“Partay” Pasta with Lentils…

 

As all you know, I have three boys.  Four, if you want to include my husband!  At my house it’s nothing but boy things.  From cars to sports to wrestling, my boys are one hundred percent boys.  While Daniel was at hockey practice, I thought it would be fun to take pictures of Andrew and Josh at play.  This is what a typical activity that they enjoy doing with one another.

 

Yup!  This is what four and five year old little boys do to drive their mother up the wall.  They dance, yell, jump, laugh, just being boys!

 

A few months ago, Wayne watched the movie Food Inc.  Food Inc. is about the meat industry and how farmers are feeding their livestock corn feed instead of grass feed.  Corn feed bulks the animals up quickly thus making more meat and so on.  The whole process is actually disgusting and disheartening.  Anyways, Wayne has been on a quest to buy a side of beef from a farmer that grass feed their cattle.  Well, he bought a side of beef a few weeks ago and now it is ready to be picked up.  I don’t know how much a side of beef will be and I had to clear our big freezer.

Today, I emptied our freezer downstairs and stuffed everything into our fridge freezer upstairs.

And this is what I have to clean later once it’s defrosted and all the ice has melted.

I am soooooo looking forward to it…(yeah right!)

 

For supper, I decided to do something new.  This is a recipe that my mother inlaw makes, but I added my own spin to it.  My mother inlaw likes making Party Pasta.  It’s great for crowds and it’s tasty.  But I decided to make a few changes and be risky!

Partay Pasta and Lentils:

1 cup of pasta (any kind)

1/2 cup of lentils

half of a red onion thinly sliced

handful of baby carrots

two celery stalks cut into pieces

handful of snap peas

two garlic cloves minced

1 tbsp of olive oil

1 tbsp of soya sauce

 

Cook pasta according to package.  As pasta is cooking, you can cook the lentils.  I cooked the lentils in a cup and a half of water for an half an hour.  Unfortunately, I was folding laundry as the pasta and lentils were cooking that the lentils started burning!

I tried to salvage as much as I could…

 

Here’s the pasta after it is cooked.  While the lentils and pasta are cooling off, begin making cooking the vegetables.

First saute the red onions and garlic in a tablespoon of olive oil for about a minute.  Then add all the vegetables and saute for five minutes or when vegetables are tender.  Then let the vegetables cool.

Onces pasta, lentils, and vegetables are cooled off, add everything to a large bowl.

 

I also added cilantro.  I’m a big fan of cilantro and whenever I could add it I will!

Then add the olive oil and soya sauce.

For soya sauce, I actually like using mushroom soya sauce because it’s dark and thicker than regular soya sauce.

Mix and everything and put into the fridge to chill.

Here’s the finished product!

 

After making Partay Pasta and Lentils, I decided to make fish with my pasta dish.  I forgot that I had Tilapia in the freezer.

For my Tilapia, I used feta, garlic, red onion, and cilantro.

I rolled it up and inserted toothpicks to hold it in place.

Then I drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled McCormick’s Mesquite BBQ Seasoning.

I put the fish in a shallow pan and covered with tin foil and baked at 375 degrees for about twenty minutes.

Here’s the finished product with “Partay” Pasta and Lentils and of course a glass of red wine!

So, how did my awesome supper tasted, you’re wondering…well, the fish was delish, but “Partay” Pasta was eh.  The lentils had a burnt taste.  Oh well, next time I’ll omit the lentils and just stick with vegetables. 

Well, I have to go because Wayne is home from work…I must attend to him…

Thanksgiving Long Weekend…

Today is the last day of the long weekend.  It is also Thanksgiving Day in Canada.  I don’t have pictures of our family celebration over the weekend.  So, I don’t know why I have this post titled as “Thanksgiving Long Weekend”.  On Saturday was my side of the family’s Thanksgiving supper and today will be the Winter side of the family’s supper.  We’ll be heading over to my sister in law’s house later on.  Maybe, I’ll try to get a few pictures there.

To start the fun filled weekend, I went to the musical show Mamma Mia.  I wasn’t able to get any pictures of anything because before I left, Joshua was throwing a major “Mommy don’t leave me” attitude with huge tears!  I don’t what’s going on with Joshua lately, but it seems, he’s getting that feeling of not wanting to be alone, needs mom or dad, doesn’t want to go to school, etc.  I don’t know what brought this on, but on Thursday, he really didn’t want to go to school and made me stay with him for most of the morning.  I finally escaped when the teacher stopped for bathroom breaks and I quickly made my move to leave.

