It's been fun this week to see your meal ideas and recipes, so here's a quick contribution of one of my favourites. I cut everything up and put it all in the slow cooker "bowl" the night before in the fridge, and in the morning all I have to do is turn it on.
Slow-cooker Beef Stew
originally from www.canadianliving.com, but this particular recipe doesn't seem to be online anymore.)
Ingredients:
2 lb (1 kg) stewing beef cubes
4 potatoes, peeled and cut in wedges
3 carrots, cut in chunks
2 onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-1/2 cups (372 ml) beef stock
1 can (5 oz/156 ml) tomato paste
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp (15 ml) worcestershire sauce
1 cup (250 ml) frozen peas
1/2 tsp (2 ml) salt
1/4 tsp (1 ml) pepper
2 tbsp (25 ml) all-purpose flour
Preparation:
Trim and cut beef into 1-inch cubes. In 18- to 24-cup (4.5 to 6 L) slow-cooker, mix together beef, potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, beef stock, tomato paste, bay leaf and Worcestershire sauce. Cover and cook on Low for 10 to 12 hours (or on High for 5 to 6 hours) or until beef and vegetables are tender.
Add peas, salt and pepper. Increase heat to High. Whisk flour with 2 tbsp (25 ml) water; stir into stew. Cook, covered, for 5 minutes or until thinckened. Discard bay leaf.
The recipe says it makes 4-6 servings, and I'd say they are generous ones. We often freeze at least 2 portions.
Enjoy! (H. - Hope this contributes to your case for a slow-cooker...great week-night life-saver!! ;)
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Sunday, January 16, 2011
J- Bitey McSwaterson
Everyday I try to get Alex to stop biting and hiting but nothing seems to sink in. I get down to his level, use short words and repeat them everytime. Not working. He hits or bites when he's overwhelmed, over excited, or frustrated. Sometimes I see it starting and I try to distract him before he starts hitting which occasionally works. My husband is starting to lose his patience with Alex and I'm just exhausted.
Does anyone have any good toddler behaviour books you can recommend?
Does anyone have any good toddler behaviour books you can recommend?
Friday, January 14, 2011
K - Lean on me - continued!
Okay, so I'm new to this blog thing, and I think I kind of went overboard...I just tried to write a comment on "S - Lean on Me," and it told me it's too long! lol Always too chatty! ;) So, here's my own post as a follow-up. Let's see if this works!
Wow, do I relate to all of you guys! As some of you know, I was having so much fun on mat leave that I was pretty sure I wanted to have another baby right away just to keep the party going...M, care to tell me what that would really be like? ;) But seriously, I was absolutely dreading going back to work, and really mourned the loss of my time with C. Thankfully, she loves daycare, and now I think she gets a lot out of it. And about 2 months into my return to work, I changed jobs to one that I enjoy more, and that is only 4 days/week. That helps! The work-family balance is improving, as we learn and adjust to our roles in a family with two working parents. We're basically trying to do anything we can in order to maximize the approx 1 hour window that we get to spend with C each evening before she goes to bed (i.e., meal planning!). That's the part I find the hardest - how sad is it that I only see her for one hour every day! I guess this is what J experienced while I was on mat leave; but maybe you don't miss what you never had. For me it's a shockingly short amount of time. (And pushing bedtime later isn't an option, because she needs so much sleep that we already have to wake her in the a.m. for daycare - I know, I'm definitely NOT complaining about a baby who likes to sleep, but some nights after I've been at work all day I'd love to be able to hang out with her past 7:00.)
Okay, now the flipside: She's been sick a lot lately, so I have been home alone with her in the day for the first time in months. And I didn't know what to freaking do with myself all day!!!! I was bored and counting down the hours, and I felt bad that she was just kind of wandering around the house. Of course, she's a different baby now than she was when I was home with her, and if she's sick we can't really go out and do much. But even if we could, most of my mat leave friends are back at work, or now have their own schedules. And of course I don't have any planned activities, so it's just me and C at home. I can't say that it's been a lot of fun for me, and I'm pretty sure C is better stimulated at daycare. It has really made me think about what it would be like to be home with her full-time. Like some of you have said, the activities and social network would be essential. It would be a lot of work to make sure that she gets the stimulation she needs, while not going stir-crazy myself. And it's definitely not like I was able to get anything done around the house. I think I was even more exhausted than after a day of work at my "other" job!
