"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 :)

Eggplant Cutlets on a Bed of Romaine

Ok so I have a confession to make. Baby T ate something super weird today.....in true toddler fashion (and I'm not sure it was even vegan). He has been really clingy recently because of the agony of teething and getting over a fever on New Years so I can't get anything done around the house that requires two hands because he is always on my hip.....constantly. And he has also decided to become obsessed with the word "Mama". He will say my name over and over and over until I actually stop and look at him. Sometimes that's all I need to do too....is look at him. So here's how it goes. I'm cleaning up the kitchen and he's on my hip..."mama". "Hi Toby".....I try to give him a quick glance and continue to put lids on condiments and gather all the dishes into the sink. "Mama"....."Toby"...."Mama"...."Do you want a snack Toby?"......"No, .....Mama"......"Mama Mama"......at this point he is screaming at me....to just look at him. So I look at him. And I look away....but He follows my gaze with his whole body until I look at him again. Sigh...we are just sitting here looking at each other and he has stopped saying my name so I give in and just look at him.....hopefully everyone wasn't counting on me getting much done today.... The best of today though was in the car on the way to pick up E and J from school. Baby T kept saying my name and then saying "snack". He had already eaten the snack I packed and was playing with something in his cup holder......this is where all sorts of random gross things have ended up so I really wasn't sure what was in there or whether he should even be trying to eat it. So I reached my hand back there and just grabbed what I found and it wasn't too squishy so I was a bit relieved...until i saw what it was he was referring to as a snack. Have you seen those small little erasers that kids collect now that are animals.....well my sweet little baby had eaten the heads off of two of them and declared them a snack. I don't even know what those things are made of or how he got ahold of them. All I know is that they are headless....and sad looking. Poor things :(

On another note, dinner was delicious tonight. I had a smoothie at about 6pm but Aaron made dinner at 8:30 for himself and he made me some too! I would have made it look prettier (because I'm a snob about that) but the flavor was there and E even got out of bed to eat *cough* steal half of it off my plate. It was romaine lettuce with eggplant cutlets and tahini sauce. Then he added thick slices of fresh tomato...mmmm mmm good :)