Homemade Granola Bars

It's no secret that I love my job.  I consider myself so lucky to be able to be apart of the daily lives of 70+ teenagers every semester. It's pretty awesome. What makes my job even better are the people I work with. For 6 years I have worked along side someone who has become a dear friend to me (my wing-woman & my work-wife) who happens to bring me treats every so often. Told ya - I'm one lucky lady! The other day she brought me a homemade granola bar and holy shit, I kid you not, they are delicious. They are by no means healthy, but they sure are delicious. I made a batch this weekend and gave a few to my sister-in-law and brother-in-law to enjoy and I got a text message the next day saying " those granola bars are off the f'n hook. I'm going to need that recipe." So D, here it is. Enjoy!

Ingredients
3 3/4 cups rolled oats
2 cups rice krispies
1/4 cup ground flax
1/4 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup brown sugar                                        
1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 to 3/4 cup chocolate chips/raisins/dried cranberries/slivered almonds/walnuts etc. whatever your heart desires

Method
Toss all of the dry ingredients in a bowl (except chocolate chips if you are using them - they will melt) and set aside. Over medium heat melt honey, butter, brown sugar and vanilla together and stir continuously. Remove from heat once melted and pour over dry ingredients. Stir. If using chocolate chips add once mixture is cooled. Pour into a 9x13" baking dished lined with waxed paper and flatten. Place in fridge for 30 minutes. Remove and cut. Keep them refrigerated. ENJOY! Good luck staying out of the fridge with these in the house...

Crock Pot Squash Soup

Fall has officially arrived - trees are vibrant colours, leaves are quickly falling, and the temperature is dropping.  In fact, we woke up this morning to snow (cue the Christmas music)! 

My husband recently harvested squash and carrots from our garden so I wanted to find an easy recipe that incorporated both items.  I found this crock pot recipe on Pinterest and adapted to suit what I had on hand.  I hope you like it. Nothing is better than pressing "power" when you walk out the door to work and arriving home to dinner ready to go. This soup is a perfect match for this perfect fall weather. Paired with a glass of merlot would be even better ;) Enjoy this fall weather folks.

Ingredients
1 med/large buttercup squash, peeled, seeded & cubed (acorn or butternut would do too)
1 onion, peeled & cubed
1 tart apple, cored & cubed
2 carots, peeled and diced
2 cups stock (chicken or veggie will do)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon dried sage
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup coconut milk (added at the end!)

Method
Toss everything but the coconut milk into the crock pot and give a little stir. Cook on low for 6-8 hours (or high for 4 hours). Once cooked add coconut milk and blend all ingredients together. Done!So friggin' easy.

October 15th

October 15th is a day very near and dear to my heart for a variety of reasons.  A few years ago my husband experienced an early miscarriage after our first round of fertility treatment.  It was devastating on so many levels. We also share in the grief of some very close friends who have experienced their own difficult losses. October 15th is a day no only for us who have experienced a loss but also to spread awareness to those who haven't that might not understand the prevalence of this.

 

Last year my husband and I decided to do a random act of kindness on October 15th to recognize this important day and to honor all little angels. We have decided to continue the tradition with our daughter and will be doing this every year.  Spread love and awareness... it only takes a little effort.

 

xoxo 

 

 

 

Crock Pot Oatmeal

While I was checking out Pinterest for dinner ideas yesterday I came across a recipe for Crock Pot Oatmeal and I was intrigued. The thought of waking up to the smell of apples and cinnamon in the morning had me giddy (yes, I'm a loser). My daughter loves oatmeal and in theory I would have loved to use steel cut oats instead of quick oats but they just take too dang long. Lets be real, who has time for that in the morning?! This recipe is a game changer for me. It was a total hit this morning with my loves.  What an awesome idea for when you have company staying for a few days and need a quick meal that people can eat as they each wake up in the morning. Here is the adapted recipe I came up with. Enjoy!

Yield: 4 adult servings

Ingredients

1 cup steel cut oats 

3 tablespoons ground flax

3 large apples peeled, cored & cubed

2 cups milk

1 cup water

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons maple syrup

1 teaspoon cinnamon (or less -- we love cinnamon though)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon butter (cut into small cubes)

1/4 cup raisins and/or dried cranberries (optional)

 

Optional: we topped with a bit of milk & almonds when we served it. Top with whatever you want! 

 

Method

Spray inside of crockpot dish with pam then toss everything in and stir. Put crock pot on low for 5-6 hours then go to bed. I put ours on one of our lamp timers to turn off after this 5 hours since I definitely sleep longer then that (my crock pot only has an 8 or 10 hours low setting). BAM! Hot breakfast when you wake up.



Meal Planning

I am entering the third week of being a full time working Mom and this shit is no joke! I have had some great days and I've had some flat out terrible ones (my husband can attest to that). One thing that I have found helps immensely is meal planning. I'm usually a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants type when it comes to cooking but this approach hasn't been difficult to get used to at all. In fact, I've noticed that we are now using up frozen meats that have sat for a few months and I am trying out new recipes. A win-win! This is what has worked for us so far;

Saturday:
- check out "Flip" app to see what meats are on sale this week
- Troll Pinterest for recipe ideas (sometimes they are based off of items we have already & what's on sale)
- Pick at least 1 meal that will provide some leftovers for lunches (we love leftovers in this house!)
- We leave one day empty or for leftovers just in case we go out
- We love pizza here so we have homemade, frozen or ordered pizza about once a week
- Pin to a board labeled "This Weeks Meals" so when I'm cooking I have the recipe right there
- Make grocery list

Sunday:
- Groceries during nap time
- Write menu on whiteboard on fridge

Easy peasy!

Here we go!

