I AM - BECAUSE YOU ARE

Sorry beloved Old El Paso Taco Kit, but I doubt you will not be making a recurring appearance in my house ever again! There is a new love in my life, I think I have died and gone to taco heaven! In July we went to the annual Kahnawake Pow Wow for the first time in a couple of years. As always, there are dance competitions, drumming, singing, artisans and a wide variety of Native foods to sample. I have always been a huge fan of frybread, a flat dough that is fried and eaten alone or with various toppings (both savory and sweet). This year, I decided to try the Amerindian Taco which was a base of frybread topped with traditional Mexican toppings and it was delicious, especially on a hot scorching summer day! So, last night, I made them at home… and they turned out AMAZING! To simplify things, I cheated a little and bought pre-made pizza dough to fry as the recipe is pretty similar. Fried pizza dough While they were frying I sautéed some onions, finely chopped some lettuce, d...

So, one thing I learned the first time I went completely healthy, while pregnant, was that Bagels are the devil to a diabetic! Full of carbs, calories, sugar, and nothing particularly healthy about them. And then there is what you choose to put ON TOP of your bagel as well; butter, cream cheese, eggs, bacon, Nutella… the list goes on! But, they are so convenient to just grab and go! And that is why I finally decided to try and make the “Weight Watchers Bagel”. While I am not following the Weight Watchers diet in any way, nor endorsing them, their recipes are a good fit to a healthier lifestyle. DH was in the US for work, so I asked him to pick up some of Trader Joe's “Everything But The Bagel Sesame Seasoning” packed full of sea salt, garlic and onion. Once he got home, I went out and bought the self-rising flour and low-fat Greek yogurt and made a double batch of mini-bagels right away. The recipe I used can be found at Lord Byron’s Kitchen . And, for once, I followed the rec...

I have seen this cake hack going around for a while now, and I finally decided it was time to try! Take your favorite cake mix, skip the added ingredients and pair it with a can of your favorite soda instead. And… voila! It actually works! I chose confetti cake since we were celebrating. I wanted to pair it with an orange soda but only had lemon-lime on hand so I went with it. I added a little bit of lemon and lime extract to bring out the flavors even more and baked as usual. The smell coming from the open oven was heavenly; the cupcakes themselves, light and airy. A little crumbly, due to the hack I assume, but yummy. While the cupcakes cooled I cracked open a can of whipped vanilla icing and added more extract to flavor it as well as a little green food coloring. I wasn’t feeling my piping skills today, and the kitchen was hot so I didn’t want to waste the time only to have it drip so I mom-iced it. Added some little star sprinkles and some gummy butterflies the LO chose yesterday a...

Today my home becomes a warehouse to boxes of mason jars filled with love, aka cooking and baking ingredients. These jars are part of a fundraiser I decided to launch in order to help my BFF raise funds for her sons custom wheelchair. Overall I didn't sell as many as I had hoped, but still far more than I had expected... if that makes sense. Mostly co-workers purchased them as they make great gifts, which is actually how this all came about to begin with! I was looking for affordable Christmas gifts for daycare and that was when I found Recettes en Pot (Recipes in Jars). I need gifts for 10 teachers this year so costs add up quickly! Add a couple extra for home, some for co-workers and my order alone became 20 jars! They are only 10$ each, and half of that goes directly to the fund so it was a no-brainer. I could have supported another local cause of my choosing, as they are all listed on the website, but I decided to contact the company to start my own campaign...

Summer seemed to linger on and then all of a sudden... it's FALL! I spent Friday at home not feeling well, mostly due to being stressed and overwhelmed at the moment. The weather wasn't great, but Saturday was looking beautiful and we had plans to play tourist with DH's cousin visiting from Italy. We were heading out to a small Zoo for part of the day and they don't have a restaurant on site but they had a small cafeteria area with microwaves available, so I wanted to prepare something for lunch ahead of time. I don't particularly love microwaved food, but chilli is one of those foods that tastes great any way you cook or re-heat it... plus, it wasn't something I needed to babysit over the stove; win-win! After dropping the LO off at daycare, I raced over to Wal-Mart and picked up a couple of Hunt's Chilli Mix packages, some meat and some corn. Really, this is all you need! Depending on how I feel I add other things in as well, like peppers or oni...

This past weekend we went out to Quinn Farm for the first time and it was a wonderful day out with activities for the whole family. They had live music, barnyard animals, tractor rides, seasonal fruit and vegetable picking and a store with all kinds of home baked goods and preserves, and a variety of local products including fresh eggs, cheese and crafts. The farm itself is a little far from us, but I really wanted the LO to see all of the different animals she has learned about from her books. And, being fall, we had the bonus of apple picking, which inevitably means... baking! Our first stop was to the barn where the LO saw a huge sow gobble up some sweet corn, some sheep in need of a shear, chickens and lots of goats big and small. She giggled and squealed every time she got to pet the goats; she is definitely my child, after all we were both born in the Chinese Year of the Goat! Then we headed over to the tractor ride and they brought us out to the orchards. While apple pickin...