There are so many different ways to make a smoothie, your kids should never be bored.  While not packed full of fruits and veggies, this smoothie sure made a great treat. We called it the Orange creamsicle smoothie.  I’ve seen different versions on many different websites, but I kept ours simple:

• 1 Cup vanilla yogurt
• 1 cup Orange juice
• 24 ice cubes

Put all ingredients in a blender.

  And drink

(Those are sunglasses that the lenses broke out of. She loves to wear them and “trick” people into thinking she wears glasses.  She wants braces too. Remember those days?)

Bear with me here as I try to think outside the box.  It would be easy for me to say, “Cut some cantaloupe into flowers, place on the end of a stick and your kids will gobble it up!”  Been there, done that, they didn’t “gobble it up” for me.

So rather, I had a cantaloupe in my fridge.  I wanted to try my hand at making it a spread.  Cantaloupe butter, if you will.  Here is the recipe.

I was letting the cantaloupe mixture simmer on the stove as I made some zucchini bread.  We are being inundated with zucchini right now.  When I got to “applesauce” as an ingredient, I decided to scoop out 1/2 cup of the puree’d cantaloupe and replace it with the applesauce.  That turned out great. 

As a spread however, the cantaloupe butter was not so great.  It was like putting applesauce on a slice of bread.  A little too fruity and runny.  However, since it was more like applesauce, that is exactly how we ate it, and changed its name to cantaloupe sauce.

Eating the Rainbow, YELLOW AND ORANGE:  Cantaloupe, Carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin apricots, oranges, grapefruit, pears, pineapple.  These yellow/ orange foods are known for being high in Beta-carotene and bioflavonoids, fiber and vitamin A.  Benefits are that they boosts immunity, reduce heart attack risk, maintain strong bones and teeth, better skin.

So with cantaloupe inside the zucchini bread, as well as on the side, I’d say we got a bit of Vitamin A today.

What can you give your kids that is yellow or orange today??