{Mango Salsa Salads}

I absolutely hate turning on the stove and cooking in the summer. So, I try to find as many recipes that I can that use the grill. This week in my bountiful basket there were a lot of mangoes, so I decided to make salsa and a friend suggested a salad would be good. So I used my lettuce also from bountiful baskets....marinated chicken in lowrys mesquite with lime marinade, grilled them and topped the salads off with the mango salsa a little cheese and homemade fiesta ranch.

Mango Salsa
1 1/2 cups diced mango
1/2 cup diced onion
1 teaspoon white sugar
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can black beans, drained
Stir the tomatoes, mango, onion, sugar, cilantro, black beans, lime juice, cider vinegar, salt, pepper, and garlic together in a bowl; refrigerate 1 hour before serving.


Fiesta Ranch

Make homemade ranch with a packet. Add 1 cup salsa to the ranch and blend in the blender.

So many flavors and oh so delicious!!

{Raftin on the Fourth}

We finaly found some time to take the raft out once this summer.....We love the water!

{Kamrin's Photography...}

My sister took some photography classes at CSI and used the kids as models for her projects. She gave Kamrin her old camera and Kamrin would follow her around taking pictures. These pictures are some of her work.......

She wants to enter this one in the fair:

Not too bad for a six year old!

{The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe EVER!!}

You know how as a mother you spend your entire life on a quest trying to find the perfect Chocolate Chip cookie recipe? Well...... I think that I finally found mine so I thought that I should share it with you.

Soooooo....Here's the recipe:

1 cup butter (softened, of course)
1 cup brown sugar
2/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 Tbls. vanilla
3/4 tsp. salt
3 cups flour
1 pkg Milk chocolate chips
1/2 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla. Then add the dry ingredients. Mix in chocolate chips. Bake at 350 for 11 minutes, Cookies may not look done but take them out anyway and leave them on the hot pan for about ten minutes before placing them on the cooling racks. This recipe makes about 4 dozen cookies with the pampered chef cookie scoop.

**Last time we made these we used a mixture of butterscotch, chocolate and white chocolate chips. They were yummy!!

{Mid-Week Message}

I saw this posted on a few different blogs today. So simple, yet so powerful. I really needed this today and hope that maybe you did too. So uplifting!

Western Days Parade

The girls rode in the parade again this year for Western Days. They love it!

{11 yrs.!!!}

Wow...I cannot believe how fast time flies! Today Josh and I celebrate our 11th anniversary. I was looking through our album and found a few pictures. Everyone looks so young in these pictures!

Me and my siblings!

Me and some of my good friends!

Siblings, cousins, and neices and nephew!

This picture really dates me.....they have all graduated from high school or will be soon!

Here's to many more years together!!

mn