Farmer's Market Bounty & Resolution Update

I love the Farmer’s Market! We have a really great one here! They have such a wide variety of things. Fruits and Veggies and Fresh Baked Breads, Fresh Cut Flowers, local Cheeses, and Man-Child’s favorite Sno Cones! Our Farmers Market also has Live Bands in the evening down by the Sound! Which is so great! I haven’t gotten to go listen to the music yet but I hope to at some point this summer! If you are in this area I hope you’ll check out the Steilacoom Farmers Market. I really encourage you to find a Farmers Market near you and enjoy some of the fresh foods that you can get there. If you don’t know where one is located you can go to localharvest.org and find one near you!

Here are some of the great things I’ve gotten at our Local Farmers Market.

Now that you’ve enjoyed all the pics of my Famer’s Market finds it’s time to update you on my New Year’s Resolutions!

I have to admit that organizing has taken a back seat; you know the one way way WAY in the back! I’ll get to it soon I’m sure.

Family Time has been great! Man-Child and I had a great time at the last Farmers Market and even went out to dinner afterwards at a cute little old fashioned Soda Shop!

Getting Healthy

Well you know I’ve been doing the 12 week program at the YMCA! I am LOVING it! I go anywhere from 3-5 times a week, with summer I haven’t been as regular but I am still going at least 3 times a week. It will be like 3 times one week 5 the next so I feel like that’s a good balance with everything else we are busy doing! I’ve lost 8lbs and 4% body fat WOOHOO! My 12 weeks is up and I am planning on continuing! The Hubster comes home soon and I really REALLY wanna lose more weight before he gets here! My eating has been better, which is easy to do in the summer for me!

How are your Resolutions coming? Let me know!

ENJOY!

Bruschetta with Balsamic Glaze

About a month ago I went to lunch with a couple friends and we went to this awesome little Italian restaurant. We ordered some Bruschetta and it was soo good they had drizzled a Balsamic glaze over the top and it was well it was just YUM! I can’t wait until the Hubster is back so we can go there for Date Night! He will love it! He LOVES Italian food. Of course I have to break him from saying (eye)talian. I don’t know why he says it like that? But it totally drives me crazy! How do you pronounce it? Anyway back to this Amazing Food. I decided to try to make a bruschetta with the Balsamic glaze. I used roasted red peppers, tomatoes and fresh mozzarella. I wanted to keep it simple.

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 Baguette                  

Tomatoes

Roasted Red Peppers

Fresh Mozzarella

1 Cup Balsamic Vinegar

1/3 cup Brown Sugar

Salt and Pepper to taste

Here’s how you make it:

In a small sauce pan combine Vinegar and Brown Sugar, bring to a boil and then simmer until reduced by half, let cool. Meanwhile, chop tomatoes and red pepper, slice mozzarella into smaller pieces. Combine in a bowl and sprinkle salt and pepper to taste. Slice Baguette and top with tomato mixture. Bake in an oven preheated to 400 degrees for 5-10 minutes until cheese is slightly melted. Cool slightly and then drizzle the Balsamic glaze over the top right before serving.

Enjoy!

Luau Cupcakes

Have you seen the pretty pineapple flowers on top of Cupcakes on Pinterest? They are so cool and we were getting ready to have a Luau themed Walk to Afghanistan event for our Battalion. So I thought ok cool I’m going to do those pineapple flowers on top of plain white cupcakes. YEAH UM NO! That didn’t work out for me at all! They totally burnt up and were well not so pretty any more.

So I decided to use dried pineapple and dried mango pieces to make it still seem festive and luau-ish. I also grabbed some umbrella toothpicks to skewer the pineapple and mango with.

I mentioned the Walk to Afghanistan above and I realize some of you may not be familiar with what that is. When our Soldiers are deployed often times a Battalion or Group will decide to try to “walk” to Afghanistan. We do this by logging miles each week, and every month our Battalion has a Walk to Afghanistan Event, where the families can come together log a few miles and socialize. It’s a great way to show our Soldiers we are thinking about them and supporting them. It’s also a great way for the families back here to get out and meet other spouses!

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 Box of Cake mix

1 Can of Frosting

1tsp Vanilla

1 Pineapple  Dried Pineapple and Mango pieces

Here’s how you make it:

Mix the Cake according to package directions, and pour into a 24 cupcake lined cupcake pan. Bake. Let Cool completely. Meanwhile mix your frosting with the Vanilla, I think this makes it taste a little richer and a little better. Frost cupcakes. Place a piece of Pineapple and a piece of Mango on each Cupcake!

ENJOY!

Whipped Coconut Oil Lotion

At the beginning of the summer I went to a water park with Man-Child and some friends. I was so good about putting sunscreen on, I reapplied after we got out of the water, when I was just sitting there and starting to feel like the sun was getting super warm, so I thought I would be good. NOPE I got BURNT! Like super duper really hurts OH MY GOODNESS look at those BLISTERS BURNT! YIKES right? I know! I’m not sure what happened I think maybe the sunscreen was old, even though I had just purchased it a few weeks before. So needless to say my skin hasn’t been quite happy with me ever since!

