Peanut Butter Banana Bites

You can make this snack early in the day and freeze it, or you can make them and server them right away.  

I also have had the kids help me and make them - and I have made them for the kids. 

We have topped them with nuts, dried fruit, cereal and trail mix! - This recipe is too easy and too delicious not to share with you. 

You can use almond butter or sunflower nut butter, but I feel like those butters are thinner and if you want to use one of them, I like the method of rolling the banana in the nuts with the butters spread on the outside. 

Red Monster Smoothie

I just love this Red Monster Smoothie - I am still trying to love the green ones as much as the rest of the whole world does. 

 

 I really like to buy lots of berries when they are in season and freeze them for making smoothies and nice cream. Berries never seem to last as long as I would like them to in my fridge. 

If you are using frozen fruit, go ahead and leave out the ice - you'll have a plenty frozen smoothie. And I really do like to use water in mine, anything else just adds sugar and calories that you won't miss. And adding more water, which your body will thank you for! 

 

Watermelon Raspberry and Lime Pops

You know those times when you buy a watermelon and it just isn't as good as you want it to be.  You don't want to waste it, but it isn't going to be delicious to just eat.  I have a solution for you - add some raspberries and lime and make popsicles!

It's a genius idea, refreshing and cold it is everything a summer treat could need to be!

The perfect way to enjoy that watermelon that you swore was going to be perfect and then turned out to be a little bit less than. 

Fresh Watermelon Mint Lemonade

I love a good drink! I know how that sounds, but I love to make a sweet icy treat and sit out in my porch swing with Joseph and enjoy the last few hours of the summer day. 

I made this lemonade because the watermelon that we bought was not good. It wasn't sweet and juicy and I couldn't get anyone to eat it. So I decided to see if I could use it up in a drink. 

I had lots of mint because I ordered a mint plant with my grocery pick-up order and they didn't have one... so they gave me 3!! packs of fresh mint leaves. I was swimming in it. 

I love to make lemonade by putting whole lemons (that I cut the peels off of) in my blender, so I thought I would test this out.  It is Delicious! So sweet and refreshing and the mint and watermelon together are just perfect. You'll wonder how you didn't put them together before. 

Chorizo and Egg Burritos - You Can Freeze

When we were at Costco the other day, I stumbled onto the Hugest tortillas. I grabbed up two packages and decided I was going to make giant breakfast burritos. 

Now you don't need to make giant ones, the recipe that follows is for normal human sized burritos. But I highly recommend that you make some and stock up your freezer for quick breakfasts,  hearty snacks and midnight burritos in bed. (I totally made that last one up, *No, I didn't!)

Having breakfast is a huge part of living a healthy lifestyle. Fueling your body with grains, proteins and sneaking in some veggies starts your day and your body off right. 

You'll do better in everything you try and accomplish that day, your brain works better and your body runs happier when it has fuel. 

Visit My Plate - Breakfast to learn about making small changes to have an amazing start to your day.

Watermelon Frozen Yogurt Bark

I love fun food. I guess to my brain, food that looks cute just tastes better. 

I don't know if that is really true, but it is awfully fun to make, and I love being the mom that says, Who wants Frozen Yogurt and then bringing this outside and letting them be amazed at all the colors and textures and tastes. 

Food should be fun, don't you think?

You'll want to make this the day before you want to serve it. Depending on how cold your freezer is and how thin you make the bark, you might be able to get away with making it in the morning to serve in the afternoon, but I wouldn't risk it the first time.  I always like my first time making something to be a low-key test without too much pressure - otherwise if it fails, I am really crushed emotionally. 

Here are the ingredients that you'll need - parchment paper or non-stick foil (something that you can lift out),  a round pan (a cake pan or a pie pan work great), yogurt in a flavor you like, I used vanilla and colored it with food coloring, so you'll need food coloring, 2 plastic zip bags and mini chocolate chips. 

Color your yogurt and put it into 2 separate plastic bags.

Use your green first, snip off a corner of the bag and pipe around the edge of your circle. 

Then snip off the corner of the pink bag and pipe that into the center of the green. 

I am a terrible mess maker and so then I needed to go back with a small spatula and smooth out my messy piping job. It looked much nice after that. 

