Brian ran the Mud Warrior race last Saturday.
Before ... still clean ... did you check out the people in the back?!
Sliding into the mud pool at the end
More than a little muddy!
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Would you ever run the Mud Warrior and get that muddy? Leave us a comment and let us know!
I had the chance to join Grace on her field trip a few weeks ago. Part of the field trip was a hayride around the host farm. We are so fortunate to live in an area where there are still family farms and at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains here in Virginia. These pictures were taking during the bumpy hayride and show the beginning of Fall here at the edge of the mountains. We had a late peak in color and still have beautiful colors right now so fall is still in “full bloom” here in this part of Virginia!
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Leave us a comment and let us know how fall looks where you are!
Details …(Taken from GreatHarvest.com)
It all began back in the 1970s. Our founders, Pete and Laura Wakeman, were just a couple of college kids who baked amazing scratch-made whole grain bread to help pay their tuition at Cornell University. Newly married in 1975, the adventurous couple hiked the entire north-south length of Montana. They never left and they established the first Great Harvest Bakery in Great Falls.
I had a chance to visit the Charlottesville, VA location of Great Harvest Bread Company. I had Sophie and Matthew with me and it was lunch time so we got lunch while we were there. The sandwich I got was one of the best sandwiches I have had in awhile. Why? It was simple with quality ingredients. That is all it took to make a great sandwich!
I was really there to get a loaf of bread though. I came home with a loaf of Dokata. It was a hard decision between this bread and the High Five. We had this bread with our dinner that night and it was beyond good. Beth and I both had a couple of sandwiches with this bread and the seeds on the top made it even better for a fall sandwich!
We can’t wait to head down near the local Great Harvest Bread Company again so we have an excuse to stop for another great loaf of bread.
If you are in the Charlottesville area you can find the Charlottesville location on Facebook and Twitter. Not in Charlottesville? Find a location near you here!
Have you tried Great Harvest Bread Company? Leave us a comment and let us know!
NOTE: We were provided with a free loaf of bread coupon to provide this review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are our own.
Just a little bit … OK, a lot of applesauce. Approximately two and half gallons of homemade applesauce was canned at our house on Sunday. This is what happens when you live in an area with so many apple orchards and you come home with a bushel of apples. (Not pictured are the 5 apple pie fillings that are now frozen for the holidays!) The apples are from Carter’s Mountain Orchard if you are wondering …
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It’s corn season! MMMMMM! I love fresh corn. Unfortunately, it all comes out at the same time. Who wouldn’t like to have that fresh corn taste all year long? Well, it’s really not that hard. We have been freezing that fresh summer corn for years. It takes a little bit of work, but really not much more than you would have spent preparing the corn for dinner in the first place.
It can also save you a lot of money. We pay to join a CSA (community-supported agriculture) every year and we get baskets full of corn anyway. This year we are getting our corn from Liberty Mills Farm in Orange, VA. Even at the farmer’s market or supermarket, though, it can be ridiculously cheap. We recently saw 2-pound bags of the store brand corn selling for $3 each. To get the same amount of fresh corn will cost you less that $2 and a little bit of your time. The best part, in my opinion, of freezing your own corn versus buying it from the freezer section is that you get to freeze the cobs too! Those simple cobs that we normally throw out can make the most beautiful, comforting stock for soups, chowders, or risottos that can really bring a ray of sunshine to those winter doldrums. Saving money and getting more for the money that you are saving. I like the sound of that!
So, without any further ado, here is our simple process for freezing that yummy summer corn for the winter.
(1) Husk the corn and remove as much of the silk as possible. (2) Place the corn into salted, boiling water for 2-3 minutes. Fresh corn doesn’t need to be cooked much and it’s going to be reheated out of the freezer anyhow. (3) Pull the corn out of the water into a bowl to transfer it. Admire just how gorgeous the corn is!
