My garden is finally starting to really produce some fruit and veggies for us, so I’m looking for easy ways to use this bounty! Even better if it doesn’t involve cooking inside, as we’ve turned our a/c down to save some money. So here’s some of my favorites!

Probably my favorite is to slice up cucumbers and/or tomatoes and cover them with balsamic vinegar and water. Plain white vinegar works, too, though the flavor isn’t quite as good. Still, white vinegar is an inexpensive substitute. You can adjust the vinegar and water balance to suit your taste…I like it with a lot of vinegar but I realize I’m a freak. Super simple, and it can stay fresh for several days in the fridge. I like to use this as a substitute for tossed salad. Very healthy!

My second favorite does involve some cooking…boil some tri-color rotini or similar pasta, rinse well and allow to cool. Chop up carrots, cukes, tomatoes (I like cherry or grape tomatoes for this, but large ones work, too) and celery. Put them in a large bowl with the rotini, then add some cheddar cheese and Italian dressing to taste. If there’s anything in particular you don’t like, feel free to leave it out. The pasta and dressing and a few veggies are the only musts for this one. I usually leave out the celery and we occasionally leave out the cheese. It still tastes great and it’s also a good substitute for tossed salad. I occasionally serve it as a side and skip the bread. It’s even better the 2nd and 3rd days…I’ve been known to get a huge bowl of it for lunch and have nothing else!

This summer, we’ve discovered the deliciousness of grilled eggplant. My husband slices it into thick, round pieces, then marinates it for a little while in olive oil and seasonings to taste. He throws the slices on the grill while our meat or chicken is cooking. It’s so good with grilled chicken or steak. Even the kids eat it happily as long as we take the skin off their pieces.

We also like to grill ears of corn. Lay out a piece of foil large enough to wrap the entire ear in. Add a pat of butter or margarine, lay the corn on top, roll it as you shake some seasoning salt or other spices to your taste on it, then wrap up tightly and put on the grill while you cook your meat. The foil and corn will be very hot when you take them off, so allow to cool a bit before eating. We cut the corn off the ears for the kids so it cools faster and they can eat it a bit easier, but this isn’t necessary.

And for dessert, I love love love strawberries and whipped cream. Cap and slice the strawberries, add a little sugar and stick in the fridge for the day or overnight. When you’re ready for a sweet treat, dip some out and add a bit of whipped cream…not Cool Whip, but the real thing. I’ve been told this works well for blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries, too. I’m not growing those so I haven’t tried it but it sure sounds yummy. And I don’t feel guilty about letting my kids have fruit and real whipped cream, even with the small amount of added sugar.

None of these are very labor intensive. The pasta salad especially is a big hit with our extended families. I frequently get asked to make it for holiday meals or potluck style dinners. I’m going to be sad when I can’t wander out to the backyard and pick some veggies for dinner every night!

I don’t necessarily believe that, but in the past week I’ve heard of bad pregnancy outcomes from 2 people who were just a bit further along than me.  It goes without saying that I am devastated for them, but I’m also scared for me.  And though I know it’s unusual at this stage, it DOES happen.  At no point during pregnancy are you guaranteed a good outcome and a healthy baby at the end.  I always want to correct people when they say “Oh you’re out of the first trimester, it’s smooth sailing now.”  Because it’s not.  Bad things can happen anytime.  So I’m saying a lot of prayers for this baby to be safe and healthy inside me.  I’m getting nervous for my next ultrasound, which is the “big” one where we will find out how the baby is growing, if he (she?) is healthy and happy and appears to be “normal.”  Oh, and we’ll find out the sex…which is secondary to the health, of course!  So there is some excitement there, but there’s a lot of trepidation, too.

And because I have so many things knocking around in my brain, here’s a little brain dump…

Christina Applegate has breast cancer.  She’s only a few years older than me!  There is no history of BC in my family, but it’s terrifying to contemplate the idea.  It sounds like it was caught very early, so kudos to her docs and to her for being proactive.  It reminds me that I need to become more diligent about checking myself and maybe contemplate a baseline mammogram once this new baby is weaned.

