a hippie with a minivan

Menu Plan for the week

Another week, another menu…

This week, fondue beef was on special, and Khéna has been asking for fondue for a while now so that will definitely be a meal. In the fridge we still have Tofu so that also has become part of our meal plan. And then on Friday, I am going to be taking “not-school” portraits at Communidée, the homeschool resource center in Montreal, so I won’t be home and Simon will be home with the kids and will be cooking for them which means that we will be doing an easy meal that I don’t really have to plan…

So, here is my Menu plan for this week….

Fondue “chinoise” (chinese hot pot)
Submarine sandwiches
General Tso Tofu
Pizza
Steaks on the BBQ with roasted red peppers
Chicken Enchilada casserole
Roasted Veggies and Garlic bread

Some of our breakfasts and lunches:

EC setback and update…

Elimination Communication has been an important part of parenthood for me. We have used the method with 3 of our children and it has only been a positive experience.

With Colin we started when he was about 2 months old… before that, he hated peeing in his diaper and would cry and cry if he did. I had heard of it before but didn’t think it was for us. Honestly I thought it would be messy, it would be more work, I thought that I wasn’t attentive enough. I had the same misconceptions that people often have the first time they hear about it. I was open to try however and it changed everything. My upset, crying baby was now a happy baby that refused to go anywhere else than in the sink or potty or toilet. He showed me that EC was so much less work than diapers, it was cleaner and he showed me just how much control a baby could actually have. I never looked back. He was completely potty independent by two.

I started with both Khéna and Wilhelmina at birth. Though Khéna still has a few accidents at night, he was also potty independent at two.

With both Colin and Khéna we ECed with diaper backup. They didn’t actually use the diaper that often, but we seemed to feel more comfortable having it on. With Wilhelmina I decided to go diaper free from birth.

We used diapers (gdiapers with washable liners) during our trip to BC when she was 8 weeks old, but after that she was in either in normal underwear or the one-wet trainers that I had made, but she was consistent enough that we didn’t see any need for diapers.

Things were going great until the camping trip in June and her becoming sick afterwards.

At the age of 18 months, she was in diapers for basically the first time in her life. Though we still brought her to the potty and kept the routine intact she was having many more misses. EC also proved to be a lifesaver more than once in the hospital and in tests. (Urine tests, VCUG etc) The biggest setback however was because of the nephrostomy. We could get the trainers on her but it was much more complicated with the tube, so having her naked or in a diaper was easiest. The other setback with the nephrostomy was that it was draining directly into the bag on the outside, which left her with only a small portion of urine which made things much more complicated as she probably didn’t have much pressure on her bladder so she didn’t feel that she had to go.

When we headed to the hospital for her surgery at the beginning of October, I didn’t even bring the potty. I knew that it wouldn’t get much use. I couldn’t even hold her or get her out of bed for the first few days and of course she had a catheter anyway, but once she was a bit more mobile and then tubeless, I would just bring her to the toilet. However, I think it took time for her to get used to the feeling of having a full bladder again, so, since coming home she has been using either the one-wet trainers or has been in diapers…

But in the last few days things have now changed. I noticed that she had an interest in using the seat reducer on the toilet, so we tried it out and has not turned back. She now she runs to the bathroom and says “pipi” when she has to go. Instead of going often and in small amounts the timing is again spacing out as it did when she was smaller when EC was at its easiest point.

I think it is too early to say that this is it… but I definitely feel that we are at the end of diapers for good.

The Kitchen table…

The Kitchen table is truly the heart of the home… it is where we eat as a family (though with 4 kids it is not often the most relaxing of times) It is where we sit and talk. It is where the boys play with toys, or where Colin draws.

A few years ago we bought a new table. It looked OK right? It wasn’t… It was not only very boring, it was cheap… I learned my lesson…

I had bought it used and it was clean and the table was sturdy (and it actually could extend to fit 10 which was a lot of fun when we had people over) but within months the cushions that were covered with plastic when we had bought it were stained and dirty and then as time went by and the kids were… well… kids… the chairs just couldn’t keep up with the abuse of everyday use.

We kept on finding screws on the floor and after many times of repairing the chairs they just could not be repaired anymore and in the last few months we were down to just one or two chairs that were actually usable. Being that the boys have grown so much in the last years and are all too big for the higher chairs that we had for them it meant that we not only needed the four chairs that we had, we actually now need 6… we were four chairs short. That meant that Kitchen table was no longer the heart of the home anymore… it was not inviting, it was not a comfortable place to be. We used it when we had to but avoided it the rest of the time.

So, for the last months I have been looking for a new set. Money is tight so we needed to look for used and after seeing a few sets up on Kijiji that I really liked but had sold quickly, I knew exactly what I wanted.

