Kitchen Adventures: Toddler Smoothies

 As is tradition with many toddlers, mine refuses most green vegetables. This has required a touch of creativity on my part, as the preparer of most of his food. Seriously, though, hooray for daycare providing meals when he's there. We'd probably both lose it if I had to make him these smoothies for every meal.

For now though, he ABSOLUTELY LOVES these dang smoothies. See that grubby little toddler hand trying to get his smoothie off the counter?
He gets healthy nutrients and slurps those things down in mere minutes. I kid you not. As long as there are no chunks to clog the straw, he doesn't even take breaks. His smoothie is gone before I've made my own. I even step it up a notch and use my homemade coconut milk.

Kitchen Adventures; Coconut Milk

I rarely post on here anymore. I posted on instagram asking if you wanted to see a post on homemade coconut milk. Responses were a yes, so here it is.

I'm the worst. My goal has been to get on here more... but we all know how that's going.

ANYWAY! If you know me at all - and you probably do a little bit since not a ton of people look at my blog anymore and those that do have likely been around for a while - then you know that I'm a little bit crunchy. I'm a little into DIY and a little all natural... but I won't go all preachy or judgey on you because I'm not all gung ho crunchy mama 100% of the time either, frankly.

Currently; May 2016

It's been a super long time since I've done one of these, so I figured, what the heck!? If you're interested in what I've been upto lately and whats all goings on and such. Keep reading...

Currently I'm...

Reading...
Very slowly working my way through Room. It's pretty interesting so far, but I just don't have the quiet time I used to to actually get into a book. I'm still enjoying it though.

Watching...
We've been super into YouTube. Having talks (with my hubs) about starting a channel, but I know thats a really big time commitment and I'm not sure I want to be one of those people who just talks to themselves everywhere... oh wait, I do that anyway. :P
Shows I'm enjoying right now are Jane the Virgin, Last Week Tonight, Game of Thrones, @Midnight, aaaaand Silicon Valley. If you're not on the Jane the Virgin train, seriously, its amazing. Get into that.

A Day In The Life of a Toddler Toting Working Mom

I decided to document a Wednesday for this, which - along with with Tuesday - is one of our toughest days. Those are the days I teach yoga and then Joe comes to the office with me and I have no one to help me with him. Maybe next time I'll document one of our easier days.
Here goes...

Kitchen Adventures; Boozy Cherry Pecan Banana Bread

We were at costco last week, searching for snacks that wouldn't turn us back into fat kids, and we wandered (as usual) down the dried fruit isle.

Why does dried fruit have it's own isle?

Ok, you're right. It doesn't. It shares with delicious snackable nuts. So, when you walk through the isle, all you can think is how you'd like to have a handful of dried cherries and a handful of pecans and just alternate throwing a few into your mouth as you stroll.

Or... you could have an apostrophe (epiphany) and think about the bananas that you have at home and how - as much as you love chocolate chip banana bread - something has got to give and it's time to try something new.

Enter Cherry Pecan Banana Bread.

Currently; November 2014

Reading...
I haven't really been reading much... unless you count instruction manuals, then I've been reading a ton.

Watching...
We did not get to Walking Dead in time, so the episodes have started coming down off AMC.com. Instead we've been catching up on Sons of Anarchy. I haven't loved it. Jax feels so one-note to me, and I am just waiting for everyone to die. We kind of stopped watching after the thing at the airplane hanger with Clay. Hubs was way more into the show than I am and he kinda lost interest after that. I don't blame him, so I haven't been pushing to pick it back up.
I also just marathoned the first season of Orphan Black. I have a lot more free time lately, so I watched that by myself. It's pretty amazing so far. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend. I'm excited to start season 2.

Listening to...
Still super into Serial.

Struggling with...
Hahahahahahahaha. Everything. Even sitting is difficult. Hubs laughed at me when I was moving the laundry from the washer to the dryer last week. That was real.

Inspired by...
The little man. He is amazing... and he is so big. Holy smokes.

Workouts are...
Wimpy. Luckily, my body and I communicate really well, ;) but I've been majorly wimping out on these workouts. If you follow my weekly workout recaps, you may have noticed a steady decline. I'm still getting to power yoga about once a week, and I try to dance or at least get a day or two of light cardio in, but a lot of days I am just too tired, or I wore myself out doing household stuff.

Eating...
There is zero diet happening. I'm not even being very careful about what I'm eating (oops). I occasionally enter things in MyFitnessPal, but mostly out of curiosity. I just eat what I want when I want it. Luckily, I usually crave a balanced meal, so maybe I'll have mac and cheese for lunch, but I'll follow it up with a kale salad, so I'm getting a little of everything, good and bad.