I am in the baking mood.  I got a breadmaker from FreeCycle and have been printing out all kinds of recipes to try.  One I’m hoping works out well is an apple cinnamon oatmeal bread.  We spend a TON of money on Quaker oatmeal squares because my kids like them for breakfast.  I hope to replace them with something that will be cheaper and have fewer preservatives.  I hope they’ll eat it!  I also have a butter pecan rum cake recipe I want to try and many more bread recipes.  I’m hoping we can cut our food bill down some by making bread rather than buying it!

The kids are fighting over the Wii. *sigh*  We need some new games but just can’t afford that luxury right now.  Maybe for Christmas…

My hair has a ton of gray in it suddenly and I’m dying to go get highlights…I told my husband that’s the first thing I’m going to do when he gets his first paycheck from the company!  He has some quotes out now, so hopefully one of those will get picked up soon.  He’s also doing a lot of networking so I’m praying that we start getting some income from it soon.

The kids were approved for Medicaid last week, which is still really hard for me to deal with.  I was denied, but will be able to go reapply next week and should be approved.  They were able to get coverage based on our June income, but I was not.  I feel like such a drain on society, though God knows we’ve paid our dues.  I am confident it will be temporary and that we’ll be off of it in a year, but it’s such a hard thing to do when you’ve been told all your life that people who use these programs are leeches.  I am so grateful that the option is there for us, but I also can’t wait until we are able to get back on our feet and provide our own health care coverage.

I was planning to get my nose pierced for my 33rd birthday, which is coming up in a couple of months, but now I may not because I’m not sure it’s a good idea when you’re pregnant.  Plus there’s the whole money issue!  It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time and I just haven’t gotten up the courage, plus my husband was not a fan of the idea.  Well, I’ve decided I just don’t care and I’m going to get it done eventually, either for my birthday or after the baby is born.  So if you can recommend a piercer in Sanford, I’m all ears!  Or perhaps all nose…hahaha!

Against my better judgment, we used the lasagna recipe I posted Saturday, rather than the one Kim shared on her blog. The reasons for this were simple…the ingredients we needed for that one were less expensive than what we needed for Kim’s. Right now, price is a big factor in the shopping! Since we had almost all of the ingredients for the original, it seemed like the best move.

WRONG.

It wasn’t terrible, but it definitely wasn’t *the* lasagna recipe I’ve been looking for. I should have known when it called for cheddar cheese that something wasn’t quite right! Won’t be making that mistake again.

So Kim, next week we’ll be getting the ricotta cheese and making your dad’s version. I can’t wait.

I’ve been feeling so bad lately that we’ve been going out to eat most nights.  And sometimes lunch as well.  With our financial situation being what it is, this HAS to stop.  So, today I sat down to make a list of meals that I’d like to have and looked up recipes.  I’m making my grocery list and expect that the 5 meals I’ve chosen will feed us for the week.  With school starting next week for my *kindergartener* (Gack!  How do I have a kindergartener???) it’s going to be crazy.  We’ve got Open House on Monday where we meet our teacher, t-ball practice on Tuesday, and Parent’s Night on Thursday, so we need to have some easy leftovers those nights.

We decided on these meals:

Buffalo Chicken — This is something I’ve been craving, and even cutting it in half should leave us plenty of leftovers!

Red Beans & Rice — My husband and I love Cajun food, and we’ve done this one many times before but it’s been a while.  Our 2 year old has been loving beans lately and he’s always been a rice lover, so we thought we’d pull this one out and see if he liked it.

Chicken Enchiladas — I was reading a book last night and the character made chicken enchiladas and that was all it took to make me wish I had some.  This is a new recipe, so we’ll see how it tastes!

Lasagna — Again with the book reading making a craving.  I love lasagna but haven’t found *the* recipe yet.  I’m taking a shot with this one.

Southwestern Polenta Casserole — A tried and true recipe at our house.  My husband created this one and it is SO yummy!  Sort of a Southwestern lasagna, but with polenta rather than noodles or tortillas.

I don’t know what we’ll make when, but I’ll try to recap how the new things turned out.  I’m really hoping that I can add a couple of new things to my (somewhat limited) repertoire!

