Callaloo Soup

My Green Smoothie Experiment

I have wanted to try green smoothies for months. Seriously. Since January when I wrote down being healthier as one of my goals for this year. But the truth is that I have never liked the green stuff. Let me rephrase that. I hate vegetables with a passion. I'm talking about your traditional steamed, tasteless "but they are good for you" vegetables. Just ask my mother (Hi Mummy!) Luckily as I matured (ahem), I have learned to appreciate veggies, especially when well seasoned and prepared.

But honestly? Drinking spinach or kale? Um, no thank you. But our neighbours gave us some spinach on the weekend, and since I wasn't going to cook it (although I loved it in the salad they made), I figured it was now or never. So I hopped onto Pinterest - because of course I have been pinning smoothie ideas all along. I decided to go with this guide by Sweat and The city  which broke it down very simply (the site seems to be defunct now though).

I used green tea as my base, then added spinach, frozen strawberries and bananas, flax seeds and agave as my sweetener.

It's more pink than green, but I'm ok with that!

Big glass for Mummy (me that is, not my Mummy. Was that confusing?), little glass for Kieran.

Yummmmmy! He didn't drink all of it, but he did have several sips. I quite liked it, although I think next time I will also add yoghurt for the consistency. I don't know if it was the energy boost from the smoothie, or the fact that it was warm and sunny all day yesterday, but we had a great day running and playing, and I didn't feel like collapsing on the couch and groaning until at least 6 p.m.

I guess I will be looking for spinach and kale at the market from now on!

Do you like green smoothies? Can your share your recipes and tips?

 

 

 

 

10 Herbs Growing in My Garden

We love cooking with fresh herbs, and this year we finally were able to plant a real herb garden. I wanted to have a wide variety, but we don't have tons of space so I did some research and found out about spiral herb gardens. Ours is a mini version, but still big enough for the 10 herbs currently growing, with room for some more.

The ones we have right now are

1. Thyme

2. Rosemary

3. Marjoram

4. Basil

5. Chives

6. Sage

7. Mint

8. Coriander

9. Parsley

10. Lemon verbena

 

With this mix we have savory ones for cooking and a couple for herbal teas (lemon verbena and mint tisane anyone?). I also want to add oregano, savory (or sariete), dill and also an aloe plant.

So tell me, do you grow your own herbs? Have any suggestions for some I should add?

P.S. See more lists of 10 Things here on Shimelle.com

Friends, Food, Family & Wine | Scenes From the Weekend

How was yours?

Lunch is Served | How Pinterest Helps Me to Eat Better Lunches

One of my goals this year is to try to eat better lunches on the days I only have myself to feed. Usually I just grab whatever I find when I am on the go, but I decided that I need to treat myself better than that, and take the time to sit and enjoy a nice meal.

Of course my main source of finding recipes comes into play here: Pinterest! I created a pin board called Lunch is Served to save yummy looking dishes for my lunch times. A couple weeks ago I adapted this salad, and it was so delicious that not only did I have it again two days later, but Lucas also made himself one to take for his lunch.

Pear, walnuts and blue cheese on spring greens with a honey balsamic vinaigrette.

Two days later I swapped the pear for apples and added dried cranberries. Equally delicious.

I've also had this spicy sphagetti dish, this pasta dish and this one is on the menu for lunch on Friday. 

I'm also trying to mix things up a bit for my lunches with Kieran, and just this week we have had these quesadillas and these BLTs.

So, are you hungry yet?

 

Happy Monday! | Have a Cupcake on Me

There! That should help make this day go smoothly!

{Cupcakes made using my go to easy cupcake recipe. Buttercream recipe by Cheeky Kitchen}

Pinterest Picks: 5 Meals We Loved

1. Roasted Garlic, Olive and Tomato Toasted Salad from Apartment Therapy's The Kitchen - the dressing is made from ricotta and yoghurt and is smooth and yummy.

2. Vegetarian Sweet Potato Chili from Perry's Plate - full of tasty healthy goodness

3. Brown Sugar and Balsamic Glazed Pork Loin from Let's Dish - I've made this three times so far. The glaze is to.die.for. We pretty much have this just as an excuse to eat the glaze!

