Sunday, July 22, 2012

Shots shots shots shots shots shots!

My parents has their annual party. This year it was a potluck super with no children allowed and a mandatory hat theme.

Matt and I made ourselves some hats (taking home prizes for most creative and most beautiful).

My brother, who only being 15 was not allowed at the party, came and babysat Charlie. They ate McDonalds--"Um, Charlie is eating ketchup with a spoon and dipping fries in yoghurt".

Matt made plenty of interesting shots, none of which I could have of course!

(Turkey) Burgers and Fries

Cost: $9

Prep: 30 minutes




Fajitas

I am wondering if I should exclude posts when it is something I made all the time?

There is not much to say.


Simple Barbequed Chicken

Cost: $9

Prep: 15 minutes

It's so hoooooooot. I can not make myself cook in this weather. If this were BC (before Charlie), we would just go out.

Alas, those days are no longer, as are further numbered as we will soonish have a newborn and a toddler to deal with. So, we stayed home and did not use the oven.

Matt barbequed some chicken legs. I read that using a citrusy marinade helps reduce the harmful effects of charring meat. With the amount of time Matt has been standing in front of that grill, this seems important.

I made a marinade that is 1/2 lime juice and 1/2 balsamic vinaigrette. Matt hates balsamic vinegar, so he just had barbeque sauce. It was probably the best tasting chicken I have had in a long time. Charlie loved it, and he ate two legs.

I did have to generate some heat by using the toaster to make us some garlic toast as a side. We also ate a giant bowl of Greek salad--although we were out of tomatoes.


Montana's Cookhouse

I escaped being a mom for lunch today! However, neither of my dining partners can say the same thing, as I was with my mom and my grandma!

I met them over at Tillicum Mall, as they were doing some business at the bank. I have nothing against Kelsey's or Montana's, and have had positive and negative experiences at both. I received a second degree burn on my hand at Kelsey's from the microwaved dip--it was unnaturally hot and we should have been warned. And, years ago, I almost died from diabetes complications after food poisoning from Montana's; I spent almost a week in the hospital; I was not the only one, and was contacted and spoke with many agencies who investigated this event.

But, that was over a decade ago now. These are not "bad" restaurants, and I have eaten at Montana's a few times since the event, and am pretty sure it has switched management in this time.

We all ordered off the "15 minutes or free" menu, because that is what looked good. I was probably the least satisfied, but it was because the fries were lame. I should have not listened to my baby-belly and went with the salad. I LOVE the pulled pork sandwich though. Usually, my mom and I share it, but today we went seperate route. The fried onions are so good, and the bun is so soft. The sandwich is also HUGE, and I didn't need to eat the fries anyway. (Sorry about the pictures; there was something on my lens.)

My mom had the chili. It was awesome that it came with bread and a salad. It looked like a great meal. I think I will have this at some point. She really enjoyed it.


My grandma had a lunch combo that was salad, soup, and 1/2 sandwich. It also looked very tasty. She had the brisket for the sandwich and the chili as the soup.


It is a place that is kid friendly in the day for sure (no experience with night). One really neat thing I saw kids getting was a set of mini-ice cream cones and lunch served in a truck kind of like a boat for the pirate pack. I also like the colouring on the table thing. However, it is not healthy food. It is calorie ridden and fatty. It needs to be an occasional event to eat here.


Montana's Cookhouse on Urbanspoon

Chicken Caesar

Cost: $8

Prep: 15 minutes

This is one of my favorite dinners. I just love chicken Caesar salad. We used leaf lettuce, light dressing, crisp bacon, croutons, and grilled small chicken breasts. I also made garlic buns (margarine and crushed garlic).

Cook In/Out

Well, it is raining pretty hard, so our Goldstream campfire dinner is postponed (there will be a campfire ban next week, so VERY postponed).

"Camping" dinners are usually not very healthy, and this was no exception. I mostly ate chips.  I also had 1/2 a hot dog (I'm sure all the judgey and first time preggos and momma just gasped in horror). I also had a diet pop (judge away).


My mom made a curried potato salad, macaroni salad (Charlie's fav), and a veggie salad.


No one eats as unhealthy as my brother though. Granted, he's a teenage boy. He ate hotdogs with just ketchup.

The best part, however, was that my parents have this strange old chimney thing in the yard so we could still roast marshmallows and make s'mores. Charlie was very well behaved. He sat on this little chair and poked the fire, but he didn't wave his stick around and his butt stayed planted.








Quiche Lunch

Cost: $8

Prep: 20 minutes

The meal shows how flexible I am: something came up so I made our dinner for lunch! One thing I haven't commented on is brought to light by this post. My husband and I are both teachers. That means the three of us are at home for three meals a day for two months. Now, I don't go all out for lunch every day, but we can't eat grilled cheese and condensed soup every day.

So, tonight, there are plans to go to have a campfire, so dinner needed to be cooked. To make it more "lunchy", I added a handful of chips. Lol. No. I did that because I am pregnant and really want chips.  I am being honest.

