QT with the F-A-M

Before I officially start this blog post (Just in case you don't know, QT=Quality Time), I'll give you the quick update.  We have left Ft. Benning/Columbus.  We are officially vagabonds.  We are currently in Dowling Park, FL, spending some QT with our families.  

Tony and Mom went to a scholarship banquet with Jordan tonight, so Jamie and I stayed with the rest of the fam to make dinner and "babysit."  

My family has a beautiful garden.  I can't wait to be in one place long enough to plant a garden...but for now I just have to visit my family so that I can eat their delicious and fresh food.  They are currently on a gluten-free diet...so our challenge was to come up with something yummy, but gluten-free (It wasn't very difficult!).  We decided on this Southwestern Chicken Salad.

Step 1:  Pick the lettuce from the garden.  (This is a mixture of Romaine, Arugula & Bibb Lettuce.) 

Step 2: Grill Chicken.  Tyler did this for us and it was delicious! 

Step 3:  South-westernize the salad.  Just a few nights ago, Jamie and I were invited to a wonderful dinner with our friends Patty & Dino.  Patty served this dip with tortilla chips and it was so fresh and yummy and I couldn't stop eating it.  I've been trying to find a place for it in my life ever since... 

It's just canned black beans, a bell pepper, red onion, fresh corn (cut from the cob), fresh lemon juice (the recipe called for vinegar but I used this as a substitute), salt, pepper & ground red pepper. 

As you can see, I didn't think to take the picture before serving...

Step 4:  Serve all of the above with avocado, crushed tortilla chips & Ranch dressing (We made the dressing with soy milk and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it tasted just like "normal" Ranch.)  

I can't share a picture of the delicious dinner with you, because we scarfed down our salads before the thought even crossed my mind.  However, I did manage to capture these...

As Abby and I were washing the dinner dishes, we looked outside only to see the rest of the fam doing this...

We had to join them.

*These were really old fireworks so the boys claim that they were launching them in one direction and they were firing in another...

Who says that life in DP is boring???

And that concludes our evening.  They are crazy.  We are crazy.  Life is good.