Yesterday&Today + My EASY Apple Butternut Squash Soup

Thought I'd add in some of my Instagram pictures...

Yesterday we were home all day. I cleaned, did laundry, and cooked. 

During a break:

Here is Ava wanting MY snack as she comes over saying, "ack? ack?" Which means I want a snack. So I ended up with one slice and she with the other that I cut up into pieces. 

Always wants mama's food... :)

(Ezekiel bread toasted with almond butter and raspberry jam...a fave around here) 

I am kind of hooked on making meals or snacks with romain leaves. It's nice fresh tasting change to the usual shell. Plus it's another green I can add in easily :)

These are just filled with guacamole, salsa, cilantro, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, chia seeds, and Himalayan salt. 

Anyone else put chia seeds in their daily water ?

I do this as another way to get calcium, protein, magnesium, fiber, omega3, omega6, and iron in to my diet. It's a very easy and natural way to get a lot of health benefits into your daily diet.

I put chia seeds in Ava's yogurt for her too.  Chia seeds are a great addition to toddler and kids diets too! 

Great motto, huh? That's how I look at eating now. It's not about limiting and "not being allowed" to eat unhealthy foods. It's that I fill up on good stuff so that I'm not craving sugar and salt throughout the day. Crowding out... Genius! This little motto works in many aspects of life... People, work, experiences, attitudes, hobbies. Fill up your day with as much good as possible and you won't have enough time for the bad things, experiences, or negative people! aha!

And this...

Ava wanted this balloon while we were food shopping that morning. I thought it would be a good way to say Thank You to Mark when I saw her reaching for it. 

I helped her a bit so that she knew what to do with a crayon...

He loved it :)

Then today, I delivered the "Fit&Fabulous" themed basket. My Mommy&Me's class at Amanda's Place was given the task of trying to collect class donations to create an auction item for the program. 

With the help of the moms in our class, we raised about $100 cash and added about another $100 worth of goodies they donated. 

The remaining donated items were thanks to my amazing friends! We ended up having a basket totaling $1,160.00 !!!

We topped our $100 goal and that makes me very happy. I hope the program can raise a lot of money with this basket for Amanda's Place.

It was so much fun for me to coordinate and be involved with the program's fundraiser. 

(Pictured above me is Ava's favorite "teacher" Ms. Jen. 

FSU Alum too. Go Noles!) 

After the basket making, I picked up Ava from her Nana's house (Mark's mom). 

We headed over to Bayview Park in Ft. Lauderdale to meet up with Ava's friend Mya of our favorite and healthy place: Myapapaya | juicery + kitchen. 

Thought I'd let her burn off some energy and get some vitamin D :) 

Oh! And last night I made a pretty tasty soup if I may say so myself! (Prep&Blending took about 25total time - easy!) 

Here is what I did:

1. Cut and scoop out seeds of butternut squash then cut into big pieces to steam in large pan with 1/2 cup water. 

2. Sauté (low to medium heat) 6 garlic cloves in Olive oil 

3. Add in ingredients below to top two cooked ingredients: (all into blender) 

•1/2 cup coconut milk

•2 cups vegetable broth 

•Few dashes of thyme (fresh if you have it) 

•2 chopped up apples 

•Sprig or two of fresh Rosemary 

•Few dashes of Himalayan salt 

and 

•Pepper(optional) 

4. Blend on High for 7 min. 

(If you aren't working with a Vitamix, heat in sauce pan afterwards.

If you are using a Vitamix, then the soup will already be heated after the 7 min blending process.) 

Enjoy your delicious Apple Butternut Squash Soup! 

Made with Love,

Christina