Pink Lemonade

Wow, I have been such a slacker lately with my blogging!  I have been super busy this past month, which is always a good thing but does not leave me too much time.  I have been trying to experiment with new recipes for next month's additions to the website but I am also preparing for my shoot for Healthy Child, Healthy World.  I have reached out to like-minded companies for product sponsorship and have been so incredibly lucky!  In the past week I received shipment from Scandanavian Child, Le Creuset, Alternative Apparel and Glass Lock!  Wow, I mean, could that be more exciting?? :)

There is still so much left to do but I am trying not to be overwhelmed!  

Although it has not been terribly hot this summer... and by not terribly hot I mean I think I have seen the sun a total of 5 days so far.  Bummer.  However, it is a goal of mine to take advantage of every gorgeous moment so I have been on a few kayaking trips, camping, walking, etc.  All of which have put me in the mood for an old summer classic: pink lemonade!

Of course I do not eat refined sugar, so how in the world do you make pink lemonade without killing yourself in sourness?!  I tried Truvia this week because I have used Stevia for a while and gave in to the marketing trap and needed to know what I was missing.  Its ok but I have to find out if it has "other" ingredients in it besides stevia.  Stevia is a natural sweetener made from the leaves of a plant and does not register on the glycemic index at all and has no calories.  Pretty sweet deal if you ask me!  haha, yeah I know, I'm not that funny ;)

Anyway, I made a couple varieties of lemonade but liked the simplest one the best: the juice from one whole lemon, 1 tsp. of stevia and 1/4 cup of unsweetened cranberry juice, about 3/4 cup of water and several ice cubes.  So fantastically refreshing you absolutely cannot go another sunny day without trying it.  And don't tell me you don't have time cause it takes about 30 seconds!

Alright, I am off to cook dinner... confetti turkey burgers, orangey sweet potato strings and roasted asparagus. YUM.

Mer and Meatloaf

My good friend Meredith came over today to keep me company (and ultimately help maintain my sanity) while I experimented with recipes for my upcoming HCHW webisodes.   The goal of the day was to sneak veggies into every food possible to help mom's and dad's get their potentially uninterested children to eat veggies!  

SO, in 3 hours I made: Carrot Crackers (need tweaking), Quinoa and Veggie Meatloaf, Secret Spaghetti Sauce (cause it has so many veggies!!) and finally Wild Smoothies (cause I added spinach!).  Whew!  Oh, and I had an extra ripe plantain (maduros) hanging around so I baked it in the oven for an extra treat... yeah, I need to take a load off.  

The verdict?  Well, all I know is Mer went home stuffed and I don't think either one of us will be needing dinner tonight.  According to my taste-tester aficionado, thumbs up on the meatloaf and spaghetti sauce, maybe a touch less spinach in the smoothie (I went a little slap happy with the spinach!), and crackers had great flavor but work on the texture.  Oh, and Mer recommends dipping the crackers in the spaghetti sauce :)

I will work on all of these to make them even better, the first try is always the toughest, especially when you cook 5 NEW recipes in 3 hours!  Sometimes you feel like a nut... this time I do, but I will keep trying until those crackers come out perfect.  No pictures of the food for now, I want to keep you guessing until I achieved perfection... or close enough to it!  This picture is of the two of us making collaborative artwork, a portrait of Mer's first house many moons ago when we were in graduate school together.

Thanks for the help!!

Knee Schmee

I have had a solid 9 operations on my left knee alone... and 3 in the past 6 months.  To say the least I am sick of being knee-restricted!  After my surgery in December I could not walk for three months and then had another surgery and could not walk for another 2... not cool, not cool at all.  For those of you who don't know me on a personal level, I love being active- whether I am walking, hiking, kayaking, tossing the football with my brother or dad, biking, doing yoga, etc., I love love love to move!  This past week has been one of the best for me knee-wise and that in combination with the fact that it was sunny for the first time in about 8 weeks, I went a little berserk!  

From the second I woke up and saw the sun I was psyched... made breakfast, went for a walk and then decided it was time to attempt outdoor biking for the first time (since my surgery).  I took my bike out of the garage, which was filled with cobwebs, dirt and buggies... hosed it down and hopped on.  Ok, I TRIED to hop on.  Yeah, not so successful!  After about 3 tries (I felt like I was 4 again!), I was able to get up on the bike and pedal fast enough not to tip over!  The first two tries I did in fact fall over, kind of a slow motion fall where if I could actually move my leg well enough I could have dismounted the bike instead of getting tangled in it, but alas I was not so nimble!

After conquering the pedaling, I made it about 3 laps around my house!!  YEAHHHHH, I was thrilled.  Yes, the pain started shortly after that and I had to call it quits for the day but whatever, bike ride outdoors- check!  

Then I thought it would be a great idea to put air back into every sports ball we had in the garage, dust them off and give them a spin.  For the next hour I was shooting hoops, bumping the volleyball and hitting the whiffle ball across the yard.   It was close to dinner time so I went in and made... hmmm, what was it.  Oh, creamy spinach and lentil stew.  Dinner $5.35/person, Whiffle Ball $.99, playing all day like a 5 year old- priceless.