Pick – on – my – gallo

Do you know what season it is?  Yeah I know it is basically summer but not just that!  It is garden season.  Which means loads of fresh produce. 

I love fresh produce

Like the beautiful tomatoes and cucumbers that I get from my Dad’s garden.  That’s right I said my Dad’s garden.  Because why should I do all that work when he will supply me with all I need! 

Just joking really.  I would plant my own if I had to, but my Dad is so sweet and kind to provide me with an abundance of veggies.

 

So what is one to do with so many tomatoes?  Hmmm, let me see.  Oh I know!  Let’s make some pico de gallo

  

I loooovvvvveeeeeee pico de gallo!  I will eat this stuff with a spoon.  Seriously no vessel needed.  I love to keep a huge bowl of the stuff in the fridge to top all my dishes with.  You name it, it goes with it.  Well except maybe ice cream.  But then again it may not be that bad, I have never tried it!

 

Know the key to great pico is the right ratio of ingredients.  Most people think that pico is all about the tomatoes.  While those are a key and super important ingredient, you also need to really show some love to the remaining ingredients as well.

5 roma tomatoes

1 small onion

3 jalapeno peppers

cilantro

juice of 1 lime ( use 1/2 if large lime, our limes here are tiny) 

salt

 

Dice the jalapenos, tomatoes and onions. You can leave the seeds in the jalapenos if you like a spicier pico, or just add extra jalapeno.  The jalapenos should be adjusted to your taste.  Now you will chop up a nice bunch of cilantro leaves.  Do not be stingy with the cilantro.  It really helps with the flavor of the dish.  Place all of these ingredients together in a bowl and give it a good stir.  Now you will need to squeeze the juice of the lime over the bowl, add the salt, and mix it all together.  Now go grad a spoon and enjoy!

Or some chips.

 

On on top of a steak, with some migas, scrambles eggs, chicken, stir fry, the list goes on and on.

 

Or you could be really brave and give that whole ice cream concept a go.  No matter what you choose, you will surely declare this the best thing ever.  You will request that you have a constant delivery of onions, peppers, and tomatoes.  Oh and your family may try to stage an intervention.

There seems to be a lot of that going on over here lately!!

Spread a little love

I am currently obsessed with this stuff.  I do mean obsessed!!

 

Quick, the hubster is trying to stage an intervention and we can’t have that!

 

Strawberries are just to good.  That is with a little spreaded love! 

What will I do when the season is over?  Well I will move on to blueberries.  Or raspberries.  Or pears.  Or apples.  Heck I am sure that any fruit will do with this wonderful spread.

 

Then again who the hell needs fruit with Biscoff?  I know I don’t!  Please don’t hate me for saying that.  I love fruit.  I eat a lot of fruit, but if I was told none was available……

Well just give me the jar and a spoon!!

One lucky reader will win a jar of this wonderful stuff.  Because it is the end of the school. year.  Because I am starting my summer vacation.  Because I want to spread a little love, and this stuff is just that darn good!

So leave me a comment telling me what you are looking forward to most this summer.  That is it.  You will be entered in a chance to win a lovely jar of Biscoff spread!

It is great to be back

On The Mend

I know I left you guys hanging last week with my lovely “I’m sick” announcement, I am sorry.  Some of you follow my personal facebook and are aware of how sick I have been.  For those of you that do not – I have pneumonia!!  I had to go back to the doctor Saturday morning from a fitful night of coughing. 

As I have already said…..the person who coined the term “walking pneumonia” has obviously never had pneumonia.  You do not walk with that stuff!!  So I have been super sick

I am still sick and now returning to work for this week (fingers crossed).  Again I am foregoing the posts due to massive amounts of things to do before the end of the school year.  I know I am kind of boring at the moment!  I hope to be back in the swing of things next week. 

For all of the wonderful moms out there, happy belated Mother’s day!  AND…….

My baby did graduate from Kindergarten yesterday so it hasn’t all been bad   Have a great week, I hope to chat with you guys soon

:( = sick

I have been super sick since this past Sunday afternoon.  I suddenly developed a headache and fever.  Which then lead to developing a horrible non-productive cough.  I made it to a doctor yesterday and all test came out ok.  Not sure exactly what is wrong, but she administered a steroid shot and antibiotics just to be safe.

Today is my first day back at work for the week so I am super super swamped.  I have decided to not post for the remainder of the week since I need lots o time to catch up on work!

Just wanted you guys to know that I haven’t fallen off of the face of the earth, lol!  There is a reason for my absence.  I miss you all dearly and will return next week

Thanks,

Helen, Naturally!!

Inspiration

We may shine, we may shatter

    

We may be pickin’ up the pieces here on after

We are fragile, we are human

We are shaped by the light we let through us

But we break fast ’cause we are glass

‘Cause we are glass

***words courtesy of “Glass” lyrics by Thompson Square – my newest song obsession**

***rainbow pics are from my back patio yesterday evening.  We had a crazy bad storm for several hours yesterday, but if I get a double rainbow after weathering such a crazy storm – I’ll take it!***

Due to some of the things that myself and my family are having to deal with lately I felt that this post was not only much needed but much appreciated.  It is very seldom that we sit to think about the blessings and beauty that we have around us when we are going through troubled times.  We tend to concentrate on the negativity when we should really be seeking inspiration. 

