Summertime Food!!!

There is nothing better in the wintertime to me then having a lot of soup. I love to make so many different kinds...but once summer rolls around its all about salads and especially pasta salads for me. I found this one recently that I absolutely love. I just have to share it. For anyone looking to cut back on meat (and you should be) this entree is the perfect replacement. Beans are so much better at giving you protein since they are easier to digest then meat. So here it is for you to try:


Whole Wheat Pasta w/Ricotta & Vegetables:

8 ounces of whole wheat penne
2 1/2 cups of broccoli florets
1 1/2 cups of fresh or frozen beans cut into 1 inch pieces

Cook the pasta and the last 3 minutes of boiling add the green beans and broccoli. Drain and combine with ricotta mixture, 2 large tomatoes chopped, 1 can of rinsed and drained Kidney Beans, and 1/4 cup of grated parm cheese.

Ricotta Mixture:

1 1/4 cup of Ricotta
1/3 cup of snipped fresh basil (must be fresh)
1 tsp of dried Thyme
4 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp of Olive oil
1 garlic clove minced
1/2 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of pepper


Then just serve with Corn on the Cob or Bread with Balsamic/Olive Oil to dip in.

Michael Pollan is an amazing author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and "In Defense of Food". He recommends at least one meat free day like meat free Monday that not only will benefit you but our environment. You'd be suprised the impact all the animals raised for meat have on our planet.

I'm getting off my soap box now so you can go and enjoy dinner.

So, as I stated in my beach post...my dad just turned 80 and we flew out to suprise him. He lives in Phoenix but has a boat docked in San Diego that he likes to spend his summers on. A few years ago my dad got a serious infection from a procedure he had done and almost died. He was in the ICU for over a week. Shortly after I decided we needed to preserve his life story since it dates back to the Great Depression. I interviewed him and he gave me these really old black and white photos of him and his family. I knew I wanted to do something with them but wasn't sure what. Well, when this trip got planned I knew it was time to blow the dust off them. I scrapbooked each decade he was alive with what he was doing and what historic things were happening. Then my sisters and I all wrote something from each of us to him (a poem, letter, memory, etc.) and added them to the end of the book. It turned out so awesome and the night of his birthday we gave it to him over dinner. He started to cry and we all started to lose it too! Below is him looking at the book.

The only major activity we did was go to the San Diego zoo. Above is my dad and my sister Candice. We knew my dad wouldn't last all day walking so we talked him out of his pride and got him to sit in a wheelchair.

I am so glad we did this for him. It felt so good to suprise him and show him how much we love him. Happy 80th Dad!!!

Lots of Beach Fun...

It has been one crazy fun week for Zack and I. Last Friday we flew to San Diego to suprise my Dad for his 80th b-day. He knew my two sisters would be there but my brother and I (along with Zack and Natalie of course) were a total suprise. I will post more about that trip later today. Anyway on Monday we drove up to Laguna Beach, CA to spend 4 days at Zack's Aunts beach house. We invited our friends Justin and Nicole to come along with their daughter London.




Below are London and Natalie on the beach. It was so relaxing. We had no major plans. Before going we thought of doing Disneyland but after tackling the San Diego Zoo and realizing Natalie is a bit to young for all day excursions we decided life was better spent on the beach. Lucky for us Nicole and Justin were just as lazy as us, LOL! We would put our girls down for naps and then not reappear until they woke up. We found ourselves sprawled out on on the decks sunbathing and snoozing too.

There is a really cool rocky area that during lowtide you could walk on and it was covered with shells, tons of starfish, and anemones. Justin and Nicole happened to be exploring over there one day when they stumbled upon a model shoot. Mind you it was a swimsuit model shoot and poor Zack felt left out since we had already headed back to the house to clean up.

I am telling you- there is nothing better then the sand for Natalie. Everyonce in awhile we would have her walk near the waves but all she really wanted was to get super dirty and play in the sand. Talk about free entertainment completely stress free. Why don't I live on a beach.

