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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.

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!

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

 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. 

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

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. 

 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. 
 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?

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. 
 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. 
 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.
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.
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. 
 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
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.

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!

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!

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 ToppingHERE
Glazed Lemon Zucchini BreadHERE
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!

Sunday, July 27, 2014
As promised, I continue to test out Martha Stewart's 37 zucchini recipes this summer with my abundance of zucchini. Jer was getting a little sick of zucchini dinners so I decided to try out a dessert recipe for our guests that were coming over for dinner. These zucchini cupcakes were a hit!
Shhhhh, don't tell anyone but we each had two.

I didn't adapt this recipe at all. It was perfect the way it was.

Sweet Zucchini Cupcakes
Martha Stewart

Ingredients

    • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, (spooned and leveled)
    • 1 cup packed dark-brown sugar
    • 2 teaspoons baking powder
    • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
    • 1/2 teaspoon salt
    • 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans or walnuts
    • 1 zucchini (10 ounces), coarsely grated (1 1/2 cups)
    • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
    • 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
    • 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
    • Cream Cheese Frosting (http://www.marthastewart.com/282982/cream-cheese-frosting)

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cups of a standard (12-cup) muffin tin with paper or foil liners. Set aside.
  2. In a medium bowl, mix together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Mix in nuts.
  3. In another bowl, combine zucchini, oil, eggs, and vanilla; add to flour mixture, and mix just until combined (do not overmix).
  4. Divide batter evenly among cups. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes.
  5. Cool in tin on a wire rack for 10 minutes; turn cupcakes out, right side up, and cool completely. Meanwhile, make frosting. Using an offset spatula or butter knife, spread frosting on cupcakes. The frosted cupcakes are best eaten within 1 day.
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Many of you know I tried my hand at my first garden this summer. So far, the only thing I have been able to harvest is zucchini. I'm reeeeaaallly excited about it. There is something about cooking with something that you grew yourself that is so satisfying. My hubby doesn't love just eating zucchini on its own so I have been trying to get creative with all this zucchini we have!

My mom sent me an awesome link to 37 zucchini recipes. Here is the link. I honestly wanted to try every single recipe. So, I may just do that. I've already tried two.

The one I tried tonight was so good I HAD to share. Everyone in the little fam-damily loved it.

Zucchini Fritters
Adapted from Martha Stewart

Ingredients

    • 2 medium zucchini (about 8 ounces each), trimmed
    • 1 medium onion
    • 1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese (1 ounce)-I used just a colby cheddar mix.
    • 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
    • 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley-I didn't have fresh so I used about 1 T dried.
    • 1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh oregano- A couple shakes dried.
    • Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
    • 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
    • Extra-virgin olive oil, for frying
    • Plain yogurt and apricot jam, for serving- I didn't have yogurt so I used sour cream and it was delish.

Directions

  1. Grate zucchini on the large holes of a box grater, then squeeze dry in a clean kitchen towel or press in a ricer. Repeat with onion.
  2. Mix together zucchini, onion, cheese, flour, and herbs. Season with 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Stir in eggs just before frying.
  3. Heat a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Working in batches, coat skillet with 1 to 2 tablespoons oil. Scoop mounds (2 tablespoons each) of the zucchini mixture into skillet; flatten slightly using a spatula. Cook until golden brown and cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes per side.
  4. Transfer fritters to paper-towel-lined plates to drain. Serve with dollops of plain yogurt and apricot jam.
 Here's the evidence that everyone loved it, even the big man of the house. 

I was definitely skeptical of the apricot jam but since I just made a bunch I decided to try it. It really made the dish in my opinion. Don't skip it! 

Enjoy and stay tuned for many more zucchini recipes to come.
Friday, June 20, 2014
We had so much fun this Spring and have been very busy lately. Thought I'd keep you guys updated. But first:
Check out these handsome boys! I won a giveaway awhile back from When the Boys Sleep for two bow ties. I chose these matching father-son bow ties and have been saving them for Father's Day. I was sooooo excited when it was finally time for them to wear them! Check out her shop (link above) for some seriously handsome boy's accessories. (I think I saw some 4th of July ones?! Might need to snag one or three.) 

