A recipe on a Wednesday

Jude had some oatmeal for breakfast the other day and he only ate about a quarter of his small bowl. I knew just what the problem was. I'm positive that if he could talk instead of just flailing his limbs and grunting, he would tell me that he finds oatmeal to be slimy, as does his mother. I hate that oatmeal is slimy and I wish I could stomach it better because what a great start to your day. Not me though. Even when I close my eyes and pretend it is actually 'silky' I can only last a few days on oats and then I nearly puke if I try to choke down another bowl. So Pinterest, yes, you did it again. I made some baked oatmeal muffins and both Jude and I love them! I don't know if Dan loved them, I haven't asked him. He did take one in his lunch today though. And the chocolate chips on there are mostly for me. I eat them and then give Jude the rest of the muffin. He doesn't know what he's missing and also, Mommy Tax. One thing though, do not expect these muffins to actually taste like, say Costco Muffins. They don't. They do however taste like a bowl of oatmeal and have a similar consistency, minus the slime. A win-win for those like me... such a cross to bear, but bear it I must. Baked Oatmeal Muffins (adapted from this recipe) 1/2 a bananna 1 C unsweetened apple sauce 1 egg 1/2 TBSP cinnamon 1/2 TBSP baking powder 2 TBSP stevia 1 healthy glug of maple syrup 2 TBSP chia or flax seed 1 1/4 c milk of your choice 2.5 c oats (not instant) Preheat oven to 350. Combine all ingredients except the oats in a blender and blend the heck out of them. Pour mixture into a bowl and fold in oats. Lin muffin tin with liners and pour batter in. This recipe made exactly 1 dozen for me. Because I couldn't help myself, I put mini chocolate chips on top. You could put anything on top, really. Bake for 30 minutes. Next, on my friends recommendation, I'm gonna try out some traditional fresh Muesli. Apparently it is not just a box of cereal in the store that you add milk too. No, the oats are soaked overnight in liquid (many options here) and you eat them soaked, but raw, in the morning (!!!) often with yogurt. I need to get on this. I think the slime factor would be minimal with this method. This is all pretty boring, I know. But the quest for slime free oatmeal has been difficult and long so I'm sure you can imagine that I'm a little bit more than excited about this whole new world that awaits me. Yum yum!

Bottle Drives

My Favorite Green Soothie

2 Big Ol' Handfuls of Spinach
1/2 Banana
Lemon- half inch slice with rind
1 1/2 C Frozen Fruit (my fav is the Costco mix of melon, pineapple, strawberry, peach)
Water as needed

The rind is the secret weapon here, don't let that voice in your head tell you otherwise.







You can add other stuff as you like, from time to time I do. The other day I dug out a bag of frozen peas I thought we ate already and poured some on in. If my strawberries are looking especially sad I throw those in too. Today I put half of an over ripe pear in and that was kinda gross but still edible. I was quickly reminded of why I should not buy fresh fruit out of season. That particular day at the store the pears were staring up at me and I could not resist buying a few so I gambled, I gambled and I lost. Those dang pears took 13 days to ripen and I didn't use them until day 17. I don't know what my problem is but you know how it is. The over ripe pear kind of made the smoothie taste like how a Bottle Drive smells. Where I come from you can collect $$ for empty bottles so we did a lot of Bottle Drives to fundraise and do Bottle Drives ever stink. Drinking this mornings smoothie made me nostalgic for the Slave Lake Sharks Swim Club though, so I guess putting that rotten half a pear in the smoothie wasn't a complete waste. Oh the Bottle Drives! And, you know, Jude still sucked his down so I'm chalking it up as an all around win. Kid loves his smoothies. I do believe the lemon with rind saved the day in the end.