milk mates!

I saw a clever idea on Prudent Baby that I thought I would give a try. They made these things called milk mates, what they are is flavored ice cubes you put in your milk that then flavor your milk. See, I told you, clever! (I find lots of good ideas there so if you want, you can check it out here.) It was a post as part of The Breakfast Project, which is meant to help insure you are having a nutritious breakfast that includes milk. It's part of the 'got milk?' milk mustache thing that has Salma Hayeck in their silly new commercial. (Amelia gets excited by the cow, it makes me want to watch Fools Rush In.)

The recipe is really simple which makes this even better!

Ingredients (fills one standard size ice tray):
one cup fruit (we used strawberries)
one cup water
one cup milk
sugar to sweeten to taste

Directions:
First rinse the strawberries and quarter them. Place them into a small saucepan and add water and sugar. (I tasted the strawberries first to see how much sugar to add. If they're already sweet, skip the sugar!) Bring to boil over a medium-high heat and let boil for 8-10 minutes or until the fruit is soft. Remove from heat and let cool. Once the fruit has cooled, place it in a blender and puree until smooth. Add in the milk and mix well. Pour mixture into an ice cube tray and place in freezer. Once frozen pour a glass of milk, add in a couple cubes, and enjoy!

After Amelia weaned herself a little before her first birthday she refused to drink milk . We tried soy milk, rice milk, and flavored milks with no success. Her pediatrician was concerned about her weight and that she wasn't getting enough calcium so we were determined to find some thing she would drink. We finally found a dairy based supplemental vitamin drink that she did okay with but it was loaded with sugar so I wasn't really satisfied with that as a final solution. I slowly started adding milk into the cup with the drink until it became mostly milk then left out the drink all together. As soon as it was plain milk she went back to refusing to drink it again. Reluctantly we started using flavored syrups to get her to drink it. (Believe it or not, they contain much less sugar than the 'vitamin drinks.') After realizing this was going to be a long term battle we switched to Ovaltine as a healthier option and that is what we have stuck with. However, now that I found this idea, I think it's time for a switch! There's something comforting about knowing what really is going into your child's body and knowing that you are helping create healthy eating habits with them. With these you are using real fruit and you can determine the amount (if any) of sugar going into the flavors. Seems like a win-win to me!