Homemade Friday: Kale smoothies

I have a lot of kale.  I mean a lot.  Behold: 

I actually like kale just stir-fried or mixed with tomatoes, cannellini beans and pasta, but members of my family are not quite as excited about that meal as I am.  So I needed to find a way to use up some of these monstrosities.  I do plan on chopping, blanching and freezing some, but wanted to get the most health benefits I could now while it's fresh because the freezing process takes some of that away.

Also, I've started to worry about the kids getting enough vegetables.  Most of our dinners seem to be one-pot meals where everything is cooked down, mostly because it's easier and quicker to do that.  But I don't feel like we're eating enough fresh vegetables and fruits.  It kind of sucks being the sole person responsible for the diets of young people.  I can't just feed them chicken nuggets everyday, no matter how easy it is.

And then I thought of smoothies.  I'm sure we've all heard of green smoothies.  As far as I can tell it's basically just fruit blended with greens.  And since I happen to have an abundance of greens, it all worked out perfectly.

I started Monday with a basic kale banana smoothie.  In addition to kale and bananas it has honey, milk and cinnamon. 

It was amazing.  Really, really good.

So after that I worked with kale, plain yogurt, blueberries, grapes, bananas and a little bit of honey.  The honey makes this one extra sweet, and probably isn't necessary.

You can't taste the kale at all.  Okay, I take that back, I can taste it a tiny bit, but the sweet overpowers it to the point that they complement each other. 

They've been our mid-morning snack or a part of lunch all week.  I think we'll keep it up.  

Adele loves them.

Sebastian loves them.

Chris loves them.

And most importantly, I love them.

The only problem is that the little bits of kale get stuck in your teeth so be sure to check that out before you go out in public. 

Because, sometimes in the midst of the crazy, a moment is captured

And if I were to show you the pictures that I took surrounding this one, you'd see one child looking at the camera while the other didn't, one yelling, Sebastian trying to snap because he saw me snapping to make Adele pay attention, one almost falling off the swing, and the littlest one smacking the oldest one because she didn't want him to hold her back from jumping down.

But still, in this moment, we can pretend.  And maybe 10 years from now the other photos won't be remembered at all.

Sometimes things are harder than other times. Much like this post title.

For the past few weeks I’ve felt … under the weather I guess.

Blah.  Everything was blah.  Also kind of ugh.

I woke up in a fog and stayed that way all day.  I had zero energy to play with the kids, though I would force myself because it was something I knew I should be doing.  The house stayed in disarray.  Okay, it pretty much always stays in disarray, though the level of disarray was bordering on hoarders.  (Wonder how many times I can fit ‘disarray’ into a paragraph without causing disarray?  Because I can keep going.  Disarray.  This whole post is full of disarray already and I just started.  Disarray.)

Whenever I had a break I’d look around me at everything that needed doing and think ‘Man, I really need to do something.’  And then I’d sit down and either stare off into space, check facebook and twitter, or turn my mind off with the TV on. 

It took every effort I had to fix breakfast, lunch and dinner.  And this wasn’t a lack-of-sleep tired, though there was that too.  This was a deep-down-in-my-bones tired.

I’ve heard that September is a hard time for people, be it weather wise or light-change-wise or mental-wise. 

I tend to think my blue funk comes from the weather.  All the sudden the humidity changes and temperatures drop and the sun refuses to come up before my children stir.  All of that takes an adjustment on my part.  It seems to happen with every other season change – winter into spring and summer into fall.

So for weeks every spring and fall I walk around like someone is standing over me pressing my shoulders down, forcing me to try that much harder to pick my feet up and go.  I’ve been waking up in darkness, both mental and actual, which doesn’t abate throughout the day.

But thankfully it seems to be easing.  The past two days I’ve felt normal.  I’ve had energy to do something. The house is sort of clean.  Ish.  I’ve entertained my children, even taking them for an hour long walk around the town this morning.  My patience has returned and my short temper has gone.  I’ve felt like writing again, (lucky you).  And even the knitting bug has returned.

