Feature Friday #3

Woohoo! Friday it is! Does anyone have any fun plans for the weekend? 



I know we have New Restaurant Friday and then Saturday the Teenager is having a couple friends spend the night. Sunday will actually be relaxing since there is no cheerleading. Hoping to fit in a run that day.

If you missed last week's Feature Friday make sure to check it out here. This week has been a great week in the blog-o-sphere! I've found lots of great stuff to read!

What I've Read:

The first article I read that really spoke to me is from another fitness mama. She's Rachel & she is over at Random Kings. She writes about Birth Stories and why they are a big deal. I have never judged someone for how they choose to give birth. That is obviously a very, very personal experience and what is right for the goose is most definitely not right for the gander. My friend Rachel had two completely natural births..good for her..I am jealous. I wish I could have done that, but I am a huge wimp and got the epidural...like as soon as I could! I had the most enjoyable, lazy birth. I will say when I tell people my birth story they are amazed my epidural worked so well. I have never felt judged by it though. Maybe I am just not that sensitive to notice if someone was judging me. But, as women I do feel that when we are in online forums and talking with our friends no matter what we should support them, especially with a birth story. Everyone makes the best decisions they can at the time and things don't always go as planned no matter how much you try to plan! So tell me what you think? Have you ever felt "judged" by your birth story? Have you ever judged someone for how they chose to handle the birth of their child? Better yet, leave her a comment on her site ;)

Next, I read two articles that I wanted to feature. Tomorrow I have a travel article coming up and these two ladies posted nice articles about places they have recently visited. The first is from Cosmos Mariners she writes about How to Have an Inexpensive Trip to Scotland. This spoke to me because we just got back from a fairly inexpensive trip to London. We love to save money so any tips on making trips less costly are always appreciated! The final article I am going to write about is from Megan Joy Jaunts.  She writes about visiting Seville, Spain! While there they visited a beautiful cathedral: Catedral de Seville. Go check out her beautiful pictures, this place is definitely on my must visit list some day! 

What I Wrote:

During my Meal Plan Monday post I write about 5 things you can do on Sunday to make your whole week run smoother & make sure you don't miss those workouts ;) This week I also continued on my weekly deep cleaning series: Living Room and Dining Room. Finally, if you didn't see this beauty yesterday I posted my recipe for making Granite Cleaner Wipes. Go over and check these out. Let me know what you think! :)

What I Watched:
I don't really have any links but this week we have been crazy into Big Brother Canada! Any one else watching? I love how they had the new house guest come in! Excited to see how that will shake the house up. 

I've also been way in to Reign.  It's getting super interesting. I love how they are going down an interesting sexual path with the King. This last week when he screwed the woman right out the window was shocking! Who else watched? What do you think?

I'm linking up over at Blogitudes today, if you are a blogger go link up too ;)

Feature Friday!

Hi! So, I wanted to start doing a Feature Friday to feature some of my favorite posts for the week that I read an wrote!

What I Read:

My good real life friends over at Food For Your Cell wrote a great article on 15 Minutes to Better Health. These are easy things that you can do everyday to improve your health. Go read it, what will you start implementing today?

The other thing I was reading this week was up on Cheerfully Imperfect ; her post about the 30 day fermented foods challenge she is doing. I am always looking for new and different ways to improve my health and learn about new types of food and improve my palette. I don't usually go for fermented foods but her list of fermented foods really got me thinking. So I've gone out and bought some keifer, some coconut yogurt, and kombucha. The recipes I am going to try making are the pickles, applesauce, and ranch dressing for my salads.

What I Wrote: 

This week I had a couple of great articles I feel! The first was a post about how each week I focus on one room/area of my home to deep clean. I assign a task to each day and do those, they take usually no more than 15 minutes. Here is the article.

The other post I want to talk about is an awesome keepsake I created for my daughter and her cousins. It is an ornament I made with a picture of the 3 of them in it with some sand from our favorite beach and some baby shells we all found together. Go check it out as it is a great thing to have in mind if you are going on a big vacation this year, it is something you can gather most of the supplies while on vacation! 

So, that is for my weekly wrap up! I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Family Favorites Friday #3

This is another classic. My mom made it since I was a kid, but many people don't know what I am talking about when I say what it is: Magic Cookie Bars.

