Saturday, March 17, 2012

Festive Saturday and a Recipe

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Our day started when Eva woke Eric and I up before 8 AM this Saturday morning with a pinch and exclamation, "Happy St. Patrick's Day. You're not wearing green!" Of course I wasn't wearing green in bed, unless you count the crusty sleep boogers still in my eye. She respected my warning to NOT pinch Esther and Hope awake, and the next time we saw the three girls, they were all dressed in green and ready to live it up.

I crawled out of bed a while later to make green smoothies and green scrambled eggs. I had been holding on to these kiwi for a few weeks now, willing them to ripen at just the right time for a day of green goodness. This is the delicious recipe for our green kiwi smoothies. And, you can't taste the kale at all, a good thing. Eric declared these "delicious", which is really saying something, for him.

Green Smoothies (serves 4-5)

2 bananas (I used frozen)
1 c. plain yogurt or kefir
1 1/2 c. fresh kale (you could probably use more, it was truly unnoticed)
6 kiwis, scooped from their skin
1-2 t. raw honey
3 T. flax seed, ground

Mix it all up in a blender and enjoy! I'm thinking it would've been yummy to add some honeydew melon or pineapple too.Eva was really wound up about life this morning! And you can see a glimpse of the living room of our new house behind her. We are installing wood floors and new drapes next week, so this may be one of the last pictures taken with the lovely baby blue drapes. Real sad about that.... Not!
Hope slurps green...
Esther has the absolutely cheesiest camera grin, but I love it. She loves her smoothies, and her leaving her long hair untouched by me. When I try to comb it or add a barrette, she tells me, "I'm just fine, Mom." (insert lisp on jusssst).
Not sure why I included this awesome example of food photography... Pioneer Woman, watch out! I could kill things with my flash! Anyway, this is the green breakfast in all it's glory.


This day (and week and whole winter) has been awesome because of the record high temperatures. Today, the Twin Cities boasted a high of 81 degrees, a sure record! The average temp is apparently 41. We've been in shorts and tank tops most of this week, which is totally premature, but totally wonderful. My cheeks are a revived rosy hue, and like "magic" my mid-winter blues have pretty much evaporated. Thanks, vitamin D!


Eric's childhood best friend, Eric Barnum, came today for the weekend, so he and Eric did lots of game playing and goofing around. They also cut down some enormous, overgrown bushes that were flanking our front doors. It was a dramatic improvement, allowing us to walk up the front walk without being slapped in the face by a juniper. We can also see out our front window. A definite improvement, also giving me the satisfaction of marking something off my "pre-baby to-do list". YES!


I also had some fun baking a few Irish inspired recipes. Both were a big treat, though not really nourishing at all. If you're in the mood for some empty (and heavy) carbs try Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes and Irish Beer and Cheese Bread. Your taste buds will thank you, even if your gut doesn't. And, on that upbeat note, I go to clean up the kitchen. Erin Go Bragh!

2 comments:

Robert J. Nash said...

Wow - I can't get over being "woken" up at 8am - um that is a dream here. Well actually I like getting up early these days so I am not too jealous!

Love, Katie

Sarah said...

Excited to try this recipe. What kind of blender do you have? We had a discussion about smoothies at my MOPS group last week. We found out that it depended on the blender if a family liked kale in the smoothies or not. We don't have a great blender however a lady at my table had a vitamix (isn't that what it is called?). So her blender can get the kale really chopped up.