A few thoughts on maximizing nutrition in holiday food drive donations

I was standing in the cereal aisle at Loblaws, having a conversation with their in-house dietitian about making thoughtful, nutritious donations to local food banks during the holidays. We were comparing the sugar and fibre content of various cereals, when she looked at a box that was higher in sugar and lower in fibre than the thresholds she’d recommended and said, “If it’s a choice between a child eating a bowl of this or going to school with an empty stomach, this is still by far the better choice.”

My own stomach clenched at the very idea of one of my boys – of any child — spending the whole day at school with an empty stomach simply because there was no food in the cupboard to feed them. I felt tears prick my eyes and very nearly swept the whole shelf into a donation bin. How is it that we have so much and that there are families in our community who don’t have enough food to get them through the day?

Did you know that for more than 850,000 Canadians, one-third of whom are children, the holiday menu will be determined by what’s available in the local food bank? If you’re a long-time reader, you know that for the last few years I have been on a nutritional learning curve of my own, learning to cook from scratch and make smarter food choices for myself and my family. I have to admit, though, that I never put much thought specifically into the nutritional content of the food we donate to the canned food drive or the various food hampers put together in our communities. I was intrigued when Loblaw reached out to me to collaborate on a blog post about the importance of choosing nutritious foods and ingredients to donate to local food drives instead of just emptying the cupboards of whatever your family hasn’t eaten. Loblaw grocery stores have been active in promoting and supporting local food drives this holiday season, and have set a goal to raise $1.8 million and 1.3 million pounds of food for Canadians.

Look for the donation bin at Lobaw food stores near you
Look for the donation bin at Loblaw grocery stores near you

To be honest, I didn’t even know Loblaws offered an in-store Registered Dietitian program before they reached out through this promotion. You can get personalized advice, attend a group session or register for a class in many Loblaws stores across Canada. I went to the Robertson Road Loblaws to speak with Chantal, a dietitian who covers several local stores. We did a little store tour and she gave me insight on making smarter donations to local food drives. Although every donation is welcome, here are some ways to make donations that are healthier and more nutritious:

  • Choose canned protein sources that are packed in water instead of oil
  • Pick low-sodium or no-salt-added food products
  • Consider donating ingredients instead of processed food products (e.g. flour, sugar, spices, nuts and seeds, oils, etc.)
  • For added fibre, donate brown rice instead of white rice
  • Choose whole-grain food products like cereals, crackers and pasta instead of ones made with white flour
  • Granola bars and cereals should contain less than eight grams of sugar and more than five grams of fibre

(Bonus: not only are these good tips for making healthier food drive donations, they’re good rules of thumb to follow for your own family’s nutrition, too! I learned other great tips from her as well. Did you know that longer-grain rice has a lower glycemic index, meaning that it is digested more slowly and makes you feel full longer? And that while green lentils tend to hold their shape when you cook them, red lentils turn mushy and virtually disappear, so they’re a good way to hide a little extra fibre in your soups?)

I’m a big fan of peanut butter donations. Whenever peanut butter goes on sale, I pick up a few for us and a few extra and drop them in the donation bin. One thing I hadn’t really thought of is that the food banks also serve people with special dietary needs like diabetes, gluten sensitivities and high blood pressure, so donating products specifically for people with dietary restrictions is a great choice. Meal supplements for seniors (like Ensure) are welcome donations. Donating dried beans and legumes or shelf-stable nut milks could be beneficial for vegans and vegetarians. And anything for babies (diapers, wipes, formula, iron-fortified cereals and other baby foods) would help young families in need.

