Breakfast Burritos - Oh Yum just thinking about them!

This is a delicious breakfast. Todd has put the brakes on it lately as he doesn't fill like it gives him enough carbs but I convinced him he wasn't going to be doing anything too physical this weekend so he made it. It was sooo good I think he might be open to making it again in the more near future! I guess I could suggest he have a couple pieces of toast the mornings we have it?!

Saute diced, salted bell peppers. While those are sauteing mix raw eggs, canned chopped green chilies, salt & pepper and add to sauted peppers. Cook until desired consistency and serve over warm tortilla. This picture doesn't show it but we usually add a sprinkle of fresh chopped cilantro on top. Don't add too much. You can also top with sour cream and salsa, but plain is definately worth a try! Definately one of the best parts of this dish is the tortilla. An extra special thanks to Whitney, we now know of the raw, uncooked tortillas you can purchase at the store and cook at home. These are so so so delicious we will most likely never go back to premade/precooked tortillas again. (Plus they are less calories than some tortillas and only like 20 calories more than others! Just an extra bonus!)


And Savannah loves them too!

Al-Pesto Pasta with Grilled Bell Peppers


This is a great, quick pasta dinner. We make up a "Pesto" packet from Knorr and an "Alfredo" packet from McCormick separately. Then we mix them together and serve the sauce over our favorite whole wheat pasta and top with grilled bell peppers. We just do the normal to grill the peppers: put olive oil in a pan and salt and saute until desired tenderness. It's so fast and really yummy! We love this dish.

Just Before School Starts...

We got 1 last run in before school started and took my brother's family skiing. It was a beautifully calm day and the best water we've had in a long time. His 2 oldest boys, Colton and Shaun, got up on kneeboards together and it was so much fun to see them out there. It kind of makes you realize how old everyone is getting!

Savannah loves the water and is getting less and less nervous of everything all the time. She usually gets in while we are changing skiers, etc.

Justin, their youngest boy, also got up on a kneeboard. He got up last year too, but he loved it all over again. It was pretty funny watching him plane before the boat was even going!

Nate loves the water and is very curious about everything. We had to chase him down from up the shore a few times trying to convince him to hang around where we were.

We eat lunch on the beach and usually the kids play around while we're there. This time was especially fun because they had just purchased fishing nets and there were a ton of baby fish swimming around. I love this picture as Shaun is intensely trying to catch the fish, Justin is really hoping he does, and Ashley is eating her sandwich with her heel popped knowing that if Shaun does catch a fish, he'll show her first! The fish along with the seagulls kept everyone entertained for a long while!

Savannah and her cousin, Ashley, play pretty good together, even when Savannah throws sand when she's not supposed to!

And of course everyone was wore out afterward!

Kodiak Cakes...
Mmmmm, Kodiak Cakes. 100% Whole Wheat with Oat Flour, mmmmm. They are our favorite pancakes. Try some today! You can even get them on Amazon.

Oh Crap!



And it begins...

My Carb Corner!

This is a corner of the kitchen. We put all our bread, etc there. The other day I got a kick out of how it turned into the 'half way down the counter' corner! There is burger buns, sandwich thins, homemade bread, store bought bread, fancy bread, some veggies from the garden, avocados, red potatoes, and sweet potatoes!

Oh Yum!

So what we had for dinner last night is not for the faint of heart. It is a rich, high flavor, high fat dish. Just up Todd's alley! Sorry I forgot to take a picture, I really should have with this dish. We never have side dishes with this dish as we usually eat until we're sick anyway! Usually this dish calls for chicken, but for the first time we just left the chicken out and still loved it.

Pepper Primavera (we replaced the "Chicken" with "Pepper") recipe:

Saute 4 cut red, orange, yellow bell peppers, 5-6 sliced mushrooms, 3-6 chopped green onions, 1/4 c butter, 3 mashed garlic cloves until desired tenderness. Add 3 c heavy whipping cream, 1/2-3/4 t salt and layer the surface area with dried basil. Cook over medium heat until reaches desired thickness, stirring occasionally. Serve over noodles.

So we usually eat this over Angel Hair pasta, but last night we did it over our spaghetti whole wheat noodles. Better over Angel Hair but still good over whole wheat. Enjoy!