 

The last 17 months with my Peanut have been amazing. Don't get me wrong, there have been days where I wished that I were at work dealing with 30 pubescent teens instead of at home dealing with explosive baby shit, witching hours, and mystery temper tantrums but all in all it has been awesome. The good times definitely outweigh the rough ones. I count my blessings daily for being in the position to be able to take 17 months off. I have 3 more days before the mayhem begins -- 3 freaking days to make count. GAH!! I am really looking forward to restoring balance in my life again though. Being a stay at home mom for the last year and a half has caused me to feel like I have an imbalance - it will be nice to shift my focus to my career during working hours and be more present while spending time with my daughter and husband. I'm sad that I won't be 'raising' Peanut during working hours but I am so flippin' happy with her daycare provider and the kiddos she will be chillin' with all week. Peanut is loving it there so far.

To all my fellow teachers, best of luck as you start up another school year. To parents who are sending their children off to school, good luck to you as well. Here's to another amazing school year for all!

CPR

Ever since my daughter's choking incident that I wrote about here, I've wanted to get my CPR recertification. The last time I participated in a CPR course was about 10 years ago and lets be honest here - I can't even remember what I had for dinner two nights ago.  It was definitely time to do a refresher course. To my surprise many of my friends were also interested in taking a course as well. My amazingly talented paramedic friend who also happens to teach First Aid and CPR agreed to spend her Friday night with 12 of us. In 6.5 hours we learned SO MUCH! If you are toying with the idea of getting it done, DO IT! It's worth the money and the skills you learn can save a life. This fantastic video was shown during the course and I found it very helpful so I'm passing it a long to you. You're welcome ;)

Zucchini Muffins & Freezing Zucchini

Well hello there stranger. It's been a while, hasn't it? I'm a dick and have completely neglected you. To be honest, it crossed my mind over the last few months to say buh-bye to the blog since I don't seem to have the commitment to write very often and the guilt is sort of eating me up. My stats show that people are still visiting daily so that is giving me the kick in the butt that I need, so here I am. Can we be friends again? I will try harder not to be a prick to you. Promise.

My husband and his green thumb planted another vegetable garden this year, and while it went in a tad late we are now reaping the benefits. Zucchini's are ready! Is it me or does zucchini triple its' size over night? We always seem to miss the window of picking the perfectly ripe zucchini. I'm not a fan of zucchini once they have large seeds so I decided to bake with them and cut out the seeds and toss them. I only needed two cups for the recipe below (I doubled it) so I froze the rest. I've never froze zucchini before but from the reading I did on it, it sounds like it will work out just fine. All I did was use my food processor to shred the zucchini (skin included), squeezed excess liquid out and tossed into small freezer bags in 2 cup portions. Apparently when you thaw it out you just re-squeeze out the remaining liquid and you are good to bake with it. BAM! E-Z-P-Zee. Here is the delish recipe for the zucchini muffins I came up with. They are super fluffy and yummy. Not entirely healthy but the added flax and chai seed makes me justify the use of oil. Enjoy!

Yield: 12 muffins

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups flour (you can sub in whole wheat)
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup ground flax seeds
2 tablespoons ground chia seeds
1 egg
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon lemon juice extract
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons milk *if too dry add more
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup shredded zucchini
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Method
Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, flax and chia seed in a bowl and set aside. In a separate bowl mix egg, oil, milk, vanilla, and lemon juice. Slowly mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Fold in zucchini and chocolate chips. Spoon into greased or lined muffin tin. Bake at
350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Lucky Stars

*after discussing the below story with family and friends I had a handful of people request I write about our experience in hopes to educate others on warning signs of pulmonary aspiration. I am not a medical professional (far from it!) and I am only sharing our personal experience. So here we go...

Everyday I thank my lucky stars that my husband and I have a perfect little peanut. Blessed is an understatement. I also thank my lucky stars that we live in Canada and have access to amazing medical professionals and facilities. From a 2 cell embryo in a petri dish to her early days in the NICU, Peanut has had amazing doctors and nurses looking after her. A week and a half ago we found ourselves relying yet again on the medical system after Peanut inhaled some food at a family BBQ.

Peanut has been eating solids since she was 6 months old and is quite used to moving food around her mouth. She occasionally gags on items but is always able to bring them back up herself and carries on eating as if nothing happened.  Last weekend we were at a family BBQ when she gagged, brought it back up but inhaled deeply because she was scared/unhappy and wanted to let out a cry. She started coughing immediately. We knew she didn't have anything blocking her airway because she never lost consciousness, never turned blue/red/purple, never stopped breathing or never stopped making noise. After about a minute I took her to a quiet place to get her to calm down and at this point she was screaming and coughing as well as gagged every 30 seconds for about 4-5 minutes. She eventually calmed down and wanted down on the floor to play with her cousin. My sister-in-law noticed immediately that Peanut was wheezing constantly and coughing every time she moved her upper body. This didn't seem to bother  Peanut at all which made me brush off the severity of the situation. I figured if it were serious she would be crying and acting uncomfortable and not playing and giggling with her cousin. My husband and I weren't concerned, however a few of our family members were.  To humour them I called my friend Jenny who is a Paramedic.  Jenny happened to be working so she had access to the opinions of other Paramedics. The consensus at the station was that we needed to take Peanut to the ER immediately to get things checked out. My husband and I agreed that it was better to be safe then sorry.  We honestly were thinking it was a big old waste of time but we heading out to the hospital.  After an inconclusive chest x-ray (warning: baby chest x-rays are scary as shit), a check over by and ER nurse, ER doctor and a Pediatrician, a phone call was made to a team of  ENT's (Ear, Nose and Throat Doctors) at Sick Kid's in Toronto where Peanuts case was presented.  It was decided that Peanut needed to be transported to Sick Kid's via ambulance immediately. After 12 hours of monitoring at Sick Kid's Peanuts left lung was getting much worse and was struggling to take in air so they booked Peanut into the OR immediately and we headed down for a direct laryngoscopy and a rigid bronchoscopy which took 3 times as long as the surgeon thought it would. After 1.5 hrs (which felt like 17 hours) the surgeon met us in the waiting room to told us Peanut handled the procedures well and he was able to retrieved three small pieces of meat from her lower left lung (see picture below). The reason it took so long was because the pieces were so small and so far down in her lung that he has a difficult time locating them. Peanut handled the entire 'adventure' like a champion and chatted, smiled and waved through most of our time at the hospital.  One and a half weeks later we got the all clear from our Doctor and both lungs are in perfect working condition again. Phew! I have to admit, this experience brought back a lot of unwanted memories from our days in the NICU when Peanut was first born. Yuck! Lets hope our wee-one won't have anymore reasons to have another medical team looking after her. So glad to have it all behind us.

