January 22nd to the end...

I cannot tell a lie. This was by far my poorest performance in the Eat at Home Challenge and I'm very disappointed in myself. It's not even that we ended up eating out it's that I forgot to take pictures of my meals (more often than not), I didn't find time to try new recipes as I normally do during challenge month, I didn't blog often enough and we ate an awful lot of leftovers from the freezer which were often too repetitive or too boring to mention.
I do have a few things to report in the last week though...one night Paul cooked butter chicken sausage from our local market with sautéed shrimp, saag (a curried spinach dish) and pickled mango chutney.
Another night I made a pork & broccoli stir fry plus I've recently discovered a love for home made cooked oatmeal. This had apples in it with a blueberry syrup drizzled over top...YUM!
Though we didn't exactly end the month with a bang, we did start February off well by contributing home made treats on Superbowl Sunday. We made a cooked tex mex dip (1lb ground beef browned with 1 packet taco seasoning and 7.5 oz of tomato sauce, 1 can refried beans, 500ml sour cream and 200g shredded Kraft Habanero cheese). Layer in a 12x8" flat dish in the order above and cook at 325 until bubbly. Eat with tortilla chips!
I also made a flourless chocolate torte with white chocolate raspberry buttercream and dark chocolate ganache since one of Paul's friends is gluten intolerant. Lastly, I made a giant chocolate chip cookie and decorated it with PC Dark Chocolate Sundae Sauce using a piping bag.
Hooray! I finally did some creative cooking/baking. Too bad it was in the wrong month!

Day 15: Scramblewiches

Here is what I made tonight.  It was a quick and easy dinner.  It was good and an interesting way  to use up a loaf of french bread. 

 

1 baguette
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
4-5 pieces of ham
8 large eggs
1/8-1/4 fluid ounce milk (a splash)
1 teaspoon hot sauce ( I didn't use this)
salt
fresh ground black pepper
4 slices Cheddar cheese
chopped fresh chives or chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Directions:

1 Preheat oven to 200°; crisp the bread in the low oven, split it lengthwise and hollow it out.
2 Cut each bread in half again, across, making 4 boats; switch the broiler on.
3 Heat a large nonstick skillet over moderate heat; add the butter and let it melt.
4 Add in the meat and cook for 3 minutes or until brown at the edges, separate the pieces.
5 In a bowl, beat the eggs with a splash of milk, the hot sauce, salt, and pepper; add to the skillet w/the meat; scramble, keeping the eggs a little soft.
6 Divide the eggs among the bread and cover with the cheese; melt the cheese under the broiler; take sandwiches out as soon as the cheese softens and melts.
7 Garnish with chopped chives or parsley.

 

 

Jenn

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

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!

3...2...1...GO!!!

I'm delighted to say this is my 3rd Eat At Home Challenge (Jenn...correct me if I'm wrong). The first time I participated, I put great effort into planning delicious meals, trying new recipes and re-kindling a love of cooking and food. The second time we participated, I slacked off a bit. I didn't blog as much, I didn't try many new things but we did eat at home. Most of our meals that month were tried and true favourites...grilled cheese, beef stew, chili, etc.

We don't eat out at "sit down" restaurants very often to begin with, so that doesn't feel like something we're missing out on but my daughter now works at McDonald's...so for our third run at the Eat At Home Challenge the tough part will be going without the Grilled Chicken Pesto McMini sandwiches and Fruit & Yogurt Parfaits that I've developed such a love for at McDonald's. Really...as far as McDonald's goes...my two favourite items there really aren't "junk food" but they definitely aren't prepared at home so I'll have to see if I can re-create them in my own kitchen!!!

The other variable this time around is that I'm cooking for two, not for three. That doesn't seem like much of a difference but I went from spending $70-80 week on groceries to $70-80 every 3 or 4 weeks. I seem to throw out more food now than we actually eat. So...I definitely haven't mastered this new situation yet but hopefully this month's Eat At Home Challenge will force me to put some thought into how I can make this work better.

Yesterday, Tuesday, February 1st, was our first day in this challenge and Mackenzie and I got off to a pretty unimaginative start. She had leftovers and I scrambled up 2 eggs with some green pepper, diced bacon, fresh ground pepper and some tex mex cheese. Served on a small plate with a scoop of salsa...it was quick, easy and tasty but definitely something that didn't require a lot of thought. We'll see what I come up with on Wednesday.

Good luck everyone!
Lori

Day 10, 11 & 12 at the Campbell's

Whew! I have some catching up to do.

Day 10 was nacho night. Certainly not a healthy meal, but definitely a fun one! We use Tostido small round nacho chips, ground beef seasoning with whatever brand of taco seasoning is on sale (tonight was PC Blue Menu taco seasoning), tex mex blend shredded cheese plus salsa and sour cream on the side. Ian also has green onion, green pepper and lettuce on his. He's a good boy who eats his veggies. We eat the nachos right off of the cookie sheet they've been cooked on & here's a picture of the ones Mac and I had. Ian's would have made a nice picture with all those veggies but I was too busy filling my face and forgot to grab the camera.


On Day 11 I needed to cook up some chicken breasts for a recipe we're trying this weekend, so tonight's dinner was a quick and completely uninspired grilled chicken breast and some Lipton Sidekicks Mexican rice. Ian and Mackenzie weren't too keen on the rice but I love rice any way I can get it and thought it was good.


On Day 12 we needed a quick dinner because Mackenzie had tickets to a concert at the fair with her cousin Alex. Home made egg "Mc Muffins" fit the bill. If you have egg rings you could cook the egg in a frying pan but we use a microwave egg cooker. This one also has real cheddar cheese (not a processed cheese slice) and ready-cooked bacon. We often use ham if we have it on hand, instead.


That's it for now! I'll let you know how we make out on the weekend...

Day 5 at the Campbells

I can't take the credit for this meal...not even a teensy, weeny bit. It's all thanks to Darryl and Jenn.

It all started during high school music trips to the US which usually resulted in a meal at Denny's. It was at Denny's that my love affair with Belgian waffles began.

For months now I've been green with envy over Darryl, Jenn & Lucas's Sunday morning waffle breakfast routine. What a decadent breakfast to have on a regular basis! I was surprised and completely ecstatic when last week at the beginning of their visit, Lucas presented us with a beautiful Cuisinart waffle maker of our very own! I LOVE IT!!!

While I'll admit, my topping choices turn waffles into more of a plate-sized dessert than a breakfast entree I can't imagine eating them any other way than covered in fruit, ice cream (or my favourite Creamy Danone vanilla yogurt), whip cream and a sprinkling of confectioners sugar. YUMMMMMMMMY!!!

Darryl and Jenn...have I mentioned how much I LOVE YOU for bringing the waffle routine into our home now, too?!

In this picture, I had run out of berries so some President's Choice Blue Menu raspberry jam was an excellent substitute on short notice.


Lastly...Mackenzie our almost-14 year old daughter was desperately hungry for a late night snack. She ended up making a ham & bacon sandwich. An odd combo perhaps...but any time a teenager will reach for protein instead of chips and pop is fine by me.

Sorry...that picture should be rotated but it didn't want to cooperate with iPhoto tonight.

Blueberry Muffins

I just wanted to share my favorite blueberry muffin cheat!. We use this



it's the buttermilk blueberry mix. We add our own blueberries to it, because those are pathetic. But the muffins consistently turn out delicious.

Jenn