Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Nashville

I was pretty bummed out last Thursday because my parents were leaving to take Nick to Nashville for college and I was unable to go because of class. I maybe might have, okay did start crying in my afternoon class when talking about him leaving. Mostly I was sad that I wasn't able to go on the trip with them, see his dorm, and spend that time with my family. They were planning on leaving by 5 pm, and I have a class in Arlington from 6pm-10pm so there was no way I was going to be able to go. Planning would be the key word in that sentence.

My dad and Nick had spent lots of hours trying to figure out the best way to transport Nick's Jeep out to Nashville and had decided to tow it behind the Pilot on their drive out. So Thursday afternoon rolled around and they were hooking all the components up and trying to get everything worked out. I kept getting texts from my mom throughout the day with all the problems they were having getting everything set up right. Around 7pm my mom said they were getting close, well I think her exact words were "If this doesn't work Nick can go to TCC for the year..." haha. I sent Kyle a message and said if you pack a bag for me maybe I would be able to go! Mostly just joking around, but my class got out early and the timing was just too perfect to pass up.

I am not a spur of the moment person, I take a long time to make decisions so the choice to go was way out of my comfort zone. I was going back and forth about going but finally decided I was going. Kyle packed me a bag and met me at my parent's house and we were off to Nashville!

The trip was full of craziness, but it wouldn't be a Sage Family Vacation without some crazy ;) We ended up unhooking the Jeep halfway and driving both cars because we were having to drive so slow when towing it.

We pulled up to Belmont around 2 pm and the move-in crew had both cars unloaded in less than 5 minutes! We spent the rest of the day unpacking the boxes and getting Nick's room situated. The campus is beautiful and the city is full of things to do. I am so glad I got to go and see where Nick is going to be for the next four years. The goodbye was really hard and it's going to be much quieter around here without him, but we are all so excited for what God has in store for him in Nashville.







Thursday, August 1, 2013

Lifeway Kefir Smoothie

I few months ago I joined a website called Influenster, which basically looks at how "internet involved" you are and based on your activity level you can participate in different programs. The programs involve receiving new products and reviewing them. I love freebies and so I thought I would give it a chance. Back in May I received my first box and had a great time trying out the products. I meant to write a blog post about it but time slipped away.

The latest program was for a product called Kefir, which is a cultured milk smoothie containing lots of probiotics. I have tried this drink before, I think it was the strawberry kind, but had not bought it for quite some time. I took my free coupon to Kroger and they had a pretty decent selection to choose from:

I chose the Organic Plain kind because I wanted to add my own flavor to it. (Obviously I should have taken the picture before taking mine off the shelf so there wasn't an awkward hole). The small sign below the one I chose is Kroger's way of indicating a product is gluten free. I'm not sure why the organic one is the only one with this sign because from my understanding they are all gluten free.

I had read some complaints from people on Kefir's facebook page about the amount of sugar in the plain Kefir (12g). I didn't have a problem with this amount, I buy plain yogurt all the time and that is about the same amount of sugar it contains. Keep in mind, this sugar is not added to the product, it is not sweet at all, it is the amount of sugar found in a plain dairy product.

I used my Kefir to make a green smoothie. Green meaning it has some sort of veggies in it, in this case baby spinach.

Green Strawberry Banana Kefir Smoothie
1/2 cup Organic Plain Kefir
1/2 cup unsweetened Almond milk
1/2 cup frozen strawberries
about 1/2 frozen banana
handful of baby spinach
1 tsp of honey (or other sweetener)

The frozen banana is the key to any smoothie, it adds texture and creaminess. Always break up the banana into chunks before freezing it for easy use. I usually add a scoop of protein powder to my smoothies but I left it out this time so it wouldn't mask the flavor of the Kefir.


Add all the ingredients to the blender, blend until smooth


Finished product. Overall the taste was really good, I maybe would add a little less almond milk to have a thicker consistency.

Little tip on green smoothies, if you have trouble with the color try using a cup with a lid and a color tinted straw. The spinach doesn't add much flavor but lots of vitamins!


I received these products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes.

If you are interested in joining Influenster let me know and I can send you an email with an invite :)