The Lively Kitchen

Apple Cinnamon Baked Doughnuts

At some point before my kids hit middle school I pledge to get the hang of the school morning routine. It’s quite honestly pathetic that I am still struggling with getting the girl and husband out of the house by 7:20, especially since generally I’m not trying to get myself or the boy out of the house at that hour too. At one point in my life all four of us were leaving the house by 7:30 – the husband and I both for work and the kids for daycare – but somehow with the whole stay-home mom gig, I’ve simultaneously eased up on the morning schedule and created a harried pace. Ironic juxtaposition – my middle names.

I have learned that having a pre-made breakfast like pumpkin bread, peanut butter and banana breakfast cookies and/or Oatmeal and Wheat Bread Machine Bread for toast cuts a good 5 minutes out of the breakfast prep. And those 5 minutes are golden. Those 5 minutes are the difference in me getting to drink me tea or not. Which, truthfully, sets the tone for the rest of my morning. Hot tea = gonna be a good day! Cold tea (or, worse, no tea) = oh dear.

(I’ve also learned that packing the entire lunch for the girl and husband the night before saves me a good 10-15 minutes, but that requires mammoth motivation in the evening hours when the couch and a good book are screaming at me to join them.)

I modified my Baked Vanilla Doughnuts recipe recently when I was craving something with apple cinnamon flavors. They turned out great and made two mornings into hot tea mornings.

These could be baked into muffin tins too – just watch them closely the first time to determine bake time.

Baked Apple Cinnamon Doughnuts

Enough for 6-7 doughnuts (or about 6 muffins)

1/2 c whole wheat or spelt flour
1/2 c white flour
1/4 c sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
dash nutmeg
1/4 c + 2 Tbsp buttermilk
1/2 -3/4 c shredded apple
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla

Optional Glaze Ingredients: 3/4 c powdered sugar + 2 Tbsp milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Lightly coat a donut pan with cooking spray.

2. Combine flours, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl and stir well with a whisk.

3. In a second bowl, combine buttermilk, egg, apple and vanilla, stirring well with a whisk.

4. Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture and mix until just combined. Don’t over-stir, as it will make the donuts less tender.

5. Either spoon batter into the donut pan, or, if you’re a perfectionist like me, pipe the batter into the pan using a large plastic bag with the corner cut off. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until donuts are slightly golden on bottom.

6. Cool in pan about 5 minutes and then cool completely on a wire rack.

7. When doughnuts are cool, top with glaze.

8. Enjoy.

Tags: apple, baking, kid friendly, recipe

Comments 5 Comments
Categories Kid Friendly, Recipes, Uncategorized

Cilantro Melon Detox Smoothie

29 Apr

Alternative Title: I did a 21 day cleanse and all I have to show for it on the blog is this one recipe.

Here is my deep question to start your Monday:

If you do something and don’t blog about it (or Facebook it or Instagram it or Tweet it), did it really
happen?

You’ll have to take my word for it, since I don’t have 21 days worth of food, smoothie, green juice, herbal teas and supplement pictures to display. I blogged all the meals last time I did the cleanse, but that time I only made it 13.5 days and I was pretty blah about the whole thing. This time it’s been 90% great and I’m probably going to keep
it up for another day or two.

I followed the Clean Program guide (link here), using my own protein powder and supplements instead of buying the kit they sell. I used recipes from the book and the website and made up a few of my own following the food
guidelines. The basic protocol is a liquid breakfast/solid lunch/liquid dinner in order to ease the digestion process so the body can spend more energy cleaning/detoxing. Sugar, dairy, eggs, gluten, allergenic fruits and veggies and most processed foods are off limits.

The only two meals I have photographed in the last 2 weeks. Someone (a newly detoxed someone) has fallen off the food blogger bandwagon.

Raw Wrap from Green Restaurant (Collard Green, Spinach, Carrots, Celery, Cranberries, Mushrooms and the world’s best raw pecan hummus) with quinoa tabouli and a small kale salad.

Macrobiotic(ish) bowl - Brown Rice, Broccoli, Black Beans + Sprouted Adzuki Beans, Kraut and Nori

The cleanse has been a good thing for me. My energy has come back, my skin has cleared up and I’ve enjoyed feeling victorious over my sugar cravings. I’m aware of how much non-hungry snacking I do. I haven’t gotten on a scale yet, but I’m guessing I’m down a couple of pounds, which isn’t unwelcome at the beginning of swimsuit season.

