Every time my son gets his braces tightened, his jaw hurts and he can’t eat solid food. So, he makes smoothies. While pulling ingredients out of the freezer for his liquid meal, he stumbled across a package of frozen broccoli. He dumped some of the green vegetables into the blender, along with the berries and yogurt, thinking broccoli would make the smoothie “healthier.”
My son plans on taking his smoothie recipe on the road and making lots of money from it. It’s going to be a big seller, because who wouldn’t want to buy a drink chock full of vitamins, minerals, and little green floaties?
Okay. Nobody. Because broccoli smoothies are disgusting. At least that’s how my kids described them. I didn’t think mine tasted terrible, but it left a bitter aftertaste that I quickly had to wash down with chocolate covered almonds.
Immediately after realizing that broccoli doesn’t work well in drink form, my son made another batch of smoothies. Without broccoli. The new batch was one of the best smoothies he’d ever made.
So, here’s some of the lessons we learned from the broccoli smoothie:
- It’s okay to try new things. It might not work, but you will learn something from it.
- Nothing can mask the taste of broccoli–not even good stuff like berries and yogurt.
- No matter what you do to broccoli, kids will still not like it.
- Broccoli smoothies will never be big sellers.
- Sometimes mistakes lead to brilliant successes, like delicious smoothies.
- Chocolate tastes better than broccoli.
But why? People should like broccoli, because broccoli is good for you. People who eat broccoli should live longer to have more children who also like broccoli who should also live longer to have more children who also eat broccoli.
And yet, people prefer chocolate.
But drinking the broccoli smoothie also reminded me of a few other important lessons:
- While we sit in our warm kitchen sipping smoothies, we should be grateful for everything we have, because there are people in Haiti with no food and no warm kitchen.
- Those starving people would give anything for a smoothie, with or without the broccoli.
- We should always keep the people of Haiti in our hearts and in our prayers, and do what we can to help.
So, please, keep the people of Haiti in your hearts and in your prayers, and do what you can to help.
Here’s one good place to find out how:
Trust me, it will be much better for your health than drinking a broccoli smoothie, and with no bitter aftertaste.
I think you’ve hit on a fundamental truth. Life is just like a broccoli smoothie. It’s bad, but we try to pretend it’s not, by masking it with something sweet. But the yuck is still there, leaving a foul taste in our mouths.
Now I need some chocolate…
Thanks for the comment. Stranger comments are so exciting, dont you think? Unless it was like a dangerous stranger then it would be scary. Your profile made me laugh and just so you know, I am the proud owner of 4 (count em’) 4 broccoli loving children!
I love broccoli, but I can promise I wouldn’t like it in a Smoothie!
On the other hand, he might want to try this one:
Slice about 6 frozen strawberries in the food processor; microwave 1 minute. They should be thawed, slightly warm, but not hot. Serve with soft chocolate ice cream. Yummy!
Louise: I’d send you chocolate, if only I could break it into little digitized pieces and send it over the internet.
Julianne: When my kids were little, they used to eat broccoli, too. Now they won’t touch it. I hope yours continue to enjoy broccoli (and it’s many health properties) for many years to come.
Lynn: Thanks for the recipe. We’ll have to try it. It sounds delicious. (Because chocolate and strawberries are a much better combination than strawberries and broccoli.)
On my daughter’s third birthday I asked her what she wanted for her birthday dinner. All she wanted was broccoli. Really.
Mary, I’m so glad you are back. You have been missed. Welcome home!
And I’m sure my kids would be willing to give up their portion of broccoli so that your daughter could have more. They are just that amazingly generous.
People do like chocolate. I wonder if chocolate covered broccoli would ever be a big seller? I think it would take a whole lot of chocolate…
Every time I think about Haiti I just get really sad. Mostly because in my poorness I feel really helpless. Unless they need crocheted baby hats, and then I could single handedly save the whole country. If only crocheted baby hats were cash…
Melissa: I think chocolate covered broccoli would just ruin the taste of chocolate.
And don’t feel bad, you can only do what you can do. And there are people somewhere, I’m sure, who would love and benefit from those beautiful, crocheted baby hats.