Pebble & Rae

A lifestyle blog with lighthearted posts about recipes, design and DIY tips.

Archives for February 2015

Our New Little Valentine…

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Kinley Rae holding up a heartWe’re excited to announce that Kinley Rae is going to be a big sister!

Right now I’m about 15 weeks. We don’t know what we’re having yet, but we’re definitely going to find out. I’m too much of a planner! Even though there are plenty of gender-neutral concepts for nurseries, I really get into the design of the room and think it’ll be so much easier knowing if it’s a boy or a girl. It’s probably the designer in me… like, how can I create a design if I don’t know the client?! Plus, we get tired of always saying “he or she” or “it.”

We told Kinley Rae the big news a couple of weeks ago, and took an adorable video of her reaction. She was very excited, but more because she thought she was getting some sort of present out of the deal. She said “can I open it?!” and “is it behind your back?” after we told her. She’s starting to understand more and more, and telling us there’s a baby in Mommy’s belly, and how she’s so excited to be a big sister. It’s so freakin’ cute. We asked her if she thinks it’s going to be a boy or a girl and she says “No, Mommy, it’s a baby.”

My sweet and very talented friend, Jill, did a maternity/family photoshoot for us. I’m so happy with how the photos turned out! If you’re looking for a photographer for children, maternity, family, newborns, or engagements, you should contact her for your shoot. Not only is she very talented, but she has 2 of the sweetest, most well-behaved little children I’ve ever met so she’s WONDERFUL with kids. When we started the shoot, Kinley Rae had just woken up and was very grumpy and uncooperative. Jill was so sweet and patient with her, and after pulling out a princess crown and a lollipop she got Kinley Rae smiling and posing in no time!

Here are some of my favorites:

family pic Schreifer-6-600pxpreggo KerryKinley Rae peaking up my shirt

Immune-Boosting, Kid-Approved Smoothie

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My little girl is one of the pickiest, PICKIEST, eaters of all time. So I try to make her smoothies that sneak in some healthy stuff.

Poor little girl caught a nasty cold a couple of weeks ago, so I came up with a smoothie that would be healthy and contain a lot of immune-boosting ingredients to help her get better, (and also for myself so I wouldn’t catch her cold.) And guess what, I drank this every day and never got sick! The other amazing thing… she LOVED it. It was a healthy food miracle. Here’s how I made it using our Nutri Bullet 900.

immune-boosting, cold-busting smoothie ingredients

Ingredients & Health Benefits:

  • 1 cup of OJ [High in Vitamin C and Calcium]
  • 1/2 serving of Vanilla Shakeology (or another protein powder) [a TON of all natural vitamins, minerals, proteins, antioxidants and fiber]
  • 1 TSP cinnamon
  • 1/2 T honey [The combination of honey & cinnamon is known to have a plethora of health benefits, to learn more see here.]
  • 1 T chia seeds [high in protein, fiber, antioxidants, omega-3’s, and other nutrients]
  • Handful of kale or spinach [packed with vitamins and minerals including protein, fiber, vitamins A, C and K, folate, and much more]
  • 1/2 banana [high in potassium, antioxidants, magnesium and vitamins C and B6]
  • 1/2 cup frozen pineapple [a great source of vitamins and minerals including bromelain, vitamin B-6, folate, magnesium, and much more]
    (optional: 1-2 drops DoTerra OnGuard essential oil blend)

Whatcha do:

  • Throw everything into the blender with about a 1/2 cup ice.
  • Blend for about 10 seconds. 
  • Twist off the blending top, pop on one of the drinking lids…
    …and enjoy the yummy, fruity, healthy smoothie!

smoothie

My New Favorite Kitchen Toy

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Nutri Bullet 900Every once in awhile you come across a product that is so awesome and life-changing, that you can’t imagine how you lived without it before. Ok “life changing” might be a little dramatic, but that’s just about how I feel about the Nutri Bullet 900 blender from Magic Bullet, so I had to write up a review to let you know how amazing it is! I’ve had other blenders before, cheap ones, expensive ones, ones that even make baby food. But the Nutri Bullet 900 is the best and my favorite by far!

Here are the reasons I’m in love:

  • Super easy to use
  • The container you blend everything in, is the SAME container you can drink out of! I’m lazy and love having less dishes to clean : )
  • It blends everything super fast and effectively, I’m talking less than 10 seconds to even chop up ice and frozen ingredients.
  • The blades chop everything up into such fine pieces, foods like spinach practically disintegrate into smoothies without losing the fiber and nutrition of the food (unlike juicers.)
  • When you’re finished blending, you simply twist off the top with the blade, and pop on a top to drink it out of.
  • Everything cleans easily in the dishwasher. (Again, I’m lazy.)

bullet-parts

bullet-lids

If you’re going to get one, make sure you get this 900 series. From what I’ve heard the earlier version “Magic Bullet” isn’t as strong and doesn’t chop up ice and hard foods as easily. This one destroys them. (They also just came out with a new “Rx” version that is supposed to be even more powerful. It’s also about $70 more expensive, and to me not worth the upgrade when the 900 series does everything I’d want it to.) We bought ours off of Amazon so we could get the free shipping since we’re Prime members. But I see that Target, Bed Bath and Beyond and Macy’s has it for free shipping as well.

We mainly use it for smoothies. My hubby and I got into Shakeology smoothies a couple months back (which we also LOVE), and the Nutri Bullet 900 was a perfect fit for these smoothies. But we also use it to grind coffee, blend soups, mix omelets, etc.

My little girl is one of the PICKIEST eaters in the world. But through some trial and error, I’ve found a few yummy and super healthy smoothie recipes that she actually LOVES! Look out for my next blog post where I’ll share her new favorite recipe. It’s filled with super foods to boost your immune system, but is so delicious even an opinionated 3-year old will drink it!

smoothie

(I was not at all compensated for this post and all opinions are my own. I am a small-time blogger and Nutri Bullet has no idea who I am!)