I will let you guys in on our dealings.  Recently my mother had a difficult dr’s appointment where she learned that her cholesterol is high, her blood pressure is right on the border of being high, and also her sugar levels are on the border for diabetes, among other things that she is dealing with such as possible nerve damage and the such.  My father has to see a retina specialist for his eye in a few weeks.  He went to the eye doctor due to a growth on his eye that needs to be removed, but unfortunately more was found.  He is now seeing a specialist because the doctor has noticed something behind his other eye that could be a type of infection, but it could also possibly be macular degeneration. 

My husband’s dad is now in a nursing facility due to alziemer’s disease.  This has been a very hard road for his family considering the youth of his dad.  All of this went down around the time of my spring break so you can kind of see how crazy life has been.  We are staying as strong and positive as we can be.

It took my youngest baby calling me to the patio last night to realize that I should be finding my inspiration and thanking our savior for all of my blessings.  I almost ignored him.  Kohl keep asking me to come outside to look at something.  I was thinking it was a toy left out in the rain until he said “please mom it’s beautiful”. 

So I gave in and walked to the door to look.  He pointed up and said again “look how beautiful”.  I immediately went to grab  the camera!  Yes, it is beautiful.  A double rainbow!!  This was a great reminder of the beauty our creator can give to us, a reminder to know that he is in control, he has a plan, and that he will never forsake me  

WIAW – Suspend that!!

You may or may not remember a while back that I had a slight rant on here about my absolute most favorite football team!  Yeah, I am referring to that rant….

You know the one where the NFL commissioner decided to suspend like our entire coaching staff for most if not all of the season.  All for a little hard hitting football.  Now don’t get me wrong, I do not condone the betting of trying to hurt people, but lets be honest here!  Everyone plays that way.  We are/were not the only team with a betting program.  We are not the only team to play hard hitting football, heck we were never penalized in a game for illegal hitting other than the norm.  We just happened to be the team that got ratted out!

But the commissioner can’t stop there.  Oh no!!  He now has suspended on of our best defensive players for the season, a second player for four games, and two other players that are now on different teams for several games.  I mean come on really.  What does he think he is trying to prove?  Does he really thing this is going to stop a bounty in the future?  Let’s be honest, many people have been caught doing things and continues on……just sayin!

So I am sorry for my second rant.  I just needed to get that out there.  He can suspend my coaches.  He can suspend my players.  He can’t suspend me from eating

Of course you must remember that I have lots of water and some coffee on a daily basis.  I have been drinking a half bottle of sparkling ice flavored water with my lunches lately.  It is a really nice treat to have. 

cheesecake overnight oats, banana & nut butter pancakes, “it’s a man’s world” lasagna, enchilada casserole, cereal with strawberries, and my favorite SSS!!

Yes I realize there are lots of breakfast items on this list, and no I do not care!!  I also realize that I have two casserole type dishes that have been eaten in one day, and no I do not care.  The lasagna was from leftovers that were eaten for lunch on this particular day, while the enchilada casserole was dinner.  With an un-pictured salad (see bad blogging, lol)!

The overnight oats have been eaten a lot lately as a snack.  I picked up a box of cheesecake instant pudding to mix in with my oats, and it is over the top!!  I have tried chocolate cheesecake, strawberry cheesecake, and blueberry cheesecake oats.

For the chocolate I used 1 vanilla chobani, 1 tbs. of cheesecake instant pudding, 1/2 c milk, 1/2 c oats, 1 tbs flax seed, 2tsp cocoa.  I used this same recipe for the strawberry cheesecake variety minus the cocoa add fresh strawberries.  As for the blueberry you omit cocoa and swap the vanilla chobani for a blueberry chobani.

I am in love

Seriously you must try it!  I also picked up a pistachio pudding to try as well.  I love pistachio pudding in water gate salad so I am sure I will like it in overnight oats!  Thankfully my mouth has healed so I am able to enjoy my sammies again.  I totally missed those things.  Another really great and quick snack.  I have actually spent time in the kitchen this week cooking so I should have some more recipes coming your way.  Like “it’s a man’s world” lasagna ;0)

Have a great Wednesday!! 

Confessions of a (bad) blogger….

I have been a bad blogger here lately.  I am sorry.  I really have no excuse…..well ok maybe I have a few of them.  Which are completely justified in my little mind

• I haven’t been cooking as much lately, and most of the things I have cooked have been published on the blog previously.
• I have been eating out a good bit lately.
• I have been having several girl nights/time with friends.
• I have spent entire days on the lake/boat with friends.
• I have not taken a camera to any of the events!!

This has to change.  I know it does.  I have many things that I could blog about and share if only I would take the time to take a few pics and write a post.

• I have been at the ball fields several days a week.
• I have been sick (which I have mentioned a few times)
• I have been super busy at work due to end of the year stuff.
• I have been super busy with family situation (which I mentioned a few weeks back)

So like I said…..I have my excuses but really no excuse.  Several of these things could easily turn into a blog post.  But I do have to admit that there is something exhilarating about just living in the moment and enjoying life without focusing on the right photos/content for the blog.  I love all of you guys dearly so I will try to do better!!

This one was just to friggin awesome I couldn’t pass it up!!!

I can’t promise you stellar posts.  I can’t promise you daily posts every day of the week (actually I just refuse to promise this).  I will promise you that I will make an effort to do better.  I really want to because I love hearing from all of you guys when you comment on my posts. 

It is like hanging with a friend at a coffee shop.  That is if I have a cup of coffee while reading.  Also if I am in the comforts of my home/office while reading.  Because you know that having a virtual conversation out loud, along with some chuckles, really makes people stare at you if you are in an actual coffee shop.  So be careful about that, just sayin!!

Besides I need some photos of my stellar activities lately to have for excellent memories…..see and talk to you all real soon!!