(4) Place the corn into ice water. This will shock it to stop the cooking, keep the beautiful color, and cool it down so that you can handle it. (5) Using a fork in the cob to keep your hands out of the way, place the corn into a deep bowl and slice the outer edge of the kernels with a sharp knife. You are not looking to go all of the way into the cob; you just want the sweet tasty part. If you go too deep, though, it’s ok, it’ll still taste good. If you do not go deep enough, it’ll just make the stock that much better! You want a deep bowl so that the kernels don’t cover your kitchen. If you are doing a lot of corn, you might want a deep bowl for slicing and another bigger bowl to hold it all. (6) Admire all of your hard work and resist the temptation to add butter, salt, and pepper and dig in!
(7) Transfer the corn to zip top freezer bags and weigh into the desired portions. 10 oz is usually enough for me, Beth, and our three little ones. As they get bigger, we are going to have to start adding more. (8) The final result is over 3 pounds of cut corn and 11 corn cobs for the beautifully golden stock.
I hope that you all enjoy our simple little tip. It’s easy, saves money, keeps your family a little healthier. All in all, that’s Simply Budgeted!
Do you have plans to plant a garden next Spring? You can start thinking about that now! If you get a fruit or vegetable you love, you can save the seeds and plant them next year. Saving seeds can be a big budget saver as seed packets can be $1-5 depending on the variety and brand of the seeds.
We had a really nice cantaloupe from our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), Liberty Mills Farm, last week. Beth decided to save some of the seeds. She washed them off to get the inside pulp of the fruit off them. You want to wash them off because they will rot if they have the fruit still on them. Then just lay them out on a paper towel to dry. Generally you just need to leave them out a day or so. If you do this with bigger seeds such as pumpkin seeds, they will take longer to dry. Once they are dry, we put them in a ziploc sandwich bag and write what they are, where the seeds were from, and the date. We store seeds we keep like this in the freezer so they don’t get funky. They aren’t processed like the seeds you buy at the store so the freezer keeps them good for the Spring.
Do you keep seeds to plant for next year? If so, what process do you use to store them?
Friday Favorites is another almost weekly feature here at Simply Budgeted. The whole point of this feature is to share some of our favorite finds. Anything is game. Food. Cleaning supplies. Kid stuff. Garden favorites. Recipes. Anything that I really like and want to randomly post about. Reminder/Disclaimer/Whatever: Everything in Friday Favorites is something that we use and bought on our own.
1/2 cup soft butter
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup sour milk (add 1 teaspoon vinegar to fresh milk)
2 1/2 cups flour
4 Tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups grated zucchini
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1/2 cup chocolate chips
In mixing bowl, cream butter, oil and sugar. Add eggs, vanilla and sour milk. Blend. Add flour, cocoa, baking soda and cinnamon. Stir together Add zucchini. Mix well. Spoon into greased and floured 9×13 pan. Sprinkle with nuts and chocolate chips (if eliminating nuts, double amt. of chips).
Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.
Friday Favorites is another almost weekly feature here at Simply Budgeted. The whole point of this feature is to share some of our favorite finds. Anything is game. Food. Cleaning supplies. Kid stuff. Garden favorites. Recipes. Anything that I really like and want to randomly post about. Reminder/Disclaimer/Whatever: Everything in Friday Favorites is something that we use and bought on our own.
Do you love deal sites? I do. I have a little obsession with those emails that show up in my inbox. And then there are ones that people post about on Facebook … umm, yeah. Small problem on my part. But this small problem has let us stretch our budget in some of those present spending budget pie areas … you know entertainment, eating out, and other “extras”.
I recently discovered Cville Savers. This is a deal site local to Charlottesville, VA. I love it. You see there is no Living Social or Groupon or whatever accounts for Charlottesville so I tend to buy the online deals at those sites. But with this site it is all local. I hear you, you aren’t from around here. That is fine. Check your area. I have heard of others on the radio recently and I am sure if you look or ask around you might just find a local deal site in your area!
So why is local good? Well I have bought a pass to Bounce-n-Play (the indoor bounce place in this area) and then summer dance classes for my girls at Charlottesville Ballet. The Charlottesville Ballet deal is one of my all time favorites at it include the registration fee for the year which was a bonus added savings for us during the school year! Our summer budget has been tight so I have watched my deal site purchases but in these cases the deals were beyond their worth for sure since they involved activities for our kids.
