Welcome to the weekend, my pals! We had a good time within the White Mountains of Arizona with my household final weekend. (Thank goodness we weren’t headed to the valley the place it’s roughly the temperature of my oven this summer time.) The warmth wave within the mountains was lower than superior this 12 months, however at 9000′ it wasn’t terrible.

I’ve in all probability pushed between AZ and NM a minimum of 100 instances in my life and this time it was a complete new expertise. We took 117 for a portion of the journey and we came across an unexpectedly beautiful drive. We stopped and walked the brief path as much as La Ventana Arch. It’s about 18 miles south of Interstate 40 off Exit 89 and it’s properly well worth the cease.

ON THE BLOGS this week: Wealthy chocolate, creamy peanut butter, and frozen bananas are blended collectively in blissful concord to make this Chocolate Peanut Butter Smoothie – that tastes extra like a peanut butter banana milkshake than a breakfast drink.

Crispy Breakfast Potatoes, roasted to good crispiness with fluffy facilities and loads of seasoning, are key gamers in a lot of our favourite breakfast recipes.

Roasted Inexperienced Beans and Carrots ship a pleasant medley of flavors and textures. You possibly can season them as directed within the recipe beneath or toss them with any variety of completely different spice mixtures.

The irresistible mixture of vibrant peas, crispy bacon, and savory cheese complemented by a luscious creamy dressing, creates an ideal concord of flavors on this Pea Pasta Salad.

Seize a chip and dig proper into this creamy Caramelized Onion Dip. This tantalizing appetizer combines the smoothness of bitter cream with the candy and savory essence of onions slow-cooked to perfection. This dip is nothing just like the onion dips you’ve tried earlier than and it’ll depart your style buds craving extra.

Creamy chocolate ice cream crammed with chocolate-covered cashews and swirled all through with caramel sauce provides as much as bowls of Bear Claw Ice Cream that nobody can resist.

Melted darkish chocolate is whipped with tangy cream cheese and a little bit of cream to create this luxury No Bake Chocolate Mousse.

With tangy, candy rhubarb and an irresistible cinnamon sugar biscuit topping, this Rhubarb Cobbler simply begs for a scoop of chilly ice cream.

What I’m CRAVING: These Blackened Fish Tacos With Chipotle-Lime Sauce are making my mouth water. We’re grilling this weekend and I feel they should occur before later.

My FAVORITE THING this week is my new Fitbit. Bear in mind Fitbit? The bracelet step counter that all of us have been utilizing about 10-15 years in the past? Effectively, I began understanding just a few months in the past (yeah, I simply wrote that) and I needed a quite simple coronary heart charge monitor that was not a smartwatch.

Seems that Fitbit has come a good distance within the 15 years since their first tracker was launched. I purchased the Encourage 3 (fairly positive it price lower than my first one too – go determine) and along with monitoring your steps, there’s GPS monitoring for strolling or working, a clock with a timer, stopwatch, and an alarm, in addition to O2, train, heartbeat, and sleep displays. To date, I actually prefer it.

What I’m READING: Remarkably Shiny Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. So a lot of you may have really helpful this one, I’ve misplaced depend! My buddy Henny was the primary to say it to me, and it was lastly obtainable on the library just a few days in the past and I downloaded it instantly. I’m hooked! It’s such an uncommon storyline and I’m wanting ahead to seeing the way it ends.

(Sure, I’m breaking my very own rule of by no means mentioning a ebook earlier than ending it – right here’s hoping I gained’t must renege on the thumbs-up evaluation subsequent week!)

What I’m LISTENING to: Black Espresso by Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa. This one confirmed up in certainly one of my Pandora stations the opposite day and I used to be hooked from the primary hear. Bonamassa’s guitar and Beth’s voice are a implausible mixture. “Why Don’t You Do Proper?” is my favourite on the album proper now.

“Lastly, brothers, no matter is true, no matter is honorable, no matter is simply, no matter is pure, no matter is gorgeous, no matter is commendable, if there’s any excellence, if there’s something worthy of reward, take into consideration these items.” Philippians 4:8 ESV 

Wishing you a stunning week stuffed with little issues that make you smile!

Mary