Pumpkin Smoothie

Thanksgiving was everything I thought it would be and boy were we blessed with great weather!  I feel like I didn't see my boys between arriving and departing - they were busy riding the 4-wheeler, hiking the trails, fishing, shooting guns, riding horses, going on hay rides, building forts.... it truly is like heaven on earth for them.  And the clean and pure FREEDOM that they experience there is unlike anything we can do here in the city.  They can run forever, it seems, and they never want to come home. 

Brooke and her beloved Papa - they have a love/love relationship :)

Big bro/little sis

Kids love this tree swing...





Check out Brooke's death grip on Matt's shirt.  She would not look up when she was inside the barn.

 

But minutes later, she mustered up enough courage to sit up on a horse with Papa and Matthew!

The fishing.... Matthew is pictured here but it's Champ and Matt who truly enjoy hours on end of fishing...

Cousins!!!

Hay ride - oh what fun!

Boys riding around like they own the place!

Matt, Brooke and I left Saturday (boys stayed with Mimi and Papa) and got some things done around the house - a little yard work, a little decorating, a little Christmas gift shopping...

Not to give anything away for the 2 sets of eyes that sometimes read this blog... we spotted some really cool stuff while out shopping.  We like to do a combination of needs (clothes, gloves, hats, shoes....) and wants.  There is so much fun stuff out there right now for boys - fun athletic things like punching bags (wouldn't it be nice for the boys to put forth some of their energy on that thing instead of each other?), blow up field goal posts (Learning Express), over the door basketball hoop for indoors (SKLZ at Dick's and Target), a Go-Pro (video camera you can clip onto a bike or surf board and film forward or focus on the rider/surfer  - REI).  If you have any great ideas, send them my way in the 'comments' section of my blog.  Maybe between us moms, we can come up with some creative ideas!

I haven't been cooking a whole lot lately for between Thanksgiving and Brooke having a cold, I either haven't had to cook or cannot due to Brooke's "HOLD ME HOLD ME HOLD ME".  On Monday morning, I quickly browned a chuck roast and threw it in the crock pot with beef broth, rosemary and pepperonchinis (and juice) to make the Drip Beef recipe that I posted a while back.  I let it cook all day and was able to serve my family dinner in spite of the fact that I was holding a sick toddler all day.  I love the crock pot!

I have been enjoying not only my pumpkin spice creamer, but Kellogs Pumpkin Spice Waffles.  They are quite tasty! I put a little natural peanut butter on them and eat one just about every morning.  I would like to make some homemade pumpkin spice waffles this weekend...



And I just made this Pumpkin Spice Smoothie (ala Ree Drummond, Pioneer Woman) which was ohhhhhhhh so creamy and deliciously holiday tasting!  Of course, I wanted to make it this morning but realized that I needed FROZEN pumpkin pie filling. So, I ate a waffle for breakfast, like usual, and divided the big can into two containers which went into the freezer for a couple of hours. 

It consists of a simple list of ingredients:  low fat vanilla yogurt, whole milk, pumpkin pie filling and graham crackers & cinnamon.

I halved the recipe, so I used 1 1/2 cups whole milk, 1/2-3/4 cup yogurt and about 8 ounces of frozen pumpkin pie filling.  I blended it up:

Doesn't that look so creamy and delicious already?  Then, I crushed some cinnamon graham crackers (we used to have these in our pantry growing up - so yummy!).

I sprinkled these on top along with some cinnamon - and whala!  It was amazing!  It was VERY filling.  In fact, I'm writing right now having just enjoyed it and I'm really full.  Click here for the recipe. She notes at the bottom of the recipe that you can make a low fat version by using low fat yogurt (which I did already) and plain pumpkin puree... I enjoyed the full fat version and it really satisfies.  If you are a smothie person and plan on making them again and again, I would suggest going low fat.  Enjoy!