Juicing isn’t really a pillar of the program, but I decided to add in a daily juice as my first ‘meal’ of the day. I followed it an hour or so later with a smoothie. I definitely spent more time in the kitchen in the mornings by making both juice and a smoothie, but I’d like to keep juicing most mornings post-cleanse.

My Vita-Mix has become the most-used appliance in the kitchen and it probably cursing this cleanse. I made two smoothies some mornings and generally used it at night to make my soup or dinner smoothie. Thankfully it’s quite easy to clean.

This very simple Cilantro Melon smoothie was one of my favorite drinks during the cleanse and will be a summer staple. I have made fantastically refreshing popsicles with the leftover smoothie. I like this smoothie as a light ‘first breakfast’ or afternoon pick me up.

Cilantro, beyond being darn tasty, is quite the detox soldier. It is an antioxidant, metal chelator, natural antibiotic and blood sugar regulator. It may even improve sleep quality. I’m going to be honest and say that
my sleep quality is generally more impacted by whether or not one or both kids wake up in the middle of the night and no amount of cilantro is going to help with that. I’m also going to be honest and say that even if cilantro did none of those wonderfully healthy things, I’d still consume it because it’s just so delicious.

*http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/natural-health/health-benefits-of-cilantro/

Cilantro Melon
Detox Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 cup cubed honeydew melon
1/2 cup fresh or frozen pineapple
1/2 cup ice cubes and/or water (depending on blender strength)
big handful cilantro – I used about a cup

Directions: Blend all ingredients together. Add more water if needed to get desired consistency.

Tags: cilantro, cleanse, smoothies

Comments 6 Comments
Categories Smoothies, Uncategorized

Photo Friday – cleansing, book shopping and life

12 Apr

So, yeah, I’m not a very consistent blogger these days. Truth: this is the first time I even opened WordPress in 2 weeks. Oops.

How’ve you been?

I’m on day 5 of a cleanse. I’m following the program outlined in the book Clean by A. Junger and on http://www.mycleanprogram.com. I did this cleanse (and blogged about it in much greater detail) back in November of 2011. I’ve been eating too much sugar and snacky processed foods AND I’ve been breaking out (hello vanity) AND my energy has been low AND I just needed to change things up. I’ve been drinking green juices,

eating kale and quinoa,

Lentil and Rice ‘burgers’ that look eerily like the real thing,

juicing some more,

and having daily smoothies. The program is gluten, dairy, soy and refined sugar free. Just like last time, I miss tortilla chips the most (corn is off-limits). Although I did almost moan out loud this morning when I made toast for the kids (with Whole Wheat and Oatmeal Bread Machine bread) and inhaled the undeniably awesome smell of fresh toast.

In my non-food life, I scored at a used-book sale last week. Truth: any time I run across a copy of The Red Tent at a book sale, I buy it so I can give it to friends who haven’t read it.

Truth: I’m going to be crushed if my kids don’t love Encyclopedia Brown books like I did. Truth: I am much better at solving his mysteries in my 30s than I was in my single digit years.

Here’s a picture that makes me smile:

my boy and his buddy waving to a dear they named ‘Darla’ at a local park.

Oh, oh, I ran a 5K! And didn’t pass out! I ran the Culinaria Beer and Wine 5K and it was quite a fun experience. Now I’m back to my regularly scheduled non-running life.

San Antonio folks, I finally tried Juicer Heroes. The couple of juices I tried were a little sweet for my taste, but I will be back. I loved the friendly employees and supporting a home-grown local business.

And, finally, I am letting my girl get a fish. But only after making her check out ‘caring for your fish’ style books at the library and summarizing them on a poster. Truth: I’m that kind of mom. Aren’t my kid’s lucky?

Happy weekend! What’s new in your life?

Tags: cleanse

Comments 9 Comments
Categories Uncategorized

Spring Break 2013

18 Mar

Scenes from our week.

There was crafting at home (which rendered our table unusable for the week):

There was an unfortunate mug break. My very favorite mug. Whomp whomp. At least it met it’s demise in an exciting way: some energetic dancing by the boy, so energetic that his arms just whipped around a little too fast and a little too close to my mug. That’ll teach me to leave my tea in the path of my little juggernaut.

There was Chuck E Cheese, which was much more pleasant than I expected since we got there at 9:30. It was nearly empty and, as a result, the noise level was quite tolerable. They each got 40 tokens (I got 20 – this mama loves arcade games) and were given free range. True to their personalties, the girl played games that earned her tickets and used her tokens up quickly. The boy looked for games with good graphics and often just ‘played’ the demo without putting in a token. And my girl almost took out an employee with an errant yet forceful skeeball. I need to work on teaching them skee-ball techniques. Life skill, right?

