Menu Plan Monday: Some of My Favorite Fresh Produce Meals

Yummy. This week I get to use some items I got at Farmer’s Market. This week contains some of my favorite recipes because I am crazy about tomatoes, zucchini, and green beans!

I love Farmer’s Market. It is one of my favorite Saturday activities. I am sure I have posted about it before. I just love the energy of all of those happy people walking around, listening to music, and looking at beautiful produce and flowers made by Someone pretty creative.

Many of the vendors, who are the actual farmers most of the time, do such a beautiful job making and/or displaying their wares.

We’ll be having Caprese at least once this week (I don’t use a recipe but am including it here in case anyone doesn’t know what it is) to take advantage of tomatoes while they are fresh. Many people never got ripe tomatoes around these parts this year, due to a very short summer. I feel bad for the farmers who count on that crop.

This week I will be eating freeze dried food for three days as I go backpacking with a group of friends somewhere in the state of Oregon. I’ll tell you about it next week. Since I got some big, woody zucchini for cheap at FM, I am going to make some of my Oatmeal-Zucchini Breakfast Cookies for my family to eat for breakfast on Saturday. They will be eating dinner meals I have ready-made in the freezer. Love that they are already made because it will be hectic enough getting ready to leave!

Campfire pic from last year’s trip. We all liked the Chili Mac the best.

Monday: BLTAs with bacon bought from a local farm and fresh tomatoes on homemade bread made by my daughter. Yummy. I can’t wait!

Tuesday: Zucchini Basil Casserole Ohhh YUM! My mouth is watering!

Wednesday: Pork Chops with Apples and fresh green beans made with bacon

Thursday: Something with steak and zucchini

Friday: BBQ Ribs from freezer, rice or baked potatoes, grilled zucchini

Saturday: Leftovers

Sunday: Family out to eat

I hope you have a fresh and colorful week!

For more great meal ideas, view this week’s links at Menu Plan Monday at OrgJunkie

See What Happens When I Lighten Up A Little?

As usual, during this camping trip, Mr. Congeniality has been nagging frequently asking if he can go fishing. Being that no one else seems to be the least bit interested in fishing on this trip for some reason, and he is a big 11 year old now (self talk = “come on mom, it’s time to make yourself lighten up a little”. After all, I am trying not to be too much of a Helicopter Mom), I finally allowed him to walk the 5 minutes from our campsite to the dock (with rails).

In broad daylight.

In a populous campground.

With a cell phone. With my number queued up and ready to ring at the push of a button.

I'd call randomly and he'd be checking in every 15 minutes.

And if that phone does not ring, every 15 minutes on.the.dot? Why then, mama’s coming with ‘er pistol.

Plus, we agreed upon a secret code word for “a weird looking person is here on the dock and you should come now”.

I told him I would walk over in about a half hour, as soon as I was done getting dinner for the others.

I even texted his dad to make sure he felt okay about it.

Did I mention that the dock has rails?

So, we finish dinner and Mimmers and I start walking over.

As we break through the trees and can see across the park, imagine my horror when I saw this:

About TWELVE firefighters. But they were down by the water. Near the dock. Where I so frivolously allowed my little eleven year old to go. By himself, with only a cell phone.

The words “dragging the lake” were already in my head.

My heart was in my throat just long enough for me to call the cell phone.

“Helloo? Ya, it’s going fine. Okay. Bye.”

No mention of slipping. Or being wet. Or cold. Or a firefighter having to fish him out of the water.

Breathe mama.

Stupid fishing.

India In My Dreams

With sweet Guiathrie and precious, precious Rukmini

We are still camping on the Oregon Coast. This morning I woke up at 6am, which was better than the night before, when I was awake at 1am until 3:30. But I knew I did not want to stay awake, and I certainly did not want to awaken my sleeping children (too early for action) so I finished watching a movie about children going to school in India (5th attempt because I get so sleepy when I watch movies!),in preparation for doing Sonlight Level 5 in homeschool for some of my kids. Then I laid quietly until I went back to sleep for another hour.

