Kimmie in Real Life! (week 7)

“Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want, 

but the realization of how much you already have.” 

–Unknown

This week was all about

VEGETABLES!! 

Other than some grilled salmon, tuna/radish sandwiches and some chicken in our Chow Mein the rest of our meals didn't have meat, but were FULL of veggies! 
Can you say yummy!!

Friday (7-7)
I knew that Saturday was going to be hectic as I had to work from 8-12 and we wanted to make some good headway getting projects done out in our yard and so I made up a batch of Minestrone Soup on Friday afternoon and put it in the fridge for us to pull out and eat during the weekend.
This Minestrone Soup served with Toasted Artisan Bread truly tastes like something you would get in a restaurant.  
It’s such a great recipe to make when you have random spinach and cabbage that you need to use up. Very nourishing and healthy!

I Love taking whole wheat flour 
and wheat germ and making pancakes with them!
I purchase wheat germ in BULK and then I freeze it (double bagged) in the freezer to keep it fresh and then have a pint sized jar in my fridge that I use as well.

We are in love with TOASTED Artisan Bread! 
It is the perfect accompaniment for soup or salad. 

Never underestimate how YUMMY leftover pancakes taste when made into a sandwich for lunch! I had to hide the leftover pancakes so the kids wouldn’t snitch them so I could make sandwiches for Monday’s lunch.  Kids were VERY happy with this lunch!

How does your garden grow? 
It seems like just yesterday our seeds just started to sprout and then we blinked and they are SO big and needing to be picked!  If you want to feel like a successful gardener just plant radishes. This is my first year I planted them and they ALL GREW!  
We are swimming in radishes.
(definitely going to follow the directions to sow them every 2 weeks next time we plant).
I hated to waste the gorgeous green tops of the radishes and so did some inquiring online and found out YES indeed that they were edible and turned them into the most delicious soup!  Everyone wanted seconds and there wasn’t any leftovers!   
Can't wait to grow more radishes to make more of this soup!

Also loved cutting Mesclun greens, Spinach and Swiss Chard 
 from our garden along with green onions and radishes and enjoyed the YUMMIEST dinner of Salad, grilled salmon and Toasted Artisan Bread.

The first red/purple smoothie we have had in a long time! 
WOW, this is so yummy, I wish I could open up a smoothie shop and sell it...it would definitely be a top seller! Yummy!!

Frozen zucchini from last year was pulled out and made into delicious Zucchini Bread.  
Ethan informed me this week while he was eating the last slice that this was his very favorite thing and so I made up another batch just for him. He was thrilled!

Honey Cookies!  
I always have happy kids and hubby when these are made up sitting on our cake stand to enjoy!  I usually make up dough and chill and then I have dough to make for 2-3 days worth of cookies.  
These were a childhood favorite of mine that I used to enjoy at my Grandma Shuman’s house and now they are a favorite of my kids and Tracy as well!
Great cookies that are soft and not sweet for little kids.

Chow Mein...
so healthy, so easy and SO good! 

I'm finally out of tortillas (Tracy had tortillas leftover from some of his campouts and we have been using those for quesadillas).  However, they are all gone.   
We have SO much spinach, radishes and green onions from our garden that I wanted to put them to use in a fun way. I made 1/2 batch of tortillas on Wednesday night (6 tortillas total) and then Thursday morning I spread them with cream cheese, sprinkled on green onions, thinly sliced radishes and cucumbers and then spinach leaves, rolled them up and sliced them into thirds and we enjoyed a delicious lunch/snack.

ALSO, kids loved these so much they were sad we didn’t have anymore to eat,
so they begged for me to make another FULL batch so Jade could take some on his hike with his youth group on Friday and also so we could have a container in the fridge to grab a quick snack.
SO fun to have things that you made yourself and that you didn’t have to rely on a store.  
 Tortillas homemade with your own two hands are absolutely delicious, no matter how you fix them!

Jade was going on a hike with his youth group and I asked him what he wanted me to make for food….Tortilla wraps, FRUIT and Nut Cookies, apple halves with peanut butter to spread in the middle of them and Pecan, Almond and Cashew Nut Mix.

