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.

Spring

 

 

Pink Primroses

What we did before the rain

Smoke salmon and creme fraiche canapes

 We hosted Mother's Day this year and were inspired by the Royal wedding to have tea sandwiches for brunch.  The big hits were these salmon bites and the cucumber, watercress sandwiches.  It had turned out to be a beautiful day so we even got to enjoy the back yard a bit!  Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there.

Pizzeria Pizza!

So I tried making my own pizza crust about a year or so ago and I think that I am finally getting the hang of it!  My side had roasted red peppers, olives and anchovies!!!!  So good.  The other side had sausage and cheese and tasted great, too.  Now, I make a big batch of dough and leave half in the fridge for a quick lunch.  We had cheese pizza yesterday and it was so tasty and just as quick as a frozen one and way healthier!  Yay!  The most creative we've gotten so far was with pesto, mushrooms and goat cheese.  I still need to work on rolling it out more evenly, but they are starting to resemble pizza shapes!

Off to pick up soccer gear

Striker ready to score!

Go Limes!  The soccer season is upon us.  This is Little D's third year and he's very enthusiastic.  He knows almost everyone on the team and is very excited about his new cleats and the snacks, of course!

Banana Bread

I keep trying new banana bread recipes because I always have one or two stray bananas that get too brown too quickly.  I tried this one from one of my favourite blogs.  Here is a link for the recipe:  http://twopeasandtheirpod.com/buttermilk-banana-bread/

You really can taste the butter, too!  It was very rich and we loved it, but I think I prefer a more healthy version made with canola oil and part whole wheat flour.  May make that one this week since I just spotted two old bananas hiding at the bottom of the fruit bowl.

Banana Buttermilk bread

With strawberry tea!

A productive weekend

It's amazing how much we can accomplish in a weekend when we are all healthy!  We tackled the front garden after being in our house for almost 9 years.  While cleaning out the home office we came across photos from the sale of our home and realized that we haven't touched the front at all.  We changed the doors and windows, but left all the landscaping the way it was even though we never liked it.  Now, we have a new Japanese Maple 'Emperor One' and a River Birch!  So excited!  Gone is the Weeping Mulberry and Weigela!  I have a grand vision for the front and now we are well on our way! So excited!

Photos to follow after all the rain stops!