Pasta bake without red sauce

I was craving pasta and I also wanted to put a few meals in the freezer. Using only what I had on hand I started preparing everything to make pasta bake.  I cooked up two boxes of pasta.

In that same large pot I cooked up one lbs of bacon and a package of sausage. I took the sausages out of their casings and used a wooden spoon to break them up.

I added an onion soup mix package and 3 cheese sauce packages left over from Annie's Mac and cheese. To this I added two mugs of water.

Separately I  sautéed up 2 diced green pepper, 2 diced onions and four ribs of chopped celery.

Once cooked I put everything in my massive bowl and tossed it altogether. I added about a cup of milk and salt & pepper to taste.

I divided this into four freezer safe baking dishes.

In the bowl I had already used I put three cups of Rice Krispies, 2 cups of shredded cheese, a couple swigs of olive oil and salt & pepper. I mixed this up and topped each casserole.

I baked one of these and froze the other three! I baked this at 375F uncovered for 30 minutes. From frozen this would take more like an hour.

We took a little break and picked up aubreys back to school gift from her grandma. Can't believe I will soon be the mom of a kindergartener?!

This was a last minute photo with two portions already served up. From four of us eating there was about 1/4 cup left over; I'd say it was a hit!

It was remiscent of a ramped up hamburger helper and I served this with an Italian style kale salad. It was very satisfying and delicious; that's a positive thing since I now have three huge cassoroles in the freezer!

Fast forward to August 27; we went as a family to A&W to support the fight against MS. We had a blast and Aubrey proudly wore her red MS walk tshirt. 

We are thoroughly enjoying the last few weeks of summer before the busy routine of school begins; those cassoroles in the freezer should come in handy!

A day in the life; no bake cookies

The day began at home...then auntie Cher made a lunch shout out.

We spent the afternoon at chers and Aubrey had  some much needed baby Roxy time.

Then we all headed to my parents. My mom was hosting a lunch the next day so I offered to make her pavlovas for dessert.

I usually get Jeff to make me lemon sabayon to put layered on the pavlova but I thought I'd like to try making a Raspberry sabayon. 

I strained some raspberry jam with the juice of three limes and cooked this down into a syrup.

I tempered in a few egg yolks & whole eggs and over a Bain Marie I whisked whisked and whisked some more!!!!

This is how I knew it was done.

I added a few tablespoons of cold butter and then covered the surface of the curd so it didn't get a skin.

I put it in the fridge and hoped for the best.

I turned around and this was happening...

My sister was whipping up no bake oatmeal coconut cookies that my dad could eat (since my pavlovas were occupying the ovens overnight).

She used coconut palm sugar and unsweetened coconut.

She boiled the first 6 ingredients and then folded that into the mixed oats and coconut.

We couldn't believe what we were witnessing!

Ready for the freezer...

Yummy!! They were so good.

Skip to the next day...assembly...

I topped the pavlovas with sweetened cream, raspberry sabayon and fresh berries.

I finished this with lime zest and that is the secret to this dessert; it adds such a vibrant flavour to cut the sweet.

We sure love being busy together; one big happy family!

Rainbow day 2.0

So after months of Aubrey asking for another rainbow day I finally found the energy to create rainbow day 2.0.

I decided we could start the day off with rainbow waffles. I found a great waffle recipe which I then divided into three bowls and coloured them with blue, purple and pink gel food colouring.

Aubrey had a great time measuring, pouring and stirring. She's becoming quite the baker.

I made sure to not over mix the batter but to thoroughly incorporate the gel food colouring.

We put one small icecream scoop of each colour batter into the greased hot waffle iron. 8 minutes later; Tada!

They turned out great; so colourful and I was pretty surprised that the colours stayed so vibrant. Next time I would be interested in trying this will fruit purée instead of food colouring. 

After an hour at the local wading pool we came home to a colourful lunch. Hurley, Aubrey's cousin and BFF joined us for the afternoon.

Next was a "sandbox" match game. I hid pairs of items in a tub of rice and let them search and find the objects that were pairs. 

After that they made colourful puppets and put on a puppet show behind the couch. 

Colourful marshmallow bingo which was short lived but they enjoyed  the edible bingo chips!

And Lastly was what they were waiting for all day. They mined through a brick of ice with tools and warm water to find the items frozen inside. This had them occupied for more than 30 minutes; and may I add that they were working as a team for that time. It was great to watch.

After a yummy dinner and dessert Rainbow day 2.0 was over. Until the next time; I think maybe I should start planning now!

Mini loaves

I got home from work today and it was storming out so I knew it would be a baking kind of afternoon.

We defrosted some bananas and Aubrey loved squeezing them into the mixer.

We were out of brown sugar so we used honey.

Butter; yes everything is better with butter.

We got all of the ingredients in the mixer and I asked Aubrey to turn it on low.

Whoops! Guess I'll be cleaning too; it's a perfect day for it!

I had bought these mini loaf pans at dollarama; they baked up great.

She was just a little excited to serve her brother a piece.

Superman even loved it (just noticed his bib looks like a cape)!

We finished off the day with a trip to superstore to restock our snack bags. Aubrey loves this special project we do. We make up brown lunch bags which she decorates and we fill them with a few snacks (this time we did granola bar, fruit bar and juice boxes) . We keep these in our vehicles (I always have one in my purse!) and have them on hand to give out if people ask for something to eat.

If we buy in bulk it actually doesn't cost much and it's a great family activity. We now as family are more aware of the needs of others around us because we are already prepared and willing.

This is one way to teach my kids how to love others; with action not just words. 

Now Aubrey makes it her mission to find people to give the snack bags to almost everytime we're out; whether they're hungry or not!!!!