Homemade Strawberries & Cream frappuccino

In my quest to avoid caffeine, which by the way, is not going very well :-(, I decided to investigate some of the other things Starbucks has to offer, as I didn't want to give up the whole "going to coffee" thing. I noticed they also made frappuccinos, and one of them even had no coffee---the strawberries & cream frappuccino. Okay, this is just heaven in a glass! Unfortunately, it's also major calories--not a great trade-off.

So I decided to go home, and try to make a homemade version that's a little less bad for you...Besides it's fruit, right? This is what I came up with:

Homemade Strawberries & Cream Frappuccino
Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 containers of strawberries, washed & hulled
1/2 cup of milk--I used 1%
3 large ice cubes
1 cup whipped cream---I made my own from 1 pint of heavy whipping cream, a couple teaspoons of sugar and a couple teaspoons of vanilla, whipped with a hand mixer until firm---you will have some left over. For a quicker option, you could also use Ready Whip or Cool Whip.

Method:

Place all ingredients into a blender, and blend until smooth. I prefer the cream mixed in with the rest of the ingredients, but you could add it to the top after blending if you'd like. You might also want to add a little bit of sugar or Splenda, if you like your drinks a little sweeter. Enjoy!

Yummy Chicken Burritos with Black Beans & Chicken Nachos

It's been awhile since I've posted any recipes, but I just finished eating these amazing nachos, using the leftover filling from the chicken burritos I made up last night, and thought I'd share the recipe with you.

Yummy Chicken Burritos with Black Beans
Serves 4

Ingredients:

Burrito filling:
1 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup shredded cooked chicken
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 tsp cumin--I added more since we love cumin
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp kosher salt---I added a couple dashes of garlic salt instead since we love garlic

8 flour tortillas---we used the mini ones, so it actually made up 10 burritos
Nonstick cooking spray
Tortilla chips
**you can also add any of your other favorite nacho fixins', like olives or onions, to this recipe...it's very forgiving :-)

Method:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray a large cookie sheet generously with cooking spray. Coat it well enough to see a thin layer of oil. In a medium mixing bowl, combine black beans, chicken, cheese and spices. Heat tortillas in microwave for 20 seconds so they don't break when you fold them. Divide mixture evenly among tortillas. Roll tortillas around filling and hold together with toothpicks.

Place on prepared cookie sheet. Spray tops of burritos generously with cooking spray. Bake 6 minutes. Turn burritos over and bake another 6-8 minutes until golden. Remove toothpicks and serve.

To make into nachos:

Place tortilla chips on microwavable plate and cover with burrito filling mix. Put in microwave on High for 30 seconds, or until cheese is melted. Enjoy!

May Day 2009

Last year we started a new tradition in our family: the celebration of May Day--see previous post here. So when May 1st came around this year, Kyra and I once again went to Michael's to get our craftiness on. And like last year, we delivered baskets to the neighbors on either side of us, as well as both Grandmas. One funny thing: Kyra really got into the "ringing the doorbell, and running and hiding thing" this year. And now every time we go visit our neighbors, she says we should ring the bell, and run and hide...

Here are some pictures from that day:

Flowers for Grandma A.

Flowers for Grandma H.

Supermarket Saver

We've all been there, or have been witness to this: The harried parent in the grocery store, just trying to survive the trip. The children, if not currently screaming, are pulling items off the shelves or taking "samples" from the bulk bins, trying to climb out of the cart, or finding new and improved ways of tormenting their brother or sister.

After several trips like this, I decided to search the web for a creative solution to save my sanity. I was so excited when I found the following at Parents magazine's site: Supermarket Bingo cards that you can print out right from your computer. Brilliant! You can find the link to the article and Adobe PDF here. You may need to create a free online account with them before you can actually download the cards. Sorry about that, but they also have lots of good info, as well as special offers from time to time.

Good luck, and here's hoping your future visits to the grocery store will be much more pleasant for everyone!

Hopping for fruit

We consider ourselves quite lucky, because our dear daughter loves fruit. So when I found this adorable Fruity Frog recipe on Family Fun.com, I was very excited: not only is it super-cute but she'll actually eat it :-)

Fruity Frog

	Green apple (such as a Granny Smith)
	Cream cheese
	Chocolate chips
	Green grapes

1. Cut the apple into quarters and remove the core. Cut a thin wedge from one quarter for a mouth. For the eyes, shape cream cheese into two half-inch balls, and set them in place. Insert a chocolate chip, point-side in, into each cream cheese ball. 2. Use the grapes, cut in half, for the legs and feet. Slice four halves to create toes. Arrange the pieces as shown and serve on a paper lily pad--I just used a green napkin.

Here's our girl & her frog:

Yummy Smoothie Fruit Salad

The year was 1995. The first Zuka Juice smoothie bar opened up in Provo, Utah, the brain child of several BYU students who realized they could make great drinks using real fruit, and make some serious money. The Smoothie movement was born and Zuka Juice was everywhere. Then in 2000, Zuka was sold to Jamba Juice, an inferior chain, in my opinion, and the commercially produced smoothie treat lost its appeal for me. However, my love for the home-blended version was still very much alive, and remains to this day. And I've passed on this love to our daughter, who would eat them 24-7 if she could.

So the other day I was looking for a good side dish to go along with our delicious BBQ pork loin, and realized I had the makings of a great fruit salad, using smoothie ingredients as the base. And it was super easy!!! Best of all, I thought I'd pass it on to you, so here it is:

Yummy Smoothie Fruit Salad

Ingredients:

4 cups of your choice of fruit, peeled, chopped and/or sliced--can also use frozen fruit
1/2 cup of plain yogurt
orange juice

Prepare fruit and place in a large bowl. Place the yogurt in a measuring cup that holds at least 2 cups. Then add enough of the orange juice to the yogurt to bring the mixture to the 1 cup mark, and stir to combine. Add this mixture to the fruit in the large bowl, and toss gently.

Enjoy!

On being 3...

"I'm NOT sleepy! I don't WANT to go to bed!", said the hysterical, shrieking little girl. This after being sent to her room, not once, but twice during dinner, for repeatedly getting out of her seat, throwing food and being generally naughty.

On days like today, when no sleep happens during rest/nap time, it's a pretty good bet that around 6pm, all you-know-what breaks loose. Unfortunately this also happens to be dinner time, so you can imagine all the fun that that generates. The good news is, when she finally settles down enough to catch her breath, she's usually out in a matter of minutes. It seems sleep IS what she needed after all. And tomorrow is a new day.

Be sure to get out and enjoy the sunshine this weekend!
K~