Parents know how difficult it is to get kids to eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a week, never mind daily.  How many times have you emptied your trash only to find your child’s dinner serving of green peas, carrots, or vegetable du jour? The minute you turn your back, they get rid of the vegetables any way possible as long as they don’t have to eat them.

A Sweet Solution

I’ve found that by encouraging a daily morning ritual of juicing, kids actively participate in selecting and juicing their 5 serving of fruit/vegetable requirement. It takes a little pre-planning and it may not occur all 7 days of the week, but 4 or 5 days a week is better than none.

Here’s What You’ll Need

1. A juicer – preferably a centrifugal juicer of the type that Jack La Lanne sells because it’s so easy for kids (and adults) to operate.  It’s not as intimidating as some of the masticating juicers.
2. A selection of vegetables – preferably organic.  However, if you can’t continually buy organic vegetables, non-organic will do.

Here’s What You Do

Wash, clean and remove as much pesticides form the fruits and vegetables as possible. In an earlier post I share the method I use.

Leave the juicer on the counter, kitchen table or any place where it’s easy enough for the kids to access the juicer (very young children require parental supervision).

In the morning, place a large bowl of cleaned fruits and vegetables next to the juicer.

Have the child pick out a few of her most favorite fruits/vegetables.  Keep in mind that the Jack La Lanne juicer makes a nice quantity of juice per fruit or vegetable, so if your little one gets a little overzealous when picking fruit, be prepared to drink the excess juice (Hint – every once in a while throw in a vegetable such as a carrot or piece of celery.  They’ll soon realize that the juice tastes so good that even a vegetable can’t make it taste bad).

Allow the child to make her own glass of juice.  Children love making juice and the juice tastes so good, they love drinking it.  One word of caution, too much fruit/vegetable juice at one time will keep your little one in the bathroom, so start slowly.

My kids are older, but they still appreciate a tasty glass of freshly prepared fruit/vegetable juice.  I wait until the morning rush is over and everyone has had their morning beverage before I wash the juicer for the next go round.

Relax at Dinner

If you know your child has had most of her required daily allowance of fruits and vegetables during the day through juicing, dinner is a lot less stressful.  So what she doesn’t eat her peas at dinner time.