MAPLE SYRUP SALAD SENSATIONS!

Hello lovelies!! It's been a little while and good to be back! At the end of February our baby girl broke her leg tobogganing. It was awful. Her femur. Brutal. But, she's amazing AND we just got back from an awesome family vacation in Mexico. Yesterday, I spent the entire day doing laundry and my kiddies woke up at 10:30am! They were zonked from arriving back in Ottawa so late. In any event, I totally indulged on vacation. TOTALLY! It's the sign of a good vacation, however when I got on the scale and saw that the numbers were up by 9 pounds. YUP, nine!! I wanted to die. I've been working on getting back to the gym and eating clean since Jan and lost a bunch of pounders but 9 pounds up in one week? Oh Lordy. So much food, so much beer. However...sign of a good vacay and back on track today, right? Right. I have a yummy salad recipe to share with you today in case you're looking for a spring kick start. Shorts and tank season is quickly approaching! Easter is also around the corner and this would be a great addition to your menu. Speaking of Easter, I'm crushing on this buffet. The colour is gorg! These beauty Wayfair dishes and I'm going to order this adorable banner for the mantel. 

March is maple syrup season. Who doesn't love Canadian made syrup? Heaven. A local farmer at the cottage taps some of the trees on our road for the sugary goodness. It's really cool for the kids to see where the syrup on their pancakes begins.

The thing about this salad is that using real maple syrup is a must! 

The dressing will knock your socks off. Here's what you need....

- 1/4 cup of real maple syrup
- 2 tablespoon of dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
- 1/4 cup of good olive oil
- salt and pepper

Mix the ingredients (except the oil) and then whisk in the oil. I shake everything up in a little mason jar. It's the perfect size.

For the salad, I added mixed greens, sliced pears, black berries and mini tomatoes. It's simple and delicious. You could add some toasted pecans on there too. Yum!

Pour on your dressing and VOILA! Maple syrup deliciousness!! 

Now that we're back from vacation and the snow is melting, it's time to start on our baby girl's big girl room. As per usual, I have my eye on all things pretty from Wayfair.ca. Shocker.  We're besties. I'm gathering up some furniture ideas for there that I'll share with you soon. Now, go find yourself some Canadian made maple syrup and whip up this salad. Yum!

Keep it Beautiful.

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Wayfair.ca. As always, thank you for supporting the brands that support this blog. Love you!

Easy & Delicious Homemade Granola

Hey lovelies!

Hope you had a great weekend. We celebrated our baby girl's birthday. She and 10 of her friends played, ate cupcakes, opened presents and she was so happy. Her party was adorable and her personality is infectious. Slow down time!

Sunday, I made up my fav granola. It's actually my Aunt Mary's recipe and its delicious. Simple, healthy and yum.

Usually we have a smoothie in the morning but I try to bring this as a mid-morning snack at the office. Granola, Greek yogurt & frozen mixed berries on top. By the time I eat it around 10ish, the berries have thawed and their juice is all happy with the yogurt and granola. Yummy.

That's it. Easy peasy. Our Aunt Mary is the fountain of youth and she eats this everyday. You might want to also :)

Keep it Beautiful.

Movie Night In!

What’s your favourite way to do movie night? Do you make a delicious meal? Order in? Lights on? Lights off?

Movie night is one of our favourite parts of the week. It’s a time to relax, chill and literally do nothing. We usually have our movie night on Friday. It’s the end of the week, we’re all tired of the busyness and just want to veg.  We pick the kids up after work, either go through the McDonald’s drive-thru with them (gasp! They love it. Go ahead, judge me. You can’t say you don’t love the taste of McD’s fries!) or we make homemade pizza. If we’re making pizza, I usually make the dough on Thursday night so it has lots of time to rise and get all happy. The kids love to roll, smash and mush that dough.  How cute are those adorable chubby fingers?

 I’ve been using this recipe for years now and it’s easy peasy if you’re looking for one. Yum!

We turn off the lights, get under the blankets and all watch whatever Netflix movie or shows the kids have picked.  Sometimes, okay usually, it takes the kids awhile to agree on what we’re going to watch. We’ve started to give them turns each week to pick the movies. However, this Friday it’s Mummys’ choice and I’ve decided that we’re all watching “Fuller House”. Yes, yes, yes! Kimmy Gibbler! Fuller House is making it's debut this Friday Feb 26th! As part of the Netflix Stream Team, I’ve had a chance to see a few sneak peak preview episodes and it doesn’t disappoint. 