Anyways, back to Mamma Mia.  It was a really good show!   I enjoyed myself.  ABBA music really makes me want to move, but the audience was not having any of it.  No one was getting into the music or swaying or dancing.  People just SAT and listened!  What !?!?  How can you be at a ABBA like concert and not want to bust a move??? 

As I said before, I didn’t take a pictures, but I did take pictures of my program!

 

Here is the cast…

I also noticed the play “Wicked” is coming to the Credit Union Center in Saskatoon!

This weekend also consisted of trying new and different tasty food!  On Friday, I wasn’t too sure what to do for supper and I decided to do something light.  I started making chicken salad sandwiches using pita bread.  Then I noticed on the back of the pita bread package it had a recipe for Vegetarian Chickpea Sandwich Filling!  Ohhhh…I was intrigued and I decided to make it for my supper!

I pretty much followed the recipe, but I added some cilantro and garlic.

And here’s the finished product!

Doesn’t that look beautiful!  It was absolutely delicious!!! 

To make my pita pocket sandwich, I topped the chickpea filling with spinach, alfalfa sprouts, feta cheese, and honey dijon mustard.  I was in heaven eating this!

 

As I mentioned above, we spent Saturday evening at my family’s house for Thanksgiving.  My mom told me I should bring a salad.  I decided to take it one step further and make Roasted Vegetable Focaccia Bread from Company’s Coming Italian Cookbook.  I’m too lazy to type the recipe out, but if you want to know it let me know!

First, I cut up red onion, red pepper, asparagus, and tomatoes.  Then I mixed olive oil, vinegar, garlic, cilantro, and pepper in a small bowl and poured the dressing on the veggies and mixed.

After all the vegetables are coated, I spread it on a baking sheet and baked on the top rack at 500 degrees for about ten minutes.

While the veggies are baking, spread the focaccia bread dough on a greased baking sheet.  I’m not going to type the recipe for the focaccia bread dough, but let me know and I will!  Once the veggies are done baking, spread the veggies on the focaccia bread and sprinkle with cheese.  I used Kraft Tex Mex cheese and feta.

Then bake in the oven for about fifteen to twenty minutes at 450 degrees.

And here’s the finished product…

Doesn’t that look pretty and awesome!  I’m very proud of myself that it turned out fabulous and it tasted delicious.  I have to give myself a “pat” on the back with this recipe! 

Anyways, that’s it for now….

Andrew’s First Skating Lesson…

 

This is going to be a short, but sweet post!  I ended yesterday’s post saying that I have pictures of Andrew’s first day of skating lessons.  Well, here they are!

Now that Fall is upon us, that means warmer clothing must be taken out of hiding and be ready for anything.  Saskatchewan weather is famous for being absolutely ridiculous!  When it is summer, it is so hot and humid, that it is unbearable.  When it is winter, we are dealing with temperatures that you can freeze in the second step outside!  It’s crazy!

Yesterday, I spent some time taking out Andrew’s winter jacket, pants, toque, and mitts for his skating.

Despite my efforts in getting the winter gear ready, Andrew didn’t wear any of it.  He wore the mitts and toque.  The toque was for his helmet because his helmet was a tad too big for his head.  The toque adds extra cushioning.

I took Andrew to his skating lesson and it is wasn’t pretty.  He absolutely refused to go and he didn’t want to skate.  I tried telling him that it’ll be ok and that mom will be right here watching him.  That did not make him feel any better and cried even more. 

I was getting desperate and I didn’t know what to do.  I was thinking of just foregoing skating lessons this year and see how he does next year.  But Andrew’s daddy came to the rescue.  Wayne arrived and he was able to get Andrew’s skating gear on, but Andrew was still crying!

Here’s Wayne giving Andrew a little pep talk before the lesson.

The look on Wayne face tells me that daddy’s pep talk with Andrew didn’t go that well.  Now Dad looks a little worried and scared.  Andrew’s also trying to wipe the tears from his face, but he can’t because of the helmet and mask.  The little girl in the background is my niece Sasha.  Andrew and Sasha were taking skating lessons together.

Despite, Andrew’s unwillingness to go on the ice, he did!  And he was good!  Andrew was able to stand still on the ice.  He shuffled along the ice without any help!  And when he fell down, he was able to lift himself back up!

Andrew is the one near the window.  He’s reaching out to get his balance.

And this is Andrew after he turned himself around by himself!  He is trying to keep his arms straight like an airplane.  His teacher is beside him demonstrating what the kids should be doing.  I took more pictures, but because they turned out crappy!  Oh well…

Afterwards, Andrew was so proud of himself that he is very excited for next weeks class!

That’s it for today.  Tomorrow I’m going to see the Broadway Musical Mamma MIa!  I’m hoping that I get some pictures and post about it!