Monday: Veggie Burgers and Kale Chips
Tuesday: Red Lentil Risotto with Green Peas
Wednesday: Bread and Tomato Soup with Edamame Beans, Salad and Olive and Artichoke Heart Biscuits
Thursday: Tofu with Thai Vegetables over Coconut Rice
Friday: Quesadillas
Saturday: Chana Masala
Sunday: Sloppy Lentils on Buns with Roasted Veggies
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| I have a love/hate relationship with play dough. Here's the love part; happy, busy little girl! |
Veggie Burgers and Kale Chips
Sometimes, in the winter a chai latte can really make my whole day. Something about the sweetness of rice milk mixed with the cloves and cardamon take me to an instant place of comfort - kind of like one of those Calgon (?) commercials. The kids could be tearing the house apart, but as I sit with my chai I'm oblivious to it all. Perhaps, I should drink this more often. It's even better in the beautiful tea pot, cup and saucer (a saucer, I feel so civilized) the girls picked out for me for my birthday.
Recipe
The veggie burgers were super easy and tasty, I broiled mine on a rack and they did fall apart a little, next time I will put them right on the pan and I think they would flip better (once they were flipped and cooked on both side they stayed together pretty well). The quick, simple recipe for these is from
epicurious. It says serves two, I doubled it and got six good sized burgers out of it, but I could have gotten four decent ones out of one serving. We also made kale chips to go with these, instructions
here. I'm pretty sure Hannah ate almost all of the chips herself and she ate her burger - yay, she finally has her appetite back!
1 15- to 16-ounce can black beans, rinsed, drained
1/3 cup chopped red onion
1/4 cup dry breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon hot pepper sauce (such as Tabasco) (I omitted this for the kids)
Buns
Using fork, mash beans in medium bowl. Mix in onion, breadcrumbs, 2 tablespoons salsa, cumin and hot pepper sauce. Season with salt and pepper.
Using moistened hands, shape bean mixture into two 3- to 4-inch-diameter patties.
Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat) or preheat broiler. Brush barbecue rack with oil. Grill burgers until heated through, about 3 minutes per side.
We toasted the buns and then topped them with pickles, tomatoes, mustard and hot peppers!
Red Lentil Risotto with Green Peas
Today when I was upstairs getting ready the girls were downstairs playing in the living room. I could hear them arguing over one of the throw pillows and I was trying to ignore it. It seems in the last few months they have discovered how to fight...constantly. It used to be my friends would complain about their kids fighting and I'd think, man we're lucky our girls play so well and rarely fight. Honestly, I thought this would continue, even though they were so young, I really thought they would be siblings who only fought occasionally - sometimes ignorance/naivety is a wonderful thing that helps make the most of moments. Anyway, so they're fighting over this pillow and Harper is really upset and I can hear her coming up the stairs, and she gets to my room before I can hide from her (just kidding, it would wrong to hide from your children when they come looking for you to settle arguments, I would never do that...except, maybe when I can find a place to hide before they get to me). Hannah is hot on her heels (that's right, I just used that expression) saying, "It's alright mom, you DON'T have to come downstairs, Harper wouldn't share the pillow and I wasn't letting her have it to herself, and we were arguing and arguing so I put the pillow up so we would stop." Suddenly, my job has become obsolete, just like that. So, I think tomorrow Hannah can watch Harper and I'll head out to the gym!
Recipe
I got this recipe from
Apron and Sneakers and it was good and easy. When I was making it I was a little worried that it was going to be bland, but it has a really nice flavor. Would be even better with fresh peas I'm sure, but seeing though it's January in Winnipeg we used frozen.
