September is Kale Month at Veggie Buds Club and we are excited to bring you this yummy kid-approved recipe from Katie at Eat Pretty Darling! These kale egg cups are super easy to make and pack a veggie punch. They're a great breakfast to have on hand (especially during the start of a new school year) to get food in your belly and your children's bellies quick!

Kiddos scared to try kale? Make it into a sweet monster! A smoothie bowl is thicker than a smoothie but softer than ice cream. You can add a little extra milk to the recipe and drink it if you’d prefer. Frozen bananas make this snack sweet and creamy, and you really can’t taste the kale at all. Make sure your little chef rips up the kale leaves and adds them to the blender, so he/she knows those super greens are in there. Have a chocolate lover or a child that prefers not to see green? Add a couple tablespoons of cocoa powder and you’ve got a chocolate monster! Slice some fruit and get out toppings such as nuts or seeds and let the kiddos make silly or scary monster faces on top. It’s an interactive and delicious snack that’s packed with kale!

Makes 1 large bowl or 2 small bowls
INGREDIENTS

• 1 packed cup kale leaves
  
• 1 frozen banana
  
• 2 tablespoons almond butter, peanut butter, or sunflower seed butter
  
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
  
• 2 to 4 tablespoons milk (any kind)
  
• Fruit and toppings such as strawberries, blueberries, seeds, and chopped nuts

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Rip up kale leaves (be sure to remove any tough stem) and add to a blender with the frozen banana, nut/seed butter, and vanilla. Add 2 tablespoons of your milk of choice, but don’t add too much or the smoothie won’t be thick.
   
2. Blend until smooth, adding more milk if needed. Smoothie melted or not thick enough? Blend in ice until the desired consistency is reached.
   
3. Spoon smoothie “ice cream” into bowls and create a flat surface with the back of a spoon. Decorate with toppings. Enjoy!

*To make the chocolate version, add 2 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder or cacao powder to the blender with the other ingredients.

Some weeks we like to have a little fun and instead of picking a color, we pick all of the colors! Rainbow is a color in our book. We grabbed one item in each color to go with our green kale in this month’s Veggie Buds Club box. My son picked some of his favorites for each color. Blueberries for blue, carrots for orange, yellow bell pepper for yellow, tomatoes for red, and purple cabbage for purple.
Salads may not be the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of kid food, but making it full of color and having them help pick the ingredients makes it a little more exciting. The fun thing about this recipe is you could use almost any fruits or veggies that fit the colors, as long as you try to make a rainbow! Have your kids be a part of it from start to finish.

Ingredients

• 3 cups kale, stem removed and finely chopped
• 1 medium yellow pepper
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• 1 cup diced tomatoes
• 1 cup shredded purple cabbage
• 1 cup blueberries

Dressing

• 2-3 Tablespoons olive oil
• Zest and juice of 1 lemon
• ¼ tsp salt
• ⅛ tsp ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Place kale in a large bowl. Mix all dressing ingredients in a small jar. Shake it well to combine.
2. Drizzle dressing on top and gently massage dressing into kale (this is a fun part for the kids!). Add in remaining ingredients and toss to coat the vegetables in the dressing.
3. Cover and place in the fridge to let the kale become a little more tender.

November's featured veggie is KALE at Veggie Buds Club! We hope you enjoy these delicious recipes for Gluten-Free Kale Crackers and Kale White Bean Dip from this month's Veggie Buds Club subscription box.
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This recipe was developed by Heather Staller, a mom of two boys, ages 6 and 3, and cooking instructor specializing in bringing cooking into preschool classrooms. After college, Heather knew she wanted to be a teacher, but first followed her lifelong dream of going to culinary school. Teaching cooking combines both of her passions, and she truly enjoys introducing young children to the joys of cooking with fresh ingredients. Find Heather on Instagram (@heather_kidskitchen), where she shares inventive kid-friendly recipes and ideas for cooking with kids at home.