Saturday, March 31, 2012

Day 96 - Loving Life!

We had an absolutely AMAZING Saturday. Yes it started out a little crankily at 5am when the little Diva thought it was morning and wanted milk and porridge. I tried to convince her that she was wrong - but hey who went downstairs and fed her porridge and milk? This mom! haha Sucker!

Anyway she surprised me by yawning like crazy soon after she finished breakfast so I thought - hey what can it hurt to try put her back to bed? It took about 15 minutes but she was soon snoring in her crib and I got another whole hour and 30minutes worth of sleep! Yay!!

The hubby quickly rushed out during the Little Diva's nap and picked up a sandbox. Then the three of us went out after her nap to go pick up the sand. We over estimated and grabbed 6 bags. We only needed 4 but I'm pretty sure that some of that sand will mysteriously end up in places outside of the sandbox - so yay for backup sand I guess. The Little Diva was thrilled with the empty sandbox she found after her nap and was a hundred times more thrilled with the sand filled box! We made a sand castle and she dumped 3 buckets of sand on herself. Her pockets were full of sand and so was her hair. It was awesome. :D

It was the perfect day. We rounded it off with Boerewors (look it up if you don't know what it is!), mashed potatoes and veggies. Our usually more carb/fruit/veg oriented Diva surprised us by really enjoying the boerewors. Ok, ok I won't make you look it up. It is a delicious South African sausage. If you ever have the chance to try it make sure that you do! I simply pan fry it when it's too cold or we're not in the mood to get the BBQ going.

With that I'm going to sign off. Sweet dreams to all and here's hoping tomorrow is equally fabulous. :)

Friday, March 30, 2012

Day 95 - Time to relax :)

The weather has taken a turn for the chilly and I'm retiring to bed to catch up on prv-ed shows! Stay tuned for way more entertaining blog posts this weekend :)

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Day 94 - a good old staple!

So today was a pretty low key day. The little Diva and I ran a few errands - she fell asleep in the car on the way back so we didn't end up going to her play group. I'm hoping next week will find us more on track with our schedule again. I think she's been getting pretty bored with being cooped up at home and being really sicky on the weekend didn't help either.

I would have loved to take her outside to play this afternoon but it was really chilly so we just hung out inside. We coloured, built towers, watched tv, played with play dough, read books and played kitchen. In between we ate and argued about why she shouldn't climb into/unpack the plastic cupboard (There was some crying and stomping of feet and even a full body floor tantrum - no no not me - the little diva!). Then we played some more and I convinced the little Diva that daddy would be home from work soon.

She's been acting sleepy in the afternoons for a few days now and I'm still in two minds about letting her have a second nap. She gave that up several months ago but it looks like she wants it back. I'm just worried that if I let her nap twice she wont want to go to bed at night. Oh well - I think I might give it a try tomorrow at least that way if she won't go to bed it's not a work day the next morning for the hubby!

I spent 2 hours tonight cleaning our main floor and all I kept thinking was - surely I could move faster or something; this is taking WAY too long! Haha I was also trying not to make tooo much noise with my sweeping - didn't want to wake the little Diva. She's been "helping" daddy sweep up her cheerios for the longest time now and this week Daddy found her a diva sized broom. It has been a HUGE hit and she's spent a good chunk of the day doing "dirt redistribution" - I mean sweeping.... it is super cute to watch! Can't believe how fast she is growing up.

At one point today the little Diva and I had the following conversation:

Little Diva: "is hungy"
Me: "Yeah? you're hungry?"
Little Diva: "yeah eat" - *makes eating gesture*
Me: "what do you want to eat?"
Little Diva: "cake!!"

