Oh, and by the way Mom....

How many times have parents around the world heard this phrase after supper or just before bed followed by "I have to take cupcakes to school for Easter tomorrow", "We have a bake sale tomorrow", "I just remembered it's my turn to take snacks to school".  I can only imagine the streak of fear that must run through the parents body.  Luckily Roman is young enough that I haven't encountered this yet, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time.

In preparation for the day that Roman reminds me at 7:00pm that he needs treats for the next day, I decided to test out a cupcake recipe that is super quick, easy, and delicious.  I also didn't want them to look like I just unwrapped a packaged and put them into me Tupperware container, or that I whipped them up in a mass panic.  So much expectation on a tiny cupcake!  I also wanted the ingredients to be easily accessible, whether at a grocery store, corner store, or even 7-11.  Hey, desperate times call for desperate measures!

Here is what you need!
1 chocolate cake mix
1 package instant chocolate pudding powder
1 container premade chocolate frosting

I chose a No Name chocolate cake mix because I knew I was going to alter it, so the quality of the mix isn't that important.  I prepared the cake mix as per the boxes instructions but added 4T of the pudding powder to the cake mix.  This adds some moisture and fudgieness (is that a word?) to the cupcake.  This technique would work for any flavor of cake, vanilla with vanilla pudding or even spice cake with caramel pudding!  Oh my gosh that would be delicious, must add that to my list of things to try!

Now the frosting is a whole other animal.  This frosting doesn't have the most spreadable constancy but it has a fairy good flavor.  I decided to whip some life into it, literally.  I scooped the icing into my mixer and whipped it at high speed for 3-4 minutes.  This loosened the frosting up and gave it a bit of volume, and allowed me to spread the frosting on the cupcakes much easier.  When the frosting set it set with a nice sheen and, again, fudgieness to it.  I think I'm going to call Winston and have them add it to the dictionary!

These cupcakes turned out perfectly!  They are soft, moist, and perfectly chocolaty!  Including cooling time for the cupcakes, they took about 1 hour to make from start to finish.  Totally doable in a weeknight, after supper, panic stricken baking session.

*NOTE: I wanted to share a behind the scenes photo from todays blog post.  I took these photos the morning after I baked them so I had good lighting.  I wanted to have a photo of a bitten cupcake, so unfortunately I had to bite the cupcake.  Problem is I couldn't stop.  I ate the whole thing at 10:00am.  I just wanted everyone to know the pain and suffering that goes into each of these blog posts...

Follow Us Friday - September 5, 2014

Today is going to be a great day!  Why?  Well I wasn't feeling so great yesterday, so Roman didn't exactly have a fun Mom for most of the day, and I plan to make up for it today!  I will say though that there is a special place in heaven for kids who are angels when Mom is sick, and Roman definitely earned his place yesterday!  My living room was a disaster but he happily played by himself while I sat on the couch in a half comatose state.

7:00am - Breakfast
I'm clearly a creature of habit as I had Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Protein Oats again for breakfast.  Roman however broke out of his French toast rut and had scrambled eggs with mixed vegetables and milk.  After he polished that off he had a few frozen blueberries.  THIS is the reason I need to removed stains from all his pajamas before I wash them.  It's definitely a disaster but he loves them.

 

8:00am - Grocery Shopping
Before we could actually get in the vehicle to go grocery shopping Roman NEEDED to go for a bike ride.  Lately, the minute he sees his bike, he has to go for a ride.  He seems to have learned how to throw a mini tantrum while he was at daycare, and telling him he can't ride is bike is definitely a good way to see him perform his new skill.  If I have time I have no problem conceding to him and taking him for a ride.  After a quick trip down the street and back we were in the vehicle and on our way to Superstore!  It was a quick trip as we just needed some fruits and veggies but Roman enjoyed it non the less.  Although you'd never guess from this picture...

9:00am - Snack Time
Roman must have really worked up an appetite grocery shopping because he ate half an avocado, 2 strawberries, and a handful of raspberries with a side of milk.  Where dose this kid put all this food?  I was still pretty full from breakfast so I decided to make my version of pop.  I love this as a treat because it's pretty low in calories and tastes great.  Take half a glass of any fruit juice you like, in this case I used a Raspberry & Beet juice I bought today, and add half a glass of club soda to it.  You instantly have sparkling juice and it's half the calories of having a full glass of juice!

