Orange and Berry Pickin'

Can I still say "pickin'" even if I don't live in Arkansas anymore? It's a new, wonderful experience living in a city which offers fresh local organic produce at your fingertips all year. And most of the farmer's markets don't even open until late fall/early winter.

 

Our lovely Saturday began by stopping at the Manatee Viewing Center at Apollo Beach. The manatees will gather in the canal next to Tampa Electric during colder (68 degrees and colder) water months. It is a federally protected manatee sanctuary, and there is a small educational center open during winter and early spring. There were several manatees in the photo, but it's difficult to catch them coming up for air.

There is a long pier through a mangrove estuary, and we just enjoyed walking around for awhile, enjoying the perfect weather. We had also visited this place last March when we were here looking at houses. We had meant to come back during the few weeks it got cold in Dec-Jan because I think the manatees congregate here in greater numbers then.

Then off to picking Honeybells at Dooley Groves. They told us we were going to be the last pickers of the season - until next January! We apparently made it just in time.

 

We had a lot of help.

 

It was fun to sample all of the types of citrus they had for sale (especially because we hadn't eaten lunch yet!). There were also little cups of Honeybell juice and grapefruit juice, which hit the spot so much that we bought a half gallon of the orange juice. When we were back in the car, we drank cup after cup of juice. I just kept refilling everyone's cups. We were all saying, "Mmmm," over and over. We also bought some pineapple oranges and grapefruit. We'll try the gigantic lemons next time.

Next up was Fort Lonesome, which was also down south in the same basic region as Dooley Groves. When we first pulled up, it just seemed like a house with a little garden in front, but we soon realized that wasn't the case. There were rows upon rows of amazing fruits and vegetables waiting on us to pick them and plenty of space for the kids to run and explore.

Fort Lonesome is a member supported CSA. If you don't have a membership, you have to pay a per-person admission, but fortunately he let us try it out this time. We really do want to join a CSA and need to decide on the closest organic one to us.

Picking strawberries in the 2 1/2 acre prairie was even more fun than picking oranges because it takes longer to fill a basket. The berries were so big and beautiful that it made it hard to think about paying $5.99/lb in the store.

 

We also picked some herbs (stevia, chocolate mint, and rosemary) and some veggies (cabbage, kale, green onions, and chipotle peppers). I don't garden, so this was such a soulful experience for me. The man advised us to try chewing on a stevia leaf along with a chocolate mint leaf, and it was delicious. The big kids and I took off on the forest trail, which was amazing. It led back to a creek, and my country-turned-city kids were thrilled to be back in nature.

the fruits of our labor:

We enjoyed strawberry shortcake for the next few days. The first night we used pie crust, and the next morning I made sweet biscuits, which were even better but not photographed.

 

And we have been juicing the tangelos. They are SO juicy, they are almost impossible to eat (without getting juice everywhere). I just take the peel off and stick the whole orange into my blender (with a little ice) so it's juice without wasting anything. We've felt very healthy this week.

For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands;

happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. 

                                                              -Psalm 128:2                      

                                                                                         

Giveaway Winner Announced & What I Ate Monday

Thank you so much for participating in my giveaway! It was really fun. What wasn't fun was drawing a number. I have no idea why, but I felt nervous inside; I wanted everyone to win.

I'm a little lame that way.

It's the same reason I annoy my husband terribly when I watch Illinois basketball with him on t.v. After 12 years of marriage, I have arrived at a place of sharing this interest with him. And I am genuinely happy with him when his team wins. I always feel bad for the other team, though. Which drives him crazy.

Sooo...the winner, chosen by Random Number Generator was...#1: "MaudPryor" over at Food Feud.

Stay tuned because I'm actually having another giveaway sometime in the next week! You'll get a chance to win a gift from CSN Stores. They are generously offering a $40 gift certificate to one of you.

Now - what I ate on Monday:

French Toast for breakfast (very quickly made just by dipping my bread in almond milk, nutritional yeast, and cinnamon) with raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, bananas, and walnuts. And more cinnamon sprinkled on top...I'm trying to up my cinnamon intake.

Lunch: a Food for Life gluten-free tortilla with melted Daiya, tomato sauce, lettuce, grated yellow squash, sprouts, and Upton's Naturals seitan crumbles.

