Green Smoothie Challenge

Day #1

Today starts my Green Smoothie Challenge for the month of February.  This shouldn't be so tough for me since I LOVE raw foods and I LOVE smoothies. 

The Challenge:  Replace my normal breakfast with a green smoothie every day. (Apx. 16oz.)

The only day that will be tough for me is Sunday.  My mom cooks breakfast for us on Sunday before church.  It will be extremely difficult to watch everyone else eat bacon and eggs and my homemade biscuits as I sip on a my green smoothie.  I LOVE biscuits too.

Well... here it goes.

Today's recipe: 

1 cup of red grapes

2 small oranges

1 lemon

1/2 granny smith apple

1 banana

1/2 of a thick slice of pineapple

8 frozen strawberries

1/2 cup of frozen blueberries

A BUNCH OF SPINACH (apx. 2 cups)

2 cups of ice

Liquify.

Pour into cups.

This one did not turn out 'green'.
The blueberries help to mask the green color.

I must share.  My girls LOVE green smoothies - especially this recipe.

The one in the jar is saved in the fridge.  It will be just as yummy tomorrow, but will probably won't last that long.

Drink while you check your email... or facebook... or blog.

Who's going to join me?

Tips

I thought I would share some of my tips on shopping / eating healthier / making foods from scratch / using the internet / budgeting... and things like that.

At random...

• The most important thing I do before I head to the grocery store is to check my cabinets.  See what you have and what you do not have (even down to the spices) for a recipe.  Write a list of the things you need.  Only buy those things.
• Make a menu for the week (or month).  Write down all the things you need to make your favorite recipes and keep them on a main shopping list.  Before you head to the grocery store, check your cabinets and cross off things you already have.
• Make foods that don't require weird ingredients you will only use for that one recipe.
• Write a list of your family's favorites.  Make sure those things are on the menu.
• Make food that only use five to six ingredients.  This will radically cut the cost of meals.
• FREEZE FREEZE FREEZE leftovers!!!  Michael and I love meatloaf (our girls do not).  We cannot eat a whole meatloaf at one meal.  We sometimes like to have leftovers the next day.  If we do not eat it the next day, I wrap it up and stick it in the freezer.  The next time 'meatloaf' is on the menu, I do not have to buy or cook anything.  I just thaw the already prepared meatloaf and heat it up in a cast iron skillet in the oven.
• Buy real food.  By this, I mean, fruit, vegetables, meat, milk, cheese.  Stay away from pre-packaged food as much as possible.
• I search the internet to find made from scratch recipes for my favorite things.  I have already replaced my 'Hidden Valley Ranch' packets (used for making dip and salad dressing).  I can make it myself.  I have found a recipe to make my favorite french vanilla creamer for my coffee.  I am planning to try that soon.
• In the recipe I found to make the french vanilla creamer.  The recipe only calls for three ingredients.  Read the label on your coffee creamer.  Are there more than three ingredients?  Okay, Okay, I'm cheating a little.  The recipe calls for sweetened condensed milk.  I'm going to make that too.  But with honey instead of sugar.  All together, I will use, honey, water, powdered milk, milk and vanilla extract.
• Buy frozen foods instead of canned.  Canned food is usually LOADED with salt.  Frozen foods are usually fresh frozen.  That means it is freshly picked and flash frozen quickly to maintain as much nutrients as possible.
• Keep extra staple ingredients on hand.  You may run out of biscuits and NEED some more.
• Start serving meat in half the portion you normally eat.  I know in my own family, meat is served at almost every single meal of the day.  Meat is expensive.
• Eat your fruit first.  Fruit digests quickly.  Eat it on an empty stomach.  Eat if before your meal not after.
• Serve a side salad at home.  This will help to fill you up some before cutting into that steak.  Why is it when you go to a restaurant, you almost always get a tiny side salad before your meal is served?  The raw vegetables are easily digested on an empty stomach. 
• Have a fruit smoothie for breakfast (with some added spinach or kale) instead of your Bacon Egg and Cheese Biscuit.
• Add some oats to your diet.  Cheap and easy to prepare.
• Add some dry beans to your diet.  Oh, you like canned better because they are quicker?  Why not make a HUGE pot full and ladle them into containers and freeze them.  You can thaw them in a pot on the stove in about 20 minutes.  (About the same amount of time it will take you to prepare the other food that is being served with the beans.)

