Summertime Lunch

We love these long warm and sunny day of summer and all the fresh veggies that come with it! With it so warm outside, hot lunches are not something I like. While pondering about lunches that are not hot and not the same ole deli meat, I came up with this wrap. This wrap is a cool choice that I could eat and feel good about it. This wrap can easily be made in the morning and carried to work for a healthy lunch.

First, I buy organic wraps at Whole Foods. I then make my own hummus, but you can use store bought hummus too.

As far as the veggies go, you can use whatever you like. My choice is: cukes, red peppers, avocado, broccoli sprouts, spinach and micro greens. I find these at different stores throughout our city. Most big name stores carry them.

I start by adding a good bit of hummus to my tortilla. Then I just start loading the veggies.

Layer of goodness after layer.

I then add the Dijon mustard that I like before I put the spinach leaves on. This helps my hands to not get so messy while wrapping. And, sometimes my wraps can get big, but somehow I am able to wrap them. To roll them, you just tuck and roll. It you can’t close your wrap, you can eat it like a taco.

I just add a pickle or some chips to my lunchbox and I am good to go. This wrap is full of flavor, and you will feel good because you have a healthy wrap for lunch and not a fast food burger or chicken sandwich. You could add olives, banana peppers, feta, onions etc. to build your favorite wrap. There are so many options! Choose your favorite.

My ingredients:

organic tortilla

hummus

avocada

red peppers

cucumbers

micro greens

broccoli sprouts

fresh spinach

Dijon mustard

Vacation Fast & Furious

With all of us vacation came and went WAY too quickly! We wait on it for a year and then it is over in a minute! Before the week arrives we all have such hope and excitement of all the adventures to come. And then those last two days we know vacation will be ending and we all still have fun but knowing the end is near for our week causes a little saddness.

We have stayed at the same house for 6 to 7 years in a row. The littles probably think it’s our house. Spinnakers Reach in Emerald Isle has some of the most beautiful houses I have seen. Our house has 7 bedrooms, 5.5 bathrooms and lots of family space. Several of us LOVE to cook and the kitchen is amazing! It has an ice maker, 2 dishwashers, 2 refrigerator’s in the kitchen and one on level 2, 2 freezer drawers and 3 coffee pots. Amazing!

Everyone bring some type of snacks and drinks to share. Each family cooks one night. Then I cook the other nights and most all breakfast. Sometimes I do get help in the kitchen with the early risers.

Each day bring so much joy and fun that we never want to leave! After breakfast we usually head down to the beach with our chairs and tents. The guys usually do this job and this year, Umpa (Mike) passed on the baton to the younger generations to do beach set up officially this year.

The kids love to fish and dig in the sand. They do the usual things like sand castles and holes but on this day Elijah had made himself a seat on the beach and was sitting just like Umpa.

On Monday night we had some family friends staying in another house on the island and we all decided to get together at their house because their house was on the beach. It was sooo much fun! So fun that we totally forgot to take any pictures. Crazy I know!

Our week is so full of cousins, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters and parents that no one is ever alone or bored. From Umpa wrestling the boys to cousins playing games together the time flies.

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We can’t forget about our tastings. The faces are hilarious and the chatter is even better. I wish I could add video so you could listen in.

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Our beach time was amazing! And our pool time had lots of deep conversations, fun times with uncles throwing children threw the air and hot tub chatter about life lessons.

This is why we do the cousin shirts. I love the pictures from year to year. It’s amazing how much the picture changes over the years. Enjoy life because it passes by quickly.

From these past few post I hope you have gain a little tidbit of a few things you may be able to do with your family make vacation fun for all!

Random pictures:

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Our week goes by so fast it leaves us waiting and looking forward to the next year. We have even decided to do a mountain trip in the winter so we can all be together in the same house for some good family time.

Beach Fairy Gifts-Part 4

You ask, what is a beach fairy? This is an idea I came up with many, many years ago when trying to plan fun things for the kids. What kid doesn’t like presents? The tooth fairy comes at night while you sleep so why can’t the “beach fairy”?

I decided to head to the Dollar Tree and pick up a gift for each child, for each night. At first it was not expensive because we only had four grandchildren and they were little. Gifts from the Dollar Tree were great. But now we have 9 grandchildren and the oldest is 21 years old. The Dollar Tree doesn’t work any more for the “bigs”. We have some things from the Dollar Tree but I also shop at Five and Below. I can get a few techie things there for the bigs. I usually have to order on line at Amazon or Jane.com and sometimes I order hats from the favorite brands I have seen on their clothing for the boys. I give all candy one night for fun.

The older grandchildren know who the beach fairy is but I still have the littles guessing.

So each night on vacation after the “littles” go to bed Mike and I put out presents. The oldest grand child’s gift is on the top stair and the youngest is on the bottom step.

This year Ady, our sixth grandchild put names on some of the steps so the beach fairy would not get confused.

Each grandchild, big or small loves getting a surprise every morning. This was probably one of the best ideas I have had yet. If you decide to start this, you could do one night or every other night. It is a lot of fun.

Hoping that this idea encourages you to make vacation or even spend the night parties fun!