Juice

Juice. It seems to be the new drink of choice for toddlers. Some where along the way there has been some serious marketing happening to parents, convincing us that this is the healthiest drink to give our little ones. It is marketed as though it is fresh juice, from fresh fruits that will nourish our little ones.

The truth is most juices that are store bought contain higher levels of concentrated sugars and high-fructose corn syrup than that of actual juice from a fruit. These concentrated sugars found in juices will affect blood sugar levels, which will impact energy levels and overall mood. High-fructose corn syrup has been directly linked to increased levels of obesity. Most of these store bought juices are just slightly better than soda. So why play with this? Perhaps it could be the occasional treat instead of a daily beverage.

Soda. I see younger and younger kiddos being offered soda. This is big business in our country and there is a lot of marketing at play attempting to win kiddos loyalty to a certain brand. Soda is even worse than juice. Did you realize in one 20 ounce bottle of soda there is 17 teaspoons of refined white sugar? That is a TON!! Not to mention natural and artificial flavors, high-fructose corn syrup, and in some varieties caffeine. They have no hydrating affect on the body and typically end up causing one to crave more food.

My suggestion? Start your kiddos off on water. If they aren't offered other options they won't know any different. If they start off drinking water as little ones it will be come a habit. Some suggestions if your trying to transition them into drinking more water. Drink lots of water yourself....be an example. Kids are so in tune with what we do. If mom and dad are drinking lots of water it might become more appealing. Allow them to pick out a fun, new water bottle, and keep it just for water. Tell them the benefits of drinking water on their little body. My daughter picks up on this stuff quickly and will often repeat it to me when I least expect it.

So now back to juice. While I'm a big advocate of kiddos main drink through out the day to be water, I do have fun making fresh, homemade juices with my girls. My 2 year old loves being able to make her own juice. My role is to wash and prepare the veggies and fruits and then she puts them through the juicer, creating her own freshly made juice. She loves it! This is a great way for her to understand how juice is made and how it tastes without all the added sugar.

Our juice we've been doing lately is carrot, celery, apple. We usually do about 10 carrots and 1 apple, and a few stalks of celery (which actually has quite a bit of water content to it so it does well in juicing). I then dilute it with some water, toss in a couple ice cubes, and it makes enough for my girls and I to each have a small glass. It tastes quite yummy and is a very healthy, delish treat. If you or your kiddos are used to the sugar laden juices it does require a change to the palate. You could always add more fruit to sweeten it up until you slowly get used to the more vegetable juice taste.

Another favorite I like to do is beets, celery, and a couple pieces of whatever fruit I have on hand. Sometimes my girls like the beet juice and sometimes they don't. It's strong for sure. But I love it. You can also throw a stalk or two of kale in but you don't get much juice from it and it gives the juice a funky color, which could turn some kiddos off. Citrus fruits are great but only if your kiddos are used to eating them with no side effects. Neither of my girls do citrus well so we avoid the citrus juices.

I have found that I have a lot of waste (pulp) with my juicer. It's an older juicer and works fine but it just leaves a lot of leftover pulp, which had been part of my struggle with juicing. I hated throwing away all that nutritious goodness. Well I just started making homemade crackers out of it! You have to clean and peel everything really well but then you can use the pulp to make a yummy little homemade cracker. My girls gobble these up. So know I don't feel bad about juicing and I'm excited for all my leftover pulp because I know it is yielding a tasty little snack. More on that recipe later....

For now drink lots of water and if you have access to a juicer experiment with making your family some fresh, nutritionally dense, homemade juice.

Green Smoothies

Green smoothies are a staple in our house. My girls love them as much as my husband and I do. When Sydney hears the blender she comes running (toddling) into the kitchen as fast as she can just smiling. Norah loves to push a chair up to the counter and help. Her favorite role is tearing the kale off the stalk and adding (and eating) the blueberries. She loves being involved in the creating process, which I love as well. When she's involved she loves eating what she helped create.

Smoothies are so great because you can get so creative. There are so many possibilities. Amazing ways to increase veggies and fruits into your little ones diet. My girls both starting drinking smoothies well before they were 1. We just modified them to incorporate foods we had already introduced. Plus they make a great lunch or addition to a lunch on those days your playing at the park, doing a picnic, or eating out and want a healthy alternative for the kiddos.

Every summer we head out and pick lots of fresh fruit to freeze for smoothies throughout the year. We freeze all this yummy goodness and store them in our deep freeze. This is great because you are using fresh local fruit and it's much easier on the budget as well. Those little frozen bags of fruit at the store can get expensive if you start doing lots of smoothies. So just a little thought to think about as summer approaches. We actually just finished our last bags of strawberries and blueberries that we froze last summer. It was a sad day for my sweet Norah when I told her the blueberries were all gone.

The quite delicious smoothie above consisted of:

~ avocado
~ banana
~ kale
~frozen strawberries
~frozen peaches
~ground flax seed (done in a coffee grinder)
~ground sesame seeds (also done in a coffee grinder)
~a splash of Black Strap Molasses (good in iron & calcium)

It was so good! I love the creaminess that the avocado adds, not to mention all that super good for you fat. Use less kale if you are just starting out with green smoothies and not adapted to the "green flavor" quite yet. Then as you continue to experiment with your smoothies increase amounts of kale. One side not is that sesame seeds are moving onto the top allergens list so make sure you are in communication with your health care provider to know when you want to introduce seeds and nuts to your little ones diet.

