A Simple Abundance

Living a minimalist life to the fullest!

Yummy Summer Salad

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I love to try new recipes – especially in the summer.  This one makes my mouth water just thinking about it.  I call it the “Yummy Summer Salad” because I don’t know the name.

A couple of months ago, we went to visit some friends in Alabama and they made it for us.  Megan told me that she picked it up in a grocery store salad bar one time and asked them the recipe.  I’m sure it has been tweaked a bit over the years.

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Recipe

Salad

  • 2-3 cans of chickpeas drained and rinsed
  • 1 bag of thawed organic edamame
  • 1 small bag of crasins
  • 3-4 chopped carrots
  • 1 tub of feta

Dressing

  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Mix all Salad ingredients together.  Whisk the dressing together and pour over salad.  Mix everything together well.

This salad is good right away but gets better as the flavors meld.  I say make it the day before you eat it.

Thank you to Megan Brantley for introducing me to it!

Homemade Vanilla Extract

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I’m so excited to share this post! I don’t think I have ever been more thrilled about the outcome of a gift that I created.  I proudly present — Homemade Vanilla Extract!

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In July I started dreaming of Christmas 2016 and so I took to Pinterest. I found a post about extracts and how easy it is to make them.  I locked in on vanilla extract and an idea was born. I was going to make it for Christmas presents.

The process is super easy. All you need are good quality vanilla beans and cheap vodka or bourbon. We purchased bourbon vanilla beans for this recipe. Cut the beans lengthwise to expose the seeds and immerse in the vodka.  Let it steep for at least a month. I couldn’t wait, so I started my batch in August which produced a dark and beautiful vanilla.

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Bourbon Vanilla Beans

 

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Cut them in half lengthwise and then cut them to fit the size of the bottle.

 

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Before the vodka.

 

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Five minutes after filling with vodka, the beans are already starting to steep.

 

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This bottle has been steeping for one week.

My next step was to design labels. Since the Hubs is a graphic designer — who incidentally designed my logo and blog — I asked him to help. He came up with the idea of putting my logo on the labels and giving it a Christmas vibe. He then designed the back label with directions and ingredients. When they arrived in the mail, I fell in love with them! I couldn’t believe how beautiful they turned out!

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If you don’t have a graphic designer available, you can easily design and print your labels at Evermine. I love their stuff and will likely use them for my Christmas Potpourri tags next year.

The final result looks professional and beautiful. I have to thank the Hubs for his great work and for helping me find the little bottles.

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From our house to yours, Merry Christmas! We wish you a prosperous and happy 2017!

Christmas Potpourri

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A couple of years ago I was browsing Pinterest and ran across a whole board of homemade potpourri. It looked beautiful and I was sure all of the recipes were amazing. Since it was close to Christmas, I looked for a holiday blend to use while family was gathered at our house.  I found this recipe from Dandee and loved her idea of giving it out as Christmas gifts to neighbors. I love to bake at Christmas time, however some of our neighbors and family are diabetic and I really shouldn’t be tempting them with sugar. This is a great alternative and it smells amazing.

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The first year I gave it out I had a lot of puzzled faces. People weren’t sure what to do with it despite the directions written on the back of the tags. The contents of the bag go into a saucepan on the stovetop in water and simmer. You can actually use it for about a week if you keep refilling it with water. My parents  left their bag in the kitchen and mentioned a couple of times that it didn’t smell. #facepalm

The next Christmas people started to catch on, and by the third everyone was asking for it. “You are making the smelly-good stuff this year, right?” They were hooked — and so was I.

I’ve lost track of how many years I have been making my potpourri. I have changed the recipe a little over the years. All of the ingredients can get quite expensive and so I cut down on a few things to make it more affordable.  Here is my recipe:

  • 1/3 cup dried cloves
  • 1/4 cup allspice
  • 2-3 sticks of cinnamon
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 slice of dried orange
  • 1 slice of dried lemon
  • 3 slices of dried apples

I arrange everything in a cellophane bag in the order above and tie it off with a nice Christmas bow.  I also write the directions on how to use it on a tag attached to the bow.