Justin had this great idea to build a fort and then a small amount of water flooded in and the girls went nuts over it. They would wade and shovel sand all around. I swear they spent a good hour in that pit while Justin slaved to keep the waves from overtaking it by digging trenches. It was hilarious. Meanwhile they boys played frisbee and Nicole and I did what girls do best...layout in beach chairs. (j/k) All in all it was super relaxing and so much fun for the girls and us.

"Go Park"

There is nothing that Natalie loves more then the park. If you ask her what she wants to do she will almost always say "Go Park". We spent so much time at the Draper park (which I love because of all the big shady trees) last summer. And now here we are with the best weather in weeks and I have spent everyday since Saturday at the parks. We try to frequent several so I don't seem like a stalker.

We recently had gone with Natalie's friend London to the park and kids there had a bunch of sand digging toys. All Nat wanted to do was steal them and cried when we made her give them back. So I was at Target and found this bucket and shovel for a buck. Its been the greatest...she shovels piles of woodchips and pours them on slides, while I get to read my much anticipated 9 novel series of the Tudors (by Jean Plaidy). And did I mention I have Zack almost all the way sold on taking me to London for our 5-year anniversary this summer. Oh how I dream of walking around pretending that Court life still exists. Not really but I am super excited to see the sights of what I have been reading so much of for the past 5 years.

Dino Museum

Natalie loves to wear my sunglasses so I finally bought her some of her own. Crazy but she will actually keep them on. We met up with Mary yesterday and her daughter Ellie to go to the Dino Museum at Thanksgiving Point.



They have a play area with all these plastic dino's and puzzles the kids can play with. Natalie would bring them over to me and line them up on a bench. Then she would have them kiss and tell me which was the mommy, daddy, and baby.







And below is Natalie's favorite thing of all...the sandboxes where they can take brushes and brush the sand off dino bones. We have spent more then 20 minutes in there on previous trips...its so hard to get her to leave without a fuss. Luckily we promised them ice cream to leave.

A trip to Wonderland & Easter fun!

Zack and I decided to visit Denver over the Easter weekend and attend Lydia's birthday party (our niece). Megan (my sister-in-law) has a habit of throwing big themed birthday parties and this year Lydia wanted to be Alice and do Alice in Wonderland. (Last year it was all about Dorothy and The Wizard of Oz.)

Below is Carly, Lydia's sister.

And here is our little one giving us the worst evil smile ever!

Easter hunting....

The best part about visiting Denver is the time Natalie gets to spend with her cousins. She has so much fun playing with their toys and running all over with them. She has been so tired from all the fun that she has been taking a nap sometimes as early as 9:30am. Ridiculous I know but the same thing seems to happen whenever she travels. When we took her to NYC she was reverting back to 2 naps a day and in Vegas she had an almost constant drugged look in her eyes. I must admit this little girl has been on more airplane rides than anyone I know. Pretty soon we will have to sign her up for airline rewards.

Precious Moments

I haven't been blogging lately, mostly because nothing exciting has been going on. If you can believe this I haven't even finished a book in probably two months. (For anyone that knows me I usually read one every week or two.) This is because between marathon training (having to squeeze in runs almost everyday), mudding and sanding the room from hell (which the mudding is done, sanding was finished last night), and my work emails I have to get done daily, there just doesn't seem to be enough time. My soap operas have been backlogged on the DVR for sometime now. I have to get with it! Sheesh

Well anyway, I have some really cute photos of Natalie over the past few weeks I thought I would post.

Yes she is obssessed with that pink hat I got for a $1 at Target. She wears it around the house all day. And wearing pretty pink dresses which is what she refers to the poodle skirt outfit as.

The sunglasses are the other obssession. The minute we get in the car she knows the pocket on the ceiling they are in and starts pointing and asking for them.