Whats Cookin with GraceandGravy:Meal Planning Week #2

Posted on July 27, 2014 by [email protected]

WELCOME Back Y’all to “What’s Cookin with GraceandGravy: Meal Plans” Week #2!

I hope everyone enjoyed some of the meals from last week. I know some of my families favorites this week were the Chicken n Dumplins and the Mexican Chicken served with Mashed Potatoes. Yum! In fact when I make Mexican Chicken I always make a large casserole dish because it is so well loved. I invited over a friend and her two boys to share with us because I know its one of her favorites as well.

If this is your first time here, every Sunday I will share my families Meal Plan for the week to help everyone stay organized and have some ideas on what meals to fix. No one likes coming home after work or being gone running errands all day, to realize you have no meat thawed for dinner, or you forgot to pick up noodles for your casserole.

So come aboard and share your meal planning for the week as well.

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This week I wanted to keep it simple. This week I still have a lot of canning to do, a new Bible Study starting on Monday and lots of yard clean up from a storm last week. I knew it was best to have easy meals with at least one good, hearty meal to last a few days.

I had intended to make toasted subs tonight, until we decided to have dinner with our pastors, which I cooked. They hosted at their house, but I brought the food. They are not only our pastors, but great, close friends. Our families have been so busy with vacations and church events lately that we haven’t had much down time just to relax and visit with one another.

I decided to bring my Homemade Chicken Alfredo because I know its a family favorite and my easy Strawberry Summertime Pie.

After dinner the kiddos walked next door to swim and then everyone came back for pie.

It was a great night, and a great first night of Meal Plans Week 2!

Would love to hear your meal plans for the week. And I hope you enjoy a few of my meals!

Whats Cookin with GraceandGravy:Meal Planning

Posted on July 20, 2014 by [email protected]

It’s a Tuesday afternoon, I’ve been running errands most of day and trying to catch up on laundry for the few moments I have been home. Then I look at the clock and a uggggg sound comes out of my mouth. It’s already time for the husby to get home for work and I haven’t even thought about dinner. I run to the pantry to skim the contents, then head to the fridge only to remember I don’t have any meat thawing. Now what am I going to do? Supper is going to be late, and I can’t think of anything to throw together.

Does this sound like you? Do you ever have those days when you cannot think of another single meal to cook?

Well, your not alone, I think as wives and mothers we all have those days more often than we would like to admit. That is when I started Meal Planning. I used to just write a menu and tape it to the fridge, but then I decided why not share it with you guys.

So WELCOME to “What’s Cookin with GraceandGravy:Meal Plans”!

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Each Sunday I will share with you what my meals for the week will be. Maybe we can help to spark creativity in each other for our nightly dinners.

My dad raises chickens for eggs. He recently had a few “heavies’ as they are called. I really felt sorry for these chickens. They were so heavy they could barely move, it was really, really sad and worse of all they weren’t laying. He made the decision to butcher them and asked if we would like the meat and of course I said yes. Free chicken for the family. They are so large they take up to much freezer room so I have been boiling them, and picking off the meat to put in freezer bags. I also have saved the broth. One chicken was large enough to make 4 meals. Ummm YES!

So needless to say, my family will be having a lot of chicken this week.

Would love to hear your meal plans for the week. And I hope you enjoy a few of my meals!

Baked Granola & Peaches

Posted on July 18, 2014 by [email protected]

Do you have local festivals?

Our county (which consists of 5 small, mainly rural, towns) hosts The Peach Festival, every July, that has been ongoing 1938! Wow! It’s actually the oldest festival in the state of Arkansas. I feel honored to be a part of such amazing history every year.

And did I mention food?

Just like county fairs, our festivals have some of the best food around! Funnel Cakes, Fried Pies, Foot Long Corn Dogs, and Snow Cones, you can pretty much find it all here.

Photo Courtesy of The Peach Festival Board

The Peach Festival will start next week, so to get in the “Peachy” spirit I decided to start experimenting with peach recipes.

I love peaches! I love the sweet, juicy taste that runs down your chin as you take a big bite (: In fact I don’t think I have came across a single peach dish that I haven’t loved!