She had the cheekiest little grin on her face and I'm thinking that we are going to have to bake some mini cupcakes together soon so she can decorate and eat her "cake"! For the record we had just eaten lunch so she wasn't actually hungry as was made evident by her inability to finish the cookie I had to substitute for cake. :)

Anywho I'm starting to think that this blog is moving more to a "Daily blog" than a "recipe blog" - but I'm ok with that. I figure I'll keep sharing good recipes when they crop up and as long as I'm blogging I'm doing better with any of my previous blogs - yay me! :D

For the record I made my standard "can't think what to make for dinner recipe". I simply cooked some veggies and ground chicken in a pot with pasta sauce for flavouring and served it with couscous. I tried to mimic the divine rice we ate at dadoos and dadda's last night but that was a miserable failure... hehe

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Day 93 - Apricot Swiss Roll

I made these quite often in South Africa but am not sure that I've made them in Canada yet. I took this to Dadoos and Dadda tonight and unfortunately forgot to take a photo before it all disappeared.... sorry!! :D Anywho here is the recipe!

Ingredients:
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
110g sugar
75g flour
2-3 tbsp jam of your choice
Sugar for the outside (about 1/4 cup)
clean and damp dish towel

Method:
preheat oven to 410F. Grease and line a swiss roll tin (cookie tray with rim 10X15X1inches) with parchment paper. Whisk eggs, vanilla and sugar together until thick. sift in flour and gently fold in with large metal spoon. Pour batter into tray and smooth with a spatula. Bake for 8-10 minutes until cooked. While the cake is baking lay the damp dish towel on a wire rack and sprinkle liberally with sugar. When the cake is cooked take it out of the oven and lay it on top of the dishtowel with the parchment paper facing up. Gently roll up with cake with the towel on the outside and the paper on the inside. Leave for 5 minutes to cool. Use a fork to whip up the jam. gently unroll the cake and remove the paper. Spread the jam over the cake and slowly roll it back up - this time without the cloth. Slice off the two messy ends and you are ready to slice and serve it - well once it cools down.

Enjoy :D

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Day 92 - Cookies to make your kid cry...

So it's official. The Little Diva does not like the cookies I made yesterday. She asked for a cookie at some point today and after asking for a "please" I offered her the container. She took one look at the offending cookies and started to cry yelling, "Cookies". As if to tell me there was no way in hell the things I had in her face were in fact cookies. *sigh* Some day's Mommy takes a real beating.

Anyway - if you, your spouse and your kid do not like "cakey" type cookies then don't bother trying this recipe! You will be stuck with a box of cookies to palm of on a family with less fussy members. lol I mean to be fair the little Diva has got used to "cookies" being the yummy crunchy peanut butter recipe I usually make and these are not those. :D I should have known to use the old banana's to make banana bread!!

Without further ado here is a recipe to try at own risk:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup finely chopped dried cranberries (optional)
1 mashed banana
1/3 cup butter or margarine or peanut butter
1/4 cup apple juice
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
Preheat oven to 350°F

Mix together cranberries, banana, butter, apple juice, egg and vanilla; mix until smooth. Stir in rolled oats, flour, brown sugar and baking soda - mix well. Drop spoonfuls onto greased baking pans; flatten with a fork. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Let cool on a wire rack.

Monday, March 26, 2012

Day 91 - FEVER GONE!!!

Today went a LOT better. The little Diva woke up with the teeniest fever and by the end of nap time she was back to her regular temperature. YAY!!! She's still not herself though and I'm sure it will take a little while for her snotty nose to clear but it was a HUGE relief not to feel her little body burning up like it did on Saturday and Sunday every time the Advil wore off!

Last night was pretty rough - her fever spiked at 39.5 and we assumed the slightly larger dose of Advil (we checked with telehealth first) would do a great job of helping her sleep through the night once it cooled her down. Boy could we have been any more wrong. She was so restless and crying for hugs almost every half until just before two. To be fair though we had stripped her down and given her a lighter blanket to help bring the fever down and once we warmed her up a little more she finally slept until 4am. Then she was up again for almost an hour until we finally put her in our bed. She proceeded to lie horizontally between her daddy and I. She was still super restless but managed to "sleep" until 9am. She snored in my face for the majority of the time and kicked daddy in the face several times as well. He eventually just dozed with his hands up to shield his nose and eyes.

She has started doing the cutest little thing today. Instead of just saying "careful" she said "Daddy Careful" and instead of just giving me a "welcome" (this is how she says thank you) I got a "welcome mama" when I gave her some cheerios. She's growing up so fast - I try not to think about it too much or I'd turn into a blubbery mess. It really is such a privilege to get to be her mom and watch her grow and learn every day!