 After that, sprinkle some mini chocolate chips in the center and then put it in your freezer - laying it as flat as you can. 

When you are ready to serve it, take it out about 5 minutes before you are wanting to serve. Remove the foil or parchment from the pan and let it sit on your counter. 

When you are ready to serve it, cut it into watermelon slices. 

Fair Warning - this is pretty messy.  My 14 year old said, "this is like holding a scoop of ice cream in your hand"  I served it outside on a hot day while we were playing in the sprinkler. So the mess didn't bother anyone at all. And the heat may have had a lot to do with how fast it was melting. 

But how fun is this? Icy frozen treats, shaped like a watermelon, that taste like vanilla and has chocolate chips "seeds" I love everything about this. 

Frozen Sour Candy Grapes

I feel a lot lately that I am always packing snacks. Packing snacks for the pool, packing snacks for the fireworks, packing snacks for the summer festival or a day at the beach. Snacks, Snacks, Snacks!

And it has been hard for us to get out of the habit of going to the store and raiding the aisle with all the sugar and chocolate and chips. Those are hard habits to get out of, especially when you want to relive old memories as much as you want to make new ones. 

So as we are trying to eat better and be healthier, I am trying to pack snacks that are better for us. And as much as my kids really love the veggies and fruit that I pack, sometimes I miss having the things for them that I think are "fun"  * I am the worst one here at our house about letting go of old habits

Alice and I made these fun frozen sour grapes for a day of fun at the little festival that celebrates the little town that I grew up in. It is a hot busy day and these frozen grapes were as delicious and refreshing as they were fun to make and eat. 

Here are out ingredients.  We used red grapes that we had washed, dried and picked off the stems. 

Then we used Elsa J-ello, because why would you not use Elsa j-ello,  if they had Little Mermaid j-ello, we probably would have used that instead. The lime is pretty good, but honestly the flavor doesn't matter all that much. 

And a few drops of lime or lemon juice. We used lime because it was what we had, but you can use lemon and you can use fresh if you have it as well, we just didn't. 

I let Alice make these all by herself and she did a great job. Charlie even came and helped and was successful at it without making too much of a mess. So I would say these are perfect for a 5yr old to make themselves once you get everything set up and show them how - a 2 yr old can make them, but you're going to have a mess to clean up. 

I set up three little stations for here. I put just a few drops of lime juice in the bottom of the bowl, really just a few drops, less than a teaspoon. You can to just barely wet the grapes. 

Then she rolled them all around in the j-ello and then put them on the plate. 

I didn't even have to let them "set-up" once she was done rolling, I put them all back into the zip plastic bag and put that right in the freezer. 

They are so good and really fun.  I really like frozen grapes anyway, but this made them a little bit special and honestly it didn't make me feel like my kids were "missing out" because I want them to eat healthy snacks. 

Strawberry Green Smoothie

My family just can't get enough of these Green Smoothies or Popeye Smoothies are you sometimes here them called. I have been making them thick to be like shakes and thin to be like smoothies. 

They are perfect for the hot weather that we are having as a quick nutritious cool down or for a healthy afternoon snack. Lots of people enjoy them for breakfast, but at our house, that means I would have to run the blender while the littlest ones were still sleeping - and you know that isn't happening. 

I am getting much better at mixing flavors and even venturing out onto my own. I haven't gotten brave enough to just start throwing anything in, but perhaps we'll get there soon. 

I am also learning lots of basic steps, like a banana will sweeten it, and also make it creamier. If you use frozen fruits, you will need a lot less ice. And a huge tip that I have learned is that fruit juice in them, doesn't really do much. You can add water and save yourself the sugar and the calories. 

Ingredients:

1 ripe banana

4 large strawberries (I used frozen)

1 cup low-fat yogurt

1 handful spinach

(water and ice to desired consistency)

Directions:

Add all of your ingredients to your blender. 

The more ripe that your banana is, the less you will have to sweeten your smoothie. 

Blend all of your ingredients together. 

You can add in a little water and/or ice to get the consistency you prefer. 

The ice will thicken it a bit and make it colder, of course.