Coconut Carrot Mango Smoothie {Two Ways}

   I know, what you're thinking... Smoothie? Again? Well, yes, because this is the most amazing smoothie I have ever made! Okay, I say that about all of the smoothies and juices I blog but I mean it this time, at least until I make another one tomorrow.

    This was another attempt to teach C to drink his way through the color spectrum. He liked this one, orange is his favorite color so that was to be expected. Poor guy bit the inside of his cheek the other day and it is painful so the acidity of this smoothie hurt him to drink too much. I promised him I'd make it again one day after he mouth heals. He is finally get a bit more adventurous with trying new things, so maybe my experiment is working.

   L on the other hand will eat anything we give him and then finish what is on our plates if we aren't careful. He particularly loves smoothies or "moo-bees" as he calls them. As soon as I reach for the blender her gets excited and if I start making one without him he comes busting in the kitchen as soon as he hears it. He jump, claps his hands and chants MOO-BEE MOO-BEE MOO-BEE and MINE MINE MINE until I hand him his own little glass.

 (Normally I use 8 oz jelly jars with these lids for the kiddos) 

   I actually have two recipes for you today. My husband is allergic to peaches so I made him one first then added the peaches and almond milk to mine and the boys' smoothies. I added the milk to add to the creaminess to the texture because that is the way that C likes his and I can always use the extra protein and calcium from the almonds. 

Coconut Carrot Mango Smoothie

Serves 2-3 people

1 large or 2 medium carrots

2-3 tablespoons flaxseeds

1 1/2 cups coconut water

2 cups frozen mango

1 cup orange juice 

1 tablespoon honey

In a blender, combine carrot and flax seed and pulse until chopped up. Add coconut water and blend until carrot has liquefied and flax seed is chopped up finely. Add mango, juice, and honey. Blend there are no longer chunks and is like a thick milkshake. Don't forget to taste it before drinking to make sure it doesn't need more honey.

Coconut Carrot Mango Peach Smoothie

serves 4-6 people

1 large or 2 medium carrots

2-3 tablespoons flaxseeds

1 1/2 cups coconut water

2 cups frozen mango

2 cups frozen peaches

1 cup orange juice

1/2 cup almond milk 

1 tablespoon honey

In a blender, combine carrot and flax seed and pulse until chopped up. Add coconut water and blend until carrot has liquefied and flax seed is chopped up finely. Add mango, peaches, juice, milk and honey. Blend there are no longer chunks and is like a thick milkshake. Don't forget to taste it before drinking to make sure it doesn't need more honey.

Cheers!

Mickey Party Part 3: Recipes and other fun

These are some of the recipes we used. I don't have links to all of the yet, but I will get them and update the post as soon as I do. We simplified this year by only having desserts on the menu. All of these recipes are really easy and most can be made in advance. You can freeze cakes and frosting, jello will keep for day before hand and cookie dough can be frozen as well.  

My boys love cupcakes, then again, what kid doesn't?As I mentioned before I wanted to simplify and I knew most of the kids wouldn't be able to tell the difference between cakes made from scratch and boxed mix so my Mother in Law made the cupcakes with a strawberry cake mix and I topped them with this Swiss Meringue Buttercream that I had frozen left from Liam's birthday dinner, I added a teaspoon for strawberry extracts and red food coloring and topped them with red sugar.

Once again, we had jello. We've had it in some form at Caleb's 2nd and 3rd birthday parties also. We used Food Librarian's Finger Jello Recipe (again) except we used Pineapple Jello and Strawberry Jello to make it in our color palette. 

If you know Caleb you know that boy LOVES doughnuts so we made Fudge Doughnuts (recipe to follow in a separate post) and Cherry Lemonade Doughnuts. I made a double batch the the recipe and baked it in a full size doughnut pan for about 8 minutes. I made the glaze thinner as well but that is just my preference. These doughnut are delicious and I high recommend them! 

Caleb asked for an orange cake and I don't have the exact recipe to share since my Mom made it out of a few different recipes but it was a white cake with orange zest and orange extract with orange curd between the layer and a basic buttercream scented with orange zest and orange extract. It would be an easy thing to replicate with your favorite cake recipes and you could use this lemon curd and swap lemon juice and extract for orange.  

My Mom made these cookies. I know they were a cream cheese sugar cookie and they were delicious! But, I don't know what recipe she used on these either but when I find out I'll update and post it. We got the cookie cutter from The Disney Store. 

The punches were a Berry Lemonade and a Pina Colada Punch that was similar to this. The lemonade was a mix (simply because of sheer volume needed) with frozen berries stirred in that flavored it as they thawed.

Well, that is it for the food. This year was pretty simple. Of course most of the fun came in the form of the bouncy house. We love having it and so do the boys. We also love that my in laws do that for the boys as their birthday gift too. We may need to start looking into investing in one since we would be a third of the through paying for one by now. :) I believe the conclusion is that we need a slide next year though and as much as I hate to admit it, I have to agree. Although that injured back of mine did not love me after I got out of that thing, it was worth it to play with my boys. 