Many people call them 7 layers bars, but not sure why because the recipe I use only has 5 ingredients, or layers, plus they are practically gone the instant they are cool enough to cut, so we will stick with "magic".

This particular recipe my mom always used was found on the inside label of Eagle Brand Sweet and Condensed Milk. I tweak it because, well, my family is picky. So...here is the recipe:

Magic Cookie Bars

-1.5 cups graham cracker crumbs

-1/2 cup of butter, melted

-10-14 oz (about 300ml) can of sweet & condensed milk

-package of semi-sweet chocolate chips

-a little shredded coconut

1. Preheat oven to 350F. In a 9X13 pan measure out the graham cracker crumbs.

2. Melt the butter. Pour over crumbs and mix together. Once combined use your hands to press the crust into the bottom of the pan.

3. Open the sweet and condensed milk and pour evenly over the crust. Try and get it as even as possible because once it is on there you can not really move it, but it does sort of naturally spread and settle so however you pour it so long as you cover most of the crust it will be fine.

4. Evenly sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top.

5. Evenly sprinkle some shredded coconut over the top. We have someone in our house who isn't a coconut fan so I just sprinkle it over half.

See half with coconut, half without! Pretty darn simple!

Here they are baked! Not the best picture in the world, but they sure are heavenly!

What is a favorite recipe you and your family love?

Skinny Strawberry Margarita ....Happy Friday!

Good Afternoon!

This has been quite a busy week but we are finally at Friday!! Do you have fun weekend plans? We always try a new restaurant on Fridays and then after today we have an entire week to ourselves. So, I thought it only proper to start the weekend like this....

Mmmmmmmmm skinny margarita's! This is a bit of a cheater margarita, but it's Friday...

Start with these necessities....

Then, to give it the restaurant touch I used some organic coconut sugar, dipped the rim of my glass in a little water (which is in the small container to the left) then, I dipped it in the sugar. Was the perfect touch to the drink!

De-vein about three strawberries (I used on big one & two little ones).

Mash those babies up! Make sure you get them super mashed so you have a lot of strawberry juice. The pulp will be floating around in there, but that's ok it let's you know it's *mostly* real!

Then, pour in some of the Skinny Girl Margarita mix & be done! I cut a slit up the middle of one strawberry and used it for garnish. So fun! 

I love this mix because Bethany Frankel, believes in eating real food so the margarita mix is sweetened with agave. It's as real as you are going to get for a pre-made mix and I love that!

Strawberry Margarita
Yields 1

• Skinny Girl Margarita
• 4 strawberries, divided
• Rimming Sugar

Take one strawberry and cut a slit up the center, wipe it around rim, set aside. Dip the glass in sugar. Put strawberry (the one you set aside) on the rim as garnish. In a shaker cup put last two strawberries and mash them up with a fork. Add two ounces of the Skinny Girl Margarita mix. Put lid on and shake vigorously. Pour into cup topped with sugar.

What is your favorite Friday activity? Mine is definitely our New Restaurant Friday's. It's so fun trying somewhere different.

Cheers!

TGIF!!! Knock Your Socks Off Margarita!

Yes, I am still on vacation. So, why am I so excited for the weekend?! It means I am that much closer to being back with my hubby! I have had a FANTASTIC time while on vacation but I've been away from him for over two weeks now and I miss him. Not to mention I've been away from home for 21 days and am ready to get back to the comfort of home. My Mother of course did an amazing job as hostess, after all we got chocolates on our pillow at night.

But, after a good long while there is nothing like the comforts of your home. I have a super cute post coming up that features all the pictures I took from the travel photo challenge I printed off before I left! But, today I do have a delicious cocktail recipe for you since, after all, it is FRIDAY!!! 

Knock Your Socks Off Margarita

• 1/4 cup of Everclear (Yes, this is potent thus the name knock your socks off ;) feel free to sub your favourite tequila, but it may not be quite so knock your socks off)
• 10 Lime's, Juiced (or 10 oz of fresh lime juice)
• 2.5 cups of water
• 1/2 cup honey (or to taste, we wanted ours a little more tart)

Combine all in a very large mason jar. Shake until combined. Pour into glasses over ice. Drink responsibly!!!!

Well, I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend! I know we are off to enjoy our last two days with my folks!!!

First Friday of Summer Vacation!!

