Blending in nutrition

all the ingredients you see went into these yummy bright red/purple smoothies

and the best part is,,,

all these healthy ingredients ultimately went into my twins tummies

coconut water

frozen beets

banana

grapes

bee pollen

flax oil

spinach

kale

orange juice

lime juice

carrot

this may very well be the first time my boys have ever had

 kale, flax oil, bee pollen, beets, coconut water

and all of this is a"Victory" 

leading to a future of good healthful eating

this blending of whole foods is a new practice in our home and so far we are blending something up at least once a day. 

look for more recipes to follow

Ride your bike to school day

 Our children's elementary school has special days that encourage everyone to ride to school on their bicycles or scooters. Fall, thus far, has not been too cold here in Colorado, and the participation is still going strong! Here on this day, almost all the children walked, biked or scooted to school. We feel so very privileged to live in a community where kids can safely make it on their own, with parents lending a watchful eye,

  The boys had a great time during this event, stopping at the park along the way, and then headed home.  They have since travelled on their bikes with their sister many days to school.

 Soon, it will be snowing here, the "ride to school" days will be few and far between. Bermuda shorts will be replaced with long trousers, tennies with snow boots, short sleeve tops with layers and coats, mittens and scarfs.

pumpkin patch

a trip to the pumpkin patch every fall is a lovely tradition

kids go with their schoolmates and learn about the circle of life in the garden

a pumpkin seed becomes a pumpkin plant, and a pumpkin plant becomes a pumpkin

the pumpkin has seeds, and so on and so on

we watched a video in the old schoolhouse, called the pumpkin circle narrated by Danny Glover, before heading out to the fields

and seeing this film, I found myself wanting to grow my own pumpkins next year with the kids

We really enjoyed going through the corn maze

then we proceeded towards the pumpkins to select our own special treasure to take home

Overall a wonderful fall day spent with my son

in the high plains of Colorado

cream of mushroom soup

Cream of Mushroom Soup

1/2 stick of unsalted butter

1 small onion

3 tablespoons flour

1 cup beef broth

2 cups half-and-half

salt

pepper

1/4 teaspoons nutmeg

1 bay leaf

Thinly slice the mushrooms.

Melt the butter in a heavy saute pan

Add the chopped onion and saute until golden

Add the mushrooms and saute until brown

Stir in the flour, and them slowly add the broth, stirring constantly

Warm up the half and half very slowly in a saucepan

Add to the the mushrooms, along with the nutmeg, 

Add the bay leaf

Cook gently over low heat for 10 minutes, do not boil

Remove bay leaf and add salt and pepper to taste

Serve

This is the perfect soup for fall

a wonderful way to bring comfort to a rainy or cooler day

I had mine here with a spanish tapas olive salad

deliciously satisfying and healthy

Hello Fall

Time to buy the Mums in all their fall colors, yellows, oranges and deep reds

Take down the summer wreath

dig into storage boxes for everything "fall"

out comes the autumn decor

Just one more look in my rear view of the last day of summer,,,

goodbye summer of 2011

hello fall

hoping for a happy, healthy, and hearty harvest

for all

PS: I love the fall, I love the changes, I love the weather, I love the celebrations