Drink your vegetables.

My love affair with our blender is off and on. 

I go through phases where I prefer all of my meals to be sip-able and others where chewing sounds more enjoyable. In an effort to bring smoothies to work for breakfast vs. skipping the meal altogether or spending money on something bought, I've been looking for new recipes. 

I found a couple around the interwebs that I wanted to try. F and I tend to be pretty good at eating vegetables, but not necessarily fruits and greens. I'm not exactly sure why, because I love fruit, but we just don't seem to have it around the house. I'm so not a salad girl so greens become a forgotten ingredient in my day-to-day. 

Keeping this in mind, this recipe really stood out to me as it was packed with greens and fruit. 

Downside? It is supposed to be a juice, made in a juicer. Ain't nobody got money time for that.

So, I turned to my handy dandy blender that could once again to see if it was up for the challenge. 

I threw into the blender:

1 pear, sliced

1 green apple, sliced

1 red apple, sliced

1/3 fennel bulb and stem

4 stalks of celery, chopped

1 small English cucumber, chopped, 

1" piece of ginger, chopped

1 large handful kale (approximately 2 c.)

1 lemon, juiced

It was only after I put everything in and F asked, "Do you add almond milk? Where does the liquid come in?" that I realized it may be a doosy of a fail. But, I held out hope, hit liquify, and waited. 

It made a dry whirring sound at first. I used the stem of the fennel to stir things around and then we were cooking blending with steam greens. 

It tasted a little like freshly mowed lawn clippings, so I added more lemon and ginger and twirled it again. 

It made 3 mason jars full, which I kept in the fridge to grab for a quick breakfast.(Shout out to my friend A for the Mason jar lid. So fun and convenient!)

 Being blended vs. juiced left the consistency thicker with tiny pieces of the ingredients, but not enough to keep me from drinking it. 

It was a refreshing start to the mornings, and kept me full until lunch time.

Do you have any favorite smoothie recipes? 

I would love to try them! 

images: hilaryclair

Winner, winner, Brussels sprout dinner!

I consider myself a majorly blessed person, but not necessarily lucky.

I've won my fair share of things - silent auctions, stuffed animals at a play when I was just a wee one, the occasional trivia, I came home from Vegas ahead of the casinos ... but I don't have any Powerballs or new cars in my winning repertoire.

I follow a few of my favorite companies and blogs on facebook and see their contests pop up every now and again in my newsfeed. For the longest time, I didn't even bother to enter, assuming the odds were against me, but then I figured, what is there to lose?

Well, ladies and gents, I am here to tell you that it is worth it.

This weekend, I left a comment on a Williams-Sonoma contest saying what dish I would make in their Staub pan and well, meet my new Staub Perfect Pan!

The contest post.

Their response after the random drawing (there were 3500 entries).

All my lucky stars!

Williams-Sonoma is one of F and my happy places; we could NOT be any more excited.

images: hilaryclair

Superbowl Sweets

This post is a bit belated, seeing as the whirl and watercooler convos of the Superbowl have come and gone, but I decided to post it anyway. 

We were invited to a Superbowl party on Sunday and I offered to bring cupcakes. 

Of course, I couldn't just bring a regular old frosted cupcake when the option existed to make them football-themed. I found a couple images on Pinterest and tried my hand at them.

The first was simple and straightforward.

Chocolate cupcake, chocolate frosting, piped laces.

The second was a bit more elaborate and let's be honest, not as well executed. It looks a bit like a kindergartner's project, but oh well, I tried. 

Can you tell what it is?

I was going for a bird's eye view of a football stadium, but the off-colored green and wavy, white lines make it look a bit more like an impressionist painting. 

Oh well, still delicious. 

I don't particularly care for football, but having just been to Seattle (and gone to high school with one of the players), it was fun to have a vested (and ultimately victorious) interest in one of the teams this year. 

Did any of you have a particularly special (or themed) Superbowl this year? 

Please, do tell. 

images: hilaryclair