Hallelujah!!! It is the first Friday of summer vacation for us! It is so nice to see absolutely nothing show up under my "alarms" section on my phone! Today we are taking it easy. The kiddo had some girlfriends sleepover yesterday, so I am making them some apple turnovers for breakfast along with a fruit salad and a few scrambled eggs. I figured something healthy was in order after yesterday's candy bar......

I had m&m's, lego candy, chocolate disks, gummy bears, gummy worms, and chocolate coins. I put out some whole grain cereal flakes, raisins, almonds, and banana's in a feeble attempt to get something "real" in their bodies, but they were all about the candy lol My kiddo did make herself a trail mix to snack on later in the morning. I am proud to say the didn't gorge themselves, there was enough candy to satiate them during the evening sleep over.

So, after apple turn overs, eggs, and fruit they will be heading down to film some fashion video's, I think my kiddo is doing something for outfits for camp. She goes to camp every year so she tends to be a bit of an expert in that department. After that I think we will just work on finishing up her room. I can't wait to post pictures of the finished product! It's turning out so well! 

Today is also new restaurant Friday. I can't wait to see what we come across today-we're hoping to find a good specialty pizza place! As for the rest of the weekend I think it will just be rest and relaxation. We are just six days away from vacation so we're trying to just relax and enjoy being home. 

Our menu for the weekend has some surf and turf, grilled cheese, homemade donuts, and a new lemon chicken recipe I can't wait to try out! 

But, for now I have an amazing recipe I came up with last week. Thanks to some of the amazing ladies on the cooking board I belong to I had some inspiration and a basic base for the recipe I just embellished a bit...

Bruschetta Chicken

Serves 2-3

All purpose seasoning  or salt & pepper

2 Chicken Breasts, diced

1/2 lemon

1 box Cherry or Grape tomato's

Whole wheat pasta

1.5-2 cups of water

2 Tablespoons Vegetable Stock Powder or Chicken Bouillon

Pan large enough to sautee chicken and cook pasta.

Dice chicken and season with all purpose seasoning or salt and pepper. Squeeze 1/2 of lemon into pan, turn on med-hi heat and add chicken. Coat chicken well in lemon juice and sautee until there is a nice browning on the outside. Cut half of the tomatoes in half and sautee with the chicken.Smash them down a bit. After about 5 minutes add the water and vegetable bouillon. Break the whole wheat pasta (I used roughly a quarter of my box, maybe a hair over) in half or thirds and add to pan. Cover with lid and let simmer until pasta is tender and most of water is absorbed, about 12 minutes. Add the other half of the tomato's and let them come to temp with the rest of the food. You can serve as I did above with some Parmesan cheese, cucumbers and onions, and garlic bread.

I hope you all have a great weekend! We have a long weekend coming up so you Canadians out there have  a safe and happy Canada Day!!!

Pizza Popcorn!!

The weekend is finally upon us, friends! I am so happy!!! Our schedule finally dictates we can take a date night this weekend! So, this is what my weekend will look like:

Friday: Early morning breakfast & errands, hike the Grouse Grind with a girlfriend (who is 10 years younger than me, my goal is to not make her stop so I can take a breather this time...we'll see how that works out! :P). Run more errands & find a new shirt for our date night. Get everything set up for father's day. Find a good movie to watch & make a fabulously healthy dinner.

Saturday: Get in the 100 burpee burnout, a good early morning walk. Get a few projects done that I want to surprise family with when we go back to FL here in a couple weeks to visit. Get in a late lunch/early family dinner before date night (I'm secretly hoping everyone will want Mongolian BBQ, but I'm not holding my breath). Then...date night! Can't wait to get out for some adult beverages & dancing, so glad everything is within walking distance!

Sunday: Mostly a relaxing day. Father's day celebration. Have a special dinner treat for the Mr. then another fun little treat after that! Wish I could say more, but he reads the blog & I want to keep it a surprise as he's a tough man to surprise!!! 

Anyway...I always try to make us a healthy family dinner on Friday as our schedules are kind of off during the week & we don't always get to eat together. Our snack for tonight though will be pizza popcorn it's actually quite easy! It's basically my base popcorn recipe with slightly different ingredients! 

