Happy Memorial Day!!

Just wanted to say "Thank You" to all the men and women who have fought for our country. To keep our freedom FREE. Thank you for all your sacrifices, thank you to your families for supporting you. Thank You! God Bless America!

Strawberry Chocolate Mint Lemonade Cooler

 Yes, this is a very long name for a simple drink. Once you try it you'll understand the name. Any one of the names left out won't do it justice.

Strawberry Chocolate Mint Lemonade Cooler:

2 cups frozen whole strawberries

1 1/2 cups lemonade

1 tbsp honey

1/2 fresh squeezed lemon

6-8 chocolate mint leaves (1 tsp dice mint)

Blend all ingredients in blender, pour and enjoy!

(forgot to take a pic with mint leaf, they're in there)

Rosemary Garlic Butter

Fresh herbs and butter = a perfect pair. This yummy rosemary garlic butter is excellent on grilled cheese sandwiches. Next time going to try it melted on top of roasted veggies.

Take one stick of butter at room temp,1 tsp. chopped rosemary and 1/2 tsp. garlic powder. Mix well. Place on a piece of plastic wrap and roll up. Place in refrigerator until hardened. Slice and enjoy on your favorite foods.  Well, maybe not your favorite food, not sure how plum blueberry peach cake will taste with rosemary garlic butter. But you know what I mean :)

How about adding some Parmesan cheese with basil? Or chives and cheddar? The possibilities are endless.

Tropical Traditions Special Deals

Tropical Traditions is one of my favorite sites to order my organic food. I love their Gold label virgin coconut oil. Recently I experimented with homemade deodorant and love it.

Get the pint jars on sale now- Buy One Get One Free  Retails for $50, sale price $19.95. There are hundreds of ways to use coconut oil. My favorites are using it in smoothies and fry my potato's in coconut oil.



Virgin Coconut Oil, Gold Label - 1 quart Another of my favorite items from Tropical Traditions is their Organic Raw Honey. My niece would get off the bus at my house and run to the cabinet to make herself a honey sandwich. Great birthday present for her :)
The 17.6 oz jar is on Sale for $12.99, retails for $19.99
 

First time customers receive a FREE book on Virgin Coconut Oil!! Free is always good.


Organic Raw Honey - 17.6 oz. glass jar

Graduation Party a Success & Under Budget

Graduation day has come and gone. My baby is done with high school and getting ready for college. I can't believe how time flies. I remember trying to put her on the bus for kindergarten. I say "trying" because when the bus pulled up and opened the doors, she looked up and took off running. We could not catch her and the bus could not wait. We had to drive her to school. Now she is driving her self around. Time flies!

Any hoot! Graduation was great. The ceremony started at 10am and lasted about two hours. Back to my house everyone came for a cook out. All together we had 72 people come. Friends, families, neighbors and co-workers. The weather was sunny and about 80 degrees. Just a light breeze and not humid. Wonderful!! Thank you Lord for a beautiful day :)

 I started planning the graduation party back in January. My budget was $500 for decorations, food, tables, etc.. Everything but the gifts. I went to Kroger back in April when they had corn on the cob for $0.19 cents and ear and purchased 40 ears, cut them in half and frozen them for the party. Kroger also had hot dogs on sale 10/ $10. Bought 10 packs of hot dogs and frozen them. We used coupons from Party City to get the decorations and picked up things along the way that were on sale. The cake was probably the biggest splurge. $48 from Walmart. Delicious cake! After all was done the party came in around $450. Not bad!

I defiantly have to thank my mom (in the blue) and my nana (beside mom) for all their hard work in helping make this party a success. Love you ladies :)

 

We even had people pitch tents and spend the night.

 

(my nephew, Jamie)

Will this night ever end?

Happy Mother's Day

Wishing all the wonderful mommies a happy mother's day!

Fresh Picked Strawberries

What to do with 23 lbs. of strawberries? Eat them. 

Every year my daughter and I have a tradition of picking pounds and pounds of strawberries. Strawberries are one of our favorite fruits. She doesn't mind picking them or eating them, just can't get her to cap them.

Fresh picked strawberries will only last 2-3 days once picked. Get your containers ready and make some frozen strawberry delight or whole wheat strawberry muffins. Freezer jam is another great was to enjoy your strawberries for months to come. Delicious on top of ice cream.

Yesterday was my daughter's last day of high school so I surprised her with strawberry crepes. She loved them. I can't believe my baby is all grown up. Feels like yesterday we put her on the bus for kindergarten. Sorry for the trip down memory lane, she's my only baby. Love ya Alexis!

Keeping a Journal of your Garden: Part 2

Back in March I wrote about keeping a journal about your garden Part 1. This had been the first year I've kept a journal of my garden and so far I'm glad I have.

I was out in the garden yesterday and was looking at my cucumber plants. They look stunted in growth, but blooming. I thought "wonder where I bought those seeds from?. Ah hah, I wrote that info down in my garden journal." I made a note beside the "cucumber seeds" and will continue to monitor them. This is a perfect example of why to keep a garden journal.

-It's also time to get out there and hill up those potatoes. Potatoes like to have soil piled up around their stem, not to high, you just don't want to expose any potatoes to the sun light. That's how you get "green" potatoes.

-Time to harvest. I picked about $8- $10 worth of organic lettuce yesterday and it only cost me around $0.50 for all this lettuce. I have been very blessed this year with the limited amount of creatures finding my lettuce.

 Gardening is definitely a money saver for me and my family.

What are you harvesting from your garden?

Name that bird egg?

When I was out looking at my fruit trees today, I found this little birds nest. Inside was two little blue eggs with black spots. The eggs are approx. 3/4" long, the nest is only about 2-3" round. You can see the size of the peach leaves compared to the nest. Do you know what kind of bird eggs these are?

Frappuccino Happy Hour at Starbucks

Join Starbucks at Happy Hour. Half off Frappuccino's: May 4-13 from 3-5 pm. Find a participating store near you.

Earthbound Farms Coupon: $0.75 off Organic Powermeal

Earthbound farms is offering another great coupon: $0.75 off Powermeal. Take the step with me and join their organic step forward. The powermeals are a salad filled with greens, fruit and seeds. I haven't been able to find them in my local store yet, hopefully this movement will push the stores to carry them.

Have you tried the new Powermeals? What did you think about them?