My first vegan smoothie

This is my first attempt at making a vegan smoothie and it was a great success!! I put About 2-2 1/2 cups of the frozen triple berry fruit (which I get at SAMs club) one fresh banana, 12 oz of coconut water, and a heaping TBS of agave nectar! 

Our family went to Jamba Juice yesterday (we were given a free smoothie) and I was surprised at how much I liked homemade better! When I moved out here to Utah a little over six years ago that was my favorite place to go. Even my 2 year old son didn't like it, and he lives on smoothies! I have one more gift card to use there, and am hoping I will be able to find something we will eat! I may give it as a gift to someone who would appreciate it more than us.  

Smoothies

I love smoothies, I mean really really love them. In my mind they are better than ice cream, chocolate, and candy combine!! If I were wealthy with money to spend on whateverpSo I have decided to write a few posts with pictures and recipes of my families favorites!! 

Before we begin I would like to state that you can make different things with the same ingredients, depending on the state  the ingredients. To make a smoothie, the largest part of what you place in your blender needs to be frozen. I have made the mistake of using fresh fruit and found that it is warm and gummy. 

Creamy smoothies need a creamy base, such as yogurt, milk, almond milk, or ice cream. Each has its own flavor, and you can use a combination to make your smoothie different. 

If you are wanting something without dairy, you can use any kind of juice you would like. I have used OJ quite often, but I have also used grapefruit, pomegranate, grape, and cherry!!

If you want a think frozen yogurt kind of smoothie, use 1 1/2-2 cups yogurt. If you want something you could drink through a straw use one cup yogurt and one cup milk.  

For the non-dairy thickening add ice, or more frozen fruit! If you go the ice route remember to drink quickly as your smoothie will become watered down :) 

This one is a strawberry, kiwi, banana smoothies.  

To make this add 2-2 1/2 cups frozen strawberries, 2ripe kiwis, 1 banana, 1 cup milk, 1 cup yogurt, 1-2 TBS honey, splash of lemon, and 1 TBS chia seeds (optional)

Blend and enjoy!!!

Quilting, the next frontier

So one of the big things I wanted to learn this year was to quilt!! It has been a dream for years and I am so excited to show my first finished quilt top!! I was able to take a quilting 101 class from one of the local quilting shops. And am excited because I will be binding it on the 12th! Then on February 21st I will be taking a metro circle quilt class! I was surprised at how easy quilting actually is!

This blog is called better living for less, but I will state now that quilting can become ver pricy... It's true, but quilting can be such a relaxing pastime, and when your done you have a beautiful quilt!! Creating is one of the best parts of this world, and goes hand in hand with better living!! 

New Year, New Me!!

Hello World! I have decided that I am going to start working on the blog again! Since part of my New Years resolution was to cut chemicals out of my life, this would be a great subject to start blogging about!

Part of my plan is to make my own bread. So far (for the last month) I have made all the bread in my house. I have been given a sour dough start from my best friend, and I am so excited to start talking about all the different recipes that you can make with it!!!

My health goals are to be able to pronounce everything I eat, and to cut out as much processed foods and chemicals as I can. That means making my own dressings, ketchup, cookies, pastas, etc. At first when I started I had imagined that there were just some things that were not possible to make at home, but surprisingly so far I haven't come across anything that I can't make myself!

Welcome to my journey, enjoy the ride!!