Green Smoothies...

Thanks to a former co-worker, I have become hooked on green smoothies.

At my initial introduction, I must admit that my reaction to putting kale or spinach or other green leafy things into a drink (other than the occasional celery stalk in my beloved bloody mary) had me retching.  But, like so many other things in this life, you must first try it before you knock it.

And so began my love affair with green smoothies.

My first step, though, was to buy a NutriBullet.   I got mine at Bed Bath & Beyond with a 20% off coupon, which would be my recommended way to go if you're looking at the most inexpensive way to get a new NutriBullet. I'm sure you can also find used ones on eBay if you're in the market, but I'll leave that up to you. I went with the blender/extractor-type concept rather than a juicer for a couple of reasons:

1. ease in cleaning
2. no loss of fiber
3. cost

Now for the good stuff...

Nearly every smoothie I make starts with a handfull of fresh organic spinach.   I have been known to use frozen in a pinch, but I prefer fresh.   Others like kale, but I find the taste of raw kale in my smoothies to be overpowering, I'd rather eat my kale in salads.  I sometimes also throw in a couple of pieces of fresh organic carrot, not even peeled.  To that, I add whatever fruit is in season.  Cantaloupe, watermelon, apples, strawberries, blueberries, bananas - you name it, it can become a smoothie.  I also have used frozen fruit: berries, mangoes, etc.  Freezing is also a good use for bananas on the way out, by the way.  Just peel and chunk them and toss into the freezer.  You can put them on a tray or plate in the freezer first before bagging them to make pulling them out easier.  I also know people who put avocado into their smoothies, but I am an avocado nut and would much rather have my avocado straight up so I can enjoy the taste, rather than hidden in a smoothie...

As far as nutritional add ins, here's where you can get crazy!  Nuts (almonds, cashews, walnuts), seeds (chia, sesame, flax), berries (acai, goji), herbs (mint, parsley, dill, tarragon), spices (cinnamon, turmeric, pepper), cacao nubs or powder, yogurt or milk (including rice, almond, hemp)...get the idea?  There is a ton of research out there about the benefits of these add ins - do your own due diligence and you can concoct your own special drink for whatever ails ya!  I keep a basket on the counter to corral my 'extra' ingredients and spare parts for my NutriBullet, and when it's smoothie time, I just go there for inspiration.

Here's what's inside:

And here's this morning's smoothie:  Fresh spinach and peaches, frozen mango:

I apologize if this sounded like an infomercial for NutriBullet -that wasn't my intent, but rather to introduce you to the wonderful world of green smoothies!  And if you have little ones running around - what a great way to sneak extra nutrition into their daily lives - and with cool green stuff!

How about you?
Do you imbibe in smoothies?  What do you like to put into yours?  What health benefits do you look forward to?

Score!

I love a good deal!  I recently returned a dress to Kohl's - it was one that I bought thinking I would wear it to daughter Erin's rehearsal dinner in June on the Cape, but I decided to wear something else, so the dress was just hanging around with no purpose.  So I took it back.  And got a store credit.

This week I got a 30% off discount flyer for Kohl's and I've been antsy ever since to go see what good deals I could snag between the coupon and my store credit!  Hubby wanted to look at some pants, so off we headed tonight after church and a light dinner at Panera.

I went straight to the maxi dresses - I wanted to see what they had that could span a couple of seasons.  My first pass through the racks left me underwhelmed, but on my second look, I was drawn to a nice black and white Apt. 9 number, but it was a PL (Petite Large).  Well, at 5'9", I am anything but petite.  But one thing I have learned in my 50+ years is that I can find some great deals on things that  might be marked incorrectly.  :)  Not saying that this dress was improperly marked, but it was definitely long for a 'petite'.  Which is probably why it was clearanced down to $24 from $60!  And with my 30% coupon, it was a mere $16.80 - a 72% markdown.

I am so excited to wear it - and with a sweater, it will work perfectly for fall as well.

Hubby didn't find anything he really wanted in the pants department, but I did also find some uber cute summerwear on clearance in the baby department - so I picked up a couple of outfits for the new babies in a size that they hopefully be able to wear when we vacation together next June.

Summer 2014 vacation wear for Jack and April

A good shopping trip is a thing of beauty...

How about you?  Have any great shopping trips or tips to share?

Yogurt...one of life's little pleasures...

So, true to my mantra of DIY, we make our own yogurt.  For several reasons...

1. It's way cheaper
2. I know what ingredients are used
3. I like to do stuff like this!

Here's how we do it:

Take one or one half gallon of 2% milk (you can use any kind of milk, really, but 2% is our compromise). Shake it a bit if it's sat for a while.  Pour the entire amount into a crock pot set on high.  Cover with a lid and wait. Keep a thermometer handy and every half hour or so, stir and check the temp - it takes a couple hours to get to 180°, which is the 'magic' number for yogurt.