Think your family might want something else? My kids are obsessed with Inside Out right now. It’s adorable. It came out this month and my kids are obsessed. When the kids go to bed, Mr. Fix-It and I either make something yummy with lots of calories  Isn’t that what you want on a Friday night? Either a yummy big pasta, or a cheesy topped pizza with the homemade dough. Or, we order in something equally delicious.  This upcoming movie night we’ve got Better Call Saul on our list

and continuing on our Mad Men binge.  It’s so good. Oh and Mr. Fix-It is binging on Weeds and I just finished one of my favs… Downton Abbey. Yes! Have fun watching Fuller House this weekend! You can also check out TV Time for the Fam that has other Fuller House-inspired title collections.

 Keep it Beautiful.

*You all know I’m part of the Netflix StreamTeam. You love Netflix, I love Netflix and I love getting the opportunity to let you know what’s on every month. Thanks for supporting the brands here that help support this blog.

Stove Top Christmas Smell

Hey guys,

TGIF! Less than a month till Christmas. Yikes. Have you decorated? Shopped? Wrapped? We've got most of the house decorated but waiting on the tree (by the way, decorating the house is the only thing I can check off my list...nothing else. Please don't think I'm ahead of the holiday game, the game has just started for this girl). The tree is on the "next weekend list".Who doesn't love the smell of a Christmas tree? It's one of my fav scents. While I wait for the fresh Christmas tree smell to grace our living room, I thought I would create a little stove top Christmas smell. Guys, this is easy,easy, easy. The only thing I had to go out and get were cranberries...the rest was already in the fridge and cupboard. Promise...this all goes in a pot and in 5 minutes, your house will smell like the warmth and love of the holidays!

 The best part is that you can mix up the amount of ingredients. For example, I added WAY too many cloves. I thought I would need a lot to get that warm holiday smell. Yeah, use them sparingly. The first batch I made, the cloves took over the smell and gave me a wicked headache. Not exactly what I was going for. So...here are a few proportions to start with (I found this amount of cloves was way better) and then you can play around with them depending on what scents you might like to be more pronounced.

1 cup of fresh cranberries

2 slices of oranges

2 cinnamon sticks

1/2 tsp of cloves

a few springs of greenery (I snipped off some pine from the urn outside)

All in a pot at once, turn up the heat and simmer that delicious Christmas cocktail on the stove and let the Christmas smell run through your house. Easy peasy. You could also make up little packages of these in cellophane and bring as a hostess gift. 

Fresh. Fabulous.Sophisticated. Who needs difficult on a Friday?!

Have a wonderful weekend my friends! Make those lists and check them twice.

Keep it Beautiful.

Family Movie Night & Popcorn Bar with Netflix

Hey everyone. Hope you had a great weekend! There was an awesome eclipse last night, did some of you see it? We bought our big guy a telescope for his birthday in the summer and it was one of the best presents we've ever bought. It's been super cool to check out the night sky with the kids and our big guy has taught us so much about space. A nice way to end off a great weekend.

I’ve recently joined the Netflix Stream Team and I’m very excited! We are Netflix addicts. Yup, addicts. Who watches cable anymore? Our kids are whizzes at figuring out what Netflix show they want to watch on the iPad and Mr. Fix-It and I are total binge watchers. We can’t help it. The shows are just awesome.  Being part of the Netflix Stream Team means that every month I’ll share with you the new tv shows, movies and series on Netflix. 

With the cooler air coming in, getting cozy on the couch with popcorn just feels right. For about 6 months we’ve been doing Family Movie Night in our house. It’s either Friday or Saturday depending on which night we’re home. We pull out the sofa bed in the tv room, load it up with pillows & blankets and the 5 of us watch a movie. They love it, we love it. Once the kids go to bed, Mr. Fix-It and I park ourselves back on the sofa bed, usually order in, open a bottle of wine and watch another Netflix movie. Wicked.

