Kimmie in Real Life (weeks 11 &12)

WEEK 11

HOT!!!
That is how the last week of July was.
Here in Southeast Idaho, we usually get one week in July that is SO hot, it is really hard to keep cool.

Thank goodness
for having a box full of Otter Pops in our food storage that I was able to throw in the freezer so we could keep cool on those extremely hot days.

This day was a hectic day
and so the quickest thing to fix the kids for lunch when I got home from work was Cornmeal pancakes and a big bowl of grapes.
What kid doesn't LOVE breakfast for lunch or dinner.

After lunch I pulled a snack sized bag of ham out of the freezer and threw it in a pot with split peas and made up a yummy pot of Split Pea Soup for dinner.

Ethan would love it
if we made Cornbread every day.

Jade begged for Double Chocolate cookies,
only I didn't realize that he had been sneaking the chocolate chips and there was barely a handful left.
SO, I took my recipe and added in a large spoonful of peanut butter in place of the chocolate chips and they turned out quite tasty.
I think that will definitely be something we will be making up again, especially when I find myself low on chocolate chips.

YAY!!
Tracy got to enjoy our Friday smoothie with us. He is never home for lunch during the week and so what a joy it was to eat lunch with him on a Friday afternoon.
This was so refreshing to cool off from the hot summer heat.

Tracy promised Ethan we would
roast up Hot Dogs for dinner.
(I am NOT a Hot Dot person, but will eat an ALL Beef Hot Dog...my body can't handle the cheap ones).

We had bought some of these last fall and had them in our freezer. SO, I decided to venture out and make Hot Dog Buns.

I took my French Bread recipe (click here)
and divided it into ten pieces and formed into small loaves.
They were perfect
and would make perfect Hoagie Buns for a yummy sandwich.
Since our buns were so big compared to the Hot Dogs, we cut the Hot Dogs length wise and put 3 pieces on the bun, along with a large spoonful of sauteed onions and they were amazing!
(and that says alot coming from someone who is not a fan of hot dogs).

Homemade buns make ANY Hot Dog taste yummy!!

July 25th to 31st
Sunday
Bananas
Burritos

Monday
Steel Cut Oats
Cornmeal pancakes, Bananas, apples, grapes
Split Pea Soup and corn bread
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

Tuesday
Steel Cut Oats
Leftover corn bread, Split Pea Soup and apples
Chow Mein, (made with Roast Beef I pulled from my freezer), Lime Drink
Orange Rolls

Wednesday
Steel Cut Oats
(Tracy) Roast Beef Sandwiches, apples, Orange Rolls
Chow Mein , smoothies, toast
Lime Drink

Thursday
Steel Cut Oats
Banana, potato salad, whole wheat toast, sliced apples
Went and enjoyed Blizzards at DQ
Tracy heated up a can of Dinty Moore Stew over his new backpacking stove he made
(YUCK…it didn’t sound good to me, but Ethan just loved it!)
Lime Drink

Friday
Smoothie, Garlic/cheese toast
Bananas
ALL BEEF hot dogs on homemade buns with sautéed onions
Lime Drink

Saturday
Steel Cut Oats
Grapes, garlic cheese bread
Finished off the ALL BEEF hot dogs on our homemade buns topped with more sautéed

WEEK 12

(After a hectic week of getting our yard ready to leave and getting us all packed...Kimmie was able to have peace and solitude in the mountains.
This is overlooking Sunset Lake!)

We decided to take our
Sunday afternoon dinner to the desert.
I got the Dutch Oven all filled with ingredients for Chicken and Rice and filled our cooler while Tracy and the boys loaded the car with our portable table and briquettes and everything for the Dutch Oven.
We went out to the Civil Defense Caves and Tracy got the coals all ready and placed them below and on top of the Dutch Oven and we got dinner cooking while we went through one of the entrances to the cave.
We came back and ate dinner and then went through the second entrance.
Our kids had SO much fun!!

It's amazing
how you can do something a little out of the ordinary and the kids just LOVE it!!
Moments like these are priceless memories!

I cleaned out the fridge
and we had enough purple and green grapes to make a smoothie.
YUMMY!!

