Home To Heather

Dinner Simple – Avocado Shrimp (or Scallop!) Summer Salad

Heather — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 03:05:32 +0000

Two recipes in one week? I know you must be shocked and awed to know that I can actually cook from time to time. This recipe is the perfect example of how to make your dinner simple and not sweat the details. You know how sometimes, despite your best efforts, planning and skills, a project or idea just flops? Well, not much went according to plan here but we still ended up with a yummy dinner and little H gobbled it up. And for that reason I have to share this recipe cause you really can’t screw it up! All Compliments products listed can be found at your local Sobeys.

Dinner Simple Salad

dinner simple salad

- Avocado, Shrimp and Mandarin Summer Salad (pdf download)

Ingredients:

1 Head of Bib Lettuce (we couldn’t find bib, so I used half butter lettuce and half iceberg)
1 Red Onion (again, the red onions weren’t looking their best so we used red shallot instead)
2 Ripe avocados, diced (I will never again ask hubby to select an avocado. He can’t tell the difference between ripe, and mush. So our avocado salad ended up sans avocado…)
1/2 pound cooked shrimp (Hubs is allergic to shrimp so we substituted seared scallops and it worked just as well.)
1 can mandarin orange segments, drained
1/4 cup Sensations by Compliments Citrus Honey Poppy seed dressing (we couldn’t find this item in the store (not that we asked anyone!) but we spotted the Sensations by Compliments Mandarin Ginger vinaigrette instead and let me tell you – it went perfectly with this salad and it might just be my new fav dressing. Seriously good stuff there!)
1/4 cup sliced almonds

Directions:

Wash and dry lettuce and place in large bowl or platter
In a bowl mix avocado, oranges, dressing and shrimp – add dressing
Spoon mixed ingredients from the bowl over lettuce and garnish with almonds.

So there you have it – the unscrew-uppable dinner! I couldn’t believe how little H wolfed down the scallops. I never would have guessed. I’d make this again, and I’m so glad to have found that Mandarin Ginger salad dressing. It was so bright and fresh tasting. Try this out and I hope you have better luck with selecting avocados!!

*Sobeys provided me with a gift card to facilitate the purchase of these ingredients. Thank you Sobeys!

A Maternal Spark Success Story – Congrats to Genevieve!

Heather — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 02:18:58 +0000

I know I don’t really write about Creative Moms anymore but I just had to write this quick post to congratulate Genevieve on her recent book deal! I’m so thrilled for her. You might remember the piece of flash fiction she shared with us back when Maternal Spark was live – School Bus Musings. Go have a read if you didn’t catch it the first time around.

Her facebook profile announced today:

Genevieve is absolutely THRILLED to announce that I have accepted an offer for a two book deal (Under The Same Sky and a companion novel) from Berkley Publishers, a division of Penguin Books, to be in bookstores early 2012.

Her work will be found in the ‘Sensation Line’ and you can find her website at Writing Wildly.

Mega HUGE congratulations to you Genevieve!

Cedar Salmon Recipe – Easy Maple glazed Salmon bbq’d on Cedar Plank

Heather — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 02:27:23 +0000

Cedar Salmon

While my foodie photo skills leave much to be desired, this easy Cedar Salmon Recipe was so good I wanted to share it with you. We used real Canadian Maple Syrup (don’t bother using the fake stuff) and while I thought the slaw was alright taste wise, you could fore-go it if you wanted. We served our Maple Cedar Salmon with basmati rice and asparagus.

Note – this recipe serves 8. We only used 1 cedar plank and it fit a nice large single fillet. I left the skin on cause I’m lazy like that and we had enough to feed 2 adults and a picky preschooler with enough left over for another meal. So feel free to improvise on quantities here, this recipe will forgive you All Compliments products listed can be found at your local Sobeys.

Cedar Salmon Recipe - Maple Planed Salmon with Carrot Slaw (pdf download)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp Sensations by Compliments Maple Barbecue Sauce, divided.
1/4 cup maple syrup
8 Atlantic Salmon Fillets (5-6oz each)
4 cups shredded carrots
2 tbsp Sensations by Compliments aged Balsamic Vinegar of Modena (SUPER delicious)
1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 tsp salt
Fresh ground pepper to taste
2 Compliments Cedar grilling planks (directions are on the package – we soaked ours for about 1.5 hours)
2 tbsp Compliments fresh chives (we forgot these….oops)

Directions:

Whisk together 1/2 cup bbq sauce and maple syrup in a glass dish. Add salmon fillets and turn over to coat. Cover and let sit in the fridge for 3o min or longer.
Mix carrots, balsamic and olive oil in bowl. Season with S & P and set aside.
Preheat grill to med-high. Set soaked planks on the grill, lightly brush with oil. When grill starts to smoke, place salmon on plank, season, and close the lid. Reduce heat to med. Don’t peak for about 12 min.
Brush with 2 tbsn of bbq sauce and cook for another 5-10 min or until fish is opaque and cooked through.
Mix chives into carrot slaw. Place slaw on plate and top with finished Cedar Salmon.

