Cream Avacado Salad with Tuna (or Salmon) Patties

I made this a few days ago, and it was serious AH-MAZING! (I have made them twice since, and even the leftovers were good, so be sure to make a lot!) Even my husband liked it, well what I mean by that is, he had seconds. So thats good enough for me! I would eat this everyday, seriously thats how much I loved it. 

Cream Avocado Salad with Tuna (or Salmon) Patties

Make Tuna (or Salmon) Patties like you do.

I did 3 cans of tuna, drained

1 package of Saltine Crackers

3 Eggs

Then fried them in a little oil until they were crispy

For the Salad:

1 can black bean, drained and rinsed

1 can corn, drained

After I opened these two cans I put them in the microwave to heat, because I wanted my salad warmed.

Then I added the rest cold:

chopped celery

halved cherry tomatoes

2 tablespoons mayo

1-2 tsp. apple cider vinegar

salt & pepper to taste

Serve with a avocado cut in half and peeled and a tuna patty 

Your Welcome.

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A Soup & A Salad

 Vegan Quinoa Salad. This stuff is yuuuuuuumy.

Ingredients:

1 Sweet potato

2 Avacados

1 can vegetable brooth (or chicken brooth, but it won't be vegan)

2 cups quinoa

2-3 Tomatillos

Cilantro 

Lime or lemon

1-2 tsp. Agave nectar (or honey)

Salt & pepper to taste

Spouts

First cut up the sweet potato in very small cubes, rib in olive oil and bake at 350* for 15-25 minutes or until soft. Meanwhile make your quinoa according the the package. Its usually 1 cup broth and 2 cups quinoa.

This is a tomatillo.  Peal off the paper, and rinse in water. Then cut in half and rub in olive oil and place in the oven with the potatoes for the last ten minutes, until they are soft too.

For the sauce take the soft tomatillos, quarter them and place them in a food processor. Add cilantro, lime, agave, salt and pepper. 

Add potatoes to the quinoa, wait for them to cool for a while and then add the avocado (cut into small cubes). Serve over sprouts and top with the tomatillo sauce. SOOO Yummy.

Your welcome. I didn't have sprouts, avocado or cilantro (although I did substitute it for fresh basil) and it was still soooo yummy. This salad is good cold or warm. (For breakfast or dinner!) It has worked its way into our meals weekly. Its way easier than it looks and seriously so good. Even my husband loves it. (Well maybe not loves, but he does get seconds!)

Enjoy!

  

Now for the soup. ooooooh baby. This tomato soup was sooooooo good. I have been sick and all I wanted to some tomato soup. We didn't have any campbells (which I love), I didn't have a car nor did I even feel good enough to go to the store, so I looked up a recipe. This was so easy its ridculous. Almost as easy as campbells. And A-MAZ-ING.

Super Easy Creamy Tomato Basil Soup

Ingredients:
2 cans crush tomatoes
1 can milk
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon sugar
fresh basil to taste.

Place tomatoes and milk in a pot and bring to a boil. Boil for about 5-10 minutes. Turn heat off, add butter and sugar. Mix well and enjoy! Oh and of course serve with some basil. YUM!

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Prickly Pear Jelly

Ok, Rebekkah, this is for you J

  I made this tutorial in 2009 and apparently I didn’t post it on the blog... uh yeah..  who knows why.  I did it a week before teaching the young women how to do it at an activity.  In the pictures Matthew is his cute 4-yr-old self. awww.  cute.  Anyway, I’m posting it now because:

ItS tImE tO pIcK yOuR pRiCkLy PeArS! 

This week, people!  If you don’t have access to one, just drive out to ASU East- we have the most productive prickly pear cacti I’ve ever seen right by the VA Hospital.

Things you’ll need:

Tongs
Rubber Gloves- BTW you'll get pokies EVERYWHERE.
Bucket
A hat. cause it’s hot out there.

Pick Prickly Pear Fruits in late July or Early August when very ripe.  Pick them with tongs and they should almost lift off the plant without effort.  If they are hard to remove, they are not ready so don't force it (first hose down cactus fruits if the plant is in your yard, if not, swish with water after fruits are picked).  Easy Peasy!  Don't be afraid, my 4yr old did it! Just pinch and twist.

 however, I don't think any of us will look as cute as this when we're picking them .... it's not possible to attain this level of cute past kindergarten!

Here they are in the bucket all yucky and dirty- wash them off- I used a potato scrubber. 

 Here they are all washed and ready to cook

Barely cover clean fruits with water in large kettle and simmer with lid on until very soft. 

 Mash with Potato Masher.  This will look really weird and the little brownish greenish slimey seeds will emerge.  I love nature. 

Do not strain.  Now cover a deep bowl or pot with a pillowcase and pull tight and bind the case with a rubberband.  This is your seive. 

Sieve through clean cloth. Do not squeeze fabric or try to mush fruit while on the cloth as this could move pricklies through the cloth and into your juice. Just pour the mush on top and let it sit for 15-20 minutes or so so that all the juice can work it's way through on it's own.  Patience is, in fact, a virtue.

