Did you know way back when…oh maybe a year ago, I was on this oatmeal kick. I had oatmeal everyday for breakfast. That was what I was in the mood for, every single day. Oatmeal with raisins, oatmeal with bananas, with strawberries, or with honey. Anything with oatmeal. I think it was after Nathan was born and then went on for months and months if not for a year. Then one day I didn’t want it anymore. Breakfast was harder then, always with the, what shall I have today?

Well, lately, I’ve been in the mood for strawberry smoothies, not a strange everyday kick, only once in a while when the mood hits. So, today, I thought I’d share how I make my strawberry smoothies.

All that is needed is these four ingredients: raw almonds, water, frozen bananas, and strawberries.

Boil the almonds for 3 minutes in water.

Remove the almond skins.

Throw the peeled almonds into a blender and blend with a cup of water. Strain the pulp if you like.

Ta da! You have just made almond milk!

Add strawberries and frozen bananas and blend until smooth.

And that’s it, strawberry banana almond smoothies!

Yoink!

Months and months ago I took some pictures to share the steps in this recipe. But I missed some steps so I put it aside. A couple of months went by again and I took pictures of the missing steps.

I uploaded the pictures and thought I’d share this recipe for July 4th. Ummm…that didn’t happen.

So, why don’t I share it now since the photos are already online and I am procrastinating from editing other photos.

Start with some finely diced up onion. Add a squeeze of lime to this.

Roast tomatoes, garlic, and jalapeño pepper.

While those are roasting, grab some cilantro and chop it up finely.

Your roasted garlic, jalapeños, and tomatoes should be a bit blackened.

We seed the jalapeños but leave them if you like the heat. Then pulse the tomatoes, jalapeños, and garlic up in a food processor. Add the chopped cilantro and salt to taste.

This is a yummy roasted tomato salsa.

But we like guacamole.

So we get two avocados.

Smoosh that up nice and good.

Then add it to the salsa and there you have our roasted tomato guacamole.

I was going to write about our homeschool meetup today but it’s late. So, instead I’m going to share a cookie recipe.

A few weeks ago, we made some gingerbread cookies. Flume shaped. What is a flume you ask? I don’t know exactly. I always thought flume was used like, a flume of water. But recently, during extremely cold weather in the mornings, my phone has been forecasting flumes with pictures of snowflakes. I’ve never heard that term applied to something that looks like a snowflake. And snow?! In my area? Really, dear phone? You must be mistaken.

But anyhoo, cookies. This is my favorite gingerbread cookie recipe from Cook’s Illustrated. I like them because they’re soft and chewy, not crunchy.

Maybe this recipe was not the best use of this awesome snowflake cookie cutter we got from Alice. Thank you Alice! The cookies spread too much and the little shapes I cut in the big snowflake, baked closed. Oh well. They were still yummy.

Oh and see the little divot in the small flume? I was busy with Nathan when that batch beeped in the oven. I told Alan to check it gently. I walked into the kitchen later to find a whole bunch of cookies with these very noticeable divots in them. Bwa ha ha! That’s not what I meant by gentle.

Just practicing with my new lens. But I do have a point to this post.

A month ago or something like that (I cannot remember), my sister sent me a link about milk possibly causing eczema. After our struggles with Nathan and his poor face I was willing to try eliminating milk from my diet. And it worked! Did you notice how nice his face looked in the pictures from his birthday party? See:

It took a bit after I stopped drinking milk for his face to heal but then after that, it just stayed good. We wondered if it was really such a simple thing, the milk. So, one day we gave it a test. I drank some milk. Immediately, that day, he started scratching at his face again. Can’t be a coincidence right? So, I’m off of cow’s milk again. And it seems to be working again.

I now drink almond milk. Homemade almond milk! I don’t drink milk that frequently so I make only about 2 cups at a time so it doesn’t go bad. Here’s how I make it:

The only catch for me is, I don’t know exactly what is wrong with cow’s milk that is effecting Nathan. So, what else do I need to avoid? Cheese? Heavy whipping cream? What do I replace those with? And do I have to worry that he shouldn’t drink cow’s milk himself?

It’s too much to think about. Maybe I should just hope the milk thing is a coincidence and his face got better because he outgrow it. Yeah, let’s all hope really hard that’s what it is.

I know I said I would buckle down with the sketches. But I’m thinking about food right now. And well, if that’s where my mind is, that’s what I’m posting about.