My pick-me-up . . .

Mariele is going on two nights of some kind of crazy sleep regression and it is turning me into a zombie. So this morning I decided to make my favorite fruit smoothie. And since I have been in a recipe sharing kind of mood lately, I thought I would post up the recipe. This fruit smoothie never disappoints. It gently lifts me up and wraps its fruity arms around my weary and sleep deprived body. Okay, I admit I may be having a few delusions and hallucinations here brought on by my sleep deprivation. But seriously, this smoothie is great. It is packed with antioxidants and good omega fats and lots of good vitamins. Try it today!

Mel's favorite fruit smoothie:

Blend the following ingredients together:

2 ripe bananas, chunked
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
1 cup fresh or frozen strawberries
1 6 oz. strawberry or peach yogurt
⅔ cup vanilla soy milk
3 TBSP Flax Seed
6-7 ice cubes

The recipe will yield 2 tall glasses and one short cup.

This morning I just eyeballed the ingredients. Used only 1 banana and only blueberries. It gave me 1 tall glass for myself and one short cup for Analese. This is seriously thick. Analese eats hers with a spoon. I drink mine with a straw, but it takes some work!

OK, gotta go hit The Little Gym now!

Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday night)

Dirt cake and out of control hairbows . . .

Not that one has anything to do with the other LOL!

First let me share this recipe for the most awesome and yummilicious Dirt cake that I have ever had:

2 lb. OREO cookies
8 oz. cream cheese
1 stick butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 small package instant vanilla pudding mix
2 cups milk
12 oz. cool whip

Crush cookies. Cream together the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and butter. Set aside. Whisk milk and pudding together for 2 minutes. Add to cream cheese mixture. Fold in Cool Whip. Layer cookies with white stuff, beginning and ending with cookies. Chill.

The above recipe is nice to make for a large gathering or a potluck. Today I opted NOT to make this for just myself and my 3 year old. 2 pounds of oreos! PUHLEAAASE!

But I did get some jello pudding cups and the smallest bag of mini oreos that I could find in the store, along with a bag of gummy worms. I put the pudding in the clear plastic cups that I had bought for the blue jello Nemo snacks. Then I sprinkled on the "dirt" (crushed mini oreos) and added a couple of worms. Here is the end result. Not quite as crazy good as that recipe up there, but it was an activity with Analese. And no - she did not eat the whole thing. I helped her! But she did eat both worms!




Here is the out of control hairbow collection. My name is Mel and I am a hairbow-a-holic. And I'm taking my girls down with me! God knew just what He was doing when He blessed me with daughters! I added ribbon to the bottom of the existing ribbon on the cute hairbow holder that Kaycee made for me. Analese and I had fun putting all the bows on there and hanging it on her wall!

Massaman curry and my super integrated life!

Here is the Massaman curry recipe that one of my commenters requested. My source for the curry paste is my hairdresser from Thailand. She shops at an Asian Market that is pretty far from my house. This recipe is best using a good firm tofu. My hairdresser also gave me some awesome tofu that she bought at a tofu market near the Asian market where she shops.

On Medium heat:

Combine 4 TBSP oil and 4 TBSP curry paste in pan.
Stir constantly for 3 minutes until oil turns red.

Add 3 TBSP sugar, 2 tsp. salt, 1 can coconut milk, and 1 can water.
Stir until curry is well dispersed.

Add:

1 whole Bell Pepper
2 Cups chunked Potatoes
2 Cups sliced Onions
2 Cups Cubed Tofu
½ Cup Raw Peanuts

Simmer on low heat:
.
The sauce will become darker and thicker as it reduces.

Basically you want the potatoes cooked, but not overdone.

Serve hot over steamed jasmine rice.



****NOW....Today as I was meal planning, I thought to myself, Wouldn't it be nice if there was a MacGourmet app for the iPhone that would sync with the MacGourmet on my laptop where I have all of my recipes? I checked the app store. The iPhone ads are correct - there IS an app for that! SCORE! Now I have all of my recipes on my iPhone! If I am at the grocery store and need to refer to a recipe to buy the ingredients, I have it right there on my phone!

And on a more random note, today we took Analese to this big, giant pizza place that also has go-karts, bumper cars, mini golf, bowling, ice-skating and many more age appropriate games and activities for a 3 year old. This place blows Chuck E Cheese away. There is no comparison (I hate Chuck E Cheese). For one thing, the restaurant is totally separate from the game area. Food and drinks are not allowed in the game area. There are hand sanitizer dispensers on the wall all throughout the game area. The games look like somebody actually wipes them off now and then. We did not eat there (went to the China Buffet next door when we finished playing), but from the looks of the buffet it seems like the food would be less craptastik than Chuck E Cheese. Anyway Analese had a blast!

