Menu Plan Monday & Snacks for Kids....

Ty had a playdate last week with a fairly new friend.

They had a great time together, but when I asked what they would like for snacks,

our new friends was too shy to tell me. 

So I made up this tray of assorted snacks, hoping that he would like at least one thing.

Ranch dip & carrots. Animal Crackers. Watermelon. Apple slices. Goldfish Crackers and some other little crackers.

The tray came back empty.

Wouldn't you love to be a kid a again where someone just makes you little snacks

 and serves them on a tray?

 One of the things I love about Menu Plan Monday is that it's such a great start to getting the family organized for the week.

And with the start of a new school year {September 1st for us} right around the corner, meal planning is such an important tool to keep the house running smoothly with extra-curricular actitivities & homework commitments. I not only write down the meal, but the time it should be served that night, which varies depending on the schedule.

Last week I was reading comments on a blog post about meal planning.

I was reading how lots of meal planning & shopping lists are done on the computer and printed off.

Meal Plans for 6 weeks at time...all on the computer, typed up and printed off.

I would love to be that organized, but to be honest, I like simple too.
Plus, I find it much easier to rotate in new recipes my way.

My menu planning tools are simple.

They consist of this pad I picked up at Michael's for $1.00.

It has magnets on the back, so I keep it right on my fridge.

And my shopping list is a pad I picked up at the dollar store, and it has magnets on the back too.

Maybe some day I will be uber organized and have my meal plans organized in a computer program, but this works for me now.

Our Meal Plan for the Week:

Monday: Meatballs, mashed potatoes, steamed green beans & salad.

Hunter made chocolate mousse for dessert too. Yummy!

Tuesday: Grilled chicken and veggie kabobs with rice.

Wednesday: Slow cooker pulled pork sandwiches with coleslaw.

{I am out all day at my friend's house, so I need something ready for dinner=slow cooker.}

Thursday: Spaghetti & caesar salad

Friday: Mini pizzas on multi-grain bread with veggies &  cheese.

Baking Projects:

Muffins for school lunches.

Cookies for school lunches.

Wednesday: Baking day with my friend Gloria. We are making raspberry tarts & pocket pies.

I am super excited about Wednesday. Hunter and I are picking raspberries in my friend's backyard and then having a baking day!

I love baking days with friends.

This post is linked to:
 Menu Plan Monday @ I'm An Organizing Junkie

Camping Cuisine Part 5: Great Travelling Bean Salad

This is the last of my 5-part series on recipes for camping trips.

Whew! Are you bored yet, or are you inspired?

I like to think that I have inspired some campers to mix it up a little. I hope so.

To be clear, we do have hamburgers sometimes....everyone in our family likes them. I just make sure that I make the burgers before we leave home so that my husband just has to put them on the grill.

And we take hotdogs for snacks because, afterall, what is a camping trip without roasting weinies on a campfire?

On our last camping trip, I took along a bean salad which included lots of veggies. It's a fresh take on the bean salad that we all used to eat 20 years ago...you know...the one with the canned wax yellow & green beans. The recipe comes from Eat, Shrink & Be Merry. (I know, I know..those sisters again.)

I chose this recipe because it's a marinated salad and it only gets better with age, therefore, it makes a great camping recipe.

I modified the recipe a bit because my husband is not crazy about too many beans. {And everyone has to sleep in a tent together...so enough said about that.} So I reduced the bean requirement to half and added more diced bell peppers.

The recipe made so much that it actually fed 3 families and we still had some leftover!

The recipe is two parts: one part for the beans & veggies; one part for the dressing. The ingredient list seems long, but the effort is worth it...I promise!

Salad:
2 cups fresh or frozen green beans, lightly steamed to just bright green. {I used frozen organic from Costco.}
1cup canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
Note: You are only using half a can of beans for the above beans. I tossed the leftover beans into a ziploc bag & placed in the freezer.
1 can whole kernel corn ( I used mini corn...I just like the look better.)
1 cup diced red onion
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
1/2 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
Dressing:
1/2 cup light olive oil
1/2 cup white vinegar
2 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. dijon mustard
1/2 tsp. celery seed
salt & pepper to taste.

Combine all salad ingredients in a large bowl. Mix well.
Whisk together dressing ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and pour over salad ingredients. Stir gently. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

I served the salad as a side to our hamburgers one night for dinner. It was so good.

