Peachy Oatmeal Smoothie

Breakfast sometimes comes and goes without one morsel going in my mouth. Between feeding the baby, changing the baby and getting the baby down for her nap I don't realize I haven't eaten until it's lunch. 

Thankfully my father-in-law gave me some delicious and extremely ripe peaches that needed to be used pronto. Since I've been on an oatmeal kick with the flax seed addition to help a newly lactating mother in need I also made sure to include those. Even in your not in my situation flax seed is super healthy and I highly recommend adding it to whatever you can. This time I just added it all to the blender and let it whirl... If you don't have EXTREMELY ripe peaches then add a few tablespoons of honey to sweeten it up. As it was I loved the natural flavor without it.

Peachy Oatmeal Smoothie

(Yields 2 servings - roughly a little over 2 pint sized mason jars)

3 Large Very Ripe Peaches (I left the skins on)

1 cup whole milk (You can use skim as well or some other lower fat version)

1/2 cup French Vanilla Yogurt (Again I used whole fat but you can use other versions if you please) 

1/2 cup quick cook oats

2 tbsp flax seed

2 tbsp wheat germ

Add all of your ingredients into your blender and let it whirl for for about 30 seconds. It's delicious and it holds you a while just like if you cooked a bowl of oatmeal which is good as I'm off to tend to someone that just turned 12 weeks old!

Wordless Wednesday

Guest Post Over at The Southern Institute

The bambino and I are in the kitchen this morning cooking up some new ideas with a bumper crop of strawberries we received. So stay tuned and head on over to http://www.thesoutherninstitute.com  and catch my guest post on Orange Creamsicle Waffles! Have a wonderful Tuesday everyone!

Gardening Update: The Redbuds are coming!

 

There are things that take a back seat when the going get's tough at work. Then add a baby to it and you have the equivalent to chaos in the garden. So lately I've been slowly but surely taking that valuable time period called NAPTIME to bring order to the galaxy. 

Weeds amaze me. The are constantly giving me the equivalent of the middle finger when it comes to reappearing in my garden and the biggest culprit is the Redbud. This technically isn't a weed but a tree and is beautiful in the spring with it's bright pink blooms. I'm here to tell you that those bright pink blooms have a price, my friends, and that cost is thousands of tree sprouts in your garden that grow fast and try to take over like nobody's business. 

I've been cutting and pulling these bad boys for two weeks and just when I think I've gotten them all I push a plant back and there is another hiding in the wings until it get's big enough that it's so hard to pull it up I feel like I need a back hoe.

So the next time you gaze upon this pretty tree in the spring and admire just you remember the cost it's taken on my hands.... You've been warned.

Wordless Wednesday

Chocolate Fridays - Nutella Flax Seed Oatmeal

Sometimes I feel like I need to be writing the Milk Diaries not this blog. Since I had this little cutie 10 weeks ago:

I'm 10 weeks old yo!

I feel like it's all about production - milk production. So when she started drinking more milk - my body cried woah, woah, woah - no one told us there would be an increase needed.... So I sought advice and my sister told me to eat oatmeal in the morning and I thought "really? do we have to?" but I did it. So I also purchased some wheat germ and flax seed (also items that would help the supply) but then I decided to add the one ingredient that makes everything better. The one ingredient that when I see a whole display of it - makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

No I do not add wine into my oatmeal.

Ok I added the second most ingredient to make me feel warm and fuzzy - and that is Nutella.  There is something just wrong about have chocolate oatmeal but I really don't care. It's delicious.

Nutella Oatmeal
1 heaping tbsp of Nutella (2 if you really just want to throw caution to the wind)
1 cup water
1/2 cup regular oats (no the quick cook kind - Really it's not that much more time)
3 tbsp flax seed
2 tbsp wheat germ
 3 -4 tbsp milk

On the stove heat up the water until almost boiling (med high heat). Add the oats and stir until it gets thick. Should only take around 5 minutes at most. Put the oatmeal in your bowl and then add the nutella and stir until it melts. Add the flax seen and wheat germ. Pour in milk at the end and stir again.