Weekly Menu

A peek at our menu for this week.  

Sunday -  Pasta Fagioli.  Since reading Stanley Tucci's book, I wanted to try his recipe for this as I'd never had it but it seemed like the ultimate comfort food.  It was very good and everyone loved it.  I will make it again. 

Monday - Turkey Lettuce Wraps. This was another hit.  If you tell Q something is a "taco" he will love it, no matter what. So for someone who can be picky about green in his food, he ate this right up.

Tuesday - Roasted Chicken Thighs, Potatoes, and Swiss Chard.

Wednesday - Salad Bowls.  This one was inspired by Earthy Andy's shawarma bowl but I used chicken and sweet potato instead of cauliflower and chick peas.  The accompanying sauce is so good. 

Thursday - Order.  This is supposed to be Family Game Night so we will have an easy supper and play some Sushi Go or Exploding Kittens (and Mario Kart). 

Friday - Hamburgers and Fries.  This isn't something we make often in the winter, but we were craving good homemade burgers. 

Saturday - Chili. Dave requested this meal so we could take some in a thermos for our skiing lunch.  

Let's Look - What I eat in a week

Today's topic is what we eat in a week.  I kept track of my eating habits last week and it was pretty accurate to what I eat most of the time (healthy breakfast, leftovers for lunch, and minimal snacks).  You can read about what we ate for supper here so this focuses on my personal breakfasts and lunches.  

A few notes - I don't believe in "dieting" per se, but I do try to make healthy choices throughout the week, saving chips and alcohol for the weekends.  I don't list my coffee, but I drink 2-3 cups in the morning. 

Monday
Breakfast - Spelt toast with almond butter, hemp hearts and cacao nibs, melon.  I started eating spelt toast (when I can find it) as an alternative to regular wheat toast.  It was part of the reset eating plan I tried out a few years ago and it's a habit I've kept up.  Spelt bread just seems to have more nutritional benefits than plain old bread.  

Lunch - Leftover soup from the freezer, and some crackers. I was at my office on this day and I keep a box of PC Rosemary crackers in my cupboard for when I'm feeling peckish.

Snacks - Latte and cookie from Starbucks. This is my love language :)

Tuesday
Breakfast - Spelt toast with peanut butter and jam, melon.  Sometimes I can find spelt bread at the grocery store (Dimpflmeier makes some) or the Kingsway Deli carries it sometimes.  

Lunch - Skillet with leftover roasted potatoes, cheese, eggs, and tomato.  This is like something you'd get a Smitty's (the all day breakfast place, IYKYK).

Snacks - Meat stick, and an extra coffee in the afternoon.  The meat sticks are the turkey ones from Costco, sure, high in salt, but a great little snack.

Wednesday
Breakfast - Muffins and grapefruit.  My mom had put some extra muffins in the freezer when she was here at Christmas and I had forgotten about them, but they were a great find for my breakfast. 

Lunch - Leftover red lentil curry

Snacks - square of dark chocolate

Thursday
Breakfast - Shake, melon. The shake recipe I use the most is this: one banana, one zucchini, 1/2 cup frozen pineapple, 1 tbsp turmeric, 2 tbsp cashews, 1 tbsp chia seeds, 1 1/2 cups cashew milk (and some water until it's the right consistency).

Lunch - Leftover red lentil curry again. 

Snacks - Spelt toast with honey, coffee and doughnut from Golden Gecko (procured on a midday walk with Dave), meat sticks, apple pie.  I was extra hungry on this day, not sure why.  

Friday
Breakfast - Shake.  The recipe I make above is enough for two days.

Lunch - Leftover lentil soup, ham and cheese sandwich on leftover focaccia bread.

Snacks - Chips and wine

Saturday
Breakfast - Scrambled eggs, vegetables, spelt toast.  This is a great breakfast since it uses up vegetables in the fridge and it's filling.  I just add salt, pepper, and a little squeeze of lemon on top.

