Fun in the Sun

...And other places, too. I had a hard week last week, and what did my thoughtful hubby do? He came home with a road bike for me! I was so excited! We have been talking about getting into cycling for a while, and he knows I love red, so he got me this super cute bike. He will get one soon and then we can bike all over the town :-) Can't wait.

I love red!!


There is a wonderful park down our street with tons of trails and steep hills, so J and I went for a fun night run...which turned out not to be so fun when our stomachs started aching. We should have waited longer for dinner to settle ugh!

Today, I went to the pumpkin patch with Austin, Kelli and my mom. Ava loved the goats and llamas. Isn't she so cute?

Kelli, Mama and me
Kelli and Bryce. Bryce was less interested in the rides and more interested in what was edible.
Supermom and me. She is finally done with chemo.
We also made cake pops (well Supermom made most of them). Allie, Kelli and I helped dip them in the orange colored white chocolate and add the 'stem' to make pumpkins.
So cute!
I also made bread today and my dad made all of us Mickey waffles for breakfast. Traditions, traditions. This weekend, Jeremy and I also went to the beach again to hit up the waves. It was 84 on the beach, so we had to go, of course! Crazy October weather, but I'm not complaining. Jeremy really likes to body board. I think next we will get into surfing!

~Honey Whole Wheat Bread~

I kind of really dislike store-bought bread now, so I have been tampering with some whole wheat homemade recipes. This one is really good, and only has 7 ingredients. I am trying to eat more whole foods (as a result I stay thin and get sick less, yay!). My mama helped me make this today, and it turned out great! Thanks, mom :-)

you'll need:

4 1/4 c. whole wheat flour (I grind my own)

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 c. warm water (too hot will kill the yeast)

1/4 c. honey

2 Tbs. oil

1 packet or 2 1/4 tsp. yeast

1 tsp. dough enhancer

get busy:

Proof the yeast in a small bowl. In a separate mixer bowl, add all of the dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients (including yeast after it has risen) and knead for about 10 minutes.

Cover the bowl and let rise for 45 minutes. Remove from bowl and flatten the dough in a thin, rectangular shape. Fold in thirds towards the center and flatten to get any bubbles out. Roll up the dough, and place in a greased bread pan. To grease, I use oil or butter. Bake for 30 minutes at 350. Makes one yummy loaf. This is optional, but when I take out my bread, I butter the top. Enjoy!

~easy breezy brazilian lemonade~

for any tucano's lovers out there, here is a recipe practically identical to their lemonade. i made brazilian lemonade last night, and it is so easy! 5 ingredients. that's it. jeremy was surprised when he learned what little went into it. if you try this recipe, let me know what you thought!

side note:...no lemons. why is it called lemonade..? food for thought.

you'll need:

1 lime, sliced in eighths

1/2 c. sugar (or less)

3 Tbs. sweetened condensed milk

3 cups cold water

ice

get busy:

cut off the ends of the lime and slice into 8 wedges. put limes in a blender with sugar, sweetened condensed milk, water and ice.

blend, pulsing 5 or 6 times--not too much or else it will be SUPER lime-y!!!!!

strain through a fine mesh strainer (i didn't have one the first time i made it, so i just handpicked out the lime chunks. tasted great.

enjoy!

another side note: i didn't add the 1/2 c. sugar the first time i made this ( i didn't read the directions carefully, i do that all the time hehe) and it tasted awesome. make it how you like it!

~swiss pasta with asparagus & mushrooms~

adopted by taste of home (where i get almost all of my good recipes)

makes 10 servings

you'll need:

12 ounces uncooked whole wheat pasta (any kind will do, it doesn't matter)

1 pound fresh asparagus, trimmed and cut into 2 inch pieces

1/2 pound sliced FRESH mushrooms (i use even more because i am obsessed with them)

1 tsp. minced chives

3 Tbs. butter

2 Tbs. flour

1/2 tsp. salt

2 1/4 c. swiss cheese, shredded

grated fresh parmesan cheese (optional)

get busy:

cook pasta according to package. meanwhile, steam asparagus until crisp-tender.

in a large saucepan, saute mushrooms (yum yum yum!) and chives in butter. stir in the flour and salt; gradually add milk. bring to a boil; cook and stir for 1-2 minutes or until thick. add the swiss cheese; cook and stir until melted.

drain the pasta and put it in a big cute bowl. add asparagus and sauce and toss it. garnish with parmesan cheese if you want to. enjoy!

~shrimp with cilantro pesto~

...and other good stuff too. j and i had a fun weekend. here are some of the things we were up to:we tested out our wetsuits. water wasn't even cold! we had a blast trying to ride the waves.







we also went to carlsbad village to longboard the boardwalk. way fun.
but i stink at longboarding. this sunset was taken on my phone! we made homemade fresh salsa today. delish recipe, and very easy.

we have been watching a lot of food network lately, so this recipe was inspired by that channel. YUM.

