Author: Midwest Storyteller

Make Ahead Packets to Save Your Trim Healthy Sanity

~ Midwest Storyteller

[NOTE:  I openly disclose on this blog that as a certified lifestyle coach through Trim Healthy Mama, I may receive financial benefit from those who desire to enlist my services privately or in a group setting.]

I’ve learned to love to cook.  It wasn’t always so.  It wasn’t always easy.  A combination of things has made my kitchen efforts frustrating through the years.

One would think, growing up on a farm with a nine-member household, I would have learned to be an excellent cook right off the bat.  However with five sisters who were quite a bit older, there were enough of them to fill up the kitchen and I’m sure my mom preferred I not be underfoot.  After they all began to leave home on their journey through life, I think my mom must have been relieved not to be making soup in a wash basin anymore and to have the kitchen to herself.  I poked around in there, fixed myself after-school snacks and helped out when company came, but the skills you get from daily having to sling hash and get it all on the table hot and ready was a training that I missed.

Then, I married Smuffy.  Smuffy’s mama had spoiled him rotten in the food category.  He’d lived a life where all he had to do was sigh and whisper that he wouldn’t mind a little bit of this or a small dab of that and it appeared before him in no time at all accompanied by about a dozen other delights he hadn’t even asked for.

I thought I hated to cook and that I was bad at it.  Yet, there was always a certain sense of adventure when it came to foods and I’d often find myself thinking that I wanted to try to make something new and exciting I’d tasted at a party or seen in a magazine.  Plus, I have a huge appetite and just plain love to eat.

Another factor that tripped me up on my road to being a good cook was the fact that I tend to be distracted.  Forgetting to thaw things out, neglecting to turn the burner down, not setting the timer – these were only a few of the things that made me wish we could just eat out all the time.

In hindsight, I’m thankful that the budget prohibited that because I see so many people who are enmeshed in the restaurant culture and most of them are barely able to waddle back and forth to their cars or are afflicted with a myriad of health problems.

Necessity being the mother of invention, I learned to be a really good cook over time and that Pookie of mine – she can really put the love on a meal.  However, distraction is still a problem for me, especially now that Lil’ Snookie is here demanding my attention.  I’ve learned to do a lot of simple prep-ahead things to make throwing yummy meals together less of a strain.

Since health is a major concern, I avoid pre-made and pre-mixed items that are always loaded with sugar or other ingredients that aren’t going to lead us down the road to better health.  Grabbing each and every tiny little ingredient out of the pantry or spice cabinet slows me down and frustrates me when I’m cooking.

I know I could always parcel out things into little snack baggies to have them ready to dump into recipes, but they slip and slide and are difficult for me to keep organized.  I thought I’d share this great find that is helping me cut down on steps and stress.

Mix Packets

These great mini craft paper bags with resealable lock seal zipper and transparent windows were an Amazon find and are from Kingrol. They are 3/5 X 5.5 inches. This is the smallest of three sizes and is just right for that small amount of “mix” you want to grab and whip up something quick. They are reusable. If you prefer not to buy from Amazon, you can do a search and probably find them elsewhere online.

These are great for the dry ingredients that go into so many things – taco seasoning, Wonder Wraps, my Chocolate Collagen Trimmy and my oatmeal fixin’s, to name a few.

The bags are made of high-quality kraft paper with food grade PE inner membrane.  Sturdy, waterproof and leak-proof, they should keep the contents from moisture and offer good shelf life.

They were advertised to have a stand-up design.  This must be a feature on the medium and large bags only, because the smaller size I ordered do not have a gusseted bottom.  I like that they have a little rectangle matte window that allows me to get a glimpse of the contents and save time when snatching them out of the cupboard.

The heat sealable feature is something I won’t use because I plan to use them only for dry mixes and then re-fill them.  The resealable zippers seem to zip fairly easily and stay shut. 

I didn’t mind ordering in quantity because I do make a lot of homemade mixes and also because I like to give some of these away as gifts sometimes and these bags will make a much nicer presentation for that than a plastic zippy bag.   

So, yes, I did order 300 of them and it will take me a while to use those up, but it will happen. Next time, I think I’ll order the larger size because these will be a bit of a tight squeeze for certain things. The whole pack costs around $18 which makes them six cents each. Not bad.

I started off by filling them with some of my favorite items that fit the THM plan. I’ll include a few simple recipes.

  1. Wonder Wraps II (FP): These are on page 251 of “Trim Healthy Table” cookbook. They can be made in a big batch, but I usually make the small batch when we do tacos. I put the THM Baking Blend, Mineral Salt, Whole Husk Psyllium Flakes and nutritional yeast in the bag and then just stir it in with the three wet ingredients when the time comes. Tat makes so much less I have to think about when I’m busy.

2. Coach Barb’s Morning Oatmeal (E): I have this two or three mornings a week and get tired of measuring out every little thing. I soak 1/2 cup of old fashioned oats in water in my bowl overnight. In the morning, I place a hand over it and drain off most of the water. Then, I dump in the packet which contains – 1 Tablespoon grass-fed beef collagen, 1 skimpy Tablespoon chopped walnuts (for a bit of fat to help my carbs absorb), 1/2 Tablespoon Pristine Whey Powder (plain), 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom, a generous 1/8 teaspoon mineral salt, 12-15 raisins and a doonk or two of Pure Stevia. Mix this well into the oats before stirring in a generous 1/4 cup water. Microwave for one minute. Then, stir in another generous 1/4 cup water and microwave for another minute. (This process helps to avoid an oatmeal mess in the microwave.) That’s it. Tweak the spices and sweetness to suit yourself, keeping in mind that getting all silly with raisins will spike your blood sugar and that’s a no-no and adding more walnuts will be “on plan” but will turn this into a Crossover, which will not aid in weight loss.

