Still Alive...

I'm still alive here. I just have been busy. Busy having summer fun with kids, siblings, parents, cousins, friends, grandparents, etc. It's been a great summer. Lots I need to post about. I have taken so many pictures. But for now, since my husband has most of our pictures on his laptop (which is 1500 miles away) and I have the camera but can't easily upload the pictures, I thought just a few words would be fine.

Before I forget, I wanted to jot down a list of yummy foods that we have eaten while we've been visiting family, most of which were made at home.

• Spring Rolls with peanut dipping sauce - homemade by my sister, but we got to assemble them so we'd know how to make them later.


• Pad Thai - homemade by my lovely sister


• Clean-out-the-fridge-and-pantry veggie quesadillas


• Crab cakes - from scratch, made by my awesome cousin


• Build your own burger at "The Counter" restaurant in Seattle with many choices for everything, including 5 different choices of meats. We ate there right after our 1/2 marathon and marathon!


• EASY creamy chicken enchiladas


• S'mores bars


• Sandwiches with all the fixings on whole wheat sandwhich thins, the ones that look like thin hamburger buns


• Banana oat bars - made from food storage foods


• Cafe Rio-like foods at my cousin's house, and we did also go to Cafe Rio once! - YUM!


• Dick's drive-in in Seattle - I remember liking the burgers a lot more in the past. The shakes are super delicious and the fries are greasy, but still yummy. But I actually like In 'n' Out burgers a ton more than Dick's. The choices, or lack of, seemed similar to In 'n' Out's.


• Ivar's - best fish and chips and clam chowder! Although, I was disappointed that one time when I was there, I ordered Smoked Salmon Chowder and I didn't realize it until I was on the freeway, that they had given me Clam Chowder.


• Green Curry - made by my talented sister
  


• Bubble Tea - I thought it was yummy, but Grant and some of my kids thought it was weird with the tapioca pearls in it.


• Super yummy Corn on the Cob. It was so easy to just soak it in water with everything still on it, cook it on the grill over the fire (camping), and then peel it (schuck?) and eat it! Oh so yummy. And EASY! That's the way to go! I'm doing that from now on!

• Homemade BBQ chicken pizza that my sweet cousin made. Loved the crust!
  

• Grilled Cheese Tuna Sandwich. YUM! It doesn't sound like much, but... Man it was good! We had Tuna and pepper jack cheese with avocado and lettuce. It was mouth watering. I think I'll make this again and also add thinly sliced tomatoes and onions. Maybe even substitute alfalfa sprouts for the lettuce. Really, the possibilities are endless. I just am mad that I never tried any of those things before. You could also do chicken, turkey, or salmon instead of tuna. Oh yum!!

• Fresh Crab caught by my wonderful uncle!

• S'mores with butterfinger bars (thin), s'mores with carmel/chocolate bar, and s'mores with some other type of chocolate bar that I can't seem to remember right now. :-)

• Mango Salsa - the most wonderful ever! My amazing aunt made it. We had a delicious meal at her house! We always do!
  

I wish I had pictures of these amazing foods! I feel like I'm forgetting many great meals people have provided along the way. I'll try to add them later, as I think of them. I am so grateful for the friends and family that have fed us and provided a place to stay. We are so blessed and loved spending time with everyone we have been able to see on this trip.

Hopefully I'll get around to posting recipes of some of these soon! Let me know if there's one that is listed that you would like a recipe for.

Outing #3 & 4 with the Shoes

Friday night is date night. We were planning to go running together last Friday. My husband and I are both training for the Seattle Rock 'n' Roll Marathon, in June. We rarely get to run together, and since I'm also training for the Ragnar Relay Del Sol, this coming weekend, I thought it would be fun to run our scheduled 10 1/2 miles together. We can only do that when we have a baby sitter.

Earlier that afternoon, my sister-in-law asked us if we wanted to go to see the movie, The Lightning Thief. Originally I said no, because we were running. When I told my husband, hours later, he said, "I think we could go, and run later. Maybe Saturday." So that's what we did.

I wore the shoes (and the same, matching shirt) to Cafe Rio and the movie theater. The movie was great! That's about the perfect level of scary/suspense for me. I was even tense enough through the whole thing, that my husband's hand hurt and my neck could've seriously used a massage after wards. My 9 y-o saw it a week ago (before me) and he LOVED it. My 7 y-o would have had nightmares for the next year, had she seen it. It was my second time at Cafe Rio (I can't believe I've lived here for 5 years, and never went until a few weeks ago)! I am in LOVE with Cafe Rio! (I'm so grateful to some friends who introduced us to it!)

