Guacomole!

                               What do you do when the grocery store has massive avocados?

I ended up with eight cups of ohhhhhhh so tasty Mexican dip.  Licking the bowl was the only option.

Guacomole

6 large avocados, diced

1.5 c. chopped cilantro

3-4 cloves of garlic, to taste

Juice of 1 lime

3/4 c. minced onion

1 T. chili powder

1 tsp garlic salt

1 tsp. cumin

1 tomato chopped.

1.  Dice up avocados and put in a large bowl, you will want plenty of room to stir.

2  Add remaining ingredients and stir briskly.  The stirring action should mush up some of the avocado but leave you with a chunks as well.  I prefer chunky guacomole.

Serve with any tortilla chip or meal.

Warning:  Guacomole normally doesn't keep well overnight.

Crockpot Marinara

I was inspired by a few Pinterest links claiming to have to best marinara sauce EVER!  I reviewed the recipes and decided I could do just as well or better.

The endeavor also helped with my idea to cut preservatives and gluten out of our diet.  We are not a gluten free house, but are making small changes.

 Marinara

1 can crushed tomato(32 oz.) (organic)
1 c. tomato paste - from a glass jar, pure tomato
1 can petite diced tomatoes(16 oz.)(organic)
2 c. water
5 Medium tomatoes, diced.
1 medium onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced - you can use more if you like.
3/4 c. fresh basil, chopped
3 T. italian seasoning
2 tsp. garlic salt
2 tsp. garlic powder

Put all of the above in your crockpot.  Set on high for 4 hrs. Stir.  If it is the desired thickness, cut back to low until dinner time.  There should be about 2 quarts of sauce in the end, use what you need and freeze the rest for later!

Basic freeze sizing for us, family of 4.

1 c. marinara - for spreading on homemade pizza or dipping

3 c. marinara - for pasta dinner.  Cook up some lean ground meat, add sauce and a little water for meatsauce

5 c.  - enough sauce for me to make a lasagna

When I have to defrost this for dinner I may add a few more ingredients off this list to mix it up a bit.

Cup of white wine - for chicken spaghetti
Cup of red wine - for a richer meat sauce

Sneaky vegetable add-ins
pureed roasted red pepper
pureeed cooked carrots
can of pure pumpkin

The Blond Sheep

Everyone.......meet Trent.

He's going to be a lady killer one day.

How do two people that look like this(below), get a baby that looks like him?  A lot of crazy recessive genes and luck is what made my handsome little guy.

Daddy = light brown hair/brown eyes
Mommy = DARK brown hair, brown eyes.

After almost three years, I've gotten used to the milkman comments from strangers or new friends about his fair looks.  What they don't know is I prayed for a child with light colored eyes, but never imagined I'd be given this gift.   Those slate blue eyes have given light to my worst days.

One of my favorite shots of Trent at about 8 mths. Eyes are slate blue at this point.

He is mine.  We get all the common jokes about the mailman's child and such.  Some people just blurt out, ''where did he get all that blonde hair, and ohhhhhh those eyes?!''  My answer is almost always, ''with a lot of genetic luck.''

Sucking the finger at about 15 mths.  Eyes are going a little more grey.

Mom has a picture of my sister at about five years old capturing a mischievousness.  It must come with the blue eyes that they both have.  He gives a sly little look to get out of trouble.  Who could resist this look.

And just today, I got the ''He's so pretty''.  Not a compliment a boy wants but this has been a standard since he was a baby.

My Pumpkin Obsession

I love pumpkin, anything pumpkin.  For that matter,sweet potatoes should be on the list as well.

My mother in law makes a sweet potato casserole during the holidays that we call 'candy bar sweet potatoes'.  It is the tastiest combination of mashed sweet potatoes and butter(the real stuff), topped with a coconut, brown sugar, cinnamon, and pecan crumble.  BETTER than any pumpkin pie you could put in front of me!  But sooooooooo bad on the calorie count.  I will get the recipe and post it, pretty sure it involves one and a half sticks of butter and some heavy whipping cream.

In the meantime, I have concocted this recipe to satiate my taste buds.

Coconut Pumpkin Mash

1 can organic pumpkin(no spices added to the can)
1 tsp. cinnamon
4 T. brown sugar
1/2 c. coconut flakes.
1/4 c. broken walnuts or pecans

Get a large  bowl and mix all the ingredients together.  You may want to heat this up in the microwave for about 30 seconds.  (sidenote: I've read that the micro kills the nutritional value of foods, so trying to avoid that these days)

Eat to your hearts content!

