Dairy free brownies - made by Aubrey

So I was craving something sweet, which is a normal occurrence. I was a little tired so I enlisted aubrey to make “us” something.  I found this simple dairy free recipe on Pinterest (my greatest inspiration in the kitchen!)

First glance at this recipe, I saw that we would use coconut sugar instead of the white sugar and we would cut it in half! 2 cups of sugar, no way! Aubrey used canola oil instead of the olive oil. Everything else we did as the recipe states.






I’ve taught aubrey to pull all the ingredients out before you start, that way you’re less likely to miss using one. 



I’ve also taught her to clean up as you go!  





She would like to have her own Vlog cooking show, maybe one day!


Liam loves being Aubreys taste tester!

Now I can’t believe I’m going to say this but I thought there were too many chocolate chips. Next time I would do probably 1/2 cup total, a 1/4 cup in the batter and a 1/4 cup sprinkled on top. Mini chips would be even better!


This was liams, brownie accompanied by candy cane crackle icecream. Is it really Christmas until you have this icecream, I think not! We need a dairy free version of this, come on presidents choice!

The brownies were super yummy, chewy, moist, yum! I would try baking them for 25 minutes, I think I overcooked it by 5 minutes. I will definitely make them again, I mean have aubrey make them again, super simple!

Weeknight dinner- Thai curry soup over rice

Honestly this is what an average weeknight dinner looks like at our house. Left overs, kids watching something on their phones and me moving about the kitchen before we head off to one of their activities. Or better yet, snuggled on the couch with a bowl of food watching the latest episode of the voice or Guys grocery games.

Chili for the boys and chicken red curry soup for the girls!

This is a look at this typical curry soup dish, I make it in so many variations. Choosing a protein; chicken, beef, pork, ground turkey, chick peas or a combo approach. Choosing the curry flavour; usually between red or green or a little of each. Choosing the add ins….

I usually start with chopped carrots and celery and sautéed those with a heaping tablespoon of curry paste (sometimes I add more garlic and ginger at this point) and cook the veggies until not quite fork tender. I add in my meat at this point trying to get a bit of colour on it. The fumes from the curry paste, at this point are burning my eyes and I must open the kitchen window!

I then add in two cans of coconut milk, one veggie bouillon or onion soup packet and about 8 cups of water. Couple of tablespoons of each; fish sauce, honey, soya sauce just to round out the flavour. Sometimes I even add a few tablespoons of peanut butter!  

I bulk up the soup with baby diced corn and water chestnuts, both which are a staple in my pantry. I simmer this for 30 minutes if I have time. About 10 minutes before we are ready to eat I throw quite a bit of chopped broccoli and or snow peas. If I’m making ahead, I leave the brocolli and snap peas blanched and ready on the side, I’ve learnt I don’t enjoy grey brocolli! 

As far as the veggies go in general, I’ve added peppers, diced cabbage, zucchini; you name it so many  options!

So there you have it; my famous curry soup. I serve this over perfectly cooked jasmine rice! For the kids, the spice can sometimes be a little much so I adjust their soup to rice ratio based on their taste!

Since most weekday dinners or a disaster for togetherness, you’ll be happy to know that mornings are our real family time. Given the work schedules and activities, we’ve adapted to creating space for us as a family to sit and share at breakfast. So I encourage you, it may not look like everyone else but it is still possible to create those moments. 

Note: this picture was on a luxurious Saturday morning!

We’re back!

So to say it’s been a while is an understatement. I can’t believe we are in November already and Christmas is around the corner, and so is 2022! Where has the past two years gone?! The kids are growing and Aubrey is a pre teen; seems like yesterday she was standing on a chair up to the counter helping me. Now she’s in the kitchen making her own meals!

Liam is 7 and is my best shopping buddy! 

Lately I have been craving Korean food, and as usual any type of rice bowl is my jam. I found this marinade recipe, I’ve used it for both chicken and beef. I use coconut sugar in mine and just cooking oil instead of the avocado oil. I sliced the steak thinly and left it to marinade all day. I cooked it in my cast iron wok on very high heat, it cooked very quickly and was super tasty!

While the meat was marinading we did a little DIY and used the Mack tack I had from when we moved into our house in 2017, to give Aubreys art room a cute new backsplash. 

This is as the inspiration for the meal:



And this was the finish product:

The steak

Cucumbers

Edamame

Red onion

Carrots

Brocolli slaw

Spicy mayo that I made with mayo and siracha

And last but definitely not least, jasmine rice!

And top with toasted sesame seeds or furikake seasoning. Such a great topper of nori, toasted sesame seeds, sugar and salt. 

This is a great meal, so much can be prepped ahead and the bowls can be made to order. The only thing missing from my bowl was kimchi and a fried egg.

The kids love rice bowls of any kind and they are in good company. When Jeff is home, we cook meat and potatoes (insert Aubreys eye roll here) and when mom is home; we make rice bowls!

Well we’ll see if I can keep this up. I’ll just post things we’re making. Maybe not the process but the before and after; Inspiration and final product!

Coffee cake

One of my favourite things to eat and to make is coffee cake. I saw that sour cream was on sale so I decided to buy a couple and make coffee cake.

This is my go-to recipe.

1 cup butter

1 cup white sugar

1 cup sour cream

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups ap flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

I omit the salt asked for because I used salted butter

I make a cinnamon brown sugar for layering. Sometimes I add chocolate chips, coconut and/ or nuts. Whatever I have on hand!

I mix all the wet ingredients together and set aside. (The first 5 ingredients)

Then I mix all the dry ingredients together and set that aside. Or I have my helpers do it!



We then mix the wet into the dry; by hand!

This requires some muscle.

Then we mixed up the cinnamon brown sugar in a small bowl.

Now we grease our pans and start layering; beginning with batter and alternating with cinnamon brown sugar. Ending with batter, so the topping doesn’t burn.



Bake at 350F anywhere from 45 minutes to almost two hours. All depends on your pans, and I flip them out as soon as they come out of the oven.

My favourite way to have coffee cake is from my grandmothers bundt pan. Something so wonderful about it. I think fondly of her and the Cooking adventure that was her life.

For the bundt pan I grease and flour lightly so it will come out easily.

This is the moment I hold my breathe every time! 

Perfection!

This extra cake that I  made inadvertently became bedtime snack. I couldn’t blame him for sneaking a morsel; Delicious!

Banana muffins

One thing this little guy loves is freshly baked muffins. And if they have chocolate chips in them; even better! 

Liam loves to be involved in the kitchen; his big sister would prefer to be colouring these days But He loves to be hands on. 

This is the map I use for my muffins.

2 cups flour (white tastes the best!)

1 tsp baking soda

Salt

1/3 cup whatever sugar 

1 egg

1cup mashed banana (or pumpkin purée)

1/2cup melted fat(oil/butter/coconut oil)

1/2cup liquid (sour milk, buttermilk, almond milk, whatever!)

I find using my emersion blender to mix the wet ingredients works great.





Then I add the dry ingredients and incorporate by hand.



We usually add chocolate chips but this time we opted for just a few pinches of cinnamon.








I preheat my oven to 350F and spray my muffin pan with nonstick spray. I use a large icecream scoop to make consistently sized muffins.

These take 20-25 minutes.

I forgot to take an after picture! Oops! They were delicious. They rise perfectly and have great “muffin tops”!