Hello everyone. It’s been unseasonably warm here which also coincided with hubby coming home for five days, which is almost unheard of. We spent a few of those days exploring Edmonton’s specialty stores. We found a wonderful Portuguese supermarket and bakery where we sat and had coffee and beautiful Portuguese Egg Tarts. We took some home together with some lovely crusty bread. Now I know where to get sardines! Hard to find in regular supermarkets here.
We also found an Italian supermarket and bakery. Tori was in his element – he loves Italian food. They had every type of pasta you can imagine and then some. The salamis and cheeses were amazing and, of course, we had to stop at the bakery section and buy some cannolis. We’ve never had these before, but hear about them all the time. They were very yummy.
It snowed on Saturday, so I decided that would be a good day to do some baking and prepare hubby’s truck meals.
I already had 16 frozen dinners for him, so I didn’t need to make any more. Instead, I made Hummus and Baba Ganoush
They’re so easy to make. You just put everything into a food processor and …
This week, I added cookies to the menu. We’ve been spending quite a bit of money buying extra snacks, so this is a good way to save. Lovely Strawberry Cheescake Cookies using fresh strawberries
You can find the recipe for that here. And Lemon Shortbread Cookies with homemade lemon curd
I packed these 2 deep in a plastic container with a sheet of wax paper in between.
Hubby liked the breakfast burritos so much that he requested more! So I doubled the recipe – 20 eggs! Yikes! I also substituted bacon for mild Italian sausage for a bit of variety.
That should keep him busy for a while.
That evening, we had a lovely dinner using recipes from Jamie Oliver’s 30 Minute Meals cookbook. The meals in this book show you how to make 2 or 3 course meals in 30 minutes! Of course, it takes me about 45 minutes because I clean as I go which takes extra time (I don’t think Jamie factored in the clean up when he wrote this book), but I love that I don’t spend all afternoon making a delicious 2 or 3 course dinner. Saturday’s meal was Spaghetti Alla Puttenesca, Caesar Salad (I cheated and bought this ready made from the supermarket), Garlic Bread & Chocolate Ganache. A glass of lovely red wine completed the dinner.
Here’s my menu for the next two weeks:
Monday Feb. 3 – Potato & Leek Soup
Tuesday Feb. 4 – Leftover Potato & Leek Soup
Wednesday Feb. 5 – Vegetarian Moussaka
Thursday Feb. 6 – Leftover Vegetarian Moussaka
Friday Feb. 7 – Chicken Shawarma Salad Bowl
Saturday Feb. 8 – Leftover Chicken Shawarma Salad Bowl
Sunday Feb. 9 – Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie
Monday Feb. 10 – More Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie. Can you see a pattern forming here? Aaah, life in the fast lane!
Tuesday Feb. 11 – Salmon Avocado Salad
Wednesday Feb. 12 – Another Salmon Avocado Salad
Thursday Feb. 13 – Cucumber Greek Salad with Lemon & Feta
Friday Feb. 14 – Pub night (Maybe. Depending on whether hubby’s at home or not). We’re not big Valentine’s Day celebrators, so it doesn’t matter either way.
Saturday Feb. 15 – Family supper – another menu from Jamie Oliver’s 30 Minute Meals:
Chicken Pie
French Style Peas
Sweet Carrot Smash
Berries, Shortbread & Chantilly Cream
Glass of white wine (of course!)
Until next time …
The Jane Effect 