6 of My Favorite Trim Healthy Mama Recipes (Lately)

Spring has sprung here in Alberta and I have been spending a lot of time outside in the garden. But I wanted to take time to share 6 of my favorite Trim Healthy Mama recipes from the last couple of months.

I found the recipe for this Bullet Proof Pumpkin Spiced Latte on Pinterest at this link.  This is so yummy. I have always been addicted to Pumpkin Spiced Lattes and didn't think there would be an alternative that I could drink on THM, but this tastes just like any latte I've had in the past.

I found a recipe similar to my Cheesy Ham & Egg pockets on Pinterest, but they rolled theirs up and I like just folding it in half.

I start by frying 1 Tbsp chopped onion in 2 tsp butter. Then I add 1 or 2 eggs, depending on how hungry I am. I scramble the eggs with salt & pepper until cooked and place the egg on a piece of ham and top with 2 slices of cheese. Like in the following picture;

Then I put a little more butter in the pan and fry the ham on one side for 30 sec - 1 min., then flip and fry on the other side.

Seriously? Tuna melts on THM are delicious!  I used the bread in a mug recipe from the book and cooked it in 2 equal portions on my waffle maker for the base.  Then I mixed 1 can chunk tuna packed in water with 3 Tbsp reduced fat mayo, 1 chopped green onion, 3 chopped bread & butter pickles and salt and pepper.  I divided this mixture evenly on the bread and topped with thinly sliced tomato and cheese.  Then bake at 400 for 15 mins.  So, so good!

This recipe blew me away. Again, I found it on Pinterest and here is the link.  I grew up near Nanaimo and we ate a lot of homemade Nanaimo Bars.  These don't taste exactly like the original, BUT they are an awesome second.  The only thing I did different from the recipe was use Skinny Chocolate for the top chocolate layer. You can find that recipe in the book or online.

This cabbage is so good on it's own or as a side dish. I love it!  The recipe is on All Recipes here.

This is just in time for summer. It was very hot here the other day, so I made up a batch of this slushy.  I didn't use any banana to keep it a fuel pull on THM. Sprite is my favorite slurpy flavour, so this really hit the spot for me.  I don't like to consume aspartame very much, so I won't have it all the time, but I definately look forward to having it again.  I found this recipe on Pinterest at this link.

So there you have it. My 6 favorite THM recipes from the last couple of months.

This post is linked up to; Thrifty Thursays Hope in Every Season

Gardening in Alberta

This is our second year living on this acreage.  There was not a garden spot when we moved in and we didn't own a rotor-tiller until this past fall.  But that all changed this weekend. My husband braved the freezing temperatures and blowing winds to till up a garden spot. I asked him to pick the location so that it wouldn't be in his way and he picked a wonderful spot.  He tilled it up yesterday, then today him and Jacob worked for hours in their snowsuits spreading donkey manure on the whole garden. Then Larry tilled it again.  Just at the moment they were done and came in the house, it started snowing! 

This is Jacob and Larry in the morning spreading manure on the garden.

This is soon after the snow started. We got much more than this.

I am so happy and can't wait to get out there.

Homeschool Convention and New Curriculum

I was able to attend the Alberta Homeschool Convention in Red Deer, Alberta a few weeks ago.  Rebekah was able to attend as a teen homeschooler as well. Unfortunately, the topics of the sessions were not really anything we were interested in. But, there were a few that we enjoyed. Rebekah joined in on a few of the youth sessions and I sat in on about 4 sessions over the weekend. I took away 2 huge reminders.

1.  Accept the differences in your spouse.  This was important for me to hear, because Larry and I are EXTREMELY different. I think we are from different planets sometimes.  We just see things from totally different perspectives. BUT, this is not a bad thing. It is a good thing.  She reminded us when we are facing a situation when we really think things should go OUR way, to ask ourselves if this is going to matter in eternity, or next month for that matter.

2.  Our reactions show where Jesus is in our lives.  I tend to be quick to react to my feelings.  But, that doesn't show the love of Jesus to my family. 

Anyway, when we weren't in session, we were SHOPPING!  Actually, it got a little boring, but the boys were in the kids program, so we were kind of held captive by their schedule.  I did find some wonderful deals though and here they are.

I bought a few read alouds.  I was wanting to talk about the First and Second World Wars with the kids and a friend told me about the "My Story" series.  I found some at the convention. They are living history books and I hope we can learn a lot about the wars from them.   I also bought a living Spanish history book and a couple others.  Rebekah has been reading the Elsie series and I found one of them at the used book sale.

 

I found this complete Old World History and Geography by A Beka for $30.  It came totally unused with the textbook, teachers manual and quiz and activity books.  History and geography are Rebekah's favorite subjects and she dove into this right away.

I bought a lot of Rod and Staff Curriculum.  We have been using the grade 3 and 5 English and I really like it.  I like that it uses the bible for sentence examples and it is conservative.  I didn't get anymore English, because I think that is enough. But, I bought grades 4- 8 of spelling.  Which looks so awesome. It teaches root Latin, Greek and french words and it teaches some English.  I also bought grade 2 Socials and grade 4 health for Ben and Jacob.  I bought grade 6 history about Latin America. I only bought that year because I have read that they teach a lot of Mennonite history, which we are not particularly interested in.

I  was able to find Teaching Textbooks Pre - Algebra version 2.0  for Rebekah at the used book store and a home economics workbook on top of all that. So, we are pretty much set for the next 2 years at least and I have to keep reminding myself of that. It's so easy to buy curriculum you don't need.  I'd like to really get rid of everything we don't use, so that we can have just the bare essentials, clutter free and fitting in the cabinet we use for our homeschool books. Some day, maybe:)