Not Quite Vintage

my little harvest

Early this summer, late spring actually, I potted up two tomato plants, a cucumber plant and a few herbs. The herbs flourished, but the tomato and cucumber plants just seemed to green up, flower, grow higher and nothing else. I was frustrated, questioning what I was doing wrong and wondered if gardening just wasn't my thing... until the past couple weeks. My grape tomato decided to start growing lots of green little babies, the early girl while not early is finally producing BLT worthy fruit and my cucumber seemed to grow three overnight.

This is what I picked today when I got home - my first little harvest of the summer. And can I tell you how yummy the cucumber was? Seriously I don't think I have ever eaten one almost straight off the vine. It was so crunchy fresh. I hope the plant continues to flourish because I am thinking I might have to try and make some pickles.

crispy and salty

Have you seen the craze going around the health and fitness and foodie blogs lately? It is the potato chip craving crusher of kale chips - yes I said kale! I have to admit that I had never knowingly eaten kale until this week. It always looked a little too green and curly laying there in the grocery store and since I never had it growing up I had know idea how to cook it. Turns out is is pretty darn yummy, especially when it is baked up crispy with some olive oil and sea salt.

Honestly this was heavenly - crispy and salty at the same time. The texture made them addictive and they were really fun to eat - both by themselves or with a little organic ketchup (I never really tasted ketchup before until I bought an organic version and wow, real tomato taste).

This picture is from my second batch this week - this may be a new addiction. At least they are healthy, right? I used Smitten Kitchen's recipe as a guide - only thing I added was a little bit of garlic powder.

I am trying to eat more mindfully and as part of that I have made a goal to try at least one new food/ingredient each month. This month is kale. So far I have tried it as chips (twice in one week!) and tomorrow morning I plan on putting some in my green smoothie instead of my typical spinach. I am a little bit scared.

Not sure what I will try next - any ideas?

happy heart day

Happy Valentine's Day my friends. Here are some virtual calorie and sugar free chocolates for you - with a little salt and nuts mixed in just for fun.

I made these caramel, chocolate, pretzel and pecan candies for my Pops and I have to admit many, many of them have been consumed (inhaled) by myself. I just can't be trusted around sweets. They are quite easy to make - all you need is a packages of chocolate covered caramel candies, mini pretzels and pecan halves. Line up the pretzel on a foil lined cookie sheet and place the candies on top. Bake in a 250 degree oven for just 4 minutes. Press the pecan halves on top and voila! Yummy candies in less than ten minutes. 

Hope you all had a lovely day!

warm bread for a cold and busy weekend

What is a girl to do on a cold Saturday morning when she has extra ripe banana's sitting on the counter and there is a waffle shortage going on? Make banana bread of course. I pulled out Momma's old fashioned recipe - it isn't at all healthy, but extra yummy. It is one of those tastes you always remember and other renditions just don't hit quite the spot even though they are just as good and surely more healthy.

I had enough ingredients for three batches and it made eight nice sized mini loaves. Enough for Pops and I to enjoy and even have a few loaves to share and a couple to freeze. Mmmm.

After the banana bread making I spent a few hours at work. Yes, I just said I spent time at work on Saturday. Crazy. I am not used to being this busy (a big implementation happening over the next two months), but I am and on top of it all I have jury duty this coming week. Not perfect timing for work, but I am actually looking forward to the change of pace and a little time to read my book. Is that wrong? Saturday also included some shopping and a few hours spent with my Pop's. He even grilled for me in the below freezing chill. 

Today I have been crafting up a Christmas gift storm. By the time I shut off the sewing machine for the evening, it was too dark to take pics. None are finished yet, but I am making progress - yay! I will share pictures as I complete them.

I also started crocheting together my stars. I thought ten would be enough for my mantel, but I guess I attached them too close together and need to make four more. If I succeed at completing a couple tonight, maybe I will have garland to decorate my mantel with by Wednesday.

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Have you been Christmas crafting too?

pb granola bars

I have noticed that many of the gals out in blogland have been making their own granola bars lately. I have had success in the past making my own granola, so I thought I might try my hand at granola bars this week.

