Alternatives to Pancakes and Fruit Punch

It's no secret that I like Landon to eat a healthy diet. It's also no secret that Landon hates eating a healthy diet. Since Landon is such a picky eater for me I have resorted to sneaking in healthy ingredients into the foods that he will eat. The other week I was able to make him fruit punch and banana pancakes. They weren't as big of a hit as I was hoping, but he did consume both of them rather well. Landon won't touch anything with bananas in it. Just the smell of bananas will make him turn his head. I put a whole banana into his pancake mix and then made his pancakes. He wouldn't touch it at first, but then he decided to top it with peanut butter and gobbled it up. I'm not really sure how the peanut butter came into play, but all that matter to me was that he ate the pancakes.

The fruit punch was a lot more expensive to make then the pancakes, but it was well worth the cost. I am not a fan of Landon drinking juice. In fact, we still water down Landon's juice. We usually fill his sippy cup about 3/4 of the way with water and then top it off with juice. I prefer him to drink water throughout the day, but there are times when he insists on drinking juice. I came across a recipe for fruit punch and decided to give it a try. I pureed pineapple, raspberry, and carrots to make the fruit punch. The only problem with it was that the raspberry seeds do not puree. Landon did not like the texture of the seeds and refused to drink it once he came across the seeds. I was then left with a whole pitcher of fruit punch that I could not drink because I am allergic to raspberries. I did take a sip of it and it was rather tasty, but after just one sip I felt my throat starting to close. At least I attempted to give him a healthier alternative to drink. I guess we will be sticking with V8. For all of you other moms who would like to try a healthier version of the every day juice here is the recipe:

• 2 cups raspberry puree (equals one large bag of frozen raspberries)
• 1 cup pineapple puree (equals one half of a pineapple)
• 1/2 cup carrot puree
• 2 cups cold water
• 1/2 cup sugar

The recipe did not make a lot. As you can see it was only half of a pitcher. It is also rather expensive just because of the price of raspberries. It was rather tasty what I could have of it. Landon just did not like the raspberry seeds. I'm sure older children will enjoy this fruit punch.