2 year old loves salad!!!

[joyfulmama]

I am a sahm of 6 children- 5 boys and the oldest is a girl. The kids are about 50% raw some days more than that. Vegan otherwise. Today I was blessed with a huge crate of huge zucchini's and yellow squash.. as well as 2 grocery bags full of lettuces and one of beets.. yum.. For lunch I made pancakes for the kids but the base was... veggies and bananas. I took a huge zucchini peeled it and cubed it- threw it in the vitamix did the same with a yellow squash. added some water and bananas and pureed- this took the place of all liquids. I added pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon. They loved it!!
For myself I had a huge salad! mixed greens, zucchini slices, cukes, red onions, lentil sprouts with a balsamic vinaigrette. on the side was guacamole and flax seed crackers. As I sat down to eat- my 2 year old crawled up. bite.. he says.. not sure he would like the veggies with vinaigrette but gave it a whirl. He loved it.. he ate tons of zucchini and cuke slices, lentil sprouts, a bit of greens and some guacamole.. he ate bite after bite.. all those lovely sprouts.. so very happy to have all of that goodness in him.

[Veganforlife]

That is way cool! Try green smoothies - I have found kids absolutely LOVE them. Think about it. Their palates haven't been "tainted" with all the fake crap yet!

Way to go Mom!!

Way cool!!!

[joyfulmama]

oh they get green smoothies daily have been for several years now :-) and I make green smoothie popcicles.. they love everything I make for them except for salads ...until Andrew..

[Tiffany]

Isn't it the most wonderful thing to see a baby who loves salad? We know a couple who has raised their 3 year old raw and she will just sit down and munch a plate of kale and greens, its so beautiful to watch. They were always very clear to her that fruit is a treat rather than the main part of her diet. But, I think as you point out joyfulmama, children are all so different. I hope Sebastian loves greens as much as I do!

[raw_dad]

congratulations, keep it up!

[joyfulmama]

I am trying to work the rest of the family to a high raw diet. I am 100% right now but not sure if I will stay 100% forever. I will take it 1 day at a time after I get down weight wise first. I would love to do green smoothies twice a day and their one cooked meal with some raw foods as well. Most do have green smoothies at night with me but will have something cooked as well.

[juliebove]

When Angela was 2, she loved baby Swiss chard. Also that kale that they use to sometimes decorate a plate. I could never find baby Swiss chard by itself and we lived in a small apartment with no yard. I tried growing tomatoes in pots with varying degrees of success, but didn't really have room for greens. So I would have to buy mixed salad greens. She would plow through the bowl with a fork or her fingers, getting excited each time she found a leaf that she liked. If we went out to eat, she grabbed up all the kale and checked the salads for baby Swiss chard.

She quickly outgrew that stage and only now at age 10 will eat a whole salad by herself. For many years she would not touch it at all or would eat only a few bites.

[coco]

my little man wouldn't touch a salad UNLESS it was one someone else was eating and he could sit on their lap and intercept the fork on the way to their mouth, ha ha! then he would gobble the whole thing, it was too funny!
i don't know when or why or how that changed but it did. thank goodness for the banana spinach smoothie!

[joyfulmama]

I am so thankful for the green smoothie. I have used kale, romaine, spinach, parsley, and today will be mixed salad greens and beet greens, the beet too.. oh! and zucchini pureed is so bland you could use it in smoothies too.. yay! another way to get veggies into their diet. I pureed the yellow squash, zucchini and bananas together for the pancakes- I tried it before putting the flour and it is lite with a banana taste.. so easy to add to smoothies.

[joyfulmama]

I took leftover smoothie from this morning that had spinach, parsley, mangos, nectarine, and bananas- then I added 7 small to medium beets with the greens, and a large zucchini with some more bananas- this made about 4 gallons of smoothie. hubby and I had 32 ounces, the 2 oldest had 32 ounces, the 10 year old had 64 ounces, the 8 year old had 16 ounces, the 4 year old also had 16 ounces and the 2 year old had about 4 ounces. not bad.. there is leftover for tomorrow's breakfast. if I know we are going to be busy the next day I always make extra. It is good by the way!

[carolg]

I'm enjoying reading it all too as my kids are grown, but my grandbaby in TX loves fresh fruits and veggies. She's really on a salad roll. She loves smoothies but not the Green Smoothies as my daughter is her great influence there not loving them either sadly.

I assume pancakes were dehydrated so you planned ahead? How long did it take to dehydrate? I can see for self making some and putting it away, rolling it up and stuffing it with cream (cashew/mac) filling calling it "cannoli." I know Russell James has a new book for $12.95, but since I eat simply and wanting to buy the book for one recipe is not worth the effort to me. I know Alissa has a cannoli in her book.

Debra, great commitment to the 6 kids. Wow.

What's your connection to modernmanna?

carolg