MMMonday {Blueberry Muffin French Toast}

Hey everyone.  I hope you all had a great week!  My kids went back to school last Tuesday and for their back-to-school breakfast, they requested Costco muffins.  The hands-down favorite at our house are the chocolatey chocolate chip variety, but we also really like their classic blueberry muffins.  Since you get two packages, we usually grab one of each.  But we always have blueberry left over.  And after a few days, they aren’t as awesome.  So to use the left over blueberry muffins, last week I used them to make Blueberry Muffin French Toast.

It was so yummy and easy.

Start by making your basic french toast mixture.  I use this recipe:

1 cup heavy cream

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

Whisk everything together.

Then I sliced the blueberry muffins, dipped them in the french toast mixture, and put them on the griddle till they were browned on both sides.  We served them with whipped cream, and a drizzle of raspberry syrup.

Have a great week!

MMMonday {Summer Salmon}

Today I would like to share with you one of our favorite fish recipes.  We’re not really fish people, but we really like this one.  It’s easy to make, and perfect for a quick summer meal.

We use salmon for this recipe.

Slice it into steaks and place on 2 sheets of tinfoil with a little bit of olive oil on it.  Drizzle the salmon with honey. Sprinkle it with salt and pepper, and some chopped red onions.

Let it sit for about 15-30 minutes.  Flip the fish over a time or two during the 15-30 minutes to make sure the fish is coated with honey, onions and salt and pepper.

Grill the fish to desired done-ness, and enjoy with potatoes, veggies or fruit.

We like to grill our veggies.  These are green beans, but we have also done yellow squash and zucchini successfully.  For the veggies, we drizzle olive oil, sprinkle garlic salt and some pepper and they are awesome.

Send me a note if you try this recipe.  I would love to hear what you think!

Flashback Friday: Utah County Parade of Homes

With the Salt Lake County Parade of Home well under way this week, {and me not going, boo hoo} I decided to go through some of my hundreds of pictures from the Utah County Parade of Homes in June.

There is so much to love about the Parade of Homes.  The beautiful homes and furniture, the great decorating ideas and the girl time with my parade buddy, Lisa.

I also love that I come away feeling inspired and energized to tackle some of the decorating and design issues in my own home.

Here are some of my favorite moments:

I loved this house in Highland, because it was fun and fearless.  It reminded me that my house is mine to do whatever I want with, and that I shouldn’t be afraid to put a hole in the wall or to personalize it in ways that will make me and my family happy.

These are random photos from different houses.  I have the perfect place to do horizontal stripes in my own home.  I love that it this would-be boring, awkward wall interesting.Almost every home we visited had a sliding barn door.  Oh, how I love a good sliding barn door. Another trend this year: secret doors.  Awesome. This bedroom was beautiful.  It’s hard to tell from the picture, but it had the perfect balance of pink and gold.  So pretty.This whitewashed herringbone brick fireplace.  I love it so much.The house with this dress-up room in it had a colossal play room, with different themed areas.  Lego room, salon room, candy store room, and of course kids’ movie theater and video game station.  But this dress-up room is genius.  Every home should have a dress-up room.  Am I right?! There were lots of decorations at the Parade of Homes where I could hear my mother’s voice in my head when I saw them.  “We could make that,” she used to say when we were shopping.  It used to drive me nuts.  Now I get it.  I heard her when I saw this great bench.  That light.  So fun. This home in Mapleton also had a lot of great features.  And I looooved the decorating.  And I always love the parade home by Ezra Lee.  His homes are super contemporary and creative.  And while we don’t always have the same taste, I always leave his homes inspired to try new things. One last thought.  In talking to others about the Parade of Homes, some of them tell me that they like to go, but sometimes feel like visiting these homes makes them feel sad, or like their own homes don’t measure up.  I can honestly tell you, that I’ve had those same thoughts in the past myself.  These homes are new and pristine and have been decorated by professionals.  In most cases, no real person or family has ever lived in these homes.  So there is no clutter, or clothes.  No kids’ art projects strewn all over the place.  No family pictures on the walls.  They are just houses.  They are not homes.  When I visit these houses, I remember that and it takes the my-house-is-not-good-enough feelings away. 

Because I wouldn’t trade all of my mess for the most perfect home in the world.

August Visiting Teaching Message {The Divine Mission of Christ: Messiah}

The message this month is simple and sweet.  Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer.  He lived a perfect life and was a perfect example.  Because He atoned for our sins, we can live with our Father in Heaven again.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf said, “He is the promised Messiah.  He lived a perfect life and atoned for our sins.  He will ever be at our side.  He will fight our battles.  He is our hope; He is our salvation; He is the way.”

In 2 Nephi 25:16, we read I love that.  Pure hearts and clean hands.

So for the handout this month, you will need some hand-sanitizer or soap and some cute cardstock, some washi tape, and twine or ribbon.

Print the label for the hand sanitizer {there are 6 on each page}

Print the message, and trim both to size {2 messages per page}

I affixed my label with washi tape, then folded the message and put it on the back of the hand sanitizer and tied it all together with twine.

