Eila Grace is Turning Four!!

Oh my, how time flies! Teeny tiny baby Eila is turning four years old today! I remember four years ago, staring out my hospital window as snow lightly fell outside wondering what this little bean was going to be like.

What an amazing little girl she has turned into. She started life with a set of pipes on her like no other baby I had ever known. This girl could SCREAM! We joked that she could break glass with those lungs. One night, when she was two months old, a neighbor came over to see if I needed help with one or both kids. He could hear Eila crying through the closed window from across the street! Little did he know that Aidyn was already asleep and the crying he could hear was just Eila… being Eila.

With her big sister Aidyn helping her along the way and showing her the ropes, our little bean quickly tried to learn everything her big sister could teach her! Although a tiny little girl, who never could seem to get out of the 5th percentile for her weight, what she lacked in pounds, she made up for in words. Oh the words that little girl could come up with!

If we were impressed by her speaking, we were shocked by her singing! Before she turned two, she was singing along with Justin Beiber on the radio. These days she can memorize entire songs and sing them all on her own. I love listening to her sing songs while she colors…. It`s so stinkin` cute. 

Look who turned one!!

Eila turns two!!

Eila turns three!

My girls play so well together. You can hear them singing, dancing and playing mommy and baby together all day long. Eila love to play little mama whenever she gets the chance. She likes to take care of her cousin Belles and show her how to play games and read books. 

Eila is definitely Daddy’s little girl.  This photo is from when she was just a couple of weeks old.  Things haven’t changed much.  You are just as likely to see Eila chilling on the couch watching tv with daddy as you are tucking her dolls into imaginary beds with imaginary teddy bears.

These days, my little bean spends her days being my sidekick. She comes shopping with me, she bakes with me, she cleans the house with me and she gives the best cuddles and hugs in town.

I am so blessed to be able to spend extra time with my little girls as they grow. They make me so proud. They make me laugh and they melt my heart every single day.

p.s.  lots of the awesome photos used in this post were taken by the fantastic Alana Joy Photography.  Check her out, she's amazing!!

Menu Plan Monday - Feb 25, 2013

I SURVIVED!! I survived Miss E’s Lalaloopsy birthday party extravagnza!! I am exhausted and think I am still feeling the after effects of all the sugar, but I lived through nine rounds a freeze dance and a whole lotta cupcakes and cake. Miss E had a blast, and so did all her little friends. I’ll share some pictures later this week when I show how the big party came together.

 

 

Our little family headed up to our local mountain on the weekend and did some old fashioned tobogganing. We went up with a few other families and had a blast! My fearless girls had no problem throwing themselves down the hill on crazy carpets, sleds, or just rolling down the hill!

I got so little sleep this weekend that I can barely figure out what I’m having for breakfast today! Forget planning a week’s worth of dinners! Oh well, let’s get to this!

On the menu this week:
Monday: Chicken fajitas
Tuesday: Out for dinner for Eila’s birthday!
Wednesday: Curried coconut chicken with rice
Thursday: Spaghetti in Meat Sauce
Friday: Fish tacos
Saturday: Tortellini with prawns in Boursin cream sauce
Sunday: Bacon wrapped turkey breast with potatoes and veggies

I’ll be linking my menu plan up to OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday – check it out!!

Simple Living Lesson #9 – Money

Hello again, and thanks for checking in for my meandering journey through Lorilee Lippincott’s Simple Living: 30 Days to Less Stuff and More Life. I have taken on eight tasks so far to propel my life to run at a simpler pace. I would love it if you took a read through lessons called Dream, Underneath, Quiet, Surface, Incoming, Outgoing, Time  and Libraries.


photo source

In case you hadn’t noticed, my little blog rarely touches on serious matters, and money is definitely a serious matter. I certainly don’t plan on telling all of you how to spend your money, nor do I plan to tell you how I spend mine! Although it’s fairly clear to most anyone that comes to my house that a large portion of my disposable income goes to cupcake supplies and chocolate chips!

If you are interested in the actual simple living lesson, please check out Simple Living: Thirty Days to Less Stuff and More Life, there are great tools and ideas there. For now, here’s a funny ecard about money to brighten your day!

Next up on the list of simple living lessons is something much more my speed: ROUTINE. I’ll get started on that one right away!

Thanks for reading!

Menu Plan Monday - Feb 18, 2013

Hello world! I hope you all had a fantastic weekend! The girls were invited to a birthday party at Build A Bear! I think they had more fun than the birthday girl! We also had a big family dinner to celebrate my brother and my sister’s birthdays.

I made some delectable double chocolate cupcakes and we all crashed from the sugar high early!

We have a crazy crazy crazy week ahead of us this week! Our little bean is turning F-O-U-R! I can’t even believe it. Remember last year, when I started this little blog? The bean turned three what seems like yesterday, and the year has just flown by!

Miss E picked a LalaLoopsy theme for her party this year, so this week I’ll be making crafts with buttons, cookies in the shape of buttons and a cake with LalaLoopsy dolls! I’ll post the goodies next week; it will be so much fun!

On the menu this week:
Monday: Chicken Macaroni Bake 
Tuesday: BBQ Chicken Breast, potatoes and veggies
Wednesday: Lasagne Wednesday

Thursday: Chicken Pot Pie from the Freezer
Friday: Pizza and Salad
Saturday: Dinner out
Sunday: Family BBQ dinner for Miss E’s birthday!

Thanks for swinging by for a read today!  I'm so happy you stopped by :)
I’ll be linking my menu plan up to OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday – check it out!!

Banana Oat Bread & Muffins

Hey everyone! Guess what!! I was featured!! I linked last week`s Baked Salmon Parmesan recipe up to Joyful Homemaking`s Thursday Think Tank party and they liked it! Woo Hoo!!

