Also, what a treat because 96% of you wanted me to share my guacamole recipe, so here we are! While I certainly believe this to be the most delicious version of guac out there, I honor and respect that you might disagree. Let’s discuss in the comments :)
My recipe is based off of Bobby Flay’s, which we discovered when we started making his nacho dogs a few years ago (thank me later). I did not grow up making guacamole (I also did not grow up eating it – it seemed green and suspicious and it just wasn’t a thing in my family), but as with so many other seemingly-fancy food items, I was introduced to it by John’s family and have been a convert ever since.
Without further ado, the simple recipe…
Peel and pit two ripe avocados and mash in a small bowl. Avocados are notoriously tricky but I find if I buy them green and firm they are ready about 3 days later.
Dice a jalapeno and add it to the bowl. Dice about 1/5 of a red onion and add that, too.
Add approximately 1 teaspoon of canola oil (makes it nice and silky!). I never measure this – just a small glug – but 1 tsp is my best bet.
Sprinkle over a generous shake of sea salt, then squeeze in one lime.
Mix it all together and give it a taste. If something needs tweaking, it’s usually more salt or more lime! We like to serve ours with blue corn tortilla chips.
How about you? If you’re a guacamole fan, do you like yours with cilantro? Tomato? Peas??
Many of you expressed interest in seeing occasional meal plans, so I thought I’d share some of the summer recipes we’re making and loving right now! Some are old favorites, a few are brand new, and almost all take advantage of the abundance of delicious produce this time of year.
Summer Cavatelli | This pasta recipe is SO easy (most of the flavor comes from regular old marinara sauce – we use Rao’s), but it packs a seasonal punch with zucchini, fresh corn, and basil. It is also vegetarian! Note: I usually can’t find cavatelli, so I just use farfalle or penne.
Chicken Fajitas | This is hardly a recipe, but it’s an easy favorite! We grill chicken breasts with salt and pepper and saute green peppers and onions, then pile them both on tortillas with shredded cheese, salsa, sour cream or Greek yogurt, and homemade guacamole.
Cowboy Burgers | I’d put a hiatus on turkey burgers for awhile because I’d never found a recipe I liked, but this one is a winner! (You mix shredded cheese into the burger mix, which I’m sure doesn’t hurt.) I make 6 smaller patties and put them on potato rolls with lettuce, tomato, red onion, and either barbecue sauce or a little Sriracha and mayo whisked together. We’ll often have frozen sweet potato fries and cucumber and tomato salad on the side.
Grilled Chicken Shawarma | This has become one of my absolute favorite meals. The marinade is SO good – I try to mix it up the night before, but even if I can only let it sit an hour, it’s so flavorful. To the grilled chicken and garlic sauce, we’ll add sliced cherry tomatoes and cucumbers, toasted mini pitas, hummus, and boxed rice pilaf for personal Mediterranean plates!
Grilled Lemon Chicken Flatbread Wraps | I don’t like grilling kebabs, so I marinate the chicken breasts whole and grill them in the backyard before cutting them into bite-size pieces. The garlic sauce is so yummy, and these wraps are a great way to put our bigger tomatoes to good use, too!
Classic Cookout | Hot dogs, corn on the cob, baked beans, cucumber and tomato salad, pasta salad, and salt and pepper chips – doesn’t get much better than that :)
Pulled Pork Tacosand Pulled Pork Sandwiches | This is a one-two punch combo for our family – I’ll make them on back-to-back nights! The recipe could not be simpler: just sprinkle a chopped onion in the pot, add a 3-5 pound boneless pork shoulder, then pour over two cans of Coca Cola and pressure cook for 90 minutes. Drain the liquid, shred the meat, then mix in the barbecue sauce of your choice (we use Sweet Baby Ray’s).
From there, you can put the meat on buns with coleslaw for a Southern twist, or on those little street tortillas with shredded cheese (bake for 5 minutes at 250) and guacamole. So good, so easy!
I’d love to hear: what summer recipes have you been loving lately?
Since you all were so generous with me and my handbag search earlier this week, I wanted to pass one of my best kitchen secrets back to you. File this in the same folder as the best way to reheat pizza or print Instagram photos – just one of those little life hacks that is not going to save the world, but might just rock your world a little bit.
Whenever a recipe calls for chicken stock, I mix up my own using this bouillon concentrate.
