April 30th: slow-cooker baked potatoes

I received a big slow cooker for Christmas. I already own one, but it is a teeny tiny one that I bought in university when I was cooking for one. I've gotten a tonne of use out of the new slow cooker over the past few months, especially throughout the winter when Olivia had skating lessons at an awkward time on Wednesday nights. I used the slow cooker almost every Wednesday, and we would come home, famished, to a supper ready to eat.

I came across this recipe for baked potatoes in a slow cooker, which I thought sounded interesting. Baked potatoes in the oven aren't hard, but the slow cooker provides that advantage of cooking in the morning and being done for the day. Also the advantage of not turning on the oven, which is a bonus this time of year as it is getting warmer every day. The recipe is simple enough: clean and oil potatoes, prick with a fork, wrap in foil, 8 hours on low, done. They were delicious.

From The Yummy Life: Slow Cooker Baked Potatoes.

In the morning, ready to cook.

In the evening, ready to eat.

Unwrapped.

Slathered.

April 28th: pumpkin curry soup

Greg upgraded to a new iPhone. I took over his old iPhone, upgrading from my out of date, slidey-keyboard style cell phone, whose slidey-keyboard keys stopped working 18 months ago. All of which to say is, I've been lazy about taking pictures with our camera and have instead been using my new-to-me-iPhone. That's my up front excuse about the bad picture below.

The recipe, though, is delish! I bought a can of pumpkin last week to make pumpkin muffins, and made this soup recipe to use up the rest of the pumpkin. It is chowdery-tasting, and I heaped in the sour cream at eating time, yum yum yum. From December 2010's Today's Parent: Pantry Pumpkin Soup. If anything, next time, I would add more veggies or some chicken, or both.

April 27th: Pepita Snacks

Ah, lunches. The best part of any parent's day, I am sure, is packing their children's lunches, fingers crossed they will eat everything, or at least enough they are not starving and cranky by the end of the day. I've been trying for months to put together nut-free trail mixes that Olivia will eat, to no avail. She always eats the yogurt-covered raisins and chocolate-covered cranberries, but never the dry cereals or seeds. I've tried many different varieties.

This past weekend, I tried out a recipe from Today's Parent for oven-toasted pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds) in a honey, egg white, salt mixture. She liked them fresh from the oven, but after two days in her lunch, she was done. Ah, well. They're not bad, if you want to try them for your child, or yourself.

From November 2009's Today's Parent: Snack Clusters.

Lentils for play

Not a real food post, but just an idea, if you have some old legumes kicking around and want to entertain your children. This is Olivia's lentil-filled farmyard:

April 5th: 300!

This is post #300.

Family came to visit in March. Liam committed in advance to making me bread or cookies or something during the trip. He made southern buttermilk biscuits. They were excellent. When he left, I still had plenty of buttermilk leftover, some of which I used in Sadie's birthday cupcakes. I kept thinking I should toss the rest, but L convinced me to do otherwise, namely, by telling me to make the biscuits again. So I did. Buttermilk was still good, and biscuits were delicious.

The recipe is specific in its directions, and notes that the second round of dough will result in tougher biscuits. I made just one biscuit from the leftover bits of dough, and Greg ate that one and said he liked it better than the light and fluffy first rounds. There you go; no need to waste the bits!

I made the biscuits to go with a chicken soup I made. The stock was made roughly from the Red Apron recipe, and the soup was based on Today's Parent's Mexican Blizzard Soup (go easy on the chili powder, should you wish your children to eat it). It was great soup. I wish I still had some kicking around to eat. Guess that means I should make it again. And the biscuits. Yum.

April 3rd and 4th: sweetened condensed milk and coconut macaroons

Two quick and simple recipes from February 2013's Chatelaine: homemade sweetened condensed milk (so easy! who knew?) and, made with said milk, coconut macaroons (same link, scroll down). Delicious all around. Instant skim milk powder needed for recipe, but it will be good to pick some up, since you'll never have to buy canned condensed milk again.