Strawberry Protein Smoothie

I slapped all this (plus a last minute addition of mango) in the blender today:

- 1 cup frozen strawberry banana blend

- 1/2 cup frozen mango chunks

- vanilla cream protein powder 

- 1 serving Oikos vanilla coconut Greek yogurt

- 1/2 cup skim milk

Funny part is that it looks like the blender wasn't put together correctly and most of the milk ran out the bottom.

It was my favorite smoothie ever but it was so thick I had to eat it with a spoon!

Green ginger smoothie

This should be awesome:

- 6 ounces water

- 4 ounces Naked boosted green machine juice smoothie 

- 1 banana

- 1/4 nonfat plain yogurt

- 1 packet instant ginger honey crystals

- 1 scoop vanilla cream Pure Protein whey

Baked French Toast with Blueberries

I won't be home for dinner tonight and I saw some odds and ends around the kitchen that needed to be consumed. Eggs. Bread. Yogurt. We have fresh berries and those need eatin' quick.

So I prepped baked French toast. This will sit in the fridge and be baked uncovered at 350 for 40 minutes. This is a small portion. Serves 3 but the portions are not large.

I hope my family saves me some. I'm not sure how the yogurt will work out.

In a bread loaf pan, that I heartily greased with butter, I layered two slices of cinnamon raisin bread and then blueberries and a bit of brown sugar. Maybe two tablespoons. I had three layers of bread and two layers of blueberries.

Now the "sauce" I added to every layer as well. It went something like this:

- four eggs

- nutmeg

- ground cloves

- an ounce or two of half and half 

- about a cup very vanilla soy milk

- about 1/3 cup plain yogurt

Whisk. The yogurt may be a mistake. We'll see.

My husband baked it for 40 minutes at 350 and it turned out delightful. Though the child did not care for it. But she ate hers.

Peanut butter banana smoothie for two

This peanut butter banana smoothie turned out to be a delight.

For two people, throw in the blender:

- two bananas

- about four ounces coconut water with pulp

- about two tablespoons peanut butter

- about one cup plain yogurt

- one packet carnation breakfast essentials vanilla

Yogurt and honey

In Yemen, we had yogurt and honey for breakfast.

I bought plain yogurt here in the States. I have never had much luck weaning my taste buds from all the sugar in commercial flavored yogurt. But in Yemen, the honey was so delightful and the yogurt fresh. So I decided to try again.

I made yogurt with honey and topped with honey roasted sunflower seeds. Imagine my excitement when I determined I had used too much honey.

Maybe I can ween those taste buds.

Awesome peanut butter toast and parfaits

It's been a rough couple weeks. First I drowned my iPhone in a lovely solution of bleach and water. Then we ran into a rough patch financially. Then we received some medical bills and some bad news from the bank about our refinancing. 

In the middle of this, I picked up extra shifts at Target. Child went to resident camp for a week. 

Now the appraiser is coming to the house. I have a second interview with a local entity I really really like. I had a good report from the dentist (and when your teeth are broken like mine, that is always a relief). Husband is scheduled to work overtime next week.

But the stress has left me with bad eating habits and riddled with perpetual exhaustion.

I started the bad habits again this morning. Woke up and had a cup and a half of coffee and a glass of water.

Began cleaning like a fiend. At 9:30, I was exhausted because I hadn't eaten anything. 

We haven't gone grocery shopping in weeks so the "pickins" are slim. I found some store bought wheat sandwich bread, which I toasted, and mixed up commercial peanut butter 50/50 with local raw honey. I let the bread cool (I hate warm peanut butter) and sprinkled liberally with my homemade peanut butter.

To go with it, I made parfaits of frozen berries, thawed, YoPlait "protein" yogurt, a touch of homemade granola and honey roasted almonds from Trader Joe's. 

Washed it down with decaf chai.

Blender day!

We finally bought a blender. A 700-watt Black and Decker with "easy pour" glass pitcher.

It was 29.99 at Target, and I was debating about a 450-watt on clearance for 19.98 or a 700-watt at a higher price. My husband kept saying not to cheap out. I just wanted the right amount of blender. My research indicated that most people and most use only require 450 watts. But lots of ice and harder to grind stuff, well, some folks get impatient with the 450.

And our old one was a Hamilton-Beach, but I have no idea what the wattage was. 

And the Hamilton-Beach models at Target were ugly and more expensive.

So, I got the Black and Decker 700-watt. It turned out to be on sale for $24 even before my employee and RedCard discount.

Made the family strawberry smoothies with coconut milk and Greek yogurt for dinner. I think my old blender was 450 watt, because I blended for the same amount of time "as usual" and they came out as strawberry milk. Delicious but milk.

