2012 June

My Week in Pictures (6-30-12)

June 30, 2012 By Jackie Leave a Comment

This week has gone by quickly and I feel like I haven’t quite gotten back in the swing of things since we returned from our trip. This has meant that my house that was so nice and clean before we left has been a little on the messy side. Plus, I didn’t feel motivated to take many pictures this week. Hopefully, I will be more on the ball this coming week.

Anyway, here’s a look at our week, in pictures.

Monday

Our garden is looking pretty good despite the drought. I have picked and frozen 2 gallons of green beans so far, and we have been eating zucchini, cucumbers, and broccoli as well.

Tuesday

This is a picture of Janna playing with a couple of the items in her travel activity box that I posted about on Pocketful of Posies.

Wednesday

We have been working on 4-H projects this week. Julia got all of her sewing projects cut out and started. We have less than 2 weeks to get her projects and James’ projects finished. It will be a busy time, but it is fun and I hope the kids are learning a lot.

Thursday

The pool felt really good on Thursday, but when we went swimming today it was in the lower 90′s. Considering it was over 100 degrees outside it felt alright. However, if we don’t get a break in the heat soon I am just going to send the kids out to the pool with a bar of soap to take their baths each night.

Friday

By the time I realized I hadn’t taken a picture on Friday, everyone was asleep. I decided to get down on the floor and take a picture of all of Janna’s toys scattered across the living room floor. While tripping over toys isn’t fun now, I know I will miss this someday.

Saturday

I asked my husband to set up a few sprinklers to water the garden with because I am not doing a very good job of keeping up with the watering. Hopefully, this will keep our garden from dying. Of course, the boys couldn’t resist playing in the water. I refrained, but it was tempting.

I hope you had a great week, too.

Filed Under: photography Tagged With: family, project 365

Garden Update 6-27-12

June 27, 2012 By Jackie 2 Comments

I don’t know what the weather is like where you live but we are in a drought. We need rain desperately. Our grass is turning brown and our garden is only surviving because I have been watering it.

Thankfully, the garden is starting to give us some yummy produce despite our lack of rain. We have been eating lots of zucchini and broccoli, and I even picked a gallon of green beans. We are really starting to enjoy the fruits of our labors.

The first heads of broccoli were ready the day we left for vacation so I took them with us. I didn’t even get a picture of them, but they were big, beautiful, and yummy. Now we are getting new, smaller heads of broccoli. I haven’t frozen any and will probably just serve it as it becomes ready instead.

The corn has started tasseling and there are small ears of corn forming. I can’t believe how much it has grown in the past month. The corn really makes Janna look little now.

The cabbage heads are still fairly small but the plants themselves are enormous.

Here are a few of those green beans I was talking about. I probably need to go out and pick again before I water tonight.

We have a few blackberries that are ripe, and I am guessing that we will have more in the next week or two.

Our back garden spot is doing alright. The sweet potatoes haven’t spread much, so I am hoping they start growing more soon.

I have several butternut squash that are almost full size. The plants have really taken off lately.

Check out this little pumpkin that I found hiding under some leaves. I am hopeful we will have enough to enjoy this fall.

Well, that’s a look at my garden this week. How is your garden growing?

Filed Under: gardening

Our Family’s Favorite Meals: Turkey Manhattans

June 25, 2012 By Jackie 4 Comments

Whenever I cook a turkey I usually use some of the meat to make turkey manhattans. Served with a vegetable like green beans and fruit, this is a meal that includes all of the food groups. Not only that, they are so yummy!

I don’t even know if this could be considered a recipe. I do make my own gravy which is very easy and is gluten-free as well. This is definitely a great after Thanksgiving meal when you already have all of the ingredients cooked, but we enjoy them at other times, too. Here is my “recipe” for turkey manhattans.

Turkey Manhattans

Ingredients

Cooked Turkey
Mashed Potatoes
Bread
2 Cups Turkey Broth
2 Tablespoons Cornstarch
1-2 Tablespoons Cold Water
1 teaspoon Salt

Instructions

Heat the turkey and mashed potatoes, if using leftovers.
In a small pan bring the turkey broth to a boil.
Add the salt.
In a small bowl add the cornstarch and enough water to make it able to be poured out of the bowl but not runny.
Add the cornstarch and water mixture to the pan of turkey broth.
Use a whisk to combine and continue whisking as you bring it to a boil again.
Continue boiling until the broth is nice and thick.
On a plate layer the bread, mashed potatoes, turkey, and finally the gravy.

Notes

If the gravy is too runny for your taste, combine more cornstarch and cold water and whisk it into the pan until you get the desired consistency.

http://www.blessingsoverflowing.com/2012/06/our-familys-favorite-meals-turkey-manhattans/

Filed Under: meal planning, recipes

My Week in Pictures (6-24-12) Our Trip to Florida

June 24, 2012 By Jackie 4 Comments

This past week we were in Florida. I bet you didn’t even know I was gone because I had scheduled all of my posts for the week before we left.

We had a wonderful time and I want to thank my parents for blessing us with such a wonderful gift. You see, for Christmas they gave our family and my brother’s family a trip to Disney World. They said they wanted to enjoy watching us spend our inheritance.

