Monthly Round Up

Feb 23rd: Fish and Chips. I LOVE superstore. They have great products and we eat a lot of them. We really enjoyed the Haddock and Hops they have there for our fish and chips. But as luck would have it when I wanted to buy it they didn't have any. But what they did have was the blue menu fish/haddock. So I thought I'd give it a try as I usually like the blue menu stuff. In fact if you open our freezer there is a lot of blue in it, blue meatballs, frozen dinners and chicken fingers. These fish fillets will now be added to the list. They were very tasty and as the blue menu implies, they were also healthier for us then the Haddock and Hops.


Feb 24: Oma's Birthday, so we had our favorite Oma dinner, Stomput Spinazzi. A classic meal.

Feb 25: I worked, so the boys had a Sobey's chicken and I had leftover peanut butter chicken
Feb 26:

Feb 27: Appetizer Smorsgasbord. A friend of mine mentioned they did this the other day and I thought it was a great idea. So we had nachos and vegetable spring rolls. The kids thought it was great to have a meal where no utensils were required.

Feb 28: Roast Beef Dinner. This is the meal we have had the most this month. It must be winter. I love how colorful this meal is. And I love pickled beets which is my favorite thing to have with roast beef.

So the eat at home challenge is done - thank goodness. I don't think I realized anything any different then our other eat at home challenges, but it was a good way to get me back on track with taking lunches. Not eating out for a whole month is a challenge. I failed the challenge back in the middle of the month on a Saturday when I went out to lunch with my best friend from highschool and then had a girls night out and drank and ate. Other then that one day though I was good.

Did anyone meet the challenge and not eat out for a whole month?

Jenn

Carriere = FAIL

Well, I definately FAILED on the posting part of this challenge. I think I fell off the bandwagon when I realized I was going out of town for a few days.

For the most part I think I did really well. The only days I did EAT out were the days I was in Montana this month, (a friday/saturday/sunday).

The drinking out was a little more difficult however. There was a night out with the girls, there was a night out with the boys and 2 suprise outings to watch the Flames. So I think I kinda failed in that regards as well. BUT then I think the last time I went to a flames game was 2?? years ago and I don't go out EVERY month with the girls/guys so it was a co-incidence it was this month. (Thats what I will keep telling myself anyways) ;)

I did like how the challenge made me think outside (my little tiny boring) the box. I made an effort to make different things this month.....homemade pizza, a fish dish, homemade potato soup...and it did make me get up and make something to eat on those days where sending Shane out to get something would have been way easier :)

and for the last day....I am making roast beef tonight, potatoes, gravy, veggies......YUM!!

There's a reason why I don't have my own blog...

Please accept my apologies for falling off the face of the earth over the past 10 days. I've been a good girl and I've taken pictures of a few of my meals but I've been up to my eyeballs making wedding invitations on short notice for a very dear friend of mine so I haven't had time to blog!

Last time I wrote, I had just made a pot of soup and joked that it would last for days. I wasn't kidding! I ate soup for dinner for 5 days straight plus I had it for lunch twice and still froze 5 servings for future use!

So...next on my cravings list was a pot of homemade spaghetti sauce with some Johnsonville mild Italian sausage, some cheese tortellini and garlic bread. Oh and those are Quaker oatmeal muffins in the back with a TON of chocolate chips in them. I apologize for not getting a picture of this meal on the first day when it was plated, I was so excited to eat that I forgot to get a picture.

When I ran out of tortellini then I switched to eating up the last of the sausage. I wasn't sure what to eat with it and decided to have 1/2 a can of green beans and the last of the bread. I prefer fresh green beans but I was raised on canned beans so I like them, too. So all in all, 1 pkg of sausage, 1 pkg of tortellini, 1 baguette and a can of green beans made 4 nights of dinners for me! Mackenzie had school functions or work every day so I was eating alone!