Note: You can use another whey powder. Just be sure it is cross-flow and micro-filtered. You can use any other on-plan sweetener, but it will take a lot more.

3. Chocolate Collagen Trimmy (FP with an S option): I fill the bag with 2 Tablespoons Dutch cocoa powder, 1 Tablespoon grass-fed beef collagen, 1/2 tablespoon Pristine Whey Powder (see note above) 3/8 teaspoon Pure Stevia, 1/4 teaspoon Sunflower Lecithin and 1/8 teaspoon mineral salt. When you are ready for a trimmy, pour an inch or so of hot water into the bottom of a 12 ounce (or larger) mug. Add the contents of the packet and a splash of pure vanilla extract and stir well with a mini whisk before filling your mug the rest of the way. If you’re feeling like a real hot chocolate experience is called for, add a tablespoon of heave cream for an “S” treat. A collagen drink like this will give you protein to balance your blood sugar and keep your tummy full for a long time. It’s a great way to avoid having your hand in a snack jar all day.

NOTE: Keep in mind that I like my chocolate dark and enjoy a bit of the bitter here. You may have to do some tweaking of the ratio of chocolate to sweetener to get this to be the mug of goodness that speaks to your soul. Also, nothing compares to the Dutch process cocoa powder. I am spoiled to it and any of the cans of cocoa powder we’ve been accustomed to finding in the stores all these years are icky to me now. I highly recommend you try some! I get mine at my local bulk food store.

4. Taco Seasoning Mix: It’s so great just to be able to take a pound of browned burger, sprinkle on this packet knowing that it has no sugar and no other stupid ingredients, stir in a half cup of water and simmer for a bit. I’ve offered this recipe up before along with a free printable and you can find it here.

If you need support in your journey, head to the Contact Me page and let me know.  I’ll give you all the info on group sessions which I conduct locally in person on a weekly basis.  Private coaching can be done in person or by phone.  Share with friends and let’s see how many are ready to get Trim & Healthy!

Tempted but not sure? Check out the Trim Healthy dish I made here and see if it doesn’t make your mouth water!

The Trim Healthy Mama Plan is a great way to boost your immune system and we all need that right now, don’t we?  Leave a comment and tell me your thoughts.

This Freebie Brings Bling!

~ Midwest Storyteller ~ 8 Comments

The sounds of autumn are coming through the open windows of my office as I type this and I marvel that I find it a pleasant sound when it is actually a multitude of the insect host singing whatever it is they sing to each other this time of year.  God bless the one who invented window screens.  The sound does signal the end of heat and humidity and that’s a good thing. 

It’s almost three more weeks until the season changes officially, but you’re right on time for the September First Friday Freebie!  Let’s take a look.

Once at a ladies’ function, we played a “getting to know you” game where we had to jot down on a piece of paper “two things you love and one thing you hate” and toss the paper into the bowl.  When the bowl makes a second pass around the room, someone else draws your paper and tries to guess who may have dropped this list into the bowl.  I remember that when I played this, one of the things I jotted down that I loved was jewelry.  I do love a bit of bling.  I could so keep this freebie, but it’s all yours.

This pretty necklace by Accessory Connection is a long one.  It has an adjustable chain section that extends from 32” to 35”.  The “Y” section at the bottom adds an additional 2.5”.  This makes it great to throw on over all your great fall sweaters and tops.  Double chains of both black and gold (not visible in the photo) meet up with the beaded section which has iridescent beads in black, pale amber and a color I can’t decide whether it is a smoky blue or a smoky purple.  A small stone in the “Y” section hovers above a teardrop pendant that I’d describe as a golden caramel color. 

I took several photos trying to get the colors to appear as they do in reality, but the bottom pendant seemed to look washed out in every single one.  Anyhow, it’s prettier than the photo.

Factory Connection is a great store to find cute jewelry and other accessories along with some fashion clothing.  I don’t get there often, but when I do I often find great prices on items like this freebie.  Check out their website here for locations near you.

To enter to win the beaded necklace, all you need to do is “Leave a Comment” on this post, saying “Bring me some bling!”.  You’ll need to do that before midnight TONIGHT, September 3rd, 2021.

NOTE:  An occasional problem occurs with subscribers not receiving confirmation emails.  Should this happen, email me at barb@midweststoryteller.com so that I can report it and have the issue resolved.

First Friday Freebies are for email SUBSCRIBERS ONLY, so you’ll want to subscribe over on the right sidebar or use the menu to navigate to the “Contact” page where you can subscribe to Midwest Storyteller if you haven’t done so.

I hope you get excited about winning freebies and share them and my blog stories with your friends and family through all your social media. If you like an idea, recipe or story you see here, be sure to hover over the photo and “pin it”.  Help me get the word out!

On the “Freebies” page, you can see what readers have been winning every month.

A winner will be chosen at random from those subscribers who enter before midnight tonight, September 3rd by leaving a comment which says, “Bring me some bling!” 

For the complete First Friday Freebie rules, click here. 

Why not subscribe and confirm right now before you forget?

While you’re waiting to find out if you’re the winner, you’ll love a good Smuffy story – the most popular thing on my blog. Our Smokin’ Hot Honeymoon is a great place to start.