Lunch - Leftover noodles and apple pie

Snacks - wine and chips

Sunday 

Breakfast - Egg sandwich on a bagel.  This is our standard breakfast for skiing days.  We wrap them up to eat in the car on the way to the hill.  

Lunch - Leftover pizza, hot chocolate, trail mix.  We typically have ham and cheese sandwiches for ski lunch, but we had pizza on this day.  Last week we tried instant noodle soup for a hot lunch and it was a success so we will do that again.  We also bring hot water for hot chocolates and hot apple cider (which E prefers).

Snacks - Dried fruit snack, doughnut and tea from Tim Hortons on the way home. Sometimes we get Timbits but we all opted for doughnuts this time.  I got an apple fritter :)

Linking up with Shay and Erika.

Weekend Recap

 On Friday night we ordered some noodles and dumplings and I walked up to get them.  They were good as always.  Then we watched Raya and the Last Dragon and some Olympics.  

On Saturday morning E had a make up piano lesson so Q did one of his on demand art classes.  He did a great job!

Then I took the boys skating while Dave stayed home to clean and do a workout.  We had the ice mostly to ourselves and the boys enjoyed playing with the hockey sticks again.

After lunch we got out of the house again to go sledding at the golf course.  It was such a beautiful day. 

We picked up our grocery order and then went home to make supper.  We shifted pizza night to Saturday to accommodate the pizza dough making schedule and also so we could take leftover pizza for our ski lunch. 

We had another nice day for skiing, slightly warmer temperatures, but no sun.  The boys had their lessons and we got out again after lunch for a few runs before going home. 

We watched more Olympics (love the CBC Gem feature of seeing any event on demand) and were sad to see our mixed curlers lose.  We were all tired after a full weekend of outside weekend fun. 

Friday Favourites

 

Does anyone else feel like this has been the longest week?  This first photo was taken on Monday and I barely remember that I went to the office that day.   I had to walk over to Union Station at lunch and I thought it would be a good opportunity for a Starbucks (my new afternoon go-to drink is a cinnamon dolce latte made with almond milk) and I can never resist a sprinkle cookie!

I suggested to Q that he start his Valentines but I didn't realize how into he would be.  I used to have to bribe E with candy to do his Valentines when he was littler.  Q even wrote most of his classmates' names on them, except if they were over 6 letters and then I had to write them to make sure there was room on the small card.

We are currently into the Come From Away soundtrack and a couple of mornings this week E has been acting out the scenes while we listen.  This is both the plane and a bus. Q and I play along too. 

Dave and I walked up to get a coffee at lunch on Thursday.  It had snowed overnight but the temperature wasn't bad and it was nice to get some fresh air.

The Olympics have started!  We have been watching the first bits with the mixed curling and some moguls.  Love us some Olympics. 

In honour of the one book I read this month, Stanley Tucci's book, Taste, I will be trying his recipe for a dry martini tonight. My bottle of Bombay is Sapphire is already in the freezer :)

Weekly Menu

 Sharing our meals again for this week:

Sunday  - Steak, mushrooms, carrots, and roasted potatoes.  We make roasted potatoes in different ways but this new (to me) way is so tasty!  I halve small potatoes and toss them in olive oil, Herbes de Provence, and salt, and then bake in a 450 degree oven for about 35 minutes. I think it's the high heat that helps make them so good. 

Monday - Tacos, surprise, we eat tacos almost every week.  

Tuesday - Red Lentil Curry from Oh She Glows Every Day. We make this all of the time too.  It's vegan and the kids love it too. The best part is the mango apple chutney that accompanies it.

Wednesday - Salmon, sweet potato fries, and vegetables.  We used this lemon pepper on the salmon, instead of our usual cajun spice. It was really tasty.

Thursday - Lentil Soup (also from Oh She Glows Every Day) and Focaccia loaf.  I love a good hearty soup in the winter as a supper and then as leftovers.  Q is not always so keen on soup, so the bread fills him up.

