Sunday Morning Smoothie and a Not So Smooth Afternoon

I inadvertently resurrected my Sunday Morning Smoothie feature....

We had a busy day planned, as we're finishing up cleaning out my late mother-in-law's house, preparing to put it on the market. My job today was going to be to steam clean the living room carpet once they got the last of the junk out to the dumpster. I needed something refreshing to get me going so here's what I threw into a blender:

Chocolate Berry Almond Smoothie

1/2 cup nonfat plain yogurt

1/2 cup chocolate flavored soy milk

1/2 cup frozen blueberries

5 or 6 strawberries, fresh or frozen

2 tsp. ground flaxmeal*

1 tbsp. almond butter

1 tsp. honey or sweetener of your choice (optional)

Whizz everything except the honey in your blender - add honey if necessary.

Yum! Usually I toss in a half of a frozen banana, but I was out of stock today. And on the flax, the last bag of flax I bought was Bob's Red Mill Golden Flax, and I love it. It's much "softer" than regular flax, so in smoothies you don't get that gritty texture of milled seeds, it's more velvety. Baked goods I can go either way, but for smoothies the golden flax is my new best smoothie friend!

But not all that starts out smoothly ends smoothly. Plans for steam cleaning were nixed (okay, so that's not a bad thing, really!) and it was decided by the powers that be (my husband and his sister, who is heading back home to Florida tomorrow) that the family was going to take a ride to the happiest place on earth, Kimball Farm. Home of the most awesomest ice cream (sometimes) in the world. German Chocolate Fudge - fabulously chocolate ice cream with ripples of caramel, coconut, pecans and fudge. Heaven in a cone, I tell you!

But what's wrong with that, you ask?

This.

It's our broken thermostat. My husband bought new stereo speakers for himself for Christmas, so he decided to give his old ones to one of his brothers who tinkers with stuff like that. As he carried one through the hallway - WHACK! Blood flowed (only a teeny bit), the plastic housing for the thermostat hung precariously from its perch on the wall and the furnace in the basement roared to life...and started to heat the house to a balmy 85 degrees.

There goes my trip to Kimball's! Maybe....

So as we waited for the service guy to arrive, I went and grabbed an iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts and as I drove home I got happy. It's pretty breezy and cool out today, but it feels like spring. Out of nowhere bursts of yellow have appeared, forsythias in bloom.

Ah, the hazy filtering of my filthy windshield.

"You see, officer, I have a blog and wanted to share images of spring with my readers..."

I arrived home to see a loyal pal waiting on the other side of the gate.

I love when Merlin does this, bow down in his "Wanna play?!" stance! He's growling like a polar bear here, a happy playful polar bear.

Since my trip to ice cream heaven may (or may not, depending on how fast Mr Furnace Fixer can get here) be canceled postponed, I took a few minutes to check out some of the sites of spring in my own yard.

The Bradford Pear near our driveway is just about ready to bloom.

Below, our Grape Hyacinths (which I planted here 12 years ago and forgot about...) are about one-third in bloom...

I love the color of these!

The blinding white of our Star Magnolia Shrub contrasts it nicely, don't you think?

(GRRRR! Hey! Who left the camera on "M" for Manual setting????)

Yeah, we'll try that one again later, but not too much later. This beauty doesn't stay in bloom too long.

And in the shade closer to the house, our rhododenrons will soon be in bloom......

We'll revisit this one in a couple weeks!

We've been so busy at my mother-in-laws house that we have not lifted a rake in our own yard, but this little cluster of Forget-Me-Nots doesn't care....

I can't wait to see these in bloom - one of my all-time favorite flowers!

Last Halloween, I dropped one of my decorations, shattering his wing....

As I was holding him over the trash can, I heard the painful cry of a four year old:

"You broke our flying monkey!!! Waaaaaaaah!"

Guiltily, I plopped him on the retaining wall. He will remain there as long as he wants to, watching over the entrance to our home.

And thankfully, protecting Mr Furnace Fixer as he pulls into the driveway...

But is he in time?

The suspense (and lack of ice cream) is killing me!

Later..........

So worth the wait!!!

Sunday Morning Smoothie: Pineapple Berry Blast

SLUUUUURRRP!

Way back when I started writing this blog, I came up with the idea of doing Sunday Morning Smoothies. I like smoothies for a quick breakfast treat, and by making them at home I can be sure of what goes into them. In addition to costing about $4 or $5 for a medium (and costing you 400 to 1,000 calories a pop), a lot of the coffee shop smoothies contain dyes, artificial flavors and fruit-flavored high fructose corn syrup. If I'm going to drink a 600 calories beverage, it better pack a pretty serious nutritional punch. And they just don't, usually.

These days there are healthier versions of smoothies on the market - Starbucks actually has a couple pretty healthy ones (made without any of the nasties you find at other places) that run less than 300 calories for a 24 ounce drink, and contain around 15 g protein, 6 g fiber and between 1.5 and 4.5g of fat. If you're making this a meal, that's not a bad choice!

But me? I'm cheap. And I like to photograph my food - they look at me weird when I do that at the coffee shop. And I've kind of developed my own little formula for making a smoothie. I always start out with plain yogurt and a half of a frozen banana. Then I add fruit, milk or juice, and if necessary a little sweetener. I also might throw in some ground flax, wheat germ or even some sort of nut butter for a little extra protein. Throw it all into a blender, push the button, pour and enjoy.

I'm going to try to keep up this Sunday Morning Smoothie trend. I kind of stick to the same things for breakfast during the week, so it's nice to treat yourself on the weekends. BUT, I'm not ready to go so far as to bake something or make French toast. I've been tracking like crazy over the past two weeks, getting in a little more exercise and I even joined Weight Watchers on Friday - I'm down 4.2 lbs. since January 1st and got my first reward yesterday when I tried on a pair of jeans I had not been able to fit into for the past five years...and they fit! And fit well, I might add.

Here's this week's Sunday Morning Smoothie - it's about 320 calories, but there's 10g of fiber and about 7g protein. Looking at it as a meal, that's pretty good!

PINEAPPLE BERRY BLAST SMOOTHIE:

1/2 cup nonfat yogurt, plain or vanilla

1/2 medium banana, frozen and sliced

1/2 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen

1/2 cup blackberries, fresh or frozen

1/2 cup pineapple chunks, fresh or canned and drained

3/4 cup skim milk (give or take)

1 tbsp. ground flax

Blend, pour and enjoy!

Then, it's off to do some housework. I have a few extra chores this week because yesterday was arts and crafts day at our house.....

Sorry, Elsa!