So, I ask myself (and my husband probably asks himself as well!): What would make me happy?? I grumble about going to work and how little I see C, but then I would grumble about how hard it is to take care of her at home. I think part of the answer is just that adult life with family responsibilities is hard, whichever way you slice it, and it's still something that I'm getting used to. My parents would get a kick out of this - how much did I take for granted?!
Overall though, as much as I'm shocked to see myself writing this, I think that I'm happy that I am back at work! (Easy to say on a Friday night as I sit here with a glass of wine...talk to me on Sunday night, those are bad days!) I guess as much as I hate the week-day morning rush and the stress of work responsibilities on top of mom responsibilities, I'm grateful that I'm in a situation where I get a bit of both worlds. I am continuing to work on being organized enough that I can really enjoy time with C on the weekends, instead of running around to get things done in preparation for the next Monday morning.
Thanks to all of you for your honesty and your open ears and minds. And feel free to vent when you need to - this parenting thing is definitely a tough job in whatever form we're doing it. I'm so grateful that I met all of you, and that we're all still in touch to go through our challenges together.
Wow, do I relate to all of you guys! As some of you know, I was having so much fun on mat leave that I was pretty sure I wanted to have another baby right away just to keep the party going...M, care to tell me what that would really be like? ;) But seriously, I was absolutely dreading going back to work, and really mourned the loss of my time with C. Thankfully, she loves daycare, and now I think she gets a lot out of it. And about 2 months into my return to work, I changed jobs to one that I enjoy more, and that is only 4 days/week. That helps! The work-family balance is improving, as we learn and adjust to our roles in a family with two working parents. We're basically trying to do anything we can in order to maximize the approx 1 hour window that we get to spend with C each evening before she goes to bed (i.e., meal planning!). That's the part I find the hardest - how sad is it that I only see her for one hour every day! I guess this is what J experienced while I was on mat leave; but maybe you don't miss what you never had. For me it's a shockingly short amount of time. (And pushing bedtime later isn't an option, because she needs so much sleep that we already have to wake her in the a.m. for daycare - I know, I'm definitely NOT complaining about a baby who likes to sleep, but some nights after I've been at work all day I'd love to be able to hang out with her past 7:00.)
Okay, now the flipside: She's been sick a lot lately, so I have been home alone with her in the day for the first time in months. And I didn't know what to freaking do with myself all day!!!! I was bored and counting down the hours, and I felt bad that she was just kind of wandering around the house. Of course, she's a different baby now than she was when I was home with her, and if she's sick we can't really go out and do much. But even if we could, most of my mat leave friends are back at work, or now have their own schedules. And of course I don't have any planned activities, so it's just me and C at home. I can't say that it's been a lot of fun for me, and I'm pretty sure C is better stimulated at daycare. It has really made me think about what it would be like to be home with her full-time. Like some of you have said, the activities and social network would be essential. It would be a lot of work to make sure that she gets the stimulation she needs, while not going stir-crazy myself. And it's definitely not like I was able to get anything done around the house. I think I was even more exhausted than after a day of work at my "other" job!
So, I ask myself (and my husband probably asks himself as well!): What would make me happy?? I grumble about going to work and how little I see C, but then I would grumble about how hard it is to take care of her at home. I think part of the answer is just that adult life with family responsibilities is hard, whichever way you slice it, and it's still something that I'm getting used to. My parents would get a kick out of this - how much did I take for granted?!
Overall though, as much as I'm shocked to see myself writing this, I think that I'm happy that I am back at work! (Easy to say on a Friday night as I sit here with a glass of wine...talk to me on Sunday night, those are bad days!) I guess as much as I hate the week-day morning rush and the stress of work responsibilities on top of mom responsibilities, I'm grateful that I'm in a situation where I get a bit of both worlds. I am continuing to work on being organized enough that I can really enjoy time with C on the weekends, instead of running around to get things done in preparation for the next Monday morning.
