Healthy Recipe Tuesday

Ok, I know it's technically not Tuesday yet but who cares. Well, at least it wasn't when I started writing this. I can't sleep because I am too excited about what could happen any day now. Ok here we go. My book this week is one of the first healthy cookbooks I bought. I'm sure everyone had heard about the "Superfoods" that are packed with vitamins. This book is great because it tells you everything about each superfood and then gives you a couple of recipes and even more ideas of how to use that superfood. This book is so much more than a cookbook. I highly recommend this one.

And our recipe today is a smoothie. Riley is the pickiest eater on the planet, I'm not kidding. He will not eat any veggies and the only thing he wants for dinner every night is oatmeal. So I had to come up with a way for him to get some power packed veggies in . So we came up with this smoothie. It sounds gross but I'm telling you that you can not taste the veggies. Now I will tell you that if you are just starting your kids on healthy food and sneaking things in their food, you should start small. Here is the recipe:

1/2 banana

4 frozen organic strawberries

1/3 c frozen organic blueberries

1/3 c organic low fat plain yogurt

1/2 c organic oj

1 tsp honey or agave syrup

(This is gonna sound weird)

2 cups of fresh organic spinach

blend in your blender until smooth.

It will be green at first and then it will turn purple.

If you are not sure you can sneak that much spinach in start smaller. You can also add some grated carrots too. As long as veggies are not cooked you can hide them here because they don't have a strong flavor or taste. Seriously try it and adjust to your taste. Spinach has calcium, folic acid, iron, Vitamin A and C and beta-carotene. It is a megafood in my book. Riley refuses to eat meat so this is good for him because vegetarians are often anemic because they don't get the iron from meats.

Riley has one of these for an afternoon snack everyday and he makes it with me. He puts the spinach in and everything. I mean he is really eating a spinach salad with some fruit and a yogurt dressing. Wouldn't you be thrilled if you saw your kid eating a spinach salad willingly? If I put the same ingredients in front of him on a plate he would probably throw it on the floor. But put it in a blender and he's a happy smoothie boy.

Tip of the day*- you can hide spinach in almost anything if you add blueberries too. Especially if the recipe has chocolate in it . Isn't that weird. Next time you make a chocolate cake, substitute 1/4 cup of the oil or fat for 1/4 c frozen blueberries and 1 c fresh spinach. Blend the 2 in a blender with a tablespoon or so of water to make a smooth mixture and add it to the wet ingredients. You'll never know it's there. I also chop it up fine and add it like an herb in almost every savory dish I make.

Let me know if you try the smoothie and if you have any recommendations. Enjoy!