Cool off with a chiller...

Watermelon, Watermelon...

Oh how we love you!

Summer wouldn't be summer
without bowl after bowl of delicious watermelon to enjoy on those HOT summer days!
 (we usually go through 5-6 melons each summer)
 Nothing more delicious than sweet, crisp, juicy watermelon!

We are a family that loves being healthy 
and LOVES smoothies of all kinds!

This year we are really enjoying 
Watermelon, Lime Chillers.
Just 2 slices of watermelon,
1 large slice of fresh pineapple
Juice of one lime
1 large slice of lime
2 cups of ice
Blend together until smooth and you have a
delicious, nutritious and refreshing drink
 to enjoy on those HOT 80, 90 and sometimes 100 degree days.

 

Watermelon Lime Chiller

6-8 cups diced watermelon (2 large slices of watermelon diced)

1 heaping cup fresh pineapple (1 large slice)

1 lime juiced

1 large slice of lime

2 cups of ice

Put in your Vita-Mix, or blender and blend until smooth.

Pour into glasses,

add a colorful straw 

and a slice of lime on the glass rim. 

Enjoy!

(Delicious served with Homemade Guacamole and chips)

Yum, Yum, YUMMY!

Every day can be a party when you serve 

Watermelon, Lime Chillers for lunch or dinner!

Spinach... Smoothies, Eggs & Soup!

 Spinach...

I'm always amazed when I read that it is
difficult to overestimate the  
nutritional powerhouse that is in spinach!

This is a wonderful article of the amazing things that are in spinach...

 it is one of those foods that is 

at the TOP of most Super Food lists!

We are definitely a spinach loving family,

we enjoy it freshly steamed and served with salmon,

 it is a staple in our salads, we enjoy it in soups, 

 we love topping homemade tortillas  

with cream cheese, veggies and SPINACH leaves for a great lunch...

 our favorite way is blending it up into a GREEN Smoothie  

a few times a week. 

I LOVE that spinach is so easy to grow 

in the spring/summer time.   

We usually have more spinach than we know what to do with and so I will wash the Spinach and freeze it in 2 cup bags in our freezer to pull out in the winter months.

 During the winter months 
(when we have run out of our garden spinach)
 when we go on our weekly dates, 
we purchase a large one pound container of spinach from Sam's Club for $3.97

so that we can still make up our weekly GREEN Smoothies and have it to add to soups, salads and sandwiches.  

I also purchase one or two FRESH pineapples 

each week to cut up and add to our smoothies as well.

While we are a frugal family, 

we do believe in buying quality appliances  

and so each week whether it be grinding wheat, making bread or homemade treats, or blending up smoothies, making almond milk or bean puree, they all get used LOTS!  
  

If you don't have a good quality blender, 

I strongly suggest you save your pennies to invest in one...

 it is worth the money spent and makes it EASY to get your family eating more fruits and veggies in SMOOTHIE form.

There are SO many ways to get your kids and family eating more of this wonderful SUPER food of Spinach 

and I'm going to share with you our favorites that are tried, true, delicious and 

ALWAYS a hit each time they are served!

 GREEN SMOOTHIE

Here is the basic recipe...(it varies depending upon the season)

but it ALWAYS has the same ingredients

fresh pineapple (1-2 cups)

one stalk of celery

one slice of lime (with rind)

2-3 cups spinach

water/ice

the variable is this...

in winter time we add in one or two oranges

in the summer time we add in one or two large handfuls of grapes
(here for other smoothie options) 

In the summertime when the kids are out of school,  
we make some variation of a green smoothie almost every day for lunch.  

During the school year, we enjoy our green smoothies on the weekends and also once or twice during the week for either breakfast or to add to a light dinner.

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

EGGS

(when I'm in charge of breakfast and the kids are asking for eggs) 

I always make up a yummy batch of eggs that has LOTS of veggies in them. 

I recently read about a lady that adds in spinach with her eggs in the blender and WOW is it ever good.  We are hooked and I'm going to add spinach to my veggie eggs from here on out.

Veggies and Eggs

2-3 large slices of onion finely chopped

1/2 bell pepper finely chopped

2 carrots finely chopped

1-2 Tbsp butter

(diced ham if you like)

Melt butter in frying pan and add in veggies (ham if you have it) and saute together until tender/crisp

(eggs)

8 eggs

2 Tbsp milk

1 large slice of onion

1 packed cup of fresh spinach

(mix altogether in the blender until spinach is finely chopped)

Pour egg mixture over sauteed veggies and let cook 2-3 minutes before you start stirring the eggs.    

Stir together and cook until eggs are done.  

Top with freshly grated cheese and tomatoes!   