If you have read my bio, then you know I’m a crunchy girl. Technically I love the Earth, try to eat organic as much as possible and I make a lot of our soaps and cleaners. I’m also a vegetarian so I eat a lot of granola.

I really like making my own so I can determine exactly what I am adding to it. So I wanted to share this super easy Baked Granola and Peaches recipe with you today.

Baked Granola & Peaches

What you need:

4 fresh peaches

For Granola:

1 cups oats

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 brown sugar

1/8 cup oil

1/2 cup homemade or organic maple syrup

What you do:

1) Cut your peaches in half and remove pit.

2) Spoon a small amount of peach out to make room for granola.

3) Mix the oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and oil together and then add in maple syrup.

4) Spoon granola onto each peach half.

5) Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and lay peaches on.

6) Bake peaches at 350 for appx 15-20 mins or until peaches are soft.

Another option for Granola:

If you want granola for later, spread evenly on lined cookie sheet and bake. Store in a dry container.

Super easy and super delish! Great for breakfast, brunch or a mid-afternoon snack.

You can top with cream (pictured) if you desire. This cream consists of heavy whipping cream which I mixed until it become creamed. I’m not a cream snob (: I enjoy my Ready Whip and Cool Whip just like anybody else! Ice Cream is also very good on top of the warm peaches!

Pick your Pleasure and Enjoy!

And don’t miss The Peach Festival Blog Post coming soon!

Summer Dates on a Budget: Local Aquatic Park

Posted on July 14, 2014 by [email protected]

Welcome Back!

I am so glad you decided to join me again for our series on “Summer Dates on a Budget”.

Everyone loves getting to spend a few hours alone with the husby, boyfriend, or partner, without having to eat your food cold because you fed the baby first, or wiping food out of your hair that your 2 year old threw at you, or in my case having 2 nosey teenagers listen to your every word that I’m trying to say to my husby :/ How romantic is that!

Our emotional, mental and physical (: health strives for these outings alone. But I know that for most of the time, money is tight and the last place you think to spend it is on your self. Right?

There is always diapers to buy, water bill to pay, school supplies to think about, not to mention that for some reason these little people in our house think they need to eat 3 times a day (:

If you are having some of those same thoughts I just mentioned, then you come to the right place, because I am going to give you another Summer Date Idea on a Budget.

And if you have missed my last 2 posts in the series, I hope you will catch up.

*Click on picture to take you to link Have you heard the old saying “While the kids are away, the parents will play”?

Well thats exactly what my husby and I did!

A couple weeks ago while K and L were away at church camp, husby and I took advantage of the alone time and had a summer date. You might be saying, “Well, why did you have a date if you were home alone?” This is my thought, sometimes you need to do things that you don’t normally do. Take advantage of having a night alone and go somewhere or do something together to laugh and have fun.

If I stayed home, this is what would have happened……

1) I would have cooked dinner

2) Then I would have cleaned up the kitchen

3) After taking the kitchen towels I just used to the laundry room, I would notice the laundry piling up and automatically started laundry

4) Of course the dryer would have been full of dry clothes so I would have to fold them and put them away.

Do you catch my drift? There is always something at home that needs to be done and there would have been alone time alright, but it would be me alone doing housework and the husby alone doing whatever :/ Not a very romantic night in my book!

So we chose to a have a date night at our local aquatic park instead! I think it was a definite win-win for me!

I know, I know, aquatic parks can be expensive, especially if your whole family is in tow. If my family of four takes a day to enjoy the park, we leave spending no less than $50. Ekkk That is a chunk out of our weekly budget. But out local water park offers “family nights” certain days of the week from 5-8 pm. Perfect time for us, and the best thing is its only $3 a person on those nights! SCORE!

So I put swimsuit on, packed the sunscreen and beach towels and we were ready to get our swim on! Our Aquatic Park just opened last year. It’s not extremely big but they do have an awesome lazy river I love to float on!

You would think with it being family night that it would be extremely over crowded. But that wasn’t the case. In fact, we got lounge chairs right away, laid our towels on them, and because it was so hot decided to get in the lazy river right away.

