Elixir of Life

*I found a post I thought I posted awhile ago.  This is from last month.*

I found it.  I found the Elixir of Life.  Maybe it doesn't look like much.  Maybe it's held in an ordinary glass.  Maybe I whipped it up this morning in my kitchen.  Okay, maybe it's a smoothie.  But it for sure possesses miraculous powers.  I know this because my daughter drank it.  No, I don't have another daughter besides Izzie.  Yes, Izzie drank it. 

What's the big deal.  So she drank a smoothie.  You might be thinking it's a blend of flavored yogurt, fruit and a boat load of sugar.  Oh, and topped off with some cream for extra smoothness  Well, you would be wrong.  Here's the rundown of ingredients.

Plain low-fat yogurt

Mango (as in the fruit mango)

Banana

A dollop of orange juice concentrate (That's where the sugar comes from.  I think next time I'll try fresh squeezed orange juice and use some raw honey for sweetness)

Here's the kicker.  Are you ready?  CARROTS!  My excitement led me to use all caps.  I also want to make sure you heard me right.  

 

We all know carrots are good for us.  Besides the fact that they're loaded with vitamins and lots of other nutrition yumminess; they are full of FIBER!  Sorry, I did it again.  It's just getting fiber into Izzie's diet can be tough.  Getting her to actually eat a vegetable is tough.  She relies on a daily vitamin and pediasure to fill in the gaps of her diet.  Sometimes there are a lot of gaps.  Sometimes she does okay.  But vegetables?  Forget about it.  Oh yah, Carrots are a freaking VEGETABLE! 

So how did I get her to drink this smoothie when she knowingly knew there were carrots in it?  Easy.  We gave it a funky name.  Oh, and maybe she saw something on one of her favorite shows called the 'The Fresh Beat Band'.  It actually is a pretty cool show full of dancing, singing, silliness and smoothies.  There really is a smoothie shop and it's run by a delightful woman named Melody.  One of the more recent episodes Izzie watched was all about the unveiling of a new smoothie.  The main ingredient was carrot.  And they called it the groovy smoothie.  I could tell you all about the episode but that's not the point of this story; unless you want to hear all about how Marina had to wear a bunny costume and sing a song about carrots smoothies only she kept tripping in her bunny costume every time she tried to dance and, because friends stick together, the rest of the gang dressed in different animal costumes and came up with a dance they could all do.  Wait a minute!?  Singing? Animal Costumes? Is this a spin off from a show in South Korea?  I had a dream the other night that I was wearing a penguin costume and I was afraid to get in the water because I couldn't swim, which is weird because I'm actually a good swimmer...what was weirder is that I was a penguin and penguins can swim right?  

So anyway, I told Izzie and Noah that we were making smoothies.  She asked what kind and I said, "We're going to make a groovy smoothie."  She shouted, "A groovy smoothie?!  That's my favorite!"  I sat the kiddos on the counter and they helped me put in all the ingredients.  Unless I'm baking something that needs exact ingredients, I'm not really a measuring kind of gal.  Izzie watched in anticipation as the blender magically turned all the ingredients into a beautiful orange color.