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Wednesday, September 24, 2014
I recently had a good amount of tomatoes ripen on my plants and was trying to plan something amazing to make with them. I came across an awesome recipe for Roasted Tomato Basil Soup but didn't have all the ingredients it called for so I made my own twist on it with what I had.
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I fed this to my parents and my dad said it reminded him of Zupas. That's success, I think!
Here's what I did:
Roasted Tomato Basil Soup
Ingredients:
-About 3 lb tomatoes
-2 T olive oil, divided
-3 tsp minced garlic
-2 carrots
-1 med. yellow onion
-2 8oz cans tomato sauce
-2 cans chicken broth
-1/2 c fresh basil (more if you like it a lot)
-1 tsp salt
-1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
-1 cup heavy whipping cream
Directions:
1. Cut tomatoes in half, spread out on a baking sheet, toss in 1 T olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic and roast in oven at 400 degrees for about 15 min.
2. Peel and chop carrots and onion, heat up 1 T olive oil in a stock pot and throw in the carrots and onions. Cook until onions are transparent.
3. Add all remaining ingredients EXCEPT basil and whipping cream, simmer for about 20 min (until carrots are soft.)
4. Add basil and blend in a blender or with a hand blender to desired consistency. (I like mine less chunky.)
5. Transfer back to pot and add cream, let heat through and serve!
*I also cooked some orzo separately if people wanted to add that and parmesan cheese to their soup. I also served the soup with this Zucchini Cheddar bread. Yum! Enjoy!
Monday, September 22, 2014
I am growing green bell peppers in my garden and have been wanting to make stuffed peppers forever. I kept finding different recipes that had elements that I like but not an entire recipe that fit the bill, so I made one up!
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It helped that I fed this to my mom and sister and they both loved it, so I felt confident posting it and not feeling like too much of a poser. This recipe has all of my favorite elements in it. Enjoy!
Ingredients
-1.5 lb. ground turkey
-1 medium yellow onion, chopped
-1 tsp minced garlic
-1 can mild Rotel
-1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
-1 cup cooked brown rice
-1 cup favorite cheese, divided
-1 T dried parsley
-1 tsp Italian seasoning
-1/2 tsp garlic salt
-1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
-Salt and pepper to taste
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Meanwhile, brown the ground turkey with the chopped onion and minced garlic. Drain.
2. Cook the brown rice according to the directions. If you like al dente rice, I would slightly under cook it because it will go in the oven later.
3. Add in rotel, tomato sauce, rice, and seasonings. Stir to combine and then add half the cheese. Let simmer until heated through.
4. Cut the tops off the peppers and gut them. Spray a glass baking pan and set the peppers in the pan. Fill each pepper to overflowing and put any extra filling in the bottom of the pan. (I don't like to let that delicious filling go to waste!) Top with the rest of the cheese
5. Bake on middle rack for 35-40 min.
*This recipe is super healthy because of the ground turkey and brown rice and is completely GLUTEN FREE!
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Hi everyone! My zucchini harvest continues to multiply and while I have been giving lots away, I've been enjoying finding ways to hide the zucchini in just about everything. Helps me feed my boys their vegetables. :o) I have several new recipes for you to try.
(I recently read a blog post about "stealing" people's content from other blogs, sites and so on. I hope that me just posting the link to the recipe and then just posting my picture of how mine turned out and how I adapted it is OK. Let me know if I'm not OK here. The last thing I want to do is step on any toes. You always wonder when you read a post like that if the person is talking about YOU!)
Zucchini-Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies
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First: Does everybody have a Silpat? If not, it is a must. I love, love, love mine! It makes cookie baking so easy. Check it out here. It is basically a non-stick, reusable, silicone sheet that you line your baking sheet with for easy cookie removal. And practically NO clean up. It rocks. Seriously.
This recipe was yummy. It was the same consistency as a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie but the added oats really gave them a great texture. I actually added a lot more flour (about 3/4 cup) because of the high altitude.
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And he approves!
A couple other awesome ones I found:
Turkey Zucchini Meatballs: here
(I added shredded carrot and I made them gluten free but substituting ground flax for the bread crumbs it calls for.)
Mom's Zucchini Bread: here
(Thanks for the recipe, Mollie! This really is the best zucchini bread recipe I have tried. Soooo yummy.)
