Fake milkshake: berry smoothie

Fake Milkshake: berry smoothie

Yesterday, I took the day off to take Bodie to get a cavity filled. Yes, that’s right, my five-year-old son had a cavity. Bring on the “horrible mother” complexes. While I don’t claim to be an at-home dental hygenist, I think I’m decent when it comes to our teeth cleaning rituals. Brett or I brush our kids teeth every single night and if I’m being generous, their teeth get flossed about 50% of the time. We let them brush their own teeth in the morning and “attempt” to limit fruit snacks, etc. Again, probably not the poster child for kids dental hygiene, but I definitely didn’t expect the cavity prognosis at his recent visit.

In talking with the dentist, she asked again about whether or not we have floride in our water, because with good dental habits, a lack of floride in the water could be just the thing to give him the cavity. For the past few years, I’ve been taking the “of course, I’m sure we have floride” line when asked this question (good lord – it’s not like we live in a swamp or soemthing). Post cavity, I finally called the town and come to find out – we don’t have floride in our water.

Part of me is back on the horrible mother train…why did I not check into the floride earlier. The other part? Secretly (well not so secretly anymore) relieved that it wasn’t something I did that gave him the cavity (that is, of course, if you don’t think about the fact that I never got him the floride).

Flash back to yesterday. Bodie did awesome at the dentist. He went in by himself (which nearly broke me in two…seriously, will a day come in my children’s lives when I don’t cry at EVERYTHING??). He came out with a fixed tooth and a numb mouth, but in one piece. His treat? He earned himself a McDonald’s milkshake (In my defense, the hygenist said no solid food and something cold…what was I supposed to do?) Obviously I had to get Adela a milkshake too, so one strawberry and one chocolate milkshake later we were on our way home. Adela was done after only a few sips, and that evil thing stared at me all the way home. Good lord milkshakes are yummy…and I managed to put down half of it down before we got home. (ooops)

We don’t make milkshakes a habit at our house, but we do like our smoothies (or smoobies as my kids call them). Until yesterday, I would say that this fruit smoothie tastes a lot like a berry chocolate milkshake. After tasting the real thing yesterday, I’ll renig that comment, but it’s a pretty good smoothie and makes a super healthy and easy breakfast!

The recipe

2 cups frozen mixed berries

1 frozen banana, peeled and cut into chunks

¾ cup vanilla yogurt

½ cup peanut butter

2 scoops of chocolate whey protein powder (photo below if you're not familiar)

Milk

Add the berries, banana, yogurt, peanut butter and whey protein powder to a blender.

Add enough milk to come just below the top of the ingredients. Blend on full power, and add more milk if it’s getting stuck.

This made enough for everyone in my house for breakfast and enough for me to bring a little afternoon snack!

 

Pistachio ice cream (wasabi) salmon

Pistachio ice cream (wasabi) salmon

This week’s blog was intended to be a recap of our Sunday afternoon football-watching feast in order to get everyone psyched up for the Supberbowl (go Pats!). Unfortunately, my “football feast” consisted of 500 calories-worth of Saltines and a liter of gingerale because I found myself at the mercy of a stomach bug. And for those of you playing along at home – 500 calories worth of Saltines roughly equals one sleeve. Am I the
only one who thinks 500 calories is a lot for a sleeve of Saltines? I realize that is a lot of crackers, but for something that weighs nearly next to nothing…sigh. Apparently my "portion control issues" are in effect even when I can barely eat anything.

Anyway, lucky for me and all of the people visiting Hannaford that day, Brett offered to go grocery shopping. I’m pretty bad about writing out what I need at the grocery store, I usually just know what I need and get it. Additionally, I couldn’t wrap my head around meal planning that day so I wasn’t sure what our dinner situation would be this week, and more importantly what my blog would be this week. Thankfully, Brett came home with salmon and even more thankfully I got rid of that nasty bug and was able to eat it!
So I knew that I had to diversify from my standard salmon, because one, I’ve already posted it and two, this was my one blog shot for the week. SO I decided to incorporate wasabi and change up the topping a bit. NOTE: If you’re not getting the “pistachio ice cream” title, watch this:

What this scene doesn't show if afterwards when mater freaks out and starts yelling "the pistachio ice cream has turned.” Thinking about this scene still makes me giggle. If you’re like Mater and have never had wasabi, please know that it will completely clean out your sinuses. In fact both mine and my “helper’s” eyes started watering when we were mixing it up.

