Happy Saturday morning FitFeat friends!
It’s a happy day indeed. I have the beginnings of some homemade sprouts! So if you are a new reader who regularly makes your own sprouts and/or can actually grow things like live plants, you may want to read my previous post about my lack of a green thumb. Actually seeing something GROWING in my kitchen is a FEAT for me! So, any sprout experts out there want to chime in and tell me if it will be obvious to me when I can eat them? 
I have a feeling that I will still need to buy sprouts in addition to growing them because I eat way more in a day or two than what I have growing here I think. Although maybe they will still have a growth spurt!
Speaking of sprouts, check out this beautiful “before” shot of my green smoothie from yesterday.
It looks awfully HOLIDAY-ish, don’t you think? Pretty reds and greens! I finally put those new cranberries to good use after all of Cindy’s cranberry blogging. And in a recent comment she mentioned putting 2 bananas and a CUP of cranberries into a smoothie. Cindy, are you trying to defibrillate my tastebuds? I tasted one of those little buggers before I added them to my smoothie – they are t-t-tart! I’m starting small for now!
I present to you my Festive Holiday CranApple Smoothie!
- 8 oz water
- 1/2 to 2/3 cup fresh cranberries
- 1 apple, unpeeled and chunked
- 1/2 small banana
- fistful of spinach
- a palm’s worth of sprouts (I used sweet clover sprouts)
- 1/2 large cucumber, peeled and chunked
- 1- 2 stalks celery, chunked
- 1/2 tbsp hemp oil
Blend till smooth.
(“Chunked” is an official culinary term right?) 
Here is the after:
It was definitely festive for the tastebuds! Thank you Cindy for inspiring me to get some fresh cranberries, which I normally pass right on by in the produce section. But learning from you of their anti-viral properties sold me!
I had a crazy urge for lunch-ish food at morning snack time so I toasted up some Ezekial sprouted grain bread, added some Tofutti spread, smeared on a little avocado, sprouts, cucumber, spinach and pepitas.
Which left room for a light lunch when it was actually lunchtime! Oh yeah, you know what I rolled with:
A little heavenly, gingery squash soup! Reheated, it was JUST as good, if not better than, the first time.
And then a little slice of “pie” for a late afternoon snack.
Next up, it was out for some Friday night fun with some girlfriends I hadn’t seen for MUCH TOO LONG. We hit up a local wine bar for a happy hour that spilled beyond that hour by about three more! It was a wonderful time! Love wine time with my ladies! And in standard Shari style, I’m sure you know I suggested HUMMUS for a shared appetizer! (My name is Shari and I’m a Hummus-Holic.) While the service at this place left a LOT to be desired, their hummus most certainly did not. It was probably the best hummus I’ve ever had.
(Or maybe it was just the dim lights, candles and pretty plates that made it taste so good. It couldn’t possibly have had anything to do with wine consumption!)
The manager left us with a complimentary bottle of vino to share (conveniently while we were trying to decide on just HOW small a tip to leave for our unattentive waiter.) It was a moscato d’asti dessert wine and I do declare that I will run right out and buy a bottle to have on Thanksgiving. (Does anyone declare that they watched this week’s “The Office”?) If not you are all going, ‘Huh?”
Heavenly soup by day, heavenly wine by night. It MUST have been a Friday!
– Shari B. =)
#1 by Cindy on November 14, 2009 - 12:31 pm
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Are those Mung beans? They look like they are. They only take about 48 hours ..a day to soak and another day or two max to sprout. And really, you can sprout them to your tastes…. if they keep growing they get the green tops and it changes the taste and physical properties. You can also just soak beans and wait for the tail to start to shoot out and that can be it.
I am going to go find which book I use for my reference and let you know! NICE JOB though!
and YAY for cranberries! YAH…I can’t eat them as is…they are tart but mixed with the banana or whatever fruit you like they are sweet tart which I like! any way to get them in fresh is bonus for me!
Happy Saturday!
.-= Cindy´s last blog ..Old Mother Hubbard… =-.
#2 by Shari B. on November 15, 2009 - 8:19 pm
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HI Cindy! Some are mung beans – it was a mixed bag. There are plenty of tails today, so maybe I’ll put them in the sunshine tomorrow and then ‘harvest’ them!
#3 by Joan on November 14, 2009 - 12:12 pm
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I think your sprouts are ready when they look like what you buy in the store, and not a moment later as the little alfalfa sprouts can turn to mush pronto if left too long.
A taste test of one could also tell you.
Good Job Shari!
.-= Joan´s last blog ..World Wide Gardening =-.
#4 by Shari B. on November 15, 2009 - 8:19 pm
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Hi Joan! Thank you! Well crumb – this set of seeds is a mix which does include some alfalfa. I hope that they last long enough for the other seeds to sprout too!
Thanks for the heads up!
#5 by Sammi on November 14, 2009 - 11:14 am
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I’m a waitress and I am so SHOCKED about how horrible some of the waitresses I encounter when I go out to eat are. No matter what kind of night it is, I’m always rushing around trying to be as attentive as possible and honestly, I worry that I annoy my tables by checking on them so much but I know that the one time I decide to wait longer before checking on them, it will be the time that they are needing something. I always tip at least 20% but sometimes they don’t really deserve it.
That is one gorgeous smoothie!
.-= Sammi´s last blog ..No sleep night = sleepy day =-.
#6 by Shari B. on November 15, 2009 - 8:17 pm
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Hi Sammi! In my book I’d rather an overly attentive wait person than the opposite! So I’m sure you’re doing great! I try to be a good tipper as well. But I also really feel that good customer service is really important. My friend asked for her water glass to be refilled TWICE and he just kept walking by, having forgotten all about us. There were other issues too.