If you have never had a tomatillo creamy salsa…I’m sorry.There is NOTHING better than a yummy tomatillo salsa for drenching all over a shredded beef taco. The best, and first, tomatillo salsa I ever had was at Diego’s in Provo, UT. It is special because it is smooth, frothy and chilled. I had believed that I was destined to only enjoy creamy, frothy, spicy tomatillo salsa at Diegos…until tonight.

Husband re-created it and I’m sharing.

Tomatillo Salsa

INGREDIENTS:

2 Serrano Peppers

2 Cloves of Garlic

Cilantro- A little less than a handful, chopped.

5-6 Medium Tomatillos, Husked and rinsed.

Squeese of Lime

1/4 cup cold water

Salt to taste

1/2 Medium Onion

1 Small Avocado

METHOD:

1. Place all ingredients BUT the onion and avocado, in a food processor and puree for a minute.

2. Place onion and avocado into the food processor with the rest of the ingredients and puree for another 30 seconds.

3. Salt to taste. ALL DONE!

This is the second book in the Percy Jackson and The Olympians series by Rick Riordan. These are really fun, action packed, kids books. I’m not as drawn to them (at least not so far) as the Harry Potter Series because they are a bit cheesy but I still want to keep reading! I think these books would be really fun to read with the whole family but I really just wish I had a little boy to read them with…

This book in the series introduces a new character that is very lovable and in the end teaches Percy some valuable lessons. I can’t say I like the 1st or the 2nd book better because they are pretty straight forward and paced the same. What I’m really sad to find out is that the movie for this book won’t come out till 2012! WHY??!!??? That is two years apart. Not cool.

I love cupcakes. I do. Especially, gourmet ones!

So for my b-day we went to grub on some desserts at the Sweet Life Pastisserie here in Eugene. Both husband and I had heard that this place was AMAZING.

It pretty much was.

They have a display case of the most desirable desserts…Cakes, Tarts, Cheesecake, Cupcakes and even Gelato. It was hard for me to choose but I decided on a raspberry cupcake and a chocolate caramel one with sea salt on top. It’s hard for me to turn down any dessert with salt on it. Kinda like any entree that comes with a side of jalapano jelly…I have to have it. Husband chose an eclair. Yuck, but whatever, to each his own.

What’s really interesting about this place is that it’s Vegan. I’m not sure how they manage everything to taste so amazing without animal products but they do and they do it well.

Their cupcakes were very cake-like and with dense frosting. One is definitely enough for dessert. I think next time I would go with a tart…they looked incredible.

*Please excuse the horrible iphone photos. I was so excited about this place I forgot about photography.

Last year, I re-decorated Miss Raine’s bedroom in a nature/garden theme for her birthday. This was in celebration of becoming a big sister and sharing a room with her soon to be born sissy. I never shared pictures although it was a huge undertaking for me. So after our big move I have finally set up their room again and thought I would share before everything gets destroyed!!!

Every girl needs a canopy above their bed/playpen.

We painted this mural onto butcher paper to cover her old closet doors…but we were no longer in need of covering closet doors in this apartment because she doesn’t have any. So it’s taped to the wall. I TAPED everything maybe just because we have a lot of moving tape hanging around.

I loved this loud floral fabric I found at the Walmart craft section. It made for perfect accent pieces in the room.

Yes, it’s a little much. But we just couldn’t stop. Every little girl needs a room like this to feel special in….so it’s okay. I mean this picture looks great but when you walk in and your hitting your head on all the stuff we attached to the ceiling…yeah, it feels like too much.

My little helper.

I got the idea for these paper plate flowers from Family Fun Magazine. You can find the tutorial for them HERE. Originally, they were meant to be made as sunflowers but we needed a more girly flower. So we painted them bright colors and used glitter glue around the edges.

We also got instructions for these clothespin butterfly’s from Family Fun Magazine HERE. Make sure you scroll down for the girl canopy.

Miss Raine insisted on me hanging these star lights her Tia gave her for Christmas. So at night the nature theme would continue!

We also have a few of these pom pom’s hanging. Why? Well…just because we love them. Guess what my next Make Something Monday will be on???