May your windows be open, may your hair un-frizz and may you sniff the first hints of fall!

Life with Smuffy (Special Episode – Part 7 of ?):  Playing “Let’s Make a Choice!”

~ Midwest Storyteller ~ 3 Comments

I know what you’re going to say once you start reading this – “Aren’t those people ever gonna finish that kitchen?”

That, my dear friends, is exactly what I ask myself, sometimes multiple times per day.

We’ve got to cut Smuffy some slack, though.  After coming home from his day job, he tackles everything else that pops up (or falls down, as the case may be) with this seventy+ year old house.  There’s all the yard work, the garden and how a huge outdoor project he’s had to undertake.  My “new” kitchen goes forward in spurts and I try to have patience.  I will admit to having tears, though.  Every once in a while, the whole thing about having a toddler here every day with no cabinet doors gets to be a bit much.  Careful placement and a good boy are all that stand between us and disaster.

Well, the doors have arrived!  I’d do the happy dance, but they’re not up yet.  You see, they’ve been handed over to me.  Yikes!

I’ve done a lot of DIY in my time, so I had a hard time figuring out why these made me so nervous.  Then, I realized where my jitters were coming from.

It’s one thing to drag something home from a yard sale or resale shop and dive in to give it a whole new life.  It is quite another to take brand new things that Smuffy has poured blood, sweat and tears into and risk screwing it up!  As I said in an earlier post, most people who say they did their whole kitchen makeover by themselves have few bragging rights compared to what we’ve undertaken on this project.  Ripping out things, bringing home new cabinets and installing them and then slapping on some trim pales in comparison to what we’ve done.  It’s been me with my sheets of graph paper and research and Smuffy painstakingly hand-crafting each and every cabinet, pull-out, replacing windows, framing in new ones, building the pantry and making all the shelves to my specifications.  It’s been a long, long road and each interruption and setback has been tough. 

Now, Smuffy has handed me his beautiful cabinet doors and it’s turned me into a big chicken.  My design all along (I tell him that at all times he must remember that he’s Chip and I’m JoJo), was to have antiqued creamy cabinets.  I went to great lengths to get just the right paints, additives, glazes and colors to achieve the end look.  I did all right through two coats of primer.  I did all right through two coats of paint.  Then, somehow, as soon as I got ready to antique them, nerves kicked in.  How could I ugly up Smuffy’s beautiful doors?

It was all I could do to go down to the basement and smear the glaze over the perfection and start wiping it around with old rags over that pristine first door.  It was as though I kept forgetting that the  installed cabinets upstairs had already been antiqued and it was too late to turn back now.  Duh!

There are reasons I chose antiquing.  So many kitchens are what I call “hospital white”.  I hope it’s a trend that ends soon.  Sometimes I think way too many folks out there are working in labs or schoolrooms or medical offices and this look is seeping into their souls.  Anyhow, I didn’t want that.  I wanted homey.  I have a working kitchen – a really working kitchen.  With homecooked healthy meals every single day and all the prep for cooking demonstrations at the classes I teach, it would be hard to keep a sleek kitchen looking sleek all the time.  Also, I have some things of my mom’s I’d like to use to decorate my open shelving and they’re just pretty shabby and farmy.  In honor of her, I’m calling this my Emmabelle Kitchen.

Cabinet Doors Before and After www.midweststoryteller.com

As you can see in the photo, I went ahead with Door #2 and then I started to calm down. In game shows, there is something behind the door to jump up and down about.  In my case, I’ll just have to wait a while longer.  Smuffy keeps assuring me we are in the home stretch.  I nod and sniffle.  The home stretch is every bit as exhausting as the rest of this turtle race.

Just in case you’re wondering, Smuffy’s masterpieces are finished off with two coats of Benjamin Moore primer, have had a light sanding and received two coats of Benamin Moore trim paint in “Fresh Narcissus” with Floetrol added.  This additive makes all the brush strokes or roller marks “melt” away.  The antiquing is done by taking eight parts Benjamin Moore Studio Finish Acrylic Glaze and adding one part Benjamin Moore satin finish paint in “Devonwood Taupe.  This is wiped on and then off immediately with cotton rags, leaving accents in the wood details.  Two coats of Benjamin Moore polyurethane are added after glazing to restore the hard finish.  Otherwise, the glaze would remain too “soft” for durable cabinetry.

I must add that in this photo, the antiqued door looks like it has much more antiquing on it that it does in actuality.  There’s no explaining why photos do that sometimes.

Smuffy does more than just build things.  My Life With Smuffy page is loaded with stories that will make you laugh, cause your hair to stand on end and probably bump us up to the top of your prayer list!

The kitchen makeover chronicles include my embarrassing “before” photos in “Death of a Kitchen”.  After that, you can catch up with “A Glimmer of Hope and Stainless Steel”, “Birth Pains of a Kitchen”, “My Not-A-Kitchen Kitchen”, “A Trim Healthy Pantry and Some Plywood” and “Transition of a Kitchen”.  Check those out and you’ll be ready for the next and, hopefully, final stages of my kitchen.

Leave a comment!  What do you like/don’t like in your kitchen?  Or, have you seen something online or in someone else’s kitchen that you’d like to have if you could remodel your kitchen?  My kitchen is small.  Give me your best storage tips and tricks!

Another Freebie Winner!

~ Midwest Storyteller

My apologies for running late with this announcement.  Not only did I fall behind a bit, but our winner has been under the weather (though I doubt the weather had anything to do with it) and getting it to her and getting a photo has had its challenges.