After floating for quite sometime, we headed back to our lounge chairs to relax. And you know what was amazing, no kiddo’s yelling, “Mom watch me slid!”, or “Mom I’m starvinggg.” for the hundredth time, or worrying that your kids have drowned while the lifeguard wasn’t watching. Yes, I’m one of those paranoid moms :/

After relaxing, I decided I was starvingggg! LOL So off we went to the concession stand to see how much junk food we could find! No judgement, its Date Night!

Yum! Pretzels with cheese, corn dogs and Pina Colada Slush Puppies! This is the life! And we only spent $6 for food!

After we ate, we went back to play. Husby even talked me into going down the slids! It must be love, because I’m not a slid kinda girl (:

Overall it was a great night! And really, 3 hours at a water park is long enough for me. But it was a great time to relax and be with the husby. And all together we only spent $12! Wow! Cheap Date huh!

I encourage you to check out your local aquatic parks and pools. See what specials they have going on! Remember as long as you are having fun together, thats all that matters. And I got a nice tan as a bonus (:

Food, Freedom and Festivities: 4th of July

Posted on July 10, 2014 by [email protected]

I love the 4th of July!

I don’t remember exactly when I decided it was my favorite, or really why it was my favorite.

Maybe it’s the summertime and sunshine, or flag blowing in the wind. Could be just the Freedom and Fireworks with friends and family.

No matter what the reason be, I just know I love the feeling I get on the 4th!

I love to make goodies for the BBQ’s and Picnics and crafts to decorate the house.

This year we spent the 4th at friends house having a BBQ/Pool Party. I wanted to make it special for the family who invited us. I always find it a treat to be invited to holiday’s and I want sure I impress to be invited again!

For the BBQ, I chose to make Freedom Frost Spritzer, Patriotic Mini Apple Pies, and Freedom Sprinkle Sugar Cookies (Y’all, all 4th of July goodies have to be named).

The hostess was more than happy to turn over the dessert making to me, but I wanted to make sure that since it was a Pool Party, the desserts were easy to grab and eat.

First up is the Freedom Frost Spritzer.

Here is Arkansas, it is super HOT, and the humidity makes you sweat buckets after being outside for even 5 minutes. Because of that, it is super important to stay hydrated. This drink is cool and refreshing, as well as, great to help you stay replenished because it contains electrolytes.

I’ll be honest with you. I’m not a huge fan of gatorade, but adding in the lemon-lime soda and the ginger-ale, completely changes the flavor and I really love it.

Go all out if you feel like it and add whole cherries or a few strawberry slices for a more festive look.

Ingredients:

1 32 oz bottle of Frost Glacier Freeze Gatorade

1 20 oz lemon-lime drink

1 20 oz ginger-ale

How to make it:

1) Freeze your bottles of drinks until slushy (If you don’t have time to wait til they are slushy, just add ice to your drink dispenser)

2) Add your gatorade, lemon-lime drink and ginger-ale together

3) Add any fruit that you like

4) Serve

So quick and easy!

For one of the desserts I decided on Patriotic Mini Apple Pies.

I LOVE making these! They are so cute and easy. You really can’t mess them up.

So if you are frightened of your pie looking like it was made by preschoolers, then this is definitely the way to go.

And who doesn’t like bite size apple pie? Right! I think my husby consumed 6 in a matter of 5 minutes!

What you need:

1 package of pre-made Pie Crusts

(or click on picture for Pie Crust Recipe)

1 Can of Apple Filling

1 tbsp of Cinnamon or sugar crystals

1 tbsp of Butter

Now let’s begin:

1) Start with making your pie crusts.

If you are not a pie making person, then use the ready made pie crusts out of the dairy section of your local grocer.

Simplify! There is no shame in using a pre-made crust (:

My favorite recipe is The Pioneer Woman’s Pie Crust. If you don’t have a favorite recipe, then by all means try this one!

Click on picture for Pie Crust Recipe

Don’t you just love old pastry cutters? I do! I love cutting the butter into the flour! Makes me think of simplier times. Sigh

2) After you crust is complete and rolled, cut out 4 inch circles. I use a lid of a canister that I have because it is perfect size. Anything you have will work. Don’t panic if its not the exact size. I promise the pie will go on.

