Veggies for Breakfast: Green Smoothies

After living without a proper blender for upwards of 4years, I finally received one for Christmas from my  beloved brother and sister-in-law (and baby niece).  Now the word of smoothies is finally open to me (No longer shall I be held captive by Smoothie King andPlanet Smoothie).

My favorite new smoothies to make are green smoothies.  Green smoothies are pretty much just like regular smoothies but with the addition of green vegetables.  With the right balance of fruit to greens, it tastes pretty much just like a regular smoothie but you get all those lovely  vitamins and minerals that green veggies are high in! (High in vitamin C,vitamin E, vitamin K, fiber, iron, calcium, lutein, folate, carotenoids)

Here is my recipe:

1 cup almond milk

1 tbsp honey

1 banana

½ cup frozen peaches

1 cup fresh spinach (loosely packed J )

Blend and enjoy!

So far this is my favorite green smoothie.  Of course, you can use whatever you like, really. I’ve seen a few that have green tea and kale, so I might try that next.Well..maybe next week actually, because right now I’m stuck on peanut butter banana smoothies! (perhaps a future post…)

Tip: When making green smoothies, avoid darker colored fruits like berries because when they mix with the spinach your smoothie comes out brown.  It still tastes okay, but it is not particularly beautiful to look at. Besides, when it is brown I expect it to taste like chocolate and when it doesn’t I am sorely disappointed.

BY THE WAY...

You should go check out my friend Isaac's blog.  He just started it and it is going to be sort of like a manly version of my blog.  Click Here For The Link!

Holiday Sangria

Pinterest is my new favorite website. (The word “website” sounds so 1999. Also I feel like I’m on “Between Two Ferns”…. “Do you like….websites?”)

It’s a great way to categorize things you stumble upon on the internet.  Recipes, crafts, places you want to go, anything you like.  It’s like a visual filing cabinet full of fun things. 

I found a recipe for “Holiday Sangria” on Pinterest that looked delicious, so I decided to try it.  Our family always has an awesome New Year’s Eve party, and this year was no exception.  You may be thinking “A New Year’s Eve party with your family? Lame.  Don’t you want to go out on the town and get all crazy?”  Well, I’ll tell you two things:

A) My family is awesome, and it does get pretty crazy. (But not in a lampshades as hats kind of way)  Balderdash is no joke, people.  Also, who else can say they have seen their father, their uncle, their great aunts, and their grandparents doing improv in the living room, coached by their cousin and brother?) 

B) The last time I tried to go “out on the town”  I ended up eating chocolate cake in an Applebee’s at 10:30 pm with some of my best friends after fruitlessly searching for dessert for about an hour downtown. (One of our attempts was a swanky restaurant where they weren’t serving dessert “because it was a game day and the menu is different on game day”.  You think people don’t want baklava or raspberry torte on game day?! )

The recipe I found on Pinterest can be found HERE.  It looked really great, but I made a few alterations for the sake of convenience/economy/what was around.

Here’s my recipe:

Court’s Holiday Sangria:

1 (750 ml) bottle of red zinfandel

1 bottle cranberry-pomegranate juice

1 cup orange juice

1 cup simple syrup

1 apple, halved and thinly sliced

1 orange, halved and thinly sliced

1 lemon, halved and thinly

1 cup fresh cranberries

Sparkling water

Add everything together except the sparkling water, and let it chill out in the fridge overnight.  Add the sparkling water right before serving (I think I did about half of a 2 liter bottle- so about 1 liter!).

It was a hit at the party, so I think we’ll have to bring it back next year too!

P.S.- I also made some peanut butter chocolate chip cookie dough dip, with a recipe from Chocolate Covered Katie.

The Circle of Life (of T-Shirts)

I didn’t post in December at all.  I was on sabbatical in Brazil, living in the rain forest among toucans and those giant sloths you see in National Geographic. Just kidding.  I was just busy. I did, however, find time to get a little crafty with some old t-shirts before heading home for the holidays. 

This first little bit of fun is yet another fabric flower, good for a pin, hair clip, or perhaps as a bunch in a vase.  All you need is an old t-shirt and some scissors!  Basically, you just cut strips, pull them so they get curly on the edges, wrap around your hand, tie a strip around the middle, and cut the loops on both sides.

The previous sentence is an example of how to maximize comma usage.

Cut

Pull

Wrap

Tie

Cut

I seem to be in a craft rut of making scarves and flowers, so for our next feature....a scarf!  My mom saw these on pinterest and she made me a green one.  I liked it so much I made a gray one too!  They are very easy to make.  Just cut off the bottom of a t-shirt (maybe about a foot of shirt), cut off the hem, and then cut strips to about halfway. It’s hip, it’s happening, it’s now.  I’m not saying you should wear it to a fancy dinner, but to the video store? Sure. I find that the relative hipsterness of my apparel is positively correlated with the talkativeness of the video store employees.