Quick and Easy Smoothies

I think I've mentioned how we recently fell in love with the frozen Jamba Juice Smoothies we found at Costco.  They are super fast and easy to make, and so yummy!  However, Cody kept mentioning how it would be cheaper to make our own.  Yeah....riiiight sure it would.  Cheaper, but so much more work!

Or so I thought.  I ran across this idea/recipe somewhere on the internet.  I can't remember where anymore, but it looked pretty easy:

3-4 cubes frozen yogurt.

1 1/2 frozen fruit.

Since that's about all the recipe I found said, I had to kind of guess what amount to buy.

I ended up with:

1 large container of Vanilla Yogurt

Two 16oz bags of frozen Strawberries

A few bananas we had at home.

One tub of yogurt will fill about 1.5 ice cube trays.

I fill my ice cube tray with yogurt and pop it in the freezer.

Then I fill sandwich size baggies with 1 1/2 cup fruit each.

You can use fresh or frozen. I use 1 cup frozen strawberries (cheaper and easier than fresh) and either a half or whole banana.

 I lay the bag as flat as possible and squeeze out all the air. 

 Then I lay all my little baggies in a large freezer size bag, and the whole thing goes in the freezer.  I try to get it to lay as flat as possible to save valuable freezer space, as well as making it easier to get all the extra air out.

My bananas need to ripen a bit before I can add them to this batch!

Later, once the yogurt cubes are frozen, I throw 4 cubes in each smoothie baggie.

When we make a smoothie all we have to do is pull out one baggie and empty it all into the blender add a cup of juice, and blend it up!  We use apple juice, but any kind works.  One baggie makes two smoothies.

We've also added some coconut rum to the smoothie as well.  Although we learned if you add alcohol you need to decrease the juice to about half, or it is more soupy than smoothie!

Prep time really only takes a few minutes to divide the fruit into the baggies, so it really isn't anymore work than the Jamba Juice version!

Estimated Savings:

Jamba Juice -- 5 smoothies = $10

Homemade -- 10 Smoothies = $5

Pan Dulce

One morning when I was out and about I stopped at a different Wal-Mart to grab a donut. 

I was a bit confused when almost the entire case was filled with strange pastries.

 There were coconut coated ones, jelly covered ones, ones cut open to show pudding filling, and odd seashell shaped ones. Most were labeled as Pan Dulce and, from what little spanish I remember from high school, means sweet bread.  They also had some called Mexican Pink Cake which, let's face it Mexico, is nothing but slices of birthday cake with pink icing and confetti sprinkles.  

Luckily I turned the corner and found a small selection of 'normal' donuts.  

I kept thinking about the weird ones though and decided to try one next time.

I checked my regular Wal-Mart and they didn't have any!

So today when I was near that special Wal-Mart I stopped in to pick one out.

I settled on this one thinking it kinda looks like Pecan Pie filling...minus the pecans.

I don't like coconut, or pudding filling, and let's face it, those seashell ones look gross!

It was okay.  Not as sweet as a donut.  The topping was actually caramel, which was pretty good.  It was also pretty dry.  We each had a couple bites and then threw away the rest. I'm glad I finally tried it, but it's not something I want to eat again!

*I googled Mexican Pink Cake and found that apparently it's not just birthday cake with pink frosting.

It's dry birthday cake with hard pink icing.  That sounds like old cake tasty?  I think I'll skip trying that one!

Magic Carpet Cleaner

*The title to my post just got that song from Aladdin stuck in my head.  Anyone else?*

When we moved into our house, we had inherited a lot of carpet stains. 

Mysterious, probably years old, who knows how they got there stains.

Oh, the joys of renting!

When I moved in Cody explained that he had tried to get them out, but was unsuccessful.  

I, of course, assumed that I could get them out with a little carpet cleaner and elbow grease. 

No such luck.  So we have been planning on eventually having our carpets professionally cleaned.   

