Chorizo Nachos and Raspberry Angel Food Cake

Cost: $12

Prep: 15 minutes

We decided to redo the nachos that didn't go so well last week. We had leftover sausages from last night, and this time, I added enough cheese!

The only problem was that when we bought the cilantro, the store had actually labelled Italian parsley cilanto. Oops. So, the salsa was simply tomato, onion, sugar, and lime..not so great.

Because of our excursion to the raspberry patch today, we have (had) three pounds of raspberries in the fridge. We bought a little whipped cream and an angel food cake to compliment a few of these. What a great dessert. Raspberries are my favorite, but the ones sold in stores taste so wrong. Has anyone else ever noticed that? There is something about raspberries either eaten straight off the bush or saved for later that has so much more flavor than the packaged and shipped store-bought counter-parts.

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.

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.

????

I'm going to let you guess what is on those plates.

Broccoli? Correct!

Yam chips? Correct!

Chicken? Correct!

That other plate? I can't tell. And it has been too long. Oh well!

Ahoy there!

Cost: $7

Prep: 45 minutes

Honestly, I don't have much to say about this. Charlie clings to my apron strings as I cook, and tonight, to appease him, I cooked in a pirate hat.

We used some cod that we had in the freezer, as well as the remains of a bag of chips. Charlie is cutting some new teeth and enjoys eating the fries frozen. I steamed the broccoli and boiled some corn on the cob which was so awful and tough I didn't eat it.

















Anyway, Charlie ate corn, and he also loves fish. Actually, he loves anything he can dip in, and there were 2 dips this time--ketchup and tartar--a little boy's dream.

Family Style Chili Night

Cost: $12-15 (?)

Prep: 20 minutes

We broke out the slow-cooker again. It has been awhile, but I really wanted to make chili.

There is something about this food that means that it needs to be made in a giant batch.

So, because my parents are doing a major home-renovation that has essentially left all of their furniture piled in their kitchen, we invited them over to join us.

I like to eat my chili with cheese, sour cream, and tortilla chips. My parents are more "buns" people, but that is TOO BAD! My brother is more of a "nothing with anything resembling a vegtable person", so even though he tried a few bites so as not to hurt my feelings, he eventually ate Pizza Pops.

We aren't classy people, and we don't pretend to be, so I didn't even bother with side plates. Hey, at least we all had bowls and our own spoons. Regardless, it beats eating on top of your dresser.

Better than Fast-food

Cost: $12

Prep: 45 minutes or more

This is a labour intensive meal, but it is the healthier version of "deep fried" because nothing was fried.

My favorite part was the yam chips. These are also the most labour intensive part. A little olive oil, broil, flip, broil. But, because of our oven we can only do 1 tray at a time, and we ate 4 trays (1.5 yams).

I also made turkey strips. A simple egg wash and panko breading + baking. I prefer chicken flavour and cost wise though, but it was something different.

Matt made the salad. Lettuce, tomato, red pepper and cheese. My only problem was I HATED the salad dressing I put on and had to start again. I used Compliments Citrus Poppy Seed and possibly would be okay starving rather than tasting that again.

Charlie seemed to enjoy his meal, especially the part where he ate it with salad tongs.

Deluxe Burgers

Cost: $5

Prep: 25 minutes, but hard to say as Matt and I did it together.

Today was shopping day, and we scored on some marked down pre-made fresh burgers. Thrify's makes very nice gourmet burgers (another kind will make an appearance later in the week). These were beef burgers with bacon and cheddar cheese immeshed.

We grilled these up on the griddle, not the George Foreman. The GF is put away and is a pain to take out. It lived on the counter previous to us buying a Tassimo, and it was utilized constantly. Now, it has scarely made it to non-cupboard air since Boxing Day.

As our side-dishes, we made yam chips and salad. The yam chips are delicious, especially with the chipotle aioli from Costco, but I rarely make them because they are a lot of work. If I had a mandolin, it would be easier to cut them, but I don't so I refuse. Matt had to do all the cutting to be able to eat these this time. We decided one yam was enough, but honestly it looked like it was going to make much more before the yam was cooked.

Once the yams are cut, it is an easy dish to make. I put olive oil on a pan and spread the chips out in a single layer, and then lightly brush the tops with olive oil again. Then, I broil for 5 minutes, flip, and broil a few more minutes.

There was also a large side salad, but I am still really not feeling lettuce, so Matt and Charlie "ate" it: ie Charlie sucked the dressing off and gave all the lettuce back to Matt.

To get some veggies in, I loaded my burger with onion and tomato. The burgers also made a gourmet relish, spicy mustard, mayo, and pickles. One burger this size and no sides in enough for me. It was the first time Charlie was served his own burger, and you can tell by his face that he was not so sure what to make of it. He did end up eating most of it, but like all foods, he dissected it first.

Cod in my Bod(y)

Cost: $13

Prep: 30 minutes

This meal was quite a bit more expensive that it usually is because of the size of the package of fish. It was 4 cod fillets, and it left Matt with an entire lunch for tomorrow. The package was 800 grams, and we probably would have been better off with about 500 or 600.

Anyway, light egg wash and flowering, fried in canola oil. The fries are McCains. Until I get a mandolin, I can't make my own chips. It just takes way too long adn is too labour intensive. At least we buy the "low-fat" ones that taste crappy.

We mixed up some tartar sauce: 2 parts mayo, 1 part relish. We steamed up some broccoli. We are some fish and chips.

At one point we thought Charlie was putting fish in his toes, but on closer inspection, he was eating his toe lint. Yuck! Oh well, maybe he just isn't a fish person? We did get him to eat a fair amount though.

The only looming problem of this, one of our favorite meals, is the clean up. Just the battering makes a mess, not to mention the amount of dishes. Oh well. Matt does them anyways.

Fish and Chips Redo

Cost: $10

Prep: 30 minutes (including time to batter and fry fish)

I know I know I know this isn't a terribly healthy meal, but we just love it. We get our DHA this way okay?

The cod was dipped in egg and then flour, so the "batter" is almost non-existent or simply very light. It was fried in a 1/4 cup of Canola oil.

The chips are not homemade this time. Until I get a mandolin, that is way too time consuming. We bought the "low-fat" variety though, and ate a large serving of broccoli and peas to try to balance the badness.

Snapper that up!

Cost: $13 ($7 fish, $3 yams, + spinach, peas, condiments)

Prep time: 45 minutes-1 hour, the chips are slow going

This is not a healthy meal, but it is part of our overall health plan to eat healthier. We are incorporating more fish, at least once a week. That being said, I did try to make a healthier version of traditional fish and chips.

I can make two fish dishes: baked salmon and fried fish. Red snapper was on sale this week, so we bought 2 large fillets. I lightly floured these and fried them in canola oil.

I made yam chips instead of traditional fries. I cut up yams in thin rounds, lightly coated with olive oil, and broiled in the oven.

For veggies, we had a big bowl of frozen peas and spinach salad--which I couldn't eat because there was a snail in one bowl that I picked out but disappeared before we ate it, and I just could not risk eating it myself.