She was kind enough to snap a picture of her First Friday Freebie in its new home and send it to me, so let’s congratulate and extend get well wishes to –

Liz from Boonville, Missouri!

Liz often enters to win and has been a previous winner, so if you want to meet her, just check out all the past winners and their gifts here on my Freebies! page.

The “Then Sings My Soul” box-style décor is a Hobby Lobby find and you can see the original freebie offer, here. 

If you’re not yet a subscriber to Midwest Storyteller they might entice you to become one – First Friday Freebies are for email subscribers only.

Look for the subscription area.  It’s easy to find on the “CONTACT” page and after subscribing, confirm your subscription when the confirmation email arrives in your inbox.  If you’ve done that and not received a confirmation email, please email me at barb@midweststoryteller.com – it seems that from time to time, a subscription will get “stuck”. 

Subscribing is the best way to avoid missing what’s new here on the blog because you’ll get an email reminder each time there’s something new – like when there’s a FREEBIE on the First Friday of every month.

Comment as directed on the post that offers the Freebie and you’ll be entered to win. 

Freebies help me reach more people with my stories, recipes and more.  When you share with all your friends via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, you’ll give them the opportunity to subscribe and win also.  Subscribing is free.  Freebies are free.  Are you catching on this is a free thing?

Coming soon:  September’s First Friday Freebie – that takes place on Friday, September 3rd.   You’ll see a photo of the Freebie and you can enter to win at any point all day that day.  Don’t forget to check the email that you used to subscribe for notification that you’ve won.

A winner is chosen at random from those subscribers who enter before midnight on the day of the drawing. 

ONCE AGAIN (because you tend to forget):  Should your name be drawn as the winner, you will be notified via the email you used to subscribe.  That means you’ll need to check your email often in the week following the drawing so that you can respond and keep the prize from being offered to someone else.

Take a moment make yourself familiar with the complete Freebie Rules by clicking HERE.

These four simple steps will have you ready to enter to win on Friday, September 3rd, 2021. 

A lot of people say, “I never win anything!”  I’d love to hear from you.  Leave a comment and tell me the best thing you’ve ever won.   

A Summer Freebie for Your Soul!

~ Midwest Storyteller ~ 5 Comments

Welcome to August!  (I say that like I’m hosting the month personally.)  Actually, I’m missing out on a lot of it due to the Big Kitchen Crunch, but that has nothing to do with Freebies unless you count the fact that it’s forcing me to do this post past my bedtime.

Yes, it’s the First Friday and that means that commenting as directed in this post will enter you to win my August Freebie.  Let’s take a look at it.

Then Sings My Soul Freebie www.midweststoryteller.com

This black and white wooden décor will look great on your table or tucked into a shelf.  It measures 4.875” X 7.375” including the knob on top and if you’re up on your old hymns, it reminds of that famous one, “How Great Thou Art”.  The little damask print bit of stenciled art at the left adds just the right touch and I think it will look great year round as well as with all your upcoming fall decorations.  It’s a Hobby Lobby find, because, as you may have noticed, I can’t stay out of that place.

To enter to win the “Then Sings My Soul” décor, all you need to do is “Leave a Comment” on this post, saying just that, “Then Sings My Soul”.  You’ll need to do that before midnight TONIGHT, August 6th, 2021.

NOTE:  An occasional problem occurs with subscribers not receiving confirmation emails.  Should this happen, email me at barb@midweststoryteller.com so that I can report it and have the issue resolved.

First Friday Freebies are for email SUBSCRIBERS ONLY, so you’ll want to subscribe over on the right sidebar or use the menu to navigate to the “Contact” page where you can subscribe to Midwest Storyteller if you haven’t done so.

I hope you get excited about winning freebies and share them and my blog stories with your friends and family through all your social media. If you like an idea, recipe or story you see here, be sure to hover over the photo and “pin it”.  Help me get the word out!

On the “Freebies” page, you can see what readers have been winning every month.

A winner will be chosen at random from those subscribers who enter before midnight tonight, August 6th by leaving a comment which says, “Then Sings My Soul”. 

For the complete First Friday Freebie rules, click here. 

Why not subscribe and confirm right now before you forget?

Summer’s winding down.  Enjoy every minute of warmth and bloom.

Life With Smuffy (Episode 8):  “Smuffy Gets It Clean”

~ Midwest Storyteller

It’s time to take a peek into the Smuffy’s secret life.  By now, if you’ve kept up with every episode of “Life With Smuffy”, you probably think that he’s all daredevil and that this nature leaves little time for anything other than leaping across steep roofs, shooting the rapids and having heart-stopping encounters with motorized vehicles.

Oh, not so!  There is another side to Smuffy that makes life with him equally as interesting as all the more hair-raising things.  I can’t classify it as his dirty little secret, though. You see, Smuffy is clean.  He’s very clean.

The casual observer may assume that this characteristic wouldn’t cause much of a stir in everyday life. 

Don’t get me wrong – Smuffy is also dirty.  When he is dirty, he is very, very dirty and actually enjoys a good dose of grunge.  Once, on his birthday, we were unable to locate him to remind him that it was time to get ready to go out for the evening.  We finally found in the compost bin.  He hadn’t been able to think of a more enjoyable way of spending his birthday than cleaning it out and, having done so, to sit restfully inside in the ninety-degree heat with compost plastered to every inch of his sweaty body.  It seemed to him the ideal way to pass the time.

