Orange Cream Shake

I'll go ahead and say it...you're welcome!!! Today I made the most wonderful orange cream shake! It was simple and delicious and fresh and perfect on a hot summer day. All you need is...

2 cps vanilla ice cream

2 cps fresh orange juice

4 Tbsp sugar (I used Splenda)

I peeled 8 oranges. I find it best to use a sharp knife to peel it so that you get all of the bitter yellow skin off.

Then throw the oranges in your Ninja! And if you don't have a Ninja, you're just going to have to go get one!

Pulse until you have fresh orange juice!!

There's going to be a lot of pulp, and I don't like pulp much so I strained mine, it's up to you though...

Told ya there was a lot of pulp!

And there you go - fresh orange juice!

Now scoop out some of your vanilla ice cream and throw it into the blender with orange juice and sugar.

Wa-la! The best orange cream shake you'll ever have! SO GOOD! Told you it was simple! Now go make one!

Mother's Day 2010

This year for Mother's Day we had over Bobby's side of the family (Vicki, David, Lindsey, Billy and Nana) on Saturday night for Mother's Day. Then on Sunday we had over my mom and dad. We were able to enjoy the evenings outside on the porch and feasted on chicken spaghetti, homeade yeast rolls, garlic green beans and salad wedges with homeade honey mustard and ranch. And we drank about 3 gallons of fruit tea! On Saturday Lindsey brought over a FABULOUS grape salad and German coconut cake for dessert! Yum! Our moms are amazing and deserve so much more. Maybe one day we can upgrade to Mother's Day Vacations :) LG

Christmas 2009

Bobby and I had our first Christmas together as a married couple and decided to have Christmas dinner for our families at our house...what was I thinking?! JUST KIDDING It was great, I loved being able to have everyone over. It was nice and cozy! LG

Fruit Infused Water

This is another little treat. All week we have been infusing water with different fruit combinations. Here's a few of our favorites.

-Pineapple & strawberry
- Strawberry & Cantaloupe
- Lemon & Lime
- Strawberry & Kiwi

All you have to do is cut up the fruit, add it to a pitcher of water and let it sit overnight in the fridge. The fruit tends to break down so if you need to strain you water you can. It didn't bother us at all though. If you want you could even add a little sweetener. We added light agave syrup with one and it was good, but we found the subtle flavor of the fruit was great all on its own. We also made our tea a little strong on some nights and poured half a glass of tea and half a glass of the fruit water. It was really refreshing!

Italian Grilled Chicken with Cucumber Brushetta

A look back at the week.... I was really looking forward to posting all of these unique, processed free recipes this week. And I feel as if I have failed. It was a struggle enough to have time to make the recipes, much less photograph and blog them. So today is my catch up day! I'm going to do multiple posts that I should have done during the week. To start, we have my favorite recipe of the week. Italian grilled chicken topped with cucumber bruschetta. And I have to give credit where credit is due. I originally got this recipe from Tasty Kitchen but it was posted on another wonderful blog, Lauren's Latest. Here's a link to the original
http://www.laurenslatest.com/italian-grilled-chicken-with-cucumber-bruschetta/
It is wonderful and light. I ate this meal with my beautiful friend, Susan, the night of my 2 year anniversary. Bobby had a meeting he had to go to. You HAVE to try this. It's really simple.

Here's what you need-
4 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Italian Marinade (homemade or store bought)
1/2 cup cucumber, peeled and diced
2 Roma tomatoes, diced
8 basil leaves, chopped
1/4 cp parmesan shavings
1/8 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp Balsamic Vinegar
Salt and Pepper

This is tough, you ready?
Peel and dice your cucumber.

Dice your tomatoes.

And add everything else for the bruschetta. Grill the chicken you've marinated, and top it with the cooled bruschetta. That's it!!!

I am the proud owner of a......NINJA!

Once upon a time, long, long ago, I stayed up until 1 am. (Way too late for me) And at 1 am, all of these wonderful infomercials come on. I'm kinda kidding there, infomercials don't usually capture my interest but on this special day, it did. They were advertising a "Ninja". I had never heard of one but continued watching because I am increasingly growing more and more frustrated with my blender. I know that sounds silly but I love smoothies and iced drinks and the occasional homemade milkshake. My blender can handle the yogurt and soft fruit, but when I throw the ice in, it's just a big, chunky mess.

