What is the best way to spend the first day of summer vacation?

Well…..

1) I started reading a book that has been on my “To Read List” for about 2 years.

I have friends that have heard this guy, Mark Cahill, speak and they said he is soooo interesting. Some of the conversations he strikes up with strangers will just amaze you! And he does it in such a non-confronting way. This book answers a ton of very important questions that every person has, but most importantly he wants us all to see the evidence about where we will spend eternity. And boy is there EVIDENCE!

In just the first couple chapters Mark Cahill talks about evidence of design, how we know we did not evolve from nothing, and how you know which religion is the “right” one.

I highly, HIGHLY recommend this book!

2) After some light intense reading I got down to business and worked on my Calendars.

Yup, plural. I have to have 2 Calendars. I could probably use a 3rd one!

1 for our Schedule

I use this calendar so we all know what is going on each week. I also put down when and what I am going to clean in our house that week.

1 for our Meals

Each month I plan one meal for each day. I know that most of the time we will have leftovers that we can eat for another day’s lunch. I also usually try to have extra things in the house to makes sandwiches or quick meals. But usually by planning out one meal per day is good enough. I know some people plan out breakfast, lunch and dinner but that would just be way too time consuming for me.

I also plan out what days I will go grocery shopping and make sure that works out with our Schedule.

I also have themes for days of the week. Meatless Mondays. Grill Out Tuesdays, in the fall/winter this changes to Crock Pot Tuesdays. Wednesdays I work at my mom’s store downtown. My mom loves to babysit the kids every week while I work and I am all for free babysitting and to get out of the house one day a week! So on Wednesday nights I do something quick and easy. Thursdays I change each month. June is Italian Thursday. July will be Seafood Thursday, August Mexican Thursday….you get the idea.

Has anyone seen the TLC show Extreme Couponing?

I love that show, but I have yet to get into the whole couponing thing. I don’t really get how they do it…..and don’t the coupons expire? How do the women have binders full of them? Where do they get them all? Online ones you have to print off…waste of paper. Again…I am so confused by this!

So like I said I don’t know anything about this but…. I feel like all the coupons are for all that processed, boxed, and frozen food stuff. It’s not that my family and I don’t eat that, we do….. but I just really like cooking with fresh fruits, veggies and protein.

If anyone would like to enlighten me on how to do that with couponing that would be GREAT! I really would love to get my grocery bill down to $5 or in some cases have the grocery store OWE ME!

But anyways, I usually spend about $60 to $80 per week at the grocery store for our ENTIRE weeks meals (that includes my hubby’s lunches that he takes to work). And like I said before I try and buy mostly fresh so I stick to the OUTSIDE EDGES of the grocery store and try not to go down the middle aisles where all the processed stuff is.

Now back to my day……

We ended it with ……

3) Baking in the Kitchen!

I went over to my parent’s house and my sister and her friend helped me with some baking.

Ok first off this is soooo bad for you….but I don’t care!

And there are A TON of these recipes floating around the internet:

Buckeyes, Peanut Butter Balls, Peanut Butter Bon Bons, PB Rice Krispie Balls……

but I could NOT find one single recipe that compared to my Grandma’s (love you Grandma J). All my cousins and I have very fond memories of going over to Grandma’s house and helping her roll these into balls, waiting and waiting for them to cool, and then dipping them into chocolate….and then waiting for them to cool AGAIN!

Baking these is a true test to one’s patience level!

So here they are!

Grandma’s Peanut Butter Bon Bons

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (I couldn’t find a recipe on the internet that had this ingredient, this is what makes them taste great!)

4 cups powdered sugar

2 cups peanut putter (I actually did about 1/4 cup more)

2 sticks unsalted butter

3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 bar edible paraffin wax

Directions

Combine the first four ingredients with an electric mixer

Chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Once chilled, roll the mixture into small 1-inch balls. I use the Pampered Chef Small Scoop but my mom didn’t have one so we used the medium scoop. Made them bigger but who cares, right?

Place each bon bon on waxed paper covered baking sheets.

When this task is complete, place them back into the refrigerator while you make the chocolate.

You need paraffin wax to help the chocolate stay hard and not melt the minute you take them out of the fridge to devour them. I used a little less than half of one of these bars. Each box comes with 4 bars.

Melt the chocolate chips and paraffin wax in a double boiler and stir the mixture until smooth.

My chocolate chips were being weird so I kept having to add teaspoons of water until it was a more creamy consistency.

Then turn the oven on low to keep the chocolate warm while you dip the bon bons.

Dip each ball into the chocolate mixture using a toothpick, leaving the top of the candy uncovered.

After dipping all of the bon bons, smooth over the toothpick marks with your finger.

Chill the trays again in the refrigerator.

But quick, eat one while they are still warm and gooey!

YUM! Just like a Reese’s Egg….just the right amount of Peanut Butter to Chocolate Ratio!

Once completely hard, transfer the bon bons to air-tight containers and store them in the refrigerator or freezer.

ENJOY!

And I dare you to eat just ONE!