Keep it Clean

This January we made some "keep up the good work" resolutions and we're happy to say that we're sticking with them.

One thing that has been so easy to stick to was our resolution of taking ten minutes every night before bed to tidy up.  It's become part of our nighttime routine: we pack lunch for the next day, pick up for ten minutes, brush teeth, wash face, etc.  This has not only improved our mornings but it's also made our weekends better as our usual major weekend clean up has  become a simple clean up, dust off sort of thing as opposed to picking up major messes all over the house from the week.  This resolution was inspired by Gretchen Rubin's, The Happiness Project which is a fabulous read and we highly recommend the book and the blog and found that it really did help us find simple ways to add joy to our lives. 

The idea behind the "evening tidy up" is that you take 10 minutes to pick up around your house. This doesn't include any big projects like organizing cupboards or vacuuming, it's a simple nighttime routine of putting things back where they go.  We encourage you to get your kiddos involved as getting them to pick up a few things in the evening is probably a lot easier then the dreaded "clean your whole room" demand.  

An evening tidy up can make your kitchen go from this:

To this in less then 10 minutes: 

We have a feeling that an evening tidy up will give you some Peas of Mind!

Making Valentine's Day MAGIC!

Holidays are pure magic when you’re a kid, but once you become an adult you find yourself thinking at 4:30pm on February 14th, "wait a minute, today is Valentine’s DAY!?"  We’re here to help you bring the magic back in a fun and simple way. 

First things first, heart shaped food is an easy way to take a normal meal and make it a feast good enough for St. Valentine himself. Try our reinvented Chocolate and Strawberries recipea and have fun showing your little ones how you can transform their favorite foods into their favorite shapes.

Make a Valentine’s Day lantern! One of the best parts of Halloween is making a jack-o-lantern then lighting them up. Why not have the same kind of fun on Valentine’s Day? Simply save a few large jars (a pasta sauce jar works perfectly), remove the label and cut up pieces of different colored tissue paper.  Make a mixture of water and Elmer’s glue and paint the mixture onto the jars and stick on the tissue paper (just put one layer of tissue paper so that the candle light can shine through).  When the jar is completely covered with paper paint a layer of the glue mixture over the entire jar and let dry over night.  On Valentine’s night, put candles in all of the jars and enjoy the magic that is the Valentine’s Day Lantern.

Leave love notes EVERYWHERE! This is the one-day where you can fully express all that parental love so let it burst out of you! A heart written with lipstick in the morning on your daughter’s mirror, a note by her breakfast, in her lunch box and hidden in her coat pocket. Enjoy the fact that you can be as gushy and lovey-dovey as you want.

Here’s hoping that this Valentine’s day is full of love, magic and of course some PEAS OF MIND!

This Valentine's Day: Green is the New Red

Nothing says “Happy Valentine’s Day” like chocolate and strawberries. But do you know what says both “I love you and happy Valentine’s Day?” Peas of Mind’s Reinvented heart shaped strawberries and chocolate mousse. 

This month’s recipea is fun and quick to prepare, healthy, decadently delicious and totally adorable. Our secret in this recipea is to replace the heavy cream usually used in chocolate mousse with our favorite seasonal fruit: avocados. This Valentine’s Day show your family how much you love them by serving up this classic v-day dessert with a healthy and delicious twist.

Ingredients

2 perfectly rip avocados (we recommend using Haas avocados as they’re extra creamy)

¼ cup agave

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

a pinch of salt

16 oz container of Strawberries (cut into hearts)

Method

Combine all ingredients into the blender and blend. You may need to add a bit of water to get the ingredients moving in the blender; if this is the case, only add water a tablespoon at a time so that you don’t add too much. The consistency should be that of a light whipped mousse.  For some extra fun, cut strawberries into heart shapes by cutting the tops off the tops then cutting the strawberry down the middle - length wise and finally cutting a small v-shape into the tops of each strawberry. 

Makes 6 Servings