Hope this helps a little. 

If you have any questions or tips to share with all of us, please leave it in the comments section or feel free to email me.

Guatemala Frijoles Volteados

Before heading to Guatemala to help work on the Word Of Life camp there, someone informed me they would be serving something that looked like a ‘big black goo ball’. He said, “Eat it.”

When I saw it being served up, I already knew I was going to at least try it.

It was Y.U.M.M.Y.!!!

The ‘goo ball’ was refried black beans. Anything that has ‘fried’ in the title of the food sounds good to me!

On our first trip, I asked how they made them. They spoke back to me in Spanish and all I could understand was black beans, onions and garlic.

On our second trip, Marcela Martinez showed me how they fry them.

Still no measurements. I am a measurement kind of girl. I MUST have measurements!!

You know I tried this out first. Within about 4 days, the whole crock pot was eaten by my husband and I. (Well, just a tiny bit was eaten by my snow party buddies… you know who you are.)  They must have been good.

In my humble opinion, these are WAY better than canned and are comparable to the ones I had in Guatemala. I can’t remember exactly the way they tasted.... it has been two years since I had them.

Measurements of ingredients:

2 cups of dry black beans

5 cups of water

½ cup of chopped onion

2 garlic cloves

2 teaspoons of chicken bouillon

(this is not a cube - it is a smooth paste - I found it at the Whole Food store - the name brand I bought was "Better Than Bouillon".)

1 teaspoon of salt

1 bay leaf

Put all the ingredients in your crock pot.  Cook on low for at least 8 hours – or until the beans are soft).

Or you could cook it while you sleep... night night crockpot.

When they are finished cooking, remove the bay leaf.

Pour everything else into your blender and liquify.

True refried beans are made with LOTS of lard. I am planning to make my own lard soon. I have everything except the cheesecloth. I’ll save that for another post.

You can use Crisco or better yet, if you have some bacon – fry it and save the fat. You can use this to refry your beans in. Also, I do not use a LOT. Most recipes recommend ½ cup of lard for 2 cups of cooked beans – gross… that is TOO much lard. I used about 1 tablespoon and it was enough.

The beans will be VERY runny when you first pour them into your skillet. 

I fried them on medium heat and stirred them around until most of the water cooked out of them and they thicken up to about the consistency of ketchup. 

These beans are kinda like gravy - once they begin to cool down, the really start to thicken up.

They are done and ready to eat.

You may serve them with scrambled eggs for breakfast. 

Or, you can eat them whatever way you like them.

Or - if you want a really yummy treat, sprinkle some sugar on top.

HEY… don’t knock it ‘til you try it.

These beans freeze perfectly.  I pour about 1/3 into my skillet to fry right then for breakfast - they smell TOO yummy to wait.  Then I freeze two more containers for future breakfasts.

ENJOY!

Just say 'YES'.

Say yes when they want to play in the mud.

Say yes when they want to wear clothes that do not match.

Say yes when they want to get out all their play-doh on my freshly mopped kitchen floor.

Say yes when they want to make their own smoothies.

Say yes when they want to have pancakes again for breakfast.

Say yes when they want to flip them all by themselves.

Say yes when they want to play in the bathtub in the middle of the day with ALL their toys in there with them.

Say yes when they want to make me a ‘surprise’ lunch.

Say yes if they want to keep a pet grasshopper in their room.

Just say 'YES'.

Life is Happening

I know.... I know... it's been a while.  Life is happening.  Sitting down to post a blog is about the last thing on my mind during such times. 

So, go get you a cup of hot chocolate, get comfortable and get ready for your update.

This update begins all the way back in October.

I turned 35!

Michael planned a super fun trip to the mountains for my birthday surprise.  He packed a picnic and everything without me knowing!!  We had so much fun.  It was a beautiful, relaxing, fun fun fun day.  I love him so much.

My love and my girls.

My girls.

Me with my YUMMY YUMMY birthday cake!

We made a couple of other trips to the mountains just to have fun. I wanted to share two of my favorite pictures with you of the girls. They are growing up so quickly.

Hannah

Cari

Here is a picture of all of us in the mountains.  The girls always have so much fun playing with Pop in the creek, but not on this trip.  It was a bit too cold for laying in the creek.  But, we still have a WONDERFUL picnic.  (Thanks Nana and Pop!)

