Restaurant

I love my new food processor. (And my new toaster and my new food dehydrator...I commented to Ryan that I sure was a lucky woman that my husband got me all these new appliances. He made some kind of crack like, "Don't take it as a hint or anything." haha)

The first recipe I tried (which I got from Green and Crunchy) was Earth Balls. They were so easy and tasty, too. The boys were rolling their own balls, and you can see there is only one sitting out because they were eating them as fast as they could make them. I am sure these are going to be a staple in our house.

We made four different kinds. All of them started with 2 cups of nuts (we used cashews, walnuts, and almonds). Once we ground them to a fine meal, we added 1 1/2 cups of pitted dates (one at a time as the food processor was running).

The first batch we also added raw cacao nibs and hemp seeds. The next batch we also added goji berries to the nibs and seeds. Next, it was just nuts, dates, and ground flax seeds. Finally, we tried adding carrots. I didn't anticipate how moist that would make them, and I had to go back and add more seeds and nuts (which I wouldn't recommend adding un-ground because they wouldn't ground up very well at the end.) They were yummy, though, and tasted like carrot cake. Tornado has been asking recently if he could be in charge of a meal. They love playing restaurant, but I am usually the "waiter." He wanted a turn at being the waiter, and I thought this would be the perfect day to do it - plus it's a great "school" activity. We had also been practicing with the new food dehydrator, and I thought it would be an easy meal for him to serve. He created this menu, which we photocopied. He wrote "(Tornado's) Helthy Restaurant" on the cover and decorated it with Fast Food (you know, the objects they create using fruits and veggies) stickers.

These were the ten menu items. We had dehydrated the first eight (plus peas and lima beans). I had made a batch of green smoothies and popsicles and mentioned to Tornado we needed to think of a name for them. He immediately replied, "Hulk Slime."

So...Hulk Slime it is.

Dash was his assistant, and they were very darling about seating Ryan, Sissy, and me at the table and taking our orders. Tornado wrote down on his little notepad the numbers of what we ordered, then went to the counter and very carefully made our plates.

Dash served us our Hulk Slime (spinach, cherries, mangoes, ground flaxseed, raw cacao powder, green superfood powder, orange juice, almond milk). Later, he came to the table and sweetly asked, "Is everything alright?"

He was very adamant about carrying our plates on a tray, just like a real waiter.

Finally, the hard little workers got to sit down and enjoy the meal for themselves.

Fruit Easter Bunny

For Easter Sunday breakfast, I made this Easter Bunny. (I know it kind of looks like a lion, though.) made from bananas, apples, kiwi, grapes, sliced almonds, sprinkled flax meal, and Clif Kids fruit twists. We all sat together in two chairs pushed close (two kids on my lap, one on Ryan's) and gobbled it up.

This is one I made another year; they always vary slightly. It looks a little more like a bunny, perhaps? I think the idea originally came from A Taste of Home.

sleepy eyes finding their baskets by the door

They were squealing with delight (one of these days I'll figure out video on here) with every single item they pulled out of their baskets. You would not believe how excited they were about the "oranges." "We've got oranges!!!"

(Cuties brand clementines...incidentally, I just read this: "Generally, seedless clementines are made by spraying the flowers with a chemical that mimics a growth hormone." Why do I read these things after my children altogether consumed over 25 of them the past two days? I know, I know - there is something wrong with a hundred things we eat. I'm just sayin'. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. Does anyone know anything more about clementines?)

They lined them up and counted them, carried them around, hid them like eggs, and loved peeling them by themselves.

They also all received Play-Doh filled eggs, sketchbooks, crayons or colored pencils or paintmarkers, Clif fruit twists, raisins, and other healthier type candy snacks. The boys each got a California Baby bubble bath, and Sissy got this little pink travel potty. She immediately wanted to sit on it. Later that day, she pooped in it twice and ran to show me each time, excitedly. Oh, how we screamed and jumped up and down. However, as usual, potty training is exhausting. Lately, which is why we bought the potty, she has been stripping off her diaper every time she pees, even at inopportune times. It's funny; she has been only wanting to sit on the potty when it's sitting in this totally random spot next to the rug in the living room because that's where she went in it for the first time. Like she marked her territory or something.

We went to church, then the boys went out to eat lunch with Googie. Ryan and I actually watched a movie (Slumdog Millionaire...really good) IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY.

Not Easter-y, of course, but it was raining...and we were tired. I always try to pack so many activities into one day so I decided the rest of our activities could be spread out over the week.

Dash is standing by his bunny he made at school last year. My parents came over for supper. We ate salad, guacamole and chips, and Cheesy Bean Enchiladas. The recipe is here; it's yummy and soy-free for all you tofu-phobics.

Naked Juice

I came downstairs this morning to Dash telling me he was drinking "wiener juice."

"What?" I asked.

Ryan said Dash told him that I explained to him how all the fruits and vegetables were naked, and, therefore, I called it "wiener juice." I WAS explaining to him yesterday why it was called "Naked juice," but I never said the word "wiener" in that discussion.

We drink Naked Juice a lot around here (the boys, yes, always think that the name is funny), and if you don't know what it is, look here.

Anyway, I explained that a lot of drinks have their fruits and veggies covered up with sugar, artificial junk, and preservatives, but the fruits and veggies in Naked Juice are not covered up by anything else - they are naked. How he made the leap from that to "wiener juice," I do not know. Sorry if all this talk of wieners offends you. I live in a house with two little boys; the topic is brought up multiple times daily.