Tropical Strawberry Craze

John and I ordered our Shakeology.  He ordered the chocolate and I ordered the Strawberry.  I have a total weakness for smoothies and blended drinks.  Thank goodness I can have the best of both worlds with it!  I get my blended drink and it's great for me.  I drink my shake right before lunch.  So I took my blender with me to work and whipped up my shake.  I had measured everything out the night before then when I got to work I placed my frozen items in the freezer so they didn't thaw out.  



I took the recipe from the form that Beachbody sends you when you order Shakeology.

Tropical Craze

1 Cup of Water

1/4 Cup Frozen Pineapple Chunks

1/4 frozen Banana

1 Scoop of Strawberry Shakeology

Do you ever make your Shakeology drinks blended?  or what's your favorite ingredients to make a shake/smoothie?

Co-Co Greenberry Shake

In effort's to be healthier this year.  John and I decided to try Shakeology.  One of my great friends is a coach.  So if you have any questions as about Shakeology or any of thier amazing products, please reach out to her!  Here is her website. >>Candie's Website!!<<

I had seen a few people on Facebook with sporting the "new and improved" results.  It peaked my interest, but I was always afraid to reach out and ask about it.  I was not going to look forward to the "harassment" that follows with the sales people.  It's not my cup of tea.  I took an interest in Piyo.  I noticed that it was low impact, but still challenging.  That's exactly what I wanted.  I felt like high-intensity made me sloppy on form, therefore not getting the wanted results.  So when Candie told me she was going to be a coach, I was so excited.  Not only for supporting her in a new journey in life, but also someone I can relate to and talk to one-on-one.

My sister-in-law already had Piyo, so I just borrowed hers.  (She and her hubs Justin are doing the 21 day fix right now!)  I ordered the sample pack to start off with.  Within the sample pack you get each of the following flavors:  1 Chocolate, 1 Vanilla, 1 Strawberry, 1 Greenberry, 1 Chocolate Vegan, and 1 Tropical Strawberry Vegan.

Beachbody's website has a lot of different shake recipies.  I found the Co-Co Greenberry Shake on their website and decided to give it a try.

Co-Co Greenberry Shake
1 packet of Greenberry Shakeology
1 cup coconut water
1/2 cup of frozen pineapple chunks

Thow everything in the blender and mix it up.  If you want it a little thicker, just add ice. 

Indiana Trip Day 3

When we woke up from a long light, Candie was up cooking breakfast already. She is an amazing cook. She made us cheesy eggs and turkey bacon. From there we ventured out and she showed us some of the backr oads. We drove up to see Jug Rock. 

You can kind of see it. We were just parked off the highway. We didn't feel like walking down the path at the time. There was a lot of flooding, so it was still a little muddy. Then from there we went to go test the speed of some gokarts. We went to  French Lick West Baden Indoor Karting.  Oh man was it fun.  I'm not much of a speed demon, but Candie kicked my butt (lapped me twice!) and John did a little bit (lapped me once).  But it was a good time.  I recommend going there.  It has something for all ages.  They have the main course (which we were on), a small kiddy one, and a drifting one. I didn't see the drifting one, but Candie and JJ said it was really cool.  There is also a huge arcade for people to play at.  After that we went to 33rd Brick Street .  I ended up getting the Chicken Ranch Wrap with fries.  It was really good.  I enjoyed it.  I even made sure I had leftovers so I could have it again!  Then we decided to go to a cute wood works shop we seen across the street.  The lady working was super nice.  She overheard us talking about heading to the French Lick winery next.  They have a deal where if you get a card and get 4 shops (listed on the card) to sign it, you get a free gift.  The shops were really close to one another, so we decided to go for it.  The shops were higher end priced shops.  Two of the shops were handmade rock jewelry (not my cup of tea but really cool to look at.)  So after our adventure, we finally headed to French Lick Winery. I truly love the wine here.  It's so sweet.  We tasted just about everything and the walked out with 3 more bottles. 

