Zucchini Carrot Muffins

I have just realized that I am an overuser of the exclamation mark!!! See I can't stop.  I'm surprised everyone I text doesn't think I'm yelling at them.  Perhaps they don't want to upset me because they think I am easily excitable.  OK I'm going to write the rest of this post with out any more exclamation marks.  It may kill me. 

Well anyway it's beginning I am starting to live off the land.  My tiny garden is producing delicious vegetables.  Cucumbers, jalapenos, a few cherry tomatoes, and zucchini... ohh zucchini.  I'm pretty sure that everyone has a love hate relationship with zucchini this time of year.  Don't get me wrong I love it, but there is so much, and they're getting bigger.  They are taking over, but today I'm ok with that, why? Check these guys out.

Carrot Zucchini Muffins

(adapted from Uncanny Goodness)

1 medium Zucchini

1/2 cup shredded carrots

2 eggs

1 1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup canola oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups white flour

1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon fresh grated ginger

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grate carrots (or buy matchstick to save time), and zucchini skin and all.  Combine carrots, zucchini, sugar, oil, and vanilla in a big bowl.  Add remaining dry ingredients.  Mix just until combine.  Scoop about 1/2 cup batter into greased muffin tins. Bake for 25-30 minutes.  Makes 12-16 muffins.

Now back to chillin at the pool.

With soggy snacks!

PS- I wanted to use about 20 exclamation marks, but I refrained...be impressed!

Simple snack

I have a serious addiction.  I have just realized that I need a second cup of coffee in the afternoon when baby girl naps.  I denied it for a while.  No, its just something I enjoy, I don't need it.  That's  what I thought until I tried to go without.  It was horrible I was tired, irritable, and in general not fun to be around.  So it's settled coffee makes me a better person.  Meh...I think I'm cool with that, there are worse things :)

So now since I am no longer feeling any guilt about my coffee habit what is necessary for afternoon coffee.  Why a snack of course! I usually would reach for some chocolate or cookies or something bad like that, but not today I created a delicious, healthy treat in about 3 minutes!

Key lime blueberry yogurt sandwiches

1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt

Juice of 1/2 a lime (about 2 Tablespoons)

Zest of 1/2 a lime

1 teaspoon honey

4 Graham Crackers

a handful of bluberries

Mix yogurt, lime juice and zest, and honey together.  Spread mixture on graham crackers, sprinkle crackers with blueberries.  Wrap in plastic wrap and freeze for about an hour. Makes 2 sandwiches.

No I didn't eat them both...yet!

Blueberry Peach Cobbler

I had fresh local blueberries and peaches waiting for me to make them into a delicious dessert. My first though was crisp, but no oats, then pie, no too hard.  Hmm I decided on embarking on a new dessert adventure, the cobbler.  Not only have I never attempted a cobbler, I'm not sure I've even eaten one before..I know very exciting. So I searched through all my favorite blogs and I have adapted my recipe from Smitten Kitchen! This is an amazing food blog! Find her recipe here.  Here is my cobbler!!

Not too bad for my first try! Here's how I did it.

Blueberry Peach Cobbler

5 fresh peaches peeled and sliced

1 pint blueberries

1/2 cup brown sugar

3 Tablespoons of flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 

1/4 teaspoon salt

For the topping

3/4 cup flour

1/4 cup cornmeal

3 Tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/3 cup milk

3 Tablespoons butter

Mix together fruit, brown sugar, flour, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt.  Put mixture into a 9x13 baking dish.  For biscuit topping mix together all dry ingredients.  Then chop up butter and cut in with a fork or pastry cutter.  add milk, and mix until combine.  Spoon biscuits on top of fruit.  Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.

Enjoy warm with ice cream or if you don't have it plain Greek yogurt is pretty good, too.

And after eating half of that I thought it might be a good idea to have a light lunch! Thanks Pintrest for this idea!

Mexican Sweet potato! Just bake sweet potato, and add black beans, salsa, lettuce, and a bit of plain Greek yogurt!! Yum

Making play dough

It has been unbearably hot and rainy around here which leads to this lady making too many trips to Target, and having too many dollar store adventures! I need to start saving some money.  So step one in the new budget make homemade play dough.  I searched the web, and decided to make the cooked version and it was fun and turned out pretty well. My girl sure had fun!

She only tried to eat it once, I'm so proud of my big girl.  After a little searching I made a plan and a recipe adapted from this.

Homemade Play dough

2 cups flour

2 cups water

1 cup salt

2 T. Canola Oil

Add all ingredients to a saucepan on low heat, and stir until no longer sticky (about 10 minutes).  Remove from heat and knead until pliable, add food coloring, or glitter here if desired. ( I added red sugar because it was all I had, but I think food coloring would work better). Play!

Overall easy and lots of fun, but this and various other projects left my kitchen looking like this.

Scary, and the other side doesn't look any better! 

Time to clean....or coffee break tough call!

Fourth of July Salsa!?

I know how very American of me to make salsa on the day we are celebrating America! But I had to we got our first crops from our garden.  Yep, I definitely think I'm a farmer now that I have a tiny raised garden.  Look at this beaut

And I turned it into this!

The freshest most delicious salsa ever! And super easy if you can chop, you can make it.

Garden Salsa:

1 1/2 medium tomatoes

1/2 a red onion

1/2 yellow bell pepper

1 jalapeno 

1 clove garlic

juice of 1/2 a lime

5-6 leaves of fresh cilanto roughly chopped

Dice the tomato, onio, peeper, and garlic, and throw it in a bowl.  Dice and seed the jalepeno (unless you like it really spicy).  Squeeze in the lime juice, and add cilantro.  Lightly mix, and serve!! 

I grilled up some turkey sausage, sliced it up and served it on tortillas with this delish salsa!!!

The best part about summer holidays! Spending time with family, which in our case means lots of laziness! Everyone in my house is sleeping.

We have been lucky enough to spend lots of time with our families this summer! Thanks to my in-laws for babysitting so Matt and I could go to an awesome summer concert!

We obvious felt pretty cool!

We got to see babies
 
 What! I don't like babies or anything.

 
 And we pretended we were vacationing! Thanks to the awesome father's Day present we got my husband! Summer Rocks!