Kimmie in Real Life (week 2)

What another great week we had,
although this was a different week than normal as it was the last day of school for the kids on May 27th and it is our tradition to go and have lunch at Craigo's and I was NOT going to break my promise to the kids and so we did enjoy lunch on the last day of school at Craigo's. Yummy!!

Also, we went on a little weekend getaway and I packed all of our food for all our meals, (except I bought a $1.25 Foccacia Bun for our sandwiches as I didn't have time to bake bread and I didn't have any bread in the freezer)
AND we did enjoy "In-n-Out" Burgers and Fries" one of the nights of our getaway.

Here are some of the
Food Highlights from our week.

Bountiful Baskets
provided us with a coconut and we had SO much fun getting the milk out, making a smoothie with it and then having MUCH patience scooping out the meat.

I even grated up coconut and toasted it and we enjoyed it on our weekend pancakes.
It was SO yummy and such a fun treat for the kids.

Twas' the last week of school...
What does that mean?
It means we make up a bunch of Caramel Apples for the kids to take to their teachers and other people that made a difference in their lives during the school year.

I just use my Caramel Recipe that I make at Christmas Time (all of the ingredients are food storage ingredients that I always have on hand). I use the Vanilla caramel version and then just put a Bamboo stick in the top of the apple, hold it over the caramel and spoon the caramel over the apple to completely cover it, then I sprinkle on chopped up Peanut M&M's and let them cool in a plastic container, wrap in Cellophane and tie with ribbon...
click here for the recipe

Dipping the apples
kind of makes a big BLOB of a mess with the caramel and the chopped up M&M's and so I just took the blob after it cooled, cut it into chunks and then we had little Caramel chunks to munch on during the week.

Another YUMMY smoothie
using fruit from our freezer/Bountiful Basket.

We went on a getaway over the Memorial Day weekend and so to keep from eating out, I took along all of the fixings to make little Lunch-ables for our lunches.
I made up a big container of Tuna Fish/boiled egg salad, had a container of sliced tomatoes, a large container of sliced cucumbers, a large container of baby carrots and little containers of Ranch dip. We enjoyed these for both of our lunches. We just pulled out all the containers, made sandwiches, filled our little trays with veggies and Enjoyed!
The kids just LOVED these!
(we got a Brownie mix from one of our neighbors for Christmas and I made this up and then individually wrapped the brownies in plastic wrap for the kids to feel like we had gotten a treat at the store).

(May 23rd to May 29th)
Sunday
Breakfast…bananas
Lunch/dinner---buttermilk pancakes/leftover potatoes and chicken from Tracy’s camp out
Snack—Quesadilla

Monday
Steel Cut Oats
Scrambled egg sandwiches, (pancake sandwich for Ethan) carrot sticks, vanilla yogurt with fresh sliced strawberries, cinnamon roasted almonds
Vegetable Beef Soup/Garlic toast on homemade French Bread

Tuesday
Steel Cut Oats
Leftover vegetable beef soup, chocolate chunk cookies, carrot sticks, apple
(Ethan—scrambled egg sandwich, yogurt/ fresh strawberries, carrot sticks, cookie)
Enchiladas topped with fresh tomatoes, lettuce and sour cream

Wednesday
Steel Cut Oats
Leftover Enchiladas, apple, fresh peach, carrot sticks, caramel chunks
BLT sandwiches on Homemade Bread, Carrot Sticks

Thursday
Fruit and Yogurt Smoothie and Buttermilk Biscuits
Took kids to lunch at Craigo’s for last day of school (all you can eat Pizza, Pasta and Salad bar). We were so stuffed we didn’t have anything else to eat the rest of the day)

Friday
Pancakes, eggs, yogurt and fresh fruit with toasted coconut
Leftover Soup/Garlic Toast on Homemade French Bread
Bananas

Saturday
Steel Cut Oats
Tuna Sandwiches, carrots sticks, sliced cucumbers, Brownies
(Ate dinner at In-n-Out Burger on our trip)

Snacks:
Carrot sticks
Cinnamon Roasted Almonds
Caramel chunks
Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Fresh baked bread and toast
Bananas

Week 2 was another Great Week!
I'm SO excited that we get to order Bountiful Baskets this week as we didn't have this available to us this time around. I'm going to try and NOT go to the store this week for produce. I think we should make it since we still have some things left from last week...it will be close, but do-able. I will have to be more creative this week with snacks and fruit/veggies for my kiddos.
I'm learning SO much
and having FUN along the way!!