During that hour, I had the privilege of going back to India "on my way" to somewhere else (?!!) and WITH MY GRANDMA! When awake, I have wished my Grans could see the Happy Home. Since she is no longer able bodied enough to go there with me in real life, I guess getting to see her be there, even in a dream, is an answer to a prayer.

Me with my Lil Gramsies, 2009

Doesn’t she look like she’d ooze love and grandmotherliness to the kids?

I loved seeing the look of surprise on each of the children’s faces when they saw I was back so soon. Some yelled "Tiffany Aka!", and some cried out "Mommy!". They were bright eyed with interest at seeing my grandmother.

I just stood there hugging and holding -- and I cried the entire time because I knew I could only stay one day. You know, since I was "on my way" somewhere else (?!!).

It was a sweet dream, although I was so overcome with emotion that I was struggling to remember, associate, and say their names. This is a real fear of mine since I would never want even one of them to think I don’t remember them.

Well, I am awake now, and so is the rest of this little trailer. So I best get moving along. But I’ve got India and some really precious kids on my mind today…

Menu Plan Monday, August 16-22, 2010, Camping In A Trailer

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MENU PLAN MONDAY

Since we’re camping, I figured I’d share with you one meal per day from my trailer style camping menu for this week’s meals with you. You will notice that I use my crockpot and rice cooker. When you have electricity, both of these items come in handy to save time in the kitchen and/or space in the cooler.

In addition to some of our main meals, I use the crockpot to make desserts using fresh produce I find in the local area where we are camping. This week I have pre-measured and brought with us the dry ingredients I need for both Nutty Apple Streusel and Black and Blue Cobbler and I will decide which to make when I see which ingredients I can find most cheaply have most readily available. (To skip my ramblings about cooking in a dutch oven or over a campfire, scroll down to menu plan).

Another thing I love to do for my family is to make food in my cast iron dutch oven with charcoal briquettes. I dig a small pit (or one of my menfolk digs it for me) and put some heated briquettes on the bottom of the hole and on the lid of the dutch oven. This week I plan to use it to take advantage of fresh peaches. I will rub a cube of butter all over the inside of the pan to help prevent food from sticking too badly. Then I will throw into the pot about 12 peeled and sliced peaches, some tapioca beads, and a little cinnamon. I learned about tapioca from my aunt a few years ago, when we were having a family campout. It was the first time I attempted to make anything in a pit in my dutch oven and it turned out very juicy and wet. The tapioca helps to absorb that peachy goodness. Then I dump a (partial) box of yellow or butter cake mix on top of the peach mixture and at least an entire cube of some butter, cut into pats and evenly distributed over cake mix. I find cake mix to be very sweet, so I only add enough to cover the top, and I don’t add sugar. Cooking time varies, depending on which dutch oven I use, how many and what kind of briquettes, etc., so check it often as you are first trying it. It’s done when the peaches are tender, but not too mushy.

At the campfire, we will be roasting biscuit dough. If you buy the pre-made biscuits in the pop open tube, roast half a biscuit at a time by stretching it all around your roasting fork, pretzel style. It takes some practice but you will eventually get the hang of it. After it is roasted, we dip it in melted butter, then cinnamon and sugar. We love this tradition!

If we make S’mores, we often use Reeses instead of chocolate bars. I don’t like marshmallows, so I roast my Reeses over the fire for just a few seconds so it gets gooey and then I put it between two graham crackers.

Do you enjoy camping? Do you have any shortcuts or tricks you use to save time cooking while you are at the campground? Do you have any favorite camping or campfire recipes? I’d love to use them! I am especially interested in recipes which call for cooking on, in (foil packets, etc.) or above a campfire.

Monday: Taco Soup - I brown the beef before we leave home. Today, before we leave for the lake, I will throw all of the ingredients into my crockpot. When we come back to our little trailer, it will smell good, and dinner will just be minutes away from being served.