And while there still is that sleepy, my-daughter-keeps-waking-up-before-5 a.m. tired, I no longer have the I’m-just-gonna-lay-here-all-day-while-you-kids-take-care-of-yourselves tired.

I’d say that’s an improvement.

(This video has nothing to do with this post.  It's just a gratuitous, 'Look what my baby can do!' thing I shot a few weeks ago. Please ignore the background junk.  Remember - September funk.)

This is pretty embarrassing. I probably shouldn’t be sharing.

I have an inherent fear of authority.  If you are somehow in charge of me and I disappoint you, then I probably will never recover from it and will replay the situation over and over in my mind trying to find a way to prevent what happened from happening in the first place.  Kind of a Back to the Future thing, sort of.  Okay, not really.  But you get the idea.  Someone’s disappointment scars me for life.  Ridiculously.

My parents loved this trait of mine and used it to their full advantage.  All they had to do was feign possible disappointment and I would stop whatever I was doing they didn’t like and continue on the righteous path. 

Of course, that’s not to say that I never did anything they wouldn’t approve of.  I just tried my best to never get caught.  Ish.  But mostly I never did anything they wouldn’t approve of, or at least tolerate.

So when I was about 19 or 20 (10 whole years ago OMFG!), as I mentioned before, I began working at the youth center on Fort Knox where the kids were not overly concerned with authority and, you know, doing what they were supposed to.

The center also had regular, overnight parties where movies were set up and some kids could swim, plus there were activities for those so inclined. 

I hadn’t been working there very long when I was scheduled for my first splash bash.  I was admittedly nervous.  I mean, not only would I have to stay up all night, but I’d also not be able to drink to pass the time. 

The leaders had a meeting before the whole thing started, telling everyone where they were supposed to start working and what to prepare for the party.  I was told to start in the common area, which basically entailed watching kids play pool or video games. 

I heard this woman tell me that, I swear I did, but for some reason I also thought I should help everyone set up tables and food and whatnot.  I just didn’t understand the dynamic, is all. 

I think part of the problem was that my dad has always told me that I should never look like I’m not busy at work.  If things are slow, then clean something.  If something needs to be done, then DO IT.  So I saw tables that needed to be carried down to the pool area, so I did that instead of staring at teenagers.  Also, I’m pretty sure there weren’t any kids around when I left my station.

So, fast forward about 15 minutes of me helping and one of the leaders of the leaders pulls me aside into an empty room.  Obviously I think she’s going to praise me for taking initiative. 

Is there some reason you’re not where I told you to be, Jaime?

Um, no, I was just helping.

When I tell you to be somewhere you need to be there.

Oh.  Okay.  SOB.

Did you hear that?  That is the sound of me realizing I’ve disappointed someone.  It is usually manifested in tears.

I left that room and went and sat in a chair in the common area IN PLAIN VIEW OF EVERYONE and cried.  And cried and cried and cried.  And I couldn’t even go to the bathroom to try to compose myself because I WASN’T ALLOWED TO LEAVE MY POST. 

I had teenagers coming up to me to ask if I was okay.  Do you know how embarrassing that is?  TEENAGERS!  Everyone kept glancing over to me to check out the crying, blubbering team leader and there was nothing I could do but stare at the wall and try to compose myself.

I was unsuccessful for quite a long time.

I’m convinced that the woman didn’t recognize my true, get-up-and-go nature.  She didn’t see me as the good person, the employee who will work harder than everyone else, faster than everyone else, and who will do it better than most.  BECAUSE THAT’S WHO I AM!  AN OVERACHIEVER.  It may not always be true, but it’s true often enough for me to identify with it.  And it isn’t my fault she didn’t see that right from the start.

I’m also convinced she left me out there crying in plain view of eye-rolling teens and tweens to prove a point and to punish me.

But that’s okay.  She got in trouble with the big boss the next summer for allowing kids to jump off the back of a pontoon when that was clearly AGAINST THE RULES, LISA.

SO THERE.

(Also, I do not forgive you.)

Not pictured - Evil Lisa.