Some great food drive items, as recommended by a dietician
Some great food drive items, as recommended by a dietitian

Chantal was full of terrific suggestions for smart food donations beyond peanut butter and processed box foods. She gave me a list of a dozen most-needed food items:

  1. baby food and formula
  2. no-salt-added canned fish and meat (e.g. salmon, tuna and chicken)
  3. no-salt-added canned vegetables
  4. no-sugar-added canned fruit
  5. whole-grain cereals
  6. whole wheat pasta
  7. low-sodium pasta sauce
  8. legumes (both canned – watch for no-salt-added – and dried beans, lentils and chick peas)
  9. peanut butter
  10. rice and whole grain products
  11. snack foods such as granola bars (watch for less than 8g of sugar and more than 4g of fibre), apple sauce, unsalted nuts and seeds, and dried fruit
  12. soup broth

Loblaws also has a “guiding stars” program, where foods with more stars point you toward nutritious foods that contain vitamins, minerals, fibre, omega-3 and whole grains versus saturated fat, trans fat, added sodium and added sugar. The more nutritional value a food has, the more stars it receives, so you can look for the two- and three-star foods to help you make nutrition-conscientious food drive donations.

While food donations are always welcome, many food banks such as the Ottawa Food Bank are able to make cash donations stretch much further by buying in bulk. Cash donations also allow food banks to invest in perishable items like fresh fruit and vegetables.

Each year, my teenagers’ school hosts a canned food drive where they collect tonnes of food for donation to smaller food banks such as the Shepherds of Good Hope. I’ll be more conscientious next year when making my donations, and resist the urge to simply reach into the back of the cupboard for the food we haven’t gotten around to eating. In fact, Loblaws has provided compensation for this blog post, and I want to use part of that to take the boys on a dedicated trip to do some shopping specifically for our local food bank via the bin at the Loblaws here in Manotick. I have some great ideas on which foods I want to pick up! I can talk to the boys about the importance of giving AND squeeze in a lesson about healthy food choices, too. That’s a win-win!

Disclosure: I was compensated for my time in researching and writing this blog post. However, as always, all opinions are my own.

A happier, safer winter with boots that don’t slip

Last winter I spent a disproportionate amount of time kvetching about my boots to Tristan as we walked the dog after dinner each night. Our rural street is sidewalk-free and not a bus route, so it spends most of the winter with a hardpack of icy snow on it, and I hate, hate, hate walking on it when it’s slippery. It makes me feel like a little old lady as I totter along, focusing all my attention on ensuring that my feet are not about to go sliding out from under me. That’s no way to pursue my daily goal of 10,000 steps, with teeth clenched in anticipation of a fall.

Do you remember this article about how most winter boots fail even the most basic traction test from last winter? Of course my boots were not on the list, and I spent the whole winter idly wondering whether better boots would make for more enjoyable winter walks. It’s not the cold temperatures that keep me inside on winter evenings, it’s the fact that I just don’t feel comfortable walking on the ice — especially holding a dog prone to lurching at snowflakes and shadows.

That’s why I was particularly delighted to say “Heck yes!” when the nice folks at Mark’s invited me to a demonstration of the innovative anti-slip technologies and slip-resistant footwear they offer. I’ve always liked Mark’s for their variety of styles from work wear (whether your work is in an office, a hospital or a construction site) to casual wear. One of my family members is sporting a new Mark’s coat thanks to a Black Friday sale, and another wore his elfin-inspired Mark’s winter boots well into May last year. This is just a few of the boots they had in stock that illustrate the range of styles in men’s and women’s footwear that incorporated anti-slip technology:

Photo of boots

I learned on my visit to Mark’s that depending on the boot manufacturer, there are a couple of different types of anti-slip technology. Boots made with the Green Diamond (as seen in this Cascade model) and Vibram’s Arctic Grip (as seen in these seriously adorable Sperry boots) technologies have granules in the soles you can actually feel. They’re slightly different from a technology standpoint but the outcome is the same – improved traction on wet and dry ice.

2017-12-04 14.44.17

What was really fun is that they’d brought a giant slab of ice right into the store, so I could try out the various anti-slip technologies. I have to admit, I was impressed. First I just sort of kicked at the ice, but then I really tried hard to slide across it and it was like trying to skid across a hardwood floor with those little grippy things on your socks – I could feel the boots literally digging into the ice. You can see here where I’ve made scratches in the ice trying to skid.

