Blueberry Almond Chai Pudding

I wasn't planning to post this morning.  I actually have another post almost done and ready to go, but then after trying this recipe, I decided that post had to take a back seat.  Yes.  I loved this that much.

I've been making a lot of dietary changes in the last few months.  Concentrating on vitamin and protein packed food.  While this could be a higher protein if made with skim milk, I didn't use it because I didn't have any on hand.  Next time I will be sure to make this with cows milk to boost that protein factor.

I found the recipe for Mango Coconut Chia Pudding via Pinterest and it led me to Skinnytaste.com.  Go figure.  :)  I love Skinnytaste.com.  Its one of my favorite websites out there.  The original recipe was for Mango Coconut.  While I do plan to try Mango, I had blueberries on hand and well, as most of my regular readers know, blueberries are my very favorite fruit.  I felt that almond would make a good compliment to the flavor and since I've yet to pick up any of the liquid stevia from Trader Joe's (high on my list of things to get this week now!), I used Splenda.

If you like tapioca, you will love this.  Why?  Because it involves no cooking and you put it in your fridge before you go to bed and wake up to this fabulous pudding for breakfast.  Yes.  I said pudding for breakfast.  :)  The chia is pretty controversial as to whether is good for weight loss or whether its really a super nutrient.  So my choice to use it has nothing to do with the "facts" which no matter what search you use your going to find someone says its great for you and others who say it does nothing for you.  So, that said, it doesn't matter much to me - if it has nutritional value (and it does) then I'll use it and add it to my diet.  Not to mention, it made this pudding pretty darn yummy in my opinion.

On another note, Grumpy's opinion was to spit it out.  ha ha.  Mind you, Grumpy hates tapioca so I didn't quite expect him to like this.  I give him props for trying it though!

What do you think about Chia Seeds?

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Blueberry Almond Chia Pudding

by May-14-2013

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 1/2 cup lite coconut milk
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 2-3 packets splenda (or your choice of sweetener)
• 1 tablespoon sweetened flaked coconut
• 2 tablespoons chia seeds
• 3/4 cup blueberries

Instructions

In a large 4 cup measure, mix all ingredients together.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Details

Prep time: 5 mins Set time: 8 hour Total time: 8 hour 5 mins Yield: 2 servings

Browned Butter Banana Muffins

Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's out there!  I love you mom so much! 

I also love my sons Justin & Christopher with all my heart and soul and am so happy that I have them both in my life and that we have the special relationships that we have!

Can you say Oh. My. Browned. Butter. Banana. Goodness!  It has been a long, long time since I have made muffins.  It has also been a long time since I've used browned butter for anything other than frying a little sage and hitting it with some raviolis.  The nutty smell of the butter browning on the stove, muffins chock full of banana, some self rising flour, an egg and some rum extract.  Simple.  Easy.  Delicious.  Go make some now!

This is also sweetened with only maple syrup.  The original recipe calls for agave or honey, but I always have an abundance of maple syrup in my pantry.  I love how healthy this is as well as how easy it is to put together.  Make some for your mom tomorrow, I'm sure she will love them!

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Browned Butter Banana Muffins

May-11-2013

A recipe found on The Food Network, slightly adapted to fit flavor favorites in our home!

Ingredients

• 4 ripe bananas
• 1/3 cup pure maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon rum extract
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 large egg
• 1-3/4 cup self rising flour

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners.Peel bananas and place in large bowl with maple syrup and rum extract. Mash until bananas are liquidy but still slightly chunky.Place the butter in a heavy saucepan and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown. Pay close attention to the butter or it will easily burn on you.Add about 1 cup of the banana mixture to the browned butter. Simmer a another minute or so until a darker color is achieved. Be very careful when adding the banana mixture to the butter as it will bubble and spatter.Add butter/banana mixture to the remaining banana mixture in bowl. Whisk in egg. Fold in flour until just combined. Do not overmix.With a large ice cream scoop, evenly divide batter between 12 muffin cups. Bake for approximately 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted into center of muffin.

Details

Prep time: 5 mins Cook time: 25 mins Total time: 30 mins Yield: 12 muffins

Mango Blackberry Smoothie

 The month of May snuck right up on me.  As well as did the Secret Recipe Club reveal date.  When I received my assignment I was quite excited.  I was assigned Lesa from Edesia's Notebook.  I've known Lesa for quite a while in the blog world now and I really enjoy her posts.  She like a lot of things I like in food so I knew I would not have a hard time making something.  What I had a hard time with was life.  It was just so busy that time flew right by and before I knew it, I'm on the day of the reveal and still hadn't made anything.  I went to my secret stash of recipes from her blog trying to figure out what I could make this morning that I had everything for.  Then I saw her Peach Melba Smoothie.  Bingo!  There was my breakfast.

This was a fancier smoothie than what I regularly make.  Most workday mornings I make smoothies right before I head out the door and drink it on my way into the office.  I don't get too fancy with them, I normally don't have time.  But when I saw this layered smoothie, I knew I had bought my mangos and blackberries yesterday for a reason :)  I actually had time to make a little more effort (which in reality wasn't all that much more) and made the blackberry puree.  At first I thought I wasn't going to strain the puree, I thought I could handle the seeds.  Then after tasting the puree and having more seeds than I cared for hitting my tongue  I decided to strain it.  Really wasn't all that time consuming and I highly recommend if you use seeded berries that you strain the puree.