Once it gets to 180°, turn off the crockpot and let it sit again.  You can take the lid off now if you want - it helps it to cool down faster. You can also stir it every now and then for the same reason - it cools faster. Keep the thermometer handy yet.  Once the milk hits 110°, it's time to move to the next step.

Turn your oven on to 200° (or the lowest temp it will hold).  Then, to the cooled milk, add your starter, which is about 1/2 cup of plain yogurt.  It should be yogurt with 'live cultures' written on the container, or you can use some leftover from your last batch of homemade yogurt, which is what we do (but I'll bet if you're reading this, you most likely don't have any leftover homemade...yet...lol).  You can also add some powdered milk at this time, but this is purely optional and I don't do it if I don't have any hanging around.  But if you do have some and you want to add it, you can put in about 1/2 cup.

Now put the lid back on and set the lidded crockpot liner into the oven and shut the oven off.  Don't forget to do this! If the oven has a light, turn it on - it will help keep the temperature nice and warm in there.  Now, let this sit for about 12 hours (it can be as long as 24, but who can wait that long??)  The  longer it sits, the more tart and thick it will be.

After waiting, take out the crockpot and voila! you have yogurt!  You can stop here, but if you have a couple more hours, it's great to make it into Greek yogurt, which is just yogurt that has been strained of the whey, and therefore, much thicker and creamier.

You'll need a strainer and some cheesecloth, or a muslin bag, which is what we use. Ours is the one that we use when we brew beer, but they're easy enough to make out of a piece of unbleached muslin sewn into a bag about 12" square or so.  Put the strainer, lined with cheesecloth or the muslin bag over the edges of a bowl or pot (6-8 qt. works fine).  Ladle the yogurt into the strainer/bag.  If you're using a strainer, just let it sit.  If you've got a bag, tie it up and hang it over the bowl to drain for about 2-4 hours.  I loop the tie over a cabinet pull (see below) and just forget it for a bit.

I haven't found much use for the whey - there are websites that say you can make cheese from it, but I have not been successful at that (let me know if you are - I'd love to know the secret!).  But we do have dogs, and one of them in particular (our senior, Shadow) loves to have a little whey over his kibble as an enticement to eat.  Sometimes he needs a little convincing.  :)

Once the yogurt has drained to a nice consistency, just transfer it from the strainer/bag to a container and refrigerate.  One gallon of milk makes about 2 quarts of yummy greek yogurt and 2 quarts of whey.  All for the cost of a gallon of milk!  'Whey' better than what you'd pay if you bought it at the store, and 'whey' better knowing you made it yourself!!

A hint on timing:  The whole process from start to finish (greek) takes about 20 hours.  It works for us to start around 6 pm.  By about 10 pm or so, the milk is going into the oven for an overnight stay.  And by 10 am or so, it's being strained for a few hours.  Finished product is ready by early afternoon.

And as a side note, I've taught hubby how to make yogurt, so he no longer has to 'hint' to me that we are running low!  :)

I'm Baaccckkkk...lol...

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Well, we've been retired for over 7 months now (actually only about 4 since I did some contracting for my previous employer for a few months after I left from full time employment).  Here's an update of what's been going on...

Our pet sitting business is growing rather nicely.  We've actually turned down some work when it has overlapped activities that we had previously planned for ourselves.  The way I look at it, if you have the foresight to schedule in advance, we'll have the courtesy to hold the date.  But last minute requests, which I consider to be a week or less notice, may be risky for you.  After all, we are retired. :)

Tudor and Tasha, two of our clients' furbabies

We've also been putting quite a bit of effort into downsizing by picking one room/area of the house at a time and attacking it with gusto.  This week's project has been our study.  There are 7 sets of bookshelves in the study, along with a grand piano and a low, long filing cabinet.  I've purged 5 of the 7 units (hubby is in charge of his own and I still have one to go).  I've gotten rid of about 300 books - most of them how-to, but also a fair number of novels and cookbooks.  The way I see it, unless it's a very special book, I can either borrow it from the library (if it's a novel) or google what I need to know (if it's a how-to/self-help).  Not even my cookbooks were spared.  I saved the ones that I know I use and that were special gifts, but all the ones that I've collected over the years have gone on to better homes. We have a local branch of the American Association of University Women that got a boatload of them, and the rest will go to the Friends of the Library.  Here's a picture of the ones that are headed to the Friends of the Library.

More books for Friends of the Library

I plan on taking the bookshelves with us when we move, but I also know that our storage space at the condo will be very limited, and I've got other plans for shelf space, namely my photo albums and scrapbooking supplies.

And here's another picture of my neatened up cookbook bookshelves and the other side of the room (hubby's shelves are on the far left...).

After the purge (hubby's books on left)

Cookbooks that made the cut

I still need to attack the file cabinet, but it's only Wednesday...

I should add that we are on baby watch - our youngest daughter, Laurin, and her husband, Eric are expecting their first baby (our first grandbaby) any day now and our plan is to head to southwestern OH to be there for Jack's birth, God willing.  So some of the cleaning might have to be postponed for a few days while we welcome the new little one.  More about that later!

