Refined Sugar Free Fruity Soda Floats

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I grew up in small town Iowa. A real small town, almost like Stars Hollow in Gilmore Girls, but a little bigger, as in the shelves in our grocery store were taller. There were a lot of things I didn’t like about living in a small town, but there are a lot of things I loved and even miss now that I don’t live there. Example: The corner coffee shop that doubles as an old fashioned soda fountain. “You mean like Taylor’s Olde Fashioned Soda Shoppe?” Yes, that’s exactly what I mean.

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Want a frothy latte (or an apple cider steamer … oops, sorry, not Fall yet)? How about a peanut butter fudge ice cream cone? Great, you can get both here. But the best of all — a strawberry peach tea zing. A smooth frozen drink made from the flavor tea concentrates of your choice. It had about 1,000 less calories than a smoothie, if you can imagine that, but all the delicious, sweet, fruity flavor. Now without access to those tea zings and with my effort to cut back on added, refined sugar, I’ve worked on finding delicious fruitiness elsewhere.

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I found this recipe for refined sugar free frozen yogurt on Pinterest and immediately knew how to get my tea zing-esque fix. Quick blended instant strawberry yogurt topped with no sugar added fizzy peach soda makes for the perfect end of summer treat. It’s definitely not low in sugar (I did say treat, after all), but all the sugars are natural plus you have the added bonus of real fruit and yogurt for a nutritious 1-2 punch.

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Refined Sugar Free Fruity Soda Floats
Author: 
Serves: 4
 
Ingredients
  • 1-10 ounce frozen fruit (strawberries, mango, peaches, etc)
  • 1-6 ounce plain Greek yogurt
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 4-12 ounce Izze sodas (blackberry, peach, clementine, etc)
Instructions
  1. Combine the frozen fruit, yogurt and honey together in a blender or food processor until smooth and creamy.
  2. Scoop two ice cream-sized scoops into each of four glasses and top with the Izze's soda.
  3. NOTE: Play with different flavors to find your favorite combinations. Pictured here: Mango frozen yogurt + blackberry Izze and strawberry frozen yogurt + peach Izze.

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From-Scratch Paella for Two

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To Grandmother’s house I go! I have a family event coming up very soon (on my dad’s side) and I’m so excited to go and visit everyone. It just happens to be right near my mom’s parents place so I’m going to spend a few days with them, beachside, I might had. All the excitement.

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Every time my mom’s side of the family gets together, my grandma wants to make us paella. We used to always do this so it’s understandable. BACKTRACKING: My mom is from Colombia and she moved here, to the US, when she was small. Therefore, her side of the family speaks Spanish and eats lots of food with Latin origins, like Paella. It’s truly a Spanish dish, like from Spain, of rice, seafood and shrimp.

Back to this paella: We’ve always started with a specific rice-box-mix for paella and added our own seafood, chicken and veggies to the mix to bump it up. A sort of semi-homemade solution. However after every single person in my family has been diagnosed with their own host of food allergies, this box mix no longer works for us and put a total squash on my grandma’s paella plans.

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So this time I set out to find a recipe we can make from-scratch and sans allergens, hooray! So in my search for the perfect paella recipe, I saw so many variations. Some had sausage, some had a whole bunch of different seafood bits and pieces, some had more veggies, others had none. But I went with something as similar to the recipe my family used for so long, kept it simple and made it using portions for two servings (dinner for a couple, or one dinner and one lunch for me, per usual) but can be easily multiplied to serve more, whether you need four, six or even eight servings!