2 stalks celery, minced
2 carrots, minced
1 liter hot vegetable broth
1 onion, minced
150 g. red lentils, rinsed
200 g. rice (I used arbrio)
200 g. green peas
100 g. cherry tomatoes, halved
salt & pepper
ground parmigiano reggiano
parsley, chopped finely
Boil a pot of hot broth. In another saucepan with extra virgin olive oil, saute' onion, carrots, celery & tomatoes. After tossing for 10 minutes, add the lentils and rice. Toast for 3 minutes. Pour 500 ml. of hot broth in the saucepan and simmer on low. Add green peas in the middle of cooking. Keep on ladling small amounts of hot broth while cooking. Stir frequently to avoid sticking. Season with salt & pepper.
Turn off when you see that the rice is cooked through.
Sprinkle with parmigiano reggiano & parsley - I didn't do this and it was still delicious.
Bread and Tomato Soup with Edamame Beans, Salad and Olive and Artichoke Heart Biscuits
My parents came and had dinner with us and then I took them to the airport. They're on their way to see my sister, niece and brother in-law. I'm always so happy for them that they'll all get to see each other, but a little selfishly sad that we won't be there too. Plus, I always feel a little less on edge once they're no longer flying over that huge expanse of ocean and have touched down on solid ground. It's not that I'm afraid to fly, it's that I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea. Whenever I meet a pilot and get to know them a little I always size them up a bit. My first reaction is to be comforted, they're just normal people who have families and loved ones they want to get home to and they fly all the time, with just as much at stake as the rest of us. Then, that comfort turns, and I realize they are just normal people, NORMAL PEOPLE! There's no cape and boots, if something goes wrong they are not going to jump out, grab hold of the plane and gently set it down in a safe location. I'm just say'n, they are just normal people, grinding it out at work! This panic comes in waves and luckily passes and life goes on. When I'm actually on a flight I'm always amazed that no one can hear the crazy in my head as we take off, although once we're up I can usually settle it down. I think it's good that I've never met anyone who is an air traffic controller, they don't usually hang out in public with their superhero reflexes, sight, and ability to see into the future!
Recipe
I loved this soup, it was so easy and tasted like tomato soup with dumplings in every bite. Although, Dave later admitted he was not really a huge fan of it, sometimes I just don't get him. I also made biscuits which were gobbled up, drizzled a little olive oil, salt and pepper over edamame beans and a Greek salad.
The soup is from
epicurious, and the only changes I made was to reduce the oil from 1 cup to 1/3 cup as suggested in one of the reviews, I added a large handful of basil opposed to 3 or 4 leaves and I pressed the garlic and left it in instead of smashing it and then removing it later.
1/3 cup olive oil
3 garlic cloves, pressed
6 cups day-old white bread, without crusts, torn into small pieces
1 (28-ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, pureed with their juice
4 cups vegetable stock (or water)
Handful of basil leaves, torn into small pieces
Kosher salt to taste
Heat the oil in a large, deep saucepan over low heat. Sauté the garlic until just fragrant, then add the bread, stirring until all the oil is absorbed and the bread is toasted. Add the tomatoes, stock, basil, and salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat. Simmer until the bread breaks down, about 20 minutes.
For the biscuits I used the recipe from this
post. I doubled it and stirred in 1 can of artichokes, drained and chopped, about 3/4 cup of chopped green olives and a little handful of Daiya cheese (alternatively you could use Asiago or any cheese you like) and I used Almond milk which I soured with 1Tbsp lemon juice (does that make it butter almond milk? Was it necessary to do that? I don't know but it worked).
Tofu with Thai Vegetables over Coconut Rice 
It was beautiful out today, thank you Mother Nature. Harper and I took advantage this afternoon and played outside in the backyard. Harper is not as enthusiastic about playing out in the snow as Hannah, I'm not sure if it's her age or her personality. We went into the backyard and built a very little snowman (most of our snow is already dedicated to a snow fort). After the snowman was done Harper said, "Can we go inside and have some hot chocolate now?" This is how she measures if she's staying out or not, whether she's earned a hot chocolate or not. We'd only been out for about 20 minutes and it was super nice so I told her we could go in and have some herbal tea or warm milk, but not hot chocolate. She opted to stay out longer. We played in the fort making a bench and a chair and then she made a toilet and a sink to wash her hands (perhaps she is ready to start trying to use the potty) and then moved on to play in the playhouse. After an hour and a half we went inside for some hot chocolate...well, I had chai latte. We sat at the table together and I thought about the laundry I needed to put away and the dinner I needed to prep for about...20 seconds and then we drew and coloured some pictures together and talked about all kinds of silly things!
