Good Things List No.65: Harvests, Fall Garden, Pure Protein Powders, Books & More

A monthly list of good things to see, buy, read and watch.

Some links in this article are affiliate links and if you click on them I will receive a small commission at no cost to you.

And so summer starts slipping away...

After months of sunny mornings, dry days, and temperatures in the 80s to 90s, our weather switched to clouds, 70s and lows in the 40s for the last few days. The forecast is for more of the same below-average temps for the next week.

I'm not quite ready for summer to leave, so I hope it will warm up again before the calendar actually changes to fall!

In the meantime, I'm enjoying all the produce that's available in our area now and all the yummy things we can make with them.

Good Things

Harvesting

This is what you can currently see on my kitchen island - bowls of apples (picked from friends and wild trees), ripening red and chocolate peppers from my garden, and loads of tomatoes. Not pictured are the Italian plums we were lucky to score last weekend and are drying in the dehydrator (read all about drying plums here).

Here are just a few things to make with these:

• Canned Roasted Red Peppers In Wine
• 3 Unique Recipes for Canning Apples (Including A Marmalade and A Chutney)
• Slow Cooker Maple Sweetened Apple Butter
• Crumb Topped Apple Pie - Bake Now or Freeze for Later (wouldn't it be fun to have your holiday pie already made and waiting in the freezer??)
• Canning Diced Tomatoes - Easy Fire Roasted Water Bath Method
• Garden Harvest Roasted Tomato Sauce - Fresh or Freeze
• Home Canned Pizza Sauce from frozen or fresh tomatoes

You can find more in the Canning & Preserving archive here.

Fall Garden

Here in the Willamette Valley of Oregon we typically have mild fall and winter temperatures, so it's great to play around with planting more vegetables in July, August, and September for possible fall and winter harvests.

The first photo above left shows a couple of current garden beds planted with pole beans, cucumbers, and tomatillos. These will continue to produce until our first frost.

I also planted three beds with seedlings I had started inside as well as direct sown seeds. They include cabbage, broccoli, spinach, carrots, beets, and lots of lettuces.

I'm actually a couple weeks late since I killed the first batch of seedlings by letting them dry out (it happens...), but the cooler weather gave these babies a nice start so I'm hoping they will have time to produce through the next few months.

Here's more on fall gardening.

Pure Protein Powder Options

Brian and I are working hard to eat more protein - we know as we age we need more for muscle growth, especially because both of us are doing strength training 3-4 times a week.

The things we always thought were good sources of protein like eggs and nuts don't really have much, especially if you'd like to not have fat with it (eggs are only 6 grams of protein per egg, and 1/4 cup of nuts is only 5g).

We're making sure most of our protein comes from real food sources like meat, poultry, legumes, and whole grains, but to get the amount we need, it's nice to start the day with a protein boost through protein powders.

The thing is, as soon as I started reading the labels of the many, many types of powders I realized how much crap they are putting in these things -wow! It was kind of shocking to me since they are supposed to be a health thing.

You literally can not buy them from the shelf if you don't want sweeteners, flavors, preservatives and who knows what else - you have to go online.

After researching, I have found three brands with pure protein powders that I buy regularly, two are whey-based and the other is peanut based. I thought I'd share what they are and how we use them in case you'd like to find pure protein powders, too, that you can add to your routines.

1. PBfit 100% peanut powder. It's easy to add this to smoothies and in baking to up the protein, but we use it when we have granola for breakfast mostly. We add 1-2 tablespoons and mix it into my favorite granola before topping with berries, chia seeds and flax seeds. It adds 9 grams to a meal that was already 15 grams of protein. Note: you have to be careful and read the label - there are varieties with added sugar and less protein and some with fake sugars.
2. Naked Whey Grass Fed Whey Protein Powder. This contains only one ingredient: whey protein. It was such a relief to find this after looking on store shelves. There is no flavor and it blends easily into smoothies, hot drinks and baking. The downside to this brand is the price and that it can sometimes be hard to find. We've started adding a scoop a day to our morning coffee as an easy way of getting 12.5g of protein.
3. Bulk Supplements Whey Protein Concentrate Powder, Unflavored. When I couldn't find the Naked Whey, I found this brand that's almost as pure - it contains sunflower lecithin in addition to the whey protein. But it's only about half the price as the Naked Whey. It dissolves just as easily and leaves no flavor that we can taste in our coffee or baked goods. This provides 11.5g of protein in a scoop.

You'll notice that other than the peanut powder, it's animal based products and that's because we eat meat so it's not a big deal. I found the pea protein used in many of the plant-based powders to have a distinct flavor, plus they add a lot of ingredients. If you need vegetarian, though, try to find one that has the least amount of additives like this Naked brand of pea protein.

