Smoothie Night

We made smoothies tonight.  The girls love them and I've decided that we need to have a weekly smoothie night.  I can put just about anything in that blender along with some fruit and it will get eaten.  Here is my basic recipe, along with some optional add ins.

2 cups orange juice 

6 frozen strawberries

handful of frozen blueberries

1/3 banana

Optional:

a handful of spinach

lecithin granules

flaxseed (ground in a coffee grinder we have just for grinding flax seed)

yogurt

carrot or carrot juice

other fruit- frozen peaches, mango chunks, whatever you can find!

we sometimes use rice milk instead of orange juice for the liquid

I'm guessing on the amount for the orange juice, you need a good amount to start out with and enough to keep everything from getting stuck.  You may need to add more towards the end depending on your blender.  I start with the orange juice and add one thing at a time blending after each addition.  Tonight I added in spinach and lecithin granules and you couldn't taste it at all.  

It wouldn't by my blog if I didn't warn you about BPA in your blender.  We have this model with the glass container and it works well.  (Well, I'm not sure which exact model we have, but its a glass beehive Oster blender.)  ZRecommends posted an article and did some research on blenders and food processors.  If you have a blender that you suspect has BPA, until you can replace it be sure not to put hot liquids in it, and hand wash it rather than using a dishwasher.  

Smoothies are something both my girls enjoy and I'm happy about how nutritious they are!  What else have you added to smoothies successfully?

Sprouting - Day 2

My little sprouts are growing!!  I just rinse them morning and night and leave them sideways so that any extra water can drain out.  The little white lines you can barely see are the sprouts.  

Boo Boos and Bibs

Flexible plastic is one of the worst types out there- pthalates, lead, and all kinds of other toxins are added in order to keep it flexible.  After reading this article on how nasty PVC/ Vinyl is, I decided to replace our bibs.  I simply traced a large bib that I liked and made a pattern.  Placing two pieces of cotton right sides together, I sewed around the edges leaving an opening on one side.  After clipping the seams and turning the bib right side out, I topstitched the whole thing being sure to catch the opening and sew it closed.  I have this snap setter that I got at Field's and used it to put a snap on (no more velcro chains in the wash!).  If my short description doesn't make sense I can post a photo tutorial next time I make a bib, just let me know.  I've been very happy with these bibs, they are thin and fold up nicely to tuck in the diaper bag and I haven't had any trouble with them leaking through onto my girl's shirts.  I love eliminating plastic and my girls love their homemade bibs!  Lucy just asked my for an Elmo bib, so I'll have to check for Elmo fabric next time I'm at the store.  

The other item in the photo is a boo-boo bag.  I had a re-usable ice pack that we kept in the freezer for bumps and bruises until it started to leak and I realized it was made of yucky flexible plastic and goodness knows what was inside of it.  I sewed a small bag out of cotton and filled it about 3/4 full with rice.  I keep it in the freezer in a ziploc bag and my girls love that Dora and Boots can help their bumps and bruises feel better.  This could also be put in the microwave and used as a heat pack.  Another easy way to get toxins out of my home!

Sprouting- Day 1

Sprouts are good for you!  I'm trying my hand at sprouting some alfalfa and will share the results here.  I bought a set of plastic lids designed to go on a wide mouth mason jar and some alfalfa seeds.  Here is a photo of day 1.

The instructions came with the lids and didn't seem hard to follow.  I soaked the seeds all day in warm water and then rinsed them in cool water and left them sort of upside down to drain.  If I'm doing this right, all you do is rinse them twice a day until they are ready to eat.  I'm planning to put them on salads and maybe sneak a few in sandwiches.  

The Nourishing Gourmet on the benefits of sprouting

Sprouting Seeds how to

More info on sprouting

I think I'll sprout some sunflower seeds next.  (That is, if anyone actually eats these things...)

See Day 2, Days 3 and 4, and Day 5.