I didn't take a picture of my dinner today because it's the same meal I had near the start of this month's challenge (scrambled eggs with minced green pepper, diced low-fat turkey kielbasa, a sprinkling of tex mex cheese and a little salsa) but I thought you'd enjoy my dessert. Anyone who knows me knows that my husband turned me into an ice cream lover. While it's not uncommon for us to have 2-6 flavours of ice cream in the house at any one time (we usually make ice cream cones to keep the portion size under control), I love fruit and yogurt parfaits equally as much! Plus, just because you're eating at home it doesn't mean that it shouldn't look like you're at a fancy restaurant! I like to get some regular use out of my wine glasses (since I'm not a wine drinker) so they're often used to serve up dessert! This is fresh strawberries with a 1/4 cup of Danone Creamy vanilla yogurt and a couple of tablespoons of Harvest Crunch granola. DELICIOUS!!!!

Days 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23... whew!

Whew, here's the weekend wrap up



Thursday the 17th: Breakfast for dinner. This is inspired by a Denny's meal I once had. It's hashbrown cooked with tomatoes and bacon and melted cheese with poached eggs on top. You can see I love me some ketchup and toast with raspberry jam. One of my favorite things about breakfast food is the mix of savory and sweet.

Friday the 18: Mexican Food. We had our friends over for dinner and they are heading to Mexico in a couple of weeks, so I thought I'd serve mexican food to get them ready. I made our favorite burritos (or enchiladas, not sure the difference) and fajitas. We also had homeade gucamole and very delicious margaritas. Here are some of the recipies:

Burritos/Enciladas (I've really got to look up the difference)

I take a can of chicken ( don't judge me, it works well), black beans, some rice and some salsa and cook it up together. Then I fill shells with the mixture and put it in an oven safe pan. I spread a whole bunch of cheddar cheese on top and put it in the oven for 10 minutes to melt the cheese. I eat it with sour cream and gucamole.

Gucamole

3 avacados (if it's just Darryl and I use one, and half of everything else)
1 lime juiced
2 cloves of garlic
1 tomato chopped
pinch of cilantro (more if you love cilantro, none if you don't like cilatro)

This was the margarita mix that we used and it was really really good, it's Mr and Mrs T's, you just need to add tequila. You can buy it at Superstore or Sobeys.

Saturday Feb 19th: Mom made roast beef for dinner, which was great as usual.
Sunday Feb 20th: I worked, so leftover peanut butter chicken for me and chicken fingers for the boys.
Monday Feb 21st: Mom and Alexis cooked again. This time it was lasgana.

Tuesday: Pork chops. You can see we smother our pork chop meals with apple sauce, which is homeade from Okanogan Apples from Oma and Opa. Also I thought I'd mix some sweet potatoes in with our white potatoes to add a little nutritional value. They were really good and the kids liked the orange potatoes too.

I am looking forward to next week when I can have my Tim Hortons tea and chocolate coconut donut again!! Only one more weekend =)

Jenn

Day 22 at Chateau Beck

African Nut Soup and cheesy tortillas


The only variation I did to the soup was to puree it in the food processor after cooking and I let it simmer on the stove for about an hour. It was really good and I'm not a fan of curry but it gave it some heat without being overpowering.

African Nut Soup


4 Tbsp soy sauce
1 onion, sliced
2.5 cups yams, diced in 1-in cubes
2 carrots, sliced
2 celery stalk, sliced
1 red bell pepper, diced
4 cups vegetable stock
1 15-oz can chick peas
1 15-oz can crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1/3 cup natural peanut butter
2 tsp curry powder

Heat 1/2 cup of water and the soy sauce in a large pot. Add onion and yams. Cook over high heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Add carrot, celery, and pepper. Cover and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add tomatoes, stock, garbanzo beans, and cilantro. Add peanut butter to the soup along with the curry powder. Stir, then cover and simmer 10 minutes. Before serving puree half the soup and then stir into remaining soup.

This soup freezes well. Serve with cooked grains or whole grain toast and a green salad.

Serves 8-10.

