Raspberry Orange Smoothies in the Dark

I am a disgraceful blogger.

I let you down Monday and last Friday with my acronym series. I truly am sorry. My husband and I are transitioning into some new roles with his job {our church} and I am still sorting through my responsibilities in all of it. I’m trying to find the proper balance and schedule, so bear with me.

We are incredibly busy, but very happy and blessed. And that’s a good feeling, right?

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Anyway, last Thursday, Hubs and I had our 3T Evening {Time Together Thursday}. We had it all planned out and put the kids in bed early. The agenda for the evening was exercise and homemade smoothies. I had found a really delicious recipe that I wanted to try out. Just between you and me, I really just wanted to play with another new toy that I’d received for Christmas: my Ninja pulse blender.

The evening was totally about the smoothies and not the exercising. =)

I innocently suggested to my husband that he take the first round of exercising on our Xbox. I thought that I would make the smoothies while he began a grueling workout and then I would exercise. I was being kind. Others first was drilled into me as a kid.

He was huffing and puffing. The YourShape can be fierce. If you even try to step away, the machine will ask you where you are going. The Xbox lady is relentless, I tell you.

While he was sweating and groaning, I was mixing up the best. smoothies. ever. How could anything that is this easy taste so delicious? I found the original recipe here and tweaked it just a bit.

I was just finishing the smoothies when the power went out. Complete and utter darkness. Hubs quickly grabbed a big ol’ flashlight and went around lighting candles throughout the house. He gave me one in the kitchen so I could serve up our icy, fruity goodness into glasses.. The electricity going out could not have been timed better- in more ways than one.

After giving little LED tea lights to our girls- who were freaking out over the absence of their nightlight, we settled down with our cold treats.

Scrumptious. Truly it was.

It was like sipping raspberry sherbet through a straw.  Mmmmm-mmmm.

*sigh* I think that it was my favorite 3T time thus far. No lights, no TV, no internet, no computer work, nothing. Just listening to the voice of your sweetie intermingled with the occasional sounds of slurping. Smoothies in the dark = relaxing evening.

Perhaps it also had something to do with the fact that I never took my turn dueling with the vicious Xbox lady. I typically have evil thoughts of the woman as she’s pushing my body through necessary pain and contortions. The fact that it’s really just a voice on a machine never fully registers during my workout. At that point, reality slips away and she’s merely a relentless lady who is oblivious to my current affliction.  Sadly, no pain, no gain is not always a happy, motivating thought as I’m in physical agony and short of breath.

Not so on Thursday.

My mind {and body} were at peace. I totally enjoyed sipping my frozen treat in the flickering candlelight, chatting with Hubs. Whose idea was it to exercise anyways?

Oh yeah. That would be me, I guess.

Sitting in the dark, however, made you focus more on the pure deliciousness of the blend of the smoothie in your hand. It was tart,tangy, and sweetness all wrapped up in one frosty glass. I added 3-4 Tbsp of sugar to cancel out some of the tartness of the orange and raspberry to make my sweet tooth happy. For me, it created the perfect balance for the smoothie. You may just enjoy it with the fruit, OJ and yogurt. Natural goodness, so to speak. All in all, it was a wonderful evening together.

Hmmmm…I wonder if Hubs ever realized that I never had my turn sweating through YourShape.

Shhhhh. Don’t tell him, ok? Remember, I just shared this awesome recipe with you in exchange for your silence.

Enjoy. =)

So what have you been up to over the past few days? Make a commitment to exercise this year? Are you keeping up with it? Ever have a power outage work in your favor? Or we could forget about the necessary evil {a.k.a. exercising} and just talk smoothies. What fruity concoctions do you blend together? Share. I’d love to hear.