Our Menu: Week of April 7 to 13

Easter Sunday!

As I mentioned in my post about Easter, I got all adventurous and made a cake to bring to my mother-in-law’s house for Easter dinner.  This was only my second ‘from scratch’ cake ever and I’m so happy to report that it turned out!  Check out the photos I posted on Facebook (you don’t have to be logged in or even have a profile to view the photos).  If you know me well, you know that I have very little patience and I do everything FAST.  The cake was no exception.  I don’t have a proper ‘cake caddy’ so the hubs suggested I ice the cake but decorate it when we got to his mom’s.  Oh yes, what a great idea!  Except, I couldn’t help myself and once it was iced I thought I’d just put some of the decorations on it and before you know it, the whole thing was decorated!  I felt like a guilty child when hubs got home and saw the cake fully decorated on the counter.  The next question, of course, was, “How are you going to get it all the way to my mom’s like that?” – it’s about a 45 minute to 1 hour drive from our house.  I hadn’t really thought that far ahead, I just wanted to see the finished product NOW.  As mentioned, I don’t have a proper ‘cake caddy’, so the cake sat on a plate, on a lazy Susan, on a bigger platter and then on my lap in the car.  There were a few treacherous moments on the journey and even Baby O looked concerned.  But, the cake made it, in tact and it was delicious!  Here are the recipes:  Carrot Bundt Cake (I skipped the walnuts due to a nut allergy in the fam) and Lemon Cream Cheese Icing.

Baby O looking a little worried about the cake!

I also brought the Mushroom Casserole to have as a side dish to our dinner that I have made before.  Again, it was really good.

Chicken Asparagus Penne and Salad

See this post! 

Coconut Lime Chicken over Basmati Rice with Steamed Green Beans

Oh yes, this was GOOD.  A fan of coconut, I am not, but I love to cook with coconut milk.  Will definitely make this again. Here is the recipe.

Lasagna Rolls with Steamed Broccoli

I made a batch of my own pasta sauce with ground chicken again this week to go in these lasagna rolls.  I don’t have a recipe, but this is basically what I do:

Cook 12 lasagna noodles

In a bowl mix together a container of Ricotta cheese, 1 egg, some shredded mozzarella, grated fresh parmesan and a sprinkle of garlic powder.

Spread the mixture on the noodles and then roll them up.

Place them in a baking dish and cover them with sauce.  Grate some more mozzarella on top.

Bake them for about 30 minutes at 350.  Yum!  Baby O loved these too! 

BBQ Chicken Tostadas with Avocado Corn Salsa and Steamed Asparagus

Another hit!!  I cooked the chicken in the crock pot with some BBQ sauce and about half a cup of water and it turned out so moist and juicy and was very easy to shred.  I skipped the 'ranch' part of this recipe.  The avocado corn salsa was delicious too.  The recipe says to sprinkle the tortillas with taco seasoning, but I just sprinkled a bit of cumin and chili powder on them instead.

BBQ Pork Chops, Grilled Sweet Potatoes and Salad

I heart simple BBQ dinners.  The chops were sprinkled with Montreal Chicken spice and for the sweet potatoes, I just sliced them into rounds and tossed them with olive oil and a bit of salt and hubs cooked them on the ‘Q in our BBQ basket.

Bon Appetit! 

A Hop Down Easter Memory Lane!

I love Easter!  I have so many great memories of this holiday and I look forward to it every year.  Here are some reasons why.

Easter brings with it pretty pastel colours, spring blossoms, the promise of warmer days and of course, chocolate!  My mom always did a great job of making holidays special.  I loved the morning Easter Egg hunt and a basket of treats that almost always included new spring toys like a skipping rope and some bubbles.  Oh, the simplicity of childhood!  

I was also very fortunate to go to a wonderful public school in our small town that always had events like an Easter Bonnet Parade, Mother’s Day Teas and huge Christmas pageants.  I have wonderful memories of my mom coming to these events with me and I’m so grateful that she was able to be at home during those years.  Here we are on parade with the Easter bonnets I made for us in kindergarten

As I mentioned in this post about my Grandmother, she would make a special Easter cake that was frosted with pretty pale green icing and decorated with marshmallow bunnies that she cut by hand and painted faces on with a toothpick and food colouring.  She was so talented and loved holidays so much.  I don’t have a photo of her cake (I’m sure someone in the family must), but this is an idea of what the bunnies looked like:

I am going to attempt to make my own Easter cake this year to bring to our Easter dinner.  It will be a carrot bundt cake with lemon cream cheese icing and will be filled with candy like an Easter basket!  Well, that is my hope anyway!  I will post an update and photos of the cake after it is complete.  If I’m successful I may just make this a new Easter tradition.  Wish me luck!  Update:  My Easter cake was fabulous and I will make it again!  Click here to see an album of photos of the cake!

For the past several years, Easter has been spent at my wonderful in-law’s house and I always look forward to our family gathering.  My mother-in-law, Linda, has a wonderful Easter tradition.  Following our always delicious meal, she brings out blown out eggs, a supply of markers and pens and the basket of eggs that has been collected over the years.  It is like a trip down memory lane looking through the basket as there are eggs made by my hubs and his brother when they were children and some made by friends and family members that have come and gone over the years.  It is a great tradition and I look forward to the day when Baby O can add his egg to the basket!

O with Nana's basket of Easter eggs

 Baby O is too young this year to hunt for eggs or really understand the holiday, but I can hardly wait for the day that he does!  I loved hiding eggs for B and miss those days of his wonder and excitement that the Easter bunny had visited. 

Happy Easter to all!