 They had a band playing and large seating area where you could sip wine and order food from the kitchen.  It was really nice.  They also had a little outside seating area.  It was WAY too hot to enjoy though.  After that we packed up, said our see you soons, and headed home.  It was so hard to leave.  John and I really enjoyed spending the weekend with them.  I always feel like we never have enough time.  But we are already planning our next adventure together, so hopefully we will see them this fall again.

Indiana Trip Day 2!

After waking up from a long night of laughter, Candie made us breakfast.  She is a wonderful cook.  She made us gluten-free pancakes.  You couldn't tell a difference between the gluten-free and the regular ones.  They were delicious.  After breakfast, the boys headed out for fishing while the ladies were getting ready for antique shopping and local grocery store shopping.

We first went to The Bargain Barn.  This is Amish ran and filled with Amish foods.  They were so cheap and they had so many different things.   I ended up getting a bag of marshmallows, like the ones in Lucky Charms; I just couldn't resist!

Then we went to a couple antique shops.  I could seriously spend all day in there!  I ended up purchasing an old John Deere metal sign for the garage, an H paperweight, a pitcher, and some homemade melted waxes.

After antiques, we went to Windy Knoll Winery.  Oh my it was a wonderful time.  I also found out that I like Indiana wine better than Missouri.  I enjoy sweet whites better. And John does like wine too.  He's a man's man and loves his beer.  I was surprised when he actually hit the "cellar" to pick up wine before me. The women working there were a blast too.  We learned a lot about their wines and kept us giggling the entire time.  After having maybe a little too much wine (Don't worry we had a responsible diver.  Thank JJ!)

I ended up purchasing this awesome wine bottle coozie.  No need for a glass anymore! ;)
We got ready and headed to the concert on the camp ground for Sammy Kershaw.

It was a great time and sang along with the songs that we did know.

JJ was singing "Queen of my Double-wide Trailer" to Candie.  After the concert, we went back to the camper for a few minutes, then headed out to the local beer garden / after-party.  We were not there for long, (like an hour) then left and went back home for some sleep.



 

Indiana Weekend! Day 1

We just got home from a wonderful, fun and exciting weekend.  We stayed with Candie (a great friend from college) and her husband, JJ.  From St. Louis to Montgomery, Indiana it was about a 4+ hour drive.  You do lose an hour once you his Haysville, Indiana.  Once we got there, they had dinner waiting for us.  Candie made a vegetable dish while JJ grilled marinated turkey breasts.  Oh my and they were delicious.  After dinner was finished, we went over to Dinky's Auction Center.  They auctioned anything and everything you could think of.  They had a flower, odds and ends, lumber, outdoor, and livestock auction.  There was also places where you could just purchase things like food, junk, fishing poles, and baked goods. 

They were auctioning off little piglets.  They went for $6 a pig!

This is where Candie and I spent most of our time.  We liked to play a game if we were not bidding things.  We liked to guess how much things would go for and "trick" the guys and tell them we bought junk for a ridiculous price.  I ended up buying a quilt rack for $35.  I was so excited and it kinda give you a rush of excitement. 

After paying for all of our winnings we headed back to the camper.  There was a local party spot that was playing kareoke, so we decided to go listen for a little white.

Candie and I sipped wine while the boys enjoyed their cold beer.  When they singers were done, we headed back to the camper once again and finished the bottle of wine and talked outside as we enjoyed the weather outside.  

 

I'm Added to Bloglovin and Pinterest!

I'm Added to Bloglovin!  I just found this "new" (to me at least) app that allow me to read all of the blog I follow at once!

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4th of July Festivities

I hope everyone had a wonder Fourth of July! I know the Herr family did. We went over to a friends house where we sat around a laughed all night long while watching people (John including) act like idiots. 

John was helping the kiddos slide on the slip n slide. 😉

Then the guys played a little bit of Roman Candle Baseball. 

I sat there just laughing and ate a piece of my awesome flag cake. 

Flag Cake

So I hope everyone's Fourth of July was as fun as ours was here in this house.  I wanted to make something a little more challenging for me and my baking and something that would wow guest.  So I decided to try Betty Crocker's Flag Cake.  