Do you have a favorite deal site? Is it a big one or a local one? Or maybe you lucky enough that the big sites are in your area. Leave a comment and let us know what your favorite deal site purchases have been!
We had such a great response to our Zucchini Tacos last week (if you missed it, find it here) that we decided to go all in and offer up another recipe this week so that you all can use up those mountains of zucchini. We get ours from our local CSA at Liberty Mills Farm.
In this variation on the classic parmigiana, we use zucchini that has been fried and layered in a casserole dish with tomato sauce and covered with mozzarella cheese. It is served with a side of whole wheat pasta dressed in olive oil and basil. It takes a little time, but is so easy and so good! As a bonus, all three of our little ones (even our 2-year old) ate this up like nobody’s business. If that’s not a selling point, I don’t know what is!
For more information on why you should participate in the Meatless Monday movement, click here.
3-4 large zucchini
3 C all-purpose flour
3 eggs
3 C seasoned bread crumbs
salt and pepper
water
oil for frying
1 large jar pasta sauce
Preheat oven to 350.
Cut ends off of zucchini and cut zucchini into 3-4 inch sections. Using a mandoline, slice the zucchini lengthways very thinly and set aside.
Prepare a breading station. Pour flour into one long, shallow bowl or casserole, season liberally with salt and pepper. Mix eggs into a second long, shallow bowl or casserole. Add a touch of water and season with salt and pepper. Lastly, pour bread crumbs into a third long, shallow bowl or casserole.
Heat 1/2 inch of oil in a heavy pan over medium to medium-high heat. Prepare a casserole dish by laying down a thin layer of pasta sauce.
Coat zucchini 3 or 4 at a time in flour. Dusting off the flour, coat in egg wash, then move to bread crumbs. Coat thoroughly and dust off before placing carefully in the hot oil. Let fry 2-3 minutes on each side. Remove from oil to paper towel. Place into casserole dish. Repeat. Fill up bottom of dish with fried zucchini, then lay down a thin layer of sauce. Continue until you have run out of zucchini or room in the casserole. Cover with mozzarella and place into preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until cheese is melted. Let rest for 10 minutes before serving.
Note: You will find a bit of a system here. I would do about three at a time. I would put 3 in the oil and ready the next batch. When the next batch went in, it was time to flip the old batch, by the time I prepared the next batch, it was time to remove one batch and flip the other. It was constant, but pretty simple work.
It’s that time of year when fresh peaches and berries are abundant. You can find them in your supermarket or at your local farm or farmer’s market. We got ours from Grelen Nursery in Somerset, VA (a farm about 30 minutes from us) and made this beautiful cobbler that we just had to share.
This recipe is ridiculously easy and very flexible. The juices from the fruit do most of the work. Some sugar to enhance the sweetness, some seasoning to bring out the flavors, and a little flour to hold it together are all it takes. If you like your filling a little tighter, add more flour; runnier, add less. If your fruit is really sweet (or if you like that special tartness) add less sugar. You can substitutes nectarines or plums and get a very similar result.
Sometimes making pie crust from scratch is a nice touch, but mine never come out just right and I wind up creating an even bigger mess that I just don’t have the time to clean up. This recipe uses boxed pie crust mix to make things just a little easier and save you a bit of time.
(Note: Because we used a bigger casserole dish for this, we had to use two boxes of “2 crust” pie mix. Plan on having more than you think you need.)
Prepared pie crusts
1 C white sugar
6 T all-purpose flour
2 t cinnamon
1 t salt
7-8 small peaches, sliced
2 pints blackberries
1 egg, beaten with a touch of water
Preheat oven to 425.
Roll out crust large enough to line a two-quart casserole (or whatever baking vessel you choose) with lower crust. Slice upper crust into one-inch strips.
Combine next six ingredients (through blackberries) into a large mixing bowl. Toss gently, coating fruit well. Pour into lower crust. Arrange strips into lattice design over the fruit mixture. Pinch edges together with a bit of water. Brush egg mixture over crust.
Bake at 425 for 20 minutes. Reduce heat the 375 and bake for 45 minutes or until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbling. Cool for 1 hour before serving with vanilla ice cream.
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