Super-yum!

Here is another recipe - I can't take any credit for this one, because it comes coutesy of Bonnie Lawson, but I have to say I have now "tested" it many times and can vouch for its deliciousness and easiness.  These are called Chip Crumble squares, but they might as well as be called heaven in a bite (or 10). Here is the original recipe:

1 cup of butter, softened
1 cup of brown sugar
2 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 cup of chocolate chips
1 cup of walnut pieces


1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix butter, brown sugar, flour and vanilla together.
3. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.
4. Press into ungreased baking dish - a 9x13inch pan works well.
5. Bake for approximately 25 mins, until squares are slightly browned. Let cool and cut into squares.

And here is how I have modified it:

I have started adding oats (not instant) in place of some of the flour.  For example, 1/2 cup of oats and 1.5 cups of flour worked well, but the oats weren't that noticeable.  Last time I used 1 cup of oats and 1 cup of flour and I had to bake it about 5 mins longer because the oats didn't absorb the butter the way the flour does.  A better ratio would probably be 1.5 cups of oats and 1 cup of flour.  At any rate, all of these combinations still tasted great and that is the most important thing!  I also add about 1 teaspoon of salt, as most recipes with chocolate taste better with a little salt to balance the sweetness.

Please use this recipe and enjoy - and feel free to make it for me any time! :)

A catch-all...

This is meant to be a big catch-up post - I haven't really written anything but recipes in a while.  Overall, we are doing well.  On a day-to-day basis, we are more-or-less exhausted!  Micaela is growing well, starting to get much more alert and interested in her surroundings.  She is now over 12 pounds, at the age of 12 weeks.  She is definitely growing out of the 0-3 month clothes but I haven't quite gotten around to taking out the bigger sizes yet.  Something else for the to-do list...sigh.  She still has her fusiness in the evenings, pretty bad actually the last couple of nights.  I am still holding out hope that a magic switch will be flipped when she turns 3 months, and this will all be behind us. Probably living in a dreamworld, right?  To date I have cut out caffeine, chickpeas (and other legume type thingies), flax seed (which we usually have in our morning smoothies), and dairy in the afternoon and evening.  Harder than it sounds, but it could be worse I suppose. However, on the whole Micaela is pretty sweet and is smiling more and more.  She also seems to recognize the sound of Avery's voice. Particularly when Avery is "communicating" loudly right next to her! :)

Avery is doing very well too.  I have started to have her home from daycare one day a week.  Last week went really well - we did a group outing to the Agriculture Museum with Chelsea, Aidan and Connor.  It was a gorgeous day and Avery and Aidan had a ball.  They weren't super-interested in the animals, but the playground was a big hit, snacks went over well, and running around in the grass while picking dandelions was surprisingly entertaining.  I did everything I could to keep Avery awake on the ride home because I knew that if she napped in the car she wouldn't nap again at home.  She did fall asleep just as we arrived home, and as expected, wasn't really interested in sleeping in her bed after that.  However, I did get her to stay in her room for around 2 hours "resting" (with one poo break) - there was lots of reading, playing, singing and general hanging out but no sleeping.  After a fairly low-key afternoon, Greg took her to the grocery store just before dinner.  She fell asleep in the car on the way back (and it's only a 10 minute drive at most), and didn't wake up until 6:30 Thursday morning.  Thank goodness she had had some snacks with her on the outing!  Micaela also slept well that afternoon and night.  I guess fresh air will do that to you! Not sure what is on the agenda for this week - I will have to come up with something fun.

Over Easter weekend we made our first trip to Toronto with both of the girls.  Despite being very nervous about the drives, they turned out to be the easiest parts of our trip.  Avery was preoccupied with DVDs, managed to use the potty on the side of the road when it was necessary, and Micaela slept 90% of the time.  Hopefully that will continue for the next trip there in May.  There were other times when both girls were complete disasters - e.g. Easter Sunday dinner at my mom's house.  Greg and I did not get to eat much at that meal, sigh.  But again, I suppose it shall all pass and change, and become better and worse!  Anyway, check out the video of Avery's first Easter Egg hunt (Micaela didn't seem to be enjoying it as much).

Anything else going on?  Not too much.  Greg and I managed to get out on Sunday and see the movie "Kick Ass" or Kick Butt as we starting saying at home.  Greg loved it; me - meh, not as much.  The superheroes stuff really isn't my thing, but I did appreciate the humour and quirky little details.  However, the amount of violence was shocking, especially when it was an 11-year old girl doing the killing.  I am now starting to better understand how seeing that kind of violence in movies or video games can make people immune to the horror of it all, and think that it is normal.  Yet another thing to worry about on the kid list. Anyway, it was definitely very nice to get out for a couple of hours and thankfully both girls were good (i.e. slept most of the time).  Thanks again to Auntie Jamie and Uncle Ted for babysitting!

Help!

I am looking for a good sweet potato fries/wedges recipe that doesn't require deep frying.  Every time I make them in the oven they turn out mushy.  Tonight we did some wedges on the BBQ and they were definitely less mushy, but still far from crispy.  Anyone have any brilliant suggestions?

North African meatballs

These North African meatballs are a must-try.  It is a recipe from the Food Network's show, Ten Dollar Dinners with Melissa d'Arabian.  I used ground lamb instead of beef, but ground beef, chicken or turkey would all probably work just fine because there is enough flavour in both the meatballs and sauce.  The recipe takes a while to prepare, but it is worth it.  Next time I will probably make a double batch of meatballs and freeze the extra for another meal.  I didn't use the noted recipe for couscous; instead I "winged it" on making my own israeli couscous with orange zest and cranberries.  It wasn't a total success because I used too much liquid, but I know better for next time, and I won't be too lazy to look up some directions on the internet.  Enjoy!