Pizza Popcorn

1/3 cup popcorn kernels

Olive oil

Salt & Pepper (we use nature's seasoning or any other all purpose seasoning)

Pepperoni (cut into strips)

Bacon (diced or from a bag)

Mozzarella Cheese (grated)

Put the kernels in a paper bag & fold it down & pop as you would regular popcorn. Transfer to a bowl & drizzle with olive oil, mix it up to spread oil throughout. Season with all purpose seasoning or salt & pepper, mix to spread seasoning throughout. Then add grated mozzarella, pepperoni, & bacon. Other topping ideas include diced ham, diced veggies, or all the meats & all the veggies for a "supreme", add some Parmesan, provolone, etc. Just play around with your favorite toppings. I don't recommend adding pineapple, as it is kind of "wet" & makes the popcorn soggy. 

What are your favorite pizza toppings??? Mine are mozzarella, Parmesan, and provolone. Yes, cheese, cheese, and more cheese, please! :)

Three Day Weekend!

Good Friday Morning, Friends!!!

My teen was out of town all week. She left Sunday with the rest of her Grade 7 class and a few of the teacher's to an amazing camp called The Flying U. She had the most amazing time and met a lot of really cool new people. She talked non-stop from the time I picked her up until almost 9 pm! She did say she now understands why one of her Grade 8 friends said she'd give her right arm to be able to go again! They rode horses for hours each day, they got to swim in a lake that is fed by the melting ice from the mountains, they had delicious food and dessert after each lunch and dinner, plus a mug up!

So excited to be home!!!

This weekend we are planning on going to the beach, the farmer's market, and  the kiddo is planning on knocking out the rest of her projects so she can relax next week (she still has about 4 projects to go...will the school year ever end?!). It promises to be a relaxing weekend.

Projects I plan to complete this weekend & have tutorials for next week:

Cling labels made on my cricut for all of my glass jars in my cupboard
Get all of my cleaning lists updated and reprinted
Clean off, organize the patio and plant my plants

Do you have any fun weekend projects planned???

On to a delicious recipe...
This is a dessert poutine....

Sweet Potato Poutine

Ingredients1 sweet potato
Handful of Marshmallows
Handful of Chopped Pecans
Caramel Syrup
Chocolate Syrup

Process1. Chop the sweet potato into fry shapes, can sprinkle with cinnamon if you'd like. Bake in a 176 C (350F) oven for 20 minutes, flip & cook 10 more minutes or until crispy.
2. Place in a shareable, oven safe bowl & coat with caramel & chocolate syrups. Toss so that chocolatey-caramel goodness is all over the sweet potato fries.
3. Top with pecans, marshmallows & a little more of each sauce. Place back in oven so the marshmallows get big and puffy and delicious.
4. Enjoy!

Have you ever had poutine before? Do you like it?

Happy Weekend, Everyone!
Look for a summer post tomorrow and a traveling series starting on Sunday!!!

Fabulous Friday!

Well, we've finally made it to Friday! Barely on this end though as we've been terribly sick. Luckily the Mr. hasn't gotten it yet, but I'm making sure not to breathe on him! So, I'll continue to keep my fingers crossed.

This weekend we aren't going to be up to too much as we are just coming off of being sick and the kiddo leaves for her Grade 7 End of Year 5 day trip! I didn't even know schools did this until we moved to Texas and we heard about several schools that took week long camping trips or in California when most of her Grade 6 friends went to some space camp thing. So, this is pretty exciting that since they are "graduating" this year (at her school Grade 7 is ending Primary School),so, they get a really big trip!

So, we will be packing her for that. On Friday we are going to do a little bit of a Fondue with our new Raclette cheese. We'll grill up some meats and shrimp (maybe even some lobster), and veggies for dipping into the cheese. Then we'll finish it up with these amazing Malted Chocolate Chunk Cookies.

Saturday will be an exciting day as our local farmer's market opens!!! My daughter and I love farmer's markets. The kid is open to trying anything new so we always grab one new fruit or veggie to try that upcoming week. I figured after a while we'd run out of things to try, but with as much as we've moved there is always something new to try! I think our favorite so far was dragon fruit we tried at the Santa Monica Farmer's Market last year, and the biggest surprise to both of us was our love of fresh, raw spinach. You'd be surprised what kids are willing to try when you give them the freedom to pick it and decide how they want it prepared to try. My daughter is adventurous so the way she thought she'd like spinach the least-raw-is actually how she likes it the best, same with kale! Don't give her cooked kale, she'll ask you why you destroyed it! So, needless to say we are pretty excited about that. The rest of the day will be spent finishing packing her up and working on dying her bedding and working on the last of some accessories we started a couple weeks ago to make her room into a Moroccan Paradise.  We will also spend sometime prepping her Sunday lunch on the bus and making some cinnamon rolls or baked doughnut holes. This is also supposed to be our date night but since she leaves Sunday for a nearly a week unless she goes to spend the night at a friend's house we'll actually stay home and enjoy being with her. But, if she decides to go spend the night then we'll go out and do some dancing and jump around to a few bars trying new cocktails (that's what I love about city living no worries about driving around to try new and different bars).

