I can make high-calorie, high-nutrient smoothies for my daughter who needs extra calories and iron.
Smoothies have almost as many variations as there are stars in the sky. So, pick what you and your family like, what’s on sale, and what works for you in your stage of the SCD (Specific Carbohydrate Diet).
I particularly like this smoothie because you can’t taste the spinach, but get the health benefits of it, like iron, which my daughter needs.
Use your best judgment with regard to amounts, based on what you and your family will eat, and how much your blender will hold. My Vita-Mix holds substantially more volume than my old Oster.
Recipe:
Frozen blueberries
Very ripe banana, frozen if possible
1 to 2 cups of fresh spinach (omit if uncooked veggies are not yet tolerated)
1 to 3 baby carrots (omit if uncooked veggies are not yet tolerated)
½ to 1 cup of homemade SCD yogurt (base the amount on what stage you’re at with the probiotics)
¼ to ½ cup of raw, blanched almonds, cashews, or other nuts if tolerated
Coconut oil (to increase calories)
Orange juice, SCD legal or homemade; enough to cover at least half of the contents. You can also use SCD legal pineapple juice if you prefer/tolerate it.
Add all ingredients to the Vita-Mix in the order listed. Turn the Vita-Mix on low, immediately turn the dial up all the way, then switch it to high. If necessary, use the tamper to push the fruits and veggies into the blades. Turn the machine off when the fruits and veggies are completely pureéd.
Why I Love My Vita-Mix Part II
Intentional Change
As a SAHM with a child who sometimes has behavioral challenges, it’s easy to get into a rut, especially after a bad day. Yesterday was one of those days. It started off positively and I felt good that I was able to coerce a friend—another SAHM who needed to get some work done on her home business—to let me watch her little boy, who is about a year younger than my younger daughter. He was the perfect gentleman guest; it was my daughter who had issues with sharing that later (mostly after he left) turned into an hour-long scream fest. If you have kids on the SCD who experience behavioral challenges you know how anxiety provoking the flip from Dr. Jekyl, to Ms. Hyde can be. This tantrum, which included aggression and belligerence, did not last nearly as long as they used to before the implementation of the SCD. And I do think that my daughter’s behavior has regressed since she had the stomach flu last week. However, my inability to successfully navigate the tantrum, and my exceptionally slow recovery from it, has led me to make some changes in our schedule today.
First, I should say that my girls are home for Spring Break, and that it has gotten unseasonably cold and rainy, so going outside is not really an option. I should also say that we homeschooled a few years ago and will be coming back to that next year, so I often approach our days in an educational way—even during Spring Break :).
The first challenge we’ve had in the last few days is that my younger daughter is eating about eight or nine times a day, including three breakfasts. Of course, kids with malabsorption disorders often eat more frequently, and larger amounts than their peers. However, I think that she’s making up for all of the weight she lost last week during the stomach flu. Keeping up with her non-stop demands for food, and her pickiness about what I offer, has been a little stressful.
So, this morning I made her a much larger breakfast than usual, all protein, which isn’t unusual for her on this diet. Regardless of what I offer her, she most often chooses the protein and ignores the carbs, no matter how hard we try to get her to eat.
Then, at breakfast, the girls and I discussed today’s schedule and activities. We decided that after breakfast and morning chores, first I would do some activities with my younger daughter, while my older daughter had some time to herself. Then, we would switch. This is a real blessing for me, because I’ve been trying—quite unsuccessfully—to find time to work on this blog for weeks.
The key for my younger daughter to stay engaged is that all attention be on her. No criticism please. I know what works for her; and I know what doesn’t. I know what works for her at school; and I know what works for her at home. And if I want to have any hope of spending time on a house project, blog writing, paying the bills, cleaning, etc., she needs to have a significant amount of one-on-one time first. And sometimes in the middle of whatever it is I’m doing :).
So, we decided that we would do flower related activities. Based on the fact that she loves to pick flowers from our garden and take them apart, this is what we did: We assembled flowers by using straws for the stems, colored tissue paper for the leaves and petals, and yarn for the roots. Since she has some minor issues with fine motor skills, tearing and rolling the tissue paper was good for her. I put two-sided tape on the straws, she stuck on the leaves and petals, and we tied the yarn onto the bottom for the roots. Beautiful? No. But she had a great time and was excited to give the flower to her sister after we finished all of our activities.
After making the “flower,” I let her cut pictures of flowers and vegetables/fruits out of gardening catalogs to paste into a small book that I put together out of white construction paper and brass clips. Again, using the scissors was great for her fine motor control. Then I wrote the names of each item under its picture. Now she and her sister are upstairs using that book and paper dolls that they made to play school.
Granted, it’s early in the day, and life changes from one minute to the next. But in this moment, I am thankful for a successful morning, especially when as a SAHM, it’s hard to feel a sense of accomplishment. Thanks for letting me share this with you. And I hope you’ll share how your intentional changes create success for you and your family.
Why I Love My Vita-Mix Part I
I can make Shrek Juice.
Shrek Juice is our version of a green smoothie/green lemonade. My SCD girl and I love it. I adapted the recipe to make it work with the Vita-Mix and SCD, the Specific Carbohydrate Diet.
Use as many organic fruits and veggies as you can afford.
Recipe:
½ to 1 head of romaine lettuce (the kind that come three to a package, not the large heads you purchase individually)
1 sweet apple, quartered, but not peeled or cored
1 small piece of fresh ginger, according to taste. I keep mine stored in the freezer so it stays fresh longer. You can peel this if you like, but it’s not necessary.
½ to 1 whole lemon. If you have organic lemons, it is not necessary to peel them, but you may choose to do so for flavor alteration. Quarter it before placing into the Vita-Mix.
1 cup of ice
2 cups of filtered water
Add all ingredients to the Vita-Mix in the order listed. Turn the Vita-Mix on low, immediately turn the dial up all the way, then switch it to high. Use the tamper to push the apple, lemon, and romaine into the blades. Turn the machine off when the fruits and veggies are completely pureéd.
Use a fine mesh strainer or sieve to filter the pulp out of the juice to make it SCD compliant. (I bought the one you see in the photo below in the homebrew supply section of an international food market.) I filter it for my daughter, but drink it with the fiber myself.
To make a purple, and slightly sweeter version of this, add fresh or frozen red or black seedless grapes, about 1 cup.