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From-Scratch Paella for Two
Author: 
Serves: 2
 
Ingredients
  • 2 skinless, boneless chicken thighs
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • ¼ of a sweet onion, chopped
  • 2–4 cloves garlic, minced
  • ½ cup brown rice
  • 1 cup chicken broth
  • 1 pinch saffron threads (I found some at Trader Joes)
  • 1-6.5 ounce can of clams
  • 6 cleaned and cooked jumbo shrimp
  • 1 medium tomato, chopped
  • ¼ cup chopped flat Italian parsley
  • Salt and pepper
  • ½ lemon, quartered
Instructions
  1. Cut the chicken thighs into bite size pieces and coat with the paprika and salt.
  2. In a Dutch oven, paella pan or skillet heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and sear.
  3. Add the onion and cook until soft and aromatic. Then add in the garlic and rice for just about one minute, stirring constantly.
  4. Add the broth and saffron threads. Stir, bring to a boil and stir again. Reduce the heat to medium-low to maintain a simmer and cover. Cook for about 35 minutes.
  5. After the 35 minutes is up, tuck the clams and shrimp into the rice and mix in the tomato. Cook for ten more minutes, covered.
  6. Next, add in the parsley and salt and pepper to taste. Plate and serve with lemon slices.

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Humphreys Peak—Flagstaff, Arizona

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About a month ago I finally crossed one of the top items off of my Arizona bucket list and hiked to the highest point* in the state: Humphrey’s Peak (That spot you can’t see up there because it’s literally in the clouds!).

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So here’s the deal: It’s summer, in Phoenix and it is HOT. But funny thing, drive two hours north and it’s not. In fact, bring a sweatshirt. My friend Courtney and I piled in the car one night and hit the road for a quick and cool weekend get away. We arrived in Flagstaff and hit up Beaver Street Brewery for some grub (and awesome gluten free pizza with shrimp on it) and only one beer, knowing the day we had ahead of us. Then we headed out for our campground to gaze at the stars (you can see so many more than here in the valley, it was incredible!) and get as much rest as possible for our big hike.

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Unless you live at a high altitude, I highly suggest getting up to Flagstaff at least the night prior to hiking. Half of the trouble with this hike is that you are such a high altitude and your body isn’t used to the lack of oxygen. Phoenix sits at about 1,117 feet, Flagstaff is at about 7,000 ft, this hike starts at 9,266 ft and Humphrey’s Peak summits at 12,633 ft.

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We chose Humphreys Peak Trail (#51) because at about 5 miles one-way, it is the shortest hike up to the summit. So in that 5 miles of trail you gain more than 3,000 ft in elevation. Not an easy hike, but man is it worth it. We saw online that it’s about a 6 hour hike, but we planned to 8 to be safe.

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You guys, I can’t even find the words for this trail. I’ve been so used to hiking in the desert that I was constantly overwhelmed by the beauty (and the weather) on this hike. It was in the 50s when we woke up and got up to 75 (in Flagstaff) by the afternoon, but the higher we got on the mountain, the chillier it got—layers are key! Tall birch trees and pines lined the trail and I felt like I was in Colorado rather than Arizona. And since I’m having such a hard time with words right now, I’ll just let the pictures do the talking.

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The day wore on as we trekked our way up the mountain with plenty of breaks to catch our breath and refuel with some snacks. It was tiring but we had so much fun the whole way. We sat on fallen tree trunks looking out over the Kachina wilderness; sucked in the beauty and clean, crisp mountain air; met, chatted with and took turns taking pictures of other hikers on the trail; and finally, made it to the saddle (11,800 ft). We took some pictures and saw snow (what?! In July?! Yes.) and then the wind really started to pick up. So much so that we took cover behind a boulder to eat a sandwich and see if it would pass. It did not, and in fact the sky got increasingly darker. We were about an hour from the summit, but hikers coming down advised us not to go up. We took their advice and settled for the scenery at the saddle, which from what I heard is just as great of a view without the stress from fear of falling off the top during a storm. It seemed more of an accomplishment to make it home safely than to die trying to get to the summit, a decision I don’t regret.

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But, at the saddle we talked with tons of other hikers (who only added items to my AZ bucket list) and even met a fellow Cyclone (Let’s go, Iowa State!). I can’t wait to go back — this time all the way to the top!