a peek inside the fishbowl

We have a winner! Thanks for your entries everyone!

There’s an event coming up that I thought some of you would like to hear about.

Churchill Alternative School Council and Dovercourt Recreation Centre are hosting a special fundraising event on Thursday February 16, 2012, 7:30 pm at Nepean High School…. An Evening with Dr. Gordon Neufeld, author of “Hold on to Your Kids.”

Dr. Neufeld is a Vancouver-based psychologist known for his work on peer orientation and how we can restore parenting to its natural intuitive basis. (Here’s a blurb about his book. It sounds pretty interesting.) I’m told that this is a rare opportunity to hear Dr. Neufeld speak, since most of his events are conferences and workshops for professionals.

Check out this YouTube clip from his DVD:

Tickets are $20/ person in advance; $25 at the door and can be purchased via Dovercourt’s online registration website at www.draregister.com (look for course #76642).

I am offering two pairs of tickets to two people. Interested? I’ll be doing a random draw for two names on February 9th at noon. Leave a comment below to qualify. Thank you!

We have had a bunch of those days lately. You know what I’m talking about, right? When menu planning has fallen by the wayside due to work/illness/stunning lack of motivation and the last thing you feel like doing is chopping veggies for a stir fry or slapping together a gee dee meat loaf.

It’s tempting to go the fast food route, it really is, but there are a few other things you can do to make a dinner that is a notch healthier.

1) Breakfast for dinner. It’s probably everyone’s standby. Last week we had bacon, scrambled eggs, chopped fresh cantaloupe, and something we like to call raisin-french-waffle-toast for dinner. (Basically, take some sliced grocery store raisin toast, dip in egg, and cook in a waffle iron. It is AMAZING. And the only way my eldest will eat egg.)

2) Grocery store roast chickens. I’ve written about this before. It’s amazing what you can do with a chicken or two. The other day we cut one up, simmered it in PC butter chicken sauce, and served it with basmati rice and store-bought naan bread (although you could make your own). Even the kids ate it. THE. KIDS. ATE. IT.

Butter chicken, the gateway dish to Indian food!

3) Shawarma. Mark and I are big fans of shawarma (a middle-eastern sandwich with a filling of seasoned chicken or beef, garlic mayonnaise, onion, tomato, pickled turnip and parsley among other things). In the past we’ve had take out from a place down the street and only bought hummus and pita for the girls. A couple weeks ago, on a whim, we decided to try their family meal and buy extra pita bread from a local middle-eastern corner store. It was so good I just about died. And there was So Much Food. We had it for dinner AND lunch the next day. It made a dozen sandwiches. I kid ye not.

Pictured below is just one of two huge trays:

The other one contained all the meat, rice, and roasted potato. It was a great meal and the kids really liked making their own sandwiches.

Which begs the question, where’s your favourite place to get shawarma in Ottawa?

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In related foodie news, I wanted to take a moment to tell you all about an exciting new gig. I am the new editor/content manager for a soon-to-be launched website called Recipes.ca. We’re on Twitter and Facebook and will soon be announcing our official launch. I’ve had lots of sneak peeks and I know this new site will be immensely popular with anyone who loves to eat. Like me. :) I hope you join us!

It’s day four at home with a feverish and flu-ridden kid. My to-do list is getting longer and I’m starting to get a little squirrely.

Thankfully, there’s this:

How can I be stressed when there’s someone willing to get a good ear scritching?

And in other news, I was picking up emergency supplies at the grocery store on Saturday and spotted an article I wrote on the cover of Our Homes Ottawa. It’s a profile of a really gorgeous home in Rockcliffe, a home with a history! You can read it here.

Now. Cross your fingers that I don’t get sick next! Gah.