You Do What You Gotta Do

Monday: Wild Mushroom Frittata with Fruit
Tuesday: Black Bean Burgers, Pea Pods, Cucumbers and Carrots
Wednesday: Chilled Noodle Salad with Mango

Thursday: Dhal with Naan and Kale Chips

Friday: Sushi
Saturday: Prawns with Bruschetta Pasta, Gorgonzola Salad and Apple Pie
Sunday: Dainty Sandwiches, Dainties, Fruit and Veggies
Dave's away this week, he left early Saturday morning and will be back late Wednesday night. I hope we survive! I'm sure we will, but we miss him!

Wild Mushroom Frittata with Fruit

"I'm not going to tell you something Mama, but Harper and I asked the sky for something today and you'll see what it is tomorrow. I'm not telling you what we wished for but it's white and it floats down and lands all fluffy." 

I wish I believed like they do...well not in snow for the 23rd of August but in wishing. I wish I believed that if I wished the sky for something there was a very strong possibility that it would grant me that wish the next day, if it wasn't too busy. Funny, I actually don't have anything for which I would wish.

Also, if it snows tomorrow, please don't send an angry mob after my children.

Recipe

Hmmmm...what's left in the fridge? Some wild mushrooms, eggs, feta and chives - sounds good.

6 eggs
Splash of milk
1 large handful of wild mushrooms, sliced
1 clove of garlic
olive oil
1/4 cup of feta cheese
chives

Heat a glugg of olive oil in a pan and saute the mushrooms until browned, adding the garlic in close to the end for a minute. Beat eggs together with milk. Remove the mushrooms from the pan and add another glugg of olive oil. Pour in the eggs and cook on medium low temperature until almost set, sprinkle the top with mushrooms, chives and feta and place under the broiler for a minute or two until eggs are completely set, cut in wedges and serve with fruit or a tossed green salad.

Black Bean Burgers with Pea Pods, Cucumbers and Carrots
The girls have begun to bicker like real siblings lately and I have to tell, you it's driving me crazy. They can't do anything without it needing to be "fair". For instance if I ask Harper to get the milk out of the fridge Hannah (or vice verse) freaks out because she wants to take it out, and it's not the same to give her another job she needs to put the milk back in and then take it out again...are you kidding me? We've also entered the world of tattling, Hannah is learning to only tell us if Harper is in danger, hurting someone else or about to write on a wall or something. So, today I hear them playing in the living room and I'm only half listening to Hannah giving Harper instructions about something and then I hear her say, "Why don't you stay up there and see if you like it or not." She then promptly walks to the kitchen and says, "Mom, Harper's on the table." I think we need to review the tattling rules, maybe entrapment as well.

Hannah did get her hair cut short today and needs to look in the mirror every half hour or so, it's so adorable.

Recipe 

I baked two things today and neither one of them turned out right, it's very annoying but by the time I was done it was very close to dinner time and so I just threw these together. They were quick, easy, and very tasty but if you're trying to follow a low sodium diet they're probably not the best choice, Hannah gave them a 10...but, she doesn't want them for her birthday dinner.

1 19 oz can of black beans, rinsed and drained
1 package of Superburger mix
1 cup of Panko Crumbs
BBQ Sauce 

Buns

Mash black beans with a potato masher until pasty but still having some texture. Add the superburger mix, 1/4 cup of water and mix, add the panko crumbs (adjusting amount slightly if it's too wet or dry), making the mixture a little crumbly but still able to easily stick together. Form into 4 patties.

BBQ these for about 10 to 15 minutes a side, brushing with BBQ sauce.

Chilled Noodle Salad with Mango

Sometimes you just need to abort, no matter how low on toilet paper you may be.

