Coffee smoothie

My mornings need to start with coffee, thanks to my hour-long commute. By adding a few ingredients, this coffee smoothie doubles as my breakfast.

Power up coffee smoothie

• 1 cup of non-fat vanilla Greek yogurt
• 1 banana 
• 3/4 cup of milk
• 1 tsp of ground coffee
• 1 tsp of baking cocoa
• 1 handful of almonds

I take this all and blend it in a Baby Bullet (classic mom move).

Some other fun ingredients to try: Peanut butter, oatmeal, Nutella ... other ideas?

Simple slow cooker baked potatoes

Grandpa always used to say, "You only have to pray before meals that have potatoes." So when you come from a Dutch family, that means you will be praying before eating 99% of your meals.

A couple times a month, J and I have soup and baked potato night. It's a simple dinner that we can have after a long day of working/commuting/parenting.

To make baked potatoes, I use this super simple slow cooker baked potato recipe:

Step one: Wrap clean potatoes in foil. No need to stab, slice or poke. You can rub them in olive oil, add some salt, whatever you fancy. Since I put the potatoes in the foil immediately after washing, the water seems to steam them well enough without the oil.

I added sliced onion with the raw potatoes this time -- yum!

Step two: Put in slow cooker on high for four hours, or low for eight hours. Potatoes are pretty forgiving if you have to go longer.

Hanging out in their sauna.

Step three: Eat!

See how golden the onions got?

These are awesome to prepare on Saturday night. Just plug them in on Sunday morning and you have baked potatoes when you come home from church!