Halloween is favourite holiday around our house- as soon as one is done our daughter is thinking up a costume for the next year – this year she is going to go as the wicked queen from Once upon a time.  Can’t wait to see her all dressed up!
Along with dressing up she loves all the wonderful Halloween treats that go along with it.  One of My best go to places for great desserts any time of the year is Kraft Canada [well for pretty much anything] their website is filled with so many great tips and information.
The Kraft Canada website even has a page specifically dedicated to Halloween, it is full of amazing recipes, party ideas, decorations  and tips for a great Halloween party! They also have some great stencils that we can use on our pumpkin.

After  they go out trick or treating, the kids will be coming back for some Halloween treats at our house. I took   a quick look at the site and I found some great snacks for them to have when they come back with loaded bags.  This is a Mummy cookie balls recipe I found that looks great and will be a hit with the kids. It is also one that I can easily make gluten free, so my daughter can enjoy along with her friends.

There are also some great games available  on the site that they can play! I think this will be a fun one:
Mummy Wrap:
Divide kids into teams of 3 (1 mummy, 1 wrapper, 1 un-wrapper). Each team gets 1 extra-large roll of toilet paper. This is a timed event, so instruct the kids that on your signal, one team member must wrap the “mummy” in toilet paper. When the roll is complete (and the mummy is mostly covered) the 2nd team member unwraps the mummy (no tearing the toilet paper, it has to be unrolled). The first team to finish, wins. This is a great activity, especially when you play it to fast-paced Halloween music.

Whatever it is that the kids have or play afterwards, make sure that they are safe when they are going out; have some reflective tape on their clothing [I get the glow in the dark neon bracelets and necklaces for them to wear  that way they also have  bit of a light source] and make sure there is a group of them going out together [teens don't like you going with them] as well as making sure that they are carrying a cell phone to call if they need picking up or feel threatened in any way.

Have a safe and Happy Halloween!  :)

Weekend Breakfasts

I don’t know about you but when the weekend rolls around I don’t always feel like getting up early to make up big weekend  breakfasts, I like lazing in bed as much as everybody. That is why it is great to be able to make breakfast ahead of time.  Whether you make up a strata or a fabulous French toast casserole the night before, whoever gets up first just has to take it out of the fridge, pop it in the oven at the desired temperature and have it ready for when the rest of the clan wakes up; no fuss, and no mess!

This works really well even for early mornings like Christmas, when the kids [so that means you too] are up early and they want to get to opening presents – you can pop it in the oven and just sit and enjoy the mayhem while breakfast is getting prepared.

Here is an easy brunch strata from Kraft Canada– If you are gluten free you can use GF bread instead of the regular bread.

This is a recipe that I have used in the past and has been a hit at Christmas time; it is very sweet and gooey, but oh so good! So if the kids aren’t hyper enough from all the unwrapping they have done on Christmas morning, they can get jump started on this recipe from allrecipes.com  :)

Enjoy, hope you get those extra zzz’s

It always interests me how much Halloween candy and what type is consumed the most, take a look at this:

I have to admit, I love President’s Choice products.  So much so, that I when we moved to Vancouver years ago, I had to make a few calls before we left just to make sure that I would be able to get their products out there. And I made sure that our apartment was not more than 20 minutes away from the store!  I also get really excited when PC insiders report comes out – they are always full of great new products and some fabulous recipes. I am a bit geeky that way!
I like having things around in case we have people drop by unexpectedly, the PC 5 layer fiesta dip is perfect for this – it is all ready and looks amazing when you serve it [any of the dips are really amazing]– I also pick up some of the PC Sea Salt Kettle Style Tortilla Chips to serve along with them – they are a big hit!

Photo taken from President's Choice website

Have any of  you been watching “Recipe to Riches”?  I love it!

Photo taken from President's Choice Website

One of the great sponsors of the ShesConnected conference {#SCCTO} is Canadian Beef Inc.  They are an independent national organization handling the marketing and promotion of the Canadian cattle and beef industry worldwide.

Did you know?

• There are 83,000 farms and ranches with beef cattle across Canada.
• The average beef cow herd size in Canada is 61.
• There are a lot of small cattle farms with 61% of the farms having less than 47 cows.
• Canada produced 3.4 billion pounds of beef in 2009.
• Canadians eat 46 pounds (20.9 kg) of beef per person annually.
• Canada is the 6th largest beef exporting country in the world.
• Beef production contributed $23 billion to Canada’s economy in 2009.

