Mom says, “Eat Yer Greens!” We say, “Drink ’em!” #drinkurgreens #organicgirl

organicgirl sent me a package of their kale in exchange for this post. all the rest of it was totally on me, and man are you going to be impressed! now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about smoothies!

Well, we sure do talk about making smart food choices here a lot on Home with You. Mr. Grumpy and I have been working really hard on getting our butts into shape and making smart choices after those workouts so that we can actually see the fruits of our labor. One of our favorite brands out there for getting our green on is organicgirl, which I know I talk about a lot over here, too! Well, they really are a great company, and man does their produce stay fresh for a long time (which is great for us Grumpy’s because we tend to get very distracted and forget about things in the fridge).

For the month of June, organicgirl is reminding folks out there that you don’t just have to eat a salad every single night of the week. There are more creative ways to get super fresh, power foods into your system – and one of those ways is to DRINK your greens with smoothies! Smoothies can also be an any time of the day snack or meal, depending on how often you eat during the day. For example, you can have a smoothie for breakfast, you can have one as a snack, you can add rum to it after work and have it at happy hour… oh wait.. ok, well do that last one sparingly. As part of their #drinkurgreens contest, you (that’s right, I mean YOU!) can win a year’s worth of organicgirl greens AND a Vitamix blender. Amazing, right? So, get up on that Facebook, and go directly to their page (https://www.facebook.com/iloveorganicgirl) and get to work on your very own smoothie. OR if you’re not feeling like a kitchen genius, you can make one of our ideas we came up with!

Now, Mr. Grumpy was very excited about this challenge. organicgirl sent us an entire package of their amazing 100% baby kale to try out in our smoothies. Me being the smoothie connoisseur that I am (hello, I worked for six years in an ice cream shop) was so excited to get to work, but I cannot tell you how much MORE excited Mr. Grumpy was. So, we went ahead and made soon-to-be Mr and Mrs. Grumpy smoothies for you to try.

Let’s make Mr. Grumpy’s first (first is the worst, second is the best, third is the one with the … ok, I will try to grow up a bit).

Mr. Grumpy’s Razzango Smoothie

#drinkurgreens #ormrgrumpywillglareatyou

What You’ll Need:

• 1 cup organicgirl 100% baby kale
• 1 cup coconut water
• 1 tsp chia seeds (for energy!!)
• 1 cup of frozen mango
• 1 1/2 cups raspberries, fresh
• Splash of lime juice

First, combine the kale, chia seeds and the coconut water. Blend until smooth – about 1 minute. Then, add in the fruit, and blend everything again. Pour into a glass, and enjoy!!

Now, I wanted to try something a little sweeter. It took everything I had to not use ice cream – but I think you could totally substitute the vanilla Greek yogurt for vanilla ice cream if you had not been like me and skipped your workout this weekend. So… here is the soon-to-be Mrs. Grumpy smoothie for us gals!

Soon2Be Mrs. Grumpy’s Something Sweet Strawberry Mint Smoothie

#drinkurgreens #becauseisaidso

What You’ll Need:

• 1 cup organicgirl 100% baby kale
• 2 5.2 oz. containers of Chobani Greek vanilla yogurt (or 1 cup of vanilla ice cream)
• 2 tbsp fresh mint (thanks to Suzie Q’s amazing garden this year!)
• 1 1/2 cups fresh strawberries
• 1 cup ice (don’t do this if you use ice cream, ok? Ok…)

First, combine the kale, yogurt, mint and ice. Blend until smooth and all the ice is gone to the human eye. This is just to make sure that you don’t get any ice chunks. Then, add the strawberries and blend one more time until smooth.

Halfway through making my strawberry mint smoothie, another idea occurred to me that you could do the kale, mint, vanilla ice cream and chocolate chips. Like … HOW AMAZING WOULD THAT BE? Right? But, Mr. Grumpy told me we needed to get through the smoothies that I made before I started making more… and he was right because I quickly realized that we had about 45-minutes worth of dishes ahead of us.

So, get to smoothie-ing, and don’t forget to post your own creations over on Facebook (or Instagram, if you’re into that!) using #drinkurgreens. You can find more about the contest here: https://www.facebook.com/iloveorganicgirl/app_448952861833126.

Happy drinking, friends!

Cari Loves Crab Legs

Our dearest friends Kelsey and B-rad (who are also getting married this year) let us in on a fantastic secret of relationship-hood that Mr. Grumpy and I decided to give a try. Each week, they alternate who’s turn it is to plan a date. Then, that person gets to plan exactly what they want to do on a date (and are in charge of paying for said activities). The other person can’t say no, too, which is nice because you can’t always agree on things you like to do.

