What a beautiful weekend we had! We spent a majority of it on the ranch trying to keep cool. Thank goodness for air condition! Yesterday, we literally hopped on over to Lazy Valley Blueberry Ranch and picked 2 large colanders worth of blueberries.
I set aside 2 1/2 cups for my Blueberry Crumb Pie and froze the rest in 4 cup portions in quart size freezer bags. I ended up with 7 quart size bags for the freezer.
We’ll have plenty of blueberries for making and canning jam, baking cakes, cobblers, muffins and even making blueberry ice cream.
Speaking of canning, I’m hoping to start canning some tomatoes and maybe a few other vegetables in the next few weeks. Canning may be time consuming, but it’s definitely worth it. Did you get a chance to watch Can-It-Forward Day activities live interactive broadcast that I shared on my Facebook page? Lots of great information was shared about canning tomatoes, pickles, making jam and pepper jelly.
In the summer, when the days are long and our schedules are active, we tend to not heat up the kitchen at dinner time. We like to do a lot of fresh sandwiches–anything to keep from heating up the kitchen! The kids love them and Illya and I do as well. There’s noting like a sandwich with fresh ingredients from the garden! If I need to bake, it’s in the wee hours of the morning. This morning, I happen to be making a loaf of Homemade Bread for tonight’s meal. Also, this week we have a whole watermelon that we are going to need to be sure we enjoy.
My weekly meal plan and shopping list is completed and posted on our fridge:
Suppers Your Family Will Love
Need ideas for your weekly meal plan? It’s time for another weekly menu. I enjoy menu planning because of the simplicity it provides for my life. It enables me to decrease my grocery shopping excursions to twice a month and it allows me to have more free time to focus on my family and home. For ideas in the weekly meal plan, we’ll be focusing on a variety of family meals. You’ll find the recipes on the weekly meal plan also available on my Recipe Index page with a grocery list included.
Dinner (recipes will post throughout the week)
Sunday: Chicken Salad Sandwiches
Monday: Tomato sandwiches with watermelon slices and a simple garden salad.
Tuesday: Pasta with Roasted Vegetable Sauce, Salad, Biscuits
Wednesday: Crock Pot Roasted Chicken, (I have several whole chickens in the freezer that were purchased on sale) with simple sides like steamed vegetables, and Magic Corn. If you didn’t see the post on my Facebook page I shared, don’t worry I’ll share it again this week here on the site.
Thursday: Chicken Fajitas along with homemade salsa, corn salsa and I have all kinds of peppers and onions from the garden too, for fresh toppings!
Friday: Pizza Night! Going to try a black bean pizza with fresh veggies on Homemade Pizza Dough.
Saturday: Tomato Basil Garden Quiche with the rest of the watermelon
Free Templates
Weekly Meal Plan and Shopping List
What’s cooking at your house this week?
