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Thanksgiving Through A Straw ~ Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

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This is a Public Service Announcement.

You NEED to make this smoothie. Like I mentioned before, I’ve had this thing pinned for over a year and am just now getting around to making it.

{kicking myself}

Get out your blender and fill it with the following:

2 cups crushed ice/ice cubes

1/2 cup milk of choice {I used coconut almond milk}

1/2 cup yogurt of choice {I used FAGE fat-free Greek yogurt}

1 frozen {or not} banana

1/4 cup pumpkin puree

Drizzle of honey

A couple shakes of pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon

Optional add-in: 1 sheet regular or cinnamon graham cracker for a thicker milkshake consistency!

{recipe adapted from here}

Blend ’til smooth, pour into a glass, add a spray of whipped cream, a dusting of cinnamon along with a straw and ENJOY!

Makes a great breakfast on-the-go or afternoon snack.

All the flavors of Fall, yet perfect to sip until our cooler weather arrives. {which better be soon}

Happy Friday, y’all!

Pumpkin Spice And Everything Nice

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The official start of Fall is just a couple days away. Yay!

I’ve had this pumpkin pie smoothie pinned for about a year now and look forward to blending one up tomorrow morning…

1/2 banana (peeled, frozen, diced)

1/3 cup pumpkin puree (Libby’s)

1/3 cup FF plain Greek yogurt

1/2-3/4 cup vanilla almond milk

few shakes of pumpkin spice (Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice)

 pinch of cloves

1tsp vanilla

2 cups crushed ice

{via}

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Have you had your first Pumpkin Spice Latte yet?

I made this PSL knock-off and it’s obviously not the same as the one at the place with the big green circle, but it wasn’t bad. I used coconut almond milk and some brown sugar to sweeten it up a bit. I must admit, a whipped cream cloud and some festive fall sprinkles would take it up a notch, but it was fun to try and a good way to use up your pumpkin puree if you have any leftover from another recipe.

{via}

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I love to spruce up our mantel with the seasons and Fall makes it easy to bring nature inside as decor.

I found a branch with weird pods/seeds of some sort on a hike last week and stuck it in with some manzanita branches that I already had on-hand for some height above our fireplace…

Pinecones in a simple glass vase would make a nice focal point, as well.

Grab several autumn hued paint chips from your local home improvement store, a leaf stencil and some twine to create a garland/bunting ~ use a hole punch and put two holes in each leaf to hang.

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I love candles year round, but there’s something about a candle flickering on a cool, dark-by-5 o’clock early fall evening.

Check out these super cheap, super fragrant candles from Wal-mart ~ the Vanilla Cream, Cinnamon Roll and Apple Spice are perfect for harvest season.

{1-wick candle, under 2 bucks & 3-wick candle, only 5 bucks}

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That’s just the tip of the iceberg as to what I have planned for my most favorite season…come back for the next few months for more recipes and sweet treat ideas.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

XO

It’s A Date

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I’ve never really given much thought to dates.

I think of fruit cake when I think of dates.

But all this changed 4 years ago at Jay’s company holiday party. For they past four years his company has hosted the festivities at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley and for the past four years I have enjoyed almond stuffed, bacon wrapped dates at the appetizer station. Every year, not only do I look forward to attending this event with Jay, but I look forward to coveting these sweet, salty, crunchy morsels and overindulging in them.

I plan to make them soon using this recipe…

{may or may not use the goat cheese}

Last week at Elliott’s dance class, I overheard two other moms talking about a date smoothie. I see the medjool dates all the time at Trader Joe’s and thought I’d pick up a package and add them to my morning smoothies to change things up a bit.

Enter the {Spiced Date Smoothie}…

{2 cups crushed ice, 1/2 cup vanilla almond milk [or milk of choice], 1/2 cup plain yogurt, 2 seeded & chopped medjool dates, 1 medium banana and a sprinkle of cinnamon}

Blend until smooth and enjoy! I will say that the dates are pretty hearty and it may take a minute or so to process them in the blender. The package said to refrigerate them after opening which makes them a little harder and more difficult to blend. You can either chop them fairly well before blending or throw then in just halved or quartered to get bigger pieces in your smoothie. I like to use the big milkshake straws and get bigger chunks of dates up the straw from time! They are nice and sweet and chewy and add texture to the drink.