Planning...
I'm mostly just trying not to plan... at least not more than a few days or a week in advance. Since life could change very drastically at pretty much any moment, I'm just trying to get everything ready for our little guy.

Teaching...
As of today I am teaching one last class before taking the next couple months off. Mommy & baby yoga finished up on the 12th (oddly the day I usually post my currently posts, but my schedule's been a little off, so I spaced on that. oops), and I've stopped trying to get subbing gigs for the time being. I did some more subbing through the

What are you upto?

Kitchen Adventures; #bakingbootcamp Apple Pie Biscuits

This weekend I wanted to bake.

We have so much fruit that needs to get eaten or frozen. I really wanted to use the blueberries first, but I wasn't feeling inspired by blueberries, so I opted to take part in the Joy the Baker #bakingbootcamp this time around and make her Apple Pie Biscuits.

Holy smokes.

I just... I was so... surprised... by how amazing these biscuits are. I guess because they're not really all that pretty. Seriously, go explore on Instagram and look at #bakingbookcamp... there are an unfortunate amount of ugly biscuits. I don't feel like I'm being harsh... am I?

Yoga Baby; Week 28

Week 28

SEVEN MONTHS! 3rd trimester, yo! Sheesh, how fast this is all going! So exciting and completely terrifying!

Here's what's happening with me and the tiny one...

Cravings: Cake. I made a chocolate bundt cake after my last post, and for the entire following week I still wanted more cake.

Aversions: Not any one thing or things in particular. Sometimes I just have zero appetite for real healthy food. I'll think to myself how I'm not hungry and food sounds terrible, but 10 seconds later I'll be on the couch with a popsicle.

Energy:  Major energy drop these last two weeks. I crash hard in the afternoons. Sometimes my energy is never that good to begin with. I pretty much feel like I could sleep all day every day.

Missing: Mostly the above. Energy. I was talking to a fellow pregnant friend about what workouts we used to do pre-pregnancy, and it really got me missing my tough workouts. I miss being able to challenge myself. I miss being better at things. Ha. I know that sounds terrible, but I really miss feeling strong.

Kitchen Adventures; Mango Tahini Wrap

Happy Monday! I plan on having this delicious wrap for lunch today, so I thought it was time to give it a little share.

There's a place between my office and the freeway called Hugo's. There are actually 12 miles between my office and the freeway, but that's neither here nor there. I've only actually eaten in the restaurant once, but after I had this one wrap from their menu, I started picking it up on my way to or from work and eating it at home or my desk. It's so good, I decided I had to try and make it for myself.

It's totally vegetarian - light, crunchy, spicy and delicious. I was craving one for weeks before I finally had a chance to pick one up for lunch a little while back.

Then for a week I hoarded random ingredients in my house, buying one at a time until I accumulated everything... because the same store couldn't possibly carry jicama AND spinach tortillas. That would be ridiculous.

August Favorites

I've never done one of these just general favorites posts before, but in the last few weeks I've found some new things that I love and I just wanted to let you know how amazing they are.

1) ME! Bath Madagascar Vanilla & Lavender  - For my birthday, my grandma took me to the Spa at Nordy's. The woman doing my nails put this lotion on my hands and I fell in love. I needed it in my life. I wanted to smell that smell every day. I'm usually not a huge fan of lavender, and I think vanilla reserves a special place in the kitchen, so the idea of combining them and wearing it around didn't really tickle my fancy... but actually smelling it. My mind was blown. The lavender is more subtle, cleaner and warmed by the vanilla which just tickles the senses and makes me want to smell my skin all day long.

2) Clif MOJO Sweet & Salty Peanut Butter Pretzel - Pregnancy does this funny thing to people (me). It makes your blood sugar kersplat on the floor and sometimes gives you fun headaches and sleepiness midday. To combat this, I bought a mondo variety pack of granola bars and a case of iced teas at Costco to keep at my desk at work. This particular bar surprised me. I'm not usually a fan of the peanut butter pretzel combination. It may be my ever changing pregnant taste buds, but these are my absolute favorite granola bars right now. The peanut butter chips are a sweet contrast to the chunks of pretzel. I thought these were going to be the bars I saved for last and had to force myself to eat, but they were gone so much faster than the other bars in the box.

3) OPI Bubble Bath - It's on my nails right now. Natural looking, but still perfectly opaque and sheer at the same time.