Also note about collagen: I learned that powdered collagen powder is not a complete protein, so it isn't counted in a daily protein count. However, an online search shows a number of articles that say it can be counted as a complete protein. Super confusing, but this article is essentially what I was told in a strength training group I was in, so while I do drink collagen for bones, skin, etc, I don't count it for protein.

August Reads

The Art Fiasco (Poppy Denby Investigates 5), Fiona Veitch Smith. This was a fun addition to the Poppy Denby series because she goes to her hometown for her dad's birthday and we get to see her parents and learn more about where she's from. The story of an artist with a connection to her mother in her youth and the story there held my interest through the whole book and the solution to the mystery was satisfying and sad at the same time. I think there's just one book left in this series, though the library doesn't have it - I may have to just buy it because there was a little cliffhanger ending with Poppy's on-again-off-again boyfriend!

The Lonely Hearts Book Club, Lucy Gilmore. The premise of this book is right up my alley - a bookish librarian befriends a crusty old man and gradually (very gradually) wins him over and fills his lonely life with love and people. The other characters all need people and seeing how they stumble into this book club and how it's so much more than a club for them is sweet. It wasn't an amazing book, but I liked it - though not the ending which just seemed to abruptly end leaving quite a few threads loose.

Hello Beautiful, Ann Napolitano. I've been seeing this book talked about on social media for months and I finally got my hold from the library filled. This is not a fast book - it's slow and careful and tells a family's story over many years with many twists and turns. Some are hard and some are so sweet your heart will ache. It delves into how we deal with tragedy, how our family's shape us, and the bonds of siblings. It's listed as a tearjerker and while it is sad, I didn't cry - maybe because I didn't feel deeply connected to any one character, they all had a play in the story. The story and themes stick with you, though, and the hopeful ending made it better for me - this will probably be on my best of the year book list.

The Blandings Collection: Vol.2, PG Wodehouse (narrated by Stephen Fry). This is a 45 hour (!) collection of books - we listened to the first two books of the five included in this collection - Summer Lightning and Heavy Weather (we'll listen to the others at another time). Brian and I started this after finishing The Stand - we needed something light and funny after that, and this provides it in spades! We have listened to Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster stories many times, but haven't spent a lot of time with the Blandings characters. It's got all of Wodehouse's trademark humor and skewering of the class system in Britain and the crazy situations the characters get into kept us laughing. Classic for a reason! And Stephen Fry's narration is SO GOOD, of course - he really brings the characters to life.

-Note on P.G. Wodehouse: When I was first assigned to read him in college, I was not a fan of reading humor and had never really appreciated slapstick comedy - and I still don't, mostly. The Jeeves and Wooster books overcame my bias and reading his first Bertie Wooster book found me laughing out loud multiple times. If you haven't read any of his books, I highly recommend!

The Jewels of Halstead Manor (Ladies of Devon Book 1), Kasey Stockton - plus other four books in the series. The books are about a four friends in Devon, England in the Regency era who are all in their mid-twenties (almost "on the shelf") and how they find love. (A short fifth book ends the series 10 years later that tells the story of a younger sister.) I could get these one after the other though the Hoopla app with no waiting, so they were easy to listen to while gardening, harvesting and preserving.

I enjoyed the first book the most - it seemed to have more things happening including a mystery, questions about the heroine's father and the man she was loosely attached to, and a crusty uncle to warm up with kindness (love that in a story, lol). After that, the fourth book was a favorite with a reclusive duke who is reluctantly brought back to society through the spunky heroine. The others were just okay, but I enjoyed the settings, story, connection with the other books, the happy endings, and closed door romances.

Honey, Baby, Mine, Laura Dern & Diane Ladd. I had read about this book and how this mother and daughter started walking after a medical diagnosis for Ms. Ladd and through that discovered more about each other AND how the walking helped cure Ms. Ladd. Honestly, it was just so-so for me. Following the conversation format (literal conversations- Laura: blah, blah; Diane: blah, blah, blah) got old and most of it just wasn't that interesting. I kind of skimmed the last part of the book. I guess a bit naval-gazing to me?

Watching

Barbie - I saw this along with half the world, it seems! Fun theater time and cute movie - I was disappointed at the ending, but my daughter says this is just me, lol.

Oppenheimer - We really enjoyed the story and movie making of this time in history, but was saddened by the gratuitous nudity and sex scenes (three!). Definitely not needed, especially in a movie that would be good to share with your kids and family.

That's it for another addition of the Good Things List!

If you'd like to see more of what I'm enjoying, you can check out all the Good Things Lists here. I'd love to know what you think - if you've tried any of these or what you'd recommend. Leave a comment below with your thoughts!

Disclosure: affiliate links in this article will earn commission based on sales, but it doesn't change your price. Click here to read my full disclaimer and advertising disclosure.