The Little Things...

...like pulling a Breakfast Club and fist pumping the air after getting a bottle of wine.

I made this GIF from a video taken in 2010. I don't know exactly what's going on except that Aaron is carrying a bottle of wine in that bag. We obviously walked to the wine store (there is one right near our house) and bought a bottle of wine to drink on this fine summer day. I am personally not a wine drinker. I enjoy some spiced rum myself so you'd find me Breakfast Clubbing like this with a bottle of rum in hand. But this is pretty much the best thing ever. LOVE.

Enjoy the day!

xoxo

Recipe: Smoothie

We love drinking smoothies. We always have one for breakfast so I'm making these all the time around here. I don't have a specific recipe with exact measurements for the smoothies I make. I just use certain ingredients all the time, switching up some of the stuff each time, which is why this recipe isn't very specific but more of just a basic guideline.

These are the ingredients I have been using lately the most. I'm hoping to try some new fruits and vegetables in the mix soon, but these ones are always a great choice. A friend of mine told me she used chia seeds and almond butter in one of her mixes and it was really awesome and she felt full for a long time, so that's definitely something I want to try out.

I don't necessarily use all those ingredients I've listed. I make different combinations of everything, depending on what we have in the house or what I'm feeling up to. Anyways, this is how I make our smoothies:

Liquids

apple juice

orange juice

cranberry juice

carrot juice

soy milk (regular or chocolate)

water

Fruit/Vegetables

bananas

apples

strawberries

mango

spinach

cranberries

blueberries

frozen fruit of any kind

Other

protein powder

honey

yogurt

 fibre one

 

• I start by pouring a little bit of liquid into the blender. Sometimes I'll use a little splash of a bunch of different juices, sometimes just one, sometimes I want it to be more creamy so I'll use soy milk and so on. I fill the blender up about 1/4 of the way with a mix of liquids.
• Then I throw in some protein powder. This is just something we use after we workout and to put in our smoothies, but totally not necessary.
• Next I'll toss in a generous amount of frozen fruit, fresh fruit, spinach and any other ingredients I might want, such as a little bit of yogurt, some honey or sometimes even some Fibre One cereal. You're basically just filling up the rest of the blender with this stuff. Not quite to the top because you need some room to move, but just below.
• I always use lots of fresh spinach, not matter what kind of smoothie I'm making, it's included. You can add tons of this stuff and you'll never taste it. So, throw in a lot of spinach because it's good for you!
• Once that's done, blend it all together until nice and smooth. If it seems a little thick, you can always add a little more liquid to it. Grab a spoon and push things back down into the blender if they get stuck. I know that happens a fair bit with the spinach for me. 

It's super easy to make smoothies. I love switching up what I make, trying new combinations and having fun with it. They're packed full of awesomeness and taste great as well.

Enjoy!
xoxo
 

Photodump: Yard Clean Up

Seeing as the snow is finally gone, we've been trying to clean up the yard as much as we can. It's quite the process. Our yard is big and there are lots of trees, so that means a ton of leaves. I think we're going to look into getting some trees removed/pruned this year to help take away some of the mess it makes.

We usually end up filling 70-80 bags of leaves from our yard each year, but we've already got 50 and not even started the front yet. So much to do! I'm hoping we can tackle the rest of the yard in the coming week and get it ready to enjoy during the warm weather. Here are some photos of the yard clean up and just taking the cats out for the first few times since it's been starting to get nice out.

Oh yeah, those fifty bags jammed up are in our garage right now. We moved them in there because it was going to rain and we didn't want the bags to get soaked and fall apart. Our garage is literally jammed to the max!

Hobbes is so much easier to photograph than Madison. Madison is really excited outside and prances around like a fool where as Hobbes kind of just lounges and basks in the excellence. Aah, so happy to be able to go back outside and enjoy it.

Have an awesome day!

xoxo