Water Day Activities !

Sponge Tag :

Using soaking wet sponges play tag with one person being "it" and tagging someone by throwing sponges instead of touching one another.

You can play a freeze tag version having a friend unfreeze you.

Or TV tag where you are frozen for 5 seconds then you have to shout out the name of a TV show.

For the last 2 varieties you would assign a 5 minute "it" time and it would then be someone else's turn.

Bouncing Balloons :

Using a few water balloons and either a sheet or a parachute if you have one bounce the balloons up in the air by shaking the sheet in the air and see how long you can keep the balloons bouncing !

Hula Hoop Sponge Toss Game :

Place one or two hula hoops on the grass and take turns trying to throw wet sponges into the hula hoops !!

Rainbow ice cubes :

Make rainbow ice cubes with food coloring and ice cube trays.

I am planning to put water in the water table and dump lots of rainbow ice cubes in to it and let the kids play with them. You can however have a race to see who can melt the ice cube the fastest in their hands !! COLD STUFF !

Bubble Bath Pool :

Before filling up tour kiddie pool put a big squirt of bubble bath in it and let the kids have a bubble bath pool party ! You can do this with the water table as well :)

Have fun getting wet !

Grown up green smoothie

I am on a BIG green smoothie kick these days !! And this morning I tried one that was just for me ;) I didn't use banana or berries like I usually do to entice the kiddies ... I just made a mild pleasant GREEN smoothie !!


1/4 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
3/4 cup chopped romaine lettuce
3/4 cup chopped kale
1/2 avocado
1/4 lemon (no rind but all the white part ... FIBER !!)
1/4 cup pomegranate juice
1/2 cup organic OJ
1 whole granny smith apple ( I left the peels on but unless you have a Vita Mix blender they are a bit grainy at the end .... I don't mind ... but you may ??)
fresh water to make the smoothie the consistency you like and some ice for coolness.


So just place all your chopped greens and the juice in the blender and blend till smooth.
Add the lemon, apple, avocado and keep on blending till really smooth ... at this point add your H2O and ice and enjoy.

I like to have my green smoothies in a wine goblet for enjoyment purposes. The intent of feeding yourself wonderful green foods is enhanced if you make it a beautiful self indulging ritual ;0)

I hope you bite the bullet and try one of these great green smoothie recipes !!
I will keep putting up the ones I love for you to try too ... please leave feedback if you try one or two of them !!
We all know that there is no way of eating enough green in a day to get what you need from the earth .... especially on pizza day (wink wink) but if you have a green smoothie for breakfast ... or for the 3 pm crash you will get what you need , with very little effort or calories !!
Make a big one in the morning .... have some for or with your breakfast ... and put the rest in a glass or plastic bottle for the afternoon ... by dinner you have had an entire blender full of green goodness !!
You don't need to have a green smoothie instead of your regular food .... you can add it to your regular diet and still get all the wonderful benefits.
(Of course green food through the day will cut cravings and make you less hungry ... but you don't need to focus on that ... just let the green do it's work )

Happy blending !!
B.

GREEN SMOOTHIE !!

PHOTO TO FOLLOW ... WE ATE IT UP TOO FAST TO TAKE ANY PICS !!

The basic recipe is this ...

1 1/2 cups of liquid ( coconut milk, kefir, almond milk, POM juice, organic OJ or pineapple juice etc .... any liquid you choose ) I like to do 1/2 juice and 1/2 either kefir or coconut milk.

3 oz (weight not fluid) of green stuff ... chopped spinach & kale are the easiest to get kids to eat but you can use any greens ... romaine, mache, swiss chard, dandelion etc .... anything green !!)

Blend the liquid and the green stuff first ...

Then : fruit .... about 1 cup of fruit .... whatever you like !!
Strawberries , bananas, avocado is delicious in a smoothie (YUMMY) , blueberries, mango , pears, on and on and on !!

Freezing the fruit makes a ice cream kind of feel ... or room temp is fine too.

BOOSTERS :
Ground flax
protein powder (grass fed organic whey is the best ... but any kind is fine )
coconut oil
hemp seeds
ground almond powder
wheat grass shot
on and on and on !!

What we had today...
1 can coconut milk
1/2 avocado
1 banana
1/2 cup POM juice
1/2 cup organic OJ
1 cup blueberries
1 cup chopped Kale
2 tbs ground flax

Every child ate and loved the smoothie .... full of super foods !!

Happy snacking !
B.

Lentil Stew

What you need....

a few tbsp olive oil or unflavoured coconut oil

1 large onion chopped

3 cloves of garlic chopped finely

1 cup of mushrooms ( I prefer 1/2 cup dried mushrooms for some variety but button is fine too !)

2 carrots chopped small

2 cups of chopped kale

2 cups of nice young green cabbage chopped (cored of course)

1 large can of diced tomatoes or (my preference) 4 tbsp of tomato paste

1 tsp of dried sage or 8 - 10 fresh leaves chopped very small

a bay leaf

veggie stock ( about 5 or 6 cups)

lentils ... I use canned for convenience (2 cans of them) sake but if you want to use fresh use about 1 - 1 1/2 cups of small lentils ( like green or french) and cook separately and drain off excess water.

chopped cilantro or parsley for garnish ( both are great!)

This stew is easy to make and is so amazing for you and your family !!

heat oil in a large pot. Add the onion, garlic, and carrots, and mushrooms. Cook for about 5 mins string to prevent the garlic from burning.

Add the cabbage and kale and cook another 5 mins or so.

Add tomatoes or the paste and the sage and the stock with the bay leaf. Bring to a boil and let simmer for about 20 mins till the veggies are tender.

let the veggies cool down and remove the bay leaf. Blend up your veggie mixture however you like !! Hand blender is my fave but you can use a blender or the food processor ( if using the food processor only put in the veggies ...not the liquid. Then add a tiny bit of liquid to get the mix going. then add the liquids back in the pot) blend in batches if necessary.

Then add the cooked lentils to the stew ( minus the lentils cooking or canning liquid !!) and heat through ..... ENJOY !!

The kids LOVED it and so did Noah, Rebekkah, and I

Happy eating !!