Mexican Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

Hello there!  Been awhile.  We had a crazy busy June and I am just starting to get caught back up on blogging.  Currently I am in the middle of writing a lengthy post all about our fun trip to Chicago for our private family blog (email me if you want an invite) but today I felt like taking a break from that post and writing something a little simpler and shorter.   

Recently I made a few meals for my family when we were visiting Salt Lake and they loved them so I thought I would share one of them with you today. 

I made this at their house because they have air conditioning and this recipe involves leaving on the oven for a few hours.   Currently we are in crock pot or raw food mode since the oven is not allowed to be on if the house is over 73 degrees.  lol ok so maybe I just made up that rule... but really we try to not turn the oven on at all these days. 

The recipe is Twice baked Sweet Potatoes Yummy!

We LOVE sweet potatoes at our house and they are SO good for you.  Even though we live in Idaho (potato central) we have almost given up on regular potatoes in exchange for sweet potatoes.  Here are a few facts about why we choose sweet potatoes. We most commonly just bake them in the oven and then put cinnamon and butter on top and use them as a side dish, but this recipe gives a little kick of spicy and sweet that is delicious! 

Ok one last thing before we get started...  Before last year I had never bought a raw sweet potato (had only seem them in cans with little marshmallows on top hehe!) so I was a little clueless when I headed to the store for the first time to buy one.  After a little trial and error I have found that instead of buying an actual sweet potato, which is lighter in color then the "sweet potatoes" that I am used to, I buy a JEWEL YAM.  It has the darker orange color and tastes really good.
  
I saw a few different recipes for twice baked sweet potatoes so I decided to just kind of combine the things that I liked from each of the recipes into one.  This meal IS a little spicy so if you have kids (Adalyn really likes it) I would leave to pepper jack cheese off of their potato and they should be good to go. 

Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

(Adapted from this recipe.  you can see a picture of what they look like there too.)  

 

Ingredients:

4 Sweet Potatoes (I buy Jewel yams)

1 cup Frozen corn

1 can Black Beans

1/4-1/2 yellow onion chopped

olive oil

1/2 tsp Red pepper flakes

1/4 cup full fat greek yogurt

1 ounce cream cheese

3/4ish cup Pepper Jack Cheese (to sprinkle on top)

 

Directions:

Cook your sweet potato in the oven or maybe you could do the crock pot (haven't tried it yet).  I bake mine at 350 degrees for about 1 hour, sometimes longer depending on the size of the potato.  After they are done, let them cool for a few minutes.

-While sweet potatoes cook roast corn with some salt on stove. let corn roast for about 10 minutes and then add diced onions and 1 TBSP Olive oil to the pan.  Sauté onions until they turn translucent.  Place onions, corn, and black beans in a bowl. 

-Carefully slice cooled sweet potato horizontally and scrap out flesh into bowl with black beans, roasted corn and sautéed onions.   (save the skins for later!)

-Add Cream cheese, greek yogurt, and red pepper flakes to potato/corn mixture and stir gently. 

-Once everything is mixed together.  Carefully scoop the mixture back into the skins.  Filling each one. 

-Top each potato with Pepper Jack cheese. 

-Put potatoes back in the over for about 10 minutes or until cheese is fully melted. 

-Enjoy!  

 

Hope you like it!  And since no post is ever complete without a picture.  Here are the kiddos in their 4th of July cuteness!  Look for more posts, hopefully I will update stuff soon!  Have a great day!

 

 

   

Great Example

I love to blog.  I like sharing my life with others and in turn reading about other people's lives.  I feel uplifted and encouraged by sharing my struggles and victories with others, so thank you for reading my blog :) 

With that being said I don't really feel like I am a great writer/blogger.  There are lots of things that I could do better... like take better pictures.  I often think of a blog topic in my head, maybe even write a few things down about it, but then never really post it because I can't quite come up with the words to explain myself correctly. 

Awhile ago I opened up about my struggles with my post baby weight and then utimately my successes with losing that weight after having my second child.  I STRUGGLED for days with that post about what I should say, how I should word it, and questioned if I was truely explaining myself correctly.  It was pretty draining since I was so emotionally attached to the topic.  By the time I finally published the post I was fairly happy with what I had come up. 

