Quebec City Family Vacation

We finally took our first family vacation. We packed up the Honda Pilot and drove 7 hours from Boston to Quebec City.  All four kids behaved wonderfully and the drive went without a hitch.
  We stayed at a lovely place called Les Lofts on Rue St. Joseph which is in the up and coming St. Roch neighborhood. In just two days (the other two were mostly for travel), we were able to do and see so many things without feeling rushed.

  Day 1: We drove to "the wall" and parked ($10) inside the old city under the city hall. We walked to Chateau Frontenac and walked around inside and used the ATM to get cash for the faniculair. The kids were impressed by the castle and the view on the boardwalk outside. We also checked out the crazy toboggan track outside, but decided there was too much risk for injury on our short trip and skipped it.  We took the faniculair down to the lower part of the old city and had breakfast at Le Couchon Dingue (I highly recommend the breakfast poutine, the flower waffle, or the oatmeal and you MUST try an authentic bowl of cafe au lait. Can you tell I've been here before)?
   After breakfast, we showed the kids the ferry boat port, but didn't venture across the river to Levis this time. Instead, we headed back to our hotel so our youngest could take a nap. While she was napping, the husband walked down the street to get us traditional smoked meat sandwiches from Joe Smoked Meat for lunch and cafe lattes from Cafe Roma.
   When the little one got up, we spent a couple of hours exploring the St. Rich neighborhood. There were many shops, including two music stores, many boutiques, a pharmacy and many eating spots. The favorite spot was, unanimously, the giant toy store on our street. Benjo Inc. was filled with toys for people of all ages. Our favorites were the life sized robot that squirts water and the huge race track. On the way back to the hotel, we ate supper at poutineville which had very good poutine-one of the best this trip. Then we settled into our loft and visited with relatives for the evening.
   The next morning the boys (dad included) walked to the Metro grocery store less than ten minutes away and we made oatmeal and raisin toast in the loft for breakfast. Following that, we drove to Les Chutes de Montmorency, a beautiful waterfall, where we enjoyed a cable car ride to the top. At the top we walked on the suspended bridge over the falls and stopped in to the little museum and gift shop. The falls were one of the major highlights of our trip.
   We then drove to marche du vieux port de Quebec which is a huge market filled with many different vendors. We spent a while there and then found street parking in the old city and walked around a bit before heading to my favorite lunch (or dinner) spot, Le Chic Shack. If you go here, split a burger and a poutine with someone so you can try both and a milkshake is a must-have (My better half loves the stout milk shake).
   After lunch, we happened to catch the St. Patrick's Day parade which had marching bands from NYC and Boston. We all loved this, especially since it was a surprise. Unfortunately, it was about 3 degrees Fahrenheit with wind and we couldn't stay for too long, so we headed back to the hotel. Before going up to our room, we stopped at Maison de The Chamellia Sinensis, a lovely tea store. After making tea in our room, we spent the evening at a relatives house before settling in for our last night at Les Lofts.
   Taking a four day (two days of travel) trip to Quebec City was better than we could have imagined. The children appreciated the rich culture more than we could've anticipated and we fit so many things in, seamlessly, that it felt like we took a week's vacation. Staying at Les Lofts provided the space (two bedroom loft with large kitchen and living room) and comforts of home which also made the experience as enjoyable as it could be.  We will definitely be making future trips to Quebec with the kids!

It's Been So Long

Ok...so no recipe with this post. My little one joined the family 18 months ago and I have not had a moment since! I also started nursing school! Yes, that's right. Four kids, full-time school, and a broken dryer. I just added the broken dryer in there to complain, but it's true. It's broken. We now have four clothes lines until unnamed husband has time to fix it. So, all that being said, we are now on a crazy budget since I am no longer working. This has inspired me to make all kinds of new things. Muffins and breads instead of cereals, homemade english muffins, and many, many vegetarian meals. I can't wait to post all of them. I hope you are as excited as I am. A new addition to our lives, is the harvest box. A local farm (Langwater Farm) puts together a box of organic vegetables for $20 each week. You can choose each week whether or not you want to pick one up. It is such a god-send! This week's box has zucchini and summer squash, a huge eggplant, six cucumbers, a walla walla onion, a bunch of basil, and some cherry tomatoes....all organic. We easily get at least four meals out of the box for our family of six...sometimes more. So my new mission of frugal, healthy, organic eating has been a little bit of trial and error, but mostly we've been pleased with the results. Recipes to come and a long overdue welcome to baby V!!