She's been up a few times already tonight so I'm not sure how much sleep is on the radar for hubby and I but we are just both so happy that the fever has broken.

I have two recipes to share with you tomorrow that I made today. I primarily tried these recipes to use up overripe bananas and I'm not so sure the little Diva is a fan. Stay tuned!

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Day 90 - Viruses Suck (No not the computer kind)

It was another "sickie" day here in our humble abode.  The Little Diva is pretty good as long as her Advil is working but as soon as it wears off her fever goes right back up. It's horrible to see the poor girl so unhappy. I really wish I had some mommy-superpowers and could make here feel better with the snap of my fingers. The doctor we saw yesterday was pretty confident that she should be mostly better by Tuesday so I'm hoping she's already on the path to healthyness (it's late just pretend with me that this is a real word) tomorrow!

We watched a whole bunch of Treehouse and had to distract the poor girl because even though she is feeling crappy all she wants to do is go play outside! I'm hoping that tomorrow brings a less feverish and happier little girl. She did enjoy the fact that her little friend "A"'s mommy dropped off a gorgeous big helium balloon and some cupcakes for her today because she missed the party yesterday!

I wasn't adventurous in the kitchen today. We had KD and fresh cut veggies for lunch and my tried and true lamb recipe for dinner with rice and veggies. Hopefully the week will bring with it some new recipes!

Good night to all hoping you are happy and healthy!

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Day 89 - Sick day :(

The poor little Diva woke up with a fever and a case of the miserables this morning! I was really bummed because we were supposed to go to her little friend "A"'s birthday party today. It would have been an absolute blast and I'm really sorry we weren't able to go.

The poor girl was just not herself today and as soon as the medication we gave her wore off her fever spiked again. Turns out the poor girl has a viral infection so there's not much we can do other than give her Advil for her fever and wait it out. I'm hoping that tomorrow will bring with it a less toasty and much happier, more active little Diva.

Sweet dreams and happy weekends to all :)

Friday, March 23, 2012

Day 88 - Impossible Pie

Before I begin let me assure you that I have NO real idea why this is called an "impossible pie" (it is also called Sultan's delight). The recipe was nowhere near impossible and perhaps that's the reason; perhaps it is "impossible" to screw up. I used the parenthesis because I'm sure that somewhere, somehow, someone exits with the ability to make this one flop.

I stumbled upon this recipe while flipping through one of my cook books and baked it to take along to our weekly visit to Dadoos and Dadda.

Ingredients:
2 cups milk
1 cup sugar
1 cup coconut
1/2 cup flour
50g butter or marge (melted)
4 eggs
5ml vanilla essence
2.5ml baking powder
pinch of salt



Method:
1 - preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a medium pie dish with marge or butter.
2 - whisk all ingredients together in mixer
3 - pour mix into pie dish and bake for 30-60minutes - baking time varies based on size of pie dish. It is cooked when puffed up and golden brown. Serve cold or lukewarm.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Day 87 - Rice Krispie Square

Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a pot and add 4 cups of small marshmallows. Mix these in with the butter and stir until melted. Remove from heat and mix in 6 cups of rice Krispies. Press this into a greased Pyrex dish and allow to cool and set. Cut into squares and enjoy!


Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Day 86 - Fish Fingers!

I haven't eaten fish-fingers in FOREVER!

I remember really enjoying them as a kid with copious amounts of ketchup. I figured that the little Diva might be equally impressed with them. But alas she was not overly thrilled - I really shouldn't have been surprised. She took a couple of bites (microscopic mouse nibbles) to humour me so we will offer them to her again and hope for a better response then. I quite enjoyed them; mostly for the trip down memory-lane.

I have a vivid memory of my Oupa cooking these for us. He was staying with my siblings and I for the weekend while my parents were out of town. He was originally making chops and potatoes in a pot on the stove and burnt them pretty badly. I remember him being pretty upset. We (the kids) suggested fish-fingers and then had to show him how to cook them in the microwave. It makes me sad to think that the little Diva is too far away to get to meet her Great Ouma and Oupa. I have many, many amazing childhood memories of time spent with them. I'm so happy that the little Diva has as wonderful a relationship with her grandparents as I have with mine.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Day 85 - Rainbow carrots!