Homemade Powdered Dishwasher Detergent Recipe

About a year or so ago, we noticed that our dishwasher wasn't getting dishes as clean, and the glassware was becoming cloudy.  After some research, we discovered that the powdered detergent that we had been using had been reformulated to remove most, if not all, of the phosphates - a substance that both softened the water and helped remove the food traces.  At this point, we switched to liquid detergent, but I never really liked the liquid.  It's messy, expensive, and wasteful, when you consider how much remains in the bottle even after it's 'empty'.  So...after a little bit of internet and home research, we found a formula for homemade dishwasher powder that works just fine and is still environmentally friendly/phosphate free.  

Here goes:
Mix well together:
1 c. powdered borax
1 c. washing soda
1/2 c. fine Kosher salt
1/2 c. citric acid (aka sour salt)
Store in a tightly lidded jar or plastic container, labeled for safety's sake.
Use 2 T per load.
Notes:  The borax and washing soda can be found in the laundry aisle of your supermarket (check the bottom shelf - they're not high margin, glitzy items, so they're hidden down here).  Kosher salt is with the salts, natch - usually you can find coarse as well as fine - get the fine.  The citric acid is a little trickier to find, but many bulk food stores carry it,  as do spice shops.  It sometimes is with the Kosher foods as well and is used as a preservative as well as to add sourness to certain foods.  Expect to pay about $5/lb if you buy it in bulk.)

In case you're wondering, the borax acts as a water softener and helps to reduce the cloudiness/spots as well as helping with food particle release from the dishes.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Top o' the morning to you!

Hubby and I have declared today to be a pajama day...lol...yesterday was a little (well, a LOT) busy and the upcoming week looks equally crazy, so we're going to do what we're supposed to do today, which is REST.

We got up early yesterday and headed to Columbus to watch our favorite hockey team, the BlueJackets, do their practice skate. That was followed by a q&a session with the head coach and a player on the DL.  We followed that by a trip to Columbus' North Market, a quaint repurposed area of town home to an unbelievable number of vendors - food and otherwise.  We lunched on keilbasa sandwiches and potato pierogies...and then we headed home to feed the pups before heading out to church.  We came home and completed final preparations to host our neighborhood euchre club at 7.  The gang left by 11, but then we stayed up until after 2 am to watch the rerun of the BlueJackets vs. the Coyotes game that we missed... Jackets won it in a shoot out!  Great game, but late night...

I'm 1/16 Irish and I never miss the chance to celebrate it, so I've got my traditional mustard glazed corned beef brisket chilling in the fridge - it's a 2+ day process, starting with an overnight soak, leading into a day-long crockpot bath and culminating in a quick oven reheat, with glaze, before serving.  We're having it with colcannon (typically potatoes, onions and cabbage, mashed with lots of butter), asparagus and perhaps some soda bread.  Mmmm...one of my favorite meals of the year!  Leftover peach pie (from pi day) for dessert.

I'm dying to give you an update on the petsitting business, but I'll save that for another blog!  

Have a great day and Erin Go Braugh!!

Updates

OK, so I guess you could say I've fallen off the blog-wagon.  But I'm back, and  with lots of updates.  Gonna go in the easiest direction, which is forward, starting from my last post in September.  

In October, Larry experienced a spontaneous hip fracture, which was repaired with three stainless screws and about 10 weeks of non (well, toe-touch) weight bearing using a walker.  He's now going to PT 2x a week and faithfully doing his at-home exercises, so we are back on track to full mobility, and hopefully to our bike riding plans for when the weather breaks.

In December, we both gave notice to our employers of our intent to retire effective January 4.  We enjoyed wonderful holidays with our families near and  we began to really feel the retirement train headed down our track! In the meantime, we continued setting up the groundwork for our pet sitting business - we joined PSI (Pet Sitters International) and signed up for their certification course; and we've been easing into advertising and the nitty-gritty of opening up bank accounts, getting a tax id, registering the business name, creating a website (www.sitstayfetchllc.com), etc.

I spent 2 weeks in Arizona in January for my mom's 75th birthday - my sister and I had a surprise party for her and she was truly surprised.  They were good times!   It was rather cold the first week - a low of 18°, but then we had record highs the second week - 81° two days in a row.  Got some shopping and golfing in and had a nice, relaxing time out there. 

Yesterday we had our first pet sitting appointment and I am happy to say we have our first (and second) jobs lined up.  That's exciting!!  Meanwhile, I am working a few hours a week as a marketing consultant with my former employer and loving the fact that there are days that we don't even have to get out of our jammies if we don't want.  

Our next big event is our oldest daughter's wedding in Cape Cod in June, and along the way, we're continuing to work at downsizing the old homestead in preparation for a move to a smaller place.  

I do have a recipe to share - it's one for some yummy granola that was featured in the December 2012 Better Homes and Gardens.

Quinoa Pumpkin Seed Granola (registration required)