There was an art museum (the McNay) and they only got too close to the art 17 times.

Due to said proximity to priceless art, we spent the majority of the time in the family craft area, along with 1345 (approx) other kids. All wielding scissors and glue with reckless abandon. And some seriously territorial hover parents. It was an interesting (and loud) people watching experience.

There was sleeping in. The husband brought me tea in bed each morning. Reason #746 that I got the better end of the deal in our marriage. That and he knew I had a long day of kid entertaining ahead of me. I also had at least one bed buddy each morning by 7.

There was a trip to the Magik Theatre to see Rapunzel. Very entertaining show – both kids loved the prince.

There ~~was kid cage-fighting~~ were backyard playdates. And backyard dinners. The weather was seriously amazing.

There was a trip to the library.

There was a park playdate complete with a picnic lunch and tree climbing. The kids actually spent all the play time tree climbing, ignoring the playground equipment. Which I think is pretty awesome. The girl and her friend even did some songwriting (a moving ballad about pets) in the tree.

There was a trip to see Oz. Which involved both kids needing to go to the restroom in the middle of the movie. Separately. Even though we went just before the movie started. Meaning I stepped on the same people’s toes 4 times.

The were beer-garitas. For the parents, lest you worry. It was spring break after all…

It was a fun and tiring week. I enjoyed the luxury of lazy days with the kids and very much appreciated having friends to spend time with during the week.

Comments 5 Comments
Categories Uncategorized

St. Patrick’s Day Green Smoothie Ideas

12 Mar

One day of Spring Break down, four to go. Today the kids are begging to go to Chuck E Cheese (to be fair, the little guy ‘earned’ a trip for good behavior about 4 months ago and we have yet to fulfill our end of the bargain {to be fair, I’m kind of failing on the consistent discipline/reward system- there goes my mom of the year award}) and maybe hit up a park. Anyone want to meet us at Chuck E Cheese?? We are only going to play games…. pizza is NOT part of the deal.

{insert witty transition to St. Patrick’s Day foods} {or not – day one of staycation spring break wore me out}

Here are some healthy and naturally green smoothie recipes for St. Patrick’s Day. These are really year-round smoothies, as we can all use more greens in our daily diet.

Family Friendly Creamy Mojito Smoothie

Creamy Key Lime Pie Smoothies

(these are my son’s very favorite smoothies and the only way I can get him to consume avocado)

Shamrock Smoothies

My favorite ‘starter’ green smoothie recipe for skeptics:

1 cup spinach, 1 frozen banana, 1 glob peanut butter, non-dairy milk and ice.

Happy Spring Break to all the Texan readers! Who else out there is spring break-ing?

Tags: Green Smoothie, smoothies

Comments 5 Comments
Categories Smoothies, Uncategorized

Daily Eats 3.6.12

6 Mar

A day of food.

Kid’s Breakfast: ‘half finished before I remembered to take a picture’ smoothies (kale, good belly juice, strawberries and plain yogurt) and frozen waffles

Tazo Joy Tea

Almonds

Looked over at my coffee table and had to smile. It may be messy, but at least it’s colorful. And random. Magnatile (best toy ever!) boxes with superheroes either inclosed or on top, mardi-gras beads, cut up straw ‘bead’ bracelets and a flower eraser. Totally normal coffee table toppers, right?

Fruit + half a sunflower seed butter + banana sandwich on toasted Ezekial 4:9 break

Snacktime: the boy had yogurt and I had a cara cara orange and some water

Lunch: ~~pond water~~ miso + water – I wasn’t feeling too great and seem to crave miso soup when I’m not up to par

Tea + eaten-straight-from-the-freezer banana chia muffin (from Let Them Be Vegan by D. Burton)

Airborne Honey Lemon mix. I bought this back in December while at Disney World when the girl came down with the flu. I actually really like the taste.

Dinner – Trader Joe’s Black Bean and Cheese Taquitos, Bean and Cheese Tostados for the kids, veggies and fruit

Comments 2 Comments
Categories Daily Eats

Currently I Am….

4 Mar

Listening to either The Lumineers CD or my Pitch Perfect Pandora station
Brainstorming ideas for Spring Break. We are going to hunker down in San Antonio and try to avoid the rush of tourists. Which means we will be no where near the Alamo, Riverwalk, Sea World, Zoo or Museums. Which means I need to think of some things to fill up our days.
Reading Where’d You Go, Bernadette by. M. Semple. I’m only on page 2, so can’t make any judgements yet.

