Follow Us Fridays!!

Since I'm at home full time now, I figure that is as good a reason as any to have more blog posts!  I thought it would be fun to do a "day in the life" type post that highlights one day of Roman's and my week.  What we did, what we ate, and all that fun stuff!  Not only is this a great way to give you ideas of things to do with or feed to your family, but it should keep me from getting in a rut, hopefully. Variety is the spice of life after all!

Without further ado, here is our first Follow Us Friday!

6:30am - Breakfast
Quite possibly Roman's favorite meal of the day!  Today he had French toast sticks with syrup and berries, and milk.  Roman LOVES blueberries, particularly the frozen variety, which is great because they are much easier to keep around.  I had Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Protein Oats, which is quite possibly my favorite breakfast of all time!

8:00am - Shopping

I needed to pick up a few odds and ends as well as a couple things for an upcoming blog post, so Roman and I headed to Superstore.  If you can go to the grocery store at this time of the morning during the week I highly recommend you do!  The store is virtually empty and all the fresh produce is just being set out!  I'm super lucky that Roman loves shopping so he is quite happy to ride in the cart while I wander around the store.  If he does get antsy I grab him a bag from the produce section because he loves to shake them.  Don't panic I'm right beside him the entire time he has the bag!

9:30am - Snack Time
Roman had a Baby Gourmet pouch in the Old Fashioned Apple Crisp flavour, some fresh raspberries from the garden and milk.  I always taste the pouches before I give them to Roman, just in case.  This is my favorite to taste.  I think I could quite honestly eat the entire pouch myself!

9:45 - Nap Time!!!
Unfortunately this nap time wasn't overly productive for me.  I'm slightly obsessed with a new game on my iPhone.  It's called Scramble, and I think it's for kids because it's made by Disney but I don't care haha.  In the game you run your own food truck and have to cook and serve all the orders.  It's a super stressful game and I love it!  After I ran out of lives I worked on a few blog posts while I watched The View!

11:30am - Lunch
Today for lunch Roman and I are attacking the leftovers in the fridge!  Roman had some Chicken Dijon, mixed vegetables, fresh garden tomatoes, and milk.  I whipped up a Taco Salad or sorts, using taco salad meat & veggies and spaghetti squash.  It was actually really yummy!

12:00pm - Outside Time
While I was meandering through Superstore this morning I came across some sidewalk chalk and thought that would be a great activity for Roman!  The sticks were thick enough that I figured he would be able to hold onto them well enough to color on the driveway and I was right!  Granted it didn't last very long before the soccer ball, tricycle and water puddle started calling Roman's name.  Non the less we had fun!  The weather is amazing today!  It's around 17°C which is a glorious break from the 30°C we've been experiencing lately!

And as life goes with kids, everything kinda fell off the rails at this point.  Roman attempted to go down for a much needed nap at 1:00pm but a certain white, barking beast woke him up,  So we played for awhile until John came home at 2:00pm.  Roman always shares John's lunch and this time it was a tomato salad, bread and an orange.  Finally at 4:20pm Roman went down for his nap, thank heavens!

6:00pm - Supper
Tonight is pizza night for Mom and Dad!  I had my usual Hawaiian Pizza on a thin crust, and John had Pepperoni & Mushroom on thin crust from Dominos.  Did you know you save 60 calories per slice switching from regular crust to thin crust?  I was shocked!  Roman is having Thai Turkey Meatballs, minus the hoisin sauce, with mixed vegetables.  Mixed vegetables are a frequent go to for Roman because he LOVES them!

6:30pm - Outside Time with Dad
And so begins our night time routine.  Roman and John head outside to play in the backyard with the dogs and John usually enjoys a beer while Roman gorges on green tomatoes.  I have never seen a person that loves green tomatoes as much as Roman.  I might have to make fried green tomatoes some day and see if he likes them.  While the boys are out doing boy things, I take this empty house time to clean up from supper, (un)load the dishwasher, pick up toys, anything that is easier to accomplish without a little person running around.  If I happen to move fast enough and get it all done before they come in, I'll often have my "dessert" which consists of a mug of David's Tea or I'll head outside and water the garden/flowers with the boys.  This usually end with Roman soaked to the diaper from the hose, which is perfectly fine because next is....

7:30pm - Tubby Time!
This is all John, unless he has a meeting in which case I fake my way through doing it Dad's way.  Little is known about what goes on during tubby time.  All I know is that it involves laughing, splashing, and sometimes a little crying.