Back to Basics!

"Think what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down on our blankets for a nap".

Barbara Jordan

I'm always fascinated to see how other people do things in regards to cooking, baking and recipes. I work with several people who have a recipe for raisin cookies, a recipe for oatmeal cookies, a recipe for chocolate chip cookies.

I'm kind of boring in this regard because I use the SAME recipe for all of these. I have one BASIC recipe that I use and then I just add in extra things to give it variety and spice it up a bit.

I was cleaning out my pantry and food storage room a few weeks ago and came across a bag that had a few JuJu Bunnies left over from Easter in it and so I chopped them up into small pieces and added them to my oatmeal cookie dough and made
"Gumdrop Cookies".

I came across
8 miniature "Hershey's Special Dark" bars in our food storage room...

cut them into chunks
and made "Chocolate Chunk" cookies.
 

For some reason, when I make up these cookies they are very much enjoyed!
 Who would have thunk,
that basic Oatmeal cookies with a
handful of dried Cherries,
a handful of Raisins
about 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
and about an 1/8 cup of white chocolate chips would be such a hit.
WOW, talk about a delicious cookie!

Can also add in a handful of M&M's for M&M's cookies. 

The "sky is the limit"

to the possibilities for this recipe.

HELPFUL TIP...

I used to buy Quick Oats just for my cookie recipes, but I ran out one day and so I just added in "Old Fashioned Oats" and beat the dough a little bit longer to break up the oatmeal and it turned out perfectly and I haven't bought a box of Quick Oats, since I tried that experiment.

It makes rotating my food storage easier, because I just only buy Steel Cut Oats for Breakfast and then Old Fashioned Oats for all of my other baking needs.

Kimmie's Cookies
1 cube REAL butter
½ cup white sugar
½ cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ cups unbleached flour
1 cup Old Fashioned Oats (enough to make a nice dough)
½ teaspoon soda
¼ teaspoon salt
(add in your choice of chocolate chips, chocolate/butterscotch chips mixed, M&M’s, raisins, or Gumdrops cut into little pieces)

Cream together sugar and butter.
Add egg, vanilla, salt and soda.
Then add flour and oatmeal.
Then add in chocolate chips, M&M’s, raisins or gumdrops. Mix well
Roll into balls and put on greased cookie sheet. (if dough is a little sticky, roll into balls and then put in the fridge to chill for 3-4 minutes before baking)
Bake in 375 degree oven for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned.

*************************

These are always a hit anytime they are made!
Enjoy!!

Back to Basics!

"Think what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down on our blankets for a nap".

Barbara Jordan

I'm always fascinated to see how other people do things in regards to cooking, baking and recipes. I work with several people who have a recipe for raisin cookies, a recipe for oatmeal cookies, a recipe for chocolate chip cookies.

I'm kind of boring in this regard because I use the SAME recipe for all of these. I have one BASIC recipe that I use and then I just add in extra things to give it variety and spice it up a bit.

I was cleaning out my pantry and food storage room a few weeks ago and came across a bag that had a few JuJu Bunnies left over from Easter in it and so I chopped them up into small pieces and added them to my oatmeal cookie dough and made
"Gumdrop Cookies".

I came across
8 miniature "Hershey's Special Dark" bars in our food storage room...

cut them into chunks
and made "Chocolate Chunk" cookies.

I add in a handful of raisins to make Raisin cookies, or a handful of plain M&M's to make M&M cookies.

(raisin cookies are MY favorite option)

The "sky is the limit"

to the possibilities for this recipe.

HELPFUL TIP...

I used to buy Quick Oats just for my cookie recipes, but I ran out one day and so I just added in "Old Fashioned Oats" and beat the dough a little bit longer to break up the oatmeal and it turned out perfectly and I haven't bought a box of Quick Oats, since I tried that experiment.

It makes rotating my food storage easier, because I just only buy Steel Cut Oats for Breakfast and then Old Fashioned Oats for all of my other baking needs.

