Linaloo

A week of smoothies :: Breakfast oatmeal smoothie

Day five:  Breakfast oatmeal smoothie

Ingredients:  1/2 cup of oats and 1 teaspoon of flax seed (blend these on their own first to a fine powder), then add 1 cup of milk, 1 cup of frozen strawberries, 1teaspoon of honey, 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. (serves 2).
So good, they were slurped down without the chance to take a photo...oops.  How about a lovely spring flower instead?

The verdict:   The oats make this a really filling drink even thought it's not as thick as we normally drink our smoothies. Thumbs up from the children!

A week of smoothies :: Groovy green smoothie

Day four: Groovy green smoothie

Ingredients :: 11/2cups of spinach, 1 cup of frozen strawberries, 1/2 cup of yogurt, 1 cup of juice. (Serves 3). 
The Verdict:  I've always wanted to try this, I was convinced the children wouldn't go near it, but surprisingly they were game. Two of us loved it, the other gave it the thumbs down.  Surprisingly it was rejected on the basis that the juice and yogurt were a yucky combination, nothing to do with the spinach!

A week of smoothies :: PB&B

Day three: PB&B (Peanut butter and banana)

Ingredients: 1 banana, 2 large ice cubes, 1/2 cup of milk, 2 tablespoons of peanut butter, 1 teaspoon of honey. Alternatively you can make it with chocolate milk and omit the honey. (Serves 2). 

The verdict:  A sure fire winner.  This is another go to smoothie recipe for us, a great protein filler upper for a quick after school snack.  Like many schools, ours is a peanut free zone, so any opportunity to eat peanut butter is a welcome treat in my children's eyes!

A week of smoothies :: Appletastic

Day two:  Appletastic

Ingredients: 1 apple, peeled chopped and cored, 1/2 cup of frozen strawberries, 1/2 cup of grapes and 1/2 a cup of apple juice. (Serves 2).

The verdict:  A fresh and zingy banana and dairy-free smoothie - yum! I made these for an after school snack and it took a lot of guessing for the children to work out that there were grapes is this.  Despite my smoothie love, I'm not too fond of bananas, so it's nice to find recipes that don't need them.

Blender bender :: a week of smoothies

We're big fans of smoothies here. Remember this post?  My children are very good about eating fruit and not so bad on the vegetable front either so I don't actually have to do any of those "hide the veggie" tricks on them.  I, on the other hand love my veggies but struggle with the texture of most fruit despite liking the taste, so smoothies work really well for me.  Our old blender, a hand me down, had reached the stage where it could barely squish a banana, so this weekend it was replaced with a newer model. 

Now of course, I'm on a blender bender, and spent much of Saturday blending every fruit or veggie I could think of.  It turns out you can blend practially anything with the right tools (I had no idea you could blend apples for instance). So I have set myself the challenge this week of making 7 completely different smoothies using fruit or veggies with myself and my little darlings as chief taste testers.

Day one :: Very Berry

 
Ingredients: 1 cup mixed frozen berries, 1 banana, 1 cup vanilla yogurt and a splash of orange juice.

We started off with a conservative effort, our go to smoothie recipe which has been named Very Berry.  Nothing new here, the children always give this one a thumbs up.

The verdict:  predictable, but always a winner - although Ruby prefers it with a splash of milk instead of OJ.

Spring flowers

This was supposed to be a craft project for my children.  Inspired by this and this,  I came up with this version of a spring tree using some twigs from our back yard, paper from the recycle box, vintage buttons and my trusty glue gun. But I'm an impatient person, so I did it before they got home from school instead.   
There goes my mother of the year award I guess. 
They didn't seem to mind too much, bless 'em.

Da bomb

Someone got it in their head a while ago that he wanted to make his own fizzy bath bombs after having had a first hand demonstration at our local Lush.  I'm guessing it's not the draw of soft skin that appealed to him as much as the thought of mixing up a bubbly potion. 

 
Spring break this week provided us with the perfect opportunity so I gathered the necessary ingredients so we could try it out.  Powdered citric acid was the trickiest item to locate but I eventually found it at the smallest pharmacy in our area. We used this tutorial as our guide, as well as a trusty sillicone muffin tray and some dried lavender bought at a local market at the end of the summer.  They turned out great, a little on the greasy side (I'd cut back a little on the oil next time) and they'd certainly make great gifts...

Random

I generally like my posts to be about one thing.  Rambling is not my style. Clear, concise and to the point is my mantra, but with pressure mounting at work to go full time, there doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day for blogging lately.  Waiting for the perfect thing to post about just might take me another month, so instead I present a not so pleasing jumble of randomness...

How about some photos to start.  I'm spending less time on flickr since finishing my 365 project. I miss it.
 

And what about these?

 
The fabulously talented Jodie of RicRac fame was kind enough to send me a whole stack of linen postcards printed using her gocco. Aren't they clever? 

Now onto the weekend.

As our children are getting older and their interests are really beginning to grow, I find them to be following our hobbies more and more.  My husband works in the broadcast industry and my five year old son is developing a keen interest in computers, video cameras and more recently television sets.  It's not watching TV that interests him as much as understanding how they work, why they're colour or black and white, why are some flat, what we did before there were remote controls.  He's developed a particular passion for old school sets - the ones with a dial.  I have no idea why, but this his latest obsession. 
"Mummy, was everything in your life black and white before they invented colour? " He asks me earnestly.  Good grief that makes me feel old.  I remember always asking my mum what things were like in the "olden days" when she was little...sorry mum.

Luckily my inlaws are hoarders and their basement cold room is full to the brim of every imaginable purchase since 1975 (when they moved in).  Yesterday, at Tommy's request, he and Daddy went hunting in there for old fashioned TVs with a dial and this is what they found - still working.  He's thrilled! 
Meanwhile, Mother and daughter were to be found on the couch snuggled under a blankie, knitting and chit-chatting about forthcoming birthday plans. I can't believe she'll soon be seven!

Cookie mix in a jar

  
This week the children made teacher gifts. I've always wanted to make cookie mixes in a jar but never got my act together until I saw these on One Pretty Thing - an amazing resource which I've only recently discovered (I'm always late to the party). The most taxing part was buying all the necessary ingredients as the children did all of the measuring and pouring by themselves. A slightly messy business, but fun to sit back and watch them do it without me hovering over them. Thanks to Launder, Fold, Repeat who provided the recipe for Christmas cookies (made with oatmeal, dried cranberries and chocolate chips).   

Tonight's job:  adding labels.

This year's Christmas cards

We're Ed Emberley fans here and our first introduction to his books was through our local library where we found a copy of his first thumbprint drawing book from 1977.  His website is fun too and includes an excellent holiday activity page here.

His thumbprint art (and an image somewhere on flickr that I can no longer find) was the inspiration for this year's Christmas cards.   A fun little activity with all the family joining in.

 

Done!  I have never been this early with my Christmas cards before.