| Two cups of spinach... |
As I was grocery shopping today I couldn't ignore the fact that among all the produce on my list (grapes, strawberries, nectarines, grapefruit) there was only one vegetable, a cucumber. Vegetables have never been my favorite and secretly I've been hoping that fruits are as good as veggies, and that when Canada's food guide says 5-12 fruit and veggies you'll still be healthly if you eat say 10 servings of fruit and one serving of veggies.
Back to the grocery store. I was passing the pre-washed bagged greens and decided on spinach. Not for salad mind you. For smoothies! What?!?! Yes that's right, I bought a bag of spinach to add to smoothies. My friend Ingrid suggested this awhile back, said it doesn't affect the taste, just turns your smoothie green. I figured this would be a great way to get some leafy greens down without having to actually prepare a salad and chew them up. I've been skeptical about how it would taste.
When I got home I made myself a smoothie with fresh strawberries (on sale again!) yogurt, OJ, and about a cup of spinach. And you know what? It was just fine. Now the real test will be to see if Lance will enjoy a spinach smoothie -- he's way more aware of "abnormal" tastes and said to me the other day, "Aimee I don't think you know how things taste to "normal" people" (atleast it was something along those lines, this was in response to me having him try a poppyseed muffin - which I was sure tasted like a normal muffin, even a little sweet, I was discouraged by his response, "They're like biscuits", Ugggh, I thought they were normal, hence the comment about me not being able to taste... I agree, my taste buds have definitely adapted to less sweet things tasting more sweet)
I made another smoothie tonight which I'm enjoying right now. I can taste the spinach a little but the goodness of the spinach convinces my mind to not consider the taste.
Lance is in BC and returns tomorrow night. I got to talk to him today. Ahh, very nice. Also got to read PlatBlonde about the concert he was a part of -- pictures too.
I've been attacking our "Green Room". This room is on the south side of our apartment and very cheery and sunny. It is meant to be for reading/prayer and has recently had the art stuff, or atleast some of it, moved in. I posted a photo awhile back of the art part of the room, I think it looked like a nice space. Well, what you don't see in the photo is the otherside of the room which has become a catchall for months worth of papers. Old bank statements, letters, cards, insurance stuff, the list goes on. When we returned from BC this summer I began sorting. Well that was a long time ago. This evening I made my way through all the papers sorting through what to keep, what to file, what to recycle and what to toss. The thing that was different about this sorting spree was that I actually took my "to be filed pile" and filed everything where it belonged. This included created a couple of new files for items that didn't fit in a category. Normally these would be left on top of the filing cabinet or shoved inside the cabinet at the front, in no file at all. I'm hoping to have the room done by the time Lance comes home. What a treat to actually use this room for the last two months that we'll live here (we haven't really used it since last spring, except for a bit of art making)... or maybe we should block the door off so we (mostly me) can't get in and mess it up.
Did you guys know that I am the messy one in our marriage. Yup. I'm much better than when I was young -- or maybe it just seems that way since I have more space over which to spread our stuff. I remember one while Lance was living with our family my mom saying to me that I should keep my room tidier because he probably noticed how I kept my room and might be thinking about the future and what that would mean for a home. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not a slob and Lance isn't always tidy, but in general he is tidier than me. He gets on these tidying kicks and comes to me with items that are mine saying, "where does this go" (as a tidy person his motto is "a place for everything and everything in its place") well the problem is I don't have places for my things and so I don't put them in their places. Hmmm. New home, new start? Another commonly heard phrase during the tidying rampages is, "I put your stuff in a pile on the table". Arrgh, I hate piles. To me things seem worse in piles. I think it's because I realize if there is enough stuff accumulated to form a pile it will likely be stashed away (probably in the green room) and never dealt with (especially if it's paper).
I read somewhere about having a "touch it once" approach to keeping house. I think this was particularly regarding the organization of mail. The premise, open the piece of mail and deal with it immediately, toss it, pay the bill and file it, respond to the letter... you get the idea. At times this has worked for me. Of course if I let my guard down for even a minute a foot of paper has accumulated.
Well, right now I'm on the right track.
Well, it's late, my smoothie is done and I think I'll head to bed. The before bed reading for tonight, and I hope this isn't overly graphic for some of our readers (particularly male), "The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding". That's all I'll say about that.
Hope you are well.
Aimee |
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| 5 Comments: |
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The title may be a little outdated but it's a well read book! It was always by my side when I had a newborn. I am also trying to tackle our room and closet- to get 'organized' before the next babe arrives. Good luck!
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Hi Aimee! When I read your blog a while back looking for snack ideas, I read the spinach comment and thought it sounded a little wacky too. But I decided to give it a try, and much to my surprise as well, it was great! Here is the recipe I use:
1/4 cup yogurt
2 Tbsp soy protein powder
2 Tbsp flax seed
1/2 packet powdered Stevia or 4 drops liquid
1/2 cup Spinach leaves
2 Tbsp almond butter
Frozen fruit mix: 1/2 banana, 3 strawberries, about 5 each of blueberries, raspberries, blackberries
1/2 cup vanilla soy milk (or to desired consistency)
and with all the dark berries, you can't really see the green anyways! Delicious!
Enjoy your smoothies...
Zandra
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I heard it was a good book too. I've never read it though. I think I meant to check it out but it was lost or something. But I bet it has a lot of good information about twins. Nursing twins sounds like a (well worth it) journey. Nursing one baby can be a long road sometimes. Find your local LLL as well if you can.
and I sooo will not go there on the tidyness. One of these days Donnie is just going to come home with a roll of yellow "caution" tape. Though I've gotten a LOT done this past month. Nesting or whatever.
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Hi Aimee,
I've heard that you can also put Kale into shakes ... it is quite like spinach and pretty cheap (and I've heard easy to grow - doesn't require full sunlight). I LOVE the "eye" art piece and I love the idea. I'd love to see more of your art work ... I don't know about others but I find people's art fascinating. Thanks for the pics.
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you should get a paper shredder. It makes paper work a LOT more fun plus you can recycle all the shreds. It's more like a game than work, really.
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posted by Aimee at 
The title may be a little outdated but it's a well read book! It was always by my side when I had a newborn. I am also trying to tackle our room and closet- to get 'organized' before the next babe arrives. Good luck!