Summer So Far

It has been way too long since I blogged last. Food storage was big on my priorities in my last post but since then our summer got kinda busy. We have been playing with friends and swimming. At the end of June we went to Idaho with Grandpa Passey for a Lee Reunion. It was a fast overnight trip to Rexburg but we had 24 hrs of fun(Thanks Dad). The next weekend I went on another scrapbooking retreat with friends and then we were off to Taylor, AZ for the Passey Family Reunion. It too was a lot of fun but I can honestly say I am ready to stay home and relax. My huge pregnant body just doesn't want to do anything else. When I was pregnant with Paige I told Danny to let me know if I ever turn into one of those complaining, whinny pregnant women. Well the last couple of pregnancies I have been one of those ladies. It is way too hot even when the air is on, I'm sick of maternity clothes and envy girls with regular jeans on. My back hurts and I have a herniated belly button. I don't feel very beautiful right now at all but Danny reassures me that I am pretty and the big belly is actually not ugly but beautiful. Isn't he sweet? My hair is too long and in my face and I can't wait for Shanda to get up here so I can do something with it(also excited for your company too by the way not just your hair cutting abilities). Well Paige is in California with Grandma Nordstrom for the whole month and so the house is a little quieter but not with out craziness. Would you believe that Audrie super glued her eye shut yesterday? Anyway the summer is nearly over and yet there are so many things I wanted to do but it is quickly going by and it will be time to send kids back to school. Which I am excited about and then this new little baby will be here soon after that and our lives will be turned upside down once again.

Breakfast Menu #1

Okay so I went out and bought 1 can of powdered butter and 1 can of powdered buttermilk and attempted to make buttermilk syrup this morning. It actually turned out pretty well. Slightly different flavor but still very good and the kids loved it. I think it would be a real treat to be able to make this syrup in an emergency and all the ingredients have a long shelf life for food storage. I grew up calling it Bart's syrup because my brother Bart brought the recipe home from Scout Camp I think and that is what mom always called it but around here my kids call it Grandma's syrup and while we ate breakfast this morning they talked about how much they miss her. This syrup always seems to bring up memories of Grandma.

So here is the recipe for Grandma's Buttermilk Syrup(using food storage items):

In a large sauce pan add:
1/2 cup powdered butter
2 1/2 Tablespoons of powdered buttermilk
1 1/2 cups of water
Bring to a boil until it turns a carmel color
Then add:
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/2 teaspoon of Baking soda

I calculated that if you wanted to use this recipe once a week for a full year you would need to store approximately: 1 can of Pwd buttermilk, 3 cans of Pwd butter, 1 8 oz. jar of vanilla and1 small box of baking soda

That is for just a single batch but it was just enough for my family this morning. Although I'm sure a double batch would be needed for larger families or if you have bigger kids that eat more than my little ones.

So this morning I used store bought pancake mix for our pancakes but I have a cool recipe for whole wheat pancakes that are really very good and much easier than you would think. In fact when I heard about this recipe it changed my thinking on using wheat. I thought that making pancake batter with my food storage wheat would be too time consuming considering I would have to grind the wheat first but this recipe you don't need to do that. It is all done in the blender. This really is interesting and worth trying. It is a really fast and easy way to make homemade pancakes. I really like the idea of using ingredients that have no preservatives and the whole wheat really makes it extra healthy. Check out this website for the recipe and a complete explanation of the directions.

http://simplylivingsmart.com/food-storage-videos/blender-pancake.html

I have tried this with a slightly different recipe and it turned out really great. I will post that recipe when I find it. I may have to call my neighbor to get it again because I can't seem to find it anywhere right now.

So there is my first successful attempt at making one breakfast completely from food storage. I think it was a complete success.

Breakfast

I'm sure I'm not the only one but sometimes I absolutely dread meal times. I want to make healthy food for my family but I want convenience as well. I really want to start to use my food storage more in my cooking. http://www.simplylivingsmart.com/ has some great ideas for using your food storage in meals, especially breakfast. This website sure makes it seem easy to make meals with food storage easy. I would check out the video on whole wheat pancakes. Its so much easier than you would think. It got me thinking of other things I could make for breakfast like waffles, muffins, homemade cereals and granola. Simply living smart even shows you how to make your own yogurt but all this breakfast talk reminded me of another website called http://www.mrbreakfast.com/. I just printed out a bunch of recipes from that website that I intend to try out. The plan is to try to adapt them using food storage. If I actually wake up early enough in the mornings and do it I'll let you know how they turn out.

Doctor's Appointment

Well I finally had a Dr.'s Appointment today. My official due date is September 19th and everything looks great. We did an ultra-sound and we are having a boy. After my appointment I ran to payless and picked up a pair of boy sneakers. Once I got home I gathered everyone together to show them the shoes. All of the girls were disappointed. They really wanted another sister. Not really sure why. Isn't 4 girls enough? Reed was absolutely thrilled. He was jumping for joy and giving everybody hugs. This just made his day. He doesn't even care that he is going to have to share a room now. Anyway that is our good news. We are so excited. I guess I can finally start some of those projects I've been planning on.

Total Screw up

It's just been one of those days where you feel like you can't please anyone and nothing you do seems to be right. I hate those days and wish it would just be over already. While I was thinking about my screw up day and trying to find something to blog about I realized that I really was a screw up and neglected to post Meridee's Birthday. It was clear back In April and I feel guilty for forgetting her. The kids really like it when I post their Birthday's and say all kinds of nice things about them. Good thing she is only 4 and doesn't even know the difference but I guess now I have something to blog about.

Meridee is just beautiful and so much fun. I can't say much else. She is such a joy and really has quite a good sense of humor. She gets that from her dad. She is also a little bit of a drama queen and we can't help but laugh at all her drama. When she gets in trouble and is sent to her room she always responds by telling me that I am breaking her heart. The last picture of her was taken just before her heart surgery. She was only 9 months old at the time. I think the little hospital gown was adorable but we feel very blessed that modern medicine was able to detect her heart murmur and correct it so easily.

Well I guess I should go back to my blah kind of a day. Besides pizza is on its way. There is no way I was cooking on a day like this. Thank goodness for pizza as long as I don't screw that up too somehow.

Feeling better

We all seem to be feeling better, thank goodness. We only have 3 days left of school and we are so excited for summer. We are staying busy with yard work and I have a million projects I want to finish and new one's to start. One of which is the very overwhelming and all consuming Year Supply. As I promised I would, I will start posting all the cool stuff I am hearing about from my Neighbor and Super mom Year supply Guru. Some of it you will already know but there is also some really cool stuff that I have never heard of. So check out the Passey Family Blog for the details. There is a new post on there today so check it out.