And just something we have tried and loved is to slice the zucchini long-ways, toss in olive oil, salt and pepper and throw it on the grill. Sooooo delicious!
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
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When we bought our house, one of the things I was most excited about was being able to plant a garden. For some reason, when I want to try something new, I sort of get paralyzed with fear thinking I am going to mess it up. So through lots of trial and error, I have come up with 5 basic things that helped me have a successful garden with absolutely no knowledge or experience.
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1. Ask For Advice.
I went over to my neighbor's house and asked her the "what, where, when and how" of each thing she planted in her yard. I knew it would be helpful to talk to someone who lived in the same area with a similar situation. I also asked my uncle who has lived in Utah for years and planted many gardens in his lifetime.
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2. TAKE The Advice!!!
This might be a "duh" moment for you, but honestly for the life of me, I had the hardest time believing my uncle when he told me to plant my tomatoes farther apart. Guess where that got me?
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Helllloooooo tomato forest! I seriously have the hardest time digging my ripe tomatoes out of that gnarled mess of plant. I still have lots of great tomatoes but it makes for a lot more work for me.
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3. Inexpensive Works GREAT!
I bought my seeds at the dollar store, my garden boxes were made from free cinder blocks my uncle had laying around, I planted my seeds indoors first in empty eggshell cartons...the list goes on. I did NOT spend a lot of money on my garden and I'm glad I didn't because I got exactly what I wanted, fresh, delicious vegetables.
4. Pruning and Thinning Don't Hurt, They HELP!
When my dad told me I needed to thin my radishes, carrots and beets I thought, "You can't be serious? Then I will have WAY less of each vegetable." Well, to put it plainly, you can either have a lot of really crappy beets or a medium amount of really awesome beets. That's all I'm sayin'. Not to mention, pruning my tomato and zucchini plants made my life a heck of a lot easier once I could actually SEE what was going on in there.
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5. Don't Be A Wimp.
There are several reasons I say this. A. You have nothing to lose except maybe a dollar or two if your seeds don't sprout, jump in with both feet and just do it. It is seriously fun and so rewarding. B. Plants are much more resilient than you think. I was always so worried about killing something that I didn't prune, weed, thin, water, transplant like I should've. I now know that plants need a little tough love in order to thrive.
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Those are just 5 basic things that I learned this year. I am so excited to take these things I've learned and plant an even more successful garden next year. If you want more details on any of this, don't hesitate to ask! I'm really excited about this project, it has been therapeutic and fun for me so I love to share what I have learned. I also am happy to share our garden bounty so let me know! Happy gardening!
Sunday, September 14, 2014
DISCLAIMER: I am not a fashion blogger, nor do I claim to be one.
I'm going to be honest, I do the majority of my shopping at Ross, TJ Maxx, Old Navy and pretty much anywhere that I can get cute clothes that LOOK expensive but actually aren't. Here's why: I always get more compliments on my $3 shirts than I do on the few, expensive, full-price Nordstrom items I have. I get a thrill out of finding a name-brand dress for a fraction of the original cost. You could say I have a small addiction to bargain-shopping. And it doesn't stop with just shopping for myself, I try to find bargains for S boy and the Hubs too.
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Scotty's clothes are from H&M. I love Baby Gap just as much as the next girl, in fact, S has a lot of great pieces from there. But I love that H&M has the "Little Man" look without breaking the bank. Oh and that sippy cup?! TJ Maxx! 3-pack for $7 instead of one for $7 Similar.
(I got his moccs from a buy-in from Kinghoo Shoes. They are real leather and guess what?! Only $7.50!!! Yeah, I bought a few pairs.
So the secret is out. This whole outfit I wore to church today happens to be from Ross.
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Dress: Anne Klein: Orig $169, ROSS: $39.99 similar
(The dress is fully lined and came with the belt. Love the fit and shape.)
Shoes: Nine West: Orig $89, ROSS $16 similar
(The dress is fully lined and came with the belt. Love the fit and shape.)
Shoes: Nine West: Orig $89, ROSS $16 similar
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LOVE these shoes. The nude color is perfect and I love the double bows.
Lots of people are shocked when they find out I get my clothes at Ross, and often say they never have luck finding cute things there. Of course it will be hit or miss at times. I can honestly say though, that the "misses" are few and far between for me. I have to look in several different sections of the store to find cute things. I often find things I love in the Junior section. I get a lot of my home decor, household items, and baby toys there too. It really doesn't take me that long to find things either. With that said, every store is different and may be in different stages of disarray. Give it a shot! You might find something you love!
