Mom, the Lunch Lady

  Warm spiced apples are layered with orange scented bread crumbs and pecans, in this delicious and simple Fall parfait. Perfect for a busy night, where dessert is a must! Jump to Recipe October has arrived and I am in the autumn mood. Even though we are still enjoying the warm temperatures, it has been gloomy and the sun is setting earlier every evening. When Autumn arrives, I start craving the comforting warm flavours of apple desserts. There is just something about the smell of apple and cinnamon that makes my heart happy. While we do enjoy apples all year round, the cooler weather lets us fire up the oven, to enjoy some homemade baked goodies.  The kids wanted dessert the other day, and I was exhausted from work. I thought about making apple crisp, but I had yet to do groceries and we were low on ingredients. While taking inventory of what I had, I grabbed some panko bread crumbs, butter and sugar and came up with a plan.  I took the apple crisp idea and decided to tu...

Greek yogurt is the base of this delicious and healthy fruit dip!   Today is the final day of Blogtober! I've had such a fabulous time sharing a new recipe with all of you, everyday during the month of October. For my last recipe, I wanted to share what I have made as a fun treat for today- Halloween. It is not Halloween themed, but the kids love this dip and I thought it would be a great time to share it. After all, how often does Halloween fall on a Saturday? This dip will be a great yummy addition to your Halloween weekend plans! My kiddos and I are BIG fans of dips. You can bet that any time we go out for lunch, or dinner, we're ordering shrimp and lobster dip, or spinach artichoke dip as an appetizer. The kids are obsessed with any type of cheese-ball with crackers, onion dip, ranch dip..... the possibilities are endless. Heck, I'd be happy with a bowl of dip and chips/crackers for dinner! There is just something so comforting about dipping into a nice smooth flavour...

 Decadent caramel stuffed brownies are topped with charming Halloween characters. Halloween has always been an exciting holiday in our house. I love all holidays really. I just love the fun and excitement that surrounds holidays. I love seeing things through the eyes of children and I am really just a big kid at heart! That's why any time a holiday rolls around, I have to make some sort of fun food to celebrate.  As my kids get older, I sometimes wonder if they will still be excited when I create a fun new holiday recipe. I think I have a few more years though, since both thought these brownies were "pretty cool". I had made a recipe similar to this years ago, when my son was 4. But it had called for frosting poured over the marshmallows and just looked really messy. So this time I decided to use modelling chocolate, to cover my marshmallows. Since it is Halloween, I created 4 characters to top my brownies. Frankenstein, ghosts, mummies and pumpkins. I dipped, I decorated...

Sweet wild blueberries take center stage in these moist and delicious muffins. Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I may earn commission from these links. I offer them to you at no extra charge. Blueberries have always been some of my favourite berries. Growing up in Northern Ontario, my family and I would go wild blueberry picking every summer. Now that I live further south, blueberries aren't that abundant, so we often buy frozen, to bake with, or to make delicious smoothies with.  Blueberries have gotten the reputation of being a super food, in the last several years. Why? Well they contain an insane amount of antioxidants. Antioxidants are in charge of ridding your body of free radicals. Free radicals are unstable molecules in your body, which damage cells, contribute to early ageing and cause several diseases such as cancer. The antioxidants found in Blueberries are called flavanoids- specifically anthocyanins. These are responsible for ...

 Hearty Chili is topped with Hot Dog studded Corn Bread, for an out of this world casserole the kids will LOVE! Boy it's getting cold fast!  Today is suppose to warm up but with Fall, you just never know. When it's cold outside, it makes me crave hearty comforting foods. The other night I mentioned to my SO, that I was craving some chili and that I thought I would make it again, to see if maybe the kids would eat it now. My daughter had mentioned that she was craving corn dogs, which gave me an idea about combining the two. I mean, what goes better with chili, than corn bread? So, I decided to mix some chopped hot dogs, into my cornbread batter, like with corn dog muffins. For the chili, a wanted it nice and thick, so it wouldn't make the corn dog crust soggy. The smell of this cooking was amazing! I loved the contrast of the sweet buttery cornbread, with the smoky salty hot dogs and spicy chili. The kids really loved this, which surprised me because chili has never been so...

