Snack Time!

The food map by The Produce Mom
out of the Humpty Dumpty magazine. 

Snack time means smoothielious!! I have come across a ton of smoothie recipes, but I usually don't pay attention to them. My 4- year old son saw a picture of a recipe in a kid's magazine. He called it a food map. I thought that was so accurate that I tore the "food map" out of the magazine, and it's been hanging on our fridge since. I really like this recipe because it uses food that I usually have on hand, and the kids can read the recipe and do it.

We usually do the easiest smoothie choice. The boys throw in some spinach, an apple, a banana, ice, and water. Sometimes I add some honey and flax seed, but that's only if we're feeling fancy. The boys really like it because they get to use butter knives to cut the banana, and what kid doesn't love the blender. I like to teach the kids safe cooking practices instead of forbidding them. I also like when the kids can do things instead of me. You might call that lazy, and you might be right.

I think it's pretty important to connect kids to food. Everyone's push is healthy food to keep kids healthy. My push is just to educate kids about food: where does it come from, and why do we need it. I explain it like the flowers taking up the colored water. They need water to live just like us. The flowers eventually die in our house because they aren't getting the food they need from the soil. We need good food to live too.

Below: teamwork with the blender, keep the lid on!! Chop those bananas.