10:00am - Nap Time
Nap time for Roman meant blogging time for Mom!  Lately this nap has been fairly short so there isn't much point in starting anything else, plus I didn't get any blogging done yesterday.  I'm so excited about the posts I have sitting in queue!  Keep an eye out for delicious baking, garden updates, and some helpful tips!  I finished off my blogging with a Chocolate Zucchini Muffin, SO good!

11:15am - Lunch Time
On the menu today for Roman is some left over Smart Mac & Cheese with a side of chicken.  I used some leftover canned chicken for a chicken salad sandwich.  Notice how my sandwich is not nearly as pretty as John's tuna sandwich from the other day! haha.  I just have to mentioned that I LOVE the Kirkland canned chicken.  It isn't the ground chicken stuff that you normally find in canned chicken.  This is actual chunks of chicken, that still looks like chicken, its super tasty and doesn't have near the amount of salt as the other stuff.  I love having these on hand for lunches for Roman and I because it's so easy and still good for us!

12:00pm - To the park we go!
The weather is amazing today so we headed out to the park.  There is a park in town that has an accessible playground and a splash park all in one, so that's where we usually go.  We got lucky this time and the park was filled with little boys and even a couple close to Roman's age.  The only down side is that Roman would much rather chase the older kids up the play structure, which means Mom has to climb the play structure.  This kid has no sense of fear at all.  He will scale to the highest point on the structure and then attempt the take the fire pole down.  Really?!  It's like 15 feet down!  Crazy child!

1:20pm-1:40pm Nap Time
Well that lasted long...  It must have been a very refreshing nap because Roman hit the ground running when he woke up!

2:00pm - Cooking in the kitchen
Lately Roman wants to be involved in all of the cooking.  Usually this just involves him standing on a kitchen chair beside me and watching while munching on garden tomatoes or puffed wheat.  Well today I decided he was going to help.  I needed to make some more Breakfast Burrito Bites and I figured Roman could help me whisk the eggs.  He seemed to think it was pretty fun and he managed to keep his other hand out of the bowl *thank heavens*.  This is one of the moments I've been waiting for since I found out I was pregnant with Roman.  It's so exciting that he's now at the age that we can start doing things that will hopefully make up some great childhood memories for him later on!

2:45pm - Snack Time
Since the kitchen was already a disaster I thought I'd make a smoothie for Roman's snack!  I blended up 2 frozen bananas and 1 1/2 cups of frozen strawberries with some water.  Now I know for a fact that Roman knows how to use a straw but apparently he's forgotten in the last few weeks, so I ended up spoon feeding him his smoothie.  Non the less he did eat an entire glass of it, along with some cheerios.

3:00pm - Everybody in the pool!
Roman clearly was not going down for a nap so I figured I'd take him outside and see if I could exhaust him to the point of sleep.  The pool was already filled from yesterday so all I had to do was fill the water table.  You would think a pool would be more than enough water for a toddler, which would be correct if Roman wasn't a water baby with the attention span of a goldfish.  I don't know where he gets *squirrel*.  We had a blast playing in the water, with the dogs and eating green tomatoes!  This kid and his green tomatoes!

4:20pm - Nap Time
For real this time!  I watched an episode of Hot In Cleveland, well half watched because I'd already seen it, watched a few videos on YouTube, and caught this blog post up to date.  I finished up this unproductive nap by getting supper ready and in the oven.  As much as I hate these late naps they do make getting supper ready much easier!

6:30pm - Supper
Tonight we had homemade pizza!  Homemade pizza is not only a healthy meal but it's also an inexpensive one!  I love shopping the reduced rack in a bakery department and this is where I always score my pizza crusts.  I usually use naan or pitas for pizza crust because they are less doughy than regular pizza crust and you can make individual pizzas for everyone.  For Roman's pizza I chopped up some onions and added some of the leftover toppings from the burrito bites we made earlier in the day.  John and I had onion, pepper, spinach and tomato on our pizzas.  All were topped with a healthy serving of cheese and the sauce is just crushed tomatoes.  Roman wasn't completely sold on the pizza and basically sucked the toppings off the nann, which is fine with me since it's all veggies!