3) Use a cupcake/muffin pan and cut 3-4 inch long strips of parchment paper appx 1 inch wide. Enough for all slots in your pan.

The parchment paper will make it so much easier to lift pies out of pan after they have cooked.

4) Take your crust circles and place in cupcake holes. I try to make pleads in my crust as much as I can for a little extra character.

5) Fill your pie crusts will apple filling. I used can apples for these and used appx 2 apples and a little filling in each pie.

**Check back soon for my post on Homemade Apple Filling! (The Apples are just now ready to pick)

6) Save enough dough to cut out mini stars.

This star cutter was actually from a Christmas Mini Cookie Cutter Set I got for super cheap after the holidays! Hey works for me!

7) I then added a tiny bit of butter on top of the stars and sprinkled cinnamon. YUM!

If you will notice in the picture above, these are sprinkled with red sugar crystals. My husby thought some of the stars should be red! If it makes him happy, then yes I will add red sugar crystals to half of my pies!

8) Bake at 350 for appx 20 mins, checking your pies along the way.

I hope you enjoy making these as much as I do. And with the parchment paper as tabs, they should be really easy to lift out of the pan.

Can you really have a Holiday without Sugar Cookies? Are they not a staple of days gone by? I decided for this 4th of July I would make Freedom Sprinkle Sugar Cookies, which is your basic sugar cookies with festive sprinkles.

I love making sugar cookies, but what I love more is letting the kiddos decorate them! This has been a tradition in our house since the kids could walk. Don’t you just love traditions? No matter if it’s Easter, Christmas or the 4th, we need decorated sugar cookies!

For my sugar cookie recipe you will need:

2 cups of sugar (wouldn’t be sugar cookies without lots of sugar)

2 cups of All-Purpose Flour

1 cup of butter softened (2 sticks)

1 egg

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp of salt (I love kosher salt)

1 1/2 tsp of vanilla or vanilla paste (I prefer paste, so much more flavor)

1/4 cup of flour for rolling

This is how I do it:

1) I start with a parchment paper covered cookie sheet.

I LOVE parchment paper.

I don’t know how I ever survived without it!

Doesn’t it make life so much simpler?

2) Then I cream together my butter and sugar until it is completely mixed, almost to a mixed stage.

3) Then I add in my egg and vanilla.

4) In a separate bowl, i slightly whisk together my flour, salt and baking powder.

5) I then add the dry ingredients to my sugar/butter/egg mixture.

6) Mix together well.

7) At this point you have 2 options. You can roll into balls and bake, or you can roll out like pie crusts appx 1/8 inch thick and cut out circles.

I normally roll out and cut into circles with a round cookie/fondant cutter. you can also use a biscuit cutter (:

If you go for this option, you will need to lay out a piece of parchment paper and use your remainder of flour so your dough does not stick.

8) Lay your circles or dough balls appx 3 inch apart on cookie sheet.

9) Bake at 350 for 8-10 or until they start to turn slightly brown around edges.

Don’t over bake, they are suppose to be chewy.

Yields appx 20 cookies.

10) After cookies cool then decorate with your favorite icing, sprinkles and sugar crystals.

Enjoy!

Now that the snacks are made, it’s time for a little decorating! I drive my husby crazy sometimes with all of my decorating for parties, events, holidays and just to make the house more cozy and appealing me me.

I wanted to do something very simple for the front porch. We have a super cute wrought iron table on one side and a white porch swing on the other, so just a little something festive was the key. I chose to decorate the table which sits in front of an old screen door. I covered the table in a blue star material and added a chalkboard, a rusted star planter, which i added a flag material to, and a patriotic plaid placemat for a center piece.

Nothing fancy but perfect!

I have several of these white wooden garden chairs. I have some inside and I leave some outside. I really enjoy sitting ferns and planters of flowers on the outside chairs. In this pic I am using the rusted planter with flag print material. Such a cute idea to sit beside your front steps or on the porch.

Sometimes all you need is subtle touches.

