Kimmie in Real Life! (weeks 10 & 11)

"How glorious a greeting 

the sun gives the mountains!"

~John Muir

It's been a perfect 2 weeks!!

SO sad it is over and we are back to the grind!
Can't wait to have a moment to share all of the FUN we had.    

I thought I would have more to share than I do...but, with being gone for 6 days these past 2 weeks and trying to enjoy the last of summer-time smoothies
(because once we're back in school we usually only have smoothies on the weekends)
and we have been swimming in produce as well, there isn't as much to share as I thought there would be.  

So, here goes with 
the food highlights from our past 2 weeks

Sunday morning was a busy one
and this particular day Tracy didn't have time to make up our weekly pancakes. 

SO, I quickly threw together a batch of Buttermilk Biscuits, we whipped up a delicious smoothie and we had enough to tide us until dinner that afternoon.

After making up biscuits 
while my kitchen was still in a mess, 
I cut up some of the chicken sausages we had in the freezer, browned them up added in a jar of Ragu,
(RAGU is not too bad as far as ingredients...just tomato puree, water, diced tomatoes, onions, sugar, salt, spices, garlic powder)
put it in the Crock-pot on low and after we came home from church we cooked up some noodles, threw together a salad and had a wonderful dinner to enjoy together.

Tracy was craving homemade pie  
and so the easiest thing to throw together quickly was a Dutch Apple Pie...
while I made pie, Tracy made up some homemade ice cream.

WOW, is all I can say...
it tastes SO  delicious and was the perfect thing to serve our unexpected company on a Sunday evening.
(we had a visit from Tracy's parents with their good friends Vard and Toni Hall that had stopped by to see them)

I love cooking with whole grains and  
love my mason jars that I have filled with lots of yummy grains of all kinds.
Barley is SO yummy to add to soups...while Tracy usually adds this to his "Whatchagot soup", my favorite soup to add this to is my Vegetable, Beef & Barley soup.

An absolutely delicious and perfect, 

nourishing soup to enjoy

We took the leftover homemade ice cream, 

topped it with banana slices, pecans and melted chocolate chips and the kids enjoyed a YUMMY dessert while Tracy and I headed out on our weekly date!

An abundance of Raspberries!!

What wonderful neighbors we have!
They were done picking as many raspberries as they wanted and told us to come and pick what we wanted, or they would be left for the birds.   

SO, even though we were two days before we headed out on our backpacking and we had LOTS to do to get ready, we went and spent 2 hours picking berries and ended up with a 5 gallon bucket of pure HEAVEN!

The kids couldn't wait to dish up a bowl full of raspberries and milk...

I sorted and bagged them and we ended up with 34 cups of berries to enjoy all through the year.

When life slows down a bit this winter I am going to pull out some of the bags and make some Raspberry preserves!

We ended our evening with the 

yummiest Raspberry smoothie we have ever had!
WOW...

this creation is definitely worthy 

of being served at a smoothie shop!

AND the few cups of berries that didn't get frozen

turned into Oatmeal Raspberry muffins!!

Since we are 3 months with no shopping it means no buying "CLIF" or "ODWALLA" bars for hiking snacks and so I pulled out ingredients and we made a batch of Granola Bars to take for energy on our backpacking trip!

These were SUCH a favorite on our trip 

and enjoyed very much by everyone!!
Jade is begging me to make sure and make more up so he can eat them when 

he runs Cross Country this fall.

We are loving and savoring all of the YUMMY smoothies we enjoy each week! 
Kids are sad because once school starts, we won't be having our yummy smoothies for lunch every afternoon.

This makes me happy every time I look at it!!
LOVE backpacking in the high country and this stove and pot cooked SO many yummy things for us to eat!

This was the first home cooked meal 

we had after our backpacking trip!!
Kids begged for Oven Pancakes and we made up the 

YUMMIEST smoothie with apricots, grapes, ice and homemade vanilla yogurt!

My other awesome neighbor Lisa 

 called us the night after we got back from our trip and told us their cherry tree was FULL and ready to harvest. 

SO, Tracy and I woke up early and picked about 2-1/2 gallons of cherries.   I put them in the fridge until Saturday and then I pitted them, bagged them with 5 cups per bag and we ended up with enough cherries to make 5 Cherry Pies!

Wednesday was our last day together before my boys left for Utah to spend 4 days with my parents.  They both begged for Quesadillas and so we made up a batch of tortillas and topped them with chicken and cheese, cooked them on the griddle and they were PERFECT with our afternoon smoothie!

We never tire of these cup-fulls 

of YUMMY, nutrition!

Gardens are wonderful and I LOVE them, 

but it seems like every year we are SWIMMING in produce as it seems like everything is ripe all at once.  

Thus was the case this week.  

As if we didn't already have lots to deal with, with Raspberries and Cherries, we had SO much Spinach, Swiss Chard, cabbages, etc...