It’s right next to the boxed stock in my grocery store, and costs about the same – but this little puppy makes quart upon quart of stock for that price. Plus, it lasts for ages once open, whereas if I just need a half cup of stock for a recipe, the rest of the box will go south quickly in the fridge.
If you’ve never used it before, it’s so easy! I just measure the water I need in a liquid measuring cup, pop it in the microwave (or in a pan on the stove for a larger amount), heat it to boiling, then stir in the correct amount (1 tsp for every 8 ounces, I think). I’m not a particularly fancy cook, but I’ve never noticed any difference in taste between this and the readymade stock I used to buy. Homemade stock? That might be a different story, but I’ve not yet added that to my regular repertoire – hats off to those of you who have :)
Hats off also to Jenny Steffens Hobick, the lady who taught me about this jar of wonder many years ago. Cheers to all the little tricks that help us get dinner on the table with more ease and for less money!!
I’d love to hear: do you already have a jar of this in your fridge? Did you just add it to your shopping list? Do you, like me, remember your mom cooking with chicken bouillon concentrate “cubes” when you were younger? Somehow this seems slightly more legit :)
We could all use a little dose of whimsy these days, yes? Even before the heartache of last week, there was – and is – the monotony and heaviness of COVID-19. So when June came downstairs after quiet time one day early in quarantine asking for a “special snack,” I was happy to oblige. Enter: the muffin tin snack tray.
Maybe you’ve seen one, or even enjoyed one yourself. I first heard about them from Merrick, and thought they sounded like a lovely idea – maybe a little extra – but something to tuck away for the elementary school years.
And then June requested a special snack and, well, here we are. Having muffin tin snack trays almost daily :)
Here are a few reasons why I have come to love the muffin tin snack tray:
— They are perfect for using up little odds and ends hanging around the fridge or pantry. Less food waste is always a win!
— Because of the fun presentation, and the fact that we’re all eating together, my kids are more likely to try anything new I add to the tray.
— Though most days I’m kind of haphazardly throwing things together, the snack tray presents a creative opportunity for the willing parent: you could theme the contents for upcoming holidays, play around with color or shapes, or attune it to a visitor. Kind of like a modern charcuterie board, but way easier :)
— It helps me get all the food groups into my kiddos in a day. Even if we don’t have a ton of fruits and vegetables at dinner, the snack tray gives me another opportunity to tick those boxes.
And now, a few tips for introducing muffin tin snack trays into your life:
— My initial thought was that I’d introduce snack trays when June started kindergarten – I figured everyone would be a bit older by then and they’d be a sweet moment to reconnect after being apart during the day. Having started earlier, I would say Shep, at 1 3/4, is just barely old enough to participate in a civilized way. He mostly grasps the concepts of sharing, taking one thing at a time, and not putting half-eaten food back into the tray, ha!
— You can fill more than one pocket with the same thing. You don’t have to come up with 12 separate things every day!
— To keep things fun without the budget going wild, I’ve started adding one novel item to my grocery list each week – a new kind of cracker, something from the international aisle, chocolate-covered pretzels, etc. Over a few grocery trips you’ll build up a stash of fun things that you can rotate in and out.
— We like to include a mix of savory and sweet, familiar and foreign, crunchy and soft. Add dips or spreads. Play with colors and textures and have fun!
— Remember you can easily adjust the amounts in each pocket for the number of people eating and how big of a snack you want it to be. June, Shep, and I partake in the snack tray together about 2 hours before dinner, and ours is sized appropriately.
— If you have older kids with bigger appetites, take a tip from Merrick: don’t refill anything until everything is gone. That way, they’ll be forced to eat the veggies if they want more marshmallows :) In our current life stage, I never refill the tray.
— To practice manual dexterity (so Montessori!) and slow the whole process down a bit, give everyone a fancy toothpick to spear with. We like these ones.
Friends, as a parent and a person I am an interesting mix of highly practical and consistently weak-kneed for the magical and memorable. No, not everything in our kiddos’ childhoods has to be magical – much of it will be humdrum and ordinary (and in my opinion that’s actually good!). But I also believe childhood should be punctuated by the needlessly fancy, the extravagantly whimsical, and the fun-just-because. The magical things I love the most are the ones that inject novelty into our days, cause us to linger together, and therefore slow down time. Muffin tin snack trays check all my boxes, and I hope they’ll bring a little sweetness to your days, too!
Friends, I’d love to hear a way you inject a little novelty or magic into daily life, whether or not you have kids!