Orange-Grape-Kale Smoothie

I've still been making green smoothies on a regular basis... despite my lack of posting about them. The reason being that I find one I like and then make it every day until I'm sick of it. Which right now, is lasting about a month. Hence my last smoothie post being several months back.

I took to Pinterest to find a smoothie with Kale. I recently learned in a class that Kale has way more health benefits than spinach, however, I've only really every used it in soup. Except of course in the Kale & Pear Smoothie I made at the beginning of the year {amazing}, but pears are not in season right now {sad face}.

Back to Pinterest... I stumbled upon a recipe with Kale that also included frozen grapes. Which I love in smoothies. Seriously gives it such a good texture.

Orange-Grape-Kale Smoothie

Recipe Adapted From: Barefeet in the Kitchen {Link HERE}

MAKES 4 CUPS - 2 SERVINGS

• 10 oz. Trop50 Orange Juice
• 1 cup frozen Green Grapes 
• 1 medium frozen Banana
• 2 stalks Kale, stems removed

Place all ingredients in your blender, secure lid and blend until smooth. I used the "Smoothie" button on my Blendtec which blends for roughly 36 seconds. 

***I also add a scoop of SlimFast Vanilla powder to this smoothie. For one, it provides protein and helps me make to lunchtime with feeling starved {and I hate protein powder}. Second, Kale has a strong flavor and no matter what you say, I always taste it. The Vanilla powder helps mask the flavor a bit.***

***Making it my way, including the SlimFast powder, the calorie count per serving is 214. Not too bad.***

July Recap

Chris left at the beginning of the summer to go build a house for his brother in the Uintah Basin {Vernal-Roosevelt area} and at first, it was so bad.

July can seriously suck it.

I can't tell you how happy I am to be starting a new month this week. July has been filled with many mishaps, emotional breakdowns, mice invasions, at least a dozen trips to SLC, and I may or may not have taken my frustrations out on the branch manager at Mountain America Credit Union. It really is time for July to be over.

Because of the chaos that is my life right now, I haven't had time for an update. So today, this post it meant to serve as a recap of July as well as a way for me to forget all the junk that July brought me and remember only all the good. Well... most of it.

Brielle and I made a quick trip out to see Chris. We drove there and back in 24 hours {not recommended} but it was good to see him, and I think he was glad to see us.

July for us means multiple RSL games with fireworks & music. They really do know how to put on a good show!

A little bit of the not-so-good... one week Brielle had a horrible cough. The next week, it turned into a horrible sinus infection. In our final week of July, she's ended up with ear infections. Not exactly how she wanted to spend her summer, I'm sure.

We got to meet Sabo -- RSL striker. He never does these types of appearances, so this was a highlight for sure.

My sister Rachel left me with all 5 of her kids for an evening {including an infant}. One good use for the frozen breast milk packets she left in the diaper bag??? To soothe a bee sting on an arm while playing at the park.

Cherries are one of Chris's favorite things. So when we found out he was going to come home for the first time in 7 weeks, we decided we needed to bake him a few things we knew he'd love.

Fresh Cherry Cupcakes.........

Fresh Cherry Almond Scones..........

Now that I see July laid out before me, it doesn't seem to be all that bad. But even still, I'd rather forget.