But almost a year later after writing that post I have learned SO much more.  I feel like a completely different person than I was when I started researching food and health.  I am learning new things everyday and sometimes I am amazed that I used to put so little thought into what I was feeding my body.  The food we eat affects EVERYTHING.  It affects how we feel emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually.  I truely believe this statement...

source

 

When I am eating healthy and nourishing foods I feel great.  This may sound weird but I have not felt this mentally healthy in a long time (McKay sure loves this part.  I have been much less emotional and hormonal this past year, even while I was pregnant) .  My body is in balence and I am able to deal with life's daily stresses.  Such a good feeling. 

 

Ofcourse I have wanted to share all of the little things that I have been learning with all of you (lucky you right?  ok please stop rolling your eyes...) But my lack of talent and abilty to clearly write my thoughts down has stopped me.  Fortunetly tonight I ran across this lovely blog post by a woman who has a very similar story to mine (although she is farther down the "real" food trail than I am) and so I thought would pass her story along to you. 

 

-Her idea of the 80/20 rule (read it to find out what I am talking about) is exactly what we do at our house.  

-Listening to YOUR body is the key to finding out what YOU need.

-NO counting calories.  Ok I have a secret to tell you all.  I don't even know how to count calories.  Never done...never will.  Calories are not the important part.

-Butter is good, healthy, and nessessary in our diets.  eat it.

-Don't cut a food group out.  They are all good in a well balenced diet.

 

These are a few tidbits that she discovered/shared and that I completely agree with. 

 

 

I hope you all enjoy reading her story.  Food is a very complicated topic, honestly don't know if I will ever comepletely understand just how much it can/does affect us.  But I have really enjoyed reading and learning more about it, but still quite often get overwhelmed by all of the different information out there about what is best for us.  When I do get overwhelmed I just have to remind myself to not get in over my head and just take it one step at a time.  So grateful for all of the great examples that I have to help me along in this process.  Love learning from others and so happy that this blogger has shared her experience. 

 

Hope you are all having a great summer!   

 

 

 

 

  

Mykelti's High School Graduation

My youngest sister graduated from Alta high School on June 6th (promise this is the last graduation post for awhile).  This is big for my parents who will soon be somewhat empty nesters this fall when she goes to college.  Lucky them right? 

The weekend started off with the graduation ceremony at UVU and then we used the rest of the weekend (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) as a somewhat mini vacation with my family.  It was our last real weekend for a long time that we will ALL be together since Larissa is moving to Connecticut in less than a month.  I love weekends with my family!

Here are a few pictures from the Graduation.  McKay and I spent the majority of the actual ceremony taking turns standing in the back or changes poppy diapers with the kids.  (why they both decided to poop then I have no idea?)

 

After graduation we went out to eat and then McKay went to his mom's to help her with a few projects and the rest of us went back to my parents house to relax.  Apparently this is how Adalyn wanted to relax.  Surprisingly Jensen is ok with it...

 

On Friday McKay and I went to my aunt's house for some family pictures, Jensen's 6 month photos, and Adalyn's 2 year old photos.  Talk about multi tasking.  I am excited to see the pictures soon!  That evening we headed to the canyon for a family cook out around the fire.  Much easier then trying to camp over night.  We had tin foil dinners and played games.

 

 

Saturday we went swimming.  Adalyn is becoming quite the fish unlike her mother who just tolerates swimming. 

 

Saturday night I didn't get any pictures but it is a night to be remembered.  My parents threw a party with BOTH sides of their families to celebrate the June/May birthdays, 5 graduations, and it was a good bye party for Larissa.  There were lots of cousins there with their families and it was SO fun to catch up with everyone.  I love my families! 

 

Sunday we went to church and then headed home.  So grateful to have such a fun and loving family. 

McKay's Birthday Pie

Thank you for the encouragement that you gave me on my last post.  We are in full swing with all of our fun summer plans so we haven't done too much about many of the things that I talked about, except for the birthday plans for McKay. 

As you may recall McKay said that he wanted lasagna and a pie for his "birthday dinner".  In the end we went out to eat on his actual birthday.  We went out to eat because his birthday was on a Monday and we had just gotten home from a trip LATE Saturday night and I was babysitting on Monday early in the morning.  So there just wasn't time for me to go grocery shopping and make everything and watch three kids under two.  So we headed to our first Thai restaurant on his birthday.  We both liked and have the potential to love it, but I think that we just didn't know what to get.  So there will probably be a round two of Thai food in the future. 

On Tuesday we finally got around to the birthday dinner.  McKay ended up taking a half day at work that day because we needed  new tires.  So while he was busy picking up tires and getting them put on (we bought brand new tires off Craig's list for less than half price.  Score!) I was busy making dinner.  Ok guys I have avoided making Lasagna for 3 years now because of how 'hard' I thought it was going to be, but in reality it is SUPER simple.  Yes you may laugh at me....  Mine did end up a little dry so next time I will add more water.  But seriously it is SO easy!  McKay loves Lasagna and apparently Adalyn does too so it was a hit all around. 

