King Cake Smoothies!!! And some other stuff I wanted to talk about.

Hello Everyone!
Oh my gosh, I haven't blogged in so long and I feel like I have so many things I want to tell you about, crafts I want to share with you and new recipe ideas to cook, that I don't know where to begin.  So, I am just going to start with some awesome things I have seen lately, and then I will move on to my recipe for a King Cake Smoothie!

First, I realize that I have been derelict in not showing pictures of my newest family member.  In December, my husband and I "rescued" a puppy.  He was a true Christmas baby and turned one year old on December 26th.  At first, he wasn't sure how to snuggle, but once he figured it out, he took to it like a pro and has now become one of my most snuggly babies. So, happy readers, please meet Morris, otherwise know as Moss or Moss the Hoss.

Part of the reason why I have not been consistently blogging in 2017 is because my husband and I were both cast in plays at Theatre Baton Rouge.  So we have almost constantly been in rehearsals most nights since December and will continue to do so until April.  At that time, we are taking a break and taking time to do the things that we enjoy that get put on the back burner when you have shows that you are doing.  And I will probably be able to get back to a more regular schedule for blog posts.
But, don't worry! It hasn't been all work and no play, my husband and I did take the time last week-end, during a four hour window  of free time that we had, to go brunch and look at a house for sale in the area. No, we are not in the market for a house, we love our house, but a friend told us about this listing and assured us that it should not be missed.
Oh my gosh!!!!  This house was amazing! It was built in the 60's and hasn't really been renovated since it was built.  The previous owners had just kept everything as pristine and true to period as possible.  Walking into this house was like stepping into a time machine and, if it would have been furnished, I would have genuinely paid to take a tour of the place.  There were several things that made me swoon, but there were three items in the house that practically had me fainting with delight.
     1.  The aqua tiles in the bathrooms.  I love these!!!  I really want to see if I can do something like this as a back splash in my kitchen.  So far I have only found glass tiles in this color, but I will not give up.

I must have something like these tiles in my life.

2.  The Murphy Kitchen!!!  I adore these but I have never actually seen one in person.  This Murphy kitchen was put in the pool house and is an idea I just may have to steal when my husband and I start creating our backyard oasis.  If you haven't ever seen Murphy kitchens they are amazing.  They have a sink, stove top, oven, cabinets and refrigerator all in one wall unit and take up the space of about one large closet.  In short, they have everything a kitchen could need if you have very limited space in your living area.  I love them and wish they would come back in style.

This one is the one in the house and it is missing a door.  I would find a replacement door and would probably save and spend the bucks to have a professional came and paint it white or aqua.  The refrigerator is under the stove top and the oven is under the sink!

3.  The drop down shower!
Everyone's heard of drop down living rooms, but I bet very few of us have heard or seen  drop down showers.  This is my husband in the shower envying the sheer amount of space you would have to get clean.  And don't you love the art deco railing?  This railing was an element found throughout the house and tied   a lot of the rooms throughout the house to one another.

I could go on and on about this house, but I have some other things to share.

In January, I sat down and did a rough outline of things that I want to blog about this year and things that I want to accomplish for the year.  I try not to make New Resolutions.  I prefer to make New Year's Goals. Last year, my goals were to start this blog, and to try to learn one new skill.  I am so happy to admit I succeeded with both of these goals.  This year, my New Year's Goals are as follows:
    1.  Make my blog easier to navigate so y'all can more easily find any recipes or craft projects that you are interested in.
    2.  Finish painting the trim and detail work in my house and finish the pub library.
    3.  Take one class to learn a new craft or skill.
    4.  Learn how to make soap and bar shampoo and other homemade skin care and cosmetics.
    5.  Find and create more delicious vegetable recipes to eat healthier throughout the year.
I have some others that I want to try to implement, such as flossing more regularly, but these are my must do five.
I am going to document what I find out and learn as I try to implement these items, so don't be surprised if I share some of my failures as well as my triumphs.

Now, on to the food!

