I thought that for St Patrick's Day I would share my take on green smoothies. I got the idea from two of my favorite healthy blogs Passionate Homemaking and Heavenly Homemakers. They both have great recipes for green smoothies/slushies. I took both recipes and kind of made up my own yummy green smoothie. They are so good for you and even my 1 year old will drink them. Unfortunately my 3 year old will not, but she does not care for smoothies of any sort. Weird I know. Oh well. 

Green Smoothies (I tend to eyeball amounts)

Frozen strawberries

Frozen or fresh banana

A couple hand fulls FRESH spinach (Frozen tastes terrible)

A little juice (or water)

Yogurt or kefir (I use homemade for extra nutrition)

Honey if you like (I leave this out)

     

Put everything in the blender and blend very well. All of the spinach should completely blend away and leave you with a nice green colored drink. You can hardly taste the spinach. The fruit does a nice job of masking it.

The nice thing about this recipe is that you can add any fruit you like as well as change out the greens. Experiment with what you like to eat. Start out with only a little spinach and eventually you can add more as you become accustomed to the taste. This is a great way to get some nutrition down picky eaters.

One thing I discovered is that you do NOT want to use frozen spinach. It does not blend well and will leave chunks in your smoothie. YUCK! It also leaved behind a strong spinach flavor.

Head on over to Tammy's Recipes for more of today's kitchen tips. 

Continue Reading

I always try to use as much of the chicken as I can when I am cooking so that I do not waste anything. I also do not want to spend any more on groceries then absolutely necessary. Lately I have been making my own chicken broth when I cook a whole chicken. I usually freeze it for later use.
One of the reasons I make my own broth is so that I don't have to buy chemical laden broth from the store. Organic broth is usually more then I am willing to pay and coupons are scarce for this item.

The second reason I make my broth is the nutrient content is so much better then that of store bought or chicken bouillon. The nutrients for a good broth is found in the bone. You need to make sure to break the bones to help the nutrients get into the broth. If you would like more information on why I chose to cook this way for health reasons I would recommend the books The Maker's Diet and Nourishing Traditions. Both are excellent sources of whole food education.

Chicken Broth is so easy to make. All I do is put a whole chicken in a crock pot and cover with filtered water. You can chose to add celery, carrots, salt, and pepper for flavor. You could be creative and add any number of spices to change the flavor.
After 8 hours of cooking on low you have very tender chicken to add to one meal and several quarts of broth. All for the price of a whole chicken.

Continue Reading