Life Lessons:
1. We are so lucky to have highly trained specialists available to us!!
2.  If a child is choking or coughing do not pat their back while they are upright. This can make it much worse.
3. When in doubt go to the hospital
4. Wheezing/congestion of the chest after a choking episode is a sure sign of pulmonary aspiration
5. Make friends with an amazing Paramedic! (THANK YOU JENNY!)
6. It is physically possible to stay up for 56 hours straight
7. I would do anything for my baby
8. We have some incredible friends and family! Thank you for the help & support when we needed it the most.
    

Food removed from left lung

Thank you Sick Kid's!

My bed

My Babe

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

It's official. We no longer have a baby. Our toddler turned one about three weeks ago and I handled it far better than I thought. No tears!! Perhaps it was because the three of us decided last minute to head off to Mexico for the week?! hmm...maybe. Upon our return we hosted a family Birthday Party for Peanut. If I'm being entirely honest, I didn't want to have a party for her but my husband somehow talked me into it. I've always thought that Birthday parties for babies and toddlers are overkill and are really just for the parents. I guess this makes me a hypocrite right? Regardless, we hosted a causal lunch get together on Easter weekend with our immediate families and Peanut had a ball. Thank you Pinterest and the dollar store for giving me so many simple party ideas. We managed to pull the party together with only a few hours of work and without spending a lot.  Including babies we had 18 people here (yup! that's only immediate family!) for a few hours on a Saturday afternoon. We decided on a pink and gold "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" theme.

For lunch we served pink lemonade, taco dip, a veggie tray, chips and dip, pickles, and make-your-own sandwiches with a selection of sliced meats and cheeses. Super duper easy! My sister-in-law graciously agreed to be in charge of dessert which included a baby friendly cake for the birthday girl, cupcakes and an angel food cake.

Decorations consisted of balloons, leftover circle garland from Peanuts nursery, framed monthly pictures, precut foam stars, my grandmothers lace table cloths, and curly pink and gold ribbon. The only activity that we had for our guests was filling out a little keepsake questionnaire that I will put in Peanuts memory box for her to read when she's older. Overall I am very pleased with how the party turned out. Here are some pics.

Turkey Lentil Chili

I've never cooked with lentils and after making this chili I have no idea why I haven't. They are yummy little buggers that fill you up. My 1 year old ate this chili right up as did my husband and the company we had visiting for a few days from the States. I served the chili with tortilla chips and garnish fixings. This recipe makes a big old pot that will last a while! Enjoy!

Yield: 10+ servings

Ingredients
1/2 bag dried green lentils - about 2.5-3 cups (soaked for 4 hours in a bowl of water then rinsed)
Splash of olive oil
1 lb ground turkey
1/4 cup chili powder
Red pepper flakes to taste (optional)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
2 cans crushed tomatoes

Garnish Ingredients
Sour cream
grated cheese
Franks hot sauce
sliced green onions

Method
Soak lentils for 4 hours and rinse. In a large pot over medium heat warm olive oil. Toss in ground turkey and cook through, about 7 minutes. Add chili powder, onion, garlic and red pepper flakes and cook for a few more minutes and stir. Pour in diced tomatoes, crushed tomatoes and lentils. Cover and simmer on low for at least 30 minutes stirring occasionally. The more it simmers the yummier it will be! Serve with garnishes and tortilla chips. Yum!

Can't Live Without You - 6th Edition

My daughters first birthday was a few weeks ago (party details to come!) so it's about time for another edition to CLWY.  It's crazy how much our little lady has grown in the last few months. She isn't a baby anymore -- she has so much personality!!!  Here is the list of our most recent CLWY items.

1. Sock Ons - We've been using these for months and months so they probably should have made the list sooner.  These things seem so pointless and hokey but they totally work! Baby socks are a nightmare - they fall off all the time and babies love to yank them off. They are only $6.00 a pair and totally worth it!


2. Kushi Wipeable Bib - Self explanatory!

3. Vtech Walker - we use this a ton and it's nice that Peanut has a bit of freedom from holding my hands to walk around on her own.

4. Mum-Mums - I totally didn't think I'd buy anything like these however I use them as "car treats". They are the only food I feel comfortable letting Peanut eat in the car since they dissolve super quick and she seems to love them. They also buy us some time when she's starting to get a bit cranky when we are out running errands.

5. Soft coffee table - We purchased a wipeable large storage ottoman and it as been amazing. We can open it up and toss all of peanuts toys in it at the end of the day and our living room is instantly tidy. I also like the fact that it's entirely baby safe. No smashing faces off of hard corners.

6. Mini plastic cutting boards and small paring knives - we cube so much food so its been amazing to have a stock pile of both of these items on hand so I'm not constantly having to wash them.