So easy.

Happy Visiting Teaching!

July Visiting Teaching {The Divine Mission of Jesus Christ: Advocate}

This month the visiting teaching message focuses on how Jesus Christ is our advocate with the father.  It is a beautiful message about how, because the Savior paid for our sins with the Atonement, all of our sins can be erased through repentance. 
With the Savior as our advocate, We can turn our lives around.
With that thought in mind, I made a fun pinwheel with the message printed inside, and a tag with that statement on it.  To make some to share with your sisters, you will need a sheet of cute cardstock. It can be double-sided, but needs to be able to have a side that can be printed on, {white or a light pattern} so that you can read the text.
You will also need some kind of stick to attach the pinwheel to.  I used 16x1/4” dowels for mine, {but I’ve seen people use paper straws, or regular straws} and a pin or brad or upholstery tack.
To begin, print the message and then cut the bottom off so that you have an exact square.  Then fold the page diagonally and unfold.  Cut along your folds until you are about an inch away from the middle.
Use a small hole punch, or pin to poke holes in every other corner.
Take your pin, and stick it through all four holes, and then push the pin through the center of the paper at the middle of the X where you folded previously.  Affix the pin into the stick and secure it {we used a small hammer to make sure the pin stayed put}.
So easy and fun! 
You can print the message here.
You can print the tag here.
Happy Visiting Teaching!

Peru Part 2: Machu Picchu!

To get to Machu Picchu, you must go to Aguas Calientes.  To get to Aguas Calientes, you must either take a train, or hike in, as there are no cars per se in town {aside from the busses that you can take up the mountain to Machu Picchu}. 

We arrived in Aguas Calientes and were greeted by a hotel representative who guided us on foot through the town to our hotel.  We then grabbed some dinner {at an amazing restaurant that had some of the best food we had in Peru, called Yanantin Grill—btw, the crinkle fries were really that big.  The Peruvians love their veggies super-sized}

and a few snacks and then headed to bed because we wanted to get an early start the next morning.

We had heard that it was best to be on the first bus of the day so that we could see the sun rise over Machu Picchu.  We had also heard that it was a good idea to take our own lunch up since, there is only one restaurant up at the top and it was pricey.  So the night before our climb, we stopped at a few shops looking for grocery items so that we could make some sandwiches or something.  We came away with 2 $6 boxes of stale granola bars and some fruit.  This is what I chose.  I can’t remember what it was called, but it kind of tasted a pear, only not as sweet.

The next morning as we were waiting in line for the buses, there were a couple of shops open right by the line.  They had entire sandwiches for around $5 a piece, and if we did it again, we would just pick up a sandwich on the way.

The bus ride took about 20 minutes and as we wound up the steep switchbacks, we passed quite a few brave people who had hiked from Aguas Calientes.  Originally, that had been my plan, but I’m glad we took the bus, since we did a ton of hiking once we got to Machu Picchu, and there’s no way that we could have done both in the same day. Guys.  Machu Picchu has been on my bucket list for many years, and it did not disappoint.  It. was. amazing.

There are two peaks on either side of the ruins at Machu Picchu.  One is called Huayna Picchu, and the other is Montana.  Only limited amounts of people can visit the peaks each day, and we climbed Montana.  After seeing the sun rise over the ruins, we headed up the mountain, so that we could avoid the hottest part of the day.  Montana is quite the climb, and as mentioned in my previous post, has a bajillion stone steps.  The steps go all of the way up the mountain.

It took us about an hour and a half to two hours to near the top, and was pretty steep.  It was beautiful, though and had amazing views of the ruins. This photo included because it kind of shows you how steep the mountain is, but also because it has the Urubamba River in it.  And Urubamba {ooo-roo-bam-ba} is fun to say.  Urubamba.  Urubamba.  See?  Machu Picchu is off to your left.

There were also really cool irridescent butterflies that would kind of flop-fly down the trail above us.

After climbing Montana, we had a quick lunch and then took a tour of the ruins {included in the tour pass that we purchased at the airport} and then were free to explore on our own.

Opinions vary but nobody really knows what Machu Picchu was used for.  Our tour guide told us that it might have been a place for the wealthy, and that in those times, it wasn’t money that made people wealthy, it was knowledge.  So maybe as a type of university.  Others have speculated that it was a retreat for royalty, or that it was used for religious ceremonies coordinating with solstices and equinoxes.  Nobody really knows.

Check out that staircase.  And there’s the Urubamba again.  Urubamba.  Urubamba.

Visiting Machu Picchu was an amazing experience, and so, so neat. 

When we were finished, we headed back down to Aguas Calientes and did some shopping at the market there, learned to play the bamboo flute from a street vendor, and had some Peruvian pizza for dinner, before taking the train back to Cusco for the night.Although, if we went again, there are a few things we would do differently, we loved seeing Machu Picchu, and are so glad we went.