Vegie Challenge: Traffic Light
Posted by Michelle | Filed under Food
When I first came to Australia I was surprised at how much sugar all the kids I went to school with ate. My parents had managed to do some sort of job on me so that I wasn’t much of a sweet tooth, but all around me kids were eating chocolate and lollies and drinking CORDIAL. Back in Belgium lemon squash was a special occasions drink. However, Cottees’ brightly coloured concoctions seemed to be the norm at my new friend’s houses.
It wasn’t until many years later I saw the epitomy of cordial overload in the “Traffic Light” served to whinging child in a pub. A traffic light is traditionally green, orange and red cordial of differing strength floated on top of each other. My idea of hell for parents with all that sugar and food coloring. All I could do was turn to the person next to me and say ‘did you see that?’.
The aim of this challenge is to get Made and Sana to try a few more vegies. So I came up with the traffic light smoothie.
I know that my traffic light is ‘technically’ upside down but the trick is the be able to float the lightest ingredients on the heaviest.
To save on having to wash your blender each time, I recommend making each smoothie shot in reverse order. Green, yellow, red.
Green:
1/2 a banana, frozen
1/2 teaspoon honey (optional, these kids are madly active so they can handle it)
1 cup baby spinach leaves
2 ice cubes
1 tablespoon water
Orange:
1 carrot, grated, then microwaved, covered with a splash of water for 2.5 minutes on high (or steamed)
1/2 a banana, frozen
2 ice cubes
1/2 teaspoon of honey (optional, you could use agave or SF syrup)
1 tablespoon water
Red:
1 beetroot, peeled, grated, then microwaved, covered with a splash of water for 3.5 minutes on high (or steamed)
1/2 cup frozen raspberries
2 cherry tomatoes
a splash of water
Blend each mixture seperately.
Spoon a layer of red into the bottom of the glass, top with orange and poor on green.
That’s their RDI of vegies in one glass!
November 3, 2009 at 5:53 am
I love this. I am going to give it a burl.
November 3, 2009 at 2:02 pm
Well, well. I made the boys a variation of this one. I did not have a banana, so I used a small mango yoghurt on a stick. I added some apple/pear (homemade) puree instead of ice cubes – I didn’t have any. It got drunk down in no time flat. Mish, one; boys, zero!