You know that mom who rises an hour before her children, gets everything prepped for the day and still has time for personal primping before her sweet angels awake at 8 AM, babbling happily until she’s ready to go get them? I am not that mom. My little guy is usually up by 6:30. And as someone who regularly stays up until midnight, either squeezing in a few hours of work or just relishing my adult time, I find it difficult to arise before him. His current favorite word is “up,” as in “Mom, up! Mom, up!” barked directly into my ear as he stands next to our bed. (On a side note, how unfair is it that he went directly from Mama to Mom? What happened to Mommy? Is there an emoticon for self-pity? If so, please imagine me inserting it here.)
So, where was I? Oh yes, my not-so-calm mornings. As every mom knows, if you don’t get up before your kid(s), you can spend all day feeling two steps behind. On top of that, breakfast was becoming a huge sore point for us. Owen never wanted to stop playing and eat. And since independent play is basically the holy grail of parenting, I didn’t really want to interrupt his playtime either. But the fact is, whether you have to be somewhere in the morning, or you just want to keep your kid from becoming a constant snacker, breakfast needs to happen by a reasonable time each day. For us, this meant one of two scenarios: I would strap Owen into his chair kicking and screaming where he would proceed to not eat for as long as I felt like torturing myself OR I would let him eat while playing, which led to widely dispersed Cheerio crumbs, smeared banana, sticky toys and lots of food being snatched by the dog when no one was looking. With these two less-than-ideal options, something had to give.
Enter, my knight in shining stainless steel: the smoothie. One morning, while Owen was playing, I threw frozen blueberries, a banana, peanut butter, milk and some Greek yogurt in the blender, pressed the smoothie button and poured the results into a Take ‘n Toss straw cup. Magic. Owen slurped down the whole thing in less than a minute and asked for more. I mean, can you imagine getting your kid to eat blueberries, banana, peanut butter, milk and yogurt in less than one minute if it were not in liquid form? As a bonus, there was enough left in the blender for me, so as I sat there alternately slugging coffee and sipping smoothie, I got to check “make self breakfast” and “eat said breakfast” off the list as well. For me, it was nothing short of a miracle. And the best part is, my early-rising husband got into the smoothies too, so he often has them made by the time Owen and I get to the kitchen. Win, win, win.
Want to try my morning miracle? There’s no recipe or even any measuring. All you really need is a creamy element, some favorite fruits or veggies and ideally some protein. You can see my ingredients in the photo: frozen organic blueberries, one banana, natural peanut butter (the real, fresh ground stuff from Black Hog Farm when available), some 2% milk and a few scoops of Greek yogurt. The blueberry/peanut butter combo makes it taste a lot like a PB&J. So what are your favorite smoothie ingredients? Let me know in the comments!
Hey Erin!
This is an absolutely FABULOUS idea! Do you think making it the night before would ruin it? My husband takes our 14/mo old and 2 1/2yr old to “school” about 6:45am and something like this would be perfect for them to have on the ride there. I work at 5am and don’t have the time to really do it in the morning (I’m already up at 3:30am) and I can’t see my husband doing it. If I could make them the night before that would be ideal! What do you think?
Thanks!!
Thanks, Jenn! Glad you enjoyed it, and that’s a great question. I am not a culinary authority by any means, but when this post was shared by Jacksonville Mompreneurs on Facebook, we got the following comment from Jenny Logue: (Jenny, if you’re reading this, I hope you don’t mind me sharing!)
“I love this! I freeze fruit and veggie smoothies in baggies and my kids get one out of the freezer each morning and toss it in the blender. They like making their own breakfast and I love that they get full servings of veggies before they start their day!”
Based on that, it sounds like a perfect solution for you! And getting up at 3:30 AM, WOW! Now I feel like a wimp for complaining about early wake-up wake-up times! : )
I love this Erin! Neither of my two have slept past 6:30, ever, and the second has only ever eaten 2 fruit loops (yes,I said it, fruit loops) after a ton of coaxing! Great read!