Thanks to all of you for your honesty and your open ears and minds. And feel free to vent when you need to - this parenting thing is definitely a tough job in whatever form we're doing it. I'm so grateful that I met all of you, and that we're all still in touch to go through our challenges together.
K - weeknight meal planning for sanity
I was so happy to see some of your meal ideas, and especially recipes! Lately, in the balancing act of life, having something good to eat for supper is one of those challenges that we're really trying to work on. C, when she is well (i.e., not this week!), is eating pretty much what we eat. We do try to keep something on hand that's quick in case she's in a picky mood or our supper is taking too long to prepare. (She loves frozen homemade chicken fingers, cooked veggies with pasta, mini-pitas with humus, banana...) It's only recently that we are all sitting down to eat together, and it takes a lot of coordination because C and J only get home around 6:00, hence the meal planning! But we find that if we can eat right away together, we get to spend a little time with her before bedtime. So, I get off work a bit earlier and motor home in order to have supper ready when they get home.
So, here are the meals we ate the past 2 weeks. Like some of you had mentioned, we're now planning meals on the weekend and getting groceries accordingly. We try to do meals that make good leftovers on Sundays and near the beginning of the week so we have good repeats either for supper or lunches. Things deteriorate a bit the nearer we get to Friday!
Sunday: Quesadilla
Monday: Chicken Casserole (of the Campbell's Soup variety - but we all like it!)
Tuesday: Beef stew (slow cooker)
Wednesday: Salmon and couscous with salad
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Frozen pizza (I love the thin-crust ones that are always on sale at Provigo!!)
Sunday: Tofu & veggie stirfry with rice (bottled sauce)
Monday: Tuna casserole
Tuesday: Leftover stirfry
Wednesday: Leftover casserole
Thursday: Baked chicken and veggies
Friday: Chicken caesar wraps (with leftover chicken from last night)
So this week there was a lot of repetition!! Probably could have planned for an extra meal in there, but we don't mind the leftovers and we had a rough week with C being home sick a lot, so it was nice just to have food in the house that was ready to eat at the touch of a microwave button!
A few notes:
-C LOVES the quesadillas, which consist of: refried beans, shredded chicken, corn, black olives, cheese and salsa. Put it all in whole wheat tortilla and fry in the frying pan. It makes great leftovers! I like to eat them with sour cream and guacamole.
-When I cook chicken (e.g., for the quesadillas), I cook enough for a second meal - last week, we used that the next night in chicken casserole. This week, it was chicken caesar wraps on day 2 (which take about 5 minutes to throw together - a real favourite!)
-Lunch ideas: I'm really tired of sandwiches for lunch, so I like to take leftovers instead and most of these meals do well for travel and re-heat. Another lunch idea I'm enjoying lately is homemade greek salad. I never usually find that salads are enough to fill me up enough, but this one is really quite good:
Greek salad: cucumber, tomato, red onion, black olives, feta cheese, red/green pepper. Olive oil and lemon juice, with a bit of oregano.
I don't have links to any of the recipes, but maybe I'll make a separate post later with a few of the good ones. I'm enjoying seeing all of your ideas too! I'm planning on trying some new things out this weekend based on your suggestions, so I'll let you know how it goes!
So, here are the meals we ate the past 2 weeks. Like some of you had mentioned, we're now planning meals on the weekend and getting groceries accordingly. We try to do meals that make good leftovers on Sundays and near the beginning of the week so we have good repeats either for supper or lunches. Things deteriorate a bit the nearer we get to Friday!
Sunday: Quesadilla
Monday: Chicken Casserole (of the Campbell's Soup variety - but we all like it!)
Tuesday: Beef stew (slow cooker)
Wednesday: Salmon and couscous with salad
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Frozen pizza (I love the thin-crust ones that are always on sale at Provigo!!)
