Homemade Almond Milk Mango Chiller

Hello, everybody! Mary Jane here and I'm hiding in the Umatilla National Forest at the moment. Why? Well, look at this heat! My poor little dude in the reflection was trying to be happy about heading to the library for "slime night" but his red and sweaty face convinced me it was time to get out of Dodge! 

But before we did, we made some delicious chillers to cool down... And they were needed because my son was raising money for Scout Camp. 

 That included splitting wood and offering them with fire starters for $3. Great price because the wood was donated to him!

 The same person donated a lot of hen and chicks in flats, saying "if you can sell them, they're all yours". Of course we can! We hit the thrift stores and the cabinets for cute containers...

 I loved this little pail! We have so many craft supplies, we just added cute beads and rocks and such.

 And for the 4th of July, we made red, white, and blue!

 Aren't these cute? Perfect for those BBQ cook outs!
                                  
A friend donated a bunch of leftover wedding supplies. Aren't these cute!

 We sold almost everything we made, and all the firewood. Success! He made his goal for camp, AND enough for hiking boots and some other camping essentials. He mowed lawns for $10 ($5 for elderly, veterans and handicapped) and we met some very lovely people in our small town.
                                      
We did learn not to offer delivery. :) My suburban has a turning radius of 80 feet, it seems, and I tend to hit curbs. Lesson learned!

 OK, on to the recipe! Add two cups of slivered almonds and 4 cups of water in the blender.

 Pour over a tea towel. Let it drain, squeeze if necessary.

 It doesn't look like much, but with a 1.2 tsp of vanilla and some honey...

 Ta-dah! Almond milk with frozen mango slices, a little vanilla and honey to taste. I liked mine with mint. SO refreshing!

Ok, I hope everyone is staying cool! Until next time!

Cold Brewed Coffee and Watermellon Chillers

Hello, everyone! The Fresh Pioneer is back and we're having friends over! It's almost the end of the hot season here and I want to be the hostess with the mostest, so I'm going to whip up some super  EASY and delicious COLD drinks. Let's go ahead and start.

 

A little picture to get you in the mood.

Now, I love coffee. Love, love, LOVE it. But when it hits 100F, I tend to look at that steaming cup with a different sort of feeling. I want to go to Starbucks and get me a cold granita. But it's 12 miles away, and it costs a lot of money. What's a girl to do??

She brews up some coffee and puts in the sweetener. (For me, this is sugar. Some of you can use the fake stuff or honey. Or nothing, if you're tough like that.)

Then we put it in the freezer, in a large bowl, for about 5 hours. (A good hostess plans ahead. If she remembers. And has fair warning. But we'll just assume all that, no?) Take a fork and drag over the coffee until it comes off in tiny, frozen chunks.
                                

 MMMM, now if you're a wuss like I am, you don't like it black. You need milk! Fat free condensed milk...  And you're ready!!

 Oh, wait. Your friend doesn't drink coffee?? It makes her stay awake all night? It gives her an ulcer? Reverse. Back to the freezer, where you have RASPBERRY HERBAL TEA frozen in its own little bowl. (Say after me, "I am the hostess with the mostest." Say it again... )

Repeat the process with the fork, except for the milk. Add slice of lime. (This was melting. And I got to drink that one, too! I love this food blog thing.)

NOW you're ready.

Oh, wait! You think the kids might like something, too? We can't just throw popsicles at them? Well, we ARE the hostesses with the... you know the rest. Good thing that last night we cut a watermelon. (It was a Hermiston, Oregon, melon, too. Award-winning YUM.)

We squished it up and did NOT ADD SUGAR.

Because the kids don't need it. They're crazy enough as it is.

For the parents, we added vodka. KIDDING. Let's keep this playdate running smoothly, eh?

It sat in the freezer all night, just waiting for the moment it could become... THIS.

Oh, man.

NOW

YOU'RE

READY!

Let's head outside!

