Apple Avocado Salsa

I tasted an apple avocado salsa at a restaurant near our home a few months ago.
And I dreamed about it for a few weeks after that.
I loved it so much. I found a good copy cat recipe at cd.kitchen.com.
Our Family put this pretty salsa on top of a citrus salmon, it was so good.

I think it would be super tasty served with a turkey & bacon panini too. As soon as I can eat bread again, I am for sure going to try it.

No matter how you decide to serve it- you absolutely HAVE to try this salsa.


Apple Avocado Salsa

1 cup diced Granny Smith apple
1/2 cup diced, peeled, ripe avocado
1/4 cup diced red bell pepper
1/4 cup diced red onion
1 TBSP. chopped fresh cilantro
1 1/2 tsp. minced jalapeno pepper
1/2 tsp. grated lime rind
1/8 tsp. salt
1 1/2 TBSP. fresh lime juice
1 dash black pepper
1 clove garlic, minced

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and toss well
Make extra because you are going to snack on it A LOT!

It's a Smoothie of a Day

Ever since I've had to eliminate so much from my daily diet, I have had to rely on Smoothies for breakfast. It is hard to find a quick breakfast that has no dairy, no gluten and no added sugar :(
Oh and that can be prepared and eaten quickly
and can be eaten on the run if needed
that's a tall order.

My favorite base is made by Standard Process. I add a few scoops of that to 1 cup of water each morning.
Than I take my favorite fruits. I use a wide range of things, but my favorite is berries, frozen banana, mango, lemon juice and spinach.

 Ooohhhh, this makes me smile. Can you see how many servings of fruits and veggies I am getting in this meal???

I blend it all together and VOILA! Instant yummy breakfast.

I have my three daughters converted. Unfortunately my youngest two kiddos still want chocolate added to their shakes. Oh well, they will see the light soon enough.

Hey, go have breakfast... the day is just beginning

Not Popeye's Spinach

I've recently been converted to spinach.

As I am trying to get more vegetables into my day, I have found that spinach is a really easy way to sneak in a serving at every meal.

I tasted this a Spinach Salad with Roasted Carrots at a church activity, and had to figure out a way to add it to our salad rotation. Thank goodness for my resident salad dressing extraordinaire! She created the perfect dressing for our salad.

sorry, one of these days my pictures will be worthy of the yummy food they represent

Spinach Salad with Roasted Carrots & Israeli Cous-Cous

Fresh Baby Spinach
a Bunch of large carrots (don't use the baby carrots for this dish)
1/4 c. sunflower oil
1 shallot
small bunch of fresh parsley
zest from one lemon
1/2- 1 cup Israeli Cous-Cous (depending on how much salad you are making)
1/4 c. pine nuts, roasted

Cook the cous-cous according to box directions.
Roast the pine nuts if needed.
Meanwhile, peel the carrots & wash. Cut them at an angle, in large bite size pieces. Toss carrots  in Sunflower oil (you can substitute olive oil if that is what you have). Finely mince the shallot and the parsley and sprinkle over carrots. Add the lemon zest. Spread on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper. Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes; to desired tenderness. I like to broil mine for just a few minutes to give them a bit of darkened edges.

On a serving platter, lay the spinach in a generous pile. Top with roasted carrots, cous-cous and pine nuts. Toss with any light salad dressing you like. We use this Lemon Dressing- which is absolutely perfect.

Light Lemon Salad Dressing

6 TBSP. Lemon olive oil
4 TBSP. white champagne vinegar
juice from 1/2 orange
1tsp. minced shallot
pinch of sea salt

This was such a light dressing, but complimented the salad absolutely perfectly.

Enjoy this one over and over again.

*** NOTE: I had a hard time finding Israeli Cous-Cous in Utah when I wanted to make this salad for my family. If you can't find it, use Orzo pasta. It'd be just as good.

It Started with a New Ceiling Fan

It all seemed so innocent. Let's get Kaidon a new ceiling fan. His was definitely from the 80's when white ceiling fans worked. But it wasn't working for me.NOT! ONE! BIT!
Once we got the ceiling fan down, I said "Lets paint the ceiling too". In my defense here, I'd like to say that this ceiling looked BAD! The previous owners had really done a number with dust, candle flames and I'm not quite sure what else.
So I painted the ceiling and enlisted my husband to hang the fan... and I rejoiced at how amazing it looked and even more at how amazing I felt.

Unfortunately, this meant that I was noticing all the ceilings in the house. After five more rooms received a fresh coat of ceiling paint (and new ceiling fans, since we were up there "Don't you know") - I am on a temporary break from my ceiling insanity.

