"Peanut Butter Punch" Smoothie

This peanut butter smoothie is to live for, I promise. Eleven years ago, while pregnant with my first son, (who I swore was a daughter at the time) my husband ran an organic juice/smoothie shop so he got really good at making healthy drinks. Now I'll admit that this particular smoothie is not the best choice to have everyday but ohmygoodness is it the perfect dessert when you are looking for a treat. So when I was first pregnant I got spoiled with juices and raw foods and smoothies constantly but my favorite was the "peanut butter punch"....with it's pow of peanut flavor and the thick richness the oats bring to it, it hits the spot each and every time.

To make one serving:

1 cup dairy free milk (my fav is almond breeze)

1 1/2 frozen bananas

large spoonful of peanut butter

tablespoon of raw sugar or agave

1/4 cup uncooked oats

add ice if you like it thicker

We use a Vitamix blender which is a high powered blender and gets the ingredients nice and smooth. A great blender is truly a kitchen necessity if you are a smoothie junkie like myself.

Here are a few pics from the day today~

Safety first! Baby T loves to ride on his "bike" as he calls this but we have a very steep hill for a driveway and mama is on the Safety Team ;) After we pick up "the brothers" from school we've been spending lots of time outdoors together lately because the weather has decided to change to Spring in February~

One of the many benefits to having children play outdoors is added laundry and dirty toes..I wouldn't change it for anything~

Baby T doing his daily workout on the backyard bridge~

Our house is a modest three bedroom ranch but we bought it because of the park like setting in the back yard. It is a dream come true for three growing boys who love to explore. We have the woods behind us with over an acre of playspace and a creek that runs right through the middle of it all. This is just one tender moment in time.

Throwing rocks in the creek~

Finding tons of fossils~

"Enjoy this time while they are young" is the best advice I've ever gotten :)

Some Simple Staples

Here are some meals that were so simple there really isn't a recipe for them~ We've been so busy lately and I haven't really taken the time to photograph like I should but I wanted to share these nonetheless :)

Quinoa with chopped tomato and cucumber, hummus, a side of kale chips and some macadamia nuts.

Fresh fruit!

fried rice

protein blast: baked beans with sprouted wheat toast and avocado

a huge everything salad

Snippets from the weekend

We had tons of fun this weekend. It went by oh so quickly like they always do so here are just a few moments captured.

After doing some volunteer work with the local VeganEarth group we headed to the park and soaked in the sun for hours.

Practicing and learning the states~

A little bear doing his puzzles too~

Daddy made buckeyes!

sunshine and laughter

xoxo

Valentine's Day

I wanted to share the Valentine's projects that we have done for this year because they were just so fun to make and we really had some quality time together while creating, planning and ultimately giving these gifts. My number one was to make this sewn paper garland. We purchased a heart puncher and some really pretty craft paper and I let the boys just punch away.

Then I sewed two hearts together back to back and just kept feeding them through the machine until we were out of them. It made a very long garland which I think turned out just beautiful. Now everyone can enjoy it :) While the boys were doing their nightly meditation i hung this up and when they came out they both noticed it and sincerely commented on how pretty it is~ awwwww :)

E's project for his school Valentine's turned out really cool also. We wanted to find something to do that was a little more "grown-up" since he is in fifth grade now. He would have made heart cards if he had to but I found this really great idea to make boxes this year. We got some awesome card stock sparkled paper and bought up every color they had. Here is a tutorial on how to assemble the boxes: http://blog.robertscrafts.com/2011/10/halloween-baskets-barb.html. E wanted to staple them together and picked out the five staple design himself.....little budding artist :)

Next, we added some really cute heart shaped cookies from http://www.sweetpeacebakery.com/ into small paper bags and added a sticker to keep it closed then carefully stuffed the bag into the boxes.

Hopefully the fifth graders will love this little homemade treat!

J chose something completely different to make for his Valentines. Neither of the boys went traditional with a card this year. J is really enjoying string right now. He has learned a ton of string games (which are incredibly stimulating for the brain apparently) and also he is really into knitting with his fingers and the knitting needles. He has collected so many different colors of yarn for the past several years and decided to make a little bag of balled up yarn for each of his first grade class mates. Then he put a little sticker on the end to hold it in place :) Cute cute cute all around <3 Happy Valentine's Day!

Creamy Tomato Soup~

As you all know by now I am a foodie who loves to make homemade dinners for my family...I also love to do crafts with my kids. We are in the middle of about three projects at any given time because the creative mojo has been flowing lately :) Tonight was no exception, and since it is Valentine's Eve we had to finish up several projects in order to have a successful tomorrow. Hence the slightly burned sandwiches...I'll admit that I'm not perfect :) Dinner was a bit rushed and I had a lot on my mind and a very tired toddler so we decided on tomato soup and grilled cheese. I don't have a recipe for the soup so we just sort of made it up and it turned out soooo good (I will never share something with you that isn't soooo good...promise ). So here goes~

Creamy Tomato Soup

1/2 can light coconut milk

2 cans organic tomato sauce 15 ounces each

1 cup unsweetened plain almond milk

1 tsp onion powder

sea salt to taste

All you have to do is pour everything into the pot and simmer on medium low until warmed up. It is a thick and creamy tomato soup that is even more delicious eaten with an gooey vegan grilled cheez!

We use the Daiya brand cheddar shreds for the grilled cheez because they actually melt and have that oozey cheesey consistency. I'm pretty sure it doesn't really taste like cheese so don't expect a miracle but it is pretty close and way more heart healthy/eco-friendly/cruelty free~
Below are Baby T's toddler bites :) The bigger boys decided to make some brown rice last minute to add to their soup so we gave T a small bowl of rice-soup-cheez and he ate it up!

