Smoothie Supreme

We're in to smoothies lately- mainly because I can hide at least one vegetable and three fruits into a smoothie that my kids may or may not eat otherwise. (The vegetable you can probably bet that Claire wouldn't eat it if not hidden in a smoothie and the fruit is a fifty-fifty, depending on her mood.) I make these recipes up with whatever I have, but thought it was time to write down two of the better ones we've come up with. Taste-wise the peach-carrot is my favorite and only recently discovered. But the spinach-grape smoothie is surprisingly good as well and you wouldn't guess you were eating spinach (if you were blind that is - the dark green color does kind of give it away, but my kids haven't figured that out yet)

Peach-Carrot Smoothie

1 1/2 ripe banana, can buy them when reduced because they are too ripe and freeze them, putting the frozen banana straight in the blender

1 cup carrot puree - I puree the carrots in large batches and then freeze them in about one cup portions. I also use this as a substitute for oil in my waffle recipe and the kids never know

2 cups frozen peaches - we bought them in season last year and froze them ourselves

1/2 - 1 cup apple juice

1 cup pineapple with juice

1 cup frozen pear if you have it and want to add it in

Mix all ingredients in a blender. Enjoy

Spinach-Grape Smoothie

1 cup raw spinach leaves

2 frozen bananas

1/3 cup grape juice concentrate

2 cup frozen peach OR pear

1 cup pineapple with juice

Blend and enjoy. Add more grape juice concentrate if you can still taste the spinach. I've also added 1 cup of butternut squash puree and/or one cup of carrot puree to this smoothie. Just add more grape juice concentrate to mask the flavor. We have the concentrate in abundance because the family I nanny for grows grapes and we made free grape juice from their grapes, so it's become a staple in our smoothies.

Peppered Shrimp Alfredo

We tried this for dinner tonight. There's no wonder it gets a 5 star rating across the board! (We stocked up on shrimp for only $3.65/lb a while back, but you could use chicken too!) For my own laziness, here is the link:

Lemon Poppyseed Bread

This recipe is phenomenal! I originally got it from allrecipes.com (my favorite place to look for recipes because they're tested and rated!) but added my own changes. I label this as a dessert, because even though it's often eaten at breakfast, let's not fool ourselves- it's LOADED with sugar. Probably why it's so CRAZY delicious. My friend came over today and we made it together. I also made it for Avery's morning birthday party.

Shelly's Chicken Enchiladas

Brian's sister, Shelly, gave me this. It's one of the easiest enchiladas I've ever done and so good! It's great for kids, too. If you want it even easier, use canned chicken. I have all my recipes on digital pdfs, so I will mostly be uploading them in this format. If you click on them, they should enlarge. You should also be able to print them. (If you want the template for this "workable" pdf, just ask!)

Cold Strawberry Pie

I love to cook, but baking is a semi-new territory for me. I recently decided that I will bake more this year. Of course, I went to Mike for inspiration. He told me that he craved Cold Strawberry Pie. He only had it once, years ago, and really wanted me to make it. I asked him what it was like (I never had strawberry pie before and there are lots of different ways to make it) but all he remembered was "it was good." So I searched high and low and came across this one. I tried it last week and it was delicious! I altered the recipe (added less sugar and gelatin) because that's what I do with recipes. I gotta make it my own!


Ingredients:
1 (9-inch) pie crust, baked
1/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup water
Dash of salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon strawberry gelatin
2-3 pints  fresh strawberries, sliced in halves and quarters

Instructions:
Bake pie crust and let cool. Set aside.

Combine sugar, cornstarch, water and salt and bring to a boil. Boil on medium heat for 1 minute. Remove from heat and mix in gelatin and vanilla. Let glaze cool to room temperature.

Gently fold sliced strawberries into glaze and pour into baked pie shell. Chill in refrigerator for 4 hours or until set. Serve with whipped cream, if desired. (I highly suggest the whipped cream though.)

Makes 6-8 servings.

The Beginning

It all started when Bonnie asked me for two recipes. These were the two that I gave her. The potato soup is really good. I plan on making some Friday actually. It's great for leftovers (and I'm not really a leftovers kind of person, but I'm trying to get over that). The banana bread is my Grandma Lemon's recipe. I love it! Especially when it's fresh from the oven and slathered with lots of butter.

Potato Soup

Ingredients*
4-6 medium-sized potatoes (I like red potatoes best, but you can use whatever you have)
1/2 bell pepper, chopped
1/4 onion, chopped
1 cup cubed cured ham or beef kielbasa(we tend to use beef kielbasa)**
2 cups chicken broth
1 tbsp flour
3/4 cup half-and-half

Boil potatoes. Drain 3/4 of the water and use the remaining water as part of the stock. Add chicken broth and keep over medium-low heat.

In a separate pan, sauté onions, bell peppers and ham. Stir in flour until it evenly coats the sauté mixture. Add to this to chicken broth and potatoes and pour in half and half. Add black pepper, seasoning salt, and cayenne pepper to taste.

* Proportions depend on how much you like onions, bell peppers, etc. Feel free to adjust to your own family preferences.

** Mike tells me that it's not really beef kielbasa, but just in case you're confused I have a package of Hillshire Farm beef smoked sausage sitting in my fridge waiting to be used.
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Grandma's Banana Bread

Ingredients
1/2 cup of shortening (or butter)
2 eggs
2 cups flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup mashed bananas (about 2-3 bananas)
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup buttermilk (buttermilk = 1 tsp vinegar + 1 cup milk)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Add flour, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, cream shortening, sugar, and eggs until smooth. Add bananas and then flour mixture. Slowly stir in buttermilk until combined.
Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

**Makes 2-3 loafs of banana bread