Banana Berry Smoothie

I was completely prepared to tell you all about my rockin' morning today.  We started off great - I woke up early, showered before the kids got up, put the crockpot going with some red beans for dinner, made smoothies for breakfast, woke up the kids and had Bug going on her new morning routine, everyone was up and happy.  We were laughing and playing and getting things done with no stress, no fighting, no whining.  I was writing this awesome "we've got mornings conquered" post in my head through the whole thing.  Then...

Yep, there's a 'then'.

THEN the kids followed me into my room.  THEN I left my room to grab a shirt out of the laundry room.  THEN Bug and Tank found a pair of scissors and cut some pretty ribbons to play with...from a brand new shirt I just bought (way on sale!) and haven't even worn yet.  I must confess that momentarily de-railed our no stress, on time, "we've got morrnings conquered" morning.  The new lessons I have learned?  No one in my closet unless they have a job. . . and I probably shouldn't leave sharp objects in the reaches of my 2 and 4 year olds.  Lucky for me - the part they cut was the tie.  I can likely sew it back together or replace it with a belt.  And the kids did not cut themselves/one another --- no children were harmed in the making of this blog post.

But let's get back to happier times, shall we?

The smoothie.  Bug is just like me in that she doesn't like to eat in the morning.  However, since she's started school, I try to cram something in find creative ways to feed her.  I took her to the store with me yesterday (you know, that whole, 'if they participate they are more likely to try' idea) to pick out some fruit for a smoothie.  We got some frozen mixed berries and tart cherries, some fresh bananas and orange juice.  We talked about smoothies (yummy, good, you will like these) all through the store.

This morning I grabbed all of this

2 cups frozen berries
1 cup frozen tart cherries
3/4 cup orange juice
1 Tbsp wheat germ*
2 bananas
*Totally optional, but no one will notice, it's packed with vitamins (!) and I happened to have it in the pantry

Throw everything in the blender

and give it a whirl.

MMMmmmm... pretty and fruity!

So what did Bug think??? It was a no-go. She gave it to the boys and opted to eat a grand total of 6 grapes for breakfast.

The boys (and myself) loved it.

Until it was out... that caused much distress.

Happy again with a quick refill.

Try this for your little ones (and/or yourself) in the morning.  It's a great way to start the day.  And don't forget to hide the scissors!
Get the printable recipe here.

Linking up at Works for Me Wednesday, The Wiegands, Fingerprints on the Fridge and Imprintalish

Avocado Buttercream Frosting on Banana Cupcakes

I know, I know...this doesn't sound good.  But it looks good, doesn't it!?!

And it smells like a big ol' hunk of heaven!  Oh - you don't have a scratch-n-sniff monitor?  Then you should bake some.  Tonight - or today, if you bake during daylight hours.  Crazy as it sounds, you will thank me.  Or actually, you should thank Jessica over at How Sweet Eats.  She's the brains behind this cupcake/frosting combination that brought a SWAT Team to its knees. 

You remember these, don't you?  I talked about them for Bug's birthday.  Yea, right there on that tray with the fruit.

I really can't say enough about them.  The combination of the cupcake flavor with the avocado butter cream is perfect.  That's really the only way to describe it.  Have you ever had butter cream icing and though it just needed a little something to take the edge off of the sugar?  It turns out, avocado is just that thing.  It's the little something special that rounds out the flavor and balances everything.  It's pure bliss!

So without further ado, let's bake!

Pre-heat the oven to 350.  Drop some cupcake liners in a muffin pan.  Go ahead and sit 2 tablespoons of butter out on the counter.  It needs to be soft for the frosting, so just let it sit out.

 Gather the ingredients.

1 1/3 cups flour
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
1 egg
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup butter, melted

Sift the dry stuff into a bowl (flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg).

Mash your bananas (it's okay if you start singing Gwen Stefani's Banana song while you do this, I do it all the time!)

Mix the eggs and brown sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer.

Add vanilla, sour cream and melted butter *YUM*.  Mix until it's all together.

Add the sifted dry stuff....mix.  It should look like peanut butter(!)

Now add the mashed bananas and mix until they're evenly dispersed.
Put the batter into a gallon sized zip top bag, snip off the end

and squeeze into your prepared muffin cups.

Bake for 13-15 minutes.  Yea, that's the smell I'm talking about.  OH! MY!

!!!WAIT!!!

You have to make the frosting.  No, like, you must.  Trust me!  It's fast and painless.  And it'll change your world forever.  I'm serious.

Grab this:

2 ripe avocados
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups powdered sugar
pinch of salt

Peel the avocados and put them in the bowl of your mixer with the softened butter.  Beat them pretty good until they're creamy (I'm pretty sure it's not possible to get out ALL of the clumps that avocados have, but you can get it pretty creamy).

Now add the sugar and blend.

Drop in the vanilla and salt and blend again.

Taste it!  Don't be scared - it's fantabulous!  Aren't you glad you made it!?!  Okay, now put the spoon down and frost your cupcakes.  I like to pipe them with a round tip so there's plenty icing!

Store these guys in the fridge.  They'll hold up for about 3 days . . . . but they NEVER make it that long at my house.  They usually don't make it past breakfast.  What?!?!?  They've bananas in there - it's totally okay for the kids to have these for breakfast.  Never mind the powdered sugar, really, it's breakfast food all the way!
 

***Click on over to How Sweet Eats for the recipe***