We get an extra Friday in July . . . yahoo!!

Good thing since I already feel like this year is coming to a close rather quickly. Is anyone else getting nervous about seeing Halloween and Christmas decorations in some stores? I am and this is coming from a person that loves Halloween, fall and decorating for holidays in general.

As Susan Powter use to say, “STOP THE INSANITY!!”

I think we should all remember that summertime is still here and talk about all the things we love while also enjoying warm weather. I love, sleeping outside at night, I love swimming in cool water, I love grilling everything or having all things iced. I feel it perfectly acceptable to indulge in one of my favorite treats: ice cream. I love sandals, maxi dresses and being less encumbered with clothing. I pretty much love summer and I will be very sad to see it go especially since there is much that I still want to do before the nights get shorter. What makes summer special for you?

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I decided that this last week I was going to share with you a few of things that I have made for the family and I have to admit up front; I didn’t take pictures of everything and some of the pictures are horrible mostly because I had a family that was hungry and it was late at night.

 

1. Sunday meal of Slow Cooker Hawaiian Meatballs: I was so tired and the thought of cooking anything more then throwing things into the slow cooker actually made me want to cry. However, the good news is–the kids loved it! They actually ate their dinner without the usual fuss. Blow my mind!! I followed the recipe exactly but I did make a stove-top version of the sauce for more sauce in addition to what was in the slow cooker mostly because I served it straight out of the slow cooker and had doubled the recipe because we had so many people eating with us that I didn’t want anyone digging down just to get sauce for their rice. Also, I am not a red meat eater myself so I made a quick turkey patty and it was equally as good even though it hadn’t marinated in the sauce all afternoon. (No picture) 😦

 

1. Apple Pie Bites: One night after dinner I decided to make something sweet for everyone but it had to be quick because I did not want to keep working in the kitchen. I saw this recipe, tried it and everyone was pretty happy. We did not serve them with ice cream (because I didn’t want to go to the store) but I did add a dollop of whipped cream.  

 

1. I had a friend staying with me for a couple of weeks while her living situation was being sorted out. When she got ready to leave I decided to make her a nice sit down dinner so we had Sundried Tomato, Spinach and Cheese Stuffed Chicken along with Lemon Herb Roasted Potato Nuggets. It actually didn’t take much to pull it together but I looked beautiful and was wonderful to taste as well.  I did make one change and that was that I added a number of basil leaves from my garden to each breast as well.

 

1. Smoothie Bar: Guess what. Our AC went out and actually it wasn’t horrific BUT no one wanted to be in the house cooking under any circumstance. I had everyone coming over for Sunday dinner again but I had just grilled burgers, pizza, ribs, dessert, etc. I really didn’t want to stand in front of anything hot no matter where it was so I decided it would be a make your own smoothie night and guess what . . . everyone went for it. We all had a cool drink that was filling and it allowed us to just sit outside in the breeze and talk for the evening.  (I allowed everyone to see my Pinterest board and find a smoothie that they wanted. The hands down favorites was the Chai Spiced Smoothie. Feel free to follow me on Pinterest so you can stay updated on all of my smoothies that I pin!)

 

1. Last but not least; here are a few other things that I made throughout the month that are a worthy mention.

No-Bake Cream Cheese Pie with Summer Fruit

Blueberry Coffee Cake

Crumb Cake

 

ENJOY THE LAST OF SUMMER!!