Sunday

Last Sunday night at about 7:45 p.m. we headed to my parents house so they could follow us to Florida. We had decided to drive through the night to make it easier on the kids. During the afternoon I let my husband sleep for about 5 hours while I took care of wearing out the children and getting things finalized so we could leave.

It took us longer to get there than we thought it might (18 1/2 hours) because we were caravanning, but it all worked out. We arrived in Florida a tired, but excited group.

Monday

We rented a 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom house for the 12 of us and it was so nice. It felt like being at home and we were able to save a lot of money on food. I had frozen some homemade spaghetti sauce before we left home. All we had to do was boil some noodles for supper that first night and we were set.

The kids enjoyed eating on the lanai which was right beside the pool. We thought renting the house was much nicer than a hotel.

Tuesday

On Tuesday morning we headed to the Magic Kingdom at Disney World. As you can see I dressed us all in the same color which made keeping track of 5 kids much easier. It was a pretty hot day, so we went back to the house for lunch, swimming and supper.

We headed back to Disney for the evening and were able to see the parade and fireworks. We didn’t make it back to the house until around 1:00 a.m., but we all had a great time.

Wednesday

We were originally going to go to the ocean on Wednesday, but decided to head back to the Magic Kingdom based on the weather forecast. We ended up getting rained on, but at least we weren’t hot. It turned out to be a pretty good afternoon and evening despite the rain, and we were able to ride quite a few rides. We even got to see a couple of mice.

Thursday

On Thursday we headed to the Atlantic Ocean. We were going to meet up with a friend of my Dad’s who had access to a private beach at Satellite Beach. Due to my pregnant sister-in-law not feeling too well after two days of Disney, my parents and brother’s family headed back to the house. We decided to keep going because we wanted the kids to see the ocean.

The couple that my Dad knows were so nice to us and even let us change in their condo instead of having to ride 1 1/2 hours in wet, sandy suits. My kids loved the ocean and we had a great afternoon despite the seaweed and my sunburned back.

Friday

On Friday morning we headed to Downtown Disney to get some souvenirs. My boys loved the Lego store and all of the cool sculptures made of Legos. We went back to the house and ate lunch before jumping in the pool. It ended up storming and I so wish I could have brought the rain home where we are in the midst of a drought.

Saturday

On Saturday, we left the house at 8:30 a.m. and headed home. We arrived home at 1:45 a.m. this morning after 17 hours of driving. Our last stop was at 9:00 p.m. so we went 4 hours and 45 minutes the last leg of our trip. My husband did a wonderful job of driving us safely to Florida and back (2300+ miles) and for that I am so thankful.

Sunday

When we got home we unloaded the kids and luggage from the truck, I unpacked the cooler, and then we went to bed. This is the aftermath of our trip. I have been trying to do laundry, put things away, tend to our thirsty garden, and catch up on some sleep today. It is always fun to go on a vacation, but like Dorothy says, “There’s no place like home.”

Our blessings were definitely overflowing this week as we went on this special trip. Everything worked out so well and I am so thankful for the opportunities my children had this week.

I hope you enjoyed this condensed version of our vacation. How was your week?

Filed Under: photography Tagged With: family, project 365

Homemade Cashew Cookie “Lärabars”

June 22, 2012 By Jackie 2 Comments

It seems like everyone loves Lärabars, so we decided to see what all the fuss was about. My husband picked up several varieties a few weeks ago and we all sampled them. We made a list of our favorites and what ingredients were used for each.

Considering the cost of the bars we felt that trying to come up with our own versions of our favorites would not only be economical but a fun experiment. I decided that the easiest one to try first would be the cashew cookie bar. It only had 2 ingredients so I imagined I couldn’t really mess that up.

What I came up with my oldest two children said was much better than the store-bought bar. Flattering the cook never hurts. They are pretty tasty if I do say so myself.

I used chopped dates and cashews with just a little bit of water. Even though the original bars didn’t have water I think that using chopped dates meant that they were drier than if I had used whole dates.

With my food processor I first chopped up the cashews finely and then added the dates. The tiny bit of water helped to hold the bars together.

To make the mixture into bars I lined a tiny cookie sheet with plastic wrap and then pressed the mixture into the pan. I cut them into bars and let everyone have a taste. I have made these a couple of times all with rave reviews from my team of qualified taste-testers.

(I may or may not have sampled them before snapping the picture above.)

The last time I made this recipe I rolled the mixture into balls. We are calling them cashew cookie bites and I think it might be the way I will make them for my kids from now on.

If you would like to try making your own cashew cookie Lärabars, here is my recipe.

Cashew Cookie "Lärabars"

Ingredients

1 Cup Cashews
1 Cup Chopped Dates
1-3 teaspoons Water

Instructions

Chop the cashews in a food processor until finely chopped.
Add the dates and pulse to combine.
1-3 teaspoons of water may need to be added to help the mixture form into bars.
Spread the mixture onto a plastic wrap lined tray.
Press the mixture to form bars.
Cut into bars.

Notes

These have never lasted long enough in our home to require worrying about how to store them. However, I think I would probably store them in the refrigerator if I needed to store them for longer than a day or two.

http://www.blessingsoverflowing.com/2012/06/homemade-cashew-cookie-larabars/

Have you ever tried Lärabars? Which kind was your favorite?

Filed Under: recipes