My New Way To Keep From Biting Anyone Before Noon

I can't believe it's been 11 days since I posted anything.  I'm sure I've lost all of my faithful fans, none of whom have contacted me to check in my well-being, by the way.

I can't even explain my hiatus.  I guess I just had nothing to say for 11 days.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA.  More like I was too tired to bother trying to be clever or show any great things I've whipped up.  School in September really knocks me out.

And I haven't made anything since school started.  Except meals.

So thank you, my one last reader, for checking in today and reading my words of wisdom.

I'm a teacher, in case I haven't mentioned in 45 other posts, and since moving to the elementary school, I've discovered that I burn more calories by 9am than any marathoner in their 25th mile could even fathom.  It takes so.much.energy to wrangle kids at this age, and as I age, I can't keep myself full enough to deal with them until my lunch break.

It's hard to believe that when I first started teaching, I wouldn't eat breakfast, I'd have something small mid morning and then a container of yogurt for lunch.  When I got home, I'd eat everything in the kitchen, but I never seemed hungry until I got home from school.

One container of yogurt at lunch and I'd be civil through the rest of the afternoon.  I can't even imagine.

If I tried that diet today, someone would be maimed before 10am.

I can't deal with protein at 6:30am, but I eat a big bowl of oatmeal with some brown sugar and then I'm out the door.  I used to have Greek yogurt and almonds at my 10:15am break, but this summer, I started making smoothies, and I kind of like the drink-on-the-run convenience of a smoothie.  The yogurt with almonds wasn't really doing the trick last year, but I tried to convince my stomach that it was.  Luckily, I had an early lunch.

This year, my prep period is at 9:25am, and I'm already famished enough to eat my entire lunch.  Instead, I've been drinking a smoothie and believe it or not, I'm ok until 12:40, when I have my lunch.

I've concocted this recipe entirely myself and for me, it's totally working.  I make enough for 3 days worth.  As I put in all of the ingredients I think it's going to taste awful, but I really like it!

Here's my secret recipe:

orange juice (more than you'd expect because there are a lot of thickeners here)
greek yogurt
blueberries
roasted beets (I don't always have these)
peanut butter powder
cocoa powder
bananas
honey or grape jam (once I've replenished my homemade stash!)

I didn't put quantities because a) I can rarely quantify how much I use of anything that I make on the fly and b) you'd want less if you were making just one smoothie for yourself.   I try to use the least amount of honey or jelly that I can.

I have a serious chocolate craving all the time, so I put just a little bit of cocoa powder.  Probably not enough to even taste it, but my brain remembers that I put it in and tells the chocolate loving part of my brain that it's getting a chocolate fix..  There are so many tastes going on, and lots of textures.  When I make them to drink at home, I put ice cubes, but they melt by the time I get them at school, so I don't bother.  This summer, I was also using frozen bananas but it made them soooooo thick, I couldn't even drink them right away, until the bananas melted a little.

That peanut butter powder may be what is pulling it all together for me, and keep me proteined up through lunch time.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's ground peanuts, with coconut sugar, and it's a powder.  One of the regular peanut butter companies makes one, Jiff I think, but I've been buying a different one that I see at Whole Foods and in the organic section of Stop and Shop.  I have issues with peanut butter, a serious love/hate relationship with the smell, so not having gooey peanut butter is a big plus.  I use a lot because the serving size is 2 tablespoons to get any serious protein and since I'm making 3 smoothies in one, I use very generous spoonfuls.  It's a little disappointing that  I use a lot of it each time, so it doesn't last long, but it doesn't have the added oils that peanut butter has, so I'm going with it's healthier for me.

Greek yogurt has more protein than non-Greek yogurt and I think combining that with the peanut powder and the potassium in the orange juice and bananas is making me feel pretty decent all morning.

No one has been bitten, maimed or spat upon this whole month, due to my hunger.

This is a major win.  I have never had such an early prep period or such a late lunch, and the combination of both had me really worried that I might have to bring in a side of buffalo to make it through the morning.

I have a great stash of frozen blueberries from the summer.  Store bought, but at least in season, and when they were on sale I bought a lot and froze them.  When they are gone, this might be hard to replicate because I don't usually buy bags of frozen berries since they seem to always come from China.  If China makes all of our rubber products, then how is their ground safe for making our food too?

But I digress.

I'm currently in beet heaven with all of my beets coming at once, so I've been roasting them and freezing them if I can't use them right away.  The beets add a little sweetness and color and beets are another one of those wonder foods.

I figure by the time I run out of blueberries I will not want to even look at another smoothie and I'll have to come up with something else, but for now, everyone remains unharmed and I remain mostly civil.

Linking here:
http://www.thesitsgirls.com
http://www.skiptomylou.org
http://www.sewcando.com
http://www.myturnforus.com/2015/09/freedom-fridays-with-all-my-bloggy_24.html
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2015/09/clever-chicks-blog-hop-158-featuring.htmlhttp://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2015/09/clever-chicks-blog-hop-158-featuring.html
http://sewmanyways.blogspot.com
http://olives-n-okra.com/funtastic-friday-43/
http://www.flamingotoes.com/2015/09/show-and-tell-link-party-28/