Thursday, September 4, 2014
This past week, Scotty went on a nursing strike and I had a hard time finding much information about them and why they happen so I thought I'd share my experience to add to what is out there already.
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About 3 weeks ago Scotty woke up with a nasty cold and productive cough. It lasted a few days. We survived with a humidifier and lots of Tylenol. His cold evolved into a green runny nose for a day or two and then went away.
A full week went by with Scotty acting normal. Then he started waking up crying in the middle of the night and had a clear runny nose. I was sure it was teething. He had also started biting me while nursing. Again, I attributed it to teething.
Then one morning he just stopped nursing. No interest whatsoever and would even cry when I would offer. He was an exclusively breastfed baby before solids and was still nursing really well three times a day so I was extremely shocked when he just suddenly stopped nursing. Through that day he started shaking his head "no" (at first I thought it was cute and that he was learning to communicate "no"). As the day went on, I realized he would incline his head to the left and shake his head mostly when he was eating solids.
The problem (totally not a problem usually) is that Scotty is an extremely good-natured baby. He doesn't fuss much so sometimes I don't know when something is wrong.
I finally had the thought that the head shaking and the nursing strike could be related. As I googled the two symptoms, I came up with one possible cause in common: an ear infection. It so happened we had an appointment for his 9 month check up the next day so I asked the doc to check his ears and sure enough, he had an ear infection which was residual from the cough/cold he had had 3 weeks ago! She prescribed antibiotics and suggested that I may just need to wean Scotty from breastfeeding now since he was on strike.
I had already tried formula with him because I don't pump very well and he wouldn't drink it, so I knew I HAD to keep nursing somehow.
For the 3 days that he did not even try to nurse, I pumped three times a day. By the third day, my milk was all but gone. I wasn't even pumping an ounce from both sides combined. I was sure I wouldn't be able to nurse again.
On the 4th day, Scotty decided to nurse again (probably from the antibiotics finally kicking in). I had basically no milk but with him nursing again I started producing milk again and I was able to stop giving him bottles.
How I Survived A Nursing Strike:
1. Find the cause. I think the biggest motivator for me was knowing that there was a good reason behind why he wouldn't nurse. It hurt his ears to latch and suck. That gave me hope that once the infection was gone, he would nurse again.
2. Offer, offer, offer. This was the most discouraging thing for me because honestly he really didn't show any interest at all, any of the times I offered. But I think letting him know that it is still there and that I intended to continue to nurse helped him realize it wasn't time to wean.
3. Keep supply up. Some women can exclusively pump and not lose their milk. Not so for me, I looked up foods to increase milk supply. I ate a lot of almonds. :o)
4. Feed the baby! This is terrible but I was so afraid that if I gave him too many bottles he wouldn't want the breast anymore, that I was tempted to with hold until he was hungry enough to nurse. I'm so glad I didn't do that! It would have made him more upset and feel betrayed. I fed him no matter what and made sure he had what he needed.
5. Don't give up! After a couple days I did consider just starting to wean, which would have been totally easy and fine. But my goal was to nurse for a year and I really wanted to do all I could to get to that point if possible. I'm glad I held out one more day before I really started to try to enforce formula!
A full week went by with Scotty acting normal. Then he started waking up crying in the middle of the night and had a clear runny nose. I was sure it was teething. He had also started biting me while nursing. Again, I attributed it to teething.
Then one morning he just stopped nursing. No interest whatsoever and would even cry when I would offer. He was an exclusively breastfed baby before solids and was still nursing really well three times a day so I was extremely shocked when he just suddenly stopped nursing. Through that day he started shaking his head "no" (at first I thought it was cute and that he was learning to communicate "no"). As the day went on, I realized he would incline his head to the left and shake his head mostly when he was eating solids.
The problem (totally not a problem usually) is that Scotty is an extremely good-natured baby. He doesn't fuss much so sometimes I don't know when something is wrong.
I finally had the thought that the head shaking and the nursing strike could be related. As I googled the two symptoms, I came up with one possible cause in common: an ear infection. It so happened we had an appointment for his 9 month check up the next day so I asked the doc to check his ears and sure enough, he had an ear infection which was residual from the cough/cold he had had 3 weeks ago! She prescribed antibiotics and suggested that I may just need to wean Scotty from breastfeeding now since he was on strike.
