M&M on toast day

Last week we celebrated a little holiday in our house called M&M on toast day.  As a Dietitian I know that this is a very weird thing to celebrate but let me explain how this holiday came to be in our home.  My husband doesn't really like breakfast.  He finds that we either eat cereal or toast each morning so one day he decided he wanted to spice up his breakfast a little more.  So he went out and got some white bread (something we don't usually have in the house) and we had Nutella and for whatever reason we had some M&M's in the house and so the combination was made with me not in favor.  I told him he wouldn't be allowed to eat in front of our son cause I didn't want him to be a bad example and after a little fighting he won and our once a year celebration started were on July 18th he gets to enjoy white bread with Nutella and M&M's.  

Now with our son getting older we start to tell him a couple days before that its almost M&M on toast day to get him excited.  And this year he woke up came running in to find me to tell me Mama its M&M day!!!  He was very excited to enjoy this day with his daddy.

Its a little bit of a crazy idea but its something fun and a little tradition that we have started with our family.  I hope these are memories that our kids never forget!   Do you have any family "traditions" that you would like to share?

Sponge bombs

 

The weather here as been so awesome.  We have had two weeks of wonderful sun.  So what better way to cool off than to splash around in some water.  While the pool was filled up I decided to make some sponge water bombs for them to throw around.  I originally found the idea on Pinterest and it was one of our 50 days of fun activities. 

I picked up the packs of sponges at the dollar store.  There were 6 sponges in a pack.  Two blue, two pink and two yellow.  I took each sponge and cut it in half then I cut each half into 4.   When all the pieces were cut we put 6 pieces together gave them a little twist and I tied them together with jewelry string.  

When they were all made we put them in the pool and started throwing them around.  

Eben then wanted to play sponge bomb basketball so he got out a bucket and started to toss them into the buckets.

We then took these things to the beach and him and his cousins had a lot of fun getting them wet and throwing them at each other.

Tidy Joes

 

Ok readers so this is a recipe I really have to share with you cause they were so tasty.  Around the Peterson house we really love sloppy joes and they usually show up monthly on the meal plan.  The other day when we were enjoying a family get together my sister in law Deja brought a big crock pot filled with tidy joe mix.  Tidy Joes is a recipe from the looneyspoons collection and the reason they are called tidy is because they have quinoa (or you can use rice) in them.   

The other night when I was craving sloppy joes I decided to combined my favorite recipe with the tidy joe recipe and created a very delicious supper.  So here it is

Tidy Joes

1lb ground beef

Onion chopped

Garlic minced

1/2 cup of uncooked quinoa (cooked)

1/2 cup mashed black beans

1 grated carrot

Sauce

1 cup ketchup

1/2 cup BBQ sauce

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup cider vinegar

2 Tbsp Mustard

1/2 tsp pepper

Preparation: 

Fry ground beef with onions and garlic; drain fat. 

Cook 1/2 cup of quinoa according to directions on package.  

Mash 1/2 cup of black beans

Grated carrot

Put meat, quinoa, beans and carrots back into large frying pan.

Combine sauce ingredients together and pour over mixture in frying pan. 

Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. 

Serve warm over hamburger buns.

The quinoa and the beans help to keep the mixture together.  They were so tidy that you could pick up the bun like a sandwich to eat it.  From now on I will be using this recipe cause we really enjoyed them. 

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

 

This banana bread recipe is so quick, easy and delicious.  I hope you enjoy!

Recipe

3 mashed bananas

2 eggs

1/4 cup melted butter or margarine

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup flour

1 tsp soda

1/4 tsp salt

chocolate chips

Place all ingredients in a magically machine called the kitchen add and mix until blended.  Stir in chocolate chips and pour into a well greased bread pan.  Bake at 325 for 1 hour or until set. 

Strawberry Jam

Strawberry season has come and gone here which is so sad to me!!  Thankfully we can enjoy local grown strawberries throughout the year because my freeze is filled with them and the pantry is stocked with jam. 

My jam recipe isn't anything fancy.  I simply buy the liquid certo and follow the directions on the package.  I don't mind the amount of sugar that is in the jam because we use it to sweeten foods such as plain yogurt and natural peanut butter.  Plus we don't use too much about 1-2 tsp.  

There are lots of recipes out there that call for less sugar and if you have one you use please post the recipe in the comments I know some readers would really love to try them.

Strawberry Bruschetta

 

I first got the idea for Strawberry Bruschetta from Annie over at Annie's eats.  Just the picture for it makes my mouth water but since I didn't have all the ingredients for her specific recipe I decided to create a bruschetta that the kids would enjoy for snack.  So here is Kate's Kitchen version. 

