Lovin' Summer

Whew- this week has been such a whirlwind! High: my brother being home and spending tons of time with my fam. Low: finding a huge tick in my pup's ear. Hopefully that's the worst thing that will happen this week and the rest is smooth sailing!

Happy belated birthday to the lovely Tami, who is such an amazing friend! I don't know what I would do without you! Tami turned a year older on Tuesday and we celebrated last weekend:


I am so grateful for all the amazing people in my life- I feel lucky to call such lovely people my friends. Of course Parker is especially high up there since he not only puts up with all my silliness, but tastes my food attemps with a smile every day. I am the luckiest girl in the world!



Here's a photo of the chicken tacos with mango jicama salsa we made earlier this week:


Parker ate his in traditional taco form and I scooped all the fillings into a bowl over beans and rice:


Here's the recipe link: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1880013

I also made the spicy asian noodles for lunch on Wednesday:


They were just OK. Maybe it's because I made them over the lunch hour and rushed through the recipe without paying much attention to the ingredients and no attention to the quantities. That tends to happen when I'm in a hurry! I also need to find a new variety of noodle to use- I've stuck to rice noodles for awhile and they just aren't my favorite. So maybe it's worth a re-try- I think it definitely has potential.

The BEST thing I ate this week wasn't actually anything I made, though it was homemade! I had dinner with my fam last night and mom made her ah-ma-zing pizza crust. We topped it will some tomato paste, fresh mozzarella, fresh tomatos (can't wait til they're actually in season) and fresh basil and oregano from the garden. I also cooked up some chicken with Hungarian Paprika and garlic salt and threw that on top. Delish!



I've decided one of my goals for the summer is to master the art of pizza crust. Mom makes it look like the easiest thing in the world, but all my attempts have been utter failures. I am sticking with the thought that practice makes perfect so I'm determined to give it another shot. I'll have to add it to the menu next week :)

My menu plan went out the window in a hurry this week. Oh well. It makes me think of the saying "life is what happens when you're busy making plans." Taking advantage of the moment is definitely more fun- and has turned out to be quite tasty, too :)

For some reason I've had quite the hankering for cobbler lately. My attempt earlier this week was not an utter failure, but I'd only give it a 4 or 5 on a scale of 1 to 10. Thank goodness for Cool Whip- it saved the day! Any good reasonably healthy cobbler suggestions?

Hope you're having a great week!