So, you know that moment at the end of the week, when you take the bananas that are starting to over ripen and chuck them into the freezer planning on throwing together a quick batch of banana bread? Yeah, well, I had about 6 of those moments, except that I never got around to baking that quick batch of banana bread. So last night, after moving around yet another bunch of frozen bananas, it was time to take action.

I have a great banana bread recipe in my arsenal, but I wanted to try something new this time. Now that we have found another food that Miss A will actually eat in her lunch (she’s anti-sandwich, and pretty much everything else…). I needed to find a way to make it a bit healthier and wanted to find a recipe using oats so I headed to Allrecipes.com. I found this recipe for banana oat muffins and after a few small ingredient modifications, had a delicious recipe that made great use of some of the EIGHTEEN bananas in my freezer.

The streusel topping for the recipe is an optional add-on – it’s super delicious, but the muffins were fantastic without it. I used a mini-loaf pan and a giant muffin pan for my first go-round with this recipe. The second time around I doubled the recipe and it made three full sized banana bread loaves.
 
Banana Oat Muffins (or Banana Oat Bread)
Recipe adapted from here

Ingredients
1 cup oats, ground in food processor
1 cup flour
2 tbsp oats
½ cup chopped walnuts/pecans or chocolate chips
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
½ cup applesauce
½ cup white sugar
½ cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 ½ cup mashed bananas (about 3 medium)
1 tsp vanilla
½ cup greek yogurt or sour cream
 
Streusel topping
1/3 cup oats
4 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp melted butter

Instructions

Using a processor (I just have a mini chopper thingy), grind oats until powdery.

In a bowl, combine ground oats, flour, oats, nuts/chocolate chips, baking soda and baking powder; set aside. With the mixer on low, combine applesauce, white and brown sugar, eggs, mashed banana and vanilla. When well incorporated, add the greek yogurt and mix well.

Mix the dry ingredients into the wet and blend completely. Scoop into a greased muffin pan, mini or regular loaf pan. Mix together the streusel ingredients in a small bowl. Sprinkle across the top of the batter and bake. 

For muffins and mini loaves, bake for 20 minutes, until golden brown and a toothpick inserted comes clean. 

For full sized loaves, bake for 45-50 minutes.

I hope you enjoy this recipe!! Miss A took two of the mini loaves for her lunch today and asked for more when she got home from school. I think we have a hit on our hands!!

I’ll hopefully link this recipe up to a couple of fun link parties, including Joyful Homemaking, Delightful Order, and A Bowl Full of Lemons.

Thanks for stopping by! I really appreciate it :)

Menu Plan Monday - Feb 4, 2013

Here's the recipe!

Good morning everyone, and happy Monday! Hope you all had a fantastic weekend! We had a lot of fun, although it sounds like our house is coming down with this horrible cold that is making the rounds.

I had all these plans to clean my house and organize it over the weekend, but we ended up running around having a ton of fun instead! Birthday parties, dinner with my cousin and her lovely family, and of course, Superbowl Sunday!

This week was supposed to be the week of trying new recipes, but since I think I’m coming down with whatever sickness is making the rounds at my workplace, I think I’ll be leaning more toward comfort foods and meals already prepped in my freezer!

On the menu this week:

Monday: Chicken curry with Rice (Thanks Mom for this one!!)
Tuesday: Chicken Pot Pie from the Freezer
Wednesday: Lasagne Wednesday
Thursday: Parmesan Baked Fish with potatoes and veggies
Friday: Brinner! Pancakes for the kids, bacon, eggs and hashbrowns for us
Saturday: Dinner out
Sunday: Pasta with Prawns in Boursin cream sauce

I’ll be linking my menu plan up to OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday – check it out!!

Quick and Easy Baked Salmon Parmesan

It’s time for a recipe!! Woo Hoo! After a few weeks of eating meals from the freezer, this week we strayed from the menu plan a little. A neighbour kindly gave us a whole salmon that she had already defrosted but wasn’t going to cook! Woo Hoo again!! I wasn’t interested in just a regular old baked salmon, so I went in search of something yummier.

I made an a-MAZ-ing chicken parmesan a couple of weeks ago (recipe to come!) and thought I could apply some of the same principles to my salmon dish. This meal start to finish took about 25 minutes to prep, season and cook (I used instant mashed potatoes), which is definitely my kind of dinner!!

Quick and Easy Baked Salmon Parmesan

Ingredients
1 skinless salmon fillet, cut into four pieces
1 cup milk
¼ cup breadcrumbs
3 tbsp parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
1 egg
¼ butter, melted
1 tbsp spicy mustard
2 tbsp honey

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375F. While the oven preheats, soak the salmon fillets in milk. This will allow the fish to become tender and juicy when cooked. 

In a wide dish, mix the breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper together. In a separate bowl, whip egg with a fork until lightly frothy.

Set up your dipping station! Line your dishes up – salmon, then egg, then breadcrumbs. Line a baking sheet with tin foil and spray it with Pam. Now start dipping – take the salmon from the milk, letting the excess milk drip off before dipping into the egg. Let the excess egg drip off and then dip into the breadcrumbs mixture. Place the fillet on the baking sheet.

Bake the salmon for 15-17 minutes, until lightly flaky. While the salmon is baking, combine melted butter, honey and mustard in a bowl. 

Whisk together until it looks ooey gooey delicious. 

 

 

When you take the salmon out of the oven, drizzle the baked parmesan goodness with ooey gooey deliciousness.

ENJOY!!!

I will be linking this post to a few fun link parties:  A Bowl Full of Lemons, Delightful Order, Doodles and Stitches and Joyful Homemaking.