The fourth time I wore the shoes was two days ago, to church. I didn't take any pictures, but my friend, Amy, gave my ugly toes a beautiful paint job. (Thanks so much, Amy!) (I should still take pictures of them, soon.)

Another Green Smoothie Recipe

Remember my other green smoothie? We've been making them a lot around here. We try to change it up a bit every time, just to see what we like best. The other day I bought a few bunches of other types of greens. I set out to make a smoothie this morning and got all the greens in the blender and I realized I was out of pineapple juice. I didn't even have any cans of crushed, tidbits, or chunk pineapple. I usually use that as my base with the greens. It helps a ton with the flavor and texture.

Well, I had to improvise.

Here's what went into my blender today (in order):

• spinach
• kale
• collard greens
• 3/4 cup of water
• 2 lemons (ends cut off, peeled, then cut in thirds w/ seeds removed)
• 1 kiwi
• 1 orange
• 1-2 Tbsp blue agave syrup
  
• 3 Tbsp plain yogurt
• swiss chard
  
• 1 scoop (probably about 1 & 1/2 Tbsp) ground flax seeds
• 1 banana
• about 8 frozen strawberries
• about 1 & 1/2 cups frozen blueberries
• sprouted chia seeds
  

It was soooo yummy! I think it's the yummiest yet!

(The only crazy thing that happened to us while making it was my baby [20 month-old] turned the switch on the blender while I was washing the swiss chard, but the lid was only half way on. We had quite the mess to clean up. It was on the blinds, window, counter, wall, blender, grain mill next to it, the baby, me, cupboards, etc... you get the idea. Cooking with kids can be fun. But, you always have to expect the unexpected. And expect to make time for cleaning up A LOT more as you go...)

If you try this, let me know what you think.

My Garden Today

Sorry for so many posts today. I'm trying to play catch-up with so many things, now that the R.S. progressive dinner is past us. I've been catching up on laundry and primary stuff today as well.


This is part of my garden. Those huge leaves are part of the pumpkin plant that is growing way out of the garden... in fact, taking over the garden! I don't know if there will ever be a real pumpkin coming out of it. We have seen a bunch of little ones starting all over the place, under the yellow flowers, but they get to a certain point and then seem to shrivel up.

Here is the view from our grass. In that box, there is a row of walla walla sweet onions, a row of green onions, a row of carrots, a row of cauliflower, and two rows of zucchini. I have learned, for next time, to not grow that many thing in one 4x4 box and also to not grow the zucchini rows so close to each other and other plants. The poor carrots and cauliflower can't see the sun.

Yummy yellow squash. This one's just about ready. We've probably picked about 10 of these in the last couple of weeks. It looks like there are many more to come!

Here we have Roma tomatoes, cilantro and pumpkins. You can barely see cilantro in there. I think half the row is gone now. We used some in our salad dressing yesterday. I need, so desperately, to put some tomato cages around those tomato plants. My wonderful husband bought some for me a few days ago, but they are so huge, I have to find a way to cut the bottom stakes down a bunch to make them fit my garden better. I've got to find my tin snips and try them first.

This may be my favorite vegetable to eat fresh from a garden! I am so disappointed in how these have grown (or not grown). We planted two rows. But more than half of them didn't make it and most of the other half is not growing well. This is a picture of our tallest pea plant (stalk?). I haven't picked any of them yet. Can't you just taste it from looking at it??

Ahh, zucchini! We've made a few batches of zucchini bread, even some with chocolate. We've been harvesting even more zucchini than yellow squash. My 7 year-old daughter goes out every day after school and waters the garden and checks for new veggies to harvest. She also keeps the weeds under control. What a gal!

Some type of lettuce. I haven't been wanting to try this because early on we had some critters stealing a bunch of it. It's been growing back a bit. I don't know much about how to grow this stuff. I need to research it so I'll know what to expect.

Carrots with zucchini leaves in the background.

This is to show how much I messed up, but will learn for next time. Here you can see three veggies growing way too close to each other. There's zucchini, cauliflower, and carrots.

Walla walla sweet onions. I have NO idea how to grow onions. I really need to do some homework here. I guess I could pull one out to see how big the bulb is getting under the dirt.... These are much bigger than my green onions. I was really looking forward to using fresh onions from the garden. I wonder if I'm doing something wrong.

