Berry Melody Yogurt Smoothie

Frozen berry mix is main ingredient.

Today, I bought some PLAIN yogurt.  Been feeling a little sick lately, and I know yogurt is good for the intestines.  Mixing it with a bunch of different berries just makes it even better.  I made a Berry Medley Yogurt Smoothie.  The frozen berries included blueberries, blackberries, and strawberries, which are anti-oxidants (anti-aging foods).

In the blender, I poured about a cup of plain yogurt.  Then I added the dry ingredients, which are pictured below.  I topped that with about two cups of frozen berries.  I mixed the concoction.  I felt that it was a bit thick so I added 1 cup of water.   

Powdered ingredients were included.

I added ginger, grape seed complex, Echinacea, cinnamon, a sprinkling of mint flakes, and some SweetLeaf stevia.  I added these powders because of their healing powers.  You can add some of these or leave them out.  Just know that this type of smoothie will need some sweetening.  I used the Echinacea and grape seed complex because they help the immune system. 

The end result was the Berry Melody Yogurt Smoothie.

Adding the cup of water helped because I was able to dispense the smoothie.  I am blessed because three of my kids tried it.  I say blessed because they were my willing guinea pigs.  I warned them that it was not sweet.  They still tried it out.

This sure beats soda, 

which is thought to deplete 

calcium from bones. 

What about you, my readers? Have you ever tried a yogurt smoothie? What fruits would you add to a smoothie? Would you add veggies? I hope you would consider smoothies for your diet. They are a wonderful alternative to sodas.

May God bless you with His peace and wisdom, my beloveds.

This has been an entry for Saturday Spreads. I hope you enjoyed it!

 

 

Planting Cucumber and Cilantro Seeds

I'm sorry to keep you all waiting.  I was hoping to get this blog entry out yesterday.  Unfortunately, time ran out.  We did get to plant some seeds by 11 p.m. last night because I want to eat healthy.  To accomplish planting cucumber and cilantro seeds, we followed various steps which I will recount through pictures. 

We set a few newspapers on the dining table.  This was to keep the table clean.  Newspapers help the cleanup. 

We used the pellets from this package.  These pellets are made of fragile screen sacs full of soil.  If you add water, these pellets expand.  These are the remainder from last year.

The back of the box has easy instructions to follow to use the pellets. 

Here is an individual pellet (above), as I call it.

Here is an empty cup.  It used to hold applesauce.  We used this cup and a few other ones last year.

Here's what the cup probably held--granny smith applesauce.  It's  wonderful to know that you can eat a healthy snack and then use the cup for something else.

Here are a few pellets that went in cups.  Sorry about the background.  I keep those papers from ads that come in the mail.  I reuse them to place raw meat on.  This time, we used a few of those papers to collect any of the mess from planting.

We filled a watering can with water.  Isn't the elephant cute?

We poured water on the pellets.  I added a little bit more water to help some of the pellets expand.

We waited a few minutes.  You can see that all of the pellets became swollen.

Here is a close up of the difference between a swollen and a non-swollen pellet.  Soil was compressed before and then the ones we decided to use became bigger.  I have a few more pellets left for another round of planting in the future.

This packet has big seeds.

These are cucumber seeds.  We placed two seeds in each pellet of soil.

This packet has round seeds.

These are cilantro seeds.

I used two of those white plastic strips to label the seeds.  I cut the strips and labeled the pieces. 

I labeled one as cilantro and six for cucumber seeds.

We placed the labels inside the cups.

Finally, we placed the cups on the windowsill.  I hope the seeds grow into the baby plants of cucumber and cilantro.  I pray they will get enough sun.  They will be close enough for me to water them since they are in the kitchen.  Last year, we used lamps as artificial light to turn seeds into baby plants in our former classroom.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this many-pictured blog entry.  Thanks for your patience in viewing Saturday's late entry.

What about you, my readers?  Are any of you all planting anything this spring?  I hope you will consider doing it at least as an experiment for the children in your life.

I pray God's grants you all His wisdom and peace.

This has been part of Saturday Spreads series.