Hé Ho!

I had big plans for this week; a couple festival themed meals, going to the festival Saturday and then out for dinner, crêpes for Sunday breakfast, a big Sunday family dinner but alas the stomach flu entered (uninvited) our home and I have been serving and eating saltine crackers, rationing sips of water and trying to get multiple loads of laundry done. I’m sorry but I only have part of a week for you, but I hope (fingers crossed) to be back in full swing next week.

Menu

Monday: Split Pea Soup with Bannock

Tuesday: Fish and Chips and Mushy Peas

Wednesday: Rigatoni with Sweet Tomatoes and Eggplant

Thursday: Hummus Pizzas

Friday: Pancakes with Pecan, Maple Syrup, and Yogurt Served with Fruit Salad

Weekly Panty Items

Flour, baking powder, salt, pepper, canola oil, nutmeg, olive oil, dry bread crumbs, sea salt, cumin, balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard, fresh garlic, maple syrup, butter

Weekly Shopping List

Mozzarella cheese

Parmesan (this is optional if you want – I didn’t use it

Milk (need 1 ½ cup)

Plain yogurt

Heavy Cream (4 Tbsp – I didn’t use this)

Eggs

Firm white fish (I used cod)

Onions (2)

small bag carrots (need 1 ½ cups)

3 russet potatoes

 red onion

1 red pepper

1 yellow pepper

Small handful of mushrooms

1 firm ripe pink, black or white eggplant

1-2 fresh or dried chillies, (optional)

peas (2 cups)

1 lemon

fruit (for fruit salad)

1 bunch fresh basil

1 28oz can of good quality plum tomatoes

1 lb rigatoni or penne

1 19 oz chickpeas

1 pecans (1 cup)

dry yellow split peas (1 ½ cups)

Veggie stock

Whole wheat pitas

Split Pea Soup with Bannock

Today is a holiday in Manitoba, its Louis Riel Day. Dave’s home from work today and we were considering going to the Festival except both kids woke up during the night, many times, with these terrible colds. So Festival is going to have to wait until next Saturday. As I write this I can hear Harper through the monitor breathing all stuffy. We’ve actually been lucky this year because we haven’t had very many colds…although we have had two full months of flu, so maybe lucky isn’t the word.

The day is always so topsy turvey when the kids are sick. This morning I got up with Harper and then went back to bed with Hannah later so she would sleep, she left me there at some point and Harper crawled in just when I was going to get up. I ate lunch at 10:45 when I got up; the kids ate only snacks all day until dinner and the day passed in a haze. I’m grateful that it’s close to bed time, although I’m dreading the night we’re going to have.

Recipe

Dave and the girls made the bannock while I was at the gym. I found this recipe at allrecipes.com. The recipe calls for it to be kneaded for 10 minutes. Dave said it was so sticky and would have needed so much extra flour to knead it that he just spread it on a parchment lined cookie sheet and baked it. It was delicious!

3 cups all-purpose flour (used 1 whole wheat and 2 white)

1 tsp salt

2 Tbsp baking powder

¼ cup butter, melted

1 ½ cups water

Preheat oven to 350F.

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl and then pour over melted butter and water and stir with a fork. Turn out mixture on a parchment lined baking sheet and spread into a disk, about ¾ to 1 inch thick. Bake for 25 minutes.

Split Pea Soup

This recipe is from the Pulses Canada recipe book, except I omitted the ham.

1 Tbsp canola oil

½ cup onions, chopped

1 ½ cup, carrots, chopped

1 ½ cup dry yellow split peas, prepared according to package

2 ½ cups reduced sodium vegetable broth

1 cup milk

Dash of nutmeg, salt and pepper

In a large stock pot, heat oil. Add onions and carrots and sauté until tender.

Puree the prepared split peas in a blender or food processor, adding veggie stock as needed to get pureed texture (I think that next time I would just add it all to the pot and use a hand blender to get a little more texture). Add the pureed peas to the pot and add milk, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Heat until desired temperature is reached.

Fish and Chips with Mushy Peas and Salad

Having a child get sick right before bed is like preparing for a major storm. Suddenly you’re unsure who will be affected and how long you will be unable to go out. You feel the need to rush to the grocery store and stock up on supplies as well as make any alternative travel plans that you may need. This is precisely what happened last night when Harper was sick right before bed. We praised the world for hardwood floors, cleaned, changed, all while comforting and then I rushed out to the grocery store to stock up on whatever we needed for the next day and baby Tylenol, just in case. In the midst of this Hannah fretted about an alternative plan to get her to school Thursday if Harper was still sick (we did not point out the likelihood that she may be sick by then). Since I’m at home, we are lucky that we can avoid the ‘who has to stay home argument’, which use to come along with mixed emotions of frustration and guilt.

Recipe

Chips

3 russet potatoes

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 450F.

Cut potatoes in half and then lengthwise into fries. Toss with 1 – 2 Tbsp olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Lay out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for about 10 minutes, flip and bake the other side for 10 minutes (more or less depending how crispy you like them).

Fish

Firm white fish

½ cup milk

1 egg, beaten

1 Tbsp Dijon mustard

1 cup dry bread crumbs

Olive oil for frying

Pat fish dry. Mix egg, milk and Dijon together in one bowl and spread bread crumbs out on another plate. Heat a drizzle (about 1 tsp) of olive oil in a pan over medium low heat. Dip the fish first in the egg mixture then dredge through the bread crumbs and drop into the pan. Cook fish until golden on one side, flip and then golden on the other and cooked through.

