Strawberry chocolate popsicle

M wanted to make popsicles.  So we decided to make strawberry chocolate milk popsicles.   She did everything herself.  She was so proud when they came out and they were 2 colors.  All we used was strawberry nesquik syrup and chocolate nesquik syrup mixed in milk.

Baby Chef

Most Fridays my parents in Law come and watch the girls for a bit so me and Josh can go out.  They just got back from their vacation the day before, so we figured we would make our outing short.  We decided to go to Southgate.  We were sitting in the food court eating, and it totally brought us back to our university days.  We would go to HUB mall for Lunch and go to Edo.  We would order 1 sukiyaki beef and double the meat for $1, and 1 order of rice with sauce.  We would then split the meat and veggies.  So funny what students do to say a dollar.  J was laughing and said see now more then 10 years later we can afford 2 meals.  After we inhaled our food, we started walking around.  Not much to buy, but some how we ended up at Sears (yes, I know the old people store, the store only our parents shop at).  I went to the baby section and was looking through their clearance stuff and found " the baby chef food streamer/warmer/chopper"  It was half price, and since C is starting solids I decided to buy it.  Yes, I know she is my 3rd, and I probably don't really need it, but why not.  She deserves some new things too, right?  After we bought it, we figured it probably time to go home.  We had already left them for almost 2 hours.

So the first thing I made in it is sweet potato with apples.  It only took 10 mins to steam and cook the sweet potatoes, and a few minutes to puree.  It was so quick and easy and didn't make a months worth of food like other baby food makers.  YEAH a great buy!

Pirate Day at the beach

My sister told E about Pirate day at the beach a few weeks ago, she was so excited and has been eagerly waiting for that day to arrive.  Finally that day had come, it was this past weekend.  E and M got all dressed up in their pirate outfits and we headed over to my sisters place.

 There was a lot of cars already parked in the parking lot, so we ended up walking there from her house.

 When we got there, there wasn't much planned.  All they had was a bouncy house, and a dragon boat ride.  I was worried the girls would be disappointed.

But the girls didn't think anything about it.  They still had a lot of fun and why wouldn't they.  They got to dress up as pirates, jump in the bouncy castle, had popsicles and play in the sand.  I guess that's all they needed.  Just shows how our expectations changes as we get older.  The girls had a blast.

Kale Chips

I kept hearing people around me raving about these super yummy and healthy Kale chips they have been making.  So I decided to give it a try.  I went out and bought a bunch of Kale, and made the chips.  They were amazingly quick and easy to make. 

Here's what you need
1 bunch of Kale
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt

1. Wash Kale and tear the leaves off the stem with your hands and into bit sized pieces.  Place into a salad spinner. You have to make sure it is dry, because it won't crisp as well.

2.  Place bit sized pieces into another bowl.  Add oil and salt and mix well
3. Place onto a baking sheet and bake at 350F for 15 minutes.

What's for Dinner? Beef and Broccoli

Here is a very easy and simple dish to make for dinner.

Here is what I used.

• Sirloin Beef steak
• broccoli
• oyster sauce
• corn starch
• garlic
• oil

1. Slice up beef and set aside.  Cut and wash broccoli.

2.  Heat up oil in a pan, and add minced garlic.
3.  Add beef sliced, fry until their brown
4.  Add broccoli, and a little bit of water (about 2 tablespoons) and cover for about 2 minutes to cook broccoli.  Make sure you don't over cook, or the broccoli can become a little mushy. 

5.  While the broccoli and meat is cooking, get a bowl and add 1 heaping teaspoon of cornstarch, 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce, and about 1/4 cup of water and mix well. (if you like a lot of sauce you can always double it)
6.  Add sauce to pan, and let the sauce thicken. 
7.  Plate and serve with steamed rice. 

Nail polish.

It's been a crazy week since Josh started his summer class.  Oh by the way, along with 3 girls, my husband has also decided to go back to school part-time to finish his MBA. 
This week he is taking a intensive summer class, so the whole coarse is squished into 1 week.  He had a lot of group work and presentations. I guess the one plus to taking this class, is 1 less night class he has to take during the rest of the year. 
So with  Josh being crazy busy with school stuff, Baby C has been a little bit more fussy as well.   I think it might be her little teeth coming in. Its been sooooo much harder putting her down to sleep.  When she's tired she doesn't want to play with anything, if you try to put her down, it's a full out screaming cry. She just wants to be held.   She has also become a very light sleeper, so any loud noise will wake her up.  I was trying to put her down for her nap today, so I took her upstairs to my room, and told the other two to keep busy.  They kept coming into my room, asking me stuff or checking if baby C is sleeping yet.  But each time they come in, she pops her head up to see who it is, and its back to square 1.   Then, 30 minutes goes by and no interruptions (yeah baby C fell asleep).  I go into the play room.   So how does a 3 and a 5 yrs old keep busy and quiet for so long?  Nail polish.  They decide to paint M's nails. They did a pretty good job for their first time painting nails.  They manage to get none on the carpet. But I can't really get mad at them, because I did tell them to stay out of my room and keep busy.  Oh well I guess it's just one of those days. 

