Fresh & Healthy
Summer Activities: Picnics on the Porch
Brina and Karlie are having a "picnic" on the front porch. Skipper, the girls faithful outdoor friend, is nearby in case they drop any crumbs! A new favorite spot for the girls to eat their snacks, lunch, and goodies is on the front porch. A couple years ago my parents got me a glider for the front porch and it has been a huge hit with the entire family. The girls like to sit on the glider and eat because Skipper is not trying to snatch their food but they can still eat outside. Their drinks are usually on the table next to the glider whenever they are playing outside to help remind them to stay hydrated.
I have a sneaking suspicion that Skipper gets her fair share of extra food from the girls. On the hot days when the girls spend a lot of time outside all three of them (the kids and dog) crash by the evening. One time after a full day of playing with the girls we watched Skipper walk up to the front door mat (where she enjoys napping) and literally flop over in exhaustion. She’s enjoying all the attention but it wears her out too.
Does your family have a favorite spot to eat picnics at home?
Fresh & Healthy: Our Garden – Leafy Lettuce, Zucchini, Summer Squash, Purple Beans, Strawberries, Tomatoes, Green Beans, and Snow Peas!
We are loving the fresh vegetables from our garden! This week I did better at taking pictures of the items our family picked. We were traveling for a few day. Hopefully my brother who was watching the house was able to get a few items out of the garden to use for their family.
Here are some of the fresh veggies we were able to eat and share this week:
Fresh from the Garden - Leafy Lettuce, Zucchini, Summer Squash, Cherry and Roma Tomatoes, Strawberries, Green Beans, and Purple Beans. We got two more big bags of leafy lettuce before we had to pull the stocks because they were flowering. The zucchini and summer squash are starting to picking. We’ve been getting a few strawberries and a couple handfuls of cherry tomatoes more regularly now. We have both green and purple beans producing now in the garden.
Big Tomatoes, Cherry Tomatoes, Purple Beans, Summer Squash, Leafy Green Lettuce, Snow Peas, Strawberry and Green Beans from the Garden The snow peas have been amazing and delicious to eat fresh for snacks and in baking, however, they are pretty much done producing. The lettuce is slowing down too but we hope to get a few more salads in before it completely wraps up for the season. On a more positive note the tomatoes, beans, and squash are still going pretty strong despite all the storms.
We were able to share some of the veggies this week with family, friends and people at our church. During the summer months our church does a “Corner Harvest” where people can share fresh produce from their garden. It is neat to see what other families are growing and share our produce.
What are you eating out of your garden this week?
Save A Lot: Deals for the week of June 22 – 28, 2011
The Save A Lot weekly ad deals are listed below for your convenience. There are a lot of great deals that are continued this week at Save A Lot for $1.00. Sign up for the Smart Shopper Club, by doing so you will get a $5.00 off of $25.00 coupon!
Meats and Seafood
Eckrich Hot Dogs or Bologna (16 oz) – $1.00
Carolina Ground Turkey (16 oz ) – $1.00
Butterball Turkey Bacon (6 oz) – $1.00
Use $0.65/1 coupon from insert 5/22 Smart Source (Expires 7/10/11)
$0.35 each after couponGwaltney Pork Sausage (12 oz) – $1.00
Center Cut Beef Spare Ribs – $2.49 per lb
Ground Beef (1 lb) – $2.49
Sugardale Bratwurst – $1.99
Smoked Sausage – $0.99
Chicken Breast Strips – $0.99
Meatballs (8 oz) – $0.99
Pick 5 for $19.99 promo on going: Pick any 5 specially marked packages of your favorite cuts of fresh, frozen or smoked meats and pay just $19.99 (about $2 per pound).