Canadian Beef Inc. supports Canada’s 83,000 hard working beef farming families from coast to coast.  They are  an awesome organization!

This week, I will get to meet some of their team at the ShesConnected conference, and I am so excited! Along with being great sponsors of the conference they have done some great blogger outreach programs with ShesConnected.

Now, I love my beef and the fact that it is Canadian is even better, because when I buy Canadian beef, I know am helping to support some of those 83000 beef farmers we have here in Canada.  The best part of eating Canadian Beef?  Beef is all natural, so I can have it any time on my gluten free diet.  I love that – just natural!

Canadian beef is also nutrient rich; every bite of lean Canadian beef is packed with 14 essential nutrients. There are 34.6 g of protein in 100 grams of cooked, lean only Canadian beef. It is also naturally rich in iron that is easily absorbed by your body. Iron, is an essential mineral found in every cell in your body that helps builds red blood cells and keeps your cells working. So I know I am giving my family great nutrition when I serve beef.

Their website www.beefinfo.org  has hundreds of recipes, video cooking lessons, step-by-step cooking instructions, nutrition & health tips along with tons of nutritional information .  There is so much information available; they also have a monthly newsletter, Make it Beef Club. Definitely worth signing up for!

They also have a great blog, full of great information and they answer a lot of reader questions, such a great resource! So much great information and great recipes!

This is one I will have to try next time we have company over :

Lime-Chipotle Rotisserie Roast

Taken from the Canadian Beef Website

So if you are at the ShesConnected  Conference on October 19 and 20th,  please stop by and say hello to the lovely ladies from Canadian Beef and show them some love!

See you at the conference!

Halloween is coming up just around the corner. Do your kids have a favourite Halloween costume planned?  My daughter would start to think about her costume literally the week after Halloween – I loved her enthusiasm!

She came up with some pretty cool ideas and she would get them all together herself.  She must have caught that from my husband – he loved dressing up for Halloween – had elaborate costumes that he made himself – we finally got rid of some of them on our move back from Vancouver, but I am sure he is wishing we had kept them.  I remember one year, he decided he was going to be a Christmas tree – he looked great, awesome tree – only problem was that back then we didn’t have battery powered lights, so he had to stay close to a plug so his lights would work!

Here is one of the costumes we did manage to keep.

Do you have a favorite costume that you made up from your past or your child’s?

If you happen to have captured some awesome Halloween costumes and moments,  Nestle Canada  is sponsoring a great contest -> https://apps.facebook.com/myfavouritehalloween/  .  Enter to win grand prize of  $2000 of Chocolates for you and your street!  There will also be 5 weekly prizes drawn.

Make sure to like their page and just upload at least one (1) photograph of yourself, somebody or someone you know wearing a Halloween costume. You can enter as many times as you would like; you have until Oct 8^th, then finalists will be  chosen by the judging panel.  They  will judge the entries based on a combination of the following judging criteria; the best that  demonstrate costume creativity, humour, scariness and originality. You will then be able to vote for your favourite FINALIST by October 22^nd, the winner will be announced October 24^th.  Unfortunately, this contest is only open to Canadians, except those in Quebec. Read rules and regulations.

Good luck !

It is that time of the year again,  kids are back at school, weather is cooling down, leaves are falling and SCCTO is almost here! So many of us look forward to this time of year – I  have to admit I can’t wait for the kids to get back to school – my mantra is the Staples theme song ‘It’s  the most wonderful time of the year’ ! But one of the other favorite things happening at this time is the ShesConnected Conference in Toronto.  This year it is being held Oct 19-20 at the Toronto Convention Center.  It is going to be an action packed 2 days filled with all kinds of great information and fun!

There are so many tracks for you to choose from, the  ShesConnected Conference agenda is  amazing! I am having a hard time deciding, they all look so good!  No matter what level of blogging you are at , there is something for everyone. There are also some amazing sponsors to talk to and get to know.  Make sure that you are prepared when talking to them and have a press kit  ready to hand to them.

Here is a link  provided by one  of the ShesConnected Conference ambassadors [Julia from Nugglemama] on building a media kit.

