Smoothies and more

Hello my friends :),

Winter in Chicago has been extremely cold. Although, I am from a part of Brazil that has cold winters; I have never in my life experienced -27 degrees Celsius, which was -57F. When my family in Brazil asked me to described how cold it was, I could not find words to explain the level coldness here. However, we are surviving (rsrsrs). We are trying to do as much as we can to entertain ourselves indoors, and sometimes we play Ninja as an option (rsrsrs).

Since I gained a lot of weight with my second baby, I have a lot to loose. The cold winter is not helping much with outdoor exercises, hence I am focusing on my diet, trying to eat as many vegetables as I can. I make a smoothie, which is super delicious and nutritious, and I also give it to my baby, who loves it. Every time I make it,  he eats all of it.

My little baby is 7 months old and he is already eating solid food. With my first baby I pureed all his vegetables and fruits, I never bought pureed food at the supermarket. With my first son this was also the case, I am determined to do the same with my second one. I believe that making your own food is cheaper, healthier and my children will most probably eat vegetables. My oldest is already proving to me that I was right as he loves salads and vegetables. Thank God my kids eat well and whatever I give them they eat.

The recipe is:
1 orange
1 banana
5 strawberries
5 blackberries
5 raspberries
1 handful of spinach
2 leaves of kale
2 leaves of collard green

After blending it I add a tablespoon of Chia seeds, which helps to balance your blood sugar, has omega 3, gives you energy for the day, and has anti-oxidants that helps to loose weight. It does not taste like anything. I also do not give the chia seeds to my baby. So, every day I drink about 1 cup of this delicious super healthy smoothie at lunch time as well as my baby. Sometimes I put rice pudding to make it thicker for my baby. 

 There is always a happy baby every time he eats his green food.

Furthermore, I have been decorating the house. The other day my son helped me to paint tomato sauce tins with chalkboard paint to organise his study room. We also painted a board to stick the tins onto. My husband drilled the nails through the tins onto the board to make it secure, and after he screwed in the wall.

My son organized his pencils, rulers, scissors, crayons, markers, colored pencils, pens and erasers into the tins. As my son is bilingual, Portuguese and English,  I labelled the tins in Portuguese.

 His desk is painted with chalkboard paint too. We hung the tin organizer above the desk. It looked super cute and it is a great way to recycle.

Lately, my son is very much interested in making scientific experiments. He has a few books from the "Times for Kids" which is completed with interesting facts and experiments for the kids to learn. This week he wanted to make a "blubler". Blubbler is a thick layer of fat that insulates animals in Winter. This experiment is very easy to make as well as easy to comprehend as a concept.
What you need:
vegetable shortening
2 ziplock bags
a bowl of ice water with ice cubes

Directions:
1 - Put vegetable shortening into one ziplock bag until its one third filled.

2 - Turn the other ziplock bag inside out. Place it inside the bag filled with shortening, and spread out the shortening evenly. The shortening  should be trapped between the two bags like a layer of blubber.

3 - Put your hand into the inside out bag.

4 - Put your bare hand into the ice water to feel how cold it is. Then put your blubber mitten into the ice water.

Questions to ask:
Does the water seem colder with the mitten hand or bare hand?
Will you explain the meaning of blubber?
Can you give me examples of animals that have a layer of fat to keep themselves warm?

Thanks for reading my blog, I really appreciate your support.

Love,
Fabiana