The can of pumpkin is only 100 calories for the WHOLE can.  The added coconut and walnuts only add 250 or so more calories and only good fats.

The mixture is so filling I've only been able to eat half a recipe at a time.

Have attained the recipe from my mother in law for the calorically evil version.

Sweet Potato Casserole…

Author: www.whatscookingwithruthie.com

Recipe type: side

Prep time:  20 mins

Cook time:  40 mins

Total time:  1 hour

Serves: 10

 

Ingredients

• 6 c. smashed sweet potatoes, you'll have to cook ahead of time
• 1 C brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ½ C whipping cream
• ½ C butter
• Topping:
• 3/4 C brown sugar
• 3/4 c. coconut flakes
• 1/3 C flour
• 1/2 C butter
• 1 C chopped pecans

Instructions

1. Preheat oven 350 degrees.
2. Mix first 7 ingredients and spread into a 9×13 casserole dish.
3. In a large sauce pan over medium heat add topping ingredients and heat to boiling, stirring and pour over sweet potato mixture.
4. Bake at 30 to 40 minutes. Enjoy!

Photos from the Vacation

Mom and Dad found this wonderful place for us to stay at in Oceanside, Ca

The European styling was speaking to every artistic nerve in my body

There were some happy, happy kiddos and parents.

Trent doesn't like the ocean, so we played a LOT of ball.

Nora learned to boogie board from Uncle Pat.

Here is ME with my Trent eating vanilla wafers and staying far away from the waves.

We Went On Vacation

I will post something soon, still trying to bring my mind and body back to reality after a peaceful vacation..

Foodie Friday Returns....Chocolate Zucchini Bundt Cake

Yummmmmmmmm!

Chocolate Zucchini Bundt Cake

Stir these together and set aside.

2 1/4 c. flour

2/3 c. cocoa - I used Ghiradelli

2 tsp. baking powder

1 1/2 baking soda

pinch salt

Cream these together in mix master

3/4 c. butter - the REAL stuff

3/4 c. brown sugar

1 c. white sugar

2 tsp. vanilla extract - the REAL stuff

Mix in 3 eggs, one at a time.  I find this step to be a little silly, but you never know.

Add 1/2 c. almond milk(I used chocolate almond milk)

Add in the dry mixture from the top of recipe.

Mix in 1 smashed anjou pear(with the skin) and 2 c. grated zucchini.  The pear was shear improvisation because it was sitting there looking sad and over ripe on my counter.

Coat bundt pan with butter and dust with cocoa powder.  Do the dusting over the sink, this makes such a mess!

Pout batter into bundt pan and bake for about 45 mins. on 350 degrees.  I put the pan on the middle rack.

They recommend a cream cheese icing, but I'd rather just taste chocolatey goodness.  The kids are not even noticing the zucchini.  Their little mouths are just saying 'nom, nom, nom!'

Kindergarten

This week found us moving into a different stage with the kids.

Nora is REGISTERED for kindergarten!  I didn't get teary or overly sentimental about it, but did take a moment to think, 'wow'.

When we drove up to the curb my daily co-pilot wanted to make sure I knew what was going on.  ''Mommy, we found Nora's new school.  You see that sign, a mommy, a daddy, walk on the sidewalk.  School THAT way!''  Yeah, he's a freaking genius.

Looking at the sign, I'm wondering WHY they show adults crossing the street at a school.  It would make more sense it Billy with a cap, and Cindy with pigtails were skipping across.  Just a thought.

The school Nora will attend is well-aged, circa 1970 something.  Vintage is good, I'm sure there are corridors that will remind me of my primary days.  The smell was musty and old, wonder if there were concrete floors?  My primary school had concrete hallways.

Nora was student number 17 to sign up for kindergarten, they only expect 60 students.  Two classes worth.  The biggest surprise was half day kinder!  My munchkin will have class from 8am-1130 and based on the outline I got that time is 90% learning and instruction.  We look forward to assessing the system for it's merit, California does have better school than Georgia.

My co-pilot sat quietly snacking on cereal bars while I filled out all the appropriate paperwork.  The lady at the counter did some BAD math and told me Nora wasn't ellgible for kindergarten in the fall.  My tone and answer of, 'Ummmm, yes she is, she will be six in October.'' was probably a little insulting.  The lady looked at me and said, ''Well, I guess you would know, you're the mom.''

Fifteen minutes later, we were walking out.  Mission accomplished