7:00pm - Outside time with Dad
The boys took off outside for some bike riding and finished the evening off with some chalk art on the driveway.  I think John and I get more enjoyment out of drawing on the driveway but I'm sure Roman will learn to love it too haha.  While they had all this fun, I had a little party of my own.  Dishes baby, yeah!  I know, your jealous of my exciting evening, but it's okay, I'm sure you'll have an evening this exciting some day.

7:30pm - Tubby Time!
Today's bath was oddly quiet.  It must have gone well because both John and Roman emerged from the bathroom unscathed and without tears.

8:00pm - Bed Time
Tonight was pretty low key or me.  John and I watched TV for awhile and I enjoyed a delicious cup of Strawberry Rhubarb Parfait Tea from DavidsTea.  DavidsTea has become a new obsession of mine.  The new fall collection just recently came out, so maybe I'll do a post on my favorite teas once I get my hands on some of the new tea!  Such a good ending to an awesome day with my favorite little man.

Spaghetti Squash with Fresh Garden Tomatoes

I feel like I have been eating tomatoes non stop sine they started ripening in our garden.  Not that I'm complaining, but eating tomatoes plain, for weeks on end, gets old really fast.  I needed to come up with a way to reinvent these here tomatoes so I could enjoy these delicious little morsels without it feeling like a chore!

Everything is better with cheese, so I knew feta would be a sure bet.  But tomatoes with feta is hardly a meal, or a snack if you talk to either of the men in the this house.  (If you have ever seen Roman eat you'd consider him a man in this case too!).  So I decided to make a Pasta & Oil type dish with spaghetti squash, tomatoes, feta, and a few other ingredients.  It's super light, which is perfect for summer, and it can be thrown together in no time flat!  Plus I know John and Roman both love spaghetti squash, so I knew I'd have a winner when I was done.

Spaghetti Squash with Fresh Garden Tomatoes
2 spaghetti squash
1/2 a lemon, juiced
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cups chopped tomato
3/4 cup crumbled feta (or more if you love cheese)
2 green onions, sliced

Preheat oven to 400°.  Cut spaghetti squash in half length wise and remove the seeds and fleshy part in the middle; the same way you would clean a pumpkin before carving.  Lay the halves on a baking sheet cut side up.  Brush a small amount of olive oil onto the flesh of the squash.  Bake at 400° for 50-60 minutes until soft.

Using a fork, scrape out the inside of the squash.  Make sure to go with the grain of the squash (width wise) to make spaghetti like strands. Place the strands into a bowl.  Drizzle lemon juice and oil over the strands.  Add tomato, feta and green onions.  Toss until all ingredients are well mixed.

I love spaghetti squash because you get the illusion of eating pasta when you're actually eating noting but vegetables!  The first time I made it I was a little skeptical and was even more skeptical that John would like it.  That night we both ate an entire squash each.  Obviously this has become a no-brainer in our house.  They can sometimes be hard to find at the grocery store, especially in the summer, so try your local farmers market or even grow your own!

First Harvest & Herb Storage

Is there anything more delicious than food fresh out of the garden?  If there is I don't know what it is.  Oh wait, chocolate cake!  I don't have any chocolate cake so I guess I'll have to make do with some delicious produce!  I acquired a good variety of items in the first major harvest of the year.

Let's start with the dill.  I finally had enough with my dill bush (yes it was the size of a small bush) so I cut it all down.  It was stifling some of the other nearby plants because it was so big and had to be dealt with.  After I stripped all the tender dill sprigs off the branches I packaged them up into handy little dill rolls.  This is a technique that a friend of my Mom's (the very same one that gave her the Pierogie recipe) passed on to her.  Place the dill in the centre of a square of plastic wrap and roll it up like a burrito.  Pop it in the freezer and when you want to use it just unwrap a section and slice it.  When the dill is frozen it is very easy to finely chop the amount you want!

 

The parsley is growing like a weed and I literally can't keep up with cutting it off.  I swear it doubles in size every day.  I think I could cook with fresh parsley every day for the next 6 months and not run out.  To store the parsley, I rinse it off and stuff it into sandwich bags and freeze it.  Once it's frozen I find most of the parsley will crumble up just with the bags being moved around in the freezer, which is handy because I don't have to chop it when I want to use it!

