A Smoothie A Day...part 4

I have to admit that I have been looking forward to this smoothie since yesterday morning.  And because my little sister couldn't understand why I kept putting spinach into my smoothies I left it out of this one...just for you Brannon :)  Honestly, out of all the smoothies I have made so far I'm sure this is the one my family would like the most, (a) because it doesn't have spinach, and (b) because it has coffee.

                          Cup of Joe Smoothie
                               makes 1 serving
1 frozen banana
3 coffee ice cubes (I'm thinking its about 5-6 tablespoons of coffee)
1/2 cup vanilla soy milk
1 1/2 tablespoons Kahlua Coffee Flavored Syrup (DaVinci Gourmet brand)
8 dark chocolate chips
1 serving of protein powder (I used vanilla soy protein today)
water

I was really curious as to how many calories and fat were in this smoothie so I calculated it for you (ok, I calculated it for me, but you know you were curious too!)

Calories: 365
(med banana 105, flavored syrup 0, soy milk 50, protein 170, coffee 0, chocolate 40)
Fat grams: 5...yes that says 5!
(banana 0, flavored syrup 0, soy milk 1.75, protein 1.5, coffee 0, chocolate 1.75)


Just think of how much better this is for you then a Starbucks blended drink...check out these numbers I found in an ABC Action News article

* A 16 ounce Starbucks Double Chocolaty Chip Frappucino will cost you 500 calories and 9 grams of fat.
* A 16 ounce McDonald’s McCafe Frappe Mocha will cost you 560 calories and 24 grams of fat.

* Panera’s frozen Mocha will also set you back with 570 calories and 20 grams of fat.
* Dunkin Donuts Mocha Coffee with cream which tips the caloric scales at 14 ounces, 260 calories and 9 grams of fat.


Don't worry, the little man's drink was made without the coffee and with extra chocolate...of course he loved it, he is a chocolate milk fan.

A Smoothie A Day...part 3

Today I was drawing a blank when it came to making my smoothie.  I looked through my pantry, my freezer and my fridge and nothing jumped out at me.  Well that't not entirely true.  I saw the coffee pot and coffee sitting in my pantry and thought a java type of smoothie would be pretty tasty, even though I don't care for coffee at all.  But you can't really make a frosty smoothie out of hot coffee so I brewed a pot and plan on using it tomorrow, I'll put it in an ice cube tray as soon as it cools so I have coffee flavored ice cubes...stay tuned.

This mornings smoothie, after lots of opening and closing of my pantry, freezer and fridge is....

Popeye's Blueberry Lemonade
makes 1 serving
1 frozen banana
1/3 cup frozen blueberries
juice from 1 lemon
1/2 cup vanilla soy milk
1 large handful of fresh spinach
1 serving protein powder (today's was a vanilla flavored whey protein powder, not too bad)
water or ice to make to desired consistency

As always, put into a blender and blend.


You may be noticing a trend when it comes to my smoothies...I always use a frozen banana and my veggie of choice is always spinach...why? you might ask.  Well let me tell you.  I like the texture the banana gives to my smoothies.  I started freezing them one time when I had tons of them sitting on my counter and noticed they were going brown.  Now I always freeze them, my ice maker on my fridge doesn't work so its a perfect way to avoid adding ice to the smoothie.  And spinach, well I like adding a veggie to my smoothie so I know that I am getting the required number of servings of veggies a day.  I have tried lots of different veggies in the past and spinach is the one that I can taste the least when it comes to my smoothies.

Oh...and of course...the little guy liked this one too.

Elvis Oats

Do you know what you get when you add all these things together?






Well Elvis Oats of course!  I always hear about how Elvis' favorite thing to eat was a peanut butter and banana sandwich.  So when I was eating my oats this morning I thought...hey Elvis would love this!

Elvis Oats
1 serving Steel Cut Oats cooked according to package directions
1 banana smashed
1 tablespoon peanut butter
6 dark chocolate chips
splash of soy milk

Mix all together and enjoy.

I really enjoyed it.  I thought my 3 year old would love it, he eats peanut butter by the spoonfuls but he doesn't really like the texture of oats.  He prefers Malt-O-Meal so maybe that was why he didn't gobble it up like I did.