Kimmie's Cookies
1 cube REAL butter
½ cup white sugar
½ cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ cups unbleached flour
1 cup Old Fashioned Oats (enough to make a nice dough)
½ teaspoon soda
¼ teaspoon salt
(add in your choice of chocolate chips, chocolate/butterscotch chips mixed, M&M’s, raisins, or Gumdrops cut into little pieces)

Cream together sugar and butter.
Add egg, vanilla, salt and soda.
Then add flour and oatmeal.
Then add in chocolate chips, M&M’s, raisins or gumdrops. Mix well
Roll into balls and put on greased cookie sheet. (if dough is a little sticky, roll into balls and then put in the fridge to chill for 3-4 minutes before baking)
Bake in 375 degree oven for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned.

*************************

These are always a hit anytime they are made!
Enjoy!!

Accountability is a good thing!

Accountability:
1. obliged to account for one's acts; responsible
2. capable of being accounted for; explainable

Our ward (local church congregation) has been having budget meetings for the past few months and it has been wonderful to hear how other families deal with their finances and budgets, etc....

Tracy and I had to participate in our last meeting and I made the following statement:
"Other than buying a Bountiful Basket every week and buying a gallon of milk every other week, we are not going to go to the store for three months and we are going to live off our food storage".

I HATE debt and I just want one of our debts gone and so by living off our food storage and putting the money we normally spend on food/toiletries towards debt for three months it will mean we can pay off the balance of our HELOC in three months instead of six months and then this debt will be gone forever!

(Of course we will be replenishing our food storage over time...but, this little trial run gives us a way to see what we are missing if we were to have to live on our food storage for an extended period of time AND we get to rotate our food storage as well. It is a WIN-WIN!!
BTW...I am not predicting any kind of cataclysmic event, but this is just one of the things that we do as part of our Provident Living and Frugal lifestyle.
(this is the same kind of thing we did in January when we did trial runs of what kind of lighting is best if we were without power for an extended period of time (to see the results of this test click here)

SO,
I had a good friend email me and ask me what we are going to eat for the next three months while we do our "plan of attack" I soon realized that I really needed to be accountable for my statement I made in that meeting.

SO, I am going to journal the meals/snacks we eat every week so that I can have this to remember when I look back on my life in future years.
It's my way of being accountable.
I am always fascinated when I read my past journals and see what meals we ate, how we made our money stretch, etc....

So, here goes now until Pay Day on August 25th
(here are photos of our freezer/food storage
showing what I have to work with the next three months

So, Mondays are going to be
"Kimmie in Real Life"
and a list of what we ate the week before and my thoughts/feelings on how the week went.
It will show that we eat simply, but we eat well and that some days are definitely better than others!

Just for fun...
Jade LOVES looking at our old photo albums of newlywed days and when he was a baby. This photo is awesome in showing that we have always ate frugally as Tracy and I were heading out on date and we had a thermos of peppermint tea and a thermos of Broccoli soup and homemade bread that we ate in the mall parking lot.
Those were the days
and I sometimes miss the simple life that we lived back then.

May 16th to 22nd

Sunday
Pancakes and Eggs
Spaghetti, Brussel Sprouts, Buttermilk Biscuits

Monday
Steel Cut Oats
(kids) Peanut butter and jelly biscuit sandwiches, carrot sticks, apples,
(Tracy)leftover spaghetti and Brussel Sprouts, apple, dried cherries
Corn on the cob, biscuits and gravy
(THIS was seriously a night I wanted so bad to call Tracy and have him pick up a $5.00 "Hot and Ready" pizza. HOWEVER, I opened my fridge and realized we had corn on the cob, opened my freezer and saw I had a baggie of roast beef drippings and so I made some homemade gravy, baked up a batch of Buttermilk Biscuits and we had this with corn on the cob...YUMMY!)