On Saturday, about an hour before I left to go grocery shopping and go out to supper with “the girls” it happened… I found it…

It was listed for 300$ neg… and they said that there was one chair that was in need of a bit of repair… So I sent a message and said that I would offer 200$ and I would go get it right away (I was heading around that area any way) Just before I was about to head out the door I got the call… price accepted and I could go get it…

I got to the house with the idea that if it was not to my liking, I was willing to back down. But, I was not disappointed…

It is perfect… even with one chair that needs a bit of repair (there is a rung missing that can be replaced)

We have a new heart in the house, it makes me happy… we are back to eating at the table, I now sit at the table again and read and have tea. I look at recipes and the boys are back at the table to draw and play… We sit there for breakfast and lunch and supper and talk.. it just feels good to have that back…

Now I can’t wait to quilt a new runner and display things that make me happy…

Where is the heart of your household? Do you eat at the table on a regular basis?

Chicken and Dumpling soup

I had never had, or heard of Chicken and Dumpling soup until a few years ago when I was watching a show on the food network that made it look so good. It looked exactly like comfort food even though I hated soup.

Yes, not very long ago, I hated all soups.

There is something about being able to drink my food that didn’t appeal to me and honestly most of the soups that I had in my memory were not the best. It is not that I wanted to hate soup, I actually wanted the opposite, I knew it was easy to make, inexpensive and that I could probably like the taste if I made it myself… so I started making a few…

This is one of the first soups I made and to this day it is still a favourite in the household, especially with the kids.

It all starts with a chicken…

Chicken and dumpling soup is always a second meal for me… what I mean by that is that I will roast a chicken and use about half of it for super the night before in something like club sandwiches. I then strip off the rest of the meat and put it aside, and then store the bones and the juices from the roast chicken until the next day. One chicken, two meals. I might look like a lot of work and a lot of step but it really isn’t… it is actually an easy meal to make and each of the steps takes just a few minutes to prepare and the result is well worth it!

In the morning I start on the stock…

No measuring needed…

Heat a bit of olive oil in a large pot.
Chop an onion in quarters (no need to peel them) and throw them in
Add a few green onions if you have them also
Cut a head of garlic into two pieces horizontally and throw it in (again no peeling needed)
Break a few stalk of celery in half and throw those in
Same thing with a few carrots
Sprinkle a bit of coarse salt, freshly ground pepper and a bit of poultry seasoning. (sage, thyme, marjoram)
Let the veggies cook and caramelize a bit. It adds depth to the stock.

Add the chicken bones and then about 16 cups of water… or enough to cover everything.

Let simmer for a few hours until reduced by almost half.

You will end up with a flavourful and rich and flavourful stock. Strain, and set aside.

About an hour before starting the soup, it is time to make the dumplings.

2 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
4 green onions (chopped finely)
1 cup buttermilk (or milk with 1 tsp of lemon juice) *I use almond milk
2 eggs

Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and onions together in a bowl. In another bowl, mix the sour milk and eggs. Add the wet mixture to the dry and fold in slowly until just incorporated being very careful not to overmix. It will be lumpy and that is perfectly fine.

Place in the fridge for an hour.

To make the soup…

2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp butter
2 carrots, finely diced
2 stalks of celery, finely diced
3 cloves of garlic (minced)
1/4 cup flour
Chopped roasted chicken (about 2 cups… or half chicken)
chicken broth (recipe above)
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp poultry seasoning
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
1/2 tsp pepper

In a large pot, heat oil and butter. Add the veggies and cook until softened.

Add the flour and let cook for a few minutes

Cup by cup add the broth. After about 5 cups are added, start waiting a bit between each next addition and add the garlic powder, salt, pepper and poultry seasoning. Add the rest of the broth and adjust the seasonings to taste. Add the chicken and let simmer for about 5 min.

The soup should be flavourful and slightly thick and creamy.

While the soup is simmering, take the dumpling batter out of the fridge. It should resemble a thick pancake batter.

Using two tablespoons (or an ice cream scoop) quickly add spoonfuls of the dumpling mix to the soup. (You want to go as fast as possible)

Then quickly cover and simmer for another 10-15 minutes… don’t uncover when cooking!

(the dumplings will rise to the top and will both boil and stream at the same time)

(the result is a very light and fluffy dumpling)

And that is it! it is ready to serve and be enjoyed…

I have to say… It is so hard to take pictures of this soup.. it might not look that appealing on camera but it is the ultimate comfort food, full of flavour, full of goodness and the whole family loves it.

One of those days…

If it were not for NaBloPoMo I would not be posting right now.

I am sick. It’s not fair for a mom to be sick. Who takes care of us? We have things to do, we have people to tend to, we have meals to make. My head feels like a watermelon that is about to explode. Heavy and stuffed to the brim…

But my day went on as usual… breakfast, cleaning up, starting stock for supper, hanging out with the kids, lunch, doing other misc. things in the kitchen, watching a movie, making supper etc…

At this moment, I am ready to be done. I finally finished making super and it is in the end stages simmering on the stove. Chicken and dumplings, ultimate comfort food and great sick food…

Of course being right before supper it means that it is the witching hour when kids are getting tired and hungry and everything is getting on their nerves… especially their siblings so I gave them the look (not my proudest moment) and asked them to go do something in the computer room so that I could have a bit of quiet and they went and did just that.

Luckily Willa also fell asleep about 45 min ago so I can sit for a few minutes trying to keep my head from exploding while waiting for Simon to get home…

As moms we should be exempt from colds…

It’s not fair to be sick and be a mom at the same time…