Cafe Rio Spicy Ranch Dressing

Here's another recipe from last night's progressive dinner. {I have one more I really want to post, but I have to get it first. It was the wassail. Ohhhh, YUM!}

I don't have a picture for this one. But, it tasted really good. Confession: I didn't really try it with salad (I tried a spoonful when I was done making it). I heard from others that it was good.


Cafe Rio Spicy Ranch Dressing

• 3 Tomatillos
• juice from 1/2 a Lime
• 1/2 C. Buttermilk
• 1/2 C. Mayo
• 1/2 C. Sour Cream
• 1 pkg. Dry Ranch
• 1 C. Fresh Cilantro (I used some straight from my garden for the R.S. dinner) :-)
• 5 Green Onions
• 2 Garlic Cloves
• 1/2 tsp. Salt
• 1/4 tsp. Cayenne Pepper
• 4 tsp. Sugar

Blend until smooth. (Start with pulsing a few times. Then blend well.)


The salad we had was Romaine lettuce mixed with spinach. We had many toppings to choose from including black beans, corn, tomatoes, red peppers, olives, avocados, fritos chips, red onions, and cheese.

(Wish I had been at the "salad" house to try some...)

Chicken Enchilada Soup

This may be my new favorite soup.

I tried it for the first time last night. This is one of the soups that we served at our R.S. Progressive dinner. They were all wonderful. We had Corn Chowder, Black Bean soup, Taco soup, and Chicken Enchilada soup. This was my favorite.

It's not a good "dieting" soup...

Chicken Enchilada Soup

2 Cans Chicken broth (I used four cubes chicken bouillon and four cups of water)
1 8oz. pkg. Cream Cheese 1/3 less fat (we used regular. I think either would be just fine)
1 large can green enchilada sauce
1 & 1/2 pints half-and-half (The recipe says "fat free". But, how in the heck could half-and-half be fat free?)
1 can corn, drained (You could use about a cup and a half or frozen, instead)
1/2 rotisserie chicken (lemon pepper is best) de-boned and cut into bite sized pieces
1 & 1/2 C. instant white rice (next time I'm going to try it with regular rice, maybe even brown. I'd have to increase the time a bit).

In a sauce pan, heat the broth and cream cheese until smooth. Add enchilada sauce, half-and-half, corn, and chicken.
**At this point you could 1: Heat until hot, then add the instant rice and simmer until rice is soft, OR 2: Add regular rice to the pot, spray a {large} crockpot with non-stick cooking spray, then add the soup into the crockpot, cover and cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 4-6 hours.

{The picture I used is from leftovers today.} This was so yummy. When I got home last night, I passed up the leftover cheesecake and had a small bowlful of soup. And then another. And another. (Yep... that was 3!) Uh huh, I probably gained 10lbs last night. It was well worth it!

Green Smoothie

Yummy Green Smoothie! It may look gross, but it really is quite delightful!

Wondering what's in it?

For this one I filled my blender half full of spinach leaves. Then I added half a can (20oz. can) of pineapple, but all of the juice from it... and only the 100% juice kind. Then I blended it for a bit. Actually, I pulsed it a bit, then blended it until the green really came out and the chunks were all gone. It was really smooth! I added a banana and a scoop of ground flax seed. I could have had it just like that!

Since my 4 year-old son got the bag of strawberries out of the freezer this morning and filled the bag with water, I needed to use them. I then added strawberries, frozen blueberries, and a few spoonfuls of plain yogurt to the blender and blended until smooth. It turned out more brownish/purplish/redish. But, OH-SO-YUMMY!! I love it because I know we are getting some "greens" and my kids just love smoothies anyway!


You can really add anything, in any amounts. We've just been experimenting around here. It's fun. They always turn out a bit different. I liked the one with peaches in it, the other day.


Here's the proof that my kids LOVE it:

Thanksgiving weekend

Thanksgiving morning we met some out-of-state friends at the zoo and had a little "turkey trot" of our own. We ran a few times around the paths of the zoo "before normal zoo hours" (it's a member benefit)! Some of our kids rode bikes and the little ones sat in jogging strollers. It was so fun. I am really bummed that we didn't actually get any pictures of us all together there.

While everyone else was off looking at the new Komodo Dragon exhibit, I snapped a few photos of this cheesy ham.

At the Turkey Trot at my kids school.

I pushed my little kids in my neighbor's jogger (mine was in repair) while I ran with my other two around the school a few times. I ran with each of them separately. I think it came out to be about 3 miles total. Not bad for an elementary school. It was a very fun event.

