It can't really be August 20th, can it?

Any times in the past that I've said I was busy... yeah.. ignore those. August is very, very, very busy this year! Between dance and Oz and soccer and work and visits .. I don't know if I'm coming or going anymore. In fact, I'm attempting to get this blog finished within 15 minutes so I can go pick Tiernan up from his second play today. Due to this crazy tornado of a month, we've been eating a lot of dinners that I've already blogged about. Like portobello mushroom pasta, veggie lasagna, taco dip, creamy asparagus pasta, caesar salad, (curried) chickpea salad sandwhiches, paninis and simple things like poutine and veggies and dip. You know - all the things I can make with my eyes closed. I do have a couple of super simple recipes to share, as well as one idea rather than recipe.

First though! Photos of some of our latest adventures.

Opening night of The Wizard of Oz at the Empire Theatre has come and passed! The show (which we attended) was fan-freaking-tastic! The cast - both professional and young company played their hearts out. The costumes, the singing, the story - all of it was amazing. The girl who plays Dorothy (Emma) is a friend of ours, and she is one talented young lady! She could knock your socks off with her triple threat talent - singing, dancing and acting. If you're in the area, please go to the show. There are still shows Sunday the 21st until Saturday the 27th with the exclusion of Monday the 22nd. Some days there are both the matinee and evening show, so check the website out and buy your tickets! It's so worth it.

On opening night we picked up some sunflowers (we have always called him our Sunshine) and a Wizard of Oz book to give to our little thespian. He also got a lollipop from one of the wonderful women who looks after all these munchkins. It was so thoughtful - a lollipop for the boys in the Lollipop Guild! I love it. Tiernan was adorable up on that stage as a munchkin, creepy as can be as a flying monkey and so graceful as snow. He did so well! We are incredibly proud of him - more than ever!

On the second day of Oz my sister Carole and her kids came into town to watch the play and then came over for dinner. What better place for the kids to eat than on the floor, picnic style? :)

The next day we held our tradition of a Pizza Pool Party at the hotel. The best part? They stayed at our hotel, the Best Western. We lived in that hotel for a month when we first moved here and it still feels like home to us. The smells from the cleaner. The perfect swimming pool - warm, not too deep, big floor to ceiling windows to let the light in. The breakfast/dining room that had the microwave we needed to use daily. I still remember warming my tea up there after getting the kids to school and then curling up in the big comfy bed in our suite watching MTV shows while I got over H1N1. I loved that hotel! If it hadn't cost that much to stay I might never have left. ;) I just wish our favourite girl had been working at the desk that day! I saw her leaving just as we were pulling in. She was awesome!

Hot tub!

All the cousins - best friends, always! These kids are so very close. It's an amazing thing to witness! (Their faces look a bit sad, but that's because it was time to say farewell.)

And now for the few food items I wanted to blog about. One is the Thai Chick-Un Pizza from Eat Drink & Be Vegan (very scrumptious!), one is some herbed buttermilk biscuits (very comforting!) and the other is english muffin pizzas (easy and great for snacks or school lunches!). Sometime I will blog the two different beer-y pizza crusts Kyle made in our bread maker (that we got from my Dad - thank you!). Right now is not the time, though! It's time for Lost.

Thai Chick-Un Pizza

Thai Sauce:

2/3 cup natural peanut butter

1/3 cup ketchup

2 tbsp rice vinegar

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 cloves garlic, quartered

1 1/2 tbsp fresh chopped ginger

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

1/4 cup light coconut milk

1-2 tbsp water

1 1/2 - 2 tsp agave nectar

toppings:

1 cup cooked chickpeas

1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced

3/4 cup pineapple chunks

1/2 cup bean sprouts

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix all of the sauce ingredients together and blend with an immersion blender until smooth. Spread the sauce over your pizza shell. In a bowl, lightly flatten the chickpeas. Sprinkle them over the crust. Add the bell pepper and pineapple over the crust as well. Bake 17-20 minutes. Remove from the oven and add the bean sprouts.

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Buttermilk Herbed Biscuits

2 cups flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 salt

1/2 cup butter

1 tsp dill

1 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

3/4 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix all of the dry ingredients in one bowl. Cut in the butter and mix until crumbly. Add the buttermilk and mix well. Knead for a few minutes on a floured surface. Roll dough into round golf sized balls (or slightly bigger) and place on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

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A really great fun food dinner is english muffin pizzas. I think these will be a regular lunch food for the kids this year. Make some sauce at the beginning of the week and keep it in the fridge so I can easily whip some up in the morning before school. The kids will love it!

To make them just toast your english muffin, and put them on a baking sheet. Add your sauce, toppings of choice, cheese and then cook it in a 350 oven until the cheese starts to turn brown in places.

For the sauce this is what I do:

1 large can tomato paste

1/8 cup olive oil

3 tbsp pizza spice

pinch of red chilies

dash of sugar

Mix it up, store it in the fridge for up to a week. If you like your sauce thinner, add water. We like ours thick!

