Black Bean Salsa

I've been making this "salsa" forever and it's so yummy! I usually make it when we are having a get together at our house or to bring over to a friend's house. If I make it to bring to a friend's house I usually double the recipe and leave half at our house for us to snack on. If I could get away with it, I would seriously just eat chips and dip for dinner every night. We usually just eat this w/ tortilla chips, but it would also be really good on top of grilled chicken, shrimp, or fish. It's so fresh and light and yet so filling b/c of the black beans.

I brought this over to our neighbor's pool party and it disappeared pretty quickly. I LOVE easy dishes like this that everyone enjoys!

Gather it:
1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup of frozen corn (I don't measure, but it's probably about this much and it's ok to leave it frozen)
grape tomatoes, quartered (I used almost a whole pint)
scallions, sliced (about a large handful and then some if you like scallions)
2 avocados, diced (I usually prefer to use 2 and diced, but 1 of my avocados was too mushy so I mashed up just the 1 good avocado I had to make it go further)
1 lime
salt
pepper

Make it:
1. Juice half of the lime into a large bowl. Place avocados in bowl and toss in juice to help prevent it from turning brown. If you prefer to mash it then mash it now.

2. Add tomatoes, corn, scallions, and beans. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add more lime juice if needed.

3. Serve with tortilla chips...and a margarita!

FYI: I've had this with cilantro too and it's really yummy with it, but the cilantro wasn't looking too good at Publix. And it's really good with diced fresh jalapenos too, but I've omitted it since kids have come into the picture. I suppose I could make 2 separate batches...yep...I'll do that next time!

Strawberry Picking and flowers

We went strawberry picking a couple of weeks ago with some friends and had such a blast! The strawberry plants are hydroponic so they were in small pots and hanging up. It was great b/c you didn't have to bend down to cut the fruit. The strawberries weren't any cheaper or any more expensive than what I would find at my local grocery store. Some people have even said they'd rather just go buy it than have to do the work themselves. For me (the kids too) it was all about the experience. Truthfully, I got a little into it. Avery had abandoned her bucket and scissors after her third or so strawberry so I HAD TO take over the duties. Let's just say I got a bit more preoccupied at times with finding the perfect strawberry more than helping Kevin make sure they didn't stop on too many mud puddles (it had rained the night before) or make sure Parker didn't cut his finger off (ok so they were kid scissors, but still!). We I def want to go back before the season is over!

Now, what's a post without pics...tons of pics?!? lol

Let the strawberry picking begin!!!

Avery looks like such a big girl here!

cutting his first strawberry

juicy red strawberry

most of the strawberries that were ripe were small. the ginormous ones were still green or pink.

they also had onions growing under the strawberries

green cabbage growing under the strawberries

red cabbage

 zucchini


with our big bag of strawberries


Parker and his buddy, Owen

love these kiddos

The next day we just hung around the house and relaxed.

Avery picked a flower that had fallen on the ground and kept saying "fow. fow. fow." until I put it behind her ear.

sniff. sniff.

squish. squish.

"look Ay-ree flower, Mommy!" Cue a scream from Avery as if you had ripped her arm off.

Bananas with Honey & Cinnamon

So I was browsing Pinterest and found a yummy looking snack. I had actually pinned this ages ago and had forgotten about it. Well I was hungry and craving something sweet...I had all the ingredients and it was super easy so I decided to make it. This was so easy and yummy. I don't count points, calories, or anything like that, but this has to be so much healthier than the M&M ice cream sandwich that I was really craving last night...and I maybe pouted a little bit when Kevin told me that they were all gone.

Gather it:
1 ripe banana
sprinkle of ground cinnamon
drizzle of honey (ok, ok I LOVE honey so I used a little more than a drizzle)

Make it:
1. Peel and chop banana into little circles.

2. Drizzle (or pour in my case) honey over bananas and sprinkle with cinnamon.

3. Scarf it down...and try not to think too much about "making" a second dessert b/c you know that your daughter will want a banana for breakfast tomorrow morning.

I clicked on the link, but it took me to a page that wasn't related to the recipe so I can't give due credit...sorry!!! 

Pineapple Salsa

When I was trying to figure out what to have for dinner this week, I saw that we had a bunch of tilapia filets in the freezer. Kevin wanted to have fish tacos, but I need a taco break so I suggested grilled tilapia with mango salsa. We used to make this all the time when we were dating, but haven't had it in a really long time. I went to Publix and saw that they only had a handful of super ripe mangoes. When making mango salsa, I don't like super ripe mangoes b/c it tends to be too sweet for me and soft/mushy. I wandered around the produce section and decided to just go to another Publix on a different day. Then, I saw the fresh pineapple and figured I'd give it a try.

My family's reaction: Kevin said he liked the pineapple better than the mango and in Parker's words: "Mommy, I wub (love) it!". Avery just said "Ummm!" and remained pretty quiet as she ate. I didn't follow a recipe. I just kind of made my own years ago based on what Kevin and I like. Back in the day, I used to add a jalapeño or red pepper flakes to give it a kick, but I can't do that with the kids eating it too. I opted not to add any on my portion, but feel free to add some if you want a little kick to yours. Here's my recipe:

Gather it:
1 whole fresh pineapple, cut in small chunks (I cut mine small b/c of the kiddos)
2 small handfuls of grape tomatoes, quartered
3 stalks of scallions, diced
a small bunch of fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
black pepper to taste
sea salt to taste (I added this to my own portion)

Make it:
1. Mix all ingredients in a medium sized bowl.

That's it! lol It tastes better if you cover it with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for about 1 hour to allow all the flavors to blend together. It's not required - def still good if you don't do this, but to me it's just better when you let it sit in the fridge for a bit. I made the salsa right after I put the kids down for a nap so it had a few hours to chill in the fridge and get yummy.