The Zoo - ETC

Our local zoo had half price admission for Mother's Day so we took the girls and had a blast.






And, yes, I was there too! Thanks for helping me remember to get in the shot too, Emily!

And yes, Little Sister is crying but it's just how it goes sometimes.

Insta-Dump

Random phone-photo-dump day.

Here are some pictures from my instagram stream that I haven't shared here.

Someone's been watching me in the garden.

Guacamole for Cinco de Mayo.

 White queso for Cinco de Mayo - updated recipe here.

 Little sister with daddy.

In the new car.

Which one of these is not like the other?

Bringing it

Well, Friday marked the six week since Little Sister was born. Not only does it mean she's close to two months old now, but I'm also cleared for pretty much any type of physical activity.

Wohoo!! (ehh, kind of woohoo with a little boo mixed in)

So, now it's once again time to get back into shape and lose these lingering baby poundages. Yes, I said poundages and I may have just made that word up but it's early, I got up at 5:30 and have already worked out and ate breakfast - so we're going with it.

Anyway, I have seen a lot about this whole crossfit thing and know several people that are now crossfit junkies so I kind of wanted to give it a try. Going from not doing intense workouts for over 10 months to something like crossfit, um, I decided to try a little at home version.



I googled "crossfit exercises to do at home" and found this guys 16 day beginner workout.

I just started yesterday and have only completed two days, but man, I am so sore already. It feels SO good to be sore. It's not such a great feeling when the alarm goes off but I guess I'll take the trade.



So, my goals are to get up early, work out every weekday, 5 days a week doing these crossfit excercies, and eat healthy again and see where that gets me.

Well, that's all for today. Not that you care about my get-back-in-shape stuff, but there you have it. And since this is a pretty lame-o post, I'll leave you with a picture of my little monkey.

Green Smoothies

I am officially addicted to green smoothies made with spinach from our garden. In fact, we rarely have spinach for salads now that I'm on this green smoothie kick. Poor husband.

Here's my favorite recipe so far:



1 cup spinach
1 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 banana - best if it has some brown spots
1/4 cup greek yogurt (I like it best with Yoplait Honey Greek Yogurt)
1/4 cup water

Put it all in a blender, pour and enjoy.

I also have made one with frozen strawberries and it was really good too.



And then I went garden crazy and used some strawberries from the garden. It was a little more tart and I had to add some ice but it was still good.

There's a picture of the yogurt I use.

My next green smoothie goal is to try one with avocado. I hear they're good but we'll see. Have you tried it? I'm also curious about other ideas for green smoothies so if you have a favorite, send it my way.

Fun Salad Ideas

My new post will be up at Beautifully Rooted today!

If you liked the salad in the salad gift set post, you'll probably like today's post.

Here's the link, check it out and let me know what you think.

Embrace the Camera

Linking up with Emily.

She loves strawberries

Last year Sweet P had her first taste of homegrown strawberries.







It's a taste she has not forgot.

The gift of gardening

Some amazing women had a fun shower for me and my girl last week and I wanted to give them a little thank you gift. Enter my sister and her awesome idea of gifting a little salad kit. She suggested I get a cute bowl and some spoons and fill it with some of our greens from the garden, along with other ingredients for a salad. That way they have something to eat but also have a cute bowl to keep after the salads gone.

I loved that idea and decided to get a little crafty with it. Target has some really cute summer serving items right now so I bought two plain white bowls with the bamboo lids along with two wooden spoons sets and some little glass jars. I taped off an area on the lids so I could paint it and taped off an area on the spoons to paint.



I used two different paint colors, one for each set and painted away.



While the paint was drying, I assembled the salad kit for one of my favorite salads: greens, sliced onion, grapes and crumbled blue cheese with homemade balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

I picked and washed a mix of greens including green leaf lettuce, red leaf lettuce, romaine, buttercrunch and spinach and grabbed a couple onions from the garden. Then I packaged some blue cheese crumbles in a little plastic baggie and taped it down with some cute tape (also found at Target). I put some grapes in a larger plastic bag and tied it off with twine.



I had to paint several coats on the lids and spoons so I went ahead and made the dressing, you can get the recipe here. For the jar, I just spray painted the lids white and tied a little twine around the rim.

To finish it off, I made a little thank you card with a note on one side and the kit contents on the back.



I wrapped it all up and tied some more twine around it and, voila!

drumroll please

I've shared plenty of pictures of my newest little one, but this is her official birth announcement I designed. My sister took the fabulous pictures, as usual, so super thanks to her.

And yes, it's been five weeks. It's so hard to believe she's over a month old but man, that girl has been such a blessing and fun addition to our family.

april photoaday recap

Hello May! One quarter of 2012 has already passed and I know have 121 days documents in instagram photos.

Here's my month of April, according to the prompts from this lovely lady.



1-my reflection 2-colour 3-mail 4-someone who makes me happy 5-tiny 6-lunch 7-shadow 8-inside my wallet Easter 9-younger me 10-cold 11-where i ate breakfast 12-stairs 13-something i found 14-how i feel today 15-sunset 16-flower 17-something i don't like 18-hair 19-orange 20-something i drew 21-bottle noodle 22-the last thing i bought 23-vegetable 24-something i'm grateful for 25-looking down 26-black/white 27-somewhere i went 28-1pm 29-circle 30-something that makes me sad

For larger images and explanations, check out my flickr 2012 PhotoADay set. And click on the months to see January, February or March collages.

Whew. Time to start a new month, folks and as always, I'm @recipeforcrazy on instagram. Here's a link to May's prompts.

Later!