This idea is great for a small 4th of July get together or a morning brunch. I used my table from my porch, added a couple of my garden chairs and make a super cute place sitting with all of the festive food.

Now how easy is that. Took maybe 5 minutes.

I love having small get togethers and brunches. This set up is also great for a Tea Party.

And what kind of Holiday would it be without dressing festive?

My kiddos and I have done several different shirts in the past for the 4Th. This year we have been on a Tie-Dye kick so we decided 4th Tie-Dye Shirts would be perfect.

We have done several different dyeing in the past. We have used the regular tie-dye, we have used kool-aid, but I feel the Rit dye works the best for fading.

What we used:

White t-shirts (we chose v-necks for a different look this year)

package of rubber bands

Rit Dye in Cherry Red and Royal Blue

2 large bowls

Newspaper

How we made them:

1) First wrap rubberbands around your shirt

The awesome thing about tie-dye is that you really can’t mess it up. Every shirt has its own unique design.

I prefer to wad my shirt up and place rubberbands in random places (:

2) Add 1/3 bottle of dye to appx 2 gallons of hot water in a large bowl.

I use the same color bowl as dye so it won’t stain. And yes I use a little more dye, and less water than called for because I want my colors to pop!

3) Place newspapers on floor (or go outside) and set bowls of die on top.

4) Dip one section of your shirt in a color and hold for 3-4 minutes.

5) Gently wring out using a glove or plastic bag on hand and dip another section in same color or other color dye.

You can do half the shirt one color, the other half another color or sections in each color

6) When shirt is covered in dye, place in plastic bag and let leave for 12 hours so colors will set in.

7) After the 12 hours, remove shirt from bag and rinse with warm water as you start to remove rubberbands.

8) After all bands are removed, rinse shirt in cool water, until water is mostly clear.

9) Hang shirt up to dry part way and then continue drying in clothes dryer.

10) Remove shirt and you are ready to wear!

After all the drinks, desserts and shirts were made, we were ready for a great night of Food, Freedom and Festivities with friends.

We ate, and swam, and got ready for fireworks!

And after dark we enjoyed playing with a few sparklers.

Overall it was a another wonderful 4Th of July.

I hope you had am amazing day of Food, Freedom and Festivities in your neck of the woods!

Summer Dates on a Budget: Movie Night

Posted on June 27, 2014 by [email protected]

It’s extremely quiet at my house. Now, I love quietness. I love being able to hear myself think, answer the phone without yelling for kiddo’s to be quiet, read anytime during the day without the tv blaring in the background, … Continue reading →

Blackberry and Lemon Cake….Oh My!

Posted on June 24, 2014 by [email protected]

Isn’t the world just a little sweeter because of blackberries!

Yummy!
My dad calls me last week and lets me know the blackberries are ready to be picked. Here’s the thing with blackerries with my family, it’s whoever can get to my dad’s the fastest! Well, it didn’t take me long to high-tail it to the garden (:
It just so happened to be Father’s Day and I had intentionally intended to bake a blueberries and lemon cake for my sweet husby.

After we picked all the blackberries, I thought well why not blackberries instead of blueberries.

My husby had his doubts for a mere 2 seconds but that soon changed.

It has just enough lemon flavor, but the blackberries help cut out the too-sweet taste. I topped it with a lemon buttercream frosting that came out perfecto!

This would make an amazing cake for your next potluck or bbq. Or how about for the upcoming 4Th Celebration?

But seriously, this cake is to die for. It’s a mix between a pound cake and a cobbler, yumm-o! It didn’t stay long around these parts. I had a lot of grabby hands reaching for it.

But I would love for you to try this cake for yourself and tell me your thought!