We inherited some chickens
and one of them ended up being a rooster and so we spent an afternoon butchering our rooster...
which we the simmered on the stove all night...
it made such delicious broth and we had the BEST Chicken Noodle Soup I think I've ever eaten.

This was my Monday afternoon...
as soon as I got a smoothie made for the kids, I made a batch of egg noodles and cut them out, let them dry and added them to our Chicken Noodle Soup later that afternoon.

My sweet neighbor gave me a big bowl of tart cherries and so I made these into a yummy pie.
We put ingredients in our ice cream maker and made a batch of yummy homemade ice cream.
These treats were enjoyed as we played a game of CLUE together as a family.

(For yummy pie recipe click here)

I feel like a pro with making Tortillas now.
I have found that the key to helping them to stay round is to lightly loosen all of the edges and gently pick them up when you put them on the griddle.
Homemade tortillas taste SO much better than store bought.

My other neighbor brought down
a big bag of Chili Peppers.
I have never done anything with these types of peppers before.
SO, I ventured out and roasted them in our oven until they were blistered,
put them in a plastic bag to let them sweat
and then pulled the skins off them and pulled out the seeds.
I made up a batch of Chili Rellenos (my brother in law's recipe) and wrapped them in the tortillas and covered them in salsa and sour cream.
I had kids and hubby begging for more!

After trying many Granola Bar recipes,
these was by far the yummiest and held together the best while being thrown around in a backpack.
(AND they use food storage ingredients, so I could throw together a batch anytime of the year and always have everything that they call for).
(here for recipe)

We spent 3 wonderful days in the High Country
as a family backpacking together.
Each morning my sweetie could be found lighting his stove and making up a big pot of ZOOM cereal.

Kimmie and Ethan
enjoying some warm breakfast to get jump started for our day of hiking.

All of our backpacker meals use Freeze dried Corn and Peas
(this particular meal we had found some wild onions along the way that we chopped and added to our soup).
To the hot water, and corn and peas we then added in a package of Ramen and also potato flakes and it is such a quick and easy backpacking meal that is filling and quite inexpensive.

I don't think there is a more treasured time than being in the high country enjoying eating lunch together
as a family...enjoying such pristine beauty!
I never tire of being in the wilderness with my family!

(August 1st to August 7th)
Sunday
Dutch Oven Chicken and Rice and Lime Drink

Monday
Steel Cut Oats
(Tracy) Boiled Eggs, Apple, Gumdrop bread, Grapes
(kids) Smoothie, Gumdrop Bread
Chicken soup with homemade egg noodles
(broth made from our rooster)

Tuesday
Steel Cut Oats
(kids) Smoothie, Tuna on Crackers
(tracy)Leftover Chicken Noodle Soup, apple, Gumdrop Bread
Chili Rellenos made with green chilies we roasted that our neighbors gave to us
(served in homemade tortillas we made as well)
Homemade Cherry Pie with Homemade Ice Cream

Wednesday
Steel Cut Oats
Apples
Leftover Chili Rellenos wrapped in homemade tortillas
Leftover Chicken Noodle Soup
Huckleberry floats made with the rest of our homemade ice cream
(enjoyed this while we played CLUE)

Thursday
Steel Cut Oats
Leftover Chicken Noodle Soup, apples, bananas
(dinner)Ethan finished the rest of our Chicken Soup
(rest of us) pulled Hamburger Gravy out of the freezer and served over cooked up Cauliflower

Friday
Steel Cut Oats
Yearly backpacking trip
(We ate a combination of our trail food we brought along...string cheese, apples, Homemade granola bars, tuna and crackers, Ramen, chips, licorice, Odwalla Bars)
(I just pulled out whatever snacks from our food storage that would work, since I wanted to be diligent of not going to the store...albeit, we splurged on a package of string cheese so we would have plenty of protein)

Saturday
ZOOM with brown sugar, powdered milk and raisins
Lunch: Goulash made with wild onions we found on our hike, Ramen, Freeze dried corn and peas and Instant Potatoes)
Dinner: Mountain House Meals that we pulled from our food storage

Life is Wonderful...Life is Good...
doing my best to live this quote:
"May you live every day of your life"!!