Tobermory

We just arrived home from a lovely mini vacation in Tobermory with some pretty spectacular people.  My childhood best friend who moved to the states 17 years ago invited us to join them at a family cottage. My husband and I jumped at the opportunity to be able to introduce our peanut to her and to spend some quality time with her and her beautiful family.  Although the weather wasn't the warmest, we had a great time. We visited over coffee, went to a kid friendly beach, and hiked the Bruce trail. It was perfect.  Peanut did amazing! Although her nap strike somewhat continued she slept like a champion through the nights and wasn't cranky the entire trip. I was apprehensive to take her away again since the weekend away four weeks ago didn't go so smoothly. Peanut is starting to rolling with the punches and I think she is slowly accepting the fact that her mom is a busybody and likes to be on the go a lot.



I can't seem to rotate this picture...

My husband and I were in charge of one day of meals for 6 adults and 4 kiddos when we were there.  Since I knew our visiting time was limited I wanted to prepare as much as possible ahead of time.  We decided on muffins, fruit and yogurt for breakfast, quiche for lunch and chili for dinner - both meals I made at home and transported them there. I've only made quiche once before so I wasn't sure how it was going to go but was happy with the outcome. Here is the recipe I came up with.

Ingredients
9 inch deep dish pie crust
1 cup milk (some people like to use half and half cream)
4 large eggs
1/2 cup shredded cheese
4 slices cooked bacon crumbled
1 cup of diced veggies (I used tomatoes, mushrooms, spinach, peppers, and onion)
salt and pepper to taste

Method
Use pie crust from frozen. Combine veggies, bacon and cheese and put into pie crust. In a bowl combine eggs, milk, salt and pepper and mix. Pour into pie crust and place on a baking sheet. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes then lower to 350 for 35-40 minutes. That is all. Super duper easy!

My husband and peanut checking out the Grotto on the Bruce Trail

Quick Shepherd's Pie

My three and a half month old has given up on naps for the last 1.5 weeks so finding time to do anything is a challenge. She closed her eyes for 25 minutes this morning so I thought I would use the time to get dinner made since my husband had to work late tonight and I likely wouldn't have a spare minute because of the nap strike. I had ground beef in the fridge so I thought a quick and easy Shepherd's pie that I could toss in the fridge until dinner would be a good idea.


Picture from here

Yield: 3-4 servings

Ingredients
1/2 lb extra lean ground beef
1/4 cup BBQ sauce
1/4 sweet onion, chopped
3/4 cup corn (or mixture of corn, peas and carrots)
4 medium potatoes, cubed (I keep skins on)3 tablespoons milk
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup sour cream
pinch of paprika
salt and pepper

Method
Boil a medium pot of water and add potatoes.  Boil until they are tender. While potatoes cook, in a frying pan over medium heat cook ground beef, onion and BBQ sauce. Cook until beef is no longer pink. Put beef mixture in the bottom of an oven safe dish and top with corn. Drain tender potatoes and add milk, garlic, sour cream, paprika, salt and pepper and mix using an electric mixture until smooth. Spread potato mixture over. Cook at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Spicy Shrimp Pasta

I whipped up this pasta dish last night and it was awesome. It was super easy, delicious and it even has veggies in it so you don't have to serve it with a salad. Booya! Less work in the kitchen makes me happy these days. Enjoy!

Ingredients
24 small shrimp (I used frozen, precooked, peeled, devained, tails off shrimp)
spaghetti for two
1/2 tomato, diced
2 big handfuls of kale or spinach ripped into bite sized pieces
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoons soya sauce
1/4 of a sweet onion, chopped
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Method
Cook pasta in boiling water. While the pasta cooks throw all ingredients into a frying pan and cook over medium heat for about 7 minutes, stirring regularly.  Drain noodles when they are tender and add them to the sauce. Toss until coated and serve.

Furry Floors

My chocolate lab is STILL shedding her enormously thick coat that she had during the ridiculously cold winter we had. This equates to tumbleweed type hair balls around the entire house.  There is so much fur that Robbie, our robotic vacuum can't even keep up with it. Two household items that I couldn't live without are my microfiber dust mop and my Rubbermaid Reveal spray mop. Both of these items can be used with one hand so I can use them no sweat while holding peanut. We used to own an actual Swiffer but I wasn't a fan of the cost of the cloths and it felt so wasteful to toss them out after each use.  I decided to purchase a reusable microfiber dust mop that I can toss in the wash at the end of every week. It works awesome, completely affordable and environmentally friendly. I decided on the Rubbermaid Reveal spray mop for three reasons. One; it has a washable cloth. Two; I could purchase an extra cloth. Three; I could use my own cleaner and didn't have to purchase a specific brand. I use both the dust mop and spray mop everyday and it honestly take less than 10 minutes. I no longer have fur tumbleweeds or doggy paw prints across my floors. Phew! I completely recommend purchasing both of these products.

Happy cleaning...

What the Fu$k?!

Don't forget to check out my WTF page every so often to see the latest thing that pissed me off.

 

 



Simple Pasta Bake for the Freezer

I mentioned in my previous post that were traveling to the Peterborough area to meet our peanuts boyfriend, Reid. He was precious as can be. Peanut did wonderfully in the car - over 7 hours round trip in one day! Ouch. Needless to say, next week we are taking it easy in hopes that babe gets back into her 'routine'. Anyways, I wanted to provide a freezer meal for the new parents to go along with the batch of cookies I made but it needed to be easy to transport. My husband and I found it so helpful when visitors brought food for us when our daughter first came home so I wanted to do the same thing for our friends.  Since my little one is my number one priority these days and keeps me pretty busy I needed a quick and easy dish to make. I decided on a basic pasta bake with cheese. This recipe made two freezer meals for the new parents.