I couldn’t pass up posting this. How cute is she? Went to the beach this week…and she LOVED cruising in the sand. More  to come!

Sorry, no pictures. We had a busy day and I forgot the camera.

Breakfast: Bran Muffins, Yogurt, Mashed Banana, Milk and  Miss Raine ate a bag of cheerios.

Snack: The girls ate ritz crackers and apples

I ate my new favorite snack…1/2 cliff bar and a diet coke.

Lunch: Bean and bacon soup, left over apple, Cheerios and slices of cheese.

Snack: Nilla wafers, Black berries and other junk food while rafting down the river.

Dessert: Yes, we ate dessert first. After rafting we took advantage of $1 TCBY Frozen Yogurt.

Dinner: Late night, homemade, Nachos. Nuff said!

You guys should all know about my young adult/kid book obsession right now…love them! Not thinking a whole lot is kind of the theme of my life right now.

I gave this book 5 stars on Goodreads. Usually, I save 5 stars for my all time favorites.  Maybe this book will be. I seriously had book depression right after finishing it. I really enjoyed it and did not want it to end. I would put it on par with Hunger Games but a little more sophisticated. Also, I think this book was more balanced than it’s companion, Graceling. I just felt better about the ending.

I don’t think I’m up to writing a full review because I just read an excellent one that I would like to share with you over at the blog Steph Su Reads.  This book is complicated with lots of different themes I’m too lazy to touch on. Although, I do enjoy the gender issues she brings up throughout. One warning,  this book may be considered to have adult content as it constantly refers to casual sexual encounters and the main character, a half human/ half monster (Monsters are abnormally beautiful in this series), being threatened of death and rape. If you can work past this and are interested in young adult fantasy, this book is totally for you!

I can not tell you what anyone had for breakfast. I didn’t have anything because I was sleeping!! Miss Raine woke up after a nightmare and kept me up for an hour or so and then, yep, Little Lime and her first dream/nightmare and I could not get her back to bed. Then to top it off ….oh man…I had a nightmare. So Husband took over at daylight and I slept. More information than you needed to know.

Lunch: We all had leftovers. Husband ate pesto noodles, I ate curry and Miss Raine had some ramen.

Snack: Movie theatre popcorn and soda

Dinner: We went out to the Pizza Research Institute here in Eugene. This was in celebration of our lives changing forever tomorrow when Husband starts Law school! We ordered a medium pizza with half asparagus, roasted garlic and fresh tomato and the other half with mushrooms, smoked cheddar cheese and grilled zucchini. We also had an order of bread and jalapeno poppers. After downing it all…highly recommend the jalapeno poppers, YUM.

Don’t let this face fool you. She didn’t eat a thing…in fact she spat out her only attempt which is a first for her.

This one on the other hand…will eat ANYTHING. I caught her eating dirt today. Another first!

Today, Miss Raine and I had mommy-daughter date. We went and saw Ramona and Beezus at the dollar theatre.

I have not read the book… or is it books? Not sure if it’s a series…but I thought the preview looked really cute. And, yep, it was a really cute film. It definitely was not complicated but it was family friendly and I have to say extremely friendly to a date out with your favorite little girl.

I had prepared myself and Miss Raine for the premise to be all about Beezus (the older sister) being a jerk to her younger sister, Ramona. Must be the o lder sister syndrome coming out in me. It did have a little bit of normal sibling conflict but for the most part their relationship was supportive which I really appreciated.

So…go rent this movie and watch it with your little girl or niece or whoever!

Breakfast: Bran Muffins for everyone! Little Lime had smashed banana for a side and Miss Raine had a glass of milk. I had yogurt on the side while Husband stuck with just muffins.

Snack: Ritz crackers and apples. Miss Raine had a warmed up homemade pita. Husband made fresh ones the night before.

I had 1/2 of a cliff bar and a diet coke. I’m proud to say it was my only coke all day! Whoop.

Lunch: Parmesan Roasted Asparagus, Tomatoes and Eggs

Miss Raine tried everything but was not impressed with the tomatoes. She never is… she did, however, eat a bit of banana before feeding it to her little sister.

