Monsters, Balls, 3 Ingredient Soup

Happy birthday to my sister, Shelley! She is in her second year of her Master’s in Hospital Administration program at The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and just found out that she’s moving to Atlanta in June for a two year fellowship at Emory. Way to go, Shelley. A fun added birthday celebration. Now we know who gets the bragging attention next week at Thanksgiving.

(Lily has since had her bangs trimmed)

There are only eight days until Thanksgiving! Then the madness of holiday shopping, continuous cool weather (we hope) and busy weekends of travel commence. And the looming half marathon that I’m not thinking about until my poor IT band heals…

Until then, let’s eat clean before the temptations start.

Green Monsters:

The blog world loves their green monsters, and if you haven’t tried it, you should to see what the hype is about. I have tried various additions and quantities, I’ve tried freezing them to defrost later, and played with lots of colored monsters. But in my opinion, the best tasting and prettiest monster is the original.

Basic Green Monster:

• 1 banana
• 1 C any milk
• 2 C spinach

Blend, add ice, blend again, enjoy.

Other monsters:

• Strawberry Banana
• Purple Monster

If you’re interested in more green monsters, check out the Green Monster Movement. I like to drink my monsters with a PB&J Sandwich for lunch or a light dinner. The monsters are quite filling and refreshing.

Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Balls:

When I was in San Francisco for Foodbuzz Fest, one of the vendors at the Tasting Pavilion was Annie the Baker who made cookie dough balls of different flavors. They were all the rage, so of course, someone was going to replicate them at home. Mama Pea was the first at it, and then everyone made them within a day. Here are mine, and they are really really good. Approval by Jeffrey too! Click here for full recipe on her site.

Here are the changes I made: I un-veganized them because I don’t have vegan ingredients. So I used real butter (well, a stick of Fleischman’s margarine), regular chocolate chips and peanut butter chips. When I went to scoop out the balls to bake, the dough was very crumbly, so I put it back under the mixer and added 1/4 C water. It worked perfect, and the crumbles became dough.

3 Ingredient Soup: Tomato Soup with Tortellini and Broccoli

This is not really a recipe, but it was a healthful, colorful, and fast way to eat at home. We recently found Wolfgang Puck organic canned soups, and they are really tasty! We like the Country Tomato with Basil that has little chunks of tomatoes and tastes good as homemade.

I heated up the soup, and at the same time, I boiled water for Buitoni 3-cheese whole wheat tortellini. And at the same time, I microwaved fresh broccoli to steam it. When everything was cooked, I added it to the soup pot to stir together and heat for a minute.

Voila, a one bowl 3 ingredient soup.

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