Healthy Smoothies

I thought I'd share a newly discovered healthy lunch the kids and I have been eating daily. On a friend's blog I read that she makes smoothies which include greens such as spinach, kale or chard. I was sure it would taste gross but thought I'd give it a whirl. I happened to have one of those huge bags of spinach from Costco!

Here's my "recipe":

pack blender 1/3 full of raw spinach (about 1 and 1/2 C packed?)
1 ripe banana
about 1 C Nancy's honey yogurt
dash of vanilla extract
1/2 tomato
juice, milk, coconut milk or soymilk for liquid
about 2 tsp. coconut oil (don't put it next to the frozen stuff or it hardens)
about 2 T frozen 100% juice concentrate (I just keep the can in the freezer and take spoonfuls out and it lasts me probably 10 batches of smoothies)
frozen kiwi, strawberries, blackberries, etc. (I happen to have frozen kiwi left over from last summer and I buy the large bag of frozen berries and frozen strawberries (I have to soften these a bit in the microwave) from Costco. I've also used frozen peaches that I cut up and froze last summer).
I tried putting hard-boiled eggs into a smoothie once. The kids thought it tasted great, but I think I could taste it.
My mother-in-law has also put frozen peas into a smoothie and thought that tasted good.
You can also grind up some flaxseed and add that.

If my blender is filled to the top it makes enough for a large smoothie for me and 3 kid-sized smoothies.

The kids love these smoothies! Sometimes I give them a spoon full of peanut butter after the smoothie for a little bit of extra protein.

My Silly Girl

The other day Grace skinned her knee on our front patio. Ever since she has talked daily of how much it hurts and how she needs medicine (we are talking a little tiny scrape here that's already scabbed over :) I finally got tired of hearing about it and applied some "medicine" for her. I took a bit of coconut oil on a napkin and gently rubbed it in to the scrape. She was so happy and right away said how it didn't hurt anymore. The coconut oil also rubbed off the remaining goo left from the bandaid which was a bonus. We'll see whether she asks for more medicine tonight. I'm guessing she will :)

We're Seeing Green!

We finally have some grass in the front yard! So what if it's an entire 8 months after we had intended to get it in :) We will certainly appreciate our grass a lot more now than if we'd never had to do without it!
All the guys who were here for the birthday party (see previous post) worked on laying the sod on Saturday. Laying the sod didn't actually take that long, it was all the prep work on the dirt the past month or so that took most of the time. The dirt was so lumpy and rocky that Dave and Mike had quite the time getting it "perfectly" smooth for a nice lawn.
Now, about the backyard....hmmm, I think I'll not dwell on that yet. It's a little overwhelming.

It looks like Weston is doing pretty well at supervising my dad and Mike! They had to dig out one of the sprinkler pipes that disappeared suddenly. The sprinkler heads will be added later.

Here Weston looks like he's working :)

Here he's supervising again. This time Papa John. ;)

Weston is 5!

Hard to believe our oldest is 5 years old! The time has gone so fast since having kids!
We celebrated Weston's birthday with both sets of grandparents and Mike's brother, Tim, who came down from Seattle just for the day. We celebrated with a sports theme and my mom graciously made Weston's soccer ball cake. It turned out great!
Mike's parents contributed a cool dump truck pinata which Weston loved. He took some turns hitting on it, then Grace took some turns. After Grace's turn Weston grabbed the blindfold and the bat and starting whacking on it so quickly that he almost got Grace in the head. She hadn't had time to move out of the way yet!
Some of his birthday "loot" included a microscope, slip 'n slide, bicycle, toy chain saw, real soccer goal, sunglasses, markers, GI Joes, etc. He made quite the haul!
Weston kept saying over and over how this was his best birthday ever ;) Apparently this was his favorite out of the 1 or 2 birthdays he can actually remember ;)

Don't look too closely at Weston's face! We forgot to wipe off the lasagna dinner before taking photos!

He received some fun outdoor toys (now if we could ever get the backyard grass in so they can use them) :)

Grace has wanted some swimming goggles ever since she used some at a couple of swimming lessons my mom took her to.

Don't Buy Stuff You Can't Afford!

This is a funny video I saw on a friend's blog. Very true although I think it's anti-American!