We had such a fun weekend as a family touring the Vancouver, WA farmer’s market! What a beautiful weekend it was and everyone was out getting fresh fruit and vegetables.
Daddy & Karis playing in the water! Don’t you just love naked babies in their cloth diapers!
We also enjoyed the recycled product event that was taking place as well. There were multiple booths filled with creative reusing and recycling of products. Here are a few of our favorites:
A recycled washer machine bin attached to a old chair base – transformed into a camp stove/grill!
Make your own re-usable shopping bag! Grab an old tank top and sew the bottom up! Ta da!
Now on to the menu plan for the week!
A great resource for summer meals, check out ideas compiled by GirlTalk here! I got some great ideas off this list that have helped me finalizing my Summer monthly menu plan, which I will be posting shortly. 
Once again, I try to include preparation steps to keep me on top of thawing food and soaking my grains!
Monday
Prep: soak oatmeal for Tuesday, thaw quinoa & black beans (cooked previous week), marinate chicken thigh for dinner, soak tortillas dough for Tuesday
Breakfast: Kefir Smoothie, raspberry muffin or bagel
Lunch: Tomato Soup, grilled cheese sandwiches, cherries (fresh from the farmer’s market!)
Dinner: Chicken Caesar Salad (lettuce, Parmesan, homemade croutons, cucumbers, marinated chicken breast), Quinoa & Black Beans
Tuesday
Breakfast: Oatmeal Muesli (coconut flakes, almonds, coconut milk added to basic oatmeal, topped with raw honey -yum!)
Lunch: Salmon Melts, Cherries
Dinner: Black Bean Wraps on Homemade Tortillas, Strawberry & Feta Salad
Wednesday
Prep: thaw lentils, soak oatmeal, soak black beans for Thursday
Breakfast: Smoothie, muffin or toast
Lunch: Quesadillas (with leftover filling from Tuesday)
Dinner: Sloppy Lentils, Salad
Thursday
Prep: thaw chicken thighs for dinner, soak granola
Breakfast: Oatmeal, apples, raisins
Lunch: Leftovers
Dinner: Guests- Chicken Fajitas (corn, black beans, green pepper, guacamole, salsa, sour cream)
Friday
Prep: soak pancakes, make spaghetti sauce for pizza, thaw pizza dough
Breakfast: Fruit Salad, yogurt, homemade granola
Lunch: Peanut Butter & Jelly, applesauce, celery sticks
Dinner: 4th of July Picnic with friends
Saturday
Breakfast: Pancakes (it’s the hubby’s favorite – what can I say?)
Dinner: Homemade Pizza, Tomato & Cucumber Salad
Coming up on the blog plan for the week: discussing healthy snacks for the family, simplifying tips in the kitchen, and participating in the nourishing frugal food carnival this Friday hosted by Kimi at The Nourishing Gourmet…to name a few. Stay tuned!
I recently found your blog and am completely addicted (in a good way!)! I’m enjoying reading the archives and learning all kinds of things!
Would love to know how you make your own croutons.
BTW – I’m from WA and am living in TX for the next few years, so I really love the pictures and happenings that you post!
God bless!
Thanks for your sweet comments! You can check out my homemade croutons here.
I am also enjoying your blog. It is a great food blog and well written.
Susan
I just found your blog and I am enjoying reading it. I am making your whole wheat bread recipe… well, in a few minutes, LOL.
You have a beautiful family. Is that Esther Short park that you were at? We were in Vancouver at the end of May. It looks familiar.
Your shopping bag is way too cute!! Looks like a fun day.
Blessings,
~martie
Hey, What Oatmeal do you buy to make sure they are the ones that need soaking? We love Oatmeal, but are never sure which are the ones that require this “work”(which I dont mind to do), Oh yea I have you bookmarked because you have such a fresh way of posting things, and well lets just say your posts on simple living and what not helped me to see how nice it is that I have one similiar(always neat to see other folks with the same idea, but of course is always ends up being as though its newly discovered, ha ha). Anyhow back to what I was meaning to say, I had bookmarked your blog into my favorites and for some reason everytime I go to click on it to see what new is happening in your neck of the woods as far as Wife and Motherhood goes, I get a page that takes me directly to some server default page, Now dont ask me how I got on here now to get this comment in but some how using one of the old posts I was checking out(that was in my browser) was able to take me to it, to which I then had to click on your most recent post, because the “home link” on your blog gave me that server default page again, so I dont know if its my end or the “blog” any how, I say this because I did a post today and was hoping to link it back to you, to give credit to where I found the scripture verses, but again goes back to the default server issue I am having with your blog home page. Anyhow Take care
We use standard quality rolled oats, purchased in bulk. I buy these from Azure Standard, but you can also buy them from Bob’s Red Mill. I would try re-bookmarking the site. It must of done something funky when you first made the bookmark.
karis is so cute! we use those swim diapers, under a bathing suit. We aren’t into cloth diapering yet…one day maybe. We don’t use disposable wipes tho! Just a warm wash cloth, w/some baby soap.
I did have a question tho tho Lindsay…what kind of sunblock do you use on your family? We all are very faired skinned, and MUST use sunblock. Some people think it’s ok to get a little skin. Any thoughts? Sorry if you discussed this somewhere else.
We use Baby Avalon Organics sunscreen. It is a natural mineral sunscreen SPF 18. Karis was in the sun all weekend and it worked great! Aaron & I also use it on occasion, including this weekend and we came out fine. We all have very fair skin as well. I never tan, just burn if I am not careful.
Looks yummy…and I REALLY enjoyed the pictures! What a neat outing…
Speaking of fabric grocery bags, haha, I’m hosting a giveaway tomorrow that involves that
I don’t want you to miss out, so check my blog on the 1st 
I need to start planning out my prep as well. I plan the meal and then forget about it until that afternoon. Sometimes this makes for some late dinners- especially when marinating is involved.
Great menu! I love pancakes as well.
Yum!
And, yes, your are right: there is nothing cuter than those babies in diapers!
Your farmer’s market looks like so much fun!! I really enjoy ours so much, but I would love to experience others just to see what they’re like in different states!
LOL! It seems like several of us have quinoa on the mind this week! Looks awesome! Thanks for the inspiration (and yes, I love to see my naked 12 month old in his cloth diapers! He loves the water too!)
Carrie
http://oreganicthrifty.blogspot.com
It looks delicious!
I’m in the middle of working on my meal plan this week, so I had to spy on yours. 
We are loving our local Farmer’s Markets, too!
Just a “warning” on the homemade granola (I made that same recipe a few weeks ago): Since it is cultured, it definitely tasted a bit “tart!” I added lots of extra cinnamon while baking it. We enjoyed it with yogurt and fresh strawberries. People that are used to the typical sweet granola might not be so fond of it though.
Definitely plan ahead when making it. It takes awhile.
Hope you have a great week!
Blessings,
Michele
http://www.frugalgranola.blogspot.com
Thanks for that info Michele about the granola. I was thinking of adding some dried apples to the mix. Could the sweetener be increased to help balance the tart flavor? I guess I will have to do some experimenting. Thanks for passing on the recipe.
Some extra sweetener might help. It is mostly just a completely different flavor than conventional granola, with the fermented/”yogurty” taste.
Have fun experimenting with it! Dried apples sound delicious. I added some dried fruit to it when I made it, too.
I found that soaking in yogurt caused a strong tartness in the past when I have tried to soak cracker batter with it. I think I will use kefir instead…I’ll let you know how it goes.
I’d love to hear how it goes!
I think I used about 1/2 yogurt and 1/2 cultured buttermilk.
Looks delicious as usual!