**Edited to add - I did not get this done in 15 minutes as I'd hoped. I started this 2 hours ago. Ha!**

One of those days.

Today was one of those days. You know the kind. The kind where you wake up after a long, long night of not sleeping because of cats smothering you and daughters lying beside you grinding their teeth and psoriatic arthritis flaring up in your knees and elbows (don't I feel like an old lady!). The kind where your day starts off normal, quiet and then becomes busy as can be. The kind where you'd really like to climb under the covers to try to catch up on sleep, but there's no time to do so. The kind where you get none of the things done from the always long to-do list. The kind where you go into the kitchen to make your dinner and you realize you don't have a key ingredient. The kind where you email your husband saying 'I QUIT!'.

Yes, today was just like that. So when I realized I'd forgotten to buy that key ingredient at the store this morning, I threw my hands in the air. Then, I emailed my husband again saying I was not going to cook dinner. Today, we ordered pizza and it was perfect. I was able to de-stress, eat, and take the kids to the dance studio (where my day flipped right around with many laughs - shocker!).

My friend, Natasha, asked me about easy/little prep meals. I definitely have many of those, and today's meal was *supposed* to be one of them (pad thai). Being a vegetarian means that I'm often finding myself doing a lot of chopping. I try to do that chopping earlier in the day (or the night before), so that when it comes time to actually cook the meal, it's ready to assemble. I went through my entries and tagged all the simple ones with 'quick and easy', and I'll continue to add to that as I update here. In the meantime, these are my meals that take little time to prepare. There is some chopping, but aside from that, it's pretty minimal.

She also challenged me to find quick desserts, so I'm really going to have to think about that one. My desserts tend to be a bit time consuming and we don't have them terribly often. Thanks for the ideas, Nat! :)

Fun Food Fridays!

I'm really big on themed food days. You'll notice that as I upload pictures and recipes. My friend Jill and I joke about us being neurotic all the time since she too, has theme days. Haha. Fridays are our 'Fun Food Fridays', and who doesn't love that? We typically have a Family Fun Night of movie watching or board game playing, though tonight is a bit of an exception. Tonight all three boys went out to a Friday Night Magic (the Gathering) at our local games store, Goodsell Collectibles. This leaves Rhianna and I at home to have our own mother-daughter time.

Tonight we ate... drumroll please... pizza! ;) Nothing fancy at all. I will share my crust recipe (a crust that my son Tiernan actually eats - AMAZING!) because it's easy and super fast to make. I love it! On it I put my own pizza sauce (tomato paste, olive oil and a pizza spice that I get from Bulk Barn... love Bulk Barn!), mushrooms, lots of spinach, green peppers, pineapple, mozzarella cheese and feta cheese. Simple, but oh so yummy.

Pizza Dough

(for one good sized crust - I double ours so we have lunch for tomorrow)

2 1/2 tsp dry active yeast

1 cup warm water

2 cups bread flour

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Let it stand until it's creamy, approximately 10 minutes.

In a large bowl combine the rest of the ingredients. Add the yeast mixture and combine. Beat well with hands until a stiff dough forms. Cover with a damp cloth and let it rise until it has doubled in size (about half an hour).

Preheat oven to 350.

Turn the dough onto a well floured surface (with well floured hands). Roll out and shape into pizza shapes (we do rectangular).

Bake the crusts for 8-10 minutes, top with toppings of your choice and cook it again until it's brown and everything has melted.

This is my new favourite cooler. Wow, it tastes just like rootbeer! My sister Carole even suggested trying it as a rootbeer float, and I am sooo there with my next bottle. Sinful!

We brought in a nest that some robins made on our electricity meter last year. I had become very attached to the papa and the three perfect blue-green eggs that he was sitting on. I visited everyday, anxious for the hatching of his babies. Sure enough, three awkward looking babies were born. I felt so protective of them - like a mama bear. I checked on them a few times a day, making sure to chase away any squirrels and big birds that ventured into our yard. I was so happy that nothing had eaten the eggs. And then, one day, my worst nightmare happened. I went out to check on papa and his babies, and they were gone. Not only were they gone, but the nest was upside down on the ground without a feather in sight. The parent birds were in the trees crying, and that sound will always stay with me. I admit, I cried for a good long while over these lost birds, and didn't have the heart to remove the nest. That is, until today. I saw my first robin of the season - helloooo, Spring! I started thinking about the bird family from last year, and I know no other birds will take over their nest again, so why not use it for our altar for Ostara later in the month? For me, it's a good way to remember those babies.

Obviously, our cats liked the nest, too! I had to put it up high because they just wouldn't leave it alone.

Today was my children's last day of school before Spring Break, so they had a spirit day... PAJAMA DAY! They were so happy to go to school in pjs this morning. They were so cute, I had to take some pictures, of course! ;)

And as for Tibby-guy... well, he's just so doggone cute. He was a good best buddy today when I was feeling headachey and blah. My loyal boy.

Time for me to go hang out with my daughter. We're going to watch 'Nanny McPhee Returns' and eat some snacks. I love nights like these.