This month was so incredible, we enjoyed time in the mountains, had an amazing ministry week hosting a kids camp at our church and soaked in summer.

“I can’t remember all the times I tried to tell myself to hold on to these moments as they pass.”

Welcome to “Moments” here on JoyFoodSunshine. This is when I pause my usual recipe content, and take time to share our family’s favorite moments from the month!

Here are some highlights from July 2025!

Recipes I’m Making on Repeat

Here are some recipes I made for my family this month:

Cottage cheese pancakes. my current favorite breakfast (with a green smoothie)!

Brown butter chocolate chip cookies. Next level delicious!

Pizza dough & pizza sauce. We’re reinstating pizza nights and these are two of my most popular recipes.

Eclair Cake. It was my husband’s birthday this month and, predictably, he chose eclair cake for dessert. These photos are so real life, paper plates and candle holes. 😉

Things I’m Loving

Here are my favorite things so far this summer! I’ve actually had a lot of fun sharing my favorite things both in and outside of the kitchen over on my shopmy storefront.

• Oval serving platter with handles. Ok I’m PUMPED that crate and barrel brought this back. I bought “noodle bowl” that was a little more round so many years ago just like this and I use it all. the. time. I mostly use it to serve salads!
• Villa Short. I LOVE these! They’re SO comfy and long enough (but not too long if you know what I mean).
• I have lived in this crochet top all summer with this tank underneath (the comfiest thing I’ve ever worn seriously).
• I have to give a plug to my Vitamix blender. It’s back to school season (I can’t believe I have to type those words already) and we literally live on smoothies when we have busy mornings and places to be! 🙂 Nothing beats a vitamix. I have this blender which is a higher end model, and this more budget-friendly model and both are phenomenal.
• I have been using this sheer glow foundation and am in love. It’s the perfect shade and blends really well!

NEW July Recipes

Here’s a recap of the brand new recipes I shared this month!

• Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream. ​No food coloring, so creamy and perfectly minty.
• ​Zucchini Cake​. moist, perfectly sweet, slightly spiced, a totally delicious way to enjoy zucchini.
• ​Couscous salad.​ couscous is so easy to cook and this salad comes together so fast! A perfect BBQ side dish!
• ​Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread.​ Let the zucchini baking season begin. This bread the best!
• ​Oat Flour Pancakes.​ A delicious gluten-free pancake made with affordable oat flour (easily made yourself by pulsing oatmeal in a blender).
• ​Pear Pie. ​A delicious pie perfect for pear season. Loaded with pears, not runny or soupy!
• ​Pear Crumble.​ Sense a theme? I love pears and can’t believe I had zero pear recipes on my site until this month!
• ​How to make a Lattice Crust.​ This tutorial took me forever to write because I wanted it to be perfect! Follow the photos and video for a complete guide to making a beautiful lattice crust.
• ​Whipped Goat Cheese Dip.​ The easiest appetizer ever!

Snapshots

We booked a little last minute getaway to the Tetons and had a blast! This is our 3rd trip to the park and it’s always a highlight for us. I think our favorite activity was renting this massive paddle board that fit ALL 8 of us! We paddled around String Lake all day and had the best time.

We hiked Phelps lake which is a less popular spot and we had the entire lake to ourselves – even during the busy season.

We also took the ferry across Jenny Lake and hiked up to Observation Point. It was just so nice to get out of the heat and into the mountains. We feel like we’ve had the busiest year and so we just unplugged, said “no” to sports and other plans and “yes” to a few days of solid family time. It was so great.

I’m loving slow summer mornings. I started teaching Zach how to read and so far he’s loving it and doing so well. I’ve used this book: The Reading Lesson with all 6 of my kids and it’s been great.

These cuties decorated their bikes for our neighborhood’s 4th of July parade.

So sad to say goodbye to swim season. It was a fun one this year!

Kids camp was the highlight of our July. It’s my kids’ favorite week of the entire summer and this was the best year yet.

My husband was a pastor at a church in IL for 7 years before we moved to Utah and planted a church 12 years ago. Ever since we moved to Utah, our church in IL has sent their youth group here in the summer to help us put on a kids camp for the community. It’s always such a sweet time seeing these amazing teenagers who take their life and faith seriously come to serve.

This year was incredible, as it was the first year in our new building and we had more kids sign up than ever. I was so emotional for two reasons. 1) Seeing the team from IL always reminds me of the amazing community we gave up to move here and 2) I truly saw God moving in and through our church and it was so wonderful.

I posted reels every day on our church facebook page if you want to see how awesome it was! 🙂

That’s it! I hope you had a great July. I truly can’t believe it is August. I’m so sad! haha