Perfect served with homemade pancakes for a hearty, 

get you going weekend breakfast! 

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

Minestrone Soup

SOUPS...truly one of our family's staples.

I love this Minestrone Soup because it seriously 

tastes like something you would get at a really nice restaurant 

AND I love all of the yummy veggies it has in it. 

Toasted Artisan Bread is the perfect accompaniment for this soup!

 It is a GREAT way to use  

cabbage and spinach/kale 

and is something that actually tastes better the next day.  

(great to take for lunches)

 Minestrone Soup
(pretty much a "vegetarian meal")
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 large diced onions
4 cloves minced garlic
1 cup sliced carrots
1 tsp basil
1 can Italian tomatoes (undrained)
3 beef bouillon cubes with 8 cups water (OR, pull a bag of leftover "roast drippings" from the freezer and add in enough water to make 8 cups)
2 cups finely chopped cabbage
1 can Great Northern Beans (undrained)
1-2 cups Spinach, OR, Kale (OR add in 1 cup chopped zucchini instead)

Cook onions, carrots, garlic and basil in olive oil for 5 minutes.
Add tomatoes, beef bouillon and cabbage.
Bring soup to boil and cook for 1 hour.
Add beans with liquid and spinach and cook another 20 minutes. 
Garnish bowls with freshly grated Parmesan cheese, OR, serve with a dollop of cottage cheese.  This tastes even better the 2nd day.

This is soup is definitely 
a favorite with my kids!

and it’s SO easy and healthy!!
Great served with homemade bread, breadsticks, 

or our favorite... (Artisan Bread)

I hope you enjoy the wonderful health benefits 

of Spinach in your family as well!
Yummy, delicious and most of all

economic and nutritious!

20 Weeks...No Major Shopping...Wrap up!

 WOW...we made it and what's even better, 
is I'm finally getting this blogged about!  


For those not familiar with this challenge...
 our challenge allotted us $20.00 each week to spend on produce
and a gallon of milk every other week... 
the rest of the things we ate, came from our food storage.
 If you would like to see 
what meals we ate for 5 months and what produce we bought,
click HERE and scroll through the posts...
there are LINKS in each post to the recipes I used
and HELPFUL TIPS for what we did to make things stretch.

While I initially wanted to be done with this Challenge 
the first part of September, here 
  I still had another months worth of the staples such as butter, sugar, flour, yeast, cheese, etc... and so I decided to go until I ran out of butter.

This took us a little under 20 weeks from start to finish with no major shopping and you know what, we didn’t really feel deprived at all!
Other than the fact that I was down to the last cube of butter and roll of paper towels and I had ran out of BLEACH, raisins and gallon sized freezer bags, we survived going 20 weeks with no major shopping.

  (here are links to click on to to see 

what we ate/did week by week)
week 1  week 2   week 3

  week 4    week 5   week 6 

week 7   week 8    week 9

weeks 10-11   week 12   week 13

weeks 14-15    week 16  week 17 

weeks 18-19

Call me strange, but, I really do enjoying challenging and “stretching” myself…
it’s something that is in my blood and something that is SO enjoyable to me!
Preparedness truly does bring peace!

Here are the things I learned this year...

The CASES of canned beans, canned tomatoes and canned chilies we don't go through that much for how many cans we have in our food storage.
I will never again buy a case of 48 of anything, unless it is tomato sauce, OR, Tuna Fish.  We realistically can't go through them before the expiration date.

You go through A LOT of dish towels cooking every meal from scratch.  While I have a large supply of kitchen towels and dishcloths, 

I did laundry twice a week just for washing dish towels!! (usually go through 5-7 a day and sometimes more), depending upon what I'm cooking.

I realized that it would be REALLY nice to have a few cans of cooked chicken on hand, for those hectic afternoons when all of a sudden it's dinner-time and I am scrambling to throw something together!
(excited to pressure cook up some chicken breasts this week after I get my Zaycon Chicken order)

POWDERED MILK makes wonderful summer-time treats (here)
I used this to make homemade Fudge Pops, Chocolate peanut butter milk shakes and peanut butter energy balls. (here)

We also enjoyed a few batches of HOMEMADE yogurt made from powdered milk as well.  (here)
Love this recipe and LOVE that it uses things I always have on hand.

Artisan bread is one of our new favorite breads (here)
AND it is the perfect thing to make up if you don’t have any crackers on hand.
Bake it, toast it and it is perfect

 Homemade Hoagies are now officially a staple at our house!  (here)

We use them for everything and the versatile thing about my French Bread recipe, is you can make up a loaf of French Bread AND 6-8 Hoagie buns, so you can make the most use out of the dough, if you don’t wall all hoagies or all bread loaves.