Variations of a breakfast

So I wanted a smoothie for breakfast and child chose my offer to use similar ingredients in a yogurt parfait.

Child had a parfait layered as follows:

- whole fresh strawberries

- strawberry rhubarb Noosa yogurt 

- homemade granola with almonds and cashews

- dried strawberries

With a glass of very vanilla soy milk to drink.

My smoothie was strawberries, the strawberry rhubarb Noosa, a splash of coconut milk, a splash of very vanilla soy milk, and vanilla breakfast powder.

Strawberry smoothie

Oooooh so good!

- one serving strawberry rhubarb Noosa yogurt
- about 4 ounces very vanilla soy milk
- Carnation essentials vanilla flavor
- 4 fresh strawberries

Blend.

Oh yum!

Oats in a Jar

People have been placing food in mason jars and ball jars lately and I'm not referring to home canning.

Salad in a jar.
Oats in a jar.

I had to try oats in a jar.

My mix, for each jar:
- homemade raw mixed nut butter, about two tablespoons
- 1/2 cup oats
- 2/3 cup vanilla almond milk
- 1/3 container Noosa yogurt in strawberry rhubarb
- handful of frozen mixed berries
- sliced banana

They say you refrigerate overnight and serve cold. Eileen Breslin had a similar concoction she called vegan breakfast pudding-- but she didn't put it in a jar.

Noosa

Ever since I had gestational diabetes 9 years ago, it's changed how I view commercial yogurt.

Most (creamy, good tasting) yogurt has 45 grams of carbohydrates per serving, which is how many servings of carbs I was allowed to have with dinner. OR they are packed full of chemicals and artificial sweeteners.

I made the switch to Stonyfield yogurts, primarily the YoBaby yogurts because I liked the small portions and the real ingredients.

But again, the nutrition and protein in a yogurt never seemed to balance out the sugar and daughter started her ear problems so we ended the regular yogurt.

Now I get most of my yogurt from the farm, but when I broke my teeth my husband started buying me Greek yogurt (specifically Chobani). High in protein and easy for me to eat.

At work the other day, we were in the breakroom with a colleague who works Market (Target's grocery section) and she recommended Noosa, Australian style yogurt supposedly made from Happy Cows with no growth hormones.

These things are incredibly delicious. They taste like dessert. The strawberry rhubarb tastes like cheesecake. The honey reminds me of sweet cottage cheese without the lumps. The mango seems a cross of the two.

They retail at Target for $2.39 for a two-serving container. Each serving has 15 grams of carbs, around 10 grams of protein, at least 10% of a day's calcium even vitamin A.

I'm hooked.

Berry frozen yogurt

Took two bottles of smoogurt from Klein farm (one maple vanilla and one blueberry), added a splash of triple sec, and 1 cup of chopped berries to make this lovely frozen yogurt.

I let the kids (mine and her friend) smash and cut the berries with a potato masher and pastry blender.

Bâtard and quince

A few more weeks and my last full semester at Lafayette will end. My daughter is drowning in her phlegm and her ear tubes are falling out. Target opens at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving. We're still barely making ends meet.

But hey, no sense complaining. This is life.

Today I stopped at Wegmans because my poor daughter wanted ice cream and I'm restricting her dairy right now because of her allergy/ear issues.

I got her coconut milk cookies and cream ice cream.

She also wants to cook dinner tonight so I got vegan ravioli, one butternut squash and the other roasted red pepper. She suggested ravioli for the meal.

I also got salad greens and Health is Wealth Pizza Munchees which are also vegan.

And sushi. Because I can't make it through Wegmans without a serious impulse buy.

I also got bâtards, a small type of French bread, because I've craved a bâtard with butter and quince jam for months. A few weeks ago, I discovered Lebanese quince jam at the Mediterranean Deli. Imagine my delight when I found bâtard bread today. The flavors bring me back to Tunisia.

I also made myself a smoothie of vanilla maple yogurt from Klein Farm, frozen pitted dark cherries, a fresh banana and a splash of sour cherry nectar from Turkey. (Another find at the Mediterranean Deli.

My belly celebrates.

Raspberry smoothie

I'm not a fan of smoothies. Maybe it's a psychological throwback to when I broke my teeth and survived on an all liquid diet for a month.

But today I wanted something different.

So, for breakfast, I prepared some salad in a wrap.

And got out the blender.

Ingredients:
- one banana
- about 1/4 cup vanilla maple yogurt from Klein farm
- about 3/4 cup frozen raspberries
- about 2 tablespoons apple cider from Heckman Orchards
- about 3 tablespoons Very VanillaSilk

This is delightful.

