You lahk-a tha-smoothie, uh?

One of my goals in finding a healthier way to eat and live for myself, is to continue to upgrade the health and well being of my offspring.

My daughter is a vegetarian who's not really that enamored of vegetables, and my son demonstrates a strong preference for foods with the word "Cheez-It" in the title.

Of course, my own picky eater childhood gave me a great deal of sympathy towards picky eating in general, and I always said, "Food will not be a battleground in my home."

Oh, how that has come back to kick me in the nutritional ass.

Who other than a parent is responsible for how well their child eats? Um, yeah. No one.

I have indulged in giving them a lot of crap snackity goodness over the years in the name of, "Well, they're just kids! They deserve this!" or also in the name of, "I didn't eat X, Y or Z, and look at how I turned out!"

Regret much? You betcha.

To those of you parents who have stuck to your guns on healthy food for your kids, I salute you whole heartedly.

You know how Oprah loves to quote Dr. Maya Angelou, telling her, "When you know better, you do better?" Well that idea resonates profoundly with me these days.

And no, I don't plan to overhaul my kids diet overnight. I think if Cole woke up to find the Cheez-Its replaced with carrot sticks and hummus, he might go into some form of anaphylaxic shock. However, I'm making small changes here and there in the hopes of including more whole foods where ever I can sneak them in.

For example, we now have Smoothie Time.

Remember the smoothie recipe I posted a while back? I've been tweaking it here and there, and serving it to Aidan nearly every afternoon at 3 p.m. Now, she's hooked. And next up, Cole. He said, "Wow, it tastes a lot like yogurt." And guess what? He'll eat yogurt. Victory is mine.

I wanted to share my tweaked recipe which adds a bit more healthy fat into the mix, which is good for brains and for keeping you feeling satiated longer.

Blueberry Protein Smoothie
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1 cup strawberries
1/2 cup whole milk plain yogurt (I use Trader Joe's Organic European-style)
1 scoop whey protein powder, vanilla flavored (I use Show Me the Whey, from Mississippi Market, a local co-op)
1/2 cup of coconut water
1 cup of ice

This will make two large servings, each roughly 140 calories or so. The fact that both my kids will drink this, and one of them even starts to salivate for it around 2:30 in the afternoon, and especially the one who needs a good source of non-soy based protein, makes me very happy.

Makes her happy apparently too.

What are some of your proudest healthy snack or food choices as it relates to both you or your children? Please, by all means, share.