I found these awesome carrots at our local Metro. They were packaged together as a bag of colourful carrots. There were purple, yellow, white and good old orange carrots. I cooked these in the steamer with lima beans above rice which caused the rice to turn purple! All I hope is that there carrots aren't scarily genetically mutated to get them to look this way. If I start to glow green I will let you know. Right now though I would suggest trying these carrots - they are pretty and tasty :)


Monday, March 19, 2012

Day 84 - who the bleep gets a couscous injury?!

YAWN - there's something about this hot weather that makes me want to veg! So yes you are probably wondering about the title to this post. You're probably imagining all manner of gruesome burning accident but fear not. The injury of which I speak is WAY less impressive. I was cleaning the stove after supper (we had chicken meat balls, couscous and veggies) and I managed to somehow slice my thumb under my nail with a piece of couscous that was solidly attached to said stove when my hand gripping the Mr. Clean magic eraser slipped. Yup WAY less impressive. It felt like an intense paper cut and I got to dig a sharp, chunky grain of couscous out of my bleeding finger. Yay for the ridiculous things that happen to me in my kitchen!

Stay tuned for more ridiculousness :)

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Day 83 - Amazing weather!

Whew I cannot get enough of this AMAZING spring weather. Yes yes Spring only technically starts on Tuesday but this weather is undeniably "Spring-ey"! It was awesome to see everyone outside enjoying the sunshine as much as we were. We went for a walk to Canadian Tire today to go pick up my car after the winter tires were taken off. I have to say they seemed like a giant waste this year with how little snow we really got.... but there was that one time I still slid a little so who knows how bad it could have been if I didn't have them. I felt safer with them on my car so I'm not sorry we got them!

The little Diva is fast learning how much fun going outside can be. If we let her out the front door she takes off for the park - super cute but the tantrums if we don't let her go are not great. Her tantrums seem to be right on schedule - she turns 2 in June and she's already hard at work testing her boundaries!

We were bad and ate Wendy's for lunch today. My confession of bad eating will have to suffice for a "recipe" mention today. Apologies to all - the week should include more baking and cooking than this weekend. It was just such a great, warm, sunny weekend. I loved spending time outside with my little family - watching the little Diva laugh and smile at the dogs, squirrels and planes along the way made the walk that much more fun. She's a pro at making sure the hubby and I see all the squirrels and planes she finds too! I LOVE it. I am undeniably happy :D

Wishing everyone a truly happy week - here's to good health, happiness and fun!

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Day 82 - Chicken Meatballs

Ugh - to be honest I'm not in the bloggiest of moods! It took forever to get the little Diva to bed and just when dad thought he had done the impossible - the freaking foghorn started with his "foghorning". We could have happily thrown him out the back door and slammed it in his face. The "foghorn" is our annoying orange hand-me-down cat. I really wish he didn't annoy me as much as he does but there I said it. This cat drives me CRAZY sometimes. I think he's just way more needy and crazier that my original and awesome cat JubJub. When there's a little person in the house in addition to the needy cat it really makes said cat that much more annoying. The Little Diva and JubJub get along fabulously. He's even knocked her over in his excitement to give her cat hugs a couple of times. She thankfully thinks that it is hilarious and he tolerates her tucking him under blankets and toys really well too. Ok I think I'm done my complaining for now.

 *Deep Breath*

Please don't send me hate mail - the cat is still safely in the house :)

So for supper today I made meatballs, rice and veggies. The meatballs were pretty awesome even if I do say so. I popped about a pound of ground chicken, half a red pepper, tablespoon of Italian spice, tablespoon of parsley, one egg, an onion, and about 3 tablespoons of tomato paste in the blender. I blended this till things were chopped and smooth. I added 1/2 cup bread crumbs and stirred them in well. I rolled balls and popped them on a greased tray and baked them at 400 degrees for 25-30minutes.

Happy baking and cooking - hope your pets are not driving you crazy!

