I'm Back!!!

Well, I didn't officially "go" anywhere but I've just not posted anything in a while. I actually started a couple of posts but for whatever reason never put them up. Now they seem like old news! So, onto more current things I suppose.

I went a little crazy in the kitchen today. My mother in law has passed on stacks of Bon Appetit, Cooking Light and Southern Living to me over the past few weeks and in my free time I've been perusing them and having visions of cooking grandeur. Then Aimee K. posted this blog post on Facebook and it fueled my kitchen fire even more. I LOVE all the ideas for healthy snacks/meals to have on hand. We already do a few of them but today I prepared plates of fresh veggies, cut up lots of fruit and made some homemade trail mix to have ready to grab when someone, namely ME, comes into the kitchen looking for something to munch on. I put the veggies on a pretty plate and the fruit in my favorite pink bowls. I always enjoy my food more when it's presented in an attractive way. It actually took me back to being at my grandmother's house when I was a little girl. She always had, in her fridge, carrot sticks and celery sticks in darling little jelly jars filled with water to keep them crisp. One time my sister who HATES celery accidentally drank the glass of celery water!! Needless to say, it did not help the celery cause for her!

I also cooked up 3lb. of ground beef to freeze for later, put tomorrow's dinner in the crockpot and tried quinoa in my rice steamer for tonight's dinner (it worked beautifully, by the way!). Oh, yeah, and all the activity in the kitchen today was sparked because I wanted to make these:

Hubs and both kiddos LOVE "bars" and I spend loads of money at the grocery store on Odwalla, Luna and Clif bars. I only buy them when they are on sale but "on sale" is still $1 a piece. In my brilliance, I thought I'd make these today and see if they will be an acceptable substitute. But guess what? My brilliance went out the window when I forgot one of the ingredients at the store. They will have to wait until later in the week. But I do have them to thank for the productivity today! :) And now, I feel certain my kitchen will go dormant again for another couple of weeks until a fresh wave of motivation comes my way. My philosophy is you gotta ride the wave while it soars and hope the next returns sooner than the last.