Weekend updates..

Greg went snowshoeing for the very first time!!!

We went to Mer Bleue while Kiki was at a birthday party at Cosmic Adventures.

The snow was coming down quite hard so the car slipped around turns and slid to stops but everyone was driving slowly anyway, so it was just a little nervewracking..

We met a lady from France who took our picture on the trail. She had these little booties on in

the deep snow and was heading back to "Le parking" because they weren't working

out too well. As you can see, I

dressed very warmly and Greg dressed very lightly since he gets warm much more quickly than I do.

There was face painting at Kiki's party.

After supper, I did her hair while we watched Madagascar.

She was soooo good, that we got 4 corn rows in! They are my first corn rows on Kiki, so they are crooked in some spots. When we finished I said, Kiki we can do this!! And she responded, " Felicitations , Maman!"

Menu Plan Monday

Last week was eventful : big snowstorm, no internet, and no oil!! But we came through okay and have oil now. I had a plan last week, but no connection to get to my blog, so I missed posting it.

Here is this week's plan for the orgjunkie.com MPM..

Monday - Roasted pork, macaroni with cheese, salad

Tuesday - Turkey enchiladas, white rice with corn, cheesy spinach

Wednesday - Ham in OJ, broccoli'n'cheese, boiled potatoes

Thursday - pasta and meat sauce, salad

Friday - roasted chicken legs, spanish brown rice, leek

Saturday - quiche or omelette , salad, potato salad

Sunday - lemon tilapia, rice with tomatoes, salad

Menu Plan Monday

I messed up... it's WEDNESDAY!!! It actually really does relieve stress so here's the orgjunkie.com menu plan...

Monday : Steak in Anchovy sauce, sticky rice, carrot salad with lemon-gahlic vinaigrette

Tuesday : Roasted curried chicken, mashed taters'n'turnips, asperge

Wednesday : Spaghetti with tomatoes, spicy Italian sausage, salad with balsamic vinaigrette

Thursday : Salmon steaks with cress, couscous, cheeeeesee brocolli

Friday : Stewy beef, roasted taters, plantain, salad

Saturday : Brrrrrgrrrrs, tomatoes'n'chard, fried roasted taters

Sunday : Beef tacos, quesadillas, corn, salad, ritas

Menu Plan Monday

I did my groceries with my assistant today. We visited 2 new shops in the neighbourhood : Produce Depot and Njieme ( a mediterranean grocery ).

The Produce Depot was exciting.. I got CRESS and they had 3 different types of eggplants, 4 types of zucchini and at least 10 different types of apples! The Texan flag on the box of Kohlrabi made me spin around and grab some.

I got some chicken and beef for great prices from the grocery next door and we had no line ups plus friendly service at both. What a great find!

Here's the Menu Plan Monday menu (cooked in replacement baking dish plus new roasting pot ... I been shopping.. )

Monday -roast chicken with turnips, chard with garlic

Tuesday - roast porc, brown rice pilaf, salad
OR ... (it's my B-DAY : we'll go out for supper :) )
Wednesday - porc and tomatoes, roasted stuffed potatoes, steamed zucchini with gahlic

Thursday -Either mediterranean baked fish, or salmon steaks and cress (if I can get to Farm Boy for salmon!!) , fufu, salad

Friday - mac and cheese (per special request), kohlrabi

Saturday - mac and beef, cauliflower gratin

Sunday - steak and anchovy sauce, rice, carrot salad with lemon vinaigrette

Weekend Madness

Kiki was very very busy this weekend. I am a bit worn out but I feel like I completed some sort of adventure race or a mothering marathon, so it's all good...

Friday afternoon : Emerise's 5th Birthday party after school

- A mishap caused Greg's car to leave Kiki's school with Emerise's birthday gift! So I made an emergency pitstop at Zeller's on my way home and dropped off another one soon after Emerise's party had started.