My Foyer

Having 3 girls means lots of clothes, accessories, and shoes.  It's crazy how fast all of their stuff piles up.  I'm running out of places to put it all.  E is starting grade 1 in a few weeks, and M starting preschool.  I want to get organized before they start.  My project of the day is to create a area, that they know to go to get their stuff.  My hope is when they come home from school they can come to this spot to hang up their jackets and backpacks, so they won't be lying around everywhere.  This also decrease the chances of them misplacing it. (hopefully less "MOMMY where is my jacket, or where is my bag" in the early mornings)

This is what my foyer looked like

So this afternoon I went shopping to find a solution.  I bought a bench for them to sit when they put on their shoes, and got some hooks to hang their backpack and jackets.   They also each get a little drawer to put their mitts, hats, and scarves.  I'm hoping this will stay nice and tidy.  Also the pictures with their names on it was a Christmas present from one of my good friends. (btw where did you get them done,  I need one for Baby C now).  It all worked out nicely, and for under $200.

Let see how long this last. Knowing my girls, I give them a week.  I'm just hoping I can train them from the very beginning, and they will keep it up.  Wish me luck!

What's for Dinner? Turkey pot pie

I still have a lot of turkey leftover so I decided to make a pie.  Ive actually never made a turkey pot pie before.  I started by searching how to make a pie crust.   I found a very simple pie crust recipe from allrecipes.com   It was called "mom's pie crust".  I did use a lot more water then mentioned in th recipe.
Here is what I did.

Pie crust

1. Mix 3 cups of flour with 3 tablespoons of white sugar
2. Cut in 1 cup of butter cubed
3. Mixed it to a crumble, and slowly add 1/2 cup of cold water until it can form a ball.
4. Roll half of the dough out and place into pie pan, and roll the other one out for the top.

Pie filling

• 2 cups of cubed turkey
• 1 onion
• 3 celery stalks
• 2 carrots 
• 3 potatoes (cubes)
• Oregano
• Parsley
• Left over gravy

1. First I cooked the onion in a large skillet. Then I added the celery and carrots and cooked it up a bit

2. Now I added the turkey,potatoes, oregano and parsley

3. After everything is well mixed add the gravy
4. Cook until potatoes are medium
5. Place into pie crust and cover.

6. Bake at 425F for 15 mins, then decrease to 350 for 30 mins.

Photo shoot

Back when I was still pregnant and on bed rest, I did a lot of online shopping.  One day Old Navy had a sale, and since I was bedridden, I couldn't get to a store so I started shopping online.  The only problem with online shopping is I always try to buy over a certain amount so I can benefit from the free shipping.  If I went to the store I would probably buy about half of what I would normally buy.  So on this day I decided to pick out some cute outfits for the girls for a photo shoot once Baby C was born.  I don't really like it when they dress all exactly alike.  I decided to go with a color theme and try to integrate it into their outfits.  I decided to go with a navy, yellow and white theme.

 For E's look I went with a simple blue dress with white leggings (that she didn't end up wearing) and a yellow flower headband.  For M, she had probably about 5 dresses in her closet to choose from that had these colors in them, so I ended up picking one of the dresses she had and bought a navy cardigan with a yellow flower attached to it.  I also bought her a blue flower headband to go with it, it she didn't end up wearing it.  For C, I picked a yellow dress with a white shirt to wear under and white tights.  I didn't get her anything navy, because it was impossible to find this color for babies.  I was so excited when we finally got to put these outfits on the girls for a family picture.  I originally thought we would take the pictures within the first 3 months of C's life, but we never got the chance.  Good thing the dress still fit it was size 0-3 mths.  I'm so glad my sister is a photographer (huaphotography.com)  She was able to take the pictures for us.

Happy 6 month birthday Baby C



Happy birthday Baby C!  Wow, I would have to say the past 6 months has flown by. 

 I keep thinking you should still be this wee little baby unable to sit, roll, or grab at things.  But you keep surprising us with what you can do.  You keep pulling everything towards your mouth and nothing is safe from your slobber, you roll onto your tummy seconds from when we put you down, and you stare at us when we eat as if you want some too.
 Baby C, you laugh and smile at every little thing, and you're such a happy little baby.  Your face lights up when your sisters walk into the room and plays with you.  I can't wait to see what your like when you grow up.  I know the next 6 months will go by even faster, and I don't look forward to going back to work. You still wake me up at all hours of the night, but your worth it.  I'm trying to cherish every moment of this first year before I'm back at work.  We all love you so much Baby C.  Happy 6 months!

