Egg Roll Bowl

This Egg Roll Bowl was apart of my Cheap Eats weekly meal plan and I though I would make a quick post for those of you who have no idea what that is...here she is! Pretty tasty looking wouldn't you say? 

Its easy, healthy and delicious... even my 3 year old gobbles it up! 

EGG ROLL BOWL 

-One package of ground meat, turkey, pork or beef 

-One package of coleslaw mix, I prefer the Asian mix with bean sprouts but i had broccoli coleslaw mix on hand 

- 2 tbsp ginger, freshly grated 

- 3-5 garlic cloves freshly chopped or grated 

- green onion 

- sesame seeds to garnish (optional)

- rice to serve over (I had brown minute rice on hand) 

Sauce Mix 

- 1/2 cup Soya Sauce (low sodium is ideal) 

- 3 tbsp brown sugar 

- 1 tsp garlic powder 

-In a large skillet brown your meat with garlic, ginger and salt/pepper - once cooked remove and set aside

-Add coleslaw mix, and green onion to skillet on high heat and sauté 

-Once tender add meat back to vegetable mixture and add sauce mixture 

-Combine all elements and add more ginger (if you adore it like me) serve over rice and garnish with additional green onion and sesame seeds 

-Enjoy!!! 

simple korean pork - 15 min meal success!

How did we ever live without Pinterest- I even stare strangely when i meet people that aren't aware of its brilliance- and want to ask them.. "are you living under a rock?" seriously. 
...Well I'm not and now you aren't either - like every other facet of my life, i source Pinterest for LOTS of great ideas! Especially cooking and meal planning! 

Today I'm doing something new and sharing a great little recipe i found on Pinterest.
Korean Beef, turned into Korean Pork. This 'Korean Beef' recipe is sourced from this great blog Six Sisters Stuff (which is just amaze balls for recipes) . You can find the original recipe there, as mentioned. I found it on Pinterest. I don't find it particularly 'korean' but it has that asian flavour i always crave! 

I am a sucker for anything Asian and if it can be made within 15 minutes is as good as gold. 
This recipe has all the makings for success. 
Limited and simple ingredients, easily adaptable and easy to make. In my house it was husband requested and toddler approved, I had seconds so its going in the vault! 
I did make a few alterations as i felt the original was lacking a little extra depth in flavour and i made mine with brown minute rice and pork, that's what i had on hand cause that's how i roll when my house gets HANGRY. 

1 lb of ground pork 
(i have used beef and its great too, i think chicken would work as swell) 
1/2 cup brown sugar 
1/2 cup soy sauce 
1 tbsp red chili flakes (dependant on your spice preference) 
1 tbsp fresh ground ginger 
2 tbsp olive oil (originally sesame oil, but i was out) 
2 tbsp vegetable oil 
3 cloves fresh garlic (minced)
4 green onions chopped to preference 
1/2 cup teriyaki sauce 
Cooked Rice 

(I used brown minute rice as it was quick) 

Method: 

-Add oil to pan, allow to heat and add garlic till fragrant 

-While this is happening combine brown sugar, sesame oil (or olive), chili flakes and soy sauce in a small bowl and set aside  

-Brown meat (make sure it gets really crumbly) 

-Add sauce mixture to cooked meat, stir. 

-Add half of the diced onion and save the rest for garnish 

- Stir in Teriyaki sauce 

-Serve immediately over rice and garnish with onion and chili flakes and adorn with the sauces you love most, Siracha is this dish's very best friend. 

Enjoy 

weekly meal planning- 'pin'able version

Call me crazy but one of my most favourite parts of handeling the household is meal planning, grocery shopping, prep and of course cooking.
Each week I enjoy sifting through pins and recipes to plan food for my family. This helps me all feel organized and it takes the guesswork out of dinner time.

My guys are fussy eaters, but that's real world so I don't always get to cook what I want but I make sure it's a balance of new things to broaden their horizons and old favourites. For my interest it keeps things new in the kitchen too

I have a wonderful planner that allows me to slot in my meals and so me, my planner and Pinterest sit down once a week, check the schedule and plan meals accordingly.
I've made this weeks pretty for you and because it makes it more fun, if you want to use this weeks meal planner go ahead! Print it out or 'Pin' it along with the grocery list and enjoy! 

My intention with this blog is to help make managing family life a little easier and enjoyable in this 'oh so busy' world. To offer tips and tricks to the average super mom that my family and I have found useful. Managing the day to day with littles is a serious learning curve so help yourself to a little meal planning ease and it will look cute on the fridge between sticky fingerprints and magnetic letters :)

Here's a little look at what's for meals this week in my house!

Monday - Tortellini & peas in olive oil topped with parmesan 

Tuesday - Bacon wrapped BBQ chicken & Cesar salad

Wednesday - Creamy Chicken Enchiladas (made with Tuesdays leftovers)

Thursday - Sausage & Veggie Jambalaya

Friday - Meatloaf (with secret veggies) & Mashed potatoes 

Saturday - Steak Sandwiches & fresh corn on the cob 

Sunday - Slow cooker Turkey Chili & homemade biscuits 

Heres the 'Pretty version' all recipes can be made from your favourites as they aren't too elaborate.
Each week i like to try something new so i will be trying to make homemade biscuits from 'Miss Kay's Duck Commander cookbook' (post coming soon) & this recipe from Pinterest for quick sausage jambalaya and substituting minute rice (minus the shrimp-my gang isn't a fan of the flavour)

Hope this helps inspire your week 'pin' your weekly meal plan here and enjoy another beautiful week! 

'Honest' Co. Haul

On my path to creating a healthier & cleaner home I purchased a few home cleaning products from the 'Honest' company. All the hype and buzz better be worth the charge just to get it shipped to Canada. Snarl. International charge of approx $15USD again, snarl. 
Good thing well.ca will be carrying their products as of August 2015. 
I did not participate in the 'bundle' as i have heard mixed reviews. Im not convinced its worth it. 
Most likely i will only be reordering the products i enjoy and maybe trying a few new on the well.ca website. 

I decided to do a separate post just for these products (other family friendly favourites to come) No i am not endorsed by the honest company (but how nice would that be), these opinions are my own and i purchased product on my own accord, because its darn cute, healthier for my home and who doesn't like Jessica Alba???

First impressions are running high, or maybe that's the clean marketing.
When looking for cleaning products that were more natural without all the harsh chemicals I was drawn to the honest company for their mission and passion for healthy families.
I'm 'honestly' suprised how satisfied I am so far....

I purchased the following a items from the honest company website

• Multi Surface Cleaner
• Dish soap
• Shampoo & Body wash
• Detangler
• Organic Breath Easy Chest Rub
• Kids toothpaste
• Healing balm
• Dish scrubber & Container

I was delighted to receive my brown box from the honest company-about a week after ordering. Opening the box was a lovely experience, just like Christmas!
I had thought about ordering products for quite some time and now that they ship to Canada I decided to splurge and treat myself  sweet new cleaning products!! What a sad lottery I have won.

The beautiful bright marketing and typography welcoming me to a new brand experience (I just eat that stuff up) Below are impressions of the products thus far...

Multi Surface Cleaner $5.95USD
Im happy with this purchase at the price. Great fresh grapefruit scent cant be beat and I was suprised at the large container
(26fl. oz) I do know it's easy to make your own cleaning sprays but I always struggle with the scents and appreciate this one a lot! 
Scent lasts just long enough and the construction of the sprayer and bottle seems of good quality. Bonus is it looks pretty on my counter (like all the honest products)

Dish Soap $3.95USD
This one I struggled with as I read multiple reviews that it was just alright and not all that 'green'
I took a chance as the value seemed great with the price/volume ratio (26.5 fl.oz) also I'm always willing to give lemon-verbena (y) scents a chance. 
It is a runnier consistency than my usual 'Dawn' but it smells amaze balls and it cleans surprisingly well even on breakfast bacon pans. I can see that I will go through it more quickly than other soaps but that's ok-it also says it can be used as a floor cleaner with a shot in a bucket of hot water. I haven't tried that yet but I will. I love multi purpose functionality.

Honest Shampoo & Body Wash $9.95USD 
This is probably the most popular item i have seen from the honest company. Its sweet vanilla orange scent is delightful and clean. I bought this specifically for my little and i must say, his hair is uber soft after use, doesn't irritate hiss eyes and cleans well. win, win, win

Conditioning Detangler $5.95USD
if you have a child with hair, you know. Detangler is a must! in my home but with this product, im not sure if its combining it with the shampoo but it works amazingly well; very quick and efficient.  Other detanglers i have used typically had to sit for a few minutes once applied and then try to comb it through- but this is great! i think its a decent value as you don't need to use much for a child's head. I will be repurchasing.