More so-called weird snacks

For breakfast today, my daughter had a banana, water and peanut butter/jelly on my multigrain biscuits I made yesterday.

I started to prepare her snack. I was thinking maple-vanilla yogurt from
Klein Farm. She's been pretty good about avoiding dairy so a shot of yogurt will be good.

As I was adding some frozen raspberries to keep it cold, she came into the kitchen.

"Are you packing another weird snack?" she asked.

"Is yogurt and raspberries weird?"

"Yes."

"I thought other kids brought those tube yogurts."

"Yeah. And some bring fruit snacks so that's similar."

Me, muttering, "fruit snacks... As if that's healthy... Do you want something else."

"No," she said.

"Do you want some almonds in top?"

"Yeah!"

Me, after contemplating, "Yesterday you had an apple. That's not weird."

"It is when I bring it."

"I'm sorry."

She shrugs.

Yogurt parfait with nuts

I made the best looking yogurt parfait for my daughter this morning. It was so good looking I had to make one for myself.

Ingredients (in the order they were layered, bottom up)
- strawberry sauce left from yesterday's pancakes
- vanilla yogurt
- homemade granola with dried fruit, blackstrap molasses and cashews (made last week, see earlier entry)
- Archer Farm butter crunch cashews
- Emerald vanilla bean almonds
- a pirouline chocolate-hazelnut cookie

Berry Banana Smoothie

For two:
(would be best with a handful of ice cubes but some child used all ours)
In a blender combine
- about one cup frozen berries (ours had thawed, they were leftover, frozen would have improved temperature and texture)
- 2 bananas
- 3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 2 tablespoons vanilla yogurt

Yogurt parfaits

At Target café, we make a pretty yummy yogurt parfait with mixed berries, Land O Lakes vanilla yogurt and granola. I had a craving, but can't see spending $2.50 a serving. So after work last night, I ran through the store and got the ingredients. (well, that and some chicken for a surprise party Sunday and a bag of Veggie Lovers Salad.)

I think all in all I got 5 pounds of Perdue chicken thighs, about three pounds of drumsticks, Bear Naked granola (on sale for $3.29), Market Pantry frozen berries ($3.19), the big bottle of apple cider vinegar ($1.19) and the salad ($1.99) for $18.25.

For the café, we take frozen berries, put them in the bottom of a cup, add a scoop of yogurt, then top with more berries. The granola goes in the lid and we put the whole thing in the cooler to let the berries thaw before we sell them.

INGREDIENTS
- Market Pantry frozen mixed berries (blackberries, blueberries, raspberries and strawberries)
- Chobani vanilla yogurt (the 32 ounce container that I got in a previous trip to Target on clearance for $4.18)
- Bear Naked Fruit & Nut granola (which hurts my teeth. Sadness.)

Summer fruit and fresh herb chicken salad

This is to accompany that bread I have on the rise. A perfect cold meal for a hot day.

-12.5 ounces chicken
- one cup fruit (I used local strawberries, local raspberries, a handful of red grapes and a three by two inch chunk of watermelon)

Dressing:
- 1/8 cup vegan mayo
- 1/8 cup Chobani mango yogurt
- two teaspoons Newman's Own Raspberry Walnut Dressing
- one teaspoon country herb blend
- 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Stir then add from the garden:
- 3 large leaves French sorrel, chopped
- about four tablespoons parsley
- one tablespoon dill

I ate this weekend

I ate this weekend.
After what I feared would be never-ending torment of liquid diet options, I ate.

It was wonderful.

And, of course, even the small meals I make for myself make me feel very heavy and gross.

It’s been a week since I posted. Part of that was the fall out from disappointment. I went to the dentist Thursday and she reconstructed my one tooth in only a few moments. The second tooth refused to numb. I received so many chemical shots that my mouth wouldn’t open for two days. Yet, the tooth was not numb. So, I left the dentist with only one tooth repaired.

And that night while eating a french fry, a chunk of filling (I think) came out of my mouth.

I almost wept.

But once that jaw eased open again, I had a salad of iceberg lettuce. And thin sliced radishes. Then a small plate of pancakes.

Which reminds me: my husband, at my request, substituted peach yogurt for the milk in the pancakes. Yum.

Had dinner at the Mexican restaurant. Burritoes con mole.

And then last night, I ate a hamburger with a fork. My husband, again at my suggestion, got basil and sorrel from the backyard herb garden and added them to the meat. Turned out very nice.

I meant to take pictures, but every time I had a meal in front of me, I forgot. I was too intent on eating!