Ingredients:
Cake:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
5 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup oil or butter
2 cups blackberries
1/4 lemon juice
1 cup of milk
Frosting:
4 sticks of butter
1 bag of powered sugar
3 tbs of milk or heavy cream (just to help mix the powered sugar with butter)
3 tbs lemon juice

Cake:
1) Mix your eggs together with your sugar until completely mixed
2) Add in your oil and lemon juice
3) In a seperate bowl, wisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt
4) Add in 1/2 flour mixture and 1/2 milk and mix together
5) Add in remainder of flour and milk and continue mixing until combined
6) Pour your mixture into 3-8 inch round cake pans (grease well)
7) Add 1/3 of blackberries to each pan
8) Bake at 325 degrees on middle rack for appx 35 minutes
9) Remove cake from pan and let cool before frosting
*If you have any loose crumbs on cake, refrigerate for 30 minutes before frosting

____________________________________________________

Frosting:
1) Whip butter with the mixer until completely smooth (make sure butter is soft before mixing)
2) Add in 1 cup of powered sugar and 1 tbsp of milk or heavy cream, at a time to butter and whip together.
3) Continue adding the sugar and cream and whipping until all powered sugar has been added to butter.
4)Now add in your lemon juice for flavor.

5)If your frosting is to dry add another tbsp of cream. If frosting is too thin add another 1/2 cup of powered sugar until you get the consistency you desire.

Final Phase:

1)Spread frosting between layers and stack, evening up as much as possible

2)Now you are ready to frost your cake, add a few blackberries on top for decor and enjoy

You will not regret your choice for this cake!

And if you missed the DIY Tutorial for the Cute and Easy CakeStand, you can find it here: https://graceandgravy.com/2014/06/12/thursdays-diy-tutorialcakeplate/

Also today is June 24th! That means that Wild Iris Ridge is released today! If you haven’t read the reviews for this new book, please do! This is such a great summer read, that I am giving everyone permission to grab a cup of coffee, cuddle up in a comfy chair and spend the afternoon reading.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18722897-wild-iris-ridge?from_search=true

It is available for purchase online from Amazon @

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_7?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=wild+iris+ridge+raeanne+thayne&sprefix=wild+ir%2Cstripbooks%2C346

or B&N @ http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wild-iris-ridge-raeanne-thayne/1117254482?ean=9780373778591

Make sure to check it out!

Summer Dates on a Budget: Farmer’s Market Morning Date

Posted on June 18, 2014 by [email protected]

My husby and I love to have day nights (or mornings).

For many years when our kiddos were small, getting away for a day or night out together was almost obsolute. As our kids have gotten older, it is very important to us at least once a month to get away even for a few hours.

When your kids are small, you are so busy with their wants and needs that it consumes all of you. There is no time for your hobbies or activities and your day in and day out schedules rotates around them and them only.

I realized at some point during this journey, that my husby’s and mine conversions consisted only about our children. I think that was a wake up moment for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love my children with all my heart. But my world should not revolve around them. My world and life should revolve around God, then my marriage.

I thought to myself, if husby and I don’t have any alone time together having fun, finding out what we each like now that we are older, then will we even have anything to talk about when the kiddo’s leave home? Will we know anymore what little things make us smile? Will we be able to sit down to dinner and have a conversion just about us?

To be quite honest, I don’t think so.

That was when it became my goal, my passion, my desire to have Date Nights just to find out who we are are as indivduals, not the mom and dad of Keegan and Lindy, but who Miranda and William are as people and fall in love all over again.

If you are anything like us, and you live month to month on a strict budget with not a lot of wiggle room, then finding extra money to have a day or night just for the two of you can be hard to come by. I understand that after bills, groceries and children needs, there isn’t always a lot of money left over for dates so I am sharing some “Summer Dates on a Budget” Ideas that I have put together that we like to do and have fun with.

________________________________________________________

Farmer’s Market Morning Date

Who said Date Night had to be at Night?

My husby is a morning person. He is so used to getting up when the roosters crow for work, that he funtions so much better in the morning than the afternoon.

And evening, Well just forget that! LOL ! That is when you find him zonked out of the couch!

Me?

Well I won’t lie. I am not a morning person at all. I can do mid morning, but please roosters, just let me sleep. But by evening my mind has been going in twelve different directions all day so I’m no good to anyone at that point.

So last week my husby told me he was taking Saturday off. The kids had been going non-stop all week long with friends and family. This is not normally something we let them do, but my sister was in from Texas and they wanted to spend a lot of time with her last week. And Lindy has been helping a friend from church at her and her husbands dr office to help raise funds for Guatemala Mission Trip.

It seemed like they were not home but a few hours last week at the most.