The Ninja is actually very impressive and was a lot cheaper than I thought it would be. The next day I was telling Bobby about this blender I had seen. He laughed. I didn't really think much about it. Until the next night, when I was up late again (I was making a Shutterfly book) and the Ninja infomercial came on AGAIN! And again, I stayed up another hour to watch the entire thing. Again, I was impressed.

The next day Bobby and I were going to get him a pair of sunglasses at Kohls. And while I was pretty sure the men's sunglasses weren't back with the kitchen appliances and gadgets, I thought I would double check :) LOW AND BEHOLD, THEY HAD NINJAS! At this point, it was meant to be. I no longer wanted a Ninja, I NEEDED a Ninja. (I can imagine Bobby reading this and right now he would say, "Story of my life!") I showed Bobby the Ninja, all of its tricks and what it could do. I left the store with no hope of homemade pina coladas in my near future. And that was that.

Present day. I was at Tangles Salon in Hendersonville today, getting my hair done by the most fabulous hair dresser, Lindsey Reasonover, you should go see her, and Bobby called and told me he had a surprise waiting for me at home. Now Bobby's friend just got a 7 week old chocolate lab and we saw something about all the puppies in the humane society on the news last night. Bobby had made a few comments about getting Riggins a brother or sister since then...which made me a little nervous. Saying that, I was a little nervous my new little surprise was peeing on the carpet at home.

Having said ALL OF THAT, I got home to find this....

My very own Ninja.

With a note on it that said...

Do I have a keeper or what?!

I know most of you are thinking I'm crazy for wanting a blender. But this is not just ANY blender!

Check out the layered blades on this baby!

I really wanted to try it out so I filled it with some ice...

And let 'er rip! This was less than 3 seconds after I had turned it on!

This took 5 seconds...

Snow

Pina Colada perfect!

So I was having fun and wanted to chop something other than ice. The baby carrots were the first thing I saw when I opened the fridge and we're going to have to buy some more anyway so I figured I'd let them go for a spin!

Again, this took like 3 seconds.

What's so great is that I never have to grate carrots by hand for carrot cake anymore! It's okay if most of you find this post lame. Next time you're over here, ask for a frozen drink! Bet you won't think it's so lame then!

In honor of my new Ninja, I will use it in every recipe I post this week. You'll be begging your spouse, sister, mom to buy you a Ninja for your next birthday. Promise!

Vegan Ranch Dip

I hate to admit it, but I'm one of those people that could eat ranch dressing on anything and love it. Lettuce is merely transportation for ranch dressing into my mouth. And I hate that. I wish I didn't like ranch one bit but there's simply no way around it. And the fat free/low fat stuff is just no good. So in attempts to find a healthy substitution, I found this recipe. And while I don't claim to love it, it's a decent substitution for me!



You'll never guess what the base is! No cream of any kind here!

It's CASHEWS! Here's what you'll need.

Raw cashews, fresh basil or any herb you have on hand, garlic powder, onion powder, curry and lemon juice

First things first, lets start with the water. Where I live, in the summers the water usually tastes SERIOUSLY AWFUL! You can smell it when the faucets running. It has to do with algae that grows in the water when the temperature reaches a certain high. Anyhow, in the summer we use filtered water.

Then you'll need 1 cup of raw cashews.

And water. They need to soak for about an hour.

Then throw them in a blender with some fresh squeezed lemon juice, about 1 Tbsp and blend away!

This is where I think I messed up a little. I should have blended it a little more. In the end my ranch was more of a dip than a dressing. I would have also added another Tbsp of lemon juice! Go ahead and add some salt and pepper.

Then grab your fresh basil and parsley and throw a handful in to the blender.

Looking good at this point...

I'm going to tell you what I did next, but I don't recommend it. I like curry in SOME THINGS, this is not one of those things. My original recipe called for 1 tsp but as soon as I put it in I regretted it. I also added a tsp of garlic powder and onion powder.

At this point, I tasted the dressing and wasn't too pleased. I went out and clipped some of my chives and thew them in. This helped, I added a little water to thin it out some and a little extra garlic powder, although I should have just put in a clove of garlic.

And this is what I ended up with! I would make a few changes next time, but there will be a next time!

I went on a CRUISE!