Tuesday
Steel cut oats
Yogurt with sliced mangos, pretzel mix, carrot sticks, string cheese, frosted grahams
Taco Salad

Wednesday
Steel Cut Oats
Leftover Taco Salad, yogurt with fresh mangoes, frosted grahams
(Ethan…boiled egg, huckleberry muffins, carrot sticks, sliced apples, string cheese, frosted grahams)
Sliced watermelon, Tacos

Thursday
Steel Cut Oats
Homemade rolls/roast beef sandwiches, gumdrop oatmeal cookies, banana, fresh peaches
Sweet and Sour Chicken Stir-fry
**(sandwiches were made out of a roast I cooked all day in the crock-pot and shredded)

Friday
Steel Cut Oats
Leftover Stir Fry (Tracy, Jade and Kimmie) Roast Beef sandwiches (Ethan), banana, fresh peaches, gumdrop oatmeal cookies,
Scrambled eggs, toasted rolls, fresh peaches

Saturday
Leftover fruit and muffins
Homemade fruit leather
Leftover Stir-Fry and Snickerdoodles
(for dinner we were in Idaho Falls and since it is close to pay day we split a "Large Nacho Mucho" between the four of us at our favorite Mexican restaurant and only spent $10.25)

(Sunday-Thursday we had a Fresh Lime drink for dinner from the limes we got in our Bountiful Basket)
(other snacks)
Gumdrop cookies
Snickerdoodles
Muffins
Fruit Leather
Bananas and apples
Hot chocolate

PS...note to self...remember to not start any laundry until after 7:00 pm so we don't have to listen to the washer and dryer while we're enjoying family dinner.
Happy Week!

Not too Salty, Not too Sweet.

Sometimes

you crave a recipe and you don't care if it's frugal or healthy for you...
it's just plain YUMMY!!

I am a lover of Salted Nut Rolls.
I don't know if I like Salted Nut Rolls or Pay Day candy bars more.
They are both SO good!

10 years ago a co-worker of mine brought a pan of these yummy bars to work and I kept snitching and snitching and couldn't believe how delicious they were.
She was SO nice to share the recipe.

I usually only make these during the summer time, because it is a yummy treat that doesn't require heating my whole house up with our oven.
That's what's fun about being frugal with almost every aspect of your life, is you can have some "splurges" every once in awhile with CALORIES and "not so frugal" baking.
Life is about Balance!

A perfectly yummy treat
for little kids, teenagers and adults...
If you love the Salted Nut Rolls you purchase from the store, you will LOVE these as well.

Salted Nut Rolls
1 large jar salted peanuts
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 pkg. Mini marshmallows
1 pkg. Peanut butter chips
3 Tbsp butter

Melt butter and peanut butter ships in microwave until melted.
Stir in sweetened condensed milk and cook for 1 minute. (make sure not to make mixture too HOT).
Stir in most of marshmallows and microwave for 30 more seconds.
Layer ½ of peanuts in 9x13 pan.
Pour on marshmallow mixture.
Sprinkle rest of peanuts/marshmallows on top.
Refrigerate 4-5 hours.

Not too Salty, Not too Sweet, but just right.
Once you eat one it’s hard to not eat the whole pan!

These store VERY well
in a cool place, or the fridge. We were eating these 2 weeks after they were made and they still tasted as fresh and yummy as the first day we made them.
Enjoy!!

A week of memorable moments!

What an absolutely wonderful week it has been!
We celebrated a birthday,
had MANY warm days with blue skies and sunshine,
had fun building a school project
and most of all had many moments of family fun, joy, laughter and beauty .

Highlights of some of our

HAPPY moments this past week.

How did the time pass SO quickly...
it just seems like yesterday when these photos were taken.
You were such an adorable, HAPPY baby and I couldn't get enough of you. I could just sit and hold you, rock you and talk to you all day long.

I LOVED being a mom to you from the moment I first held you.
You have filled our lives with so much happiness and joy these past 16 years

Now look at you...
All grown up and 16!!

Birthday tradition...
Opening the "Bubbly"!
(Sparkling Grape Juice that is)

A Birthday Toast!

Lighting the Candles...
(the bottom right photo is priceless as Jade missed blowing out one candle and Ethan decided to help him out.
Jade wasn't too happy and Ethan is being his typical silly self).
Gotta LOVE the moments where sibling rivalry kicks in!

The Gifts...
(I got every single thing for half price and so it looks like quite a few things to open, but not much money was spent)

Jade has been wanting
a way to listen to music in his room and so Tracy found a great deal on this "Mini Move" and you put your Ipod on it and it plays your music.
Kind of a boom box for Ipods.

