Go Green Smoothie for Earth Day

This smoothie goes by many names in our house:
Monster Smoothie
Shrek Juice
Nickelodean Slime
Today, we are dubbing it Go Green Smoothie for Earth Day!
This is such a GREAT and HEALTHY smoothie.  My kiddos absolutely LOVE it and they have no clue what gives it it's lovely green color, because you CANNOT taste it!  Trust me!  Make it, but don't tell your kiddos, and you can pat yourself on the back knowing you got them to eat a serving of spinach for breakfast! 

Go Green Smoothie

• 1 cup milk - your choice regular, skim, Almond, Coconut, Rice, or Soy...sweetened or not, vanilla or plain.
• 1 banana - I like to use frozen, but use what you have
• 1 cup pineapple*
• 1/2 cup mango*
• 1 large handful baby spinach leaves
• 1/2 cup ice

optional:

• 1 TBSP Agave Syrup, or other sweetner, if desired
• 1-2 TBSP Vanilla or Italian Sweet Cream non-dairy creamer.  I like the creaminess this lends to any smoothie
• 1 TBSP physillium husks or flax seed for an added boost

In a blender, combine milk, banana, pineapple and mango.  Blend until smooth and creamy.  Add spinach leaves and continue to process until smooth.  Add ice and any or all optional ingredients.  Blend again.  ENJOY!

*Note:
I have swapped out the pineapple/mango for strawberries or blueberries.  They both taste just as fabulous, just remember it will change the color from the vibrant green!

This recipe has been linked up at:
Teaching Your Middle Schooler
Tide Mom
Simply Sweet Home
Mommy's Kitchen

Sneaky Brownie Bites

As we have already established, I love a quick and easy treat. 
(((insert "that's what she said" joke here)))
Add in the benefit of being healthier than their average counterpart, and I am SO there. 
These Sneaky Brownie Bites are similar to my recipe for Pumpkin Muffin Cookies, only chocolaty. 
I love them because I can have a fudgy little treat without feeling like I am blowing all the work I did in Zumba class.  
I love them for my 3 little kidlets because all that pumpkin is chocked full of vitamin A and antioxidants, plus it is a good source of vitamins C, K, and E, AND lots of minerals, including magnesium, potassium, and iron.  Hooray for pumpkin!
My kids love them because they are good.  
Take the 2 minutes to mix these up and give you and yours a sneaky shot of deliciousness!

Sneaky Brownie Bites

• 1 box of Devils Food Cake Cake Mix
• 1 can (15 ounces) Pumpkin Puree
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 1/4 cup Mini-Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Spray a mini-muffin tin with non-stick baking spray.
Using a hand mixer, combine cake mix, pumpkin, and vanilla.  Add chocolate chips and stir until evenly distributed.
Fill mini-muffin tin with batter using a small cookie scoop.
Bake for 10-12 minutes.  Remove from pan and allow to cool completely.  You will not be able to distiguish the pumpkin if you allow to cool completely.  Dust with some powdered sugar if you are feeling fancy.
Yield:  36 mini-bites

FOOD FACTS:
per mini-bite

CALORIES:  69.3
FAT:  1.9
CARBS:  13
FIBER:  .7
SUGAR:  7.6
PROTEIN:  .8

This recipe has been linked up at:
Tidy Mom
Simply Sweet Home
Mommy's Kitchen
This Chick Cooks

Cinnapple Baked Oatmeal

My kiddos do not like oatmeal.  I think it is a texture thing...we are all big on texture 'round here.  But we all know how stinkin' healthy oatmeal is for us.  This was a quandary for me until I experimented, tweaked, and re-tweaked all the recipes floating around for baked oatmeal and came up with this bad boy!
Tonight, for dessert, my kiddos requested this baked oatmeal.  OATMEAL FOR DESSERT!!!  I love it! 
I have created this form of baked oatmeal and added in lots-o-sneaky, healthy ingredients, cut down the sugar by a lot, as well as eliminated regular oil or butter.  I have a feeling you will be seeing lots-o-varieties of baked oatmeal in the coming months because the possibilities and combinations are endless!
Whether it is for breakfast, snack, or dessert, you can feel good about putting this into your families bellies.