P.S. That little dress shirt has been the best thing ever. I got it as a gift but it is Baby Gap here. The best fitting church onesie out there, I swear. (Oh and the socks are Gap, too. Gotta love Baby Gap!)
Ok. Now lets get to the update!

Scotty is seriously the BEST at selfies. He is the king of them in fact. He poses for the camera pretty much every time. Can't believe what a HAM he is! It's hilarious. We spent a day shopping at the outlets with Granna and Auntie Katie. 

As part of his Father's Day gift, I took Jer golfing. Such a beautiful course. It was fun to drive the golf cart and enjoy the scenery. Granna and Papa watched Scotty for us. We had a blast!
 Scotty LOVES when Granna and Papa come to visit. He gets spoiled rotten!

We had fun going to Black Bear Cafe with Grandma Marva to celebrate a late Mother's Day. The food was so good! Scotty was...not so good. Haha.
It has been so fun to have Anna here for the Spring semester. We have been running together 3x/week and have fit in a few ballroom lessons and babysitting sessions. Scotty loves his Auntie! He is also really taking a liking to books. He will sit for a few minutes and look through a book.
Scotty is our greatest joy. He is quickly hitting many milestones, which is making us feel like we blink and he has grown even more! He is now crawling. Which makes us nervous, but he is really excited to be able to move around and explore. No teeth yet which we are OK with. And P.S. that hat is TDF when he keeps it on. (GAP) I'm sensing a trend here...

Friday, June 6, 2014
So I've been frustrated lately because I have needed prunes for Scotty for a while now and every time I go to the store, it seems the shelves are cleared! It really is so annoying. So when I was at Costco yesterday I saw the dried plums and decided to just make my own prune baby food. It's a good thing Scotty likes prunes because he loves bananas too, if ya know what I mean. :o)

I did some quick math and discovered that it is SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper to make your own prune baby food. I haven't done the math for everything I have made but I wouldn't be surprised if it were the case across the board. Here is how I worked it out.
This bag was $5.99 at Costco. There are approximately 200 prunes. I used 10 prunes.

I filled 2 of these 6 oz jars with 10 steamed and blended prunes. Each of these jars of prepared baby food is a little over a dollar at Smiths. 

So, I used 1/20th of the bag of prunes. $5.99/20 is about $0.30. AKA $0.30 for 12 oz of baby food vs. about $2.30 for the same amount. 

I did consider the fact that I may not use all the prunes for baby food. And we don't eat prunes, so we wouldn't have a use for the rest. But consider splitting a bag with a friend. Plenty of prunes to go around. ;o)

I was pretty excited about that. Just thought I'd share in case anyone was interested. 

On to the fun stuff! We have been doing lots of fun things already this summer. Firstly, Scotty just finished swim lessons and the Orem Rec Center! We took a class with 3 other friends. 

The class was MWF for 30 min. and ran for 3 weeks. So we had 9 sessions total. Scotty was the youngest in the class and really had a hard time warming up to it. Literally and figuratively. He was freezing most of the time. But by the end, he was starting to hold himself up by grabbing on the wall of the pool. And was learning to hold his breath before going under water. 
 It was a fun excuse for us Mommies to get together and chat and the kids loved playing too. While Scotty is still a little young to understand what is going on, I am glad we took the lessons because now I feel a little more comfortable going into the summer taking him swimming on my own. 





Sunday, June 1, 2014
This week has been so beyond crazy for us. We like to take on entertaining gigs to motivate ourselves to get things done. Oh, and also because we LOVE our friends and we love to play. :o) Work hard, play hard. That being said, we had a Memorial Day BBQ on Monday, we were preparing for our renters to move in this weekend (AKA finishing the basement), getting our boys and badges prepared for a stake Scout Court of Honor (today), and a Tea Party baby shower for one of my Nearest and dearest. With a few hiccups along the way, we have been able to get most everything done that we needed to. Here are a few shots of the shower. Thanks Carly for being the photog since I totally dropped the ball and took zero pictures.

