After working your way through a spectrum of fruits, you can move on to baby shakes. Baby shakes are wonderful for you and your baby because they are extremely easy to prepare (blending only once for a full day’s feeding), chock-full of nutritional value, easy to digest, and they will fast become your baby’s favorite treat!

There are 3 components to the baby shakes:

1. Fruit
2. Greens
3. Fat

Fruit will be the main component of your baby shake, with a sparing amount of greens and a tiny drizzle of high-quality oil to further support brain development. You can get creative with your combinations, but make sure your mixture will appeal to your baby’s palate. Remember, babies like sweet because the human body is programmed to start with fruit!

Use greens very sparingly and be sure they are well blended if you are adding leaves instead of raw juice. Romaine lettuce is an ideal starter green because it blends so well and is highly water-containing. Just make sure there are no unblended chunks large enough to pose a choking hazard.

Baby Shake Ingredient Ideas

Fruit*/Organic Leafy Greens*/Fat (small amount)
• Raw pure fruit juice/Raw green juice/Avocados
• Melons/Kale (ripped from the stem)/Udo’s oil blend
• Banana/Romaine lettuce/Flaxseed oil
• Pineapple/Baby spinach/Raw tahini or raw sunflower paste
• Apple/Parsley/Raw nut butters**
• Peach/Alfalfa sprouts
• Orange/Sun Chlorella chlorophyll powder
• Coconut water & young coconut meat

*Fruits and greens should be blended or juiced. Adding carrot juice can help to create the perfect consistency in the blender and appeal to your little one’s craving for sweetness.
**Some good options are almond, pecan, or walnut, but NOT PEANUT OR SOY NUT.
AVOID STRAWBERRIES AND HONEY, which can be dangerous in the first year.

Sample Baby Shake Recipes

• 1 cup fresh-squeezed orange juice, 1 cup blueberries, handful baby spinach, and 1 avocado. Blend well.
• 2 bananas, water, 2 large leaves romaine lettuce, and ¼ avocado. Blend well.
• ½ honeydew melon, ½ cup green juice, 1 teaspoon Udo’s oil. Blend well.

These shakes are easy to digest, full of enzymes, and so easy for mom to prepare! All you need is a cooler bag to bring the bottles with you and give them to your baby throughout the day. Babies will usually enjoy baby shakes solely until about 14 months, but they can have them forever if desired!

Tip: For easy feeding, simply cut the nipple of your bottle until the opening is slightly wider than is needed for milk alone. Then, fill it with your blended food and give it to your hungry baby! For daily intake, make 40 ounces of blended baby shake or simple melon puree and divide it into five 8-ounce bottles. These will keep in the refrigerator until your little one is ready for them.

• Take a beautiful piece of red snapper, flounder, tilapia or the lushest halibut and lay it down on a large sheet of tinfoil
• Add a handful of the corn salad (any of the above)
• Seal the edges to make a tinfoil packet
• Put it in a 400 degree preheated oven for 10 minutes.

Let it sit a few minutes outside the oven to continue steaming. You can serve straight from the packet on a plate. Squeeze more citrus as needed! It makes a wonderful light dinner that uses absolutely NO OILS. Serve with a big salad beforehand and some steamed veggies and what can possibly go wrong?

• 4 Cups Raw Corn Kernels
• 1 Cup Broccoli Stems Diced
• 2 Scallions Diced
• 1 Clove Garlic Minced
• 1 Thumb sized Ginger Minced
• 1 Tablespoon Shoyu
• 1 Teaspoon of Sesame Oil (just for a hint of taste)
• Juice of 1 Med Lemon or Brown Rice Vinegar
• Salt, Pepper to taste

This is awesome to eat as a wrap with some Red or Green Leaf Lettuce, Asian Style! You can add chopped avocadoes and some shredded carrots on top and it becomes incredibly satisfying!

• 4 Cups Raw Corn Kernels
• 2 Vine Ripe or Plum Tomatoes Diced
• 1 Cup Fennel Diced
• 1/2 Small Red Onion Diced
• 1 Clove Garlic Minced
• 1 Handful Chopped Basil
• Juice of 1 Med Lemon
• Salt, Pepper to taste.

Optional add Ons:

• 1 Teaspoon Fresh Oregano Finely Diced
• 1/2 Cup of Red or Green Bell Pepper Diced

Same concept as above but add fennel and substitute cilantro for basil!

• 4 Cups Raw Corn Kernels
• 2 Vine Ripe or Plum Tomatoes Diced
• 1/2 Small Red Onion Diced
• 1 Clove Garlic Minced
• 1 Handful Chopped Cilantro
• Juice of 1 Med Lime
• Salt, Pepper to taste.

Optional add Ons:

• 1 Teaspoon Jalapeno Finely Diced (use more or less depending on the heat)
• 1/2 Cup of Red or Green Bell Pepper Diced
• Handful of Sliced Radishes

Let this marinate for ten minutes and enjoy straight from the bowl or to make it heartier, throw it on top of some fresh greens like romaine lettuce with a chopped avocado.

• Add a platter of fresh vegetables such as cherry tomatoes, raw zucchini stick, asparagus, blanched broccoli and cauliflower, haricot verte, etc…alongside the Hummus and Roasted Red Pepper Sauce.
• Add an assortment of olives and pickles (you MUST try Cerignola olives which are fresh, huge meaty olives!!!)
• If it’s a brunch party and you want to serve eggs, heat up the roasted red pepper sauce that is thinned out with more tomatoes in a deep sauté pan, crack eggs on top and simmer with lid on. The eggs will cook in the sauce. The traditional name for this dish is Shakshuka.

