Summer Fun

It's been a busy summer so far.  My weekly meal plans keep getting changed.  We roll with the punches and make whatever is easiest- it's far too nice to stay indoors and cook elaborate meals.  We've been eating light  because we are consuming way too much fro yo and ice-cream.  This week, I am going to try to clear out the pantry and freezer a bit.  A few weeks ago my fridge conked out.  I lost lots of food from the fridge and freeze, but I also saved a lot of good stuff.  Now, I don't want to over fill the fridge and freezer, though I have a crazy phobia of having no food to eat (not possible, I know, that's why it's something I'm working on).  We've been enjoying the barbecue and trying to get the boys to try salads.  They like fresh and cooked veggies a lot, but when it comes to fresh lettuce or spinach with dressing it's a no go.  Slow and steady.  Tonight, we're going to have a nice meal since we are staying at home.  The pie will be in the oven soon!  We hit Andrews' Scenic Acres yesterday with some great family and picked many lovely raspberries and blueberries.  Hubby's favourite is raspberry pie.  He did a good job picking all those berries and today he will be rewarded with a lovely pie.  I am going to try a new recipe for the pastry- cream cheese pastry.  It sounds like it will be a nice compliment to the tartness of the raspberries.  Will post photos later!  Now off to work!

Sunday:  Mussels in white wine broth with crusty bread and green salad with raspberry pie
Monday:  Pasta with tomato sauce and salad
Tuesday:  Waffles with bacon and fruit salad (maybe watermelon-feta salad)
Wednesday:  Panko crusted tilapia with rice and peas
Thursday: out
Friday:  Tuna salad sandwiches with crudites
Saturday:  Family barbecue - perhaps chicken wings
Sunday: out

Another meal plan

I've been very disinterested in cooking lately since I don't want to spend any time in the kitchen.  Here are a few things to keep things simple and not use the stove/oven too much.


Monday:  Slaskie kluski with butter (dumplings with butter) & pears
Tuesday: Spaghetti with meatballs & salad
Wednesday:  Chicken kabobs with rice & salad
Thursday: Out
Friday: Breaded tilapia with rice pilaf
Saturday:  Burgers on the BBQ with veggies
Sunday: out! (Marineland here we come!)


If it gets too hot, we're having cereal for dinner.  I've already done it a few times in the past.  The kids think it's fun and it is healthy, so why not.  Sometimes I need a break and we're doing our best to keep away from fast food....  That being said, we had McFlurries for dessert after soccer tonight and they were great!  Win some, lose some.

Summer Meal plan!

Monday: Pasta with tomato sauce & salad with a cherry clafouti (Soccer)
Tuesday:  Hot dogs on a bun with veggies and dip
Wednesday:  Chicken on the barbecue with roasted potatoes
Thursday: Citrus Tilapia with rice & peas
Friday: Chili with nachos (Indy)
Saturday:  Burgers on the grill with roasted veggies
Sunday:  Wild card!

Summer is here and the living is easy....  This week we are doing swimming lessons in the mornings!  We are going to be riding our bikes there and back and just enjoying the laid back feel of not having to rush to and from school.  I'm making a meal plan to help myself relax and not have to scramble at dinnertime. 

Soup de Jour

You know you talk too much about food when you say biscotti and your 4 year old says "That means twice baked."  On that note, I made an awesome soup today.  I got creative with some leftovers and came up with Pea Shooter Soup as it was quickly renamed by the boys as an homage to Zombies Vs. Aliens.  Here is the soup that will keep the undead away(fingers crossed).

Pea Shooter Soup
2 cups chicken broth
1/3 cup diced onion
1/3 cup diced celery
1 1/2 cup frozen peas
1 1/2 cup leftover mashed potatoes
1 bunch of parsley
a few leaves of lettuce
1 tablespoon of sour cream
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon of canola oil

Lightly saute onion and celery in oil in a medium pot.  When it gets fragrant, add broth, peas, celery, lettuce, parsley and potatoes.  Let simmer for about 10-15 minutes.  Remove from heat, add sour cream and puree with a handheld mixer.  Add salt and pepper and enjoy!  We had it with some toast and hummus.  The boys each had three bowls once they renamed it!

