Taco Tuesday? Fajita Friday? Or simply an excuse-for-a-fiesta-Saturday. All summer long I’ve been tending to the garden as the kids help me water and weed. We’ve tried our hand at growing vegetables and have been thrilled with the results. In addition, my family and I have the good fortune of owning a crab trap. So…. when I mastered the summer challenge of catching crab in the Pacific Ocean, I was very proud. The only obstacle is when I catch too many. Seriously. Listen to myself! Feeling inspired and using my new pastimes to source fresh ingredients, I got our family and friends out of a serious dinner rut with crab tacos.
One of my big pandemic activities (like everyone else!) has been developing a sourdough starter, and playing around with bread making. With little yeast or flour in the stores, I went directly to a local flour mill, then spent hours learning how to develop a good sourdough starter out of simple flour and water.
This ham is both simple and elegant, and the leftovers are something to celebrate, too. A honey-glazed ham makes an unbelievable Sunday dinner and is equally special during the Easter or Christmas holidays. Our family always had ham, albeit with my Mom’s British heritage, the flavours weren’t as complex. She would serve it with a potato scallop and green beans and my mouth would water. With this easy recipe, you could also throw in an Asian influence with the addition of soy sauce, and serve with bok choi and noodles.
Simplifying isn’t my strong suit. And yet it’s weird that I always felt organized in so many areas of life. I guess my life has always been so full that even if parts were cluttered, the rest made up for it. Until they didn’t. I found out that I had to move the family across the country the day after my Mom died. The past 9 months have been like an Edvard Munch painting. (Yes, sometimes I scream.) I pride myself on not being negative, but the ‘glass half full’ mentality has been exceptionally difficult.
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So Quinoa Turkey Meatballs are among our most popular recipes and it’s a great time-saver as you can make a large batch of meatballs ahead of time, freeze them and take them out each meal or snack time and add them to pasta, rice or veggies at dinner time or for a quick snack alongside cheese, crackers and fruit. The meatballs are great for your kids to pitch in and help make. They love the texture and rolling them into balls!
Today Ford was home sick from school so we took some time to bake a family favourite recipe that I so love on our Facebook live segment. We usually have Facebook lives on Mondays and Thursdays at noon Pacific time and baking and cooking is something I really enjoy doing live on Facebook. Normally when I’m making this particular dish, I double the batch so I have more to eat and some to freeze so that I can enjoy it later. It’s such a time saver!
Diala’s Kitchen is one of my favourite new food blog obsessions and after getting gluttonous on the (terrible, curse on whoever invented this) “Eat What You Want Day” with a bowl of popcorn to carry me through from breakfast to lunch, an inhaled curry pad thai for dinner, and half a huge bag of dark choc almonds to follow—let’s just say that I woke up this morning hungover, overcome with guilt, and looking to redeem myself.
Diala to the rescue with a dish that’s fresh, healthy, totally yummy, and makes me feel like I might not have to wear a T-shirt over my swimsuit during baby swimming lessons this summer.
There’s nothing quite like pleasing your whole family with a meal you made in about 3 minutes. As part of our new ‘taco Tuesday’ tradition I pulled out the slow cooker and created a healthy, bean-filled chili that cooked all day. Though you could use dry beans, we had cans on hand. Grated cheese, sour cream (the spice is in the taco kit), salsa and cilantro were all available so the kids could choose their own toppings for the mexican crockpot chili tacos.
My sons do sports and run around every chance they get, and most of the time, are so passionate about play that they are too distracted to eat. Our family has tried so many things in order to give them continuous energy on school days, but the very best solution has been to make sure they eat eggs in the morning. (We’re still working on finishing school lunches but at least they have some sustained energy from breakfast!) The only problem with this lofty egg goal is that Mommy doesn’t always hear her alarm…. The truth is that eggs aren’t just for weekends. Sure – you can reheat ‘weekend eggs’ during the week, but it’s amazing to make them fresh – and fast – every day. I’ve come up with easy ways to ensure they get this amazing protein each day – even when we all have a wee sleep in.