 Rinse remains down the disposal then wash fabric in washer.

Now you have your Prickly Pear Juice! Kudos!

(note: For a stronger flavor you can reduce your juice by

boiling it down to your desired strength.  This concentration works fine, though)

Here is the Recipe for the Jelly:

CACTUS JELLY (that's what my mom calls it)

Stir in tall kettle:

3 ½ cups cactus juice

½ cup lemon juice

1 pkg pectin 

Bring to boil and add:

5 cups sugar

Return to boil.  Let boil 3 minutes.  Skim off bubbles, if necessary.  Pour into hot pint jars. Seal with lids and rings.  Let cool.  Jars should seal (pop) as temperature lowers.

Wah-LA!

 One more note: you will be finding pricklies in your kitchen for the next week no matter how many times you mop. YE BE WARNED

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Fried Green (-ish yellow & red) Tomatoes

All these tomatoes are from my garden. yum- right? The heat was killing my plant so I had no choice but to pick all the tomatoes if I wanted to enjoy them. Since not all of them were ripe I decided to try fried green tomatoes!

I've never made them, let alone even had them so it was a new experience! I looked online and decided on this recipe. 

The reason you need to use green tomatoes is because they are much more firm and the juices won't escape as much when cutting them, that way you wont have oil spraying out of the pan while they are frying. So I just picked my most firm tomatoes and went with those. 

The yellow one was my favorite! The green ones had a little 'zip' to them and the red ones were really sweet. But the yellow ones had both flavors!

I LOVED them! Logan thought it was strange and only had one. (Which is totally weird because he will eat anything! I have never seen him not want to eat something, so it was pretty funny to watch him eat it.)

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Pan-Seared Salmon with Pineapple-Jalapeno Relish Superfast Fish Recipes - Cooking Light

Pan-Seared Salmon with Pineapple-Jalapeno Relish Superfast Fish Recipes - Cooking Light

This is one of our favorite summer dinner recipes! I hope you love it as much as we do!

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Call It What You Will...

'Cause I've never bothered to name it. What used to be my favorite salad topping has now evolved in to my favorite "better hurry & eat, before the baby wants to eat again" snack.


1 packet Good Seasonings Italian or Zesty Italian dressing mix 
oil, vinegar & water to make dressing
4 to 6 Roma Tomatoes chopped
1 can corn
1 can black beans
1 can black eyed peas
Green onions chopped
2 avocados sliced & cubed
Salad greens or tortilla chips (or both)


Make dressing according to directions, in a bowl large enough for all ingredients. Rinse & drain black beans & black eyed peas & add to bowl. Drain corn & add. Slice tomatoes & green onions & add to bowl. Mix together and refrigerate (over night if possible). Add avocado just before eating & only to what will be eaten right away. Now add a generous scoop to the top of your salad instead of regular salad dressing or into a bowl and eat atop tortilla chips. ENJOY! 

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Foil Dinners

Ok so it has been a little too long since anyone has posted. (Try 10 months too long!) So I thought I would break the ice. First of all.. the main reason I wanted to post is because I happened upon Nikki's blog and did you know she has a baby girl!? Holy Moly! I didn't even know she was pregnant! Congrats- I am so happy for you! So, get crackin' girls- I wanna hear more!

Now back to the recipe, My Family Loves to go camping and Logan and I make it a point to go every summer, in addition Logan likes to make one trip during the winter with his brothers or friends. So I have made a lot of foil dinners and this one is my favvvvvvvorite!!!

Ingredients:

Cabbage

Carrots

Onion or Celery (Or both!)

Potatoes

Steak

Cheddar Cheese Soup

Shredded Cheese

Salt, pepper & Garlic

& Butter

First a little trick Elise Eberhard taught me is to start with a big leaf of cabbage on the bottom, this will prevent burning and it help to contain all the yummy moisture. (Plus its my MOST favorite thing in there! It gets so tender and yummy!)

Then you cut up all your veggies and meat, its important that they are all the same size because they will cook at the same rate, so once your meat is done, your carrots will be tender. Once all your veggies are cut put them in a big bowl with some butter and all the seasonings your want and mix it all up! 

Then place your yummyness in your "cabbage bowl" and top with some Cheddar Cheese Soup and Shredded Cheese... oh my gosh I think my mouth is watering! Then wrap in foil! I always double wrap mine because they are usually so huge that I need too.

Now once your coals are nice and hot barry your foil dinner and cook for about 30-45 minutes (depending on the size you cut your veggies) I am always surprised at how fast it cooks, so check it before you think you should!

I realize this is about the most common camping food and you have probably all made it a million times and probably know a bunch of more tips, I just thought I would share mine, but I would LOVE to hear yours! 

Now for my family update, I am preggos and having a boy! Whoo Hoo! I am due in late June and super excited. Bou is 2 years old and potty trained! We still live on campus and are super happy!

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