2017-12-04 14.48.15

Over the years, I’ve tried a few different cleat and crampon-type solutions and have always been frustrated by them. Either they’re a hassle to use, or they fall off, or they destroy my 20m wooden porch as I traverse it from the front door to the driveway. It makes so much sense to have a gritty texture baked right into the soles of the boot, and it’s so thoroughly embedded that even as the rubber wears away through use, new bits of the grippy grit material are exposed, ensuring you many years of traction.

The article I referenced earlier was based on a study that’s put out by iDAPT, part of Toronto Rehabilitation Institute – University Health Network, called “Rate My Treads.” It’s a very Canadian innovation: they’ve set up a lab to test the slip-resistance of boots by having real people walk in the boots across icy surfaces in subzero temperatures with winds up to 30 km per hour. They traverse an incline and give snowflake ratings based on the boot soles’ ability to maintain traction. They found last year that more than 90% (!) of the boots they tested did not meet their minimum standard for slip resistance. Mark’s carries several of the brands that did meet that minimum threshold, though, including Merrell, Sperry, and Wind River. See the full list of boots that iDAPT tested and rated here.

Are your winter boots on the nice list or the naughty list this holiday season?

(Disclosure: I received compensation for participating in and writing about the demonstration of the technology behind Mark’s slip-resistant boots, but all opinions expressed here are fully my own.)

A free gift for you from Mothership Photography!

I have just finished my fifth (!) year in business as a photographer, and if you’ve been around for a while, you know that the origins of the photography business are right here on the blog. Those of you who have followed along through the years have seen me go from a photo-a-day project to tentatively selling prints to stock photography and finally finding my true love in taking candid, playful portraits of people and families.

If you know me, you also know that I love free, and I love Ottawa, and I love PEI, and I love the bloggy peeps who make this blog such a fun place to come and play. So this year, I’ve wrapped all of those things up and put a 2017 bow on them to say a huge THANK YOU to all of you with a small token of my appreciation. I’ve created five downloadable 8×10 calendars that you can print out at home or through your favourite print lab. I tried to choose photos that were iconic for Ottawa folks, but also some that would be appealing to those of you coming from a little further away.

calendars-for-blog

You can download them from my client galleries on Pixieset. Scroll down and click on the version you like, then click the download icon. It will ask you for your email address but I promise that I’ll never use the info to spam you. If you’re so inclined, you can also share the calendars on various channels with the share icon.

If you’re printing at home, they should fit nicely on a regular 8.5 x 11 page, or choose 8×10 photo paper.

Thank you for your attention, your insight, your participation and your affection through the years. Here’s to a blissful, bountiful 2017 for all of us!

Happy National Chocolate Day!

Did you know there was a National Chocolate Day? Did you further know that it’s celebrated today, on July 7?

Kinder National Chocolate Day

Not only is National Chocolate Day celebrated on July 7, but apparently it’s also celebrated on October 28, December 24 and on September 13 it’s INTERnational Chocolate Day. In other words, you’re gonna need a lot of Kinder Surprise Eggs!

Conveniently, our good friends at Kinder Canada will be hosting giveaways all summer long. Don’t forget to check in on the Kinder Canada Facebook page for your chance to win. They’ll also be introducing Free Family Fun Fridays, with ideas and inspiration on fun and free things families can do together. Free family fun and chocolate? How could I resist?

In celebration of free and families and chocolate, I’d like to share a coupon for a three pack of Kinder Surprise Eggs in an unofficial giveaway. If you’d like to win, just leave a comment below telling me your favourite way to eat chocolate. In a cake? Chocolate fondue? Triple chocolate cookies? Do you like it melty or hard and cold straight from the fridge? I’ll pick one random winner from all comments posted before noon on Friday July 10. You must leave a valid e-mail address and be willing to privately share your mailing address with me to win.