Friday, March 16, 2012

Day 81 - Crunch Tofu!

Whew another SPECTACULAR day! It was so freaking warm - loving the start to spring. The Little Diva and I spent a decent chunk of time outside today. I hadn't noticed just how many planes fly over our house until she started noticing them too. She called the majority of them airplanes but every now and then she decided one was a helicopter! It was a good thing there was as many planes as there were because she started demanding "AGAIN! AGAIN!".... .I mean yes I have some Mom "super powers" but I'm not THAT good.. lol

I used my original tofu recipe here for supper and omitted the garlic, tomato and onions and instead added about half a cup of bread crumbs to the tofu mix just before I popped it on the tray and then in the oven. They came out lovely and crispy - BUT you really need to serve them right away because they quit being crunch if you wait an hour!

Happy cooking and baking - I'll try keep the weekend entertaining :D

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Day 80 - Daylight Savings Time DESTROYED Nap time!

UGH! I have never been a fan of daylight savings time. Sure the previous clock change resulted in an extra hour of sleep and that was great I guess - but this time round I didn't only lose an hour of sleep. Nope - I have lost the grip I had on the little Diva's 12:30pm nap! She seems to think that the lovely weather and time change mean that her nap time is a non-essential part of the day. Her crabby attitude and frustrated mom however beg to differ.

The first day after the dreaded clock change I was able to get her down for a nap at 1:30pm which wasn't too too bad considering she still thought it was 12:30pm... the following day was 2pm and today we didn't manage a nap at all. She is also teething so I do understand that there is a lot going on right now - but I don't have to be thrilled about it :D

We were up at 2am this morning feeding the little goober blueberries and a dose of Tempra. She was finally able to get to sleep and managed to snooze till 9am-ish. I have to admit sitting there in the semi-dark watching her munch her blueberries out of her cup with her cute little dimples and sparkly, sleepy little eyes - I couldn't help but love that I was one of two people who got to spend that time with her. I fall in love with this little girl more and more every day. It is true that you don't really understand your parent's love for you until you have a child of your own. Them is some POWERFUL love!

The little Diva is fast asleep now and I'm hoping she has a good night and is back to herself tomorrow. I intend to take her to the play center for an hour in the morning to get some energy used up and then perhaps we will spend some time outside after lunch. I will be hoping and praying for a nap with little to no fussing!! I can dream can't I? hehe

Anywho I didn't cook anything too exciting today but I did make an egg salad sandwich and cut it into two little Oreo sized circles for the Little Diva. She didn't buy my "egg cookie" bit at all. So yeah attempt 2 at disguising food as a cookie didn't go very well. Stay tuned for further attempts!


Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Day 79 - Apple-Cinnamon Teff Pancakes

I made teff pancakes for the Little Diva for lunch. She however was adamant that she wanted "Cookies".  I simply sliced these into fingers and told her they were "teff cookies".... she was impressed - said "Mmmm" and shared her "Cookies" with me. I have to say I was pretty darn happy that my plot worked. I have my doubts that she would buy my "broccoli cookies" story though...

I found it almost impossible to fry these pancakes. The recipe says to fry them in coconut oil but try as I may I couldn't get them not to stick, burn or crumple. I switched my oil to Olive oil and fried them pretty easily! These pancakes tastes like french toast - Yummers!

I halved the recipe I used and found it here.

Ingredients:
2 cup teff flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 cups milk (or non-dairy milk)
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons melted coconut oil
3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
Olive oil to fry.

Sift dry ingredients together. Mix in wet ingredients well. Fry over medium heat!

Enjoy!!



Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Day 78 - TEETH suck!

The Little Diva now has tooth number 13 and tooth 14 forcing their way through her gums. She wasn't the greatest fan of eating today and I really need to figure out how to get more food into this kid! All she wants is "cookies" and unfortunately I'm against a 100% cookie diet. I'd LOVE to be on it too - but I can't imagine it going anywhere good. I'm thinking expansive muffin top and cookie tire - no thank you!