Little Lime ate cherry  tomatoes that were not cooked and every one’s left overs!!

Dinner: Chicken served in Homemade Pita’s with sauteed mushrooms and onions. Husband served rice pilaf as a side.

Dessert: Homemade Raspberry Ice cream and Homemade Peanut Butter Cookies.

So, I was lucky enough to be invited to Pinterest by a fellow blogger. I love it. It’s visual appeal is awesome and I don’t have to star every blog that I want to remember anymore…now I just pin it!! I love organization and this serves a great purpose for me in organizing all the things I find and love on the internet. So what is Pinterest? “Pinterest is a social catalog service. Think of it as a virtual pinboard — a place where you can post collections of things you love, and “follow” collections created by people with great taste.”

From now on I will no longer be adding to link lists to bookmark projects and foods I would like to try. I will, however, have Pinterest Boards. You can see what I have recently pinned right column or click on the Pinterest button in the right column to see my different Pinterest boards.

The reason why I’m bringing this up is because it’s Make Something Monday and would like to share my Stuff to Make board. Go take a look around at these really cool projects!

Also, I have 5 invitations available. I’ll invite the first 5 people who comment on any of my blog posts…just make sure you enter your email address (only I will see it).

Breakfast: Little Lime ate Pineapple Pear baby food with Cheerios on the side.

Miss Raine ate Cherrios WITH milk which hasn’t happened for a while and had 3 helpings.

I ate a Honey Bunches of Oats type cereal.

Husband…NUSHING!

Second Breakfast: Yes. Second Breakfast should happen every Sunday. Second Breakfast is when Husband doesn’t eat his breakfast and decides to make a delicious breakfast meal around lunch time. If you haven’t heard Husband is a breakfast master. I prefer anything he cooks for breakfast…hands down. Today, he made biscuits and a meatless gravy with eggs and hash browns. It was one of the best tasting breakfast meals he has ever made and that is really saying something. He used this recipe for the biscuits. They had the perfect texture, sweetness and salt content. He wanted me to point out that instead of using honey in the biscuits he used 3 tablespoons of sugar and he weighed his flour at 9oz.

Lunch: We skipped lunch and ate popcorn at a movie

Dinner: Left over Pasta Primavera with roasted asparagus as a side.  We warmed up the Primavera in a pan with a little bit more cream and freshened with more sauteed mushrooms, green onions for garnish and red pepper flakes.

Dessert: Miss Raine ate homemade vanilla ice cream again because I realized I would never finish Peanut Butter Cookies before she went to bed. So Husband and I ate a couple HUGE Peanut Butter Cookies really late while watching episodes of Parenthood.

We start food planning by making a list of a few go-to meals for a couple of weeks. This allows for us to have things in the house but not wiggle room to make meals that we feel like that particular day. Then we separate that list into Walmart (as much as we can get as possible because it is so cheap), another close by grocery store and the farmers market list.

We shop at Walmart every two weeks, farmers market every Saturday and local grocery store whenever we need something because it’s 5 minutes away on our bikes.

Today, I actually did a lot more cooking than I normally do because it was really hot outside and we don’t have AC. So I made two batches of ice cream and dinner with a fan blowing on me!

Day 1:

Breakfast: Little Lime had a slice of cold mango, Cheerios, mixture of smashed bananas, lime yogurt and oatmeal.

Miss Raine had lime yogurt which she chose but complained about the entire time, Cheerios in a bag and a glass of milk.

I ate a cliff bar and a banana while Husband ate just the cliff bar on our way out the door to the Farmers Market.

Snack: Goldfish, Tomatoes from the Farmers Market and slices of mango.

Lunch: Husband made pesto using basil from his beloved plants (they used to be mine but he decided to take over their upbringing). We had pesto pasta, leftover baguette with butter and sliced apples.

Snack: Ritz crackers, pretzels and crushed ice (via hammer)…it was REALLY hot.

Dinner: Potato Curry over rice

Dessert: Homemade vanilla ice cream with sliced strawberries from the Farmers Market. We packed a dessert picnic and went on a bike ride before the girls went to bed.