Vegetables: Parents vs. Kids

Does this sound this sound familiar to any parents out there? At the dinner table: "Kids eat your vegetables. Kids eat your vegetables. KIDS, put down your juice and eat your VEGETABLES!" (There are a couple veggies JoJo and Jeepers will actually eat, but eating a full variety of veggies is so important.) Sitting at the dinner table one night, it seemed like we'd tried everything to get them to eat their vegetables...when my husband came up with a brilliant plan. JUICE! As I sat with the kids at the dinner table, Hubby got out the juicer and went to work. He started with half a head of purple cabbage (we knew we wouldn't finish it before it went bad). He added a couple carrots, an apple, and some grapes and suddenly we had magic purple princess juice! We said, "Fine kids, don't eat your vegetables, but you have to finish your juice."
Jeepers finished it before I could even get the camera out. JoJo gave it a happy thumbs up. It's no seceret now that we sneak veggies into the juice, but they love it just the same. We make it together, coming up with different recipes. We use "ugly" apples that come in the bags, citrus from our trees, tomatoes, carrots, and even wheat grass (more on that later!). The juicer is just about the coolest things they get to help with in the kitchen- they just put a whole bunch of grapes in the top and out comes grape juice from the bottom... how cool is that?!..and they are allowed to drink as much of it as they want, so everyone is happy!

**of course this is under strict parental supervision**

We try and not waste anything at the "farm," especially food. Being less wasteful makes us more appreciative of the food we have. The juicer spits out all the fibers and skins of the fruits and veggies into the blue bowl. This is an excellent source of fiber and most of the time we feed it to the chickens, but sometimes it can be added to your food! Soon, I'll post a delicious recipe I made for apple muffins using our fresh ground wheat and apple fibers. Yummy and healthy!