High Protein Snacks

In our adoption training we learned that children from hard places are more susceptible to mood swings due to changes in their blood sugar levels thus it's recommended to provide a high protein snack to keep blood sugar levels stable.

I've found this is a good practice for all children, hard places or not.

But, coming up with healthy, convenient snacks that are high in protein that my children will eat can be challenging, so I thought I'd share some I've figured out that work for us.

- Homemade snack mix
This is Little Girl's go-to snack most days for preschool.  It consists of almonds (her classroom is peanut-free but thankfully other nuts are fine), raisins, and then I add in something else like a few goldfish or wheat thins or some dry cereal.

- String Cheese
I get the most all natural I can find.  There is a surprising amount of protein packed into a little string cheese!

- Boiled Eggs
I don't pack this snack for preschool, but at home it's a great way to get some protein in your kids

- Edamame
I do have to sprinkle it with a considerable amount of salt, but then all 4 of my kids gobble up this stuff!

- Greek Yogurt
Regular yogurt has some protein, but Greek yogurt has even more.  One of my kids really loves yogurt parfaits, where I layer yogurt, sliced fruit, and granola.


Do you have any high protein snacks that work for your kids?

Find more Works for Me Wednesday here.

My New Favorite Lunch

The past several months I've been trying to add more veggies into my lunches.  

I typically eat at home with my 5 year old daughter and do not want the quesadillas or grilled cheese or pizza she typically wants for lunch, but at the same time after fixing her a lunch (not to mention the other 3 lunches I've sent off to elementary school earlier that morning) I don't have a lot of energy for my own lunch.

So, I typically get something I like and eat it nearly every weekday.  Boring?  Maybe, but it works.  I have the ingredients on hand and know what to do/expect.  I've been known to stick with an entree for a few months before tiring of it.

In the fall, my staple was a whole wheat tortilla, spread with hummus, topped with sliced red bell peppers, spinach leaves, small tomatoes, and rolled up.  Easy and yummy!

But, then it got cold, like really cold for a few months, an unusual winter for us, and all I wanted was something warm to eat at lunch.  Sure, I could heat the wrap, but it took too much effort to get it heated all the way through (remember we do life without a microwave).

So, I ended up dumping some left-over roasted vegetables from the night before (like zucchini, carrots, &/or bell peppers just cooked in olive oil with Kosher salt in the oven for 20 minutes) with fresh spinach and tomatoes and a little olive oil into a small skillet.  I tossed the whole thing for a couple minutes, poured it onto a plate, sprinkled on some raw almonds and walnuts, and OH MY, IT WAS GOOD!  Kind of like a hot salad!

Ta da!  My new lunch!  Now to just have left-over roasted vegetables to use every day . . .

A Nearly Perfect New Recipe!

Here are the things I love in a recipe:

1.  Healthy

2.  My kids will eat it

3.  Easy (I love me a Pioneer Woman recipe but not for weeknights, then I really appreciate simple!)

4.  Can be cooked in the crockpot (So if we have soccer practice until 6:30pm, we can come home to dinner ready to eat!)


Do you think I ask for too much?  Can no recipe really live up to all that?

Well, I have a small arsenal of ones that do and they get replayed around here so often that we get sick of them (I am talking to you, Taco Soup!).

But, today I tried out a new one and it is a keeper!  Totally fulfills the quadruple crown of recipes!

Do you want to know what it is?

Salsa Verde Beef (click for the recipe)

I served it wrapped in whole wheat tortillas (made fresh at HEB) with lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and extra salsa verde.  It was yummy!  AND all 6 of us ate it happily (three-fourths of the children did not have tomatoes with theirs).  This recipe is going to get worn out, I can already tell!

Green Smoothies My Kids Love!

My kids are pretty good eaters, but I'm still always looking for ways to get extra veggies in them.  Several months ago I figured out a green smoothie recipe that my kids love and have made them several times each week since!  I even figured out a way to pack the smoothies in their lunchboxes using these little plastic BPA free bottles from The Container Store.  They work great and are freezer and dishwasher safe!

