What's Up Wednesday

Wednesday already!?  I have two more days of work left this week, and then I'm off for two months!  It's hard to believe that it's that time again, but I am looking forward to things slowing down a bit, and having a lot of extra time in the kitchen and backyard.

Rewinding to last Wednesday, we had homemade subs for dinner.  We loaded them up with lettuce, tomato, red onion, banana peppers, green olives, Hungarian salami, spicy ham, cheese, and condiments.

On Thursday we made tilapia, spicy potato salad, and brussels sprouts.

After work on Friday we picked up groceries, and then got dressed up and went downtown.  We enjoyed dinner at Beer Bros., where we shared a pizza, and two appetizers.

Then we headed to the Globe Theatre to see the live production of The Little Mermaid, which was incredible!

On Saturday morning we were up bright and early to drive to Saskatoon.  We spent the day with my mom, and then had an Indian dinner at Spicy Time before retiring to our hotel room.

We had an early breakfast the next morning, and then spent another few hours with my mom before hitting the highway home.

Once we were back in town we went straight to our friends' home for their daughter's 2nd birthday party.

It was a beautiful day to sit out in their backyard and visit with our friends.  We had a delicious dinner:

And cake too:

It was a fun evening!

On Monday we cooked up spaghetti with meat sauce:

I was at work last night until close to 8:00 p.m., and Christopher's band was practicing, so once home we just had veggies and dip, olive tapenade, crackers, and smoked oysters for dinner.

Tonight's dinner was pita pizzas.

What have you been cooking?  Eating?  How was your weekend? 

Not Cooking

On Thursday Christopher made my favourite meal, bee bim bop.

And ... there was an article about his band in the local newspaper!

Their CD release show was on Friday.  After work that day we weren't sure what we wanted to eat for dinner, which is super unusual for us, so we wandered the grocery store aimlessly (we normally have a list and a plan, but were off of our game).  We ended up just heading out to try a newer place in town, Regina Pho Restaurant.

I really enjoyed the soup, and the prices were very reasonable.  I ordered the small soup and couldn't finish it all.  The menu is extensive, with Western-fare for those who aren't into the delicious Vietnamese food.

 

After dinner we got ready to head out to O'Hanlons for the CD release show.  It was a packed house, and a great time!  We got home super late, and it basically killed the next day for us.  We did absolutely nothing on Saturday, and ended up ordering pizza around 10:00 p.m.  This was totally not a cooking weekend for us.

On Sunday morning we figured we'd carry on with the not-cooking theme, and we went out for breakfast to Victoria's Tavern, another first for us.

We stopped by Christopher's parents' house for a father's day visit, and then came home and finally cooked something.  We felt like more Vietnamese food, so we made banh mi rice bowls.  We threw chicken into the slow cooker with soy sauce, brown sugar, rice vinegar, cooking wine, sesame oil, fresh garlic, minced chilies, and pepper.  That did it's thing all day, and then we pulled the chicken apart with two forks.

We topped jasmine rice with the chicken, as well as shredded cabbage, pickled jalapenos, cilantro, cucumbers, and a carrot/ radish mixture that we had pickled earlier in the day.

We also made chicken with ginger noodles to take for our work lunches on Monday/ Tuesday.

Last night we took my dad out for supper to Bushwakker to celebrate father's day with him.  I had the chicken lasagna special which came with caesar salad and garlic bread, as well as a side of soup.  It was far too much food, so I took about 3/4 of it home.

How was your weekend?  What did you do?  
Did you do anything special for father's day?

Ten on Tuesday

1)  I made a pie on the weekend, as I know that pie is one of Christopher's favourite desserts.  Caramel and banana cream pie:

Perfect for hungry husbands.  You can find the recipe here.

2)  He worked a bit of overtime on Saturday morning, so we didn't have a sit-down breakfast, but he made this lovely breakfast on Sunday:

3)  Pomegranates aren't in season anymore, so we were happily surprised when we saw some at the grocery store the other day.  My breakfast yesterday:

4)  Have you ever had bacon-wrapped scallops?  Water chestnuts?  What about brussels sprouts?

We tried some brussels wrapped in bacon, and they were great!  We used 1/2 piece of bacon for each, and roasted them for about 30-45 minutes at 350 F.

5)  Yesterday we BBQd pork meatballs, and then whipped up a chimichurri sauce to pour over top of them.  We made Greek pasta salad, and a beet/ radish mixture to have on the side.

6)  The meatballs were an extension of our BBQ weekend.  We grilled pretty much everything we ate on the weekend, including this rib dinner on Saturday night:

One of the only things we didn't grill was this tray of nachos:

7)  I made a creamy spaghetti carbonara for dinner this evening.

I just made it up as I went along, as I usually do with pastas.  Some garlic, some cream, cheese, herbs, bacon, love ...

8)  I have an easy appetizer recipe for you!

Just spread prosciutto with herb and garlic cream cheese.  Wrap this around raw asparagus spears.  Grill on low until it looks tasty, or toss in a 350 F oven for about 30 minutes.

9)  Christopher's band Lunar Lander Dance Commander's debut EP is out!  They are having the CD release party this weekend, which will be a great time.  Until then, I'm pretty pumped to spin this in my car:

The CD has five songs, as well as a dance remix of one of the songs. 

10)  Creative outlets are a wonderful thing.  My brother-in-law Steve (Christopher's brother) recently started a blog ... not about food like me ... but about vaping!  Although I've never vaped, and know nothing about it, I really enjoy reading his posts.  He had smoked for many years, but vaping helped him quit, and I think it's cool that he found a niche in the blogging world where he can share reviews, etc. with others.  If you vape, or know someone who might be interested, you can check out his blog here.

How is your week going so far?  Have you ever had bacon-wrapped brussels sprouts?  Do you have a blog?  If so, what do you write about?  If not, have you ever considered starting one about something you're interested in?  What are you grilling these days?

Veggies and Fish

Looking back at our eats from the past week, we realized we ate a lot of fish, and a bunch of veggies too.  Last Sunday evening we had salmon with a grilled beet, arugula salad:

Herb goat cheese crumbled on top of the beets - a perfect combo!

Monday's dinner was a large salad:

On Tuesday we simply had a plate of raw veggies with dip:

When it's really hot out, sometimes we just crave a cool, crisp, uncooked dinner.  

Saskatoon berry crisp for dessert!

I kept my breakfasts cool all week, with refreshing yogurt bowls, topped with fresh fruit.

Pineapple one day:

Strawberries another:

And my favourite of the week, which featured watermelon, and maple almond butter:

For dinner on Wednesday we enjoyed a coconut crusted tilapia, with a cucumber salad, and tomato salad.

After hitting up Costco on Thursday evening for a bunch of necessities, we sat out in the backyard and had a snack dinner of smoked salmon, paratha, raw veggies, and strawberries.

We got groceries on Friday, and then had a late dinner of grilled salmon, potatoes, and salad.

It was a great start to a weekend of BBQing.

What are you up to this weekend?

Do you crave cooler foods when it's hot out?