My early Christmas present

My daughter Sami is a very picky eater. It's been hard over the past two years as we've gone back and forth with her trying to get her to eat fruits and vegetables. We finally realized that we really needed to back off. I'd started giving her vitamins even.

Then two months ago, I was in BJ's when a man was demonstrating the VitaMix blender. I had never taken the time to talk with someone about it before that day. But, the kids and I tried 3 different smoothies (2 smoothies and 1 ice cream/sorbet). They had spinach in them and Sami drank them right up. It made me think about what was most important to me--whether Sami ate fruits and vegetables in their original form or that she ate them at all =) I was tired of fighting with her and feeling bad for her continual constipation. So, I brought it up to my husband. He was skeptical and I dropped it.

A month later, he realized that we also needed to give Sami a break and so I brought up the Vita Mix again. He was skeptical still, but less so. He and I both knew it would be a big investment ($400) and we weren't sure where the money would come from in our budget. But, little did I know, he had started looking at Costco each time he went (since he had started doing my Costco shopping for me a month ago) for the VitaMix demonstrator's visit. Last weekend was that visit.

My husband told me that he bought me a cookbook--a cookbook? I don't need any cookbooks. He asked if I wanted to see it and I said, okay. We went downstairs and the cookbook happened to be the VitaMix cookbook. A VitaMix cookbook!

Well, it turns out he saw the demonstration and was persuaded. He had no idea it could do so many things (neither did I really).

This weekend we made 4 smoothies, cheese sauce for noodles, soup, and ice milk dessert. Today for lunch Sami had a smoothie with cantaloupe, pineapple, peach yogurt, honey, milk, ice, and banana. Eli was so upset when it ran out (he's not a good fruit eater either, really). Sami drank it right up and it was good for Autumn who won't drink milk.

Honestly, I wish we'd gotten one a long time ago--I didn't know it would be such a blessing and save us so many struggles with the kids over food! Sami is already much more regular after only 3 days of our family owning a Vita-Mix.

One last note...the last time I was in the pediatrician's office she mentioned to me that fruit juice is one of the big things the APA is concerned about. Straight Juice is like giving a kid alcohol, I guess. Their bodies can't process the fructose well without the fiber from the fruit. Juicers are great to give natural fruit--but they take out the fiber. The vitamix leaves in all the fiber (hence Sami's improving digestive track =) ). If you've thought about a juicer, I just wanted to let you know what my pediatrician shared with me. =)