Pea Shooter Soup

Meal plan for the last week of school

Monday: Bow tie Alfredo, salad with homemade dressing and a fresh French loaf (Soccer night)
Tuesday: Hot dogs with oven fries (play dates galore)
Wednesday: Steak fajitas with grilled veggies (Cruise night at Applewood)
Thursday: Out  (Last day of school & Capy Gala)
Friday: Chicken souvlaki with lemon potatoes and salad (Canada Day hike)
Saturday:  Chicken tikka with rice pilaf and peas (soccer morning)
Sunday:  Breaded lemon tilapia with leftover rice and fruit salad

This coming week is going to be a nice mix of easy meals because we're enjoying being outside a lot.  The boys have been staying after school and playing with their friends to their hearts' content.  We tend to stay for an hour or two.  I think this year they will be missing their friends over the summer.  I am making plans to keep in touch with the other moms and kids, whom we've befriended over the last two years.  It's been nice finding people that you can chat with while the kids play!

Monday is soccer day so I always try to make an easy meal. I am trying Meatless Mondays and that is going well.  I made bow tie Alfredo (because I didn't have enough fettuccine noodles, though I thought it was great with the fun shape).  I got the recipe from one of my favourite cookbooks, The Joy of Cooking.

Fettuccine Alfredo
1 lbs broad pasta- 1 box of bow ties
1/2 stick of butter, though I used a bit less
1 cup cream
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
salt & pepper
chopped parsley for colour

Boil the pasta.  In the meantime, melt butter in a large pan.  Drain pasta and add to butter.  Pour in cream, cheese and parsley.  Mix together over low heat until everything comes together.  Enjoy!

Magic of Yumminess

It really is so easy to make, it's crazy!  I tend to make it whenever I have leftover whipping cream from baking.  The first time I ever had fettuccine Alfredo was at the Olive Garden about 20 years ago and every time I make it, I think back to that magical meal!  Yum! And now I make it for my family and they love it.  The boys had three servings with lots of fresh bread dipped in olive oil on the side.  I was lucky yesterday and went to the Distillery District and picked up this lovely white loaf with whole grains!  Oh, I wish I'd bought two...

The end is near!

Strawberry Summer Cake and a Cuppa

A beauty!

 Strawberry season is here and we have been enjoying it!  I made this tasty dish earlier in the week and it was amazing and easy!  I found the recipe on one of my favourite blogs.  Here is a link- I recommend trying it for sure! http://smittenkitchen.com/2011/05/strawberry-summer-cake/  I am looking forward to visiting Andrew' Scenic Acres for strawberry picking- I hope to make a pie and some freezer jam.
I also participated in the Trail of crumbs bake exchange and our theme this month was strawberries, as well.  I made Strawberry-Shortcake cookies.  Very nice!  I found them on Martha Stewart's site:  http://www.marthastewart.com/315652/strawberry-shortcake-cookies  They went so fast that there was no opportunity for a photo.  I think that is a good sign!

Little D's burger and chips

Steaks with mushrooms

It's been another week of playing catch-up!  The boys are almost done with school and I am almost done my post vacation organizing.  I just started to look through the photos that we took, but am nowhere close to making an album or anything.  I kinda miss the days when you just dropped off the roll and picked it up a few days later.  Now that we can view everything on the computer, we never make hard copies. I miss flipping through the photos manually...
I've been pretty busy in the kitchen this week and am getting ready to bake some cookies for the boys' year end party today.  I found a great recipes for chocolate chip cookies on a stick and I will fancy them up by throwing in some smarties.  I blabbed about them to some moms at school so there is no turning back now!

 

Vegetarian chili with basmati rice

Back to reality

We have returned from a three week vacation to Poland. (I'll do some posts later about all the amazing things we did, saw and ate!)   I only made occasional breakfasts so I had the longest break from cooking ever-  still did laundry, for the record though not the usual amount.  Now, it is back to reality.  I'm going to scale back our eating and try to go a bit lighter.  We ate a lot of meat and ice-cream on our holiday so I want to have a bit more veggie and seafood meals.  On that note, we finished off our holiday with grilled steak with portobellos, baked potato and green salad.  That was Hubby's idea, I wanted to have veggie burgers....

So this is what the week will look like:

Monday: Vegetarian chili with rice and salad (Soccer)
Tuesday: Tilapia with rice and sauteed bok choy
Wednesday: Turkey burgers with caramelized onion, oven fries and cucumber salad (mizeria)
Thursday: Sausages on the BBQ with grilled mushrooms and quinoa salad
Friday: Pasta with sauce and salad
Saturday:  TBA (maybe steak fajitas) (Soccer)
Sunday: Father's Day BBQ

For lunch we're going to have mostly soups and I am going to have onion sandwiches (Vidalia onions are in season!) And I still need to decide what to make for Hubby for his Father's Day breakfast.  I think we'll go with bacon and eggs and freshly squeezed OJ... Fun times ahead!

I want to learn to make a few more Polish meals in the months ahead and master the art of making zapiekanki and pierogi.