Jan's Raspberry-Yogurt Swirl

Summer has finally come to the Black Hills! Our long winter turned out to be a very, very long winter.

October 4, 2013

We had snow from October to May, and almost every week in between.

April 2014

But - at long last - we're in the middle of our short spring, looking forward to a lovely summer!

Summer thunderheads. Beautiful, aren't they?

With summer comes our short window of time to make progress on the outdoor dreams.

We built the steps last year, and finished the fire ring a couple weeks ago.

October's storm has provided plenty of free firewood and a new hobby for the boys - using their skills with an ax. :)

This year, we're adding fruit to the yard.

It helps to have young muscles around for jobs like this!

We planted a cherry tree this week. Of course, Thatcher wanted to help!

The garden is planted, and the raspberry bushes are in!

The seeds are planted, and some are sprouting. I promise - this
will be a garden!

Speaking of raspberries, I've found my new favorite decadent-tasting snack.

It's only decadent tasting, because it's really quite healthy. No added sugar, low carbs, no fat. Can you really get any better than that?

We'll call it Jan's Raspberry-Yogurt Swirl

You can use any combination of ingredients you like, but this is what I use:

The main ingredients you don't want to change are the yogurt and raspberries - although you could certainly use strawberries, or blueberries, or blackberries....

You can use sweetened yogurt, too, or sweeten your plain yogurt with sugar instead of Truvia.

And you can use regular milk instead of almond milk. Or cream. Mmmm.... It's great with cream, although then it isn't low fat anymore!

Here's what you do: Put about one cup of yogurt in a bowl. Add about 2 Tablespoons of almond milk and 2 teaspoons Truvia (or sweetener of your choice). Mix well. It should be the consistency of pudding, but not too thick.

Now add up to 1/4 cup frozen raspberries. You can also use fresh, but frozen ones chill the yogurt down so it's almost like you're eating ice cream :)

Add a few extra raspberries to the top. Now, doesn't that look rich and decadent?

And it's guilt-free!!!!

It's the perfect summer afternoon snack. Let's all have a dish while we wait for the baby cherries to grow.

But we won't look too closely at the next project on the list...our poor lilac bush.

It wasn't doing all that great, and then October's storm really destroyed it. Poor thing.

Now it's your turn - tell us about your current outdoor project!