Juicing, Menu Planning and Trying to Practice Self Restraint again in hopes to clean up my diet a little. Someone has gotten overly fond of sugar and processed foods again… and has the pimples to prove it. Tell me how I can have both new gray hairs, wrinkles AND pimples popping up simultaneously? Shouldn’t they exist independently?? I apologize to anyone who came in contact with me over the weekend and had to witness the mess that was my face.
Enjoying my girl’s reaction to Waiting for the Magic by P. MacLachlan . (‘This is my favorite book I’ve ever read! And can we get 5 dogs?”) It was the most mature book we’ve read together, but so wonderfully and sensitively written. Next up is Charlotte’s Web. Pass the tissues. And pass on the bacon.

Scrambling to ‘train’ for a 5K in 3 weeks that I got talked into. Is there a yoga mat to 5K program?? My only goal is to not embarrass my self. Too much.
Watching my little guy pour over the Guinness Book of World Records. There are some bizarre records in that book: most balloons blown up with a nose, most weight lifted by ni*ppl*es, fasted mile on a pogo stick. Maybe I should see if I can get in the book for ‘most cups of tea consumed in a year’ or maybe ‘only person to sport both pimples and gray hairs.’
Trying to finish my girl’s 6th year photo book before she hits 7 and a half this week.
Drinking a lot of tea: Central Market Green Jasmine, Numi Chinese Breakfast, Yogi Licorice Mint and Tazo Joy.
Missing my sister. It’s been too long since I’ve been in her presence.
Overhearing this exchange between my boy and his buddy who are currently playing upstairs “Let’s work together and try teamwork. Teamwork always works.” Guess whose mom makes him watch PBS kids shows instead of Sponge Bob?

What are you up to?

Comments 5 Comments
Categories Life

Valentine’s Day 2013 – the recap

20 Feb

We had a rather fantastic Valentine’s Day last week. I know I have said this before (so humor me), but Valentine’s Day is so much more fun for me now that we celebrate it as a fun family day.

We woke up the kids a little earlier than normal (just a little, as we knew they were in for a long day of sugar and excitement as were we) and had a special breakfast.

Banana muffins (this recipe baked into heart shaped muffin tins), heart pancakes and strawberries.

We made pancake batter using our usual C00king Light recipe (click for recipe) and I used fresh beet juice to color half the batter. As a unintended bonus, I forgot to half the recipe like I normally do and we ended up with ample pancakes which the kids ate for breakfast for the next two days. It was the gift that kept on giving.

A comedian that the husband and I both love, Demetri Martin, made a joke once about pancakes pulling a parachute on your day. I find that to be so true, even though the same ingredients baked into, say, a muffin, have no impact. If I eat pancakes I immediately want to sit on the couch and do nothing. Which wasn’t exactly in the cards for the rest of the day, so I skipped the pancakes and had a green juice. Interestingly enough, pancakes do nothing to damper my kid’s energy levels.

I packed the kid’s lunches while they ate breakfast.

The girl got heart shaped PB&J, heart shaped apples, a tube yogurt, some pretzels (including a few with white chocolate and sprinkles) and heart shaped cucumbers and bell peppers.

The boy got a sugar cookie (that he decorated the night before with our special beet colored frosting and, yes, I am aware that is a wee bit hippie), cheese tortilla roll up, strawberries, pirate’s booty and heart shaped apples and cucumbers.

After depositing two very excited kids at their respective schools, I ate my breakfast in the car on the way to yoga.

green jasmine tea, banana muffin and almonds

I had a post-yoga snack of beet + carrot+ apple + ginger juice and a raw brownie (this recipe from VegNews). It was savored after a challenging class. Can I also say again how much I love yoga?

I am sure I had some lunch, but I don’t have any pictures nor any recollection of what it was I ate. Guess it wasn’t that memorable.

Both kids left school seriously hyped up on sugar. As in alternating between bouncing off walls and talking a mile a minute. They had apples and almonds for a snack, making me the mean mom that didn’t let them dip into their Valentine’s Day candy just yet. It was quite fun to look through their loot and cards. There are some kids with uber-talented Pinterest-loving crafty moms in their classes. I am emphatically not one of them. But I love seeing their handiwork!

We had a family in our neighborhood over for our annual Valentine’s Day pasta dinner. It got a bit chaotic with 4 kids in the house so I didn’t get a picture of our main course, but you can check out previous Valentine’s Day posts if you’d like to see tomato cream sauce over penne pasta. We also had an unpictured salad with my favorite pink dressing, Oh She Glows Cranberry Vinaigrette.