Some other things I like to add to our smoothies:

~frozen or fresh fruit (almost any fruit is great!)
~brewers yeast (we eat mostly a vegan diet so we add this to help with B vitamins)
~parsley
~swiss chard
~spinach
~ground almonds, walnuts, or cashews
~ground sunflower seeds
~homemade almond milk
~chia seeds
~raw cacao (I don't add this in our girls because I've learned they don't tolerate the caffeine well)
~coconut milk

Get creative and find which combinations you and your kiddos enjoy!

And a last word on serving your little foodie his or her smoothie. You may have to get creative on the sippy cup. These smoothies can be a bit thick and don't always come out easily. I've found sippy cups with a straw make this a lot easier. I prefer to keep the water bottle sippy cups  for water so they don't get any funky smells or taste, and so the girls know those are their primary beverage. These are extras. As much as I'm not a big fan of plastics these little cups work great and clean well, and are easy for them to drink.

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So enjoy your green smoothies! If you come up with a combo that your little one really likes please do share!

The Incredible Avocado

Seriously. I think this is nature's most AMAZING food. Avocados were both of my girls first foods. Doesn't get much easier than this. And let's be honest. When your a mama of little ones easy is the ideal choice.
I think we should probably buy stock in the avocado industry as much as we use them. My girls love them but I must admit, I love them equally as much. David Wolfe (raw food guru) deemed his nickname as avocado....not goji berry, or cacaco, or spirulina, or medicinal mushrooms (all said to be super foods and funny nicknames). Nope he labels himself as "Avocado". Which is funny to me but also reminds me that the guru of the Raw Food movement has a deep love and confidence in the benefits of the avocado. I mean you wouldn't want to pick a food nickname that was a fad, right??

Avocados were staples when my girls were first introduced to solid foods. I would just mash up a little avocado (in the beginning I added a little breast milk to give it a thinner consistency) and serve. I threw them in the diaper bag when we were out and about and needed an easy, quick meal. All that glorious good fat found in an avocado. Fat that is so amazing for a developing baby.

As baby got older I would toss avocado in purees for a creamier texture. When we got to finger foods, this was an easy to eat and familiar finger food.

Now we use them in our green smoothies. Oh the creaminess it adds to our smoothies. Dynamite! I also add them as a garnish to soups, tacos, salads....just about anything. Guacamole is always a hit in our house. I'll smear them on a cracker or rice cake with a little goat cheese for an easy lunch for the girls. The possibilities are endless. I don't believe there is such a thing as an avocado overdose! :)

A little trick with the avocado is to keep the pit (seed) in it if your only using part of the fruit. This will help it from browning quite as fast. With little eaters you may find you only use little bits at a time and this way you can keep your fruit fresher longer.

Have a favorite avocado use? Please post and share with us!

Easy Baby Cereal

Ever find that sometimes you just need something easy to grab in the morning for breakfast? I don't know about you but there are mornings I just need food to be easy because it's been a rough night, were in a rush to get out the door, or I just simply need it to be easy.

Well here is an easy as can be way to make a wholesome baby cereal ahead of time for those mornings. Grind up some oats (you can use gluten free if you are a GF home or wanting to be pure GF with baby) in a blender, food processor, magic bullet, or whatever you have. You can throw in some sesame seeds (these grind best in a coffee grinder) or sunflower seeds. Grind everything up well and store in a glass jar. When it comes time to need an easy meal, just scoop some of your mixture into a bowl and pour some hot water over top. Stir up well and serve to baby.

This is great if your eating out because you can just ask the server for a glass of hot water and an extra bowl. You can whip up your homemade cereal right at the table.

There are endless things you could add to this if you'd like to give it a bit more flavor. A mashed banana or avocado is nice and travels well. (can you tell this was one of my go to meals when we were out and about??) Homemade applesauce is nice and sweet. Coconut milk. Veggie purees that have been frozen in ice cube trays and stored are nice as well. You can throw one of the veggie cubes in when you add the hot water and this opens all kinds of doors for getting a variety of veggies into the diet. Also makes it easy to become a lunch or dinner too.

Creative Baby Food

It's easy to think of all the foods you can do with baby. All the beautiful veggies and fruits. Especially if your starting to introduce solids during the height of the farmers markets. How fun to be able to introduce your kiddo to fresh local food right from the get go.

There are all sorts of theories to introducing solids. When? What? How? Veggies or fruits first? Grains? Food combining? Fats? Proteins? How much? How many times a day? When to increase? So many questions! These can be challenging things to sort out but there are so many references online and with your care givers, that I'm sure you'll find a rhythm to eating that makes sense and fits in line with your family and your already established way of eating.

There are some fun ways off adding some extras to your babies food, especially once they have been on solids for a bit and are doing well. You'll still have to watch and follow that 3 day wait rule to make sure you don't have a reaction but here's a few ideas that we did.

I would blend greens (kale, spinach) with coconut milk and add that to some quinoa. Gave it a slightly sweeter taste and yet was packed full of the amazing health benefits of dark leafy greens, protein of the quinoa, and a little extra fat with the coconut milk.

If I was having a hard time getting my girls to eat a puree, I could always add some homemade applesauce. And then that puree they were resisting was gone and often they were wanting more.

Avocado is nature's perfect food. Perfect for on the go. Slice it open. Smash it up. A yummy, nutritious meal. My girls still love avocados.

I have also added coconut oil and olive oil to their food for extra fat.

Once they got a bit older, I'd sprinkle some ground flax seed in their food. Obviously not much because you don't want it to cause diarrhea. But a little flax seed has some big benefits.

So I'd invite you to get creative! Experiment. Have fun.