I had already tried formula with him because I don't pump very well and he wouldn't drink it, so I knew I HAD to keep nursing somehow.
For the 3 days that he did not even try to nurse, I pumped three times a day. By the third day, my milk was all but gone. I wasn't even pumping an ounce from both sides combined. I was sure I wouldn't be able to nurse again.
On the 4th day, Scotty decided to nurse again (probably from the antibiotics finally kicking in). I had basically no milk but with him nursing again I started producing milk again and I was able to stop giving him bottles.
How I Survived A Nursing Strike:
1. Find the cause. I think the biggest motivator for me was knowing that there was a good reason behind why he wouldn't nurse. It hurt his ears to latch and suck. That gave me hope that once the infection was gone, he would nurse again.
2. Offer, offer, offer. This was the most discouraging thing for me because honestly he really didn't show any interest at all, any of the times I offered. But I think letting him know that it is still there and that I intended to continue to nurse helped him realize it wasn't time to wean.
3. Keep supply up. Some women can exclusively pump and not lose their milk. Not so for me, I looked up foods to increase milk supply. I ate a lot of almonds. :o)
4. Feed the baby! This is terrible but I was so afraid that if I gave him too many bottles he wouldn't want the breast anymore, that I was tempted to with hold until he was hungry enough to nurse. I'm so glad I didn't do that! It would have made him more upset and feel betrayed. I fed him no matter what and made sure he had what he needed.
5. Don't give up! After a couple days I did consider just starting to wean, which would have been totally easy and fine. But my goal was to nurse for a year and I really wanted to do all I could to get to that point if possible. I'm glad I held out one more day before I really started to try to enforce formula!
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Hello again! I feel like I have to get re-acquainted with blogging since it has been so long! I have been wanting to try this recipe forever and I was feeling particularly domestic today, so I did!
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Zucchini Boats
I got the recipe from the "Our Best Bites" cookbook. Click Here for a link to the recipe.
(The only alterations I made were omitting the bread crumbs, and using ground beef with Italian sausage seasoning instead of Italian sausage.)
I looooved this dinner because it was almost all straight from my garden: zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, basil. It tasted so fresh and delicious.
ALSO this recipe is cooked mainly on the grill which means no hot kitchen for me! Yay!
I have also tried a number of zucchini recipes that need to be shared. There were some winners and some losers but here are the winners!
Zucchini Muffins with Streusel Topping: HERE
Glazed Lemon Zucchini Bread: HERE
Zucchini Brownies: HERE (turned out more like a cake but still yummy!)
I've done a few crafts/diy projects I'm pretty excited to blog about so stay tuned for those.
And if you want an update on our lives, go ahead and keep reading. :o)
Jer has been waiting and waiting for football season to arrive and it finally has! We kicked it off by having some friends over to watch the first game. The kids had lots of fun playing together. They were too cute in their BYU gear,
I FINALLY went out and pruned my tomatoes and zucchini plants. I found a lot of little tomatoes hiding in that forest of plants. I also found a gigantic zucchini that I didn't realize was there and had gotten huge!
Scotty had his 9 month check-up and is growing and growing! 29.5 inches tall and about 18 lbs. These are his towels we used when he was a newborn. Guess its time to upgrade! This kid grows like a weed!
Scotty finally got to meet his 3rd cousin, Ashton! (My cousin's, daughter's baby :o)) It was so fun and they were so cute together. I only wish we could've had more time for them to play.
Scotty decided he was ready to eat a peach like a big boy. I had already cut one up for him to eat in his high chair. After he was done eating and out of his chair, he grabbed another one on his own and ate the entire thing, and another one after that! (If you lost count that's 3 peaches in a sitting!) I finally stuck him in the bath to eat them because the juice was getting everywhere.
I started teaching again this week and it has been great. Scotty loves spending time with his aunties and I really enjoy doing something I love for an hour a day. It is interesting, I feel much more motivated to be productive when I have places I need to go each day. It gets me up, to the gym and ready for the day much earlier than I would be if I didn't have anything on the schedule.
Jer is still working hard at AC as a manager in the sourcing department. He works long hours and it gets pretty exhausting for the whole family at times but he is getting valuable experience and enjoys the people he works with.
And that's our life in a nutshell! I'm hoping that with this new motivation for productivity that I will be blogging more regularly. Wish me luck!
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