The chives, basil and rosemary are getting to the end of their days so I collected most of what was left from them.  I left a few rosemary and basil branches in the garden and I'll cut the chives back to the ground in the fall.  All of these herbs just get popped into sandwich bags and stored in the freezer.  Chives are a perennial herb that will come back year after year and require little to no care.  I actually have a cluster of chives that are growing in an old pot, in direct sun, without any water (other than rain) for the last 2 years.  Talk about hardy!

The green onions, carrots and beans and chugging right along and producing well.  Roman loves to walk around the yard while he munches on a fresh carrot.  Who can blame him!  He's also been known to make off with a bean or two that he usually ends up sharing with Bronx.  Again, shock shock.

I am completely flabbergasted with the performance of two of the plats in the garden, and for good reason!  The strawberries have surprisingly produced a ton of fruit for us.  The birds must have had their fill of Saskatoons because they haven't touched the strawberries at all.  It may also help that Bronx has snagged a few of the robins out of mid air....  With the two plants we have, every couple of days we all head out to the garden after dinner for our strawberry dessert.  So good!  Probably most surprising of all are the peppers.  Not only are the peppers growing, but they are enormous!  We have been watching these guys patiently as they grow bigger and bigger.  Finally we decided it was time to pick the chili peppers.  I've used them in a few dishes and was very impressed by the flavour as well!  A few of the bell peppers were picked by a certain small person, who then proceeded to bite right into them, but the rest I'm letting grow until they can grow no more, which might be soon!

The tomatoes have grown into a small forest which is starting to produce delicious grape sized tomatoes.  The plants themselves were up to a whopping 6-7 feet before we had a nasty windstorm come through that pushed the higher branches down and wound them into the lower ones.  I've managed to string most of the branches up on the fence, but we did lose a few.  Luckily a few of the plants are growing like vines up the neighbors fence and that seems to have saved them from the damaging winds!

 

To see how I built my garden click here!

To see where this garden was 1 month ago click here!

Follow Us Friday - August 29, 2014

Today is a very dreary day on the prairies.  Cooler temperatures (10°C), wind and rain is making today a tough one for a little man who lives for being outside.  So John and I are on a mission to keep Roman busy and keep our sanity at the same time.  I'm the type of person that has to stay busy at all times; if I get bored, you're in trouble.  Unfortunately this trait has also been passed on to Roman, much to John's dismay.  This is how we keep our little man busy on a rainy day!

7:00am - Breakfast
Roman and I had the same French toast with berries and Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Protein Oats that we had in the last Follow Us Friday.  I clearly wasn't quite functioning yet because I completely forgot to take a picture.  I can assure you it was just as messy as the last time we had it; for Roman that is.

8:00am - Family Dance Party!
Lately Roman is loving dancing.  We picked up a wireless speaker from Costco yesterday so that we could have some tunes in the kitchen, because sometimes the iPhone just doesn't cut it.  This little speaker puts out some decent sound and it was only $50.  Of course it wasn't on the list of things we needed at Costco, but is anything you buy at Costco ever on the list?

8:05am - Chores and Play Time!
Clearly Roman's love of dance didn't last long today.  John tackled the dishes, with some help from Roman, while I lovingly removed all the blueberry stains from Roman's laundry.  I use a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and baking soda to remove all the food stains. Not only is it extremely cheap (at most it costs $1 so remove stains from an entire load of clothes), but it is extremely effective.  Even if the stains were missed and washed and dried multiple times, this magical concoction will still remove the stains!  Roman was helping me remove stains for a hot minute before he decided he was bored.  NOOO!  How did it happen so fast!?  John immediately scooped him up and rushed Roman into the garage to play with golf balls.  Good save!  Once the novelty of that wore off, they moved into the house to do some coloring.  I think I might be raising the next Michelangelo!

9:00am - Nap Time
Or so we thought!  After 15 minutes of rolling around I just assumed Roman didn't need a nap.  Turns out he had a dirty bum and needed a fresh diaper, which John was nice enough to change!

