Growing up our family dinners were so incredibly fun. I even remember spilling my milk on purpose because my mom would scramble to catch the spill before it would get to the crack in the table where the leaf was. It was very funny! She would never get mad about the mess either, I guess having 4 kids someone was always spilling. Loved exotic artichoke night: steamed artichoke and butter/mayo dipping sauce. Loved taco salad night and loaded baked potatoes nights. We ate lots and lots of veggies growing up, I love veggies.
I'm having trouble even getting my kids to eat carrots or sweet potatoes and frankly I'm done with making the dinner table a battleground. I just get all uptight and cranky and dinner turns out to be awful!
I love dinners, we pray we talk we laugh and best of all we eat together. Oh yeah, I love to eat too!
We love Jamba Juice, loved it when it was originally Juice Club in my college days dating Lee. Favorite JJ drink: Pacific Passion with immunity boost. But here in the south it's name is changed to Caribbean Passion. I guess because we are closer to the Caribbean than the Pacific Ocean in Texas ??? My kids love it too!
Purple Power Palette Pleaser
It's really purple but it looks red in this pic.
Jamba Juice is a little pricey - when compared to Starbucks about the same price % gouge when compared to making the drink yourself. So we are making our own Jamba Juice, but we call it Mom-ba Juice! Mom-ba Juice is where I get their veggies in! I do long for my kids to love artichoke, peppers, sweet potatoes, green beans and onions - but I'm not willing to make the dinner table a battleground with tears, bad attitudes, threats and whatever else just for nutrition sake.
Mom-ba Juice Smoothie #1; Let's call it .... Purple Power Palette Pleaser
OK - It was delicious and my buds aren't transformed towards those heathy cardboard flavors either. You know what I mean! Yes, you will really need a blender intended for smoothie making, it will just be a more pleasant experience and much faster. I love my cuisine art - $60 or 12 med. Jamba Juice Drinks. My cuisine art came with 4 smoothie cups that you can use in the blender to make a single serving.
You don't really need to measure but I will Rachel Ray-it a bit for you when it comes to that. The list looks long but it's just leftover stuff in the frig. Substitute what you have ...
Ice - a few handfulls
2 handfulls of frozen blueberries
1 cup of leftover cut up strawberries sprinkled the night before with a little sugar
1/2 yellow bell pepper - just a leftover piece - you won't taste it!
a glug of prune juice - yep it's really good for your little poopers and horrible to drink by itself (remember it's a super food says Dr. OZ). You really won't taste it! Stop turning up your nose! You won't taste it!
a few glugs of 'no sugar added' apple juice (just enough to get it 'your drinking consistency' and easy on your blender) - I guess you could add any juice on hand
about a cup of strawberry lowfat yogurt (or any flavor) - (I can't do nonfat yogurt yet :)
a handful of leaf spinach - really you won't see or taste it but it's also a super food and even though I like spinach it's just easier to drink in a shake than in a salad.
If your little one's aren't good meat eaters (like mine) I always add a small scoop of protein powder - it's also tasteless and for me it's more filling so I often have a shake for lunch or while I cook dinner.
I also 'doctor' some shakes up for my little guys with extra honey to sweeten (Purple Palette Pleaser was sweet enough not to 'doctor'). If you happen to make a shake that turns out to be an awful color, I put it in a cup that the kids can't see through and 'wa-la' their little noses aren't turned up. I do this same trick on my hubby to be honest :) !!!
Definitions:
buds - short for taste buds
glug - you know, when you pour the liquid and it makes a glug sound - about that much
Enjoy!
