Are you Healthy?

I was talking to a mom from my daughter's preschool class. I told her a few weeks ago that I was a vegetarian and during this conversation she was asking me questions about my diet as well as my kids'. (That always seems to be the first question people ask when they find out I don't eat meat.) The next thing she asked was "Are you healthy?" I'm wasn't really sure how to answer that question. Am I healthy? I guess the short answer is yes. I don't have any chronic problems, aside from the occasional cold, I'm rarely sick, but am I REALLY healthy? The reason I don't eat meat and try to eat a whole food diet is to be healthier, but how can I tell if I'm truly making a difference in my health?



As I said, people always ask me if my kids are vegetarians. I'm always so proud to say that my littlest guy was raised a vegetarian and he doesn't eat meat. I feel great that his little system has never been introduced to the synthetic hormones that are injected to feed lot beef and that he's never been exposed to genetically engineered chickens. However, as he hoodled up to me the other day, with his grubby little hand out to share his latest "snack"--the dog food he's so fond of stealing from the dog's food bin, I realized there's probably meat--and not grass-fed, free range, organic meat-- in that dog food. So there goes THAT illusion!

Since I solicited advice for vegetarian recipes a few posts ago, I thought I should be fair and share one of my favorite recipes here. It's a combination of something I found in a Dr Sears book and in The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook. I try to make smoothies for my kids every morning. They're pretty fast to make and they are packed with healthy things! I don't usually measure, just dump it all in the blender and puree. My daughter refuses to drink them, but being the genius I am, I figured out how to outsmart a 4 year old. I just pour the smoothie into a Popsicle mold and serve it to her at lunch, which she loves. So, the ingredients I use are:
PLAIN Greek Yogurt
bananas
frozen blueberries
Froze mixed berries or strawberries
two medium to large Kale leaves (we use dinosaur Kale)
Orange or pineapple juice
I've also added coconut milk or flax seed oil or even ground flax, but that's kind of gritty. I LOVE that I can get greens into my kids this way and when you use blueberries, you can't even tell there are little specs of green. However, you MUST use the blueberries or you'll have a green smoothie--if that's a problem. My kids don't care anymore.