Fun Kids Lunch

The kids had so much fun with this. We made a peanut-butter honey bear and carrot-banana "flowers". I just used a cookie cutter on a piece of whole grain bread and spread a layer of raw honey and a layer of peanut butter on it. Raisins make the teddy bear eyes and buttons. Cut up some match-stick carrots and top with banana slices! There wasn't a crumb left.

Banana Ginger Bread

 I have never been so nervous about baking something in my life. I don't know if I was lucky or if I'm really getting a knack for this. I decided to make my own recipe-completely. I typically will find a few recipes and take some parts that I like and add my own things, but this was completely on my own. I didn't even look up ratios or baking time. My favorite part is that it is fairly healthy because it does have some whole wheat flour, every ingredient is organic and it has very little sugar. The ginger is not overpowering so feel free to adjust to your taste. I used a converter to get some nutrition info which I will try to do more frequently and include in most of my posts....Anyway, I am so beyond pleased with the texture of this bread and the dh and 

kiddos all loved it. In 14 hours it is almost gone and probably would be if I hadn't stopped the kids after two big pieces each this morning.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all purpose unbleached flour

1/2 cup of whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp allspice
4 very ripe bananas, mashed

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup cinnamon applesauce

1/2 cup sugar 

1/4 cup molasses

1 beaten egg

Preheat oven to 350° and grease and flour bread pan. Combine flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and allspice in a large bowl and set aside. In another bowl mash bananas and add oil, applesauce, sugar, molasses, and beaten egg and stir until just combined. Add wet mixture to the flour mixture and stir. As always, do NOT over-mix. I almost under-mixed mine to err on the side of caution. I HATE rubbery bread or muffins. Pour into prepared bread pan and bake for 50 minutes or until toothpick or fork comes out clean.

Nutrition Info* in 1 thick slice (loaf sliced in 12 even slices):

Calories 211.5   Total Fat 5.6 g       Saturated Fat 3.6 g       Polyunsaturated Fat 0.2 g       Monounsaturated Fat 0.2 g   Cholesterol 15.4 mg   Sodium 252.8 mg   Potassium 357.9 mg   Total Carbohydrate 39.5 g       Dietary Fiber 2.2 g       Sugars 14.8 g   Protein 3.2 g   Vitamin A 1.1 %   Vitamin B-12 0.7 %   Vitamin B-6 14.5 %   Vitamin C 7.8 %   Vitamin D 0.8 %   Vitamin E 3.9 %   Calcium 9.0 %   Copper 10.2 %   Folate 9.5 %   Iron 12.4 %   Magnesium 7.5 %   Manganese 20.9 %   Niacin 6.1 %   Pantothenic Acid     2.3 %   Phosphorus     4.4 %   Riboflavin 8.0 %   Selenium 10.0 %   Thiamin 9.5 %   Zinc 2.0 % *Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

 *Obtained from sparkpeople.com

 

Late Sunday Night Dinner

  I'm not a fish person. I love to eat it, but rarely cook it. I have a new favorite. Flaky, soft, buttery striped sea bass. I was so scared to cook this for the first time as it was a bit pricey and again, I am not a fish person. But, it came out great! We had a fresh salad (which I ate most of before snapping the picture-thus why there is only one sunny gold tomato on it) and dill potatoes as sides. So good, and once again, simple and EASY. I'll even tell you the order in which I did things. I love this meal because when one thing was just cooking and not needing attention, I could do something else and the timing was perfect.... While bringing salted water to a boil for the potatoes, I washed and diced five red potatoes (I wanted left-overs) and started getting the salad ingredients ready. When the water came to a rolling boil, I put the potatoes in and let them cook, covered. This gave me about 12 minutes. During this time, I plated the salad which consisted of spring mix and a combo of sunny gold cherry tomatoes and red grape tomatoes. I dressed it with fresh black pepper, sea salt, a squeeze of lemon and a drizzle of olive oil. Next, i put the skillet on a med-high burner and rinsed off my striped bass. When the pan was nice and hot I put in about a TBSP of olive oil, maybe a just a little bit more. When that was hot, I put in a very small pat of butter and put the fish in skin side down. I then seasoned the fish only with lemon and fresh black pepper. While it was cooking I basted it with some of the cooking liquid to seal in it's moisture then added some fresh ground sea salt. After about 7 minutes (it was really thick), I flipped it and cooked it for 2 to 3 minutes on the other side. During the 7 minutes on the first side, I drained the potatoes and threw them back in the pot with a drizzle of olive oil, a little butter, a healthy dose of dried dill, and salt and pepper. I put the lid on and shook them up and left them on the stove (burner off). When the fish was done, the salad was ready and the potatoes were still hot. I just put everything on a plate, and voila! A perfect meal in under a 30 minutes.