Sunday we'll wake up and having cinnamon rolls or doughnut holes and coffee/hot cocoa (all homemade) and then we'll be off on our walk to the school to get her off to her big trip. Then the husband and I will probably laze around and stay in bed all day since we haven't really had the opportunity to do that since early 1999! LOL For dinner we'll do some easy quesadilla's using the last of our Raclette and any leftover's from Friday's fondue.

Now, I usually leave you all with a yummy recipe so I'll leave you with this one:

Tropical Martini

This is my twist on a fun martini

1 oz Malibu Rum

1 oz Absolute Citron

1 oz Pineapple Mango 100% Juice 

Dash of Grenadine

Combine all in a shaker cup with ice. Strain into a cold martini glass. Enjoy responsibly!

I really enjoyed this martini during our game night last weekend. It was quite tasty and made me think of summer!! So, if it's warm or just wish it was warm shake this up and enjoy! (Just don't drive after ;))

So, hard to believe our little bug is getting so big to do all the huge trips and stuff without us! But, I am glad we brought her up not afraid to go off and enjoy herself without us! Explore and see the world through her own eyes and tell us all about it!

What are you most looking forward to this weekend? I think for me I'm looking forward to seeing the excitement on my kid's face as she gets on that giant bus and goes off on this much anticipated trip.

Eat! Vancouver & the rest of the weekend.

First, since I am an American I would like to take this time and say thank you to all of those who have given their lives for us to have the freedom's we have. This includes those who served past and present. Being a military member is a commitment that take pure heart and commitment to get up and do everyday. There are men and women out there who are trying to make do as their spouse is off facing dangers most of us can never imagine. So, even though we don't have the day off here in Canada it is important for me to take a minute and stop and say a few words of thanks and appreciation for those out there who gave their life to help keep America a safe and free place for it's citizens.

Moving on....

This weekend we had a rare moment where it was just hubby & I when our daughter took a weekend trip to Victoria over on Vancouver Island with her Girl Guide Unit. We had some friends over & played games until way too late on Friday night. Then, Saturday I got up to workout and made us this amazing breakfast pizza. I made our crust from scratch using the quick & easy pizza crust from Clean Mama.

Then, I did a DIY Shellac. I'll say they looked really pretty but they did not last very long. I did it on my nails and the kiddo's nails the next day we still had chips. Today, basically 3 days later and they already need to be redone. I will say though using the Hard as Wraps and the no-chip acrylic top coat my nails are feeling quite a bit stronger than normal. So, I'll continue to use them...especially since I bought them but it doesn't last as long as the Shellac I got last summer prior to vacation. That lasted the full 10 days of vacation.

So, after the nails were done and my amazing husband did the dishes for me:

We go going to Eat! Vancouver. Now, after you buy your admission fee you did need to purchase tasting tickets in order to taste some things. Some booths were giving regular samples, but others mostly higher end restaurants and alcohol you needed tasting tickets. The servings you got with the tasting tickets were quite a nice portion. So, through pictures I'll fill you in:

Us in line for the amazing cheese that follows. It was really good!

Raclette Cheese

This is a delicious melting cheese. At home you basically just whack off a few slices & heat it up under the broiler for the the same effect they got here. The company is Cheeses from Switzerland.

These are the bags we were given to carry our goodies home in. The Swiss Cheese place gave us a really nice bag to help keep the cheese cold while we made our way around the rest of the festival. 

So, we bought two different types of cheese from the company the easy melting Raclette and Gruyere. We did try the Appenzeller but it was too mild for us. We like for our cheese to pack a flavor punch!

