Food review from week of Jan.14th

Food Review from last week. I tried out a few new recipes for dinner and one new appetizer recipe. I am posting the recipes if I could find them online.

Mushroom pork medallions - from the Canadian Living Make It Tonight Cookbook - these were Really good! I will definitely make them again. The recipe only makes enough for 2-3 people, but it would be nice to serve to company if you doubled the recipe amount.

Warm Potato salad - from the same cookbook above. I made them together and my hubby didn't think that the flavours complimented the pork dish. The warm potato salad had a vinegar-y taste that would probably work better with a more bland meat dish like a BBQ steak. I would make this recipe again though and probably just serve a plainer rice dish with the pork.


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Ginger apricot chicken -from the Complete Canadian Living Cookbook - my FIL stayed for dinner the night I made this and it seems like it was a hit with everyone. It was extremely easy to make and had a nice flavour on the outside. Another keeper!

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I decided to try another recipe from Deceptively Delicious - the macaroni and cheese. When I made it last week I used cauliflower puree in it. Both my hubby and I thought you could taste the veggie, but we liked it. The Love Bug wouldn't touch it and said "mommy, what's that smell?" I even had him "help" me make it to try and encourage him to eat it. When it was done he looked at it and said "Mommy, I don't like soup." I agree with him, it was way too saucy!

I made it again yesterday and this time I used squash puree and I added an extra 1/2 cup of pasta. It turned out really well and the Love Bug ate it for lunch and asked for it again at dinner!

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Hot Asiago Artichoke Dip - from Canadian Living
I made this for the first time on the weekend for our little dinner party. People loved it! It was so easy to make too. I think this is a great appetizer because you can make it in advance and then just heat it up for 20 minutes when your guests arrive. I will be making this again for sure!

Menu Plan - week of Jan.21st

This week we are incorporating some left-overs into the meal plan. We seem to have a lot of them lately and I hate it when we forget about them and end up throwing them away! I am also going to be making 2 different soups to have for lunches.

Monday
grilled marinated flank steak
rice pilaf
sesame asparagus with mushrooms (all leftovers from Saturday)

Tuesday
beer braised beef roast with carrots & mashed potatoes

Wednesday
Chicken and bean burritos
salad

Thursday
pasta with homemade bolognese sauce (from my Everyday Italian cookbook)

Friday
leftovers!
salad

Saturday and Sunday are TBD right now

Lunches - I don't usually post about this, but since I am planning on making a few things this week (instead of just our usual sandwiches), I thought I would list them.
macaroni and cheese from Deceptively Delicious
Meatball coupe from Deceptively Delicious
Beef and Barley soup (from Canadian Living cookbook)

Adventures in babysitting

Well, Saturday was my mom's birthday and today is my hubby's. As mentioned in my last post, we went out for dinner on Friday night with my mom and step-dad to one of our favourite local restaurants called Chinook. I love the food there! We had such a nice time.

Our babysitters definitely had their hands full! My hubby went and picked them up around 7pm, so they could meet and get comfortable with the kids before they went to bed. Since the Missus is a social butterfly, she loved the attention she was getting. The Love Bug is a bit shy and took a few minutes to warm up. But, he was comfortable with the babysitters in no time.

We put the Missus to bed before we left so our babysitters only had to deal with one kid. When we were leaving, the Love Bug said "Is daddy going to work?". We said yes since he is used to my hubby's shift work and knows that daddy goes to work at different times of the day. Then we told him that mommy was going to work with daddy, but we would be home in a little while. He gave us kisses and seemed fine.

We got our coats on and heard him ask the babysitters "Where did mommy and daddy go?" They replied "work" and he said "ok". We quickly left (around 7:45)

Apparently, just after we left, the Missus woke up because she pooped in her diaper. They changed her but couldn't get her onesie or sleepers back on...she is HORRIBLE to get dressed and always has been. They eventually abandoned the effort to get her dressed again (she went to bed with just an unbuttoned onesie on) and tried to put her back in her crib, but she kept crying to get out. Finally the younger babysitter said "we are just going to have to let her cry it out" to her older sister. They did and she was asleep in less than 5 minutes.