Mushy Peas

I took this idea from Jaime Oliver: Jaime’s Dinners. He did fish and chips and mushy peas and I think the idea was to dip the fish in the mushy peas. I liked the flavour of adding a little lemon to the peas but did not care to dip my fish in it and would simply make peas with lemon next time (the rest of the family agreed).

2 cups of peas

1 tsp olive oil

½ lemon, juiced

salt and pepper

Cook peas in olive oil until heated, season with salt, pepper and lemon juice. Serve as is or mush peas and serve mashed.

Serve with your favourite green salad.

Rigatoni with Sweet Tomatoes and Eggplant and Salad

Half eaten morsels, the day seems to be full of half eaten morsels. I think Harper wants to be able to eat, she keeps asking for things and then leaving them after only one or two bites. I keep making them for her because I would love if she could eat and then I can’t let anyone touch her partially eaten food because I don’t want them to get sick. It’s a waste of food, I know. On the up side this seems to be the meal that put her back on track.

Recipe

This recipe is also from Jamie Oliver: Jamie’s Dinners, I do seem to get stuck on certain cookbooks.

1 firm ripe pink, black or white eggplant

olive oil

2 cloves of garlic, sliced

1 onion, chopped

1 28 oz can of good-quality plum tomatoes

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

sea salt and black pepper

1-2 fresh or dried chillies, chopped (optional)

a bunch of fresh basil, leaves ripped and stalks chopped

4 Tbsp heavy cream (I don’t add this)

1 lb rigatoni or penne

7 oz cow’s milk mozzarella

1 piece of Parmesan cheese, for grating (optional)

Remove both ends of the eggplant, slice in ½ inch slices and then cube into ½ inch pieces. Heat 4 or 5 Tbsp of olive oil and add the eggplant once it’s hot, taking care to stir right away so that they all get covered in oil. Cook for about 7 or 8 minutes and then add the onion and garlic. Cook until they have a little colour and then add the tomatoes and balsamic, season with salt and pepper if needed and if you are adding the chillies add them now as well. Add the basil stalks and simmer the sauce gently for 15 minutes, then add the cream if using.

While the sauce is simmering, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add the pasta. Cook according to package directions, drain it saving a little of the cooking water. Put the pasta back in the pot with a drizzle of olive oil stirring around. Then add the tomato sauce to the pasta. Tear up the mozzarella and basil and add to the pot, stir for 30 seconds and then serve.

Hummus Pizzas

Well, the flu has taken Hannah (there was no need to worry about how we were going to get her to school today). It’s always so hard to diagnose a child though. She woke up and complained that her belly hurt and shrugged to the series of questions I had, do you need to use the bathroom? Are you Hungry? Well, maybe go rest on the couch and I’ll call school and tell them we’re not coming. Still, I wondered if she was only hungry and would miss out on the Festival activities for no reason. So when she vomited 20 minutes later there was a sense of justification, even for Hannah who declared (once she was able to speak), “I guess we made the right decision to stay home Mama!” 

I should have known that the flu would claim her because I washed all the sheets, people and disinfected all areas Harper had touched.

Dave and I were the only ones who really ate supper – we love these, they’re quick, easy, delicious and healthy!

Recipe

I got the idea for this recipe from a cookbook that Dave’s mom gave me. It was written by their neighbour’s daughter, who is a dietician in Halifax. Hold the Salt: 50+ Quick and Easy Recipes to Help You Eliminate Salt from Your Diet, by Maureen Tilley. I just make my own regular hummus though, I think I could do it in my sleep; the trick is to make it and get it on the pizzas before Harper eats it all, although today was not a problem.

Hummus

1 19 oz chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 clove garlic

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp salt (if needed)

¼ cup water (more to achieve desired consistency)

Put all ingredients in a food processor and whirl until smooth, or desired consistency.

Pizzas

4 whole wheat pitas

½ red onion, sliced

1 red pepper cut in strips

1 yellow pepper cut in strips

Small handful of mushrooms, sliced

4 Tbsp of grated cheese (whatever you prefer, more if you like)

Olive oil/spray

Sauté the veggies in a drizzle of olive oil until soft. Turn on broiler, spray both sides of the pitas and place on a cookie sheet and place under broiler until one side is golden and then flip and do the same to the other side. Take them out of the oven and spread 2 Tbsp of hummus, veggies and top with a little cheese. Place pizzas under the broiler again for a couple minutes to melt cheese, careful not to burn the pitas.

Apple Pancakes topped with Yogurt, Pecans, Maple Syrup and Fruit Salad

The flu took Dave and I Friday and we did not make these but it was the plan. The following is a recipe that Dave picked up from working at some golf course when he was a kid. It makes 3 pancakes so you’ll need to double, triple, etc if you use it.

½ cup flour (we usually use whole wheat)

1 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

1Tbsp butter, melted

1 egg

½ cup milk

Mix all ingredients until smooth and then cook in a heated, lightly greased pan.

I was also going to toast pecans and top the pancakes with plain yogurt, toasted pecans and warm maple syrup.