Holy Guacamole!

We love guacamole at our house! It is a healthy snack that we’ve been loving lately with the avocados being on sale from the super bowl.  We are however guacamole snobs. This recipe is one my mom made up when they moved back from Mexico. It is just like what they have in Mexico. It makes me miss Mexico. I keep telling Ty we need to fly down just so I can get tacos from my favorite restaurant…one day maybe :)

Avocados (I used three for this batch, which was perfect for the three of us)

Lime juice (I used the juice from 1 ½ limes)

Salt, to taste

White onion, chopped finely, as much or as little as you want (I’m not a big fan of raw onion, but you have to have it in your guacamole, because it adds so much!!)

Tomato, chopped, as much as you want (again you have to have tomato)

Start by mashing your avocados in a bowl after you have taken off the skin and removed the pit. I mash them one at a time. 

Then add lime juice and salt. (The lime juice serves two purposes  1. It helps prevent browning, I’ve had some in the fridge for a few days and it’s still green!! 2. It gives a hint of lime taste in your guacamole.) Taste before you add the onion and tomato to make sure you have the right amount of lime and salt.

 Add the onions and tomatoes and give it a good stir.

Enjoy!

Heather

Weekly Menu

Hi gals!

Sometimes I struggle coming up with a weekly menu so I was wondering if y'all would be willing to share your weekly menus with each other? That way we can share the love and the good ideas and help each other out in the process!

Here is the most recent menu that Jordon and I brainstormed for the past week and a half. (Yes, week and a half... only because Jordon got on a roll with finding ideas while flipping through some cook books and I wasn't going to stop that goodness!) We like to do at least a couple of meatless meals each week so that is why those are thrown in there...

In no particular order:
Potato bar
Chinese Chicken Salad (Our Best Bites has a great recipe for this)
Lasagna
Navajo Tacos (using Heather's scone recipe)
Creamy Vegetable Chowder (from my Pinterest)
Creamy Tomato and Spinach pasta (from my Pinterest... but we both discovered that we don't like cooked spinach so we have nixed this idea for good)
Spaghetti
Cranberry orange chicken salad (Our Best Bites recipe and it is STELLAR!!! Seriously, my favorite chicken salad recipe now!)
Sloppy Joes (homemade recipe from the Mormon Cookbook - I'd be happy to share with anyone who would like it. It's super easy and I added my own twist to it)
Tostadas
Lettuce wraps (Our Best Bites and it's DELICIOUS! And not that hard!)
Tin foil dinners

We now have this week to create a menu for... and I'm looking forward to anything y'all will share! I'm thinking this could be fun to do every now and then?? I know there are some great ideas for dinner that I just forget about so I'd love to hear what y'all do for your menus!

Love you ladies!!!

Kris

Granola Girl

Someone in my sister (Jocelyn's) ward gave her some granola for a new years gift with a note that said "to a happy and healthy new year!" She loved the granola and put it on yogurt, with milk, by the handful as a snack.  She asked for the recipe and I usually request any recipe that anyone loves... because it usually means that it is tested, tried and good!  It's also pretty easy to switch up and make it with things that you like.  Don't like pecans and raisins? Use walnuts and craisins, or almonds and dates.  Don't like coconut? leave it out!  I really liked it, but Ryan LOVED it.  He was shoveling it in his mouth with a spoon and said "oh my gosh this taste like candy!"  He is by far the healthier of the two of us, so his idea of "candy" tastes much different than mine! 
Grandma Brimhall's Granola (I have no clue who Grandma Brimhall is, but she is a good cook!)
6 cups instant oatmeal (I used the quick cooking)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup wheat germ (for reals, the first time I have ever bought this stuff!)
1 cup chopped nuts (I used pecans because Ryan loves them)
1 cup dates (or raisins or craisins...we used raisins because Ryan loves them... do you see a theme here!?)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
mix all dry ingredients together.
in a separate bowl combine:
3/4 cups vegetable oil
1/3 cups water
1 tsp vanilla
pour the wet ingredients over the dry ones and mix until well combined.  pour into a large ungreased cookie sheet (I put it on tinfoil and greased it... because that's what I do, and sometimes I'm a freak like that!) Bake in a 300 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes (mine took 30-35) mixing every 5 or so minutes.  I just used tongs and mixed it around to make sure the coconut didn't burn.  you can't under or over cook this... just bake it to the desired crunch level... actually you quite easily could over bake this, but only if you burn it.  Other than that it is just baking it to your liking.  Let cool and store in an airtight container!  It makes quite a bit, but Jocelyn tried halving it and it didn't work for her.  So make the whole thing and give some away! Happy Granola Baking gals!
Shae
PS: Since I don't have a picture of the granola, I thought I'd insert a picture of our completed gingerbread house from the competition. Can you believe that was just a month a go? In some ways it seems like this time has flown by, but in others it is just dragging right along!   

My new fav!

I don't know about all of you, but we've been having a lot of soup lately. I think because it's cold and soup is easy to make. What is soup with out rolls? This is my new favorite roll recipe.
(Yummy rolls) This is the recipe for the rolls we brought to Shirley's house on Christmas.

I have also found that the leftover rolls freeze really well. There is no way that the three of us could or should finish one batch before they go bad :)

Happy cooking!
Heather