Day 18, 19, 20 and 21 at Chateau Beck

Day 18 was a write-off. We hit the Wendy's drive thru on our way out of town. I can honestly say I haven't really missed not eating out. My Jr Bacon Cheeseburger was less than stellar although I always enjoy a good baked potato. And just for a kick in the pants my first trip to Starbucks was a disaster. My tall Pumpkin Spice somehow turned into a tall White Mocha steamed milk? What the heck happened there? As I took a sip I realized right away it was lacking the Pumpkin Spice but there wasn't a strong flavour of anything...until I got to the bottom sip (couldn't let it go to waste) and it was pure White Mocha syrup. Aaron and I had a good laugh afterwards at the printout label that was stuck to it. It said "tall white mocha - ask me." Hmm. Okay, jokes on me apparently for not asking the barista.
Day 19 we had spaghetti 3 different ways at Mom's house and I forgot the pictures. Alex had spaghetti with butter and cheese, JT had his with soy sauce and cheese and the grown ups had theirs with bolognese sauce and cheese.
Day 20 was ham, mushroom risotto and asparagus for the grownups.And ham and cheese omelettes with toast for the boys.Day 21 was omelettes and toast. Again. Did you miss my green tablecloth? My omelette was cheese and tomato and a bit well done as you can see.

Day 17 at Chateau Beck

Grilled ham and cheese and caesar salad. We're off to Mom's this weekend so hopefully that'll add some variety to our boring dinners, lol.

Day 16 at the Parks

A couple of weeks ago Darryl and I were watching Oprah and they did a one week vegetarian challenge. Darryl has higher cholesterol so he tries to eat healthier and meat has some of the highest cholesterol, so he thought a vegetarian challenge would be fun. So I suggest we do it at some point in March, once the eat at home challenge was done. But to get us ready for it I thought I'd try out some "fake meat". So vegetarian chili it is.....



It was okay... the tomoto/chili powder over powered the fake meat taste.

Till Next Time

Jenn

Day 16 at Chateau Beck

Has anyone else noticed but all of my dinners look really yellow? I think we need to add more coloured veggies like broccoli and carrots to jazz these up a bit. Last night we had corn, ricearoni and some kind of fish that Aaron baked in the oven.

Day 15: Peanut Butter Chicken

I know the title may sound crazy but this is such a delicious dinner. I'm sure it's not the healthiest dinner but I LOVE it. It's kind of a smorgy meal (made up from different recipes and what I have on hand), but the peanut sauce comes from a cook book and it's meant as a dipping sauce, but I really like it this way.

Here's the recipe:

Chicken breasts, cut and cubed. I cook mine in sesame oil for this recipe, but any oil will do.

Then I add the peanut sauce. If you are cooking for 2-3 people just make one of these, if you are cooking for 4 or more double it.

1/3c. of peanut butter ( I use crunchy, gives the meal good texture)
3 tbsp of corn syrup
2 tbsp of rice vinegar
1 tsp of fish sauce (if you don't have this it's not the end of the world, I've made it with and without)
1/2 c. of coconut milk
2 tbsp of lime juice.

Heat the sauce till it's bubbly. =)

Then add what ever vegetables you have around. Again I recommend ones that are lighter in flavor, like mushrooms and zucchini (not brocolli) or carrots or cauliflower.



The last must part is to serve it with coconut rice. I use the cheater way of making coconut rice, which is making instant rice but using coconut milk instead of water. It's easy and tastes great.

February 15th & onward for a few days!

Like Jenn, I'm a planner. I look through the grocery flyers every week with great anticipation then systematically compare what's on sale with what I have on hand already and plan a menu and a grocery list for the week that works as economically and conveniently as possible. I have a "message board" near my kitchen with a magnetic white board, peg board and slots and I usually have a running list of the dinners that are possible with the groceries we have in the house.

The one hitch in the system in recent months is that consuming the food seems to be more challenging than planning and preparing it. Mackenzie and I are often hungry at different times and craving different foods. So, when I cook I tend to cook enough for several days so it can be taken for lunches and reheated for dinner when the spirit moves us.

I've tried new recipes in previous Eat At Home Challenges such as this Italian Wedding Soup (http://eatathomechallenge.blogspot.com/2008/09/day-4-at-campbell-household.html) and although the recipe I made this week was also a meatball soup it was easier to make and just as tasty.

So here's Campbell's Hearty Italian Meatball Soup... (recipe can be found here).