I had purchased a large bag of limes for $3.00 and noticed after a few days of sitting in the heat, that they were drying up. I cut them all up into slices, put some waxed paper on cookie sheet and froze them.   
After frozen, I pulled them out and put them in a  Zip-loc bag and I have been pulling out a lime slice each time we make a smoothie, OR, if I am making a Lime Drink, I pull out three and add to the mix and this has been awesome!

Mixed together
frozen blueberries, pineapple, yogurt, and Stevia and froze them into fruit pops!!
Delicious and such a wonderful, healthy way to cool off in the summer heat!

No matter what combination of fruit and veggies we blended up, each smoothie was SO yummy and very much enjoyed!

My sister-in-law sent me such a thoughtful gift in the mail...a book full of different Artisan Bread recipes...I found a yummy recipe for Spinach Calzones in the book and made it up for my family as we are swimming in spinach from our garden.   It was delicious, but it would have been better with more filling...  So, I need to tweak the recipe until it is exactly perfect how we like and then I will post that.

We butchered up some chickens this weekend as we bought a dozen pullets in the spring to replace some of our older hens, but one of them ended up being a rooster and it has been
driving me crazy hearing it CROWING each morning... 
we also have some hens that have gotten broody and if we aren't out there gathering eggs after they have laid them, they eat them.  The joys of chickens!

SO, we spent all Saturday morning butchering them.
Excited to make some yummy soup from the carcasses.

July 10th - 16th
Sunday
Whole Wheat pancakes with fresh strawberries and Cherries
Zucchini Bread
Minestrone Soup with toasted Artisan Bread
Lime Drink

Monday
Steel Cut Oats
(Tracy) Minestrone, Artisan Bread, Cherries, Zucchini Bread
(kids) Pancake Sandwiches, Smoothie
Cherries, Zucchini Bread
Minestrone, Toasted Artisan Bread, Lime Drink

Tuesday
Steel Cut Oats
(Tracy)Zucchini Bread, Cherries, Grapes, String Cheese
(kids and me) Smoothie, Quesadillas, Cherries
(kids)Frozen Fruit Pops
Grilled Salmon, Green Salad (all from our garden), Toasted Artisan Bread, Lime Drink
(Tracy and I) Chocolate Covered Bananas
Ranch Popcorn
(made honey cookie dough and chilled)

Wednesday
Steel Cut Oats
(Tracy) Tuna Sandwich on Multi-Grain bread, radishes, grapes
(kids and I) Tuna Sandwiches with sliced radishes, Smoothie (blueberries, grapes, pineapple, cherries, lime, water, ice and honey)
Fruit Pops
Radish Top Soup, sliced radishes, Toasted Artisan Bread, Lime Drink
Honey Cookies
(made a batch homemade tortillas)

Thursday
Steel Cut Oats
(Tracy)Homemade tortillas spread with cream cheese, green onions, radishes, spinach leaves and cucumbers and rolled up, grapes, strawberries from our garden and Honey Cookies
(kids and I)Same homemade tortillas roll-ups as Tracy, but we had a smoothie to go with ours instead of fresh fruit 
Honey Cookies
Chow Mein over Brown Rice, Lime Drink 
Chocolate Covered Bananas
(made more tortillas)

Friday
Steel Cut Oats
Tortillas spread with cream cheese, green onions, radishes, cucumbers and spinach all rolled up, grapes, apples, Fruit and Nut Cookies
(Jade also took string cheese, peanut butter and Nut Mix)
Kids leftover Radish Top Soup and toast
Tracy and I shared an Orchard Oasis Jamba Juice

Saturday
Green Smoothie, Fruit and Nut Cookies
Green Smoothie, Spinach and Cheese Calzone made out of Artisan Bread
LOTS of Otter Pops to cool off in the summer heat
Chocolate covered bananas

Links to recipes used this week:
Whole Wheat Pancakes
Vegetarian Minestrone
Zucchini Bread
Refreshing Lime Drink
Honey Cookies
Fruit and Nut Cookies
Ranch Popcorn
Radish Top Soup
Artisan Bread
Chow Mein
Tortillas

What a blessing it is to have a garden 

 and even though we didn't get our garden planted until the last weekend of June, it is growing and we are enjoying it!
I heard a segment on NPR last week and it really saddened me as they were talking about the famine in South Africa and how it is just not humanly possible to bring in food relief  for the millions of people that are starving to death.  

