Erin's Smoothie Recipe

I eat a lot more fruit, yogurt, tofu, and flaxseed than I used to. I look forward to it, because they're all part of my daily smoothie. I've found smoothies are great for breakfast, lunch, snack, or dessert, but my favorite time to have one is right after exercising. I've even converted Eric!

There is no specific recipe but, here's a guide:

Erin's Smoothie

*Start with fresh or frozen fruit in any combination, i.e., berries, cranberries, pomegranate seeds, rhubarb, peaches, melon, kiwi, banana, etc. I prefer it if most of the fruit is frozen.

*If the fruit you use is dark, add some frozen spinach or swiss chard! Just put a bag of salad spinach in your freezer and pull out a handful. You WON'T taste it or even see it!

*Add some plain yogurt--I always have some on hand, made in my crockpot

*Add some silken tofu if you want, for extra protein and nutrition

*For extra liquid, add milk, water, or juice

*If you'd like, add some ground seeds (I keep a mix in the fridge), oat bran, wheat germ, or ground nuts

*Sweeten however you want, although this often isn't necessary if you've used bananas, orange juice, etc.

*Experiment! Make a tropical smoothie with almonds, lime juice, bananas, and coconut milk! Save extra pumpkin puree in ice cube trays and pop a couple in your smoothie. Freeze your smoothies in popsicle molds and give them to your kids!

11 Step Program for Potential Parents

Amy over at Our Family in Phoenixville has a funny post called the 11 step Program for Potential Parents. Amy and I used to work together as family therapists and parent educators back before we had kids, when we had all the answers. ;)


Thinking of having kids? Do this 11 step program first!

Lesson 1

1. Go to the grocery store.
2. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.
3. Go home.
4. Pick up the paper.
5. Read it for the last time.

Lesson 2

Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their...
1. Methods of discipline.
2. Lack of patience.
3. Appallingly low tolerance levels.
4. Allowing their children to run wild.
5. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's breastfeeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior.
Enjoy it because it will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.

Lesson 3

A really good way to discover how the nights might feel...
1. Get home from work and immediately begin walking around the living room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly. Eat cold food with one hand for dinner.
2. At 10PM, put the bag gently down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.
3. Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1AM.
4. Set the alarm for 3AM.
5. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2AM and make a drink and watch an infomercial.
6. Go to bed at 2:45AM.
7. Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off.
8. Sing songs quietly in the dark until 4AM.
9. Get up. Make breakfast. Get ready for work and go to work (work hard and be productive)

Repeat steps 1-9 each night. Keep this up for 3-5 years. Look cheerful and together.

Lesson 4

Can you stand the mess children make? To find out...
1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.
2. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.
3. Stick your fingers in the flower bed.
4. Then rub them on the clean walls.
5. Take your favorite book, photo album, etc. Wreck it.
6. Spill milk on your new pillows. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?

Lesson 5

Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.
1. Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.
2. Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang out.

Time allowed for this - all morning.

Lesson 6

Forget the BMW and buy a minvan. And don't think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that.
1. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment.
Leave it there.
2. Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.
3. Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Sprinkle cheerios all over the floor, then smash them with your foot.
4. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.

Lesson 7

Go to the local grocery store. Take with you the closest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full-grown goat is an excellent choice). If you intend to have more than one child, then definitely take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.

Lesson 8

1. Hollow out a melon.
2. Make a small hole in the side.
3. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.
4. Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.
5. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.
6. Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air.

You are now ready to feed a nine- month-old baby.

Lesson 9

Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street , Barney, Disney, the Teletubbies, and Pokemon. Watch nothing else on TV but PBS, the Disney channel or Noggin for at least five years. (I know, you're thinking What's 'Noggin'?) Exactly the point.

Lesson 10

Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying 'mommy' repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each 'mommy'; occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.

Lesson 11

Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt- sleeve, or elbow while playing the 'mommy' tape made from Lesson 10 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.


Enjoy!

Orange Bran Flax Muffins

Well, that was a delicious month of Advent brunches, cookie exchanges, and holiday feasts! But now it's time to return to healthy and moderate eating. Today, I made Orange Bran Flax Muffins, a recipe from the Flax Council of Canada. Flaxseed is rich in alpha-linolenic acid, the plant version of Omega-3. It also delivers fiber, B vitamins, and phytochemicals such as lignans. For the best nutrition, flaxseed should be ground. I like how this recipe also gets pureed oranges into Will, along with two kinds of bran.

Orange Bran Flax Muffins

1 1/2 cups oat bran
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup flaxseed, ground (I do this in our coffee grinder)
1 cup wheat bran
1 T baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 oranges, quartered and seeded
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup buttermilk (or just add a little lemon juice or plain vinegar to milk and let sit for 5-10 min.) You could probably just add plain milk if you wanted.
1/2 cup canola oil
2 eggs
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 cup golden raisins (I omitted these).

1. Preheat the oven to 375F. Line two 12 cup muffin pans with paper liners, or coat the pans with cooking spray. In a large bowl, combine oat bran, flour, wheat bran, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

2. In a blender or food processor, combine oranges, brown sugar, buttermilk, oil, eggs, and baking soda. Blend well.

3. Pour orange mixture into dry ingredients. Mix until well blended. Stir in raisins if desired.

4. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack.

Makes 24 muffins

Per muffin: 186 cal., 4 g. protein, 30 g. carb, 8 g. fat, 1 g. sat. fat, 18 mg. chol, 3 g. fiber, 140 mg. sodium, 4 g. flaxseed.