Sunday: Tofu & veggie stirfry with rice (bottled sauce)
Monday: Tuna casserole
Tuesday: Leftover stirfry
Wednesday: Leftover casserole
Thursday: Baked chicken and veggies
Friday: Chicken caesar wraps (with leftover chicken from last night)
So this week there was a lot of repetition!! Probably could have planned for an extra meal in there, but we don't mind the leftovers and we had a rough week with C being home sick a lot, so it was nice just to have food in the house that was ready to eat at the touch of a microwave button!
A few notes:
-C LOVES the quesadillas, which consist of: refried beans, shredded chicken, corn, black olives, cheese and salsa. Put it all in whole wheat tortilla and fry in the frying pan. It makes great leftovers! I like to eat them with sour cream and guacamole.
-When I cook chicken (e.g., for the quesadillas), I cook enough for a second meal - last week, we used that the next night in chicken casserole. This week, it was chicken caesar wraps on day 2 (which take about 5 minutes to throw together - a real favourite!)
-Lunch ideas: I'm really tired of sandwiches for lunch, so I like to take leftovers instead and most of these meals do well for travel and re-heat. Another lunch idea I'm enjoying lately is homemade greek salad. I never usually find that salads are enough to fill me up enough, but this one is really quite good:
Greek salad: cucumber, tomato, red onion, black olives, feta cheese, red/green pepper. Olive oil and lemon juice, with a bit of oregano.
I don't have links to any of the recipes, but maybe I'll make a separate post later with a few of the good ones. I'm enjoying seeing all of your ideas too! I'm planning on trying some new things out this weekend based on your suggestions, so I'll let you know how it goes!
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Some of my favorite recipes
Hi all,
What follows is not a meal plan (since I'm not that organized...yet), just a quick list of some of the recipes that I'm enjoying and making frequently these days. I'm kind of obsessed with lentils as of late, quinoa too. You have all inspired me with your recipes, so I hope some of you will enjoy these too. Oh and although AP doesn't eat these regularly, she definitely gives them a try when she sees me eating them. We still frequently make seperate meals in our house, which isn't so stressful since AP eats fairly simple meals - pasta or couscous with olive oil and some seasoning (she's anti-tomatoe for the most part), hummus and bread/crackers, cream cheese and bread/crackers, grilled chicken & fish, omeletes, with all of these usually accompagnied with steamed broccoli or cauliflower. She also eats tons of blueberries (I buy the PC organic frozen ones) and grapes, and some yogurt. In terms of snacks, I make blueberry and oat bran muffins regularly, along with other kinds, which she usually eats. I can post those recipes another time.
1. Two kinds of lentil soup
a. Coconut red lentil soup
b. Lentil soup with leafy greens (I used kale)
2. Black bean and sweet potato burritos - I froze the leftovers and they were great for lunches
3. Chicken and quinoa soup - I love this soup! I also usually add some greens to this one. Very easy to make.
Happy cooking.
A.
What follows is not a meal plan (since I'm not that organized...yet), just a quick list of some of the recipes that I'm enjoying and making frequently these days. I'm kind of obsessed with lentils as of late, quinoa too. You have all inspired me with your recipes, so I hope some of you will enjoy these too. Oh and although AP doesn't eat these regularly, she definitely gives them a try when she sees me eating them. We still frequently make seperate meals in our house, which isn't so stressful since AP eats fairly simple meals - pasta or couscous with olive oil and some seasoning (she's anti-tomatoe for the most part), hummus and bread/crackers, cream cheese and bread/crackers, grilled chicken & fish, omeletes, with all of these usually accompagnied with steamed broccoli or cauliflower. She also eats tons of blueberries (I buy the PC organic frozen ones) and grapes, and some yogurt. In terms of snacks, I make blueberry and oat bran muffins regularly, along with other kinds, which she usually eats. I can post those recipes another time.
1. Two kinds of lentil soup
a. Coconut red lentil soup
b. Lentil soup with leafy greens (I used kale)
2. Black bean and sweet potato burritos - I froze the leftovers and they were great for lunches
3. Chicken and quinoa soup - I love this soup! I also usually add some greens to this one. Very easy to make.
Happy cooking.