One village that they visited the people shared a whole chicken between 30 people and they had a few cans of water to share between them as well. 

WOW!  

It makes me have such a deep appreciation for each and every 

 morsel of food we have to eat and each and every glassful of clean water we have to drink and cook with!   

Even though most of our meals are not lavish at all, they are nourishing and comforting and give us the energy we need to be active and remain healthy!

Life is SO wonderful and 

I truly am blessed beyond measure!

Kimmie in Real Life! (week 6)

I can still smell how yummy 

these Russian Olive Branches were that Tracy picked for me while out on a walk with Jade and then came home and put them in a vase. They filled our home with sweet fragrance and beauty all week long!  

It truly was a little thoughtful act that made such a BIG impact on my week.  

I felt so loved!

We've had another great week, 

I'm just sad that the first week of July is past and now we are well into the second week of July.  I'm savoring and enjoying my afternoons with my kids and so I apologize for being behind in my 

"Kimmie in Real Life" posts!  

I think I'm going to shoot for having them ready to post on Wednesdays each week.  The first of my week seems to be too hectic to have a moment of computer time.

Here are the highlights from our past week!

 Friday (7-1) 

I came home from work and sorted some dried white beans, put them in a pot and covered them. Saturday morning I drained them added in clean water and cooked them while we were getting ready for the day. I divided them in half and saved 5 cups for Ham and Bean Chowder and the rest I froze for a future bean dish.

4th of July 

we took our picnic to Lava…

I made up Potato Salad, Homemade Hoagies and we grilled up some Chicken Sausages that Tracy had bought 

(they were actually REALLY good and they don't have any nitrites/nitrates in them...definitely going to be using these as an alternative to Hot Dogs in the future. 

They would also be delicious in Spaghetti Sauce or on top of a pizza).

We also enjoyed Snickerdoodles, string cheese, sliced apples and mixed fruit.

  Once again I mixed together the mustard/ketchup in a container before we left so I didn't have to pack these in our cooler

We ground a bunch of flax seed this week 

 and I have been adding flax seeds to our weekend pancake batter recipe and also to our smoothies
(and when I remember, into bread recipes as well). 

I keep both the whole flax seeds AND ground flax seeds in my fridge to keep them fresh and from going rancid. 

SO yummy and high in antioxidants and Omega-3 Fatty Acids!

We went on a 7.5 mile hike on Wednesday 

and so I made a batch of Hoagie Buns, a batch of Chicken Salad

(took half of it to a lady in our ward that is struggling with health problems) 

and we took what was left along with cherries, chips, string cheese and apple slices and had  

plenty of energy to get us through our day of hiking and enjoying the gorgeous mountain beauty! 

FUN with bananas! 

I had saw in one my magazines a way to make frozen chocolate bananas.  Ethan was helper in cutting them in half and inserting in the sticks.    

The kids looked in our pantry at options for toppings...

Ethan wanted pistachios, Jade wanted chopped toasted almonds 

and me, well  I wanted toasted Coconut 

They were absolutely DELICIOUS 

and they freeze well in a Zip-Loc bag and keep in the freezer for 1-2 weeks. 

I was going through my freezer and realized I still have Strawberries and Pineapple from 2009. 

SO I pulled out a bag of each and defrosted them. 

Mixed strawberries, pineapple and yogurt and a little bit of Stevia together in my Vita Mix and

filled Popsicle molds 1/2 full.

I then mixed together pineapple, cantaloupe, yogurt and Stevia together until smooth and filled the other half of the molds with this.  

We ended up with VERY yummy Fruit Pops, 

with no added sugar or artificial sweeteners and even our neighbor Logan enjoyed them and wanted seconds!