My smoothie recipe is totally made up and the amounts of ingredients are pretty imprecise.  My apologies, but play around varying amounts until you get the taste you prefer.  Here is the rough recipe I use:

Chocolate Green Smoothies

24 oz. Vanilla Yogurt (I use soy vanilla yogurt)
2 or 3 large handfuls of raw, leafy spinach (washed first)
2 or 3 frozen bananas 
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 tablespoon honey
2/3 cup milk (I use almond milk)

Combine all ingredients in the blender (I do not have a fancy, super expensive blender, you do not need one for this smoothie) and blend/puree/liquefy (whatever it is your blender does, I just hit the highest setting for 30 seconds or so).  You can add more milk if you want it a thinner consistency or add more frozen bananas for a more ice cream shake type of texture.  Add more honey or bananas if it is not sweet enough for you. 

That's it!  Pour into cups (or bottles for packing later) and enjoy! 

Makes about 6 servings.


Find more Works for Me Wednesday here.

Super Easy, Super Healthy Snack

Snack foods are hard when you are trying to eat healthy, whole foods.

Sure, there's always a piece of fruit or raw carrots, and we do those a lot, but sometimes you want something else.

Lately to satisfy the times I really want crackers or for my husband, his snack food temptation is chips, we've started eating a handful of almonds.  

Plain, unsalted, non-roasted, natural almonds.  

Can't beat this ingredient list:

The first couple days they will seem too plain, because your taste buds are likely used to saltier/more processed foods, but stick with this snack and it will grow on you.  Not to mention the protein fills you up much better than a strictly carbohydrate snack!

Find more Works for Me Wednesday here.

The Love This World Needs

Red velvet cake ball?  Anyone interested?

I made these today for my kids' teachers.  Followed Bakerella's (is that an awesome blog name or what?!!)  recipe and method and they turned out better looking than the batches from the previous 2 years!  Thank you, Bakerella! 

This Valentine's I'm thinking about a different kind of love.

Sure, I have a few special things to show my loved ones how much I care about them, but lately I'm convicted that it's about more than just loving the people immediately around us, the ones that love us back.

In our city there has been a story in the news that began as sad and horrifying - a 93 year old WWII veteran, two-time Purple Heart recipient, who recently lost his wife of 57 years had his home vandalized by a couple teenagers while he was at a doctor appointment.  They ransacked his belongings and covered his walls and furniture with spray paint.  The home he'd lived in for 55 years, built much of it himself!  It was definitely yet another story to illustrate all that is wrong with this world!

But, that wasn't the end of the story, folks!

The crime was mentioned on-air in a popular local radio show and suddenly people started calling in asking if they could help.  Contractors, restoration companies, alarm system installers, and just regular people!  For 3 weeks while that 93 year old man lived in a room donated to him by a local nursing home, volunteers filled his home.  As many as 120 volunteers some days!  They restored his home, fixed everything that had been destroyed, and keeping the home's original character and feel, made some improvements to help the elderly man's quality of life -- things like a monitored alarm system and a sprinkler system to water the yard he so enjoys looking at through his windows!  That man moved back into his home today with fellow Marines and the volunteers who did the work lining his sidewalk, clapping and cheering as his wheelchair was pushed up the walkway.  He was reported to be speechless!

I shared that story with my kids, reading to them straight from the newspaper.  In a world where there are acts of unimaginable cruelty and plain meanness, there is so much good, too!  Good people who donated their time, talents, and resources to help a man they didn't even know.  We talked about how we don't want to be the bad guys of this story, ruining someone else's things, causing sadness, we wanted to be the good people who helped make right someone else's wrong.

Then I challenged my kids to tell me something kind they'd done for someone else today.  My 5 year old son said he didn't want to play basketball but he played anyway because his older brother wanted him to.  My 9 year old son said he held the door for an old lady leaving the church where my daughters have choir practice.  My 4 year old daughter said she played with her sister (I don't think she quite grasped the point of doing something that was a bit of a stretch for you).  At first my 7 year old daughter couldn't think of anything, but as she was getting in her bath she reminded me of the question and said she'd thought of something.  When a girl in her class at school fell on the track today during P.E. she and another girl helped her up and walked back to the school with her.

I was so impressed with my kids' answers!  And I hadn't even given them the assignment in advance.  It was the end of the day and I said, "Tell me something kind you did today."  I'm planning to do this again and for us all to hold each other accountable to show love to others.

"By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:35 (ESV)


Find more Thankful Thursday here.