Have fun celebrating National Chocolate Day!

KinderBreakfast

DISCLOSURE: I’m a #KinderMom who is part of the KINDER® Canada influencer team. As part of my affiliation with KINDER® Canada, I am provided with special perks and products. I take responsibility for all opinions, puns and snack recommendations in this post.

Welcome our new bloggy sponsor: Points East Coastal Drive in Prince Edward Island!

You won’t be surprised how thrilled I am to welcome our newest bloggy sponsor: Points East Coastal Drive in beautiful Prince Edward Island! You don’t have to go very far back in my archives to see how madly in love we fell with PEI, and working with Points East Coastal Drive seemed like a perfect partnership – and gives me another excuse to talk about how amazing PEI is all the livelong day.

When we were planning our summer trip to PEI last year, we didn’t know anything about the Island. However, a bit of research revealed that the eastern side of PEI was a little more rural, a little more laid-back, and with an old-fashioned charm. In fact, the cottage we chose near Murray Harbour was at pretty much the south-easternmost point of the Island, and we spent the vast majority of our blissful week exploring the villages and attractions along the Points East Coastal Drive.

All of our favourite spots were in the Points East Coastal Drive region. Panmure Island:

PEI revisited

Basin Head:

Souris and Basin Head PEI

Georgetown:

Adventures in PEI

St Peter’s Bay and PEI National Park at Greenwich:

Adventures in PEI

And of course, Souris:

At the Flavour Shack

We loved everything about this region – the red dirt roads cutting through rolling green fields, the breathtaking coastlines, the friendly and welcoming Islanders. And when we booked our 2015 summer vacation, we knew we wanted to stay in the Points East Coastal Drive region.

If you’re considering a summer getaway this year, I can’t say enough good things about the Points East Coastal Drive and the terrific resources they have to help plan your vacation. Need a place to stay? They have a list of accommodations as well as some package deals. If you’ve already booked your cottage but are looking to plan your adventure (this is my favourite part of vacation planning!) check out the day trips and discovery drives.

Or you could do what we did: choose a loose destination or direction, and follow the happy starfish signs along the road that map the Points East Coastal Drive to guide you to your next adventure!

Want more information? You can order a free Points East Coastal Drive Tour Map and the Prince Edward Island Visitor’s Guide from the Points East Coastal Drive site. And can I tell you that the printed map is the Best! Map! Ever! We love to explore and hate to take the same route twice, and this paper map was 1000x more useful than any app. In fact, crumpled and marked with coffee stains and sand and sunscreen though it was, it remains one of my favourite souvenirs from our trip last summer.

Hey, I just realized we’ll be arriving in PEI exactly three months from today. Time to get serious about our vacation obsessing planning! 🙂

So, who else is going to PEI this summer?

Celebrating the Eggiest holiday of them all with Kinder Surprise

It has been a long, late winter, hasn’t it? Relentless cold, snow still piled high – at least that’s what it’s been like in my end of Canada. Have faith, though, my bloggy friends, because spring is coming and Easter is a scant two and a half weeks away. And what says Easter treats better than a Kinder Surprise egg?

Image: Where do Kinder eggs from from? Eggplants, of course

To celebrate spring, Kinder Canada has a new app and contest running on their Facebook page through March 31. Tap to unwrap the egg and you will either be an instant prize winner (two instant-win prizes of a $50 Kinder Easter basket available each day) or see a message encouraging you to try again. Every time you tap to unwrap, you’ll be entered into a grand prize draw for a $3,000 gift card. The app is quite cute – Lucas was sitting beside me the first time I tried it and he thought it was pretty cool. And I like that although it’s a Facebook app, you don’t have to jump through the usual hoops to allow a ridiculous amount of permissions on your account.

Also on the app, you’ll find craft and activity ideas that you may find helpful to keep kids engaged during March Break or until the weather finally warms up enough to break out the bicycles and sidewalk chalk.

