Recreating breakfast

Nearly everyday that we were in Djibouti, my traveling companion (M) and I visited the juice bar at Cafeteria Sana'a a couple blocks from our hotel. It was normal a late morning break, usually after our second walk around the city. 

Around 7:30 a.m., we'd have breakfast on the porch of our hotel, a cup of café crême with a big cube of sugar accompanied by a basket of baguette slices and a couple croissants. The plates that came with the basket had a dollop of strawberry jelly and a large pat of butter. With my recovering broken hand, sometimes the butter started too cold to manipulate but within seconds it literally would begin to melt.

After this breakfast, we'd walk. With temperatures at 90 degrees F (even that early) and humidity around 85 percent, it didn't take long to find ourselves drenched in our own perspiration. We'd return to our hotel to drink a liter of water and let ourselves dry out and then we'd repeat. 

On the second morning tour, we capped everything off with a juice from Cafeteria Sana'a. 

The first day I ordered ginger juice. I thought, since gastro-international issues can pop up during travels in Africa, ginger would help keep my insides healthy. It was fabulous. Spicy and zesty and refreshing, even 20 minutes later still walking around in the heat that ginger juice left and incredibly pleasant taste in my mouth.

The next visit they had run out of ginger. This afternoon, they said. I was heartbroken so I let M order me a mango. It was delightful but lacked the zip and surprise of the ginger.

We returned the next day. No ginger. Maybe tomorrow, they said. I ordered "melon." I had no idea what type of melon to expect. I'm not a huge melon fan, but isn't the point of traveling to expand your horizons and be adventurous? Would it be watermelon? Honeydew?

Cantaloupe. Served in a frozen mug. Not as breathtaking as ginger but a flavor I soon learned to crave after an hour or two in the hot sun. That day we had a second juice, lemon. Our server offered us lemon with mint, something not on the board, but at this point we may have become regulars. This became M's pick.

The final trip to the juice bar we ordered large juices instead of regular. Still no ginger. So I stayed with my melon.

And today I made a breakfast that incorporates all of these taste memories:

- Take and bake Archer Farms baguette with Brie from Aldi and a chunk with butter.

- Simply Balanced green tea with ginger.

- Cantaloupe juice

My first attempt at my own cantaloupe juice smoothie included about 2 cups cantaloupe and 1/2 cup water in the blender. Suitable, but lacked the frozen mug. 

Juice box punch

My daughter now refuses to take juice boxes to school. I gave her a pitcher and a pair of kitchen scissors and told her to recycle the juice boxes into fruit punch.

She loved that idea.

Ocean Spray Sparkling Juice

When I was in therapy (don't ask, it's a long story), my therapist pointed out that I tended to be cheap without allowing any splurges for myself. That I would treat my family but not myself. While Hurricane Irene shopping last week, I bought Ocean Spray Sparkling Pomegranate Blueberry juice.

Now in my house we mix 100% juice with seltzer and make a diluted juice beverage we call "juice with bubbles" and that Ocean Spray now markets as this product.

But it was a hurricane and the thought of losing power and still having something more refreshing than a juice box, more exciting than water and almost reminiscent of wine or beer... I decided to try it.

The four pack of 8.4 ounce cans cost $2.29 ON SALE at Target. Even with an employee discount and RedCard discount (23 cents for one, 11 for the other) that's $1.95. Rounding up that's 50 cents a can.

But it is yummy. I can mix it much cheaper at home.

Fruitable Juice Boxes

My daughter has had a problem with her thermos leaking. It's a two part problem: 1. she doesn't put the lid on tight enough and 2. she doesn't drink the juice at lunch time.

I had $6 in my checkbook this weekend when I used my debit card to buy an $8 bottle of medicine for her over the weekend so needless to say the budget is tight and my husband will be hanging on to that car registration renewal for another day or two to keep our checks from bouncing.

But school lunch at her school is extra nasty this month... and she wants to pack three days this week. So, I need to fix this thermos problem. I've already tried reducing the amount I put inside and she still "doesn't have enough time" to drink it.

Today I used a small water bottle. And I found $3 in my wallet so we went to Giant for juice boxes. Juicy Juice boxes were on sale 5/$10, so the cheapskate in me wanted those. But I noticed that the Adam and Eve juice boxes were 2/$5. I discovered a "fruitables," like a V8 Splash. They had three flavors, one was berry.

At 50 cents more a pack, that's 6 cents a juice box and child gets 10% of her vitamin A and 10% of her vitamin E. I wonder, is it worth it? They're only 66% juice versus 100 which leads me to ask, what's the other 34%? So I read the ingredients:

Adam and Eve Fruitables

• Apple Juice concentrate
• sweet potato
• butternut squash
• strawberry, raspberry and some other juice concentrate I can't read under the wrinkle in the plastic
• filtered water
• vegetable something (darn crinkled plastic)
• added vitamins

Once again, nutrition via processed foods. But if you're going to pick a juice box... 

Work snacks

I packed myself lots of snacks for work as I'm expecting to work late. I don't want to pack a meal, because I'd like to be optimistic and think I'll be home in time to eat a meal before bed.

So, I filled my Sigg water bottle. Packed a banana, a Nature Valley granola bar, a Special K meal bar, some trail mix with lots of extra cashews and almonds, one of my daughter's Very Berry juice boxes and some sugarless gum.

Hope it keeps me happy.

Frantic!

When did it get to be after 11? I got off the phone with my daughter's potential girl scout leader and looked at the clock and let's just say lunch should have been on the table... and it's not.

So I whipped up a fried egg on storebought seven grain bread with ketchup, served with pretzels and fresh strawberries and white grape juice diluted with seltzer.

Fruity sparkling cocktail

I finally made my zucchini cakes tonight and wanted to serve a cocktail to go with it, something light for summer.

So I placed some ice, about one cup seltzer, about 1/3 cup berry juice, a splash blue curacao and a splash of grenadine in the shaker and mixed.

Super Cherry Lemonade with bubbles

Any mom will probably agree that keeping your child well-hydrated can be impossible. I drink a lot of water. On my good days, I used to drink 90 ounces a day. So I always poured my daughter a drink when I got one. Nowadays, it seems like they get left all over the house more than they get drunk.

And if you give them too much milk or juice, then you worry about filling up little bellies with the "wrong" calories.

Plus, now my daughter's at the age where relatives have given her a root beer here or a cream soda there and she's starting to think bubbles are cool.

Here's my solution:
Super Cherry Lemonade with Bubbles
1/3 glass your favorite lemonade
2/3 glass seltzer
1 tablespoon maraschino cherry juice
1 maraschino cherry

And you tell child he/she can't eat the cherry until she finishes the drink. This also works with diluting any juice with "bubbles." Experimenting with different seltzer flavors can create some crazy combos. My daughter loves picking the "bubbles" because the seltzer bottles usually have big cherries or limes on them to show the flavor.