Parsley and Pom Poms

I have always been a major fan of smoothies and acai bowls, and really all of that fruity breakfast business. I'm bringing my smoothie game hard this year with an effort to avoid skipping breakfast altogether, and with the plan to try out some new recipes. First up, my Mango Monday Bowl. Sure to kick any Monday blues, or at least I think so! xo RCN

Ingredients for bowl mixture (serves 2):

1/2 Cup frozen peaches

1/3 Cup chopped frozen mango

1 Whole fresh mango sliced

3/4 Cup Coconut Milk

1/2 Kiwi chopped

1 Tbsp raw honey

Toppings:

1/4 Cup granola mix (whatever kind you like...I use Cascadian Farm's organic vanilla, coconut & pumpkin seed granola mix)

Sprinkle of shaved coconut flakes

Spoonful of chia seeds

1 Kiwi for "M-A-N-G-O" letters + 3 thin slices (I used mini cookie cutters from Homegoods)

1 frozen mango cube cut into 8 small pieces

Add a few floral buds from whatever flowers you may have laying around in the house. This will definitely help to impress your breakfast buddy!

Instructions:

It's pretty simple folks. Combine all mixture ingredients together in a blender. Blend until thick and frozen creamy, about 1 minute or so. You may need to open blender, stir, then pulse again for an additional 20 seconds if the mango slices get caught underneath the blade (this happened to me). Then, top it all off and decorate with the extra coconut and healthy goodies. Happy Monday or whatever day it may be!

I learned how to make magazine trees years ago, thanks to Martha! I have put my own spin on it over time, always changing up the embellishments and decoration each year. This is one of the easiest craft projects to make over the holidays and it's great for kids too! Select a favorite holiday movie on Netflix and get to folding. You will have a recycled forest before you know it. Watch the youtube video and pictured steps below to create a magazine tree (or few!) of your own. Have fun! xo RCN

Step 1. Select a magazine, the larger the magazine, the longer it will take to fold, but the bigger it will be. Be sure to massage and flatten out the binding as much as possible. This will come in handy as you fold more and more. The pages will become more flexible to manage.

Step 2. Fold cover down to make the top edge of magazine lined up with binding of magazine.

Step 3. Fold the same cover once more so that the folded edge then lines up to the magazine's binding.

Step 4. Fold bottom edge that is sticking out, underneath and parallel to bottom of magazine edge.

Step 5. Continue steps 1-4 repeatedly until all pages have been folded.

Step 6. Once you have come to your very last fold, (the bottom edge of the last page), you will take that small cornered edge and tuck it into the bottom edge pocket of the page/cover that is next to it. Refer to images below and video for complete understanding.

You are complete with folding. Now, onto the decorating. For the embellished tree pictured below, I used glitter, ribbon, and extra/old Christmas decorations I was doing away with. First, I applied tacky glue to the top of the tree with a paintbrush, followed by sprinkling glitter on top. Then, using hot glue, I attached the bells, bows, and pinecones. This tree is quite eclectic, a bit' like my home. How did you decorate your paper trees? Send me a shout out in the comments below, would love to hear your ideas!