Stuffed Mini Peppers

Trim Healthy Mama has really changed the way I plan meals in our home.  I am thankful for this time I have had to stop and think about the proteins we are choosing and planning meals around those instead of which carb- rice, pasta or potato will we choose.  

I seen this idea for mini pepper nachos on pinterest and knew I wanted to try them.  I was excited last week when these were on sale at Walmart.  I picked up 2 bags of them to try out the nachos.  

Earlier that week I had made a roast beef so I had that left over and decided to make a different version of the nachos and try something like a philly steak stuffed pepper.  So that is what I did. 

Start by cutting your peppers in half and remove the seeds and steam. 

Fill the mini pepper cups with mozzarella cheese.  This help the meat to stick better. 

I shredded the roast beef and fried it up with finely chopped mushrooms and onions.  You can add your favorite BBQ sauce as well. 

Fill the mini peppers with your steak filling and top with more cheese.  Bake on a lined cookie sheet at 350 for 20-30 minutes and enjoy! 

Roasted Veggies

Roasting vegetables is one of my favorite ways to prepare veggies.   Roasted vegetables are easy to prepare.  I simple wash, cut and drizzle them with olive oil in a bowl before laying them out on parchment paper. 

Here I did Asparagus, peppers and cherry tomatoes.   

To get great tasting asparagus I used this technique. 

I roasted at 400 for about 15-20 minutes.  These are a great side dish with any BBQ'd meat. 

50 Days of Summer Fun!!!

Welcome to our 50 days of summer fun!!!  This year the kids and I decided to draw out our list on our big brown school paper!!!  We have been doing a summer fun list for a couple of years (2012, 2013).  Every year I love hearing the things the kids want to do again and try for the first time :) 

This year we made a summer fun bunting banner which adds a new flare in our kitchen.  I purchased this bunting at Target in the party section for $4.99.  You get two of them in the package.  They are chalk boards so you can decorate them, erase and start all over again.   I have used it now for 4 different functions and it still looks great. 

When creating a list I find that looking through my summer fun board on Pinterest is helpful for finding some things to add to your list.  The kids really enjoy this part and are not shy to tell me which ones they want to do.  The other thing I do is we know some of our summer plans ahead of time and put these on the list.  This year we will take a family vacation to Quebec so that made the list.  Also every summer we celebrate M&M on toast day so that is a given on our list as well.   If your family has a vacation spot or if the kids will be going to VBS I always add them.  Other fun and inexpensive things we usually do in the summer is have a movie night,  eat corn dogs (this year I am buying pogos), make pop floats, water fun, beach, swimming and a camping trip to the grandparents cottage!    Your list doesn't have to be crazy and filled with things for every day of the summer.  Its just a fun thing that adds excitement to the kids summer.  Most of the things on our list are things we do as a family it just seems to be more exciting when the kids can see things that we will be doing and of course checking them off as we do them :)  Oh an don't forget to add a few new summer recipes to your list as well.  The kids love making smoothies, popsicles and ice cream sandwiches. 

Peterson List 

Quebec

BBQ

Camp fire supper

M&M on toast day

Smoothies

Hike

Picnic

Hula Hoop party

Floats

Tent

Farmers Market

Fly a Kit

Sundae Night

Pogo's

Game night

Lunch with Daddy

Buskers

Run through sprinkler

Library

Read 50 books

Play at parks

Water Wars

Build a SandCastel

Splash Park

New River Beach

Zoo

Pick Flowers

Nature Park

Gardening

Popsicles

Jam

Bike Ride

Washer Party

Drive in Movie

Q-plex swim

Go fishing

Water Balloons

Fire Works

Catch butterflies

Roast Marshmallows

Pirate VBS

Trip to the ice cream store

Go camping

Pick Strawberries

Celebrate Canada Day

Weird Animal Camp

Smore fun

Glow sticks

Family Canoe Ride

Marshmallow guns