Salad Recipe

Ok so I love my salads but sometimes they get boring and I am looking for something new and healthy and that includes the dressing.  A friend introduced me to the southwest chopped salad mix that she would add to a bag of spinach salad and a roasted chicken.  It was delicious and to top it all off she made homemade cilantro dressing that was good for you, crazy good.  I thought I would share, you never know who might find it amazing.

Ingredients
1 cup loosely packed cilantro, stems removed and roughly chopped
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt or coconut yogurt
2 Tbsp. fresh lime juice (about 1/2 lime), more to taste
1-2 garlic cloves
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 tsp. white wine vinegar
1/8 tsp. salt
Optional: cumin, honey/agave

Directions
Puree all ingredients in a blender or food processor until smooth.
Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary.

Find this recipe and many others at thegardengrazer.com

Baking Extravaganza

I love to bake anytime but at Christmas time it is a must.  I have specific cookies that must be made and pies that are requested so I love it and try to get Gracie to help.  She helps for just a small amount of time and then eats the batter off the beaters then she is done.  This year I made apple pies, chocolate chip cheese cake, crinkle cookies, and snicker doodles.  Plenty of treats to go around.

These were the easy to make sprinkle cookies that we got off of pinterest.  They were easy and they were pretty good.  I am picky about my sugar cookies but these were great considering how easy they were, but not as good as the real ones.

I have been working on my snicker doodle recipe.  Trying to make it perfect.

{Food Edition} {Summer Spectacular}
Recently, my hubby and daughter were out of town.  This left me with lots of free time to get things done, have some down time, and much need girl time.  A little last minute, I decided to invite a few ladies over from church, just a girls night to sit around and chat.  I got onto evite and they had a cute pinterest invite all put together so I went for it.  I love all the yummies I have pinned but most of them are not good for you and I like making those items for events.  That way I still get to try them but they don't sit in my house and get picked at.  

foods included were: 

snickerdoodle muffins - did not taste like snicker doodles at all

peanut butter pretzel bites - my favorite!!!

no bake chewy cookies & cream bars - NONE of us loved these which is sad since we ALL love Oreos

cinnamon sugar pull apart bread - really good

really good cookies that darby made but I could not find the pin on her board

 the "P" garland I made and hung in about 5 minutes

we all got mani's thanks to Darby

strutting the 4th of July theme colors

we meant to do a picture of all our hands but we talk too much;)

This will not be my last Pinterest Party.  Have you been on Pinterest?  Have you seen the boards?  We can have lots of themed Pinterest Parties.  Working on a project, re-doing your kitchen, planning an event, or just obesssed with i.e. crafts, then you need Pinterst.  It is where you can save all your favorites in one place.  If you are not on Pinterest check it out.

You can check out My Pinterest board by clicking here.  Warning you will love it!

Cookie Making

As Google is sharing today it is the 119th Anniversary of the first documented Ice Cream Sunday.  And our local ice cream shop, Taggart's makes the best Girl Scout Mint Cookie Ice Cream.  Of course they only make it when the girl scouts have been out selling.  I have been hoping for this ice cream since last year.  It is my favorite and it is just not ready so I wanted to make something that was pretty close.  I made crinkle cookies with mint chips and put chocolate brown ice cream on top.  It was not exactly the same but pretty darn close and very good.  

helping roll the cookies in the powder sugar and then into her mouth

Terrific Play Dough

I found this recipe that I have had for years but never made.  I have no idea where it came from but either way I decided to try it.  With a little help from Gracie, we made play dough.  I was by myself stirring and Gracie being near a hot stove made me a little worried she did a great job assisting me and listening to me very well.

just starting

making purple

stirring

done

daddy was welcomed home during batch #2

a great picture of me and my little helper

fun colors

Even if Gracie stuck some of this in her mouth, first it would not hurt her in the least and second it would be so salty I am sure she would willingly spit it out on her own.

Ingredients:

1 cup water

1 cup flour

2 Tbsp oil

1/2 cup salt

1 tsp food color

2 tsp cream of tarter

Alternate dry and liquid ingredients in medium saucepan.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it forms a ball.  Remove and knead.  Store in a Tupperware bowl for weeks!  It is also easy to clean up because of the oil in it. 

just a side: I went in the order of which it is above

Dishes & Salsa



Gracie Helping with Dishes

Gracie loves pushing up a chair and helping her mama. On this day she helped with dishes and made salsa. She loves her salsa, you might think this is odd but I love spicy food and I ate plenty of it while I was pregnant so it is only normal that she would love it too.


My friend Jana made homemade salsa one night when we were visiting at her house and it was amazing. The only salsa I ever liked besides Chili's was Trader Joe's. I am not a fan of chunky salsa, so Jana's was perfect and in case we are far from a Trader Joe's like now this is perfect, so I got the recipe.  No more trying to find a good salsa. I thought I would share this recipe with the rest of you. enjoy.

PS there are no actual measurements, sorry. Go by taste :)



My Silly Girl

This recipe can be started 2 ways: 

#1 the most easy way buy 2 big cans of whole tomato's, any brand, open, drain and dump into the blender...easy!  

#2 get a lot of tomatoes, my guess there is about 5 large ones in each can.  Boiling for about 5 minutes or until peel starts coming off. Drain and dump into a bowl of cold water. The water may need to be switched out if it gets to warm from the tomatoes cooling down.  You can then pull the peels right off the tomatoes and drop them straight into the blender.

Now give it a quick blend and you will have a  nice red/orange color.  From this point you will need the following ingredients: garlic, lime, cilantro, & jalapeno. 

Let's start with the GARLIC.  I crush 3 or 4 cloves depending on the size into the blender. Cut the LIME in half and squeeze one-half into the blender.  CILANTRO is my favorite so I like a lot of cilantro.  I just add a hand full and blend.  You will notice after adding the cilantro the color of the salsa will get darker.  The more you add the dark it gets.  At this point I have made this salsa enough to know about how dark I like it.  Now for the JALAPENO, I cut about 3 or 4 slices of the jalapeno depending on how hot you want it.  Add it into the blender and give it a good blend.  This would be a good time to grab a chip and give it a taste.  Now remember that the jalapeno and the garlic will get hotter and stronger after letting it sit, trust me.  There are times I have had garlic seeping from my pores or my tongue on fire.  If when you taste test you think it tastes pretty darn good and wish it to be just a tad hotter don't add a thing more.  Dump it into a bowl and stick it in the fridge for a little while. 



REMINDER/SIDE NOTE: 

*the longer the jalapeno and the garlic sit the hotter and the stronger it will get. 

*A friend made a whole batch from there garden and they added hot sauce, corn, and black beans and it was amazing.  They also did not blend all of it.  Some of the tomatoes they cut by hand so there would be some chunks.  It is all about what you like so be creative and enjoy!

***again make it to how you like it.  But I am sure if you love salsa you will love this, enjoy!

I know it may look a little
brown but it sure is good!