Awesome Recipe

I made this up today, and it came out AWESOME: Finally, a popsicle I can feel good about feeding to my kids - no sugar added, a healthy dose of protien and fiber, good source of calcium and fruit! And, as Lizzy said, "This popsicle is really really good, mommy!"

1 cup dannon fat free PLAIN yogurt
1 cup frozen mixed berries

Combine the yogurt and berries in your blender and blend until smooth. It will be thick and slushy. Pour the mixture equally into 4 popsicle molds, insert the sticks and freeze until solid, 3-4 hours. Run under warm water and carefully pull free of the molds to serve.

Nutrition information per pop: Calories - 48; Fat - 0 g; Fiber - 1 g; Protien - 3.25 g

Food for Thought

I read a really good book yesterday, "Master Your Metabolism" by Jillian Michaels, the trainer from "Biggest Loser." Jason and I are huge Biggest Loser fans, and from scanning the inside covers of this book, I was interested in reading it. Anyway, I highly recommend it. Basically, she said the same things about food that were in the Barbara Kingsolver "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" book, but with more data included, and a focus on weight loss. That is, her book is a big proponent of the whole foods movement, pioneered by Michael Pollan in his book, "Omnivore's Dilemma" (Jillian even talks about his book in her's.) I recommend Michael's book as well, but Barbara Kingsolver's is the best one to read, since she is actually a fiction author (award winning) and therefore her writing is very good to read. It was "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" that inspired me to join the CSA (something that Jillian also recommends doing in her book!). Speaking of CSA, this is week 4, and we received lettuce, spinach, beets, carrots, 2 yellow squash, and 2 zucchini. East Farms, where we are getting this wonderful produce, is certified organic, and everything we've gotten has been extremely high quality, and so delicious! I made some zucchini bread this week, and a couple of batches of spinach pesto to freeze. I kept one batch of spinach pesto out, and I'll be making chicken pesto pasta later this week by tossing the pesto with some spaghetti and shredded rotisserie chicken. You can also see a picture on the side of Rachel feeding herself some yogurt. I thought it was too cute to miss!

Matching Girls and Walking

Look at my super cute matching girls! I couldn't get them to smile, though! And, here's a video of Rachel walking with the walker. She has taken 2-3 steps all by herself between mommy and daddy! She'll be walking in no time!

CSA week 3

It's week 3 of the CSA with East Farms! This week, we got baby carrots, beets, zucchini, rainbow chard, red and green leaf lettuces, and spinach. Yum! We've enjoyed eating all these healthy, fresh, organic, and extremely delicious vegetables! Here's a picture of Lizzy with "beet face" and the dinner I made tonight - grilled New York steak on penne pasta with wilted spinach and balsamic vinaigrette, and sauteed rainbow chard with onions and garlic.

Lost Kitty; Standing Up

So, right before our vacation to California, Lizzy's favorite stuffed toy kitty, "Gray" got lost. We searched everywhere for that thing, but to no avail. We were really worried because she sleeps with Gray at night! But, she did OK on the vacation with a different kitty toy instead. We didn't mention Gray to her, and she seemed OK. But, just to be on the safe side, we went to Toys R Us to see if we could find another kitty like that one. They didn't have it. As it happened, Lizzy had a second kitty, which she named "Chicken" that was exactly the same as Gray except Chicken is a tabby and Gray is gray (obviously). Lizzy does not like Chicken - she gave it to Rachel (!) but, since Chicken was the same as Gray, I suggested to Jason that we could look at Chicken's tag and search on the internet to try and find Gray. And we did find him on e-bay. So Jason ordered a new Gray and it arrived in the mail today! Ah, the joy on Lizzy's face! She was so excited to see Gray. She hugged him tight and has been holding him ever since. On the plus side, the old kitty Gray was very old indeed - and incredibly ratty and dirty - and Jason had already had to sew holes closed in him. He used to be my sister, Katrina's, when she was a little girl, and she gave him to Lizzy one time when we were at my mom's house. So, the new Gray is in much better condition! He's very soft and fluffy, and has no holes! You can see the picture of the joy on Lizzy's face that she has Gray back. She did notice a few days ago that Gray was missing, and I told her he had gone on a trip in the mail and would be here soon. She's been checking the mail with me every day since, waiting for Gray to come back from his trip! Also, Rachel has figured out how to stand up on her own, and I managed to capture a picture of it! She doesn't stay up for long, so it was difficult to get the shot! Rachel is almost 11 months old (on the 25th), and so she has managed this feat 3 months earlier than Lizzy did. Wow!