8:00pm - Bed Time
Here ends the day for Roman.  After Roman went to sleep I picked up the toys he drug out after tubby time, then settled in to finish up this blog post and edit the photos that go with it.  I'm also working on a few other posts right now as well.  One of which involves cake, so you know it's going to be a good one!  Tomorrow my Mom and I are heading to Saskatoon to do a little shopping.  Mostly I'm going along for the Kernels popcorn, specifically the creamy caramel flavor, that I know we will be having on the ride home!  And of course to hang out with my awesome Mama!!

Hope you enjoyed tagging along on our day!  See you next Friday!

Lemon Cranberry Crumble Muffins

It has been so long since I have baked anything that I've started going through withdrawals!  I've always wanted to create my own recipe for a baked item but I never knew where to start.  So when I had some frozen cranberries left over from making apple cranberry squeeze pouches for Roman, I decided now was the time to create my very own recipe.

Since we're into July now I wanted to keep the muffin fresh and light.  I've always thought of lemon as a summer flavour and since it pairs so well with cranberry I knew this was the flavour I wanted for the muffin itself.  My one pet peeve with lemon muffins is they either taste artificial or the lemon flavour is so subtle that you can barely tell that it's a lemon muffin.  I wanted this muffin to slap you in the face with delicious, natural, lemon flavour and it does just that!

These muffins are super light and fluffy, the cranberries add some bite, the lemon adds zing, and the crumble adds extra sweetness and a bit of crunch.  What more could you want in a muffin!?

Lemon Cranberry Crumble Muffins (Makes 18 muffins)
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup pastry flour*
3/4 cup sugar
1T baking powder
1/2t salt
1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 eggs
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 1/2 cups frozen cranberries
Crumble
1/2 cup large flake oats
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, cut into small cubes

*If you don't have pastry flour you can use all purpose flour instead.  This will result in a slightly denser muffin but it will still be scrumptious!

Preheat oven to 400°.  Grease muffin tins or line with muffin cups.  In a large bowl stir together all purpose flour, pastry flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  In a separate bowl whisk together milk, butter, eggs, lemon juice and lemon zest. 

Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold together until well combined.  Add in cranberries and fold in.  *TIP - toss the cranberries in a bit of flour before adding to the batter and this will prevent them all from sinking to the bottom of the muffins as they bake.  Fill muffin tins with the batter.

In a bowl toss together oats, brown sugar and butter.  Using a pastry blender (or your hands) work the ingredients together until the butter crumbles into small pieces.  My favorite way to do this is to take a handful and rub it between my hands.  Sprinkle the crumble on the tops of the muffins.  I don't think it's possible to have to much crumble so be generous!  Bake for 20 minutes and enjoy!

The time has come *tear*

 

Unfortunately my maternity leave has come to an end and I have to go back to work.  Actually I'm already back at work, in my desk as I type this, but just go with me on this one.   I can't believe how fast the year has gone.  As soon as your little bundle is born people are always telling you "enjoy it, it goes by so fast!".  I heard them, and I thought I understood what they meant, but I had no idea at all.  It sounds cliché but it really does feel like Roman was only born yesterday.

 

Now my not so little man is heading off into the great big world of daycare.  Daycare can be a frightening place for any little person, especially after spending an entire year at home with their favorite person.  Roman has always been a fairly easy going little guy so I thought the transition would be easy.  Boy was I wrong!  He has his bad days and usually cries when I leave, but I also know he has his good days, he just forgets to tell me that part of the story!  All of this change can be stressful for both parent and baby, so I wanted to share some tips of how I make our morning routine a little less stressful during this "interesting" transition time.

 

Freezer cooking!!!  You all know I love preaching the gospel about freezer cooking, but I had no idea how amazing it was until I went back to work.  I pick Roman up from daycare at 5:45 and he is usually in bed by 7:30.  How in the world am I supposed to cook a meal from scratch and eat, feed our zoo and bathe Roman in that amount of time?!  Even with John's help there is no way it would happen.  Did I also mention that during this lovely transition to daycare Roman now refuses to be any farther than 6 inches away from me for the first 30 minutes we're home?  With freezer meals I don't have to worry about supper at all during the day.  I take a meal out of the freezer before I leave in the morning and it's ready to heat when I get home.  This way I can still get some snuggles in before we have to continue on with the routine.

While Roman was on his daycare trials I went on a massive freezer cooking mission.  I made enough meals to cover us for a couple weeks at least and I probably have enough breakfasts for a month,  Here is what I made!