So…last weekend these were the top choices for the kids…

Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey...Umm I remember watching this with my brother and my mom getting all teary. Yup, now I’m that mom. The kids loved the movie, about these three pets that escape from a California ranch to find their owners in San Francisco. It’s adorable, its cute and has it’s teary moments.  A good one to watch with the kids.

Then on Sunday, they got to watch another movie. The weather was so gorgeous in Ottawa that we spent most of Sunday outside. Around 3 o'clock they needed some much needed downtime (so did Mummy and Daddy). So they watched Nanny McFee Returns. Also super cute.  I love how they cuddle up together around the iPad.

 

I made them up a little Popcorn Bar

This is super easy and can also work for sleepovers. A bag of popcorn, cute popcorn boxes and candy. The kids each got their own popcorn box and added the candy in they wanted.  Honestly, if you have random candy hanging around the house (we definitely do) then just use those. No need to make it difficult.

I would love to know what your favourite family Netflix shows and movies are. I’ll be sharing our binge-watching favs soon, but we’re always looking for more to watch.

Life is Better at the Cottage!

Hey guys!

Hope you're having a good week. Holy cow, how is it already Wednesday? We spent last weekend with friends of ours and had a blast. Honestly…sun, water, friends, boats, swimming, tubing, food, wine, smores, kids, great friends & family = cottage heaven. To me, these images are all things summer...

And, who can forget the need to BBQ in summer. I mentioned last week that I was BBQ-ing up a yum dinner. This past weekend we enjoyed another delicious meal. Our friends brought up 80 day age steak....butter in your mouth! We grilled it on the BBQ along with lobster tails and have a massive feast! Who doesn’t think of summer when they smell someone’s BBQ feast in the neighbourhood?! I think Weber Grill has taken the best of two worlds (cottage life & BBQ) and turned it into an awesome video showing how a group of cottagers celebrated Canada Day.



Cool eh? This video makes me smile ear-to-ear. I remember at my cousins' cottage, folks would tie up their boats every summer on the long weekend and float together on the lake :) You can check out more Weber videos on their WeberGrillsCA YouTube














Here's to short work days, delicious BBQ meals, long vacations & cottage love. Hope you get a chance to experience cottage life sometime this summer.

 

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Weber Grills Canada for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.


Keep it Beautiful.

Date Night Menu with Ricardo Cuisine!

Happy Fabulous Friday y’all! Hope you all had a great Canada Day. The weather in Ottawa was changing at rapid speeds so we did a mixture of celebrating on Parliament Hill with the kids, relaxing at home and having a BBQ with friends. It was also our wedding anniversary so it’s always nice to have a holiday together on your special day. This weekend we’re heading up to the cottage with some friends for good food, good wine, good fun.

Speaking of food, tis the season for BBQ-ing! Some of you may brave the BBQ in the winter but generally, outside grilling is where it’s at in the summer. Ricardo Cuisine asked me to try some of their barbecue recipes and after browsing through the recipes, I was game. It was a great way for Mr. Fix-It and I to have a “date night” last week and I saw that one of the recipes called for halloumi cheese. Heard of it? I hadn’t, until Mr. Fix-It and I started buying these pre-made kabobs from the grocery store that had this amazing cheese on them. The best part, is that it doesn’t melt all over the BBQ. Win!

So…the night before “date night”, I made up the marinade for the Flank Steaks with Chimichurri Sauce. Sounds yum eh? Flank steak is not a piece of beef that you want to pick up and throw on the grill. It needs time to get happy and tender.

The marinade was really easy. It called for olive oil (I find that olive oil burns so easily on the grill so I swapped it out for canola oil), red wine vinegar, shallots, a bunch of fresh herbs (oregano, thyme & cilantro – I’ve been growing the cilantro and love it, so added a little more in there for extra yum) and a dash of red pepper flakes.

I added the steak, put it in the fridge overnight and let the magic happen. Then, all it needs is a hot BBQ and a few minutes on each side…depending on how rare you like it.

Next up, Halloumi Cheese and Roasted Bell Pepper Miniature Skewers. Sounds good eh? These were also easy peasy.