We made a trip to the Dixie Classic Fair with the girls and all their cousins.  They had TONS of fun!

Cousins. 

The dreaded swings.  My babies are up there somewhere.  Oh dear....

We also went to the North Carolina State Fair.  Are you hungry?  You better be.  There was food as far as your eyes could see.  DEEP FRIED (whatever you can imagine).  That is about as southern as it gets... 

Here is the grinding wheel for making fresh cornmeal.

(... to make fresh DEEP FRIED hushpuppies!!!)

We moved - again.

We moved the week of Thanksgiving.  Do you feel sorry for me?  Don't.  Once I moved into a home on December 14th.  I felt sorry for me then.

We have had a lot of fun making this home ours. The owners left a lot of stuff. You know how I feel about stuff. We had a lot to clean out and clean up and move in and move out. We are still combing through our boxes. We are going to have one MONSTER size yard sale this spring!! (As a matter of fact, we have already sold a washer and dryer, dining room table and vacuum cleaner!)

Here is a picture of our new home.

Next on our list was Thanksgiving.  We always have so much fun at Thanksgiving.  My uncle Lamarr and aunt Bobbie always have the family over for Thanksgiving.  As usual, LOTS of food, LOTS of shooting, and LOTS of loving on each other.

My second mother and father.  Lamarr & Bobbie.

Forget the turkey....  we have BBQ!!!

Skeet shooting.

Teaching.

Lunch.

Fun.

The close of Thanksgiving Day kicks off the Christmas season.  This year, we bought a real live Christmas tree.  We had a living Christmas tree the first year we were married.  Then, my aunt was ditching her artificial tree for a new one and we saved that tree from a life in the dumpster.  We have had that tree every single year until this year.  Since we moved into a small home, and we have a small living room, we needed a small tree.  (Our old one is in pieces, living in seperate trash bags - but not in the dumpster.)  The girls LOVED going to pick out the tree and watching them shake it like crazy and wrap it up in a net and drive home with it attached to the roof of the car.  My camera battery was dead - so I only have mental memories of that.  But, I did get the camera charged up in time to take a shot of the girls decorating the tree.

Here they are.  Ear to ear grins.  They LOVED their 'real live' tree.

We traveled to West Virginia to gather with our family there for Christmas.  As we drove out of the second tunnel, it was snowing and did not stop the entire time we were there.  We did not see clear skies until we drove back home and back out of that same tunnel.  West Virginia is AMAZING in the snow.  We LOVE it.  We also LOVE getting to spend a little time with our family that we don't get to see that often.

West Virginia Snow.

The rest of our Christmas is spent at home.  We get to spend time with Jesus.  The girls and I love to worship Him by singing old hymns and Christmas carols that honor Him.  This year, we served Him by baking cookies for all of our new neighbors and delivering them to their doors.  The whole delivering process was spent in constant prayer.  We prayed for our neighbors.  (And we prayed for our own lives - as we were chased and barked at by almost every dog in the neighborhood.)  When we returned home, we thanked the Lord for keeping us safe and for having so much fun baking and delivering.  

Rolling out the dough.

This is our Christmas morning breakfast.

I always make cinnamon buns because... 

1. I can make them the day before.
2. They only take 30 minutes to bake in the morning.
3. They make the house smell SOOOOO YUMMY.
4. They taste VERY YUMMY!
5. And, if you don't eat more than one, you won't be too full at lunch time. 

Lunch time is when all the Nifong's have their family Christmas gathering.  And if you thought there was a lot of food at the NC State fair.....  

One of my most favorite pictures... 

Cari got some Tinker Toys for Christmas. 

I don't think you ever out-grow Tinker Toys. 

 My dad doesn't think so either.

Sisters.

It snowed on Christmas Day.  I do not ever remember it snowing on Christmas Day.  It was beautiful.

Us

It snowed all night and we woke up to this.

Our home in the snow.

My girls in the snow.

Cari said, "A snow flake just fell in my eye!"

My love.

Me sledding with Hannah.

The snow sledding crew.

We lost power at our homes for most of this day.  But, we still had TONS of fun.  We went sledding, made snow cream, heated soup and made grilled cheese on my Dad's wood stove. 

The girls loved eating supper by the lantern.

We polished off the kid's 'perfect day without electricity' by letting them spend the night together at our house.

So, now go start supper.  I know it took you a while to read this.  Love you all!!!