Yummy, Healthy, & In Season: Mom's Baked Squash with Applesauce

I am a pretty big believer in eating in season and buying locally grown produce.  I owe most of that to this guy and this lady.  Not that I don't still buy ridiculous amounts of bananas every week but still I try and what I can.  And I KNOW a little makes a difference.  Anyhow, on to the point.  Here is a GREAT food that can meet all of the important criteria.  This recipe is something like the one from this book.  I love to eat it on cold afternoons or in the evening with I'm trying to refrain from the amazing cookies my husband always bakes.  It's like a great mix of apple & pumpkin pie - except really healthy!

Mom's Baked Squash with Applesauce

1 acorn squash
2 tablespoons of cider jelly, apple jelly, or currant jelly(I use apple butter)
salt
1 cup of applesauce
cinnamon & sugar

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Half the squash from top to bottom and scoop out the seeds.  Cut a small slice from the bottom of each half so the squash will sit flat as it bakes and place them in a casserole or baking dish with a lid.  Brush the jelly over the flesh of each half and then sprinkle with a little salt.  Cover and bake for 50-55 minutes or until the flesh is just tender.  If liquid has settled in the cavities spoon it out and then fill with applesauce.  Bake for 10 more minutes or until the applesauce is warm.  Sprinkle with copious amounts of cinnamon and sugar and enjoy!

We feed the birds.

And it makes us happy.  We save our crumbs and throw them out.  I figure they need it since it's winter and I think I miss the chickens.  Well, I know I do.  I am a bird person.  I  love little hopping and pecking and chirping.  I talk to any bird I might meet in a parking lot or on a run.  I whole-heartily believe they like what I have to say.  I guess I think I'm pretty good at it.    And the chickens totally satisfied my need to talk to birds.  I would go out usually once a day and open up the coop and talk "bird talk" to them.

I also enjoy conversing with cows, cats, dogs, horses, and any animal I might meet unless they are man eaters.  Though I might try and talk to them too if they are behind safety glass or on the other side of a large moat. 

Megan does weddings...

Did you know that I love love love weddings?  Well, I do.  I love being a part of one of the biggest days of a couples lives.  During the day I love thinking back on the last ten years of my life and how happy they have been.  And I love all of the beautiful little details.  And my next give away has something to do with weddings and love.  Well, mostly love.  I'm going to announce what that is on February 1st so check back.

And in the mean time, if you know some one who is getting hitched - send them my way!  Also, check back because in a few days I am going to post about one of my favorite weddings ever that never got blogged about...

A winner has been chosen...

Boy, this has all been so so exciting for me.  In the end I had nearly 200 possible winners.  So I put the names in a bowl and mixed em up.  I tried to pull a name out several times but got nervous that somehow I wasn't doing it right.  And I didn't want the stress of it on my shoulders so I asked my 8 year old to pull one out and the name he got was...

Courtney Brown

Congratulations Courtney!  I had to laugh when I saw it was you since you were making so much noise about wanting to win.  You must be living right...

And if you didn't win - don't worry!  I'm totally going to be doing another session giveaway soon.  It was exciting for me and I've got some fun ideas for contests swimming around in my brain.  Until then...

Pass gas, not judgment...

Well hello, folks.  So, did I tell you I got a running buddy?  Just last week I was complaining to my sister saying it was hard to find a running buddy for someone like me because they:

A) have to be pretty committed - like want to run at least a few times a week together
B) They have to be able to run at least a couple of miles, and
C) This is the real kicker - run slow.

It's easy to find someone who has A and B or A and C but hard to find all of the above...until there was Callie.  Callie is just what I needed and already I am excited to go so I can gab gab gab and have a break from normal momhood.  And gab I do.  So thanks, Callie.

Also, Ashley has got me doing all sorts of great stuff.  And it totally seems to be working.  She has me doing 8 sets of different kinds of sit-ups every day that I work out.  And she came over and taught me how to do all of these great strength workouts at home with very little equipment as I mentioned before.  So, it's great.  And I'm happy.

Also, Mike sent along this funny lists of rules for runners.  And yes, the title was one of them.  You should check it out for a laugh...

Mark Remy's Rules to Run By at Runner's World

And for some fun I thought I'd share a good dose of reality for another laugh.  These are the images I look at as I'm working out...

And here is what I look like...

Go ahead and chuckle.  Till next time...

Joyography Workshop Scholarship!!!

Hey gals, did you know I am hosting a photography workshop for beginner's with my best friend Marisa?  We are really so excited about it because we know that it will enable people to leap like 5 years ahead in their photography skills.  And we are also giving away a scholarship to the workshop for which the contest starts today!!! 

If you don't know what the workshop is about or want to know what to expect you can go here.

REAL Food and REAL good advice...

Last year I read both "In Defense of Food" and "An Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan and even did a week long eating experiment based on them.   And even though I try and keep it up I am finding that time has faded my memory of the recommendations and guidelines set out in the books.  That's why I was so happy to find this book at the grocery store the other day.