Dogercize and Other Random Things

Yesterday when I was doing my Jillian Michaels - 30 Day Shred exercise video (Yes, I'm still doing the Shred even years later,  I do it a couple times each week along with some running days as my exercise regime.  Sometimes I think I'd like more variety, but I haven't found a workout video that's as good of a work-out for the time put in -- in this case 30 minutes for cardio, abs, & weights!), this was my view during the abs/sit-ups part.

Each time I leaned forward and sat up for the sit-up, I got a wet sloppy kiss right on my face!  If you've never had this exercise experience, you are missing out for sure!  Dog breath makes the whole thing even lovelier!

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I really didn't make any fitness New Year's resolutions, but the fragment above combined with this one will make it seem that way.

Guess who likes to drink green smoothies with me at lunch?

 

Is there anything Little Girl won't eat, you may ask about my 4 year old (home from Ethiopia 1 year)?  Peanut butter!  Yep, she doesn't like it at all.  But, really I can't think of anything else she won't eat!  Recently we discovered that she LOVES grapefruit juice!  I'm so thankful for what a great eater she is, I just had my moms' group tonight that is a support group for adoptive mothers and it's more the norm that adopted kids have food issues!

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My husband took the training wheels off the 5 year old's bike a few weeks ago.  He's actually pretty stable, has gone some very short distances on his own, and seems just about ready to take off on two wheels all by himself.  But for now, he does need someone to walk alongside and steady him a bunch.   Today, while I was doing that he told me he wanted to do "super fast mode".  As in, he wanted me to sprint down the street while holding onto his bike helping him balance!  Um, no, Buddy, you gotta wait 'til you're doing this all on your own for "super fast mode".  I'm huffing and puffing just through "medium mode".

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I saw something this week that quickly became reason #2,248 The Internet has made me a better homemaker and it is an entire website devoted to what's good at Trader Joe's?  Don't ask me how much more money I spent on my Trader Joe's run after discovering this website!  But the cookie butter?  Honestly I don't get the hype.  I tried a spoonful straight from the jar and really I wasn't impressed, maybe it's because I don't love gingerbread?

So far, it's the pizza dough, the cereal bars, the Jo-Jos (vanilla, chocolate or candy cane -- all awesome), the chocolate bars, and the Ethiopian coffee that keep me going back to Trader Joe's.  But, I have some new stuff I bought this week that I've yet to try, like the veggie sausage patties I'm going to try to slip into my family's Saturday morning breakfast as if it's regular sausage! 

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Happy Friday, Friends!

Find more Friday Fragments here.

 

Welcome 2013!

The first day of 2013 was celebrated here with none other than 2013 pancakes!

Our New Year's Eve festivities included sparklers on our back porch, which yes, makes me nervous because my children and husband are not as careful as I'd like them to be!  Really, I'd feel better if my children were never waving sticks of flaming fire!  Thankfully nobody caught anybody else's hair on fire (and the same good fourtune was true for the Christmas Eve candlelight service at church - although I did warn the row in front of us that they were in the "danger zone")!

After that excitement we rung in the new year at the altered time of 8:30pm (you know to accommodate bedtime) with a sparkling apple juice toast and noise makers (I first gave the kids tons of loud instruments and told them to make as much noise as they could for 3 minutes, but I soon revised that to 2 minutes after hearing the deafening level of noise they were capable of creating)!

Now as January 1 becomes January 2, I confess that our Christmas tree is still up, as are all the other decorations.  And apparently I took a long vacation from blogging over the holidays, just too busy with my people.  But, don't worry, I'll catch you up in coming days on some of the chaos that went on here over the break.

On the horizon, there's something new in the works regarding Ethiopia that I'm super excited about and will share with you when the time is right (and no we are not announcing another adoption)!

Happy, happy 2013!  The best is yet to come!

Find more Wordful Wesdnesday here.

Awesome

My kindergartener came home with with a "thinking cap" he made at school.  How awesome is that?!  I love the lightbulb on top!  I think I need one.

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Our little town had its annual Holiday Festival tonight.  And Little Girl got to experience her first snow.  I loosely call it "snow", it's the manufactured/trucked-in version.  But, it's the closest we here in South Texas get most years to snow!

Shorty after entering the snow yard, her 5 year old brother threw a snowball at 4 year old Little Girl and she cried out, "Hey!  Awwww!  MOM, look what he did!"