Breath Easy Rub $9.95USD
This product was timed perfectly as my little had some summer sniffles th week it arrived. I feel more comfortable using it than a 'vicks'. The container was quite small but the blend of essential oils it seems quite concentrated leaving you to use less. I appreciate that this product has a lavender scent to it as well as a eucalyptus. Very soothing and a new staple in my medicine box.

Kids Toothpaste $3.95USD for 2 pack 
This one is weird, its a strawberry flavour for kids and i purchased the 2 pack small sizes. I tried it first and i gotta say it tastes weird like artificial sweetener, that said- my little loves it.
Im glad it came in these small sizes, one is great for his overnight bag and the other is small enough to use in the next few months and move on to another 'natural' toothpaste. Any suggestions, please let me know!

Honest Healing Balm $12.95USD
I have yet to use this and the instructions were a little vague on my packaging, website is better..I was looking for a 'polysporn' type of product safer and more natural, i can only assume that is what this is... it feels a little greasy and i think they could have made it smell a little nicer, its pretty blah and haven't had anything major to try it on yet but i am intending to use it for scrapes, bruises and bug bites.. anyone else have any experience with this product?

'Suds Up' Bamboo scrubber & Ceramic suds maker $12.95USD
I bought this cause its cute, and looks like it makes cleaning fun. but in reality it makes it messier.
Its a typical cute little bamboo dish scrubber and it rests in this ceramic dish with a little platform that rests in a spring, so ideally you add some dish soap and water to the dish and press the scrubbby down to make bubbles and wash your dishes with more fun! well...you need to be a little heavy on the 'sudsing' so it splashes around the counter.. maybe i haven't figured it out yet, but im not giving up, its cute and pretty and fun. And it was $12.95

Overall, im pretty happy with most purchases, if you want to check out the website, heres a link.. 

honest company

happy and healthy cleaning to all on this fresh week!!!

mommas lunch

hey you-aren't you sick of eating cheese and crackers, toddler leftovers and hiding the good stuff for bedtime...(oh, is that just me?)

I find myself so often cooking toddler friendly food that a week can easily go by on food that i don't really even enjoy eating.. so this week I'm switching it up, I made 2 easy and fresh salads with the same dressing! (love that) this is an easy way to maximize your time & ingredients while giving you a little variety.
These are healthy and MOMMA FRIENDLY,  your super lucky your toddler might eat these too (if your willing to share) ..but my guys aren't down, no meat or cheddar here - they out.

First lets start with the simple ingredients.

- 1 box of 'Casbah garlic & olive oil couscous'

(you could really use any grain, i was fresh out of quinoa, but whatever your fancy)

for the one box i split it in 2 and made both salads from 1 box of grains-awesome time saver

-1 cucumber (half for each salad) 

Tangy Lemon dressing

(half for each salad) 

-1/2 cup olive oil

-3 tablespoons of lemon juice

-salt & pepper

-zest of one lemon

from here the two salads split a bit, one having more depth with the berries and mango- the other staying lighter with more crunch..see below!

minted couscous veggie salad 
make couscous as package directs 
-1/2 red pepper, yellow pepper 
-1/2 cucumber 
-1/4 red onion 
-1/2 cup feta 
-5 leaves mint chopped for preference 
-add tangy lemon dressing (half) and combine  

berry basil couscous salad 

make couscous as package directs 

-1 cup blueberries 

-1/2 cup dried cranberries 

-1 cup diced mango

-1/2 cucumber 

-5 leaves basil chopped for preference 

-add tangy lemon dressing (half) and gently combine 

*optional, add almonds, slivered or whole*

(they provide nice crunch) 

this is the couscous my family enjoys, if your unfamiliar with couscous it is a middle eastern grain, very similar to a tiny rice, delicious and light. As mentioned, any grain you have on hand would do great, i can't wait to try with dark wild rice or quinoa 

happy monday! healthy and happy week to you 

home sweet home

well.. i feel inspired to start caring more about the world I'm living in. Why does this sound so harsh to say?? 
i suppose I'm just a sheep in the heard of carelessness and chemical waste when it comes to this sort of thing and having a legacy naping in the next room really does make the future of our earth, the wellbeing of his generation at the forefront of my mind..