Next, we hit the adult tasting area. I forgot to take pictures here. Basically you put down a two ticket deposit & grabbed a glass then you'd go to each booth & decide what you want to taste. Everything in this area cost tasting tickets. Liquor is very, very expensive up here but the Mr. & I were quite surprised at how fair the pricing was for everything. I tried one skinny moscato, it was terrible. Had no flavor at all. Then, I tried a shot from a whiskey place it was Licor 43 it was amazing! It was a shot with whipped cream on top. Sweet and warm, just what I was needing that day! ;) I'll have to stock up for the winter for sure! Otherwise I didn't really try too much in that area. There was a lot of beer & I am not a beer drinker and the Mr. doesn't drink at all so we quickly moved on to more food! 

The first thing I tried & it was very messy because they gave me a lot so sadly I didn't get any pictures was Butter Chicken with Jasmine rice. It was pretty good & I was glad to get to try it as I see it on many menu's around here but wasn't sure if it would be spicy or not. This was spicy but it was good. We then moved on down to Dunn's Smoked Meats & Beaver Tails. We'd seen the smoked meats place before but had never given it a second thought to try. I was really tasty!!!

This is the open faced sandwich with mustard. I thought the mustard gave the meat a great flavor. I actually gave quite a bit of my meat to hubby because it was almost too much for me. 

This was hubby's sandwich without the mustard. He thought it was decent. It wasn't as good as his favorite brisket from our fave BBQ place in Texas, but it was nice for something a little different. I think if they had a thicker crust with the rub on the outside he would have liked it a lot better. 

This is just a silly picture of a pickle outside the Dunn's booth. This pickle makes me smile!!! 

YES, there is a place called Beavertails!! It is flipping delicious! If you are ever near a place that sells them I HIGHLY recommend not missing trying one!

Hubby bought these so I don't have the name of it but basically it is a sweet fried flat dough (almost like a flat doughnut) with chocolate hazelnut spread on top with reese's pieces & a drizzle of peanut butter. I savored every last bite. It was amazing!

This was hubby's. It was just the fried dough with cinnamon & sugar. It was very tasty too. I think it's more a "classic" of their line. 

Later Saturday evening after just relaxing we decided to play around with our cheese and hubby decided he'd cook up his portion of the food: 

Basically what he did was to a bowl he added Nature's Seasoning, Onion Powder, and Garlic Powder. Then he dipped each piece of meat into the mixture & fried it up in a pan. 

This is the meat being fried up. It was really tender when he was done. It was served with the Raclette we bought, after it came out from under the broiler he just scraped it directly on top of the meat. 

Proof he actually did cook!!! He was feeling very domestic this weekend I guess between cleaning the kitchen then cooking! 

That is our weekend in a nutshell. Sunday we sat around re-watching the first few episodes of Newsroom since that is going to premiere soon. Then, we had to go pick the kiddo up from the Ferry terminal. It was an hour drive, but it was a very nice drive. I'll leave you with some pictures of that: 

The tide was really, really low here. There appeared to be almost no water!!

Tsawwassen. I have no idea how you actually say this....I say it with a silent "T" but the other people I've heard say it say it with this weird-to-me TS blend.....

Storm was rolling in.

Stormy clouds with boats out on the water.

There we have it! Our fun weekend in a nutshell! What all did you do this weekend?

Adults only weekend!

Today is FRIDAY!!! Glorious, glorious FRIDAY!

This weekend is parent’s weekend! The kiddo is off with her Girl Guide unit hanging out in fabulous Victoria getting to see a castle! Yes, I am a little green with envy, but we’ll go this summer when her little girlfriend from Florida comes to visit so she can be our tour guide! Any whoodles, this is what our weekend is shaping up to look like:

Friday a little bit of this:

(IMG Credit)

(IMG Credit)

We will be inviting friends over & we will stay up way too late being ridiculous & playing this super fun game.

Saturday we are planning on this: 

Img Credit

Rumour has is there is an adult beverage tasting area so I am hoping to find some great new places around town for a good drink! First I have to squeeze in some Insanity, and I’m trying this breakfast pizza with a nice light homemade crust. After, if we have any room we are planning on hitting up my favourite Mongolian BBQ hole in the wall then maybe try the green tea parfaits at the Bon Crepe next door… I've been dying to try them for so long! Then, I am not quite sure what the evening will bring. We may be just ready to crash and watch a movie or catch up on some DVR. We haven't had much time this week for TV so that may be the time....

