mixture (flour, oats, baking soda, and salt) and mix by hand on on low speed until a thick dough forms.

3) Drop the dough by the tablespoonful onto the baking sheet, spacing the cookies about 2 inches apart. Press gently with a fork to flatten. Bake until the cookies are golden brown and just set, 11-13 minutes; do not overbake. Transfer to a rack to cool.

4) Store in an airtight container for up to three days (or freeze for later.)

Apple Zucchini Muffins

Here is a recipe I use often. I like to double it and put a few in the freezer for later. They never last long.

1 and 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
1/2 cup oat bran (I blend up oats for this)
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup plain yogurt (you can use milk or sour cream as a substitute)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup grated zucchini (i use a whole medium-sized zucchini)
1 cup chopped apples (i leave the skins on)

Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly oil the muffin tin. Place a paper in each cup.

In a bowl, sift together the flour, oat bran, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Stir to mix evenly.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs until pale yellow. Add the yogurt, brown sugar, and the vanilla and beat until thoroughly mixed, Fold in the apples and zucchini. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just blended.

Spoon about 1/3 cup of batter into each muffin cup. Bake for 15 minutes, rotate muffin tin, and continue baking for another 10-15 minutes. Enjoy!

Works for me Wednesday- smoothie time!

Here's a recipe that is popular at our house:

2 and 1/2 cups milk (cow's milk, soy milk, almond milk or rice milk is fine)
1/4 cup almonds
2 bananas (frozen or fresh)
2 TBSP peanut butter
1 cup of fresh spinach or mixed greens
Honey or agave nectar to taste

Blend well and serve. Levi and Max drink it through straw sippy cups. What a great way to get the whole family to "eat" raw almonds and spinach. We love it :)