~shrimp with cilantro pesto~

you'll need:

pesto:

1 lime

1 1/2 c. fresh cilantro

2 green onions, chopped

2 Tbs. chopped pecans

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 tsp. sugar

2 Tbs. vegetable oil

2 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

shrimp:

3/4 pound raw medium-sized shrimp, deveined and peeled

1 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil

get busy:

pesto:

juice entire lime into food processor. add cilantro, green onions, pecans, garlic, sugar, vegetable oil, and olive oil. pulse until well-combined, but still somewhat chunky. salt and pepper to taste.

shrimp:

in a bowl, toss shrimp with 1 Tbs. pesto. heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. sautee shrimp about 3 minutes or till pink. you can save the rest of the pesto and freeze for another time. enjoy!

For dessert tonight, i made a simple halloween funfetti cake. hubby couldn't wait to eat for me to take a decent picture. he had 3 pieces :-)

j starts work tomorrow for edward jones. wahoo!

~yummy sugar cookies~

i thought i would share my sugar cookie recipe, since we inhaled the batch i made the other day. i have quite a few fall cookie cutters, so i had a lot of fun cutting out halloween and fall shapes. this recipe is very easy to make, and doesn't take long!

here's what you need! (ashley edwards' recipe)

you'll need:

cookies:

1 1/4 c. shortening

2 1/4 c. sugar

4 eggs

1 t. vanilla

1 t. almond

1 t. lemon

5 c. flour

2 t. salt

2 t. baking powder

frosting:

3 Tbs butter or margarine (i always prefer butter)

2 c. powdered sugar

2 Tbs milk

get busy:

cream shortening and sugar. beat in wet ingredients. beat in dry ingredients. chill for 3o minutes. roll out and cut whatever fun shapes you want! bake for 6 minutes at 400 degrees. cool on racks. mix together ingredients for frosting. if it's a little runny, just add more powdered sugar. i like to put a little food coloring in mine to make them more festive. i added some red and yellow to get a good halloweenie orange :-) enjoy!

hello, southern california!!

we made it here! we moved into a very nice apartment complex in a beautiful area with rolling hills, and we live on the edge of vista and carlsbad in the san diego area. we are ten minutes from the ocean, twenty five from the temple, and thirty minutes from the sd airport and downtown! there is also a super walmart AND super target across the street from each other about two miles away. so stoked! the speed limit on most of the streets is at least 50, so we can get around pretty quickly, and we love it (because that means we won't get as many speeding tickets :-) ). i was so happy when jeremy suggested we head to the beach after only being here a few days. i had missed it so much! we ended up driving down the pch for quite a while, checking out all of the beaches and the amazing torrey pines golf course (pga tour) that jeremy just had to see. we ended up in la jolla cove (very close to where we were married) where you can snorkel and actually have visibility fairly far down. there is a huge rock there where a ton of squeaky seals sit and sun bathe which was so fun to watch. this is the la jolla cove. i am so happy!
here is a glimpse of the awful mess as we were packing up our things in provo. we didn't think it would take as long to pack up as it did. it seemed to drag on and on.
here is the after photo, once we got all of our crap-ola out. so empty feeling.
i had to take a picture of the outside of our place so i could remember forever what our first home together looked like.
our truck was filled to the brim! thankfully, jeremy packed it. he is amazing at fitting everything so perfectly. i think he learned it from his dad!
here is just one picture of our new place. it has a wood-burning fireplace, so we were so excited to use it; we have already had two fires, and it warms up our entire place. there is a really nice park down the street where we snag our firewood :-) we had to sell our old couches because there was no way they would fit in our living room, so that is our new couch.
i was so grateful when we moved in; my supermom made us a whole pan of enchiladas for dinner and an apple crumb pie. it was sooo delicious; the pie was gone in one day. ha we are such fatties.
our sis-in law emily was in town, so we decided to have din din at the beach and cook our hot dogs over the fire. most beautiful sunset that day.
oceanside harbor
last weekend we were at my parent's for general conference and my sister allie helped me make this adorable fall wreath! we had so much fun making it. jeremy is being silly...
our front door
i made yummy homemade teriyaki chicken, rice and buttered carrots last night. i don't usually cook a starch for dinner anymore, but rice goes so well with teriyaki chicken. sooo good
last good news, we went on a nice walk/run through that amazing park down the street and found ourselves garage sale hunting for wetsuits so we can snorkel and we got lucky! we bought a full wetsuit for him, spring suit for me, a bathing suit, a movie and a new billabong t shirt for $40. so we're going snorkeling! also, for family home evening last monday we (mostly i actually) made frosted sugar cookies (the recipe came from my sis ashley). delicious!