Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Green Smoothies

So lately I have been seeing green smoothies everywhere! So I wanted to give my opinion about them in case you haven't tried them yet. I LOVE them!! I have been drinking them for just over a year now. My mom got a Vitamix last Christmas, and I fell in love with it.




Then for my birthday, my parents got me a Blendtec.








I got the combo, so I have two pitchers with mine. Honestly, I like the machines equally. The only thing the blendtec doesn't have it the tamper (the stir stick), but I haven't found that to be an issue. Anyways, these things are amazing!! You just throw in a bunch of greens and fruit, and it mixes it right up. Here are a few secrets I have learned over the last year. Spinach is pretty tasteless, so it is the best green to use. I sometime add a little bit of kale or mustard greens, etc, but these are pretty bitter and can ruin the smoothie if you put in too much. Also, frozen fruit it not a sweet as fresh fruit, so if you use frozen, use just a little bit of orange juice to help sweeten it. You can also put in anything you want. I never use a recipe--I just use whatever I happen to have at the time. I also will put in flax seed, oatmeal, protein powder, etc. It's a great way to get your fruits and veggies. If you are unsure about it, try adding just a little spinach at a time until you get used to it. I make sure at least half of my smoothie is made up of spinach. One more trick--buy a big bag of spinach, blend it all up, pour it in a muffin tin and freeze it, then put them in a bag in the freezer. That way it is ready to go whenever you want, and your spinach won't go bad before you can use it all. I like to get the big bags of spinach at Costco. It is way cheaper than the grocery store. Let me know if you have tried green smoothies and what you think.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Hawaii Part 1

Our trip to Hawaii was amazing! We were on the island of Kauai. We stayed for a week, and could have stayed longer. There was so much to see and do and we didn't get it all done! The first beach we went to was one of my favorites. It was Polihale, and it was right at the beginning of the Na'Pali Coast. It is very secluded, so it was not busy at all. There were pretty big waves that we had a blast in with the boogie boards. After we wore ourselves out, we made a fire and cooked hot dogs and smores. Then after dark, we watched for shooting stars. We saw so many!


















Beginning of the Na'Pali Coast--so beautiful!














There were rainbows all the time. If you look closely in the top right hand corner, you can see the beginning of a double rainbow. There were a lot of those also.




From here, there is a 17 mile stretch of beaches.





The sunset was amazing. It just lit up the clouds like I've never seen before. You can also see out fire--the little dot at the bottom left corner!