By “bread alone”, let me clarify.

Luca lives on a staple diet of:

• bread/toast and butter
• plain (i.e. just add salt & butter) pasta/noodles
• macaroni cheese
• chicken nuggets
• fish fingers
• Jungle Oats (aka num-num)
• the occasional apple
• those weird crisps from the Chinese takeaway
• yoghurt
• Woolies muffins
• Woolies butternut & sage pansotti

He drinks loads of water and boxed fruit juices and there are a couple of things missing from this list, but it really doesn’t make much of a difference in making his diet any healthier. At the end of the day, the only time he will ever willingly eat vegetables is in the Woolies pansotti, and even then he doesn’t know that they contain a vegetable! Every night, I give him a dose of Viral Guard/Scotts Emulsion so try to get his vitamin and mineral intake up, but every night I worry about it. YES, I know I also hated loads of veggies as a kid … green beans, pumpkin, brussel sprouts and spinach were my ABSOLUTE worst. I was also one of those kids who would say *insert whiny voice* “I DON’T LIKE IT!” without ever having the tiniest of tastes, to see if it might just actually taste amazing!

And here I am, years later, and a LOVER of veggies, fruit and trying EVERYTHING (food, I mean!) at least once!

I do hope know that Luca won’t not eat fruit and veggies for his WHOLE LIFE and that he will eventually become more adventurous with trying new food. But in the mean time, I stress about the amount of “white” food he eats.

Enter the Russell Hobbs Fresh Taste Juice Maker.

While Luca was watching Jake & The Neverland Pirates/Spongebob/Mouk and eating his dinner of “BUTTER AND TOAST PLEASE, MOM!” I chucked an apple, an orange, two big carrots, some celery sticks and a handful of blueberries into this baby and flicked the switch, juicing the combination of fruit and veggies into a pulp-free (I think the whole texture of fruit possibly worries him) liquid. I poured it into his favourite Cars drinking cup and handed it to him, announcing “Apple juice, Monkey Moo!” and watching nervously as the straw approached his mouth.

He took a sip.

He looked at me.

He looked at the cup.

(Can you sense the tension?!)

Finally, he looked back up and me and said, “This apple juice is YUMMY Mom! Make me some MORE PLEASE!”

The angels sang, sweet songs of raw vegetables and fresh fruit. SUCCESS!!! If I can’t get him to EAT what I want him to, I’ll get him to DRINK it! Now I’m in search of a juice recipe book to help me get creative with my new favourite kitchen appliance! I plan on making homemade, fresh fruit & veg frozen lollies in summer now too! YES PLEASE!

Now if only I could get rid of Luca’s irrational fear of peas turning him green, thanks to our new favourite bedtime reading material …