How is your weekend going? It has been a beautiful summer day around here. I’ve had the opportunity to spend some time with my family and came away with a bundle of fresh blackberries, blueberries and raspberries. I wouldn’t expect to see any recipes using them though. They are way too good to eat fresh! Some zucchini and potatoes were among the bounty as well.

Have you come up with your peanut butter and summer produce recipe combination for the Peanut Butter Exhibition? Recipes are due on Monday! I had every intention of participating with my own recipe even though as a host I can’t win.

I got my recipe together Thursday night and it was one of those big idea fails. Does that ever happen to you in the kitchen? I tried some zucchini in brownie cupcakes with alternative flours and peanut butter in a frosting experiment. Not a big hit, but maybe I can perfect it in the future. Regardless, I hope to see your creative recipe in the challenge!

I’ll be helping to judge and announce the winner next week, but other than that I’ll be taking a slight blogger break for the week. I’m hoping you will find my reason a good one. I haven’t let you know yet, but here goes…

I’m writing a book!

I’m under contract to author the Everything Guide to Food Remedies Cookbook for Adams Media. Exciting, right?! I’ve got an initial deadline the end of June, so I need a week of focus with little time for much cooking experiments or related posts. No worries though, I’ll be back next Sunday with a very exciting post I hope you will check out.

Until then, I’ve gathered a few good reads over the past couple weeks to share. I hope you enjoy them. Check in this week for a wonderful roundup of peanut butter recipes and I’ll be back with a post next Sunday!

50 Healthy Foods for Under $1 a Pound from The Daily Green highlights a great list of nutritious foods that won’t break the bank. There is room for disagreement on some items depending on your meat source and organic vs non-organic beliefs, but it is definitely a great start for proving that you don’t have to go broke to be healthy!

Southwest Lentil Patties with Creamy Lime Dressing from Healthy Delicious look so good! I love learning about creative ways to use legumes and this recipe adds a nice summer twist. These will be made in our kitchen soon!

Need a summer cocktail? Here’s 20! You have to check out this roundup of 20 Summer Cocktails with Fresh Herbs from the kitchn.

Food co-op launches mobile health food market from Deseret News is an inspiring story of bringing the food to the people. This mobile market brings healthy food to people at an affordable cost.