Photo Challenge Update for March

I have been completely slacking off in the cooking department! Dee Jay has had a crazy busy week and his schedule hasn't left any time for us to sit down and eat, so I've been lazy! At least I have the photo challenge to give me an update this week, before I get back to the kitchen! So here we go...

Illuminate

Color Purple

Soft

Eat

Sparkle

Drink

Something Orange

Black & White

Fruit

My illuminate picture is of our lamp in the living room! I love the soft glow you get at night instead of bright overhead lighting! 

My color purple photo is of an earring of mine with purple beads! This is one of my favorite pairs of earrings because I love adding purple back into the wardrobe in the Spring and Summer! 

These are my very soft, comfy house shoes! It kind of feels like you're walking on a pillow because the cushion inside is very soft and plump! 

My "eat" photo, is of my grapefruit! I LOVE grapefruits for a snack or an easy breakfast! Sprinkle a little bit of sugar on top, and you're in business! All the grapefruits I've been getting lately are so delicious, sweet and juicy I just want to go buy all of them! Doesn't hurt that you can squeeze the leftover juice from them once you're done eating and have a tiny little glass of fresh grapefruit juice! YUM!

My picture of sparkles is of my nail polish! I adore Sinful Colors ($1.99 at Walgreens), and I probably have about every color that they put out there! It's a bad habit, but it's so fun!

I am trying to cut back on my caffeine consumption! These are caffeine free and so delicious! 

Seeing that I was raised in an OU lovin' family, it was REALLY hard to find something orange in our house! Besides the orange crush drinks which I used the day before, I had to do some searching when I realized what I was needing to take a photo of! This is DJ's "scent free hunting spray" carrier! I found it after doing some major searching! So there's the orange in our house :)

My black and white photo is of one of my craft supply boxes!! My crafts are over-flowing and my to-do list today is getting everything a bit more organized! 

My final photo for the beginning of March was of fruit! Oh dear strawberries, how I love you! When I was little, we used to eat strawberries with sour cream and brown sugar! I can still take down a whole carton of these sweet little treats with that dip!! 

Stay tuned for some yummy recipes this week!!

Until then...

Go Green

I'm so proud of myself! I made a green smoothie and I LOVED it! I see these floating around on Pinterest all the time, but the color has always made me second guess the flavor of these drinks. It's kind of like eating green eggs and ham! I just don't think a drink should be quite so "green" especially when I know the green comes from a leafy substance I usually put in salad or something else! So, I decided to give it a try and was very surprised that I couldn't taste the "green" at all. Instead this almost tastes like a banana & cinnamon drink! So let's get started on this delicious and nutritious drink...

Ingredients

2 c Kale

1 c ice

1/2 c almond milk

1/2 c plain yogurt

2 TB peanut butter

1 banana

6 strawberries

1 tsp cinnamon

1 TB Chia seeds

Put all this together in your blender and blend away! 

This smoothie is packed with potassium (660 mg), vitamin A (210% of your daily value), vitamin C (178% of your daily value), among others! It has 276 calories, which made for a great snack because it's about the same as eating 2 small bags of Doritos and much better for you! I wasn't tempted to snack on anything else because it is very satisfying! I came across this recipe at Tone It Up! 

If you want to know more about Chia seeds and their nutritional value you can check out this list on Livestrong. I throw some in to my water bottles and juices sometimes! The "texture" is something I had to get used to, however I barely notice it anymore!    

Stay tuned for the photo challenge update and many more recipes! 

Until then...

Strawberries filled with Oh My Goodness!!

I think always and forever strawberries will be one of my favorite foods! They are just enough sweet, juicy, crunchy, and delicious! There are many ways to fix strawberries. My all time favorite go to is to clean them, and put a dollop of sour cream on a plate and a dollop of brown sugar and use both as a dip! My mouth is watering just thinking about it! I saw this recipe the other day and decided to make a plate and let me tell you folks we devoured these bad boys in about two minutes! Sadly, we didn't even put them in the fridge to chill because we both wanted to "try one" and then just couldn't stop ourselves! So for a fun and easy afternoon snack (or you can make a whole bunch of them for a cookout party or family get together) here is what you're going to do...

First off clean the strawberries in a strainer and pat dry. Next slice the top of each strawberry so that it has a nice flat surface and place them on a hard surface. Now you're going to take your knife and cut an "x" in the top (which is literally the bottom) of the strawberry. Don't cut all the way through just enough so you can open it up to make a "pit" to fill up!

These are cut you just can't see it very well

 Just trying to show you how you open them up once they are cut

In a small bowl you are going to mix 11 ounces of softened cream cheese, 1/2 of a cup of confectioners sugar (powdered sugar), and 1/4 of a teaspoon of almond extract. You are going to beat this mixture until it becomes nice and fluffy! After you have it mixed, spoon it into a small Ziploc bag and cut the corner of the bag off to make a piping tool! (This part is much easier if you have two people working on it). Have one person open up the strawberry like in the photo above. The other person is going to "pipe" the cream cheese mixture into the middle of each strawberry and once you have the amount you want close the strawberry and it will ooze out the sides and the top. 

Once you have all the strawberries filled you are going to take a block of your favorite chocolate (we used semi-sweet although dark chocolate would be divine) and grate the chocolate over the strawberries to give them a nice chocolatey dusting!

Once you have all the strawberries filled and sprinkled you will want to stick them in the fridge to chill BEFORE you try one and eat them all up and then take them out about an hour later or when you're ready to serve them up! Your mouth, friends and family will thank you for these delicious delights! (You can add your own flavor of extract like orange or whatever tickles your fancy).

I got this recipe off of TasteofHome.com and my Pinterest page! Here is the run-down of these delicious summery snacks...
~Happy Eating~

3 dozen large fresh strawberries
2 packages (one 8 ounces, one 3 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar 
1/4 teaspoon almond extract 
Grated chocolate

Cut the stems and tops off each strawberry and to make a flat bottomed strawberry and place on plate. Cut a "x" in the tops of each strawberry, being careful not to cut all the way through. 

In a small bowl combine the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and almond extract until fluffy. Pipe the cream cheese mixture into each strawberry then grate the chocolate over the tops for a light dusting!

Chill and enjoy!

Photo courtesy of walldesk.net