Creamsicle smoothie!

98 degrees and hot flashes. Necessity is the mother of invention!

I blended about 2 tablespoons of orange juice concentrate with 2/3 cup soymilk, a teaspoon of vanilla extract and 1.5 cups of soymilk. Fantastic!

Healthy summer drinks

I'm trying to cut down on sugar intake and increase liquids*, and I'm getting really sick of water.  Sooo...I've been experimenting and here's a few successes:

• 1 slice of lemon, 1 slice of lime, ice and club soda (refreshing but not sicky sweet)
• 1 slice of orange, a few slices of cucumber, ice and water
• a few shots of espresso (decaf works too), creamer, and crushed ice blended (frozen coffee drink!)
• dash of vanilla extract, club soda and ice (less sweet version of cream soda)
• Zevia ginger root beer

I'm planning to try making a stevia version of horchata too!
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*Why, you ask?  Well besides the fact that it's summer....I moved to the low desert and I'm not feeling as thirsty as I should be.  Apparently humidity makes you feel thirstier.  I'm trying to push myself to drink more until I adjust. This also explains why I'm into horchata all of a sudden. :D

Learning by Doing

Ever since I was a little kid, I tend to try new things, just for the adventure of doing them.  I often will embark on an adventure and research instructions midway.  This procedure has not served me well, but for some reason the fascination is lowered if I look up the facts first. 

Yes, if it's some major undertaking, like tiling my backsplash, I get instructions first.  Little trial-and-error things, like growing something new--I like to try it out myself to see if I can come up with an innovative way to do it without being influenced by others.  This is generally a silly and unproductive way to do things. :)

Not learning from past failures, I tried sprouting lentils this week.  I make no excuses for this.  Fed up with our still-snowy weather at the cusp of May, I crave green and growing things. 

So now I've got a fresh crop of lentil sprouts in my sprouting jar.  I'm trying to get them a little bigger so I'm eating less bean and more sprout, only because I'm concerned the raw lentils won't be edible.  Lentils have a lot more fiber than many other beans--eating them raw would seem to be a form of self abuse. :) 

So then I looked it up and found this blog post.  The guacamole blended with lentil sprout puree sounds good. 

My sprouts need to get a little greener.  I'm putting them on the windowsill today to see if they'll green up.  Then bring on the experimentation!

How do you like your....cereal?

Light and sweet?

I have tried every iteration of oatmeal I think. Milk, soymilk, water. Margarine or none. Dark brown sugar, light brown sugar, white sugar, molasses or stevia. Fresh fruit, dried fruit, frozen bananas warmed and mashed, cranberry sauce, applesauce, pumpkin or none. Cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice or none. Salt or none. Rolled oats, toasted rolled oats, or steel cut oats.

I've also tried cream of wheat, cream of rice, cornmeal mush, and porridge made from various grains--rye, wheat berries, couscous, etc.

I've found my favorite is steel cut oats made with water, dark brown sugar, margarine and cinnamon.

What's your favorite?

Ahhh...winter!

Or not. It's been unseasonably warm here. I LOVE it!

I went on a hike in the woods a few days ago. There was barely a dusting of snow and it was sunny. As we walked in the silent woods, tiny glistening snowflakes drifted off the evergreens and onto us. The smell of the woods was phenomenal. It was bliss.

This may be the first time I've ever enjoyed winter. There's a first time for everything, I guess!

Hope it lasts.