Healthy "Smoothie" Day...or is it a "Snoozie?"

I see Smoothies as little treats that get me through the week.  A smoothie satisfies like a milkshake minus the guilty conscience afteward.

Make it a "snoozie" (aka: add rum!) and you'll really feel happy for the rest of the day!

Healthy "Snoozie" Recipe
A handful of frozen strawberries (add frozen banana if you'd like)
tablespoon of lemon or lime juice (add more to taste)
Ice
Teaspoon of honey or sweetener to taste
Shot of Rum! (We used dark Antiguan rum from Kacey's wedding!)

Blend away!

Kacey and I made these smoothies (with the added rum to make it special) last fall.  It was a gorgeous day in Hermosa Beach, so we took our smoothies to go on a walk by the beach.  There's no time like the present to make one of these puppies, though!  More smoothie recipes to come...Billy and I have been tweaking lots of our favorites lately...

Happy Friday!
Kate

The Secret To Life....Daily Inspiration...

In my morning blog surfing I came across this statement by Dr. Stephan Cowan, a 25 year veteran pediatrician.

The secret of life is letting go. 

I was instantly intrigued, instantly drawn in by this statement.  I’ve been focusing a lot on change, and how we can accept the constant inconsistence in our lives with more grace and beauty.  And I loved looking at life this way.  He goes on to say:

"Life is a process of constantly giving way. Things pushed past their prime transform into something else. Just as spring gives way to summer, so is each stage of development a process of letting go. Crawling gives way to walking. Babbling gives way to speaking. Childhood gives way to adolescence. By breathing in, you breathe out. By eating, you poop." :)

 I just loved this!  Dr. Cowan is obviously focusing more on life after our child is born, but it’s great food for thought today. 

…the secret to life is letting go…

What do you need to let go of today?

(Fire Child Water Child, Dr. Stephan Cowan)

Sausage and Quinoa Stuffed Bell Peppers!

It's a NEW YEAR!!

Which means I make all sorts of resolutions, set intentions, dream bunches of new dreams...

One was to branch out and try new recipes of course!  I've decided to try and have a kitchen well stocked enough that I can spontaneously come up with some dinner ideas simply from what I have.  My trick is to see what ingredients are in the fridge, get inspired, and come up with my own recipe that night!  It's fun, it's challenging, and I love it!

This week's recipe was stuffed bell peppers.  I had 3 gorgeous peppers that needed to be eaten...so this is what I came up with:

2 cups cooked Quinoa
3 bell peppers
1/2-1 lb of spicy italian sausage
1/2 red onion
3 TBS cilantro
2 cups Tomato Sauce
1/2 cup shredded Mexican Cheese
Tony Chacharie, garlic salt, pepper to taste

STEP ONE:
Find cute hubby to cook up the Italian sausage:) Add in onion and saute with sausage until cooked through.

STEP TWO:
In a mixing bowl, combine cooked quinoa, cooked sausage and onion, cheese, tomato sauce, cilantro (and you could add some sweet corn, black beans, what ever you have in your pantry!)

Add in spices until desired taste

STEP THREE:
Cut off top of pepper, clean out inside, and stuff with the quinoa mixture!  Top with a little extra tomato sauce and sprinkle some cheese.

STEP FOUR:

Cook for 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees until warmed all the way through. 

And....VOILA!!

Pure, healthy, TASTY Yumminess!!!

Enjoy friends!!

Love and laughter,
Kacey

Christmas Tree Compromise...

It's a timeless, age old, never ceasing problem....

Colored lights, white lights....

Colored lights.....

White lights.....

Does your family debate this as much as my family does?  It's a tough problem to solve, your christmas tree can really set the tone for the whole season...so...what to do??

I've heard some of our friends and family have an "every other year" system in place.  That works too... 

....unless it ain't your year dearie:)

SO.  This is the compromise my hubby came up with this year...and I LOVED IT! It's brilliant AND beautiful!

Check it out...

I mean...I gotta give props to the hubby! He decided to HECK with this indecision on the light bulbs...let's do them BOTH!  

