Back Into the Swing of Things

Hey y'all! I just started at my new rotation site this week, and it is the beginning of my final semester of school. I have been in school since I was five years old, and this May will be my third and final graduation. At least, I think it is.. you never know what the future holds! LOL The start of a new semester brings the need for lots of preparation since I'll be busy with school and rotations. Last semester we focused solely on rotations; however, this semester we have a capstone course we have to do in addition to our rotations. I also pre-ordered a NAPLEX study book which I need to start going through. Oh joy! (insert sarcastic eye roll here) I finally finished all of my hospital rotations and now have two retail sites and a compounding elective. I am loving my current rotation. It is at an independent pharmacy, so it reminds me a lot of my favorite pharmacy ever - Man Pharmacy. I love all the people that work there! It has been great so far! 

Every morning on my way to work I drink a smoothie that I make using my Nutribullet. I eat breakfast when I first wake up, but I need something to hold me over until lunch which can sometimes be as late as 2:00 in the day. I thought I would share some of my favorite smoothie recipes and how to make these breakfast smoothies quickly. Here is a link to my Pinterest board where I got ideas for some of these smoothies.

I knew I would be rushed in the mornings once rotations started, so I spent the weekend prepping. I bought up some bananas, strawberries, fat free vanilla yogurt, and low fat almond milk. I already had chocolate and vanilla protein powder as well as some oatmeal. These are the main ingredients I use when making breakfast smoothies, but I'll include a recipe for my favorite green smoothie too!

First, I washed/rinsed all of my strawberries. I always wash any fruits and veggies with this FIT spray. It is organic and cleans the food really well. 

After the fruit has been cleaned and rinsed, remove the stems and place the strawberries on a lined baking sheet. Freeze the strawberries for about 30 minutes. By doing this before bagging up the strawberries, you prevent the berries from sticking together when they freeze in the baggie. 

After the 30 minute flash freeze, I added 5 strawberries to a snack size baggie and put them in the freezer.

Next, I peeled the bananas and cut them in half. I placed two halves in a snack sized ziplock baggie and put them in the freezer. If you cut the banana into small pieces, they will turn brown easily. You can leave the banana whole, but it is a little more difficult to blend it in the smoothie. I think the halves work best, and you can use one half of a frozen banana if you want to make a smaller sized smoothie! 

Here is a smoothie I had today! I'll post the recipe below. This is a peanut butter and banana smoothie. Since the bananas are frozen, it is already cold and ready to enjoy!

Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie

1 frozen banana

1 scoop of chocolate protein powder

1 tablespoon of peanut butter

2 tablespoons of vanilla yogurt

2 tablespoons of uncooked oatmeal

Vanilla almond milk

Put all ingredients into the Nutribullet blender cup and fill with vanilla almond milk to the max fill line. Blend and enjoy!

Strawberry Banana Smoothie

1 frozen banana

1 snack size bag of frozen strawberries

1 scoop of vanilla protein powder

2 tablespoons of vanilla yogurt

2 tablespoons of uncooked oatmeal

Vanilla almond milk

Put all ingredients into the Nutribullet blender cup and fill with vanilla almond milk to the max fill line. Blend and enjoy! (You can leave out the bananas in this recipe if you want a plain strawberry smoothie, but the bananas make the smoothies creamy.)

Green Smoothie

1 handful of spinach

1 snack size bag of pineapple

1 frozen banana

Coconut water

Put all ingredients into the Nutribullet blender cup and fill with coconut water to the max fill line. Blend and enjoy!

I love my Nutribullet because it is a quick and easy way to make a healthy and tasty treat. I used to use it to get my daily servings of fruit and veggies, and I would drink only green smoothies. Now, I'm using it to keep me from getting hungry at work until I can have lunch. I figured I would share my favorite breakfast smoothies that I have made with you guys. You could make these smoothies with any kind of blender, but I based them off of the Nutribullet because that is what I have.

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Prepping ingredients for smoothies isn't the only thing I've been doing lately. With the start of a new year, I decided to take on a new Bible study. I'm currently re-reading Seamless by Angie Smith. If you haven't checked out this study, I highly recommend it. I decided to do The New Testament in 90 Days. The reading should take no longer than ten minutes a day, and everything is already planned out for you. Here is the link to where I found this plan. I saw something online (I believe, ironically, it was on Instagram) that said imagine what we could be/do if we spent as much time seeking God as we do on social media. Wow. I don't know about y'all, but I love my Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. Like, I LOVE it. It made me realize I need (and want) to LOVE reading my Bible, praying, and being a light to others. I need it, and I want it - so I'm going to do it! Join me?

