Glitter

Now this is what I call a real salad.

A Real Salad

I guess I’ll just have to be my own fruit and salad company. You know what they say! If you want something done right you just have to do it yourself. Can do.

We kept ourselves busy today, both in and out of the kitchen.

Let’s make more MamaBars!

Let's Make Banana Bites

Let’s make something with glitter! *insert insane shrieking here* ANYTHING WITH GLITTER! Let’s make it! Gliiittteeerrrrrrrrrr…

I’m not so sure though that the “do it yourself” cliche applies to Christmas ornaments. Some things really are better store-bought.

We've Been Busy Today

MamaBars though? Yeah, I’ll take my chances and make those myself.

8 Dates
1/2 c raw cashews
1/3 c sesame seeds
1 banana
3/4 c ground flax seed
1 Tbsp coconut oil
Dash of cinnamon

Everything into the food processor and press the ON button! Easy, right? Well, sort of.

I started with just 1/4 c of flax but it was really wet so I added a 1/4 c at a time for a total of 3/4 of a cup until it was firm enough to shape into bars. But this meant a lot of turns of the food processor blade which is basically code for “a big hot sticky banana mess”.

Thanks to a tip I remembered from Mama Averie, I knew putting the dough in the fridge for a while would help them firm up and reduce the stickiness factor, thus make shaping them into bars easier.

Banana Dough in the Fridge

Now it’s time to get to work on a Mama Pea inspired dinner.

It all started with a fun new squash I found at Wegmans the other day.

Carnival Squash in Produce

Carnival Squash!

Carnival Squash

I snagged one from the pile and sliced the lucky squash open tonight to be baked it at 375 for about an hour. Rumor has it a sweet potato kept the squash company on the cookie sheet. They are now BFF.

With banana dough a-chilling, squash a-baking, six geese a-laying, I diced up an onion.

Diced Onions

To saute with two cloves of garlic in a tablespoon of olive oil until soft. Add a 14 oz can of tomatoes, 4 cups of water and/or vegetable broth and a 1 lb of red lentils, rinsed and drained.

Red Lentils

Once the squash and potato were soft and fork-able (about an hour), their innards were scooped out and then added to the lentils – to be smashed and broken up with with a wooden spoon.

Baked Carnival Squash

A couple tablespoons of curry powder, a dash of red pepper, kosher salt and allow to simmer for about 40 minutes or so until the lentil are completely cooked.

Curried Squash and Lentil Soup

While the soup was cooking, the unthinkable happened.

The Unthinkable

I let the girls wear Girl Scout Cookie glasses.

Cookie Eyes

I don’t know where they get this stuff from.

Max Cookie Eyes

Yes, yes… I was cornered by a gang of Girl Scouts and was coerced into filling out their form. Can I help it if I’m a sucker for cute little girls? NO! Fortunately for me I am not at all in the mood to wear Thin Mint or Samoa glasses – I’ve still got my contact lenses in.

Dinner is served! Curried Squash and Lentil Soup with a side of steamed broccoli and cauliflower topped with a little Parmesan cheese. The soup recipe made 10, one cup servings, about 200 calories each.

Notice the glitter on the table?

Notice Sparkles?

Yeah, eat first. Clean up later. That’s my motto.

Why the Glitter

After dinner my banana dough was ready to be whipped into shape to officially be knighted and named MamaBites.

After making MamaBars last week I realized I prefer small 1 oz bite sized servings as opposed to 2 oz bars. But for your noshing pleasure MamaBites come a variety of sizes – double your pleasure, double your fun.

These worked out to be 105 calories per 1 oz bite, or 210 calories for a 2 oz bar. Pretty dang close to a Larabar! Me likey!

Banana Bites

I called the cat’s name so he would look at me for my photo. And the other cat immediately came running, surely wanting to know what he was getting to eat that she was missing out on.

Minnie Too

Dude, doesn’t anyone do anything around here but eat? Oh yeah, we make ornaments too.

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A Real Rest Day

I declared Monday a rest day and then went and proceeded to rake and haul leaves for more than three hours, making Monday anything but a rest day.

Today though, is really going to be a rest day. After two days of non-stop action, this house is most definitely showing signs of neglect and lots of comings and goings… why do I feel so stressed when the house is a mess? Is it because stress and mess rhyme? Probably.

It must have been a sign from above that the Garmin 405 was picked up with a dead battery and needs to be recharged.

So this morning with my bowl of chocolate fruit cereal, I had a side of Garmin battery charging.

Choc Fruit Cereal

1 diced banana
1 diced gala apple
2 Tbsp ground flax
1 Tbsp raw cacao nibs
2 Tbsp sliced almonds
1 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 c unsweetened chocolate almond milk

Close Cereal

The Daily Plate says: 427 Calories.

I’m going to take a cue from the Garmin today:

Recharge

Time for Mama to recharge her batteries too. Looks like that Garmin is taking a deep, cleansing breath, doesn’t it? I need to do that as well.

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