Chocolate, Banana, Peanut Butter Smoothie--- with Spinach

Okay yes it sounds weird and pretty gross but I have to tell you it definitely fixed my sweet craving tongiht.

I always buy the Carnation Instant Breakfast mix. If we are ever going somewhere really early its easy to make the kids a quick shake so they have something in thier system until I can provide real food. 

As I put the kids to bed tonight I started craving chocolate so I figured I would make a glass really quick. When I went into the kitchen I wanted to making it something kind of filling and I decided to make it a smoothie

Here is what I did:

6oz milk

1 med banana (frozen)

1/4 cup Carnation Instant Breakfast mix in Chocolate

1 Teaspoon Peanut Butter

2 Tablespoons Plain Yogurt

1 handful Spinach

I had the first 5 ingredients all blended and as I was putting away my yogurt I saw the spinach staring at me, so grabbed a handful and you know what it was really good. I couldn't taste the spinach much (I have a crappy Walmart version of the Bullet so there were some small chuncks but not enough to make me not drink it). 

The thing you should know is that I hate spinach!! I will only eat it a few ways:

• fresh salad but only a small handful with tons of dressing on it
• mixed into lasagna or meatloaf
• Knorr Spinach Dip
• Smoothies (most often just an OJ one with tons of frozen fruit)

So for me to say this was good--- it really was!!

I have been trying to make myself eat it more for my kids to see that mommy is eating stuff she doesn't like much either (not winning that battle with beets). Having some "anti veggie" kids really stinks when you grow a huge garden every year but I am trying my best to teach them better.
 I plan on making this first thing in the morning for the kids so I can then cook them a big breakfast like they asked for and not be crunched for time, I have spinach a plenty so I see green scrambled eggs on the menu for tomorrow also.

Enjoy,

Cris

Where did February go???

Wow I can't believe its already March, last month went by pretty fast. With me down for over 2 weeks from my ankle and a spur of the moment trip to visit family I got lost in a whirlwind of activities. 

Here is where my time went:

When we returned from our trip to the city we started hauling manure, you know the crap that is good for your gardens (sorry couldn't help myself). It took a full day (two if you count the fact that my husband over did it with his back so was down the entire next day sleeping)

Then we had a little party/get together with other farms and friends around us to see what everyone else is up to and if they needed any help getting things going-- it was really fun and I can't wait to do it again.

The following week I spent starting seeds, I started 72 herbs- 3 of each kind with 24 kinds to be found. Then I started my cabbages, mustard greens, head lettuce, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, and kohlrabi-- a total of 104 between all of them. Then today I started 72 peppers and plan on doing more of them tomorrow as well as some eggplants. Then on Wed I will start another batch of the cabbages, mustard greens, head lettuce and spinach so I can have a good amount for succession planting.

The best thing I have done this week is......

I HAVE HOT WATER INSIDE!!!!  

After 14 months of not having it I am ecstatic to have it again. I am very happy that I was able to make due and learn to live without hot running water but I tell you whoever invented hot water heaters are a blessing in my opinion!!! 

Since we had done without water running at all inside for over 10 months we were very hesitent to hook up our old propane water heater so I sent hubby on a research misson. He had talked about really wanting Hot Water On Demand when we first started planning for moving, saying that it would help with propane consumption and it would just be better over all. Our problem was that when we first moved from the city most HWOD systems were going for close to $1,000 and we don't have that (or  I wouldn't have been without water for 10 months)

After doing some resesarch and talking to a friend up by us that is also a plumber we found a HWOD system for under $400 bucks we had to wait till we had the money to do it right and I have to tell you this is the best money I have spent in a long time and at this moment worth waiting for.

I am loving the ability to turn on a sink and wash dishes right after using them, no more boiling 2 or 3 kettles of water to rinse them off after cooking or eating. No more worrying about what dishes aren't clean yet because I haven't had the chance to wash them (don't go spraining your ankle if you don't have hot water inside because carrying pots and pans outside to prewash while on crutches is not a good or possible idea).

Well as you can see my last few weeks have been crazy but well worth it. I thank God for the patience he has blessed me with these last 14 months and I also thank him for giving me a husband that understood how hard things got and tried his best to help me during such a trying time.

God Bless,

Cris