You know where I’ve really found Kinder Surprise Eggs to come in handy this year? In the loot bags for the boys’ birthday parties. I’ve always been vaguely resentful of the entire concept of loot bags – you invite a kid to a party, give him a fun experience and some food, and then a parting gift for showing up. I get that it’s supposed to be a token to say thank you for coming, but at some parties the boys have attended they’ve come home with loot bags worth more than the gift they brought. So I don’t want to spend a lot, I don’t want to seem ungrateful and abandon the idea of loot bags entirely, but I don’t want to send the kids home with dollar store crap that I would probably throw away anyway. Solution? Kinder Surprise eggs for everyone! I’ve yet to meet a kid who didn’t like them, and we pair them with a small but meaningful token – in the case of Lucas’ party, it was a pack of pencil crayons and the t-shirt the kids had created during the party.

Of course, it’s also handy to have Kinder Eggs in the house when you’re looking for a snack and just can’t put your finger on what will satisfy the craving. 😉



DISCLOSURE: I’m a #KinderMom who is part of the KINDER® Canada influencer team. As part of my affiliation with KINDER® Canada, I am provided with special perks and products. I take responsibility for all opinions, puns and snack recommendations in this post.

A dozen reasons Kinder eggs are better than chicken eggs — with bonus yolks, I mean jokes!

Some blog posts are more fun to write than others, and I had WAY too much fun collaborating with Beloved and all three boys on this one. And then I had TWICE as much fun creating the visuals.

Blog post title graphic: One dozen reasons why kinder eggs are better than chicken eggs

(A dozen! Get it? Cuz they’re eggs? I slay me. Just wait, it gets better!)

Let’s do this countdown style. One dozen reasons why Kinder Surprise eggs are better than chicken eggs:

12. Because the white inside a Kinder Surprise egg is not slimy.


11. Because people are delighted when you surprise them with the gift of a Kinder egg.
(Not so much with the chicken egg.)

10. Because chicken eggs don’t have toys inside!
Here’s a look at some of the new toys in the classic eggs for 2015! (There’s 50 new toys in each of the classic and pink eggs!)



9. Because you can keep a Kinder Surprise egg stashed in your glove compartment or work desk drawer or other hidey hole and they won’t spoil.


8. Because a Kinder Surprise egg makes a much more compelling bribe reward than a chicken egg.


7. Because Kinder eggs don’t come from a chicken’s, um, chicken parts.


5. Because it’s easier to share a freshly unwrapped Kinder Surprise egg with your brothers than a freshly cracked raw chicken egg.


4. Because Kinder Surprise toys are more fun to play with than yolks. Seriously, it’s no yolk!

Did someone say yolk, I mean joke?

Riddle: What do you do if your Kinder Surprise egg is upside down?

Where were we? Right – countdown! Top three reasons why Kinder eggs are better than chicken eggs:

3. Because you don’t have to cook a Kinder Surprise egg before you eat it.


2. Because you don’t have to spend five minutes trying to pick out slippery and evasive bits of shell when you unwrap a Kinder Surprise egg.

And the number one reason why Kinder Surprise eggs are better than chicken eggs? BECAUSE THEY’RE CHOCOLATE!!

What’s that? You want more jokes? Of course I have more jokes!

Riddle: Where do Kinder eggs from from? Eggplants, of course

Joke: Why should you never tease a kinder blogger? Because they can't take a yolk.

Craving a Kinder Surprise egg of your own? Who could blame you! If you aren’t already, follow Kinder Canada on Facebook, because they’ll be celebrating Games and Puzzle Week from January 26 to 30 with prizes and giveaways!

DISCLOSURE: This post was not endorsed by chickens. Also, I’m a #KinderMom who is part of the KINDER® Canada influencer team. As part of my affiliation with KINDER® Canada, I am provided with special perks and products. All thoughts, opinions and horrific exquisite puns are my own.