What we ate today!

Sorry no pictures. So for dinner Sunday night we had...

Meatless Spagetti with whole wheat noodles and sauted crookneck from our garden on top.
Recipe for meatless spagetti sauce:
2 T melted butter in sauce pan. Add in 1/4 c grated onion and 1/4 tsp salt. Cook over med/high heat until onions are golden brown and liquid is gone. Add 2 mashed garlic cloves and cook around 30 seconds or until fragerant. Add 1 big can of crushed tomatoes and 2 cans of stewed tomatoes undrained and 1 small can of tomate sauce and 1 T sugar. Add in 1/2 tsp or so of dried basil. Heat to low boil and reduce heat and simmer until the rest of dinner is ready?! Right before serving add in 2 T olive oil.

We also had new potatoes and peas, fresh fruit, whole wheat 9 grain bread, and Jackie's sauted squash casserole.
Receipe for sauted squash casserole:
slice up some crockneck, zucchini, onions, and mushrooms and saute until tender with seasoning salt of choice. Remove from heat and add fresh diced tomatoes and some shredded parmessan/mozzerella and replace lid until chesse is melted? That's kind of what we did!

That was our Sunday night dinner for those who care!

So What Are You Guys Eating?

This is the most common question we get now so I thought I'd post a little bit about it for all you inquiring minds. I have also received a few requests for recipes or ideas on different meatless options so I thought this would be as good of a place as any to let you all know! And I will post the recipes as we consume them!

So I'll start with Saturday's menu so far: Breakfast was delicious with Honey & Wheat pancakes with pecans on the bottom and sliced bananas on top (cooked in). So what we do for this is spread out a few chopped pecans on the griddle and pour out a pancake of batter on top of them. Then place sliced bananas on top of that. Then spray the griddle with Cooking Spray where you are going to flip it as the bananas tend to stick a little. Then flip the pancake over with the bananas now cooking on the griddle. Then cook as normal. These are also very good with fresh blueberries!

Lunch was the best we'd had yet with grilled Black Bean patty burgers (Morning Star). On a grilled whole wheat bun with avocado, fresh chopped salsa (tomatoes, garlic, green onion, cilantro, lime juice, salt) grilled red pepper, grilled green onion, and a spoon full of flax seed. They were so good we didn't even add ketchup, mustard or anything else!

What We Have Been Taking Pictures of!

This post isn't necessarily an update as a lot more has happened than this, but here is what we have been taking pictures of! Yes, Nater turned 1 the end of June. We did celebrate, but of course I forgot my camera! He had a little family party with his cousin that is a day younger than him and really enjoyed himself I'm sure! He is standing now and Savannah is helping in every way she can think of, including just plain encouragement!

And he is still tired from all the growing.

We went to the diesel races in Redding, CA a while ago also. My sister in law, Jana, watched the kids for us for the weekend and just the 2 of us went. It was so much fun. It took around 15 hours to get there pulling Rocky on a trailer and around 13 to get back. Redding was so so so hot. I don't think I've ever been to a place that was so hot all day long and be outside the whole time. Todd raced Rocky and it was good. He did well until Rocky wouldn't go back into 4WD, which equates to not being able to get traction off the line and having no shot at winning the race. At that point he was out. But it was a great road trip nonetheless.

Nate is also learning to walk with everyone being very much a part of the equation! Savannah and Nate are very good friends and they pretty much just follow each other around doing whatever the other one is doing. It has been so much fun to have them so close. We don't regret it a bit, in fact we wish our situation would allow to have the next 2 so close as well, but 2 years apart is where we are at from now on!


And we finally went boating for the first time this year. With the cold spring we had and then Todd trying to be an active member of the National Hot Rod Diesel Association, we just hadn't got time to go yet.

We took my sister's family and everyone had so much fun. It was easy going with some time on kneeboards, the tube, and the beach. We love Sand Hollow and are so lucky it is so close. Well 45 minutes close! Kate and Carter both got up on the kneeboards and loved it!

And the latest and greatest thing we did but only got pictures of on the way home was...The Annual Welch Family Vacation. Yeah, we just got this picture of a Dirt Devil on the way home! But it was a lot of fun in Bear Lake and Twin Falls catching up with Todd's family and doing a variety of fun activities!