Thanksgiving Craziness Links!

With the holiday looming and just days ahead, the internet has gone crazy with links to recipes, planning, decorating and anything else to do with our American Thanksgiving.  Rather than try to produce much of my own information, I want to share links here for those of you who might not be able to monitor the net all day, or who watch different websites than I do.

I will update this list as the week progresses — I cannot stand to not share!   Enjoy, and Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

National Geographic Thanksgiving Quiz & Games
Some amazingly delicious drinks from my friends at Madtini.com
Eatdrinkbetter.com – Vegetarian Thanksgiving recipes from around the world
Whole Living – Warming fall recipes
Mini pumpkin pies for the kids to make – from National Geographic
Indiana Public Media –  Easy baked apple crisp
OrganicAuthority.com – Article about volunteering this Thanksgiving
Easy Thanksgiving side dishes from delish.com
Be the Hostess with the Mostess
Gluten-free pie crust made with coconut flour
A very nice handful of Thanksgiving links from Organic Valley
The Martha Stewart Thanksgiving Hotline Info

I’ll try to keep up with the mad amount of info crossing my computer, so check back for new links.  Yay for Turkey Day!!  I can’t wait!

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Time for a Cool Down

During these pre-summer-already-sweltering days in Oklahoma, I feel like I’m trying to survive by eating ice — lots of ice in my drinks, sometimes more ice than liquid.  So last night I was dreaming about ice (and more ice), so I went back to my blender with this smoothie idea.  

Strawberry Chocolate Cinnamon Walnut Smoothie

1 cup whole strawberries, tops removed
1 1/4 cup chocolate almond milk
3 dashes of cinnamon
1/4 cup walnut halves
2 handsful of ice

Blend until ice is fully chopped.  Pour into glass and top with chocolate shavings.  Drink.  Hold glass to forehead for extra cooling.  Drink some more.

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Smoothie No. 7: Melon-y Goodness

I finally made Smoothie No. 7 today – it’s a very fresh combination of melons and blueberries.  Into the blender, put one cup of watermelon, one cup of honeydew melon, and one cup of blueberries.  Add a couple of handsful of ice and blend.   I really, really like this combination!

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Smoothie No. 6: Iced Coffee

This was my Mother’s Day evening pick-me-up drink.   It’s quick and easy, and you can make it with any coffee you might have left over.  

Iced Coffee Smoothie

1 1/2 cups brewed coffee, frozen (can freeze in ice trays if you wish)
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 handful of ice
1/4 cup of almond milk

Place frozen coffee in blender, add sugar and stir a little, allowing time for the sugar to dissolve.   Add ice and almond milk; blend.  Pour into glass and top with carob chips or chocolate shavings.

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Oooooh – SAVE! Smoothie No. 5 – Honeydew Kiwi

I DID A QUICK SEARCH for some new and different ingredients, we needed something fresh, sweet, something to wake up our tastebuds!   The perfect answer:  this delectable Honeydew Kiwi Cooler from Good Housekeeping. This is a smoothie I will want to drink in the heat of the summer — so very refreshing!

And I even dared to use lemon and honey again!   How’s that for bravery?

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Disaster Smoothie: Lemon Mint Kale Banana Tangerine Blueberry

(Plus spinach and honey)

Oh my – I certainly brewed up a concoction this afternoon!  You know how they say you can throw anything into a smoothie?  Well, you can, but you might not be able to drink it.  

So I saw a recipe to make a homemade lemonade with honey, hot water and lemons.  And a nice icy lemonade sounded really good to me.   The problem is balancing the lemony tartness and the honey sweetness.  Using four cups of hot water and two lemons, I added 5 tablespoons of honey and about 10 mint leaves.  When I tasted it the lemon tasted a little weak, so I squeezed another lemon into the mix, for a total of three lemons.  Then it was pretty tart, but I wasn’t about to use more than 5 tablespoons of honey, even though I knew this would be two smoothies.  So I squeezed a tangerine into the mix.

Then I poured half into the blender, added 1/2 a large kale leaf, two spinach leaves and ice.  After blending I tasted it and let’s just say it was less than stellar, still too lemony.   So I threw a banana in.  Hmmmm, interesting for sipping (if you catch my drift).  So then I threw 1/2 cup of frozen blueberries in. 

I have a smoothie here.  It’s passable.   I’m making myself drink it.  The lemon flavor is the dominant one – I need to just put a big ol’ spoon of sugar in it, but I hate to do that.   I’m saving the rest of it to maybe add strawberries to tomorrow.  This would have worked had I put more truly sweet fruits into it, but I’m fresh out and was using up what I had on hand.   To make this up to you, dear reader, I’m going to make Smoothie No. 5 later tonight.   

I’m blaming all of this on not having a good breakfast today.  ; )

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Smoothie No. 4 – Banana Pineapple Tangerine

This smoothie was a last minute throw-together, and I was thinking tropical for some reason:

Banana Pineapple Tangerine Smoothie

2 c. fresh pineapple chunks
1 banana
2 tangerines, wedges removed from membranes
4 spinach leaves
ice (I used a couple of big handsful)

Blend and drink – it’s refreshing – the banana flavor comes through, but the others do, too.

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Good Morning . . .

Mood Mug is sleepy waiting on coffee . . . me, too. Yawn.

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Smoothie No. 3: Banana Peanut Carob

Today’s smoothie is my favorite so far. I just went into the kitchen, tossed the ingredients I had on hand into the blender and ended up with a glass full of frozen goodness.

1 banana
1 cup almond milk
1 big handful ice
2 T. peanut butter
2 T. carob chips

I use a vegan carob chip, but any chocolate would do here.   This has just the right balance of the banana, peanutbutter, and chocolate flavors.  I could blend up one of these when I had an ice cream craving and be totally happy.  Enjoy!

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Smoothie No. 2: Mango Blueberry

THIS SMOOTHIE IS sweet and very summery.   I can’t get enough of it!

Mango Blueberry Smoothie

1 c. frozen mango chunks

1 c. frozen blueberries

1 T. honey

1 T. flaxseed

1/2 c. almond milk (add more as needed)

Place all ingredients in blender.  Blend to a consistency you like, adding almond milk when necessary.  Pour into glasses, top each glass with a piece of mango,  and enjoy!    Some people prefer to mash up the flaxseed first, which you can do with a mortar and pestle.  I leave mine whole, since I like to chew them and get even more of those healthy oils.

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