 The group. Carly, Liss, Makenzie and I did the shower together. It was so fun!
 Our guest(s) of honor. Amy and Baby Girl!
 Tea sandwiches (Kenzie), Fruit Pizza (Liss), Caprese Kebabs (Car), Lemon Raspberry Bars (Me) recipe for the raspberry bars here. Everything was so yummy!
My sister Katie and I made a sign for the shower that Amy took home and can use in her room if she wants. For one of the activities be had a bow/headband making station with ribbon, fabric, etc. to make a bow for Amy's little girl. 
For decorations we used lots of fresh flowers, tea lights, cute tea cups and dishes, and candy. Carly also brought pretty lace runners and doilies that looked awesome with the decor. One of my favorite things about this house are the flowers that have popped up in the yard. I take no credit for any of it but it has been beyond fun to go out and just cut roses and put them in a vase on the table. Fresh flowers make it feel so homey and its awesome when you don't have to pay for them! 

As for the other two things, our yard looks much better thanks to our BBQ (pics to come), our renters are moving in as we speak and the Court of Honor is tonight. I have all the merit badges ready to go and I'm excited for the boys. The funny thing about a busy week is that most of the time the next week is just as busy. :o) But I think a busy life is better than a boring one, don't you?

Friday, May 23, 2014
I always planned to just buy the pre-made baby food at the store. I'm all about easy around here. But when I noticed how much my child eats and how dang expensive that baby food is, I decided to try making it. I got lots of advice from my friend Brittany who also has a baby about Scotty's age and exclusively makes her own baby food. Enter two of my best friends these days:

 Munchkin Steamer and Chopper here.
And Blendtec here.

I went to Sprouts yesterday (on Thursdays students and teachers get 10% off!) and stocked up on fruits and veggies. 

I experimented with two different kinds:

Green beans with avocado and applesauce
and
Peach-Blueberry

I decided to try green beans and peaches homemade because so far Scotty isn't digging those two in the store-bought version. 

I chopped and steamed the green beans in the chopper and steamer (you just pop it in the microwave, so easy!), threw them, some avo and applesauce (for texture and flavor) in the blendtec on "smoothie" and let er rip! It was quick and easy and Scotty really liked it!

When I steamed the peaches and blueberries (peels and all) they smelled like pie! I tasted it and definitely gave it the thumbs up. P.S. I haven't had the guts to try ANY of Scotty's store-bought food. That's bad, right?

I got the covered ice-cube tray tip from Brittany. It's perfect because they have silicone bottoms and then you can pop the cubes out, throw them in a baggy and save them for later use! I'm excited to try some more recipes!

And I know I have posted this meal before but it is just too good not to share. It's one of my favorite quick dinners. 
BLEAT Sandwich.
Aka, Bacon, Lettuce, Egg, Avo and Tomato. We do a BLT with avocado and a fried egg. YUM. One of my favorite parts is the paper plate. ;o) No one likes to do dishes. Maybe I should blend this one up for Scotty? haha

Happy Friday and Long Weekend!

Wednesday, May 21, 2014
With Spring/Summer in the air, it has been so fun to see what pops up in our yard. Since we bought the house in the winter, we had no clue what was previously planted. We have discovered an awesome grapevine, a loaded cherry tree and a hybrid apple tree that grows 4 different varieties of apples! We also have some beautiful mature trees and bulbs that add color to our yard. While we are super excited about all this stuff, we are a bit overwhelmed. We have a pretty unruly backyard and I'm feeling a little overwhelmed to say the least. I started two raised garden boxes (not pretty) loaded with veggies that I am really excited about.


 I share these (slightly embarrassing) photos with you to get your advice. I'm really excited about gardening but pretty much know nothing about it. We have kind of an ugly chain link fence that I feel like I want to mask. So what do I do?! Gardeners of the world, help a sister out.

Here are my veggie boxes. AKA free. My uncle had some old cinder blocks so I made use of them. I planted lots of veggies and I get so excited when I see a new sprout pop up! I started most of those plants from seed. Probably won't do that again, but it was a good experience. :o)

And what's for dinner?
Grilled fish tacos. LOVE.
Here's what I did:
1. Rub hake loins with taco seasoning. (I got frozen ones from Costco. Could use halibut, tilapia, whatever you have.)
2. Make mango-avocado salsa: mango, avo, red onion, cilantro, tomato, apple cider vinegar, pinch of sugar, lotsa lime, S&P.
3. Mix salsa with sour cream for sauce.
4. Grill fish turning only once.
5. Assemble tacos on corn tortillas: fish, salsa, red cabbage, sauce. YUM.