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Ch-Ch-Changes

(No, I don’t have a stutter. Just a cache of oldies songs stored in my memory banks.)

As you can obviously see, what used to be a blog titled The Dairymaid is now called She’s Dairy Made. I decided to do a little play on words and that’s what I came up with. Unfortunately, there were 2 of us “dairymaids” in the blogosphere. There’s me and there’s another one who writes about travel, design, and fashion. She’s been around longer than I have, so it’s only natural for me to no longer call myself “the dairymaid.” I’m greiving a little about it.

But, you know what? This new title is so fitting because it’s so true. I still have infinite things to learn, but I’m continuing to constantly evolve. A perpetual evolution. A city caterpillar transforming into a country butterfly.

Or maybe just transforming into the weirdest looking butterfly you’ve ever seen with only one side that has wings. (What?)

I can’t deny that the dairy lifestyle has changed me. Purified me. In just a year, I’ve learned so much. To read more about that, click here. http://wp.me/p1lzEK-hc

And, in essence, this little family of 3 IS dairy made. The farmer’s dairy born. Peanut’s dairy bred. And I’m in the making.

Maybe by the end of this wild, adventurous, entertaining journey, I will officially be dairy made.

Here’s to the future and Breauna 2.0.

Two of My Favorite Smoothies

I’ve mentioned before that I used The Abs Diet to lose the extra pounds Peanut left me with. That and ALOT of excersise. Anyway, the Abs Diet isn’t a diet. It’s a lifestyle change. It has forever affected what I eat, the meals I fix for my family, and how I look at food, in general.

Today, I thought I’d share with you two of my favorite smoothies. The recipes are from, naturally, the Abs Diet. (I am sorely lacking in food photography skills, but I attempted to show you what they look like.)

This first one is a triple berry flavor. It’s Peanut’s favorite and she’ll usually flat suck it down. It’s sweet and it’s packed full of protein and antioxidants.

Triple Berry Smoothie

Recipe: Triple Berry Smoothie (aka Belly-Busting Berry)

1 scoop low-fat vanilla ice cream

1/4 cup each frozen blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries (I get the no sugar added kind)

1/2 cup low-fat milk (I use 1%)

1 tbsp. vanilla whey protein powder

3 ice cubes (I use 6 because it makes it less frothy and more icy. Icy=yummy. And tricks my mind into thinking there’s more there to drink.)

Serves 1. 251 cal, 15 g protein, 38 g carbs, 4 g total fat, 2 g sat fat, 116 mg sodium, 4 g fiber

The next smoothie is a strawberry banana flavor. It is SO good, but I don’t make it as often as the triple berry because:

1. I don’t always have bananas on hand.

2. If I do have bananas, I might have to peel one and there are days I’m just too lazy to do that.

This smoothie is the farmer’s favorite because he loves pink.

Strawberry Banana Smoothie

Recipe: Strawberry Banana Smoothie (aka Strawberry Shortcut)

1 scoop low-fat strawberry ice cream

1/2 cup frozen strawberries

1/2 banana

1/2 cup low-fat milk

1 tbsp. vanilla whey protein powder

3 ice cubes (I use 9 or 10. This one is extra frothy.)

Serves 1. 283 cal, 14 g protein, 48 g carbs, 4 g total fat,

Although my husband is a dairy farmer, he rarely drinks milk. This is one way I get it down him. His muscles work hard every day and milk aids in protein synthesis. Efficient protein synthesis = bigger muscles. I like to think I’m feeding these to him for my own enjoyment. 😉 And then to top that all off, more muscle = not only looking good, but a faster metabolism.

Drinking low-fat milk not only strengthens bones, but it gives volume to your stomach. These smoothies are my go-to’s when I’m craving something sweet and I don’t have to deal with any guilt about slurping them down in 5 seconds flat. Scientists believe that calcium aids in weight loss because it blocks/metabolizes fat. What’s not to love about that? I’m not a scientist, but there’s a lot of dairy products in the Abs Diet and I’m thinner now than I was before I had Peanut.

 You need to make one of these today!

Drinking smoothies and supporting… myself?,

The Dairymaid

A Journal Entry

(I don’t have any pictures. So, I’m doing it journal-entry style today.)