4. Garlic Shrimp with Basil, Tomatoes and Pepper Flakes from Serious Eats - I spent an hour cleaning the shrimp for this and was grumpy about it, but the meal was well worth the effort. I do suggest you have the shrimp peeled and deveined at the market if possible though. Eliminating that part truly makes it a quick meal to prepare.

5. Butternut Squash Risotto from Woman's Day - Yes risotto breaks your arm off, but this meal was worth the pain! (says she whose husband actually cooked this one).

I jokingly tell people that Pinterest has revamped our meals over the last couple months, but it's true. I found and repinned all these recipes there, (and more), and we have been eating really well lately. I'm also looking forward to testing out a few of the cakes and desserts I've been drooling over during the summer!

If you're on Pinterest do you use it as a way to save recipes you want to try? Have you tested any out yet?

An Unexpected Family Afternoon

Yesterday was the annual Fete de la Musique in France, and as it turned out Lucas had the afternoon off, so we packed up the munchkin boy and headed out to one of my old time favourite haunts, Vieux Lyon.

 
After a healthy fruit snack we came upon an accordian player, just in front of La Marquise Tea Room

 

Tea wasn't on our minds however, not after we saw this!

Home made ice cream in a variety of luscious flavours!

I had the passion fruit and coconut, and Lucas had the passion fruit and lemon. Kieran had vanilla

and passion fruit, coconut and lemon!

There was some dancing

and a break for cookies (also home made at the Tea Room).

Finally a stop for a quick GPOF on the way back (a GPOF is the family version of a GPOY. I just totally made that up.)

Given that Kieran fell asleep last night without a murmur and was still going strong 12 hours later I think we need more afternoons like this one!

 

 

Summer Foods are Back!

With the increasingly warm temperatures of late we are again starting to eat lighter and more refeshing meals.

Although it can be argued that this amount of cheese can't really be considered "light".

Thinly sliced tomatoes drizzled with olive oil,topped with mozarella and feta, and sprinkled with black pepper and salt. Served with a side of fish terrine.

Delicious!

What foods are you preparing for the warmer days?

Birthday Wishes

My birthday was this past Saturday and on Friday I sent this tweet out

I must say that all my wishes came true.

Well all except that number being 23 instead of 43. Although come to think of it the idea of being 23 again makes me shudder!

I got to sleep in late on Saturday, was fed breakfast in bed by my two guys, and spent all day lazing around, chatting online and browsing Pinterest to my heart's content.

I got fed delicious meals.

I didn't change any diapers or do any laundry.

I had enough free time to make a few changes to ye old blog (did you notice the new category images to the right?)

On Sunday morning I went to the flea market and picked up a few goodies

Then spent the afternoon alternating between paper crafting (I'm working on a new art journal) and baking cupcakes.

I tried this lime cupcake recipe, and also a great new way to make frosting. Both recipes turned out to be more time consuming than expected, but were totally worth it. I highly recommend you try them, but please learn from my mistake and don't start baking at 3 p.m! I'm really glad I only made one dozen, because it is taking all my will power not to gobble them all up!

Speaking of birthdays, this week I am over at Write.Click.Scrapbook talking about birthday party planning, using your scrapbook supplies for celebrations, and of course scrapbooking birthdays. How's that for a neat segue?

 

A Week of Good Eats

We've been trying to up the ante with meals over here. Recently we'd gotten into a rut where we were having the same thing over and over again. Lots of pasta for one (which Kieran didn't mind at all!) and the same kind of meats and veggies. I find that tends to happen a lot in winter, I guess because there is much less available during this time. So not only did we finally start weekly meal planning before grocery shopping, but we have been trying out some new recipes.

They have all been hits. Every single one.

These are the Sloppy Joes that Lucas and I had for lunch on Wednesday. With Belgian beer. They were made with leftovers from the chili I made in the crockpot on Monday. The recipe came from my trusty crockpot recipe book (English version is here)

Here are the other recipes we tried:

Butternut Squash risotto

Crock Pot Pork Chops with Cranberry Stuffing

Slow Cooker White Bean Soup

We enjoyed all of these and will definitely make them again, some with a few adjustments for our taste.

Just yesterday we had this Moroccan Vegetable stew, and it will also be added to our arsenal, albeit with more spices.

I usually do a whole chicken in the crock pot, and have just been tossing it in with onions, carrots and potatoes. This week I plan to try either this recipe, or this one. Actually, maybe I'll combine them! Stay tuned for my report.