a happy Mother's Day with green smoothies

Well, today started out rough. I walked out of my bedroom at 5 minutes before 6am (I have to be at church at 7:30am), and Caden was already screaming in his crib. Oh, the frustration. I was excited to start breakfast, applesauce bread (which was YUMMY), and then sit at the Lord's feet for a few minutes. Yeah, that didn't happen. Instead, I mixed the ingredients for the bread with a screaming 2-year-old at my feet.

The day definitely got better (except for our computer crashing...I'm using the boys'). When I got home from church, the boys and Mike gave me my gifts! Before the computer crashed, Nate and Kyle both made me cards on the computer with 5 reasons why they love me, pictures of themselves, and pictures of tulips...my favorite flower!! It was really sweet! Mike got me an awesome card and a Passion '06 worship cd. It is AWESOME!!

Then, Mike told the boys to go get my other gift out of his closet.

They got me what I asked for, this...
so that I can make green smoothies!!!! So, for dinner tonight, we had popcorn chicken (which Mike made and was AWESOME!), mashed potatoes, and smoothies. The kids LOVED them and wanted more!

Here is what I put in our smoothies tonight:

1 cup chopped carrots
2 handfuls of fresh spinach
2 apples, cored and chopped a little (I left the peel on)
2-3 tbsp orange juice concentrate (canned freezer kind)
2 bananas
10 strawberries
1 cup crushed ice (our refrigerator crushes ice)
1/2 water

Blend, blend, blend!!!!

Like I said, they were really YUMMY and so good for you!! And since my new blender has a dispenser, it just made it even more fun to fill up the cups mess-free!

So, my dear blogger-readers, I hope you had a wonderful day celebrating your mom and being celebrated if you are a mom! We have a tough job! But, because it is tough, it causes me turn to my heavenly Father for strength, wisdom, and guidance!

Oh, and between the revealing of the blender and the actual usage of the blender, I took a LONG, LONG nap ;)

flour tortillas!!

For the first time ever, I made my own flour tortillas!! They turned out so yummy; even the kids ate them :)

Here is the recipe I used. I used an organic all-purpose flour for the flour and coconut oil for the oil, but you could use anything. I also left out the Lecithin, since I don't have any and don't even know what it is! Seriously, this was the EASIEST thing ever and SO CHEAP!! It only is flour, water, baking powder, salt, and oil! If you have a rolling pin and a pan or griddle, you can do it!!

Our friend and old pastor in Maine told us once that he remembers times as a child when he only had mustard and bread in his refrigerator because times were so tough. So now, when we are having a tight month financially, which is actually pretty often, and I need to be creative with what ingredients I already have in my pantry, I call it a "mustard month."

It's amazing how God provides during these "mustard months" and how He spurs on my creativity! For example, two Sundays ago I led music at a little church out in Mannford. The pastor of the church has chickens and left a container of eggs for me on top of the piano. I was ECSTATIC!!! Good-for-you-no-hormones-added REAL EGGS, FREE!!! Yippee!!! Can you sense my excitement??

And now, tonight, because I was completely out of my totally good-for-you tortillas that are slightly overpriced, I took a shot at making them. Yes, I ran the risk of creating something that didn't even resemble a flour tortilla. But because I had all the ingredients and really needed them for dinner tonight, I thought what the heck! See, THIS is a benefit of a "mustard month"!!!

By the way, dinner tonight was SUPER easy! I just threw 3 frozen chicken breasts, a couple of cups of black beans that I cooked and froze on Sunday, and cup or two of salsa in the crockpot and let it cook all day. Then, I cut up the chicken into small bites (the meat kind of just falls apart actually), put it back in the crockpot, stirred it all up, and then served it with my flour tortillas! Easy!!!

Next, I want to try another way to make yogurt!! I gave up a while ago, but this looks like it could be promising!

Possible meal ideas

In my pursuit for my family to eat healthier and to eliminate all high fructose corn syrup, monosodium glutamate (msg), hydrogenated oils, refined sugars & grains, artificial food coloring, and other chemicals and ingredients that I can't pronounce, I am on a mission to find new recipes and meal plans. I can't believe how many products still have msg in them, including cream soups (used to make many casseroles), canned enchilada sauce, taco seasoning, and Doritos. For more information, you can go to msgtruth.com. It's really alarming. Anyway, as I find recipes, I am going to post the recipes here.

These are all from thefamilyhomestead.com, a great website! The only modifications to these recipes is that I will use my own seasonings when the recipe calls for taco seasoning.
Black Bean Burrito Casserole
Bean Burritos
Black Bean Spaghetti
Lentils and Brown Rice for tacos
Nachos for a crowd
Chicken Lasagna
Oven-baked French Toast
Crockpot Hawaiian Chicken
Okay, so pretty much any of the recipes, not just the ones I've listed above, sound fantastic!

Another awesome blog that I have found is Passionate Homemaking. Here are a few possible recipes from her site:
Chicken Divan

Baked Oatmeal
Quinoa and Black Beans