its not that i have been carelessly littering and watering my lawn for days but i have been neglegent about my recycling duties, the chemicals i use to clean my home (mostly cause those chemicals are so budget friendly) and obviously there is so many more little things i can change and teach my little about preserving our resources and being environmentally friendly and to top that- a conscious consumer.

so here i am finding myself at a bend in the road - a road trip with jessica alba & al gore.

it seems daunting to do a total overhaul and although i have ambitious plans about being that old 'earthy' chick with long white hair, growing a sustainable garden, smelling sweet like lavender and not wearing shoes- i suppose that story starts here, one change at a time. i already have birkenstocks. its a start.

i grow herbs, i make my detergents and i know how beneficial oils are but perhaps its time to get a compost bin, make more of an effort to recycle (almost) everything and make educated and slightly more expensive yet healthier product purchases. I just might make a leap from disposable diapers (we only use them in the evening anyway) and read ingredients in my floor cleaner.

i have innocently or not so innocently been nieve to my personal impact on the environment- but as a dear (and environmentally conscious friend) mentioned- it starts with one person, much like many of the amazing stories of transformation- it often begins with one person and one idea. I was faulty in believing i can't change anything- "if Vegas doesn't recycle- there is no hope for the rest of us.."
Shame on me, small things do add up and i am hopeful i can make a difference and of course wanting to impose these principles to the next generation- it is their world, my sons world after all ...

funny-Isn't that just a mothers way- we bend over backwards and stride to do the right thing all in the name of our children. we do things for them that we wouldn't dream of doing for ourselves- perhaps thats love. 
When the future of my child's deteriorating earth is sitting before me looking messy, chaotic and lacking its environmental resources- hurt from the years of uneducated purchases and massive consumption, my heart aches as our afflictions will be the problem of our children. It just doesn't seem fair to wait another day to make a change.. 

Earth in its glory is humbling, remarkably beautiful- its swirling scope of blues and greens accented with whispers of white, its a stunning and amazing place to call home. 
From the images of NASA and google and it seems a foreign dream, too beautiful to be called our own but we are the caretakers- blessed to be entrusted with such a gem. its a huge responsibility I'm going to take accountability on my part- i suppose i am late to the table and have a long way to go but I'm going to take my own responsibility to create a cleaner home, healthier home, make more conscious decisions and try to create a safer and cleaner piece of earth- for me and you and our children. I will do what i can in my own small way and someday, hopefully, my little and his littles will progress with the same determination and responsibility and in turn-we can make a large impact together..

We are all earth neighbours, our world does so much to divide us, but being an avid documentary watcher, i remember a piece of text i heard on the NASA documentary. I believe it was about an astronaut admiring the earth from above, he said: if everyone could just see how remarkable and fragile our planet really is, we could let it unite us and not divide us (thats a whole other bag of tricks) but in that is so much truth. 

So here lies the call to action, the commitment to making a small difference and to be healthier, wiser and more conscious. Plan of action time, i will follow up with a part 2 on greener changes and alterations... 

Stay tuned... 

4 ingredients to bliss!

oh the glory of watermelon! 
my love affair with summer watermelon began in childhood and like many of us- its transports us back to those simple days with less responsibility and running wildly..
i truly love its sweet and summer like flavour and its always a hit with the kids. Then a sweet friend recently introduced me to watermelon juice (where have you been all my life)  

simple enough i set off to make a sweet summer treat for my little and with the heat we have been having it quickly turned into a healthier version of a summer slurpie (you know the 7/11 sugar OD, brainfreeze kind) 

this is simple, easy and quick- not a mind blowing test of epicurean skills- but what more do you expect from 4 ingredients! 

so here it is, makes a great cool down treat for the littles that you won't mind adding a splash (or 4) of vodka too- pretty much the perfect playdate drink! 

*also pour the leftovers (if any) into reusable popsicle moulds for an on hand watermelon freezie - (hello! thats mind-blowing)* 

enjoy! 

Watermelon Freshener 
- 1/2 diced watermelon 
- Juice of 4 limes 
- 4 cups of ice 
- 1/2 cup sugar 

(optional & to taste)