To go hunting and smear himself with disgusting stuff that only an amorous 30-point buck would love and then haul home carcasses and attack them with knives comes as natural to him as, well…bathing.  The bright side is that he does a great job of cleaning up the gore.  He should have started a business – “Smuff-Pro – Like it Never Even Happened”.

Then, bathe he does!  When Smuffy is finished being dirty, he is ready to be clean.  Proper soaps become an issue.  Subtle fragrance and texture variances can cause them to get banned from the home.  When they stopped making his favorite bar soap, our world came to a standstill and he still mutters its name with a tremor of nostalgia. 

After boot camp at living with this paradox, I realized I’d married a man who was a complete blending of Grizzly Adams and Felix Unger and each personality would have its high moments.

If Smuffy has a stint at taking over the kitchen, I can always tell.  I find counters sopping wet, towels dripping, the whole room is wet.  He has gotten all things clean – about 15 times.

I can hear you saying, “How fabulous to have a husband so helpful around the house!”  Well, not that I’m going to let you live with Smuffy because he’s mine – all mine – but you might do well to imagine what that really might be like on a moment-by-moment basis.

When we first married, it didn’t take long for me to start feeling much like Ingrid Bergman in “Gaslight”.  He’s not only clean – he’s tidy.  Should I lay a book aside to go to the kitchen for a cup of tea, when I returned I’d search madly for the book till I questioned my own sanity and Smuffy asked what was the matter.  “Oh,” he’d explain after hearing my frustration, “I thought you were finished with it so I put it back in the bookshelf.”  The same thing happened with too warm slippers I’d kicked off, a watch that chafed or a hair barrette that pinched.  Everything just vanished the minute I released it from my grasp.  I was compensated somewhat by the fact that he smelled terrific! 

I did my best to explain to Smuffy that laundry doesn’t get “done”.  Laundry is like dishes.  Dishes can be clean, counters shined and things put away and within seconds, someone arrives with a cup or spoon.  Laundry is always but one sock away from the new pile.  Yet, I felt guilty when Smuffy would start up the washing machine because he felt I’d fallen behind.

That is, until the day I discovered his secret.  I’d made a concerted effort one week to get all the laundry done so that when Smuffy was home and doing his basement projects over the weekend there wouldn’t be a single thing peeking out of a basket to torment his delicate sensibilities.  Of course, a sock or two, a towel and a couple of other things were tossed in by Saturday morning, but what was that in the course of life?

As Smuffy began his project day in the basement, I began to hear the usual sounds waft up the stairs.  He likes to enjoy several things at once, so it’s perfectly normal (normal?) to find him down there hacking up a deer, melting wax for homemade candles, mapping out his next woodworking project while listening to the oldies or watching cooking shows all at the same time. 

Suddenly, added to the symphony came the sound of the washing machine.  What on earth?  I went to the basement.

It’s important to stress that Smuffy had never been trained as a launderer.  His mama did all domestic duties for him.  He’d only entered forced servitude when Pookie came along and he needed to help out by doing things that kept me off the stairs.  Though I appreciated the help, the delicates often suffered and I preferred to wash certain things myself.

“What are you washing,” I asked.

“Oh, there was some laundry in one of those baskets over there.”

“But there couldn’t have been more than three or four things.  I got all caught up just so you wouldn’t have to bother with it.”

“Oh, I just thought since I was down here, I may just as well take care of it.”

I stood defeated for a moment, feeling as though all my efforts had backfired somehow and then came the revelation.  I turned my gaze from the empty baskets to the man at the workbench.

“You love it, don’t you?”

Smuffy looked perplexed and gave me a “Huh?”

“You love it!  You didn’t need to do any laundry and you knew it.  You missed it!  While you were working, you were craving the swish-swish of the washing machine and the soapy smell of clean clothes.  You’re doing laundry to enhance your experience!”

Then, I saw it.  The blushed cheek and the darting of the eyes told me that I had discovered the truth – Smuffy had an addiction.

Now, it may seem obvious that a person can be addicted to a lot worse things than laundry, but over time I discovered that Smuffy’s inability to keep his hands off soiled textiles led him down the road toward destruction.

Oh, the mangled bras!  Oh, the scorched elastics!  Oh, the irreversible bleach disasters!  I tried to make a deal with Smuffy.  If he must do laundry, could he please limit himself to his own work clothes so that Pookie and I could manage to have something that survived his efforts?  He’d agree to terms and then, as though they were some sort of irresistible delicacy, sneak those items in with his own and render them rags.  Each time, those puppy-dog brown eyes of his would look into mine and he’d profess to having been certain the item was his.  It was enough to make me wonder if he had more of a secret life that I thought!

Once he managed to get hold of a pair of Pookie’s jeans she’d bought as an older teen – one of those special pair that she’d saved up her own money to buy because they were “the thing”.  Convinced they were his own, he took things a step further this time.  After an especially tough morning at work one day, he came in for lunch grubby and tired.  As he entered the kitchen, I could tell he was disgruntled.

“Dirty job”, he muttered.  “I’m pooped.  And it didn’t help any that these jeans have shrunk or something.  They’re so tight I could barely move, let alone work.”

I glanced at his behind.  There he was, having washed and dried them, stuffed into Pookie’s “cool jeans”, convinced that anything in blue denim must be his.  They were ruined and, considering the structural design of gals’ jeans, I’m surprised parts of him weren’t.  No amount of TLC was going to restore those jeans to something worthy of the brand label he’d been sporting on his tushy all morning as he put them to the working man’s durability test – which they failed.