(we also thinned our beets and the beets we pulled we decided to clean the leaves and use those as well).

SO, I spent ALL afternoon on Saturday with the LOVE of my LIFE,

washing, sorting and bagging all of our excess produce. We had plenty of bags of greens to make a weeks worth of salads and smoothies.

I then bagged and washed the remaining spinach and put 2 cups per bag and froze them and now I have spinach to pull out and use in the winter when I want to add it to smoothies,  

OR, to make our yummy Spinach and Artichoke Dip.

(July 31st-August 6th)
Sunday
Green Smoothie, Buttermilk Biscuits, apricots
Garden fresh salad topped with apricots and grapes, Spaghetti
Dutch Apple Pie, homemade Ice Cream and Salted Nut Rolls

Monday
Steel Cut Oats
(Tracy) boiled egg, apricots, banana, grapes, Salted Nut Roll
(kids and I) Green Smoothie, Nachos, apricots, (finished the rest of the salted nut rolls)
Vegetable Beef Soup, (took leftover ice cream, topped it with bananas, Homemade fudge topping and pecans)
(Tracy and I went on a date as we didn't get our date on Friday...enjoyed Soft Bean Burritos at Fiesta Ole)

Tuesday
Steel Cut Oats
(Tracy took a co-worker to lunch)
(kids and I) Smoothie with homemade yogurt, apricots, grapes, pineapple and ice)
Green Smoothie, hot out of the oven Multi-Grain Bread
(made Multi-Grain Yogurt Bread)
(dehydrated more pineapple, bananas and some apricots)

Wednesday
Steel Cut Oats
(Tracy) Vegetable Beef Soup, grapes, apricots,
(kids and I) Green Smoothie, Garlic/Cheese toast
Raspberry smoothie (from Raspberry's we picked from our neighbors garden...ended up with 34 cups of raspberries)
(made Granola Bars)

Thursday
Steel Cut Oats
(Tracy) Vegetable Beef Soup, banana, apple, homemade granola bar
(kids and I) Vegetable Beef Soup, bananas and apples
(made tortillas, Oatmeal muffins)

Friday (headed off on our yearly backpacking trip)
Raspberry Muffins, bananas
Chicken Salad wrapped in homemade tortillas, string cheese, apples
Chicken Ramen with freeze dried corn and peas

Saturday (day 2 of backpacking trip)
Zoom cereal with raisins and dried cherries
Tuna packets with Lays stackable chips, string cheese, apples
Backpacker BBQ beef meal that we enjoyed with homemade tortillas
(snacks that we enjoyed on our backpacking trip....Homemade Granola Bars, Combos crackers, Dark Chocolate Peanut M&M's, dried bananas and pineapple, Corn Nuts, Lemon Drops, Coffee Candy)

(August 7th-13th)
Sunday (day 3 of backpacking trip)

Zoom cereal with raisins and dried cherries
Ramen Noodles, with beef jerky (for the meat in it), freeze dried corn, peas and chives, apple slices, string cheese
Dinner...took kids to eat dinner at a Mexican Restaurant in Driggs Idaho

Monday
Oven pancakes, Apricot Smoothie
Green Smoothie

Tuesday
Steel Cut Oats
(took kids to lunch at Craigo's as one last "Hurrah" before they headed off to their grandparents for five days)

Wednesday
Steel Cut Oats
Made homemade tortillas, topped with cooked chicken and cheese and made Quesadillas...enjoyed with Fruit Kabobs
(met my parents in Pocatello so they could take our kids for a few days...my dad took us to eat at Sizzler)

Thursday (headed off another backpacking trip...just Tracy and I)
Steel Cut Oats
Bananas, cucumbers and apples for on the trail snack
Lunch (Ramen with freeze dried corn and peas), string cheese
(granola bars, dried bananas and corn nuts got us up the steep hills of our afternoon backpacking adventure)
Dinner (Mountain House Beef Stroganoff meal that we enjoyed by the shore of a lake in the high country in GTNP)

Friday
Zoom Cereal with dried cherries and raisins
(snacks we enjoyed on the way out....apples, string cheese, granola bars, Lemon Drops)
Went and celebrated with Fajitas at Merry Piglets in Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Saturday
Steel Cut Oats
Green Smoothie, Granola Bars
munched on the rest of our trail snacks

Links to recipes used this week:
Buttermilk Biscuits
Dutch Apple Pie
Oven Pancakes
Multi-Grain Yogurt Bread
Vegetable Beef Soup
Granola Bars
Dried Fruit

Oatmeal Muffins
Homemade Tortillas
Homemade Vanilla Yogurt

Salted Nut Rolls

"The human spirit needs places where nature 

has not been rearranged by the hand of man." 

~author unknown

SO happy and thrilled that I was able 
to enjoy this kind of nature for 5 days...

my soul has been fed,

I feel recharged and 

I can't wait to get back there
SOON!