Recipe
I had a recipe that I found for some Thai tofu but, somehow it went terribly wrong and the sauce ended up really bitter, luckily I had only added some of the tofu and was able to pick those out and throw out the sauce. So how do you come back from that? Hoisin sauce of course!
The tofu was cooked in a little olive oil with a few dashes of soya sauce and two to three generous squirts of hoisin sauce (probably 1/3 cup) and I used two (350g) packages of firm tofu cut in cubes (because the girls are tofu monsters) and tossed it all together until hot and then left them to marinate in the sauce over low heat, stirring every once and awhile, while I made the rest - to let the flavour really soak in to them.
The veggies are from an
epicurious recipe and where really quick and simple.
1 tablespoon oriental sesame oil
2 teaspoons minced peeled fresh ginger
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 red bell pepper, cut lengthwise into thin strips
6 ounces mushrooms, thinly sliced (the recipe called for shiitake, but I didn't have any)
3 large green onions, thinly sliced on sharp diagonal
3 cups thinly sliced bok choy (from 1 bunch; green leaf tops only)
Heat oil in heavy large skillet over high heat. Add ginger and garlic; sauté 20 seconds. Add bell pepper and mushrooms; sauté until pepper is crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Add green onions and bok choy and sauté until just wilted, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
For the rice:
1 cup brown basmati rice, rinsed
1 cup coconut milk
1 1/4 cups water
Bring all to a boil in a pot with a lid, and then turn temperature down to low and cook for 30 minutes.
I tossed the rice, tofu and veggies together in a bowl and added some fresh mint and basil. The girls had two helpings...well, one helping and then more tofu as well as asked for some for bedtime snack!
For the past two nights the girls have been going to bed together. It seemed to be working out really well, they haven't even really been chatting that much before falling asleep. I've been hoping they would sleep together, I'm not sure why. I think that I originally hoped they would sleep together and stop coming into bed with us, but honestly I love waking up in the morning and having them in our bed. I think that when having them in bed with us changed to me only having to pull back the covers for them instead of actually having to get up I became perfectly happy to share. I just like the idea that they have someone there with them for the whole night. It's also nice that putting them to bed has suddenly become really easy, read stories, both hop into bed and a couple kisses. Instead of having them begging me to stay longer and longer to cuddle, making me feel kind of bad for not wanting to (and not actually staying longer) stay and cuddle with my child, but also annoyed that they're trying to drag out the bedtime. They're happy to cuddle with each other, brilliant! Until, last night in the middle of the night we woke to them arguing (seriously! They are even doing it in the middle of the night!), Harper was crying and telling Hannah to get out of her bed, and Hannah was refusing to leave (I would too). I had to get up, I sent Hannah to sleep in our bed and Harper was very happy to go back to sleep all by herself. Hmmmm, I do think she does enjoy her space a little more than Hannah but, I'm not convinced it wasn't a weird fluke dream or something so we're going to see what happens tonight.
Recipe
The girls didn't want to have the tops on their quesadillas so Hannah announced that they were having pizzadillas - I thought it was rather clever! We filled ours with black bean hummus from
here, some sauteed veggies (we had peppers, onions, zucchini and mushrooms), with cheddar cheese or Daiya cheese. We baked ours in the oven at 350F flipping once and then topped it with green salsa.
