Mmm...eucalyptus and lavender

This recipe today is summertime cooking at its finest. Meaning it’s easy. And quick. And uses fresh garden ingredients.

Baby’s three favorite foods include pasta:

Blueberry pancakes:

And candle wax.

Uh,  let’s stick with pasta. Six ingredients, less than 20 minutes- you got this.

-1 box rotini (I used whole grain- any kind of pasta will work)

-1 pint (~2 cups) cherry tomatoes, halved

-1/2 cup torn fresh basil

-6 oz fresh mozzarella, cut into ½” chunks

-3 tablespoons balsamic reduction

-2 tablespoons olive oil

-Salt and pepper to taste

Boil pasta according to package directions. Rinse under cool water. Add remaining ingredients. Stir to evenly coat. This is a super versatile recipe and I’ve made many variations- add fresh spinach, grilled chicken, additional vegetables- whatever you’d like!

Makes six servings. Per serving: 391 calories, 55 g carbs, 11 g fat, 14.5 g protein.

When a close second will do

You would think that a 15 month old really wouldn’t have much on his agenda. Eat? Sleep? Poop? Ok yeah all those are essentials, but we have got one busy boy on our hands. Lately he’s all about his tools, particularly his wrench. Specifically his Phillips wrench. He gets busy fixing things like…

…the carpet...

…his Audi

…the dog.

I feel like I’ve been super busy too. So busy that I keep forgetting to stop by the store and pick up my fave peanut butter. Remember how just the other week I was all like “oh all it has is peanuts in the ingredients list and it’s magical and delicious and cures anything that could possibly be wrong with you!” No?

So I have dang peanuts at home, why not just make my own peanut butter?

AND- I also have some dang almonds- so why not combine the two to make a hybrid?

Homemade Nut Butter

-2 cups raw unsalted nuts (I used 1 cup peanuts and 1 cup almonds)

-1/3 cup oil (I used olive)

-Pinch of salt

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Spread nuts out on a rimmed baking sheet. Toast in the oven for 5-7 minutes. Stir around and put ‘em back in for a few minutes. You want them to get a bit browned and fragrant. Let the nuts cool. Working in batches, combine nuts with oil in a food processor. I found that I had to do a half cup of nuts and a few teaspoons of oil at a time (my food processor is on the small side). When finished, stir in salt. Scrape butter in a sealable container and keep refrigerated. This will last up to 2 weeks in the fridge, and I found that the oil doesn’t separate, which is cool.

 Does it taste as good as my Smuckers? No. But it's still pretty tasty, and easy. Ya know- good for more time to be spent being busy. 

Oh my, oh my...

...happy fourth-of-July. In spite of me wanting to wring the necks of everyone on our block who thought it was cool be setting off fireworks at 10:30, it was a great weekend.

WHAT. 10:30 is super late for me now.

We spent part of Saturday and all day Sunday boating and beaching with friends and family. I might have gotten a 7^th degree sunburn on my entire back. Spray sunscreen is such a tease. It’s all like “oh just use me- I’m soooo easy! I’ll do a decent job protecting you” and then no, every time I get a horrible sunburn.

Raided my dad’s garden for some pea pods and lettuce and onions.

Busy weekend means that mama don’t feel like cooking much. Slow cooker chicken tacos to the rescue. This is a recipe that I’ve probably posted before, but it’s something I haven’t made in awhile, so why not repeat.

-1 package boneless skinless chicken breasts (~1-1.5 lbs)

-2 large (10+ oz) jars of your favorite salsa. I used basic medium spicy tomato salsa

-1/4 teaspoon chili powder

-1/4 teaspoon salt

-1/4 teaspoon pepper

-1/4 teaspoon minced garlic

Place chicken in the bottom of a slow cooker. Add seasonings on top of chicken. Pour salsa over chicken. Cook on low for 7-8 hours. Shred when ready to serve. This makes enough shredded chicken for about 8 good-size tacos.

I chose to serve fresh corn, chopped (garden) onion, chopped (garden) cilantro, and chopped (garden) lettuce, along with crumbled queso fresco cheese. Feel free to add whatever salsas or toppings you like.

You could easily use this meat for quesadillas, enchiladas, sandwiches- so many possibilities. This meat freezes & thaws really well too.

Patriotic Popsicles

Holy shamoley I can hardly believe it’s already time for the 4^th of July weekend. I woke up this morning to see this gal in our backyard. It was all sweet and serene, 'til she took a giant dump. Argh.

In honor of summer, and the 4th, let's have some flag popsicles, mmk?

All you need are three ingredients.

Flag Popsicles

-1/2 cup blueberries, rinsed and dried

~5 strawberries, rinsed and dried

-6 oz vanilla or coconut nonfat Greek yogurt

-1 sealable sandwich bag with a seriously teeny hole snipped at the bottom corner

-4 pack popsicle mold (though you could just make these in a Dixie cup and add a wooden popsicle stick, or even just a metal spoon)

Using a fork, mash the blueberries until pureed. It is ok if there are some chunks. Spoon ~1/2” worth into the bottoms of each popsicle mold. Freeze for an hour.

Pour yogurt into sandwich bag, while holding the snipped end closed. I found it easiest to “pipe” in the yogurt because spooning it in left me with yogurt all on the sides of the mold, and you want a nice smear-free mold. Pipe ~1/2” yogurt into the mold.

Mash strawberries until fairly pureed. It is still ok if there are some chunks. Spoon a thin (~1/4”) layer of mashed strawberry on top of yogurt. Freeze for an hour. Repeat as many times as needed until you’ve either run out of strawberry mash or yogurt or your molds are full.

To dislodge popsicles, run under hot tap water for a few seconds.

Per popsicle: approximately 60 calories, 4 grams protein.