I decided that since the kiddo’s had been enjoying their week with friends and family, then husby and I needed some fun time together.

I was really looking for something fun that wouldn’t cost much, when I thought “How about the Farner’s Market?”

Well why not.

Our Farmer’s Market is fairly new. There is booths with veggies and fruits straight from the gardens, jams/jellies and salsa, homemade items and even live music.

Farmer’s Market might have not been your first thought for a date, but it was early, the weather was beautiful, we could walk around main street holding hands and the items we bought were groceries for the week so we didn’t spend extra money for an activity.

One booth was selling homemde blueberry yougurt pops, Yum! We each bought one, found a bench and sat down and listened to the bluegrass/folk music that was playing.

So relaxing!

What was also great, was husby helped me decide what to fix for dinner that week by what fresh fruits/veggies we were buying. We ended up with squash, zucchini, green tomatoes (ummm fried green tomatoes), kale, mustard greens, fresh lavender, fresh basil, onions, green beans, potatoes and homemade wheat bread.

With all that we decided on grilled chicken with grilled poatoes and veggies with homemade bread, boneless bbq ribs with mustard greens, kale, fried green tomatoes and corn bread, a chicken/spinach pasta dish with fresh basil, zucchini and squash added in pasta with fresh green beans on the side and taco night with all the fresh veggies and kale as toppings (maybe not traditional, but hey it works). And we could use the rest of the homemade bread for sandwiches and make homemade kale chips for the side! I’m getting hungry just thinking about it!

I didn’t forget about the lavender i bought. That will be made into something something special to share! (:

After the Farmer’s Market, we walked around town, just talking and holding hands, enjoying being with each other.

We stopped at a couple thrift stores for any “thrifty finds, and since we had splurged with the blueberry/yogurt pops at the Farmer’s Market, we settled for a light brunch at a local restaurant (if you have a local coffee shop, stop in there for a light breakfast).

It might have only been a few short hours, but it was a great Morning Date! We had woke up feeling great from a good night’s rest and I wasn’t cranky (yes i get cranky) from the stress of a full day. I do believe there will be many more morning dates in our future.

Remember, having a day out with the one you love, doesn’t mean you have to spend a lot of money. We spent a total of $20, for brunch and our thrifty finds, and we spent $20 at the Farmer’s Market which came out of our grocery budget.

Find an activity you both enjoy and build from it.

Be checking back for more posts of “Summer Dates on a Budget.”

Love Miranda

I Found My Thrill On Blueberry Hill: Part 1

Posted on June 11, 2014 by [email protected]

Sweet, Sweet Summertime.

Fireflies at night, Daylight til 9 o’clock, Sippin Lemonade from a Mason Jar. Oh Yes! I love Summertime! There is just something about sittin in the porch swing, smelling BBQ from the grill, and pickin fresh veggies from the garden.

Well, maybe not so much the last one! Now I love to reap the benefits from the garden, don’t get me wrong, but after spending hours in the hot sun, bent over pickin blueberries you start to wonder if grocery store veggies are so bad after all LOL!!!

But I know that when Fall comes around and I am having fresh Blueberry Cobbler for Thanksgiving, or when Winter sets in and I’m sitting around the fireplace with friends drinking fresh Blueberry Wine, I will be ever so thankful that I spent hours in the garden gathering up the blueberries. Hey, at least I’m getting a nice tan with the deal!

This week has been blueberry madness. From Blueberry Syrup, to Blueberry Topping and Blueberry Butter, I am going Blueberry Mad! Heck, i’m good just sitting down with a bowl of blueberries and fesh cream…YUMMM!

Today, I wanted to share with you my version of Blueberry Syrup…

I start with 7 cups of fresh blueberries (washed)
2 1/2 cups of sugar ( i like it sweet)
1 tsp of molasses
2 1/2 tbs of lemon juice

1) Place blueberries and water in a large pot. Using a masher (i use my potato masher) crush the berries.
2) On medium heat, bring to a boil and then simmer on low for appx 15-20 minutes as they darken in color.
3) Remove from heat and strain berries, mashing as you go to extract as much juice as possible.
4) Add blueberry juice and sugar and molasses to pot, return to a boil and simmer on low for appx 12- 15 minutes. (juice will slightly thicken)
5) Add the lemon juice and return to boil for about 2 more minutes, stirring as you go.
6) Poor into a quart size Mason. Your syrup is ready to enjoy!