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I start the process a couple of weeks before gift giving starts to provide enough time to dry the fruit.  I have a 5-tray dehydrator that I use for drying.  I start with the citrus and let them dry for about 24-48 hours. You have to keep a close eye on the lemon or the pulp will turn black.  It still smells good, but it doesn’t look very pretty. I give the apples about 72 hours to dry and haven’t ever had a problem with them burning.

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My husband is the online order king so I ask him for the spices I need and it arrives in the mail a couple of days later.  He gets most of our spices from Spicy World.  They come in bulk which saves a lot of money. I currently have two HUGE bags of cinnamon sticks and bay leaves.  I’ll never use all of those bay leaves in my entire life.  If you end up making this, I’ll be happy to give you some!

I take one night and put everything together at the dining room table. I always think it would be much more fun with a friend drinking wine and chatting away. Maybe I’ll try that next year.

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Stay tuned for my next post in a few days about my second homemade gift this year. I can’t wait to share it with you and those that receive it!

 

 

Cookie Exchange

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We are having a cookie exchange and judging as one part of our month-long Christmas extravaganza at work.  I don’t recall ever doing one at the office before and I’m planning on blowing the competition away! Christmas is the best time to make iced sugar cookies and I have chosen a simple star/snowflake design.

We will be judged on appearance and taste so I decided to go with the traditional Wilton sugar cookie recipe.  You can’t go wrong with it and the touch of almond extract coupled with real butter makes them delectable.  I used the small batch recipe for these cookies and it yielded 24 1/4 inch cookies.  If you would like to make a lot of cookies, you can use their large batch recipe.

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I was first inspired to decorate sugar cookies by my neighbor, Jennifer Strittmatter.  She gave us some for Christmas one year and they were beautiful and tasty.  Over the next year, I perfected my technique through all of the holidays and ended up decorating about 5 dozen cookies that Christmas.

There is something calming about decorating and creating.  It calms the nerves and allows me to spend time in right-brain activities.  I spend so much time with my left brain for work, I need the reprieve.  In contrast to some of the work I do, decorating cookies allows me to actually finish something and be proud of my end product.

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The whole process of making and decorating can take me several days.  My Easter batch took me three days to make.  I bake the cookies on the first day, do the base color on the 2nd and then finish off with the embellishments on the 3rd.  I took 2 days for this batch and ended up baking and doing the base coat icing all in the same day.

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Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for my next post about the Christmas goodies I’m giving out this year…

If this post could save a life…

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October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Its also the month my mom was born – and passed away from breast cancer. I’ve been pondering a post on my blog all month and only have a few days left, so here it is.

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Mom was diagnosed with Stage III Metastatic Breast Cancer in August of 2012 and passed away October of 2014. She found a lump about 6 months before she went to the doctor and I believe that she would be here today if she had sought help earlier. There is nothing I can do to change history, but I hope her story can help someone else.

Early detection of breast cancer is key.  

I know you have heard that statement a thousand times – and it’s true. Early detection can save your life. The American Cancer Society has published research on the survival rates of early detection and they are much higher and require less overall treatment than those who are diagnosed with late stage (III & IV).

Ladies, its important to start getting yearly mammograms at 40.  Most insurance plans will pay 100% of your screening.  If you don’t have insurance, there are programs out there who will help you get one for free.  You should also perform the super easy monthly self-exam,  and have your PCP and GYN perform them during yearly appointments.

I had a scare in the fall of 2011. I found a lump on my left breast and was scared to death to go to the doctor and find out if I had breast cancer. A million thoughts ran through my head about what would happen if I had it. The prevailing thought was that the adoption agency wouldn’t let us adopt if I had breast cancer. We were working with a local agency and had just completed the 2nd step of their program.

My husband urged me to go to my doctor and she was concerned enough to send me to get an ultrasound. It turned out that I had a clogged duct that went away after a month. I found out later that many women who find lumps don’t have breast cancer.