  I hope y'all enjoyed this post! Until next time.. Take care y'all!

Auld Lang Syne, Y'all!

I hope everyone had a very Happy New Year! Tyler and I spent the evening in with takeout. We originally had plans to go to Cole's, a local restaurant in Lexington. I had my outfit picked out and was ready for a fun night. Unfortunately, I've been sick the last week or so, and I just didn't feel up to it. When I woke up on NYE, I felt a little better than I had been feeling the last few days. I cooked a hash brown casserole for brunch, did my Bible study, went to get my nails done, and picked up a few things at the grocery store. I think going from not getting out of the bed for 3 days to being out and about for 4 hours put me down for the count. When I got home, I was nauseous, exhausted, and just didn't feel like squeezing into my fringe skirt and sky high heels LOL Tyler picked up some food, and we watched football until it was almost midnight. It wasn't what we had initially planned, but it was still a great way to ring in the new year! 

When Tyler and I stayed at The Biltmore, we had a delicious hash brown casserole there, and I have been trying to find the recipe ever since. I stumbled upon this on Pinterest, and it seemed pretty similar to what we had there. I made it, and it was awesome! Super easy too! Click here for the link to the recipe I used.

My new journal from my grandmother that I've been using for the Seamless Bible Study

My nails for New Year's Eve

My adorable parents sent me this selfie before their NYE celebrations, so...

...I sent this one back to them of me on the couch LOL

Today I cooked a "good fortune" meal for Ty and his parents. My family always makes cabbage rolls on New Year's Day, but Tyler and I don't really like cabbage rolls. I decided I would start a new tradition for us and make Hoppin' John - a southern dish prepared to ring in the new year. I found several variations of this recipe on Pinterest, but I tweaked it to be something Ty and I would enjoy.

The dish is a combination of bacon, kielbasa, green pepper, jalapeños, cajun seasoning, black eyed peas, and rice cooked in chicken stock. It was so good! Ty added some tabasco sauce to his to kick it up a notch. I also made some greens and corn bread muffins. I had a time finding a can of black eyed peas in Lexington. Our local Kroger was completely sold out, and Tyler went this morning to Meijer and bought the last two cans they had. It was our lucky day! I looked up the tradition of having this meal on New Year's Day, and I found that black eyed peas are consumed for luck, the greens represent money, and the golden cornbread represents gold. We covered all the bases with our meal LOL The bowls I have the food in were a gift from my little Ashton. They are Kate Spade, and I LOVE them! 

Hoppin' John

Greens

Corn Bread Muffins

After we ate, we relaxed for awhile. Then Tyler wanted to go to the gym. That's fine and all, but the problem was he wanted me to go with him. We compromised and took a walk in our neighborhood. We jogged on the way back, and Tyler said I can now say I have gone for a run every day this year LOL

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2015 was a truly spectacular year for me. So many wonderful memories were made. At the top of that list is becoming Mrs. Courtney Adkins! Here are a few of my favorite moments of 2015. I can't wait to see what 2016 has in store!

Valentines Day at Castle Post

Kentucky Basketball Game for Ty's Birthday

Seeing my sister perform as an Alpha Xi at Greek Sing 

Pinning ceremony at MUSOP

Annual trip to The Omni Homestead

Celebrating Bree and Heath's wedding

Bachelorette party at Glade Springs and Daniel Vineyards

Bridal Shower

Wedding Rehearsal

Walking down the aisle 

My bunch on our wedding day.

Private dinner on our honeymoon in Jamaica 

Go Herd!

Labor Day cookout with family and friends

Celebrating my 26th birthday

Lauren's Bridal Shower

Lauren's Wedding

New car!

Tyler being recognized as a "Rising Star"

Dinner at Tony's

Wine and Design with my favorite girls

First married Christmas!

I became an aunt! Meet the adorable Bo Duncan.

As you can see, I had an awesome year. I'm going to wrap this post up with the absolutely precious picture of baby Bo. I will always remember he was in Taylor's tummy at my wedding. I can't get over that jaw line, and I am so glad he has dimples! I love him so much, and I haven't even met him yet (stupid cold!) I'll be going home soon to visit with family and friends and to finally meet that sweet boy! I hope everyone had a great New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, and I pray for peace and blessings for you all in the upcoming year! Until next time.. Take care y'all!