Hello Healthy!
“What do you want to eat?” “I don’t know, what do you want?” Does this conversation sound familiar to anyone else?
Everyone is hungry, your fully stocked (or sometimes scarcely stocked) fridge/pantry somehow holds no answers and you have somewhere to be in 30 minutes. This scenario is all too common in my house, even though we try to do meal planning each week. Somehow, a meal gets overlooked, or I neglect to have something thawed out, or a key ingredient goes bad before we get to it. So, then it’s a decision between PB&J (if we haven’t run out of bread) or eating out.
Since we’re always in a rush and have young children who find sitting still uninteresting, fast food is often our go-to when we decide to eat out. Have you ever noticed how hard it is to choose healthy meals at a drive-thru? They all do legitimately have healthy options, so I’m by no means bashing quick service restaurants here, but for my family, it’s sometimes difficult to choose the healthy item when dealing with food restrictions, picky eaters, hunger, and a short timeframe.
The Smoothie Shop comes in extremely handy for us in this situation! We can run in, everyone has a favorite smoothie flavor, we can all customize it to fit our preferences and food restrictions and even add spinach to get a serving of veggies in there. I love that they are protein based so everyone actually gets full, I love that I can order the skinny version so my kids aren’t getting too much sugar in their diet, I love knowing the ingredients that go in it are good for us and I especially love that it’s quick and easy!
We all feel like we got a treat, but I know that we are also getting the nutrients we need.
As a dietitian, I know how important it is to sit down as a family for meals, and that those meals are balanced and healthy. We do manage to eat that way the majority of the time. But as a mom, I know that isn’t a reality every single day of the year.
Life can be crazy and having good options for the days that get the best of us is a good thing. The next time you’re scrambling to figure out how to feed your family, or just yourself in between all the other things you have going on, swing by and grab a smoothie!
-Amy Denker, MS, RD, LD
More about me:
I attended Oklahoma State University and graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Nutrition and Exercise. I went on to earn a Master’s of Science degree in Dietetics and Nutrition and completed the Dietetic Internship Program at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City.
I was the Nutrition Services Clinical Coordinator at Crittenton Children’s Center for over 5 years before changing my focus to raising my family. I am excited to now be involved with a company that is focused on providing healthy options for customers as well as providing education and resources for customers to make informed decisions for themselves and their loved ones!