The kids favorite part of their Friday meal 

was the ASPARAGUS!

Tracy's boss gave him a small bag of it and SO I steamed it up and made it for part of their dinner.  Ethan was begging for more and I felt bad that I didn't have more to give him!

I made up a batch of Ranch Popcorn  

for my kids for movie treats when we went on our Friday Night Date. I had a bag of Jelly Beans leftover from Easter that I have in my storage room and I sprinkled  a few on top 

(put the rest of the jelly beans away for future treats) 

and they had a YUMMY snack to enjoy!

Ranch Popcorn has been a family favorite since I was in college.
We love making this up!
(Great snack to make if you are in the mood for "Chips"
and uses things you always have on hand)

Mangoes were on sale for 2 for $1.00 and so I bought 6 of them.

The mango, grapes, pineapple, cucumber, spinach, lime slice and ice made the most refreshing smoothie! 
Have I said how much we LOVE smoothies!

July 3rd-9th
Sunday
Buttermilk pancake with homemade preserves
Sunshine Bean Casserole, Cottage Cheese, Artisan Bread, Fresh Fruit (watermelon, pineapple, grapes)
Nut Mix

Monday
(Tracy took Ethan to eat breakfast at our local fire station for the 4th of July)
Jade and I enjoyed bananas and we had a mid morning snack of Green Smoothies as a family
Lunch...Potato Salad, Open Faced peanut butter and jam sandwiches
Homemade Hoagies filled with Grilled Chicken, Spinach and Asiago cheese dogs, Snickerdoodles, apple slices, fresh fruit, string cheese

Tuesday
Steel Cut Oats
Green Smoothie, Potato Salad, Cherries,
Ham & Bean Chowder, Cornbread
Frozen chocolate covered bananas

Wednesday
Steel Cut Oats
(went on a 7.5 mile hike and enjoyed the following)
Chicken Salad Sandwiches on homemade hoagies, cherries, chips, string cheese, apple slices, Odwalla bars

Thursday
Steel Cut Oats
(Tracy) Chicken Salad sandwich, cherries, string cheese
(kids and I)  Smoothies, Cheese Bread,
Ham and Bean Chowder, leftover cornbread/garlic bread
(made Multi-Grain Rolls and Double Chocolate Cookies)

Friday
Steel Cut Oats
Multi-Grain rolls with BBQ'd pork(that I had pulled from the freezer), apple, Double Chocolate cookies
CHERRIES! (kids kept snitching them all afternoon long)
(kids dinner) Apricot Smoothie, cooked asparagus, Multi-Grain rolls with butter/preserves
they also enjoyed RANCH popcorn with Jelly Beans while they watched movies while we were on our date
(Tracy and I) Pizza at "Papa Tom's"

Saturday
Steel Cut Oats
Cherries
Smoothie, Quesadillas
Frozen Fruit Pops
(yummy sliced fruit, veggies, the best Chipotle dip, mini sandwiches/tortilla roll-ups and wedding cake at Tauna's sons wedding reception)

Links to recipes used this week:

Buttermilk pancakes

Snickerdoodle Cookies

Chocolate Covered Bananas

Sunshine Bean Casserole

Potato Salad

Ham and Bean Chowder

Sweet Corn Bread

Chicken Salad

Homemade Hoagies

Multi-Grain Rolls

Artisan Bread

Double Chocolate Cookies

Ranch Popcorn

 "That man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest."
-  Henry David Thoreau

The older I get the more I realize 

how absolutely true this quote really is!  

Bananas and Chocolate make a tasty summer treat!

First off 

this truly inspired me today:

(here)

Very touching and humbling and made me really stop to pause in what I was doing this afternoon to think of what REALLY matters in life, how friendship and children and family mean SO much and are we taking the time we need to each day to make sure we are living life to the fullest and to be the "one" to make a difference in peoples lives for good!   

(fitting that I found this inspiring article as it took place at a place called "Banana Creek")

 

And so my journey towards 

de-cluttering and simplifying continues. 

