Huevos Rancheros
Tortilla Brown Rice Black Beans Shredded cheese Scrambled Eggs Salsa Guacamole Sour Cream Salsa 5-6 Tomatoes, chopped (plum tomatoes work well) ½ small red onion, chopped finely 1 clove garlic, minced Juice of ½ lemon 2-3 tbsp cilantro, chopped Adobo to taste Guacamole 1 avocado ½ plum tomato 1 tbsp lemon juice ½ small red onion, chopped finely 2 tbsp cilantro, chopped Adobo to taste **Hint: Use Adobo without pepper
The Avocado Secret
Thanks to Elizabeth for this awesome way of cutting up avocados. So easy!!!
Happy Due Date, Baby William!
Congrats to Andrea for making it to her due date!
We’re all keeping our fingers crossed that little Baby William comes very soon. We can’t wait to wish it a Happy Birthday!
Think “pushy” thoughts! 😀
Lunch bags are back!
Laura’s mother found these great lunch bags for us. They are made buy Built and are sold at the Container Store. They’re great for making your lunch look stylish!
Who knew the 70's was all about lunch!
Blueberry Muffins
Muffin Ingredients |
| · 3 cups of all-purpose flour |
| · 1 Tbsp baking powder |
| · 1/2 teaspoon baking soda |
| · 1/2 teaspoon salt |
| · 10 Tbsp unsalted butter (1 1/4 stick), softened |
| · 1 cup sugar |
| · 2 large eggs |
| · 1 1/2 cup plain yogurt |
| · 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel |
| · 1 1/2 cups blueberries |
| · 1 Tbsp flour (if using defrosted frozen berries) |
|
Topping
Mix together with a fork.
Directions |
| 1. Adjust the oven rack to the middle-lower part of the oven. Preheat oven to 375°F. |
| 2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside. |
| 3. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together, beating until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated after each one. Beat in the grated lemon peel. |
| 4. Beat in one half of the dry ingredients until just incorporated. Beat in one third of the yogurt. Beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients. Beat in a second third of the yogurt. Beat in the remaining dry ingredients and then the remaining yogurt. Again be careful to beat until just incorporated. Do not over beat. Fold in the berries. If you are using frozen berries, defrost them first, drain the excess liquid, and then coat them in a light dusting of flour. |
| 5. Use a standard 12-muffin pan. Coat each muffin cup lightly with PAM or use cupcake papers. Distribute the muffin dough equally among the cups. Sprinkle on the topping. Bake until muffins are golden brown, about 25 to 30 minutes. Test with a toothpick. Set on wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Remove muffins from the tin and serve slightly warm. |
Mulled Cider
This is a great warm apple cider to enjoy in the fall when the leaves are changing colors and you’re carving pumpkins.
1 gallon apple cider
3-4 sticks cinnamon
5 cardamom pods
10 cloves
15 whole allspice (or 1 tbsp ground allspice)
1-2 large oranges (cut in quarters or eighths, leave peel on)
3-4 red pears (cut up, leave peel on)
In a large pot over medium heat, add all of the above ingredients. Let sit on heat for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve warm in mugs. You can take many liberties with this recipe depending on your taste. Remember that the longer you leave the mixture on the heat, the spicier it gets. You can use apple juice to re-fill as you’re getting low. You can also use apple juice and brown sugar (1 liter, 1 tbsp at a time, respectively) instead of cider.
Apple Crisp
Dudes – this is the best apple crisp I’ve ever had. I searched high and low for the right set of ingredients and then added my own twist. It came out awesome. You can feel free to make half of the recipe in a smaller pan.
The good stuff
10 granny smith apples
1 cup white sugar
1 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup water
A few small squirts of lemon juice
A few light shakes of any or all:
Nutmeg
Cloves
Allspice
Mix together the white sugar, flour, cinnamon, water, lemon juice, and other spices in a large mixing bowl.
Peel and cut up apples, add to the mixing bowl.
Let the apples soak (and stir occasionally) while making the topping.
The topping
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
½ cup butter, melted
A dash of salt
In a separate bowl, using a fork, combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, butter, and salt.
Pour “the good stuff” into a 9×13 pan. Crumble “the topping” evenly over the mixture.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes.
Serve warm with vanilla ice-cream.
Carmel-Monterey
Andy and I took a trip this weekend to Carmel-By-The-Sea, a little beach town about 100 miles south of San Francisco. Even though it was quite foggy and cold, it was still fabulous to see the Pacific Ocean, feel the sand between out toes, taste the salty air, get bitten by beach flies, and attacked by disgusting seaweed. It’s all a part of beach fun! We enjoyed the small town’s art galleries and restaurants, and also hit up Monterey Bay’s aquarium which was really cool. We spent a lot of time with the sea otters who are insanely cute and cuddly!! We drove around this area called 17-mile Drive and saw lots of coastline and some of the Pebble Beach golf course (waddup Tiger!) on our way out of town. It was a great mini getaway. Here is a taste of our pictures from the weekend.
Cleanin’ it Old School Style
I was doing my Saturday morning chores today and used an oldy but a goody: Bon Ami.
This old friend still does a ridiculously good job of cleaning – especially surfaces that you don’t want scratched, like porcelain or marble. It’s earth friendly and has been for seriously over 100 years. Most other earth-friendly cleaning products I’ve tried fall flat in the cleaning department, so I was excited that I re-discovered this old school product. I cleaned my bathroom top-to-bottom and this left it sparkling! Bon Ami, you and your cute little chick rock.
Banana makes birthdays happy!
I saw this tunic the other day, featured on Outblush and thought it was so pretty! At $70 I thought it was a bit pricey, though. So, I decided I’d wait to see if it went on sale, perhaps sometime closer to Christmas.
BUT
I just got a $15 coupon from Banana Republic for the month of September, since it’s my birthday month! So, I think this will my pretty pretty princess birthday treat to myself.
Hooray! Thank you Banana, for the happy birthday 🙂
ForneyLife 
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