Your guide to activities and fun things to do with your preschoolers, toddlers and kids in toronto, CN

Yummiest Web Resources for Cooking Inspiration

by Katie

April 27, 2009

Cooking inspiration is something I pretty much need daily. I wish I was more creative in the kitchen but I seriously need help in order to make a plain meal into something magical. Or at least desirable. Or even edible.

Back before the days of Gigi, I used to have all the time in the world to watch cooking shows (and a whole lot more television plus read books! Without pictures even!) But those came to an abrupt halt when she became aware of the television during those marathon nursing sessions and I thought I’d better curb it now lest she becomes addicted.

Enter my current day life-saving ring: the Internet.

These days I rely heavily on the web to bring me that same cooking magic as the televsion, where a chicken dish can go from plain chicken to lemon garlic chicken or a fast-prep / cook family favorite, salsa chicken

All Recipes has the handy ingredients search function which is great when I know I’ve got something with all this stuff in the fridge and pantry, I just don’t know what.

The kitchn is an offshoot of Apartment Therapy and it has a recipe section that hasn’t let me down yet. The photos make me drool and I want to make this Hot Pink Raspberry Cake right now. And um, YUM I say when I salivate over these goat Cheese Pops with Herbs, Pecans, & Bacon. Gigi would like them because they are cheese lollipops.

Another site that makes me want to whip out my mezzaluna and start chopping up fresh herbs, David Rocco. His show on the Food Network always made me hungry and the images on the site are enticing. I have never wanted frittata more after seeing his ‘Clean out the Fridge” Frittata; he makes it seem so easy.

But, my first stop whenever I’m stumped and just need to look at yummy food to get the kick start, I turn to a site the brings all the beautiful food together: Tastespotting. Tastespotting is a community driven blog or as they refer to it, a community driven visual potluck. It allows the reader to just drool over the photos, or jump to the original post or search by categories or popularity. And yes, it has a recipe section. Because the site always links back to the original recipe or post about the featured food, I find myself falling down a rabbit hole of cooking blogs that are thankfully calorie-free.

What can I say, I like to look at food p*rn, the more fat and sugar, the more I drool.

Veggie Recipes My Kid Will Try

by Katie

April 13, 2009

It wouldn't be exactly true to say my daughter is a fussy eater because she will try almost anything at least once and she loves a pretty good variety of foods. That said, she also isn’t the easiest child to feed because as far as I can tell, her taste buds appear to have multiple personalities. Not to mention when it comes to nutritious foods, it would be more accurate to say that sweets rules her tummy. She will do many things for candy, and don’t think I don’t use that candy/dessert reward leverage to gain entry for nutritious items likes of vegetables on a fairly regular basis. I like to call it reward, not a bribe (or at least that’s what I keep telling myself.)
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It's important to me!

by Katie

January 06, 2009

Three has presented some interesting challenges in parenting. And when I say interesting challenges, I mean to say: Three has presented some of the most frustrating and head-butting moments in my history as a parent. But I say that with love - no really, I do. Don't get me wrong: I find Three a lot of fun and so far this year has been full of all sorts of amazing magical parenting moments. But  Read more...

Not a babysitter to be found this New Year's Eve

by Katie

December 29, 2008

We do not have a baby sitter this New Year's Eve, nor do we have concrete plans, so what the heck are we going to do? Personally, I think the evening deserves some kind of recognition because it is the perfect time to declare some resolutions and it might as well be done with a bang ( though most of those declared resolutions are bust within a day or week ). In the past, New Year's involved  Read more...

Festival of Lights

by Katie

December 22, 2008

Today marks the first day of Hanukkah and last week, Gigi and I enjoyed a big plate of yummy latkas with apple sauce and sour cream while one of her classmate's mom taught us all about how her family celebrates Hanukkah. We sat around the nine-branched Menorah, lighting the shamash (Hebrew for "guard") candle in the middle and then one candle to represent each night of Hanukkah. After each  Read more...

Inspiring gifts that you can only get in Toronto

by Katie

December 16, 2008

To steal a much abused phrase, the following gift ideas that I'm going to suggest for this holiday season, are the kind of gifts "that keep on giving" ( or at least, they keep on giving for the next year ) and they are also all specific to Toronto. Yes, I'm talking memberships to really interesting, fun, family-friendly or kid-friendly places in Toronto. The Royal Ontario Museum was the first  Read more...

Toys! toys! toys!

by Katie

December 02, 2008

Sure, I say that I don't want Christmas to be all about toys but let's face it - toys are fun and they make Christmas morning extra special. I've gone through the Savvy Source Toy catalogue and picked out Gigi's top five favourite picks of toys that she already has at her disposal. I thought I'd share them with you - in case you need some shopping inspiration for the preschooler on your list:  Read more...