That is all! I'm going to ease up on the CLWY posts to every 6 months since items are now getting more than just a few months worth of use. Alright, off to work on a few more posts since I've been slacking huge lately. Peace out.

Traveling with a Wee One

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect when traveling to Florida with my 10 month old daughter but she did great. Here is a quick post about what I found helpful when flying with her. Although we traveled with a friend and her small daughter it was essentially like traveling alone since we were each busy focusing on our girls. Here are some helpful pointers if you are going to brave a solo trip!

Tips for the Airport
- Have passports and boarding passes in your pocket
- Snacks and water for both mommy and baby
- Take your stroller right to the gate (I even took my car seat & base!) and take the stroller you want to take! I took my jogging stroller and there were no issues at all.
- Don't feel pressured to rush through security. Step aside if you need more time.
- Do a Park N' Go type thing for parking. The shuttle service is amazing with a little one.

Tips for the Plane
- Have two of your baby's favourite toys with you (Sophie and a small book for us!)
- Sanitizing wipes to wipe down everything! I got a 12 pack for $1.50 at Walmart.
- Easy to eat snacks for take off and landing so babes ears wont hurt (I did a combo of nursing, apple sauce snack pack, and mum-mums)
- Baby wipes for runny nose and snack clean up
- Make friends with the people around you! I was able to pass off Kinley to a few passengers and flight attendants. So helpful! We made Passenger Goodie Bags so that helped break the ice.
- A small thin blanket if your babe is a good plane sleeper (Mine is NOT!)
- A bottle of water for you!

Hope that helps. Happy traveling!

Spaghetti Squash Lasagna

Back in university my girlfriend who was on weight watchers introduced me to spaghetti squash as a great pasta alternative. Yummy! I stumbled across a recipe for spaghetti squash lasagna and I was sold. This was delish and the hubby loved it too. I will definitely make this again! I of course made some modifications to the original recipe so here is my version.


Yield: 2 servings plus leftovers
Ingredients
1 spaghetti squash
Splash of olive oil
Sprinkle of coarse salt
1/4-1/2 lb ground turkey
1 cup pasta sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 onion, chopped
Red pepper flakes to taste
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese

Method
Cut spaghetti squash in half lengthwise and scoop out seeds. Paint inside with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Place flesh side down on a lined baking sheet and bake for 40 minutes at 400 degrees. While that bakes toss your ground turkey into a frying pan over medium heat and cook through, until the pink is gonzo. Add onion, garlic and red pepper flakes stir and cook for 4 more minutes to let those onions sweat it out. Pour in pasta sauce, stir and cook until heated through, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Remove squash from oven after 40 minutes and place in fridge to cool for 10 minutes. This is key! Remove from fridge and using a fork carefully scrape the squash into a large bowl. Now its time to layer your lasagna into the empty squash shell. Add a layer of squash followed by cottage cheese followed by meat sauce. Repeat until the squash shell is full. Top with mozza cheese. Return to oven a bake 10 additional minutes or until warmed through. Enjoy! Yummmmy.  

Can't Live Without You - 5th Edition

Holy crapola. Peanut will be 10 freakin' months old in a few days, which means it's time for another CLWY entry. It's getting a lot easier to live without items now that Peanut is able to make basically anything a toy. Just this weekend a meltdown was diverted because of an empty Gatorade bottle - phew! Gatorade: More than just a hangover cure!

1. Organic Unsweetened Apple Sauce - Our go-to food if Peanut isn't feeling well or is extra cranky. She loves this stuff!

2. Jolly Jumper - Peanut finally started to get the hang of the Jolly Jumper over the last few months and we use it everyday. She can last anywhere from 30-45 minutes which buys me time to get dinner going. Kijiji for the win!

3. Ultrasonic Humidifier - With this dry winter weather and colds circulating around our humidifier has come in very handy! It was a bit pricey but it's super quiet and pumps out a super fine mist.

4. Playtex Training Cup - This cup is amazing. We tried a few different ones but this one was by far the front runner. Breastfed babies tend to do much better with straw cups rather then the traditional sippy cups.

5. Evenflo Highchair - This highchair came highly recommended from a friend and boy was she right! This highchair wipes down so easily and doesn't have any weird fabric seat covers to contend with. My little Peanut is super comfortable in it even at 15 lbs. It only has two wheels but this was important for us since we have a food obsessed chocolate lab that wouldn't think twice about pushing the highchair around the kitchen to get food under it.


Item that we still can't live without:
"U" Pillow
Sound Machine
Pro Biotics
Video Monitor
Jump-a-roo
Bath Sponge Pad
Fleece Sleep Sack

Passenger Goodie Bags

I don't mean to rub it in but in less then a week my daughter and I are joining a dear friend and her daughter on a trip to Florida. We are leaving the husbands home and are going to have some quality girl time in the sun. I am really looking forward to a change of pace and scenery. This will be Peanuts first flight and her little friends second time flying. I'm not overly concerned since Peanut tends to be super intrigued and quiet in new situations, however there is a chance that a meltdown or two will happen in the open skies. My girlfriend came up with a fantastic idea of putting together some Passenger goodie bags for the people sitting directly around us (Thank you Pinterest!). Since I hate packing I decided to avoid it as long as possible and put together 24 goodies bags for our voyage, 12 for each way. We are hoping our flight will be filled with numerous retired grandparents heading south who will hopefully be missing their grandchildren and want to lend a helping hand. ha! We will see. In the mean time, I should probably focus my energy on figuring out what to pack for Peanut and less on packing treats for complete strangers....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Green Smoothie - 5th Edition

I've posted about our Green Smoothies about a million times on this blog. Alright not a million, more like four time (here, here, here, and here) so why not post one more time. We've been drinking them more or less every weekday morning for three years and over the years we've altered the recipe slightly to experiment with taste and nutrition. Ever since being on maternity leave my husband has been in charge of making the smoothies in the morning so I decided to make his life a bit easier by putting together two weeks worth of Smoothie baggies in the freezer. The baggies include premeasured fruit, oats, flax seeds, and chia seeds. Here is our Green Smoothie recipe that we've been making for close to a year. Keep in mind that it makes two large smoothies. Enjoy!