Day 15 at Chateau Beck

It was surf n turf night at our house. Aaron bbq'd lobster tails and steaks for the boys and I stirfried my steak with some mushrooms and was in charge of the creamed corn and homemade mac and cheese. This is Aislynn's alltime favourite food and the boys were really excited to try it but didn't like it that much unfortunately. I thought it was yummy so I can foresee I'll be eating a lot of leftovers in the next couple days.

Day 14 at Chateau Beck

What was supposed to be fish and rice turned into a quicker version with fishsticks and french fries. Aaron didn't remember to take out the fish to thaw....maybe today he'll remember, although that would throw off Taco Tuesday, lol.

Day 10 to 14 at the Parks

I'm a planner. Especially when it comes to meals. I make a list of what we are having each week and make the grocery list based on that. Anyone who's been to my house in the last couple of years knows the calendar on my fridge which has our dinner listed every day on it. Here is what our dinner list looked like for the last couple of days.


Wednesday: Homemade Pizza. We use to buy the frozen ones, but I really like our homemade pizzas. Again takes a little more planning, but worth it in my opinion.
Thursday: French Toast. This is becoming a weekly tradition for us. We love it and it reminds me being a kid because my mom use to make it all the time for us.
Friday: Leftover green curry chicken for Jenn, Salmon for the Boys. I threw up Salmon a couple of years ago and still haven't been able to really enjoy it.
Saturday: Tammy's Roast Beef: It was delicious and she served it with mashed Sweet Potatoes rather then regular potatoes and it was good. I don't normally like sweet potatoes, but I was pleansantly surprised.
Sunday: Steak. Darryl. cooked. it. perfection.


Monday: Chicken Souvalkis: On Valentines Day I made Darryl one of his favorite dinners. Why because I'm awesome.

One of my biggest challenges this time with the eat at home challenge is lunches. That is probably where I eat out the most is when I'm at work because I go somewhere different most days. I'm not sure if there will be a fridge or a microwave. So today I was looking in the fridge and I didn't have anything obvious for lunch. No lunch meat, no frozen dinners. So I came up with quesidillas. The other part I've come to realize that is a big part to bringing lunch is lots of these little containers. I was using sandwich bags for a while but it seemed to cause lots of waste.

Till Next Time

Jenn

February 13th @ The Campbell's

Mmmmm...WAFFLE NIGHT!!! Jenn and Darryl get full credit for this dinner even though I made it. They first introduced me to the joys of home-made waffles a few years ago at their house and then the next time they came home to Ontario, they brought me a waffle maker of my very own!

I enjoy cooking and I enjoy quality tools and appliances to accomplish the preparation of a good meal. I have a professional-grade Kitchen Aid stand mixer but as much as I love my mixer...it will never hold a place in my heart the way my waffle maker does!!!!!!!

I apologize for the picture...I dove into eating this thing of beauty before I remembered to take a picture of it. I've donned my waffle with some Danone Creamy Vanilla Yogurt, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, some whip cream and a sprinkling of icing sugar.

Oh, my gosh...just writing about it makes me want to have them for dinner again tonight! YUM!

Day 12 and 13 at Chateau Beck

We fell off the wagon this weekend :o( Saturday night I had drinks and shared nachos while bowling and today we went to Boston Pizza for lunch after walking around the zoo. The upside was that we used a gift card and were only out of pocket $5. Woo hoo!

Here's Saturday night's dinner of Roast beef, mashed potatoes, corn and yorkshire pudding (my fave).And here is my Sunday night dinner. Everyone else had leftovers but me, I don't really enjoy leftover roast beef unless it is in sheperds pie but the boys aren't crazy about it. This is Banana Nut oatmeal and it was delicious! Tastes a lot like a Banana Nut muffin - imagine that, lol.

Day 10 and 11 at Chateau Beck

Day 10 was pasta and garlic/cheesey shrimp for the boys and pasta with bolognese sauce for moi.

Day 11 is a soup, salad, bread night. Yes onion soup mix can be used for things other than sourcream chip dip. It wasn't as tasty as the Olive Garden. Mmmm. Olive Garden...I'll be seeing you in March ;o)

Day 9 at Chateau Beck

There is one thing I do not do well: BBQ.

