Salad People (and a recipe)

For most of her life, Anne has happily eaten whatever we put in front of her, but lately, she's has been a little picky, which I'm not used to. These days, there are only about four fruits and one vegetable I can count on her to eat without complaint (and no meat -- never a morsel shall pass her lips!) A couple of weeks ago, desperately in need of new ideas, I headed to the library to see if they had a copy of Moosewood Cookbook, the famous, award-winning vegetarian cookbook that, before it practically disintegrated from use, was a staple in our kitchen when J. and I moved into our first place.

Unfortunately, the library's copy of Moosewood was checked out, but I did come across Salad People, Katzen's cookbook written especially for preschoolers, and snapped it up, thinking it would be just the thing to brighten my toddler-food repertoire and to keep A. entertained (by something other than TV) in the afternoons when it's too cold to go outside.

Salad People has not disappointed. We're going to miss it when we have to take it back to the library next week, and will probably have to invest in a copy of it (and it's companion volume, Pretend Soup) for our own. A. and I have tested almost all of the recipes by now, but by far the one we like the best is the one for Raspberry Yogurt Swirl. She's had it for snack three times this week alone! It's equal parts yummy snack and art project, and it's easy to put together, which makes it pretty much the most perfect kid food ever. Here's the recipe, with a few tweaks.

Berry Yogurt Swirl (serves 4, or 2 if you like big portions)

You'll need:

• 1.5 cups berries (we'd eaten our way through the raspberries by the time this picture was taken, so we used frozen blueberries)
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice (you can also use apple or orange juice, but we like the kick of lemon)
• 2 cups vanilla-flavored Greek yogurt

Blend the berries, lemon juice, and honey together in a blender. Strain through a sieve if your berries have seeds, and decant the leftover liquid into a squeeze bottle (we used an empty honey bear for this; I think a [clean, obvs] medicine dropper could also work).

Spread 1/2 cup of yogurt on plate. Squirt dollops of berry puree into the yogurt, and swirl with a toothpick or spoon.

Eat and enjoy!

I can already tell that this is going to be a snacktime staple in our house. In the future (AKA after the next time I hit the grocery store), I'd really like to experiment with using several different berry mixtures for a tie-dye effect. The possibilities seem endless -- blended and swirled, the fruits/vegetables become colors rather than actual foods, and it seems like it would be pretty easy to sneak some of those verboten veggies in there without A. noticing. Maybe a green avocado and kale puree? Or orange carrot and sweet potato? What do you think?

Happy weekend, everyone!