Monday, January 17, 2011

Drink Your Cares Away

This morning I was having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.  I stay up too late and get up too early.  Most nights I even get up a few times to attend to somebody.  Last night, it was a very stuffy baby suffering from cedar fever.

This particular morning I had a new potty trainee on a toilet in the kitchen, an older child begging for snacks and another movie to occupy the potty trainee and don't be fooled, the big sister too.  Then I had a little snot nose fellow that wouldn't be put down.  I mean he was hanging on for dear life with claws and pinches when I tried.  So I found myself attending to all of these people and their non stop needs until nearly 10 a.m.  I got up at 6 a.m.  If you know me at all I really do need to eat breakfast.  REALLY I NEED BREAKFAST even though I am not particularly fond of it.

So at 10 a.m. I toted the baby upstairs to the playroom and the girls followed.  They requested that their rainy day project (a big cardboard house) be brought to the playroom.  I lugged it upstairs and I noticed they were all satisfied.  Everyone of them.  And they were getting along peachy.  So I snuck downstairs to grab a bite to eat.  As soon as I arrived in the kitchen, the requests began again.  So I offered to make them a snack smoothie while they played.  I told them I'd invite them down when it was ready.  Everyone was pleased.

I had planned on making this smoothie last night.  At the store yesterday I gathered all of the ingredients and planned the recipe.  I envisioned the color and knew it may be a distraction so while I lay in bed late, late last night I planned this event.  A beach party.  I planned on having sun glasses and beach towels ready when I served the smoothie.  It was going to be a beach picnic.  But after my morning, I was just too tired to think of more laundry and possible whines from friends about the sunglasses.

I decided to go with colored cups and lids.  I had all of the smoothies ready to go in the cup when I invited them to the kitchen for snack.  I still felt grouchy and exhausted.  After having a quick taste, I was pleasantly surprised.  Yes, surprised that this made up recipe turned out so yummy.  I couldn't help it.  I took a big clear glass down from the cabinet and filled it to the top.  This may be my down fall.  I knew it was a risk, but well worth it.  This smoothie was delightful and I needed it.  NEEDED IT!

We all sat down together and drank.  We did, we drank our cares away and laughed.  We told stories and giggled as one crazy kid did a "siwwy dance."  We drank one glass, then a second.  And 1 of 3 and 3 of 3 came back for thirds.  That little 3 of 3 probably had some serious brain freeze.  He was sucking the smoothie down!  Then he'd run over to me and say, "M, M, M!"  I think he was trying to say more because he was thrusting the cup into my hands.  He rejoiced when he received the filled cup.  And again he began working on more brain freeze.

So this crazy smoothie helped turn a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day into a perfectly lovely one!  And this is how the smoothie received its name.  I drank my cares away this morning with a nourishing smoothie.  I will probably make it once a week.  And guess what, it has 5 super foods.  Score!  As in big Andi score.  Read Double Dog Dare if you don't know what I'm talking about.

Here are the ingredients and recipe.

Drink Your Cares Away Smoothie:

1 med blood orange, halved
1 med orange, halved
1 cup frozen strawberries
1 large banana
1 Fuji apple, quartered
1/2 cup raw brussels sprouts
1/2 cup raw kale
1 cup raw baby spinach
2 cups ice cubes

Place all of the ingredients in the blender or Vitamix (in the order listed) and blend on high for 45 seconds.  This recipe can also be halved.  We LOVED it!  Hope you do too!

7 comments:

  1. sounds lovely and i love how you got brussels sprouts in there!

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  2. This is such a sweet post. You do such a good job of describing the craziness and the neediness of children, but also how much fun it is to hang out with them during the days. Thanks for sharing!
    Oh, and I'm your newest follower. If you want to check my blog out, it's: http://notesfromnaptime.blogspot.com

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  3. That sounds awesome. I will definitely pick some of those ingredients up at the market today. My husband and I were laughing at how surprised we were that our son liked some other health-ful slushy drink. I told him you could probably blend dogpoop with ice cubes and he'd devour it as long as you told him it was a milkshake. :-P

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  4. Thanks, Eschelle! A friend of mine made a comment that she wasn't sure about this smoothie recipe since it had the brussels sprouts. I assured her that I would not have posted about it if you could taste them. Yummo!

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  5. Alicia, You are too funny! The kids may like any kind of smoothie but the momma sure won't! Good luck serving this to your little people. I'd love to know if they like it too!

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  6. Callie, Thank you so much for your kind comment and for following my blog! I am on my way to check out your blog! Can't wait. Love reading new blogs. Have a great day!!!

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  7. I love Austin, yes I do. It's been too long since I've been home! That sounds like one mean smoothy you have there! You'll have to stop by on friday for the Ranndom Makings HOP I host and link this one up! Thank you for following, and I am following you back! Have a great day!

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