2/5/2013

When Peanut got me up this morning, I thought it was going to be a very bad day. For one, it was way too early. For two, the farmer has changed his milking schedule around so he can spend more time with us in the evenings. (I was really missing the evening walks and just plain ol’ quality time that we used to have at night when we lived in the city. We’d work in the yard, watch our favorite tv shows, etc. There wasn’t anything pressing to do after we got home at night. I thrive on that sense of order and want to keep it intact for Peanut, as well.) So, the farmer is milking at 2 a.m. and 2 p.m. because he’s just a flat-out wonderful husband. As long as he gets to catch a little sleep when he comes back in, we both like this new schedule really well. However, when he goes out at 2 a.m., he has to drink coffee in order to function. When he crawls back into bed between 4 and 4:30, he’s awake. Flopping around. Trying to get comfortable. Needless to say, I’m awake at this point as well. 30 minutes later, Peanut is standing over me, whispering ever so sweetly in my ear, “You will make me a peanut butter sammy and you will do it right now.” That’s how she rolls. At 5:19, I’m in the kitchen making a peanut butter sandwich for my almost 3- year- old and waiting for my coffee to brew. This is our morning routine.

By 9 a.m., it might as well be 10 p.m. for me. So, I take some advice from a friend and make myself a drink.

 A pre-workout drink. (Come on, guys. ;))

 Muscletech Pre-Workout Amplifier (Not an advertisement. It’s just what I did.) I didn’t have plans to work out today because I did that yesterday and I can barely move. Yesterday, I drank 8 oz. of water and two scoops of that stuff. They tell you to drink it about 30 minutes before you work out. So, I downed it and sat down in my bedroom to read a book. Fast forward 15 minutes and I can barely focus on my book and I.Am. Itching. “Itching to work-out?” you ask. “No, literally itching.” Have you seen the SNL sketch where Kristen Wiig’s character  is “sooo excited?” Yeah, that was me yesterday. Fast forward 10 more minutes and I can’t even sit down. I threw the book down, put some work- out clothes on, put P90 in, did dumbbell curls while trying to clean house, and made it through the cardio workout without much trouble at all. I’m pretty sure I could have run through a wall without being phased. The itching stopped once I started exercising. So, today I thought, “Why not?” Increased productivity greatly outweighs excessive itching. Fast forward 5 minutes, and here we go again. I’m outside. I’m picking up trash. I’m moving metal. I’m out in the fields picking rocks. Tomorrow, I’m not even going to be able to get out of bed. I hadn’t done the cardio segment of P90 in almost a year. I was already sore this morning and I proceeded to further shred my (non-existent) muscles. Tomorrow, I have some marathon shopping planned, so I’m pretty sure I’ll die, but at least I’ll die happy. Doing one of the things I do best.

This afternoon, after eating a healthy lunch, mind you, I made molasses cookies. I wanted to see if this recipe was as good as the molasses cookies I remember my Aunt Sandy making when I was a kid. They weren’t. But, I still ate 7. And I remembered why I don’t bake cookies. Because I don’t have any self-restraint.

But, 7 is a holy number. So, I felt biblically justified.

The farmer said we’d continue working after he got done milking, which should be any minute now, so naturally, I’m going to go out, put a chain around my waist, and move tractors by myself.

 

Compulsive and keyed up,

 

The Dairymaid

Miles’ Night Out…Revisited

If you’re not familiar with the Miles Night Out post, here’s a refresher: http://wp.me/p1lzEK-2J

This post could also go along with Some Things I’ve Learned.

A few mornings ago, the farmer was walking through the field and noticed two little heads peeking above the grass. Twins! The only problem was their color. Jersey’s are not red or black. It was then that the farmer realized that the Lutalyse had not conquered all of Miles’ activities.

Interesting tidbit about twins that I learned: If you have twin heifers or bulls, everything might be just fine with both, although I did read that some could have reduced fertility or sterility . However, if you have a bull/heifer pair, the bull will be able to reproduce, but the heifer will not. She’s called a freemartin. Only 8% of heifer/bull twins don’t include a freemartin and the heifer will be able to reproduce.  So, basically, you have a bull and a steer. Right?… Yeah. Because we all know that I know exactly what I’m talking about.

They are pretty stinkin’ cute, though. Don’t ya think?

A few days later, he noticed that one of our other Jersey mamas was off by herself (read: in the calving way), so he kept an eye on her most of the day. At one point, he found her with her back down the hill, which is bad. Vety,vety baud. When any cow, not just a bred one, gets her back down a hill, it causes her to get bloated and she can’t get back up. If the fact that she’s like this goes unnoticed, she will die. Why? I do not know.

Fortunately, the farmer saw her and hurried down there to turn her around. She was calving and having a hard time because of this behemoth.

The farmer had to pull him. This is no Jersey calf, my friends. This is a strapping young lad that looks just like his Daddy…Poor momma. Jersey calves are very rarely this large.

The moral of this story is we learned a lesson. The farmer now knows when to administer Lutalyse (we’re gonna’ try a month after if this ever happens again) and I’ve learned that twins are not really something you want in dairy farming.

Miles has also helped us create a new breed: Jerfords.

Oh yeah, and the farmer texted me this afternoon with a picture of a baby calf. Another one of Miles’ progeny.

I sure hope he had fun….

The Dairymaid