We did get out for a lovely walk today and I was able to grab a Cape Seed Loaf from the bakery. These things are DIVINE! Even the little Diva was happy to eat a few bites of the freshly toasted and buttered bread. This mommy would have been happier if she'd eaten the WHOLE slice but at this point I'm happy with a few bites at least.

The banana muffins I made last night are yummy. The Little Diva was a big fan. I think that the banana-ginger loaf I shared a few days ago was better but this one is really fast and easy. If you need muffins in a pinch I'd say use this recipe. Here is the link. I added a teaspoon of vanilla essence to my recipe but I'm sure it would still have been good without it.

Anywho I'm off to Google kid friendly recipes - goodnight to all :)

Monday, March 12, 2012

Day 77 - Holy Muffins Batman!

Whew - it is 11:12pm and the house SMELLS like MUFFINS. I had a bunch of 2% milk left after the Little Diva's stomach bug week and needed to use it up. The Hubby and I are fans of skim milk and the Little Diva loves her some homogenized milk.

So what was a girl to do with extra 2%. Now I'm pretty confident that most people don't think of muffins when they need to use up excess milk - but hey, I have a recipe that uses 2 cups a pop! Remember this one?

I made two batches of these muffins. For the first batch I substituted Strawberry Special K for one of the cups of bran. For the second I substituted two cups of raisin bran for the bran. I just popped the cereal in a bag and crushed it really well before adding it. If the Banana muffins (which I made to use up icky looking bananas) turned out well I can share that recipe tomorrow.

I'm going to get myself to bed - well as soon as I get the muffins packed away! Sweet dreams to all :)

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Day 76 - Tacos!

What a BEAUTIFUL Spring day we had today. I am looking forward to the coming week - it's supposed to be GREAT and I have wonderful plans for the Little Diva and I to take daily walks. I can already smell the vitamin D laced sunshine - WooEeeee!!!!!!

We had a pretty late start to the day and then went for a nice scenic drive. I had started cleaning our fish tank's filter and so a stop at Petsmart was in order. The Little Diva had a blast there showing Daddy the "Feeesh" and birdies. She started telling him about them as soon as we entered the store and then made sure he was heading in the right direction. Her latest trick is to tell me that the birdies are hungry. I think she gets a kick out of me telling her that they eat seeds.... hehe It is SO much fun to watch her learning about her world and getting better at communicating. It melts me heart when I see how happy she gets when I understand what she's telling or asking me for.

We came back home and I made tacos for lunch. The crunchy stand and stuff variety. The little Diva was a HUGE fan of the shells - the meat not so much.

Here's to a delicious week :D

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Day 75 - what to type...

We had a lovely day today - we spent some time at the mall this morning and spent part of the afternoon at Granny and Grandpa's with My brother and his family. It had been a while since Grandpa got to see the Little Diva and they had a blast hanging out together. The afternoon went by in a flurry of good food and good company and before we knew it we were back home and it was time to get the Little Diva to bed. She seems to be working on getting another tooth through her gums and it's making her a little cranky and difficult to get settled for nap and bedtime. She did however get to discover that she LOVES yogurt covered raisins and pineapple today! All in all it was a lot of fun and tomorrow I intend to find a slew of healthy recipes to try out this week. Hope you stick around to see them!

Friday, March 9, 2012

Day 74 - YAWN

Whew - I really need to start going to bed early! Anyone reading this blog must assume that I'm always freaking tired. They probably wouldn't be entirely wrong to assume that - but I do have to take some responsibility for my ridiculous sleep deprivation. It's not like it's entirely unavoidably. If I really wanted to fix the problem I would simply go to sleep when the little Diva does (or doesn't) and wake up when she does. A nice big chunk from 7:30pm to 6:30am - now that does sound tempting. The only problem with this plan is that I really wouldn't get anything done. The dishwasher and laundry LOVE to scream at me at night. Sometimes staying up to 1am to read an awesome book is totally worth the burning eyes the following morning too.

Anywho the point of that ramble is that it is super late and I need to go to sleep! We had a great day with Ganny and then came home and ate leftovers no recipes to share today - stay tuned for new recipes this weekend!

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Day 73 - Too much peanut butter!