ShesConnected also  holds weekly chats  [#sheschat] on Twitter to help answers some questions you may have about attending conferences and  to get you prepared.  Make sure to join in on Mondays at 1pm and again at 9 pm if you missed the earlier time . It is a great time to “meet’ some of the #SCCTO Attendees before the conference and gather great info.

See you at #Sheschat on Monday!

Chicken – one of our favorite meals around here, we love it any which way!

Now that it is BBQ season,  it is the only way to cook our chicken – I love grilled chicken breasts, (bone in or boned),  kebabs,   done in foil packets and of course, the famous beer can chicken (although ours isn’t really in a beer can, we have a special stand).

Chicken is such a fast and nutritious meal to prepare [it also one I know my daughter won’t balk at!]. So I know that my family is being fed well; both white and  dark meat are  nutritious and a  great  source of protein, niacin, phosphorous, B6, B12, Vitamin D, calcium, iron and zinc.

There are so many different ways of preparing chicken, being able to BBQ adds a new level to it.

If I am running out or busy, I know that I can prepare the chicken with a sauce in foil packet and it is ready to go on the BBQ when my husband gets home and they don’t have to  take any special precautions when handling  because I have taken care of all that! [makes me worry a lot less!].

Want to know more about chicken and our Chicken Farmers? Take a look at their website, lots of great information and articles as well as wonderful recipes!

I am going to have to try this Ginger-Lime grilled chicken soon, looks so good!

Ginger-Lime Chicken - image courtesy of Canadian Farmers

Join us this Wednesday for our #SCFoodChat on twitter at 1pm EST – We will be chatting Chicken!

Summer time is for taking it easy – day trips, camp days for kids and vacations. So it is really nice to come home and be able to get a meal together and prepared really quickly. That is what I love about the Maple Leaf products.

Whether you are getting a salad ready or trying to get dinner ready for your family- the line of Maple Leaf  products is great! My husband really likes the cooked Bacon, I find the bacon great to take along on picnics to add to sandwiches or salad for an extra boost of protein. But there are so many great products to choose from.

One of these great products is their fully cooked and sliced Chicken breasts. These are juicy, tender, and lightly seasoned, and the chicken slices make a great addition to any meal to make it complete, so dinner can be ready in a snap!

You should also check out their great recipe section, so many wonderful ones to try! This is one that I made recently, the cooked chicken breast made it so quick to prepare  and my husband loved it!

While you are on the site, stop by and check out some of their other sections – I love stopping by the market!

True Love Contest

P.S. right now you can celebrate the official foods of summer enter their “True Love”  summer foods contest and you can win ‘what you love’  with a $25000 grand prize.

Enjoy!

Don’t forget to join us on Twitter on Wednesday for our Summer Food Chat at 1pm EST #SCFoodChat.

I love summer, and when we get weather like we have had this past week- well, it only makes it so much more enjoyable!

We spend a lot of time outside – so it only makes sense that we do a lot of our eating outside too!  Evening BBQs, family get-togethers, picnics and of course, the beach!

The other thing I look forward to is seeing all the summer edition of the President’s Choice Insider’s report.

There are always so many great articles inside as well as recipes, and of course all the great new products they have come with for the summer.  Pick up yours next time you head into the store, or sign up for their insider’s club online so that you can  browse through the archives for more recipes and articles.

As I mentioned, grilling is big  in our house, and I found this great article on all the different types of grilling you can do – love some of these and am going to try them – Direct and Indirect Barbecuing, –(I use indirect for most of my BBQing) Smoking, Brick Cooking, Wood Plank Grilling and Aromatic wood chips.

A great product for  summer grilling- the PC Angus Sliders – Mini-burgers – great as appetizers for small gatherings, or for snacks for the kids!

Take a look at all the great new products that President’s Choice has to offer for the summer – those PC Blue Menu Swirl Smoothies look really good – will have to make a trek down to Loblaws to get some for the w/e.

Mmmm...look so refreshing! Image courtesy of President's Choice

Oh, perfect timing too – this Sat, July 14^th PC is having its Customer Appreciation Day at Loblaws, Zehrs, Real Canadian Superstore Ontario, where you’ll pay NO TAX on almost everything in the store! Some restrictions apply, see in store for details.

Enjoy, maybe I’ll see you there!

Don’t forget, our weekly #summerfood chat on Wednesdays at1pm EST, see you there!