green monster

I had my first green monster today and all I can say is oh my gosh it was delicious!!! What is a green monster you might ask? Read more about the movement here. Angela's other site, Oh She Glows, is awesome too if you are interested in healthy recipes and fitness tips. Anyway, I found this recipe on she-fit.com and had all the ingredients on hand so I decided to give it a shot. Wow, you can't even taste the spinach! It was very filling and I can't wait to have another one tomorrow!!

Also, my husband saw it he kept saying, "GROSS!!" so I convinced him to have a drink so he at least had the backup to say it was gross. It wasn't his favorite but he did say had I put it in a solid colored cup where he could not see the green smoothie, he would've liked it! And that's coming from one picky eater!

Recipe from she-fit.com via Green Monster Movement

2 cups of spinach

1 cup of almond milk

1 frozen banana

6 cubes of ice

a dash of stevia to taste (I used raw sugar)

lemon blueberry scones

I got this recipe from one of my favorite blogs, gimme some oven, and have been wanting to try it for some time now. This was the first time I'd ever used whole wheat flour, and I was very pleased that I couldn't really taste the difference. My only advice is if you're looking for a sweet scone, be sure to add the glaze :) I didn't have buttermilk on hand so I used the old make your own trick!

Healthy lemon blueberry scones
from gimme some oven

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 Tbsp. sugar (optional)

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 Tbsp. lemon zest

1/4 cup butter, chilled and cut into pieces

1/4 cup olive or canola oil

3/4 cup milk or buttermilk

1 cup fresh or frozen berries (don’t thaw them)

2 Tbsp. lemon juice

1 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 400°F. Spray a baking sheet with nonstick spray.

Put the flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and lemon zest in the bowl of a food processor or into a medium mixing bowl and pulse or stir until well blended. Add the butter and oil and pulse or stir with a wire whisk or fork until crumbly. If you’re using a food processor, transfer the mixture to a medium bowl.

Add the milk and berries and stir gently just until the dough is combined.

Pat the dough into a circle that is about 1” thick and 8”-9” in diameter on the cookie sheet. (If they are sweet and you want a brown, crunchy top, brush them with a little milk and sprinkle with sugar.) Cut the circle into 8 wedges with a knife or pastry cutter and separate them on the sheet so that they are at least an inch apart.

Bake for about 20 minutes, until golden. Remove from oven.

If you would like to add glaze, stir together lemon juice and powdered sugar in a small bowl until well-blended. (Feel free to add more/less powdered sugar to make the glaze your desired consistency.) Brush or drizzle glaze on top of cooled scones (or if you’re impatient like me, brush while they’re warm), and serve.

Ali’s Tip:

If you end up opting to pass on the glaze, feel free to add in an extra teaspoon or two of lemon peel to the scones to give them an extra kick of lemon. You could also sprinkle a bit of raw (turbinado) sugar on top of the scones before baking to give them a little extra flavor if you’re going glaze-less. :)

these mice are so nice!

My uncle's mom (my grandma-ish?) book club lady friends threw her a "birthday tea" yesterday. One of the gals from the club made these absolutely adorable mice. I thought they were just toooo cute not to share! They are basically made with maraschino cherries with stems (cherries dipped in chocolate), sliced almonds and Hershey kisses!