My post today is in honor of my beautiful mother. If she were here, she would stand beside me and echo my words. Get tested. Get tested yearly and don’t be afraid to go to the doctor if you find something. If found early, your chances of survival are greatly increased.

Interested in helping cancer research?  Donate to the American Cancer Society.

My Latest Obsession: Bullet Journaling

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If you are like me, there is never enough time to get everything accomplished that you want to. I often think that I have 24 hours in a day and so do some of the most successful people in the world. We are all equal from that perspective, but we differ in how we spend our time.

I love to make lists and check them off. I heard on a TED Talk once that checking off items on a list actually gives you a momentary endorphin rush. I guess I’m addicted to that feeling because I live for checking those items off. To that end, I was searching for a new way to keep my schedule and lists in a handy system. I’m tired of using my smart phone for everything so I decided to try an analog system.

To my surprise, Pinterest led me right to the greatest thing since sliced bread IMHO — The Bullet Journal. You can organize it to make sense for your life. If you crave creativity like I do, you can embellish to your heart’s content.  Or, you can be as straightforward as you like. Its completely up to you. Search for it on Pinterest or Instagram for inspiration.

I discovered this gem only 72 hours ago and I’m already knee deep in it. My husband and I ran over to the craft store yesterday where he helped me pick out markers and pens that wouldn’t bleed and do what I wanted them to do. I already had a brand new journal to keep track of things at work so I was set.

I’ve been pouring over pictures and ideas on Pinterest, and most of what I’ve done so far is borrowed from the layouts of others. I’ll probably do that for a while until I find what works best for me and then branch out on my own. I find that creating my pages is incredibly calming and helps me to shut out all of the other things going on in my mind that stress me out.

Here are a couple of pictures of the calendar I am working on.

Month at a Glance

Month at a Glance

 

A week in the life at work...

A week in the life at work…

I challenged myself to read two books each month over the summer. I used to read a lot but not so much in the last several years. I’m staying away from leadership and self-help books mostly and just reading novels (especially action thrillers!). I decided that I would develop a page for my journal to help keep track of books that I read for the rest of 2016.

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My little book case

I’m already thinking of other things I can keep track of. The list goes on and on. Here are just a few ideas:

  • Movies I want to see
  • Restaurants I want to try
  • Places I want to visit — or a map of places I have visited recently
  • House improvements I want to make
  • Pictures for a very important album
  • Recipes
  • Daily gratitudes
  • Quotes/Bible verses
  • Weight training reps and graphs
  • Blogging ideas

I’m fully aware that I can keep track of all of these in an app that does all of the work for me, and I have used many of them — I’m just ready for a different perspective and to pry my smart phone from my hands.

If you have already discovered bullet journaling, please post a picture of one of your layouts below. I’d love to see what you have done!

Summer Means Salsa!

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Ahh summer. I love this time of year because the garden is overflowing with scrumptious vegetables to sink my teeth into. We always enjoy an over-abundance of tomatoes from July through September thanks to our CSA share from Shepherd’s Valley Farm.

When I was in high school, one of my best friends was from a large Mexican family.  I loved going over to their house and learning how to cook from her mom and grandma.  I have forgotten much of it, but their “granny’s” salsa recipe has always stuck with me.  It was fresh and didn’t require cooking because it was gone before they had a chance to can it. The minute she poured it into the bowl, the boys descended like a pack of  wild dogs. We had to fight for our portion.

The last couple of weeks Shepherd’s Valley has provided nearly everything needed to make granny’s homemade salsa including jalapeño peppers, onions, garlic and tomatoes. All I have to add is salt, lime juice and cilantro.

Cut the tomatoes and onion into quarters. No need for a fine chop. The food processor does all of the work for you.

My food processor does most of the work for me. I just do a rough chop on all of it, throw it in the bowl, and watch it whirl. My mouth is already watering.

