Camping up island with family

The three of us went up island to a campground recently - something we do annually with my husband's family.

My sister-in-law and brother-in-law brought their two Boston Terriers, Bella and Oliver.

Jaymi and her cousin Lucas always spend most of the time riding their bikes together all around the campground.

They even found a friend, and besides biking, they made Cheerio necklaces.

They also made cute dog-tag necklaces.

There was lots of good cooking going on. ;)

Jaymi insisted on doing Auntie Sonja's hair, and of course, Sonja did Jaymi's as well.

The guys did some golfing.

Jaymi challenged Auntie Sonja to skip with her, and even Gramma tried her hand at remembering how.

I managed to get this awesome picture of my husband.  ;)  It's so hard to get a non-goofy picture of him.

We also watched game #2 of the NHL playoffs.  Too bad the Canucks lost!

 

Jaymi had fun showing a snake to everyone.

It was nice to take a few days off from everything and hang out with family for a bit.

Lots of cooking and a new study unit

Since Spring Break ended, I have been trying to do a bit of cooking, freezing food, and preparing some lunch foods for Mark and for Jaymi.  I like to try to make preparing meals a bit easier, for those days when I haven't planned well, and need easy things to just grab.  But keeping it healthy, you know?

So, here are the things I have made this week:

Black-Eyed Pea Stew
4 cups vegetable broth
8 ounces collard greens, chopped (8 cups)
1 14.5-oz can chopped tomatoes
12 ounces potatoes, diced (2 cups)
15.5 ounces black-eyed peas (either canned, or if they're raw...boil for 5 minutes, then soak for an hour, then drain)
pepper

Bring broth and 2 cups water to a boil over high. Add greens, cover and simmer 15 minutes.
Add tomatoes and potatoes and return to a simmer. Cover and cook until potatoes are tender, 10-12 minutes. Stir in peas and simmer until heated through, about 2 minutes.
Season with pepper to taste.

Crockpot Vegetable Pasta Sauce
1 small zucchini, cut up
1 yellow squash, cut up
1 1/2 cups mushrooms, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 green pepper, diced
2 tbsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 tbsp parsley, chopped
1 can tomatoes, whole
2 cans tomatoes, diced
1 can tomato paste

Put everything in the crockpot and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Powerballs (I made these for Jaymi's lunches and breakfasts...she loves them!)
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup honey
3 cups oats
1/2 cup flax, ground
2 cups any combination of dried fruit and nuts
(If you want, you can change the dried fruit and nuts for chocolate chips, coconut, or anything you can think of)
Mix together peanut butter and honey until smooth.  Gradually add oats and flax.  Add nuts and fruit and mix gently.  Roll into spheres and put in paper mini muffin cups.  They freeze well, layered on wax paper in an airtight container.

Seasoned Broiled Pork Chops, Brown Rice, and Green Beans
salt
freshly ground pepper
4 loin pork chops, 1" thick
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsps parsley, minced
3 tbsps onion, minced
1-1/2 tsps paprika
3 tbsps olive oil

Cook brown rice (1 cup of rice for every 2 cups of water) in a rice cooker, and steam the green beans.
Salt and pepper the chops. In a small bowl mix the garlic, parsley, onion, paprika and olive oil. heat the broiler, grease the broiler pan, and arrange the chops. Spread half the garlic mixture over the chops and place the pan 4-5" from the heat. Broil the chops about 5 minutes. Turn, spread with the remaining mixture and broil 5 minutes more, or until the chops are cooked through but still juicy. 




I also made a fresh batch of yogurt this week, and some jello for Jaymi, so that she could squish it through her new tooth hole.  ;)
And tonight, Mark wasn't here for dinner (he was at a charity golf event) so Jaymi and I had a special Mommy-Daughter dinner (pasta) with a few heart sprinkles on top.

Besides cooking this week, Jaymi and I have started a new study unit, which I will tell you about very soon.  

And she is very proud of the fact that she has learned (thanks to one of her friends at school) how to hang upside from the monkey bars, with NO hands now!  She could hang there all day. ;)

Being Domestic

I was very domestic today.
I made Maple-Banana Pancake Muffins. Basically, these are pancakes in muffin tins. Perfect, little individual pancakes that you can freeze, and take out one or two for an easy, quick breakfast or pack for lunch.

Here's the recipe:
Take 1 cup of whatever pancake mix you have (you can make your own if you wish), 1 cup of milk, and 1 egg, and mix together thoroughly. Spoon the batter into a muffin tin, filling halfway (they will rise).
Then, add whatever you wish to flavour, if you want to. I added two skinny slices of banana and a drizzle of maple syrup.
I also doubled the whole recipe, to fill two muffin tin baking sheets.
If you're using regular muffin tins, bake at 350F for about 8 minutes.
If you're using oversized muffin tins, bake for about 11 or 12 minutes.
If you're using a baking pan (square or rectangular) it may take about 15 minutes.


I also made a new batch of yogurt. I make one every week, and Jaymi tends to eat one jar every morning for breakfast. I haven't tried mixing much with the yogurt yet, because she is just enjoying it so much with just a bit of vanilla.
I have tried mixing thawed (previously frozen) blueberries with it (along with the juice that comes with the thawing) and it was very good.


I made slow-cooker Chicken Barley Soup the other day, and froze tons of it - perfect for lunches.


And I did a first today - made 4 big Ziploc bags of partially cooked homemade french fries.
I have 20 lbs. of potatoes to play around with this week, and I also plan to make some hashbrowns to freeze, and who knows what else?

To make these ready-to-bake french fries, it's actually very easy, although it takes some time.
Just wash and scrub the potatoes...


Then cut into french-fry shape and boil until cooked through halfway...


Then lay out on a baking sheet and freeze until solid...


And finally, put into a plastic freezer bag.
When you're ready to cook some for dinner, just toss with 2 tbsp of olive oil, and cook in the oven on a baking sheet at 425F for 15-20 minutes.