Yield: 2 large smoothies
Ingredients
2 cups 1% milk
1/2 frozen banana
1 cup frozen fruit - your choice!
1/2 cup fat free Greek yogurt
1 tablespoons rolled oats
1 tablespoon ground flax seeds
1 teaspoon ground chia seeds
 2 huge handfuls of spinach

Pot Roast...?!

Is it weird that I've never made a pot roast? I've had pot roast before and I'm going to be honest -- I'm not a fan (Sorry Mom!). To me it always seemed way too dry and just not all that satisfying (that's what she said). I had a roast in the freezer and decided to live it up and give pot roasting a try myself. Ya, I'm wild like that. I found a great tutorial here and used the recipe with a few minor adjustments. I don't usually use multistep recipes that require, what's the word?.... ah yes, effort. It was worth it though because the roast turned out super tender and we really liked it. As you can see in the picture, I used squash instead of a lot of carrots and this was a mistake. The squash was too mushy. Stick with the carrots -- next time I will add parsnips too.

Ingredients
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 lb beef pot roast
salt & pepper to taste
8 carrots, peeled and chunked
2 onions, peeled and quartered
1 cup red wine
2 cups beef stock
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon rosemary

Method
In a dutch oven over medium/high heat warm 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Toss in onions, carrots, rosemary and thyme (be careful, oil will spit!) and cook for about 4 minutes, stirring once. Don't stir too much because you want some brown yummy goodness to crustify on the bottom on the pan. Once veggies and pan have both browned a bit remove veggies. Season roast generously with salt and pepper and put into pan. Brown each side of the roast for about 1 minute each. Remove meat. Pour red wine into pan and using a wooden spoon stir and scrape that brown yummy crustified goodness off the bottom, about 2 minutes. Pour in beef stock. Add meat and veggies back to the dutch oven and cover and transfer to preheated oven (275 degrees) for 3 hours. Do not open dutch oven during the time. Just let it do it's thing. Cook. Cook. Cook. Serve with a side of mashed potatoes. Yum
.

Baby Led Weaning Update

We honestly couldn't be more thrilled with our decision to do Baby Led Wean (BLW) with Peanut. It works for us. We are three months in and she eats (or at least tries!) absolutely everything except for honey, which she will eat at 12 months. We are now up to three meals a day along with nursing 5 times. 9 times of out 10 Peanut eats what we are eating, with the exception of weekday breakfast. My husband and I still drink green smoothies and will introduce them to Peanut when she gets better with using a straw. She is fantastic at feeding herself and using a sippy cup, but we tended to spoon feed her things like soups, oatmeal and apple sauce. Her fine motor skills are pretty strong and we attribute that to BLW. Her pincher grasp was developed by 8 months and makes the whole BLW thing a lot easier. We love being able to take her anywhere and not have to worry about packing food for her since she always eat what we eat. Today we took her out for lunch with us and she ate some of my fish tacos and had cheese and artichoke dip. I'll admit that I have a stash of cheerios in the diaper bag for emergency purposes. Here is a list of some of our favourite and easy meals;

Breakfast
Oatmeal mixed with unsweetened apple sauce or mashed banana sprinkled with cinnamon
French toast dipped in apple sauce or yogurt
peanut butter on whole wheat bread
Baby muffin (new item!)

Lunch
Deconstructed sandwiches (cheese squares, lunch meat, bread squares, avocado chunks)
chunky soups/stews (chunks removed onto highchair tray, stock spoon fed)
Cottage cheese
leftover dinner
Cubed cheese
Avocado

Dinner
Chili (chunks removed onto highchair tray, stock spoon fed)
roasted veggie chucks (sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, zucchini, onion, etc.)
Deconstructed tacos
crockpot meats (they are tender to eat)
Pasta
Pizza
Grilled cheese

Dessert
Cubed pears
Bananas and peanut butter
apple sauce
high fat Greek yogurt
Cubed oranges/clementine's
cheerios

k.bye.

Muffins for Babies

It's hard to believe another year has come and gone and the holiday season is over. For obvious reasons 2014 was one of our best years to date. My husband had nearly two weeks off over the break so we had a ton of family time. We hosted a family chili/games night, Christmas dinner, and a pizza night for our friends so there wasn't much time for writing. This morning I decided to get my butt in gear and share some recipes I've made over the last few weeks.

Like her Mama, Peanut loves her carbs. She eats whole wheat bread and cheerios like they are going out of style but I wanted something a little more wholesome to give her on a regular basis. I read a bunch of recipes for baby friendly muffins online but didn't find anything that had all of the ingredients that I wanted to include so I made up my own. I rarely risk doing that for baking, but I gave it a go. The results were great! I tried a muffin - they aren't sweet at all, but that was the point. Peanut devoured them and Hope your little one loves them too. I should mention that I rip the muffin up into bite-sized pieces since she is only 9 months old.

Ingredients
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup quick oats
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons ground flax seeds
1 tablespoon ground chia seeds
3 large or 5 small apples, peeled & grated (OR 3 overly ripe bananas)
1/2 cup apple sauce
1/2 cup milk
1 egg

Method
In a bowl using a wooden spoon mix up all dry ingredients. Add all remaining ingredients and stir until just combined. Don't over mix. Spoon into heavily greased muffin tin and bake at 350 degrees for 16-18 minutes. Because there is no grease in this recipe I would avoid using muffin liners since this will likely stick a lot. Happy eating baby!

