A couple of recipes to make your mouth water

Fresh Tomato and Spinach Pasta
(This is a super fast and healthy recipe!)

2 1/2 cups ziti or mostacchioli pasta
1 small onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 T olive oil
2 cups coarsely chopped tomato (about 6 medium)
1/2 t. red pepper
4 cups spinach or arugula, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup pine nuts or slivered almonds, toasted
1/4 crumbled Gorgonzola cheese or Parmesan cheese
*opt. can add cooked diced chicken, but we like it just fine without it, and when I'm in a hurry I don't have time for the chicken anyways.

1. Cook pasta and keep warm.
2. Meanwhile, in a large skillet cook onion and garlic in hot olive oil over medium heat until onion is tender. Add tomato, dash of salt and pepper. Cook and stir over medium-high heat about 2 minutes or until tomato is warm and releases some of its juices. Stir in spinach, heat just until greens wilt.
3. To serve, top pasta with tomato mixture; sprinkle with toasted nuts and cheese.


Broccoli and Peppers with Walnuts
(This is Jared's absolute favorite veggie side dish! He asks for it everyday:) )

1/4 cup chicken broth
2 T bottled oyster sauce (I don't always put this in)
1 t. finely shredded lemon peel
1/4 t. cayenne pepper
4 t. cooking oil
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
1 clove garlic, minced
1 pound fresh broccoli, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 medium sweet bell pepper, cut into bite size strips

1. For sauce, in a small bowl combine chicken broth, oyster sauce, lemon peel, and cayenne pepper; set aside.
2. In a large nonstick skillet heat 2 t. of the oil over medium heat. Add walnuts and garlic; cook and stir for 2-3 minutes or until nuts are lightly toasted. Remove the walnut mixture from the skillet; set aside.
3. In the same skillet heat the remaining oil over medium-high heat. Add broccoli and bell pepper; cook and stir for 3-4 minutes or until veggies are crisp-tender.
4. Stir sauce, add to skillet. Cook and stir for 1 minute. Transfer broccoli mixture to serving bowl and sprinkle with walnut mixture.

January in a Nutshell

January is finally over! It always seems like the longest month of the year to me. Here are some happenings of last month.

1. Sledding. Mark, Jackie, the kids and us went sledding at Jolley's ranch in Hobble Creek canyon close to our house. We all had a blast! Its a perfect hill for families because its not too steep but you can still get going pretty fast. If you live in Utah you should check it out sometime...you can also go snowshoeing and cross-country skiing there. Macy enjoyed watching us crazies on the sleds.
Cooper looks a little scared in this picture but he really did enjoy going on the tube with his daddy. Jackie and Leslie were speed demons on the saucer sleds.

'Boston would lay down completely flat on his saucer :) I'm not sure if he thought he went faster this way or what but he was fun to watch!

2. New callings. Jared and I were called to be nursery leaders in our ward. There are 4 nurseries in our ward, and we are in charge of half of the older kids. We have about 15 in our class. Yes, we go armed with a giant bottle of hand sanitizer. LOL. We love being with those kids.

3. Projects. We finished painting all of the trim and doors in our house! Yay! It was a fun project to do together and we saved a ton of money doing it ourselves. I have also been breaking in my new sewing machine that I got from overstock.com (the one I got for 5 dollars at a garage sale was going to cost more than a new one to be fixed) and doing lots of scrapbooking. I'll have to post the end results later.

4. Sudying. We both have been studying for our professional credentialing exams. The NCLEX for Jared and me the CHES. You might not be familiar with the CHES but it stands for certified health education specialist. Its a competency title and requires a continured commitment to professional development. We are anxious to get those out of the way at the end of April.