I very rarely have oatmeal for supper, even though my husband does that frequently. I wanted to enter Chocolate Covered Katie's giveaway, though, which requires a post about making a Breakfast Sundae. (Hopefully, a Breakfast Sundae for supper counts. I actually had this same thing - minus the chocolate and add apples instead of bananas - for breakfast this morning.) Of course, when I do eat oatmeal for supper, I think, "This is so delicious. Why don't I always eat oatmeal for supper?"

For my Breakfast Sundae, I used steel cut oats topped with slivered almonds, a little squirt of agave nectar, a sprinkling of chocolate chips, and "Peaches and Cream."

I experimented by pureeing some silken tofu with 2 fresh peaches. I wish I could have made it thicker. I was at my mom's house, though, and my resources were limited.

I liked it, though! It was so good I had another bowl. This time I smothered it with Peaches and Cream and used almonds, strawberries, and chocolate chips. Oh, how I love chocolate chips that are just a little soft from being warm but firm enough to bite into. :)

Speaking of giveaways...I was so excited that I won Vegan Backpacker's Secret Society of Vegans t-shirt giveaway! Thank you, Vegan Backpacker and Vx!

Other things going on right now (but not much longer!):

Cereal Giveaway at Une Vie Saine

One Lucky Duck giveaway at Clean Eats in the Dirty South

$50 Gift Certificate to CSN at Opera Singer in the Kitchen

Mission: Impossible Pies e-book at All About...(vegan) food!

Mint Strawberry Smoothies and Kids Gone Wild

During our last shopping trip to Whole Foods, they were giving out samples for Mint-Strawberry smoothies. They were really good. Since they were giving out the recipes, as well, we gathered our ingredients to make them at home. Tornado, especially, loves to check off a list, making sure we got everything we need.

We never, ever drink carbonation so this was a big treat. It didn't have too much of a carbonated taste, though; it was very subtle.

Ingredients:

12 Strawberries (The recipe didn't call for "frozen," but that's what we used.)

12 large mint leaves

1 Tbs. lime juice

1 Tbs. lemon juice

4 tsp. sugar (We added a little more than that.)

1/2 cup sparkling mint water

6-8 ice cubes

1/4 cup vodka or rum optional (That's what the recipe says. We obviously opted out.)

We also had to double this recipe. This wouldn't have been enough for 5.

It was REALLY minty. I wasn't sure about that, at first, because it was the first time I've ever "cooked" with fresh mint. Plus, maybe my kids went a little overboard while throwing in the mint leaves. They may or may not have counted properly. The kids loved that it tasted and smelled like "toothpaste."

10 thumbs up

I didn't mind it tasting so minty after I looked up the health benefits of mint. There seem to be many areas that mint helps support: digestion, respiratory, anti-fungal, anti-cancer...

and I think it must give you tons of energy...

Or maybe that's how they always are.

Muffin Tin Monday: Seeds, Plants & Flowers

This week's Muffin Tin theme was Seeds, Plants, & Flowers.
I'll start with the dirt dessert made from Dr. Oetker's chocolate pudding and ground up chocolate chips.
Before they ate, the kids ceremoniously planted pumpkin seeds into the "dirt." And the napkin flower isn't too impressive, but I tried!
Quinoa salad with grated carrots plus SPROUTED lentils (Can you see the little sprouts?). Little celery seedlings are also sprouting up.

More lentil/quinoa salad with avocado grass covering (but no avocado on Dash's). Strawberry, apple, and cucumber flowers. Dash also picked his cucumber flowers and "replanted" them in Tornado's garden.

Watermelon Unit

My son and I once did a Watermelon Unit in homeschooling.

I made a Delicious Choices cheesecake. This was a company that used to sell vegan cheesecakes online. We occasionally ordered them. Tornado and I would both be so giddy, receiving a cheesecake on our doorstep. We'd immediately start digging in (no plates, just our own forks).

Sadly, they stopped selling them, but for awhile, they sold the recipes online, which Ryan bought for me one Christmas.

It seems the website is no longer valid, but here is a link to the recipes. I covered half of it in strawberry sauce and added chocolate chip "seeds."

We also ate - what else - watermelon, both red and yellow, at the party.

Decorations included green streamer vines hanging from the ceiling and red watermelon balloons with seeds drawn on them. Aren't my big boys so little?

At our next watermelon party, I would make a veganized version of these Watermelon Sherbert Smoothies. I had saved this picture from Family Fun magazine.

Mmm. I think I'm going to go eat some watermelon.

This is an edited/shortened version of a watermelon post I did on my homeschooling blog.

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.