So back to Kai's room. I decided that we should finish the room. When we moved in, we knew this was a temporary bedroom for Kai, so I decorated with what he had, and didn't put a lot of effort into it.

When I originally painted the room, I didn't like how the colors worked together, but I decided to deal with it. I won't really tell you what the colors reminded me of, but it wasn't pleasant.

When I repainted the top half, the bottom color looked good. So it got to stay (whew! one domino effect that didn't happen).

 With the cleaned up wall colors, the trims looked shabby...

YUP! You guessed it, I repainted all the trim in the room. OKAY not ALL of it, I'm putting up new baseboards next week :)

I re-hung what we had, in a different set up and added a small shelf for his little knick knacks. It was really an inexpensive re-do, but it made such a difference. And it totally motivated me to move on to the next room. I love that a little resource goes a long way.

Kai believes in adding his own little touch, it isn't magazine quality, but it is all his :)

Grilled Citrus Salmon

I had the yummiest Grilled Citrus Salmon from a local restaurant. It was served with a green apple/ avocado salsa. SO GOOD!
Salmon is one of the only types of fish I like to eat, so I was excited to find a recipe that I could copy at home. I was even more excited to find that this recipe is even yummier than the restaurant version. I've made a few minor changes from the original recipe that I found at www.cooksrecipes.com

Grilled Citrus Salmon

1/3 cup fresh orange juice
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
3 TBSP Sucanat (you can use brown sugar if you like)
1/2 finely chopped shallot
2 TBSP peeled, finely minced fresh ginger
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaved, chopped
6 pieces salmon fillets with skin
Malton sea salt & fresh ground black pepper to taste
dried red chili arbol peppers

*  In a blender, puree citrus juices, sucanat, shallot and ginger until smooth. Reserve 1/2 cup marinade. Transfew remaining marinade to a large zip lock style plastic bag and add the cilantro and salmon fillets, seal bag, removing as much air as possible. Marinate salmon in refrigerator 1-2 hours.
*  Warm and prepare grill.
*  Remove Salmon from marinade and discard remaining marinade. Pat salmon dry. Season salmon with salt and pepper and place dried chili's on top of the salmon. Grill, skin side down over foil or in a foil pan. Cook until the Salmon is just cooked through.
*  Pour reserved juice mixture over salmon when ready to serve.

Serve with Apple-Avocado Salsa

Mother's Day Menu

Mother's Day at our house was delayed this year. I was out of town picking my oldest son up from College that weekend.
My husband reminded me that we have really been celebrating all week long. We finished some projects around the house (which is a gift to me) and we went out for dinner last night! Woohoo!!
But I'm here to say that dinner tonight was WELL worth the wait. Oh! My! Gosh! So! Good!!!
We had Citrus Salmon, which was beautiful alone...

but we served it with the choice of one of two fruit salsa's. A mango salsa and a green apple salsa...

Okay, just so you know, no one here ate just one serving. Everyone had two servings of Salmon so they could try both salsa's.

On the side we had Spinach Salad with Roasted Carrots & Israeli CousCous (which is good enough and filling enough to serve on it's own for dinner).

We also had Quinoa with carmelized peppers and mushrooms.

It was so nice to be all together again. it will be short lived, but I intend to enjoy it while it lasts.

I Gotta Feeling...

Thank you Black Eyed Peas! I love your new song, I Gotta Feeling... and I've just gotta say Thank you for writing my "Feel Good Song".
This song makes me happy :0
This song makes me smile :)
This song gives me a giddy up in my stride
This song makes me want to sing along

So it doesn't surprise me at all that this is the song that came into my head after I made this Yummy Fruit Salad. With a few modifications, this is how the song went,
I Gotta Feeling,
That today's gonna be a good day,
Today's gonna be a good, good day

You've really got to try this fruit salad.
You're gonna have a Good, Good Day

Favorite Fruit Salad

Mango

Kiwi

Strawberries

Clementines

Red or Green Grapes

Fresh Pineapple

(when we have it, I like to add fresh passion fruit. It gives it a fun zing)

Orange, lemon

1 TBSP. coarsely chopped mint leaves

Combine all the fruit. Add the zests of one orange and one lemon as well as the juice from the orange.

Add the mint. Add sugar if you feel like you need it more sweet.

Find Your Focus

I was seriously numb when I started reading about the recent tornadoes in the mid-west. The intensity of the twister that ripped through five states and hundreds of miles was unbelievable to me. Probably because we have lived in tornado country, heard the sirens and spent many nights huddled in the basement with pillows and mattresses around us. Add the fact that this particular tornado went through a larger town in Alabama rather than the small, desolate towns that are usually victim- my thoughts and prayers were many!

