summer food

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Summer may not officially begin until later in June, but my summer food plans are definitely shifted.  Ever season brings fresh ideas and inspiration for me regarding the food we eat.  My children aren't as brave as I am about trying new things, but they get better every year.  Summer food is so awesome.  We have had a good ninja blender for awhile and in the winter we made lots of smoothies but it broke and we were without for a month or so.  Roger ordered a new one and it came with a recipe book of things to blend.  Drinks, sauces, purees. Jeremiah got very excited as he read through the recipes.  He wants to try lots of them!   I went shopping at 3pm today for the third day in a row to get ingredients for watermelon slushes, peanut butter and chocolate smoothies with frozen yogurt and heavy cream, something with kiwi, something with pineapple and my counter is full of fruit tonight!  

Summer food here means more grilling and my husband is a great griller.  It means more cold salads and sandwiches.  Last night we had croissants with deli sliced turkey, provolone cheese, crisp bacon, lettuce, tomato and mayo.  I also did chicken fried rice because we had leftover rice and grilled chicken from a previous meal.....and we revisited leftover cold veggie salad:  raw broccoli, cauliflower, raisens, bacon(I do love bacon) and sunflower seeds  in a mayo/vinegar/sugar dressing......delicious.  

After a few hot days, my kids were consuming alot of popsycles which is great but more sugar than fruit.  Yesterday I got out my new ninja blender and mixed up frozen strawberries and mango, canned fruit cocktail, peaches, pineapple and added some fresh banana and apple juice.  I tossed it all into an empty ice cream bucket and put it in the freezer.  Now we can scoop it out and add a splash of 7-up (or vodka) for a healthier (happier) cooling off treat.  

Tonight its Friday night and we are home.  Praise God from whom all blessings flow.  We are grilling burgers and I will steam some fresh green beans and serve it with chilled melon.  Yum.  Yum.  Yum.  I have a tube of pre-made chocolate chip cookie dough in the fridge.  I may just pop in a batch of cookies later just to celebrate Friday.

Pay attention to food as the seasons change.  It not only tastes good to change the menu, but it is good for us.  When we eat in season, we live better.    

Our local strawberry patch is open for picking.  I desperately, desperately want to go pick strawberries ( or, as in previous years, send my boys with my mom to do the hard work and I just write a check for the bounty),  Last year we eat them fresh, we froze some, we made strawberry jam......oh my goodness.....I just HAVE TO get there before the berries are gone!!!!!!!!!

Feel free to share strawberry recipes to keep the food inspiration and food appreciation alive!  

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