Summertime Salads

Summertime weather seems to be in full swing here in Kamloops. Has been for a bit now. With the warmer weather we tend to gear more towards easy meals that mostly include the BBQ and salads. We are also blessed to be living in an area that is extremely kind and fruitful to growing gardens. No joke, these garden beds are almost on steroids. Something about the dryer climate makes them flourish. Early. Everything is ready to start picking (and enjoying!) and we haven;t even hit July. This is my third year working on my gardening skills and I must say, every year comes with new lessons. The first year, only plant what you are going to eat. This is also the year I discovered I do not like kale. I hope the Food Bank did as they received A LOT of it. The second year, I learned the importance of spacing and seed quantity control. This year, it almost looks like I have a tiny idea of what I am doing out there. So far so good but one never wants to jinx themselves! Our crop this year includes peas, green beans, potatoes, tomatoes, radishes, carrots, a strawberry patch, a pumpkin patch, cucumbers, and a large variety of peppers. We are big salsa and ‘mexican night’ people so it’s important to have a nice selection of peppers ranging from sweet to mild to burn your booty off. With all of these fresh veggies it of course leads me to looking at new recipes and different ways to use them. Enter Pinterest, as usual. So today I want to share with you not only some fantastic summer salad recipes but also some dressings – many of these can be used as a marinade too. It’s kind of a let your senses guide you situation in my kitchen with very little rules. I often go with my gut and maybe I just have a husband that loves all of my cooking, but things tend to go over pretty well. Now if I could just get my extremely picky children on board. If you have a toddler that eats salad, applause to you mama!

Garbanzo Summer Salad with Creamy Dill Dressing – I can’t wait to try this one! It looks like a hot mess with all of my favourite friends. Perfect to compliment any meal and looks like a great potluck option.

Honey Mustard Chicken Avacado & Bacon Salad – Ok this one is amazing. My mouth is watering just reading the ingredients. This link has a huge collection of healthy recipes to try out but number one on the list is the one I am referring too.

Cranberry Almond Spinach Salad – I am not crazy about spinach but I like the sounds of this one. Cranberries are the best addition to salads.

Tomato Basil Avocado Mozzarella Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette – YUM. That is all.

Thai Noodle Salad – I often forget salads don’t have to be composed of lettuce. This is a great ‘side salad’ for asian infused meals.

Manic Mondays

Ah Mondays….Seriously though, don’t you just want to start the day over sometimes? Even if the sun is shining, Mondays sometimes have a gloomy cloud hovering over them. I named that cloud Murphy, for Murphy’s Law. Anything that can happen, will usually happen. When it does, thank god for deep breathes, counting to ten and Starbucks drive-though. This morning consisted of a few mishaps. First off, thanks to my darling hubby’s snoring, I did not get even remotely enough sleep. It’s also quite common when you wake up in the middle of the night, your mind will race over EVERYTHING that worries you at that time. I must have spent over an hour at 3am just thinking, and contemplating, and worrying about things I had no control over. Especially in the middle of the night! I think the lack of sleep was making me nauseated so I popped a Gravel- thankfully it has a dual purpose of knocking you out! Next thing you know, the whole family has slept in and we are now running very behind. I made it out the door in record time and scored a really good parking spot at the swimming pool. As I tried to carry our swim bag, Hallie and my coffee to the parking pay station, I managed to bop her poor head on the pay station and spill coffee all over myself. Thankfully the little knock didn’t seem to phase her but I was sure soaked and upset. The swim lesson was great, probably our saving grace of the morning. Upon getting changed I discovered I had brought a diaper bag that contained ZERO diapers. Cue me begging another mom in the group for her size 2 diaper; Hallie is a size 4. I prayed for no poop explosions as we wrapped up our errands and headed the heck home! It may be small stuff, and in the grand scheme of things, not important at all. But sometimes, every now and then, shit just feels like it is never going your way. Thank goodness no major tantrums entered the realm of the morning. My sweet girl seemed to be oblivious to all these ‘mom problems’ and gleefully carried out the morning with a smile on her face. I love that girl. I hope you are all having a much better Monday! Though it seems to be picking up. You can’t really complain after an afternoon of baby snuggles on the floor watching Mickey Mouse Club & Curious George. Not to mention the impromptu kitchen dance party after lunch. My daughter LOVES hip hop. She is a total gangster… Happy Monday friends! Now here are some fun photographs that are unrelated to this post, but I simply had to share.

Hubby finally finished some wood for me to hang as a shelf on my Anthropologie Brackets! Also a great Rodan + Fields display area!

The importance of saving money…

What do you do when your baby finally takes a nap? Why you make a Valentines heart garland for her bedroom for of course!

 

Bump Progress! On the left, I am pregnant with Hallie at 20 weeks. On the right, that is me NOW and bump is almost the same size… 15 weeks! Bump number two proves to be growing a lot quicker.