4) eos Summer Fruit Lip Balm - I'm only a little late to the party on this one. I've been using these bubs for a while, but this one is my favorite. It's the red one and it smells like fruit roll up. I'm a sucker for anything that smells or tastes like fruit roll ups.

5) búcha Grapefruit Sage - I didn't know what to think of drinking sage flavored kombucha, but its amazing. You need it in your life.

6) MAKE UP FOREVER Smoky Extravagant Mascara - I got this in a mini version as part of my birthday gift from Sephora. At first I just started to use it on top of my older mascara. Using old and then new gives the new something to grab onto and lashes get fuller and longer. I wasn't planning on loving it or buying it when I run out, but now I definitely am. This mascara blew my mind. I love my lashes when I use it.

7) BABYBEARSHOP Organic Cheeky Baby Butter - Another take away from my spa day with my Glamma. It's meant to be used on baby bottoms for diaper rash or anything like that, but I've been using it on my cuticles. My hands dry out so fast. I'm trying to heal them up. It's perfect for anything like that and you only need a tiny bit. I've barely made a tiny dent in this tub.

Do you have any new favorites? Care to share?

Kitchen Adventures; Farro Salad with Kale, Feta & Heirloom Tomatoes

I'm trying to like tomatoes.

Have I mentioned that before? I don't know. Let me get a little bit more specific though....

I am suuuuuuuper picky about tomatoes. For a long time I didn't like them at all. Then I started appreciating them in caprese salads and on bruschetta... or green, breaded and fried. Yum.

But see...

Tomatoes are really good for you. In addition to being super high in vitamin, they're loaded with lycopene, and research has shone lycopene to have cancer fighting properties.

A friend of mine - also not a tomato fan - inspired me. She ordered a wrap on a lunch date and didn't specify they leave the tomatoes out. They're healthy. So, she's trying to eat them despite not caring for them.

Kitchen Adventures; Kale, Quinoa, & Sweet Potato Salad

It's my birthday weekend! Since I'll be out and about eating terribly, I thought I would balance it out with a little health food up in this joint.

I learned some fantastic salad recipes at the Sunday Prep class I took about 2 weeks ago. So far, I've made two of them. I managed to remember to make this one while it was still beautiful and bright out over the weekend. That's why it's going on the internet. ;)

I love this salad (and most of the other salads we made) because it's completely customizable. Your base components are roasted kale, sweet potatoes and quinoa, but pretty much everything else is up to you.

My assistant Panda will show you...

Kitchen Adventures; Blueberry Banana Nut Muffins

My mother in law left a lonely banana at our house after 4th of July weekend. It's a mystery. Hubs and I don't eat bananas once they're past a certain point of ripeness, so this one was destined for banana bread or muffins of some kind.

It continued to sit there for longer than I'd like to admit, until one weekend morning I got up and decided today was the day for muffins!

I found a decent looking recipe - using blueberries and coconut - and I got to work.

It wasn't until I'd mixed the oil and sugar together that I realized we didn't have any eggs.

Currently; July 2014

It's mid July. My 30th birthday is this month. I haven't quite figured out how I feel about that. I mean, it definitely feels real, but also very surreal. On the one hand, I feel like I'm already 30, and on the other I ways thought of 30 as being old. Why is that? 30 isn't old. That's dumb.

Currently, I'm...

Reading...
I just plowed through the entire Divergent series. It's a fun read. I have to say, I liked Hunger Games better as far as dystopian femme hero young adult lit goes, but still. Fun. ;)

Watching...
Nothing on live TV. Ha. I only caught a few snippets of the world cup games on TV at the gym. We started watching Sons of Anarchy last week. Most nights we'll watch an episode or two.

Listening to...
I'm bored with music. I listened to the Hair soundtrack a week or so again. That was magical. I sang What A Piece of Work is Man and Good Morning Starshine to the babe. It was fun. Then I proceeded to have the former stuck in my head for the rest of the day. It was kind of great, actually.

Struggling with...
Same ol' same ol'. Except my organs are feeling especially squished lately. It's very uncomfortable, almost to the point of painful some days

Inspired by...
This little human, mostly.

My workouts are...
Varietal? Is that a word that can be used when not applied to wines? I've been taking spin and barre and prenatal yoga and boxing. Anything and everything. On the days I feel good, I feel great and on the days I am tired, the workouts totally kick my ass and I feel dead to the world.

Eating...
Tacos. Toast. Strawberries with whipped cream. Smoothies. Greek Yogurt. Pop Tarts. Not a lot of veggies, I'm ashamed to say. I need to get back on the veggie train. I'm trying.

