My Secret Weapon

Most children doesn't like vegetables, but my almost 3 year old boy has a fairly weird vegetable preference. He doesn't enjoy cooked vegetables. He'll eat salads like raw radish, spinach leaves, lettuce, zucchinis happily. He even eats spring onions raw but he will never eat cooked carrot, broccoli, pumpkin etc. The only time I can get him to eat these vegetables is when I make them into a patty, or hide them in the fish cakes I make. Salads is a staple in almost every meal of his so I'm not too worried about his vegetable intake.

Apart from his weird vegetable preference, he also has a very "interesting" (and beyond comprehension to me) attitude towards fruit. He doesn't like them. The only fruit that he will eat occasionally are apples and bananas. And he hates fruit that are sweet. He even spat out sweet and juicy watermelon when I managed to get him to try some once.

I have tried many ways and means to increase his consumption of vegetables and fruit and I have finally found what I call, my secret weapon - Green Smoothie!

A green smoothie is basically a non-dairy, vegan smoothie made by blending green vegetables with fruit. The most commonly used vegetables in smoothies are spinach, kale, watercress and cabbage. As for fruit, I throw in bananas, avocado, pineapples, mangoes, oranges, berries etc. I mentioned in an earlier entry that my husband and I have been incorporating more raw meals into our daily diet and green smoothie is a power-packed snack that we try to have every other day. It has been established that drinking blended fruit and vegetables is even better than eating them as all their nutrients and fibre are broken down finely and hence much better absorbed by our bodies. Aiden loves his green smoothie so much that he will actually asked for them, emphasizing specifically that they have to be "green"!

Thumbs up for the green smoothie! He prefers this to sweet watermelon juice which he gags when he drinks them. Strange I know. My son is a weirdo.