Homemade Lemonade

Lemonade is one of the only beverages my older son will drink.  He likes the tartness.

He prefers one particular brand.  This past week, the store was sold out of it so I offered to make him some homemade lemonade.  "The beauty of it," I told him, "is that I can adjust it if you think it's too tart, or too weak, or too sweet.  We can tinker until it's just the way you like it."

Well, he liked it. And the nice fringe benefit? It's very inexpensive.  I just went to Costco and bought a big bag of lemons and a bag of organic sugar.

Here's my recipe:

• the juice of four lemons, strained to remove all pulp and seeds
• eight cups of filtered water
• one half cup of organic granulated sugar

The result is somewhat strong, so we then water it down to suit the taste of the various members of the household. I think it's easier to start with something strong and dilute it than to work in the opposite direction.

Enjoy!

Another Way to Get Your Kids to Eat Veggies: Juicing!

I am constantly trying new ways to get my kids to eat their vegetables (I've written a few posts on the subject: see here).  My older son is pretty good about it but my younger son is one tough customer.  Among other methods, I've tried:

• pureeing cooked carrots, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower and squash and hiding them in marinara (not all of them at once), mac and cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches or hamburgers
  
• adding spinach to fruit smoothies
• making cute faces with them (green bean as mouth, carrot as nose, zucchini slice as eyes)
• bribery (I'm not proud).  

But until recently, I hadn't tried juicing.  Juicing has many health benefits - I encourage you to read more about them here.  I was astonished at what I'd been missing by not incorporating this "delivery mode" into my diet.

So here is how it unfolded: I picked my older son up from school and told him about the exciting activity I had planned: he could make his own juice!  We could try all sorts of vegetables and fruits!  We could combine them and see how they tasted together!  (I used a lot of exclamation points in my pitch.)  He was very excited by the time we got home.  My two sons and I made our own fresh apple, pineapple, mandarin orange, carrot, spinach/carrot, and apple/orange juices.  It was really fun.  I had made fresh squeezed orange juice before but had no idea how great other fresh juices can taste.  Tonight, before dinner, my younger son asked for carrot juice.  Now that is success!

The juicer I bought is powerful, quiet and easy to clean.  It does not do as good a job with green leafies as a really high-end juicer, but it serves my needs quite well.  It's the Jack Lalanne PJP Power Juicer Pro Stainless-Steel Electric Juicer.

Yummy Fruit Smoothies

My kids love smoothies, especially when it's hot outside.  These are great for a snack.  Add a bit of organic vanilla ice cream and you've also got a rich, delicious dessert. 

Ingredients (you can easily find organic versions of all of these ingredients):

2 cups frozen fruit (strawberries, blueberries, peaches, whatever you enjoy)
5 ice cubes
1 cup vanilla lowfat yogurt
1 large banana
1 cup juice (cranberry, orange or apple are best)

Blend in a food processor until smooth.  Enjoy!

Tip: you can enhance the nutritional/health content by "pureeing/hiding" any of the following in this: baby spinach, ground flaxseed (easiest if you're including something seedy like raspberries or strawberries), cooked sweet potato or powdered probiotics.

Delicious Kefir Smoothie

Many parents give their babies and children yogurt because it's a good source of calcium. But it's also a good source of beneficial intestinal bacteria, or "probiotics," which can help keep them well.

This "friendly" bacteria help to keep our digestive tract clean, improve our absorption of nutrients, decrease the risk of digestive cancer, boost our immune system, help protect us from "unfriendly" elements that can cause disease (e.g., E. coli, salmonella, Staph, Strep, yeast, fungi, viruses), reduce the risk of digestive illness such as crohn's disease and irritable bowel syndrome, and reduce gas production. That's a strong enough list to justify paying close attention to probiotics.

During vaginal birth, a baby's digestive tract is colonized by good bacteria that reside in the mother's birth canal. Breastfeeding then helps to further that colonization.

Later, a child's diet comes into play. Yogurt (not frozen yogurt!), kefir and cottage cheese are great sources of probiotics. If they won't eat these foods, you can also buy powdered probiotics to put in your child's food or drinks (such as MAXI Baby-Dophilus, which I sometimes put in my kids' drinks).

Antibiotics, taken during severe bacterial illness, kill the bad and the good bacteria. It's especially important to rebuild the good bacteria that is killed off, so push the yogurt during illness.

Kefir Smoothie
One of my new favorite ways of getting probiotics into my kids (and myself) is by making kefir smoothies. For years, I'd walked right past kefir in the health food stores, thinking it was "hippie food." After I started buying "drinkable" yogurt for my kids, I decided to take a chance on kefir. WOW! Delicious.

Here's my recipe:

Place in your food processor:
8 oz lowfat vanilla organic kefir
4 oz organic apple, cranberry or orange juice
8 oz crushed ice
1 cup of frozen or fresh fruit (strawberries, blueberries, blackberries)
1 small banana

Blend until smooth. If it is too thick, add more juice until it reaches your preferred consistency.

We devour these!