The Love Bug is a bit of a pain to get to bed because he often gets up several times before finally settling. And, he was true to form. Because of his frequent night visits, we have one of those childproof handles on the inside of his room on his door handle. His babysitter didn't realize this and while in the room with him, she shut the door. She had never used one of those door knobs before and couldn't get out of the Love Bug's room. Apparently both her and Love Bug were at his door softly banging on it and Love Bug was saying "help, help" to get her sister's attention. They didn't want to bang too loudly in case they woke the Missus up. I could just visualize the 2 of them at the door and it really makes me laugh, although I'm sure our babysitter didn't think it was funny at the time.

After they got Love Bug settled and asleep finally, they sat in the family room quietly not watching TV or anything in fear of waking the kids up. Thank goodness we weren't too late! Poor things, how boring would that be?!?

The next day we had 3 couples (friends from my hubby's work) over for a dinner party. Our baby sitter's parents were there and said the girls enjoyed babysitting and would be happy to do it again. I was kind of surprised 'cause it sounded like they had to work hard or their money. But, I'll happily take them up on the offer!

Dinner out!

I am so excited...we are going to dinner tonight...without the kids. I mean, I love them like crazy, but it is so nice to go out to a nice restaurant without them. Usually we have one of our parents babysit them, but tonight we are going to be trying a couple of our friend's daughters. There are 2 of them and they have both taken the baby-sitting course.

Let's hope they go to bed ok and it works out. It would be soooooo nice to be able to go out for a date-night with my hubby once a month. It would be worth paying for babysitting :)

Food Review from week of Jan.7th

Last week I tried a few new recipes and thought I would share the outcome.

Hits

The Chicken and Black Bean Burritos are definitely a hit and we'll be making them again soon. They were easy to make, taste great and you can freeze the batch or individually for later.

http://www.canadianliving.com/food/chicken_and_black_bean_burritos.php

Not-so-popular

The fish and chips were just ok. My hubby and I liked the potato wedges, but I have better recipes for tilapia that I will stick to instead.

The Jerk pork chops were ok but not as spicy as I would like them. I didn't care for the rice at all. It has cinnamon in it (which I would normally like) but it didn't work in this recipe. I think if you omitted the cinnamon the rice would be quite nice.

De -Railing

It was almost one year ago that we moved the Love Bug from his crib into his single "big boy bed". He was only about 20 months old at the time. He made the transition so well. Since he was so little at the time, we put railings up on either side of his bed to help keep him in (and to make his feel secure).

Well, it is less than a year later and it is now time to take them down. Essentially, they are just being used as decorations now. About a month ago he asked us to not put it up when he was going to bed that night. So, we didn't. He has been sleeping without them ever since. My husband and I decided to take them off for good tonight and put them in our very cluttered basement until the Missus moves into her "big girl bed" one day.

Now, if only the Love Bug would toilet train so easily!!!!

Menu Plan - week of Jan.14th

An interesting week. We are going out for dinner one night and are having company twice because it is my hubby's birthday. Plus, I am trying 3 new recipes!

Monday
Chili
Salad

Tuesday - NEW - from the Canadian Living Make it tonight cookbook
Mushroom pork medallions
warm potato salad
green beans

Wednesday - NEW - from the Complete Canadian Living cookbook
Ginger apricot chicken
roasted potatoes & carrots

Thursday - from Deceptively Delicious cookbook
Mac and Cheese
Salad

Friday
Out for dinner to one of my favourite local restaurants for my mom's birthday (I hope!)

Saturday
We are having a group of friends from my husband's work over for dinner.
Appetizers
Apple brie Phyllo triangles _ I have already made these and have them in the freezer
warm artichoke asiago dip with crostini and baked pita chips
Meal
Napa Cabbage salad - this is good because it makes a lot
Grilled marinated flank steak
Sesame asparagus and mushrooms
Not sure what potato or rice dish to make or dessert to make yet

Sunday

We are having my FIL and step_MIL over for my hubby's birthday.
Beer braised beef roast
mashed potatoes
spinach salad with toasted pecans, apples, mushrooms and my honey mustard vinaigrette