Homemade Tortillas are also a staple at our house as well! (here) I haven’t bought store bought tortillas since the first of the year (when we purchased some for Tracy’s scout campout breakfast burritos).     
They were wonderful to make up and use our garden veggies and make wraps/roll ups.  They were perfect to line a bowl and fill with taco salad.  They were wonderful to fill with yummy things to take hiking and they were wonderful made into Enchiladas, Quesadillas or Breakfast Burritos.

 It truly is the best feeling in the world to be able to make 95% of the things your family eats from scratch all by yourself! 
Everyone is happy when the food they are eating, 
was made with love by YOU!!
 

We also realize the more we hike that my basic Oatmeal Cookie recipe (here) with LOTS of raisins, dried cherries and walnuts make PERFECT energy bars to take hiking and it is SO much cheaper than purchasing CLIF or ODWALLA bars.

Here is a list of the major things we went through 
in our 5 months of no shopping.
With cooking every meal from scratch, we went through A LOT of the staples...

(BTW...we have chickens that we get eggs from, so we didn't have to use egg powder)

(staples)
150 pounds unbleached flour
50 pounds sugar
18 pounds brown sugar
5 pounds powdered sugar
12 pounds RAW cane sugar
18 pounds honey
20 pounds raisins
4 pounds dried cherries
22 pounds wheat
2 pounds corn meal
2 pounds SAF yeast
1 pound baking powder
3 pounds baking soda
4 pounds salt
8 pounds rock salt
35 pounds steel cut oats (this is our mainstay for breakfast Mon-Fri…here )
12 pounds rolled oats
16 pounds powdered milk (4 #10 cans) (here's how I make our milk stretch here)
10 cans Evaporated Milk
5 cans Sweetened Condensed Milk
9 pounds dried beans/legumes
8 pounds rice
1/2 pound wild rice (made this yummy soup here)
12 pounds pasta
4 pounds popcorn kernels
7 pounds raw almonds
3 pounds walnuts
1/2 pound pecans
3 pounds Almond Cluster Nut Mix (here)
1 large bag of DARK Chocolate Peanut M&M's
1-1/2 pounds sunflower seeds
1/2 pound flax seeds
1/2 pound cashews
1 pound coconut
1 large jar lightly salted peanuts, 1 package of mini marshmallows and 1 pkg. peanut butter chips (these combined together to make Salted Nut Rolls here)
34 ounces unsweetened cocoa powder
4 pounds Stephen’s Hot Cocoa powder
25 boxes of STASH brand Peppermint Blend tea
48 oz. REAL maple syrup
½ bottle of Mapleiene Extract (made homemade syrup here)
12 ounces molasses
12 ounces corn syrup
3 packages marshmallows
1 pound coconut
3 quarts applesauce (this along with whole wheat flour turned into muffins here)
3 boxes of pectin (made homemade preserves)
1(4 pack) box of Gelatine (used to make homemade yogurt here)
1/2 pound Citric Acid
4 bottles Lemon Extract
(6) 8.2 ounce bottles REAL vanilla
3 liters Olive Oil
72 ounces Canola Oil
4 pounds cornstarch
72 ounces Nestle Semi-Sweet chocolate chips
3 pounds Ghiradelli Double Chocolate Bitter-Sweet chips
10 ounces white chocolate chips
(5) 40 ounce jars peanut butter (we went through so much of this as we made a few batches of granola bars (here) and peanut butter energy balls (here)
4 cans non-stick baking spray
5 pounds cottage cheese (we ran out the last 6 weeks…we need to try making HOMEMADE cottage cheese for times like this)
2 pounds sour cream
(5) 8 ounce packages Neufchatel Cream Cheese
.5 ounces of freeze dried mushrooms
(we also used quite a bit of Cajun seasoning, lemon pepper, taco seasoning, cumin, chili powder, granulated garlic, beef and chicken bouillon, buttered flavored salt, dried parsley oregano, basil, thyme, marjoram, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and poppy seeds, sesame seeds)

(cheese/butter)
12 pounds Monterey Jack Cheese
5 pounds sharp cheese
1 pound Mozzarella Cheese
48 pieces of string cheese
32 pounds butter
2 pounds lard

(meat)
4 pounds chicken breasts
2 whole chickens
2 pounds chicken thighs
6 pounds hamburger
2 beef roasts
1 pound stew meat
2 pounds bacon
2 pounds sausage
(7) ½ cup packages of ham and one ham bone (that we had cut up in our freezer from our Easter ham here for how I do this)
1 pound Tilapia
6 pounds Salmon
1 pound crab meat
1 package Chicken/Spinach sausages (here for how we put them to use)
2 packages Nathans ALL beef hot dogs (had these in our freezer…we stock up on these in the spring to have on hand for summer barbeques...here for 2011 fun)
30 cans tuna
2 packages of Smoked Salmon and 2 large bottles of artichoke hearts
(we made 2 different batches of  Salmon and Artichoke dip here)

