Getting Dirty!

Last weekend, I hopped a plane a flew down to Texas to visit a good friend that I hadn't seen in what felt like forever.  The trip was planned specifically around a LoziLu Women's Mud Run.  It's a 5K trail run full of obstacles, including 2 mud pits. 

It was crazy fun!

The weekend went by so quickly and I left wishing a had a few more days with my dear friend.  We're hoping to meet up for another run soon.

We chose a pirate theme for our team and I just discovered we're in the running for best costume!  Vote HERE until 10/5.  You can vote every two hours. 

Pumpkin Spice Latte Protein Smoothie

Yep, you read the title correctly. It's a pumpkin frapp you can feel good about drinking. So get to your kitchen and started!

The more I've been running, the more protein I've been trying to sneak into my diet. I've found that adding some protein powder to my morning smoothie is an easy way to do this. Plus, it keeps me full longer in the morning so I'm not already feeling the need to snack by 9am.

I prefer to keep as much of the food in our house as safe for everyone as possible so that meant soy or whey protein was out of the question. In my search, I discovered vanilla pea protein powder from vitacost. It works perfect and tastes great!

Before you can enjoy this frosty goodness, you need to do a little prep work. You'll need a can of pumpkin and some vanilla yogurt.
 

Fill up your ice cube tray and freeze unil solid.

After they're frozen, grab the rest of your ingredients.

Throw a couple pumpkin cubes and about 4 yogurt cubes in your blender.  Add cold coffee, protein powder, pumpkin pie spice, sweetener and flax.  

 

Blend and Enjoy.

Mmm!  Amazing!

Pumpkin Spice Latte Protein Smoothie

2 cubes frozen pureed pumpkin
4 cubes frozen vanilla yogurt
approx 1 cup cold coffee
1/2 - 1 scoop protein powder (I prefer only 1/2)
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tbsp sweentener (I like sucanat or brown sugar)
1 tbsp ground flax



The super great thing about this drink is that if you make too much, just freeze it in ice cube trays.  Then when you're ready for a smoothie, just throw a couple cubes in with some coffee or milk and you'll be enjoying your drink in minutes!

Fried Food and Praise Music

Seems crazy that those two things would go together, right?

Unless you're at the Kansas State Fair!

When I found out that Casting Crowns would be performing at the fair this year I knew we had to go!  Not only is Casting Crowns one of my favorite christian groups but...hello!  I wanted to partake in a little fair food! 

While I didn't get too crazy with the fried goodness, I did feel it necessary to run 6 miles the next evening, which is the farthest I've ever gone.  Maybe I need fried inspiration more often!  Ha!

One of the things we tried had even been on the news....
fried girl scout thin mints.

Honestly, I wasn't that impressed.

But I did love the red velvet funnel cake!  MmmmHmmm.

Right as the concert was starting, a rainbow appeared. 
Talk about goosebumps!

The concert was AMAZING and I loved every second of it.  Which also means it flew by way too quickly. I would attend another Casting Crowns concert again in a heartbeat! They have so many
wonderful songs, but my favorite right now is Jesus, Friend of Sinners and I was thrilled when they played it....

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Video Style

GO CATS

Over Labor Day weekend, Eric took the two older kids and met his parents and his brother's family for a Kansas State game. We had decided that Konny was a bit too young this year to enjoy it, so he and I were going to meet them the next morning to see Papa Guy and Bernie and play for the rest of the long weekend. Only Konny ran a 103 temp the whole time, so we ended up just staying home and cuddling.

Progresso Light Soups Giveaway

Just before I received this spark, I was telling one of the ladies at work, "I can't wait until soup season!" We are finally getting a little bit of cooler weather (and some rain), so it was the perfect time to try out some tasty new soups and guilt free, no less! Woot!

Progresso Light soups are giving those who are managing their weight a new reason to celebrate! At 100 calories per serving, now you can indulge in warm, creamy soups like Light Creamy Potato with Bacon and Cheese and Light Chicken Pot Pie Style without feeling guilty. These Weight Watchers® endorsed soups have a 2 PointsPlus® value per serving.


These two new Progresso Light creamy soups are joining the lineup of more than 40 flavorful soups that are 100 calories or less per serving.

Feel free to stock up on all your favorite flavors (especially because they tend to start going on sale time this of year) using this $1.25 off 4 cans of Progresso Soup printable coupon.

The great people at Progresso sent me this fun gift pack and there's one to give away also!

Review and Giveaway: Bob's Red Mill

I use a lot of oats in my baking (ie: Beauty Muffins or Carrot Spice Muffins) and my go-to has always been Bob's Red Mill GF Rolled Oats. They are also a staple for refridgerator oats. If you have not tried this delicious overnight cold oatmeal, stop what you're doing and mix one up for tomorrow! You will not be sorry!

Bob's Red Mill was extra sweet to not only send me some GF Rolled Oats, but also their GF Cinnamon Raisin Bread Mix and Organic Quinoa Flour. (The kids only noticed the packing peanuts!)




Feeling the urge to bake something, I mixed up the cinnamon raisin bread late one afternoon.



I set it in the laundry room to rise since I knew it was warm and humid in there because I believe at that point I was on my 4th load of laundry.


After allowing it plenty of time to rise, I put in the oven. And then the power went out. No lie. Did I mention it was at least 105 outside? Thankfully the power came back on less than 30 min later and the bread turned out just fine.


The kids had it with peanut or sunbutter and I thought it was especially delicious with some homemade apple butter! Mmmm!




I absolutely could not wait to try the Quinoa Flour. I figured I'd wait until we ate all the cinammon raisin bread, but I got impatient so I went ahead and made some chocolate chip banana bread. Honestly, I thought the quinoa flour had an odd smell, but I suppose it was just the normal smell of quinoa but a bit intensified. It did keep me from licking the mixing spoon! LOL


It smelled amazing while it was baking and tasted delicious too! I think this might be our new go-to banana bread recipe! YUM!



If you want to make some quinoa flour banana bread too, you're in luck because Bob's Red Mill is going to send one of my readers the same 3 great products that I received.

Thousand Words Thursday Video Version (a day late)

If a picture is worth a thousand words,
is a video worth a thousand giggles?

UNREAL Candy Review

Who doesn't love candy, right? Right!! I've seen this shirt that says, "I love to run because I REALLY love dessert." EXACTLY!

Now we can feel slightly less guilty about having a little treat!

UNREAL Candy is essentially candy that has been "unjunked". The "bad for you" ingredients like corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oils, artificial ingredients, GMOs and preservatives are not something you're going to find in these yummy treats.

UNREAL Candy comes in 5 yummy varieties including chocolate caramel nougat, chocolate candy shell peanuts, chocolate candy shell, chocolate caramel peanuts nougat, and chocolate peanut butter.

Already available at a handful of stores, UNREAL Candy will be more widely available in the next few months. I was able to find the chocolate candy shell peanut and the regular chocolate candy shell flavors at Walgreens. While these are free of lots of scary ingredients, they are not allergy friendly, so Moose and Bugs gave these a try while Konny was napping.



They were all smiles and ended up fighting over the last couple pieces. I'd say that's a good sign!

I thought the chocolate candy shell peanuts was great! I also can't wait to try the chocolate caramel nougat, which I will eat when the kids aren't looking. Hasn't every mom hoarded some chocolate in a secret place to keep it safe from husbands and children? Sometimes a little chocolate makes everything better and it's even better when you can eat it "unjunked"!

Disclosure: I am a BzzAgent and received complementary coupons to try UNREAL candy. The opinions expressed here are my own and may differ from others experience.