Smoothies!!

We love them around here.  What doesn't get drank gets frozen into popsicles.  I remember giving my 2 year old a popsicle for breakfast once and having her think she was getting something exceptionally naughty.  Ha.  Actually, she might not drink them so heartily if she realized just how good they were for her.  It makes me smile every time I hear the SLURP of the straw trying to get those last drops of smoothie.  Like this morning.  And I really had to try to contain my amusement when, a month or so ago, my daughter actually had a tantrum because her smoothie was purple instead of green.  Really, I am not making this stuff up.

I put lots of stuff in her smoothies that she can't really taste, but that is so beneficial to her.  I tried putting cod liver oil in there once (more for me than for her because I can't STAND the stuff), but even if you can't taste it... if you can SMELL it.  Yeah.... not so much.  Luckily for me, she BEGS for cod liver oil and after she takes her teaspoon of it she LICKS the spoon clean.  siiiiiiick.  I wish I liked it that much!

So, back to the smoothies.

I always put in two-ish kinds of frozen fruit.  Just whatever I feel like. Today she asked for peach, so I threw in peaches and blueberries.  I plopped in a few dollops of yogurt (probiotics!  good for her gut!) and some real grassfed milk (yep, we're doing dairy again.  in limited quantities.), some magnesium (I ground up a pill since she isn't too fond of the sweet/sour flavor of natural calm magnesium and the pills are flavorless), some spirulia (which normally makes it nice and green unless you add fermented beet juice- a tantrum will ensue if you don't warn her ahead of time that it will be purple instead of green today), some brine from pickled beets (more fermented goodness for her gut... she can't taste it mixed in and it makes it beautifully purple), and an egg yolk or two (so many benefits to that.... I could write a whole post on why eggs, the yolk specifically, rock for your health).  She DOWNED that puppy.  Sometimes I add dark leafy greens- like kale or chard.  But I have been CRAVING it lately so we don't have any left.  My perfect lunch is greens in bacon grease with diced bacon all sauteed together.  Oh heaven.  So good.  And yes, I think bacon and bacon grease is GOOD for you :)

I don't know WHAT I am going to do when it is below zero cold and we don't feel like drinking smoothies anymore.  I can get magnesium in her mixed into a spoonful of yogurt, but brine?  Yeah... I don't think she'll take that stuff straight.  I guess I'll have to get creative and mix it in other things.

I also don't know what I would do without my magic bullet blender.  It's perfect because we can each make our own individual smoothies right in the cup we drink it out of.  So everyone can have something a little different.

I also have learned not to let her sit on the couch and drink her smoothie.  Even though I still let her sometimes.... because I'm cool like that.  It never fails that smoothie WILL get spilled somewhere.  She just looks so stinking cute sitting on our couch with her smoothie mug.  I suppose she would look just as cute at the table though, huh?