Until I ran across this lovely idea on pinterest.

I figured it was worth a shot, especially since we wouldn't have to go buy anything to try it.

So today I picked out an icky spot and got to work.

The Spot was in front of my sink in our room.  I figured that way if something went wrong (like I turn the carpet blue) it's not in a public space.  If The Spot turns blue I can just toss a rug over it.  Good plan right?  I thought so.  

1. Scrape up the liquid. (Obviously only if it's a fresh spill.  Mine wasn't so I skipped this)
2. Sprinkle baking soda or cornstarch on stain and let absorb for 10 minutes.
(Not sure if this is a must-do step, but figured I shouldn't skip it.  I even worked the soda down into the carpet a bit)
3. Mix one tablespoon clear dishwashing liquid and one tablespoon white vinegar with two cups warm water.
4. Using a white cloth sponge the stain with the detergent/vinegar solution and blot until all the liquid is absorbed.
5. Sponge off with cold water and blot dry.

I honestly didn't think it would work at all, and didn't take pictures of The Spot.

Of course, once I got that spot done I noticed a bunch more in our room.

BEFORE

AFTER

I'm amazed.  The spots are still a little damp, so you can kinda see where I was scrubbing, but the black stain is gone.  Although, I still keep going in there expecting to see weird white spots emerging.  (White seems more possible than blue after all)

I'm going to let it dry over night to make sure they are good to go, then I'm going to tackle the living room stains! 

Especially that one by the couch we hide by putting our shoes on top of it....

We will probably still get the carpets professionally cleaned someday though.  It may be spot free now, but it's still rental carpet. Yuck.  

Remember the amazing ravioli I had on our honeymoon?

Yum.

I decided that I needed to try and make it at home.  After all, ravioli is pretty easy right?

I got up early one morning and went to our local farmers market.  It was pretty small and everyone was selling the same vegetables, but I picked up a basil plant for $3.  The seller assured me that it wouldn't be too easy to kill, and I figured I would spend $3 for fresh basil in the store anyway so it wouldn't hurt to try it. 

I found some organic spinach and cheese ravioli at Costco, along with some traditional pasta sauce.
I also used these recipes for the cream sauce and pesto from allrecipes.

I normally don't like cream sauce, so I figured tomato cream would be a safer bet for me.  Everything was really easy to make and didn't take too long at all.  It was probably more time consuming simply because I was making two sauces instead of just one.  However, as the tomato cream sauce was coming together I noticed that it called for a lot of onion.  A LOT.  I thought about taking some out, but figured it was safer to follow the recipe and hope they would cook down.  They didn't.

If you click on the picture you may be able to see all the onions.  It was like creamy onion sauce.  This sauce is actually the very first thing I have ever had Cody taste that he has gagged and spit out.  Seriously.  As he was coughing into the sink I was standing there going "well,  I think we have a frozen pizza".  Luckily, he just didn't realize how hot it was and had spit it out because it burned his mouth.  So he says.  It didn't have an overly onion flavor, it was just really chunky.  Mixed with everything else it was fine too.  Next time I think I'll just go with a plain cream sauce.

The pesto wasn't bad either.  A little thicker than I remembered the hotel's being but not bad for my first try at pesto.

Dessert!
Our grocery store has had strawberries like crazy, and for a really good price, so I've been picking them up every trip.  I was going to get some strawberry shortcake cakes, but they only had huge packages or angel food.  We certainly don't need dozens of cakes, and I don't like angel food.  So I found a Betty Crocker box mix of pound cake, whipped that up  and topped with sliced strawberries.  It was delicious.  I've made it about twice now, and the second time I added almond extract to the batter which was amazing.  Now I just need to try to make an icing glaze and it will be perfect!

Mexican Barbecue

Shortly after I moved in, Cody mentioned that he had seen Barbacoa at the donut shop and we should try it.  I had never heard of it before, and he told me that it was a type of mexican meat.  