Ingredients
1 box smart pasta
1 can pasta sauce
1 lb extra lean ground beef (so you don't have to drain the fat off)
1/4 sweet onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon of a mixture of parsley, rosemary, thyme, oregano and basal
salt & pepper
1 cup grated cheese to top
*if I were making this for myself I would have added a bunch of chopped kale or spinach but I didn't know how the new Dad felt about greens :)

Method
Boil water and cook pasta until it's el dante. While the pasta cooks put all remaining ingredients (except cheese and pasta sauce!) in a frying pan over medium heat and cook until the ground beef is no longer pink. Pour in pasta sauce. After draining the pasta pour into the sauce/meat mixture. Transfer to an oven safe dish and top with cheese. If baking from thawed state cover with foil and cook for 45 minutes at 350 degrees. For the last 25 minutes remove foil to allow the cheese to brown. If baking from frozen state cover with foil and cook for 1.5 hours at 350 degrees. For the last 25 minutes remove foil to allow the cheese to brown.

*I got these handy disposable containers from the dollar store. I keep them on hand for times like this.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

This week is by far the busiest week we've had since the first week we had our peanut home. Sunday was spent in my hometown visiting with family, my Father came for a visit over night last night, we have family coming from the States today, tomorrow we welcome a very dear friend from Fort McMuarry and on the weekend we are traveling 10 hours round trip to visit of my best friends new little man. Crossing my fingers that our little peanut can handle all the hustle and bustle. I'm finding it difficult these days to do any cooking and baking since my daughters naps run about 45 minutes tops and there isn't time to get anything accomplished. Yesterday I managed to make a huge batch of peanut butter chocolate chip cookies while she sat on the counter in her chair (that she hates...). I made the cookies to have while company is here and to take with us on Saturday as a treat for the new parents. They have been a hit so far! Enjoy!

Yield: 36 medium cookies

Ingredients

½ cup butter, softened

¾ cup creamy peanut butter

¾ cup brown sugar

¾ cup white sugar

1 egg

2 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla

1¼ cup flour

¾ tsp baking soda

½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp course sea salt (this is the key ingredient! Makes them taste amazing!)

¾ cup chocolate chips

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter, peanut butter, and both sugars together until well blended. Add in egg, milk and vanilla. Add flour, baking soda, baking powder and sea salt and mix until well combined. Toss in the chocolate chips. Place tablespoon sized dough on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for about 10 minutes. Be careful -- the bottoms brown up quick so don't over cook them.  The key to a good cookie is having them slightly under baked. Chewy goodness!

 

Recipe adapted from here

Blessed

In the early morning hours I lay soundly asleep in my cozy bed. In the distance of my dream I hear the soft whimpers of my daughter. I roll over and see 5:12am in a red glow from my bedside table and glance slightly to the right of my alarm clock to the video monitor. I see my little peanut wiggling away in her crib waiting patiently for me to give her a diaper change and a quick morning snack before she dozes off again. Butterflies begin to flutter in my stomach at the realization that this isn't another one of my dreams, that it is in fact my reality. My beautiful, amazing reality. I shuffle quietly into her nursery and am greeted, as usual, but the most genuine smile I've ever seen. As we rock slowly, our limbs entwined, tired eyes locked with one another I am reminded just how lucky my husband and I are to have this beautiful, perfect baby to call our own.

There isn't a day that goes by that I am not reminded of how fortunate we are that modern technology was able to create this most perfect human being for us. There were times over the last few years that my largest fear of not being able to have a child of our own was almost a reality. Because of great doctors, amazing nurses, and IVF and I am able to spends hours gazing at my daughters gorgeous blue eyes, tiny little toes, and perfectly curved ears.

I am eternally grateful.

Happy Canada Day!

HAPPY CANADA DAY!



 

You Know You're a Canadian When...

(The below is borrowed from here)

You order a double-double at Timmy's.
You stand in "line-ups" at the movie, not lines.
You understand the sentence, "Could you please pass me a serviette, I just spilled my poutine."
You eat chocolate bars instead of candy bars.
You drink pop, not soda.
 You know that a mickey and 2-4's mean "Party at the camp, eh!"
You can drink legally while still a teen.
You talk about the weather with strangers and friends alike.
You don't know or care about the fuss with Cuba, it's just a cheap place to travel with good cigars and no Americans.
When there is a social problem, you turn to your government to fix it instead of telling them to stay out of it.
You get milk in bags as well as cartons and plastic jugs.
Pike is a type of fish, not some part of a highway.
 You drive on a highway, not a freeway.
You know what a Robertson screwdriver is.
You have Canadian Tire money in your kitchen drawers.
You know that Thrills are something to chew and "taste like soap."
You know that Mounties "don't always look like that."
You dismiss all beers under 6% as "for children and the elderly."
 You wonder why there isn't a 5 dollar coin yet.
You use a red pen on your non-Canadian textbooks and fill in the missing 'u's from labor, honor, and color.
You are excited whenever an American television show mentions Canada.
You make a mental note to talk about it at work the next day.
 You can do all the hand actions to Sharon, Lois and Bram's "Skin-a-ma-rinky-dinky-doo" opus.
 You can eat more than one maple sugar candy without feeling nauseous.
You know what a toque is.
 You know Toronto is not a province.
You never miss "Coaches Corner."
Back bacon and Kraft Dinner are two of your favorites food groups.