Anticipating holiday fun with new KINDER advent calendars – and a giveaway!

We love advent calendars. We have so many of them! The boys always get a Lego advent calendar to share, and they take turns opening each day’s treat. We usually get each boy one of those inexpensive cardboard advent calendars with the chocolate that always seems to taste vaguely of soap. And we have a little wooden tree that sits on a set of 24 wee boxes, and each day you open up one of the boxes to reveal a decoration to hang on the wee knobs on the tree. I have a hard time resisting new advent calendars, and would love one day to do the kind of fun “activity per day” advent calendars Andrea describes in this blog post.

I’m super excited about a new advent calendar we’ll have for this year. No more soap-flavoured chocolates! This year, we’re getting a KINDER advent calendar. Sorry boys, you’re going to have to add Mom to your sharing rotation!

And hooray, one of YOU will also be getting a KINDER advent calendar, if you win this fun Kinder Canada giveaway!

The prize pack includes:

  • One KINDER® Advent Calendar
  • One KINDER® Hollow Santa with SURPRISE®
  • One KINDER® SURPRISE® 100g Christmas egg
  • One KINDER® SURPRISE® MAXI 150g egg

Awesome, right? You want to win this one! Here’s the fine print:

  1. This is a giveaway for a KINDER gift basket, which includes an advent calendar, a hollow Santa with surprise, a KINDER Surprise Christmas egg, and a KINDER Surprise maxi egg. (Yum!) The approximate prize value is $32.
  2. To enter the giveaway, two steps are required. Please use the widget below and (a) visit the KINDER Facebook page and (b) leave a comment on this blog post telling me which holiday traditions you anticipate each year .
  3. ONE winner will be chosen at random from all entrants.
  4. This giveaway is open only to residents of Canada, excluding residents of Quebec. (sorry!)
  5. This giveaway will run until 11:59 pm EST on Saturday November 22, 2014.
  6. The contest winner will be required to provide a full name and complete mailing address to be shared with KINDER® for shipping purposes.
  7. While you may enter as many of the KINDER® contests as you like, you can only win once.

Now, let’s see if I can get this newfangled blog giveaway widget thing to work. (You kids and your modern contest widgets, I tell you. Back in my day, we used an Excel spreadsheet and counting on our fingers and toes to run a blog giveaway, and we liked it!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway of a KINDER prize pack

And now, speaking of sweet, how cute is this? Have you heard of “unboxing” videos? I was a little sketchy on the idea, but the boys certainly knew what I was talking about when I mentioned them. Here’s Simon, my little wanna-be YouTuber, in his UnBoxing debut!

He’s a natural, isn’t he? That was our first and only take. Way to take one for the team, Simon! 🙂

Edited to add: if you really REALLY want to win that KINDER prize pack (and who could blame you?) the amazing Alex has a list of all the participating blogs in this giveaway in her post so you can do a little link hopping for extra entries. You can enter on as many blogs as you like, but you can only win once.


DISCLOSURE: I’m a #KinderMom/Maman/Dad who is part of the KINDER® Canada influencer team. As part of my affiliation with KINDER® Canada, I am provided with special perks and products. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Fun bloggy news: I’m a KinderMom!

I remember getting Kinder eggs from my grandparents when I was a kid, just about the same time they first became available in Canada in the early 1980s. (Did you know the brand is 40 years old?) I was fascinated by the exotic milky white insides of the chocolate eggs, aside from loving the wee surprise inside. Though I’m not a huge fan of chocolate, the kids know when they have a Kinder egg they always have to save a bite of that light/milk chocolate combo for me. They’ve always been one of my favourite treats to give and to get.

That’s why I am happy to tell you that for the next year I’ll be working with Kinder Canada – I’m a Kinder Mom! The boys are, of course, absolutely delighted with the news.

