Tried and True Recipes

I love trying new recipes! I mean lets face it dinner would get pretty boring and tedious if I were to use the same recipes over and over. I also love trying new variations on recipes I have yet to perfect in hopes of finding "the one". This post, however, is about the recipes that are perfect <3. They are recipes I will make over and over again because they are absolutely delicious and leave nothing left to be desired. Now this is not a complete list of all the amazing recipes I have tried but a short version of the recipes that have become staples in my kitchen.

Roast Sticky Chicken-Rotisserie Style

The first time I tried this recipe my fiancé exclaimed "this is the best chicken I've had!" and I agree. This is my go to recipe for a whole chicken roasted in the oven. It is flavourful and so tender and moist. The grocery store chickens can't compare.

California Chicken and Vegetables

Now this recipe has become a staple for a couple reasons. The first reason... It's delicious! This recipe is also super simple, quick and versatile. I change the vegetables in the recipe to whatever fresh vegetables I have in my fridge and it always turns out perfect!

Peanut Butter Bars

Mmmmmm what a perfect combination chocolate and peanut butter is that it's no wonder it is so popular. These bars never last long in my fridge. They become a breakfast snack, a lunch snack, a supper snack and a midnight snack. Knowing neither of us can resist every time we open the fridge, I only  make them when I know company will help us eat some.

Fried Chicken with Creamy Gravy

I tried this recipe for the first time almost 10 years ago (wow I can't believe it's been that long). Even with my lack of cooking experience then, this recipe turned out great. In the past few years I have tried many different fried chicken recipes but I always come back to this one.

Sunday Dinner on the Grill

The smell of this dinner cooking on the grill is beyond words! I swear my neighbours must've been drooling as well. This is my go to recipe when I really want to impress my guests. It is without a doubt the best pot roast I've had.

Frosting That Will Get You Hugs

This is the frosting recipe I've spent years trying to find. Traditional buttercream is too sweet for me so I was always on the lookout for a frosting that is lighter tasting but still has that wonderful creamy texture. After reading the recipe, I was a bit hesitant but upon tasting it for the first time I was in love.

Cilantro Lime Pork Chops

In my household we eat a lot of chicken breasts so I try to incorporate different meat in our meals. Tonight I grilled Cilantro Lime Pork Chops. I love lime! I even love the smell of it. Weird... I know.

Cilantro Lime Pork Chops
Makes 4 servings

4 pork chops
3 limes, juice of
1/2 cup canola oil
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbsp cilantro, minced
1 tbsp parsley, minced
1 tsp chili flakes
4 green onions, diced

Combine all of the above ingredients in a ziplock bag. Refrigerate for 4 hours. Remove pork chops from marinade and cook over medium heat for 15 minutes or until they are done. Enjoy!

It's a Baby Sleep Miracle

So my son's sleeping habits have been like a crazy never ending roller coaster ride. Some days I wake up feeling refreshed and with a bright new outlook on life and then there are the other days where I wake up feeling like I didn't get an hour of sleep all night. It all started when he was about 4.5 months. Up until then he had been gradually sleeping longer and longer. But then it all went crazy.

My poor bum was hospitalized (that's another long story). That's when his sleeping habits went from good to downright horrible. While we were in the hospital I was completely understanding as to why he was having trouble sleeping. It was a scary time, there were strange people checking on him at all hours of the night, we were in a strange place and some nights he was unable to breastfeed which really upset both of us. We finally were able to come home and weeks passed and there was still no improvement.

Christmas Eve came and we went to bed early, knowing we were in for a long night. Christmas Day I woke up refreshed... What happened?... He slept 8 hours!!!! It was a Christmas miracle! Without a doubt the best Christmas present I received.