It was great because I went through the produce section, picked up some bananas, carrots, and apples and then moved on to the rest of the store.  It was on my way to the meat that I stopped to look at the books and saw this.  I grabbed it, thumbed through it, and asked my oldest son to read the chapter headings out loud to me as we shopped.  The book is laid out in small chapters; each one listing a guideline with an explanation following.   As we walked the aisles he was saying things like, "If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don't" and "Eat only foods that will eventually rot" and it made us all really consious of what we were buying and it also made us really anxious to go home and eat some good REAL food.

  Needless to say, because of the book, we turned around and spent a lot more time in the produce section of the store.  I love Michael Pollan's work and if you do too than this book is the perfect thing to keep hanging around in your kitchen or in your bag to remind you of how we really need to eat.  And to remind you that how you eat shapes what the landscape around you looks like.


p.s.  go check out that last link to Michael Pollan.  His website has some great links and info on it.

Bevins Family - Utah Valley Family Photography

First off, the Bevins are truly some of my oldest clients.  I love working with Randi and her cute family because they are always so comfortable in front of the camera and ready to play.  Though I was a little worried driving to this session because the snow was really coming down but when I got there the Bevins were totally excited about pictures in the beautiful snow so we went ahead with the session.  And I'm so glad we did - what beautiful images!

See what I mean?  Aren't they so much fun!?  What adorable kids!  The last time I took this little guys pictures he was only weeks old.  He was cute then and so darn cute now!  Couldn't you just eat him up!?

I love happy family pictures and these are some of my favorites ever...

And the girls have grown up so much I can't believe it - it's starting to make me feel old!

Love that missing tooth!

Honestly the cute pictures keep going and going - I wish I could post them all!  Thanks so much, guys!

Crock Pot Craziness...

I am a Mormon and Mormons have a tradition of fasting for two meals the first Sunday of every month. The fasting has at least two purposes. First off, the money we would have spent on those two meals we give to those who are in need, and secondly, fasting puts you in a much more humble(albeit sometimes grumpy) state of mind and opens up your heart a lot more.


Anyhow, it's really hard to cook when you are hungry so I know I should try to find good crock pot meals that will not only be tasty but will require very little time in the kitchen. But I often find that the meals are uninspired, unhealthy, old fashioned or all three.  So a couple of weeks ago when I got this forward I was so so excited.

Mike passed along a forward that had a LONG list of crock pot recipes.  And remember how I said I don't like to cook with a lot of canned goods - especially cream of you name it's?   Well, these recipes are are actually pretty free of stuff like that and much more exciting than the standard fare.  Today we had a cranberry pork loin and it was amazing. I mean AMAZING(well, do I have been fasting all day so...)! So here's the link the long list of recipes(well over 300) that I got in that forward:

CROCK POT RECIPES!!!

Goebel Family - Utah Valley Family Photography

Well, the Goebels came all the way from Texas to visit family for the holidays and I was able to spend a little time with them in the beautiful snow.  We headed down to Provo to shoot in this orchard and around town and got some beautiful images...and here are a few of my favorites.

First off, orchards are always one of my favorite places to shoot because of the symmetry of the rows, the lines that draw your eyes on forever, and the organic framing created by the trees themselves.  As you can see here...

And we had such fun playing in the snow and in the trees...loved it.  These girls were truly such dolls.  So easy to capture them having a great time.

I took this first shot after I told the girls to turn around and see what their mom and dad were up to and when they turned back around I got to snap the cute smiles they had.  

Can I tell you how much I love that image of having a kiss blown to me with such sweetness?  Obviously I love it a lot since I'm using it on the right here to link to my photography site.   This little gal was so funny.  She reminded me of my second - so expressive and so much to say.

And here is her older sister who knew how to pose to the max - a little beautiful model...

And I love these - I love the door,  I love the expressions, and I love the snow...

Don't you?  So good job, my Texan friends, at being able to look so great in the chilly weather and deep snow!

It's a new year, folks!

Well, Happy New Year!  Last night I really didn't do much - just the normal we've got babies routine.  We let the kids stay up till ten and then we watched a movie(Julie & Julia) and ate too much food.  As for the movie - it was pretty good.  I think it would have been really good if we could have left out the part about Julie and just heard about Julia.   And speaking of eating too much food...

Today Ashely came over to go over the workout routines she had given me and to help me learn the moves and stuff.  If you didn't know it Ashley is a personal trainer and after I saw the amazing transformation of one of her clients I yearned for her services.  But it wasn't until she called about doing some pictures that I thought of trading my photography for her expertise.  It has been really good.  She really knows what she's talking about and has told me what equipment to get, how to use it, and is helping me train for my races.   In this photo you can see my slobby body as I'm doing fake jump roping.  I guess most of us don't have the ceiling space for regular ropes so she had me use one pound hand weights instead.  You can see cute little Ashley on the right.  So, that was good.  She also had me get a ball and a band and showed me how many many things you can do with those two basic tools.  It was great.  I'm excited to know all that new stuff!