I took the girls to St. Vital Park this afternoon. Hannah has recently learned how to do the monkey bars all the way across without dropping and so they spent all their time on the little play structure, her crossing the bars and Harper dragging her hand over those music things they have. I could actually see other parents cringing as she did it non stop (no I didn't stop her, that's what they're there for, if you can't ignore that noise, clearly you're children are too quiet). Anyway we had a great time and on the way home I stopped at Walmart, I despise the store to start, it's too big, always busy and I never know where to find anything, but they had our brand of toilet paper on half price. The minute we walked in the door I was totally blindsided by this little two year old screaming and crying about her hat that was left in the car. She was full on kicking her legs and flayling her arms. Now, I'm not saying that she doesn't ever throw tantrums but they're not normally in public, it really can catch you off guard. At first I was really embarrassed trying to coax her off the floor, because you know everyone is staring (and not even discreetly), thinking if I can get her up we can grab the toilet paper and go. Although suddenly the store seemed ten times the size and the checkout lines looked ginormous. Soon I realized that we would not be getting the toilet paper, I actually would have sooner used newspaper than try and get this little one through the store. But, I was still at a loss as to what to do, try to pick up her flayling body and risk putting my back out - wouldn't that be a scene - or wait it out. Eventually, she calmed enough to be scooped up in my arms and we all walked back to the car, heads held high, sometimes Walmart makes me feel that way too.

Recipe

The recipe for the mango salad can be found on this post. It's one of my favorites.

Dhal with Naan and Kale Chips

My Dad baked a bunch of rhubarb muffins and loaves this week and brought some over for us. I put the loaves in the freezer and let the girls have the muffins. I'm not sure how many there were but I've been letting them have two muffins a day all week. Dave came home late last night and didn't see the girls until this morning. Harper woke up this morning crawled out of bed and started heading downstairs, Dave got up after her and called her back (hoping to catch a few more minutes of sleep), "Harper come back upstairs and you can play in your room for a little bit." Harper completely ignored him, continued down the stairs, pulled her stool up to the cupboard, took the muffins down, looked him straight in the eyes, "Momma said I could have a muffin for breakfast." She has been obsessed with these muffins, they are now gone and I'm slightly worried about her reaction tomorrow morning.

Recipe

I was sure that I'd made this recipe before and shared it with you but I couldn't find it anywhere on here so here it is again. I love Dhal, it's so easy, tasty and full of protein. We had this with some Kale chips, Kale is very full right now (lots of leafy, curly bits) and cheap, plus the girls love kale chips. The Dhal recipe is from maameemoomoo and I just added a little bit of curry instead of curry leaves.

170g split red lentils, rinsed
2 green chilies, seeded and finely chopped
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 onion, finely chopped
450ml water
400g canned tomatoes, drained and chopped
4 tbsp ghee or vegetable oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp curry powder

Put the lentils in a saucepan. Add the chilies, turmeric, onion and water and bring to boil. Partly cover the pan and simmer, without stirring for 30-35 minutes or until the lentils are soft. Stir in tomatoes.

Heat the ghee or vegetable oil in a small pan. Add the rest of the ingredients and fry over moderate heat for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add to the lentils and cook, stirring until thick. Season.

Served with naan and kale chips, both found in this post.

Sushi

Hannah has a very unique style. It often looks like she has just thrown on whatever is closest and when she realizes she's more than dressed she stops, others times she looks very carefully thought out. I have come to learn that every outfit is actually very carefully thought out. For instance, today she is wearing a light green T-shirt, light pink leggings and a black sequined skirt with flip flops, a sun hat and sun glasses (yes, even in the house), it's a little fancy for playing in the backyard but then...not. We went school clothes shopping today, I gave her the guidelines as to what she needed and told her she could pick out an extra outfit to wear on the first day of school, there may have been a slight metallic taste in my mouth from biting my tongue by the end of the trip. She chose shirts with Charlie Brown characters, a Hello Kitty backpack, bright purple yoga pants and a very sparkly/sequin shirt among other things. For her first day of school outfit she chose this really cute long sleeved purple dress with an entirely different purple flowered scarf, pink sparkly leg warmers and she was eyeing up these high top shoes but, we're going to do shoes another day. The crazy thing is all the things that she chose that made me cringe a little will end up being the things that I find the cutest on her. I kind of love her crazy style!

Recipe

We made sushi for supper, it's really great because the girls love to help make it and eat it. The instructions can be found on this post. Today we filled ours with different combinations of:

Smoked salmon

Crab

Cream cheese

Cucumber

Red Pepper

Orange Pepper

Yellow Pepper

Avocado

Prawns with Bruschetta Pasta, Roasted Beets with Walnut Gorgonzola Dressing and Apple Pie

Harper is very determined that she is big and will correct anyone who gets confused. This morning her and Dave were playing hide and seek, he was counting and Harper was hiding. When Dave started to look for her he said, "Now, where's my little girl hiding?" and immediately heard a little scratchy voice correct him, "BIG girl!"