Turkey in a apple garlic brine.

Turkey in August?  Why not?  I had a extra turkey sitting in my freezer since Easter.  I was wanting to cook it in July, so I can say Christmas in July.  But I was so busy, I didn't have a chance to cook it.  Turkey is so healthy, so why not make it part of a everyday meal.  (and I love the left overs, no cooking for a few days) Why does it only have to be served during holidays.  I'm breaking tradition and making it midweek on a Wednesday.  Today I'm going to try a new brine recipe I found.

Apple Garlic Brine

• 1 cup coarse salt
• 2 liter of apply juice
• 1 clove of garlic
• enough cold water to cover turkey

1. In my Largest pot,  dissolved 1 cup of salt in 2 cups of water and 2 liters of apple juice.  I put it on the stove and brought it up to a boil. then set aside
2. Prepare the turkey. (take out innards, and rinse)
3. Place turkey into the pot, and add cold water over to make sure the turkey is covered. 
4. place in  fridge over night
5. take out and bake in oven at 350F.  A secrest is to place turkey breast down, so all the juices will flow down, so your white meat won't be too dry and will be super juicy)

 (in my convection oven a 20lb turkey takes about 3 hours to cook.  cover with tinfoil for the first 2 hours, and take off and leave uncovered for the last hour.)

My family came over to eat it.  The turkey came out nice and juicy.   I will definitely use this recipe again.
Tomorrow's meal = Turkey sandwiches and turkey Congee. YUM.

An amazing find - Angus beef Burgers

Have you ever bought a box of burgers and they're all just packed into 1 bag inside?  A lot of the time they are in packs of 8 or 12.  We never eat that many burgers for a regular meal (only when we have company).  When I open the box, I tend to throw the box away and keep the remaining burgers in the bag, and put it back into the freezer.  The only problem with this is, it eventually gets lost in my freezer or gets freezer burnt.  The other day I picked up some burgers from Walmart.

Look they are vacuumed sealed in packs of 2, with sauce packs for the burgers.

 I guess this solves my problem with losing my open boxes of burgers, and I don't have to worry about freezer burnt burgers.  YEAH.  I just thought this was a great find and had to share it with all of you.  Oh, if you were wondering a box of 12 burgers was only $12.  This is a great deal especially for Angus beef burgers. 

What's for Dinner? Pork ribs, stuffed potatoes and corn on the cob

When I'm at home with the girls, they keep me pretty busy.  I always find the best time to prep dinner is in the morning right after we have breakfast.  This is the time where they are the most independent of me.  The 2 older girls will play with eachother (since they just got up, they're not grumpy and play well together, so they don't need a referee), and baby c will go in the exersaucer and entertain herself.

 I really like using the oven to make dinner, because I prep the food in the morning, put it back into the fridge, and when it's time, take it out and throw it into the oven.  My afternoons are usually crazy.  Madi is usually grumpy after lunch because she needs a nap, but since she's 3 she is kinda on the fence about needing a nap.  I would have to say she naps about 4 times a week.  The days she naps she doesn't sleep until after 11, and the days she has no nap, she's asleep by 8:30 (but she's grumpy all afternoon).  I guess we will have to wait and see what happens when September comes around when she starts preschool. 

Pork Ribs

• Ribs
• BBQ sauce
• Brown Sugar

1. Cut ribs into 3-4 ribs per portion
2. Boil a pot of water, and place ribs in boiling water.  Boil for about 15 minutes.  This will cut the baking time in half
3. Take out and place in a large bowl and pour BBQ sauce over.  Cover and place and fridge until ready to bake.

4. Preheat oven to 400 F, Place ribs in a glass baking pan (I like the glass pans because they are so easy to wash- I just throw them into the dishwasher)

5. Cover with aluminum foil.  Bake for 30 mins. Take out and remove foil and place back into over and bake for another 15 mins.
6. Take out and sprinkle brown sugar over the ribs and bake for another 15 mins. (this will give it a nice glaze, and give it a nice brown color)

Stuffed potatoes

• potatoes
• cheese
• milk
• butter
• salt
• mushrooms (or broccoli)

1. Wash potatoes well
2. place in baking sheet and cover with tin foil (or you can wrap each potato separately)

3. bake in oven with the ribs for 1 hour
4. Take our and check if the potatoes are soft.  Cut in half and scoop out the potatoes and put into another bowl
5. place the potato skins back into the oven

6. mash the potatoes and add butter, milk and salt (just as you were making mashed potatoes.  Now add shredded cheese

7. take out potato skins and fill them with the filling.  Sprinkle more cheese on the top

8. put back into oven and broil for about 5 mins. 

 The girls plate:

Josh's Plate: