Getting Creative

Well, since we are pretty much unemployed this summer, we've had to get really creative about money/eating/entertainment. We've been pretty proud of the meals we've managed to pull together and it really helps that many of our graduating Senior friends gave us the contents of their freezer before they left. Here are some of the meals we've had to eat this week using up the contents of the pantry, freezer, and a few choice items from the farmer's market:

Black beans and yellow rice with chicken and homemade zuchini bread
Pulled Pork BBQ sandwiches, mixed veggies, and homemade blueberry crisp for dessert.
Beef tips over brown rice with peas and smoothies for dessert.

I'd venture to say we're eating better than when we had more choices, and I know we're making things that we wouldn't usually think of to make. We're using the crock-pot more and having to plan meals ahead since we're having to pull things out of the freezer in time. It's a nice realization of why we resort to fast food/going out at times, because we simply didn't plan ahead.

As far as entertainment, we loved the FREE festival last weekend and we were able to bring in our own food in which was awesome. We did splurge a bit on some festival food because who can resist homemade peach cobbler cooked in a dutch oven over a fire served with homemade, hand-churned vanilla ice cream? Yum.

We're also doing lots of trips to storytimes at local libraries and a lot of playing outside: long walks with all 3 dogs (they do much better than I thought!), exploring (we borrowed a GPS and tried our 1st experience with geocaching...it was fun but only semi-successful), and daily trips to a nearby park.

Now we're off to naps so we can help another new family move in this afternoon. *A*'s found a new buddy already from one of the new families who arrived Monday, and pretty soon all her old buddies will be returning from their summer breaks. Before we know it, we'll have too much on our plates, but for now we're enjoying making our own fun (and food).