When I took her to the grocery store and put her in the cart, she was complaining that she wanted to walk. I explained to her that soon she would be a little older and could walk, but right now she needed to be in the cart when we did big shops. Halfway through the grocery store she looked at me and said, "I older now, I want to walk." I suppose technically she wasn't wrong, but she still didn't get to walk.

Recipe

It was my Dad's birthday today and so we had dinner here with my mom and dad. My mom brought the prawns all nice and marinated with olive oil, garlic and fresh basil and I made pasta, salad and pie. I always make my dad apple pie with a cheddar cheese crust.

The salad recipe was from epicurious.

1 1/2 to 1 3/4 pounds beets, trimmed and halved

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 bunch arugula, well washed and torn apart

For Dressing:

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

1/4 red onion, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1/4 teaspoon coarse salt

3 ounces Gorgonzola cheese (I used 2oz and 1 oz of cream cheese because that's what I had on hand)

1/4 cup light or heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

To roast the beets: Place the beets, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper in a roasting pan and cook until the beets are tender, about 40 minutes. When they are cool enough to handle, remove the skins and slice the beets.

Place the beets in a medium-sized mixing bowl and toss with the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper.

To make the Walnut Gorgonzola Dressing: Place a large skillet over medium-high heat and, when it is hot, add the extra-virgin olive oil. Add the walnuts and cook until they are browned, about 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to a small mixing bowl and when the walnuts have cooled to room temperature, add the onion, basil, vinegar and salt.

Place the Gorgonzola cheese and cream in a blender or food processor fitted with a steel blade and process until smooth. Transfer to the bowl with the walnuts and mix to combine.

Divide the arugula between 4 to 6 plates and top with equal amounts of beets. Serve immediately with a large dollop of Walnut Gorgonzola Dressing.

I just chopped up tomatoes, basil and garlic and mixed it with a little olive oil and set it aside at room temperature. Do this earlier and let it sit awhile. I cooked up some fresh spaghettini and tossed it together, serving it with the grilled prawns (except we did them in the oven because our BBQ set on fire, at 350F for about 3 - 4 minutes a side) and bread.

Deep Dish Apple Pie:

For the crust I used an epicurious recipe and then just seasoned the apples on my own.

Crust:

2 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chilled solid vegetable shortening, cut into

pieces

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

6 ounces extra-sharp cheddar cheese, coarsely shredded

2/3 cup (about) ice water

Blend flour and salt in processor. Add shortening and butter and cut in using several on/off turns. Add cheese and cut in until shortening and butter resemble small peas. With machine running, gradually blend in enough water until soft moist clumps form. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic and chill at least 2 hours and up to 2 days.

Filling:

2 - 21/2 lbs of Granny Smith apples, peeled and cored (I weighed these after they were peeled and cored)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup sugar

Juice of 1 lemon

1 Tbsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp nutmeg

3 Tbsp flour

Mix all filling ingredients together and let sit at room temperature for a least half an hour.

Assemble.

Preheat oven to 400F

Divide dough into two balls, one slightly larger than the other and roll out the larger one to fit deep dish pie plate. Line pie plate with dough, being sure to leave a little to over hang and fill with filling dotting with 6 Tbsp of butter. Roll out second dough ball and gently place on top, pinching the top and bottom crusts together, cut off access dough. Slash the top crust to let steam escape.

Bake pie in middle of oven for 20 minutes and then turn oven down to 375F and bake for another 35 minutes, until crust is golden and inside is bubble, if edges are starting to get too dark take out and cover just the edges in foil, then return to oven and continue to bake.

Dainty Sandwiches, Dainties, Fruit and Veggies

I had the pleasure this afternoon of meeting one of the cutest babies I have ever met. Seriously, he was cute enough to make you forget how much work little babies can be and make you want one...for an afternoon at least. He was absolutely beautiful and strong, smiley and bright eyed. We had a baby shower for him at my  mom's and towards the end Dave brought the girls down and I have to tell you, there's nothing like a little baby to make your own children look GIANT!

We lounged around at my mom and dad's until seven grazing on dainty sandwiches, dainties, fruit and veggies...well, maybe a little less fruit and veggies and more dainties.

I hope the sun shines down on you this week!

There may have been a little dancing show this week too.