Our grandson came to spend the night with us while Mom and Dad spent the evening with some friends. We always enjoy Kincaid when he stays with us. We play games, read stories, play with his train set and just relax a little bit.

As usual, I had made my ‘purple green smoothie’ in the morning, and I always make enough to have in the morning, and again in the afternoon. I gave a small glass to Kincaid and was surprised at his reaction. He just loved it, and asked for more. In fact, at dinner time he just wanted to keep drinking his juice instead of the milk his folks sent with him. We never have milk, only almond or rice milk, but he just wanted the smoothie.

I gave him a smoothie again in the morning, and he again just drank it right up, asking for more. This is how you get your children pointed in the right direction for healthy foods, and maybe even raw foods. As a grandparent, it’s a little harder if your own grown children have their own ideas about what to feed their kids. But I believe that my son still remembers the food I prepared for him and his siblings when they lived at home. We weren’t raw foodists back then, only part-time vegetarian (I called it “flexatarian”). But we didn’t buy junk food, or use Hamburger Helper, or have bags of cookies in the the house all the time, and we rarely did the fast food thing. I was very much into health foods when the children were young, and hopefully, some of that stuck with them after they grew up and started their own lives. The challenge is when they marry and what their spouses bring to the table - literally! I am careful to not step on toes when it comes to sharing my firm beliefs about food and how it can help heal or destroy our health.

Anyway, enough of that. I wanted share a picture of Kincaid enjoying his smoothie, a picture of what a nice tall glass of smoothie looks like, as well as the recipe. It’s really very simple, and of course, it helps if you have a Vita-Mix, but if you don’t have one, you can use a regular blender, just start it on slow speed. You can also use a food processor to break up the chunks of fruits and vegetables, then transfer it to the blender.

So, check out my 2 year old grandson enjoying his smoothie, and start your kids or grandkids on the right track to healthy eating. Now I know the next time Kincaid comes to spend the night, he’s going to want ‘Grandma’s smoothie!’ and I’ll have one ready for him, no problem!!

I had to make my ‘green smoothie’ slightly less green because my husband was getting a lot of flack from his co-workers. So to save the embarrassment, I added blueberries and a little bit of beet to change the color from green to purple. But it still has just as many greens as it originally did.

So here’s the recipe for my Purple Green Smoothie:

First off, I don’t really “measure” anything, just cut stuff up and use what looks right. After awhile you’ll learn to use what you like and what you have on hand.

A handful of frozen strawberries
10-15 frozen blueberries
1/2 apple, core and seeds
1 pear, cut in quarters
2 - 3 slices of fresh pineapple
1/4 beet
2 raw dates
1 peeled Kiwi
2 scoops of superfood green powder
5 - 6 large leaves of organic romaine lettuce
2 big handfuls of organic spinach
large handful of alfalfa sprouts
2 cups of filtered water

Put the fruit, water, and juice in the blender, and blend until just pureed. Stop the blender and add the greens making sure they are pushed all the way down so they are picked up by the blades. Turn the blender back on, and blend on high for about 1 minute. I then pour the juice into a large pitcher and put the blender jar back on it’s base. Pour in another cup of filtered water. Turn the blender on high to ‘clean’ the blender. Pour that into the pitcher. Usually yields about 2 quarts of juice. Enjoy! Note: This is great if you’re just starting out with raw foods. Gradually begin to cut down on the quantity of fruit, and increase the amount of greens as you become accustomed to the taste. Experiment with different other greens like parsley, cilantro, kale, collards, sunflower, clover, alfalfa sprouts, etc.