I think I mentioned...

that I've been obsessed by mason jars lately?

Oh my gosh!

I know! It's been so long! I have so many excuses. But, as you know, excuses are not reasons. I do have reasons too! But most of them would sound like excuses. I do hope to make amends and post some real content soon. My latest obsessions? Mason jars and Jillian Michaels Thirty Day Shred.

Enjoying Early Autumn Days

Fall is my absolute favorite! I'm really enjoying the recent summer to autumn transition weather.

Pumpkin Pie Protein Smoothie

I came up w a delicious flavor of protein shake for the fall. This seriously tastes like pumpkin pie.

The recipe makes 8 servings, perfect for freezing and eating through the week.

I used dehydrated pumpkin puree, but canned would work too. Make sure it's 100% pumpkin, not pie filling.

4 cups pumpkin
8 scoops protein powder
1 cup Greek yogurt
1 can evaporated milk
3 Tbl cinnamon
2 Tbl ground ginger
1 Tbl ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cloves

If using dried pumpkin, allow it to soak. Blend all ingredients. If you don't have a big enough blender, this can be done in two batches.

I only had room for my yogurt, pumpkin and protein powder, so I added the evaporated milk to the freezer jars to be shaken in later.

This is a very thick smoothie, so water or tea or coffee should be added as desired to thin it out for drinking.

One shake is about 230 calories.

Canning!

I finally got up my courage and used my pressure canner for the first time last week. Now that I've done it, I'm addicted!

It's actually so easy and not to scary if you just follow the instructions, and now I can have so many quick and easy, BUT homemade, meals available. Plus, I like canned green beans so much better than frozen.

I've done green beans from the garden, and this past weekend, Ben and I did homemade chili, chicken breasts, and beef stew. I'm very excited to try more things soon! What are your favorite pressure canned products?

What I've been doing...

Trying to catch up on lots of work in the garden. I've got a pretty bad spotted cucumber beetle infestation this year, so many of the green beans are a bit ragged with bug bites.

I'm trying a little experiment today with dehydrating eggplant bacon. I'm doubtful about it, but I had a ton of eggplant ready all at once, and it seemed like the most promising way to preserve it, so we'll see how it goes

Food Saver!

I finally saved up enough cash in the kitchen envelope to buy a vacuum sealer. So, I recently order my Food Saver, and I've been having so much fun with it. My favorite use for it so far has been vacuum sealing my half gallon jars for storing rice, quinoa, etc in the pantry. The swoosh sound they make when they're opened is so cool!