I told him he’d better buy her another pair and preached him my “Leave Our Clothing Alone” Sermon Number 843.

Pookie took the loss graciously.  He’d been trying to instill in her the need to clean up and tidy up since she was a mere tot.

Smuffy & Pookie are Clean www.midweststoryteller.com

Once when Pookie was three years old, we returned home after being gone for most of the day.  Smuffy scooped Pookie up under one arm and headed for the bathroom. Being exhausted, I headed straight for the sofa, stretched out and closed my eyes.  As I lay there, I could hear the water running and Smuffy’s monologue as he took advantage of this important teaching moment to give his little one a ten-minute sermonette on how they were washing their faces and hands and why they were washing their faces and hands.  Germs, he explained, were like bugs.  They were nasty, icky little bugs that make you sick.  You could have lots of them all over your hands and they were so tiny that you couldn’t see them, but they were still there.  However, they would take all the warm water and the soap and wash all the invisible bad bugs right down the sink.

Soon after, I heard the approach of little feet and became aware that a little person had arrived and waited next to my head to see if my eyes might pop open.  I tried to keep them closed in hopes that her dolls and toys might lure her into letting me rest a bit longer, but she lingered so patiently that I finally peeped one eye open to find her big blue eyes eager and concerned.

“Did you hear what Daddy said?” she asked, as if there’d been headline news.

Interested to hear her three-year-old version of it, I played along.  “No, what did he say?”

Stamping her little foot, she narrowed her eyes and pinched her lips together.

“Oh!  I wish you did!” came the disappointed whine.  “I didn’t understand a word he said!”

All my weariness of the day washed away with my laughter over the fact that Smuffy’s germ lesson, though well-meaning and thorough, had gone right over her head and quite possibly, down the drain.

One of Smuffy’s finer moments occurred when I was out of town and I still feel a bit cheated that I missed seeing it in person.  This being the first time I’d left Smuffy and Pookie to themselves for more than just overnight, I called every evening to check in.  To my surprise, Pookie answered.  At age six, she was not allowed to take calls yet.  The fact that she answered told me immediately that something might not be quite right.  Where on earth was Smuffy?

“Hello?”

“Hello!  And how are you today?”

“Just fine.”

I strained to hear any background noise.  Things seemed overly quiet somehow.

“Did you have a nice day today?”

“Yes.”

“Did you miss me?”

“Yes.”

“I missed you, too.  Is Daddy there?”

“Yes.”

“Well, can I talk to him.”

“I’ll ask him.  He’s sweeping all the bubbles out the back door.”

“Bubbles?  You have bubbles?”

“We have lots of bubbles.  Daddy’s got the broom.”

Smuffy made it to the phone.  I asked him how he happened to be sweeping bubbles out the back door.

Always having lived by the motto that “more is better” when it comes to soap, he had decided that what our dishwasher needed was a thorough cleaning.  So while it was empty, he’d given it a good dose of liquid dish soap and turned it on.  The entire kitchen had filled with bubbles. He’d been doing his best to get them all out onto the deck where they could ooze through the rails and down the stairs.

The bright side is that this is probably the cleanest our kitchen’s ever been.

Oh, how I wish I’d been there!  I’d have felt just like Doris Day in “The Thrill of it All” (1963).  Her hubby (James Garner) got things clean, too.

Things are not so spit ‘n polished around here these days due to endless remodeling and toddler-keeping, but that, they tell me, won’t last forever.  When the first is complete it will be a huge relief, but the latter will, I’m sure, make me a little sad.

It’ll be interesting to watch little Snookie take cleaning lessons from his Paw-Paw.  This time, I’m recording.

My Life With Smuffy is always exciting.  Read about our Smokin’ Hot Honeymoon.  You’ll find, in Smuffy Takes the Cure that I did try intervention.  Try his river adventures here and here for the white-knuckle type of adventure.  Even on dry land, he tends to get himself into situations, so check that out here.

Are you living with a “cleany”?  Oh, please do share in the comments!

Meet July’s Freebie Winner!

~ Midwest Storyteller

If you are in the Midwest, I hope you’re a heat and humidity lover or are blessed to stay in and enjoy some air conditioning.  Our air conditioning went out recently and replacement parts were never more welcome.  One thing you can enjoy in this weather is a First Friday Freebie, so let’s meet the winner –

First Friday Freebie Winner www.midweststoryteller.com

Ginger from Prairie Home, Missouri!

Congratulations, Ginger!  Ginger enters to win on a regular basis so it’s no surprise that she’s happened to win more than one of my First Friday Freebies.  Take a look at the inset photo and you’ll see she’s not the only one enjoying it.  She used it to decorate the front door of her chicken coop and now all her “ladies” are simply cackling with delight over their new decor.

You can see all the past winners and their gifts here on my Freebies! page.

The bright red metal flower Ginger just won is a Hobby Lobby find and you can see the original freebie offer, here. 

If you’re not yet a subscriber to Midwest Storyteller they might entice you to become one – First Friday Freebies are for email subscribers only.

Ginger’s been a subscriber ever since the beginning of this blog.  She became one by entering her email in the subscription area here on the blog and then confirmed her subscription when the confirmation email arrived in her inbox.  If you’ve done that and not received a confirmation email, please email me at barb@midweststoryteller.com – it seems that from time to time, a subscription will get “stuck”. 