  I really need to start remembering to take pictures before I eat half of it. :p

Blueberry Lemon Bread

      

 I had a lot of blueberries after a recent trip to the farmer's market and a couple of lemons I needed to use so I thought blueberry lemon bread would be a great way to go. As usual most of my ingredients were organic. I really feel it makes a difference in the flavor and quality of the foods I feed my family and I encourage you to use organic ingredients when you can. That being said, this is in NO way a healthy recipe. I didn't even use partial whole wheat flour like I typically do. I wanted a sweet treat and that was it. I used several recipes to get an idea of some ratios and then adapted it to my liking. This is my version:

1 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

2 TBSP Lemon zest ( I used the second to smallest size hole for texture)

1 1/2 cup blueberries

1/2 cup pasture butter, softened (seasonal, regular or unsalted is fine)

1/2 cup (kind of heaping) cane sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract or about 1/2 of a fresh vanilla bean

1/2 cup of milk

Lemon Glaze (optional):

2 TBSP sugar

 1 TBSP lemon juice 

Heat until sugar melts and glaze thickens

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 and grease and flour bread pan generously.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt. 

In another bowl take about a TBSP of flour and gently coat blueberries to help prevent the juice running into the bread (optional).

In a mixing bowl beat butter, eggs, sugar, and vanilla scraping sides of bowl to combine well. Mix just until combined. Next, beat in milk and flour mixture alternating between the two evenly. Do NOT over-mix or bread will be chewy. Carefully stir in lemon zest and blueberries. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let sit for five minutes before putting on rack to cool. If using glaze follow instructions above in microwave or on stove top and glaze warm bread.

Blueberry Chutney Heaven (i.e. grilled turkey sandwich)

After a much needed trip to Whole Foods, we came home with WAY too many things. I'm pretty sure we have enough organic fruit to feed 3 families of five, but we also picked up some items we don't usually buy. Much thanks goes to my dh for introducing me to blueberry chutney. (My next project is going to be making my own and probably many other flavors now that I know how much I love it). Anyway, I really wanted to eat this chutney in a sandwich, but being preggers and all I can't have deli meat unless it is heated (sounds gross to me, too) and that was the only meat in the house. So, I came up with this marvelous idea. Smoked turkey breast and dill havarti-GRILLED! This sandwich was so good that I didn't have time to take a picture. They disappeared. :) These are very easy to make, so here goes:  Between two slices of your favorite bread  (I used Nature's Promise flax and fiber),  place 3 to 4 slices of smoked turkey breast and a thin layer of dill havarti (or any other yummy, smokey flavored cheese). Next grill in a skillet just like you would any grilled cheese sandwich. I used a little bit of butter and grilled them over med-low heat so I could make sure mine was heated all the way through. While they are grilling, slice some onion very thinly and prepare your favorite greens. For these sandwiches I used Olivia's organic half and half baby spinach and mixed greens. After grilling both sides, remove from pan and immediately spread blueberry chutney on the inside of the slice of bread with no cheese on it and layer sliced onions and mixed greens. Put back together and enjoy! These sandwiches were so simple, yet delicious and beautiful. I will maybe make one again this week so I can add a picture. The blueberry layer with the greens on the golden bread is just gorgeous. These are simple enough to make any day, but I would consider serving them at a catered event because they just have a gourmet quality about them. Bon Appetit! Buon Appetito! Dobar Tek! Guten Appetit! Mahlzeit! Bon Apeti! Selamat Makan! Smacznego!