Chocolate Berry Protein Shake {Vegan}

Death. 

It's a factor in life.

 You know it will happen to everyone and everything eventually, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you are prepared for it. We've been at the ranch for almost nine years now and in that time I have been able to see the miracle of life many times, but also come to know the heartbreak of death. Earlier Saturday afternoon, my mom and I went to the vet to put Hedgie to sleep. A few months after I got Hedgie, he got cataracts which took his sight and I noticed that he seemed to be having what appeared to be seizures. The last 2 weeks though, I knew something was wrong because he stopped eating, was shaking, and seemed really lethargic. The vet looked him over and said by the state his teeth he was much older than we were aware of. Since the vet and most of the other staff had never seen or treated a hedgehog, he became quite popular even in his sickly state.

He's 4lbs heavier than her yet he likes using her as a pillow.

Gus Gus also has a vet appointment since he hasn't seen a vet in his little life and he also has a little wheezing problem that I first noticed a few months ago. It almost sounds like asthma except he doesn't wheeze all of the time and acts like a normal spoiled kitten, but just to be safe him and Charlie will be going to visit to vet tomorrow afternoon. I doubt they will appreciate it, though.

My mom's birthday is tomorrow so she is treating herself to a 2 hour massage. She isn't the biggest dessert fan besides cookies and sometimes apple pie so she just asked for some cream cheese filled strawberries that I'll dip in chocolate. I'll probably post a pic on instagram.

Peaches & Cream Popsicles

  The last time I made popsicles, the sticks ended up coming out, but the filling stayed in. I think it has something to do with my cheap, but cute popsicle molds. Earlier this summer, my mom and I went shopping to find some popsicle molds since we had lost our old ones, but none of the half dozen stores we checked had them. I've used little paper cups for the doggie popsicles I've made (a recipe I'll share later), but I didn't want to use them for regular popsicles.  Well, she ended up getting me a 10 pop mold online and the very next day when we walked into World Market there was a small 6 popsicle mold. 

  I found this recipe the other day and really wanted to make it so I did and prayed that the popsicles would actually come out of the mold this time. I filled the sink with a little water and let the molds sit for a few minutes to help loosen them up. Well, history repeated its self; the handle came out,but with only half of the stick and the filling stayed in the mold. I then ran a little warm water over the ends of the remaining molds and tried again and it worked! These popsicles are creamy due to the yogurt and are packed with delicious peach flavor.

Cream Top Greek Yogurt & My 1st Giveaway

  The other day I received an email from Brown Cow Yogurt asking if I wanted to try their new Cream Top Greek yogurts. I looked it up online after I was contacted and I found nothing, but rave reviews on Brown Cow's other yogurts. I received 4- 6oz Greek flavors which were: vanilla, blueberry, honey, and maple. They also have a 24oz Plain Cream Top Greek, but it isn't available all over the country yet, so you'll have to check you local Whole Foods. If you don't have a Whole Foods near you, you can click here to see if a supermarket near you might carry Brown Cow Yogurt except their Cream Top Greek yogurt which will be exclusively available at Whole Foods until October 1.

  Even if you think that you don't like yogurt, you need to give this brand a try. I'm not a dairy fan. Milk always tastes sour to me, yogurt generally has too much tang and tastes past it's prime no matter what brand or flavor I try, and you will never see me munching on cheese unless its on something like a burger or cheese fries.

Berry Blast Smoothie

 A lot has gone on this week.

 One of the many tornadoes that hit Texas this week hit on the other side of our town, but as far I know everyone is alright, but some of the houses are damaged and a few small businesses were destroyed. I think this was the first time that we actually stayed in my parents closet during a tornado warning because usually they hit nearby towns or cause very little damage so there usually isn't much cause to hide. I'm glad we don't have to many tornadoes in our area because there were 6 dogs, 3 cats, my dad, I fitting tightly in a walk in closet. I also took my purse with my chargers, my camera bag, a bag of Fritos (which came in handy to keep the dogs calm from both the storm & not to go after the cats), and the blanket I am currently working on. We had 4 dogs in the house when I remember my two, Marley & Oddball and when we went to open the back door to get them, hail came raining down. When we did come out of the closet, the outside was so dark you would have thought it was 8pm, but it was actually just before 5pm.
  There was no damage to out house or animals, except a few shingles on the roof came loose and none of our animals wanted to come out of the hiding places to eat their dinner.

  I have had this post for a while, but never did publish it, until now. I was going to actually post about a recipe I found for sweet -sweet potatoes fries with brown sugar and cinnamon unlike most sweet potatoes fries recipes with paprika and cayenne, but I can't seem to find the recipe today. Instead, I will try to make my own recipe tonight and them post it later.  So I'll share this smoothie recipe with y'all.

Cantaloupe Smoothie

   This past weekend I bought a cantaloupe to eat, but once I got home and cut into I realized that I wasn't as ripe as I needed/wanted it to be. Since I had already cut and chopped half of the melon, I decided to leave the other half whole to see if it would ripen a little more.