I really did think this was easy to make and the salmon was very tasty. We are going to flake the left overs on top of some pasta salad for a quick and easy dinner tomorrow night. Can’t wait!

*Sobeys provided me with a gift card to facilitate the purchase of these ingredients. Thank you Sobeys!

Alberta Dayhome Caregiver Involved in Death of Toddler

Heather — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:12:41 +0000

As a Calgary parent with a child in the Alberta Dayhome system this story makes me want to vomit. A baby girl aged 18 months, has died as the direct result of alleged abuse suffered in the home of a ‘caregiver’ in a provincial licensed and approved dayhome.

From the Calgary Herald:

The toddler was airlifted to Alberta Children’s Hospital with critical head injuries on Tuesday and her 23-year-old caregiver was charged with aggravated assault and failure to provide necessities of life.

The child died in hospital later that day, prompting police to say those charges may be upgraded to manslaughter.

Having left little H in the care of a dayhome provider for about 2 years now, I can say that while I’ve had all the confidence in the world in them (I wouldn’t leave her there if I hadn’t) still, I always wonder about her. Is she ok? Is there anything going on that I don’t know about? Is she being watched like I would watch her. Is she happy? Is she safe?

I can’t image the guilt and the pain the family of this baby is going through right now. It goes to show that all the background checks in the world can’t save you from something happening in the future and we really cannot rely on any agency or provincial body to really know what’s going on.

Dayhomes are booked up quickly and, in my opinion, daycare centers have way too many kids and not enough staff. Costs for care are through the roof – at this time, we are paying close to $700 per month for one child. I know I feel like I’m up against a rock and a hard place and parents are doing their best but really, our options are severely limited.

So how do we protect our kids?

You may have read my last post on the state of Calgary Childcare and our struggles to find suitable care for our little H. I am still mistified by what happened with that situation, however I have never felt better about our decision to forego that particular home and continue our search for a suitable caregiver. Sometimes our gut feelings are all we can rely on.

The 7 Link Challenge

Heather — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:41:38 +0000

blog meme definition

Problogger has started a meme called the ‘7 Link Challenge‘. What’s a meme?

Meme Definition: An idea that is spread from blog to blog. Often a group of bloggers will start a topic and pass it around from site to site thus extending the conversation.

So according to this meme definition and the 7 link challenge :

The main aim of doing this challenge is to create a list post that highlights some of the posts in your archives to new readers.

Sounds like fun to me!! So let’s get started

#1 – My First Post – this is the first post I wrote on my mom blog Maternal Spark. The first one I wrote as a mother. Oh the good ole days!

#2 – A post you enjoyed writing the most – I guess that’s the one where I declared the end of Maternal Spark and announced the beginning of Home To Heather.

#3 – A post which had a great discussion – That’s easy…it’s gotta be the one I wrote about the Neilsen Power Moms debacle of 2009.

#4 – A post on someone else’s blog that you wish you’d written – That’s easy. It’s Trisha from MomDot’s PR blackout post. Not that I would have wanted the shit storm it created centered around me, but her post literally threw our community into a tailspin that only resulted in us all thinking for ourselves and ending up smarter.

#5 – Your most helpful post – Hmmmm this one is hard! Maybe the one I wrote about my Hostgator Transfer.

#6 – A post with a title that you are proud of – that’s easy…it’s gotta be: I’m confused about the wiener. Andy the Creative Junkie even gave me a fake nomination for that one!

#7 – A post that you wish more people had read – Oh definitely this one about a simple life lesson.

~click here for the next 7 link challenge on a mom blog.

image credit to DeclanTM

Bloggy link love from me to you

When to Start Weaning Baby From the Bottle

Heather — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 15:55:22 +0000

awwww

There was an asinine ‘article’ in the Vancouver Sun that suggests parents should start weaning the bottle at 9 months of age. 9 MONTHS. The first paragraph reads:

A note to confused parents everywhere: at nine months, it’s time to start thinking about taking away that baby bottle.

I’m sorry, but at 9 months of age, babies should still be breastfeeding. And if they can’t be breastfed, for whatever reason (no bottle bashing here) then yes, they should be taking in formula.

It goes on to say:

The reason, researchers say, is that the older a baby gets, the harder it is to get them to give up the bottle. By two years old, bottle-feeding could have already introduced a variety of long-lasting health problems into the baby’s life.

My main point of contention with this article is the focus on the delivery method of food and not on actual nutritional requirements of babies. Should parents be weaning baby from the bottle and a source of nutrition at nine months and not replace it with a suitable or healthier replacement? NO. Should parents be feeding their kids high fat or high calorie products, from any vessel, in early childhood? NO.