I love Coconut Oil; I love what it does for my skin. I use it on my hair, face, body, feet everywhere! I even give it to my Dogs! Our male Dog DUKE LOVES coconut oil in fact I have to try and put it on when he’s busy doing something else like digging up the nice bushes in our yard, otherwise he licks the stuff right off me which is first of all GROSS and second of all well really do we need to get past the fact that it’s gross?! 

So anyways, if you’ve used Coconut Oil before you know it’s hard, and difficult to get out of the jar. So I thought I would try and whip it into a lotion like everyone on Pinterest has done! While it is easier to apply it’s still oily as soon as it hits your hands, which I was hoping for a creamier application like lotion. Maybe I’ll have to play with it and see what happens?!

Here’s what you’ll need:

½ cup Coconut Oil (you can use a whole cup I just wanted to make sure I liked it first)

Electric Mixer

Clean Jars

This is what it looks like after 2 minutes not nearly whipped enough!

How cute is that?

This is all that I had left after filling the small jar!

Here’s how you make it:

Place the Coconut oil into the mixing bowl and whip on high for about 10 minutes. I kept checking it until I liked the consistency. Place in a zip-top bag and snip off the end for easy transfer into the jars. Fill jars and place lids on tightly. That’s all there is to it!

ENJOY!

Sun Dried Tomatoes in Oil

I haven’t put a garden in since we PCS’d to Washington. I’m not sure why, every summer I wish I had the yummy vegetables that I used to grow in Missouri. I really wish I had put at least tomatoes in this year. UGH! Best laid plans and all that right? I am fortunate that we have a great Farmers Market though! It's so crazy how good all the veggies and fruit from the Farmers Market are! And our Farmer's Market always has these great bunches of fresh cut flowers that are beautiful and so cheap inexpensive. I'm talking 5-10 for beautiful bouquettes. Anyways, back to the Tomatoes,  I found this recipe for Sun Dried Tomatoes in this recipe and craft book that I have called "Homemade Treats" I so wish I had freshly grown tomatoes for this but I don’t. I also wish I would have remembered to buy the tomatoes from the Farmers Market for this recipe but alas I didn't do that either. Instead I bought them at Costco! Ok on to the recipe...

Here’s what you’ll need:

6lbs Tomatoes

6 TBSP Salt

3TBSP Sugar

3TBSP dried Basil

4 Cloves Garlic

2 Sprig Rosemary

12 oz Olive Oil

Here’s how you make it:

Slice Tomatoes in half, place on a rack on top of a cookie sheet. Sprinkle the salt sugar and basil over the top of the tomatoes. Set the oven to the lowest temperature setting. Cook the tomatoes for about 15 hours until they are dried to the consistency of dried apricots. Let them cool and then place them into a jar, along with the Rosemary and Garlic. Fill the Jar with the Olive Oil covering everything. Place a lid on it and store for 2-3 days before using.

ENJOY!

Grilled Potatoes

One of my favorite side dishes in the summer is Grilled Potatoes. The Hubster makes them the best, he gets the bottoms nice and golden and crunchy, but since he’s gone I attempted to make them myself. Now I’m not super confident of my grilling skills, that is so the Hubsters area of expertise. BUT he’s not home and its summer and we have this really awesome grill just sitting on the patio and I love grilled food, and its summer, oh wait I said that already! Anyway so every now and then I pull off the grill cover and get my Grill On!

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 Potato per Person

Salt

Pepper

Onion Powder

Garlic Powder

2-3 TBSP Butter

Aluminum Foil

Here’s how you make it:

Evenly slice the potatoes, not too thin or thick. Lay two sheets of Foil on top of each other; place the potatoes in the middle. Sprinkle the salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder over the potatoes. Then place the butter on top of the potatoes. Fold the Foil over the potatoes making a packet. Place on the grill and cook until potatoes are fork tender. Remove and serve.

ENJOY

Nectarine Tart

One of my favorite fruits is a Nectarine! I love this time of year when they are in season! They are sooo delicious and sweet and juicy! YUM! I love fruit desserts too I know they aren’t necessarily healthy but it just seems like they are right? I mean its fruit right so that makes it good for you right? RIGHT? Ok well maybe not, but I’ll pretend anyway.

Here’s what you’ll need:

4-5 Nectarines

1 Pie Crust

½ cup Brown Sugar

1-2 TBSP Corn Starch

Here’s how you make it:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. While the oven is heating up, slice the nectarines, place them into a bowl and add in the Brown Sugar and the Corn Starch, gently stirring until everything is combined. On a cookie sheet place the dough and pour the fruit into the middle. Fold the sides of the dough up. Place in the oven and cook for 15-20 minutes until the dough is golden brown. Let cool for a few minutes and then serve.

ENJOY!