8/25/11

This is my cousin's sweet little girl.  Her and Paisley were excited to meet each other.


So last weekend I had the opportunity to go up to Provo to my cousin's wedding.  This is super significant because my cousin Brianna is on my Dad's side and they all live in Dallas, TX so I don't get to see them very often.  It's also significant because my Grandma Clark came and I haven't gotten to see her since I was pregnant and I really wanted her to meet Paisley and to get some pictures of her with Paisley.

This is the part where I get to whine for a minute.  Sometimes I wish that I had a professional photographer to follow me around and take my picture.  It would just be nice not to have to worry about it.  I made the super obvious mistake of waiting until the end of the night to take pictures...so we're all sweaty and Paisley is DONE.  Oh well.  At least we got something.  It was such a fast trip and I wish so much that I would have had more time to see and talk to everyone.  I feel like I saw each person just long enough to say hello, find out where they were in school/job and move on to the next. 
 Jon had to work since it was on a Friday so Christina came up with me and I was so glad for her help!  Paisley was a handful most of the trip-she missed naps both days and it took her another 2 days of being back home to get back on track. She's usually really good but she had a rough time keeping it together there at the end.  I have NO idea how single moms do it!!  I am so grateful for my husband and for Christina's help on the trip! 
I'm just glad I got to go.  I love my sweet Grandma and it was so fun seeing my sisters, brother and parents too!

8/24/11

{recipes}: pumpkin enchiladas

Ok, so I've tried to make it a goal to try new recipes and with bountiful baskets it has been SUPER easy to do that since I never know what I'm getting until I get it!  I found this recipe and it is SO easy and super good!  I am also trying to post the recipes that I'm finding and share!  Enjoy!
 
Ingredients
  • 1/2 leftover rotisserie chicken, skin removed, meat shredded
  • 6 scallions, thinly sliced
  • Coarse salt and ground pepper
  • 1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin puree
  • 4 cloves garlic, peeled
  • 1 jalapeno chile, quartered (remove ribs and seeds for less heat, if desired)
  • 1 teaspoon chili powder
  • 8 corn tortillas (6-inch)
  • 1 1/2 cups grated sharp white cheddar cheese (6 ounces)

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a medium bowl, combine chicken and scallions. Season generously with salt and pepper; set aside.
  2. In a blender, puree pumpkin, garlic, jalapeno, chili powder, 2 1/2 cups water, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper until smooth (hold top firmly as blender will be quite full). Pour 1 cup of sauce in the bottom of an 8-inch square (or other shallow 2-quart) baking dish.
  3. Lay tortillas on work surface; mound chicken mixture on half of each tortilla, dividing evenly. Roll up tortillas; place, seam side down, in baking dish.
  4. Pour remaining sauce on top; sprinkle with cheese. Place dish on a baking sheet; bake until cheese is golden and sauce is bubbling, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes before serving.

I used a rotissiere chicken from harmons for the meat, but I'm thinking that shredded chicken of any kind would work awesome.  I also used dried onions and garlic since I was in a hurry and they blended up super easy with the jalepeno.  I was really worried that the jalepeno would make it too spicy so I omitted the chili powder and they turned out very, very mild.  And I loved the corn tortillas, but I think flour would be super good too!!  This is a fun dinner for fall!  Thank you Martha!


    8/21/11

    {birthday}: 2!




    Paisley turned 2 last week and we had a cute little birthday party for her on Monday night as our FHE.  We had yummy cupcakes and cake and she got some of the funnest presents!!  I think she loved every minute of it :)

