Friday, August 8, 2008

Blushing Breakfast and Pina Colada Smoothies

We had a very red breakfast this morning with organic produce from the co-op. Red grapes, pink lady apples, and pluots (Dapple Dandy to be specific, yes it looks a lot like an apple) with almond butter on the side for dipping. Big boost of bioflavonoids. Parker also had leftover nooch tofu as a sandwich with avocado and Dema had leftover rice and beans in a tortilla with avocado to go with their fruit. I may have mentioned in the past that I try to ensure the kids (us too, of course) get at least 10 different fruits and veggies daily (the whole 5 a day thing is to low, but "they" didn't want to make it higher because it is actually a stretch for many Americans to get five servings). I don't stress about it, but it is in the back of my mind just like getting some omega 3 fatty acids in there and making sure at least one of the vegetables daily is a leafy green, some legumes daily, B12, etc. Anyway, I love days when we've already had four or five different fruits/vegetables by breakfast.
I just take this as a given, but I had someone ask me the other day why we eat Sunbutter and almond butter instead of peanut butter. We obviously do eat some peanut butter, but I feel variety is key to a healthy diet (but we all get into our food jags where we eat a favorite for a while so I look at things daily, but also weekly/monthly to see how we are doing). Also, almond butter is higher in some nutrients like calcium. A variety of whole foods keeps things interesting and healthy.

I made the mango smoothie from yesterday with some changes and it was a big hit. It tasted very pina colada-ish (without the rum, of course). The amounts are estimates so play with it.

Pina Colada Smoothie:
1 bag organic frozen mangos (fresh is great, but add ice)
2 or 3 slices fresh organic pineapple (that is all we had left)
1/3 to 1/2 bunch organic chard
1/2 cup raw organic cashews
1 can organic coconut milk (you could use light, I didn't)
1/2 cup organic Orange Mango Carrot juice
1 ripe banana (or better yet, frozen ripe banana...just peel, cut up in slices and freeze)
Couple big spoonfuls of vanilla soy yogurt (optional)

I was going to take a picture, but the kids drank it too quickly (Parker had 2 and half glasses and Dema had 2) and I was guessing it wouldn't photograph well. It is a great yellowish color with green flecks from the chard. Yum!

We swam at our neighbor's pool and at Sholem (first time going there this year) today for a total of five hours swimming. The kids are turning into fish. Cold fish since the weather is beautiful this week, but maybe not the best for swimming. The ocean water in NC might have been warmer than the public pool today. No wonder they ate a bunch today...gotta keep up with the calories being burned.

Oh and for you locals looking for something to do August 15th and 16th, check out the Nature's Table Reunion.

6 comments:

The Fearless Freak said...

Breakfast looks tasty, minus the brown stuff, which I'm assuming was the Sunbutter. I've never tried it but I had almond butter when TB was little and it was AWFUL! I bought it because my dad watched him and wanted to make him easy lunches like PB and J but I wouldn't let him have PB since he was only about 15 months old. I bought it and a few days later was told that TB wouldn't eat it. So I tried it thinking it couldn't be THAT bad.

Unfortunately, it was THAT bad and worse, at least IMO. Kudos to you guys for eating it (since I'm certain it is better for us than the PB that we eat) :)

Stef said...

Oh how we love apples, I would love to head down one day and take Oliver apple picking, it would be something fun to plan before the summer is over, and hopefully we could all go! What a delicious breakfast.

VeganLinda said...

Fearless Freak,
You made me laugh about the almond butter. I prefer it to peanut most of the time, but the kids go in cycles where they prefer almond butter then sunbutter then peanut butter. The peanut butter we buy is the all natural kind with no sweeteners in it and the almond butter is naturally sweet so maybe that is why they like it so much. The only "butter" I don't like (I didn't really give it a chance, I have to admit) is soybutter, but with all the other butters out there (we like cashew butter too, but usually don't use it as much as the others) I don't think I'll be trying soybutter anytime soon. When we belonged to a buying club we would buy almond butter by the case. Yum! Oh and thanks for the water park info.

Stef,

We would love to go apple picking with you if you come down! We are thinking of coming up to Chicago next weekend...will you all be around? I'll email ya.

Stef said...

We will be around! It would be soooo good to see you!

Emilie said...

I love pink lady apples! Don't think they're in season around my neck of the woods yet though. But pluots sure are and you've inspired me to go eat one...I think there's a perfectly ripe specimen on the windowsill...

VeganLinda said...

Emilie,

Pink Ladies are our favorite, but we are kind of new to pluots. My kids love plums and apricots so of course, pluots were a hit too.