Pinky & The Brain Smoothie

Before you start rolling your eyes, this has nothing to do with pink everything breast cancer awareness. We are already quite aware of it.

This recipe (one of the only ones I made up on my very own!) was inspired by the opening of a Jamba Juice near our house. JJ was a big part of my teenage/college experience, we got smoothies ALL. THE. TIME. Jamba has changed quite a bit since those days. They have kids' meals! (and sandwiches!) The kids meal comes with cheesy whole grain pretzels; It's amazing. The kids picked a smoothie with a beet component, and I really wanted to duplicate it, but only with what I had on hand. 

My kids are WILD about steamed beets. But the stem/stalk (the red part, before the leaf) is edible too! Instead of tossing them in the trash I threw them into the blender and it turned out nicely. I am SO PROUD, y'all. Stuff I would have thrown out- useable once more! Not to mention the vitamins! The brain food that magical beets posses. (notice the excellent first grade math skills in the background?) 

1 c. Pomegranate juice

1 banana

1 large gala apple, sliced

1/4 c. grapefruit juice

1 handful beet stalks

1 c. frozen strawberry/mango/pineapple blend

French Apple Pie

I was looking for my apple pie recipe and made the grave realization that I had not put it on the blog yet. This makes baking with my phone on the counter impossible. So I went and dug out the paper copy. I also forgot to buy apples at the store! So no picture yet. Anyway, this is a recipe I found on the back of a pastry box. I tried it on a whim, and not only is it fool-proof (I am a kitchen fool, you realize) but it is delicious and elicits many compliments. The peeling, coring, & slicing of the apples is the hard part- maybe get someone else to do that part.

1 ready to bake pie crust (rolled up in the refrigerated section of the grocery store)
1/2 c sugar
1/4 c cornstarch
1/2 tea nutmeg
1/4 tea cinnamon
1/4 tea salt
6 c cored, peeled, thinly sliced tart baking apples (I like granny smith, about 4-5 medium sized)
1 c flour
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c butter

Prepare the crust according to instructions in a 9 in pie dish. Preheat the oven to 350.

Mix sugar, starch, nutmeg, cinnamon, & salt. Stir in sliced apples. Spoon apple slices into pie place. To make the crumb topping, mix together flour and brown sugar. Blend in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle atop the pie. Bake pie on a sheet pan for 1 hr 30 mins.