We started the weekend a bit early. My oldest son had a little spill at school (slipped on ice) and he is home "sick" today. He is actually feeling fine just a bit skittish about his bloodied and battered face, poor thing.
So we all slept in a bit this morning, cause the other two kids don't have school on Fridays. When we got up the kids wanted raw banana ice cream but the food processor is on the fritz. I would use my Vita-Love but a food processor just works better for creamy banana ice cream. I am hoping my husband can figure out the problem when he gets home and put these cozy, frozy bananas to good use.
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So… we had leftover black bean brownies. They are good IMO but not fabulous. They are improved by eating them with banana ice cream. My husband and my boys really like them though. Hubby gobbled down five brownies right after I made them, although he did admit they are a bit "different". The recipe is from the Happy Herbivore if you want to check it out.
After a quick bite we all started playing the BEST Wii game called EA Sports Active. I swear this program is better than a gym membership. It is basically like having a personal trainer come to your house and walk you through workouts. In fact you have a virtual personal trainer in one corner of the screen. Just select a workout from a variety of options and you start exercising with the controller in hand and the nunchuck strapped to your upper thigh. You walk or run on a track, do lunges and squats, etc. changing the activity every few minutes until you have done a full workout… they are usually about 20 minutes long. We REALLY like the sports training workouts, especially my son. You shoot hoops, throw basketballs at targets, you practice hitting and catching baseballs, you rollerblade, you hit a punching bag, etc. He loves it. Here is he running on an outdoor track.
Yeah we were still in our jammies, sue me.
This game also allows you to track your progress, keep track of calories, intensity of workouts, and you can even do a six week challenge. It also comes with a resistance band for bicep curls and other strength training exercises. If you have extra controllers (which we do not have yet) you can also exercise with a partner. Oh how I like this game… me.. I really like a video game, who would have thought it.
After playing with that a bit we made some spinach, banana, mango smoothies with Amazing Grass powder. Oh yum! All 3 kids scarfed theirs down and greedily came after mine. I think we will be making more of these later.
Tonight I hope to go see The Lovely Bones and then start reading the book. I have been looking forward to both for a couple of weeks. Tomorrow we go on a 2 mile winter hike so need to stop and get some Pure Bars for that. These babies kick Lara Bar butt… they are soooo good. Other than that we have no concrete plans… maybe a rousing game of Uno, some sewing, a trip to the oil change place, a few hours spent watching the latest sad news from Haiti…sigh.
What do you plan on doing this weekend?
I love Wii active. Last week we had 2 days that is was not going to get over freezing. Being in the subtropics my students just can’t afford coats for that type of weather, since they need them maybe 2 days the whole winter if that.
So we knew they wouldn’t be dressed to go outside. I didn’t want them to sit around and watch a movie, and the gym would have the PE classes. So I brought my Wii and wii active.
I had my home room stack the desks against the wall. I printed out a list of kids. To choose 2 kids, I rolled the dice, and counted down the list. Those two kids would use the wii motes. They would compete in, say dance – but all 36 kids would follow along. THey had a blast.
I told them anytime weather forces us inside for recess on my weeks I’ll bring the Wii active and/or wii fit Plus.
I’m interested in if the add on to Wii active is any good. Have you heard anything.
Two kids would compete like doing the dance activities – and the other kids would
Tiffany, I am wondering from your banana ice cream commentary if you’ve found a bpa-free food processor? Tx.
Jess, no. It is a thrift store find that my hubby bought.. a cheapie brand I would say if I had to guess. That would probably be why it is now broken, grrr. I haven’t ever looked for a BPA free processor before but unless I want to live banana ice cream free I may have to look.
I’ll be curious to hear how you like the movie… I’m interested in seeing it, but to tell you the truth… while I’m pregnant I’m avoiding any movies that might be too sad, stressful, or too emotional – lol. ;)
Raw banana ice cream sounds absolutely delicious. And I loved this little peak into your family life, Tiff.
Nell
Wow, I have never heard of Black Bean brownies – how could anyone not be curious! I checked out the recipe and didn’t see anything that would scare a person away. Can’t wait to try this out, and I’ll make sure to have some ice cream ready as a toping just in case!
Thanks
If you like raw desserts…try Ani Phyo’s dessert cookbook. The raw Chocolate Raspberry Ganache Cake is to die for. Yummy.
You can see her make this cake here http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/video?id=7117640§ion=view_from_the_bay
Hello, I see your bananas are in a jar and they look well preserved. Did you jar the bananas? If so, can you tel me how to do this? I have some home grown bananas that I want to put in a jar.
I just put them in a jar and froze them.