(misc.)
(many limes, citric acid and Lemon extract turned into this here)
6 packages Pink Lemonade Kool-Aid
1 box of Tangerine Emergen-C (Kids take this in their lunches to drink)
(3) 46 ounce jars pickles
(2) 24 ounce bottles ketchup
(3) 30 ounce jars Mayonnaise
(3) 30 ounce jars Miracle Whip
4 jars Ragu Spaghetti Sauce
10 cans stewed tomatoes/tomato sauce
1 pound frozen peas
2 bottles salsa
2 boxes Sunbelt brand Fruit & Nut Granola Cereal
2 boxes ZOOM cereal (this is what we used for breakfast when we went backpacking)
4 packages dry Ranch Dressing Mix (used to make Ranch Popcorn here)
31 packages Doublemint Gum
2 bags of 200 Menthol cough drops
4 bags Tortilla chips (we ran out the last 8 weeks…wish we had a way to make homemade tortilla chips
(1) 28 package individual chips
50 pounds of onions
25 pounds of potatoes
1/2 bag charcoal briquettes

(we also went through a few cans each of pineapple tidbits, olives, diced green chilies, canned beans, Tomato and Cream of Chicken Soup, bean sprouts, water chestnuts and chow mein noodles...ALSO, a few packages of Ramen for our backpacker meals).

(I lost track of how many pounds of frozen fruits/berries we used for our smoothies,)

(cleaning/toiletries)
(6) 56 ounce containers Soft Soap
(1) 56 ounce container Soft Soap for our bathroom dispenser in our shower (here)
66 ounces shampoo
66 ounces conditioner
52 ounces hair gel
99 ounces hair spray
1 box of hair highlighting kit (here how we use this)
6 bottles of deodorant
10 tubes of Chap stick
(2) 20 ounce bottles Curel lotion
40 rolls paper towels
76 rolls toilet paper
5 boxes PUFFS tissues
72 count box of tampons/(1) 18 count box maxi-pads
2 boxes of each sandwich and snack sized bags
4 boxes of each gallon and quart sized bags
(1) 100 count box of bread bags
(1) 75 ft. box aluminum foil
(1) 75 ft box waxed paper
½ box Plastic Wrap
1 box Q-tips
1 large bag cotton balls
1 package small Dixie Cups for the bathroom
32 oz. mouth wash
3 tubes toothpaste
(3) 100 ounce jugs laundry soap
1 gallon bleach
30 ounces Spray and Wash
2 boxes Borax
165 dishwasher soap drops
46 oz. Jet Dri
64 ounces Glass Plus
1 large can AJAX
18 ounces 409 cleaner
22 ounces hardwood floor cleaner
60 ounces Bathroom/Toilet cleaner
60 ounces Shower Cleaner
72 ounces Hydrogen Peroxide
10 gallons vinegar (we went through so much as I use it in my dishwasher since we have hard water)
1 box Bounce sheets
120 kitchen garbage bags
45 outside garbage bags
2 gallons CAR oil
Oil filters (for changing car oil)
2 gallons windshield washer cleaner

YES, you can eat REALLY well on your food storage...

YES, you can live on your food storage and LOVE it! 

So grateful to have had another opportunity to “Stretch” and to put this wonderful quote by Percy Cerutty to the test once again…

"You only ever grow as a human being

if you're outside your comfort zone”.

Kimmie in Real Life! (week 16)

This week was kind of a "catch-up" from the craziness of the previous weeks and SO, I don't have too much to share as we spent half of the week, eating sandwiches from leftover sandwich fixin's from the previous weekend, AND we enjoyed green smoothies for three different meals. 

Needless to say, it was a great week and now I am finally caught up on this thread of posts for a week.

Here are the food highlights! 

We were in absolute HEAVEN 
with these yummy apples we had to enjoy all week long!
I purchased an 20 pound box of Gala apples for $8.00.
WOW, these apples were freshly picked from the orchard they grew in and were crunchy, juicy and the best snack enjoyed all week long!
I just got some delicious apples from my neighbor as well that we will be enjoying for a few weeks.
I love when my kids are hungry and begging for a snack and we have an abundance of apples to cut up and enjoy!   They never tire of eating apples!
"An apple or two a day keeps the doctor away"!

YAY, we were SO excited to be able to enjoy some more Green Smoothie on three different days this week!
My family never tires of the yummy creations we put together.

