Grilling Week

One of our favorite things about summer is grilling and eating outdoors on our patio. Unfortunately, this summer has been so crazy busy that we didn't get much of that in! So, with only 2 weeks until school starts, we're throwing in all kinds of last-minute-summer-must haves! Brian requested a full week of grilling! We invited friends and family over each night to share with us. 

Tuesday: Grilled chicken tacos with purple cabbage slaw- this is a family favorite! Brian and I had a PTO meeting with the school that night. Brian has been asked to serve on the school board so we had a regional meeting to rush off to. Our babysitter Rachel Banner joined us for dinner as we shoved tacos in our mouths and rushed out the door! I hope we didn't smell like BBQ at the meeting! 

Wednesday: Chicken Kebabs with yogurt lime dipping sauce and fresh garden vegetables, corn on the cob and watermelon. Danny and Missy joined us for dinner and a few rounds of Suspend (a new favorite game).  

Thursday: Bob and Hailey joined us for grilled Caesar salad (delish!!) and top sirloin steaks with chimichurri sauce. We had chips and salsa, fresh garden veggies and corn on the cob for sides. We enjoyed fresh-picked black berries over ice cream for dessert. Yum! So good !

Photo Credit: Slim Palate

Photo credit: Food52

Eli helped me with the chimichurri sauce and loved it so much he ate it by the spoonful! Fresh herbs and spices...so yummy!! after dinner, we played Spot-It, which got very intense and I have to say, I won!!! The kids enjoyed running around the yard and baseball field.

 This photo was taken by Eli!

 This cool photo was taken by Bob!

Friday: We had Brandon and Judd over for Mexican Beef Street Tacos. Super yum. I made Lemon cupcakes with Blackberry frosting with fresh berries from our yard! This was in part to pay Brandon for him helping out with the kids the following morning while I had my race.

This little guy could not get enough watermelon!

Saturday: This was my race day and ended up being super busy. We just enjoyed it with our family! Brian kayaked with Calvin and Isaac down the Provo River for some one-on-one time. I took the other kids to the Lindon Kid Fair where they played carnival games, made tie-die shirts, jumped in bounce houses, and got a wood project from home-depot to make at home. For Dinner, we smoked trout on cedar planks, grilled asparagus, and repeated our grilled salad from Thursday because it was so yummy! 

Sunday: We invited the Houghton's from our ward to eat grilled Burgers with us! They have a Hispanic family living with them for a few months, Juana and Paco, and they have 2 boys around Eli's age! He's not had many kids his age in our area, and so he's really enjoyed having Javier and Isias to play with. This was our attempt to get to know their family a little better. Great food, great company!

 Isaac found a new friend! He warmed up to Paco so quickly and just followed him around and wanted to be held by him. It was so cute! Isaac is super dirty in this picture because he was playing with the older kids in the dirt while we chatted with the adults, little did we know! When the kids came back around for dessert, all had black hands and stained clothes (church clothes, mind you- white shirts and khakis! ugh!) But for some reason, Isaac really liked Paco!

Monday: My mom makes awesome ribs, so I turned to her for advice on how to cook our own. Our first attempt was a success! BBQ pork Ribs, fresh garden veggies, watermelon and a grilled s'more calzones (a first try at a grilled dessert too- so yummy)! YUM! We invited the Stott Family to join us. They live in Pleasant Grove and have kids at John Hancock in each of Jackson's and Zoey's classes. Our kids have played together several times, but this was an opportunity to meet the parents and get to know them better!

photo credit: Half Baked Harvest

So after the week of Grilling, Brian said "let's do more!" and the kids said "when are we going to stop grilling?" LOL!