Jade brings JOY to our life and is always JOLLY and happy go-lucky. He is ALWAYS quick to forgive and the first to say "I'm sorry"!

Animal lover and artistic!! If there is an animal or creature to be found Jade will be the one to find it and his artistic ability and creativity are awesome!

Determined! Jade is not a fast runner at all, but he finishes each and every race he starts and always ends with a SMILE!
Endearing! Jade has a LOVE for people and is SO friendly and is always quick to show his love to others through genuine compliments! Another way he shows his loves is he always gives you a great massage or neck rub. Many a people have benefited from Jade's magic touch with massages!!

What an honor and blessing
it is to be Jade's mom!

Jade had a Hydraulic Science project due this week. It had to involve 2 syringes hooked together with plastic tubing and filled with colored water and the syringes had to push or move an object.
Tracy took some miscellaneous pieces of scrap wood from his garage and they built this contraption.
You push on the outer syringe and it raises up the lever and if you pull out on the outer syringe it lowers it.
We put a magnet on the end of the lever and when you lowered it into the white container it picked up scrap metal.
The kids learned SO much from this project and Ethan has now claimed this as his.
He LOVES the mechanics of how this works.

Thank Heaven for Dad's!
I feel SO lucky that my children have Tracy for their dad. Anytime they have to make a project for school, it is always dad to the rescue and he does a CLASS ACT job with anything he makes!

****************************

Mother's Day

(Mother's Day letter from Ethan May 2010)

"Happy Mother's Day!!!!!
You're the best mom in the world and I mean it.
You make the best cookies ever to.
When I eat them I think I die and go to heaven.
If you die I would cry till I died.
I couldn't live without you.
You are the best mom ever.
I love you "meat bag". I hope I made you laugh on that one.
Love, Ethan"

What an absolutely priceless note
from my sweet little boy. I cried many tears over that little treasure!
Moments like this are what life is all about!

We had a gorgeous rainstorm on Thursday.
Tracy and Jade were helping with a service project in our ward and I was outside weeding and working in the yard and noticed the storm coming and LOVED how it looked with the heavy gray clouds and the blue sky just to the south of it.
This is the view from my dining room window.

I came home to a sweet note
from my sweetheart Tracy and I also noticed that he had left a note with a dry erase marker on my entry wall hanging.
I'm so LUCKY to feel loved and appreciated every day of my life!!

This is a view I see almost daily.
The energy of little kids is abundant and they love to run, jump or skip everywhere they go.
Ethan could jump on the trampoline all day if we let him.

I am SPOILED
to have a hubby who can fix anything that is broken. Here he is fixing one of our garden hoses with cutting out the broken piece and then splicing it back together.
The bottom photo
shows our gorgeous tulips with my hubby in the background working miracles on our garden hose.

very, very lucky to have Tracy in my life!

6:00 am Sunday walk with Mr. Smith
It has literally been weeks since we have had SO many blue skies and we celebrated the cool morning beauty enjoying a walk around our neighborhood and then taking care of the chickens after we got back.

MY VERY favorite time of the day is the morning time...
I love the cool air, dew on the lawn and plants, the abundance of birds chirping and the look of everything as the sun is just starting to come up. It's peaceful, quiet and serene. There is not a more gorgeous time of the day to me than early morning time.

Thanks to my VERY artistic hubby,
he has created the most awesome SWOOPS around our lawn edge. This photo was taken at the end of our driveway..

This is walking up to our front porch.
I just LOVE the way the lawn edge and rock wall perfectly match.
All of these awesome things are thanks to TRACY!
All I did was choose and plant what is in the beds
(and I am also the one that nurtures and takes care of everything)
but all of the cool features of our yard...
the hard-scape of the rock wall and steps, the gravel path, the Picket Fence, the lamp post and the lawn shape, were done by my awesome hubby!!
I LOVE MY YARD!
It is my serenity and feeds my soul to be outside in nature and I feel SO blessed to have such a place of beauty to enjoy right in my own yard.

Just as I was taking a moment
to savor and enjoy the gorgeous tulips that are blooming all over my yard....

I realize REAL quick
that I am a mom of BOYS when Jade runs up and shows me the baby snake he just found!

And you know what...
snakes and all, I LOVE each and every moment of my wonderful life with my family!