Not Exactly A Gardener, What's For Dessert?, & Today's School Lunches

Good Morning!

Here is what my kiddos took for lunch today...

A thermos of pasta (organic noodles/organic sauce), 1/2 an end of organic Early Bird bread & butter, & 1/2 an organic pear.  The thermos holds about 12 ozs.  

It's Right to Read Week, so the school has activities planned all week for the students.  Today, the PTO will be providing every student with a bag of popcorn, and they will be finding a comfy spot to read a book with a friend.  Preferring that they not eat that popcorn, I popped some organic for the kids and put it in brown paper bags (bulk bags from Whole Foods that I'm reusing...oh yeah baby!).  I wish that the school were able to let us know in advance every time they were planning on providing a treat, but I understand that isn't likely to happen.  But hey, I'll take what I can get, so I'm happy to have known about this one.  :)

After my crazy day yesterday, I decided to come home and take care of something that I have been putting off.  Let me start by saying that I am no gardener.  No, sir.  I don't kill everything, but I'm not versed in how to care for this, or how to grow that.  I don't know much about nutrients in the soil, growing zones, or anything, really.  I do know this though...a vegetarian with no garden seems silly.  Doesn't it?  So, awhile ago I started some seeds in the house.  Some would say I started too late, some not, but winter seemed to last forever this year, so I tried to find a happy medium.  I was going to have to put them in my greenhouse window, which can be pretty cold in the winter, so I waited for it to warm up some.  They are all organic seeds, planted in an organic mix, and have grown nicely, though some are slower than I anticipated.  Like I said, I know nothing about this. 

I hope that once they are in the ground they will really take off.  Fingers crossed.  We also might have a late harvest, but that's ok, too.  :)

Now for the part that I had been dreading...thinning them out.  It just seems so wrong; these are like my babies!  I grew them with my own hands, and a good dose of love! 

Their growth had slowed down, and I knew that too many plants in each cell was bad news.  I knew the small amount of nutrients couldn't sustain more than one plant.  So, I did it.  I steeled my resolve, but on my big girl pants, and murdered my plants.  

It was sad, but I get some comfort knowing that they will go into the compost bin, and provide nourishment for those that survived "the cut".  

I'm hoping to see improvement in the others, and then hoping to get most of them in the ground in the next 2 weeks.  Here's to hoping!  

I've said many times that my children eat fruit for dessert, and it's quite true.  They haven't had anything else for dessert for more months than I can remember.  I try to make it interesting, but most of the time they get an assortment of plain old frozen fruit, and they love it.  Right now, I have frozen grapes, mangoes, pineapple, bananas, & strawberries.  I flash freeze them...a single layer on a baking sheet, pop in the freezer until completely frozen, then transfer to a freezer bag or other container.   This works really well, preventing them from sticking together in a clump.  It allows me to pull out a bit at a time.  

When I have more time, I make them things like this...

These fruits were dipped in plain organic yogurt, flash frozen, and blended in the food processor into the frozen yogurt pictured above.  I added some honey for sweetness.

These fresh fruits have a dollop of plain organic Greek yogurt on top, and a drizzle of wildflower honey.

  

These are smoothie bites!  They are made of primarily organic spinach, but also have banana, Greek yogurt, a couple tablespoons of applesauce, and a bit of honey.  These are so good!  I freeze them in these fun silicone molds.  :)

 This strawberry banana ice cream is honey, frozen strawberries, & frozen bananas.  You can add a bit of milk, if you like.  I like to use coconut or Hartzler's.

And this is a pineapple Dole Whip type dessert.  This is a bit of honey, frozen pineapple, and a bit of coconut milk.  

You can toss nearly any type of frozen fruit into the food processor for a sorbet (just frozen fruit), an ice cream (with a bit of milk), or a frozen yogurt (with a bit of yogurt).  The kids have not asked for any other type of dessert since we made the switch! 

Fresh or frozen fruit is the norm, and then every now and again I "whip" up something special for us.  :)

What do you have dessert?  Have you found a way to cut out unnecessary sugars?  

I'd love to hear about it!  

:)

Have a great day!