Since then his sleeping has been up and down. Sometimes I start thinking things are looking up and we are back into a great sleeping routine and it's all smooth sailing from here. Hahaha! How hopelessly naive I can be! Just when I start believing my optimistic hopes, my baby boy starts waking up every two hours again. When I think he's asleep and put him back in his crib he wakes back up crying the second his back touches his mattress. .:cry:. I could pull my hair out those nights. I now know why people use sleep deprivation as torture.

So the miracle tonight?.... I don't do much in the way of sleep training. I brush his teeth, go upstairs and try to nurse him to sleep. I use the word try because it usually takes two tries. The first time he refuses and decides its playtime upstairs. In order to obstain from the screaming that could follow from repetitively trying to nurse him or putting him in his crib, we go back downstairs. We play until I know he's absolutely tired and we try again.

I am getting the point I swear! So tonight we waited an half hour later for bedtime (it was too hot upstairs). Again he refused to nurse insisting on play time instead. I put him in his crib and let him "play". Well mid "playing" he would lay down for half a second like he was going to sleep. That gave me hope so I let him continue to monkey around in his crib and he did without fussing(he usually starts crying to get out). Well eventually the laying down got longer and longer until he laid his head down and FELL ASLEEP! No nursing, no rocking, nothing! He fell asleep in his crib on his own for the first time in his 10.5 months of life! A BABY MIRACLE! Oh how I love to celebrate the small victories! I hope this story gives all the desperate mothers with bags under their eyes hope for the future.

photo credit: Jug Jones via photopin cc

It's BBQ Weather! Hawaiian Grilled Chicken

Wowza it's another hot day! It's 28 degrees, 34 with the humidex. It's full blown summer weather in May! It leaves me kinda thinking about turning on my central air... but I refuse to so early in the season.

The heat is giving me a good excuse to let my son run around sans clothes. What's cuter than a naked baby with all their chubby little rolls?

In this heat kinda heat I rarely turn my oven on. I make a few exceptions for recipes I have to try and favourites but that's only if my central air on. So it's time to try new summer grilling recipes!

Tonight I have made Hawaiian Grilled Chicken from Six Sisters' Stuff . They have fantastic family friendly recipes.

I started with the marinade. I will only be marinating 3 chicken breast so I cut the recipe for the marinade in half. I combined 4 chopped green onions, half a cup of low sodium soy sauce, half a can of coconut milk, 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup water, 3 cloves of garlic and 2 tsp sesame oil. The original recipe calls for 1 tsp but I love sesame oil so I added lots. I left out the white onion because I didn't feel like only using 1/4 of an onion. I combined all ingredients in a large ziplock bag and then added the chicken. Even with cutting the recipe in half there was still plenty of marinade.

Marinating chicken breast doesn't look too appealing but trust me the end result is fantastic!)

I marinated the chicken breast for about 5 hours. I cooked the chicken on low heat on the bbq. I kept the breast on one side of the bbq and had the heat on the other side on high. I like to grill certain things this way in order to ensure the inside is fully cooked without making the outside too crisp. That method works perfect for this recipe because if the direct heat under the chicken was too high the outside would burn due to the sugar in the marinade.

I cooked the chicken until it was no longer pink inside. I wished I timed it for everyone :-( sorry! I would say no longer than 20 minutes. And.... The the end result.....

It was fantastic! The recipe is definitely a keeper!

A Hot Lazy Day

So today has been unproductive day in terms of housework and cooking. Every day I wake up with the best of intentions and then something happens to my ambition. So I like to set mini goals for myself to help motivate me. Most of them involve either fitness and health or productivity but by the end of the day I've only reached half my goals and have to console myself with the thought I will start anew tomorrow.

I nurse my son to sleep and when he finally falls asleep I struggle with whether I should continue to cuddle or put him in his crib and finally get some housework done.

And then i look down at his sweet baby face and think how could I not cuddle this little angel? Really? Ooo who could resist?  And so it goes... No housework done but lots of baby cuddles. Oh well baby cuddles are a lot more fun anyways and as people like to remind me they will only be babies for so long.:cry:.