I’m pretty happy about it too. Although I’ve bought a lot (seriously, a LOT!) of Kinder Surprise treats through the years, I had no idea about some of the fun things they’ve been up to. For instance, just last month they set an official Guiness World Record in Toronto for the most people unwrapping chocolate at the same time. And starting this month, you’ll find a whole new set of Kinder Surprise toys: there are eight different Transformers toys and ten Disney Fairies toys available in specially marked Kinder Surprise eggs, for a limited time only. Let me know if you see them in Ottawa – we’ve been hunting high and low for them!

The folks at Kinder Canada are all about the family fun, which seemed like another wonderful reason to partner with them on this year’s campaign. Feeling like a little online fun? Try the Kinder Smile booth app on the Kinder Canada Facebook page. You can take photos using your smartphone or webcam, or upload existing photos, and turn them into a #kindersmiles photobooth strip, like the one above! (I’m pretty sure some cities have actual Kinder Photo Booth locations where you can do this in real life, but I don’t think there is one here in Ottawa.)

For a little more tactile fun, Kinder has partnered with Curiosity Box and they’re offering a limited edition Kinder SmileBox including crafts, activity ideas and more. I got a sample pack to play with and we are having a LOT of fun with the photo booth props. Just ask Kerry’s family! 😉

So, TL;DR: smiles, chocolate, family activities, chocolate, silly photo fun, chocolate, happy boys (and Beloved!) and chocolate. You can see why I didn’t hesitate to join the Kinder Canada family, right? 🙂 More Kinder fun, and maybe even some treats to share, coming up soon – stay tuned!

DISCLOSURE: I’m a #KinderMom/Maman/Dad who is part of the KINDER® Canada influencer team. As part of my affiliation with KINDER® Canada, I am provided with special perks and products. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Chef Michael Smith’s new Family Meals cookbook: a review and giveaway!

So I may have mentioned (cough cough) that I’ve become something of a fangirl of Chef Michael Smith lately. But please believe me when I tell you that even if I weren’t already predisposed to great affection for the towering chef from PEI, I would still rate his new Family Meals cookbook as the best one I have ever owned.

I was lucky enough to receive a free copy from Penguin Canada, and it arrived in the mail this weekend. How much do I love it? Let me count the ways!

  1. I love the emphasis on family. From lunchbox ideas to sharing tasks in the kitchen to appealing to finicky kid palettes, this is a cookbook written by a dad who happens to be a chef and who is passionate about cooking for and with family.
  2. It’s real food, and not even a little bit scary. I’ll admit it, we have very simple tastes and are collectively a little bit suspicious of foods we don’t know. While there are a few exotic ingredients here and there, mostly there are recipes for foods you and your family will love, like pancakes and street tacos and smoothies and baked beans and pulled pork and beef stew… it may be possible that I’m drooling just perusing the index again.
  3. The meals are quick and generally uncomplicated. While I am an initiate to life’s school of cooking, and I’m gradually building up my comfort level, I still don’t have the time or interest on a busy weeknight to invest hours on complicated processes. I’m sure the vast majority of these meals could be made in 45 minutes or less including prep time – which is just about exactly my attention span for anything in the kitchen – and I love that tips are woven into the sidebars on many of the recipes.
  4. He consistently emphasizes meals made from fresh, real ingredients sourced locally when available. This is so important to our family right now – meals made from food, not processed junk.
  5. I can think of no better proof that this cookbook was made with me in mind than finding not one, not two, but THREE of my own go-to recipes, but made oh so much better. Let’s just say those of you who look forward to an annual batch of home-made peanut brittle at Christmastime are in for a delightful surprise!

We’ve had this cookbook for less than a week and have already made a few of the recipes. Beloved whipped up a batch of Weekend Pancakes within the first 24 hours, and I kid you not, they were the best pancakes I’ve ever had. (Oh the hyperbole, I know – but I can’t help myself. I am genuinely this excited!!) They were so good we ate them before I could take any photos. Luckily, the fine folks at Penguin Canada were more than happy to allow me to share this photo from the cookbook AND allow me to share the recipe for you here.