Aaron was off today and could barbecue in the daylight so voila we had steak, mashed potatoes with cheese on top for Alex and garden salad from the bag. The boys have karate Monday/Wednesday at 6 so dinner seems to have as many shortcuts as possible sometimes. I keep forgetting to take before pics which is why everything is half eaten with a boy in it, lol.

Day 9 - Carriere Household

We had breakfast for dinner tonight. Growing up we had this occasionaly so I guess I never thought it was weird or different. I remember the first time I made this for Shane..............he looked at me like I had two heads. But he enjoys it now :) ... there is a sign in my kitchen that says "Todays menu two choices..........take it............leave it"

oh I made blueberry buckle this afternoon as well..........so Yummy :)

Day... I don't know I think 7 and 8?

Last night we had perogies and bacon with a beautiful salad. I have a secret love affair with bacon, it calls my name, it tickles me in just the right place, it never lets me down! So whenever I get to cook with bacon I do.

Tonight is meatballs in mushroom soup, rice and peas. I love meatballs, these are Bison meat balls. Bison is my meat of choice these days, when the price is right of course.

I have also included a picture of my Tim's like Hot Chocolate Supreme. I actually think I like mine better, plus I use the light syrup and the light whip cream.

Day 9 @ The Campbell's

Hooray! I cooked a quick meal! Last night while rummaging through the freezer for something sweet, I found a couple of chicken breasts that I had already cooked. That takes care of the two most time-consuming steps of making dinner (thawing and cooking) the meat. So...then I went looking for something to match up with it. I found a Knorr Sidekick called Singapore Curry Noodles and found some broccoli in the fridge and voila...an idea came together!

This is what I started with and this is how it ended up!

Plus, I cooked everything in one pot so not only was it quick and easy but clean up was a cinch!

Lori

Day 8 at Chateau Beck

Have I ever mentioned Taco Tuesday? Well here it is again...the only thing that's different is Aaron was in charge and added cherry tomatoes to the options and forgot the lettuce. We really like to change it up don't we? That was sarcasm, ha ha. Everyone seems to have a sore throat lately so we've been drinking a ton of gingerale. Whether or not it's really helpful I don't know but I figure it's worth a shot.

Day 9 will be more exciting - I promise.

Days 7 + 8 - Carriere Household

Day 7 - Pork chops potatoes and beans

Day 8 - Stuffed (broccoli and cheese) chicken breasts, fried potatoes and peas

Hmmmnnnn......I see a trend. Meat and Potatoes all the way!!! Jenn wouldn't like eating here...nothing unusual at this house...haha

Days 5 Through 8 @ The Campbell's

I hate to admit it but I've had a much harder time with the Eat At Home Challenge this time around. After some reflection, it seems that I only cook about twice a week. I use the term "cook" loosely. Lately...cook = reheat. Ugh. In between "cooking" we're trying to eat up the leftovers so we're not throwing out so much food.

It took us 4 days to finish off the pasta I made last week and then we've been eating chicken wings and pizza since Sunday's Super Bowl game.

I've given tomorrow's dinner some thought and attention so I hope to have another blog entry with a picture this time.

Wish me luck,
Lori

Green Curry Chicken

Tonight we had one of my favorite meals. I'm not really a meat and potatoes person. Darryl and I both grew up in meat and potatoes families so we love to try all different kinds of foods, Thai, Indian, Chinese, Japanese etc. Tonight we had Green Curry Chicken.

It's quite easy as I use Green Curry sauce and make it like a stir fry. One thing I find is that I use pretty mild vegetables like: cauliflower, mushrooms and zucchini. We served it over basmati rice, although usually we use coconut rice. Also as a side note its fairly spicy, even though I don't add the whole jar. But I take the kids stir fry out before adding the sauce for Darryl and I. I don't have a picture of dinner as we ate it before I remember. But I do have a picture of the leftovers.


One thing I've been trying to do more of is make extra of the dinner so we can have a couple of lunches from the dinner. We always use to buy a bunch of frozen lunches, as Darryl eats one every day for lunch. But I've been paying more attention to the amount of salt in canned and frozen food. There is lots so I think it's healthier for us to make extra and make our own "frozen lunches".

