The Secret to Yuri's Smoothie

Sorry, it's Friday today but I failed to prepare a Finance Friday post! I also failed to prepare a post of any kind mainly because I was exhausted last night. After preparing for Yuri's simplest birthday celebration last Wednesday and attending my sister's graduation yesterday evening, all I wanted was a good night's sleep.

However, I want to write a post today, so let me talk about the mundane. Smoothies!

Both Yuri and I love smoothies. Every time I go grocery-shopping, I always make it a point to pick up fruits and vegetables for our smoothies. Yes, I incorporate gulay in our smoothies now. Since Yuri is not very fond of munching veggies (shame on me), I just make him drink them instead!

And it works out well since Yuri loves his smoothies. However, the problem is that the straw of his sippy cup is quite narrow, and sometimes, after a while (especially when it is refrigerated, the smoothie turns from "smooth" to "lumpy." Because of that, it is even harder to drink the smoothie.

I tried adding more liquids to the smoothie recipe: water and/or natural fruit juice. However, the result is not quite the one I want to achieve. Yes, it is easier to drink, but the taste is, I don't know, too watery, and if I use juice, too acidic.

I looked at the fridge and almost slapped my forehead when I realized I could have used this all along!

We always have soymilk in our fridge, and Yuri always drinks a cup of it every morning, but somehow (I don't know!), I never even thought of adding it to our daily smoothies. Where have you been all my la-a-a-ife? Grrr, I don't know. In the fridge?

Honestly, it's no secret. There are so many recipes that called for milk; it's just that the soymilk I had was chocolate-flavored and didn't really go well with fruits and vegetables. Now, strawberry soymilk is perfect!

So this morning, I added a cup of soymilk to our smoothie (which had half a papaya, two medium bananas, and a chunk of squash the size of my fist), and the result was a smoothie that was very creamy, easy to drink, and had the right amount of sweetness! Everybody really liked it, and my sister, who is not fond of anything remotely healthy and anything not-sweet-enough even asked for a cup. Yay! So much win!

Of course, you can use any kind of milk, but I kind of like having a hint of strawberry in my smoothies.

The best way to drink a smoothie? Outdoors. Nothing like soaking in vitamins and minerals from a cup while soaking in Vitamin D and happiness hormones from the sun!

Yes, I know I need to use a better cup for Yuri. Ang yabang ko, naka-Snapware glass bottle ako, pero si Yuri naka-plastic lang. Erased pa ang designs! I'm working on it! Hehe

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Homemade Peanut Butter - Chocolate Granola Bars

Even if I'm such a novice in the kitchen, and even if we don't have a properly functioning oven, I still prefer making Yuri's snacks rather than buying them from the grocery. That means a lot because I love grocery-shopping. While I do have grocery-bought snacks for emergency purposes, it's quite scary buying snacks for a young toddler especially when you can't even pronounce their ingredients!

To minimize Yuri's exposure to preservatives, chemicals, unnecessary sugars, and many other stuff I don't have any idea of, I roll up my sleeves and try to search Google for recipes I can easily create.

I especially like creating granola bars because not only are they healthy (well, depending on the ingredients you use) but also require virtually no special equipment. I've been wanting to make another batch of granola bars again (our go-to snacks), so I looked for an easy recipe, which I found here. Here's my re-creation of the yummy peanut butter-chocolate granola bars.

Ingredients:
Rolled Oats (I used Bob's Red Mill 5-Grain Rolled Cereal.)
Peanut Butter (I used a local brand, Dane's. It not only is cheap but also contains just three ingredients: peanuts, sugar, and butter.)
Chocolate Chips (I used generic baking chocolate chips from the grocery.)
Milk (Soyfresh chocolate soy milk was what I had, so I used it. You can use any milk!)

Optional add-ons:
Marshmallows (I have a lot of mini-marshmallows which I planned to use to make rice crispy treats, so I added some to the granola mixture.)
Chocolate chips (Since you already have them, why don't you add more?)
Rice crispies (I still have one more box of Breakfast Choice rice crispies from last month.)
Nuts (You can use nuts, but I prefer not to use them because Yuri doesn't like nuts yet.)
Raisins I would love to use raisins; unfortunately, I forgot to buy some during my last trip to the grocery!

(I didn't have measurements because I didn't measure any of them. I just poured what "looks" right and then adjusted if the resulting mixture was too runny. You will need to create a mixture that is relatively dry, so if the mixture was too runny, I added more cereal. If it was too dry, I added more milk or peanut butter.)

Procedure:

1. Mix the peanut butter, chocolate chips, and milk. You can either melt them in the saucepan or in the microwave.

2. Melt them until you form a smooth (luscious) mixture like the one below:

Fun and Frugal Finds for February

I didn't realize it was March already when I blogged last Saturday! Oh well, I think February is used to this kind of comment. So what are my discoveries for this month (mostly from the grocery) that wouldn't burn holes in your pockets?

Soyfresh Soya Milk

Bought: Gaisano Mall
Price: Around P65 for 1 Liter

Story: Some of you know that I'm unabashedly giving Yuri fresh milk (we can't all be super parents); however, I immediately stopped it when I found out cow's milk is a mean phlegm former. So I switched.

I was really looking for almond milk because I also heard soy milk contains a lot of hormones. However, when I saw the Blue Diamond brand, Almond Breeze, nanghina ako. Around P120 for only 350 ml (not even half of a liter). Err, hormones it is!

(PS: I'm planning to buy cashews to make my own cashew milk.)

Verdict: Delicious! It's not as rich as cow's milk, but it does create a nice impression of chocolate. Even Nina, Yuri's ka-age friend, liked it!

SansFluo toothpaste

Bought: Gaisano Mall
Price: P90

Story: Wala lang, kailangan lang ni Yuri ng new toothpaste. I want to try another brand and this is the most affordable option that time.

Verdict: We're still waiting for our Tiny Fangs toothpaste to run out, and we haven't used it yet.

Breakfast Choice Cereals

Bought: Gaisano Mall
Price: Crispy Rice around P65, Oat Rounds around P80 - both buy 1 take 1!

Story: I'm a sucker for buy 1-take1, and when I saw that the cereal I used to buy was on promo, I didn't hesitate. I also got two other boxes for the price of one!

Verdict: I like both cereals because they're not sweet. Yuri snacks on the Oat Rounds as is (no milk), while I like making homemade rice crispies from the rice cereal.

Good Sense Strawberry Yogurt Pretzels

Bought: Gaisano Mall
Price: P110 - buy 1 take 1!

Story: I was looking for alternative snacks for Yuri because Sky Flakes, despite its yumminess, is simply not healthy. I stumbled upon this first on the regular-priced rack but, luckily, I found some on promo. Thank you, Lord! And did I tell you I'm a sucker for buy 1-take 1?

Verdict: Wow, yummy! The strawberry yogurt coating is not so sweet; it's just the right blend of sweet and tangy. Yuri eats a lot of these in one sitting, but it's okay because they don't have much sugar.

Kablon Farms Pineapple Jam

Bought: SM Lanang Premier grocery
Price: Around P65

Story: I was also looking for homegrown organic products and learned about Kablon Farms. Situated in South Cotabato, they manufacture products straight from the local farms. I love local farms in Mindanao because, more often than not, their products are organic. So next time, before you consider imported products from Healthy Options, support local first!

Verdict: Forget about commercial, sugar-laden jams. This is simply fruit in a bottle. The organic pineapple is crushed and, I think, no artificial syrup has been added so it's basically just pineapple. Yummy and refreshing!

Del Monte Fruit Snack