This was a "throw together whatever you can find in the fridge/freezer smoothie.
These random ingredients were absolutely delicious together!

YES, when it's this time of the year, 
Zucchini Quiche, Casserole and Bread are enjoyed multiple times. 
Once harvest is over,
(other than enjoying zucchini bread and an occasional quiche through the winter),
we have to wait until next year to enjoy them again.

 I absolutely LOVE this muffin recipe
and I am hooked on adding in the ground flax seed and whole wheat flour as it makes a really hearty but moist muffin and the leftovers (if there are any), freeze well to pull out to add to lunches.

Such a yummy meal...
delicious corn on the cob from our neighbors garden,
juicy, ripe cantaloupe
and a delicious salad!
Everyone was thrilled when this was served for dinner!

 It had been a long week and I decided to surprise 
my hubby by making his favorite...
Snickerdoodles!
Definitely, a hit anytime they are made up!

It was a hectic Saturday
as I had to work and I came home to Tracy up to his eyeballs in projects
and so the quickest thing I could think of to throw together
was to whip up a batch of these tasty  
Buttermilk Biscuits
along with a smoothie!
Butter and fresh local honey spread atop these muffins were fantastic!!

 Along with the busyness of my week, I had 2 days where I did some canning.
I took some of my abundance of zucchini and bottled up some relish with a recipe that my sweet friend Tauna passed along to me.
Since we LOVE tuna sandwiches, this will be SO yummy to add some of this to our sandwich fixin's.
(post coming in a few weeks with canning info and canning recipes,
which this recipe will be included in that post)

I also took our garden tomatoes and
bottled up a batch of Tomato Soup.
This soup is AWESOME and we enjoy it all throughout the year, when we need something quick to eat, but I haven't planned something else.
I got this recipe from my sweet friend Connies' blog...here for the recipe

The only adjustments I made to it, were I adjusted the salt to 1/4 cup
and the sugar to 1-1/4 cup, other than that, I followed her recipe.
WOW, this tastes SO fresh and if you don't have time to make a pot of homemade soup,
this is the next best thing.
Serve it with some homemade breadsticks,
OR, grilled cheese sandwiches and it is a perfect meal!

Week of September 11th to 17th

Sunday
Buttermilk Pancakes
Zucchini Casserole
Took leftover sandwich fixins' and made sandwiches for dinner

Monday
Steel Cut Oats
Sandwiches on Multi-Grain Bread, chips, string cheese, banana,
Zucchini Quiche, Green Smoothie
(made 2 batches of French bread and a batch of Chocolate Chip Cookies to deliver to people that had done thoughtful things for us, like pick cherries off their cherry tree, and bringing us a large bag of FRESH raw almonds)

Tuesday
Steel Cut Oats
Sandwiches on homemade Hoagies, chips, grapes, string cheese, chocolate chip cookies
Leftover Zucchini Quiche, Green Smoothie
(made a batch of Zucchini Pickle Relish)

Wednesday
Huckleberry Muffins, Green Smoothie (I did CHATS at home from 7-9 and so I was able to be there to send my kids off to school!)
Sandwiches on homemade hoagies, chips, apple, Goodie Bars
Broccoli Slaw Salad, corn on the cob, cantaloupe

Thursday
Steel Cut Oats
Broccoli Slaw Salad, muffins, apple, string cheese
(made a batch of French Bread for Jade to take to his Pasta Party for Cross Country)
(also made a batch of energy balls so Jade could have them for energy for his Cross Country meet on Friday) 
(spent all afternoon bottling up homemade tomato soup)
Since we had to drop Jade off at 6:00 to a party, take Ethan to Stake Pack Night at 6:30 our dinner consisted of Garlic Cheese toast and apple slices

Friday
Steel Cut Oats
Tracy (leftover tomato soup, bread and butter, apple, peanut butter balls)
Jade (school lunch since he had a cross country meet today, but he took string cheese, apple and peanut butter balls for energy before his run)
Kimmie and Ethan (tuna sandwich, string cheese, apple, peanut butter balls)
(made a batch of Snickerdoodles to surprise Tracy with, since these are his favorite)
Tracy decided to take us to Wendy's after Jades Cross Country run and we got Chili and baked potatoes

Saturday
(I had to work from 8-12)
Tracy sent me out the door with fried eggs, toast and apple
He and the boys enjoyed this same breakfast as well
Lunch consisted of a yummy smoothie, Buttermilk Biscuits
We took the kids to town as Jade has worn out his running shoes and so we went to find him some new shoes. Tracy took us to get Pizza as a "we made it through a hectic week" celebration.