Apple Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal

• 3 cups oatmeal
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup ground flax
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• pinch nutmeg
• 2 TBSP Agave Syrup (you could use real maple syrup as well)
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup vanilla yogurt
• 1/4 cup applesauce
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 1/4 cup melted coconut oil....this stuff is miracle oil!
• 1 cup finely diced, peeled apple...about 1 large or 2 small

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 8x8 square baking pan with non-stick spray.
In a medium bowl, combine oatmeal, baking powder, salt, ground flax, cinnamon and nutmeg. 
In a separate small bowl, combine Agave syrup, vanilla, milk, yogurt, eggs, and applesauce.
Pour melted coconut oil into dry mixture and stir.  Add rest of wet ingredients, stir to combine.  Fold in diced apple.  Pour batter into prepared baking dish and bake for 30-35 minutes.  You can eat it like a piece of cake, or break up a piece in a bowl and splash some milk on top.  ENJOY!!!

This recipe was linked at:
Frou Frou Decor
Tidy Mom
Simply Sweet Home
Crazy Domestic
Mommy's Kitchen

Pumpkin Muffin Cookies

Happy, Happy Fall!!! 
What if I told you that you could have these INSANELY scrumptious Pumpkin Muffin Cookies with 2 ingredients?  How about if I added in that you could customize them in any way you like to make them your own?  Just to make you shake your head even more, I am going to add in there is no oil, butter, or eggs in them!  I am willing to bet you would not believe me.  Well, my friends, believe it!  These things ROCK and are in the oven in about 2 minutes.  So, to keep it short and sweet like these little beauties, and to make me stop sounding like a late night infomercial, let's get to it!

Ingredients:
1 box Spice Cake mix
1 can (15 ounces) pureed pumpkin, NOT PUMPKIN PIE FILLING!

Optional add-ins:  Raisins, Chocolate Chips, White Chocolate Chips, Pecans, pumpkin seeds...the list goes on and on.  Our favorite is 1/2 cup raisins and 1/2 cup white chocolate chips.  You could always leave them plain and frost them with a cream cheese frosting.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Spray cookie sheet with baking spray.  In a bowl, combine canned pumpkin and cake mix.  Stir until smooth, mixture will be thick.  Add whatever optional ingredients you like, as much or as little as you like.
Using a cookie scoop, put desired amount of dough on sheet.  Bake for 7-10 minutes or until slightly browned on edges.  They will not spread, as they are a "cakey" cookie.  ENJOY!

This recipe has been linked to:
Nikkis Nifty Knacks
Prairie Story
Frou Frou Decor
Tidy Mom
Simply Sweet Home
Mommy's Kitchen
Eat at Home

Be Our Guest Berry Salad

As I have told you before, I grew up in an itty-bitty town in Colorado.  Our lunch room was used for the Elementary, Jr. High, and High School.  Yes, that means, as 1st graders, we were sitting on our knees trying to get tall enough to reach our trays.  Years later, the same Winnie the Pooh mural painted walls were there as we, then high schoolers, would squeeze into the same white picnic-type tables and benches.   We had one of those lunch rooms that had an actual kitchen.  That actual kitchen was ran by neighborhood grandmothers and mothers that cooked and baked everything from scratch.  Imagine my shock when I went to my daughters school and saw their lunchroom was really nothing more than a warming station where they would reheat processed, pre-packaged food.  Food that seemed like it would come from a fast food joint or a concession stand at a high school basketball game.  Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution anyone?!?!
Anyway, earlier in our homeschooling year, we did a unit on nutrition.  Teaching my kids about the type of food their body needs everyday and why.  Teaching what happens to your body when you give it the wrong type of food.  In case you are interested, Time for Kids has some GREAT age based worksheets on nutrition and physical activity.  When we were done with the unit, I wanted to reinforce this knowledge in a practical way, so it became a duty of theirs to help with the menu planning.  5 (almost 6) year old Kiddo C plans the snacks everyday, and 9 year old Kiddo B plans our lunches.  They make sure we get the right amount of food groups in our daily menu as well as making sure that we have the not-so-good-for-us stuff in moderation.  I purchased several kid focused cookbooks to help them get ideas and inspiration. 
Which brings us to today's recipe.  This kiddo friendly recipe shows that when you give something a fun name and add some happy colors and fruits that they like, they will eat and LOVE some amazingly nutritious food.  Lunches can be fun, flavorful, AND nutritious while still being quick and easy. 