The whole process takes less than 10 minutes – just a little longer than it would take you to open a jar of the over-processed stuff. Plus, it doesn’t include preservatives or high fructose corn syrup. You can’t beat that.

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Recipe

  • 4-5 large tomatoes
  • 1 medium onion
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 1 jalapeño pepper, seeded (or leave them in if you like hot salsa)
  • 1/4 cup cilantro
  • juice of one lime
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 teaspoon sugar (optional – I don’t add sugar but some prefer it)

As shown above, rough chop everything and put it into the bowl of the food processor with the chopper blade. Chop on low for about 45 seconds or until it reaches your desired consistency. Take a quick taste and determine if you would like more salt. If it is too hot, use the teaspoon of sugar and throw in an extra tomato.

Serve room temperature or chilled depending on your preference. All of the portions above are estimates. I suggest experimenting and finding the combination that you and your family like the best!

 

Thank You

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Thank you for spending a week with me and learning part of our journey. We have received an outpouring of love and well wishes through this entire week and I’m truly humbled. I didn’t think this would gain so much traction. I’ve realized that we stayed silent way too long. My own family didn’t even know the entire story because I didn’t talk about it.

My intention for writing and posting about our journey wasn’t to make you feel sorry for us or bring you down. It was definitely not meant to make anyone feel guilty for not knowing. It was merely to bring awareness to you that 1 in 8 of us are struggling, which means you know someone who has his or her own unique story to share.

I encourage you to listen, pray and #startasking about their journey. Don’t give advice, or tell them how to fix their problem. Just be their friend or family member and love them no matter what.

To those of you reading this who are experiencing infertility or miscarriage: Jason and I understand and would love to listen. #NIAW #startasking

Weston

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Meet my nephew Weston. I love this little man. He has the same red hair and brown eyes and, unfortunately for his parents, acts a lot like I did at his age. He often gets mistaken for my kid when we are together in public.

Right before my brother and sister-in-law announced they were pregnant, we started the process for our first round of AI. I was taking hormones to prepare on the heels of a couple of painful procedures. We just knew this procedure was going to work. We found out that we were going to be an aunt and uncle in November, and our AI was in December.

I was so excited that we might have cousins the same age. My brother and I had one first cousin, but he was 10-15 years older than us. This was going to be epic! Unfortunately, that was not going to be the case for us. The AI did not take on the first round, nor did it take for the next few rounds.  One took and ended in miscarriage.

Sometime in that process, Weston graced our world. I was thrilled, and a lot sad. I wanted to be holding my own baby as well. We were supposed to celebrate together.

I kept my hope alive as we continued on our process and considered the next step of our journey. I didn’t tell my brother and sister-in-law about this until this past Christmas. They never knew the timing of our AI. I didn’t want to steal their joy — I don’t want to steal anyone’s joy.

Its hard for me to admit this, but each announcement and baby/kid pictures that I see online steals a small part of my joy.   It can set me back hours, days or even months.  I have to be creative in finding my joy again, but I always do and it is often in those little familiar brown eyes of our ornery, spunky little Weston. #NIAW #startasking

Wonderful Support

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We have such wonderfully supportive friends and family. There is a core group who always ask us how we are doing and are genuinely curious about our infertility journey. They don’t ask out of obligation or to just appear interested. It’s probably tiring to ask the same questions for 8 years, but they do and we love them.

We also have a circle of friends, colleagues and family who we don’t see often and even though they aren’t able to ride the roller coaster with us for a myriad of reasons, we appreciate their love and support just as much.

Every kind and supportive thought expressed to us – even if it is only 1 time makes our hearts sing.  It only takes one supportive gesture after a miscarriage, failed treatment/adoption, etc for an infertile couple to keep moving forward.

God has woven a growing tapestry of people to support us that is beyond belief.  If you are reading this, thank you for supporting us!

Here are 11 Ways to Support Your Infertile Friends During World Infertility Awareness Month (and Always):  http://huff.to/1TbQvJy #NIAW #startasking