Sunday our not-so-little munchkin comes home. So I’ll go to yoga early at Lulu Lemon and then make hubs & I some egg white omelets & toast. Then, we’ll cook up a big ole’ family dinner of Spaghetti and Salad and maybe enjoy a walk together in the park if it’s nice or play in the pool. For me on Sunday, though, I will cook this separate to try. I've never tried the spaghetti squash in the crock but I’m hoping it’ll be amazing! I'll come back with a review for sure!

For dinner tonight, before our friends come over I am planning on surprising my lover with a candlelight dinner. I’m making pork chops and corn on the cob. The cob corns are HUGE! So, those will be our veggie/carb. So, without further ado…here is the pork chop recipe:

Stuffed Pork Chops

Serves 3

• 3 pork chops (bone in or boneless, but thick enough to cut a pocket into)
• Nature’s seasoning (or your favourite all purpose seasoning)
• Ricotta Cheese
• Mozzarella Cheese (1/2-1 cup)
• Spaghetti sauce (optional)

Preheat oven to 176C (350F). Then, with a sharp knife cut a pocket in the side of each pork chop. Season liberally inside & out with the all-purpose seasoning, we prefer Nature's Seasoning. Next, in a small bowl Combine about a 1/2 cup of ricotta cheese with a 1/2 cup of Mozzarella Cheese. Stuff this into the pocket you created in the pork chops. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until almost done. Then, add spaghetti sauce over the top & top with extra mozzarella. Cook for another 10 minutes or so, until the chops are cooked through & the sauce & cheese are nice & bubbly. Now, if you are looking to make this slightly healthier I normally serve the sauce on the side with no extra cheese as the stuff in the middle tends to be enough. Then, we just dip the chops in the sauce if we feel like it. :)

Corn on the Cob

This is my favourite way to cook the corn on the cob. Bring a big pot of water to a boil. You can throw some salt in if you want, I don't. After it's at a rolling boil gently add the cobs & boil for 9-12 minutes depending on size. Take them out & add butter or coconut oil & season lightly with garlic powder. 

I hope everyone has a safe & fun weekend! For those in the states enjoy your holiday!!! Ours was last weekend with Victoria Day and it was quite enjoyable! 

What is your favourite holiday weekend activity? Mine, during the spring/summer is getting outside and enjoying the sunshine!!!

Happy Friday!

So, we are finally at the weekend! For some reason, since I became a homemade weekends just haven't been the same for me. I seem to take them for granted. I mean, I enjoy them because my husband & daughter are home with me, but since my week's aren't as busy as they were when I worked, so it's usually just another set of days of the week! But, I've had a bit of a busy week with appointments and what not and the kiddo had a busy week with extra band practices, field trips and hubby had countless meetings and tons of work this week so it just feels good for it to be Friday and having some super fun, relaxing time to spend together.

Today I am slow roasting some ribs in the oven. I have one recipe I LOVE!!! I use the Neely's Dry Rib Rub here. It makes more than I need so usually I just double the recipe so I always have it on hand. I cover the ribs with it then I cover my pan in some foil, place the ribs on it, then cover it with foil (this ensures they will be super tender). Then I had my oven preheated to 400F (204 C) and I place the ribs in there, immediately turn the oven down to 250 (121 C) for a good two hours (checking the ribs as needed). Then, I whip up some of the Neely's BBQ Sauce here (again, I double it so I have extra for the month). I then turn the oven back up to 204C, take the top foil off & cover the ribs in BBQ Sauce while the oven heats back up. Place the ribs back in the oven and baste every 10-15 minutes with the sauce. They turn out tender and sweet, yet spicy! I'll serve it with a little homemade mac & cheese, and some roasted zucchini!! This is a meal that doesn't take much to fill you up, but makes you long for summer! ;) After we are finally making our way to see Iron Man 3. We hear it was amazing so we are really, really looking forward to seeing it!

The rest of the weekend I am dedicating to projects! I really need to get my daughter's room redone in the Moroccan theme she wants so many of the projects on my Pinterest Board is what I'll be working on. Here are a few of my top faves I'm looking to do:

(img credit)

http://thepleatedpoppy.com/2011/02/scrappy-lampshade-tutorial-and-long-story/ 

I have an old lamp & lamp shade and we have tons of old t-shirts that we are going to put to good use for this.