• Texas Breakfast Casserole
• Breakfast Burrito Bites
• French Toast Sticks
• Salisbury Steak
• Chicken Dijon
• Smart Mac & Cheese
• Stuffed Peppers
• Apple Chicken Bites
• Loaded Mashed Potato Cakes
• Chicken Nuggets
• Burrito Casserole
• Thai Turkey Meatballs

Pack lunches the night before.  This may seem like something you can accomplish in the morning but take a moment to picture this scenario.  You wake up half an hour late, your kid won't eat what you made for breakfast so you have to make something else, and the dogs are refusing to come back in the house.  Sound familiar?  It happens in our house sometimes too and the last thing I want to do is to think about lunch.  Heck, I barely have time to think at all.  It's so much easier to grab a bag out of the fridge and roll.  Plus it'll probably end up being better for you rather than throwing an entire box of granola bars into a bag.

Lay clothes out the night before.  Not just the kids', yours too! I don't consider myself a fashionista that needs a super stylish outfit every day, but I would like to have an outfit that matches and doesn't have any mystery baby stains.  No more standing in front of the closet for 10 minutes in the morning thinking "I have nothing to wear"!  The night before I put out whatever outfit I'm going to wear the next day, along with any jewelry that I want to wear with it.  I get dressed while Roman is playing and quite often I end up pulling him off a dog or out of a garbage can while attempting to get dressed.  If everything is in a pile then at least I know where I left off when I come back to getting dressed.  Don't want to leave the house without pants!

Be ready before the kids wake up.  The unfortunate part of this tip is that you sometimes have to be up at the crack of dawn.  Roman wakes up around 6am so that leaves me staggering into the bathroom at 5am to get ready for the day.  Sure I could get ready when he's awake but there is no way we would get out the door in time.  My goal every morning to have my hair done and makeup on before I hear chattering coming from down the hall.  Now if you have a messy eater like I do, I highly recommend staying in your pjs until after breakfast is cleaned up.  Nobody wants a smear of blueberry across their white pants which sends you back to the closet in a panic because "I have nothing to wear".

I realize these tips aren't exactly earth shattering information, but hopefully they will help your mornings run smoother and keep the stress to a minimum.  How do you make your mornings start off on the right foot?  Share your tips in the comments!

Chopped Inspired Chicken Wrap

Today I was feeling inspired for lunch.  Well, actually I was dreading lunch because I had no idea what I wanted to eat.  All I knew is that I definitely did not want the leftovers in the fridge.  I hate wasting food but sometimes you just can't eat the same thing 4 days in a row.  So after preparing Roman a delicious lunch I headed to the fridge to see what my options were.

I came across some leftover sesame chicken and rice.  There was half a chicken breast and maybe 1/3 cup of rice left.  It had been fermenting in there for a couple days and the rice was looking a little sad.  Suddenly I had an idea!  Why not take a page from a recent Chopped episode featuring leftovers and make something new with it!  The hunt was on for something to pair with the chicken that had seen better days.

Some semi frost bitten whole wheat tortillas were peeking out at me from the bottom of the freezer and they looked like they could use some love.  I recently picked up some of my favorite summer roughage from the local farmer's market.  Earth, Sun, You is a vendor that sells delicious micro greens and shoots of all kinds at the Regina Farmer's Market and the Moose Jaw Farmer's Market.  I love the pea shoots and the sunflower shoots are pretty tasty too.  In this particular dish I decided to use pea shoots mixed with radish shoots.  We recently had my parents over to help us install a vanity and I had some onions leftover that I had chopped for our BBQ lunch that day; I knew I could work those in.  I grabbed a cucumber, a little mayo and some cheese, because everything is better with cheese, and voila this delicious wrap was conceived!

Leftovers can get old fast, especially when you're the only person that eats them!  Next time your staring down a sad display of precooked food, take the opportunity to be creative with your meal and see what you can come up with!  The worst thing that can happen is it doesn't taste good and you end up tossing it, like you would have to that disheartening meal you found in the first place!

Thai Turkey Meatballs

This is a holy grail recipe!  I found this delicious morsel a few years back on Pinterest and have been making it on a regular basis ever since.  Not only is this recipe super easy and amazingly delicious, but it's also pretty healthy!  The water chestnuts make this meatball!  They add a slight crunch that is so beyond amazing that you'll be wanting to add them to everything you make!  I usually serve this over rice but it would also be great over couscous or even on their own as a appetizer for a party!  Doesn't this photo just make you drool!?