Fridge and Freezer
Oscar Mayer Lunchables – $1.00
Reser’s Assorted Salads & Coleslaw – $1.00
Use $1.00/1 printable coupon from Coupon Web
Free after each couponMinute Maid Lemonade or Fruit Punch – $1.00
Tony’s Crispy Crust Pizza – $1.00
Use $1.00/3 coupon from insert 5/22 Smart Source (Expires 7/31/11)
Use $1.00/5 coupon from insert 4/17 Smart Source (Expires 7/9/11)
Use $0.50/4 coupon from insert 5/22 Smart Source (Expires 8/13/11)
As low as $0.67 each after couponTotino’s Pizza Rolls – $1.00
Use $1.00/3 coupon from insert 5/22 Smart Source (Expires 7/31/11)
Use $0.50/4 coupon from insert 5/22 Smart Source (Expires 8/13/11)
As low as $0.66 each after couponBanquet Dinners – $1.00
Fisher Boy Fish Sticks – $1.00
$0.75/1 printable coupon Fisher Boy
$0.25 each after couponT. J. Farms Sweet Potato Fries – $1.00
Party Treats Ice Cream Sandwiches (4 count) – $1.00
World’s Fair Orange, Grape and Cherry Popsicles – $0.99
Lemonade – $1.99
Home Churned Squeeze Spread – $0.99
Bright & Early Beverage Drink – $0.99
Household
Poly Steel Sandwich Zipper Bags (50 count) – $1.00
Joy Dish Liquid – $1.00
Produce
Fresh Express Coleslaw (16 oz) – $1.00
Fresh Express Salad Mix (12 oz) – $1.00
Baby Carrots (16 oz) – $1.00
California Cherries – $1.99 per lb
Roma Tomatoes – $0.89 per lb
Red & White Grapes – $1.29 per lb
Grocery
Knorr Side Dishes – $1.00
Hamburger Helper Dinner – $1.00
Use $1.00/3 coupon from insert 5/22 Smart Source (Expires 7/16/11)
Use $1.00/3 coupon from insert 5/1 Smart Source (Expires 6/25/11)
Use $0.75/3 coupon from insert 5/1 Smart Source (Expires 6/25/11)
As low as $0.67 each after couponSave A Lot Apple Juice (64 oz) – $1.00
Sundia Fruit Cups (8 oz) – $1.00
Red Gold Ketchup (40 oz) – $1.00
Use $0.50/2 printable coupon from Red Gold
$0.75 each after couponWoeber’s Mustard (24 oz) – $1.00
Kurtz Sweet Relish – $1.00
Shasta Soda (4 pack) – $1.00
Deer Park Spring Water (3 liter) – $1.00
Crunch & Munch Butter Toffee – $1.00
Dippables – $1.00
Mantia’s Pasta Sauce – $1.00
Shelby’s Grove Sliced Peaches – $1.00
J Higgs Pretzels – $1.00
Chicken of the Sea Chunk White Tuna – $1.00
Allure Zero Calorie Sweetener – $1.00
Jade Dragon Soy Sauce – $1.00
Kraft BBQ Sauce – $0.88
Bugles – $0.79
Harvest Select Juice Cocktails – $0.99
On the Go Powder Drink Sticks – $1.00
Crisp Lemonade – $0.99
Swift Mac – $0.75
Toast Em Strawberry or Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop Ups – $0.99
Malt O Meal Cereal – $0.99
Remember you can use the $5/$25 printable coupon to sweeten these deals! Plus you can earn up to 5 additional $5 off $25 coupons for sharing the coupon with your friends.
For more information about Save A Lot’s coupon policies go here. If you find additional deals or savings please let me know and I will add them to the list.
Fresh & Healthy: A Refreshing Twist to Ice Water
Summer Time Favorite Drink - Ice Water with Fresh Lemon Slices! One of our favorite inexpensive, easy, and refreshing summer drinks we like to serve at our house is Ice Water with Fresh Lemon Slices! Lemonade is delicious but can be a little too sweet at times. Many times on the hot summer days the kids just want ice water so to add a little more to their drinks we will buy lemons when they are on sale, slice them up and add them to the water pitcher. It is very refreshing!
Refreshing and delicious - Cool lemon water on a hot day! I need to look for some more lemons on clearance! The girls and I drink this a lot since we spend some time almost every day outside!