I have many, many recipes bookmarked, so I gave them all a once over to determine which recipe to start with. I settled on a Peanut Butter and Honey Granola Bar recipe from Active Life Cooking. Mostly because I love peanut butter and had most of the ingredients in my pantry.

They were super simple to make and while hard to photograph turned out pretty darn yummy.  If you take a look at the recipe it calls for your favorite “chaser” and “additives.” I chose flax seed as my chaser, sunflower seeds, almonds and dried cranberries as my additives and also included some rice protein powder (I try to stay away from all soy products and vegan rice protein powder was suggested by my niece as a good alternative – it is great in smoothies too).

The only one thing I may change next time is to toast the oatmeal a bit more before mixing all the ingredients together so that my granola bars might be a bit crunchier.

I think I will keep trying granola bar recipes so I can compare and determine which is my favorite. Anyone have any good recipes to share?

my first green monster

Over the past few months, I have really become reenergized when it comes to health and fitness. I have been revamping my diet, adding in more exercise and general daily activity. I have to say that I am really feeling better.

I think I say that every time I get into the groove health and fitness wise, but something happens and I fall of the wagon. I really don’t want to fall of the wagon this time, so I am focusing on taking things step by step. No crazy dieting or restrictions - just the intention of eating a balanced diet that keeps my metabolism fueled, exercising to keep energized and taking every opportunity to move forward in my life.

One thing that keeps me on track, helps me learn new things and inspires me every single day is reading health and fitness blogs. Just like crafty blogs, health and fitness blogs are inspirational and insightful – both add to my to do list and make me feel part of a bigger, like-minded group.

Here are a few blogs I find interesting. You may or may not - I find that a lot of finding blogs you like is in the tone of voice, the picture taking or even the design of the blog. A lot is very subjective, but for some reason, the blogs below draw me in – probably mostly because of their journeys.

For a long while now, these blogs have been daily reads:

Roni’s Weigh
Green Lite Bites
Kath Eats Real Food  

More recently, I have found these:

Eat Live Run
Oh She Glows
Catapult Fitness

I think most of these came from guest posts on Kath Eats Real Food or from links on other blogs.

One of the things the new blogs have introduced me to is a smoothie called the Green Monster.  A green monster is a smoothie with fruit and some sort of green, like spinach. Honestly I was a bit nervous to try one, but after reading how amazing people thought they tasted, how great they made them feel, not to mention how glowy it made their skin, I had to.

I picked up the ingredients for a basic green monster at the grocery on Friday – spinach, unsweetened vanilla almond milk and berries (I already had a nice stash of bananas in my freezer). Many people add other things like flax or protein powder, but this was my first attempt, so I decided to keep it very simple. Out came the blender on Sunday morning and in went the ingredients. My green monster didn’t turn out as green as I have seen, probably because I used a few berries and a whole banana, and it wasn’t quite as smooth as I expected (blame my blender), but it was SOOOO yummy (much, much yummier than it looks).

I made another for breakfast this morning and am planning the ingredients for my next variation! I dare you to try one  : )

Next up on my health and fitness journey is this. More on that later – I plan to start on next Monday.

mmmm oatmeal brownies

I love oatmeal cookies and I love brownies, so what could be better than oatmeal brownies?

Last weekend I tried out a new recipe for oatmeal brownies. I am not sure how I came across the recipe, but I am sure glad I did. It is a total cheater recipe since you get to start with a Betty Crocker brownie mix. Simple is good.

I made them as a special treat for my Pops. He has the incredible ability to enjoy just a hint of dessert every day and not ever go overboard and eat every piece of dessert in sight. I am not quite that good, so I took some to kickball on Sunday and some to work on Monday. I think I may have eaten two total and for me, that is a great accomplishment.

I am definitely saving this recipe to make another day.

crafting identity crisis

For a while now, well pretty much the entire past year, I feel like I have been having a crafting identity crisis. There are so many things I want to do (you can tell from my ever growing Crafty To Do List), feel like I can do, start to do, but totally lack the motivation for.