Links to recipes used this week:  
French Bread
Homemade Hoagie Buns 
Multi-Grain Bread
Broccoli Slaw Salad
Zucchini Quiche
Zucchini Casserole 
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Huckleberry Muffins
Peanut Butter Energy Balls
Snickerdoodle Cookies
Buttermilk Biscuits
Buttermilk Pancakes

I'm SO grateful for the ABUNDANCE  

that I have in my life right now.

 An abundance of healthy, nourishing things to eat,

an abundance of clean drinking water and water to bathe in,

and abundance of clean, fresh air to breathe,

an abundance of health in my home,

and abundance of beauty that surrounds me,

an abundance of friends and family that love and care about me

an ABUNDANCE of love in my home 

with my three favorite people in the world...

Tracy, Jade & Ethan!

I am blessed beyond measure 

and just when I think that life can't get any better, 

it does! 

 Life is Oh, So Good!

Kimmie in Real Life! (weeks 14 & 15)

(cute little packages of cookies delivered to family and friends this week)

So, I know that this challenge should have ended 2 weeks ago,
but I still have butter, cheese, flour, sugar and plenty of other staples ingredients left (however, I'm getting really low on raisins, paper towels and laundry soap, but should make it a few more weeks)  
and I also have a large abundance of garden produce... 
SO, I am going to go the rest of the month to see if I can make it 4-5  months instead of 3 months with no major shopping.
I really think I can do it!

This post shows how absolutely CRAZY and non-stop my past 2 weeks have been.  

(I really love that I have been keeping track of what we ate, what I baked, etc... each day. It's a journal for me and I am grateful I have been doing this). 

Here are the food highlights...

 These energy balls are SO yummy 
and full of a good balance of protein/sugar
for all of us, especially for Jade when he runs Cross Country.

Neighbor kids have also enjoyed these when they come to play at our house
and I hear the words.
"Mom, what can we have for a snack" 

I just make them up and keep them in the fridge
so they are nice and firm and then when any of us need an  

energy PICK UP, 

these are perfect to grab and eat.
I send Jade with two of them in a small container in his lunch box
so he can eat them before he runs each day after school.

Artichokes are truly one of our favorite things to enjoy. 

WOW, we had the best sale EVER on them...they were 2 for $1.00 and SO I bought $4.00 worth of them. Enough for two meals worth and we all got our own. 

yummy, Yummy, YUMMY!

I made up 1/2 batch of tortillas

browned some sausage and drained it,

cooked some eggs with onions and bell pepper

topped with cheese and put on some fresh tomatoes, 

filled tortillas and rolled them up,

I took 2 of the burritos and cut them in half and we each enjoyed 1/2 a burrito along with our Artichoke.

I took the other four burritos, wrapped them in Saran Wrap and put them in our lunches the next day.

Amazing!

This dish is always a hit anytime it is made up!
Jade had a Pasta Party for Cross Country and was asked to bring a Pasta Dish. 

I had people asking for the recipe when I came to pick him up and they couldn't believe how good it was.

I'm so glad Tracy found this recipe and made adjustments to it to perfect it with ingredients that we always have on hand, because it is definitely 

one of the biggest hits with the kids!

What a JOY it was to go out to our garden

and turn over leaves and find the surprise of GREEN BEANS! 

Many a people in our neighborhoods have had really bad problems with beans this year and hardly anyone has had any grow successfully.  

I only ever make Shepherd's Pie at Harvest Time because I only like to make it with FRESH garden green beans (not ones from a can) and so we were in heaven with this yummy meal.

I also added in a large zucchini and used RED potatoes and onions from our garden as well.
It is SO satisfying making meals 

with veggies that you grew yourself!

I know in this picture my fridge still looks cluttered,  

but it was a 100% improvement from what it did look like.   

While cleaning out my fridge I came across a package of Smoked Salmon that expires in a month and so I made up a yummy batch of Smoked Salmon and Artichoke Dip for our lunch the next day.

DELICIOUS!!

Tracy had splurged and purchased a Rotisserie Chicken on our trip to town and we enjoyed it with some fresh fruit for lunch.
 I took the leftover chicken and carcass, 
boiled it up and made a yummy gravy and we enjoyed  
Hawaiian Haystacks for two different dinners.

Our family LOVES these because everyone gets to top them however they like and they LOVE all of the yummy fresh veggies that you can top them with.

This meal is very economical
and if you are swimming in produce,
it is perfect to have a fun way to use your produce up.

 I had a week of LOTS of baking...
there were only a few of my bread recipes that I didn't bake up this week.
Multi-Grain rolls and Hoagie Buns seem to always be the biggest hit!

Many desserts were made as well this week.