Uh, at a bakery? Why are they selling meat at a bakery?

Apparently, it's a mexican thing.  I don't know.

I had to google it to figure out how to serve it!  Wikipedia told me that it was a barbecue or steamed meat served in tortillas with avocado and salsa.   I also learned that it was normally made in Mexico or the Caribbean with the head of a cow.  The head.of a.cow.   Well, that's....unique.  Luckily a quick scroll down revealed that here in the good ol' USA they make it with cow cheeks.  That's better right? Just the cheeks?   

Riiiight.  Well, I tried the pig snoot in Illinois, so might as well give cow cheeks a try. 

(P.S. I did not like the pig snoot!)

This is how the meat came from the store.  All cooked and seasoned.  I popped it in the microwave and served it up like tacos.

The verdict?  It was good!  Not barbecue like you would think of.  More like sauce less barbecue. It kind of ended up being a taco with fancy meat.  I'm sure we will make it again, especially since it was so quick to prepare.

Cody waited until I was all finished to tell me it was cheek meat.  He didn't know I googled it, and thought that if I knew what it was I wouldn't try it. At least that's what he claims.  I think he was trying to see how I would react to finding out I had eaten cow cheeks!

Home is where the AF sends us: My favorite

I love our room.  Wanna know why?  All because we got brand new grown up furniture!

Yep, the first week we moved in we ran to the store and picked out our bedroom set.  Not a moment too soon either, because those old dressers from Cody's college days? Stuffed full.  Which meant I had to keep all my clothes in the dresser in the guest room.  Fun fun.  Plus, I didn't have a nightstand on my side so I was forever having to pass Cody my book or drink to put on his side.

Luckily we both agreed that this was the only set we liked.  Dark wood, slightly sleigh bed style, but not so sleighed out that it makes me want to drink hot chocolate and watch Christmas movies. 

I also love our bedspread Mom got us with our fun zebra print and red throw pillows!

Now there is a TV on top of the dresser, but the pictures in the frame still need to be updated.

From this side you can see our bathroom sinks.  Pretty much all the houses we looked at had this set up. It's a little bit like a hotel, but this house had the area pushed back a bit instead of being flush with the room.  So it doesn't really seem like you are sleeping in a bathroom.  Plus, this gives us two good sized closets which makes me happy.

The bathroom is a little small, but the tub makes up for it!  I also love our shower curtain we got from Target.  It matches the light blue floor perfectly!

I think that brings the house tour to a close.  We do have Cody's game room and office too, but there really isn't a whole lot to see in there.  The office tends to be a dumping ground until we get some bookcases, so if these two rooms someday look awesome I'll be back with some pictures!

Home is where the AF sends us: Be our guest

Our only room that is 100% finished!

Over the years I have gathered a lot of French themed decor.  Cody told me he didn't want it all scattered throughout the house, which was fine with me because I got to create a french guest room!

Cody's mom had a bedding set that she couldn't use, and it works perfectly with the throw pillow from my  mom!

It didn't take long to put the room together.  I felt like I was pretty much recreating my college apartment bedroom actually! Different desk and bedding and no bookcase but otherwise pretty much the same.

I've been using my old text books for decoration (top right shelf). We paid enough for them, they might as well get some more use! The picture on the top shelf also fits the french theme.  It is a photo of "Les Trois Graces" by Niki de Saint Phalle, a french artist. The sculptures were a part of an exhibit I volunteered for in the Botanical Gardens.

Maxx approves! Look how tiny he was!

The Guest Bathroom

The pictures don't include the seashell wallpaper that's on the wall facing the mirror.  It's not horrible, but I've never been one for seashells in the bathroom.  Especially orange/brown seashells.  So when you visit, just ignore that wall!  I also keep extra bath products in here in case someone forgets something. We need to add some sort of wall hanging and swap out the tropical flower plug in for a scentsy but other than that this room is done too.