I told her, "That's what you do in the snow."

And she took literally half a second to process that statement and then got to work on a snowball of her own!

And the awesome satisfaction of throwing it at her brother!

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We recently got a Trader Joes grocery store in our area and it's rapidly becoming one of my favorite places.  I may or may not have even gone there twice this week (and it's not exactly around the corner).  During one of my trips this week, I picked up these to try.  

Trader Joe's version of Oreos (which I kid myself into believing makes them healthy!) only with candy cane filling!  Pure awesomeness!  Now just wondering how many boxes I should stock-pile to get me through the non-holiday months when those babies likely won't be on the store shelves!  Candy Cane Joe-Joe's in July?  Yes, please!

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So long November!  Happy Friday Friends!

Find more Friday Fragments.

Did you know next week is Thanksgiving?!

 Really, WHERE did November go?  It's already half-way over and next week is Thanksgiving and just how did that happen exactly?  

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My 7 year old's other top front tooth came out yesterday, so now she is really a poster child for the song "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth"!

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One morning this week, my husband was out of town, so I got all 4 children up, dressed, fed breakfast, teeth brushed, 3 lunches packed, handled a couple squabbles, made sure a child fed the dog, and loaded all of the kids up in the car to drop off the oldest 3 at elementary school.  We walked through the school, chatted with some of the teachers and parents, Little Girl hugged the principal.  Then we came home, I ate breakfast, started a load of wash, unloaded the dishwasher, cleaned the entire kitchen, and then went into the bedroom to shower and I found the dog doing this:

She had gone back to bed, y'all!  I mean, really, can't she even pretend to be doing something productive?!!  I lamented to her about how I'd really like to go back to bed, but she just glared at me like, "Why are you taking my picture, can't you see I'm resting?!"

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Want to know what's really good stuff?

I blessed my family with that Blue Bell Christmas Cookie ice cream last weekend, it didn't last long.  If you don't happen to live in a place where Blue Bell Ice Cream is sold, I'd consider moving!

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 I've heard of freezer cooking, I've done a bit of it here and there.  And I LOVE having meals stocked in my freezer.  But THIS?  THIS is awe-inspiring.  It really is!  40 meals in 4 hours!  I can't stop thinking about it!  I'm really thinking about doing it!  Just imagine having all your family's dinners done for the entire month of December and on through the first several days of January?!  Yes, please!

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Happy Friday, Friends!

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Butterfly Cupcakes

It's been a few weeks, but before I forget altogether, I thought I'd share the cupcakes I made for Little Girl's birthday.

She wanted chocolate cupcakes with pink icing.  Thankfully she is not yet Americanized enough to request a theme beyond that!

I was really tempted to order her cupcakes from a bakery because we'd been so busy, but I also like to have cake to offer the parents at the party, so getting the number needed plus extras to be sure I had enough started to add up the price.  And ever since Africa took hold of our hearts, and children living in poverty, children dying of poverty, there are just many things I have a hard time spending money on these days, especially when I could just put in a little work and make cupcakes for a fraction of the cost of the bakery ones.


But, I wanted the cupcakes to be cute and had a hard time figuring out what to do to make them more special than just icing and sprinkles. 

Finally I got a great idea for decorating the cupcakes here.  And it happened to go perfectly with the theme I'd gone with for the goody bags because it was what I happened to find at the Dollar Store  - butterflies!

These turned out pretty cute and were yummy, too -- I'm a sucker for sweet and salty so the mixture of chocolate, icing and candy, with pretzels thrown in was really good!

The pretzels are store-bought white chocolate coated pretzels, then blue icing is piped down the body of the butterfly, a raspberry m&m is the head, and I couldn't find thin enough licorice for the antennae, so that is made from some candy fruit rope stuff I found and then cut into short strips.

And I say it again, HOW did people mother before The Internet?  Really!  No way could I have thought up those cupcakes on my own, but copy someone else's idea?  Yeah, I can do that!

If this is all I get done today . . .

If this is all I get done today, it's an accomplishment at least, right??

We're only 7 days into the new school year and I've already threatened 2 of my children with having to buy the school lunch if they don't start eating the lunch I so lovingly packed for them!

 Nothing highlights the futility of my day quite like the experience of unpacking those same lunches at 3:15pm!


Find more Proud Mommy Moments here.

