Delicious dinner recipe, Abbie's first sentence, and Abbie's 15 month picture!!

Dave had to work tonight but Abbie and I enjoyed some one on one time in the kitchen.  She loves to help and it melts my heart to see her so excited about getting to do what I'm doing.

Our menu tonight:
Baked Trout with a lemon butter glaze topped with mango salsa, cilantro lime brown rice, and a spinach salad drizzled in raspberry vinaigrette with dried cranberries and apple slices.

Trout fillet (or other white fish)
 Glaze: 

1.  Melt 1/2 tbsp butter (depending on how many fillets you are cooking.  I was baking 4 small trout fillets and I don't like to add more calories if I don't have to).  
2. Add 1Tbsp lemon juice to the melted butter.
3. Drizzle or brush this over the uncooked fillets.
4. Sprinkle salt, pepper, thyme, parsley, and garlic powder (or minced garlic) onto the fillets.
5. Bake at around 400F for 15 minutes or until firm to touch.

Mango Salsa

1. Cut up one mango.  See this tutorial for how to cut up a mango here
2. Cut up one jalapeno.  See this tutorial for how to safely cut up a jalapeno here
3. Cut up one bunch of cilantro, minus the stems.
4. Mix all of the above together in a bowl (save a little cilantro for your rice though!) and add a splash of fresh lime juice.

Cilantro Lime Brown Rice

1. In my kitchen I always have rice made up ahead of time.  I cook a big batch and freeze it in bulk.  So for this particular dish you would either cook your rice and then add the seasonings, or in my case I would thaw my frozen rice and then recook and season it.  
2. Place cooked rice in heated sautee pan with just a little olive oil or butter.  
3. Add a splash of lime juice, salt, and pepper.
4. Stir in the remaining cilantro.
5. Once heated thoroughly serve.

Spinach Salad with dried cranberries and apples

1. Mix spinach greens thoroughly with vinaigrette after washing and drying (just enough to lightly coat leaves)
2. Sprinkle on dried cranberries and add apple slices.
3. Walnuts or almonds would be good with this salad as well, I was all out tonight but I have used them in the past and it tastes delicious!

Abbie was cracking me up when I was cutting up the mango.  She kept stealing all the mango and I finally said "If you keep eating all the mango we aren't going to have enough to make the salsa for our fish."  

She didn't seem to care and proceeded to try and crawl up onto the counter : )

Oh and other random side note just so its documented...Abbie said her first sentence.  That might be over exaggerated a bit but I think its fair game....she has been signing different words for awhile now.  "More" and "please" being two words she uses on a regular basis.  She can say both of the words but sometimes prefers to sign them over saying them.  Well tonight I could tell she was trying with all of her might to communicate rapid fire to me that she wanted more apples and she looked at me and signed but also said it "Mow peez"....she got it!  She is starting to understand that you can put words together to make sentences and though she has no idea what a sentence means she is starting to understand that please doesn't just mean you automatically get food and that saying more doesn't meant you automatically get food, but that mom and dad insist that you ask for such things nicely. I was dumbstruck.  It won't be long before she gets that you should say "More apples please."  She is making more and more connections with how things work on a daily basis and it just amazes me the way their little minds work and makes me realize how much I take for granted that I forgot I had to learn on my own once upon a time as well.  

And one more thing before I forget, I finally sucked it up and took her somewhere to get her pictures taken.  Up until she was about 11 months old I took them myself with my DSLR and they turned out great.  Problem now is....that I am mom.  Mom is the photographer and when mom is the one trying to take pictures of the subject that just wants mom to hold her...well you get a bunch of pictures of a toddler walking towards the camera rapid fire with arms  held out looking like Frankenstein.  So I gave in and had them taken at Portrait Innovations.  They did a really nice job and I was proud of myself for not giving into their spiel and only purchasing my favorite pose to get the price special.  I paid less than $11 for 1- 11x13, 2- 8x10, 4- 5x7, 4- 3x5, and 24 wallets.  That is a lot of pictures for $11 and it actually wasn't as hard to pick my favorite pose as I thought it would be.  So I am going to share the picture with you.  I am really strongly against pirating, stealing anyone's work be it photography, movies, music, etc so no, I will not be printing this off cause I scanned it in, I just wanted to be able to share it with all of you so you could see it too (besides did you not just read that they gave me a buttload of pictures for only $11...I don't need anymore anyway :)

I think it turned out well!  It's a perfect 15 month photo of her and is already being proudly displayed in our house.

I am leaving for the Proverbs 31 She Speaks conference Friday morning at 6:40AM (well that is what time my plane is supposed to leave anyway!), so this is most likely my last post until sometime next week (hopefully!)  Please be praying for me and the other woman there.  I have been able to chat with many of them over facebook, and have already gotten to know my roomie a bit through email.  I am so excited to meet them all.  I can already tell they are such a loving group of woman who just want to build up each other as the body of Christ in order to glorify Him more.
Prayer requests for me specifically:  that I would be patient with God's timing and will in this conference and let Him orchestrate His plan for me, not me for Him (I always mess it up when I try to do it instead of letting Him!), for confidence and boldness in being myself around a group of 650 strangers, and most importantly that I would be able to press into Him and seek out His will for me in this.  To trust Him regardless of what He asks of me to do.

Have a fantastic weekend!!!
God Bless!!

Bridget