So, Mr. Grumpy and I started implementing this into our weeks, too, and we’re having so much fun. One week, Mr. Grumpy took me to the Zoo, and when it was his turn this week again to plan a date, the best words to ever come out of his mouth … came out of his mouth, “I’m taking you on your crab leg date.” I was so excited. Why? I love crab legs. For multiple reasons. First – you don’t feel guilty when you drown your crabby meat into the bucket ‘o’ butter. Why? Well, because you had to work so hard at getting the meat out of the shell that you deserve the butter. Second – you get a bib and it’s perfectly acceptable to wear it in public. Third – people are always shocked that, being the petite gal that I am, I can down a whole pound of crab legs. The truth is that I can – and do – and really if we’re being honest, I can pretty much down up to two pounds. I’ve never attempted more than two, so I’ll keep you updated on that threshold.

Let’s go back to that bib – because let’s be honest, I really rocked that:

So, this week I am in charge of the date. And boy are we going to have a GREAT time. I signed Mr. Grumpy and I up for a sunset kayak tour at Whiskey Island. Lately, the weather has been so great in Cleveland that it is really just hard to stay inside. Also, I thought … WHAT could be more romantic than struggling to keep your boat straight on the great, great Lake Erie. So, if I survive the tour, I’ll share more on that next week. If you want to just go for it and book your own tour, we booked through 41 North: https://kayak41north.com/.

What are your tricks to keeping your love flame a’burnin’?

Well, you know how they say the way to a man’s heart is through good food – so, obviously, I’m going to share with you what I made for Mr. Grumpy for dinner tonight. I am not a huge fan of pork – but Mr. G loves it, and was so excited to see it in our Fresh Fork bag this week. So, I channeled my dad and made Mr. Grumpy DS’ famous, lip-smackin’ good fried pork chops. My dad always makes this amazing mushroom gravy to go on top of the ‘chops, but we skipped that tonight because we also skipped our workout this weekend, so I didn’t really feel like we deserved gravy. But, what I was MOST excited about was the coleslaw-esque salad I made to go with the porkchops.

Quickly, here’s how you make DS’ lip-smackin’ good fried pork chops:

1. Make sure you get really thin chops. OR if you didn’t, like ours were pretty thick, just make sure to pound them down so they’re very thin. Like a half inch.
2. Season your chops – I used smoked paprika, ground pepper, salt, and smoked chipotle pepper. I wanted them kind of BBQ-y. DS’ seasoning is really skilled and he always puts lots of yummy spices on it, but we aren’t ever really sure what goes on there so I can’t really help you with that part.
3. Dip your chop in a beaten egg, and then in flour. Then, plop it into a hot pan with canola oil that’s been heated. If you don’t like eggs, you can skip that part but it helps make a nice crust!
4. Fry those babies up ’til they’re nice and brown.

Ok – I know that’s not a very helpful recipe, but if you really want good fried pork chops, you’ll just have to wait until the next Sunday dinner that DS is cooking up because his are really the best. Mine were yummy, but just not the same.

BUT – my salad was seriously good, so let’s get to cooking that now. We were really lucky this week to get a ton of yummy, unique produce in our Fresh Fork – like radishes, MORE fresh strawberries (I made strawberry banana cream bread last week that was amazing. The recipe is here, but I added a banana to the mix: http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/strawberries–n–cream-bread), and some things that I and Mr. Grumpy literally had never seen nor heard of before. That includes kohlrabi. So, it looks like a space ship dropped it off in some farmer’s crop-circled farm. It really is strange. But when I cut it open and tasted it, I thought, “Man! This would make really yummy coleslaw.” So, that’s what I did.

Cari’s Southwest Ranch Coleslaw/Kick-Butt Salad

What You’ll Need:

• 1/2 of the round part of the kohlrabi, cut into small, long pieces (“shredded,” if you will)
• 5 radishes, shredded
• 5 green onions, chopped
• 2 stalks of celery, finely chopped
• 1/2 bundle of bibb lettuce, shredded (especially the inner “heart”)
• 1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
• 1/3 cup ranch dressing (we’ve been using the kind made from Greek yogurt!)
• 1/4 tsp ground smoked chipotle pepper
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black ground pepper

First, chop all your veggies and put them in the bowl. Next, in a separate bowl, mix together the remaining ingredients to make the sauce. Then, pour it over the veggies and toss. Add more pepper, if needed. Cover and refrigerate for about 30 minutes. It was seriously the best side dish to go with our pork chops. Although, the meal really got me missing my Sunday night dinners at home on the Steiner Ranch! I think a FIndlay trip will be a necessity pretty soon! 🙂

What meals remind you of home? Make it a great week, everyone!

Couples who (fill in the blank) together, stay together.

Well, folks. It’s officially summer in Cleveland. Ok, I don’t think it is actually officially summer yet – but with weather as beautiful as we’ve had here, I’m just refusing to even acknowledge that there are other seasons available to choose from.

Mr. Grumpy and I had a pretty fantastic week livin’ life in the CLE, and it made me feel even more thankful than I normally do to have my best friend/boyfriend/fiancé/boytoy and an all around good guy here to keep me company while we explored and remembered why on earth we live in this city by the lake. Here’s a fun recap of everything we accomplished this week:

This is the view from our rooftop deck!