Subscribing is the best way to avoid missing what’s new here on the blog because you’ll get an email reminder each time there’s something new – like when there’s a FREEBIE on the First Friday of every month.

Comment as directed on the post that offers the Freebie and you’ll be entered to win. 

Freebies help me reach more people with my stories, recipes and more.  When you share with all your friends via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, you’ll give them the opportunity to subscribe and win also.  Subscribing is free.  Freebies are free.  Are you catching on this is a free thing?

Coming soon:  August’s First Friday Freebie – that takes place on Friday, August 6th.   You’ll see a photo of the Freebie and you can enter to win at any point all day that day.  Don’t forget to check the email that you used to subscribe for notification that you’ve won.

A winner is chosen at random from those subscribers who enter before midnight on the day of the drawing. 

ONCE AGAIN (because you tend to forget):  Should your name be drawn as the winner, you will be notified via the email you used to subscribe.  That means you’ll need to check your email often in the week following the drawing so that you can respond and keep the prize from being offered to someone else.

Take a moment make yourself familiar with the complete Freebie Rules by clicking HERE.

These four simple steps will have you ready to enter to win on Friday, August 6th, 2021. 

A lot of people say, “I never win anything!”  I’d love to hear from you.  Leave a comment and tell me the best thing you’ve ever won.   

Celebrating Freedom and a Freebie!

~ Midwest Storyteller ~ 10 Comments

Since Smuffy shares a birthday with the greatest country on earth, things will be busy for me in the next couple of days.  So, let me take this First Friday Freebie post to also wish you a Happy & Free Independence Day! (And, Happy Birthday, Smuffy!)  I invite you to make this Sunday more than a great time for family and fireworks.  Spend some time with those you love celebrating the real meaning of what it means to be an American and the brilliance and freedoms established and granted to us by our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution.  These are short documents, but do we know what’s in them?  We are a country of political will and ideals that are not found anywhere else on earth. 

If I may quote Ronald Reagan from a 1988 speech –

“America represents something universal in the human spirit. I received a letter not long ago from a man who said, ‘You can go to Japan to live, but you cannot become Japanese. You can go to France to live and not become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Turkey, and you won’t become a German or a Turk.’ But then he added, ‘Anybody from any corner of the world can come to America to live and become an American.'”

I just heard some early fireworks going off outside as I finished typing that quote, as if to punctuate this truth.

Now, remembering that today is the first Friday of the month, let’s take a look at your Freebie.

The Spring Shop Red Daisy www.midweststoryteller.com

This bright red metal daisy with its sunny yellow center from The Spring Shop shouts of summer and also of the fact that I’ve been roaming around Hobby Lobby again.  It measures 8.75” across and is ½” deep.  My first thought how this would make your garden area pop if hung on a fence.  Then, I quickly realized that it would look great inside the house as well, adding a little summer to any room.  Kitchen, kids’ room, porch – anywhere that bit of red to catch the eye is needed.

To enter to win the red metal daisy, all you need to do is “Leave a Comment” on this post, saying, “I love freedom and a freebie!”  You’ll need to do that before midnight TONIGHT, July 2nd, 2021.

NOTE:  There seems to be an occasional problem with subscribers not receiving confirmation emails.  If this happens, please email me at barb@midweststoryteller.com so that I can report it and have the issue resolved.

First Friday Freebies are for email SUBSCRIBERS ONLY, so you’ll want to subscribe over on the right sidebar or use the menu to navigate to the “Contact” page where you can subscribe to Midwest Storyteller if you haven’t done so.

I love it when people enjoy my blog stories and recipes and get excited about winning freebies.  Share with all your friends and family through all your social media. If you like an idea, recipe or story you see here, be sure to hover over the photo and “pin it”.  Help me get the word out!

Subscribers win every single month!  On the “Freebies” page, you’ll be able to see what they’ve been winning.

A winner will be chosen at random from those subscribers who enter before midnight tonight, July 2nd by leaving a comment which says, “I love freedom and a freebie!” 

For the complete First Friday Freebie rules, click here. 

Why not subscribe and confirm right now before you forget?

Do you have special Independence Day traditions?  Leave a comment and let me know how you make the day special.

Meet June’s Freebie Winner!

~ Midwest Storyteller

June turned hot here in the Midwest and now it’s closing out as wet, wet, wet.  Let’s dry off for a minute and meet the winner of June’s First Friday Freebie –

Kathy from Prairie Home, Missouri!

Congratulations, Kathy!  I hope you’ve been getting good use out of your lemony freebie, perhaps while serving up some refreshing lemonade on those sweltering days.

Kathy has not only been a winner of my First Friday Freebie before, but has also been a guest here on the blog.  She kindly taught me how to do wood burning and make beautiful spoons like the ones she made here and mine also became a First Friday Freebie!  You can see those here, learn how we made them and find out who won them here.

I’m waiting for the word from Kathy – if she has another artsy thing to teach us, I’d love to have her share it here on the blog.  She’s always doing something fascinating with found items.

The lemony kitchen set that Kathy just won are by Home Collection and you can see the original freebie offer, here. 

You can see past First Friday Freebies and their winners on my Freebies! page here.  If you’re not yet a subscriber to Midwest Storyteller they might entice you to become one – First Friday Freebies are for email subscribers only.

Kathy’s been a subscriber for a while now.  She became one by entering her email in the subscription area here on the blog and then confirmed her subscription when the confirmation email arrived in her inbox.  If you’ve done that and not received a confirmation email, please email me at barb@midweststoryteller.com – it seems that from time to time, a subscription will get “stuck”. 