The Little Diva is OFFICIALLY a COOKIE MONSTER! There I said it. The kid loves peanut butter cookies a little too much - I am pretty confident that she would eat them for every single meal if I let her. Alas though I have had to put my foot down and insist that fruits, vegetables and other sources of protein are equally important parts of her daily "num num" intake. I find it hysterical when she tells me she's "Hungy" and then asks for a cookie. I guess she is convinced that "cookie" makes up a food group! We definitely need to work on increasing the variety she eats. Being sick and only wanting cheerios and milk for a week really didn't help much but it will get better.

I did end up making more peanut butter cookies today. I used 1 cup of chunky peanut butter, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup oats, 1 egg and 1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips. The little Diva as usual loved them and Uncle M asked if we'd baked Peanut Butter cookies as soon as he walked in the front door. He was quite happy to munch a few with his coffee and the Little Diva was super impressed with him showing up too.

I say "too" because her little friend A visited today. They had a lot of fun and the Little Diva is looking forward to A's birthday later this month. While we were talking about birthday plans it really hit me that the Little Diva is going to be 2 years old in about 3 months. That is just CRAZY. I find it hard to believe that I have been a mommy for almost 2 years now. Has it really been that long? Where have the days gone....


Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Day 72 - South African Lemon Meringue Pie


crust first
then the lemony filling
last but not least the meringue!
 I made this for Dad A's birthday this evening. The grown ups enjoyed the Lemon Meringue while the Little Diva was more interested in eating the icing off of the cupcakes Dadoos had made; which meant I got to eat Cupcakes too!!

I figured that if they were frosting free they had to be even healthier; right? hehe All joking aside though we had a truly wonderful evening and I do NEED to get back on the treadmill tomorrow :D

If you've never experienced a South African lemon meringue I sincerely beg you to try it at least once. You don't know what yer missing!! Anywho I'm off to bed here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
Crust
200g Maria Biscuits
150g Butter or Margarine

Filling
2 Eggs (I tend to use 3)
1 tin of Condensed milk
100ml Lemon Juice
10ml Cream of Tartar
30ml Castor Sugar (I use regular)

Method to the Madness
Bake and Enjoy once chilled!
Set the oven to 305 degrees and grease a pie dish.

Melt the butter and blend with the crushed biscuits. Press into the pie dish and pop this in the fridge
to chill while you prepare the rest of the pie.

Separate the eggs. First beat the egg white until it forms nice stiff peaks. Beat in the Sugar. The sugar in my sugar bowl had a few red sugar crystals in it from Valentines day and that is why my meringue was pink - I quite liked it and might do this on purpose next time around. Pop the meringue in the fridge while you mix the final pie component.

Blend the egg yolks, condensed milk, lemon juice and cream of tartar on high speed until it gets nice and thick. Think at LEAST 5 minutes of beating.

Remove pie dish from fridge - pour in egg yolk mixture and top with the meringue. Pop this in the oven and cook for 20minutes - the peaks of meringue should be golden brown and the pie not ridiculously jiggly.

Let the pie cool and place it in the fridge for several hours to chill before serving.

ENJOY!!



Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Day 71 - Carrot and Cheese crustless quice

So this recipe comes out of a baby food book. Adults will enjoy it as well though - the hubby and I did. It makes 4 adult servings or 12 baby servings (12-18months). The Little Diva ate several mouth fulls with gusto and loud "MMM's" and several got spat out as if I'd fed her gravel. So really I'm not sure whether to chalk this one up as a win or a loss. Either way she will be getting this again tomorrow and hopefully she's more enthused! :D 

Ingredients:
15ml Butter
1/2 small Onion
250ml Grated Carrot
1/2tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Curry Powder
4 Eggs
2/3 Cups Milk
1 Cup shredded Mozzarella Cheese (I used cheddar)
Paprika to garnish

Method:
Fry onions for 5 minutes in butter. Add carrots, salt and curry and cook for another 5 minutes until golden brown. Remove from heat and let cool. Whisk together eggs and milk and stir into vegetables. Pour into greased 8 inch (2 litre) square cake pan. Bake in 300 degree oven for 25 minutes. Remove and top with cheese. Sprinkle paprika over cheese and return quiche to the oven. Bake for a further 15-20 minutes or until firm. Cut into squares and serve.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Day 70 - Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter cookies!