Coconut Cream Pie,

Lemon Meringue Pie

Seven Layer Goodie Bars

Double Chocolate Cookies

 and Fruit & Nut Cookies were what were served at the anniversary party!

I love making sure nothing goes to waste!

SO, I took the leftover rolls from the party and 

cut them into chunks, 

put them on a cookie sheet and 

baked them at 350 degrees until they were lightly browned.

They were the perfect bread crumbs 

for our Zucchini Casserole.

This is such a yummy way to use 

garden zucchini, carrots and onions.

It throws together quickly and reminds me of Thanksgiving 

with it's "stuffing like" texture and taster.

Truly delicious!!

It was a decadent 2 weeks with many

delicious and yummy homemade treats to enjoy!

The only photo of a smoothie I got this week.

WOW, we felt like we had gone to a smoothie shoppe 

and purchased this...it was that good!

I know that this the furthest thing from being frugal, 
but this is only something we purchase once a year.
When I take my kids school shopping each year, I let them pick out a bag of individual chips for the first few months of school lunches.   
After these are gone, we don't purchase anymore until the next years school shopping trip.
(Chips are definitely something that we don't each much of.)
Needless to say, these came in REALLY handy for our two picnics. Everyone that joined us for the picnic could grab their choice of chip to enjoy with their lunch.
With how expensive large bags of chips are right now, this was actually quite economical as well.
SO, speaking from this last weekend's experience, I do have to say that this is a another HELPFUL thing to throw in for a  multi-day family trip or picnicking experience.

Sometimes convenience is more important 
then the cost of something!

Friday and Saturday were two family days with Tracy's family...

Friday we went to Jenny Lake and Jackson Hole, Wyoming,

Saturday we headed to Yellowstone to see the sites.

With getting home close to 11:30 each night I didn't have time to do any bread making and I didn't have any loaves in my freezer to pull out.

However,  I was able to throw together a Potato Salad  

AND two batches of Chocolate Chip Cookies for us to add to our picnic lunches.

YES, I know my challenge is 3 months of No Shopping (only produce and milk), but we had to make an exception to this rule to accommodate our family outing with Tracy's family.

We purchased deli ham and turkey, alfalfa sprouts and French Bread

(I brought a container of sliced tomatoes from our garden, sliced cheese and mayo/mustard all mixed together).

If you need a great way to fix sandwiches on a picnic.

purchase a loaf of French Bread from the bakery department,

slice it into 4 pieces,

slice each piece in half,

top with your sandwich fixins'

and VOILA, perfect, yummy sandwich!!

If you can't have homemade bread, 

this is the next best thing to it!

August 28th to September 3rd
Sunday
(Tracy and I left early and went and spent 2 hours picking huckleberries before church) 
(kids ate Fruit & Nut Granola cereal that we had in our food storage for breakfast)
Unthawed another loaf of bread and made roast beef sandwiches for lunch that we enjoyed with chips and grapes...we packed these in the cooler and went and spent another 3 hours picking more huckleberries
Came home and put berries on cookie sheets in freezer and made a batch of buttermilk pancakes and added in fresh huckleberries to the batter
(we ended up with 51 cups of berries...just a little over 3 gallons)

Monday
Steel Cut Oats
(Tracy and Ethan) Roast beef sandwiches, grapes, gumdrop bread, (that I had pulled out of freezer), cherry tomatoes from our garden
(Jade) Leftover broccoli salad, peanut butter and honey sandwich, grapes, string cheese 
Made dough for tortillas before I went and picked up Jade from Cross Country...after we got home I rolled them out and cooked them
Dinner we enjoyed Artichokes (they were on sale 2 for $1.00) and we shared breakfast burritos.
We made Apple/Huckleberry Pie and homemade ice cream for dessert
(made a batch of peanut butter energy balls)


Tuesday
Steel Cut Oats
(lunch for all of us) Breakfast burritos, banana, grapes, leftover pie
Shepherd's Pie (made with green beans, zucchini, potatoes and onions from our garden) French Bread
Finished rest of our ice cream, pie and also enjoyed some homemade OREO cookies
(took French Bread and cookies to my neighbor that was celebrating a birthday...also delivered cookies to a lady that I go visiting teaching to)
(made another start of ARTISAN Bread) 

Wednesday
Steel Cut Oats
(lunch for all of us)Shepherd's pie, French bread, apple, homemade OREO cookies
(went and had lunch with Ethan...great time!)
Made Baked Mac and Cheese and Artisan Bread for Jade to take to his Cross Country Pasta Party
Tracy, Ethan and I enjoyed a delicious smoothie for dinner made with the rest of our homemade yogurt, huckleberries, blueberries, grapes, Swiss chard, celery and ice
(made Salmon and Artichoke Dip)
(took Apple Huckleberry Pie to my sweet friend Tauna)