You will be making 3 different cakes for this one: 1 red, 1 blue, and 1 white.

These are the ingredients that you will start with.  Strawberries, Blueberries 2 boxes of white cake mix (yeah sorry I cheated this time.)  vegetable oil, eggs, icing, ruler, toothpicks, and red and blue food coloring.  Turn the oven on to 350 degrees.  

You will need about 2 cups of strawberries.  I removed all the pits from the strawberries.  I found by sticking a straw though the bottom of the strawberries leaves you with the most fruit. Then take the pitted strawberries and puree them.  I put mine in my food processor.

Puree the strawberries until it looks like a jam.  

Remove the yolk from 3 eggs.  I go the old trick of cracking the egg and moving it between the two shells to remove the whites and not break the yolk.

Pour 1/3 cup of veg oil.

Then take 1 box of white cake and put it in your mixer (or bowl if you do not have a Kitchenaid mixer.)  Add your strawberries, 1/3 cup of veg oil, 3 egg whites, and 1 teaspoon of red food coloring. 

After everything is mixed, take half of the cake batter and place it in a 8 inch  round pan. (Make sure to spray them first so they don't get stuck in there!) Then with the remainder of red cake mix, place it in your second 8 inc round pan.  Bake for 29-34 minutes or until completely done.  Set on cooling rack for 10 minutes before removing cake from pan.

Next work on the blue section.

Take 1/2 cup of blueberries and put in in the food processor.

  Once pureed, add 1/2 box of cake mix from second box, 3 tablespoons of veg oil, 2 whole eggs, and 1/2 teaspoon of blue food coloring.

Mix everything together.  Place in greased/sprayed pan.  Bake for 29-34 minutes.

Now moving on to the white cake.

Take the remainder of the cake mix, 1/2 cup of water, 2 Tablespoons of veg oil, and 2 egg whites and mix all together.  Once completely mixed, place mixture in pan and bake for 29-34 minutes.

Finally, the fun part...assembly. Let all your cake COMPLETELY cool before assembling the flag.  If it doesn't cool completely, it will crumble quickly and it won't be easy to cut though.

Take your red cakes and slice them in half vertically.  Do not cut horizontally. You wil only need 3 of the 4 slices of cake now.  They say to freeze the 4th slice, but me and the hubbs just ate it.   Measure in 2 inches with the ruler from the side and make a little hole all the way around the cake.  Then follow the holes and make a circle. Do the same thing with the blue and once with the white.  The red and white circles that you will cut out will be with the top flag portion.  You will not need the large rings after they are cut, just the inside circle.

When you take them apart, it should look like this.

You wont be needing the little blue circle that you just cut out.  So you may enjoy that now as well. :)

Place a red layer down on your pate, ice the top of it. Then white, ice the top of that.  Add anpther red layer and ice the top of that.  Take your large blue ring and place it on top of the red.  Place icing around the inside of the blue cake.  Then take your white inside circle and place it inside the blue circle.  You have to wiggle it in there a bit.  Then place icing on top of that white circle.  Then take the final red circle and add it on top of the white one inside the blue ring.  Then cut the sides off of the cake to help shape it a little better and make the sides even.

Once the sides are cut off, ice the entire cake to your liking.  I make marshmallow fondant that was "tye-dyed."

I will say eveyone loved the cake and thought it was amazing.  We only came home with 1 piece! Usually it's a half of a cake. Let me know how Yours comes out!  

 

Our Pups

With John and I not having kids yet, our kids right now are our dogs. We have 2 puppies. I don't care how old they are, every dog is a puppy. We have Faith, a chihuahua rat terrier mix, who is four and Gunner, black lab, who is going to be 2. 

These two are complete opposites and have a love/hate relationship.  They are so awesome to have around and definitely keep me company and busy on the days that John's on duty.  

Gunner chasing bubbles. 

Princess Faith!

Reasons to Blog

I wanted to make a blog to just start documenting what is trending, happening, and what we do in our lives.  This will be great to look back and see what we have done in the past to bring up great memories, share recipes, see what we have done, and what we plan on doing!