Recipe: Taco Lasagna
Taco Lasagna, one of our family's favorites! Taco Lasagna is a favorite menu request in our household. It is one that my husband requests at least once a month and it is super easy to make. Our friend, Terry, from church was kind enough to share the recipe with us. If you like taco’s this is a great recipe to check out. It uses flour tortillas instead of pasta to separate the layers. Brina helped me put this one together, she even sliced the olives all by herself, did one complete layer and added cheese. Glad that she enjoys helping Mommy in the kitchen! Thanks for sharing the recipe Terry!
Taco Lasagna:
- 1 pound ground Beef or Turkey
- 1/2 cup chopped Green Pepper (optional)
- 1/2 cup chopped Onions
- 2/3 cup Water
- 1 package of Taco Seasoning
- 1 (15 oz) can Black Beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 (14.5 oz ) can Mexican Tomatoes, undrained
- 1 (16 oz) can Refried Beans
- 6 (8 inch) Flour Tortillas
- 3 cups shredded Mexican Cheese
In a large skillet, cook the meat, green pepper, and onion over medium heat until done. Add water and taco seasoning; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered 2 minutes. Stir in black beans and tomatoes. Simmer uncovered 10 minutes. Place 2 flour tortillas in a greased 13 x 9 pan. Spread half of the refried beans then half of the beef mixture. Sprinkle with 1 cup Mexican cheese. Repeat layers. Top with remaining tortillas and cheese (I try to add a little extra cheese if I have it and sliced olives if we have them in the pantry or fridge). Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until heated through and the cheese is melted. I usually take the foil off the last few minutes to let the cheese on top get a little crispy since our family likes it that way.
Fresh & Healthy: How We Split Our First Cherry Tomato 4 Ways
- Our first tomato this year was a sweet little cherry tomato!
The garden has been a wonderful teaching opportunity for our kids in many ways from the science of preparing, planting, and maintaining it to sharing with others and many more great learning moments. One of the most exciting parts about the garden is seeing the plants start producing vegetables and fruits. The tomato plants took (months according to the girls) to turn from green to red. We have made it a point to split the first type of vegetable or fruit that comes out of the garden four ways. The first pick of lettuce, summer squash, zucchini, etc….were easy to split among the family. The first tomato happened to be a little red cherry tomato. The girls giggled thinking their was no way we could split it four ways. We teased them about making 4 sandwiches out of the tomato and they thought that would be impossible. My sweet husband came up with a great solution that was a huge hit. The girls had a blasting watching us come up with a delicious treat to share with the whole family. They were amused and excited to eat their first BLT sandwich of the summer!
Making our first "tomato" sandwiches of the summer season! We took a tortilla, small scoop and cut out 8 little circles to make our sandwiches.
Cutting up our first tomato to eat on our sandwiches! Daddy carefully cut the tomato into 4 slices.
Our first BLT sandwich - the mini version! The first cherry tomato became a mini BLT’s for the family. We had tortilla’s for the bread, fresh lettuce from the garden, the fresh cherry tomato and a small piece of bacon. Who’s ready for a BLT?!
My first BLT sandwich of the summer with fresh lettuce and our first tomato from the garden! The girls giggled while eating their bite sized BLT sandwiches. They didn’t think Mommy and Daddy could make 4 sandwiches with our first tomato since it was a cherry tomato. We did it and they tasted delicious! These would make great appetizers and you can use fresh garden veggies to put them together. Make up a few, your kids will LOVE them!
Fresh & Healthy: Our Garden – Cabbage, Tomatoes, Purple Beans, Green Beans, Strawberries, Squash, Zucchini, Cucumbers, Peppers, Lettuce, and Peas!
We are loving the fresh vegetables from our garden! I didn’t have a chance to take pictures last week with all the traveling, guests, and fun activities. This week I did better at taking pictures but the girls ate a few items before the camera came out, they have been enjoying helping more in the garden now that they are on summer break from school.