Recipe

Baguette

Strawberries

Sugar

Cream Cheese

Brown Sugar

Cinnamon

Grated chocolate (optional)

1.  Slice your baguette and place on a nice platter.  

2.  Cut up berries and add 1 tsp of sugar to get the juices flowing.

3.  Blend cream cheese with the back of a spoon and add 1 tbsp of brown sugar and a few shakes of cinnamon.  

4.  Spread cream cheese on baguette, top with berries and grated chocolate. 

These didn't last long and were a hit with the kids. 

Strawberry Short Cake

We got our Strawberries this Canada Day weekend all 16 baskets of them.  I am a little sad that we didn't get out to a U-pick to get them this year like we have in the past years. Oh well its probably for the best that I didn't try to take 3 children with me in the hot hot sun to pick as many berries as I needed! 

I love that the kids love to help, it might make the job take a little longer but its so fun being able to teach and laugh with the kids while we work.  For processing the berries I had a bowl for jam berries and a cookie sheet for berries I wanted to freeze for smoothies and popsicles.  Once the steam was off I would place the jam berries in front of Jaelyn and she would put them into the glass measuring cup.  

Here are my berries for freezing.  I like to freeze them in a single layer on a cookie sheet and once frozen put them into freezer bags.  That way when I want a few I can reach in the bag and get a few without them all being stuck together. 

Of course we had a few thieves in the kitchen sneaking berries.   He thought he was so funny!

I also kept some boxes for eating other treats that I will post about later but our favorite is of course the classis Strawberry short cake!  

For the biscuits I used this recipe from joy of baking.  I really love how sweet and fluffy they are. 

After a delicious summer supper of Grilled pork chops, BBQ potatoes and salad we enjoyed our very very scrumptious short cake. 

July's Meal Plan

Let me start off by saying Happy Canada Day!!!  I know I am a couple of days late but I wasn't going to whip a blog together after the fun filled family day we had!  We started the day off with a big family breakfast (which started at 7:30...can you believe 12 hours later when this picture was taken we are all still in our same shirts), a family worship and teaching time, friends being baptized at the lake, lunch, naps and more swimming and boating at the lake, ending the day with a family supper.  

So here we are in July and I have been been preparing a monthly meal plan for 2 weeks now.  I have been searching blogs and pinning on my summer time fun board lots of new recipes I want to try this summer.  Also I find that summer is the best time to have a meal plan cause if you don't its either too hot to cook which makes you eat crappy food or you just go with summer time classics like hotdogs and sausages. 

I have only put together a list of meals that I want to enjoy this month that way I can have the ingredients on hand to make those recipes.  There are a few things I want to do this summer as well to try to stay away from processed junk food as much as possible. 

1. Eat fruit and vegetables in season and freeze/preserve for the winter. 

Lets start with Strawberry season.   I have been finding lots of berry recipes and want to try as many as possible before our season is over.  Like this morning we had this delicious breakfast and for dessert tonight we had these nachos.  Both these recipes get two thumbs up from us!!!  For supper the other night I made some of this Strawberry Lemonade, with some frozen berries we had from last season, it was good but I did forget to strain it so it's a little tart and thick!  

Some other berry recipes to try this month include

Yogurt parfait in a jar (not sure if I will have any jars left once I make jam; but we will see)

Strawberry Bruschetta

 2. Eat lots of fresh food from our garden. 

3.  BBQ lots!!!

  Its a little too hot to use the oven so I either want to have things made in the morning, use the crock pot as much as possible and the rest can go on the grill! 

I would like the meat on the grill to be local like these delicious T-bone steaks!!! 

4.  Eat as much or as many fruits and veggies as possible.  Being a Dietitian I love food and I love talking about food so its great when you have a little helper to give you a hand in the kitchen and listen to you talk about food.  For the summer time we are doing food homeschool!! heheh  We are learning how to grow vegetables, how to prepare them and how to serve them.  We are also trying out new kinds of fruits and vegetables this summer as well. 

 5.  Enjoy the foods that you only get a summer!!  Like smores, ice cream cones and the occasional hotdog cooked over the camp fire.  These little treats are frozen Smore's and they were a big hit in our house last summer.

So on with the list of meal ideas.  Of course it is only a template but as least I know the ingredients will be here in the house and I can whip it up without having to think.

July 2012

Taco Salad
Sweet and sour chicken with fried rice
BBQ Steak
Southwest Chopped Chicken Salad
Grilled Pork Chops with potatoes and sweet potatoes
Spaghetti and meatballs
Pie Caramba
RIBS
Crockpot roast
BBQ sausages with salad
Beef Stroganoff
Chicks on sticks
Sloppy Joes
Fried Chicken
Steak bite Kabobs
Salsa chicken

There you have it some of the food we will be eating this month.