Forgive me for posting about our co-op again but I can't help it - I LOVE it! Here is what we picked up Saturday. For $16.50! I just cant get over it...does the fact that I love saving money  and eating health make me a nerd?

1lb strawberries

2 - 6 oz containers of blueberries

10 bananas

7 cucumbers

8 zucchini

8 braeburn apples

6 concord pears

1 bundle of asparagus

1 huge head of cabbage

3 bundles of spinach

a head of dark green lettuce

14 oranges

Yum!
By the time I got around to taking a picture we had given away half the lettuce head, a bundle of spinach, some zucchini and cucumbers and we are still over loaded with food. I'm so grateful we found this Bountiful Baskets! If you think this would help your family, their website is www.bountifulbaskets.org.

Anyone who knows us well knows we looove a good treat now and then -these have become one of our favorites! They are SO quick to make and yummy delicious!

Homemade Oreo Cookies

Cookie Recipe
1 package devil's food cake mix
2 eggs
1/2 - cup oil

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Add oil and eggs to cake mix and blend together. Roll dough into balls I like to use measuring spoons to scoop the mix out of the bowl, then roll it in my hands so that my cookies are a uniform size. A level tablespoonful of dough will give you palm size cookies like the ones in this picture, or about 15 whole oreos a batch. Use a leveled ½ tablespoon for store bought oreo size. Place on greased cookie sheet. Do not flatten the dough balls, this will make your cookies dry. Bake for 7 minutes, open the oven and gently pat the top of each cookie with a fork, not to flatten the cookie just to force a little of the "puff" out of the top. Cook for 1 more minute. Remove from oven and let cool on sheet (until warm). Remove cookies from sheet and place on cooling rack.

For the filling:
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) room-temperature (not melted), butter
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

To make the cream, place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.

To assemble the cookies, I fill a zip-lock bag with filling and cut one corner off and squeeze the filling onto the center of one cookie. (We're not fancy enough to have pastry bags. :) )  Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press, twisting a little to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Mmm!

As a side note, if I feel like the cookies might not all be eaten within a couple of days, I prefer to make the bigger ones, they tend to stay soft longer. If I think they will be eaten all in one night I like to make the small ones as they get a little crumbly after a day or so - I'm not sure why.. maybe you can perfect that! :) These are especially good warmed in the microwave or right out of the oven!

Scooter rides with Paul and Karen.

 

Paul looks scared in this picture, but we literally had to peel him off - he had so much fun! I LOVE MY SCOOTER! But, it wont be much use to us now that we are in Spanish Fork, so its up for sale if anyone is interested!  

Cooking Thanksgiving for the fam in our old apartment.

  

Moving Day! The first few weeks the place was a disaster house. :) but we LOVED it! 

 

A shot of our new kitchen AND dun-dun-dun our rockin refrigerator! Getting the refrigerator I wanted seriously made me giddy.

(I really will put up more pictures of the house eventually.. its just not much to look at right now.. but when we decorate and paint you'll see the whole thing!)

 Exploring Spanish Fork: Everyone needs to try Two Jacks Pizza and Glade's Drive in! Um!

Hooking up our new washer and dryer!

Going with Karsen to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple in preparation for his mission! These two make me SO proud!

Spending the weekend with Dad. This was his first visit to our house! We were able to go to the temple then out for a nice dinner!

What handsome men I've got!

Happy Anniversay! :) Trying our very frozen wedding cake topper!

 

   Feb 3rd, Karsen went into the MCT! He is now in Portland Oregon serving the Lord!

Sarah

              Eyes shine,

              green

              olive

              sunshine

                             Lips part,

                             

                             dimples

                             smile

                             heaven

                                           Laughter,

                                           one

                                           two

                                           three

                                           

                                                         Heart Melts,

                                                                       

                                                                       This is perfection.

