A whole Bunch of kale

   So I have always played it safe when adding veggies to smoothies.  I did not want the girls to taste the vegetables and put their nose up at it.  So a handful of leafy greens or a few pieces of kale, maybe a carrot or 2 (since they have no issues in eating these raw I usually stick to leafy greens).  Yesterday, however, I got brave.  I took a whole bunch of kale, that I previously got at the grocery store, and washed it and pulled it off the stem.  I filled my entire vita-mix ( which is the best investment I have made in the kitchen)  with kale.  My daughter had to squash it down to fit more in.  The I added a small amount of 100% pineapple juice and 100% cold pressed apple juice, a handful of grapes and 2 handfuls of frozen strawberries.  We blended it up and boy was it green and good.  You could not even taste the kale.  The girls drank it all up before soccer practice.  Go Kale!!!! I felt like my girls got a nutritious glass of goodness before their practice that tasted like cold deliciousness :) My point is try more veggies in that smoothie and it if taste like veggies you can always add more fruit or honey or juice to fix the mistake.  Taking chances one more handful of veggies at a time and encouraging you all to do the same.

Lipstick from crayons?

  So my daughter is so interested in making her own make-up and perfumes and other beauty products every since she received a spa kit for christmas last year.  It had all kinds of oils, fizz activator, lip balm ingredients and perfume bases to make your own beauty products.   Problem is she ran out a few months ago.  When I went to find refills they had discontinued making that product.  Yikes! So we went to the health food store and the prices were just way too high.  So I scoured the web last night to find a inexpensive recipe and I found one that used crayons to make the lipstick.  I let each of my girls pick out their own color and smell and gave them each a lip container to put it in.  Of course my oldest picked bright red, middle daughter picked pink and tiny tot picked pink and yellow (which made orange).  SO how did it turn out you ask?  Well really waxy and hard to apply, but the color is true to the crayon and it comes out dark and stays on really well.  It was fun to make and my daughters had a blast, but I think next time I will try the beeswax recipes I have seen.  I just need to find some.  Here is the link for the recipe is anyone wants to try it.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-lipstick-with-crayons/

Mom and kid approved book

    Is it just me or is it just that hard to find a good juvenile book lately?  It seems like most of them are filled with magic, spells, and sorcery. Every where I turn it seems like our kids are flooded with witches and magic.  In the movies, in the books and in video games.  Well, I found a great book, actually my daughter did.  Robinson Crusoe by Dan Larsen.  It was adventurous and fun so great that we could not put it down. We finished the entire book in one sitting.  The best part, it included God.  It even had scripture that we looked up in the Bible. I know this is not a new book, but it is definitely a great one.  Beware though it does talk about cannibalism which warrants discussion time with your darlings.  It by no means approves of it (infact just the opposite) nor goes into great detail about it.  However, it is there non the less just as a heads up so you can be prepared.

The Smoothie

Sometimes we all need a bowl of ice cream.  When you are not eating processed foods, sugar, milk or soy this can be a problem.  So I always turn to the smoothie.  I love smoothies and as my kids always say "this is better than ice cream!"  They are right.  With ice cream comes guilt and bloat, but with smoothie comes the  satisfaction of knowing that you are eating something that is not only delicious, but chalked full of vitamins.  Plus, it is so versatile you can make so many combos.  Baskin Robins 31 flavors has nothing on a girl with her vitamix and a freezer filled with fruit.  So have fun  and enjoy not only making your smoothie, but eating it!

My favorite Smoothie
frozen Ripe Bananas (you have to peel these before you freeze them)
Vanilla
Almond milk (just enough to blend if you want thicker texture more if you want a shake)
A handful of fresh Kale or spinach (the flavor is so mild you cannot taste it, but it will make it green)

Blend and enjoy :)

Sweet potato pudding and a secret

So I am on a mission to cut out all white flour, unhealthy sugars and processed junk out of our diet.  So far so good.  One month of clean eating and I am feeling pretty GREAT! At first it was easy I love healthy foods and so it was not that big of a hardship to replace bad foods with healthy ones.  However, I am trying to get a little more creative with my cooking so I do not get to bored and revert back to bad habits.  So today little bit and I made some sweet potato pudding.  It was pretty good.  Here is the secret though we did not tell the other two what ingredients we put in there and made them guess.  Now this is a great tactic I use all the time in our house with my daughters because it keeps them eating those yummy heathy foods bite after bite until lo and behold the whole thing is gone and not one complaint :) Pretty sneaky!  Plus, it teaches the girls to identify different flavors, who am I fooling, no mostly just the first the first one :)  So here is the recipe or and kind of recipe.  We really keep throwing more and more ingredients until it taste great so recipes are not at all exact but here is my best guess:

3 big sweet potatoes boiled
1 cup raisin and almond milk puree (just take raisins and blend them up with the milk)
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 tsp. vanilla
 almonds
oats
butter
honey (optional)

Boil potatoes until soft, then allow them to cool.  After cooled peel the skin off and discard.  Then blend the potatoes with puree, and vanilla.  Toast the almonds and oats in the butter I add a little more cinnamon to this.  Then put potato pudding in a bowl and add the nut/oat topping to it. Top with a little honey if you want but it was plenty sweet for me with out it.  This is pretty versatile add applesauce, ginger or nutmeg.  You can add whole raisins and butter also.  Really the sky is the limit.  This is just a base.  I was even thinking about adding pumpkin oil but I forgot!  If only I had a blog to remind me :)

My Blog

I am starting this blog because I have all sorts of ideas and things I want to do and then Life happens and I completely forget what I wanted to do!  Yes I am that flaky, forgetful or busy what ever word you want to insert there.  Also, I have stories and recipes that I want to share with family and friends and sometimes I get to lazy or to busy (again I like that word it is a great excuse) to actually tell people and tell other people and yodda yodda!  The final reason is to get rid of the 30 spiral notebooks that are filled up with all the recipes, ideas, inspirations and notes that I frequently lose and find again later only to lose again! So you see why it is imperative that I start this blog.  If I am the only one that sees it that is alright by me.  Really who wants to listen to the ramblings of an adult deprived woman anyway.