Picky eating

It has not always been this way. I would say that, up until about the age of 2, Oliver was a pretty good eater. At least, he was no worse than the other 2. My boys have always had some strange eating habits (Alexander hated bananas- until one day he loved them- and has a terrible "fat on meat" phobia. Nicka had... um... no- he always ate everything) but- after the age of 2, Oliver takes the cake (figuratively).... except that he usually won't eat it (literally) ;)

It makes me and my European roots absolutely crazy! He will arbitrarily not eat stuff that he enjoyed the week before. Oliver won't eat cake, ice cream, anything fruit (except for sometimes clementines, watermelon and green apples), any vegetable (except for cucumbers), any meat (except for hotdogs- which, in my opinion, is not meat.. and salami... go figure) and only ordered pizza. He can live on Goldfish crackers and bubble water (yes, he loves carbonated water.. and that is about it). If I am lucky, he will eat cereal... but then hate it the week after. He also loves chips... the super spicy jalapeno kind from Miss Vickie's... the whole bag... by himself if he could... seriously! Is this a food group? I am desperate ;)

Sometimes, he surprises me by actually eating.. and then asking for seconds... and even thirds. I have to hide my surprise at the time because I don't want to draw attention to it. He will also surprise me by suddenly liking Korean BBQ beef on rice or General Tao chicken. It might be a brief and fleeting moment but I will take it!!! He has also been known to eat almost a whole large pizza by himself :P

Dearest Oliver, please stop stressing your mother out and eat some proper food! In the mean time, I promise to zen at dinner time and put all food in take out pizza boxes ;)

xox to you all! If you have any tricks or advice, please pass on the wisdom!

See- he does sometimes eat ;)

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

Today is the day that we celebrate Thanksgiving here in Canada! Not as much football as in the U.S.A. but probably just as much good food ;) We spent the afternoon at my sister's house, with my side of the family (Andreas' will be in town in November). The boys (my 3 and my sister's 2) are always happy to see each other and cause maximum damage.. more hurricanes ;) There were lots of deserts so, according to them, it was a good day!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! xox

Artwork by Nicka... Thank you for all that you do for me.

More visits with friends...

We had another fabulous dinner with friends last night and it was of the best kind: impromptu! They have 4 kids (3 boys/1 girl) so it is brilliant because I don't feel so self conscious about our portable tornado ;) Great food, great wine/margaritas, great people and the kids had a great time too!
I have to say that I really appreciate these moments with friends... the summers are so short and then, come autumn, everyone goes back to their busy school year lives. It is nice to catch up and enjoy each other's company :)

Ahhhhh.... :)

Great food, great wine :)

Chocolate ice cream and funny faces

Cosy evening

Visit with friends

This evening we had a lovely dinner, catching up with friends. They are fantastic hosts and the food was amazing. Having 3 boys in the family, I can't help but feel a little bit like a tornado (a lot like a tornado) when we go to other peoples' houses- well, at least those who have less than 3 kids.... those that have 3 kids+ I don't have any sympathy for ;) Anyway, the family that we visited tonight has a sweet son who is so calm and patient.... and then we show up!!!!!!!! BANG!!!!!! Poor kid ;)

In case this family is reading this blog, thanks for the lovely evening! It is always great to get together. Hope your new lawn mower doesn't run over any of the darts that Oliver might have left lying around your back yard!

Yummy Tiramisu!

Flower garden

Lakrids candies....no- they are not olives ;)

Oliver playing darts :P Maybe not a good match!! Blurry pic = Oli cheering his dart skills ;)

Pancake breakfast

This morning, Andreas made Swedish style pancakes for breakfast. I like to make them too but, for some reason, his turn out better. Maybe it is genetic? ;) The boys were super happy... and presently on a pancake/maple syrup high...

We are enjoying a rare Saturday where no one has a soccer game scheduled!!! I took advantage of the morning to clean out our downstairs bedroom for Alexander (could it be that he actually wants to have his own bedroom now???) and get some much needed house clearing done. Do you ever have a day where all you want to do is get rid of things and clean out the extra stuff? All of a sudden, you look around and think "Man, we have a lot of crap!". Today was one of my days like that!

This afternoon, we are going to visit some friends that we haven't seen in a long while. I am really looking forward to it!

Happy weekend to all :) I may be back later... I owe an extra post from yesterday (bad me!)...

Happy boys... photo courtesy of Andreas...

Candy Cravings...

I wish I had a big bag of these candies.... They are spicy licorice and super good! Can't get them out of my mind! ;)

If there is anyone from Scandinavia reading this, please have one (or more) for me and send over the vibes :)

Saved by the pizza!