Having my kids go to school wears me out!

Nearing the end of our 1st week back-to-school and we are all dog tired!

I was sitting in a parent orientation with a fellow mom in my youngest daughter's preschool classroom and she was saying, "I'm just so tired!  I don't know why, I'm just tired."  I know she has an elementary-aged son in addition to the 3 year old girl who is in my daughter's class.  I said, "It's back-to-school.  The getting up early, the simultaneously packing lunches and serving breakfast, getting everyone out the door before 8am, rounding everyone back up at pick-up time, dealing with all the forms sent home from school, not to mention navigating the moodiness of extra-tired kids in the late afternoon hours!"  She was like, "That's it!  I hadn't thought of it until you said that, but that's exactly why I'm so tired!"

I'm so glad we have the 3 day weekend coming up to rest and re-group before another week!

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Might I also mention the 6 page registration packet I had to fill out on each of my 3 elementary school kids?  Homework for moms is not cool, not cool at all!

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This is probably, okay definitely, not the best time to try giving up my daily Coke Zero, but I'm doing it anyway.  It's something I've wanted to do for a long time for health benefits.  I have some cancer history and lately there's been a ton of stuff coming out about the hazards of that caramel coloring.  I'm substituting iced green tea because I've also been wanting to add green tea into my diet for its health benefits, but so far it doesn't give me quite the same energy burst to breeze through my afternoons of ballet/soccer/swim lessons/homework-shepherding/dinner-making, hence the dog tiredness. 

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On a happier food front, I'm loving my latest go-to lunch for myself.  It is a whole-wheat tortilla I spread with hummus then add spinach leaves, sliced tomatoes, sliced yellow and red bell peppers and roll the whole thing up -- yum!  Really, don't knock it until you've tried it.

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This week I've also decided that it's easier to have all 4 of my children home with me all day than it is to just have my 3 year old.  

Turns out over the summer her siblings filled much of Little Girl's need for constant attention and entertainment.  And days like today when she doesn't have preschool and it's just she and I?  No matter how much one-on-one, quality time I give her, as soon as I shift gears to tackle something on my to-list it starts.  Literally every 15 seconds it's something.  "Mommy!"  "Mommy look at me!"  "Let's play game!"  "I'm thirsty."  "Let's go outside!" "Oh no, look, I spilled my water!  My shirt is wet, can I change clothes?" "Where are we going today?"  "I'm hungry"  "Is it time to pick up the kids from school?"  "Is it my school day?"  "Swim lessons?!!"  "No swim lessons!  Why not?"  "Can I help you cook mom?"  I let her stir but she's not satisfied.  "I can cut with the knife.  I'll show you.  I can do it.  I am bigger, Mom.  I am!"  "Mom, don't you think I'm bigger?"

And that's just a glimpse of about 3 minutes of my day!

So, all that could explain the dog tired, too.

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It will get easier, I know it will.  

I remember this time with my 3rd child before he was old enough to go to big school with his older siblings and he pestered me to no end the first couple of weeks.  

And we'll all settle into the new routine and then making 3 lunches while serving 4 breakfasts and helping littles put on socks will not wear me out, right? 

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 My house does stay cleaner, though, when all four children are not home all day.  I can pick things up and they sort of stay clean until 3:15 when the house blows up again!

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I found this little happy note while straightening the playroom.  The 9 year old must have written this note for his 7 year old sister when she was sick the beginning of the week.

Makes me happy that they care about each other!

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Now I intend to stop blogging about how tired I am and just go to bed.  You're welcome!

Happy Friday, Friends!

Find more Finer Things Friday and  Friday Fragments.

A Grilled Cheese Breakthrough!

Something big happened at our house this week!

The kids ate grilled cheese sandwiches! 

What?!!  That's not news?  Well, it is around here.

My kids are pretty good eaters, they eat a variety of food, most fruits and vegetables, even broccoli.  And they enjoy the typical kiddie favorites like pizza and hot dogs.  But, until this week, they wouldn't eat grilled cheese, any of them.

I'm not really sure how things went so wrong years ago between the grilled cheese and my children, but the oldest swears at some point long ago I convinced him to eat some grilled cheese and he threw up after it.  I really do not remember this, but the story passed down from oldest child to younger siblings and I think everyone believed that grilled cheese would make them throw up, so they refused to eat it.  I tried talking them into it, but it was so futile that I gave up and stopped ever offering it. 

