Pinterest fails #2

Welcome back to my series on Pinterest fails, where you can laugh with me, but never at me as I attempt things that look like a good idea.

In this instances, I have to be honest – I didn’t see this on Pinterest, although I am fairly certain it would be on there. Neither is this, strictly speaking, a complete fail. If I only had one child, it would have been, but luckily Stella came to the rescue! In addition, the failure of this is partly self-induced. But my blog, my rules, okay?!

A few weeks ago, it was summer for a bit. I mean, I took it for granted. After all, we still had most of July and AUGUST to come, for goodness sake, so I don’t think I can be blamed for this flippancy, although you could argue that given British weather’s track record I should have known better. And you’d be right.

To be fair, we did do lots of nice summer stuff, like playing outside in the paddling pool, burning stuff on the barbecue, and eating ice lollies. My two have been enjoying a range of frozen goodness – we’ve got some lolly moulds and I’ve been putting different juices (watered down considerably, to reduce the sugar a bit) as well as fruit and yoghurt into them, taking it out again and serving it to the nippers with alarming regularity. They can’t get enough ice lollies.

So, when I saw a recipe for lollies that included vegetables, I did a double take. What sorcery is this that gets children to eat green stuff? I thought. Always looking for new ways to get Jet to eat his veg, I thought I must try this (Jet will tolerate broccoli, under certain conditions. These are that it must not be too hard or too soft or too hot or too cold. It must be served as a starter to the main meal, as opposed to an accompaniment. If all of these conditions are met, he will eat it, but this does not really apply to any other vegetable. Peas? Too fiddly. He does actually like the flavour, but he’s a busy man with shit to do and there simply isn’t time for infinitesimally small foods. Rice and cous cous fall into this category also. But I digress…)

I can’t remember where I saw this (twitter probably, as I’m a bit of a fiend for it these days- follow me @aliwal), but the wondrous idea was to puree avocado with pears. This sounds delicious. I’d rather have a Magnum, obviously, but one does one’s best. So I got the bits together and blended. I remember having a little convo with the original poster about how kids are suckers when it comes to lollies – they would eat pretty much anything if you froze it, gullible fools!

For those who would like to recreate my version of these healthier lollies, here’s what I did:

2 ripe pears

1 1/2 avocados (well, there’s almost always a manky, inedible bit, isn’t there? Just me?)

100g spinach (this was my own addition)

Splash of Copella apple and pear juice

Scoop out avocado flesh, chop pear, put the stick blender to it all, adding spinach once you already have a puree, so as to help blend it in. Add a splash of apple juice for a little bit of sweetness (pears were not in season when I made these – if they had been I probably wouldn’t have felt the need, but it was difficult to find any pears, let alone delicious ones).

I was left with an alarmingly green mixture. This, I thought to myself, is going to be a hard sell. (My fault – the spinach!) There was also tonnes of it. Dipping a finger in for a taste, ever the optimist, I came to the conclusion that if they wouldn’t eat it then I would. I decided that I would exploit the greenness, branding them as alien rocket lollies. This was going to be fine!

The Verdict:

As predicted, Jet had made his decision the moment he saw what colour they were. His frame of reference, which is that anything that green can’t be good, meant we were always onto a loser. Although I managed to convince him to try one, a quick lick could not change his mind. They were, he declared, horrible.

Stella, on the other hand, yummed hers. The only problem she faced was a bit of brain freeze, but she kept eating it through the tears, so I think we can declare that a win! Whilst they do have a lovely creamy consistency, you definitely get an iron-y backnote. They work fine for children who haven’t developed a green aversion yet, so I am leaving it up to her to finish the rest of them, whilst Jet is eating something else.

Further research is needed – I do think this is a good idea, I just need to find the right combination. A nice, quiet, non verdant vegetable, full of goodness but not in a shouty way, would be perfect… Suggestions are gratefully received!

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