Ahhhhhh.  That was a deep sigh of contentment.  Still loving my gorgeous new blender 🙂

Harvey has a bad throat and cough so we decided to miss swimming this morning which meant we had a lazy start to the day.  When I went downstairs to make tea to take back to bed, I popped some oats and chia seeds in to the blender with some almond milk to soak for a bit.

An hour or so later, I added some other bits such as a banana and these delicious coconut chips.

Plus a passionfruit and a pink grapefruit.

I did not originally intend to add the grapefruit but it needed using up and was not fresh enough to eat without blending it first.

And whizzed it up.

It was very thick which I liked with a mild oat flavour and a very strong grapefruit flavour which I liked but Harvey said was too overpowering.

Breakfast Oat Smoothie

Ingredients (for 1 person)

• ½ cup oats
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• 1 cup almond milk
• ¼ cup coconut chips
• ½ passionfruit
• ½ grapefruit
  1 banana

Method

1. Place oats, seeds and milk in blender and soak for 1 – 2 hours.
2. Add coconut and fruits and blend until smooth.

We were out and about in the morning and the boys returned home with fish and chips for themselves.  I did not want to eat anything so calorie dense.  I was too busy to want to cook so I made another smoothie.  A green one this time, with more spinach.

Coconut water, almond milk, a frozen banana, 1 tbsp apricot kernel butter and some more coconut chips.

It tasted so good.  You would never imagine it was raw spinach as it was so creamy and smooth.

That blender is awesome.

So was the weather today which meant the crocuses opened up.

We have so many this year but they are closed up in the evening when I get home.

And last weekend the weather was so bad they did not open.

But today they did.

I was so pleased to be able to enjoy them properly.  We also enjoyed a walk in the woods.

Time for a drink.

 In the afternoon I made Sweet and Salty Crunchie Bars to take to Kath’s leaving party tomorrow.  Unfortunately, because I was rather hungry, I had some of the chocolate and nuts and Crunchie while I was preparing it.  Several pieces really  😦

Supper was inspired by a recipe I had seen on Alternative Eating for Lemon and herb chicken and I made my own version of that.  I was also inspired by the herbs on my sunny window sill.

Lemon, Herb and Garlic Chicken

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Juice from ½ a lemon
• salt and pepper
• 1 tsp finely chopped thyme, oregano and tarragon (fresh if possible)
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 chicken breasts, skin and bone removed

Method

1. Place oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, herbs and garlic in a bowl and mix well.
2. Add the chicken, make sure the chicken is well coated in the marinade and leave for 1 – 2 hours.
3. Preheat oven to 180 º C
4. Place the chicken in an oven proof dish and bake for half an hour.

I served the chicken with a baked potato and steamed broccoli and carrot.  With butter.  The chicken was delicious with an excellent balance of herbs and lemon.  Yummy.

Harvey made a fire tonight, completely unaided by me.  I did supervise but he laid it and lit it all by himself and did a grand job.  It was sunny and warm today but cool tonight so we enjoyed the fire.

What smoothie shall I have tomorrow?