Happy Halloween!

Monday: Lentil Soup (because mini chocolate bars seemed a little embarrassing)
Tuesday: Halibut, Roasted Sweet Potato and Turnips with Salad
Wednesday: Chana Masala, Pitas, with Eggplant
Thursday: Stir Fry over Rice
Friday: Scrambled Eggs with Basil and Bocconcini Cheese, Toast and Oranges
Saturday: Macaroni and Cheese with Kale Chips
Sunday: Chili, Bread and Apple Crisp and Ice Cream

Lentil Soup
Happy Halloween! Besides eating too much candy tonight (and mostly I mean Dave and I) our Halloween was pretty good. Poor Harper is still sick and very slow moving but, she did eat today and really wanted to go trick or treating and so we let her. The first thing we noticed when we put her in her costume was that she has had a growth spurt lately, she looked very stretched. Hannah very proudly put her cake costume on and Dave headed out with the girls. Although I think Hannah was a little disappointed that she had to slow down for Harper, she also wanted to be with her for the trick or treating. Dave brought Harper home after a few houses and went back out with Hannah. Harper took off her costume, sat on the step and opened a few different things but didn't really eat much of anything, she was very excited to open the door and give out the candy. Hannah bounded back in a little while later, sat down on the kitchen table and started opening different things (she had no problem eating what she opened).

The girls are allowed to eat what they want Halloween night and then we buy their candy from them and they get to go out and pick a toy with the money. This really saves Dave and I from eating all the candy. Luckily we donate it to my cousin who brings it to work for their volunteer program.

I have to add that the next day when we took Hannah to the bus stop every house we passed Harper said, "We tick or teat dere and dey gave me candy!"

Recipe
Dave took Hannah to skating and I sent sandwiches for them to eat so that they would be ready to go when they got home. I made this soup because it's what I make when someone's sick and Harper and I ate it, I also ate an embarrassingly amount of mini chocolate bars...

Halibut, Roasted Sweet Potato and Turnips with Salad
Harper seems to be feeling better...physically? She was dressed and up and about today...well, except for the fits of frustration and tiredness and not quite rightness that dropped her flat against the floor every five to ten minutes. I know you think I'm exaggerating but I'm really not. I know it's because she's still recovering from the flu, but I have to tell you that I cried when she finally fell asleep tonight from sheer joy (and perhaps exhaustion) that I wouldn't have to peel her off the floor another time tonight - the poor thing.

Recipe
There really wasn't anything to this dinner, it was simple and good, although we all decided that we aren't big rutabaga fans.

For the halibut I drizzled a little olive oil on it and sprinkled some salt and pepper and baked it at 400F for five to ten minutes (depends on the thickness of your fish).

I tossed sweet potato and rutabaga cubes with a little olive oil, salt, pepper and roasted them on a parchment lined baking sheet for 25 minutes, turning a couple times.

The salad was sliced cherry tomatoes, mini bocconcini cheese, cucumber and croutons* drizzled with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper.

*for croutons I simply cut cubes of bread and pan fried them in a little glugg of olive oil with some oregano.

Wednesday

I'm pretty well brain dead tonight, Harper had another day like yesterday and I have this terrible pang in my belly at the thought that she may never go back to the way she was, she will, right? I really moved through the afternoon like a zombie trying to get some laundry done and the breakfast dishes cleaned up (yes, I said breakfast) between stories, games and breakdowns with Harper.

I did notice, that when it was only Dave and I, the laundry loads were mostly jeans and black, now I have a light load, a dark load, towels and a pink load.

I am also strangely turned off by the new scent of the dishwasher soap that we buy which smells just like my laundry soap, is that weird? or does not seem very wrong? It makes me think of eating cotton which makes me instantly gag....

Recipe
We had Chana Masala from this post except I baked some eggplant and added it in. It was really good and added just a little sweetness to it.

1 eggplant, cut into 1 inch cubes
2 Tbsp of olive oil
2 Tbsp of balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400F.

In a baking dish mix all the ingredients and bake for about 25 minutes, stirring occasionally (until the eggplant is soft). Mix in with the Chana Masala when done.

Stir Fry over Rice
This morning Hannah was playing with the rocking horse (which we call Neigh), who was pregnant. She talked about how Neigh was giving birth and pulled a Barbie doll from under Neigh and declared, "It's a person!" Then in a very robotic voice, "I am what comes out before the baby, all is good in there." ????

I just finish Tina Fey: Bossypants, I have to say, I'm not sure I've ever even seen an episode of 30 Rock and although I've of course seen SNL, I don't really watch it, but I did laugh out loud throughout this book and was able to relate to her in many ways (especially how turning 40 to her means needing to change her pants when she gets home - although I'm not 40, I always need change into my comfies when I get home...maybe this just means I'm lazy...). Anyway, I recommend it, it had more to it than just being so funny that my silent belly laughs woke my sleeping, sick little one.

Recipe
This is probably the greenest stir fry I've ever made. I didn't really do much of a grocery shop this week because we had a bit of a weird collection of food in the fridge that I wanted to use up.

1/2 head of broccoli
1/4 head of cauliflower
1/2 onion
2 baby zucchini
2 handfuls of pea pods
2 sticks of celery
olive oil
Tofu
2 cloves of garlic
1 Tbsp fresh ginger, grated
Sesame oil
Brown rice, cooked according to package directions

Warm a little sesame oil in a pan and add the ginger and garlic cooking for a minute. Add the tofu and cook until golden, the remove from pan and set aside.