A staple of Mardi Gras, other than beads, floats and parades, is King Cake.  In January, we actually have a king cake day.  Bakeries all over the state are kept busy making these delicious cakes, and, for the cakes that are notorious for being extra special delicious, you can wait in line and go into the bakery every day for a week and still not get the flavor of king cake that you are wanting.
I'm not going to lie, in Louisiana it is hard to get back to eating responsibly as soon as the rest of the nation. Don't believe me?  Let me break it down, we have Halloween (Candy), Thanksgiving (All of the Food Ever), Christmas (Cookies, Fruit Cake, Mulled Wine), and then Mardi Gras (King Cakes and Mardi Gras Balls).  This makes it next to impossible to be good.  So, to help myself stay on track, I have created this King Cake Smoothie Recipe!

King Cake Smoothie

I wish I could say that I came up with this delicious idea first, but the sad truth is, I did not. I saw that Smoothie King had a King Cake Smoothie and that it was good. 

I did not take this picture.  I am sorry to whomever I am not giving credit too, but I could not find any information when I found this picture about who took it,

But I thought that I could make one just as good or better at home,  After several test runs, this is the version that I decided was the best.  I have even had the cast of Theatre Baton Rouge's A Few Good Men taste test it for me and they all agreed that it was delicious and even smelled like king cake.

As always with my smoothie recipes, these ingredients are more like guidelines, if you want to change the amounts to suit your personal tastes, do it!  I find it is very hard to mess up a smoothie, so don't be afraid to experiment.

Ingredients

Note:  The amounts listed below are enough to make one smoothie in a small blender.  I like to use my bullet blender, as this makes the perfect amount and I don't have to pour what I make into another cup unless I want to.

I forgot to add pure maple syrup to this picture, but I do use it in my recipe.

1/2 to 3/4 cup vanilla yogurt

1/2 to 3/4 cup vanilla almond milk

1/2 -1 whole frozen banana  (this depends on the size of your banana, if the bananas are small you may use two bananas, I know I have)

1/2 tsp. - 1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. - 1 tsp. almond extract (sometimes I put more, it depends on the mood I am in)

1/2 tsp. - 1tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. - 1 tsp. pure maple syrup (or more to taste)

Instructions

1.  Freeze your bananas.  I cut up my banana into to coins and put them between two layers of wax paper and put them in the freezer.  Let them freeze over night.  If you are not planning to use your bananas immediately, put them in an airtight container after they are frozen and keep them in the freezer.

2.  Put all ingredients in your blender and blend until ingredients are smooth and become the consistency of a firm milk shake.  Taste.  At this time you may want to add more milk, yogurt, almond extract, cinnamon or maple syrup to suit your taste.  DO IT!!!  The fluidity of the ingredients in smoothies is one of the things that makes them so awesome.  

This smoothie is so good, you will feel like you are being bad.  But you aren't!

That is all for this post.  Since I have the next few days off, I am going to try to get another couple of Mardi Gras posts up,  including instructions on how to make this Mardi Gras Bead wreath for under $15.00!

I may remove the Endymion beads from my wreath, I haven't decided yet.

I hope you enjoyed this post and Happy Mardi Gras everyone!

Pumpkin Pie Smoothie -- Its not as SCARY as it sounds. I PROMISE!

Hello Everyone!
It's probably pretty obvious right now, but I love fall.  I'm sort of a walking cliche.  I want to wear the big, bulky sweaters, scarves and boots.  I want to drink pumpkin spice lattes and hot apple ciders.  But, until just about a week ago, the temperature where I lived was in the nineties.  So no sweaters, no boots, and no hot beverages.  In an attempt to appease my pumpkin spice latte addiction, I thought that I would try to come up with a pumpkin pie smoothie recipe.

Why don't they decorate spices like this anymore?  It would make your spice cabinet look so much more interesting!