 I've been browsing through the many magazine subscriptions we have received over the years and trying to decide what to keep and what to send on and while doing that I find myself loving to browse through the SUMMER issues to get ideas for treats that are fun and out of the ordinary and use things we all have on hand.

The moment I saw this recipe I knew I had to make some.

FUN activity to have your kids help you with...

Definitely a 2 person job with dipping them in the chocolate and then the toppings. so I didn't get too many photos, but they were such a hit to enjoy in the 80 degree weather we experienced last week!

Frozen Chocolate Covered Bananas 

4-5 bananas cut in half

1-1/2 cups chocolate chips (I like dark chocolate or Semi-Sweet)

Your choice of toppings to dip them in
(we liked toasted coconut, toasted almonds, chopped pistachios

HOWEVER, the skies the limit to what you could top them with!)

Cut bananas in half

Put popsicle sticks in bottom

Put on a cookie sheet lined with parchment

Freeze at least 2-3 hours

Melt chocolate chips on low on stove

Hold banana over pan, have one person spoon chocolate on the banana and another person spread chocolate with a butter knife to coat well

Quickly dip in toppings of your choice.

Put back on parchment paper and freeze another 2 hours

 I took the leftovers and put in a Zip-Loc bag and we enjoyed a treat to cool off another night of the week.

Can you say "yummy"

because that is what they are!

Enjoy!

Kimmie in Real Life! (week 5)

Happiness is...
having a family that accepts and embraces the life of a "frugal family" and their willingness to joyfully embrace each and everything we do in our lives. 

However, this week I learned that Ethan struggles and gags when I add nuts to our salads...he loves salad (minus tomatoes) and loves nuts, just doesn't like them together.   
SO, I just blended his salad greens up with some lime, pineapple and honey dew and he enjoyed his salad as a smoothie and enjoyed eating his chicken plain.

We took our dinner to the park and enjoyed FUN…
 I made a batch of Hoagies and German chocolate cupcakes, we loaded the car with our cooler and Weber Q grill headed to the park…Ethan ran and splashed in the water, while Tracy grilled hot dogs and I got our buns ready and we enjoyed the HOT weather, great food, LOTS of family fun that ended in rolling around our “Freeze and Play” ball and made ice cream and enjoyed cupcakes for dessert.

Helpful TIP…
 I just mixed together my ketchup and mustard put it into a small container and then I didn’t have to pack the ketchup and mustard bottles in our cooler.  
SO much easier to do this.
It also makes it where kids have to eat whatever you have and they don’t complain.

Helpful TIP… 
 I sauteed up onions before we left and while they were cooking I filled one of our Thermos’s with hot water, then dumped the water out and then put the onions in and we were able to add hot onions to our Nathan's hot dogs.

Asian Chicken Salad was my favorite meal this week.
I pulled 2 chicken breasts from the freezer and defrosted them,
cut them into thin slices, then dipped them in flour,
dipped them in a mixture of beaten egg, water and soy sauce,
 put them in a pan with 2 Tbsp. melted butter, coated well with butter and sprinkled generously with Sesame seeds and baked at 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes.
Put the chicken slices on yummy salad and topped with homemade Asian dressing.

Can you say yummy!!
I love taking basic ingredients and turning them into something delicious and especially something that is fun like Fudgesicles, OR, Chocolate Peanut Butter Milkshakes!

These truly are as good
(or in my opinion better) than anything you can get at any store and make the happiest kids and adults to have a yummy treat to cool off in the hot weather and aren’t full of artificial ingredients and additives.  
I love seeing my kids holding their sticks of yummy-ness and knowing that I was able to use food storage to create these.

I realized I had a bunch of random veggies which were perfect for Veggie cobbler.  
I didn’t have butternut squash, so I just peeled up a sweet potato instead and it was just as tasty, in fact, I think I like the sweet potato better than butternut squash. I didn’t have frozen corn, so I left this out.   
Jade and Tracy asked if we could make this up again soon!    