Here is an example: For weeks I have been turning the pages of Seams To Me and looking at the pin cushion project. And yesterday, when I finally got myself into the basement sewing, it was just a total mess. I did fine picking fabrics and cutting them out. I really liked the mixture of green and blue scraps I chose and was actually excited to get sewing. The sewing, it was icky. I think it was a combination of my rushing/excitement/anxiousness and some issues with the pattern (after sewing the 8 pieces together and making the tube, the outside was an entire piece too wide and I watched my seam allowances, something just wasn't right) that made this project destined to be part of the trash pile.

My Sunday afternoon sewing left me wondering if I have been kidding myself about this sewing stuff. Maybe I am not as capable as I thought. Maybe my lack of motivation just has me feeling blah. Maybe I was forcing myself to create something because I feel it has been weeks since I had something good to share with all of you.

So I turned out the basement lights, went upstairs and planted myself on the sofa with a soda and a lifetime movie on the tv. I know, pretty sad. After a while I decided a little pampering was in order and painted my nails bright Little Red Wagon red (actually, it was needed, the pinning and stuffing I did while sewing totally tore up my nails). I guess that was as creative as I was meant to be yesterday because the only other fulfillment I got was seeing a piled high basket of nicely folded laundry ready to be put away. I am not sure what that says about me right now.

I promise that I am not giving up! But, I am going to honor this struggle and give myslef the freedom to not feel like I have to force myself to create. I have to remember that create doesn't have to be defined as sewing - last week I did create a logo, knit 3/4 of a fuzzy red scarf, cook a big pot of soup and loads of twice-baked potatoes (I was trying to recreate 2 of Mom’s signature dishes that there isn’t a recipe for), and motivated my Pops to start exercising again. That has to count for  something, right?

recipe card - holiday giveaway!

Wanting to spread a little holiday cheer, I came up with a little recipe card design.

Post a comment about your favorite frugal yet fabulous holiday recipe by Tuesday, December 16th at 12 p.m. CST and I will draw four names to receive printed sets of your very own. Please be sure to include the name you would like the cards personalized with (it doesn’t have to be your own) and provide a way for me to get in touch with you.

some weekend moments

Yesterday I got up early and went to church. Nothing unusual. It was a cold, quiet morning. I drove slowly so the car could warm up. As I drove I passed a little boy and his mom walking to church. Once I parked and was on my way inside, they were only a few steps behind me. I could overhear them talking. As we got closer to the Advent wreath she asked about the candles he was so proud to exclaim that two candles were lit and next week it would be the pink one. It was so nice to overhear their little exchange.

Once inside and settled in, a family I see often but do not know sat at the other end of my row. They have the cutest little girl. She has shiny red hair and is always dressed so pretty. She was a bit more antsy and chatty than usual today. It was really distracting the women who sat between us. I have to admit, I was struggling with my patience too. Then she caught my eye, held out her hand that was holding her tiny snow white princess. She looked straight into my eyes and smiled so big as if to say you can play with her if you want. It made my heart swell and me smile widely right back at her. Her little smile brightened my day. Just thinking of it makes my heart smile again.

A little later in when the middle school kids came back from their study time, I glimpsed a different boy with his mom. He was old enough to be wary of public affection with his mom, but not today. He was excited to show here his papers and he put his arm around his mom's shoulder and kept it there for a while. The mom looked so happy in that moment.

Sometimes I get so caught up in my troubles that I don't notice some of the really small but special moments in the day. I am not sure what was different about today, but I was more aware and these three moments really stuck out. They were just the everyday type of inspiration I needed to have a peaceful, restful Sunday.

From there, I went grocery shopping. I love Sunday morning grocery shopping, the store is quiet so I can take my time. I picked up the items on my list and saved $4 with the coupons I had. Too bad I didn’t shop at the store that has double coupons everyday.  Once I got home I cleaned the kitchen, made banana bread and lentil soup. This time, I added a can of diced tomatoes with garlic and basil to the soup. It made the soup extra yummy. Good thing because it will feed me most of the week. I have to admit, I didn’t get much crafting or decorating done this weekend, but I do feel rested.

Do any everyday moments stick out for you from this weekend? I hope I keep noticing these little moments, they are helping to renew my spirit.