Heat a glugg of olive oil in the pan and saute your onion for a few minutes, until slightly soft then add the rest of you veggies, saute until tender crisp (add a little water while cooking if need be). Once the veggies are ready add the tofu and sauce and cook until all warmed, serve over rice.

Sauce (the one from my cousin, it's really my go two whenever I need a quick and good sauce)
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 soya sauce (Braggs is best)
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cloves garlic
1/4 cup nutritional yeast

Whirl up all the ingredients in the blender except for the oil, add that while rest is whirling around

Friday
The girls always like to watch Dave shave. It's funny how something so mundane to us is fascinating and fun to them. I get it, I can remember watching my Dad shave, then there was no spray foam or gel, it was a tube that looked like toothpaste (I'm sure it must of been some sort of Old Spice product, it was the early eighties), and he had that little brush that would magically turn it foamy. I'd watch as he contorted his face in all different ways and magically shaved off the soap.

The girls went shopping and picked these toy shaving kits for the bathtub with their Halloween candy money. Now, I am not a fan of bathtub toys, I think that they never dry properly and are really gross, the girls have two plastic containers and an empty shampoo bottle as their bath toys (for the record they seem perfectly happy with these), but the shaving kits are kind of brilliant. None of the parts or pieces have any kind of squirt part so they dry properly, they come with super fun spray cans with foamy soap in them, the little brush which makes me think of my Dad, and the kids loved it. Hannah's giggles bordered on ridiculous, she was having so much fun.

Recipe

I was in a bit of a cleaning frenzy today and so I needed a quick meal. I scrambled eggs and added some basil and bocconcini cheese, so simple and the kids raved about them. We also had toast and oranges because one can not survive on eggs alone.

Macaroni and Cheese

We all spent the day outside together trimming trees, playing soccer, raking and playing in the leaves. Dave and the girls headed to the dump with a trailer full at the end of the day and I headed to the grocery store to get a few things for dinner. We had a plan to all meet back home to eat and watch the hockey game at six.

Did you know that Superstore has pumpkin pie ice cream? Seriously. I almost gasped out loud I was so excited (but controlled myself...although I may have skipped over to the freezer after I noticed it), it was right next to the candy cane ice cream and red velvet cake ice cream - which also seemed like solid choices. I was going to grab the pumpkin pie ice cream and then I thought of Dave. Pumpkin pie doesn't really excite him (crazy, I know). He's also the kind of guy (although flawed because he's not a huge pumpkin pie fan) who would still buy the pumpkin pie ice cream because he would know that I would be really excited, he's nice like that. I'm not really nice like that. I knew that he would be kind of excited by the new red velvet cake flavour and so in an attempt to be "nice like that" I bought the red velvet cake. I was actually rewarded for this, (not because the ice cream was so good, it's good but not heavenly or anything) when I went to put the groceries in the car there was one mini chocolate bar sitting there in the trunk, which must of spilled out from when the candy was in there and went unnoticed, until now, the first day of my period - it made my day (a little sad, I know).

Recipe

We had macaroni and cheese tonight and although both girls declared that it was not as good as Grandma's they would still eat it. I agreed, it's never as good as my moms - and I kind of love that they feel the same way. We also had kale chips, mostly because I knew that Hannah would be over the moon excited for them. They can both be found on this post.

Chili and Bread with Apple Crisp and Ice Cream

It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring. We turned the clocks back and so Harper got up at 4:15 this morning. At lease it was kind of a lazy day because of the rain. The girls played like crazy together this morning. Most of the morning was taken up playing shoe store. They fitted everyone in the house and I got a pair for only 8 pretend dollars, it was a pretty good deal... or bad considering I already owned them. They then had a bath for an hour and a half (toy shaving kits, brilliante) and we played games, read books and watched the very first Winni the Pooh movie which made the girls collapse in giggles. I have to tell you that the day seemed really long but it was nice and relaxing right down to the hockey game. Harper made it until six o'clock which is pretty good considering she was up so early. Falling back no longer means an extra hour of sleep, but an extra hour of day.

Recipe

Chili seemed like such a good choice for such a dark, dreary day (or drooly day as Hannah would say). I bought some cheese bread to go with it. Dave and I also added pickeled banana peppers to ours which was really good.

2 onions, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 mini zucchini, chopped

1/2 red pepper, chopped

1/2 yellow pepper, chopped

1/2 green pepper. chopped

2 Tbsp chili powder

1 tsp salt

1 can lentils, drained and rinsed

1 can mixed beans, drained and rinsed

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 28 oz can diced tomaotes

1 14 oz can tomato sauce

1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

sour cream and pickled banana pepper for serving

Heat a good glugg of olive oil in a large pot and saute onion until it starts to soften , add the garlic and chili powder and saute for a minute and add the peppers and zucchini and saute until tender (adding a little veggie stock or water if need be). Add in all the beans, lentils, tomatoes and tomato sauce and simmer for 30 minutes or longer. Before serving stir in cilantro and top with sour cream and peppers.

I made the apple crisp recipe just like last week's pear crisp (I love crisps in the fall) but with granny smith apples instead of pears and topped with ice cream (clearly the pumpkin pie would have been the better choice here, but again trying to be "nice like that").

I hope the sun shines down on you this week!