Swimming Lessons!

During the months of April and May Lilly and I spent 2 mornings a week at one of my favourite places, the pool!  I have always loved swimming and playing in the water so I could not wait to sign us up for some Mom and Tots swimming lessons.

During the month of April my best friend was also able to join us with her adorable son. It was a blast taking the class together with our two cuties.

Grilled Steak with Caprese Salad

 

Another Monday and another amazing meat-centered salad inspired by How Sweet It Is!  What can I say?  That girl makes me think of flavourful summer meals so that is where I have been going lately when I need some inspiration!

This is another quick meal that you can whip up and have on the table in no time.  We had this with some roasted veggies and garlic peppercorn bread to round out our meal (and clean out my fridge!).  

Summer Salad with Corn Salsa and Spicy Lime Chicken

Lately I am all about the quick and healthy meals.  What I seem to be making most often are fresh salads that are full of variety and then topping them with some sort of marinated grilled meat.  Easy and tasty!

This is a prime example of what has been happening at our house.  Mixed greens topped with some grape tomatoes, avocado, black beans, corn salsa, homemade croutons and then finished off with some grilled spicy lime chicken. Oh man, this was a good one.

Baked Blueberry French Toast - A Mother's Day Treat

This year was my very first Mother's Day!  Both my husband and my daughter did a fabulous job of making me feel extra special, I don't think I changed a single diaper that Sunday!

In addition to being spoiled myself, we hosting a Mother's Day brunch since both of our mom's (and my husband's Grandmother) are in town.  We ended up with a total of 16 adults and 2 kids! But that's how my family rolls, the more the merrier.

"Lazy" Sundays

You know what has really changed since I became a mom? Lazy Sundays.

Before we became parents our lazy Sundays consisted of laying around the house in our PJ's, getting buried in a good book, watching countless movies, eating whatever happened to be in our fridge (or takeout), and taking the dogs to the puppy park at some point.

Fluffy Cheddar Cheese Bread

When I was younger my Grandma always had fresh bread at her home waiting for us when we came to visit.  It was the best thing to have for breakfast; we would toast it and then slather it with butter and peanut butter and just chow down!

Sadly back then I had no interest in baking other than the occasional batch of cookies.  Now that I can appreciate how delicious homemade baking really is, I regret that I never took the chance to learn how to bake from my Grandmother.  Luckily my husband's grandmother lives right down the street from us (how lucky are we?) and she indulges me with my random questions when it comes to the baking basics.

Our Baby Girl - 6 months!

Can you believe that our little Lilly is already 6 MONTHS OLD?  That was by far the fastest 6 months of my entire life.

It is really amazing how much they can grow and change in such a short amount of time.  Our baby girl already has two teeth, is trying to crawl, yammers up a storm, is eating solids like a champ, and has the best giggle in the world.  I know people always say this, but I don't even know what we did to keep ourselves busy before she arrived!

So here are some shots of our cutie.  I just can't get enough of her 

Do you think she has enough pink? Yeesh :)

November 17, 2012

Princess Cupcakes

Recently I made some pretty pink princess cupcakes for a 4th birthday party :)

I stuck with vanilla cupcakes and vanilla buttercream as those tend to be the favourites with a younger crowd.  I used my favourite Vanilla Bean Cupcakes from My Baking Addiction for the cupcakes and the classic Wilton Buttercream recipe (sans shortening) for the icing.

Couch to 10K - Workin' it out!

Our baby girl is already 5 and half months! Only a couple short weeks from the big 6 month milestone, can you believe it?  This has easily been the fastest 5-6 months of our lives!

Now that we are starting to get things figured out around here, I've decided it is time to work some 'me' time into my schedule.  Time to get myself back into shape and try to find that 'before baby' body that hasn't been seen since last February/March, (about when we went on our amazing trip to Southeast Asia).  I am determined to fit into those old bikinis when the warm weather arrives :)

Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal Cookies

Recently I was gifted with a large bag of delicious raisins all the way from California! My husband's grandmother (my grandma-in-law?) brought them back and I was lucky enough to snag some.

And what better way to utilize these raisins than in some tasty cookies?  

Of course the first place I looked for a delicious recipe was Two Peas and Their Pod; they are the best when it comes to tasty cookie recipes!  These are classic: oatmeal, raisins, and a bit of cinnamon to bring it all together. 

Photo (& thoughts) an Hour

I have seen a few of my friends take on this little project (most recently by Rachel from The Avid Appetite) and figured I would give it a go!  This is from this past Monday, enjoy this little peek into our life!

6 AM - Alright you win.  It's times like this that make me wonder why I don't drink Coffee

  

7 AM - I can't seem to get Bango (the husky) up for breakfast. Even he knows it is too damn early to move. Chloe on the other hand is always hungry

Grilled Steak and Portobello Mushroom Salad

While Spring has decided to take it's sweet time arriving, we couldn't wait to get the BBQ warmed up and start making some of our favourite fair-weather foods.  One thing we love to throw on the BBQ on a warm day are some juicy steaks!

I found this recipe on Marshalls Abroad and knew it would be a super quick and easy supper to throw together.  Lilly isn't a huge fan of naps and when she finally does sleep she is a cat-napper.  So any meal that I can get ready in 45 minutes or less (let's be honest, usually less) is pure gold in my books!

Special Birthday Buttermilk Pancakes

Hi friends! I missed you! Have you missed me? While I have been away from my computer for a while, I definitely have not been away from my kitchen :) So I have lots of fun things saved up to share with you!

For starters, these awesome pancakes that I whipped up for my birthday which was in mid-April. 

Buttermilk pancakes are a weekend staple at my house, but what variation you get totally depends on who is making them.  If my husband is making breakfast then you get regular buttermilk pancakes which are then drenched in maple syrup. So good.

But if I am making them? Well, I tend to get bored making the same thing over and over so I usually end up throwing in berries, experimenting with sour cream instead of buttermilk, adding butterscotch chips, etc.. Or in the case of my birthday weekend: rainbow sprinkles and dark chocolate chips.  Amazing.

Happy (belated) Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone had a Valentine's Day full of friends, family, and love!

Marbled Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting :)

Buffalo Chicken Potato Skins

Some of our favourite meals these days are ones that we can throw in the crock pot and forget about until dinner time.  Lilly has amazing timing when it comes to dinner prep or time to eat, that is when she decides to eat as well! I guess she just wants to eat when everyone else does :)

At our house we love anything related to 'buffalo chicken' and these Buffalo Chicken Potato Skins from skinnytaste.com looked way to good to pass up!

Chocolate Banana Pecan Bundt Cake

One of our favourite cakes to make at home is still this Banana Pecan Bundt Cake.  It is so moist and flavourful, every time we have some bananas sitting on the counter I seem to whip this up!

The other day I was also craving a bit of a chocolate fix, so I decided to dress up this easy bundt.  Some chocolate chips and a little chocolate ganache later and we had a treat that was both tasty and pretty!

Cheesy Pesto Chicken with Roasted Red Peppers

Hi friends! Do you remember me? I promise I didn't forget you!

Time has FLOWN by! I didn't realize that it had been so long since my last post, until my husband looked at me the other day and say "Uh, you know your last post was December 21st, right?" and then kind of walked away.  Haha, oops! If he has noticed, then you know it has been awhile!

Life with a little one has been absolutely amazing! And so interesting: who know you could get so little done in a day and yet feel like it was so busy?  I am loving it though, our little Lillian has made us happier than we could ever imagine.