:) I feel the need to pause life and say that this nice weather outside is wonderful! Has it not been beautiful? Summer is coming... I can almost taste it... just.... so..far.. out.. there... I know it will come someday and even though when it does I will still be sitting in my office from 8 to 5 then in class til 8 or 9 at least when we finally escape there will still be bea-Utiful glorious sunshine outside! I'm so excited for weekends of picnics, floating the river and going on hikes and eating shakes OUTSIDE instead of cuddled in a blanket with the car heater going full blast. :) (I appreciate Matthew's understanding that shakes are an all year necessity for me.) Thank you Mr. Sun for showing us your handsome face these last few days! I adore you!

I have been working on cutting down our grocery bill while trying making sure that we are eating healthy.  One day while blog surfing I ran onto someone talking about the produce co-op she was part of – “We get TONS of fresh fruits and vegetables for so cheap!” she said. BINGO! I thought – whatever this is – I want in!

So I started asking around and searching online and I found impressive things! A produce co-op is a group of people who put a set amount of money into a “pool”. They then take that pool of money and go to the same stores that supply places like Macey’s and Smith’s with their produce and buy bulk quantities of fresh fruits and vegetables – at grocery store quality and super cheap prices (because foods are bought in bulk). They buy the most they possibly can with the pooled money – and the produce is divided equally between the contributing members!

This week I ordered from a Co-Op called Bountiful Baskets. For $16.50 this is what we got:

1 Pineapple
1 head of califlower
1 head of green leaf lettuce
1 giant Jicima
6 ears corn
1 bunch asparagus
9 bananas
6 garlics
7 Murcott tangerines
5 Asian Pears
4 Mexican Squash
7 Pink Lady Apples

I was really impressed that everything was in good shape and so far really delicious. What you get varies by what is available, so you will always be getting a good variety. I looked at a lot of different Co-Ops, but chose Bountiful Baskets because you only order when you need to. There are not fees or contacts to force you to contribute every week or month. I just wanted to try it before being tied into something! I was also really impressed to find out that all of the people to work with Bountiful Baskets are volunteers - so that every cent of the money you contribute goes straight to getting more food.

If you are looking for a better way to buy fruits and veggies I totally suggest ordering with Bountiful Baskets! You can read more about them at www.bountifulbaskets.org. You can order Monday mornings through Tuesday nights and then you pick it up on the following Saturday. They have a huge list of pick up spots so I'm sure that there will be one near you! We are thinking about splitting an order with someone as it is almost too much food for us! (So if you are interested in splitting with us let me know!)

Well! Shame on me for feeling so sorry for myself that I’m wasting you precious time by blogging about it! Dang it all though sometimes its good to pout!

So if you would Just imagine us sitting indian style on your bed with a bowl of ice cream and whiny faces I will tell you about it then we can both move on with our lives. I have had an eye infection (of some sorts) in both eyes for three weeks now and there's not sign of them getting better.

I’ve been to two different doctors who have both told me that “it aint no thang” and that its nothing contagious (something about over active glads?) and that the condition will clear up within a few days with a simple prescription. Well… lucky me and my strangely aging body, I’ve had severe allergic reactions to every med they’ve offered me. ARG!  Each medicine has made my eyes swell up HUGE – I mean mucho grando! Remember that crazy eyed gerbil from the movie Bedtime Stories? Yes. Huge swollen marshmallows on my face. Ugh. They have gotten so irritated that I had to stop wearing eye makeup and that BITES.

Secretly I've always thought that life would be so much easier if we didn't have to deal with putting on makeup every morning, checking on it in every passing reflection, and touching it up a few times a day, just to take it all off at night. And for the first day or so it was nice to just put on foundation and bum around the house (a weekend) But now after two weeks of having to live normal life with out it my little shoulder diva (aka pride) is taking a hit! It’s been so frustrating to walk into the restroom at work and not recognize myself or be super embarrassed when I run into people.  (Its kind of strange how attached we are to wearing makeup.) Now maybe you think I'm being wussy - so it stings a little to wear it - big deal. No, it doesn't sting a little - it burns like death! Sunday Matthew and I were speaking in our new ward so I broke down and masked up. That night and the full next day I TOTALLY regretted it. PAIN! Lets just say I cried - mucho. Grr.

Oh well. We all get sick once and a while right? Right. and we just buck up and deal, right? RIGHT! And so we will! (er, I will!)  Thanks ladies for letting me whine a lil’ bit. : )