Thai Turkey Meatballs  (Makes approx. 20 meatballs)
2T soy sauce
1T sesame oil
2t minced fresh ginger
1/2t chili flakes
1t sugar
1T cornstarch
1 can water chestnuts, chopped
1 lb ground turkey (chicken also works)
1/4 cup hoisin sauce (truth be told I just dump the sauce in until I think it's enough)
sesame seeds for garnish
4 green onion, chopped for garnish

Whisk together soy sauce, oil, ginger, chili flakes and sugar.  Whisk in cornstarch until smooth.  Mix ground turkey and water chestnuts together and add soy sauce mixture, stir until well combined.  Drop balls onto a baking sheet liking with parchment paper. *TIP - use a small ice cream scoop to form the balls so they are uniform in size and cook at the same rate.  Bake at 400° for 15-17 minutes.  Place cooked meatballs in a bowl and coat with hoisin sauce.  Sprinkle with sesame seeds and green onion.

To freeze: Freeze meatballs on baking sheets before baking.  Transfer to a freezer bag, label and freeze.
To serve: Place frozen meatballs on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake at 400° for 20-30 minutes until cooked through.

Fruity Baby Muesli

 

It sure seems like I've had a lot of baby/kid breakfast recipes lately.  I guess that's because I find breakfast one of the tougher meals when it comes to Roman.  I need something fast, simple, and preferably doesn't require a lot of cooking first thing in the morning.  While cruising through my copy of First Meals by Annabel Karmel I came across this recipe. 

I only knew of muesli as the dry cereal that I've seen in the breakfast isle at the grocery store.  It seemed like a simple recipe and I liked that I could prepare it the night before and leave it in the fridge; makes for a much less hectic morning and a less stressed Mom.  Why is it that kids always know when your planning on leaving the house and that's the day they always wake up late or fight you on eating breakfast?  If you know the answer to this question plaguing mothers around the world, please leave the answer in the comments!!

Fruity Baby Muesli
1/3 cup rolled oats
1/4 wheat germ
1 dried apricot or pear chopped
1T raisins
2/3 cup white grape or apple juice
1/2 red apple peeled and grated
3 grapes, halved and seeds removed

Combine all ingredients together and let soak overnight.  If you make this for a younger child you can blend the soaked mixture.

I made a couple of swaps in the recipe.  First, I didn't have wheat germ so I just added more oats.  Then while I was shopping I forgot to grab the grape juice and didn't want to make the trek back to that isle with Roman who was slowly losing his patience for grocery shopping.  So I ended up grabbing some apple cranberry juice that I just happened to be standing beside.  How convenient!  Plus it was pretty tasty!

Breakfast Burrito Bites

After eating oatmeal for breakfast for months I decided I needed to mix it up a bit.  I like having eggs for breakfast but I don't always feel like cooking at 6am, nor do I always have the time when I'm trying to feed a starving 1 year old.  I found this recipe on Ella Claire Inspired and decided to make it in my latest freezer cooking day. 

Not only are these bites delicious and healthy, but they are super easy to make and are great for breakfast on the go, which will be super handy in a couple months when I'm back to work.  The tortilla cup that holds all the eggy goodness makes for a fun presentation that is sure to entice kids to at least try them.  Roman seemed to think they were pretty tasty!

Breakfast Burrito Bites (makes 24)
4 large flour tortillas (I used tortillas with flax in them because they were on the discount rack)
16 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2t salt
1/2t pepper
1 cup bacon, cooked & chopped
1/2 cup spinach, chopped
1/2 cup bell pepper, diced
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
chives (as much or as little as you like)

Cut each tortilla into 6 triangles.  Spray muffin tins with oil and push one triangle into each cup.  In a bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, salt, pepper and chives.  Sprinkle bacon, spinach and bell pepper into each muffin cup.  Pour egg mixture into the muffin cups and top with cheese.  Bake, covered with foil, at 350° for 25 minutes.  To freeze, just wrap in plastic wrap once cooled and pop them into a freezer bag.  To serve, reheat in the microwave.

I've tried a few other egg cup recipes and no matter what I do they always seem to stick to the muffin tins.  I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't have that problem with these.  Even though the egg seeps outside the tortilla a bit, they still didn't stick.  I'm not sure if it has something to do with the tortilla or is I just oiled the tins better this time...