Start Your Day Right Smoothies

I'm kind of obsessed with green smoothies right now. I just can't get over the idea of drinking my vegetables for breakfast. Love it! Here's the latest one we tried out, and all liked!

Start Your Day Right Smoothies
1 banana
1 C mango chunks
1 C 100% pineapple juice
1 C baby spinach leaves
1 C torn kale leaves

Blend and enjoy! Oh, and make sure you check your teeth for green specks before you leave the house!

Peanut Butter Banana Smoothies

We have a new favorite breakfast and snack around here - Peanut Butter Banana Smoothies. They are miraculous. They're filling, they're healthy, and, most shockingly of all, we ALL like them. Even Cora. If she likes it I'm pretty sure anyone will. Try it!

Peanut Butter Banana Smoothies

Ingredients
1 ripe banana
1/2 C vanilla yogurt (we use Stonyfield Farm Low Fat French Vanilla)
1/2 C almond milk (we use Silk Original Flavor)
1 T organic creamy peanut butter

Directions
Place all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth.
*tip - make sure you place the peanut butter near the blade as opposed to the side of the blender so it doesn't stick to the side and fail to incorporate.

Green Smoothies!

I've found a few really good smoothie recipes online lately so I'm going to make a few of them this week. These green "detox" smoothies are supposed to be so good for you and make you feel like a million bucks. I have to say I agree! We all drank them for breakfast this morning and loved them. I am so in love with the fact that we all had spinach for breakfast!

Green Detox Smoothie
from theglitterguide.com

1 cup baby spinach
1 pear, diced
1 ½ C of orange juice
1 frozen banana

Blend and enjoy!

Four Day Weekend Food: Day 3

Wow, I need to go for a run! We ate a little TOO well today ;) And I just finished it all off with 3 cookies...which may turn into 4. Or 5...

Since we have about 5 pounds of blueberries to put to use, we got to it bright and early by making these "Awesome-est Blueberry Muffins" for breakfast. I think that was sarcastic excitement ;)

While we waited for them to bake we snacked on the SUPER DUPER cookies that Nana brought for us. A Ritz cracker topped with peanut butter than then dipped in chocolate and topped with sprinkles. I need to learn how to make these!

Then the muffins came out of the oven...

The girls have been singing Happy Birthday at every meal and then pretending to blow out the chandelier over the table so today I treated them with candles  in their muffins. We re-lit them and re-sang the song four times. I would like to note that Leyna ate FOUR muffins today. FOUR!!!

Mid-morning snack was a Blueberry Banana Smoothie.

And I was a super cool mom and bought them chips for once. Baked Cheetos to be exact. They were pretty happy :)

Meanwhile, Daddy and Uncle Steve spent the entire morning smoking a Pork Shoulder.

It was THE BEST I've ever had.

Simply amazing. Cora was a big fan. Leyna insisted she didn't like it without a single taste.

While Cora napped Leyna and I made these little beauties: Brown Sugar Blueberry Cookies. Leyna had 3 immediately, and one more for snack. Cora had 2. I had one initially and 3 just now. I don't think they're going to last the day and I'm about 95% sure I'll be making another batch or two tomorrow. TRY THEM!

We scrapped our dinner plans since we had all been eating all day and pretty much just fended for ourselves. I made the girls their new favorite sandwiches: Ham and Swiss with Ranch Dressing. Weird right? I made them the other day for the pool and wanted to put a sauce on them but I know they don't like mustard so it was either ranch dressing or ketchup. Daddy insisted I do the ranch (though I would have picked ketchup for myself!)

And that was our day of good eats. One more to go tomorrow!

What we ate today...

I hadn't planned on it but I did a lot of cooking today! It makes me happy to feed our little family so well. Here's what we ate...

Leyna & Cora's breakfast: Smiley Pancakes with Fruit

Mommy & Daddy's Breakfast: Egg, Salami, Sage, & Cheese wrap

I made a batch of Pioneer Woman's Restaurant Style Salsa this morning and we snacked on it with chips throughout the day.

Leyna & Cora's Lunch: Turkey, Strawberries, and Carrots with Hummus

Dinner: Cheese Pizza for the girls, Balsamic Strawberry & Basil Pizza for the grown ups - YUM!

And Strawberry Crisp for dessert. I had leftover topping in the fridge from making Peach Crisp so I pressed half into the bottom of this pan, topped it with my homemade strawberry jam, and sprinkled the rest of the topping over it. Delicious on vanilla ice cream!

Strawberry Crisp for Two (or Five)

Uncle Steve was here tonight and looking for some dessert. Our pantry and fridge are slim pickings right now but I had some frozen strawberries so I searched for a recipe and found this one that I made once last summer. I doubled it so we would have enough for everyone. This one is a KEEPER. So good & SO simple.

Strawberry Crisp for Two
Adapted from Food.com 

Ingredients

1 T butter
1/2 C oats
1/4 C packed brown sugar
1/2 t cinnamon

My special addition: 2 T mini chocolate chips
1 C sliced strawberries (I've made it with fresh & frozen and both work great)  

Directions

Preheat oven to 375. Melt butter in small saucepan over low heat. Mix in oatmeal, brown sugar and cinnamon. Let cool and then add chocolate chips.
Divide strawberries between 2 single serving sized oven-proof dishes. Sprinkle 1/2 of oatmeal mixture over each.
Bake 15 minutes or until hot and browned.

Blueberry Oat Crumble Bars

If you saw yesterday's blog you'll know that Leyna and I attempted to do a little baking. It didn't go so well the first time around. We had a bowl full of oats, flour, and brown sugar. I turned my back to get the salt and heard a crash. Then I saw the bowl upside down on the floor with Leyna next to it. There was a fine dusting of flour on her face, slippers, and dress, the stove, the cabinets, the floor, and halfway across the adjoining morning room. Leyna was hysterical, not because she was hurt but just shocked and upset by the disaster. She was much more upset than me and I did my very best to make her laugh at the situation. It was the only thing left to do. I put her on the couch with a movie, cleaned up the mess, and started over. Luckily it's a very easy recipe! And it was worth EVERY second. The four of us plus Uncle Steve made it through the first pan in less than 15 hours. Leyna and I made a second batch today (with strawberries added) and we put a severe hurting on it. You should make it ASAP!!!

Version 1 with blueberries

Version 2 with blueberries & strawberries

Blueberry Oat Crumble Bars
Courtesy of How Sweet It Is

1 1/2 C rolled oats
3/4 C whole wheat flour
3/4 C brown sugar
1/4 t salt
1 t cinnamon
1 t vanilla extract
1/2 C butter + 2 T
1 C blueberries (or 1/2 C blueberries and 1/2 C strawberries)

Preheat oven to 350.
In a large bowl mix the flour, sugar, oats, cinnamon and salt. Melt the 1/2 cup of butter and stir the vanilla into it. Add to the oat mixture and stir until completely moistened. Fold in the blueberries.
Butter and flour an 8×8 baking pan or use a non-stick (I actually used a 9x9 and cooked them for the same amount of time). Press batter into the pan. Melt remaining butter and drizzle it over the bars. Bake for 20 minutes and then let it cool completely. Cut and serve. Try not to eat the whole pan in one day, but if you do just concentrate on how healthy most of the ingredients are ;)

Applesauce

Today we made homemade applesauce in the slow cooker. So simple and delish. Leyna ate a few bites and told me it was the best applesauce ever, but then she wouldn't eat any more. I think it was a little tart for her so I'll probably decrease the lemon next time. Cora devoured it with no comments whatsoever :)

We'll be making this one many more times this fall. And it made the house smell good too!!!