Photo courtesy of Penguin Canada.

In the cookbook, Chef Michael charmingly divides the ingredient list into “Kid 1: the dry ingredients” and “Kid 2 (or parent): the wet ingredients,” just one of the many ways he encourages both cooking and eating to be a family affair. Here’s the recipe more or less exactly as it appears in the cookbook:

Chef Michael Smith’s Weekend Pancakes

Kid 1: The Dry Ingredients
1 cup (250 ml) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup (250 ml) whole-wheat flour
1 cup (250 ml) quick-cooking rolled oats
2 tablespoons (30 ml) baking powder
1 teaspoon (5 ml) nutmeg or cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon (2 ml) salt

Kid 2 (or parent): The Wet Ingredients
2 expertly cracked eggs
2 cups (500 ml) of any milk (dairy or otherwise)
2 tablespoons (30 ml) of vegetable oil or melted butter, plus more for the pan
2 tablespoons (30 ml) honey
1 teaspoon (15) pure vanilla extract

“While the kids get out bowls and measure the wet and dry ingredients, heat your largest, heaviest skillet or griddle over medium-high heat. Gas, electric, induction or campfire – strive for that magical mark just past halfway, where food sizzles and browns without burning.

“Share the whisk so you don’t have to wash two of them. First whisk the dry ingredients together, then give the wet team a turn. Switch to a wooden spoon and gradually stir the wet into the dry, letting everybody stir the works a bit and not worrying whether the batter will be mixed wrong. Just make sure the batter is evenly combined.

“Coat your hot pan with a swirl of vegetable oil. Spoon in the batter, filling the pan with any size or shape of pancakes. Cook until the bottom of every last pancake is golden brown before flamboyantly flipping the flapjacks. Continue cooking for a few minutes longer until the pancakes are firm. If need be, keep warm in a 200F (100C) oven while you repeat with the remaining batter, dealing with pancakes like you’re working the Vegas strip. Devour with lots of decadently melted butter and of course a long pour of real maple syrup – none of that Auntie-artificial corn syrup stuff for these high-grade pancakes. Serve and share!”

The oats and the addition of some whole wheat flour gives these a wonderfully nutty taste and substantial texture. Try them and let me know what you think!

I feel like my culinary horizons have expanded exponentially in the past year or two. Rather than seeing meal preparation as a chore to be endured, I am really starting to enjoy my time in the kitchen. Cooking real, wholesome food for and with your family is way, way easier than I could have ever imagined. Heh, turns out you can teach an old dog new tricks! 😉

Edited to add: wheeeeee, thanks to the fine folks at Penguin Canada I have an extra copy to give away! How would YOU like to win your very own copy of Family Meals? Just leave a comment on this post telling me your go-to family favourite meal.

Here’s the fine print:

  1. This is a giveaway for a copy of Chef Michael Smith’s new Family Meals cookbook. Trust me, you want to win this one!
  2. To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment on this post (not on Facebook, must appear on danigirl.ca/blog) telling me your favourite family meal – no takeout, no pre-made frozen meals, no boxes. Real food meals please!
  3. One winner will be chosen at random from all comments posted.
  4. This giveaway is open only to residents of Canada, excluding residents of Quebec. (sorry!)
  5. This giveaway will run until 11:59 pm EDT on Friday August 22, 2014.
  6. If you win, you must be willing to share your contact information with me so I can arrange for delivery of the cookbook. Please leave a valid e-mail address in your comment – e-mails will not be used for any other purpose.

Disclosure: Thanks to Chef Michael Smith’s team and Penguin Canada. I love this cookbook, and the opinions in this post are 100% genuine.

Edited (again!) to add: Thank you to all who entered, but the contest is now closed. Congratulations to Jessa, lucky #13. Please check your e-mail!