{this moment}

a photo~an extraordinary moment~no words~pause~savor~remember...

i will edit the photo next time i make this smoothie. i took a photo from sometime back and can't find it.

i had a smoothie similar to this a few months ago when i was feeling a little dizzy after yoga. i didn't think that it was going to be one of those things that i couldn't stop craving but it is. i've been working on this post for a while. i was trying to perfect the ratios so that i could share.

the original was pretty simple - peanut butter, a few bananas, ice and chocolate soy milk. i am trying to kill some of the sugar in the chocolate soy milk. but this is a quick recipe that will work for many of you.

here is my modification

2 medium organic bananas

2 tablespoons of navitas naturals cacao powder or 2 tablespoon of green and blacks unsweetened cocoa

1-2 tablespoons of yummy local honey

2 tablespoon regular organic peanut butter or all natural peanut butter & company dark chocolate dreams (peanut butter with dark chocolate) depending on how chocolaty you would like

a few hands full of ice you can add more if it's not cold enough.

westsoy plus plain organic soy milk-unsweetened (i look at my box of soy milk now and it says less sugar, i don't know if i had one that had no sugar now?) to cover all the ingredients, more if it will not blend

this recipe is enough for 4 people.

now this recipe is not low-fat or low in sugar but it is a nice boost in the afternoon and now that it is getting warmer, it is also cool and tasty!

it seems that others have been experiencing the same banana nut craving because i have seen at least 4 other posts on this as i have been working on mine. i haven't had a chance to try them yet, but i will share two that are very pretty and i think will be really popular for little ones.

one is for peanut butter cups from the marvelous maya at her blog mayamade.

the other is for banana butterflies from the brilliant betz at her blog betz white.

i've mentioned that i'm reading animal vegetable miracle by barbara kingsolver and bananas are at the top of her list for foods that are not for us to be eating given where we live and all the energy it takes to get them here. i'm sorry to be encouraging them now. i promise to find a local seasonal food to share very soon.

enjoy!

so much time is spent on recycle and that is great. more time is being spent on reuse, this is very close to my heart. not enough time is spent on reduce!!!

i found this article the other day and it really needs to be shared and considered every time we think of adding something new.

{this moment}

a photo~an extraordinary moment~no words~pause~savor~remember...

on our walk yesterday morning my husband and i started with sun before the storm clouds moved in.. we really enjoyed all the color that is erupting. seems so green here, so much growth, it's almost overwhelming how it all happen at once.

i know these "weeds" in the grass make some people crazy...but i love all the texture and variation of color.

we had a beautiful day here yesterday. our sweet made a basket for us giving up some of her candy and some of her things she thought we'd enjoy. love her so much!

her favorite gift she found in her basket was her "young naturalist's notebook" from hearth song. this is out of print but is really a wonderful tool to encourage exploration and participation with nature.

we were invited out for two easter dinners. it's so great to drive with the windows open again!

we had some leftover asparagus, unbelievable but true. so this morning i made a poached egg and warmed up the asparagus in a little melted butter and fresh lemon juice. it was so delicious that we had it again for dinner with a glass of vegetable juice. we ate out on the new porch. lovely evening before a week of rain expected.

we had a beautiful day here today, tried to spend most of it outside.

our girl received her easter package from her grandparents today. she sat right down to sort through it and jar it all up by candy type.

we made our friday pizza tonight.

we colored eggs and tried a new recipe that i came across on the kitchn it's for chinese tea eggs the kitchn forwarded me to this recipe on umami. the kitchn had another link to allrecipes.com for chinese tea eggs that looked good too.

we completed this recipe tonight. i'll let you know how they taste tomorrow, they're supposed to have a bit of a custardy flavor to them. they look really pretty.

{this moment}

a photo~an extraordinary moment~no words~pause~savor~remember...

our girl has always loved to read in the photo she is about 18 months old.

a few years back we found the molly moon book series and we loved it. we just received a note from amazon that there is a new molly moon book coming in may from georgia byng! it is called molly moon and the morphing mystery. we are very excited, it seems like forever since we finished her last book.

molly moon is a girl who is left at an orphanage when she was a baby and she has the most interesting adventures. pick up her first book and you will have a fun journey. we did and we did not stop until we finished the last book that georgia byng wrote. we are looking forward to may.

hope that you can begin the series so that you are ready in may when the next book arrives.

molly moon's incredible book of hypnotism

molly moon stops the world

molly moon's hypnotic time travel adventure

molly moon, micky minus, & the mind machine

thursday night we finished the last harry potter book with our girl. so sad to be all done. we started j.r.r. tolkien's the hobbit tonight.

happy reading!