Jenn

Day 7 at Chateau Beck

Is it me or does this look a bit on the BORING side? We had baked chicken breasts, french style green beans and jasmine rice last night for dinner. We eat a fair amount of chicken around here, and mostly just breasts. Every time I attempt cooking drumsticks in the oven I seem to have a house full of smoke - what am I doing wrong???

Day 5 lasagna and Day 6 Roast Chicken

Day 5: So after hosting a big brunch, full of sausages, bacon, eggs, hash browns... the work, I decided to make a huge lasagna for supper! Cottage cheese and spinach stuffing, asparagus and french bread. man it was great, too bad Husband said it smelled bad and decided, based on the smell, that he didn't like it. I'll mark it down as another one of his "I don't like it much so I'll just sit here and pick at it a bit" meals. It was soooo good, kinda a good thing he hated it, now I have left  overs for when he's not around;)

Day 6 was a roast chicken, brown rice (for me as Husband hates brown rice), and a beautiful salad. I forgot to take a picture. It was awfully tasty. I did a flat chicken a couple weeks ago, so good and very neat, no back bone so it cooked fast. It was delicious, I should splurge again and get another one.

Day 6 - Carriere Household

Day 6 isn't really even worth a post......Chicken fingers, french fries and peas :) and I forgot to take a picture BUT I'm pretty sure every one can use thier imagination with this one.

Day 6 at Chateau Beck

We dined at the Brownriggs for Superbowl Sunday on some homemade pizza, wings, chilli and of course lots of snack food!!!
I'm happy too Jenn that eating other peoples homemade cuisine is in the rulebook :o)

Weekend at the Parks/Brown

Thank goodness you can eat someone else's homemade food. Really thank goodness I made up the rules. =)

Mom made us dinner two nights this weekend =) The picture above is a delicious turkey dinner. She also made the boys (all three of them) Shepards Pie one night. The third night I made spagetti and meatballs which was kind of a cheat. The meatballs are not homemade like Lesleys, they come from a box. The sauce also came from a jar. But it was an easy dinner to make while watching the Superbowl.


Hope everyone's weekend went well.

Jenn

Lips and ... well ... you know...

I am so not above having hot dogs and fries for supper. Actually these days I am kind of craving them;) Weird, but good. So here you have it, "Order up!".

Day 5 - Carriere Household

Stirfry - another staple around here. I insist it has to be made with Safeway's Spicy Ginger Sauce....its the only thing I go to Safeway for but it is worth the extra trip.

Day 5 at Chateau Beck

We had roast chicken, mashed potatoes/gravy, peas and carrots and stuffing for

dinner tonight. Dad did the cooking, I did the cleaning and Kathryn brought homemade pineapple cheesecake for dessert. It was soooooo good - I had two HUGE pieces...and there's one piece in the fridge just calling my name right now.

Off to the Ski Hill Tomorrow

We are going to be going skiing tomorrow so I will be packing a lunch to take, so we don't get tempted by the burgers and fries. I bought some turkey sub meat and sub buns to make sandwiches ahead of time. I also plan on heating up some tomato soup to put in the thermos. I have carrot sticks and red peppers for my vegetables and have fresh pineapple and some apples for dessert. I noticed the last time that I was there that they have hot water available so I think I'll take some tea bags to make a cup of tea for the ride home. Should be a great day.

Day 4 - Carriere Household

Leftover day! I had 1 chicken breast left over from shake and bake night and there was 3/4 of a t-bone steak left over from steak night, so fajita's it was :)

I made 1 chicken for me, cut up chicken, red peppers, green peppers and green onions...with cheese whiz (I know, I know) slathered on the inside. For Shane I did the same combo of meat and veggies but put balsamic vinaigrette for his sauce. Very yummy. And a plain romaine salad with the juice from 1/2 lemon and little bit of light sauce. (I find the lemon juice really adds alot to a plain salad)

And for a dessert while playing cards later in the night I made us both decaf carmel mochas and they turned out VERY well :)