I decided that I still needed that slight yogurt tang to my smoothie and I had used up all my frozen mango from Trader Joes so I had to use fresh.  I did have frozen bananas so I used some of them to help thicken up the smoothie and to accommodate for not having all frozen fruit, I added ice to my mixture to thicken it up more.  Make sure to check out Lesa's post for her Peach Melba Smoothie recipe that I used as a starter for mine.

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Mango Blackberry Smoothie

by May-6-2013

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup mango, cubed
• 1/2 cup banana chunks, frozen
• 2 cups blackberries, pureed and strained
• 1/2 cup fat free vanilla yogurt
• 1 cup skim milk
• 1-2 splenda packets (or sugar) if desired
• 1/2 to 1 cup ice

Instructions

Puree blackberries in blender.  Strain through sieve to remove seeds.  You may need to press the juice through with the back of a spoon.Place yogurt, banana, mango, milk and splenda or sugar in blender.  Blend together until smooth.  If desired, add ice to blender and blend to thicken the smoothie more.Layer smoothie by placing 1/3 of the mango mixture in glass, then top with tablespoon or more of blackberry puree.  Continue to layer until glass is full.  Top with blackberries and garnish with mint sprig if desired.

Details

`Total time: 10 mins Yield: 2 large smoothies

Pallet Wine Rack

Pallet Wine Rack made by Phillip Ruttan, photographed by Shelby Law Ruttan

I decided that I had to give Grumpy some projects to keep him busy.  We are country people.  Country people living in a development with kids and dogs all around us.  Now, don't get me wrong.  We don't dislike kids or dogs.  But we don't have the peace and quiet here we had in our country home.  You can't sit in your backyard or front porch enjoying a glass of wine and a good book because there is just way too much distraction.  We are getting older and kids in our lives are grown up.  Its time for rest and relaxation.  We are feverishly working to remedy our living situation, but we also are having a hard time finding what we are looking for and finding it affordably.

So, in order to help keep Grumpy's sanity, I decided to get him signed up to Pinterest.  I would browse Pinterest whenever we would be riding somewhere and a lot of the time, I browse it when we are in stores Grumpy likes to visit that I have no interest in.  It passes my time without me being bored :)  It also gives me a lot of ideas!

Pallet Wine Rack made by Phillip Ruttan, photographed by Shelby Law Ruttan

One day when browsing, I came across this pallet wine rack and I immediately knew that I had to have one. Then I thought, hey, why don't I find some projects I would love to had made for me and get Grumpy to do it so he's occupied?  Fortunately for me Grumpy didn't need instructions on how to build this for me.  The pin I found didn't take me anywhere except to another photo of the pin.  So, I'm sorry if you're looking for instructions here, there won't be any and I'm not sure where to tell you to find them.  Grumpy just has the know how and was able to do it.  So, I guess this is more of a show and tell post :)

I decided that Grumpy needed a Pinterest account of his own so he could keep looking for projects he would be interested in and so I can suggest ideas for him!  I love it.  Now Grumpy looks at Pinterest himself for ideas of things he can make.  I'm more than happy to have him doing this.  ha!

He's already working on other ideas.  He has made a chalkboard but it's not quite finished yet.  We are looking for the finishing touches for that.  While my wine rack isn't full yet and I'm thinking I might put some greenery along the top, I couldn't wait to share it with you to show you what Grumpy did for me!  I absolutely L.O.V.E. it!  What do you think?

If you don't follow me already on Pinterest, you can do so by following the links below.  You can even follow Grumpy as I will give you his account too!  Happy Pinning everyone!

Grumpy's Pinterest Page
Grumpy's Honeybunch Pinterest Page

Edit!  I'm already editing my post :)  My friend Katrina mentioned she doesn't drink wine but this would be good to display olive oils.  I agree!  I also think it would be fun to make your own infused olive oil and vinegars to display in your own fancy bottles!  Not sure you would need the glass rack below for displaying the olive oils/vinegars but Grumpy did say that was the hardest part of the project - the pallet wood is super hard.

Homemade - Neck Scarf and other news :)

These are not all the best quality photos I am sharing with you today.  I used my phone to take some shots recently and this one of me it was easier to do with my phone because I can turn the camera to face me.  I am sharing this with you because I wanted to show you my first crochet project - as it looks on a person as well as the photo I took below of it laid out.

I subscribe to Annie's Crochet Magazine and this scarf was one of the patterns in their spring magazine.  I love this scarf.  It is lightweight and soft and just right to cover that "bare" area.  Its call Island Breeze Scarf.  Perfect name for it!  The magazine shows it in Island Multi Crochet Cotton (size 3) however I could not find that particular color.  All of the crochet cotton I could find was a solid color.  This one particular one though has a little sparkle to it, so since I love lavender and I love sparkle, I went with this color.  Suits me fine if I can say so myself.  :)

I am currently making another scarf that will definitely be for cooler weather wear.  I'm almost done making it and when I am done I will share it with you.  I'm loving that one too!

When I crochet, I am sitting in my loveseat with the foot rest up.  Its still been chilly enough for me to need to be covered up with a blanket.  Most of the time Rudy or Chubby want up on my lap when I'm doing this.  I don't mind if they leave my yarn alone when I'm crocheting.  One night recently when I was sitting with my feet up covered with a blanket, I could feel this "tapping" around under my seat.  Rudy was under the footrest tapping to find a way up between the blanket and footrest to get to me.  Once he got up through the gap, he laid his furry little behind down and put his paws on the seat part and just laid there.  He is such a funny and cute little stinker.  :) I love my little RRR!