I read an article about a college student at Alabama State University. She said that prior to the tornadoes, all she was really focused on was finding the perfect dress for graduation. She spent all her extra time and energy looking and shopping to find the perfect dress to wear for her graduation celebration.

Her focus shifted instantaneously with the tornado. This campus and the surrounding area was so effected by the tornado damage, that the college actually cancelled finals, classes and even the scheduled commencement exercises.

All of a sudden her perspective switched from what she wanted to wear to the gratitude that she felt for her own life and the life of her friends- all of whom had survived the record breaking tornado.

Her thoughts made me really think about all the things we worry about on a daily basis. We worry about tests, finances, our rounding bellies, and what other people think about us. But when we are filled with such all consuming thoughts, we don't see the smiles on the faces we see each day, the beauty of the morning sun, the laughter of children playing in neighborhoods all around us.
I think that we should spare ourselves the natural disaster wake up calls in life and ENJOY THE DAY, ENJOY THE MOMENT! The new dresses in life will be forgotten a few months from now, but the relationships and experiences you enjoy will stay with you for a lifetime.
It really is a beautiful life we have been given. To see it, all you need is a new perspective. To find that- just take a good look around :)

Grab an umbrella and bring on the rain

I love my YOGA! I definitely have two favorite yoga instructors, Billy and Ashley. Get to know their names, you will hear them a lot. I love them for the workouts that they put me through. And I love them for the thoughts and mantras they bring to my day.

The other day, Ashley put us through a rather strenuous set of poses. I thought it was strenuous, mostly because it was a lot of arm balance poses. After all these years, I am just not good at holding all of my weight on the pinky of my left hand-- OK! it is not that extreme, but it often feels like it to me.

Anywhoooo, after this particular set of poses-Asana's, she led us through some sun salutations with long pauses in down dog! For the non-yoga lover, basically she challenged us to the extreme and and than had  us focus on rest and breathing. This is always when she starts my favorite part, and she replaces her yoga coaxing with a little daily message.

She talked about rain. Sometimes the rain is brief and gentle. It is a nourishing rain. People have been known to play in these rains, and very little disruption to the normal events of life occur when a gentle rain comes through. Grab an umbrella, and life goes on!

My mind drifted off to Minnesota, where the greens always got greener and the flowers always got brighter after a rain. I was always amazed at how no amount of watering or fertilizing could do what one spring rain could do for the landscape.

She went on to say, but sometimes the rain pounds and is hard and even brutal. Rain and water have an enormous amount of energy and power. Rain can re-shape, destroy and relocate anything it hits when it pounds hard enough. This time I thought of a rainstorm we got stuck in one time in Ohio. It was literally buckets of water being dumped from the sky. Cars pulled off the freeway, because there was absolutely no visibility and no way to continue driving.

Than the image that came to my mind was the Grand Canyon. Talk about the power of rains and flooding.

Just like the rains of nature, the rains of life have the same impact. We might have a challenge or a trouble in life that comes along for a brief time. It is gentle enough that it requires one tiny little tweak, an umbrella, and you are back on your way of daily life. But at the end, you feel nourished and a little better for that rain.
But sometimes, the rain is hard and brutal and lasts for a long time. It might even come on so strong that it turns into full on flooding- you know what I'm talking about right!! One umbrella isn't going to change the way your life is affected. But the changes and the creation of that rain can be amazing. Nothing else could have brought the beauty to the Grand Canyon like the rains and waters did. And really, there is not a lot that can compare to what was created in that little corner of Arizona.

This thought has resonated with me since Ashley said it. I think of the things that I have learned because of rainy days, or weeks or months or -- well you get the idea. The application of what I learn during rainy times has literally changed the way I look at life and my priorities and values.

 I'm not saying I don't like the sunny days. Oh no, don't get me wrong!! Take me to the beach or the pool on a bright, warm, sunny day and I am in heaven. Get me a swim suit, a bag full of beach gear and my family-  I'll be happy all day!

These are good days to me- I live for summer break and vacations (that's a thought for another post). In life, sunny days bring an opportunity to see and enjoy your blessings (also another post). How many natural creations are the direct result of a sunny day. Yup, I love the sun, but it is the rainy days that push & shape me and have the ability to mold and transform me into something beautiful...
into something AWE inspiring!

LOUD & PROUD,
Ima gonna say- I love the rain. I like the umbrella days and the nourishing aspect of easy rains. And I love the creations of the long and hard rains. They have made me who I am today.

(not me), but my beautiful daughter

Now go and enjoy your sunny day :)