More tips…

• I like to thin out the hummus with more zucchini and lemon and use as a dressing for salads…
• For a creamy version of the cucumber and dill, I take goat feta and put in food processor with the required amount of lemon and dill, then toss with the cucumbers and onion…
• To balance out the herbs and citrus, try a few drops of stevia to make the flavors pop…

• 4 red bell peppers, roasted and roughly chopped*
• ¼ cup sun dried tomatoes
• 2 plum tomatoes, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves
• ¼ tsp dried oregano
• 1 pinch of crush red pepper flakes
• Fresh basil, chiffonaded
• s/p to taste

Put all ingredients in a food processor and pulse. Keep it rustic and chunky.
*You can grill the whole red peppers over a gas flame until charred evenly on all sides or remove core and put under a broiler till charred, skin side up. Just keep an eye on it and remove when skins start to blacken. Remove skins before chopping.

This sauce is so versatile. Keep it rustic, serve on a zucchini round, add an avocado slice & a torn basil leaf and it makes an elegant appetizer. Add more tomatoes to thin it out and serve as a Romesco sauce over raw zucchini spaghetti, adding olives and capers for more zing. Or for a heartier dish, serve over steamed spinach or broccoli. You can melt raw goat cheese on top if that is part of your repertoire. I personally love it over steamed cauliflower with fresh oregano!

• 1 head romaine, finely chopped
• 2 plum tomatoes, small diced
• 1 green bell pepper, small diced
• ½ red onion, small diced
• ½ cup kalamata olives, chopped
• 1 handful parsley, chopped
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 tsp dried oregano or zaatar

Optional: goat feta, cubed

Toss all ingredients together.

• 2 medium zucchini, peeled
• ¼ cup raw tahini
• 2/3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 lemon, juiced (or more)
• 1 dash cumin or zaatar*
• s/p to taste

Put all ingredients through a high speed blender, sprinkle paprika on top if desired or extra cumin or zaatar. Serve with zucchini rounds on the side.

*Zaatar is a blend of spices, available in specialty markets.

• 1 lg seedless cucumber (or use several kirbys, Persians, etc…if using waxy cucumbers, peel the skin)
• ½ medium red onion, small diced
• 1 tsp dill, chopped
• 1 lemon, juice
• s/p to taste

Toss all ingredients together.

• 4 medium roasted beets, cubed**
• ½ medium red onion, small diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tsp thyme, picked off sprigs
• ½ grapefruit, juice and zest
• s/p to taste

Toss all ingredients together.

*Want this recipe raw? Substitute roasted beets for raw shredded or julienned beets for easier absorption of marinade.

** Wrap whole beets, skin on with tinfoil, in preheated 400 degree oven for 45 min to 1 hour or till soft when pierced with knife. To remove skins easily, throw the warm beets in paper bag and rub the bag till skin slides off.

• 4 carrots, sliced (1/8 inch on a diagonal works best)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp parsley, chopped
• 1/8 tsp smoked paprika or regular paprika
• 1 lemon, juice and zest
• s/p to taste

Salt the carrots and let sit for half an hour or more. Rinse off salt and add rest of ingredients.

• 3 oz raw semi soft goat or sheep cheese at room temperature
• 1 zucchini, peeled and chopped
• 1 garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp parsley, chopped
• 1 tbsp of chives, tarragon, oregano or thyme
• 1 lemon, zest & juice
• s/p to taste

Combine all ingredients in a food processor. Thin out with water or more lemon to make it zestier. You can use raw goat milk or a yogurt if you have on hand. Go for a rustic but still easy to flow kind of sauce. Just like a Caesar Salad, eat it with romaine, cherry tomatoes, add more grated raw goat if you like or more lemon, be generous with the cracked black pepper; it stands up to it! 

Alternatively, you can keep the sauce thick and use it as a sauce for crudite; carrots, cucumber, zucchini, celery, etc. Or roast vegetables; asparagus, cauliflower, red bell peppers, radicchio and serve the sauce on the side.

Seriously, I’ve witnessed as a whole room when silent when I severed this creamy herby sauce drizzled on top of a whole branzino or a filet of cod that had been roasted with lemon and sliced red onions. I love it when I get comments like, “I’m allowed to eat that?” OH YEAH YOU CAN!

• 3 tbsp Shoyu with equal parts water
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1 garlic, minced
• 1 knob ginger, in matchsticks
• 1 scallion or chives, chopped
• 1 dash of cayenne
• A couple of drops of sesame oil (optional)
• Stevia to taste
• Sesame seeds to garnish (optional)

Combine all ingredients, let flavors steep. Thin out with more water to taste if shoyu is too salty. This is particular good not just for salads like arugula, watercress, red leaf lettuce, cabbage, etc. but as a sauce for steamed vegetables especially zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. It is a great marinade for mushrooms like shitake and cremini which can later be sliced and added to salads. If you eat raw goat cheese, have the marinated mushrooms over spinach, add sun dried tomatoes with chopped parsley and it is heart warming. (You can bake this in the oven till the cheese melts for yourself or a loved one)