Kimmie in Real Life (week 5)

ONE
person
can make
such a
difference!!




(Jade noticed as we were heading out on our weekly date that we were both wearing brown and so he snapped this photo of us!)

It's amazing how one person can make such a difference.
With Tracy being gone to Scout Camp for the majority of the week, we didn't go through as much food as we usually do. NOT because he is a big eater, but because we only fed three people dinner instead of four people. I didn't think it made that much difference, but it really did.

SO happy to have the love of my life home safe and sound and my boys are THRILLED to have their dad home as well.

I do have a confession to make this week...
I did spend $1.00 at the grocery store. My kids have been begging for our refreshing lime drink since the days are getting hotter and I noticed that our local grocery store had limes on sale 10 for $1.00 and so I went in and picked up 10 limes.

Other than that one expenditure,
I spent the rest of the week using up our Bountiful Baskets and putting our food storage to good use as well.

Here are some Food Highlights from this week.

Every Saturday after we pick our Bountiful Basket, I come home and pull all of the lettuce apart and run each leaf under water and then pat it dry with a paper towel.
I then put the lettuce in a Zip-loc bag
and then get as much air out as I can.
This makes the lettuce last much longer.

Sunday I had good intentions
to make a yummy Sunday evening snack and so I made up Cream Puffs in the afternoon, but got side-tracked helping Tracy get packed and ready for Scout Camp and I totally spaced off making up some pudding to fill the Cream Puffs with,
SO, I just used them for lunch the next day and filled them with Tuna Salad for sandwiches.
They were delicious!

Our family LOVES real Maple Syrup,
however, it is $13.88 for a jug of this and so to make it stretch I alternate between filling the maple syrup jar with REAL maple syrup and homemade syrup.
After eating our pancakes on Monday evening, we had emptied the jar and so I made a batch of syrup, since the previous filling of the jar was REAL maple syrup.

RECIPE for Homemade Syrup
1 cup raw cane sugar
1/2 cup water
2 teaspoons Mapeleine Extract
Bring water to boil, add in sugar and extract
boil for 10 minutes. Cool and fill jar.

ENJOY!!

Tuesday was kind of a "clean out the fridge/freezer smoothie.
I even added in the rest of the Bok Choy to the smoothie and the kids never even knew it was in there.

Ethan's comment about Cantaloupe
was priceless this week.
As was cutting open the Cantaloupe Ethan said:
"Mom, that Cantaloupe looks like a brain...that will probably make me really smart"!

This was such a delicious smoothie.
Since I didn't have yogurt, I added in cottage cheese and it was perfectly yummy!
I LOVE making smoothies and my kids LOVE summer-time because we have smoothies many times during the week.

I haven't made this recipe for years.
Jade came with us on Saturday to pick up our Bountiful Basket and he spied the yummy nine-grain bread that they had available.
He asked me if I would make my rolls that had "seeds" on the top of them.
I made some modifications to the recipe to work with what ingredients I had on hand and these rolls/bread seriously, look and taste like something you would purchase out of a bakery. I ended up baking 3 batches of these this week.
They're so good we are giving them as part of our Father's Day gifts.
(click here for recipe)
Amazing!!

This soup also makes the top five
favorite meals we make for dinner.
I love having ingredients on hand that I can quickly throw a pot of soup together.
I pulled out a package of Cooked Wild Rice and Cooked turkey from our freezer and was able to whip up a pot of Chicken and Wild Rice Soup in no time at all.
(for recipe click here)

It was such a novelty to have fresh green beans to enjoy in JUNE and our favorite thing to make with fresh green beans is Shepherd's Pie.
(for recipe click here)

June 13th- 20th
Sunday—
Apple Slices
Tacos and grape and banana kabobs
Garlic Toast and Pasta with white sauce, shrimp and broccoli

Monday
Steel Cut Oats
Yogurt
Cream puffs filled with Tuna Salad, grapes, apple slices
Whole Wheat pancakes and scrambled eggs and ham

Tuesday
Steel Cut Oats
Bananas
Broccoli and carrot sticks with Homemade Ranch
Smoothie and Quesadillas
Multi Grain Rolls and Wild Rice Soup
(my parents stopped by with one hours notice and so I was thrilled that this was a good day and we had yummy soup, rolls and Fresh Lime drink to feed them for dinner)

Wednesday
Steel Cut Oats
Apricots, leftover Wild Rice Soup and toast
Smoothie and toast

Thursday
ZOOM cereal
Apricots, peanut butter and honey rolls, fresh corn and broccoli
Southwestern Beans and Rice Burritos, carrot sticks
Apples

Friday
Steel Cut Oats
Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, carrot sticks, apple slices, Gumdrop Bread
Shepherd’s Pie and homemade Multi-Grain rolls
(we went up to Scout Camp to watch the boys do their skit and so I made up Shepherd's Pie and rolls that we enjoyed that evening)

Saturday
Peanut Butter and Jelly on Multi-Grain rolls, milk
Leftover Shepherd's Pie
Carrot Sticks, apple slices, cherries and rolls

Snacks
Popcorn
Carrot Sticks
Gumdrop bread
Idaho Spud Bars

I'm learning SO much!!
Thursday, Tracy came home from camp for a day to catch up with work, I had Physical Therapy, helped Tracy get gear unloaded from the car and then Ethan had Tae-Kwon-Do at 6:00. We didn't have time to eat dinner before we left and I was SO tired after Ethan was done that I just wanted to say
"Let's Grab a Hot and Ready and head home".
HOWEVER, I didn't give in and instead remembered that we had SouthWestern beans and rice in the freezer (click here for recipe)
and we also had tortillas in the fridge and so I came home and pulled a package out of the freezer, heated it up on the stove and made us burritos for dinner.

It was such a GOOD feeling
to not give into temptation and to keep moving forward with my quest.

My family is SO excited
for all of the yummy things we get to enjoy this week...
cherries, grapes, peaches, plums, cantaloupe, more salads and broccoli!!

Life sometimes throws us curve balls and even though life isn't always a cake walk, there is not a day that goes by that I don't say:
"LIFE IS GOOD"!!