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.

Simple Summer Chicken Dinner

Cost: $12

Prep: 30 minutes

I had a break in my day at 3:30PM when Charlie went down for a nap, so I put on the chicken then. I put a bunch of garlic, 1/2 an onion, 2 large and peeled carrots, and a bunch of little yellow potatoes in the bottom of my great-grandma's roasting pan. Then, I put a small chicken on top and seasoned with salt and pepper.

Two hours + later, we were ready to eat! We boiled some cobs of baby crack/corn and steamed some green beans.


This meal was a huge success. Charlie ate a ton. It was fresh and light.

It was, however, a major downer to heat up the house by using the oven!

The potatoes were the best I have ever eaten, though, so I guess it was worth it.

However, TMI, but this meal also resulting in having to change the first diaper that ever made me hardcore gag.

Garlic Prawn Fettucini

Cost: $14

Prep: 15 minutes

This meal was expensive because I essentially made nothing from scratch. it was actually very quick, also for this reason.

It included:

• frozen cooked prawns
• Compliments fresh fettucini
• Olivieri garlic and herb cooking cream
• green beans

It was a nice dinner, and there was more than enough for lunch the next day plus a serving of prawns as a late night snack for Matt later in the week.

Steak Dinner on a Lovely Patio

And it was our patio! Because summer is finally here!

Cost: $8

Prep: 30 minutes

Today was the first day that was night enough for us to take our dinner outside and dine on the back patio. It gets a bit too much sun though, and was actually maybe a little too warm still to eat as early as we do.

But, we perservered and ate our dinner, enjoying the novelty of eating "side".

My jobs were done inside. I steamed green beans and nuked some potaotoes that were then finished on the bbq. I also collected and cut some fresh herbs from our garden to eat with said potatoes.


That's it. That is all the cooking I did.

Matt marinated and barbecued the steaks--which were flipping fantastic. He also grilled some red pepper.

The meal, although it was dense, felt like summer. I love this part of the year! Our summer in Victoria is so mild (although above 25 degrees is still too hot for me!) when it finally arrives. I feel lucky to live here!

Slow Cooker Strikes Again

Cost: $12

Prep: 20 minutes +

I haven't brought out the slow-cooker for a while, and parts of it were good. Specifically, the roast beef was great. Very tender! It was huge, however. I could have bought one about 1/2 the size. We ate sandwiches for days after and eventually had to throw some away.

I made a great gravy to go with this, and Matt likes to eat his roast with the onions from the slow cooker.

I also put potatoes in the slow-cooker, and they were gross. So let's not talk about that.

Steamed green beans were served as the veg. Yum!

For dessert, Charlie ate his weight in watermelon. I also ate his weight in watermelon. Matt, however, ate his own weight. It was an expensive dessert.

Classic Chicken

Cost: $8

Prep: 30 minutes

Not much to say about this dinner either. It was Shake'n'bake chicken legs with leftover mashed potatoes, garlic toast, and green beans.

I ate a small simple meal, as I had yoga after, but Matt and Charlie filled their man and baby boots.

Charlie is working on learning how to eat off a plate. So far, it has been okay, but there have been many attempts for the entire meal to be eaten by the floor.

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.

Improved Pork Chops with Mushroom Gravy

Cost: $11

Prep: 45 minutes

Today's dinner took a while to prep because I made(almost) everything from scratch, which is not what I usually do.

We had our usual pork chops with mushroom gravy, and I did still use Campbell's soup, but I used fresh mushrooms instead of canned. This turned out better, especially as Charlie loves the mushrooms and will eat a ton. I'd rather he eats mushrooms that were recently still resembling mushrooms than ones that have been floating in a salty brine for months.

I also made mashed potatoes, which was the majority of the prep time. I mixed in sour cream and herb and garlic cream cheese with the milk so that the flavor was a little unusual and fresh.

We had very tasty steamed green beans. I melted a but of margarine and added a touch of salt and pepper, and these simple acts made the meal exceptionally better.

Matt eating

Charlie eating

Tina eating

Pork Chops and Mushroom Gravy

Cost: $6

Prep: 30 minutes

While I was cooking this meal, I was on the phone to my dad talking about how this is total comfort food. I make it because my grandma makes it. My dad likes it because his mom used to make it. It is a real meal from mom.

It is also inexpensive and fairly easy. We bought a large pack of tiny fast-fry pork chops. There were 10 in the package. I had intended to use it all, but when I started, I realized it was just going to be too much, so I only used half the package, which was only $4.50 in entirety. The servings of meat we had were small, but it was still enough, each little piece being close to a full serving of protein each (a serving being estimated at the size of a deck of cards).

The gravy is easy to make. After I browned the chops, I added a can of mushroom soup and a can of mushrooms. It simmers and I stir until it looks done.

Gravy not done

Gravy done: much darker

This is my main problem with this meal: the salt content of using canned goods. Did you know that 1 serving of condensed mushroom soup has 35% of the recommended daily salt intake? (13% for mushrooms.) That is just way too high. I really should look up how to make this from scratch, since I would then be able to control the amount of salt, but this is how I always saw my gram make it, so it is hard to make a switch. Also, Matt doesn't like real mushrooms, but he will eat canned mushrooms. Charlie, it turns out, loved the gravy, especially the mushrooms, so much so that he would not eat ANYTHING else--although we did get a Greek yoghurt into him before bed.

As out side-dishes, I steamed up some green beans (much better this time, not tough at all) and "baked" (see "microwaved") a couple potatoes. The gravy goes great on top a potato, baked and mashed.

In the end, this is a classic. Charlie gave it his head-stamp of approval.

Cheap chicken dinner

Cost: $8 (including dessert)

Prep: 15 minutes

This dinner was boring. In fact, it was so boring, I don't even remember the details.

I bought the chicken clearanced for only $5 and used it the same day, so the value was great. I simply salt and peppered it and roasted it for a couple hours in my great-grandma's roasting pan. I used the drippings for making tiny bit of gravy.

There was also some sort of starch....I'm not even sure what it was. It did not require gravy...For the life of me, I cannot remember what it was. Oh well.

As our veggie, we had steamed green beans. The WORST vegetable I ever tried to eat. So tough. Just awful.

The best part of this meal was the dessert: a big bowl of fresh strawberries. Matt had his with Splenda, but Charlie and I skipped it and enjoyed the berries plain.

A Classic Meal: It's Shake'n'Bake

Cost: $9

Prep time: 45 minutes

Squash and empty potatoes waiting to be restuffed with potato, herb and garlic cream cheese, chives, and mozarella

Steamed green beans, chicken legs, squash, and double stuffed potatoes

My meal, incredibly filling

Charlie enjoying a chicken leg

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.