Backyard Barbecue Blog Hop 2014

Welcome to our Second Annual Backyard Barbecue Blog Hop! (Check out our First Annual Backyard Barbecue Blog Hop!) I am so excited to be joining with my blogger friends to create a collection of fabulous ideas for family fun this summer.
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Our summer will be spent awaiting for and engaging with the new baby. If you missed our MKB Virtual Baby Shower, stop by, read and leave a comment!
Our family had to unexpectedly move to a new apartment and since I am staying home with our 22 months old while my husband is at work and my older daughter is in kindergarten full day, I had to take charge of packing and cleaning the old apartment.
Here’s how the apartment looked like while we were packing:
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And here’s my silly 22 months old making sure we don’t forget her!
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Packing came in handy when encouraging daily life skills: sweeping, washing dishes, folding and more:
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And here’s how the apartment looked like when it was cleaned out:
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Packing at  30 weeks into pregnancy with a toddler around is truly exhausting. So we ate a lot of take outs or made simple food from scratch. I would like to share one of our favorite family recipes – Fried Macaroni. This is an adopted version of the one my wonderful mother-in-law makes and back in Tanzania this kind of food is called “Chinese food” (probably because of all the stir-fried vegetables and egg that are inside!)
Ingredients (quantity is estimated according to your family size. This is made for 4):
Macaroni (Spaghetti, Noodles – whatever you like) – 500 gr
Ham or sausage – half a pack of sliced ham or 6 medium sausages
Tomato – 1 big tomato
Cabbage – half a head of small cabbage
Carrot – 1 medium
Eggs  – 2-4
Oil
Spices (turmeric, coriander – whatever else you like)
How to make it:
1. Chop up and shred all the ingredients.
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2. Cook your macaroni and drain. Set aside
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3. Heat up the oil in a deep pan. Add all spices. Fry all the vegetables and meat for about 5 minutes.
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4. Break the eggs into a bowl and whisk them. Pour over the ingredients and stir fry like you would with scrambled egg.
5. Add your macaroni and mix everything up.
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6. Serve with fresh vegetable salad and ketchup (I personally don’t like ketchup on mine but my family does!)
I won’t say this is THE most healthy recipe, but it is better than junk food. You can skip the meat or use cooked chicken meat instead – works great too!
Total preparation time is about 25-30 minutes (cooking macaroni takes the most of time!)
What are you plans for summer? Will you be traveling, sending children to camps, staying at home, exploring the surroundings?
Be sure to visit all of our co-hosts to see their amazing posts and be sure to share yours at the end!

Co-hosts

All Done Monkey
The Squishable Baby
Creative World of Varya
Discovering The World Through My Son’s Eyes
Twin Falls Mommy
In The Playroom
Slow Family
Adventures of Adam
Adventure in a Box
Planet Smarty Pants

Now your turn: