July is really gone?

July has officially left us, and I am a little sad, summer is closing it's gates soon.  We had a fabulous month over all, treats at Cold Stone, swimming with friends, trips to the local parks, lots of garage sale shopping.  O still has not found a job teaching, he had four interviews in the past week, and we know for certain he wasn't chosen for two of those jobs, he's pretty sure he won't get the third one as it requires a fluency in Spanish, and while he was fluent, he hasn't really used it at all for the last two years, so he was quite rusty at the interview.  That leaves Fairbanks, we haven't heard anything from them yet, talk about cutting it all to the wire. Another job did just open up in Kodiak, and he put his application in, so fingers are crossed! Meanwhile he has employment through O'Reilly's and he is thinking of putting in his applications to be a substitute teacher for Mat-Su and Anchorage.  We will make it, somehow, but it is requiring a lot of cut backs on our parts, and I won't lie, I like having expendable cash, I like being able to go to a store and afford to buy all organic veggies, and stock up on organic fruit. I love cooking with exotic and expensive ingredients, but for now my likes and desires will have to wait! 
So what have the Miller's been up to since our last update?  Well J went back to Missouri for a visit, she comes back on the 13th of August. E is coming home Saturday, Yeah! We have missed her, and Papa (what she calls daddy O, she calls me Mama)keeps saying the house doesn't feel right without her here!  Last weekend was super hot, we hit 70*! So we spent a day at the lake, and I wore a swimsuit for the first time in two years!  We had so much fun, made some new friends, and even Mom got into the water and swam a bit, Mom needs to remember to do her inhaler next time, the icy water caused my lungs to seize up pretty bad and I had problems breathing the rest of the day, but it was still so much fun! We played football, Frisbee, and chase each other around like crazy people.  We had lots of people come join us for some fun, and others turned their lawn chairs away from the lake so they could watch our crazy group! I love this town, have I said that yet? I love that everywhere I look are mountains, I love that there is always something to do, I love the people overall they are super friendly, and I love shopping!

I have two recipes to share with you today!  One is a super easy Pizza for an at home pizza night, this takes minutes to prepare, and if Mom wants a night out of the kitchen, this is a recipe that even the little ones can almost do by themselves (you will have to help with the actual baking part of course!)


English Muffin Pizza:


Ingredients:

• English Muffins (I do one whole English muffin per person)
• Favorite Pizza Sauce 
• Mozzarella Cheese
• Cheddar Cheese 
• Favorite Toppings

We went with just straight up pepperoni pizzas, although a couple of the boys opted to make one of their pizzas cheese only.  


Directions:
Preheat oven to 425*
Split your English muffins with a fork and lay out on your pizza pans.

Liberally cover in pizza sauce, because the muffins are super spongy, they will absorb a lot of sauce so don't be stingy with it!

Add toppings, I prefer doing cheese first, then the pepperonis on top of the cheese, so the pepperonis get kind of crunchy and yummy during the baking.

Bake at 425* until cheese is melted and the muffins are toasted (you can also make just a few in a toaster oven, for a quick after school snack that kids can make themselves!), about 10-15 minutes depending on your oven and the number of pans you put in there. I don't time, I just eyeball it!

This has become the number one requested dinner at our house, we have used bagels instead and the boys love it like that, you can also use biscuit dough, really when it comes to fast make at home pizza... your imagination is the limit as to what you use for the crust.  This was so popular, an official request was made to have a pizza night each week!


I wanted to share another recipe with you all, I found this off of pinterest, if you don't know what it is, Google it, it's amazing! I get so many wonderful ideas for my kids, for meals, for household decorating, it's a cornucopia of delight! This recipe and a few others I will be trying soon came from one of my pins! 
I know cold oatmeal sounds about as appetizing as eating cold porridge..wait it is cold porridge! Trust me, it's amazing, every one of my boys are crazy about it, as is O and J, they love this for their breakfast, and I love making it for them, it's super quick to make up and really really good for them!

Peanut butter, Apple, Banana Refrigerator Oatmeal:

Ingredients and Supplies needed:

• Half Pint canning jars with lids
• Whole Oats, not steel cut, and not quick cooking
• Vanilla Yogurt, Greek was called for in the original recipe, but on our budget we can't afford Greek so we use just normal vanilla yogurt. If you choose to use Greek yogurt you will need to add just a bit more liquid to your recipe.
• Milk or Milk Substitute
• Frozen or Fresh fruit (I imagine canned would work, but try to get it without syrup as you don't need the extra sugar, it's plenty sweet!)
• Peanut Butter

That's it, that one apple you see, and those two bananas, will do 8 breakfasts, without scrimping on the fruit at all!

Directions:
Place 1/4 cup whole oats in bottom of jar
Place 1 tablespoon of peanut butter on top of oats (just plop it in there, it will get stirred in before they eat it!)
Add 1/4 Cup vanilla Yogurt
Add slightly less then 1/4 cup milk
Top with 1/4 cup apples and bananas diced.
seal with lid, and place in refrigerator overnight.  Stir before eating!

That's all there is to it, You can make enough for up to three days in advance, and your imagination is the only limit. We have done strawberry banana, peaches and cream (I used a splash of non-dairy creme brulee dairy in that batch), mixed berry, chocolate banana, chocolate strawberry.  If you or your kids can dream it, you can make it into refrigerator oatmeal, and every single one tastes amazing! Of course my crew's favorites are any with chocolate (just add a bit of chocolate syrup, or if you are wanting to really watch the sugar, a little bit of cocoa powder, the yogurt will provide enough sweetener for it!)
The boys actually complain now if they don't have their cold oatmeal because it fills them up so well, even O is satisfied with his one jar for breakfast! You can adjust the amount you make to suit your family, just keep the measurements equal.


Speaking of O, yesterday we celebrated 18 years of marriage, it's so hard to believe I'm old enough to have been married that long! Yikes! I am so thankful for this man, he works so hard and gives so much of himself for me and his family, and I know the day will come when we are celebrating our 50th anniversary together!  O took me out to eat Sunday, there was a Mexican place that we wanted to try out and they had a cheap buffet on Sundays (did I mention we are on a budget, it doesn't include money for these kind of things). Yesterday we grilled chicken, had scalloped potatoes, baked beans, and corn on the cob.. and for dessert, I tried out my new Cuisinart Ice cream machine I bought at a garage sale for 5.00.. did I mention it was brand new?  It worked wonderfully, and we all really loved the ice cream, and I loved that it took me less then five minutes to make up the mix and pour it into the machine!
After dinner we took everyone to a park we discovered near our house, this place is wonderful, so much for the kids to do there, and it's completely enclosed so there is only one exit from the playground area, and only one exit from the park, both exits require you to walk down a small fenced hallway of sorts single file. Make me feel just a little safer! 

We may be broke, but we are still living a wonderful and blessed life!