Analese's new comforter . . .

I found this comforter at the brand new Wal-Mart yesterday. I thought it was time for Analese to have a new one (I never felt any great love for her old one) and I love that this comforter is full/queen size. So it is nicely oversized for the full-sized bed that she sleeps in. I did not like the undersized full-sized comforter that she had before. The reverse side of this comforter is purple and it is SO very soft! In fact, Analese has decided that she likes to sleep under just the comforter (like her Grandma Linda). So this morning I removed the top sheet and pulled the comforter up on top of the fitted sheet. It does make the bed very easy to make! And it goes with her existing bedskirt and the accent pillows don't clash too badly either.

Lovin' me some Kaycee bows!

It is always an exciting day when we get a "Kaycee" package in the mail! Analese gets just as excited as I do. Kaycee's Prissy Miss Boutique is the source for all our hairbows, and being a female dominant household we have a lot of hairbows! The red, white and blue hairbow was a custom request and she did a beautiful job! The hairbow holder has their initials over each ribbon! I put in the order for the flower clips after I put it the other order so I was surprised that she mailed me the flower clips as well! I was fully expecting to receive those at a later time! Thanks Kaycee! You are awesome!

Organization and meal planning yada yada . . .

There are pockets of my life that are very well organized. Having a mac helps with that. My entire life is planned in my iCal and all my contacts are in my mac address book. Everything syncs wirelessly back and forth between my laptop and iPhone so I'm good there. Lee has helped me with other organization projects. My kitchen pantries are pretty well organized, thanks to his implementation of the system. Once the system has been implemented, I am pretty good at following it. But one area that I feel like I am falling down on lately is meal planning. I hate going to the grocery store lately because I feel like I am not shopping efficiently, mostly due to lack of meal planning. Now I DO love the Grocery IQ app (grocery list app) on my iPhone. My dry goods pantry is usually well stocked. It is the produce that I have to plan and buy. I got spoiled when we lived in Colorado because I had an organic produce delivery service that left the produce on my doorstep (after emailing me a couple of days before to let me know what they were bringing). I have not found a comparable service out here, so until I can get a raised bed vegetable garden going next spring, I'm gonna have to suck it up and go to Kroger once a week. So to avoid waste and forgetting items, I need to have my weekly menus planned. So I sat down and typed out a list of the dinner dishes that I like to cook. I will consult my iCal on Sunday and determine which nights I am cooking that week. Then I will decide (with Lee's imput) which dishes I want to prepare for dinner that week. Then I will check my inventory and compile a grocery list (in my Grocery IQ app of course) for a weekly Monday shopping trip. Hopefully this will keep the shopping trips short and easy. So here is my menu. As you can see, we could go awhile without having the same dish twice. And I'm adding to this menu as I think of other things that I am proficient in cooking and that have proven tasty.

Mel’s Café dinner menu:

Spaghetti with red “meat” sauce and Parmesan cheese
Served with garlic bread and tossed salad.

Veggie burgers served with chips or fries

Chili served with Frito chips and cheese

Haystacks: chili, rice, lettuce, tomato, onions, Fritos

Bean burritos: tortillas, cooked beans and onions, rice, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes

Tacos: “chicken” and/or “beef"
Taco shells, taco “meat” and seasoning, Mexican rice, lettuce, tomatoes

Mock meatballs and rice with gravy
Served with a side veggie

Gluten steaks served with potatoes or wild rice and green beans (fresh) or asparagus (fresh)

Mexican lasagna

Linguini al pesto
Salad and garlic bread

Mexican pizza

Lentil soup with ditalini and wilted spinach

Eggplant Parmesan
Salad and garlic bread

Veggie “Skallops” with tartar sauce
Fries, green veggie

“Chicken” and rice casserole
Veggie

Potato corn chowder
Small salad

Pasta salad

Veggie fried rice with veggie “meat”

Massaman curry with tofu and rice

Veggie Fajitas with black beans and Mexican rice

Lemon spaghetti
Small salad and garlic bread

Lasagna
Small salad and garlic bread

Southwestern spaghetti, corn and garlic bread

Spaghetti with fried zucchini
Salad, garlic bread

Spicy chickpeas and rice

Taco soup served with tortilla chips

Cold peanut noodles and oriental cabbage salad

Baked Potato "Haystacks"


So I have to give a shout out to my friend Carrie at The Healthy, Natural Kitchen and The Art and Flair of Being Domestic for lots of inspiration. This woman is the queen of organization and meal planning! And she cooks everything totally from scratch (even her CRACKERS)!