A Smoothie A Day...part 2

Day 2 of our week long smoothie experiments is a little later today because my 8 month old decided that taking a nap could wait until 12:30pm instead of his normal 10:00am.  Which meant that I couldn't do my workout until his nap, which leads me to the fact that I'm just now enjoying my smoothie for the day at 1:45pm.

Getting Caught in the Rain Smoothie
makes 1 serving

 1 frozen banana
1/2 cup lite coconut milk
1 serving protein powder (today was rice protein and I am hating the chalky taste it is leaving in my mouth.)
1 8oz can pineapple chunks in pineapple juice (I added the chunks and juice)
1 1/2 Tablespoons shredded coconut
1 large handful of fresh spinach
ice

Put everything in a blender and blend.

You like that name of this one right?  "If You Like Pina Coladas..." you'll like this smoothie.  I would tell you that it tastes JUST LIKE a pina colada but you'd make it, try it, realize that it doesn't taste just like a pina colada and never try my other smoothies.  I think if you didn't add the spinach (and added some rum) it would taste pretty darn close (depending on the flavor of your protein powder).  But it does have that tropical taste to it like a pina colada has so give it a try!



Asher, my 3 year old who always drinks my smoothies with me, had his portion of the smoothie almost gone before I was even done taking pictures...that must be equal to two thumbs up...right?

Connor likes to move it

I took these cute videos of Connor dancing the other day.  I took them with my phone so they aren't the best quality, but I had to share them with everyone...so dang cute!

A Smoothie A Day...part 1

This part 1 of a 7 part series...7 smoothie recipes in the next 7 days.  I love smoothies and recently I have been on a huge smoothie kick, sometimes having two a day.  I always have one after my workout and sometimes I will have one as a late evening snack to ward off my sweet tooth that I tend to get after dinner.

Mean, Green, Fighting Machine Smoothie
this recipe makes 2 servings

1 frozen banana
1 kiwi
1/2 cup vanilla soy milk
6 frozen black berries
1 1/2 handfuls of fresh baby spinach
1 serving of protein powder (mine was vanilla whey protein today)
water if needed for your preferred consistency

blend all ingredients in a blender.  Note:  I have a Vita-Mix blender which will blend anything...its a monster of a blender!  If you don't have a Vita-Mix or other powerful blender make sure you cut your banana and kiwi up so that they will break down easier.



My favorite smoothie trick?  I buy tons of bananas (usually a bunch every time I go to the store, which is usually 3 times a week)  Once the bananas start to get a little brown I peel them and put them into individual ziploc baggies and pop them in the freezer.  Perfect for making that smoothie (or milk shake if you are my 13 year old son) smooth and thick.  Then you don't have to add any ice, at least I don't ever have to.  And yes, my 3 year old loves these smoothies, even packed full of spinach!  He always asks for his own cup full.

The protein powder I used is shown in the picture.  I went to my local health food store and they have several different types of protein powder in one serving packages.  I bought several so I could find a type of protein that I like.  I'm trying to find a brand that I can't really taste because sometimes I think the powder changes the flavor of my smoothies too much.  I didn't really like this powder.  It gave my smoothie an artificial low-cal sugar substitute after taste.  The other day I did have this same brand of egg protein powder which I could hardly taste in my smoothie.  But I still have about 5 more to try before I make my decision.  Also, I only put protein powder in my smoothies if I am drinking it after my workout.  If I was to make this smoothie just as a late day snack or for breakfast I would replace the powder with about 1/2 cup of low-fat greek yogurt, flavor of your choice.