A childhood favourite can be easily transformed into a delicious Halloween treat. Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I may earn commission from these links. I offer them to you at no extra charge. Halloween will be here before we know it, but it may be very different this year. As parents try to decide what will be safest for our kids, kids worry that yet another fun part of childhood will be canceled due to this pandemic. Will there be Halloween parties at school? Will there even be in class learning in past October? Unfortunately many things are unknown right now. Even if we can't go out to celebrate Halloween, it doesn't mean we can't make the best of it at home. These cute Rice Krispie Pops would be great for a small at home Halloween party with those in your social bubble. They are quick, easy and oh so cute. Krispie Rice Cereal Ghosts One batch of Rice Krispie Squares (recipe below) 1 1/2 C white melting cho...

  Jazz up a traditional pecan pie, with a delicious creamy orange scented cheesecake layer. Thanksgiving for us, was a few weeks ago. Our Thanksgiving consisted of a wonderful turkey dinner, with my in laws, which have been in our tiny social bubble since the beginning of this Pandemic. Since there was 7 of us, we all chose to split the menu. I offered to bring homemade rolls, and dessert. I knew I was going to bring the typical pumpkin pie, but wanted to bring a little something different, for those who aren't crazy about pumpkin pie.  My plan was to also make this amazing double layer pecan pie. I say plan, because by my oven decided to partially conk out on me and it took my pumpkin pie almost 2 hrs to cook. So I only ended up bringing the rolls and pumpkin pie. 1 really wasn't sure if it would work, but I decided to try and pair a cheesecake, with pecan pie. I added a hint of orange zest and fresh squeezed orange juice to the cheesecake filling, for a little extra burst of...

  Crushed rice cereal, ranch dressing powder and spices are combined to make a homemade version of Shake 'n Bake. Growing up, my Mom would always jazz up our chicken drumsticks, or pork chops by coating them with crushed cereal. Sometimes she would use Rice Krispies, other times it would be Corn Flakes. No matter what kind she used, the chicken, or pork she served always had a wonderful crispy crust. That was her version of Shake 'n Bake, since my Dad isn't big on spices.  My kids are crazy about chicken drumsticks, so I buy them often. The are less expensive than the breast, so I am glad my kids love dark meat cuts of chicken. I usually just roast them in the oven with some potatoes, but this time I was in the mood for a crispy breaded crust. I never buy Shake 'n Bake, so I thought I would make my own, just like Mom use to do.  Since I had part of an opened packet of ranch dressing powder, I decided to use it in my crushed cereal. I added a few more spices and the b...

The wonderful health benefits of Matcha are added to these fun, healthful and delicious cookies! Candy eyeballs make them perfect for HALLOWEEN!! If you follow me on Instagram , you know that I have embarked on a wellness journey. I have started to exercise 5 days per week and am being more mindful of what I am eating. I still enjoy my favourites, but try to find more healthful alternatives, or have smaller portions. I am the type of person that will obsess, if I deprive myself. So I still have a small piece of birthday cake, or dessert on holidays. But I try to center most of my eating around fruits, vegetables, healthy carbs and proteins.  I first saw this recipe on Selena + Chef ; an HBO series, which featured Selena Gomez, virtually learning how to cook at home during the pandemic. Every episode focused on a different Chef, that taught her how to cook a wonderful meal. In return, Selena donated money to the Chef's charity of choice. On the episode featuring Candice Kumai ( Well...

  Use leftover ham and asparagus, to create a delicious hearty frittata. When meats go on sale for certain holidays (like Thanksgiving here last week), I often buy extra to have for a later date. Even though my sister in law was cooking the turkey this year, I still bought one. It's in the freezer, until I get a craving for Turkey Dinner next month, LOL. Same goes with ham. Sometimes the deal is so good, that you can't pass it up.  With my SO working afternoons, it's just the kiddos and me for dinner during the week. We often love to have breakfast for dinner. I love it because it's a simple and low cost meal. With both kids learning at home, and me still being off work, our grocery budget it taking a beating. So I'm always happy when I can sneak in low cost dinners! A great example is a frittata, It's quick easy dinner and you can throw almost anything into it; so it's a great way to use up leftovers. I quickly popped some scrubbed potatoes in the microwave...