 

Copycat Starbucks Fudge Mudslide Milkshake

I don't remember which cookbook this is from (I read it sometime in 2012 and I think it was a new book) so let me know if you recognize it! It did change it up, but I'd love to give the author the credit. Drop me a line with her name!

 

 

 The next recipe was Mocha Fudge Mudslide Milkshake. This took a few ingredients I didn't have but I think I can use the sliced almonds in another batch of granola, so I figured it wouldn't be too expensive to try. If it didn't work out, I'd just stick to regular milkshakes!

2 tsp sugar free hot fudge topping
2/3 cup low fat milk
1 tbs vanilla sugar free instant pudding mix
2 tsp instant coffee
2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup no sugar addeded or light ice cream
2/3 cup ice

 First, wipe the hot fudge up the inside of the glasses. Put them in the fridge to chill.
Combine the milk and the pudding mix, blend, and then let it sit for 1 minute.
Add all other ingredients and then blend until thick and creamy. Carefully pour into the glasses and top with whipped topping and almonds if desired.

 These definitely were tasty-looking. But would they pass the Munoz taste-test??

Apparently, the answer is YES. They were devoured, and I had to make more. My kids decided that this was the best dinner they'd ever had and they wanted it to be 109F every single DAY. (Forgive them, they know not what they wish for.)

Nutritonal info: calories 205, carbs 35, fat 4.5, protein 8, fiber 4, sodium 480mg

Now, before I go, I thought I'd share a few pics of my kids. Every year on their birthday (which most were born in the summer- no cracks about keeping warm, I've heard them all, haha) we open their baby boxes.

 My soon-to-be 13 year old's Sunday dress might not fit her anymore.
                                                         
Just for giggles, here's her birth announcement in the paper. Yikes.

 The four year old's foot is still chubby, but these shoes aren't going to fit at all.

 My 11 year old's first tshirt is wayyyy too tiny.

My nine year old says, "Ugh, do I have to?"

But I think my fourteen year old wins. She was a preemie who had colic and screamed for the first three months of her life. She weighed 5 lbs 11 oz and was 18 inches long, now she's taller than I am.

And here are her size 11 feet and her baby booties. That's my baby! Time does fly... and I'm so very grateful for the health and well-being of all my children. 

Now, if they'd just clean their rooms...

Copycat Starbucks Low Cal Strawberry Chiller

Nutritional information: 100 calories, carbs 14, fat 1.5, protein 10g, sodium 350mg

 The next recipe is apparently copied from a famous Starbucks recipe. We have one but I don't often go there, so I haven't tried the original. What I know is that this one IS DELICIOUS.

1/2 cup nonfat milk
1/4 cup nonfat half-and-half
2/3 cup frozen strawberries (about 6)
3 TBS sugar (or substitute)
1/2 cup crushed ice

 Place all ingredients together and blend.

 I was really surprised at how "strawberry" this was. I thought since they were frozen, it would turn out like a lot of strawberry ice chunks, but I think the half-and-half brings out the creamy flavor.

 For me, this was closest to a real treat. Rich and flavorful, like a milkshake but not as heavy. Again, kids shared some and I took the rest to hubby. He said, "delicioso". I told him to just wait... there was more.

Nutritional info: 150 calories, 25 carbs, fat 1.5 g, protein 7g, fiber 2g sodium 65mg
In comparison, the real Starbucks version has 380 calories, 15 g of fat, and 57 carbs!

Until Next Time!

Copycat Starbucks Lemon Chiller

Hi, everybody!

First I have to share this picture of our kitty cat. I honestly didn't know if he was enjoying the sun or was a victim of a terrible tricycle accident. :O

So, going back to 2014 now, at the time of the original post, we were in the middle of a heat wave. I can happily say we have gorgeous weather as I type this, and when this post airs, we should be at the beach, so I'm betting it will NOT be 104F the second time around... but I could be wrong!
Without further ado...