Angels watching over us

I am grateful for the many angels that were watching over us on Monday, January 16, 2012.  The boys and I were driving back home to Cedar City, UT from Rock Springs, WY, we had been there for the weekend visiting James, who is there for his new job with Halliburton.  When we left Rock Springs around 9:30am the weather wasn't so bad, there were a few flurries coming down but nothing major.  We stopped in Green River, a little town about 10 minutes west of Rock Springs, to get fuel and some hot chocolate.  The roads were clear and the flurries had stopped.  We were all anxious to get home.  Evanston is about 85 miles west of Rock Springs, when we were about in the middle of that drive the weather started getting scary.  It had snowed the night before and the wind was strong, it was blowing the snow across the freeway.  New snow started to fall and I began to get nervous.  I'm not a strong driver when it comes to snow and for some reason my Excursion is really squirmy, even on a dry, clear day.  Connor was starting to get fussy, he hates riding in the car for any amount of time.  I had decided that I would pull over in Evanston and wait the storm out, even if it meant getting a hotel room for the night.  I also knew I needed to get my Excursion into 4-wheel drive so it would handle better in the snow.  I thought I needed to pull over, put the transmission into neutral before I could put it into 4-wheel drive.  I later found out that I could slow down to about 20 mph and switch it over, wish I had known that then!  I wasn't about to pull over on the side of the freeway, the roads were slick and the snow was coming down and there were a ton of 18-wheelers on the road, I wasn't going to put my kids in that kind of danger.  I was waiting for an exit, one that wasn't snow covered.  About 20 miles from Evanston I was following a semi-truck, it seemed a safe place to drive.  We were in the slow lane and up ahead was a snow plow.  The semi decided to move into the fast lane to pass him.  I was a little unsure if that's what I wanted to do but the snow plow was only driving about 20 mph and Connor was in the back screaming so I wanted to get to Evanston.  I waited for a few cars to pass and then moved over into the fast lane.  I passed the snow plow easily and moved back into the slow lane.  I was driving about 40 mph.  I don't really remember much after that except that the Excursion started to slide.  The back end started pushing forward and we were going down the freeway sideways.  The front end of the Excursion hit the snow packed median, then the center guard rail.  The back end passenger side also hit the guard rail and we were facing the wrong direction, the front end of the truck in the fast lane.  As fast as I could I threw the Excursion into 4-wheel drive and moved us from the fast lane into the median.  I would've lost it completely than but I knew I needed to stay calm for the kids.  I started asking if everyone was ok.  The little boys in the back were fine, I don't even know if they knew what was going on.  Bailey was scared, and covered in cold hot chocolate.  The major impact of the crash was on the passenger side of the truck so everything went flying towards him in the passenger seat.  I called 911, which I was lucky to get through to because I had no service.  Then we waited for the police and tow truck to show up.  The crash happened about 11:00am, we didn't get into Evanston, which was only 20 miles away, until 2:30pm.

James was lucky enough to get out of training for the rest of the day and drive down to help me.  We have a friend who lives in Evanston, we had the tow truck take the Excursion to his house and we were going to leave it there until we could figure out what to do with it.  I had no idea how I was going to get home.  We tried to rent a car but there are no rental car services in Evanston.  We thought about going back with James to Rock Springs and staying with him until his day off (Sunday) and having him drive us back home and then him turning right around and coming back to Rock Springs, but that was crazy.

After looking over the Excursion we decided that I would drive it back to Cedar City.  Luckily it still ran well, the front end shakes considerably when you get going 70 but other than that it was drivable.  James put some lights in and duct taped them in place.  The boys and I stayed in a hotel for the night and then got up the next morning and headed home.  I will admit that I was completely panicked for the first hour and a half of the drive home.  The highway between Evanston and Park City is through the mountains so there are a lot of curves and turns.  Every time I saw that the roads were wet my heart would race.  By the time I reached Heber my hands were really sore from holding onto the steering wheel so tightly.  At one point my front tires hit a divot in the road and it pulled the truck to the right and I about had a heart attack thinking I was starting to slide again.  The Excursion is currently parked in the driveway, waiting for me to take it to the body shop for an estimate.  Although I drove it home James told me that I can't drive it around town, with the front end missing like it is the police would probably pull me over.

I am so thankful that none of us were hurt.  The Excursion sits up so high off the ground that I think if that guard rail hadn't been there the chances of us rolling would've been pretty high.  I don't know if being in 4-wheel drive would've helped and I don't know if giving the truck some gas would've pulled me out of the slide.  I do know that I'm scared out of my mind to drive in the snow again.  I see the front end of the Excursion when I go out side and the fear builds up again inside of me, fear that it could've been so much worse and then the gratitude comes because it wasn't.  We all walked away from it without a scratch.  I'm so thankful for the angels that were watching over us that day!