The other day we were at story time at our local library and one of the kids had a sippy bottle full of strawberry milk. It had the distinctive bright pink color of the Strawberry Quik I drank as a child. I found myself surprised that stuff was still being sold (I thought it went the way of Tang – is that still around too?).
This little boy clearly loved what he was drinking, and told everyone around him, including my 6-year-old, that this is the only way he drinks milk because “it’s the yummiest.” Needless to say, my son Really wanted some strawberry milk of his own.
So when we got home, I told him I would make him some strawberry milk. It turned out that all of our strawberries had been eaten, so I pulled out a powdered Superfruit Mix of goji berries, pomegranate, and acai berries that we had in our cupboard.
Unlike Strawberry Quik, this blend has no artificial colors or flavors and no added sugars. It’s a simple mix of three freeze-dried fruits with nothing else added that’s made to put in smoothies. A friend who works at a local market gave it to us to try, so we did.
Our end result looked and tasted nothing like artificially flavored and colored strawberry milk, but it is actually healthy for us and it tasted great.
Here’s how we made our Super Fruit Milk:
All Natural Super Fruit Milk Recipe
2 cups Milk (any sort, dairy or non-dairy, will do)
2 tablespoons Superfruit Mix (or something similar; the company no longer sells this mix, but they have other products you could use)
2 Date Rolls
Blend all ingredients in a high-powered blender until smooth.
Drink and enjoy.
NOTE: While I don’t see the blend I received online, you can easily make your own blend by combining Acai powder, Pomegranate powder, and Goji berry powder. You could even add some Camu Camu powder, Maqui powder, Blackberry powder, Mangosteen powder, or Acerola cherry powder and I bet it would taste great.
I have some freeze dried strawberries that I can powder up for occasions like this. They do come in handy for flavor and color when you want to imitate some store bought item. It is interesting about the Tang. Even though my mom never really gave us junk food and made all our dinners from scratch (lots of grains, protein and vegetables) I think she fell victim to certain cookbooks, marketing, and food trends of the 1970’s. We did have deviled ham, bologna, Hawaiian Punch, margarine and other items in the pantry (no Twinkies). How food ideals have changed, especially where we live. As my kids are exposed to more diverse families and playing unsupervised at other folks homes, we are coming up against a clash of “cultures”. They are “consuming” a lot of things I would prefer they not. I am choosing to give up a bit of my control and observe what happens. It is a big struggle for me, their new independence and ability to make choices I don’t agree with. At least we can still talk about it. Anyway your post brought to mind my new struggle as a mom of “big kids”. My days of making toy and food substitutes for what their peers have, often seem numbered. I feel like the “crazy mom” when I send the neighborhood kids home due to some very violent game they want to play at my house. At least I can still control the books they read LOL.