Blueberry Pickin'!

So once a year, we do blueberries!  

Our goal as a family is to pick as many blueberries as we can before one of our kids melt down and makes it almost impossible to keep picking!

  

This year it was a huge success: We lasted almost an hour! (I prolonged our stay by giving everyone the biggest suckers we have - our beloved tootsie roll pops. :)

So, we picked almost 30 lbs.  

What in the world do we with all those berries?  

Well, besides snacking on bowls of them late last night, we freeze most of them.  And then I try and use them sparingly throughout the rest of the year.  Try is the key word here.  It's the best when warm, fresh blueberry muffins come out of the oven in the dead of winter.  Or popping out those delcious, little blue guys with our maple syrup on otherwise boring oatmeal.

So, yes...we went picking!  Every year it seems to be more fun!  Our older girls actually are helpful and the younger ones...well...they try!  It has become a family tradition that we all actually look forward to.  

So, if you're looking for something to do this summer that could bring a little healthy blueberry love the rest of the year, check out your local blueberry farm.  

Blueberry Pickin' from For Real Wedding Films on Vimeo.

Here's the link to Martin's Blueberries, where we go.  

Life on a Tuesday: What's for dinner?!

What's for dinner?

Does that stress any of you out?  

For a season of our life, I felt like that was all I was doing - being in the kitchen, planning for the next meal.  I started to become a very unhappy woman - and as the saying goes 

"when mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy".  

So, we made some crazy changes and now we do this crazy once a month shopping & cooking extravaganza thing.  Our dear friend Rachel, even joins us on our outings!  She must be crazier than us!  

The bottom line is:  we have a found a system that works for us to allow us to eat healthy, help us stay within our budget, takes away the stress from meals, and helps us really enjoy being around the table together.  

So, last night we had Back Pocket Taco's - a new found favorite.  Quickly made up some rice, warmed up some tortillas and threw some cheese, avocado and greek yogurt in bowls - and VIOLA!  Dinner is served.  Tonight, black bean burritos and salad with apples and walnuts.  

Both of these recipes I got from a new favorite cook book called - Dinner:  A Love Story by Jenny Rosenstrach.  

And now mama is happy and that's make us all happy!  

By the way, your man really just wants you to make you happy, so gals - do all that you can to do that for yourself!  (or tell him what he can do to help you do that!  When I was all crabby about spending all my free time in the kitchen, Kurt came to my rescue and helped me figure out how to make some changes.)

-beth