9:45am - Nap Time, for real this time
I settled in to work on some blog posts, and John crafted this special snack bagel for himself.  It is a sesame bagel with a pork cutlet and ketchup.  Not something I would personally choose but John wants to make sure everyone knows "It was really good!".

11:30 am - Lunch
Today was an easy lunch since we only had to make one meal for everyone!  John considers himself a tuna salad expert, so he made tuna sandwiches for all of us!  Roman LOVES tuna but prefers his bread on the side and in stick form. It's definitely a messy meal, but as long as he's shoveling good, nutritious food into his mouth, who can really complain?  For dessert, Roman had a toddler puffed rice square.  Basically it's a rice krispie treat that is organic, has less sugar, and more expensive than it's traditional counterpart.  *NOTE: I don't ever make my sandwiches look this fancy.  John thought it needed to be pretty for the blog post.  Note the raw spaghetti holding the tomato onto the top of the sandwich...

12:15pm - Outside Time
How you ask?  Well, we took Roman to the Yara Centre in town to play on the turf.  Now I guess it's not technically outside, but it's still a type of grass, and he can still run around like a crazy man and burn off some of his energy!  He had a great time playing soccer with John and I, but we became obsolete when a couple little boys showed up.  Apparently standing inches from someone your own height and staring them in the eyes is way more fun than playing with your parents.....  On our way home we stopped by the local pool and signed Roman up for swimming lessons!  This will be his second time taking lessons and I can't wait!  Granted it is a lot of work and can be a giant pain in the butt to haul him to the pool twice a week for only 1/2 hour in the pool each day, but he lives for the water and seeing him happy in the pool is worth every ounce of effort from me!  Plus I could also use the exercise!

 

This is when we divide and conquer!  At 2:00pm I headed into the kitchen to bake some banana bread!  Last night I had a bunch of frozen bananas come down on my feet when I was getting vegetables out for Roman.  This was the straw that broke John's back and he was going to throw them out!  I figured I'd better get moving and make some banana bread before my bananas were all gone.  While I was baking, John and Roman had snack time!  The menu consisted of cheese, crackers, avocado, part of an Old Fashioned Apple Crisp squeeze pouch and milk.

3:00pm - Nap Time
This meant laundry and blogging time for John and I.  We also may have sliced off a few pieces of fresh banana bread and hovered over the counter eating them....

6:00pm - Supper
Tonight we had Honey Garlic Pork Bites with rice and sautéed vegetables.  This was something I invented while processing a massive pork loin we purchased at Costco yesterday.  The was a product that was recommended on a Mommy Facebook page as a good buy.  From a $20 pork loin I ended up with, 1 pork roast, 16 pork chops, and 2 meals of pork bites.  Talk about a good deal and a great way to save money on groceries!  It required a little bit of cutting and prep when we got home, but it was definitely worth it!

6:30pm - Playtime with Dad
John and Roman started playing inside after supper, but it was soon apparent that this was not going to work.  Roman had had enough with this inside business and wanted to go outside NOW!  So we bundled him up in a windbreaker and mitts and they headed outside.  There is no child happier than this one when he is outside!  The only small downfall was that he was unable to pick and eat green tomatoes, which caused a small outburst of screaming and stomping.  There is nothing cuter than this child getting frustrated and stomping, but I do realize that the day will come when he's losing it in the grocery store that it will not be so cute anymore.  Until that day, I shall enjoy it.

7:00pm - Tubby Time!
Dirty baby + water = clean baby.  That's all I'm privy to.

8:00pm - Bed Time
Which means it's time for me to finish up this blog post, possibly start another, and to work on some other projects.  I really wanted to whip up the food item that goes with a blog post I want to do, but I think I'm done baking for one day.  Hopefully I'll get to it one day this week while Roman is at daycare.  I feel a little guilty sending him to daycare when I'm at home but I know it's good for his development (we've seen a big change in his already) and I've already paid for the time.  Ack, first world mother problems.

See you next week!

Mediterranean Stuffed Chicken Breasts

There was a point in my cooking career (many moons ago) that I always wanted to stuff food in food.  I'm not talking about anything as interesting as a turducken, but I had a small obsession with stuffing chicken and beef with cheese and vegetables.  It started out as an interesting concept but my family quickly lost enthusiasm.  The final nail in the coffin was steak wrapped around asparagus and feta.  I had gone too far!

