The last few months I have been slowly transitioning my kids to eat healthier. We have been doing a mixture of healthy eating along with occasional runs to the local restaurant for some quick bites. I have found that its a challenge at times but by continuing to take baby steps we as a family are definitely headed in the right direction. My family would grab a PowerAde or juice box along with their bottle of water and head on off to school, outside or to a local event with me. Yes I feel the need to be completely honest and I noticed that we all were at times not energized all of the time, restless and it simply just wasn’t healthy. Upon doing some research I felt it was time to make a rapid transition.
We started our transition by starting the entire family off with an early morning juice regimen. I found that by using all of their favorite fruits along with some vegetables that it would make the best combination for them as a starting point. I used the following:
- Granny Smith Apples
- Fresh Pineapple
- Strawberries
- Navel Oranges
- Carrots
- Fresh Spinach
I don’t have an exact measurement to share except telling you that six apples made enough juice for my family of 4.I’m presently using a Breville Juicer and loving it! I started with the firmer items first followed up with the softer items and just juiced everything. Here’s our results.
We then started making smoothies once they were loving their morning power drink the smoothies were perfect once the arrived home. I found that not only were the smoothies delicious and requested every day, the kids were more energetic and not tired after returning home from school. Again I created another simple smoothie recipe to start with that included the following:
- 32 oz Dannon Vanilla Yogurt
- 1 Cup Fresh Strawberries
- 1 Navel Orange
- 2 TSP Chia Seed
I mixed the smoothies up in a Ninja that I purchased years ago at a Black Friday Sale and its finally coming handy. Needless to say that the kids loved them and I decided to up my smoothie game and make them some smoothie popsicles. The process was super simple. I just added the smoothie to some cute shaped deep ice trays that I found, added some cute little folks (left over from a party) and froze for two hours.
Stay tune as we continue our journey to Healthy Eating.