The rest of our dinner spread:

Heart shaped pineapple and cantaloupe (which turned out to be a great task for my 7 year old) and strawberries

Chocolate covered strawberries, ‘pie crust + either chocolate chips or strawberry jam as filling’ tarts and sugar cookies that the kids and I did the night before.

Veggies + hummus (in a heart tin, of course)

Our traditional heart-shaped foccacia bread (pardon the lighting as neither the bread or I are as anemic as the picture suggests)

There was also red wine, sparkling pink lemonade + sparkling water drinks for the kids and lots of noise.

It was a great day to celebrate love and eat good food!

linking up (for the first time in ages!) with the WIAW at Peas and Crayons

Comments 10 Comments
Categories Uncategorized

Daily Eats 2.12.13

12 Feb

According to a very extensive Facebook Poll (or question with 7 responses – one of the two) the daily eats posts have been dearly missed. (Or just barely missed – one of the two).

Here is a day of food from a pretty normal Tuesday.

Woke up and made the kid’s breakfast:

oatmeal with cinnamon sugar (and horrible lighting)

and packed their lunches while they were eating.

the girl: carrots + snap peas + cucumbers, yogurt + blueberries, granola, clementine, leftover pizza

the boy: clementine, yogurt, pirate’s booty {cheese puffs}, snap peas + carrots+ cucumbers, cheese + tortilla

I had a cup of green jasmine tea on the way to school

and then came home and juiced.

I almost always make enough for two days. This combo was cucumber + celery + kale + parsley + apple + lemon. I cleaned up the juicer (the only downside of juicing) and took the boy to preschool with a second cup of tea.

I went to Bible Study and enjoyed some snacks with a side of conviction.

berries + grapes, pita chips + hummus, cup of tea (yes, I bring my favorite mug) and a cute little bookmark gift

After Bible study I came home and did a rousing round of laundry, sweeping and de-cluttering. I had a lunch made entirely of leftovers and enjoyed it surrounded by action figures and magna tiles. Clearly I didn’t get to de-cluttering the coffee table.

blueberries, boiled egg, roasted butternut squash, quinoa crunch salad and a kale salad

On the way to pick up the little guy I had a cranberry kombucha.

Once all the children were collected (including a neighbor) we had some Blender Peanut Butter and Banana Cookies,

and I had some unpictured almonds, dark chocolate square and some popcorn.

For dinner we took advantage of a BOGO coupon at Pei Wei and had a rare weeknight dinner out. The husband and I split the Pad Thai,

and the kids split the Lo Mein. It was an all around win – we ate for under $10 and there were no dishes to do.

Valentine’s Day preparations are in full force over here! I’ll try to post our day of heart shaped, pink and red foods on Friday. After I take the ninja turtles off the coffee table.

*I ~~stole~~ ~~borrowed~~ was inspired by the ‘Daily Eats with date format’ from Emily at A Nutritionist Eats. Hi Emily! :)

Comments 4 Comments
Categories Daily Eats, Uncategorized

Valentine’s Day Meal Ideas

11 Feb

Hello internet! The sporadic blogging continues….

I love Valentine’s Day now that we celebrate it as a day of love instead of a day of (forced IMHO) romance. For your reading pleasure, here are some of the recaps of our past Valentine’s Days.

Valentines Day 2012

Valentines Day 2011

Valentines Day 2010

For this year I’m thinking these pancakes (source) with our regular pancake recipe and beet juice for color for breakfast.

The kid’s lunch will look something like last year’s heart themed bento boxes:

(my lunch will be something a little less festive and a little less time consuming)

Our annual pink & red dinner menu is pretty set. We have heart shaped focaccia bread (recipe from the Betty Crocker Red Cookbook), Penne with Tomato Cream Sauce (it’s pink-ish), red vegetables and fruits and some pink sugar cookies (from the Eat Drink and Be Vegan cookbook).

Since the 14th falls on a school night, I’m thinking the red wine will wait until the 15th. :) Along with some dark chocolate. If we are celebrating love, goodness knows I love dark chocolate.

Comments 4 Comments
Categories Uncategorized

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The Lively Kitchen

Apple Cinnamon Baked Doughnuts

Cilantro Melon Detox Smoothie

Photo Friday – cleansing, book shopping and life

Spring Break 2013

St. Patrick’s Day Green Smoothie Ideas

Daily Eats 3.6.12

Currently I Am….

Valentine’s Day 2013 – the recap

Daily Eats 2.12.13

Valentine’s Day Meal Ideas

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