Cooking with Fresh Ingredients from the Garden

I have been cooking a little more lately and thought I would share a yummy and nutritious recipe with you.

If you are like me you have a bunch of summer squash or zucchini from the farmers market or your garden that you don't know what to do with...don't worry, I have a great recipe for you. I found this Quinoa with Roasted Zucchini, Feta, and Oregano dish this week and we LOVED it! I highly recommend that you try it out. Quinoa is a very nutritious and yummy grain and alternative to wheat. Here is a wikipedia article on quinoa if you are interested.

Last week I cooked with rhubarb for the first time ever and baked a pie for the first time ever. I baked a strawberry rhubarb (from my mother in laws garden) pie and last night baked a strawberry rhubarb dump cake. Both were delicious and I am now a lover of rhubarb! I don't have a link to those recipes because they were ones that my mother in law gave me. If you want them let me know. The dump cake was pretty much the easiest thing I have ever baked.

I also made a delicious chicken, basil, tomato, and fresh mozzarella sandwich on Sunday. The basil was from my backyard and the tomato's were again from Grandpa and Grandma Laffin's garden.

I don't have any pictures of the food but here are some of the garden that the ingredients came from.

Ruby had a blast running through the tomato plants

Ruby picking blackberries with her Grandma-the master gardener

Visit to Grandma and Grandpa Laffins

Brian picking berries in his parents garden. We love getting fresh veggies and berries from his parents garden. We have been making salsa and marina sauce this week with the fresh tomatos and peppers.

Ruby gets to play with her Daddy and Uncle John's toys from when they were little when she visits her grandparents.

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Ruby at 9 1/2 months hanging over her Daddy's shoulder. This is a common picture of Ruby. She loves it when Brian hangs her over his shoulder like this.

Update on summer goals

Of course I couldn't write a blog without posting a picture of Ruby. Here she is watching the construction men on the roof of the house across the street.

Now is as good of a time as ever to re-visit some goals that I made in May. Here we go:

Go for walks at least 5 times a week Most weeks I am accomplishing this

Read a book all the way through The Vaccine Book by Dr. Sears (highly recommend)

Send more snail mail Done

Volunteer somewhere with my church In the process of signing up to work with kids

Cook More This one needs some work but it is so stinkin hot

Go to Michigan in June to see friends! Done

Send birthday cards on time (Tina, Heather, Alex, John III, Logan, Megan, Smith, Julie, and Dad) John and Logan's were on time

Spend more time with other new mom's slowly I am doing this. I have attended a friday mom's lunch group with some girls from church 2x now

Visit Sara and Oskar Fox in June! Done and was awesome

Keep my herbs alive the oregano and cilantro didn't make it. we still have basil, dill, sage, and mint

Take more pictures yep

Learn a little bit of sign language to start using with Ruby we are working on the signs for "more" "please" "dog" "drink" and "down"

Mayyybbbeee...just maybe switch to cloth diapers....maybe believe it or not we have officially made the switch! I will post more on this later.

Herbs and forgotten roses

Here is a picture of my herbs and flowers. I will put a new picture up as they grow (God willing).

Also, the other day I remembered that last summer we planted roses that Brian's mom gave us in the back corner of our yard. Ruby and I like to go in the back yard a few times a day to let Luna run around so while I was back there I took a peek. Underneath a bunch of overgrown tree branches there were 10 beautiful roses! I was so surprised and delighted. Now, we need to trim that tree back and pull out some weeds so we can enjoy them. What a nice surprise.

Goals for this summer

I got this idea from my friend Kathleen's blog (thanks Kathleen). Here are some things I want to do this summer:

Go for walks at least 5 times a week

Read a book all the way through

Send more snail mail

Volunteer somewhere with my church

Cook More

Go to Michigan in June to see friends!

Send birthday cards on time (Tina, Heather, Alex, John III, Logan, Megan, Smith, Julie, and Dad)

Spend more time with other new mom's

Visit Sara and Oskar Fox in June!

Keep my herbs alive

Take more pictures

Learn a little bit of sign language to start using with Ruby

Mayyybbbeee...just maybe switch to cloth diapers....maybe


Okay, that is it for now. I will update later in the summer!