(Img Credit)
I'll use my Cricut to cut similar images. I have some bright orange DMC floss I'll use to hang them from the wall with.

This I found on Pinterest so I don't know how to give an image credit, but I'll post the link to the Pinterest post here.

These ones are my top priority along with dying her pillow cases and bed skirt. I will then also do some elephant embroidery on her pillow cases. I also intend to add a couple of canopies.

So, we have a fairly busy weekend planned here. We are also going out to dinner for a belated mother's day dinner. We were going to check out a French place, but sadly there is nothing on the menu my husband would like & he said he'd go & find "something" but it's just no fun if he can't truly enjoy the meal too ya know??? So, there is a cafe in a cute little neighborhood called Gastown that I've been wanting to try, but there are also several restaurants on Granville Island that we've yet to venture to and I would like to do a little shopping in one of the cooking stores and one of the bead stores so if it's nice hopefully we will catch the ferry over that way.

In any case it promises to be a great weekend and I can't wait to come and share the festivities!!!

Happy Friday & for you Canadian enjoy the long weekend!!!

Happy Friday!!!

(Check out the AWESOME flowers my hubby go me this week...well sort of. I am such a crafty nerd that he told me to go get some so I went to the local cart that donates all proceeds to the elderly/homeless & made us a gorgeous bouquet)

HAPPY FRIDAY, Everyone!!! Yes, I screamed that! Welcome to F-R-I-D-A-Y!!! 

Now, being a stay at home mom/wife Friday isn't quite as special to me as it used to be, but it is still nice because it means I can do something super special to kick off the weekend which means a super fun & exciting two whole days with my two loves. 

So, for this Friday I planned pizza & a movie for us. But, since I love to be non-traditional we are going to do pizza burgers along with salad and some homemade garlic bread. We will also be watching "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close". I am really looking forward to seeing this as it's one the daughter & I have been wanting to see. Plus, in lieu of the Boston events I think it is a great time to review a horrific detail in the United State's history, while having a positive message behind it. 

So, before I get to the yummy recipe I thought I might list a few things I am thankful for this week: 

• My husband (who is just as wild and crazy as me about seeing the world)
• My daughter (who is amazing & puts up with our thousand moves & just rolls with the punches
• The luxury of having lived so many different places and seen so many amazing things
• The sun, this seems like a small thing but after the grey winter I am glad for some Vitamin D. 
• The city of Vancouver which provides us with much entertainment & a fun walking experience every weekend..

Now, for the super fun recipes for tonight's dinner:

Pizza Burgers

1 lb ground beef (or 4 premade hamburger patty's)

Pizza sauce (canned or homemade)

Mozzarella cheese

Dried Basil

Salt

Pepper

Onion Powder

If using ground beef form into four patties. On each side season liberally with dried basil, salt, pepper, and onion powder. Cover with saran wrap & let marinate all day. When ready, take patty's out & fry in a frying pan until done to your liking (I do about 10 minutes on each side, but we like ours fairly well done). In the mean time heat the broiler up & cover a baking pan with foil. As the burgers finish place them on the foil lined baking sheet. Top each burger with a generous amount of pizza sauce & mozzarella cheese. Place under broiler until cheese is melted. Watch carefully or it will burn quickly under the broiler. Plate & serve along side a green salad & garlic bread.

My Favorite Garlic Quick Bread

1 Loaf of French Bread from the Bakery

a lot of softened butter

garlic powder

dried minced garlic

basil

mozzarella cheese, if desired

Split French Bread loaf in half. Spread liberally with softened butter (I'm a very healthy person but don't be shy here lol it's Friday you want to cover that sucker in buttery goodness). Shake garlic powder over the buttered halves. Be careful here, or not lol we love garlic so I use a lot & I'll only be kissing hubby so we will both have stinky breath & no vampire attacks will occur, certainly! Then, sprinkle lightly with minced garlic and basil for decoration. Then, if the mozzarella on the burgers isn't enough or you are serving this with a different meal feel free to cover this bad boy with some mozzarella. Then, stick under the broiler & toast it up. But, watch it carefully as it will burn quickly. 

For a super fun treat you can serve the burgers on the garlic bread. ;)

Hope y'all have a fabulous Friday!!! What sort of plans do you have for the weekend ahead???