{milkshake straws via}

I found my straws at Ralphs hanging on those random little clip racks in one of the aisles.

This smoothie reminds me of the boba teas in that you get a little surprise up your straw every once in awhile as you sip, but instead of it being a tapioca ball, it’s a chunk of date!

It’s yummy.

So, don’t pass up the dates next time you’re in Trader Joe’s or your local grocery or market. They have lots of health benefits, too!

Happy Humpday!

Smooth Sailing

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Hi friends!

Happy Humpday.

Hope your week has been smooth so far. Mine has been drama-free thus far and I have been able to get up to the gym the last couple nights which was always good for me and seems to make life smoother.

Last week I {invented} a little breakfast smoothie with one of my new finds via Instagram. A friend posted some {Cookie Butter} from Trader Joe’s during Lent and I immediately fetched a jar to enjoy on/after Easter! It is fabulous alone on a spoon, on bagels, Ezekiel toast and graham crackers, but I thought I’d incorporate it into a smoothie in place of peanut butter and see what happened!

{Cookies & Cream} and Banana Smoothie

You will need: 2 cups crushed ice, 1/2 cup almond coconut milk, 1/2 cup plain low fat yogurt, 1 banana, 1 tbsp ground flax {flax meal} and 1 tbsp. TJ’s cookie butter

Place all into a blender and blend ’til smooth!

Pour into a glass, add a straw and enjoy!

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And speaking of {sailing}, we plan to take a quick little trip to the beach this weekend.

Last time we went to the beach {in January!} Jay captured some cute pics of the kids just frolicking in the sand…this time I wanted to plan a little better with their wardrobes and hair and have a little Nautical inspired photo shoot at the shore.

I had originally picked up the anchor tee for a gift for a little girl….when the guy rang it up, it came up as boy’s. I thought it’d be cute on Holden so I set out to find something complementary for Elliott and stumbled upon this little striped number with the big bow on the shoulder. Both of them will wear rolled up jeans and bare feet ~ I think it’ll be perfect for some fun photos to get us excited for summer.

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Make the most of the rest of your week…Saturday and Sunday will be here before you know it!

XO

A Summer Smoothie ~ Fresh Ginger & Homegrown Peach

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My friend Vicki gave me some mini homegrown peaches. Thanks, Mama!

This morning I gathered four of them, some fresh ginger, a squeeze of honey, a few big spoonfuls of plain yogurt, a splash of milk and about 2 cups crushed ice and gave it all a whirl in the blender.

It made the most beautiful pastel orange smoothie with nice specks from the fuzzy skins that I left on…

I put just enough ginger…about 2 tsp grated. It complements the peaches perfectly and the honey gives it just the right amount of sweetness.

{I keep a big piece of ginger root in the freezer in a plastic bag. When I need it for a recipe, I pull it out, use a potato peeler to remove the skin just from the section that I’m going to use and grate in on a microplane}

Summer through a straw!

Spinach Slurpee

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Yesterday morning I whipped up our first {green} smoothie.

Used this recipe, but omitted the chia seeds {my mind immediately goes to the Chia Pet commercial….}

I did add a splash of orange juice to help get the blender going.

First, I started with some crushed ice, o.j., half a mango and several fresh pineapple chunks. Blend that to make room for several handfuls of baby spinach {I use organic since this is one of the dirty dozen} and then blend again.

I love the wheatgrass shots at Jamba, so I’m not afraid to drink green slime!

This was very good. The sweetness from the mango and the pineapple take away much of the spinach taste.

Next time, we’ll try this one.

A great way to get your spinach….through a straw!

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The perfect thing to kick off your week ~ hope you had a fabulous weekend.