What's For Dinner: Speedy Snapper Soup

Mmm...this was delicious! There's something about a big pot of super-healthy soup with lots of fresh colourful veggies that makes me happy! We had a nice 60% whole wheat baguette to go with it and it was perfect.

This recipe is from one of my very favourite cookbooks – More Six O'Clock Solutions: Fast and Easy Dinner for Family and Friends by Ruth Phelan and Brenda Thompson (the first book, Six O'Clock Solutions, is also excellent but doesn't have any nutritional information). The books are from local authors, so I always know I will be able to find the ingredients, and they're interesting and fresh-tasting without being too "weird" or time-consuming.

I've been trying to find ways to sneak more fish into our diets, because I know it's good for us, but I find it tough. First, fish is expensive!! There's no way we can eat it twice a week as recommended and still stay within our food budget. On top of that, neither Jeff nor Amanda is a huge fan...they'll eat it but they never seem all that thrilled with it. Soup is turning out to be a good way to fit it in, and there's no stinky fishy smell afterwards either!

I actually made this with frozen tilapia fillets, because the snapper that was in this week's Save-On-Foods flyer (which I plan my meals around) was not available...something that always makes me very angry! I hate it when I try to plan my budget around the flyer and then they don't bring in enough of the sale items!

Speedy Snapper Soup
From More Six O'Clock Solutions: Fast and Easy Dinner for Family and Friends by Ruth Phelan and Brenda Thompson

1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 carrots, diced (I used big carrots and peeled them)
2 stalks celery, sliced
3 cups chicken stock (I used low-salt)
2 cans (398 mL each) Italian-style stewed tomatoes
1 large potato, cut into 1" pieces
1 lb snapper fillets, cut into 1" pieces (I used tilapia)
2 cups coarsely chopped fresh spinach
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper

In large heavy saucepan, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onion, carrots, and celery; saute for 4 minutes or until onion is tender. Add stock, tomatoes, and potato. Bring to boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes or until potatoes are almost tender. Add snapper and simmer, uncovered, for 3 minutes. Stir in spinach and parsley; cook for 2 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. Add salt and pepper to taste.

4 large servings; each 306 calories, 6.8 g fat; excellent source of iron, magnesium, phosphorus, and vitamins A, B6, B12, C, niacin, and folate; high in fibre

(I will have to start taking photos of the especially yummy meals...this one was very pretty!).

Food Fun

One of the biggest struggles I've had since becoming a mom is getting dinner on the table every night. This didn't use to be a problem for me at all - when Jeff and I were first married and for several years afterwards, I was an avid reader of Bon Appetit and other cooking magazines and used to try interesting new recipes and cooking techniques almost every night. Of course, I also had a lot more time for cooking...something that seems to be mysteriously lacking in my life these days!

One thing I have learned about myself is that for dinner to happen, there must be a plan. I adopted my mom's system of doing meal planning and grocery lists, and as long as I can manage to make a plan for the week and then actually get to the grocery store, things work out OK. But planning is very time consuming, and many weeks it just doesn't happen. Then we are forced to scrounge for dinner, which I hate! I find it so tedious to have to think every night about what we're going to eat, and try to put something together out of what's in the house. We are pretty good about keeping the freezer stocked with meat staples, but I'm not great at replacing what I use out of the pantry, and of course fresh vegetables are difficult when you haven't been to the store in awhile!

I was speaking last night with another mom from Amanda's preschool and we were laughing about this – it seems we have very similar "desperation meals" for when groceries are running low – some kind of meat (often Shake 'n' Bake Chicken) with a pot of rice and vegetables from the freezer or a can. At least I know I'm not the only one! No, technically there isn't anything wrong with a meal like this, but I sure get tired of having it any more often than once in awhile.

Since Sam arrived, we've struggled to get on a regular schedule of meal planning and grocery shopping, and our energy, waistlines, and budget (from far too much eating out and picking up) have been evidence of this! In the last couple of weeks I've been slowly getting back on track and we've been eating pretty healthily for the most part. We all do feel much better when we're eating at home most of the time, and with fresh ingredients rather than the "pop in the oven" pre-made foods that were a staple for those first few months.

As a kind of motivation to keep going with it, I thought I would post once in awhile about what we've been eating. Definitely not every night, but as a reminder to ourselves of the kinds of meals we all enjoy! Plus, maybe it will serve as inspiration when I'm in the midst of meal planning and nothing sounds interesting...

Reason #214 That Amanda is Kind of Strange

Amanda loves fruit of all kinds - so much that her Grandpa (who is also a big fruit lover) always brings her little treats of different kinds of fruit. Recently he's been bringing over the little honey mandarin oranges and she loves them! But for some bizarre reason, whenever she eats one, she has a very strange ritual.

She peels the whole thing, then sticks her ring finger through the middle and wears it like a ring. Then she dances around the room singing/chanting "Mexican ring, Mexican ring" in a very odd voice, kind of like some preschooler thrash metal singer.

We have absolutely no idea where this little tradition came from, but she does it every single time.

Weird, yes, but man do we love that kid!

Disney Dreams

So, unbeknownst to Amanda, we have booked tickets for the four of us to go to Disneyland over Spring Break. Yahoo! Jeff and I are beyond excited, and it is so hard to keep the secret from Amanda. But we decided a month's notice was a bit too much for her, so we will tell her a week or so in advance (or as long as we can keep the secret!).

Amanda talks constantly about Disneyland - she has wanted to go for ages. For some reason they have been running tons of ads since the holidays, and every time she sees one she says how much she wants to go. We have talked about how we will go one day, but that it costs a lot of money so it's not something we can do whenever we want. A couple of weeks ago, as I was putting her to bed, she said "my only hope and dream is to go to Disneyland". So you can imagine how excited she will be!

Coincidentally, Jeff is also going to Anaheim this week for a conference, and his principal has allowed the group from his school to go down a day early (very nice of him!) so they will have a free day at Disneyland. (We have already decided that he will bring something back for Amanda, maybe an autograph book, that we can use to tell her we're going). Back to the point...Amanda knows that Daddy is going to Disneyland this week, and she is so envious!

The other day Jeff asked her what she would like him to bring back for her from Disneyland. Amanda thought for a moment, then, being the enterprising 4-year-old that she is, said "some money so I can go to Disneyland!".

Amanda's Recital

This year Amanda is in her second year of the Music for Young Children program. She goes to classes one evening a week at a studio run by a great local teacher. This year she is in the Sunshine II class, and we're constantly amazed by what they learn! A big focus this year has been learning "bridges" - C/G, B/G, and C/A. They can play a C major scale with the appropriate bridges for each note ("This is C with a C/G bridge; this is D with a B/G bridge; etc.) and have recently learned about the G major scale and what sharps are (they're doing flats and F major in the coming weeks). It's incredible to us that they are already learning the basics of harmony and theory - things that we didn't learn in our music classes for several years!

Today they had their first recital of the year, and Amanda was a total star!! Not only did she play her song very well, but it was a really difficult one to learn, with changing bridges in the left hand (something that no one else in her class did!). She always manages to select the hardest song of all the recital choices! What we love the best is that she is totally confident and doesn't even seem to get nervous - she just gets up and plays her song.

For once we are actually organized and have a video to post!! So here it is [glowing with pride]: