Oh, so delicious

Recently I've looked for new and tasty ways to eat more vegetables.
And to my surprise one evening on Pinterest (which I am slowly becoming addicted to :D)
I came across my friend Ashley's post of a Green Monster, Spinach Smoothie.

Knowing Ashley I thought it would be a healthy drink, she's an avid runner, and currently getting her Masters to be a Nurse Practitioner, smart chica! I was very opptimistic that it would taste pretty good when I saw it had peanut butter in it, and if you know me you know I LOVE peanut butter!

Ash and I, it's been too long since I've seen this great friend!

Well it turns out that the smoothie is De-licious, and doesn't have any spinach flavor, the spinach takes on the flavor of the banana and peanut butter you combine with it!

Next week I am going to try some different frozen fruit and see how it tastes...


So here it goes, you should give it a try, I have had one for breakfast, 3 different days this week!

Ingredients: Frozen sliced Banana, Peanut butter, Milk (low calorie almond milk),
Vanilla Greek Yogurt, & Spinach.

1 Frozen Banana (slice before freezing), 1 Tablespoon of peanut butter

NEXT: Add 1/2 Cup of Vanilla Greek Yogurt, and 1 Cup of Milk (Vanilla Almond Milk)

Add 4 cups of spinach on top

And blend: I set mine to the Puree setting
Sometimes pulsing it to get all the spinach to combined,
or mixing it to really stir the liquid.

Blend until it is a darker green color and most of the spinach bits are gone.

Pour into a 16-20 oz. glass

I use a straw to drink it, that way I can stir it occasionally. The smoothie tastes like a peanut butter and banana shake, only it is an awesome green color. :)

Ahhhhh, healthy yet tastes good! If you want to check out any of Iowagirleats other reciepes, HERE is a link.

Green Monster, Spinach Smoothie
Serves 1
Ingredients:
1 frozen sliced banana
1 Tablespoon peanut butter
1/2 cup 0% Vanilla Greek yogurt (Chobani)
1 cup Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze (or other kind of milk)
4 cups baby spinach (or more, or less)

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.

Nutritional stats:
350 calories, 10g fiber, 21g protein

** My husband and I attended Central College in Pella, Iowa. There was my shout out GO DUTCH!

enjoy.

Liz

Bundled up inside

The cold has set in and this Iowa girl is fairing well, although, I do try to stay inside as MUCH as possible. :)

Piper, Wilson, and Chloe in the yard...so obedient! :)

On our last few days of warmer weather Jon was shoveling while I snapped some pics of our dogs in the yard. If you don't have dogs, or aren't partial to them that is ok. However we LOVE our dogs and think they're pretty fun, and sometimes make us laugh at unexpected times…

Wilson, the young guy of the gang

As the wind chill picked up during the middle of this week the dogs couldn't stay outside for every long, so they get pretty antsy when we come home.

 Well one evening I came home, let them in the yard, fed them, and went inside. Jon then came home about 20 minutes later and let them into the yard again, well they loved this and he began to shovel some snow in the harsh Fargo wind chill (-35)...crazy, meticulous guy!

A few minutes passed and as I looked on from inside the house, and Jon from the drive way we could see the dogs had slowed down and weren't enjoying the weather AT ALL!

Wilson's paws seemed to bother him as he walked out of sync, at times holding a single paw up in disgust at the frozen feeling I am sure he was experiencing. I looked to see if the girls, Piper & Chloe, were experiencing the same thing and I was over come with tears of laughter!

They too were slowing down their play and reacting to the freezing temperatures. Piper with great discomfort shown on her face and a paw raised; and Chloe slowly holding up one front paw, half way sitting down, began raising her other front paw, now trying to balance and keep off of the ground, oh what a sight!

Jon, quickly let them inside to their heated garage, where they went straight to their dog houses, I am sure to lick their frozen paws. No worries, they are fine, but have provided Jon and I with several random bouts of laughter these past couple of days!

Our setters are the best of friends!

Here's the old beauty of the bunch, Chloe, our French Brittany.

Things inside are progressing, but not quite ready for a reveal, as I have felt under the weather recently. I’m feeling more like myself today though, hoping this cold goes away!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! And will someone in Iowa please go sledding for me!

enjoy.
Liz

And so it goes

Life has really picked up around here; things have been fun and the good kind of busy, so I am not complaining!

Jon surprised me on Friday and purchased Miranda Lambert tickets for Saturday evening...I might have pushed him a little bit by saying it could be for our anniversary. Which by the way was in November, celebrating our 5TH YEAR of blissful marriage. I love my husband!! God has truly blessed me with a wonderful, strong man after His heart! Don't get me wrong we do have our down falls, I mean we listen to Country music, right! :)

We were blessed to have some friends from Iowa come and visit during our Anniversary, so the delay in celebration has paid off! We went for dinner at Granite City and then off to the concert, I know many of you are probably gagging at the fact that we went to a country music concert, but don't judge! I was a blast; she sure is a sassy lady with a strong voice. Jerrod Neimann and Chris Young were both performing as well; Jon really enjoyed Chris and his talented band.

Jerrod Neimann

Miranda Lambert & her pink guitar!

Chris Young

We did hang up some frames over the weekend in the basement...now to print some pictures, I am kind of a processor when it comes to decorating, so hang in there the end result will be worth your wait. :)

For now, I am off again; I start a new part-time job tomorrow at Scheel's Home and Hardware, in the home accent area here in Fargo (it was the original sports store!). I am excited for the opportunity and the discount that will follow (so is Jon). They have some fabulous furniture and decor...hunting items at the sports stores for Jonny!

enjoy.
Liz

Decisions will be made

Here are the two areas of the house that I will be decorating in the next week. They seem so completely empty since all my vintage Christmas decorations are gone. I miss it already!

Here is a picture from last year of some of my vintabulous {vintage+fabulous} Christmas decor.

This is our basement wall that I am going to put a collage of pictures and graphics of family and friends.

This is our upstairs living room one corner with floating shelves and our entry wall with my lovely Christmas gift from the hubby! I love the shelf, Pier 1.

On the shelf are some pewter looking models of two Kodak Brownie cameras, 

a Model D, and a Hawkeye. 

My happy & handy father-in-law

I am in love with these guys, thanks to my father-in-law I have them in my home, he spotted them at a shop in Carroll, IA while we were visiting! :)

I am excited to get the ball rolling, hopefully I won't overwhelm myself with too many ideas.

Happy Friday

enjoy.
Liz

Here it comes

Snow has finally come to stay in Fargo, and well I am not so excited. It isn't exactly pretty yet, too little on the ground to cover the brown stuff, and the wind is something fierce here on the plains! 

This Iowa girl is used to the cold, with a good showing of snow, but the sunshine a glow on the landscape...so hopefully these gloomy skies will fade into sun and my eyes won't have to water so much when I step outside!

Gloria is always a highlight in this cold gloom

looking out our front window

Ok, so enough complaining...off to drink some hot chai while I embrace the winter reality that has come so fast. Thank you Lord for holding off this long on the brutal winter here in ND! 

I will be doing some decorating this weekend! A few "before" shots soon to follow.

enjoy.

Liz

A sight to see

Here it goes a new creative adventure

...a place to write it down

...a place to document life's joys

...a place for vision

...a place for learning

...wow this sounds like a serious blog with some hefty goals...not going there yet, just hoping to have fun!

enjoy.

Liz