"BAST" wrap

Thinking about lunch today I thought; "BLT" then I thought "wraps" then I thought "avacodo and spinach" and so the "BAST" wrap was born. What could be better? Bacon, avacodo, spinach and tomato on a whole wheat wrap. This was so simple; once I had a plan for lunch I put the bacon in the oven and texted my SIL (who currently lives one street over) to see if she needed lunch.  Within minutes with no reply she was standing on my doorstep and I didn't even tell her bacon was involved!

Our family loves bacon; especially maple smoked bacon....salty sweet combo; delicous!

I spread a hearty layer of grainy mustard on the centre of the wrap and then layered the remaining ingredients; spinach, avacodo, tomato, shredded cheese and bacon. 

I sprinkled with sea salt and freshly cracked pepper and wrapped it like a burrito.

Aubrey's just had spinach and bacon on it; two of her favourite things to eat!  There wasn't even crumbs left on her plate!

This simple lunch will hopefully inspire you to use what you have on hand to make something yummy and also inspire you to share the deliciousness!

Couldn't resist posting a picture of our little angel, is he praying?!

Outdoor picnic; tuna wraps

Yesterday was the first beautifully warm day of 2014 in Winnipeg.  This called for a family walk and definitly a picnic lunch.  We took Aubrey for her first slurpee; seeing as we live in the slurpee capital of the world it seemed like a very momentous occasion!

Once we got home my sister and her son

came over and I whipped us up some lunch

As we were eating the wraps I made; my sister Cher informed me that they were "blog" worthy! Sometimes I feel the simplest recipes are not worth the time to blog but I guess it's not so simple to everyone. They were delish so I thought i'd share.

In a bowl I put one drained can of white tuna, 1 shredded carrot, 2 diced ribs of celery with the leaves, 2 diced green onions, 1/2cup shredded cheese, a large serving spoon of plain Greek yogurt, 1 tbsp grainy mustard, 2dashes of chipotle Tabasco, a couple dashes of curry powder, sea salt and pepper. 

I used whole wheat wraps and laid baby spinach on the middle and put a large portion of the filling on top of the spinach and fold it like a borrito. 

Tada!

We only buy plain Greek yogurt now; we use it in place of sour cream, mayonnaise  and yogurt.  It's way less fat and nice to only have to have one of those ingredients on hand and it's so versatile.

You could even heat these wraps in the toaster oven to make a "tuna melt" wrap. They were just as good cold though,..I was too hungry to wait for them to heat!

Happy birthday mom and dad...gf oatmeal cookies

The party continues in our family; today and tomorrow are my mom and dads birthdays. Today the kids and I made our way to my parents house after a day of running around; Aubrey got her haircut, lunch at daddy's work and then a fun play at great big adventure. As soon as we got to my parents we decided to make special cookies that papa can eat.

I took my favourite cookie recipe and tailor made it for my dads diet; he eats gluten and sugar free as much as possible.

1cup unsalted butter

2cups coconut brown sugar

2 eggs

1tsp vanilla

2cups whole oats

2cups blended oats (oat flour)

1tsp baking soda

1tsp baking powder

1/2tsp sea salt

1cup unsweetened coconut

1cup walnuts

1crushed 90% dark chocolate

First we creamed the butter, sugar, vanilla and eggs together.

In another bowl we combined the nuts, chocolate, coconut, soda, powder and both oats. 

We used the blender to made a flour out of 2cups of oats. 

We mixed the dry garnish mixture into the wet creamed ingredients.

Taste test!

We put tablespoon sized spoonfuls on a parchment lined baking sheet.

We baked these at 350F for 13 minutes and put the baking sheets on the oven for two minutes before transferring to the cooling rack.

My mom and I are the dream team in the kitchen I make the mess and she cleans it up!

Dessert is served! Happy birthday mom and dad!

Homemade Popsicles

It wasn't quite a warm sunny day here yesterday however I had a "summery" project for Aubrey and I. Homemade Popsicles; a treat that we can make and tailor make them for our tastes as well as reducing the sugar from store bought Popsicles.  I have to say that store bought Popsicles are a regular on my shopping list so when I saw this kit at winners for $5.99 I thought it would be a great buy. 

Especially for my Aubrey; she'll try most anything and definitly if she's helped make it!

In thinking of what flavours I could use I had the idea of combining fruit juice with Greek yogurt. 

My sister found this fruit juice that was no sugar added and it was beet, raspberry and banana. It was a very yummy combo with the tangy yogurt. 

I whisked the two ingredients together and then poured into the molds leaving room for expansion.

Aubrey's job was snapping the tops on the molds.  She had a blast!

Ready for the freezer!!!!!

Fast forward to this morning; the perfect breakfast....fruit plus yogurt in Popsicle form equals an ecstatic three year old!

The fixing of the wedding cupcakes

Well we have had a very eventful weekend. Out of town guests, rehearsal dinner, family BBQ, wedding and tons of fun!

I was asked to make my famous chocolate chip cheesecake stuffed chocolate cupcakes for the wedding reception.  I found these super cute mini cake liners from home sense. I thought with pink icing and edible pearls these we're perfect for their country chic wedding theme.

However when I filled them and baked them this is how they were left.

Not happy at all with the result I went to 6 different stores to find extra sleeves to put the already baked cupcakes into.

I had two extra and knew this is more of what I wanted them to look like. I couldn't find them anywhere; I couldn't even find the shape of the liner to pick a new design.

Panick started to set in but we were too busy getting ready for the wedding ceremony.

We had a hectic morning of running our flower girl around to get primped for her big debut! Then we headed to the church hoping we could locate some burlap from the decorating supplies.

The beautiful service concluded and Jeff ran home  with burlap in hand. I asked if I should go too? He could see I was fading fast and so he responded with something like..."remember I'm a professional!" 

Two hours later the reception was about to start. Jeff ran in with the finished product.

I could not of been happier with the result. It exceeded even my initial vision. I am so thankful for my resident professional chef and partner in crime!

It was such a great day!

Mother's Day trifle

I made last minute plans to have my in-laws over for dinner tonight.  I had dinner all prepared; or shall I say Jeff had it all prepared! He had made me a few lasagnas and put them in the freezer; perfect for last minute dinner plans!   So what to make for dessert?  I had some lemon pound cake in the freezer, a Devonshire custard in the cupboard, and allot of coconut.  Trifle was calling my name so I picked up strawberries to tie these ingredients all together.  Trifle is a great way to combine simple ingredients into something yummy.  I prefer to make individual trifle; I find a large one gets looking not so appetizing after one person dives in.

I set out my dishes...

To the can of Devonshire custard I added 1 cup of Greek yogurt, 1tsp vanilla and 1tbsp icing sugar.  This allowed me to stretch the custard without adding additional fat.  

In my dishes a put a dollap of custard and then lined the dish with thinly sliced strawberries.

To this I added 4 small chunks of lemon pound cake.

I topped the cake with the remaining custard.

I finished this off with chopped strawberries.

Before serving I sprinkled a heaping tablespoon of toasted coconut on top.

It turned out really good; sure didn't disappoint my taste buds!

Happy Mother's Day!!!!!