I must have been traumatized because I had not stuffed another piece of meat until this very day.  I found inspiration in a post on a healthy eating Facebook page.  A gal had posted a picture of this delicious looking stuffed chicken breast.  Instantly the memories of the past flooded back, but this time I had no one to stop me, John and Roman would be the next victims of my meat stuffing crusade!

Mediterranean Stuffed Chicken Breasts
4 chicken breasts
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 tomato, diced
3/4 cup chopped spinach
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups panko bread crumbs
2T chili powder
1t chipotle powder
1t salt
1t pepper

Preheat oven to 350°.  To create a pocket for the filling, butterfly each of the chicken breasts by slicing the breast in half, running the knife parallel to the cutting board, but not cutting completely though.

In a small bowl mix together ricotta cheese, tomato and spinach.  Spoon the mixture into the pockets in the chicken breast, diving the cheese mixture between the chicken.  Secure the chicken breast closed using toothpicks.

On a plate combine panko bread crumbs, chili powder, chipotle powder, salt and pepper.  Stir until well combined.  Add a splash of water to the beaten eggs and brush over both sides of the chicken breasts.  Coat each chicken breast in bread crumbs and set on a parchment lined baking sheet.  Bake at 350° for 30-40 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.

If you want to make this a freezer meal, simply wrap the stuffed but un-breaded chicken breasts in plastic wrap and freeze in a freezer bag.  To serve, thaw the chicken, coat with egg and bread crumbs, and bake!  Easy peasy!

Losing my job and loving it!

A shocking title for two reasons; 1. Who would ever think that losing a job could be a good thing? and 2. I just blogged about going back to work and now I'm blogging about losing my job.  Even crazier is that these two posts are written exactly a week apart!

Let's start with the back story.  I worked at a job that I loved, with an amazing group of people, for a little over six years including my maternity leave.  I was back at work for four days before I was laid off.  I was absolutely devastated.  Not only did I lose a career in a field that I loved and had a passion for, but I also lost the community of people that have been there for my wedding and the birth of Roman, two of the important events in my life.  One thing my Dad often says is that "God only gives people what they can handle".  This was instrumental in me pulling it together and preparing to start the journey down this new path in life.

For a person that has been employed since the age of 15 it was terrifying and confusing to be out of work.  Having not had to look for a job in almost 10 years, I had no resume and no cover letter, but I had desire.  I genuinely enjoy having a job, so I immediately typed up the documents I needed and started applying for jobs.  Instantly I had interviews and job offers!  I was overjoyed!  This was going to be easier than I thought!  But then I started thinking.  After paying for daycare I wouldn't be contributing much to the household bills.  Was it really worth going back to work right away for only a few hundred dollars a month?  Would that time be better spent at home with Roman?

Before I ran this idea past John I had to answer the big question; can we afford it?  I sat down with a pen and paper and started jotting down all of our expenses for the year.  It really is shocking how much money we spend on useless things, and we don't even realize it until you write it down, but I digress.  Luckily John works for an amazing company and it worked out that we would be just as far ahead if I stayed home.  Obviously there were going to be some sacrifices we all had to make, but it could be done.  I revealed my little plan and notes to John and I was surprised to find that he was all for it.

Now it's time to prepare for the adventure of staying home with my special little man full time.  I negotiated a lower interest rate on my credit card (just in case), cut back on our cable and phone services, started stock piling more freezer cooking meals, and got back into looking for coupons.  Roman is going to daycare three days a week, since we've already paid for the month, which gives me time to get everything in order. 

Now that I know his development will be left solely up to me, I feel like I need to have a binder full of activities, crafts, outings (cheap ones) and games for us.  Roman is really blossoming at daycare and I don't want to slow that down. *Side note: Roman stopped crying before I got to the door to leave at daycare this morning!!!!  I want him to have plenty of opportunities to explore, learn, and play with other kids!  I'm overjoyed, and mildly terrified, at the chance to spend all this time at home with Roman.  This is a decision John and I never would have made on our own.  Many parents wish they had the ability to stay home and raise their kids, and I feel so blessed that I was pushed in this direction.  A situation that seemed so catastrophic has a silver lining, and I can't wait for the adventure!