This salad travels really well. I highly recommend it!

And to finish off this series, here are two of my favourite things in our camping kitchen...

A handy, dandy screen to keep those pesky flies off of the salads.

And our cutlery caddy to keep everything handy at the table, so I don't have to get up a million times searching for things.

I hope on your next camping trip you feel inspired to try something new and fun!

 

If you liked this recipe, here are some other amazing camping recipes:

Potato Boat Dinners

Warm Cheesey Dip

The BEST Picnic Sandwich

Lumberjack Breakfast

Super Easy Upside Down Pineapple Cake

Tortilla Dessert

Marinated Steak

10 Best Camping Tips & Recipes

11 Best Camping Tips & Recipes

The Best Pasta Salad

Camping Cuisine Part 4: Blueberry & Cream Cheese Dessert

This is my daughter's favourite dessert when we are camping. It is SUPER easy to make and you only need 4 ingredients and a fire iron or camp cooker.
You need: butter, cream cheese, blueberry jam and bread.
You also need a fire iron or camp cooker. I got our camp cookers at Canadian Tire for around $18 each. I got two...one for each child. {This reduces the chances of a child getting clobbered over the head by a camp cooker while  impatiently waiting for his/her turn}.

Butter the 'outsides' of the bread {like you would for grilled cheese}.

Then spread cream cheese and blueberries on the inside of the bread.

Seal the sandwich in the fire iron or camp cooker.

Place the fire iron or camp cooker over a fire to warm up the cream cheese and blueberry jam and toast the bread.

Watch your sandwich carefully so it doesn't burn!

Both my husband and my daughter like their toast 'dark' {what I consider burnt...not for me...I like golden}.

When the sandwich is ready, remove from fire and take out of fire iron and cut in half.

Now you have a pocket of warm, yummy & creamy goodness!

You don't have to limit yourself to blueberry jam. Here are some other suggestions: Strawberry jam & cream cheese, marmalade & cream cheese, peanut butter and banana slices, nutella & banana slices or any combination you like.

For some meal suggestions for fire irons or camp cookers, try: pizza sauce, mozarella and pepperoni. Or how about smoked salmon and cream cheese?

The possibilities are many!

To read more about my 'Camping Cuisine' series:
Part 1: Our Favourite Picnic Sandwich
Part 2: 'Chicks on Sticks' (Chicken Kabobs) and Food Prep Ideas
Part 3: For Goodness 'Steak' (marinated asian steak)
Part 5: Eat Your Veggies!




This post is linked to :

Camping Cuisine Part 3: 'For Goodness Steak'

Well, I was in the process of sharing some camping cuisine recipes when I so rudely left in the middle of the sharing to go.....ahem.....camping. So here I am...ready to share some of my ideas for good grub when you are camping in the wild.

So,  if you missed Camping Cuisine Part 1, where I shared the recipe for our favourite picnic sandwich {shown below}, please click here.

For Camping Cuisine Part 2, where I shared the recipe for 'Chicks on Sticks' {shown below}and food prep suggestions,  please click here.

The next recipe I want to share for easy camping fare is a recipe for an asian-flavoured steak marinade called

 'For Goodness Steak'.

Again, this recipe comes from those crazy, goofy Canadian sisters, Janet & Greta Podleski, and their book 'Crazy Plates'. It just requires you to mix up a quick & easy marinade to toss on steak in a ziploc bag to freeze for later use on the camping trip.

For Goodness Steak

1.5 pounds boneless top sirloin steak, about 1.5 inches thick

1/4 cup + 1 tbsp reduced-sodium soy sauce

3 tbsp. steak sauce (use whatever is in your fridge)

2 tbsp. lime juice and packed brown sugar

1 tbsp. grated gingerroot

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp. sesame oil

1/4 tsp. black pepper

Trim any excess fat from meat. Pierce meat in several places with fork. ( I had my 9 yr. old do the fork piercing.) Place steak in Ziploc bag.

Combine all  marinade ingredients in a small bowl and pour over steak in ziploc bag, and smoosh all around. {My 9 yr.old did this.}

Toss into freezer until ready to take camping. Then place in cooler when you leave for camping. Let steak thaw on top of the cooler for same day cooking.

