I hate to admit it but my son is not a full on vegetable lover. Even after all the gardening we did this summer, I still can’t convince him that vegetables are delicious. So I’ve decided to go on a semi-covert mission to get more vegetable into his diet.

Semi-Covert Mission: Hiding the Vegetables

Yes you heard right. I am going to trick my son into eating vegetables. But, I’m not going to keep him in the dark. I am going to tell him, no show him, that he is going to eat vegetables and he’s going to love them! And with the mornings being pretty stressful (AKA he doesn’t want to eat breakfast at all), this smoothie recipe really helps him get off to a good start.

Recipe for Dairy-Free Spinach Smoothie

• 1 cup raw spinach or kale
• 1 cup of water or almond milk
• 1/2 banana
• 1 cup frozen blueberries or any frozen fruit
• 1/2 cup silken or soft tofu
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tbsp chia seeds, hemp or whatever you have
• 2 tbsp peanut or almond butter
• honey to taste

(all measurements are approximate and to taste, don’t skimp on the spinach though as you can’t really taste it)

Start by blending the spinach and water together to make it smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend away.

Serve in a fancy cup with a straw. Notice that the green colour of the spinach goes away when you add the blueberries. This is a must to make the smoothie appealing to the eye.

The possibilities are endless. And now if I can only figure out how to get broccoli into a smoothie….

How does it taste?

I showed my son, OLM, how I was making his ‘special smoothie’. I wanted him to see the spinach go into the blender. I figured he’d forget by the time he saw the final product anyway. After he declared that he did in fact “love it!” I told him, with some hesitation,

“There’s spinach in there!”

He looked at it, a bit puzzled, but then said, “I love it!”

Ha ha! Mission Accomplished!

Thanks for reading. Do you have a recipe to share?