I soaked the cheese in a bowl for an hour and put it aside, chopped the red peppers into strips and made up the sauce - oil, red wine vinegar, fresh garlic, fresh cilantro (it called for rosemary but I swapped it out), salt & pepper. Then you just give the sliced peppers a toss in the sauce ;)

Cut the cheese into cubes so they will fit on your sliced peppers.

After cutting the peppers, I realized I hadn’t cut them long enough so it was hard to string them on the skewers wrapped around the cheese. So, I just folded up a little tinfoil package and placed them right on the grill. They just needed a few mins to get toasty.

I cooked up some wild rice and voila…Date Night menu complete.

We waited till the kids were asleep and everything was ready pretty fast. I love menus where you can do the prep work the night before. The food was delish, I definitely recommend these two recipes if you’re looking for a yummy meal for the weekend.

TGIF!

Keep it Beautiful.

Gin & Tonic Popsicles - Your Weekend Dessert!

Happy Fabulous Friday everyone!

TGIF! I’ve got something fabulously delicious to share with you today. What’s your fav drink of the summer? Hands down I’m a beer girl. But my cocktail of choice on a sticky, hot summer day is a Gin and Tonic. Come to mama!

What’s better than a G&T? A G&T popsicle. They’re simple to make and so refreshingly delish. My mum and I whipped these babies up last weekend at the cottage...

Here's How To:

What You Need:

- 1/2 cup gin
- 10 oz tonic
- 16 oz 7-up
- juice of 1 lime

 

What To Do:

- Mix up all the ingredients. Fill 8 plastic popsicle cups just before the top. Place the stick/top on and pop those babies in the freezer.

- The popsicles need to freeze for 12 hours. They will take longer than regular "juice" popsicles because of the alcohol content. Another tip...you might be inclined to increase the alcohol content...sorry my friends...not a good idea, they wont freeze if there is too much of the fun stuff!

I made up some fruit juice popsicles for the kids so when it was time for a popsicle break for them, it was time for the adults to have one too :)

Have a fresh.fabulous.sophisticated weekend my friends. We're full steam ahead on the basement reno. We had a minor...okay what felt like a major hiccup (like the City denied our permit hiccup...ugh), but our contractor figured out a new plan and we're good to go. Phew! I'll give you an update on where we are next week, share our living room mini-gallery wall and a giveaway!

Keep it Beautiful

Pit-Stop Peanut Butter Snack Bites!

The snow has officially gone and it finally feels like spring. Amen! This weekend I replaced the snowsuits and hats in the hall cupboard with sunglasses, sneakers, sunscreen and bike helmets!  With this fabulous weather, the kids were outside all day! They zoomed around on their bikes, got out the sidewalk chalk and got their “bike legs” back. When the weather gets warm, it’s hard to get my kids to come inside to get anything in their tummies. We often have lunch outside so that they get a good meal in them, but I’m always looking for a quick snack that they can take on the go as they play. Here’s my new fav…and theirs!

I call them, Pit-Stop Peanut Butter Snack Bites!

 

I’ve been eyeing the new line of Kraft Peanut Butter and picked up the Kraft Peanut Butter with Honey. Peanut butter + honey = has to be yum!

My middle guy and I mixed up some of our favourite ingredients and in minutes, our hands were rolling a healthy snack that is perfect for the kids to have a quick pit stop off their bikes to get refueled.

 

Suggested serving size is 2 to 3 of the bites represented in the above photo 

 

This was a great way to get one of my minis in the kitchen with me. My kids love to be in the kitchen and creating healthy, fresh food allows them to see what ingredients go into food, how food is prepared and, in this case, an opportunity to let them pick and choose their favourite foods to mix into the peanut butter.

Next weekend when your family is on the go and nobody wants to sit down for a snack, whip these babies up and your kids can have a quick pit stop for a healthy and delish refuel before they go go go!

A cool photo contest is going on over at sheblogs Canada. You can share a photo of your Peanut Butter Snack Bites recipe in the Make It Yours Contest and you could win 1 of 4 Kraft Peanut Butter prize packs. Here are some recipe ideas to get you started.

Follow the hashtag #MyKPBsnackbite to join the conversation and for more Peanut Butter Snack Bites recipes visit www.sticktogether.com

Keep it Beautiful.

*Although this post as been generously sponsored by Kraft Canada, the opinions and language are my own, and in no way do they reflect Kraft Canada.