#646 - mini ice cream cones

 These are super tiny, but the perfect size for an ice cream cone for my kids.  In fact, I don't mind i they have a second.

 I had a hard time trying to find these a few years ago, when I first saw these mini cones at a restaurant, but luckily, our local grocery store now carries these mini ice cream cones.

I didn't think my other pictures showed a good size comparison, so I decided to take a pic next to a blueberry and grapefruit.  Aren't they tiny?

#645 - Homemade Spiderman Cake

 My boys are all about Spiderman lately, or more like for the past 6 months.  For example, when I put Parker down to bed he requests the Spiderman theme song, Iron Man (the Black Sabbath song), or the A-Team theme song, not Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. 

Then Oster requested a Spiderman birthday cake.  I googled, youtubed, pinterest"ed" ideas, but all of them involved lots of red food dye.  I'm not opposed to red food dye, but I also didn't want to spend hours mixing to get the red color and really, who wants to ingest all those chemicals.

 So, I decided to go a little more natural with strawberries.  It actually turned out pretty good.  In fact, I think it looked even better.  I made this graham cracker cake I saw on pinterest (not my favorite to be honest, but everyone else liked it.)  Then topped it with melted chocolate spiderwebs.

 

I made half of it with chocolate graham crackers (that was better than regular graham crackers).

As I was cutting the strawberries I noticed they looked like Spiderman masks/faces.  Oster loved it!

In fact he loved it so much, he wanted the whole mouth of the Spiderman mask.  And I just saw the new Spiderman movie...sort of loved it!  My favorite so far.

 

#644 - homegrown berries

 Blueberries from our bushes - we got so many more this year because Pepe tossed some pine needles on top of the bushes and around the soil of the bushes a few months ago (maybe last fall?)  Have you heard of this before?

Parker eating a strawberry from our garden.  We did a taste test with Costco strawberries, and while the Costco strawberries are ginormous, home grown strawberries are so much better!

 And I thought I'd share our carrots we dug up (we planted them last year).  I wasn't brave enough to eat them though.  I cut up some carrots from the store and feed them to the boys.

Our basil plant...yum!

#643 - Vintage Wool Kids' Coat and matching Hat

I saw this at a thrift store and almost didn't buy it, but with a price tag of $4 I thought..."why not?"

Well, I love it! (notice that's a theme of my blog).  Everyone that sees my little guy in this, loves it too.  The coat even has a snap on the inside to store the hat so it doesn't get lost. 

#642 - Avocado Bean Salsa - for a nutrarian

Ok, after my unhealthy post, I want to share one of my favorite foods. 

 It is a bean/avocado salsa, that I eat as a main meal. 

Inspired by my friend Shelia's yummy Avocado Salsa.

One day I didn't have all the ingredients for her yummy salsa, so I made up my own version.

Basically, it's cowboy caviar.  But I think it fits in perfect to the nutrarian lifestyle (I'm trying to adopt - more on this later).

Avocado/Bean Salsa

1 can unsalted beans (or better yet, make your own)

1 can or 1/2 bag frozen sweet (organic) corn

1 avocado diced

1 tomato diced

1/2 can olives chopped up

3 green onions chopped up (or 1/4 sweet onion chopped up)

juice of 1 lime

cilantro

Mix all together.  I can just eat this by the spoonful, no chips.  And you can add more or less of what you like, but I do think that the lime is a key ingredient and also the green onions.

Enjoy!

ps, my picture above doesn't have all the ingredients I like to use, but you get the idea.

#641 - Chocolate Therapy - part 2

Remember when I posted about the best ice cream ever!!!  Chocolate Therapy by Ben & Jerrys...well, almost 2 years later, you can now buy this at the grocery store.  

    Chocolate ice cream with chocolate cookies & swirls of chocolate pudding ice cream...you'd think this would be too much chocolate, but it's not, it's the perfect combination. 

 Have any of you tried this?

This is so dangerous because I'm trying to eat healthy, but maybe I'll take a little break and start up again on March 1st :)

*picture is from Ben & Jerry's website

#640 - watercolor with vinyl letters

Inspired by a quote I saw on pinterest.

Ironically, I didn't really "think outside the box" to make this...or maybe I did...I don't know.  At least I didn't think outside the box for the quote :)

Basically, I took some vinyl letters I had and put them on some nice (read: thick) water color paper.  Then I gave the boys some water colors and they loved it.  

 We also did their cousins' names.

 Here's what they looked like before we took the vinyl letters off.

 And the finished projects...

#639 - breakfast

This is what our typical breakfast looks like.  Lightly toasted sprouted bread  with almond butter and fresh fruit to top it (ie: blackberries, raspberries,strawberries). I just smash them on the top.

Then we'll have a green smoothie (fruit with spinach or kale) or sometimes steal cut oatmeal.
ps - todays green smoothie = 1/2 cup of baby kale, 4 strawberries, 2 oranges pealed, 1 tbls flaxseeds

#638 - Andes Creme de Menthe Cookie

 

Girl Scout Thin Mints

+

 

Andes Mint Thins

=

 

Andes Creme de Menthe Cookies

Amazing!