Aunt Melissa's Strawberry, Banana, Chai Smoothie

3/4 cup crushed ice
1/2 ripe banana
3 fresh strawberries
1/4 c. Trader Joe's Organic Plain Nonfat Yogurt
1 scoop Trader Joe's Vanilla Whey Protein Powder
1 scoop Trader Joe's Spicy Chai Latte Mix
Splash of Water


Blend and Enjoy. Approx. 245 calories, 3g. Fat 13 g. Protein, unsure about fiber... approx 1g or less.

Happy Wednesday!

Aunt Melissa

Chocolate Banana Almond Smoothie

This particular recipe might not actually be blog-worthy, but I was experimenting with the addition of organic almond butter. You already know my FAVORITE smoothie, but I don't need the small amount of caffeine from the Chai at this time of night. The addition of almond butter to a plain chocolate banana smoothie gave the drink a nice sweet quality, without tasting sugary. If you don't like your smoothies/shakes to be too sweet, you might give it a try.


Aunt Melissa's Easy Chocolate Almond Smoothie:

Ice
2 scoops Trader Darwin's Chocolate Whey Protein Powder
1/2 ripe banana
1 Tablespoon Trader Joe's Organic Almond Butter
approx. 1 cup organic milk

Blend.

This turned out only mildly sweet, yet satisfying. Next time, I think I'll substitute Pacific Food's organic Almond non-dairy beverage in place of the milk in order to kick up the nuttiness factor.

Back to the Books!

Aunt Melissa

Bob the Decorator

Soon after arrival in his new home, we noticed that Bob has definite designer/decorator tendencies. He LOVES to curl up next to me on the sofa and watch HGTV, but that wasn't our first clue... Nope.

Bob likes to rearrange the area rugs. He drags them all around the house, placing and arranging them in interesting ways. Sometimes he collects all of his toys and arranges them on the rugs. Upon noticing this tendency, I thought perhaps he deserved a little more beauty in his life and placed my original Peter Max signed lithograph next to his bowl for his enjoyment. Soon after that, Bob began tearing up his original bed, stuffing tuft by stuffing tuft, which the husband and I dutifully picked up every day and stashed away in plastic bags. Tonight, I finally re-purposed a nice piece of stretch corduroy from my sewing stash originally slated for a possible new skirt.

I don't know if tearing up the old bed was a message that its design didn't compliment this fine work of art, but perhaps this nice solid green will make a better companion for "Tut's Nanny" and our discriminating little decorator can leave it in one piece.

We'll see.

New bed was officially placed into service at 9:50 pm P.S.T.

The countdown begins!


Happy Decorating!
Aunt Melissa

Popcorn & Falafel Chips

Did you get that Blockbuster coupon in your in-box for Dale and Thomas popcorn? $10 off. It arrived last week while I was having a weak moment and I immediately went to the website and cashed in my coupon. Yes, the popcorn is way expensive.... but@ $10 off, the flavorings were just too tempting to pass up. Why not try one tiny slice of decadence today, I thought? I've recently been trying to add flavorings of my own to popcorn and justified the spend as "research". (Ha!) =)

Well, I arrived home from class around 11pm last night and the box was waiting by the door. WHAT A TREAT!! The Holiday Sampler arrived and the first opened was Cinnamon Cream DrizzleCorn. Oh my goodness, is this ever incredibly good!!!!!

I found another great food item this week. One of my classmates introduced me to this snack. Her husband, a doctor concerned about nutrition, along with his partner started a line of organic Falafel Chips and they taste GREAT! After trying the first bag I made a special trip to Whole Foods Market. I had to ask for them, because they weren't out on the shelf, but I tried all three varieties and especially like the Spicy ones. My friend recommends Hummus as an accompaniment, but I made a light cucumber, dill and mint dip that was pretty tasty, too.

Did I tell you I got a call-back and audition for a VoiceOver job? I think it will be fun! Doing the voice for SchoolMax was a lot of fun, I think books should be great, too.

Oh yes, it's Tax Day, so as usual, I'm filling out the forms at the very last possible moment. I always pay my fair share, but somehow, I don't think it's necessary to send it before its absolutely due. =) Some years are easier to file than others. This is a very easy year to fill in the blanks. And obviously I'm not too stressed about it, because I've taken a few moments here to post these random thoughts and talk about snack foods...

hmm... After the taxes are filed, I think I'll open that bag of Peanut Butter White DrizzleCorn and think about what to read for my audition.


Happy Taxes and Snack Food!

Aunt Melissa

Woman on a Mission

There is a 75% off shoe sale at Riviera Euro-Comfort in Beverly Hills. Woman at left is on a mission to get there, find a great new pair of shoes for Spring/Summer and get home within a couple of hours. (Yeah, right... this is LA, after all). Piece of cake, you might say.... the drive is 19 miles. Mapquest predicts 26 minutes from door to door.

Four (yes 4) hours later she is back in the 'hood shopping Barnes & Noble for an appropriate children's book to accompany a handmade baby gift for a baby shower. No worries. Who wanted to read about Network architectures and software (well, I did, actually, but never mind.)

TWO (yes, 2) pair of excellent shoes were purchased at the advertised price of 75% off. Now don't get me wrong... Aunt Melissa has shoes from Walmart in her closet, but she likes the $130 pair marked down to 75% off much better. Same price, better quality. Yes, we like this very much.

I settled on one of my favorite children's books "Time for Bed" by Mem Fox and wrapped it up with diapers and a pair of booties I somehow crocheted without a pattern. (The first one was easy. The trick was getting the second one to match. Ha!)

What? No knitted item, you might ask? I know! I picked up the knitting needles yesterday and they just weren't speaking to me. I had to answer the baby gift call with my crochet hook instead. It's okay. The basket-weave baby sweater will be completed some day. (Katy, maybe for you?) =)

Have a most excellent rest of the weekend. Aunt Melissa's kitchen is closed.


Aunt Melissa