Chana Masala
The weather has just been so incredible for us for January this year, I'm so happy. We decided that we would head out to Assiniboine Park today to do some skating and playing and maybe even visit the zoo. We are not really planners though, we should have brought sleds and actually checked the hours of the zoo before we spent our time elsewhere, but it all worked out in the end. We all strapped our skates on and skated on the pond. Harper was really excited and told me that she was going to skate without falling this time, that is not how it went down. She did really well for it being her second time on skates, but when you spend most of your time on your bum it can get old fast. She lasted about 20 minutes and then was really happy to sit on the side with either Dave and I to watch Hannah skate around and around and around. We then played in the play park (only the swings are open) and headed to
Stella's for something warm to drink and a little snack. The girls both downed a cup of hot chocolate and an enormous muffin and Harper promptly fell asleep on the way home, I laid her on the floor and took her out of her snowsuit, carried her up to bed (this was all at 5:30) and she still has not stirred - I really hope she sleeps through or we're in trouble.
We got home a little late and so I had a different chickpea dish planned which would have taken a little longer so I decided to save it for next week and made this chana masala from
here instead. I cooked some cubed potatoes and cauliflower on the side and added them in close to the end with some peas.
Sloppy Lentils on Buns with Roasted Veggies
Me to Harper today, "Don't put those mini marshmallows up your nose, we'll have to go to the doctor's to get them out." as she is trying to see if she can fit one up her nose (and them promptly eats it - gross). Hannah asks me, "how do you know that, Mama?" "Because, I'm your mom and I'm pretty smart." "Mo-om, really, what's the truth?"
Harper eating dinner tonight looks at me after munching down a brussel sprout and yells, "Bussel Spouts make me GO! Weally dey do" I think she meant grow.
We had a very lazy Sunday most of which I contemplated who gave Hannah the attitude for her birthday and if it was in fact returnable. The problem is we seem to jump on every little comment and trust me there are a lot, because everything is either; boring, gross, totally unfair, yucky or ugly. My goal for the week is to learn to ignore the ones I can and to hide from the others...no, no to try and deal with the others as an adult and not as my ten year old self.
Recipe
I got this recipe from
Mmm is for Mommy and we quite liked them, but it was missing a little zip, I'm thinking maybe a little red wine vinegar. I doubled the recipe and will be freezing enough for 4 meals I bet.
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1/4 cup (1 stalk) celery, diced1 clove of garlic, minced
1 tbsp chili powder
1 1/2 cup dried green lentils, rinsed
2 1/2 cups water
1 24oz bottle of strained tomatoes (or equivalent of canned crushed)
2 tbsp soy sauce or tamari
1 tbsp prepared mustard
2 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
In a frying pan, heat oil and sauté onion, peppers, celery and garlic until softened. Stir in chili powder and cook for another minute or two. Add to 3 1/2 qt slow cooker (or double amounts and cook in larger slow cooker), along with all of the other ingredients. Stir to combine, cover and cook on low for 8 hours.
We had ours on toasted whole wheat buns with sliced pickles and mustard.
For the veggies I roasted:
1 bunch of broccoli cut into florets
1/2 head cauliflower, cut into florets
2 handfuls of brussel sprouts
10 cloves of garlic, smashed
Preheat oven to 400F and put all the veggies and garlic in a pan, drizzle with olive oil and season with a little salt. Roast for about 25 minutes, stirring a couple times. Remove from oven and pour in a little veggie stock, about 1/4 cup, stir together and roast again for five minutes. If this sounds familiar it's because it's inspired by
Appetite for Reduction's Forty Clove Chickpeas and Broccoli.
Dave made dessert tonight, Raspberry Crisp from
all recipes, it was really sweet but good, a little went a long way.
1 (21 ounce) can cherry pie filling, except he used Raspberry instead1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
2/3 cup brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/3 cup melted margarine
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C.) Lightly grease a 2 quart baking dish. Pour pie filling into the dish, and spread evenly.
In a medium bowl, mix together flour, oats, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Mix in melted margarine. Spread over pie filling, and sprinkle with chopped pecans.
Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until topping is golden brown. Allow to cool 15 minutes before serving.
I hope the sun shines down on you this week and we have more days like these:
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