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.