1. Couples who eat ribs ‘n’ corn together, stay together.

If you have not been to the Cleveland Rib-Off festival, boy do you have a long time to wait until next year’s comes back around. It was literally the most fun I’d had in a long time – we tried to eat as much food as we possibly could, while enjoying a nice view of the Cuyahoga River and all the fun boats that come in and out of the harbor (I’m not sure they actually call it a harbor. Is it called a port even? I just don’t know, but I think you get my point…). I even convinced my dear friend Kelsey to try frozen cheesecake (it was amazing, and covered in rainbow sprinkles), and my other dear friend Maddy convinced ME to split a funnel cake with her (it did not take much convincing). The sun was out all day long – it was the perfect way to spend Memorial Day. Now, I just have to diet until next Memorial Day.

Man, that’s some good lookin’ corn!

The frozen cheesecake was not a myth. Here is proof.

We really enjoyed the corn probably a little too much.

2. Couples who sweat together, stay together.

Now, we couldn’t get through the week without a few runs, of course. Unfortunately, Mr. Grumpy had a long week at work with a few late nights. It wasn’t until Tuesday when I was running by myself (and ran – literally – into Kelsey and her fiancé, B-rad) that I realized just how much I miss Mr. Grumpy when I go out for a run. Why? Well – he is super speedy, so I don’t miss being the slow poke of the couple. But, other than that – he is a great running companion. He makes fun zig-zags, he farts, he gets distracted and runs you off the sidewalk without even noticing it. It makes for a pretty entertaining run, and for that I really missed him. In all seriousness, Mr. Grumpy actually is the best running coach ever because he can always tell during a run when I’m discouraged and he’ll say sweet things like, “You’re doing a really good job!” So – if you can run with your manfriend, do it. It is a great bonding activity. Thus, tonight when Mr. Grumpy and I ran together, I wanted to run faster than I ever did just for him. And guess what – I got all the way down to 8:49 seconds a mile! It felt really good and I think I finally achieved that runners’ high everyone’s been talking about.

It was at the end that I got really fast, just FYI.

3. Couples who gawk at elephants together, stay together.

It’s true – Mr. Grumpy finally bit the bullet and took me to the zoo. Now, I have been BEGGING shamelessly for years to Mr. Grumpy to please have him take me to the zoo. We tried to go once a few months ago (yes, during the polar vortex), and my iPhone 4 (RIP) took us way out in the middle of nowhere. So far out that we finally just gave up and had it take us right back home. Well this weekend, we did it. We went to the zoo, and of course – I had an allergy attack. Thanks, Ohio trees. But, my swollen face aside, man, that place is really cool. If you haven’t gotten the chance to go, definitely go on a day that they’re doing the Elephant Crossing. We will have to go back to experience that one because it was not open today, but it was a pretty amazing zoo with a lot of interesting, sleepy animals.

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4. Couples who eat healthy together, stay attracted to one another.

Ok – let’s get down to my recipe for the day because I am telling you, I made the most perfect hummus today anyone has ever made. I know I’m really being a bragster about this, but seriously. Mr. Grumpy and I were just eating it with a spoon like it was yogurt. We are trying our hardest to eat healthier so we can both lose some weight before the wedding. So, I decided for lunch this week, I’m going to eat hummus and veggies. No carby pita chips, people. Just veggies. Hummus is great because it’s not like you eat it and think, “Yep, this is healthy for you.” It has a lot of great flavor and fills you up so you don’t overeat. And it’s made of all good-for-you things like chick peas and lemon and garlic (heart health, I think?). Anyway – I’d never made hummus for one very distinct reason: I refuse to pay a million dollars for tahini. Sorry. It’s always so expensive. And I just … refuse. So I decided, well, why not try it without. And man – this was amazing.

This is a terrible picture… but I promise it was good.

Here’s how you make it:

What You’ll Need:

• 2 cans chick peas (you’ll have to peel the skins off manually just by squeezing them ever so gently)
• Juice from 1/2 lemon
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/8 cup water
• 1 tbsp garlic
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• Dash of paprika and salt (do not go overboard, friends)
• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper (or if you don’t want it too spicy, go down to 1/4 tsp)

Combine the chick peas, lemon juice, 1 tbsp olive oil, garlic, ground coriander, paprika and salt, and red pepper in a food processor until smooth. Stir once while still in the food processor (not while it’s running…) and then add the water and remaining olive oil until the mixture is soft and creamy. And voila! We cut up red and green peppers to dip in. It’s especially yummy when you let it sit in the fridge for just a bit.

5. Couples who drink together, stay together.

Well, sorry. But this one is just obvious I think…

After going to Kelsey’s wonderful bridal shower in Cuyahoga Falls Saturday, I came home to Mr. Grumpy – and we immediately hit up the Clevelander to catch the rest of the Indians vs. Rockies game. I – as the native Coloradan that I am – was very torn, per usual as to who I cheered on. So I wore my Indians tank top, and ordered this beer. I think that covered it, right?

What fun things did you get into this weekend? Are you able to work out with your significant other? Share your other “Couples who (fill in the blank) together, stay together” mantras in the comments below! And make it a great week, guys!