It’s snowing here this morning! Hello Winter.
I’m very excited to tell you about yesterday’s feats! They had to do with getting MSP to consume some veggies! I hereby dedicate this post to those of you who have written saying that you are having a hard time getting someone in your household to eat their veggies. 
To begin, I made MSP what I’ll call a “First Step Green Smoothie“. Normally for every breakfast during the week he makes a chocolate protein shake. I asked if I could make him a special shake this time to see if I could camouflage some veggies in it, starting small in hopes that he’ll like it, get used to the flavor and then progress in to further greens. (I did tell him I’d be putting veggies in and he agreed to give it a shot.)
First Step Green Smoothie Ingredients:
- Ice cubes
- 10 oz water
- 1 scoop vanilla protein powder
- stalk of celery
- 1/3 cucumber
- small fist o’ spinach
- 1 banana
- 1 clementine
- 12 green grapes
Wow, I thought this shake turned out GREAT! If I still ate whey protein, I’d have guzzled this one myself! It had such a delicate light green color and sweet flavor. He did drink it (with only a few funny expressions so progress is being made), but he apparently HATES celery and that was the flavor he zeroed in on. Note to self: no celery in future MSP smoothies.
For his dinner I’d planned on making him one of his favorites: Turkey Tacos. While getting ready to start cooking, I had a thought: I had a can of organic sweet potato puree in the pantry. Surely sweet potato could be hidden amongst taco seasoning! I consulted Jessica Seinfeld’s Deceptively Delicious (which I had conveniently checked out of the library on Sunday) to see if maybe she had a taco recipe in there and sure enough she hides purees in tacos in the book (meant for KIDS, I might add!) I didn’t follow her recipe, but it confirmed that it could be done — without my ruining a pound of pricey ground turkey to find out!
Sneaky Taco Meat Ingredients:
- 1 lb extra lean ground turkey
- 1/4 cup dry taco seasoning
- 1/2 cup tomato puree
- 1/2 cup sweet potato puree
- water if needed
Brown the turkey, then add the purees and the seasonings to the pan, mix really well. If it seems too dry add a little water at a time to desired consistency (I only added about 3 TBSP water) and simmer for 15 minutes or until the family is ready to sit down to dinner. I served MSP’s on small corn tortillas and he only tops his with cheese.
Voila!
In keeping with the southwest dinner theme, I made a myself a small veggie quesadilla (smeared avo, zucchini ribbons, tomato slices and a very light sprinkle of shredded raw goat cheddar.) The avocado and warmed zucchini ribbons definitely gave it the texture of a creamy, melty quesadilla without much cheese to speak of. ¡Bueno!
Topped with some Tabasco sauce:
And served with a side of Amy’s Organic Black Bean Soup (with nutritional yeast):
***
Veggie day was a SUCCESS! MSP ate cucumbers, spinach, celery, a clementine, a banana, tomatoes and sweet potatoes ALL IN ONE DAY! I can almost see the nutrients making him glow already! 
My Tuesday exercise was 45 minutes of incline intervals on the treadmill, while suffering through yet another episode of the new Melrose Place. (I keep thinking, “Next week it will get better…” It doesn’t.)
As for my own ‘hidden veggies’ I hid some sweet potato in my oatmeal (oh and I hid a few raisins in there too…):
I also hid some veggies inside of two toasted Ezekial slices:
Now go hide some veggies in the food at YOUR house (I double dog dare you)… but not until you enter the FitFeat Free Giveaway Contest if you haven’t done so yet. You can enter until Thursday night at 8:00 PM MST!
Have a WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY!
– Shari B. =)