 

Christmas Traditions

I'm a sucker for Christmas, and always have been. From choosing the Christmas tree, to what treats to bake to what holiday songs will echo through the house, I take it all very seriously. I'm proud to say that I have definitely rubbed off on my husband. With a wee one on the scene, Christmas has an extra-special feeling this year. My husband and I had a discussion about what holiday traditions we would like our family to have. Peanut is still pretty young so we haven't implemented everything yet but we have certainly done a lot festive things with her this season.  Here is a list of the things that either my husband or I did growing up and would like to continue with and a few new ideas;

1. Giving back - My mother has always instilled in me the importance of giving back. She is by far the most generous person I know. She sponsors entire families at Christmas time, drops food off to the food banks regularly, and will even fight traffic to drive into Toronto to drop off care packages to teens in needs. She truly is the greatest woman. I want Peanut to know the importance of giving back too. We started this year, and will continue for a long time having Kinley go pick out a few gifts for children in need. We will make a big deal of  this and have her involved in every step of the process including going to the store, choosing the gifts and delivering them to the donation centre.

2. Family, family, family - Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without family. Yes, friends are super important during the holidays but as far as I'm concerned family trumps everything. Spending as much time together during the holidays is so important.

3. Decorating Day - This happens any day after November 11th and involved hot chocolate and great holiday tunes.

4. Christmas Tree - Our go-to place doesn't sell trees anymore so we will have to figure out a new place to go. I take this task very seriously - it must be perfect and I will take however much time is needed to find the right tree for our family. There is a lot of twirling with trees to see all angles. This, along with decorating the tree will be done as a family.

5. Christmas movies - curled up in our jammies with treats anytime in the month of December. Classics for me include Home Alone (1 & 2), Elf, and The Santa Claus. LOVE.LOVE.LOVE.

6. Santa treats - Left out on Christmas Eve and will include a carrot for Rudolph.

7. Christmas Light Tour - My mom lives in Oakville and holy shit, do those rich folks know how to do it right! Nothing beats grabbing a hot chocolate  (& Bailey's for the passengers) and driving the town for a few hours checking out all the amazing lights.

8. Santa Wish List - We always made a wish list growing up. We understood that it wasn't a list that meant we would get all of it but I'm sure it was helpful to Santa. I am a firm believer that Christmas isn't at all about the gifts. Gift opening is a part of the tradition of Christmas, but it isn't the biggest part and I want to make sure Peanut knows this. I hope her future wish lists will be this;
One thing to read:      ______________
One thing I need:       ______________
One thing to wear:   ______________
One thing I want:    ______________

9. Christmas Baking - I love to cook and I want Peanut to be apart of this passion of mine. I want her to participate in cooking as often as she can and Christmas baking will be no exception!

That's all I can think of for now. I'm sure this list will grow as the years pass but this is a good start. Have I mentioned that I love Christmas? Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la!

It still hurts sometimes.

Dear Diary,  (that's what this post feels like...lol)

Since my original Reality Bites post last September when I finally 'came out' about being infertile I have had many wonderful things happen including connecting with people who have a similar story and learning a ton about myself and my relationship with my husband. When I hear others fertility struggles regardless if I know them or not, I automatically feel a deep bond with them. I become invested in their story as much as I am invested in my own.  I cheer them on, pray for them, think of them, and cry tears of sorrow and joy with them. This isn't a fun road, but it's worth ever damn step if you able to find the beauty in it. 

First and foremost I want to say that I am forever grateful, thankful, blessed etc. that we were able to bring the most perfect miracle baby into this world. The feeling of complete gratitude to modern day science and the medical professionals that made our Peanut possible will never fade. We are so very lucky, however there isn't a day that goes by that I am not reminded that we struggled, and will continue to struggle with fertility. To be honest, I wasn't expecting these feelings to be here still. Pregnancy announcements can sometimes still be difficult but I am slowly working through this.  The emotional scars of our treatment struggles still linger in the back of my mind and the thought of doing it all over again is completely and utterly overwhelming. I've always been a 'follow your gut' type of girl and we know that our family isn't complete yet so we will be giving treatment another go when the time is right for our family. That scares the shit out of me. Last time I was going in blind; naïve to what it all entailed and I sort of liked it like that. I now know that the odds are against us and that statistically speaking we will likely have to do three rounds of treatment to be successful like last time. I will have to take time off work. I will need to lug little Peanut to may, may, may ultrasound and blood work monitoring appointments. I will have to be at my lowest, low...again. I will have to give myself injection after injection. I will lose a lot of hair. I will be scared. I will have hormonal mood swings. I will gain weight. I will spend too much money. I will line up before clinic opens in hopes to get out quickly. I will cry. I will be on bed rest. I will get angry. Knowing all of this, I will do it again because it brought us the most beautiful little girl on the planet and it worth doing again. This journey hasn't been easy, as many journey's in life aren't but my God, has it ever been worth it. It isn't over, and we know we may have a long road ahead but we are ready, whenever that might be.

Until next Diary...

FYI Search Me

For those of you who are looking for an archived post, there is a search bar on the top left side of this page. All you have to do is type in any keyword and it will bring up all of my related posts. Makes life a lot easier then what my Mother has been doing --- searching through every single one of my 400+ posts for my Green Smoothie recipe. Oh Mama...