Personally I can’t get enough wasabi, and if I were to make this just for myself, I’d add more wasabi powder. The amount listed below may seem like a lot, but I would call it perfect for a “standard eater.” If you’re super sensitive, maybe cut back a little. Brett and I both gave this the thumbs up. Even though the ingredients are pretty similar to my standard salmon, it tasted completely different (thank you pistachio ice cream!).

The recipe2 portions salmon fillet (Brett bought two pieces. If you are ordering a fillet, I usually order ¾ lb for the two of us).
2 tbsp. wasabi powder
Sprinkling of water
2 tbsp grain dijon mustard
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tbsp olive oil
½ cup whole wheat bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 400. Add drops of water to wasabi powder to make a thick paste (does not take much).

Stir in mustard, lemon juice, olive oil and breadcrumbs. Mixture should be a pasty-consistency.

Spread over the top of the salmon in a thin layer and bake for 20 minutes or until cooked through (may be more or less depending on the thickness of your salmon).

I served the salmon with roasted broccoli and wild rice.

Are you there blog? It's me, Jen...with a burrito bowl

Back to blogging with a burrito bowl

If anyone’s interested, I’m resolved to writing my blog again…if you’re not interested, well that’s OK too. For the record, I didn’t stop writing because I stopped cooking, or because I hate blogging – I had more than I could handle on my plate, and when it came down to it, the blog got cut.

You know how something like that starts, right? You stop doing something for a week or two which turns into a month and the next thing you know Christmas is over and you’re surrounded by candy wrappers and empty bottles of Baileys. (No?? is that just me?) Just kidding…that didn’t actually happen, but I didn’t intend to stop blogging for good either.

SO I’m back..and I’m cooking and my kids are continuing to NOT eat what I make. Seriously, dinner has turned into a ridiculous three-ring circus at my house. I feel like a big Italian mama from a movie who’s constantly saying “EAT”! One dinner I can kinda/sorta get them to eat…burito bowl. The bonus? You can have dinner completely on the table in less than 20 minutes. Literally…this has become a new weekly staple at our house. It’s certainly not a creative stroke of genius, but because it’s healthy, fast and I can get my kids to eat it – I obviously wanted to share!

The recipe:1 lb thin sliced chicken breasts
1 carton chicken broth (4 cups) (you can use water too)
Bay leaf
1 package Uncle Ben's 90 second whole grain rice
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup frozen corn, defrosted
1 avocado
½ lime
2 scallions, chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 tsp chili powder
Salsa
Shredded cheese
Tabasco (if desired)

Pour chicken stock in a large skillet on high and add garlic, black pepper, salt and bay leaf. Cover and bring to a boil. Once it's boiling, add chicken breasts, re-cover and cook for 10 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Remove chicken and let cool for 5 minutes.

Once it’s cooled, shred with two forks (I cooked an extra chicken breast to throw into a couple of salads this week.).

Meanwhile, cook rice according to package directions, remove from the microwave and let stand.

Mix black beans with garlic, chili powder, salt and pepper and heat in the microwave for 1 minute.

Add rice and check for seasoning Dice avocado, and top with lime juice. In your dinner bowls, divide the rice bean mixture and top with chicken, corn, shredded cheese, scallions and salsa. I like to pop mine in the microwave for one minute to heat up the salsa. Top with avocado and serve.

I serve my kids the rice bean mixture (pre-chili powder), and separate out chicken, corn, avocado. I add some fruit, chunks of cheese and grape tomatoes to their plates (and these days ranch dressing…I can get them to eat the chicken if they’re dipping).

This recipe makes enough for two adult and two kid servings…well my kids anyway. If I had teenagers I would definitely up the ante!