Some may call it manipulation but I call it the art of gentle persuasion. 😉 Gentle encouragement, strong encouragement, gentle persuasion, narrowing down the choices… call it what you want. I just want to get the greens down!

A few years ago I made my family drink Spirulina. Oh I mixed it with some juice but if you’ve ever had spirulina you’ll know that it seems to be the worst of all the green superfoods…it is just disgusting. “Pond scum” is what John and Lisa call it. But I made my family drink it…rather attempt to drink it. They were gagging and dry-reaching every time. I even tried to hide small doses of it in other foods but it seems that they could sniff it out a mile away! They just couldn’t stomach it.

I resorted to capsules. Man, those thing are the size of small vans! I broke them in two halves…I crushed them. But my family thought they were too clever and could detect Spirulina tablets in anything. There was no way it would work. So I tried Chorella and Barley Greens and Wheat Grass. Same result. But these are superfoods. I need my family to take them…don’t I?

greensmoothie

Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe there is more than one way to get all the goodness into their bodies. Enter Green Smoothies. Served in nice, real, glasses. (not plastic)

Some people like to add lots of fruit to their green smoothie to make it palatable for children. They say to start off with about 60% fruit and slowly increase the amount of greens each time. Pish posh! Soft! Maybe it will work for other people’s children but not for my tribe. I’ve never been one to go soft on my children- food and smoothies included. I say to go in with the hard line…then it’s easier to ease back…creates an attitude of thankfulness and a willingness to work with me, rather than against me. Is it manipulation? Um, is it any less manipulation than loading them up with way too much sugar (fruit) and then trying to wean them off? I don’t think so.

After the horrors of all the pond scum that I tried to make them drink, green smoothies seem so easy, so delicious. In their mind it’s either Green Smoothies or Pond Scum! Hehee, the funny thing is, my lovely family think they’re oh! so clever for ganging up on me and not drinking the Spirulina. But maybe, just maybe it was all part of my secret plan. Maybe there is a method to my madness!