Sunday, February 22, 2009

Homemaker Monday: Shrek Shakes

Welcome to...


Thank you for joining us! If you're new to this carnival and would like to enter your post, please check HERE for the rules and regs. (By the way, if you have been featured on Homemaker Monday in the past, your name is on my left sidebar. Check it out!)

YOURS: This week's "YOURS" goes to Jen over at Balancing Bedlam and Beauty. Her post is about how she went shopping in her own home for new ways to decorate. And she had waaay too much fun with a can of spray paint! No, not that kind of fun, the good kind, like where you spray paint random things in your house just for fun! Check out this beauty...


...and learn what she did with plates, shelves, and plaques to create a beautiful new wall arrangement! Click HERE for her post. Thank you so much, Jen, for participating and inspirting us! Please feel free to take the "I Was Featured" button from my left sidebar!

MINE: We all know that green leafy vegetables are some of the healthiest things we can eat, right?


But how often are we able to get our kids to eat even just a little bit of greens, especially in their raw, fresh state? Kids who are fed the standard American diet (SAD) simply do not have enough exposure to fresh vegetables and are not able to develop a taste for them. The following is a recipe I tried for the twins and, as you will see, they couldn't get enough. I call it a Shrek shake, because it's bright green and I knew my older kids wouldn't try it if I called it a spinach/banana shake. And I am pleased to say that they now ask me to make this on a regular basis, even though they now know what's in it! We were made to eat this stuff, so let's help our kids develop their natural tastes for what's good for them! Here it is...

Ingredients:
A large handful of spinach
2 frozen bananas
1-2 cups of water or almond milk

Let's first talk about the bananas. The bananas for this shake are best when frozen right as they begin to turn brown. They are so sweet at this stage, the the shake needs no additional sweetener. I simply peel them, cut them into chunks, then lay them on a cookie sheet to flash freeze them. After about an hour, they are hard enough to place in ziploc bags to complete the freezing process. It's great to have lots of these on hand because they made the creamiest, coldest smoothies and shakes!

Simply put these ingredients in a blender, add water or almond milk to the desired consistency and serve...


(Behold the green-ness.)

As I was trying to do a photo shoot of the twins enjoying their shakes, in particular trying to get a photo of some green moustaches, I could not get Hyrum to stop drinking long enough to get a face shot!












(All right, mom, enough already with the picture taking!)

This final shot is one of the toddler with a Shrek Shake moustache, proving that at least three of my kids loved these shakes...


What I love about this photo is that Johnny's moustache matches the color of his sleeper, which matches the color of two of the mixing bowls in the background. Yes, things like that make me happy. I need a life. Enjoy the shakes!

OURS: Okay, now it's your turn! We love reading about how you enrich your lives with great homemaking tips, stories, recipes and inspiration. Thanks for linking up and have a great Homemaker Monday!



I am pleased to list this post at...

-Tip Junkie's "Talk to me Tuesday",
-5 Minutes for Mom's "Tackle It Tuesday",
-Tammy's Recipe's "Kitchen Tip Tuesday",
-Blessed With Grace's "Tempt My Tummy Tuesday",
-Forever Whenever's "Tasty Tuesday",
-Mary's "Tightwad Tuesday",
and
-The Lazy Organizer's "Talk About Tuesday".


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22 comments:

Jerri at Simply Sweet Home said...

I've heard of putting spinach in shakes, but I wasn't entirely convinced that it would taste good. But after seeing the pictures of your boys, I'm now a believer. I'll have to try this some time!

Anonymous said...

Who would of thought to put that combination together. Luckily my kids love love love green vegetables...ecspecially spinach. So they eat them that way. I don't think they would go for the shake. I will try it.

The boys look so cute...they really love it. Johnny's mustache is too cute. :)

Sarah J. said...

Oh my goodness, I am so trying that! It looks really fun for kids because it's so GREEN!!!

Little Natural Cottage said...

Love the green mustache... I noticed the "matching" green bowls and sleeper even before I read you "what I really like about this picture" part. "Things like that" make me happy too and it's nice to know I'm not the only one! :o)

I'll have to try the shake... looks like it's a big hit with your boys!!

~Kristy @ Homemaker's Cottage

Jen - Balancing Beauty and Bedlam said...

those pictures are hilarious...too fun. And thanks for the feature. I just did another edition to my spray paint rampage...it was a fun day. :)

Mia said...

for some reason my title didn't come up right for my entry- it's supposed to be a A Trip to the NUrsing Home

Kristen said...

What a really clever way to get vitamins into kids. I will have to try it. Luckily, most of my kids eat their veggies without too much fuss. I'd like to eliminate all the fuss, though.

Anonymous said...

How neat, and the kiddos love it? I am so going to have to make this. I have tons of spinach in the garden, and lots of frozen brownish bananas, now only to make the almond milk, or would regular milk be a good sub? For us none vegans.

Anonymous said...

This is amazingly green!! lol
I will try that, although I am not sure my daughter would like the green color, but you never know ;)
Your kids are cute!
have a nice week!

Mom2my10 @ 11th Heaven said...

Hi Newlyweds, yes, you could definitely substitute regular milk if you would like, but even better would be to substitute water. I have made it this way many times and the kids still love it! As you know, we all could use a little more water in our diets!

Katie said...

Hmmm...not sure about those spinach shakes, but intriqued. I think I'm going to give them a whirl cause if I like them, they certainly are healthy!

This is my first time joining, I just found out about it. Looking forward to getting some great tips!

Anonymous said...

That picture of Johnny with the green moustache is to die for - so cute!

Danelle Ice / Homemaker Barbi

Cambria said...

That is funnny that you post about this cause my little girl is the pickiest eater in the world and I have been trying to get leafy greens down her. I have recently been chopping them in the tiny tiny pieces and putting them in with her beans. She will eat a ton of it and not even know. I will have to try this and see if she will eat it. We have a greenhouse full of spinach, so why not. thanks!

alpinekleins said...

Sounds healthy! Now if we could just do something about that GREEN color:)

Kristin

CompleteLee Blogger said...

I have often noticed that the name makes a huge difference! A+ for cleverness on the name for your spinach shakes. :)

Anonymous said...

It looks like it is a TESTED recipe! Two thumbs up!

I can still remember sitting at the table forever because I wouldn't eat my Spinach. That's really the only food I can remember having problems with. Now I eat it all the time! They should have made me a green shake!

I'm glad you could join us for Tasty Tuesday with this cool recipe!

-Kim

Sarah said...

I'm trying this today!

Lisa@BlessedwithGrace said...

What a great idea. Way to get those veggies in!!I love the pictures.

Beki - TheRustedChain said...

I love adding things like that to our smoothies! Carrots work well too.

Carla said...

this is wonderful!!! I love you calling in Shrek shakes-you are one smart girl!!

Jessica said...

i just tried the smoothie and gave it to my husband...minus the knowledge of what made it green. he seems to like it.
i did add about 1/2 a cup of vanilla ice cream b/c it did not taste super sweet with just the water, but maybe my bananas were not ready yet.
i plan on making them again tomorrow for my boys. thanks!

Coralee said...

Thanks for the recipe! I wrote this down awhile ago, but just tried it yesterday. I can honestly say I liked it! BTW, do you have a recipe to MAKE almond milk...just looking for a way to save money!