When I was a child my Grandmother and Great Aunt would roast a chicken or turkey at least weekly. Any dinner was incomplete without freshly made tea biscuits. The trick with these is instead of using a cookie cutter for shape, they always used the edge of a juice glass to cut the dough. A cookie cutter is fine too, but to this day I still do exactly as they did while smiling the whole time.
You’re going to think this is silly, but I have a recurring fantasy about snacking with a cow. I know, this is a seriously cheesy confession, but I have to be honest. For a while now I have been fixated on The Laughing Cow Cheese Dippers.
It all started in the last few days of summer. I innocently packed up a cooler full of snacks to take to our local park. Knowing all the kids would be running through the sprinklers, I skipped sandwiches and chips, loading up instead on fruits, veggies, hummus, and various snack-type cheeses.
With all of the corporate options available, it isn’t really necessary for anyone to “shop local” anymore. You can get all sorts of exotic flavours and colours at the large chain supermarkets. Before I share a fun recipe for ‘Farm Fresh Linguine and Tomato Sauce’, I want to first get you excited about the many benefits of shopping locally at the farmers market!
Fall is a time of new beginnings. Out of nowhere, the nip enters the air and the laziness of summer morphs into productivity. Well, I’m trying anyway! We organize closets, embrace an earlier bedtime and fill the freezer with family meals. My favourite meals are always ones that can be produced out of the pantry. The problem with this, though, is that essential ‘stock’ items like oats, flour and rice never seem to drop in price, so squeezing room out of the family budget from the food category doesn’t seem to work. Until now. Here’s how you can save money on the staples with help from our friends at Safeway.
Today I have driven nearly 68 kilometres, taking children to and from playdates, practices, and tryouts. School starts soon and they’re all antsy. My youngest is going into middle school and she’s anxious about everything—the new building, having a locker, going to different rooms for each class. On top of worrying about school, she’s also my one and only picky eater, and this week our primary chef (aka. Daddy) is away for work. So the last thing I want to do tonight is cook. I’m set on the last days of our summer together being warm and fuzzy, not a battle about what she tries to feed the dog when I’m not looking.
Enter Boston Pizza. She will be happy. I will be happy. And the best part is that we’re helping other kids.
Advertisers prove again and again that one thing in life is certain: Kids like gimmicks. And maybe moms can learn something from the people whose research proves that every new tickle-me-product or beany-whatsit has million dollar potential in the “mommy I need this” department.
It’s back to school time and our little fuss-monsters are already secretly gearing up to object to/trade/outright discard their lunches and snacks. But this year we’ll one up them, by getting creative and making healthy lunches fun. (We’re also going to make them easy and time-saving because come September, moms have enough on our plates.) So here are some quick ideas, tips, and snack hacks for our favourite moms as you prepare to head back into the kitchen.
This post is part of the YummyMummyClub.ca and Maple Lodge Farms #FamilyFirst sponsored program. I received compensation as a thank you for my participation. This post reflects my personal opinion about the information provided by the sponsors.
Maybe it’s the June doldrums after months of school lunches and shuttling from soccer practice to skiing with grumpy, tired kids who seem less than appreciative. Maybe I’m in a rut trying to feed the boys creative, healthy foods with constant resistance. Or maybe parenting it just hard. I think that is probably it.
I have vibrant BBQ and grill memories. When my husband and I returned to Hamburg, Germany where I lived as a teenage exchange student, my host family became so excited that Canadians were coming that they went and purchased a BBQ and assembled it in front of us! On another occasion in Martha’s Vineyard, a beautiful charcoal BBQ evening resulted in breaking an original rifle last fired on the Mason-Dixon line (I was at the home of a Dixon). Whoops. My first experience barbequing by myself was on the roof of my Annex condo in Toronto, when I lit it closed and just about annihilated my lashes and eyebrows upon later opening the lid.
This post brought to you by Fibre 1. The content and opinions expressed below are that of UrbanMommies.
Summer should be laissez-faire, easy and fun. Unfortunately, work, kids and life still must go on so finding ease where we can is crucial. My kids have been yelling at me daily for enrolling them in summer school (I told them it was ‘education camp’ but they saw through the ruse quickly). We have had visitors, raced in weekend sailing regattas, gardened, camped and canned blueberries. Canadian summers seem so very short when there is so much to enjoy! The ‘easy’ and ‘fun’ bits need to be strengthened when there are so many activities going on. My motto, despite the packed calendar, has been to make snacks as easy as possible. As well, desserts need to be delicious and easy to prepare for when friends drop by for an impromptu BBQ.
Attention padawan learners and Rey fans everywhere! Fancy seeing more Star Wars on Netflix? Members in Canada are now able to stream Star Wars: The Force Awakens along with the last days of the Galactic Republic with the entire Clone Wars series and feature film. Because it is summer vacation, after all, and there are many, many lessons in Star Wars. (You may want to watch it a few times…).