(Turkey) Burgers and Fries

Cost: $9

Prep: 30 minutes

Slow Cooker Pork Roast

Cost: $10

Prep: 20 minutes

Mom is going out! But, before she does, she has been kind enough to feed her men.

I put a pork roast in the slow cooker this afternoon, along with onion, garlic, rosemary, potatoes, and carrots.

For the veggies, I served them my leftover lunch. Seriously. The lunch was grilled veggies, and it was WAY too big a serving for me to eat all at once, so the boys had a hearty serving with dinner.


Okay boys, I have a date! See you later!

Love Mom

Lazy Salad Night

We are still very full from our big day out, so we just whipped up a salad. We call it a "strange Caesar" because it is essentially a Caesar base with grated carrot, cheddar cheese, and tomatoes.

Mother's Day Whoomp Whoomp

Matt made a special effort to make dinner on Mother's Day so that I wouldn't have to. Unfortunately, it didn't go so well. To Matt's credit, I should add that Charlie didn't help at all. He was a total terror, then sat on the couch topless eating socks.

The main dish was a Shepard's Pie (or whatever the beef version is). I saw him making it and I knew it wasn't going to work out. He had onions and raw ground beef going at the same time in a pan, added a can of corn, and raw carrots. I knew the veggies would be under cooked, but the carrots were still hard. To Matt's credit, it really just needed to cook longer, since my mom ate it the next day and said it was great. i did also think the red-skinned mashed potatoes on top and the home-garden grown chives on the side were yummy.

I asked Matt to make a salad on the side, since there were no green veggies going into the pie. I had bought dressing, croutons, and lettuce already. I should have supervised though. It was pretty such a crouton soup with lettuce. He used almost 1/2 a bottle of dressing and an entire box of croutons. It also became one of the most expensive salads we have ever had ($8-9). Charlie like it though, since he sucks the dressing off the lettuce and mostly eat croutons.

For dessert, "Charlie" made me a free cake a Thrify's. The cake was okay, and the decorations were ADORABLE. Good for Thrify's for offering this, as you know I was kind of writing them off and this was good publicity and got me in the store shopping while the boys created, as I am sure it did for many moms. we paired this with strawberries and mango that needed to be eaten.

Dad Chef

Berries

Topless Sock Eater

Beautiful Weather/Beautiful Food

Ah, Victoria! Thanks for bringing us the summer weather in May.  We took Charlie to Cadboro Bay/Gyro Beach. He's an odd duck, and seems to feel no cold, so he kept walking into the water fully clothed. The finale was when he walked into the water, sat down, and started playing.

We had no extra clothes, no extra diapers. Luckily, we were headed to dinner at the in-laws, and Grandma always keeps spares. But he still had to have a naked car ride there!

Once there, he took the opportunity to do some more pantless gardening. Norm, the dog, took the opportunity to do some unhindered baby-bum-sniffing.

Matt's parents made dinner and plenty of it. There were a lot of things to choose from (and I remembered to snap pictures for once).

Matt's dad barbecued some steaks. He remembered I like mine rare! The steak was a little much for me though, probably 10 ounces or so, and I couldn't finish it even though it seemed like a great cut (but what do I know about that?).

The other sides including fresh bread, carrots, mushrooms, green beans. coleslaw, and these potato/sweet potato thing that Matt's dad makes that are really special.

For dessert, Matt's mom made strawberry shortcake--as in, actually made the cake, not just bought those cup things. It was awesome! If I hadn't had eaten so much steak, I may have had more!

Charlie also ate some of the chocolate cake he brought Grandma. But what happens at Grandma's, stays at Grandma's.

Family dinner

Another slow-cooker day! It was nice not to have to take too much time away from being a family to make the evening meal today.

I made a slow-cooker pork roast today. I used a recipe from the "Fix It and Forget It" cookbook my friend Jamie lent me. Although I did not have all the ingredients, the recipe was called "Savoury Pork Roast".

The recipe called for simple ingredients: onions, bay leaf, and soy sauce along with the roast. I didn't have a bay leaf, and I accidentally spilled far too much soy sauce in. I also added carrots and potatoes.

I paired the roast with steamed green beans, zucchini with butter and parmesan, and Pillsbury crescent rolls (leftover from Christmas-time--must use up). Using the drippings and soy sauce from the bottom of the pot, I made a surprisingly good gravy. Little cups of apple sauce completed the spread.

My parents, even my mom who is a fantastic cook, gave their approval! So, I guess I can safely say week 1 was a success.