To Grill: Remove steak from marinade and grill over hot coals or gas grill for 4-5 minutes per side, or until desired doneness is reached. Brush with leftover marinade while grilling.

When done, remove steak from heat and let 'rest' for a few minutes before slicing.

The steak turns into this wonderful meal. We had our steak with a caesar salad. The steak was really tasty and juicy. Everyone had happy tummies!

And of course, the whole reason for camping....the happy pink glow in the childrens' cheeks.

Here is my 'sous chef' enjoying his morning fried egg sandwich with bacon....made by Dad.

Did I mention that while I do all the food prep for camping, my husband then takes over and does all of the actual cooking while we are camping?

Yes. I love him.

Food eaten in the fresh air is so very good!

To Read Part 4: Camping Cuisine: Blueberry & Cream Cheese Dessert, click here.

 

If you liked this recipe, here are some other amazing camping recipes:

Potato Boat Dinners

Warm Cheesey Dip

The BEST Picnic Sandwich

Lumberjack Breakfast

Super Easy Upside Down Pineapple Cake

Tortilla Dessert

Great For Travelling Bean Salad

10 Best Camping Tips & Recipes

11 Best Camping Tips & Recipes

The Best Pasta Salad

A Reflection on Birthdays...

I remember when I was a kid and birthdays, for me, were one of the funnest, most-looked-forward-to days of the year. Next to Christmas, it was the one thing that could keep me awake on the eve before, wide-eyed with excited anticipation. Who could forget those birthdays of Holly Hobbie birthday cakes, or 'Little House on the Prairie' books, fresh from the local bookstore....just some of the must-have delights of a child of the 1970's.

Many, many years pass and adulthood takes over. Birthdays become nothing more than a quick flash in the pan....over faster than Molly Ringwald's movie career in the late 80's.

This week, as I contemplated another birthday upon me, I sized up my face in the mirror one too many times. Hmmmm. Where did that  trench line come from? Then I dressed up for a function in high heels. Disaster. I was dressed up for about 2 seconds when my feet began to hurt. There it was.... a case of the over 40-something high-heelitis.

Fine lines and high-heelitis.  That could only mean one thing.

Clearly, I was coming down with a case of the birthday blahs.

The thoughts of my upcoming birthday had left me alone and deserted on Birthday Blahs Boulevard. Where is my map? Which direction should I go? I know only one thing. I cannot return the way I came. I have to choose a new route to leave this place. And none too soon. 

Then it happens Two days before the big day. The doorbell rings. This is what arrived.

A yummy fresh fruit bouquet from a friend who wanted to wish me a Happy Birthday.

Awww! How sweet.

And when I check the mail box later, a birthday card from my parents announces itself

 in a pretty purple envelope.

The next day, another friend arrives to take Hunter & I out for lunch to celebrate my birthday.

This is what arrived for me at the table for dessert. It was a delicious reminder of  the value of true friendship.

This morning, on the  morning of my birthday, my husband decides we will hit the fresh seafood market to shop for  some fresh Maritime lobster for dinner. And he insists on stopping at my favourite cupcake store on the way home.We brought home some of these scrumptious cakes. { I didn't want a cake for my birthday.}

It was chocolate bliss!

I had more good feelings as I read the many birthday wishes that awaited me on facebook. I feel so very lucky.

And tonight I find myself miles and miles away from Birthday Blahs Boulevard.

Bananagram for you....

I have been absent around blogland lately. No reason. Just savouring summer. We just spent a better part of a week hosting some friends from Nova Scotia who stayed with us. We had so much fun sharing meals, visiting parks and water slides and playing fun games like this one: Bananagrams.  My mother gave one of the children this quite awhile ago and we just started playing it. And....

this game is so addictive.

Every night, as least 3 of us would spill out the chips to play a game or two. It was so curious to me that my friend's 11 year old son could beat us with his three and four letter words.

I highly recommend this game to anyone who likes the challenge of word games. It's also an excellent size for travelling....it barely takes up any room...it can be squished into a shoe!

Next week I will be back with the rest of our camping recipes. And soon I will be featuring a week of posts on school lunch planning and recipes. Yes...it's that time again!

Have a great weekend!

a perfect summer lunch for one...

Both the kids were away, so I made this lunch for me and had a nice glass of iced tea and read a magazine.

Aaaah.