Cool, Crisp Air

9/13/11

I have really grown to love this time of year. It's not too hot and not too cold most of the time and it just gives me warm and fuzzy feelings of excitement! I love to remember hay rides, pumpkins, hot cider, sweatshirts, fall decor, and this is the time when I met Kyle (we can leave that for another post). Here are some things I've been doing lately!

• Keeping up with my girl...she has taken several steps by herself but is still trying to master it so it's not as much as I want (I think?)
• Found out my sis-in-law, Jenner, is having a girl!! Natalie Ruth. I like it :)
• I made salsa for the first time...it was fun and yummy!
• Forgot about my raspberry bush but found it. lol. Here it is. Ate raspberries off it tonight. Yum!

Fresh raspberries. Best I've ever had!

This is part of our basket of supplies for salsa making...it's fun making homemade stuff from a garden!

Lovely pregnant lady cooking!

Some of our fresh cilantro.

Finished product!! The second batch turned out better than the first...we know what we're doing now! Delish!

Here's a lovely pic of my girl...had to throw this in!

The BIG Reveal!

It's here!!!! My cookbook. Can't believe I have a book. Wow. Exciting. Why should you buy it? Let me tell you...

• It's recipes we all recognize
• It's recipes that taste good
• It's healthier than the average cookbook and gives tips about how to transform your house into an environment for a healthy lifestyle to succeed
• It has over 31 recipes...you can do a new recipe each day of the month and not make the same one!
• Optional calendar to plan your meals
• It's foods I make all the time and everyone that eats them loves them :)

What kind of recipes are in it??

• Burgers and fries
• that lovely pita pocket recipe
• tacos
• fajitas
• pizzas
• flat bread sandwiches
• meatballs
• wings
• spaghetti
• chicken...all different kinds
• and more!!!!

So take a chance and try something new....you won't regret it!

Order here.... COOKBOOK

Recipe: Pita pocket salad!

8/30/11

So I have a new obsession...whole wheat pita pocket bread. YUM. No enriched flour. No crap. That's what I like. It tastes good too and is fun! So the other night I made a new thing that turned out fantastic...you have to try this. I got the pita bread from Walmart.

Um, yeah, Abigail loves this stuff with bbq chicken!

Pita Pocket Salad

1 Pita Pocket

lettuce

grilled chicken

bbq sauce

fresh cut cucumber, onion, green pepper

little bit of mozzarella cheese

dried cranberries or cherries

italian dressing (packet you can make yourself)

Directions:

1. Put Pita in oven on rack on 350 degrees 3-5 minutes.

2. Cut grilled chicken in small pieces and put bbq sauce with it. Simmer a few minutes in pan.

2. Make salad with the rest of the ingredients and toss in a bowl.

3. Put chicken with salad and mix more.

4. Remove pita from oven and Stuff with salad.

5. Enjoy with watermelon like I did or another kind of fruit!

Makes me want it again looking at this picture!!

Food Find...local garden

8/29/11

Last night I rode my bike to youth group and passed this little garden stand selling vegetables at a lady's house. I didn't have time to stop so this morning I ventured out again with Abigail to go get good deals....without spending gas (yes!). It was cute and only took me maybe 10 minutes to get there. I love this area because it's close to lots of stores and the mall but you have to go by a bunch of farms to get there...perfect for paying less on fruits and vegetables.

Here's the cute stand. Good variety of food.

Abigail in the trail behind. What century do I live in again? Riding to a farm to buy food? ha.

She was selling bundles of flowers for a dollar also. Very pretty ones!

Abigail was tired from our ventures.

Spent $3.00 on all this. Mostly everything was 25 and 50 cents that she was selling. What a great morning!!

My girl...not so little anymore?