Chocolate covered Strawberries

Today's post is going to be short.
I know I haven't been posting as much as I use to and Im still trying to get back into it.
Today I had an appointment with another Rheumatologist (we are switching doctors), had more blood tests run, and had a untrasound to check my liver.
And then I had a couple of tests and quizes for school to complete.
So, i'm now really feeling up to writing a long post.

Anyway, last weekend my mom bough 4 cartons of strawberries and I decided that I haven't made chocolate-covered strawberries in a long time and plus its getting close to valentine's day (even though it doesn't mean anything to me, but this is a simple and delicious dessert that everyone enjoys). Plus, my mom's birthday is this weekend so I'll be making another batch of these for then.

Love for Kids & a Power Smoothie

     This past weekend my mom and I volunteered at Love for Kids, which is something that some friends of ours have been doing for years. Basically thousands of kids from the Dallas/ Ft. Worth area get to come out to the Circle R Ranch, play games, gets their face painted, ride horses, and eat all they want. So they get the chance to be care free kids if just for a day. Plus, every bus that the kids arrived on (There were over 60 full sized school buses!And then more came in vans)  were packed with presents designated by each child's sex and age group.
  Saturday morning I wasn't feeling to good. Actually I felt awful, but I still was going to go to the camp. By the time we got out there it was freezing cold, but as the day went on it warmed up a tad bit and the wind died down. Time also seemed to fly by and I soon forgot how bad I was feeling. We arrived at 9:15 and we were suppose to be at our first stations by 10, but we were made into "human fenceposts" to guide the kids coming off the buses into the camp entrance which took almost 2 hours.Some of the kids were absolutely adorable! Then Fred (family friend) and I went to our stations which were with the horses. Fred lead the horse (we had a gray gelding named Ghost) and I was a sidekick- basically I walked next to the horse to make sure the kid didn't fall off. We walked Ghost for 1 1/2 hours before putting him to pasture to rest and going to help clean up and eat.
  By 2pm all of the volunteers (there were hundreds) were all lined up, waving goodbye as the buses left with some very happy kids on board.

This was one of those experiences that helps put everything back into perspective and cherish what you have.

Sweet Potato Banana Muffins

I got a recipe for yall as promised.

I found this recipe on Tasty Kitchen after needing to use up 2 2lb. sweet potatoes that we got from the Farmers Market.These muffins are light and moist. They are so good and the orange specs of sweet potato through out the muffin let you know whats in there. The crunch of the nuts gives the muffin extra texture.I think though, next time I make them, I will lower the amount of banana and increase the amount of sweet potato. Just so you can really know that there is sweet potato in there.

The mini choclate chips add some extra sweetness (semi-sweet chips make sure it isnt too sweet) and some extra creaminess.

Sweet Potato Banana Muffins

Recipes Adapted from: Noshings @ TastyKitchen

yeilds: about 20 regular muffins

• 1 cp. Sweet Potato, mashed (I used fresh, but you could use canned yams, drained and mashed),
• 3 whole Bananas,ripe and mashed
• 1 cp. sugar
• 2/3 cp. veg oil
• 2 whole large eggs
• 2 cps. A.P flour
• 2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cp. pecans, waltnuts, chopped
• 1/2 cp. chocolate chips (optional)
• I added/changed:
• 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 cp. slivered almonds instead of pecans
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3 tsp. mini chocolate chips

1. Mix together the mashed sweet potatoes, bananas, sugar, oil and eggs.
2. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. Into the sweeet potato mixture add the dry ingredients; fold batter carefully until flour is incorporated.
>> As for the nuts, I reserve these and toss them on top so that they toast as the bread bakes.
4. Line a 12 muffin tin with liners, fill,top with the nuts, and bake for about 16-19 minutes.
5. Once the muffins come out, transfer them to a cooling rack.

Since, I have only 1- 12 muffin pan I had to make the muffins in 2 batches. The 1st batch was regular with the almonds and the 2nd I added 3 tbsp. mini chocolate chips.
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Mango frozen yogurt (without an ice cream machine)

The other day, I noticed that we had about 8 mangos in our fridge and I wasn't sure how they got there. Well, it was over 100 degrees outside and I wanted something cold to eat. So I decided to make mango frozen yogurt. I have never made one before, but its could not have been difficult. Then I realized that we didn't have an ice cream maker.

This is what you'll need. If you have full fat yogurt, it will be richer.

Cut the ends off of the mango so it can sit up so it looks like this

Carefully hold the mango and cut the skin off.

Its like a melon; you want to yellow, but not the green.

Mangos have weird shaped pits.

Stuffed Strawberries

 

This summer, my mom has gone alittle strawberry crazy- she buys them ALL of the time! When we go to the farmers' markets, she will buy the biggest container and then buy another in 2 weeks. Don't get me wrong, I love strawberries, but I am gonna get burnt out of them soon. We froze most of the strawberries for