The kids played with all the balls, ate chocolate cake and opened gifts. A similar mishap caused Greg's car to come home, sans Kiki! So I zoomed off and was able to fetch her just 9min later. Kiki was so worn out that she was happy to go to bed.

Saturday : Gymnastics , violin lesson, group violin recital practice, birthday party in Gatineau

- How did I survive this day? I had to pick up more gifts for the 2nd party and hadn't planned for the group violin lesson. I picked up snacks from the grocery store but (another mishap?) I forgot my 60$ cashback . Kiki ate well but I ended up dining on 2 bananas plus 1/2 choco chip cookie for lunch.

In the meantime, Greg tidied up the place so that we could actually get some peace in the salon.

He fed her and played with her while I ran around doing errands. Then I drove Kiki to the party across downtown traffic and 2 rivers at a place called Tubes et Jujubes . When I picked her up 3 hours later, she had turned into a butterfly.

I felt guilty about being such a crab so we all snuggled together after supper , and watched Up (excellent!!) while polishing off an extra large bowl of salty popcorn..mmmm

Sunday : Playdate with Kylie and Madison at Mc Donald's in the morning, Violin recital plus potluck banquet afterwards

At McDo, Kiki inhaled her pancakes and offered to eat Madison's leftovers ,too. I denied her that pleasure , of course. They played for about 90min or more on the play structures there. She was sweating when we left!

The concert went exactly as I expected it to : she played sweetly for a few bars, then froze. Then restarted, then froze, then shrugged her shoulders and then caught the last few bars. Then she jumped on top of us and giggled and squirmed until it was time to go up for the group piece. She was pretty distracted there but she enjoys it in spite of all her fear.

After the concert, she joined the celebrations and ate cake, chips, crackers, cheese, pizza, and timbits. Then she helped clean up and took a photo of Yvrose and me.

She had a great weekend and so did we. But thankfully not all weekends are this busy!

Menu Plan Monday

This is posted late, but was saved and ready to go since Sunday night...

Monday: roast chicken, red cabbage , brown rice with gahlic

-- This was yummy!! I used Bittman's recipe for chicken.

Tuesday: salmon , sweet potatoes , veggie sticks

-- Today I tried out Bittman's 10min salmon recipe. It was simple,but I will get back to adding gahlic to it next time. I skipped the parsley because we didn't have any
-- CATASTROPHE!! One of my 2 pyrex dishes EXPLODED when I pulled it out to flip the fillets over!!!
It blew all over the veggie stix that I had just finished chopping , so I had to throw out 1) a nice pyrex dish, 2) half of the salmon fillets, 3) all of my veggie stix!!!

I was feeling quite negative about the whole thing when I forced myself to admit the good things :
1) only 1 pyrex broke ( I had made 4 fillets, 2 in each pyrex)
2) it didn't break in the oven
3) it was the smaller pyrex
4) I had extra veggies for the veggie stix
5) I'm lucky that I can even buy such fine food

Then a miracle happened : Greg came home from Arnprior and ,even though he was tired and hungry, he did that wonderful vacuuming thing he does. Ain't I lucky ?


Wednesday : pate chinois and salad
-- G and D like this. I am looking forward to the salad.


Thursday : jambalaya with kale
-- There's nothing like homemade salsa to revive leftovers ;)

Friday : white fish with tomatoes , spaghetti squash, salade

Saturday : porc with tomato, leek , polenta
--If I can find some camembert for the porc, this will be super yummy

Sunday : Chicken enchiladas , rice with corn, salad

Bailey

Bailey is the dog of the week at the Ottawa Dog Blog!!!

She used to live across the street when we were in Barrhaven and we had been promised a week of babysitting while her family visited Disneyworld in Florida. But she had to get an expensive operation , so they cancelled the trip.

That surgery was a success : Bailey runs all over the place, jumps on and off the couch and keeps everyone on their toes. She gives these quick little kisses and wiggles her entire body with joy when she gets the smallest bit of attention. She's tooo cute!! And she makes a great hot dog too!