Eggnog Cookies

I've had it on ice, mixed with spiced rum and even cut with milk but I just can't bring myself to like eggnog. I found a recipe on Pinterest the other day for eggnog cookies and icing - hmmm, this sounded like it could possibly be something I could enjoy. Probably more so if I added rum to them. Yes, great idea Jill. Spiced rum it is. As a non-eggnog lover I can confidently say that these cookies are delish, regardless if you like The Nog or not. After sampling one (see pic below) I put the cookies in the freezer without icing because I wasn't sure how they would freeze and thaw with icing on top. I froze the icing on the side and will ice them closer to Christmas when company arrives and when I won't dominate them entirely on my own. Here is my adapted recipe. Hope you like 'em too!

That awkward time I iced one cookie to try and
forgot to take a pic until after I bit it. My bad.

Cookie Ingredients
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoons nutmeg, plus more for topping

1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

3/4 cup butter, room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

2 egg yolks

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup eggnog

Icing Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

3-4 tablespoons eggnog 

1 tablespoon spiced rum (optional)

3 cups powdered sugar

Cookie Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl mix together flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. In the stand mixer bowl cream butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until fluffy. Mix in egg yolks then add vanilla extract and egg nog. With mixer set on low speed, slowly add in dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Roll dough in tablespoon size (should take about 32 cookies) and flatten with a flour bottom cup. Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottom starts to golden. Don't over cook! Cool completely then ice with Eggnog icing and sprinkle tops lightly with nutmeg.  

 

Eggnog Icing Method 

In the bowl of an stand mixer whip butter until very pale and fluffy. Add in rum and eggnog and mix in powdered sugar. Add additional eggnog or powdered sugar to reach desired consistency.

Mama's Shortbread Cookies

A few days ago while peanut was napping I decided to get my bake on. I asked the hubby what Christmas cookies he wanted and he insisted that I make squares. Sorry, that wasn't an option buddy. Maybe later. So I decided on chewy ginger cookies and my Mom's shortbread cookies. My mom makes the best shortbread cookies ever. They are crumbly, buttery and melt in your mouth. So.So.Yummy. They taste better when she makes them but here is the recipe.

Yield: About 48 cookies

Ingredients
1 pound butter (1 block), room temperature
1 cup icing sugar
1/2 cup corn starch
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups all purpose flour

Method
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Cream butter and sugar until very fluffy. Add vanilla. In a bowl mix cornstarch and flour and slowly beat into butter mixture. drop by tablespoon onto lightly greased cookie sheet. The key to this is do not form them into an shapes or press them down. Let them take on the natural 'blob' shape (I'm sure that's a technical cooking term). Bake for about 18 minutes or until edges start to become golden.

Can't Live Without You - 4th Edition

Peanut will be 8 freakin' months in a few short days. Slow down time! It's funny, when we first brought peanut home time moved at a slow motion pace and I didn't think the days would ever end. Now that we are in our groove and Peanut and I know each other pretty darn well, the days are going far too quick. Makes my heart ache a little....

Here is a list of the items that we haven't been able to live without over the last two months.

1. Bumbo Tray - A feeding game changer! We have a beautiful highchair waiting for peanut for when she is more experienced with this whole BLW thing and for when she's a bit bigger (she's still pretty darn small). This tray was $14 and worth ever darn penny. The tray is small enough to fit in the sink to be washed down and we also travel with the bumbo and tray so she can eat meals when we are on the road visiting friends and family.

 2. Fleece Sleep Sack with Arms - The cold winter has arrived and my Mama instinct is to cover peanut up in a million soft, warm blankets...but I can't. So we went to Once Upon a Child and scored two used sleep sacks. They are so cozy and warm!


3. Sophie - I didn't think I would ever promote this glorified dog toy but Peanut really does love it. She can hold it, chew it like crazy and make it squeak. It's our car seat only toy so she's always super-pumped to see it when I'm buckling her in.

4. Family Picture Book - I had a Shutterfly coupon code for a free 8x8 book so I decided to make Peanut a family picture book.  Each family member has their own page with their name and a few different pictures. My side of the family doesn't get to see her often so I wanted to make sure that she got to see them all the time.

5. Fleece Velcro Slippers - Ours were a hand-me-down from a hand-me-down from a hand-me-down (Sparknotes: peanut is the 4th babe to use them). They no longer have a tag on them so I don't know the brand but they are very similar to Polar Feet shown in this picture. The key is they open right up so you can slip them on easily and snuggly.

Items that we still can't live without:
Sound Machine
U pillow
Floor playmat (yup! She still loves it!)
Jump-a-roo

Chicken Taco Soup - Crock Pot Style

Last week I was at a colleagues house for a play date (let's be real, it wasn't for the babies) and she served a yummy, hardy taco soup. Here is my adaption of the recipe she gave me. I am thrilled with how it turned out and will certainly be making this one of my crock pot staples. My daughter LOVES it!

Yield: 1 large crockpot full!
Ingredients
4 chicken breasts (not frozen!)
1 cup corn (frozen or canned)
1 can black beans, drained & rinsed
1 can kidney beans, drained & rinsed
1 can diced tomatoes
3 cups chicken stock
1 cup tomato/clamato juice (optional - if you omit this just add 1 additional cup of stock)
1 packet ranch powder (found beside the salad dressings at the store -- took me a while!)
1 packet taco seasoning (I used my homemade taco seasoning that I have on hand)
2 teaspoons dried pepper flakes (optional)

Method
Toss everything in the crockpot (chicken at the bottom) and cook on low for 6-8 hours (depends on your crockpot). Remove chicken breast and shred with two forks and return to crock pot to incorporate with the other ingredients. Serve with sour cream and grated cheese on top. So.so.good.

Turkey Stew & Dumplings

So I've had a food revelation. Gasp!! All my life I thought I just sort of liked stew until now. I realized after making this stew that I don't like potatoes in stew at all. Don't get me wrong, I love the starchy goodness of potatoes but for some reason I'm not a fan of them in the stew. Game changer! I digress....
Do you ever have leftover turkey after the holidays? Try out this easy turkey stew. We made this after Thanksgiving with all the delish leftover turkey my Mama sent home with us. I friggin' love leftovers so much.