Two years ago, my New Year's resolution was to seriously limit the amount of fast food that we eat as a family. It has been a fairly easy resolution to keep. The biggest help is to be organized, to plan ahead, and have a few options handy. One of my saviours is pizza.... I make the dough (see recipe here) ahead of time in big batches and store it in the fridge for a quick dinner or lunch. It is also a life saver then the boys have friends over! I make an easy sauce with crushed tomatoes, fresh basil and spices, then add on whatever meats I have in the fridge and top it off with cheese. Andreas loves tuna pizza so I make that too. A recent experiment was tuna with pesto (instead of tomato sauce... I ran out!). It was actually pretty good. In all, with the dough already made, it takes about 25 minutes, including cooking/cooling time! A pretty healthy meal and the boys like it!

Pizza dough, straight out of the fridge!

Salami

Pesto with tuna and onion

Plain cheese

Muffin Sunday

I am the type of person that really hates to waste food. One of my favourite cooking passtimes is to find good ways in which to empty the bottom of the fridge. Usually it is soups but today was muffins!
I used a standard type of muffin recipe but added in coconut oil (instead of the vegetable oil), coconut flour (half regular flour/half coconut flour for a nice flavour), shaved almonds, some apples that didn't look so great anymore, an apple sauce that the boys aren't too fond of, vanilla extract, dates, some mushy bananas that I had on the counter and tons of cinnamon. I didn't even have to add in any sugar! My taste test: Nicka, who is some kind of sugar addict, actually ate one and asked for another one! This means that the recipe is a keeper! Next time, I think that raisins would be really good to add in.... :)
Happy Sunday!

Ready for the oven

Still warm

Ready for coffee and snack time :)

Evil things....

I swear that these little cinnamon just jumped into my shopping basket! Damn them! They are little evil things ;)

Yes, it has been THAT kind of day.... :)

Paleo chocolate cake... yum!

I want to start off by saying that I am not following a paleo diet, although there are aspects of it which I could really get into (that sounds really scientific, no?). Desert is one of the areas where I would really like to replace white/refined sugars with healthier options. Today I had the chance to experiment with a paleo desert because we had some friends over for coffee who are (wisely) trying to improve their diets... and, given that I had warned them ahead of time, proved to be great guinea pigs for this new recipe for a paleo/gluten free chocolate cake ;)

 

I had my doubts but 1) it was really easy to make and 2) it tasted really good! It was moist, not too sweet but still rich and chocolate-y. I guess if you wanted more sweetness/goo, then you could always put chocolate chips in it. Keeping with the paleo/gluten free theme, I found some chocolate chips at the health food store that could work perfectly (maybe next time). I added slivered almonds on the top and I was happy with the outcome.

 

My husband pretended to complain about it but, after our friends left, he actually confessed that it wasn't too bad. I take this as very positive because he is hard core sugar ;) The boys actually liked it... :)

 

Before baking...

 

Finished product! I doubled the recipe so that is why there are 2 :)

 

Making pizzas and other kitchen chaos...

The weekends always fly by. Today we went swimming with the kids and then had lunch with my sister and her family. She has 2 boys who are the same ages as my 3 so getting together is always fun for them. They even go/will go to the same school! Grandma even stopped by....

 

Now it is homework time! Good evening to all :)

 

Play doh pizza for you?

 

Let me step into the kitchen to make it.... Yes, tools and a bubble machine are necessary ;)

 

Ta da! Dinner is served!

 

Soup and bread

Soup with fresh bread is a meal that is pretty well received in our house.... even with the picky eaters. Last night we had turkey soup and a new bread recipe that I found online. Yum :)

Making pizza

Saturday night is home made pizza night! I keep a stash of dough in the fridge for nights like these :) On the menu: garlic, olive oil and thyme; tuna, anchovy and black pepper and prosciutto with potato. Yum!

Prep

Prep

Prep



Finished product :)

There's no friend like an old friend....

Last night I went out to catch up with an old friend. I really appreciate having someone who has known me through my various phases, various life changes, various moments of thought, various craziness and still decides to hang out with me on a Friday night.

We just get better with age :)

Making muffins

I found a great new recipe for chocolate muffins... and one perfect for anyone trying to avoid flour!

Melt 1.5 cups dark chocolate, 1 cup butter and 1 cup sugar together over a water bath until melted. Take off heat and let cool. It is nice to bake these muffins yourself because I had the option to try it with organic ingredients.

Separate 8 eggs. Beat egg whites together. When stiff, mix in egg yolks. After the eggs are mixed and fluffy, fold in chocolate mixture. Bake for 40 minutes at 350 degrees F (or about 160 degrees C).

Makes about 12 very big muffins... but I got 18 decent sized ones out of it. It also makes one cake.

Perfect with fruit or whipped cream.

I got the recipe (in Danish) from here.

Melting chocolate, sugar and butter

Ta-da! OK... so they taste better than they look. What did you expect? A food blog? ;)

Moomins tin

Swedish candies from my inlaws... the boys are in heaven ;)