Subscribing is the best way to avoid missing what’s new here on the blog because you’ll get an email reminder each time there’s something new – like when there’s a FREEBIE on the First Friday of every month.

Comment as directed on the post that offers the Freebie and you’ll be entered to win. 

Freebies help me reach more people with my stories, recipes and more.  When you share with all your friends via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, you’ll give them the opportunity to subscribe and win also.  Subscribing is free.  Freebies are free.  Are you catching on this is a free thing?

Coming soon:  July’s First Friday Freebie – that takes place on Friday, July 2nd.   You’ll be able to see a photo of the Freebie and enter to win at any point all day that day.  Don’t forget to check the email that you used to subscribe for notification that you’ve won.

A winner is chosen at random from those subscribers who enter before midnight on the day of the drawing. 

ONCE AGAIN:  Should your name be drawn as the winner, you will be notified via the email you used to subscribe.  That means you’ll need to check your email often in the week following the drawing so that you can respond and keep the prize from being offered to someone else.

Take a moment make yourself familiar with the complete Freebie Rules by clicking HERE.

These four simple steps will have you ready to enter to win on Friday, July 2nd, 2021. 

I’d love to hear from you, especially if anyone has any ideas about how we can divert some of this rain to parts of the country that so desperately need it right now.  We are having road closures due to all the flooding and it is one soggy mess around here.

How Rating Your Recipes Makes Life Easier and More Fun!

~ Midwest Storyteller
Food Freedom with Coach Barb www.midweststoryteller.com

[NOTE:  I openly disclose on this blog that as a certified lifestyle coach through Trim Healthy Mama, I may receive financial benefit from those who desire to enlist my services privately or in a group setting.]

I’m dedicating this post to Smuffy.  I’ve lost count of the times he’s told me we really needed to rate recipes.  He enjoys the food on the Trim Healthy Mama plan, but just like the rest of us, he likes some things better than others.  On the other hand, some are just not his cup of tea at all.  He’s been recommending for some time now that I come up with some type of rating system so that he can tick the boxes at any given meal to let me know just how well he likes what’s set before him.

I’ve found the cookbooks from Trim Healthy Mama to be fantastic.  Aside from some old family favorites that already fit the plan or just needed a little tweaking, I cook almost exclusively from these books now.  There have been very few that I would have given a low rating and just because I like being honest and saving you time and effort, I’ll mention just a couple.  Brown Rice Crispy Treats – I followed the recipe to the letter and even I, who hate throwing anything away, had to admit they were icky and chuck them over the back fence.  I’m open to suggestions from anybody who can show me how to save that recipe, but I think I’ll taste yours first.  Then there was Slender Slaw – oh, dear!  Perhaps it’s cultural and it’s just an Aussie thing for Serene and Pearl, but I got my exercise in on another trip to the back of the property with that one.

Then, there are the winners.  There are tons of recipes in the Trim Healthy Mama cookbooks that are just fabulous!  I’m addicted to Cry No More Brownies and the Superfood Mounds – oh, my goodness!  Then, there are Two Minute Truffles, Dreamy Chicken Lazone, Cheeseburger Pie, Lazy Lasagna, Queso Chicken Bake.  I could go on and on.

However, Smuffy says we need a system so that we can create a notebook full of winners that he’s happy to dive into any time.  Did I mention the Philly Cheese Meatloaf or Melissa’s Amish Broccoli Salad or Just Like Orange Juice or The Shrinker?  This is making me feel all peckish.

Anyhow, we borrowed the general idea for our rating system from one that was used at an annual benefit for the area food bank where soups are judged and the winners are awarded “golden ladles”.  If I might mention it, I am the recipient of six golden ladles and my #1 favorite is a recipe I invented, Creamy Leek Soup with Chicken and Sweet Potato.  In fact, that soup has won three of my golden ladles!  Try it here and I dare you not to love it!  There’s a free printable waiting just for you.

There are several aspects of food that determine whether or not a person will like it or even want to try it.  We decided to include a ranking on a scale of 1-5 on whether or not we are pleased with each.  Is the appearance pleasing?  What about the aroma?  How does it actually taste?  Mouth feel is an important consideration, so we included a category for texture.  Finally, we asked for a ranking on what we considered the greatest compliment – whether or not we’d order the dish in a restaurant.

So, thanks to Smuffy’s nudging, here’s the rating chart –

Coach Barb's Recipe Rating www.midweststoryteller.com

I’m including a free printable so that you can easily print these out four on a page, cut them apart and keep a stack near the table so that friends and family can have fun with the rating system and you can develop a great collection of winners.  Create a notebook or just slap a sticky note on the page in the cookbook so that you know which recipes you can always fall back on.

I have a funny feeling that anything that does not score 3.5 or above on Smuffy’s card will probably be frowned upon from now on out.

Don’t forget your free printable !

Coming up, I’ll be sharing healthy recipes, letting you know how we’re rating them and providing notations concerning recipes that have already appeared on the blog and whether or not they fit the Trim Healthy Mama plan.  I’ll be making recommendations from THM recipes and providing lots of information on my Food Freedom Facebook page where I’ll share THM knowledge, recipes, tips and all sorts of other goodies.  Please “like” and “follow” at https://www.facebook.com/Food-Freedom-THM-Certified-Lifestyle-Coaching-100703354727086/?modal=admin_todo_tour

Most of all, Happy Eating!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE, so you’ll receive an email reminder each time Midwest Storyteller has something new.