I got this great cookbook at the library. The author battled diabetes and other health issues so she tries to take the most popular recipes and remake them several different ways. Each recipe has about four or five alternatives, whether you're cutting fat, sodium, sugar or carbs. I loved this idea! I don't have a problem with sugar, but I would love to cut unnecessary fat from my diet, so I thought I'd try some of the recipes and see if they were as good as they looked.

BUT this happened: record-setting temps all week. 107 on Thursday but some said 109F unofficially. I figure anything past 100 is officially whatever you want to call it because we're all melting and nobody's going to be around to argue.

 So I decided to make some of the drinks in the book. The first one is called "Luscious Lemon Slim Smoothie".
1/3 cup low fat milk
1 TBS instant sugar free lemon pudding mix
1/3 cold water
1/3 Greek yogurt (non fat)
 2 tsp lemon juice
1 cup ice

 I got out the ninja, but you can use a blender. This entire process took about 3 minutes, start to finish. Definitely doing this for refreshments when we have guests!
Add the milk and pudding mix together, and let sit for one minute. Then add all the other ingredients.

 I wasn't really sure how this would taste, since I'm not big on sugar free products. They always have an odd flavor to me. But this was delicious! Light, cool, lemony, and very filling.

 Of course, always better with some whipped topping and a few blueberries. The kids split one and I gave the other to hubby. He said it was "savroso". I told him to hold on, I was still testing recipes. He was in the garden, so he just handed me back the jar and went back to work.

Until Next time!

 

 

Homemade Mint Lemon Refresh or HOW TO MAKE SODAS

Hello, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back and I first wanted to share some of our local library's art. This is all made with a paper punch and those free paint chip samples. Isn't it awesome! 

 This is my favorite. I really love trees and have quite a few tree art pieces in my own house. I think I'd try this if I thought I could make it look as nice!

 Soooo, I found this great book called "Homemade Rootbeer, Soda and Pop" (you can get it here on Amazon) in our local library and we were very excited to try it out. There are a lot of "make your own pop" books but I liked this one because it has historical recipes. If you've read my Austen Takes the South books, you'll know I loooooove old recipes and always include the history of the food when I write it into a scene. Food, history, and stories. The perfect trifecta!

 First, this funny recipe from Anonymous in 1771 for Pumpkin Ale. No, we didn't try it, but it made us think of Harry Potter's Pumpkin Fizzies! Anotherpart of the book reminds readers that there was no line between alcoholic and non-alcoholic back then. It was more of a matter of how much alcohol, since anything that was fizzy was slightly fermented, and therefore had traces of alcohol.
This is relevant. I promise.
                                                  
So, I thought this lemon mint refresher sounded wonderful. Remember, I really have no experience in fermenting anything but I figured sugar, flavoring and some fizz... what could go wrong?

 First, piles of mint... Check!

 Vintage jar filled fresh lemon juice... Check! (I was making a big batch, so if you try the recipe, follow the one above. I was tripling and adjusting as I went.)

 Pour boiling water over the mint leaves and let it set. (Oh, be sure to wash them first. Ours came straight from the garden and needed to be de-dusted.) Pour the mint water and the lemon, sugar, and yeast together. Put on the lid. Let it sit for a day. Now, this is where I went wrong. It was very warm in the laundry room where I had the jar (it was supposed to be in a cool, dark place) and plus, I left it for two days.

 So, when I went to open it up, the lid nearly popped off! My friend who works at a winery shook his head when I told this story because I'd basically created a lemon-mint BOMB in my laundry room. So glad I didn't let it sit for a week! The whole thing could have exploded.
But it didn't!
What it did do was fizz all over the place. My friend said we'd made "no-messin'-around" bubbly, like champagne. It was certainly... *gasp* No what I was heading for. We all had a sip and declared it quite interesting and chalked it up to a learning experience. I think we'll still with mixing flavors with soda water!

And one last photo. My husband took this picture of a snapdragon seed. SO funny. If you have snapdragons, go check them out. They're like tiny people.

Until next time!