Thanks, Sam! Glad it’s not just me. Maybe you’ll finally get a late sleeper this time! Not
much longer until the little guy arrives, right?
Spinach!! It’s so good for you and the flavor of the fruits over power it so the kids don’t know it’s in there.
Thanks, Liz! I’ll give that a shot.
Can this be applied to breakfast lunch and dinner?!? Getting addy to eat a full meal is nearly impossible these days. A smoothie is a great idea, especially on days we are rushed. Thanks for the tip!!
Side note to your side note- I am on a mission to avoid the “mom” name too. It just started and drives me nuts!! I keep repeating, “My name is Mama, Mama, Mama.” For some reason it makes me feel like I am an old lady!
I know! What’s extra frustrating is that he does call my husband “daddy” and in the sweetest little voice! Oh, the injustice!
Erin,
L-O-V-E this idea! Will give it a try tomorrow 🙂 Can’t wait to see more of your blogs !!!!!!!!
Hey Erin, and fans:
Great post! And so timely. My big guy (age 5) loves making smoothies and begs for it. Sometimes I decline, somehow messing the blender makes me feel like smoothies are hard to do, but NO, THOSE can be cleaned after the boy is safely under the auspices of a kindergarten teacher. And it’s so easy, and is consumed so quickly and with such little coaxing, that sometimes I don’t feel like it’s enough, but of course you’re right, it is way more than you would ordinarily get them to eat. AND, if you can’t get them to finish it before they have to leave for school, they can take it with them! Can’t say the same about frozen waffles and syrup! The other day my guy popped out of bed (hard for both of us, we are not morning people) when I asked him if he wanted to help me make a smoothie. We used frozen fruit bought at Trader Joe’s, plus a banana, and milk. I like frozen fruit because it makes it icey without adding ice. And we had enough for my 5 year old, 1 1/2 cups for my 1 year old, and half a cup each for me and hub. Unheard of. And when we dropped Mateo off at kindergarten, he asked if he could have more when he came home. Oh… ok, twist our arms.
Oh, one more note: My husband hates to waste food, so he’s tried to save smoothies before. Gross. It separates and just looks… gross. Better to have all fruit prepared to just throw in with milk/yogurt/juice the day of. Get the blender out the night before. It’ll take 5 mins.
Thanks, Carolyn! I agree. Actually one reason I didn’t include a photo of the smoothie itself was that even freshly made, it didn’t LOOK that great. Which made me realize that every time I ordered a blueberry peanut butter banana smoothie over the years, they must have used some sort of dye to make it look purple…either that or they use like 10 times more blueberries than I do, which doesn’t seem possible. Ew to mystery dyes. Just another reason to make them at home.
We love smoothies…the best overnight smoothie for us is an overnight oatmeal smoothie….found the recipe on pinterest of course! I have an early riser too! 5 a.m. today! Can totally relate to Mom also. I want to be Mama. Damma is what I get called sometimes…sometimes it is Gamma…she can say Mommy…and sometimes does but it is ALWAYS Daddy!! She is almost TWO settle on a name!!! and it CANNOT be Gamma!!
Freeze the leftovers for healthy Popsicles!
Great idea!
Check out Smuckers Natural peanut butter when you can’t get the freshly ground stuff from Black Hog or Fresh Market. It’s only peanuts and salt whereas all the other “natural” brands off the shelf still add sugar and/or vegetable oil. Sure you have to stir it well the first time you open it, but I don’t mind to know it’s only got two ingredients. My kid definitely has enough energy of her own without sugar!
Oh my goodness you may have just saved my life!! 🙂
Word for word I’ve been dealing with the same thing, only difference
is my toddler is a girl. Everything from the sleep, to the mama to mom, to the playing, food everywhere, not wanting to eat breakfast, and the dog getting all the food. I don’t know why I didn’t think of smoothies!
This is on my “to do asap” list. (i just have to subtract the peanut butter)
You are my hero today. Now finger crossed that this works; I don’t see how it couldn’t!
xxo