The Runaway Bride Smoothie Recipe from Author Noelle Marchand

On Monday we visited with Noelle Marchand, author of the newly released novel, The Runaway Bride. Noelle is giving away a copy of her novel to one lucky winner from Monday's post. So if you haven't stopped by to enter the giveaway yet, be sure to do so. In the meantime, here's a recipe to share:

The Runaway Bride Smoothie  



Ingredients:
1 ½  cups frozen strawberries
1 banana
6 ounce cup of raspberry yogurt
½ cup of cranberry-raspberry juice
 2 ounces of pineapple or orange juice

Directions:
1.    Place ingredients in blender.
2.    Blend until smooth.
3.    Serve and enjoy. Makes about 20 ounces.



Goodness, does this sound like the perfect summer treat. Thanks for sharing, Noelle!

The only husband Lorelei Wilkins ever wanted was Sean O'Brien, but she's wasted too much time waiting for him to love her back. When another man proposes, she accepts—until she stands at the altar…and realizes she can't marry without love. Bolting out of town toward a fresh start, she never suspected her parents would send Sheriff O'Brien to bring her home!

After an innocent mistake leaves Lorelei and her reluctant rescuer with compromised reputations, marriage is their only option. But first they must triumph over suspicious locals, shady characters, an inconvenient groom and the bride's own stubborn heart. Will it take putting their lives on the line for Sean and Lorelei to realize that only love can conquer all?

Iced Coffee Recipe

With our summer stretching on as hot as can be and no real end in sight, I've often found myself too hot for a midday cup of coffee. Yes, I sniffle as I say this, because I've truly come to relish the cup of coffee I have after lunch every day. However, after about a month or so of experimenting, I think I've come up with an excellent iced coffee recipe that cost only a fraction of the price as the fancy iced coffees for sale in coffee shops.



Ingredients:
1 packet of instant coffee (You can use flavored coffee, in fact, my favorite is Starbucks's instant mocha)
1 cup of milk
 6 ice cubes
1/8-1/4 cup of sweetened coffee creamer ( I use the white chocolate mocha creamer, which complements the instant mocha coffee).

** Note: How much sweetener you add depends on how sweet you like your iced coffee. If you're going for a Starbucks or McDonald kind of sweetness, then you'd want to use about a quarter cup of creamer. If you just want your coffee a little sweet, use less.

Directions:
Throw it all into a blender and pulse it on the setting that crushes ice (usually the highest setting). You might test the taste and consistency before pouring the mixture into a cup, as both can vary from day to day. Add more milk if the coffee taste is too strong or the smoothie is to thick, and add more sweetener if it's too bitter.

Have fun:
To change the flavor of your iced coffee, try different flavors of instant coffee and creamers combinations. For example, I mentioned mocha flavored ingredients above, but you could try French vanilla coffee with French Vanilla creamer for vanilla flavored coffee. Feel free to experiment with other flavors like hazelnut and caramel as well.

And you can always garnish your coffee with chocolate or caramel syrup on the top for an extra sweet touch!