Thursday
Steel Cut Oats
(Tracy me and Ethan) Salmon and Artichoke dip, Toasted Artisan Bread, string cheese, cherry tomatoes from our garden, grapes, homemade OREO's
(Jade) had school lunch as it was a cross country meet today and he didn't want to have to drag his lunch box to the meet, however for snacks to give him energy before running he ate peanut butter energy balls, grapes and string cheese)
(crazy night...had a cross country meet up at Green Canyon and then had to race back to be to back to school night and so we grabbed burgers at Burger King at the south Rexburg exit and barely made it to the elementary with 5 minutes to spare for back to school night)

Friday
Steel Cut Oats
Salmon and Artichoke Dip, toasted Artisan Bread, string cheese, grapes and peanut butter energy balls
Pulled a jar of Bottled Tomato Soup and served it with fresh corn on the cob and toasted Artisan Bread

Saturday
Smoothie made with fresh raspberries, peaches, banana, yogurt, grapes and ice
Tracy bought a Rotisserie chicken from town and we enjoyed sandwiches for lunch 

September 4th to 10th
Sunday
Peaches, Bananas and Zucchini Bread
Had Tracy's brother and sister-in-law over and Tracy had purchased a Rotisserie Chicken the day before and so I pulled off the meat, boiled the carcass for about 45 minutes and took the broth and made Hawaiian Haystacks for dinner
Enjoyed Peanut Butter Energy balls and double chocolate cookies for a treat as well
(my sister-in-law and I enjoyed an afternoon of baking...she baked some lemon cupcakes and Seven Layer Bars and we made a batch of Double Chocolate cookies, ground some whole wheat flour and made a batch of Multi-Grain Rolls as well.

Monday
Crazy day getting ready for Tracy's parents 50th anniversary party
each grabbed a banana and Tracy fried us an egg and we had it on a toasted Multi-Grain Roll for breakfast
(spent morning baking French Bread, Multi-Grain Rolls, Lion House Rolls, Coconut and Lemon Meringue Pie, Double Chocolate and Fruit/Nut cookies)  
 5:00...was one FUN night of celebrating with Tracy's parents and family

Tuesday
Steel Cut Oats
(my house was such a wreck from baking for the party and we got back so late, I didn't have time to throw lunches together so my kids ended up eating school lunch and Tracy and I went and had lunch together since we didn't get to connect much this past weekend)  
Leftover Haystacks,

Wednesday
Steel Cut Oats
Multi-Grain Rolls with tuna fish, grapes, apple, string cheese, Seven Layer Bars
Zucchini Casserole (took my leftover rolls from the party, broke them into pieces, toasted them and made casserole from our zucchhini, carrots and onions from our garden)
Went with Tracy's mom, sisters and nieces to ZUMBA!  WOW! what a fun, exciting workout. Had such a great time!

Thursday
Steel Cut Oats
Zucchini Bread, string cheese, cherry tomatoes, apple
(went with Tracy's family to "Fat Cat's" and enjoyed pizza, bowling and mini-glow in the dark golf)

Friday
Smoothie with peaches, pineapple, grapes, banana, yogurt and ice
Lunch...ham/turkey sandwiches with cheese, tomatoes and sprouts, potato salad, grapes, string cheese, homemade chocolate chip cookies, chips 
Ate dinner at Merry Piglets with Tracy's family (beef fajitas with all of the fixin's)

Saturday
Green Smoothie
Lunch...ham/turkey sandwiches with cheese, tomatoes and sprouts, potato salad, grapes, string cheese, homemade chocolate chip cookies, chips
(bought a loaf of bakery french bread, cut it into 4 pieces and made sandwiches with it)
Enjoyed ice cream at Old Faithful Inn while we waited for Old Faithful to go off

Links to recipes used this week:
Shepherd's Pie
Baked Mac and Cheese
Salmon and Artichoke Dip
Hawaiian Haystacks
Potato Salad
Broccoli Slaw Salad
Zucchini Casserole
Homemade Tortillas
French Bread
Homemade Hoagie Buns 
Gumdrop Bread
Artisan Bread
Buttermilk pancakes
Honey Whole Wheat Bread
Multi-Grain Rolls
Lion House Rolls
Coconut Cream Pie
Lemon Meringue Pie
Double Chocolate Cookies
OREO cookies
Apple Huckleberry Pie
Peanut Butter Energy balls
Seven Layer Goodie Bars
Zucchini Bread
Chocolate Chip Cookies

Have a wonderful, enjoyable,

happy and healthy week!