Dear Friends,

Who has some great summer menu items they want to share? The summer brings us fresh vegetables and fruits. How do you incorporate these into your menu planning?

This year, I have joined a local farmer’s co-op. Each week we get a share of fresh fruits and vegetables. We won’t know what’s in each share, but we pick it up on Thursday. Then, I can make the rest of my shopping list based on what we have on hand.

A couple of years ago, I did a big batch of freezer meals for the slow cooker. It saved me time and money, but I did find that it took me longer to prepare the meals than the plan called for. If you want to read more about it, here are a couple of links to my posts that year.

If you want to see more in this series, just use “slow cooker” in the search box on my blog. It was a fun series of cooking and writing about the results. You could do a freezer meal swap with some friends, too. Each of you could sign up to prepare the same dish, and you would decide how many portions to make based on the number of participants in the swap.

If you have been feeling ho-hum about your menu selections lately, talk to your family. Ask each person in the family to sign up for a night of the week to plan the menu and cook.

If you plant a summer garden, I would love to hear from you, too! How do you decide what to plant?

Your Zone Mission today is to detail vacuum the Living Room and/or Family Room.

Your Home Blessing for today is to wipe windows and mirrors.

My menu plan for Wednesday is soup and sandwiches.

Have a blessed day!