Here are some of the fresh veggies we were able to eat and share this week:
Fresh Cabbage, Tomatoes, Peppers, Strawberries, Summer Squash, Snow Peas, Green Beans, Purple Beans 
Fresh from the Garden Leafy Lettuce, Summer Squash, Cherry Tomatoes, Regular Tomatoes, Sweet Basil, Dill, Snow Peas, Beans, and Banana Pepper. 
Fresh Fruit and Veggies - Tomatoes, Zucchini, Pepper, Summer Squash, Purple Beans, our first Cucumbers, Lettuce, Strawberry, and Snow Peas A few strawberries, tomatoes, and some other veggies barely made it inside to be rinsed before they ate them so the pictures didn’t happen. After picking one day the girls informed me “we picked a rainbow of food from our garden today Mom”. We had a lot of stormy nights the past couple weeks with hail, heavy rain, and high winds. We even had a tree fall down in the yard and break our fence during one of the storms. The garden has “shifted” a little bit but thankfully continues to produce some goodies despite the damage. We haven’t gotten a lot of any one vegetable or fruit but we have a nice variety of goodies to eat every week. Plus we haven’t had to water for a couple weeks.
We were able to share some of the veggies this week with family, friends and people at our church. During the summer months our church does a “Corner Harvest” where people can share fresh produce from their garden. It is neat to see what other families are growing and share our produce.
What are you eating out of your garden this week?
Fresh & Healthy: Having Fun with Produce
Fruit and Veggie Snack The girls have enjoyed helping pick vegetables and fruits from our garden this summer. They don’t get too excited about pulling the weeds but have gotten better at spotting produce and picking it. Once the fresh produce is washed they are always fascinated at seeing all the goodies spread out on the counter. Many times they pick a variety of pieces to eat at that time. One night as they were getting into their pj’s I put together a special fruit / veggie snack from the produce we had picked that day (see picture above). They giggled as they ate their special goodies from the garden and talked about how to grow food in a garden.
Smile – sliced Green Peppers
Nose – sliced Strawberry
Eyes – halved Cherry Tomato
Eye Lashes – cut up Purple Beans
It’s a simple way to get the kids excited about eating fruits and vegetables. I love surprising them with special treats and seeing their joy at getting something fun to eat.
Save A Lot: Deals for the week of June 15 – 21, 2011
The Save A Lot weekly ad deals are listed below for your convenience. There are a lot of great deals that are continued this week at Save A Lot for $1.00. Sign up for the Smart Shopper Club, by doing so you will get a $5.00 off of $25.00 coupon!
Meats and Seafood
Eckrich Hot Dogs or Bologna (16 oz) – $1.00
Carolina Ground Turkey (16 oz ) – $1.00
Butterball Turkey Bacon (6 oz) – $1.00
Use $0.65/1 coupon from insert 5/22 Smart Source (Expires 7/10/11)
$0.35 each after couponGwaltney Pork Sausage (12 oz) – $1.00
Center Cut Beef Spare Ribs – $2.49 per lb
Ground Beef (1 lb) – $2.49
Sugardale Bratwurst – $1.99
Smoked Sausage – $0.99
Chicken Breast Strips – $0.99
Meatballs (8 oz) – $0.99
Pick 5 for $19.99 promo on going: Pick any 5 specially marked packages of your favorite cuts of fresh, frozen or smoked meats and pay just $19.99 (about $2 per pound).