Stew Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter

4 carrots, peeled & chopped                          

4 celery ribs, chopped                           

1 small onion, diced

1 cup frozen peas  

3ish cups of leftover turkey, cubed                                                  

6 cups beef broth                                                        

1 teaspoonssalt

1/4 teaspoon pepper                                                        

1/2 teaspoon sage                                                    

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup all-purpose flour mixed with 1/4 cup water 

 

Dumpling Ingredients

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons parsley

3/4 cup milk                            

1 egg

Method

In a large soup pot sauté the carrots, celery and onion in butter for 10 minutes. Add all remaining ingredients (including flour/water mixture), stir, reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for 10 minutes. While it's simmering make the dumping (mix dry ingredients together, and dry ingredients separately then mix the two together -- or you can use Bisquick!). After 10 minutes of stew simmering drop dumpling dough by heaping tablespoons onto the top of the stew. Cover and continue to simmer for 20 additional minutes, or until dumplings are cooked through. Done. Delish. Enjoy!

 

Baby Led Weaning

Let me apologize for the lack of posts over the last four weeks. I am terrible. I checked out the stats and it looks like there are still many people checking back daily for new reads so here I am promising you guys that I will be starting to post more frequently. I.am.a.jerk.

Now onto the post...

Peanut was ready for solids around Thanksgiving - BOOYA! Talk about good timing - best food ever! She has been loving the process as much as her Dad and I have enjoyed watching her experience new flavours and textures.  After too much research, I decided that Baby Led Weaning (BLW) was the approach I wanted to take with introducing peanut to solids. BLW is basically letting your child take the lead with their feeding by giving them whole, healthy, homemade foods that can be easily held by them. She has done amazing with it! We don't have any food allergies in our family so we haven't been waiting in between foods. She has tried so many things - hardboiled eggs, coconut curry broccoli, chili, turkey stew - she as loved it all! BLW is definitely a messy process but it is a great opportunity to help develop fine motor skills while giving parents a little freedom to eat a meal along with their little one.  Don't get me wrong, we are helping her here and there so we aren't following the BLW rules to a tee. We have really been enjoying the process. BLW definitely isn't for everyone so do your research before you decided you want to go this route. I personally love being able to feed her whatever it is I'm eating - it's especially nice when we are out and about for mealtime and I don't have to plan ahead and pack food for her. YIPPEE! Here are some helpful Pointers and a few pictures of some meals we've had;

Only begin BLW when your baby is showing signs of readiness
Preloading spoons with sticky things like squash, avocado and oatmeal and handing them over
Having two spoons at each meal time
Baking veggies (sweet potato, squash, turnip, asperagus, etc.) into spear shape for easy holding
Ripping meat into little pieces and sticking it to avocado wedges, or spoonful's of squash
Be prepared for gagging!
Naked eating has been easiest for us for now
Bumbo & tray has made it so easy for clean up
Don't be afraid to season food!
Avoid adding lots of extra salt - a little salt is fine
If you have a history of food allergies in the family space out introducing new foods
Give water after each meal to help wash down food
Provide variety! I give at least two items per meal
Don't walk away! They are learning to chew so there is a risk for choking.
Make it fun! Clap and praise when they feed themselves
Talk to them and tell them what they are eating
Have a wash cloth close by!
Let them eat what you are eating
Eat with them. Starting family mealtime early will help establish the routine

Roasted veggies

Potato Soup & Cornbread

Steamed Carrot Sticks (first food!)

Avocado wedges & hardboiled egg

Plain Greek yogurt, clementine, & Cheerios
(this is 6 weeks into BLW)

Pumpkin Spice Sugar Cookies & Muffins

It was exactly a year ago that my husband and I shared with the world that we were expecting a little one. I've always loved Thanksgiving but this year it was that much more special having our looooooooooong awaited little peanut with us. I have so much to be thankful for; a beautiful home, food in our tummies, a loving and supportive family and husband, loyal friends, and a precious little daughter. I am so, so, so, so, so grateful and thankful.

Speaking of full tummies, there was way too much eating this weekend and it was awesome. Pumpkin spice anything is basically Thanksgiving in your mouth so I decided to make pumpkin spice sugar cookies to take a long to a family dinner and pumpkin spice muffins to have for breakfast or snacks this week. I was very happy with how both turned out.

Yield: 48 cookies
Pumpkin Spice Sugar Cookie Ingredients
1 1/2 cups butter, softened                       

2 cups white sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon clove

                                           

Method

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until combined. In a separate bowl combine remaining ingredients. Slowly incorporate dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Roll dough into Tim Bit sized balls and place onto a greased cookie sheet. Flatten slightly with a cup (if the cup stick you can spray the bottom with pam). Bake for 7-ish minutes until cookies are light brown on the bottom. Don't over cook these - you want them slightly chewy.

 

Yield: 24 muffins

Pumpkin Spice Muffins Ingredients

3 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ginger

1/2 teaspoon clove

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

4 eggs

1 1/2 pumpkin puree

1/2 cup oil (I used olive oil because it's all I had - you could also sub with apple sauce)

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup roasted green pumpkin seeds for top of muffin (got mine in the bulk section at the grocery store)

 

Method

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In one bowl mix together all of the dry ingredients excluding pumpkin seeds. In another bowl mix together all of the wet ingredients. Slowly incorporate dry ingredients with the wet ingredients (do not over mix!). Spoon into muffin tin with paper liners. Sprinkle tops with pumpkin seeds and a little brown sugar. Bake for 19-24 minutes until tops are slightly brown and a tooth pick comes out clean.