Smoothie Saturday: Raspberry Apple Ginger

Ooh, this smoothie was one of my favorites so far!

 Ingredients:

• 1 Organic Pinata apple (or any apple, but I fell in love with this kind this week)
• 1 c. organic frozen raspberries
• A few small pieces of frozen avocado for creaminess
• 1/2 c. water
• Spinach (I didn't use much this time because I didn't have much left)
• Grated frozen ginger

Again, I put it all in the mixing cup and blended with the stick blender. Because of the raspberry seeds and because the apple was fresh, this wasn't quite as smooth as the smoothies I normally make, but the flavor was incredible!

The combination of the sweetness and tartness from the apple and the spiciness of the ginger made this super refreshing!

This smoothie also made just enough for me this time. Katie wasn't home, so I didn't make enough for her.

This is the apple I used. I found them at Wegmans this week. They are a large and beautiful variety from Washington called Pinata (I don't know how to make an ~ on blogger). They are tart and sweet with a hint of tropical flavor.

The sweetness of the apple allowed me to forgo any added sweeteners this time; no honey or sucanat. That's a win in my book!

What are your favorite smoothie in add ins?

Smoothie Saturday: Mango Spinach

Mango Smoothies are my favorite, but I made this one a little differently this time.

Ingredients:

Organic frozen mango (a little over 2 cups)

Organic coconut oil (about 1/2 tbsp)

Organic spinach (a small handful)

Organic coconut water (amount depends on the consistency you want)

Raw local honey-not pictured (about 1/2 tbsp)

Frozen ginger grated, to taste

Ground cinnamon, to taste

Like I said before, I use a stick blender, so I layer my ingredients in the mixing cup.

 As I mentioned above, I made this a little differently this time. I didn't use yogurt, which I usually use (I was out). This time I used coconut oil instead. Coconut oil is supposed to help with digestive health, and since I was still dealing with some gurgles from my stomach bug when I made this, I thought it would be a good addition.  Actually, both coconut oil and raw honey are supposed to be anti-microbial, anti-fungal, and anti-bacterial.  I always put ginger in my coconut smoothie, but I thought that could help with my tummy troubles too. The spinach was for the folic acid.

My only complaint with this smoothie was that it was a little salty. I'm pretty sure that was because of the coconut water, which I've just recently started using in my smoothies. In the future I won't use so much. This recipe made two smoothies, and I shared with my sister. She didn't think it was salty at all, so it might have just been me.

 Other than while I was sick, I think I've been doing a pretty good job eating healthy breakfasts lately. This week I rotated between smoothies, Greek yogurt, oatmeal, and scrambled eggs.

What does your healthy breakfast consist of? Any good ideas for me?

German Pancakes

We had another snow day today. Of course that means I no longer have President's Day weekend off, but if that means not having to drive in this mess, I'm okay with that.

Steve had off today too, so I made a tasty breakfast for us to celebrate the snow day (and the fact that I gave myself my first injection, haha).

I've been craving German pancakes which aren't super good for you, but I made the healthiest version I could (white whole wheat flour, raw milk, organic eggs).

                                                                                                                               

We top them with whatever tastes good. I usually use sugar (I used raspadura this time). Steve prefers jam or peanut butter (we were out peanut butter). They are very much like crepes only thicker.

As I was making them, I couldn't help but think about how many thousands of times German pancakes have been made in that kitchen over the past twenty plus years.

How many times did my Oma make them for grandchildren (all nine of us) or great grandchildren (all fourteen of them)? I remember spending the night when I was little. I would sleep in the spare room with the scary monkey doll sitting on the headboard. When I was very little, I would sleep in bed with Oma and Opa. They had a TV in their room, and I remember falling asleep watching Roseanne after telling Oma that we weren't allowed to watch that show at home (I felt so guilty for watching it and so guilty for telling Oma it was a bad show, haha).

In the morning, I would get up with Opa and he would make me chocolate milk in a baby bottle with Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck on it. I was too old for a bottle, but not so old that I'm too embarrassed to share that part, haha.

 Then I started thinking about all of the other meals that were made in that kitchen. All of the pancake soup, goulash, potato balls, chicken paprikash, farina (that was another common sleepover breakfast), German apple cake, halushki, pies (apple, raspberry, stawberry, and peach), Christmas cookies (Oma and Opa kept the heat off in their bedroom and master bath and Oma would store boxes upon boxes of Christmas cookies in the shower they didn't use because it was as cold as a refrigerator in there), green bean and ham soup, and chicken soup.

Thousands of meals have been lovingly prepared in this kitchen. Thousands of laughs shared with friends and family. It's going to be hard when we have to leave it behind. 

Experimenting with Chocolate

So in addition to loving crafting, I love to experiment with desserts, particularly chocolate. For the past year, I've been experimenting with chocolate truffles; just a simple recipe from a Nestle Tollhouse cookbook. It's really easy and everyone loves them when I make them. So for awhile I was experimenting with flavors for the truffles and dipping them in chocolate.

While I was at Michaels's the other day, I came across some candy molds, so I decided to buy a "bon-bon" mold and see if I could make chocolates that were filled with my truffles for a smoother look. Last week I tried it and made some with coconut, mint, and peanut butter truffle filling. Then I experimented and tried a liquid raspberry, marshmallow, and coffee-toffee fillings. The only one that wasn't very good was the raspberry which had too much powdered sugar in it. So I had some left over red and blue Wilton chocolate melts from a project I did with the kids at the summer care program at work, so I tried to do some more chocolates today and they turned out pretty good. The picture isn't so hot because I took it with my phone, but you can see generally what they looked like.

The brown ones had a peanut butter truffle filling, the white a coconut cream (which was a bit too runny I think), the red a kahlua truffle filling (my favorite), and the blue a liquid raspberry filling. The raspberry was better this time, but I just can't get it right. I used raspberry jam, light cream, powdered sugar, and corn starch. I think if I used fresh raspberries instead of raspberry jam it would be better. Any suggestions on how to improve it?

The marshmallow were good; I just used marshamallows, powedered sugar and cream. The coconut cream was good, but too runny. Everyone else seemed to really like the coffee ones. I mixed some instant coffee with heavy cream, then added powdered sugar and corn starch. After that I added in some toffee bits.

No matter how they taste, they look pretty cool. Any suggestions on how to improve the recipes would be appreciated. I have fun making them which is the best part!