I made mini-quiche. I needed to take something as an appie to our get-together tonight as well, so I managed two jobs at once.

I used organic non-sweet pastry shells as the crust. Inside, there was a bunch of yellow pepper, cheese, and crisp crumbled bacon. Add some milky whipped egg, bake 20 minutes, and you have lunch (or an appy, as I am bringing these cold to a baby shower soon too).

As an extra bit of health, I steamed some green beans and we had a hearty serving of these on the side.




Sunday, July 15, 2012

Wo Wanton and Turkey Burgers

Cost: $12

Prep: 20 minutes

I know these dishes don't go, but the plan was for turkey burgers. Matt was going to make us an appy of wanton soup, as we needed to use up some wantons that his father had made and were in our freezer. When I went in the kitchen to see what he was doing, he wasn't making an appy but a full pot of soup, so we just ate it as the side dish instead.


The soup was awesome. Light and crisp, full of veggies. Charlie like it too, and has taken to asking for soup constantly.


For the turkey burgers, which we grilled, I made a light coleslaw to go on the burger buns. It was a nice change, as these burger tend to be dry.







Sausage in a Bun Cookout

Cost: $18

Prep: 30 minutes

The cost of this dinner was higher than usual because we had our good friends the MacLellans over to eat (so 6 instead of 3).

We barbequed some nice sausages: honey garlic and bratwurst. We ate these like a classy hot dog.

I made two salads to go with dinner. The first was a simple Caesar. THe second was an awesome pasta salad. It was tortellini, yellow peppers, green onions, and a balsamic vinaigrette. I wish I had a better picture, as it was also very beautiful!

The Pink Bicycle

This afternoon, Mommy went for a massage while Daddy and Charlie went to Miniature World. Then, we walked a few blocks over and had dinner at the Pink Bicycle.

I have only ever had appies here, and those were good. I have heard rants and raves about the burgers, and I guess it is all a matter of personal taste.

We sat inside at the back, but we should have sat outside since Charlie was being a terror. Seriously, worst child behavior ever. He hit the guy across from us with a fry. Twice. I was mortified. We should have left, or given him a time out, but we were cramped for space.

Anyway, food. Our appie was really yummy. We had onion rings. The onion rings here are spicy. I like that. Not everyone will though. Luckily, Charlie did.


Matt had a pork burger. He really liked this. I tried it, and more than did NOT. Not my thing, and I would have never ordered it for me.


After waffling on whether to have the special (a camel burger--is that real camel?), I just had a cheese burger. (The bun, indeed, was intact; the picture is after I gave Charlie some.) I have mixed feeling about it. The pickle was awesome--duh, preggo. The sauce and cheese and bun and veggies were good--especially the sauce--highlight! The burger patty was meh. It tasted home-made. And that is probably what some people like about this place. But you know what? You know where else I can get a burger that tastes home-made? Home. And it doesn't cost $13. I thought it needed more flavor, something special.


The fries were great though. And the service was, too.

I don't know; I don't really have any complaints that are valid. I just wasn't a huge fan of the dish I ordered. I will be back; I'm sure a place with such a great reputation deserves another chance.


The Pink Bicycle on Urbanspoon

Chorizo Nachos and Fresh Salsa

Cost: $8

Prep: 40 minutes

Another perfect summer meal, as this only needed to be ovened for about 10 minutes!

Matt made us a GIANT bowl of fresh salsa--the picture is of our large salad bowl and a serving spoon.. This is one of the best things he knows how to make, and is perfect for any summer day. It takes a lot of tomatoes, but when tomatoes are on sale, we eat as much of this salsa as we can. The other ingredients are simple: onion, cilantro, lime juice, bit of sugar. At times we add jalapeno, but not recently as we don't want to upset Charlie's belly.

For the nachos, I thinly sliced up the left over Chorizo from yesterday, as well as green olives and yellow peppers. The only downside to this meal was that I did not add nearly enough cheese to the Que Passo chips. The cheese was very finely grated, so I should have put a lot more than I did. I cooked it on parchment paper, which saved on clean up, as there basically was none.



Still, a bit of protein from the cheese and sausage, starch from the chips, dairy from the sour cream, and tons of veggies because of how much salsa we ate, I think this is a pretty decent meal.






Fresh and Tasty Summer Sausages

Prep: 20 minutes

Cost: $11

Yes, this meal was as good as it looks.

I made a great Greek salad as our vegetable source. Lots of red peppers, onions, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, black olives, and feta. Olives and feta were both on sale for $0.99 per hundred grams this week!

Our starch was yellow skinned potatoes with fresh chives and green onions from our garden. Yum!

Our protein was Chorizo sausages cooked on the barbeque.

For dessert, we had watermelon because that is what you do in the summer.

Our setting was our beautiful patio, although a couple wasps annoyed me very much!