Author: cvegnad

January 23, 2014

Avocado Delight Smoothie

I am a huge smoothie fan! I start my day with one and it leaves me feeling refreshed and ready to face my day. I tried a new combination in my smoothie this week and I fell in love with it! It was my first time putting avocados in my drinks and it was fantastic. It did make it creamier then a banana would so I did have to put in a little bit of water to thin it out.

Ingredients

one avocado (spoon out the inside)
2 cups of Almond Milk (I love Vanilla or Cocounut Almond Fresh)
1 cup of peaches
1 pear (skin off and cored)
3 tbsps of hemp hearts (I used Manitoba Harvest shelled hemp hearts)

Directions:

Pour two cups of Almond Milk in blender
Add fruit and hemp hearts
Cover and blend
Check consistency – may need to add water to thin it out a bit and re-blend if necessary

January 23, 2014

Deviled Eggs Recipe

Deviled Eggs

by Wholly Guacamole® brand

Your friends will be green with envy when they taste your guacamole deviled eggs. The combination of rich egg yolks and creamy guacamole is truly sinful. Hot sauce and mustard gives these green eggs a kick and the paprika sprinkled on top is a nod to this dish’s classic southern roots.

Ingredients

4 whole eggs in the shell
1/2 cup Wholly Guacamole dip
1 Tbsp chopped cilantro
1 Tbsp minced green onion
1/4 tsp salt, or optional
1 dash hot pepper sauce e.g. Tabasco, or to taste
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce, or to taste
1 tsp Dijon-style prepared mustard
1 pinch paprika

Instructions

Place eggs in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring water to a boil and immediately remove from heat. Cover, and let eggs stand in hot water for 10 – 12 minutes. Remove from hot water, cool, and peel. Slice eggs in half, and remove yolks to a mixing bowl.
In the bowl with the yolks, combine the Wholly Guacamole dip, cilantro and green onion. Season with salt, hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and mustard. Mix well, and fill empty egg halves. Chill until serving. Sprinkle with paprika just before serving.

Bring these eggs to your next get together and your friends will beg for more. This is a really easy way to bring new life and extra flavor into a tried and true favorite dish.

January 22, 2014

Endless by Amanda Gray

Romance, mystery and science fiction – Endless by Amanda Gray has it all!

Jenny is the main character in Endless who loses her mother at a young age. Jenny has a special and very different type of talent then most teenage girls; when she touches another person she “sees” into their past lives. She sees loss and pain. It is a secret burden she carries by herself not willing to open up and share with anyone else.

Suddenly life begins to change for Jenny. She dreams of a stranger who then appears in real ifeis name is Nikolai and claims he has travelled through time to be with her – his one true love. Jenny and Nikolai must join together in order to stop The Order, an organization whose job it is to ensure that people remain in their correct times. The Order is determined to find Nikolai and return him to his time. Jenny and Nikolai must fight to remain together or be forced to lose him forever.

Endless is marked as Youth Fiction but I fell in love with it. I think it would be a great hit with young adults – young girls more likely. I am a huge fan of timeless love and souls destined to be together. The novel blended the perfect amount of science fiction and romance together. Neither being too heavily focused on that it would drive away from the story line. I loved how deeply Nikolai loved his Jenny that he risked all to travel through time to find her. It hit on the belief that some people have that certain people are just destined to be together.

I really do hope there is a sequel to this novel as I felt like it left me hanging right at the end. It may be because I fell in love with the characters but I did not want to believe that this was all for them – there just had to be a little more.

It was definitely a great novel that I can see myself re-reading again!

Rating: 4/5

Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book. Opinions expressed are my own.

January 22, 2014

Robin Lee Hatcher’s A PROMISE KEPT Kindle HDX Giveaway and Facebook Party!

Don’t miss Robin Lee Hatcher‘s stunning new novel, A Promise Kept. Robin is celebrating with a fun giveaway and an encouraging Facebook Author Chat Party.

One winner will receive:

A Kindle Fire HDX
A Promise Kept by Robin Lee Hatcher

Enter today by clicking one of the icons below. But hurry, the giveaway ends on February 6th. Winner will be announced at the “A Promise Kept” Facebook Author Chat Party on the 6th. Connect with Robin and friends for an evening of encouraging book chat, prizes, and an exclusive look at Robin’s next book!

So grab your copy of A Promise Kept and join Robin on the evening of February 6th for a chance to connect and make some new friends. (If you haven’t read the book, don’t let that stop you from coming!)

Don’t miss a moment of the fun; RSVP today by clicking JOIN at the event page. Spread the word—tell your friends about the giveaway and party via FACEBOOK or TWITTER. Hope to see you on 2/6!

January 21, 2014

A Promise Kept by Robin Hatcher: Review

Marriage can be difficult at times. It takes constant patience, love and kindness. Sometimes no matter what we do it does not work. When you mix in addictions the difficulty becomes even more apparent. We have to realize that we are hurting the other person or even being an enabler to your partner’s addiction.

A Promise Kept by Robin Hatcher follows the story of Allison Kavanagh and her husband Tony. Their marriage began like so many others, full of love and hope. Through a series of trials they slowly began to fall apart. Allison fights hard to keep her marriage afloat but even she could not handle the suffering of Tony’s addiction anymore. When she hands him an ultimatum she never thought he would walk out the door but out the door he walked.

Allison retreats to her Aunt Emma’s mountain side home that was left to her when her Aunt passed away. She finds in the attic a wedding dress and journals which slowly presents a different image of the person her Aunt Emma was. Allison is surprised to find her Aunt so much like herself.

A Promise Kept is a powerful story of self discovery and forgiveness. Throughout the novel no matter what was tossed in Allison’s way when she let herself open up to God she was able to find her direction. It reminds us that forgiveness is truly the only way we can move forward in life. Our loved ones may hurt us unintentionally and sometimes we may have to make the ultimate sacrifice and walk away in order to heal each other. Forgiveness is one of the hardest things to do but one of the most important steps in the healing process.

The journals Allison finds is a reminder to us all that no matter how much we feel we know a person that they to may have gone through their own silent suffering. We should never be so quick to judge nor pass comment.

Robin Hatcher is the author of over sixty five novels and novellas. She lives with her family in Idaho. You can find more about her here.

You can find more reviews on a Promise Kept on the Litfuse Blog Tour. You can purchase a copy of the book on Amazon.

Rating: 5/5

Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.