Of course we ate very yummy food on Thursday. I was sooo stuffed. It actually hurt! We got together with a few of my husband's brothers and their families and my mother-in-law was in town. My family made broccoli salad, spiral sliced ham, mashed potatoes, and rolls. Oh, YUMMY! Everything was so stuff-your-face-good!! Darn, no pictures of the food either. I thought I got more pictures of everyone during the meal. I guess my brother-in-law probably did, but that doesn't help me right now. Anyway...

I did a little crafting over the weekend, too. I'll post about that tomorrow, I think. :-)

Scotcheroos

Guess what? I was featured on Little Birdie Secrets for their virtual cookie exchange! I feel so honored. Thanks, Little Birdies! All the other cookies look delicious, too. I am grateful for some new recipes to try this holiday season. Can't wait to try them!

Here's my recipe for Scotcheroos:

Ingredients:

1 1/2 C. creamy peanut butter
1 C. light corn syrup
1 C. sugar
6 C. rice krispies cereal
1 2/3 C. butterscotch chips*
1 C. semi-sweet chocolate chips*

*(You can adjust the amounts of the chocolate and butterscotch chips to your liking. For example, if you aren't a big fan of butterscotch these are still good when you switch the measurements of the chocolate and butterscotch.)

Coat a 9x13 pan with non-stick cooking spray. Combine peanut butter, sugar, and corn syrup in a large saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until melted. Remove from heat. Add cereal and stir until thoroughly coated. Press onto bottom of prepared baking pan. Microwave the butterscotch chips and semi-sweet chocolate chips together in a large microwaveable bowl on HIGH power for 1 minute. Stir. Microwave at additional 10-20 second intervals, stirring until smooth. Spread over cereal mixture. Refrigerate for 15-20 minutes or until topping is firm. Cut into squares and then triangles if desired. Makes approx. 20 bars or 40 triangles. Optional (and pictured): Melt additional dark chocolate chips and/or butterscotch and/or white chocolate, separately, about 1/4 cup each. Use spoon to drizzle stripes back and forth on the pan, with each variety. (I usually only use two different kinds.) Refrigerate again to let the chocolate harden. The scotcheroos pictured are with dark chocolate and butterscotch drizzled on top. I like the look of it better than plain, if I am taking to a party or giving as a gift. When I make them just for my family I completely skip the drizzled chocolate on top. It's yummy either way.

Peanut butter (I used crunchy), sugar, and corn syrup melting together in the pot.

The rice krispies mixed with peanut butter mixture, pressed into the greased pan. They're actually really good just like that. If you're pressed for time or short on chocolate and butterscotch, just serve these. Just warn people that they have peanuts in them... they aren't regular rice krispie treats.

Topped with chocolate butterscotch mixture. Great just like that, too.

Just with butterscotch spoon drizzled. (It's a lame job of drizzling and ugly picture, I admit.)

Dark chocolate and butterscotch drizzled on top. It looks really good (and tastes good too) with white chocolate drizzled, too. (Though, not really in addition to. That would be a bit much!)

YUM!
... And super easy. I usually cut them smaller than this picture shows. I would cut them in half. They're more bite size that way. (I don't feel as bad about eating them, then.) :-)

Busy Halloween Week

Three of my kids, with three of their cousins.

It's been a week since my last post, but it seems like weeks! We've been so busy that I feel like there should have been multiple blog posts from each day last week. There just never seemed to be any time to blog about things. Now, I guess I'll try to fit it all in at once and only share a few of the more interesting things that we did.

My baby chick. I need to send this to Little Birdie Secrets. I got the idea from them.

I stayed up so late one night making/altering this Draco Malfoy costume.

Preschool Halloween Party:

7-year-old birthday party on Halloween Day:

We did crafts and snacks. I think they had fun. :-)

6 and 7-year-old's use a lot of mod podge!

This pic is of the mummy pizzas before they went into the oven.

And... Our dinner and dessert last night:

We made these Stuffed Pizza Rolls from The Best Bites blog. (see my last blog post about them.) We used our own homemade pizza dough recipe (I should have my husband post that here on my blog sometime...) This was SOOO yummy! A bit more work (just took a bit more time to assemble) but WELL worth it! Really, dipped in warm sauce, it's so much better than pizza! You've got to try it! We'd like to try this one next time.


And here is my family's first ever Pizookie! We all just grabbed spoons and ate it straight out of the pan together! And of course we LOVED it! (We don't usually have dessert after dinner - in fact it's really quite rare here.) We DO usually make cookies on Sunday evening, though, and last night we decided to bake it a little differently! Thanks to some awesome friends for introducing me to these yummy creations! (I live in a cave, apparently!)