Last I checked, I was the parent and when my child refuses to do something that is healthy for her I stand fast until the situation is resolved. My child is a very picky eater and it has nothing to do with taste or texture it’s purely a battle of will with her. She wants to be in control. All the time. Newsflash kid…veggies are good for you and you’re going to eat them. You’re not going to eat desert, or fill up on bread. Simple.

I don’t see any difference between dealing with a picky three year old and a toddler who resists weaning from the bottle. As a parent, I take away things that aren’t good for her. End of story.

Suggesting a parent remove nutrition at such a young age just because it can be hard to do it later is irresponsible. Sometimes the most important things in life are hard to do but ya know what? Suck it up and be a parent.

What do you think? What age did your child give up the bottle? Would you consider taking it away at 9 months old?

image credit to Picture Taker 2

It’s Calgary Stampede Time! Where are the Pancake Breakfasts??

Heather — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 16:05:20 +0000

Yumm - Flap Jacks!

We’re gearing up for the Calgary Stampede here in town and one of the fun and unique things about our cities most famous event is the free pancake breakfasts you can find going on. If you wanted to, you could find a breakfast event every day of the week! There’s no excuse to go hungry, you just need to find them all.

So when I heard of this site I just had to share it for the flap jack lovers of Calgary. It’s called FlapJackFinder.com and not only does it show you where to find your free pancake breakfast, but it also has a free iPhone app!

Now no matter where you are in the city you can scope out some Flap Jacks Oh, and there are some yummy looking pancake recipes on there too *drool*.

Happy and Safe Stampeding everyone!

photocredit to pabo76

When I was a kid…

Heather — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 03:56:01 +0000

A Griffon - Mythical Creature

I thought I’d take a moment to write out some things about ‘when I was a kid’ so when my two are a little older I can read it to them and they’ll realize I’m like a dinosaur or other ancient mythical creature and not really of this world.

When I was a kid:

There were no cell phones
There was no internet
Nobody had computers at home, we didn’t get our first one until I was 14ish.
It didn’t have Windows…it had DOS
Our TV only had 12 channels and there was no way to record any of them.
Elmo didn’t exist
Neither did Dora or the Wiggles.
Pooh was cool though.
My toys weren’t noisy
There were no video games
I used to play outside with nobody watching me
Once or twice I was spanked
and I likely deserved it
Cameras had film
Phones had wires – and rotary dials
There was music but you couldn’t take it anywhere unless you had D cells and wide shoulders
The letter ‘E’ was never seen precisely prior to the word ‘book’
There was no Starbucks…really, no Starbucks!

Did I miss anything? Do you remember anything from your childhood that would have your kids scratching their heads? Are you feeling old yet?

photo credit to RobW

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We Spent Canada Day with some Really Cute Canadians

Heather — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 03:23:54 +0000

We went down to Bowness Park today for a little picnic and some quality time with a few famous Canadians. It was overcast and chilly enough to wear jackets but we still had an awesome time!

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Breastfeeding, Toys and a Three Year Old

Heather — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 03:15:18 +0000

I’m pretty sure I’m screwing up in terms of breastfeeding awareness programs when it comes to little H. We were in a toy store the other day and I saw these magic bottles. I remembered having a bottle like this when I was a little girl and using it to ‘feed’ my dollies. I remembered being awed by the way the ‘milk’ disappeared as I fed the doll.

Little H is very interested in taking care of her baby dolls right now as she prepares to have a real baby in our home. She pushes them in a toy stroller. She puts them down for naps. She changes their poopy butts and she feeds them. Yes. She feeds them with toy bottles. Toy bottles that I bought her.

It was only after watching her play for a while that I realized she’s not going to see me feed her brother with a bottle. Well, at least not anytime soon after he’s born. I hope to breastfeed fairly exclusively for the first six months. I began to wonder if I should try to prepare her for this. Do I sit my three year old down and explain to her that babies can drink from bottles or from their mothers breast? Do I attempt to demonstrate how I’d hold a baby as it eats?

I don’t know. None of this feels right.

Right now she believes babies eat from bottles and yeah…that’s true. Later she will learn that babies also eat from their mothers and that will also be true. I bet there are bunches of books aimed at broaching the subject with the pre-school set but honestly, that’s not my style. I think right now, I’ll let her enjoy her toy bottles. She really does love playing with them and later on, she’ll learn about how her baby brother gets his food.

Education initiatives are a wonderful thing but at this point in our lives I just don’t think it’s necessary and quite honestly I think that sometimes it puts a negative tone on something. “Hey kid, this is a serious subject and we’re going to have some serious education about it. Let’s sit down and talk.” I’m not sure I need to say anything until she sees it for herself and we can have a natural discussion then. This way, I can answer her questions as they come and not worry about pumping her full of info she might not need. After all, I can see her shrugging her shoulders and being all ‘whatever mom‘ about it.

Hmmm. Writing this post has helped me to realize that it’s not so serious after all.

Oy. I’d better save this for her…she might need to show it to a therapist some day…