 It's hardly noticeable but I used my other Ikea end table by the bouncy house as a place to for people to leave their jewelry, glasses, drinks, etc and to store shoes underneath. I also placed another sigh that said Liam's and Caleb's Playhouse. I'll be making blank or generic forms of those signs and posting as PDFs soon. Then I will be done posting about the party, finally. :)

***UPDATE: for more info on the party look here, here and here. 

Sweet Potato, Pineapple, Orange, Carrot, Ginger and Coconut Water Juice {Orange You Happy Juice}

Another post of an orange juice? Do I have a new favorite color? Maybe. While I was preggo I hate hate hated sweet potato juice. The husband LOVED it so he convinced me to try it again and SURPRISE! I like it! Sounds crazy, but paired with the right fruits and veg it is wonderful. Today's orange beauty was sweet potato, pineapple, orange, carrot and ginger topped off with coconut water to get my good and hydrated after this morning's doozy of a work out. I sipped on it while I cooled off and relaxed on my porch. 

Orange You Happy Juice
(makes two full glasses this size, perfect for breakfast or an after workout pick me up)
1/2 a sweet potato
2 med/large carrots
1/4 of a fresh pineapple
2 large oranges
a hunk of ginger
coconut water

Juice your fruit and veggies and strain. Pour into two glasses and top off with Coconut Water to fill your glasses. Chill and enjoy.

*No matter how much you strain this juice it is going to be slightly pulpy due to the orange and sweet potato. For juices like these I prefer to use the "blender cups" that have little wire ball that resembles a whisk in the bottom. When it settles you can shake it up and all is wonderful and no longer gritty feeling. 

**I don't think that using these juices as a meal replacement is a way of life however I do enjoy for breakfast often and lunch from time to time. They are filling and healthy. I give them to my my oldest to drink between meals. 

Blood Orange, Carrot and Pineapple

I know, I know, a juice that isn't green, you must think I've gone nutty! And it is gooooooood! Of course I have been on a major blood orange kick recently, somethings never change. It was a bit too spicy for the Mr. but I like the major ginger kick. He only likes ginger since he started juicing last year, before that he HATED it. Now he loves it and will even drink ginger ale and I don't have to lie bout if it is in food now. But this juice might have been over the line for him, I just happen to really like the spice from it. Maybe its because my Grandpa used to sneak a very strong spicy ginger ale to me in my sippy cup. My Mom would get so mad at him but he kept doing it anyway. He was a rebel like that. Even though I rarely drink ginger ale now I still love that bright heat that you get from fresh ginger. If you think its too much either use less ginger or toss in a frozen banana and blend it up and make it into a smoothie. 

This juice makes 2 to 3 meal replacement servings

Blood Orange, Carrot and Pineapple Juice

3 large or 4 small blood oranges
5 carrots
1/3 of a pineapple
1 apple
a 3 inch chunk of ginger

Process everything through the fjuicer, or blender then strain and drink. Or refrigerate first, I often do.

Sunshine Smoothie

 We started today with another yummy concoction. It looks like a lot of ingredients but in all actually it isn't. Lee came home with a gigantic bag of frozen fruit mix from the grocery store because it is perfect for my smoothie addiction. It is a mix of pineapple, strawberry, mango and peach. I made a  huge smoothie, as you can tell from the picture, for my breakfast and lunch today plus I had enough for Caleb to have a small smoothie with his breakfast.

 I find that carrots are a fairly strong flavor so I like to combine them with orange. They compliment each other in flavor and color which matters when getting kids to drink it. I know that Caleb refuses to drink anything that has muddy colors but he will drink anything with bright vibrant colors. 

Sunshine Smoothie

makes 2.5 servings

2-3 Blood  oranges, juiced

2 carrots, juiced

1 cup of frozen fruit mix

1/2 frozen banana  

Blend all ingredients and enjoy!

A Night of New Recipes.... Orange Chicken and Peas

This chicken recipe has been patiently waiting in my "Recipes To Try" folder for months now and I finally decided to try it. Honestly I was a bit skeptical of it. I was wrong, it was wonderful. I figured while I was at it I would finally use the frozen peas in my freezer. Lee and I both HATE the texture of peas but I don't want to stop Caleb from trying new food just because we don't like them. So for that reason I reluctatnly bought some peas a month or so ago and decided since I was afraid of the result of the chicken I might as well go for broke and make a brand new dinner.

We had Crispy Skinned Orange Chicken and Pea Puree. For the Chicken recipe go here. I added a little Sriracha because I cannot get enough of that stuff. For the peas I was inspired by Nigella Lawson's pea puree but I did not follow the recipe exactly. I didn't have creme fraiche and I omitted the mint and Parmesan. I used milk and a bit of cream cheese and added parsley.  I added too much milk so we decided it was Cream of Pea Soup. We liked it very much.

 When I started plating everything I thought it was a funny little sight. Caleb's dishes are a kid's set from Ikea and he almost always eats off of them. Lee's and mine are different because I wanted a smaller bowl therefor I used matching plates for each of our bowls. I bought the white set from Pier 1 a million years ago and the pink set was a random find in the Target Dollar Spot, in the front of the store. It made me think of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.