Fridge and Freezer
Oscar Mayer Lunchables – $1.00
Reser’s Assorted Salads & Coleslaw – $1.00
Use $1.00/1 printable coupon from Coupon Web
Free after each couponMinute Maid Lemonade or Fruit Punch – $1.00
Tony’s Crispy Crust Pizza – $1.00
Use $1.00/3 coupon from insert 5/22 Smart Source (Expires 7/31/11)
Use $1.00/5 coupon from insert 4/17 Smart Source (Expires 7/9/11)
Use $0.50/4 coupon from insert 5/22 Smart Source (Expires 8/13/11)
As low as $0.67 each after couponTotino’s Pizza Rolls – $1.00
Use $1.00/3 coupon from insert 5/22 Smart Source (Expires 7/31/11)
Use $0.50/4 coupon from insert 5/22 Smart Source (Expires 8/13/11)
As low as $0.66 each after couponBanquet Dinners – $1.00
Fisher Boy Fish Sticks – $1.00
$0.75/1 printable coupon Fisher Boy
$0.25 each after couponT. J. Farms Sweet Potato Fries – $1.00
Party Treats Ice Cream Sandwiches (4 count) – $1.00
World’s Fair Orange, Grape and Cherry Popsicles – $0.99
Lemonade – $1.99
Home Churned Squeeze Spread – $0.99
Bright & Early Beverage Drink – $0.99
Household
Poly Steel Sandwich Zipper Bags (50 count) – $1.00
Joy Dish Liquid – $1.00
Produce
Fresh Express Coleslaw (16 oz) – $1.00
Fresh Express Salad Mix (12 oz) – $1.00
Baby Carrots (16 oz) – $1.00
California Cherries – $1.99 per lb
Roma Tomatoes – $0.89 per lb
Red & White Grapes – $1.29 per lb
Grocery
Knorr Side Dishes – $1.00
Use $0.50/2 coupon from insert 5/22 Red Plum (Expires 6/19/11)
$0.75 each after couponHamburger Helper Dinner – $1.00
Use $1.00/3 coupon from insert 5/22 Smart Source (Expires 7/16/11)
Use $1.00/3 coupon from insert 5/1 Smart Source (Expires 6/25/11)
Use $0.75/3 coupon from insert 5/1 Smart Source (Expires 6/25/11)
As low as $0.67 each after couponSave A Lot Apple Juice (64 oz) – $1.00
Sundia Fruit Cups (8 oz) – $1.00
Red Gold Ketchup (40 oz) – $1.00
Use $0.50/2 printable coupon from Red Gold
$0.75 each after couponWoeber’s Mustard (24 oz) – $1.00
Kurtz Sweet Relish – $1.00
Shasta Soda (4 pack) – $1.00
Deer Park Spring Water (3 liter) – $1.00
Crunch & Munch Butter Toffee – $1.00
Dippables – $1.00
Mantia’s Pasta Sauce – $1.00
Shelby’s Grove Sliced Peaches – $1.00
J Higgs Pretzels – $1.00
Chicken of the Sea Chunk White Tuna – $1.00
Allure Zero Calorie Sweetener – $1.00
Jade Dragon Soy Sauce – $1.00
Kraft BBQ Sauce – $0.88
Bugles – $0.79
Harvest Select Juice Cocktails – $0.99
On the Go Powder Drink Sticks – $1.00
Crisp Lemonade – $0.99
Swift Mac – $0.75
Toast Em Strawberry or Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop Ups – $0.99
Malt O Meal Cereal – $0.99
Remember you can use the $5/$25 printable coupon to sweeten these deals! Plus you can earn up to 5 additional $5 off $25 coupons for sharing the coupon with your friends.
For more information about Save A Lot’s coupon policies go here. If you find additional deals or savings please let me know and I will add them to the list.
Fresh & Healthy: Community Supported Agriculture (Week 4)
It is our fourth week receiving fresh produce from our CSA! Our family purchased a half of share and will be receiving fresh produce, local honey, eggs and more for 20 weeks. I plan to give an update on the items we receive from week to week. Jake picked up the fresh veggies this week for us while I was delivering a meal to a friend that recently had her first baby.Week 4 of Fresh Goodies from our CSA!
Fresh Vegetables from our CSA!
Items in our Basket this Week:
- Bundle of Swiss Chard
- Bundle of Beets
- Bundle of Carrots
- Half a Dozen of Fresh Eggs
- Onions
- Potatoes
- 3 – Zucchini
I am looking forward to eating these goodies this week! Thanks everyone for the delicious Recipes!!! Do you have any amazing recipes to share that use Chards?
To find out how you can be a part of a local CSA check out this post – Fresh & Healthy: Community Supported Farms
