vegetables.

anyone who has a kid knows that getting her to eat vegetables is a near impossibility. i mean, seriously; try convincing a baby that vegetables, even though they taste like grass, are really, really good for her. she's not going to buy your reasoning. trust me; i've tried. instead of tossing them down her gullet like the rest of us health-conscious eaters, she casually flings them to the floor, or spreads them around her tray to make it look like she ate a few, OR, and this is my favorite, she eats one and then gags and coughs like she just ate a sardine covered in cayenne pepper. vegetables were a constant frustration for my husband and i, until a friend of mine posted on facebook a genius solution to vegetables: fruit smoothies. this woman deserves a nobel prize in my opinion; she's brilliant. thanks to her suggestion, our baby eats her vegetables and sometimes even begs for more. 

so here's how you do it: pick one or two vegetables, like peas, spinach, or squash and steam them until they are soft and can be easily pureed. next, pick a couple fruits, like banana, mango, peach, or blueberries and dump them in with the steamed veggies. finally, add some plain or vanilla yogurt (preferably organic--stoneyfield is a good brand) and puree. it's so easy and there are so many combinations you can come up with. you can even substitute yogurt for coconut milk or juice or milk (again, choose organic milk). because our baby doesn't grasp the concept of a straw or cup all that well, we add a little bit of gerber oatmeal cereal to thicken the puree and spoon feed it to her. also, i like to make a bunch of purees ahead of time and freeze them so i have a variety to choose from whenever i need them. this evening, i spent 20 minutes or so making a couple trays of purees. for one of the mixtures, i combined spinach, banana, blueberry and vanilla yogurt. it came out looking like tar, but tasting like marshmallow fluff (according to my husband). the frozen smoothy cubes make nice snacks, too. we put the cubes in a munchkin "fresh food feeder" and let her go to town. it's also a miracle treat for teething. 

satisfied customer.

perhaps needless to say, i totally recommend giving it a try. according to my child, anything tastes good when it's mixed with banana. 

p.s. i don't know about anyone else, but we can't always afford organic alternatives. rather than break the bank, we investigated which foods we should try to buy organic and which foods are fine to buy non-organic. the general rule for fruits and vegetables is if it has a thick peel or husk, don't buy organic, but there are a couple exceptions to the rule. here's the official list we came up with (i keep this list handy so that i can consult it when making my grocery lists): 

BUY ORGANIC

milk             eggs

potatoes       spinach

grapes          pears

apples          peaches

celery          cherries

nectarines    poultry

beef             bell peppers 

pork             strawberries 

carrots 

BUY NON-ORGANIC

asparagus      sweet peas

avocado        cauliflower

corn               kiwi

bananas         broccoli

mangoes

papaya

onions

pineapples