Creamy Broccoli Soup with BBQ tempeh

~5 cups chopped broccoli

~5 stalks chopped celery

~1/2 chopped onion

~1 1/2 cups raw cashews

~10 cups water or veggie stock

~sea salt and pepper to taste (don't be shy)

~1/4 cup Bragg's Liquid Amino's

~hot sauce if you like

Creamy Broccoli Soup...ohmygosh!!! This soup is the soup of all soups...for sure. It is an absolute family favorite and I usually will make a huge pot and it all ends up gone by the end of the night. It is SO good that you will find yourself continuing to almost drink it even after your stomach is full enough that you may just explode!

So, start out with your water or stock boiling and then add all of the chopped veggies. Turn the stove off and let the veggies just soak and soften inside of the water for about ten minutes or so with the lid on.....like so...
Only three simple ingredients so far but now comes the tricky part. I have been making this soup for years so I've got all of the kinks untwisted finally but there have been quite a few blender explosions along the way :) See you either must have a blender with a variable speed dial (the Vitamix is our favorite) or you have to just wait until the soup cools completely or it will create a huge mess if you try to blend it too hot. I start it on the lowest setting and slowly crank it up to blend thoroughly (about three minutes) while adding the raw cashews. It will take about three batches to do the entire soup so you will need an extra bowl to transfer the already blended soup into.
After all of the soup is blended then put it back on the stove and warm it up. Add about 1/2 cup chopped veggies and salt/pepper/chipotle/Braggs...whatever you like and simmer on medium low. That is it and it is divine~

As a side entree I chose tempeh because it's so tasty first of all and protein packed as an added bonus. You just cut it into small cubes and after it's cooked through add about a cup of your favorite BBQ sauce and stir for a few minutes and voila. mmm mmm good~

Aaron put the tempeh inside the soup which made the flavor even richer...he's so clever <3
Most of the Stubb's brand BBQ sauce is 100% vegan (I talked extensively to their marketing rep who used to be employed by Whole Foods Market so I trusted what she was talking about)....and it's flavor is so full and tangy. And of course anyone who uses Bragg's Liquid Amino's knows the magic it brings to a dish. Actually i think this is a secret ingredient so get it and use it and thank me later!

Blueberry Coconut Pancakes

What is better than a warm homemade breakfast on a blustery winter Sunday? These pancakes were just the thing to start the day off right for my hungry little boys. They always ask me to make pancakes and actually I rarely do it. It always seems to be so much work but it was quicker than I remembered and so filling when you add a hearty serving of fruit on the side. I have a little love affair going on with coconuts right now so these pancakes were loaded with anything and everything...coconut!

After making the batter we added frozen wild blueberries from Costco~

Baby T has his own bowl of blueberries...his favorite!

We used coconut oil spray to cook the pancakes and the trick is to wait until the middle bubbles to flip them...perfect everytime~

A mini pancake with a healthy serving of fruit for the youngest babe :)

~Blueberry Coconut pancake recipe~

1 cup flour

1 TBSP sugar

2 TBSP baking powder

pinch of salt

1 cup coconut milk

2 TBSP coconut oil

~add dry ingredients in one bowl and wet in another then combine the two and add frozen blueberries

~after cooked, add an abundance of fresh fruit and coconut shreds

Cheezy Panini

I'm going to call this one Cheezy Panini but it really has very little cheeziness to it actually. This is one of my kids all time favorite meals that I ever make. Actually the habit was started after frequenting the local Loving Hut vegan restaurant here in Cincinnati. (http://lovinghut.us/cincinnati_01/) They have the most amazing food and anyone can find something they will love there...from the vegan chicken sandwich to the raw taco supreme or the green smoothie with cherry cheezcake, they have it all! We just ate there a few night ago and as J was biting into his favorite sandwich (the American Panini) he said, with such deep emotion, "this is my favorite restaurant!". Now my panini didn't receive such praise but it was tasty in its own right. The ingredients are as follows:

Ezekiel Sprouted wheat bread

vegenaise (eggless mayo)

mustard

homemade coleslaw

sliced pickles

Daiya mozzarella cheese

If I had tomato I would have added that too......(we also put the tofurky slices on this sandwich sometimes)

First prepare the coleslaw to your liking. I just used a bag of pre-chopped slaw mix from the grocery store or you can chop and shred your own cabbage and carrots if you have the time. Then add about a 1/4 cup of an olive oil based salad dressing like Italian. stir stir stir so the cabbage begins to wilt and then add a couple of spoonfuls of vegenaise. Cole slaw is one of my favorite things to eat actually! Here is what it looks like when its done.

My dressing had blueberries in it so it gave it a slight blue color~ It still tasted perfect!

Next you assemble the sandwiches however you like them.

As you can see I got some help with spreading the mustard and vegenaise. J loves to help me do everything in the kitchen. He is such a great joy to have and flutters around endlessly looking for new things to get done. After we layered on the coleslaw, pickles and Daiya cheez they are ready to be put in the skillet to "grill". We used an olive oil spray so they wouldn't stick and also to help cut down on the fat. If you have a panini grill it will be easy to make this but if not there is a trick to get it all melty inside. You have to put some pressure on the top of the sandwich and squish it down with the spatula. It will only take a few minutes to cook on either side at about medium heat.

A tossed green salad was served on the side and voila, another quick and pretty simple meal. Hope you enjoyed this post and are inspired to create something similar yourself!