A.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
And I feel like I'm being tough on my kids some days...
Sorry to hijack the blog...just had to share this if you haven't seen it yet!!!
Intriguing yet horrifying!
Thoughts?
Intriguing yet horrifying!
Thoughts?
Monday, January 10, 2011
M- Mundane Meals
A few of us had once expressed frustration with feeling like we were always eating the same old. "It's not the cooking we mind", we said, "it's the coming up with ideas for a nutritious meal that is quick!". I know I personally feel like this!
So today I change this! I am going to start posting my weekday meal plans and hope to inspire you guys to do the same! By seeing what is one everyone else's menu, we may be inspired to try new recipes! I personally love diving through my cookbooks, cooking magazines, and websites to find new recipes and to come up with my plan for the week. This can be a bit daunting at time! S. had once mentioned that she saw somewhere that it can be helpful to plan your meals around specific themes for specific days. So I will try this...but more on that later!
First - here is what we actually ate two weeks ago:
Sunday - Vegetarian Moroccan Stew
Monday - Pulled Pork Sandwiches (slow cooker)
Tuesday - Spaghetti with Meatsauce (meatsauce from freezer)
Wed - Banger's and Mash (slow cooker recipe from Emma)
Thurs - Pork Fajitas with leftovers from Monday
Fri - ordered in pizza (hey, nobody's perfect!)
Sat - Gnocchi with bacon and pasta sauce (pantry diving!)
So then switching gears to go with themes. I think this will change as I try to get it to feel right.
This should hopefully make it easier to plan the meals and get grocery shopping for the week!
Monday - pasta dish
Tuesday - Slow Cooker
Wednesday - Vegetarian
Thursday - Casserole/Meat Dish
Friday - Fun! (pizza, tacos, order in)
So the plan for this week:
Monday - Linguine with Spinach Pesto (actually was pretty good, substitute spinach for basil)
Tuesday - Lentil-Veggie Soup
Wednesday - Leftovers
Thursday - Maple-Glazed Pork tenderloin with baked apples
Friday - homemade pizza
In posting this for each other, I hope to inspire and be inspired but also to feel somewhat accountable for providing my family with good, wholesome foods! Of course, there will be ordering in more often that should happen!!! I look forward to seeing your menus in separate posts so they don't get lost in comments!
So today I change this! I am going to start posting my weekday meal plans and hope to inspire you guys to do the same! By seeing what is one everyone else's menu, we may be inspired to try new recipes! I personally love diving through my cookbooks, cooking magazines, and websites to find new recipes and to come up with my plan for the week. This can be a bit daunting at time! S. had once mentioned that she saw somewhere that it can be helpful to plan your meals around specific themes for specific days. So I will try this...but more on that later!
First - here is what we actually ate two weeks ago:
Sunday - Vegetarian Moroccan Stew
Monday - Pulled Pork Sandwiches (slow cooker)
Tuesday - Spaghetti with Meatsauce (meatsauce from freezer)
Wed - Banger's and Mash (slow cooker recipe from Emma)
Thurs - Pork Fajitas with leftovers from Monday
Fri - ordered in pizza (hey, nobody's perfect!)
Sat - Gnocchi with bacon and pasta sauce (pantry diving!)
So then switching gears to go with themes. I think this will change as I try to get it to feel right.
This should hopefully make it easier to plan the meals and get grocery shopping for the week!
Monday - pasta dish
Tuesday - Slow Cooker
Wednesday - Vegetarian
Thursday - Casserole/Meat Dish
Friday - Fun! (pizza, tacos, order in)
So the plan for this week:
Monday - Linguine with Spinach Pesto (actually was pretty good, substitute spinach for basil)
Tuesday - Lentil-Veggie Soup
Wednesday - Leftovers
Thursday - Maple-Glazed Pork tenderloin with baked apples
Friday - homemade pizza
In posting this for each other, I hope to inspire and be inspired but also to feel somewhat accountable for providing my family with good, wholesome foods! Of course, there will be ordering in more often that should happen!!! I look forward to seeing your menus in separate posts so they don't get lost in comments!
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