Tuesday: Sausage Skillet Supper – I brown the sausage before we leave home. In the morning ,when I first get up, I start the rice cooker. Once again, I throw all of the ingredients into the crockpot, and set it to low, before we leave for that day’s activities. This recipe was originally found, years ago,in one of my Taste Of Home magazines. I substituted brown rice for white and made it my own:)

Wednesday: Burritos and Taco Salad – I have already browned and seasoned the ground beef, so all I have to do is heat up the beef and refried beans then put out a whole bunch of other choices and let everyone build their own.

Thursday: Turkey Wraps – I like the pre-made jalapeno artichoke dip from Costco spread on a tortilla with turkey added, then heated. When it comes out, I add tomato and a few Kettle BBQ Chips (Kettle does not use MSG). Little kids or those who don’t like spicy food can substitute cream cheese or cheddar.

Friday: French Dips with grilled onion and mushrooms, served with melted cheese on toasted bun (we use our trailer oven for this)

Saturday: Chili Haystacks: Premade or canned chili, topped with Fritos and cheese, then melted.

Sunday: Clean out the ice box!

I hope you can squeeze in at least one more camping trip this summer. Well, unless you are like some of my friends who "don't camp" and "prefer 5 star resorts". In that case, I hope the bedbugs don't bite.

You totally know who you are.

Hiker Chicks: Adventure One, Part One

If you know me very well, you know I’d much rather be doing something out of doors than inside. Especially if that includes water, the scent of pine needles and good company. And I don’t mind roughing it. I mean, I like to look pretty and do my nails and stuff. And I prefer to be clean. But I can handle the rough stuff too. In fact, I really do enjoy it.

I live in a state that is known for it’s diverse and beautiful surroundings. Within a couple hours, I have desert or beach or mountains. I love them all, but especially the mountains with the forest scents and wildlife -- and lots of natural bodies of water.

I had been discussing this interest with a couple friends all year. We had been discussing organizing some kind of an active activity for awhile. We discussed camping and white water rafting, but, with busy mom schedules, neither one seemed to work out this year. But, thanks to my two gal pals, it finally worked out, and they organized a backpacking trip for us.

Ohhh, the anticipation!

A 3 day, 2 night adventure taking us up a trail that was somewhere between 6.5 and 8 miles long (depending on which routes we took), each way, up into the mountains.

I mean backpacking. Trekking. Hiking with a pack that weighs more than it should, out into the wilderness. Pitching tents, sleeping in the woods. There are no sinks, no toilets, no hair dryers. Just lakes and trees and bears and stuff. And us. Girls.

Here we are at the trailhead

Now, I have hiked before. And I have camped aplenty. But I have never hiked with a pack carrying all of my camping gear, into the middle of, well, nowhere. I did not have a pack.

Nor a backpacking kind of sleeping bag, cuz it all has to be light and compact.

Nor a sleeping mat. Not an air mattress, but a light mat rolled tightly.

Nor a tent.

Thank Heaven REI has a rental program! And I guess that’s another nice thing about friends. You are all different, with different experiences. And those other two ladies have had this experience and had equipment for me to borrow. And we each had another friend or two. So there were eight ladies planning to go, and equipment to borrow or rent or buy.

We had to each figure out what we were going to eat – and pack it in our packs.

And what we were going to wear (do I want to make sure I am warm? But if I bring warm clothes my pack will be heavier)…

and sleep on…

and wash with…

and I wanted to fish…

and our Bibles and journals…

and cameras of course…

and, and, AND….MY PACK IS TOO HEAVY!

The night before we left I kept packing and repacking my backpack. I was trying to find more stuff to take out. Cuz it sure seemed heavy. I really did try to get it down to the bare necessities. Which ended up weighing somewhere between 30-35 pounds when all was said and done. Which I was going to wear on my back. All the way. Up, Up, UpthEmoUntAinTrail. On my back, connected to my hips and my shoulders. Which are still all wiggly and loose from childbirth, even now almost three years later (that’s another post for another day!).

Oops, just ran out of time for this post. Duty calls (and I don’t mean I have to go to the bathroom!). I will have to tell you more in my next post! I will have to scroll up and add “Part One” to my title. Good night…