So we wrapped the colored lights very close to the trunk of the tree all the way down.  It only took one strand, and it creates this awesome 3-D look in the end.  The white lights dominate as they wrap around the outside, but the colored lights twinkle and glow prettily from the inside.  I love it.  It may have to become a new staple in the Morreale household:)

There ya have it friends, a quick and fun Holiday How To.

I hope you have a Blessed and Merry Holiday Season... and a Happy New Year too:)

Love and cheer!

Kacey

Thanksgiving Fall Wreath

It's here! It's here! Our favorite holiday of the year! Well, ok, one of them - but it's that most wonderful time of the year, right?  When Fall hits and every month is full of festivities, decorating, cooking, and celebrating.  Thanksgiving is such a great holiday - no pressure, just getting together with family and friends to celebrate all that we are thankful for.

We are all cozied up in Denver, Colorado currently...busily getting ready for Thursday.  We'll have about 20 people gathered around our table this year, so configuring the seating arrangements is challenging - but we're up for it!  A week or 2 ago, Kacey and I made a fun wreath for the door...

Indian Corn Thanksgiving Wreath

you'll need:

*Wreath frame (12 - 14" depending on how big you want 

the wreath to be; we used a cardboard frame)

*burlap ribbon

*approximately 30 small indian corns

*hot glue and gun

1.  Wrap burlap ribbon around wreath frame to hide cardboard. Hot glue ends to frame.

2.  Position corn around wreath first - don't glue yet.

3.  Slowly hot glue the corn to wreath, trying to keep the opening circle in the center as perfectly round as possible.

4.  Hang your wreath!  Once it's up, you can judge if any of the corn needs to be repositioned to make the center circle more perfectly round.  It's very simple to pop off the corn, reposition, and re-glue.

This also makes a gorgeous centerpiece for a table...just lay flat and position candles and food around it!

I'm off to Hobby Lobby - thanksgiving table decor here we come!

xo,

Kate

Weather and Banana Bread

The past week and a half has been really difficult on our beautiful Colorado and its residents.  Unless you have been somewhere without television or internet, you know that we have had historic flooding, thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes and tragically human lives have been lost.  As always, the people of Colorado will rise above, lend a helping hand and rebuild stronger and better than ever.  But it has been hard for so many, and I feel so fortunate that our home stayed dry and didn't have any damage or loss. 

 While it rained here for days, I decided to do a little baking.  I am not sure why, but baking/cooking always calms my nerves and anxiety.  I think it must be because I am doing something I love and putting that love into everything I make.  It was the perfect fall weather-cool and cloudy with that crisp feeling in the air.....perfect for an afternoon of baking.  I had some really ripe bananas leftover from our two weeks of smoothie fun, so instead of tossing them out I decided to make Banana Bread.  I wanted to make a bread that was a little healthier than the ones in my cookbooks, so a few substitutions were made to my Betty Crocker recipe to achieve just that.

Banana Bread Recipe 

adapted from Betty Crocker's New Cookbook

1 1/4 Cup sugar

1/2 Cup butter-softened

2 large eggs

1 1/2 Cups mashed ripe bananas-about 3-4 medium bananas

1/2 Cup skim or 1% milk (substitution-original recipe called for buttermilk)

2 1/2 Cups whole wheat flour (subsitution-original reciped called for white flour)

1 Teaspoon baking soda

1 Teaspoon vanilla

1 Teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 350° and spray 1 loaf pan (9x5x3 in) with cooking spray.  Make sure to place cooking rack in lower position in the oven. 

2. Mix sugar and butter together in your large bowl.  Add eggs and blend. Add bananas, milk and vanilla and mix thoroughly until smooth.  Stir in flour, baking soda and salt until moistened.  

3. Pour into pan and bake bread for about an hour and 15 minutes.

4. Let the bread cool for five minutes or so and then remove from pan.....The recipe suggests waiting until bread is cool to slice.......I just couldn't wait that long.  :)

This bread is delicious for breakfast with a cup of coffee, or for a little sweet treat after lunch or dinner. If you are like my hubby, you prefer the bread warm with a little butter on top.....oh the calories!