This is SO nourishing and full of SO many healthy things.
The veggies cook up so tender that if you have a little toddlers, this is perfect for them to eat and also gets their palettes used to a variety of different tastes and textures.
(wished I would have had this recipe when my boys were toddlers)

I had cooked a double batch of garbanzo, lima and red beans this spring and froze half of them.
I pulled the beans out, added them to cooked ground beef, onions, garlic and homemade sauce, put them in the crock-pot on low while we were out working in the yard and we enjoyed a hearty afternoon lunch that gave us the energy to finish the rest of our afternoon yard work.

I had used up all of my Artisan Bread dough over a week ago and with going on our little trip, hadn't made any up for the past little bit.  
SO, Friday I mixed hot water, kosher coarse salt, yeast and unbleached flour together and got another batch going.
My parents stopped unexpectedly on Saturday and so I was so thrilled to pull dough out of the fridge and bake another 2 loaves of Artisan Bread to enjoy with our beans and to also send them home with a loaf.  
I am hooked on this bread and SO thrilled that it works so well to bake a fresh loaf of bread, when you have unexpected company.
This is one of my very favorite recipes!! 

 
We are hooked on Smoothies…
 each day Tracy is jealous as the kids and I have enjoyed a smoothie almost every day for lunch since summer vacation started.   
Smoothies are SO yummy, so healthy and I love that I can use up the many frozen berries/fruit that I in my freezer!  Such a great way for kids to eat fruits/veggies and a great way to disguise things as well.
I must add VERY economical way to eat as you don't put that much fruit/veggies in when you blend it up, but you get LOTS of smoothie to enjoy.
So happy that we spent the money seven years ago on our Vita Mix…at the time we had “sticker shock”, but it is SO worth the price paid and has definitely paid for itself.

 Along those lines...
My Vita Mix, 
Kitchen Aid hand AND free standing mixer, 
and Nutri-Mill wheat grinder
were well worth the price paid also. 
I am SO happy to have spent the money on them as they have greatly helped us in being
“frugal” and in having quality appliances and time savers to make the yummy things we like to make.

 Friday Night the kids were wanting some kind of pasta and so we made up a quick batch of Baked Mac & Cheese. 
VERY yummy and before anyone could get seconds, I took the last four pieces and put them in the fridge and we heated them up the next morning and enjoyed breakfast on our porch together with green smoothie, applesauce muffins and and Baked Mac & Cheese...it was perfect!

June 26th - July 2nd

Sunday
Pancakes with homemade preserves
Omelette Eggs/Grapes

Monday
Steel Cut Oats
Green Smoothie, Pasta Salad
(Tracy) Pasta Salad, apple, carrot sticks, string cheese
(made Hoagies/German Chocolate cup cakes)
Went to park for FHE and roasted hot dogs, rolled around 'Freeze and play' ball and made ice cream and ended by enjoying German Chocolate cupcakes

Tuesday
Steel Cut Oats
Green Smoothie, Tuna Sandwich on Homemade buns with fresh tomato slices
Asian Chicken Salad, German Chocolate cupcakes

Wednesday
Steel Cut Oats
Green Smoothie, string cheese, Fruit and Nut cookies
(made a quick trip to SLC to my friend Ann Marie's dad's viewing and stopped and ate burgers at "In-N-Out")

Thursday
Steel Cut Oats
Green Smoothie, Garlic/Cheese bread
Veggie Cobbler
German Chocolate Cupcakes

Friday
Steel Cut Oats
Leftover Veggie Cobbler, apple slices
Green Smoothie, Baked Mac & Cheese
Fudge Pops

Saturday
Green Smoothie, leftover Baked Mac &Cheese, half an applesauce muffin
Fudge Pops
Fresh fruit (watermelon, pineapple and grapes), Artisan Bread, Sunshine Bean Casserole
Chocolate and Peanut Butter milkshakes

Links to recipes used this week:
German Chocolate Cake
Hoagie Buns
Veggie Cobbler
Baked Mac & Cheese
Pasta Salad
Fruit and Nut Cookies
Buttermilk pancakes
Sunshine Bean Casserole
Artisan Bread
Asian Chicken Salad
Fudge Pops/Chocolate Peanut Butter Milkshakes

We had another wonderful week!
I hope your week was just as wonderful!