The little Diva is WAY better and first on my list of protein rich things to bake/cook was peanut butter cookies. I made the flour-less ones and added some dark chocolate chips. There are few things I love more than sticky chocolate hugs from the cutest little toddler who also happens to be yelling "more cookies".

We had a pretty boring day waiting around for a TV technician and the cookies were definitely a welcome distraction. Now to keep from eating them myself! Here's the recipe and I hope you enjoy them too.

Ingredients:
1 cup Chunky peanut butter
1/2 cup Sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup chocolate chips (2 handfuls lol)

What ya do:
Mix all ingredients well together. Roll into 24 balls and place on parchment paper covered baking tray. Bake in 350 degree oven for 15 minute. Remove and let cool in tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Pour a glass of milk and enjoy!

Sunday, March 4, 2012

DAY 69 - Khichri

While the little Diva was sick Dadoos shared the recipe for Khichri with us. It is a great meal for tummies that need something gently. You can add some stock and veggies if you wish to make it into more of a meal but for our purposes plain was best! The little Diva was a punk and decided she was not going to eat it. She had been really sick though so I'm sure she will eat it now! At least the Hubby and I enjoyed it. Here is the recipe if you'd like to try it too :)

Ingredients:
30ml Rice
30ml Daal (lentils - I used the orange ones)
2 cups water
salt to taste

Cook slowly until cooked and most of the water is gone. You want it to remain watery but not soupy. Mash slightly with fork. You don't want it to become pasty. Enjoy!

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Day 68 - Banana and Ginger Loaf

YAY! There was no vomiting or diarrhea in our house today!!!!!!!! Yes, in this situation I think my excessive overuse of exclamation points is completely and utterly deserved. It has been a really, really long week and it has been really hard watching our little Diva feeling so miserable. She was definitely feeling better today thought, and it was so great to see her appetite come back. She has lost some weight so I intend to feed her lots of healthy fattening foods in the next few days. Stay tuned for recipe updates!

So I finally got around to making the banana bread today and here is the recipe I used:

Ingredients:
125g margarine or butter
250ml white sugar
125ml brown sugar
10ml syrup
4 ripe bananas mashed
2 eggs
625ml self-raising flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
5ml ground nutmeg
5-10ml ground ginger
5ml vanilla essence
30ml milk
125ml chopped walnuts (I omitted these)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two loaf pans with margarine. Cream together butter, sugar, and syrup until light and fluffy. Add the mashed banana and eggs and beat well. Fold in the dry ingredients. Mix in the milk and vanilla essence. if you're using them - mix in the walnuts. Spoon into the bread pans and bake for approximately 1 hour or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the center. Slice, butter if desired and ENJOY!

Till next time happy baking and cooking :D

Friday, March 2, 2012

Day 67 - Chicken Vegetable Soup

I didn't end up making my banana bread today and instead made a huge pot of chicken, vegetable soup.
Here's what you do ->

Into a huge pot place the following:
4 large red potatoes washed and cubed
1 large bunch of broccoli
half a head of cauliflower
2 onions
1 large red pepper
4 carrots peeled and chopped
2 cups assorted lentils
2 chicken stock cubes
1 vegetable stock cubes

Add enough water to almost fill the pot and cook on low heat / low boil for 4 or so hours. Stir every now and then. Liquidize and enjoy!

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Day 66 - Banana Bread tomorrow?

Whew - this has been one heck of a week. I am super happy that tomorrow is Friday. I am hoping to find a moment to whip up a banana bread tomorrow. This week has included way too much chicken noodle soup, toast, rice and banana's. The little Diva constantly asks for bananas but hasn't been eating more than a few bites. I finally realized that I didn't want to eat upward of three bananas each day - "cleaning up after her" - so instead of throwing them out I have a few pieces of banana in a bag in the fridge in need of some mashing and baking into bread!

Anywho I'm sorry to be so brief but hopefully next week will bring with it a healthier family and a bigger drive to get back on our healthy eating plan and share some recipes!