8/29/11

This last week has been huge for Abigail. I feel like she changed SO much! Where to begin? Well, let's start with mobility. She is not walking...yet. She walks while holding onto everything and started running while holding onto my hands. She surprised me and I could barely keep up!! She is waving "hi" and "bye" all the time now. Dancing happens a lot! She just starts bopping when she hears a phone go off. hehe. And she is just able to express what she knows more. Now to food. This is day number FOUR with no baby food! I have been really forcing it for a while now. I would sing "the wheels on the bus" to get her to eat the baby food. So why not just let her go without it now? She's almost 11 months. It's been great!!! She has also weaned herself from breastfeeding. I still try to feed her once or twice a day from me but she has no interest so why push it at this age? She has exclusively breastfed from me for almost a year..that's pretty good. I don't want to hold her back if she's ready. I love her...my baby is growing up...take a look at pics :)

She picked up her mini cup and just started drinking out of it all by herself, without guidance or telling her to do it!

Trying to get her to just drink out of a cup and this cup with a straw.

Here she is eating her strawberries earlier today :)

Here are my finds for her! Sorry it's side ways. Too much work to change it right now (too lazy). But there are freeze dried packets of fruit called Air Crisps, honey grahams, fruit granola bars, oatmeal, and GoGo Squeeze of no sugar added, natural fruit. So this is my world...more to come!

New Food Find and Meals with No Money!

8/23/11

So in one of my previous posts, I talk about how amazing Trader Joe's and Whole Foods Market is. Trader Joe's has this awesome peanut butter with 3 ingredients. Well, today I was getting a couple items at Target and saw that Archer Farms has the same one!!!! Amazingness. It was with flax seed and only 3 ingredients as well. Oh how I love Target....anyways, we were almost out of the PB from TJ so I picked it up. I have not tasted it yet so hopefully it scores well and I can buy that from now on.

On to more food....well, lack thereof. I have like no money for groceries left so I am going to have to do some improvising. How do you make meals with little food and a tight budget?! Well, worry no more. I have/had some ideas and it's going to be all good :)

So here's the situation. I have a big bag of chicken I cooked already and froze. I have a good amount of sliced ham too from Rise 'n Roll Bakery (only $1 a pound!). Then Kyle's mom left us with a ton, a ton of sloppy joe Elk meat from the weekend (garage sale). Do I really want sloppy joe's every day for the next week? Nope, I sure don't. So I decided to make empanadas with sloppy joe and ham. Yes I did. I just made the dough then put some cheese with choice of meat on the inside and folded it up. Fantastic! Then I froze the rest of the meat to use later (I love the freezer).

I plan to make homemade pizza, my own flatbread (sandwiches/wraps), and I have a new bag of organic potatoes I can use as starches for the week. I do have some lettuce, bananas, peppers, frozen veggies, and carrots. Fruit is not so much right now :(

Here's the empanadas I made...

Even though I don't really have any room to buy groceries, it's amazing what you can find in your cupboards to make that you normally buy!! I still buy no processed food but it's easier not to make my own flatbread and such...so saving money here I am!

I have things to say about my girl but don't have time...so till the next post, see ya!

10 Months

Someone lit up when I started snapping shots.

10 months today!

8/15/11

Here are adorable pictures of my 10 month girl! Really? Is this happening?? 10 months?! Craziness. But what a ride it's been. Each day I play with her and can't believe how blessed I am and how much I love this child. It's still only the beginning. She's fantastic :)

So here are things she's doing...

-Talking...a lot. Mostly jibber jabber but says "momma, dad, daddy, kitty, ducky, me," The ever favorites are also, "nah nah (no), bwe, and boogied"

-Walking and running along furniture

-Standing for several seconds at a time without holding onto anything (has stood and sat down without holding anything)

-Chases the cat a lot

-Bops to music...she bopped to Mumford and Sons tonight and was with the beat!

-Loves reading books! She can't get enough of books

- Is eating granola bars now

-Understands what I say...crawling to the bathroom when I asked if she wanted to bathe

....those are just a few things that she's doing. Can you tell I love her a lot? :) Just wait till her birthday party!