Planning...
Repairs mostly. There's been some drama 'round these parts pertaining to a mysterious leak in our garage. We're planning and coordinating repairs and such. I get to take a backseat now, which is nice. Let other people figure it out. I would just really like the mystery puddle to stop showing up
On the positive, there's a big family vacation planned for next June (my grandparent's 60th anniversary) and we've all agreed on a location! FINALLY! There are about 25 of us, so agreeing on a locale was a big deal. Hubs and I used our trump card anywhere we didn't want to worry about travelling to with a 6 month old.

Teaching...
My Monday class is cancelled indefinitely. At least for the summer - people just stopped coming. My other classes are doing great though. Tuesday and Thursday are really picking up and I've got some regulars who make me smile.

What are you upto?

30x30; Make Grape Leaves

I made tabouli a while back. It came out bad, so I shared the fact that I did it and I did not share the recipe... because it tasted like salt. 

I will not be sharing the recipe here either. #sorrynotsorry

These are delicious, but I feel like some things are sacred, and so... I do feel a little bad for not sharing our family's stuffed grape leaf making technique. Not that bad though. 

This was an item on my 30x30 list. I wanted to make grape leaves by myself... but you know what sounded cooler when it got down to it? Making them with the grape leaf making pro, herself, my Grandma Zackie. 

My cousin Paige and I met at our grandparents' house two Fridays ago to learn from the best and help in any way we could. 

Pregnancy Super Foods

Happy Friday, folks! Happy 17 weeks of existence to my baby!

A couple of weeks ago, I found this list of "pregnancy super foods"

It made me so happy... because 10 out of the 12 foods on this list were not only in my regular diet, but some of my favorites. So, I thought why not share them with you, and give you a little something to think about.

Whether you're pregnant or not, these foods are so freaking good for you.

1. Avocado - High in healthy fats, these gorgeous green fruits are also an excellent source of folic acid (for baby's brain development), vitamin C, B6, and potassium. Aside from classically throwing these on sandwiches and into a big bowl of guacamole, I love to slice up a ripe avocado, sprinkle a little salt on there and call it a snack. Healthy and delicious.

Currently; June 2014

First of all, Happy Birthday to my baby sister! She turns 27 today! Though to me, she will be 22 forever.

Since I let out some pretty big news last week, this month's currently post is gonna be a little different than usual. Just a smidge.

Currently, I'm...

Reading...
I finished A Long Way Down a little while back. My friend also lent me her copy of Belly Laughs by Jenny McCarthy. Though I'm definitely not a fan of Jenny McCarthy, I enjoyed the book and read it in a single afternoon while I was on my staycation.
I've also been slowly working my way through the Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy. I love reading about this stuff. I loved reading about pregnancy before I was pregnant. Now I have the best excuse.
I downloaded Divergent onto my kindle. Don't judge me. I started and finished it in about a week. I enjoyed it. It was fun, but I don't see what the big deal is. I had a bit of a tough time getting into it. Even though it was an easy read, I felt like I wasn't connecting to the character and I didn't really care what happened to her. By the middle, I was more into it though. I'm hoping to start the next one in a day or two.

Kitchen Adventures; Strawberry Coconut Ice Cream

I saw this on Shutterbean. I had to make it. End of story.

OK, that's not the end of the story. It's actually part of a short, but kind of funny, kind of annoying story involving never having the ingredients I thought I had and an ice cream maker with missing parts. Still haven't torn my kitchen apart looking for those.

I saw this recipe last week. I'd had my ice cream maker in the freezer for months and months, waiting for the right ice cream to come along.

Kitchen Adventures; Waffles & Maple Syrup Bread Pudding

I made waffles last weekend. But you see... there are only two of us and I made quite a lot of waffles.

So, we had leftovers.

Two perfect little waffles that were too delicious to go to waste.

and we'd just had some rather disappointing bread pudding from a food truck the other night. It was soupy, not custardy. We were let down... and determined to do right by bread pudding... and waffles.

Kitchen Adventures; Black Bean, Pepper and Corn Quesadilla

I fully meant to post this last week, but quesadillas were deemed "weekend food" in our household, so I had to wait until the holiday weekend to make these little pockets of magic.
This recipe came to me in the mail thanks to Cook's Country and the geniuses of America's Test Kitchen.

I didn't follow their recipe exactly. I never do. What can I say, I'm a rebel.

But I adore these quesadillas. They are everything I ever hoped and dreamed they would be.

And you get to kinda feel like you're eating something NOT terrible for you because there are veggies in there. ;)