Enjoy~
xo,
Kara

Sunday Family Dinner: Savory Southwestern Chicken Chowder and Tasty Turkey Buffalo Balls!

I woke up this morning to the feeling of....

FALL!!!!! 

(I know, I know...shocking right? Everyone is chomping at the bit for September 21st to hit!)

 BUT...nevertheless, it's Sunday. It's September.  It's fall y'all!! Football will be on the TV all day, 100 degree days are finally behind us, and pumpkins are piled high at grocery stores.  

Everyone loves this time of year.  You can't help but see the childlike joy that comes over us when we think about hot apple cider, savory soups, changing leaves, and skinny jeans with boots:) I love it. 

 Sunday means... Family Dinner Day: a last minute invitation will go out to great friends, and whomever can make it over to our beach bungalow will.  There will be a tasty meal, some tasty wine…and of course….a tasty game (or 6) on TV.  I wasn't sure what menu I was going to come up with until I woke up.  And then I knew...  

It's not quite time for pasta (another fall family tradition), But it felt like time for soup! So I decided to dominate a fairly simple Southwestern Chicken Chowder, with delicious and healthy buffalo turkey balls to start.  It will hopefully be amazing…and of course…there will be some hot apple cider simmering on the stove as well.  
How can you not get excited for a Sunday like that?  Like I said….I love Fall:)

First thing's first, let's keep this easy people! It's technically a day of rest:), and I never want these impromptu dinners to be stressful in anyway.  An afternoon filled with husbands and football means the food better be hearty, simple to serve, and easy to eat while the cheering and jeering ensues in my living room.  It is also relatively impossible to pry them away from the TV...so a meal crowded around our coffee table was inevitable.  That, however, does NOT mean we can't spruce up said coffee table and add a little pizazz to go with this Sunday family dinner! A hodgepodge pile of 50 cent pumpkins and some pretty tea lights were just the ticket:)

Next I popped these delicious and GLUTEN FREE Buffalo Balls in the oven. This recipe is a fabulous Pinterest find for me, and honestly I haven't seen a need to alter it in any way.  So credit where credit due check out these

Tasty Turkey Buffalo Balls

In all honesty I almost didn't get a picture taken, that's how fast they were being consumed!

super delish with some ranch dressing to dip!

And finally this very easy Chicken Chowder. 

1/2 cup chopped onion (I've been loving yellow ones)

4 bacon strips, diced

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon chipotle chili powder

1 teaspoon of garlic powder

1 package (32ish ounces) frozen cubed hash brown potatoes(Or chop up raw ones if you have time/energy!)

2 cans (14.5 ounces each) chicken broth

1 can (14-3/4 ounces) cream-style corn

1 can (11 ounces) Mexicorn, drained

1 can (4 ounces) chopped green chilies

1/2 cup pearl onions (frozen or not...whatever you can find in store)

1 Rotisserie Chicken!

salt and pepper to taste!

1. In a Dutch oven (or soup pan), saute onion and bacon until onion is tender and bacon is crisp.  Stir in the flour, cumin, chili powders, and garlic powder.  Cook on high and stir for 1 minute or until thickened.

2.  Stir in the hash browns, broth, cream corn, Mexicorn, chilies and pearl onions.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, until heated through. Add more broth if you like it less thick. While simmering, pull meat off the the rotisserie chicken in bite sized pieces.  Stir into soup. Add salt and pepper and more spices to taste. 

Yield: I would say 6-8 servings depending on what else you serve with it.  Rossi and I have a tendency to go back for seconds a lot!! This soup just gets better and better and thicker and thicker the longer you let it simmer...and it's AMAZING as leftovers!

SO...that was pretty much it for a fun, family filled Sunday!  No music playlist for this get together...football ruled the speakers today.  But there was much love and much laughter...All around a wonderful Sorella Style event:)

Love and laughter!

Kacey