A recipe for all that garden zucchini

I love making vegetable based meals, especially when those veggies are fresh from our garden.  Tonight I made a tasty couscous zucchini dish.  I looked through some different recipes for inspiration and came up with this recipe.  Everyone loved it.  Owen really liked the couscous and was shoving handfuls of it into his mouth!

Couscous and Zucchini Casserole

1 box couscous, cooked as directed
2 large zucchini, chopped
4 green onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup grape tomatoes, quartered
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. basil
1/2 tsp. oregano
1 cup cheddar or cheddar jack cheese (I prefer cheddar jack)

While couscous is cooking, heat olive oil in skillet over medium heat.  Add zucchini, onion and garlic.  Cook for a few minutes, then add tomatoes and spices.  Cook until zucchini is tender, about 5 minutes.  Sprinkle cheese over top, cover and let cook until cheese melts.  Serve over couscous.  Enjoy!

Chatty boy

Up until recently our little guy hasn't been too talkative.  He's been pretty content to stick with his favorite few words: mama (which can mean mommy or milk and the other kids think this is hilarious), dada, way (which means Yay!), car and dog.  Then all of a sudden he decided to add a bunch of words to his vocabulary.  

He's added these words recently:  

Matt (which refers to any little boy) 

dachel (Rachel)

 popcorn 

cacker (cracker or cookie)

me 

pampa (which means grandma and grandpa)

papack (backpack)

cheese (whenever we pull out the camera or when he sees a picture of himself)

baby (he says this whenever he cuddles with us)

more (he yells this out insistently every Sunday when the sacrament is being passed)

There's something completely adorable about toddlers learning to talk.  His little voice makes me smile and every word he chooses to say shows his vibrant personality.

Everything tastes better grilled!

I love grilling during the summer.  Around 4:30pm today I decided I should probably get up to make dinner (I was relaxing with a good book) .  Once again I didn't feel like cooking (I always hate cooking in the summer), so I started thinking of what I could make that would be different and fun.  I decided to finally try out grilled pizza.  Our family loves pizza and it makes a boring Tuesday feel more like a Friday, even if only for an hour or so.  I've heard from multiple friends that it's easy and tastes great, but I've been afraid to give it a try.  I started making the dough when Jason came down from work and asked what I was doing.  I told him what I was making and he immediately asked how I was going to keep the dough from falling through. So then I started to worry and question my sanity, but kept going anyway.  Thank goodness it didn't fall through (not at all!) and it was some of the best pizza I've had!  The crust gets crispy around the edges, but is still soft in the middle (that's how we like it).  The kids had a blast adding their own toppings and each pizza cooked very quickly.  I found the recipe here and just changed it a tiny bit.  I doubled the dough recipe and substituted half of the all-purpose flour with whole-wheat flour.  It was a good thing I doubled the dough, because in a series of unfortunate events William's flip flop ended up on the top of the first 4 crusts we grilled.  It was a very dirty flip flop!  

City Creek Center

Before leaving Utah on Saturday we decided to stop by the mall everyone's been talking about, the new City Creek Center.  Rachel was amazed when we walked into the Disney store and came out smiling with a new glittery princess backpack for school (I still cannot believe my little girl is starting kindergarten!).  The kids loved the little splash area and enjoyed soaking themselves thoroughly before getting in the car to head home.  Matt's expressions are the best!

Where it all began

We spent the weekend in Provo, where Jason and I first met, were married, and started our family.  When we first arrived we went straight to BYU and showed the kids around campus.  Everyone's favorite place was the Eyring Science Center.  William was in heaven with all the rocks, minerals, dinosaur bones and other science-related displays.  The kids were fascinated when they saw their great-great-grandfather's picture and the hall named after him, the Wayne B. Hales Lecture Hall.  The kids thought it was funny when Jason told them he had classes in that hall and felt extra pressure to do well, because his great-grandfather would know if he was slacking off at all.  William quickly decided he wants to go to school at BYU and spend most of his time in that building.  We told him we'd be sure to come and visit, especially during basketball and football seasons!

We passed Stadium Terrace, the dirt cheap lovely apartment complex where we met.

  

We drove up to our first place, which was the upstairs apartment of this scary little house in South Provo.  I remember moving in right after we got married and I couldn't wait to start our life together.  In exchange for rent I helped take care of a sweet old lady, Verl, who lived downstairs.  We have some pretty great memories in this little house (even if the neighborhood was downright scary at night!).

Before leaving Provo, Jason told the kids he wanted to show them one more exciting place.  He drove over to a set of stairs at Cougar Stadium, where Jason and I first kissed.  I thought the kids would roll their eyes, but they thought it was great and were giggling when Jason and I got out of the car and quickly kissed on those same stairs.

Family Motto

We've been working on coming up with a family motto.  There are days when I've felt like our motto could be something like one of these:

       Mommy, mommy, (louder) mommy, (even louder) mommy!

       Beware of very dramatic children

       And daddy, and daddy, and daddy, and daddy, and daddy.....

       Beware of whiny children

      

There are days when I've thought our motto could definitely be:

      Cuteness around every corner

      Our family does hard things

      We serve to show our love for one another

      The family that prays together stays together

      The family that plays together stays together

We had a lot of dinnertime discussions about our family motto.  Eventually Jason and I came up with 5 words that included all the ideas discussed and spelled out our name.  Take a look!

      

      

      

        

Not your mother's meatloaf

Anyone else grow up eating ketchup covered meat loaf?  I went to a dutch oven class yesterday and wasn't too enthusiastic when the instructor announced he was making meatloaf.  He made a huge batch, expecting more people to show up for the class.  So he gave us heaping portions of it to try.  It was very tasty and completely tender. I ate it so quickly I hoped nobody noticed.  I came home and announced to Jason that we'd be having meatloaf for dinner.

 Cooking in a dutch oven is just fun.  We were all outside, the kids playing (Owen got in the pool with all of his clothes and shoes on) while Jason and I carefully watched the coals and put new ones on when needed.  I was nervous it wouldn't work out, since I've only cooked in a dutch oven over propane before, but it turned out great!  And cooking with coals makes the backyard smell awesome, just like a campfire.  It was a hit and I'm sure we'll be making it again.

                                

                                                                                                   

I also learned how to make a very tasty blueberry cobbler.  The recipe calls for a can of 7UP, which I've never used in a cobbler before.  I've heard of it, but we hardly ever buy soda so I never have any lying around.  It's very simple, super delicious and something you'll definitely want to try if you haven't already!