After dinner we had pie.  It was my very first time making pie and it turned out delicious if I do say so myself.  I made this Fresh Blueberry pie.  I just found it online after he requested a blueberry pie and prayed that it would turn out.  We topped it with fresh Whipped Cream.  And in the end it was super good! 

Random side note-  Lately we have started making our own whipped cream instead of buying cool whip and it tastes 10 times better.  Seriously cool whip will start to taste like metal after you have had the real stuff a few times.  We put it on lots of different things like fresh fruit, pancakes, brownies, and pies.  It is cheaper than the real maple syrup that we buy and healthier for you.

Here is proof of the pie-

So in the end I think his birthday dinner was a success!  Happy Birthday McKay we love you!

P.S. Random question.  As I have researched food I have discovered that fat is not bad.  It is a necessary thing in our diet and as long as it comes from the right source.  ie-  Natural foods  it is really good for you.  So we switched to full fat yogurt, Whole milk, and love whipped cream.  Anyone else made that switch?  Such a different mind set than the usual low fat diet, but we LOVE it.       

   

Lindsey's High School Graduation

This past weekend we headed to good old Evanston Wyoming for some family fun.  McKay's youngest sister graduated from high school.  We don't get to Evanston as often as we would like.  His parents are pretty good at driving to Salt Lake for family activities so we usually see them elsewhere besides the family farm.  But this time we made the trip and had fun seeing everyone.  We arrived the night before the graduation since we currently do not have air conditioning in our car so we wanted to travel at the coolest time of day.  Upon arrival Jensen was introduced to the newest members of the family, the pigs.  They are still small so they were really cute.  They said hello by licking his feet.  Gross!  (I promised we washed them after)

Graduation was on Saturday and after the ceremony they had a party at the house.

The Graduate herself-

 

 

 Matching shirts :)  The kids kept getting them confused. 

This is Madison.  Adalyn LOVES Madison and Madison LOVES Adalyn.  They are really cute together.  Madison was a good babysitter for Adalyn all weekend.  Their names even sound similar Addie and Madi

 There were lots of people at the party and many "tours" of the farm were held.  Goats were being milked right and left and there was plenty of chickens around. :)  100+ to be exact...ish.  Adalyn was unfortunately scared at first of the animals, but by the end she finally warmed up and would actually touch and play with the baby goats and the dog.  Apparently we need to go to the farm more so she doesn't become afraid of animals.

This is Joan Jensen Pace.  McKay's grandma who Jensen is named after.  So happy we got a picture of them together.  Sadly after this picture Jensen grabbed a plate of food and it spilled all over grandma.  Hopefully they are still friends....

 

It was a late night home after the party and I feel like I have just recovered (just in time to head to Salt Lake)  Have a good weekend!

Happy 28th Birthday McKay!

Happy Birthday

to my favorite guy!  Love him! 

 

 

 

 

 

He is my rock and absolute favorite person to be with.  I have loved getting to know him more and more each day for the past 4 years. 

I love you babe and I can't wait to celebrate with you tonight! 

5 Months Old- Jensen

Our boy is growing and growing.  He is getting SO big and is so fun!  He used to be tall and skinny but he is really starting to chunk out more (you can only say "chunk out" about a baby) 

Compared to Adalyn he is a little bit more of a needy baby.  Nothing too hard, he just loves to be around people and is kind of getting attached to mommy and daddy. 

He is pretty squirmy in your arms these days and is getting pretty good at rolling over on his own. 

He has started mastering the art of holding things in his hands so he can actually play and suck on toys now instead of just bat his hands at them.

The last few days he has leaked out of almost every one of his diapers so something has to change there.  Either the size or brand I haven't figured which one out yet. 

I just switched him to 6-9 month clothes because he was too big for all of his pajamas, but he can still wear many of his 3-6 month clothes.

He still wakes up once a night, but goes back to sleep well so it isn't too bad. 

Learned to rock himself in his carseat and bouncer (really helps keep him entertained).

Tried a little bit of squash to see if he was ready for food yet, but we decided it wasn't quite time...

Mommy was bad and didn't take too many 'everyday' kind of pictures this month, but here are a few...

 

 

 

I love babies!  I can't get enough of his cuteness and sweet personality.  We love watching you grow Jensen!