**Use right away or store in fridge for appx 2 weeks
**If your syrup is not as sweet as us southerners like it, add 1/2 more sugar to the recipe!

Now your probably thinking what do I do with all this mashed blueberries?

Good question! You can 1) throw away (but please don’t) or 2) add about 1/2-1 cup of sugar and 1 tbs of lemon juice to the mashed blueberries, simmer on low for 5 minutes or untl the sugar is disolved and enjoy on top on pancakes or on a big bowl of icecream! But on Part 2 I will be sharing another way to use the mashed blueberries. So many choices!

I hope you enjoy this recipe! And come back soon for Part 2 of “I Found My Thrill On Blueberry Hill”!

With Love Miranda

In Case You Missed It

Posted on June 1, 2014 by [email protected]

Wow, what a busy week full of celebrations and activities this has been. Now don’t get me wrong, I love celebrating, I love parties, but there was just a few too many in one week for me!

But I didn’t want to leave out any special occasions from my blog so I decided to do a picture collage of all the events I did not to get to share throughout the week!

We started last Friday morning with my Grandson Wyatt’s Kindergarden Graduation.(yes grandson, no judgement please) (Top left and middle picture) It was so adorable all of the children getting to walk across the stage in their little gown and cap!

That night we celebrated my son Keegan’s 15th Birthday with family and friends. I will share a full blog post of that later!

Saturday arrived and we spent the day celebrating my great-nephew’s 1st Birthday with a full FIESTA! His daddy is full hispanic and his family was gracious enough to host us all for a day of fun and AWESOME FOOD! (Top right picture, Middle left picture) I seriously felt I was in back in Guatemala, (sigh) it was wonderful!

Our church is starting a new series in our Children’s Department, so my sweet husby and I spent one evening this week decorating for “Clubhouse Pirate Adventure”. Argggg! Ahoy Matey! (middle center and middle right pictures) We always have a great time coming up with the vision and putting it into place! And to see the smiles on all the kiddo’s faces this weekend was PRICELESS!

After all of that celebrating and decorating, we slowed it down for a Date Night! (Bottom left picture) We had a bit of celebrating to do ourselves. I had just received notice that day, that i was selected to be a part of Author ReaAnne Thayne’s Street Team for her upcoming new release “Wild Iris Ridge”. I was beyond excited!
We decided on a quiet evening at a local Coffee Shop where we had some yummy drinks and treats. We ended the night at the bookstore which is one of my FAVORITE places! He is so good to me!

Yesterday, we wrapped the week up with my granddaughter Lilli’s 3rd Birthday! (Bottom center and bottom right pictures) Look how sweet she is blowing out her candle. (: And yes that is my VERY pregnant daughter beside sweet Lilli. She is due in 7 weeks! Lilli had a pool party and BBQ for her birthday and being the cool Mimi that I am, I made her a Bubble Guppie cake!

I was so shocked to see her jump off that diving board! WOW!

For once I can honestly say I am so glad tomorrow is Monday and a new week! I think its time for a slow-down!

I also wanted to share the Awesome Blogs I linked up with this weekend:
http://www.sweetbellaroos.com
http://easylifemealandpartyplanning.blogspot.com
http://memoriesbythemile.com
http://www.flamingotoes.com
http://www.cookinforthesevendwarfs.com/

Drop by and check them out!

And “In Case You Missed It”, make sure to check out my blog posts from this past week!

http://graceandgravy.com/2014/05/25/sometimes-we-just-need-a-do-over/

http://graceandgravy.com/2014/05/28/freedom-at-its-finest-and-potato-salad-too/

http://graceandgravy.com/2014/05/28/a-little-taste-of-mexico-and-the-truth-about-link-parties/

http://graceandgravy.com/2014/05/30/diy-homemade-powder-laundry-soap/

Have an AWESOME Monday!