In May I officially finished my first year of teaching. Hallelujah, I SURVIVED! It was a great year, and to celebrate, we booked a cruise with Bobby's sister, Lindsey, and her hubby, Billy. We were also considering this our anniversary cruise, since we celebrated 2 years on July 11! We had a blast. It was a 4 night, 5 day cruise to Coco Cay and Nassau. I tried to count and I believe this was 14th of 15th cruise, but only my 2nd on Royal Caribbean. Which is ironic because I left for my first cruise on July 4th, 2001 (or 20o2, can't remember!) on RC, and went to the Bahamas, and we left for the same cruise on July 4th this year! IRONIC? I KNOW!

Brother and sister! Aren't they sweet!


Lindsey was just a tad anxious about the flight.

But she flew like a pro :)


We made it to Orlando! We lucked out and got a limo from Orlando to Sanford!


From our hotel we walked to a little seafood place on the water. It was scrumptious! We were trying to get Lindsey some oysters on this trip and we FAILED!


We boarded the ship on the 4th. There were matinees swimming next to the ship as we were waiting to pull out of the port.


I thought it would be fun going on vacation with Lindsey but she always looks this good! It's NOT FAIR!


This is the view of the Kennedy Space Center from the ship, 4 days before the last space shuttle launched into space. We actually got off the ship the day it launched and saw the traffic for the shuttle, but not the launch :(


I have been ready for this cruise for A LONG TIME!


So, it's kind of a big jump to the next day, but this is Coco Cay. LINDSEY AND I WENT PARASAILING! We went VERY HIGH! And they gave us no directions. We were the 1st ones off the boat to go and we were sitting down on the back of the boat, and then we were way high in the air...with no directions. I guess when you're that high up if you fall, there's not much you can do.


The beach at Coco Cay.


We were ready for the sand and sun!


This is our ship, The Monarch of the Seas.
We also went to Nassau.....it was a flop. We had scheduled an excursion to go on a catamaran out to snorkel but decided to change it to a sunset sail, which got rained out. So we got off the boat with no idea of what we wanted to do. Mistake #1. I had asked at an information booth about a good place to go to get fresh seafood, and they recommended The Poop Deck. We also wanted to see Atlantis so we decided to take a taxi to another spot on the island close to Atlantis. The taxi driver does not take us to Atlantis (Mistake #2 - not insisting to be taken to the door) so we walk around trying to get in and another taxi driver notices us walking around, and at this point we were starving, and he said he would take us to a really good seafood restaurant, so we hop in (Mistake #3). He drives us a good ways off and drops us off at the top of this short hill and drives away. (Mistake #4) It was 1 and the restaurant didn't open until 4. So now we're a ways off where there are no taxis!!! So we walk back to where we had been earlier as it starts to rain. We finally get back and just decide to get a taxi and head to The Poop Deck. (Mistake #5) The Poop Deck was overpriced burgers and seafood. And when I say seafood, they had Mahi Mahi and Konk cooked every way you could imagine on the menu. Except they were out of Mahi Mahi. So I ate half of a $14 cheeseburger, which I could have gotten for free on the ship. BUT THAT'S OKAY! It is vacation and paying way too much for a mediocre hamburger is just part of it. After that we took ANOTHER TAXI back to the ship. Lindsey did some shopping at the straw market and then we hopped back on the ship for the rest of the day.....I really feel like we wasted a day at Nassau but next time we'll plan a little better. We still enjoyed being there!


Dinner on the last evening. This cruise went by way too fast! We had a day at sea, which we mostly played rummy and golf (the kind with cards). We also watched the belly flop contest and the World's sexiest man contest, which was entertaining, to say the least.


Happy 2 year anniversary to us!


Aren't they so cute?!!


Our waiter was ehh, okay. But our assistant waiter was great! She was so kind and sweet and wanted so badly for everything to be perfect. It turns out it was her first week working on the ship. She has 3 children back home, I think she said they were 4, 9 and 11. It broke my heart that she was working so hard for us on our vacation and she wouldn't see them for 7 months! It really makes me appreciate what I have but it also makes me feel spoiled and materialistic. I've thought about her a lot lately. Bless her!

That's it as far as pictures go! I think Lindsey and I kinda split camera time so maybe I can get some more from her! I usually take SO MANY but I am really lacking pictures of this vacation. Guess we'll just have to go again!