I would like to say that this was my genius brainstorm, but the truth is I saw an e-mail from Bon Appetit that contained a recipe for a pumpkin smoothie.
Unfortunately, I did not like their recipe.  And when I went to look for other recipes online I wasn't crazy about their recipes either.  Some recipes asked for banana, or put in ice.  Yuck.  The only one that I found that sounded delicious was the recipe from the Pioneer Woman, but her recipe was for eight servings and I am just one person.   (I thought that you might like to try it, so I have put the link in this blog.)

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/pumpkin-smoothie/

So, to the drawing board I went.  I even asked one of my friends, who works in a smoothie shop, what he thought of my ingredients and whether it would make a good smoothie.  He gave me some pointers and then it was off to experiment!  After a few tries, this was the recipe that I liked the most.

For those of you who are leery of a pumpkin pie smoothie, I have this tale to tell.  My husband was disgusted by the idea when I told him what I wanted to try this week-end.  For this reason, I only let him sample my final project.  Which he STILL looked on with distaste.  But, he loves me, so he tried it.  HE LOVED IT!  He says that he could easily drink this in the morning and he also believes that it could be served as a desert and no one would be upset.  (So long as they liked pumpkin.)  The moral of the story is, don't be afraid to try this, it is really yummy.

Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

Ingredients

1/4 serving pumpkin, from 15 ounce can (Please note that this is a serving, not 1/4 cup)

1/4 - 1/2 cup Vanilla Almond Milk (I like to do 1/4 cup because I like a thicker smoothie)

1/4 - 1/2 cup Vanilla Honey Greek Yogurt  (I do slightly less than half a cup), you can also use regular vanilla yogurt

1/4 tsp. - 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon (This all depends on how much you love cinnamon.  1/2 tsp. can be ALOT, so try small and work your way up 

Nutmeg, a pinch.  Seriously, you do not need a lot here, I just sprinkle mine on.
Ginger, dusting  (Just sprinkle this on.  A little goes a LONG way.)

1 tsp. Maple Syrup (Optional)  can do more if you would like it sweeter (Also, I use real maple syrup, not maple flavored syrup.

Graham Crackers (Cinnamon or Regular), crushed 

*NOTE*  You can substitute pumpkin pie spice for the cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger.

Please keep in mind that all of these ingredient amounts are relative to personal taste.  You may want to add more cinnamon, or more almond milk -  if you want your smoothie to be thinner.  One of the things that I love about smoothies is that they are so organic when you make them.  I, literally, never measure anything when I make a smoothie.  (I did when I made this, so I could let y'all know the measurements and it was weird!) So do what you think will taste good - I have just put these measurements as guidelines.

Instructions

1.  Separate a 15 ounce can of pure pumpkin puree into four equal parts.  (You can measure it, but I just eyeball it.)  Put each part into a freezer bag.  

This is the pumpkin.  I know that it looks like some sort of Oompa Loompa shaded chicken breast, and is not very yummy looking but, trust me, it gets better.

As you can see by the picture, I took each quarter and put it into sandwich bags and put all of those into a gallon freezer bag.)

Put into the freezer and freeze overnight.

2.  Once your pumpkin is frozen, you can now make smoothies.  Take one packet of the pumpkin and put it in a single serve blender.  (I like to use the bullet and use the cup container with a handle.) 

3.  Add the yogurt and the almond milk.

4.  Add your spices and maple syrup.

Still sort of horrifying, I know.  But it will get better!

5.  Blend all of the ingredients together until the frozen pumpkin has been completely incorporated into the beverage.  

Once it is done it should be creamy and wonderful.

6.  You can add the crushed graham crackers if you want.  Or you can just drink it plain.  Whatever suits your fancy!

How easy is that?!?!?!  It tastes like pumpkin pie and you didn't have to wait for it to bake!

I'm not done with Halloween yet.  Soon I will be posting some inexpensive, but scary, ways to decorate the outside of the house for the Halloween holiday and I will be adding some more recipes. Plus, I will have pictures of my adorable pooches in their Halloween costumes.   Its a Halloween boo-fet (pronounced boofay) of goodies on the Frugal Femme which I hope you enjoy!

"Mommy, why don't I get to wear a costume?"