    8/13/11

    {cooking}: my favorite things

    I love to cook-and I especially love that I've got the time to do it (ideally).  Back when it was work and school, or even just work it was super hard to have a desire to cook-even though I do love it.  Now that I've been home I've really grown to love it-so I thought I would share a couple of my favorite things!!
    • Bountiful Baskets:  If you haven't signed up for this YOU NEED TO!!  I love getting fresh fruit and veggies every weekend and it practically plans my meals for me!!  If I get potatoes we have Shepard's pie.  If I get tomatoes, we have bruschetta...cooking couldn't be easier then having some of those decisions made for you!
    • Pesto:  Costco's pesto is SOO good and only $7 for the HUGE jar.  I love keeping it in the back of my fridge to toss up with some chicken, pasta and veggies.  It makes a super fast last minute meal fresh and easy!  It is also SOO good smothered on fish and then sprinkled with crushed Ritz and baked.
    • Red Bell Pepper:  I have grown to love these because they are so sweet after you saute them!
    • Cottage Cheese:  This is my new favorite breakfast.  I've really tried super hard to eat protein with every meal and this is perfect with fruit!
    • Whole Wheat Flour:  in chocolate chip cookies.  Just half though-it makes a much heartier cookie and I get compliments every time I do it!!
    • Whole Wheat Pasta: speaking of whole wheat-I love doing half and half with pasta too.  It makes a heartier meal and I feel like it brings out the good flavor in both.
    • Homemade tortillas: are a cinch to make.  I had no idea they were so easy or I would have started making them from scratch a long time ago.  I already was in love with the ones you buy raw and make-but making up the dough and rolling them out is SUPER easy and SOO delicious!
    • Frozen Chicken Breast/Frozen Fish Fillets:  I always keep in my freezer!  They thaw in 15 minutes in warm water and are super easy to just throw in the oven or in a skillet and eat with some veggies. 
    • Good Knives:  are worth asking for for Christmas.  I promise.  Jon got me a set 2 years ago and I love them-it makes it so much easier to want to cook knowing I won't be sawing away at veggies-the knives falling apart in my hands.  He found a set for pretty cheap on Amazon and I love them!
    This last week I made the most delicious Chicken Tortilla Soup...I know it's not really soup weather here right now but this was SOO good!  Of course it's a pioneer woman recipe and you can find it here, I can't recommend it enough!!  Happy Cooking :)


    8/4/11

    {nostalgia}: peaches

    I blog today of home and peaches. 
    Growing up we would come to St. George, UT every Labor Day for our Annual Gubler Reunion. This was a particularly exciting trip for my siblings and I because we were never allowed to have sleep-overs growing up, so the opportunity to stay up all night and party with our cousins was overwhelmingly exciting. We would load up in the van and take the SUPER long drive from IF to StG, gradually getting hotter and hotter as we went. We would often stop in Salt Lake and visit cousins who would then join us on the continuing drive down south. Usually on that stop we would also pick up a box of peaches.

    Some years we picked up 2 boxes of peaches, but usually it was just the one.

    The reunion was always so much fun. Friday night the adults would leave all of us and go out for a fancy adult dinner. I always looked forward to getting old enough to go to that. Unfortunately, I never got to that point (I'm on the younger end of the cousins). We would gorge ourselves on pizza and stay up all night playing video games and watching movies. Saturday morning was always the service project and adult meeting. We would clean up my Grandparents house, yard, garage, orchard and the like. I always found at least one lizard to chase after! After that we'd eat, play softball, kickball or get into a huge water fight. And that night we would do skits and eat fried chicken. This was also significant because this was the one time a year that I got to eat fried chicken!! SOOO good. We would try and play Saturday night too, but usually we ended up going to bed-knowing that there would be another long drive in the morning. Our favorite card game was Rook-something I remember my parents staying up all night playing with my grandparents...and playing blind Rook with my Great-Uncle Merl was the best! He would let us set the points up to infinity.

    Sunday morning we would pack up the van, with our peaches and head home. I think the peaches hold a lot of significance in the story because they were our souvenir from StG. We would eat them one by one and then the box would be gone-and summer with it. We loved eating them cut up with a little sugar and nutmeg and milk poured over the top. It was sad to see them go-knowing that the empty box meant school and homework and fall.

    This last week bountiful baskets had Utah peaches. I also had the opportunity to go out and photograph a reunion at my grandparents house. My Aunt's mother bought their house when they passed away and so it was a lot of my cousins (and their cousins) celebrating in the same house, around the same time of year and going there overwhelmed me with nostalgia.

    I can't believe its the last month of summer! Let's go play and make it count!

    8/3/11

    {love}: zumba

    I love zumba.  I don't know if I can really express how much I love it.  Dance is home to me.  I grew up doing ballet-lots and lots of ballet and I hadn't been able to replace that void for the longest time...until I found zumba.  And it was a VOID-a hole in my heart.  Once you've grown to love something so much...having it taken away was really hard on me.  I recently had a conversation with a friend who was a rock-climber he was talking about how climbing uses every single muscle-so much so that you have to push everything else out of your mind and just focus on what you're doing.  The same goes for dance.  It requires focus and discipline...and it becomes a meditation of another kind.  I love it.  I am growing to love my instructors more and more as I get to know them and I am so grateful to have found this amazing outlet in my life!  If you haven't found something that lights you up inside don't ever stop looking!!  It's out there for you...and it may just be zumba!!  Love it...love all of it!  xoxo