Grilled cheese was dead to us.

Then somehow this week, out of the blue, the oldest, now 9 years old, decided maybe he'd like to try grilled cheese again after all these years, you know, give it another chance.

I was all over that idea and fired up the skilled at lunchtime, lathered extra butter on the whole wheat bread with some organic sliced cheese in the middle.

It was a hit!  And lo and behold then everyone wanted some and loved it!  The 5 year old talked about it all afternoon, making me promise to make it again the next day.

Flipping those grilled cheese sandwiches felt like such a classic mom experience.  It's just what mom's do, right?  Make grilled cheese sandwiches for their kids.  And I'd missed out on it for so long that I couldn't help appreciating the moment, the blessing of getting to be there on a Tuesday at noon, making lunch for my four kids!  Convicted about the times I've grumbled about this mothering job, grateful for no shortage of food to serve my children.

Find more Thankful Thursday here.

For The Love of Blueberries

Not much could entice us to wake up on Saturday morning at 6 am before even our loud children wake up.

But we did.

On the trail of . . .

Blueberries!

 

With a mission to beat the heat and many of the other pickers, and of course, pick tons of blueberries!

We tell our kids every year there will be a prize for the kid who picks the most blueberries and a prize for the kid who makes it the longest without whining.

It worked pretty well.  We picked a family record 15 lbs of blueberries!

We ate blueberry pancakes for dinner that night, per our tradition.  I've also made tons of blueberry banana bread, healthy blueberry muffins (with flax seed), and there are plans for blueberry bars.  Mmmmmm!  We love blueberries!

Find more Wordful Wednesday here.

Spinach Popsicles!

Wanna know what's even more awesome than getting your kids to drink spinach smoothies?

Getting them to eat SPINACH POPSICLES!

Seriously, you can't help but laugh when you see them actually eating them!  And then you can totally justify in your mind that it's okay to feed them hotdogs for dinner two different times later that week, 'cause, you know, they ate spinach popsicles on Saturday!

I promise that is just his this-is-really-cold face, rather than his this-is-gross face.  The kids liked them!

In fact, 3 out of 4 of my kids finished all of theirs!  And that 1 child that only ate half, she lived the first three years of her life in Ethiopia and is still kind of weirded out by super cold food!

I just used the recipe here for the smoothies and had some left-over one day and decided to freeze it in our popsicle molds.

Find more Works for Me Wednesday here.

Healthy Smoothie My Kids Love!

A few weeks ago I was playing around sneaking some raw spinach in the smoothie I was making for my kids and figured out a combination of ingredients for a healthy smoothie all 4 of my kids love!

They call it the "Chocolate Smoothie"

Makes about 6 servings (my kids always want seconds so we use it all in one sitting!)

Puree the following in the blender:

24 oz tub of plain yogurt (I like to use Greek yogurt to up the protein content)

2 frozen bananas

2 tablespoons coco powder (unsweetened)

2 cups raw spinach

1/2 to 1 cup milk (depending on how thick you like it)

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 tablespoons honey

The first couple of times I was careful not to let any smallish people see me put the spinach into the blender for the smoothie.  But I got bold and let the loud 4 year old help me make the smoothie one day, and he immediately announced to everyone that there was spinach in it!  However, the chocolate smoothie is good enough that my little people don't care that there's spinach in it, they still love it!  This is our after school snack at least once a week, especially now that the weather is getting warm and they are begging for something cold!

See even the newest, smallest child likes it!

Find more Works for Me Wednesday here.

Brussel Sprouts for dinner!

On Friday I told the story about my 4 year old son begging me to make brussel sprouts because we had them 11 months ago and he loved them, well, I finally remembered to get some at the store.

I made them for dinner tonight.

Here's my little guy before the meal enthusiastically saying, "Raise your hand if you love brussel sprouts!"

Nobody else raised their hand except him.

My 8 year old's reaction to the brussel sprouts, "Yep, 11 months later and still gross!"

My 3 year old's reaction, "Disgusting!"

And the 4 year old who begged and begged for them?

Sadly 11 months has changed his taste buds.  He didn't like them!

The good news is I never have to make them again.  The bad news is that my kitchen will likely smell like brussel sprouts for the next 11 months!