Thursday morning we loaded up the minivan and hit the road for a mini-cation. It had been planned shortly before the job loss happened and we were unable to get our money back on the hotel. So we decided that it was better to take the trip and enjoy ourselves for a few days rather than lose the $300 we’d already paid. We headed to Gatlinburg, the incredibly trashy mountain tourist destination. (Myrtle Beach is the incredibly trashy beach tourist destination.) I do so enjoy embracing my trashy side once in a while…

Anyway, we spent basically the entire day taking our time in getting there. We drove through Cherokee and resisted stopping at the casino to take our shot at the jackpot. It was a really enjoyable drive. I loved that the street signs in Cherokee had the road names translated into the native language. I’d been there before but either didn’t notice it then or this is a relatively new feature. We talked to the boys about Sequoyah and other Cherokee history. Not sure how much they really listened, but I felt like it was good stuff to talk about while we had them held captive in their car seats.

We finally arrived at our hotel (Glenstone Lodge…great place to stay!) around dinner time and after unloading, we walked down to the “strip” and explored for a while. Had dinner at a nice little sandwich place and returned to the hotel. On Friday morning, we got up and headed to the hotel where my in-laws were waiting to spend the day with us. They had (of course!) many treats to spoil the boys with.

We walked around the area and my FIL insisted on lunch at Bennett’s, which is just OK. Typical chain restaurant food, IMO. Plus it’s got the whole “Tennessee BBQ” thing going on and we know how I feel about that. He also really wanted to eat dinner at Texas Roadhouse, which I just could not get behind. As much as I think Gatlinburg is a trashy tourist destination, there are some *really* good local places to eat and I hated the idea of eating somewhere that I could eat at here (well, surrounding area) anytime I wanted. So we went to Flying Horse Grill down in Pigeon Forge and it was really good…though that opinion was not shared by everyone in our party. I think the lone dissenter was just a case of sour grapes, though.

Saturday morning we got up and took the kids to stay with my mom in Knoxville. On the way back, we did some shopping because my maternity clothing situation was getting desperate. (Actually, it still is…if you know of anyone with maternity clothes they no longer need, I would LOVE to have them. I’m what’s euphemistically known as a “special size” so it’s hard to find things second-hand that fit. If you think you may be able to help out, please leave me a comment or shoot me an email. I’m happy to return anything you want back once I’m done!) I managed to get a couple of things that were marked way down, so that was helpful. We then returned to our hotel to rest a bit before our big dinner out sans children. We ate at Calhoun’s and had a delicious meal courtesy of the gift card my brother and his wife had given us at Christmas.

Sunday morning we headed back to Knoxville to pick up the kids and have a small family lunch/b-day party for my youngest. We got back on the road around 4:00 and finally made it home around 11PM last night. It took so long because we took a very long detour in Hickory to find a Backyard Burgers because I’ve had *major* cravings. I adore my husband because he was very patient through the entire ordeal…though I could tell he thought it was a wild goose chase. Still, we eventually found it and I indulged in a lemon chicken sandwich and some chili cheese fries. Just what this pregnant girl needed!

I’d love to go get a pedicure. It is a guilty pleasure of mine, and something I really enjoy doing. Of course, even small indulgences are out for us right now. It would just be awesome to head over and pick out some “I’m Not Really a Waitress” red (yes, it’s a real color!) and have a little foot pampering. I hate my feet but I live in flip flops and sandals all summer long so I do try to spruce them up just a little. It’s the little things…

Like bread. I have a type of bread that I really like. It’s a bit more expensive, but the slices are bigger. Still, we run out WAY too fast with all 4 of us eating sandwiches at lunch so I’m going to have to compromise. I’m going to check the “day old bread” store but regardless of what I find there, I’ll probably be eating mostly WhiteWheat or Bunny bread or some such garbage because I’ll feel guilty otherwise. Actually, I may start making bread again. I wish I had a breadmaker because it makes it so much easier, but it’s really therapeutic to do it the old fashioned way, too. Maybe I just need to pull out my old bread recipes and take the plunge. It’s healthier because I control the content of stuff like sugar, and no matter how fancy you get it’s hard to spend as much on ingredients as you would on a loaf of really good bread.