Friday - It's pizza night again!  At the start of the pandemic we did pizza night every Friday and thank goodness for that, as we needed something to look forward to! But now we just do it every other week or so. 

Saturday - Order Chinese, as a belated acknowledgement of Lunar New Year.  Our Saturdays are busy with exercise, cleaning, and outdoor time (typically skating) and I like to keep dinner simple.

[Edit, we actually switched Friday and Saturday since I forgot to remind Dave about the pizza dough, which he would have needed to start on Wednesday.  Having pizza on Saturday means we get to have leftover pizza for skiing.]

January Book (and Media Wednesday)

I read all of one book for the month of January but it was a good one!  It was Stanley Tucci's book Taste: My Life Through Food.  

I've been fond of Stanley Tucci for years but his true love and enjoyment of food has cemented my love for him as I also love food and drink and it brings me some of the greatest joy of my life.  His writing style is conversational and when I read it, I heard it in his voice. I'm not sure I can really sum up this book other than to tell you to read it if you also enjoy good food.  It's an enjoyable read.  I have marked the recipe for his dry martini and a pasta fagioli which I assume will become staples in our home.  I often think about how I could be best friends with certain celebrities (I know, eye roll) but I have long thought that the perfect group to hang out with would be Stanley Tucci and his wife Felicity and his in-laws Emily Blunt and John Krasinski.  The bonus would be that Stanley and Felicity love to cook for others so it would be right up my alley. I'm excited to see a season two of Stanley's CNN show, "Searching for Italy" is coming out in March.     

And now onto the current media I am into:

Netflix - The Woman in the House across from the Girl in the Window, Archive 81, Queer Eye

YouTube - Yellowstone and Ted Lasso cast interviews and behind the scenes clips

Library Books on Hold - Of Marriageable Age, What I Remember What I Know, Anxious People, and The Strangers.  Time to get a start on my 2022 Reading List.

Podcasts - I'm re-listening the first season of Serial so I can finally listen to Rabia Chaudrey's podcast Undisclosed.  Rabia's pod examines how Serial handled the case and provides more details that Serial left out or got wrong.  I have been following Rabia on Twitter for years and have meant to listen to it but never got around to it.  I was recently reminded of this case again because Adnan just moved prisons so he could be closer to his aging parents. 

News Stories - Conservative Party leadership challenge, Olympics, Ukraine

Music Playlists - Encanto and Sing 2 Soundtracks, This is Ryan Bingham (Walker from Yellowstone), Flo Rida Radio

Peloton Workouts - Encanto with Robin, Eminem with Denis 

Weekend Recap

Our weekend was almost identical to last weekend.  We ordered food on Friday night and then watched the first part of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire since E had just finished reading the book.  When the kids went to bed Dave and I watched the movie King Richard (Will Smith movie about Venus and Serena Williams).  

I "slept in" until 8:00 and had plans of doing a workout or something else productive but instead I sat down to watch a movie with Dave while the kids were playing video games in the basement.  I then dragged them upstairs to get dressed and get outside for some skating.  The temperature was about -18 Celsius but the sun was out and it was actually a beautiful day to be skating.  The kids had a great time despite their initial protests. 

Taking a break!

Q is just learning to skate but he is improving each week.  Our friends brought hockey sticks for everyone and Q liked playing with the puck and his skating improved even more (but we're still not putting him in hockey!).

Dads.

We stayed for over an hour, then home for lunch.  I got groceries and did some laundry.  I made French Onion Soup for supper which always takes awhile but is worth it.  After supper we watched the rest of Harry Potter. 

Sunday was Race Day for E on the slopes.   It was also perfect snow conditions and slightly warmer than it has been. 

E did well racing but didn't come in the top three.  It was really busy at the lift lines but we stayed after lunch anyway and did a few runs.  It was a great day.