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup orange juice
• 1 TBSP salad oil
• 2 tsp honey mustard or Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp sugar
• ¼ tsp salt
• 4 cups torn lettuce
• 1 ½ cups fresh blueberries, raspberries, quartered strawberries, and/or canned mandarin orange sections, drained
• 2 TBSP cheddar or pretzel goldfish

~To make the dressing, put the orange juice, oil, mustard, sugar, and salt in a screw top jar. Tightly cover with the lid and shake until combined. Put the lettuce in a medium bowl and drizzle the dressing over top. Gently toss to coat with dressing, Divide lettuce among 4 plates.
~Put the fruit on lettuce and sprinkle with the goldfish crackers.
(For a dinner salad, add cooked chicken)


Recipe Source:  Belle and the Beast, Disney's Magic Kingdom Cookbook

This recipe is linked up at:
Simply Sweet Home
Tidy Mom
Mommy's Kitchen
Eat at Home

Unbelievable Chocolate Chip Cookies

And I am not just talking about the taste! They also earn the title of unbelievable because of a super secret ingredient and the fact that they are pretty darn healthy! I am not above withholding things from my family, especially when it comes to sneaking good for you stuff into my little unsuspecting brood. I always crack a grin and stifle a giggle when I see my kiddos digging into these gems. Many people turn their nose up when they find out the secret ingredients in these cookies is...ready for it...BEANS, but once they try them and see that YOU CANNOT TASTE THE BEANS in them, they are positively giddy at the idea of getting all of that extra fiber and protein in such a yummy treat!


Ingredients:

• 1 cup Flour Blend (see note below)
•  1/2 teaspoon baking soda
•  1/2 teaspoon salt
•  1/4 cup rolled oats, finely ground in a food processor
•  2 Tablespoons blanched, slivered almonds, finely ground in a food processor (omit if allergic)
•  8 Tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
•  1/4 cup white sugar
•  1/4 cup brown sugar
•  1 large egg
•  1 teaspoon vanilla extract
•  1/4 cup white bean puree (see note below)
•  1/2 to 3/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
•  optional extra boost - 1 cup of chopped walnuts or dried berries such as blueberries or raisins

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a medium bowl, whisk together Flour Blend, baking soda, salt, ground oats, and ground almonds (optional). Set aside.
In a separate bowl, beat butter and both sugars until creamy. Beat in egg, vanilla, and White Bean Puree. Add dry ingredients and mix on low speed. Stir in chocolate chips (and raisins, dried berries, and/or walnuts).
Make two-bite cookies by dropping rounded half tablespoons, spaced 2 inches apart onto nonstick or parchment-lined baking sheets.
Bake for 12-14 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool on a metal rack. Again, once cooled you CANNOT TASTE THE BEANS!
Store cookies in airtight container at room temperature.

 Flour Blend:
To make the “flour blend”…sift together 1 cup white all purpose flour, 1 cup whole wheat flour, and 1 cup wheat germ. Use what you need and store the rest for future recipes.


White Bean Puree:
Drain and rinse a can of cannellini beans (Great Northern) put in blender or food processor and process until consistency of peanut butter. You may need to add 1 TBSP or so of water



This recipe is linked up at:
Tidy Mom's I'm Lovin' It
Simply Sweet Home's Friday Favorites
Mommy's Kitchen Sunday Potluck
Eat at Home



recipe source: The Sneaky Chef