Delicious dinner in 20!

What a beautiful looking dinner!

Today is the first time in 4 nights that our family has sat down together for dinner.  Between hockey and ringette evaluations, work, school and all the other "normal" stuff that still has to happen (meal planning, laundry, cleaning), it has been a bit of a difficult week.  Miraculously we had nothing on the go tonight.   What to do with ground dark turkey, tomatoes, cucumbers and tzatziki in my fridge?  Lets go Greek tonight!   After a quick stop at the grocery for fresh pita and olives, its show time!

Once I got home, of course I had to cuddle the puppy first and take her for our ritual walk down the hill to meet hubby.  By the time I got started, it was close to 6:15.....and honest to goodness, we were sitting and eating dinner by 6:35 pm.

Yummmmm!

Here's what you do:

1 lb ground dark turkey + spices

1 tomato, diced

3 mini cucumbers (or equivalent), diced

1 orange pepper, diced

olives (optional, but why not??)

tzatziki

pita

Preheat a pan with 2 TBSP of  vegetable oil. 

When you think Greek...think of the spices you have in your pantry that will work.  I had fresh garlic, dried rosemary, adobo (from Epicure) and seasoning salt.   Quickly mix together the dark turkey with your spices.  Once mixed, place turkey in preheated pan and let it sizzle! Even if you just have garlic, oregano and sea salt and pepper...you are good to go!

Chop up your veggies (or in my case, kindly request your 12 year old daughter to do the chopping and at the same time, get your 14 year old son to set the table).  

Love this tzatziki from Costco

For the pita, if you want it to be soft and warm....run it under the tap for a few seconds and then quickly heat in a non stick pan.

Presto!  Dinner is ready!  Table is set!  Veggies are chopped!






The fact that my tablecloth looked Greek was completely coincidental!   Delicious!   

Suddenly September...

September.

First, on Sunday, it was 25 degrees...did my perennial planting,
Got some great sun, had the neighbours over....good times....

While I love the fall, falling back into September pretty much sucks.  Gone are the whimsical days of summer, and we are forced back into a rigid routine, ditching our flip flops for proper shoe-ware, and telling ourselves that we need to cut back on all the wine and cheese we feasted on over the summer (nothing good can come of this!).  

...then...this happened the
NEXT day! Its still summer!!!!

Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of great things about September...the fall is beautiful (well, not today in Calgary), the kids are back in school, and while they don't realize it, they DO thrive on structure. 

But, before I become to bitter and numb to the pain of September, it would be good to reflect on the wonderful summer we had, from east to west!    We did two weeks in Ontario for my cousins wedding,  with a side trip to Montreal (yes, got bagels AND 4 lb of smoked meat!).   What a great wedding (with a fab and sexy MC...me!), and just some much needed connection with my entire family.  Then we did two weeks out west and drove to Victoria, stayed with my hubby's bro and his wonderful family. On our way back we stopped for our annual week at Mara Lake, which was fantastic, as usual!

Summer recap!

Went out for Ben and Sandy's wedding....what a great
picture of my hubby and I!  Brown Goddess indeed!

And more brown!!!!  Love this pic of my sis and some cousins!

Got to see my dad and two sisters!!!  
Wish we did not live so far apart!!!!

Wedding time.....check out the MC and her
main squeeze!

Mommy and daughter...love it!

Nanee and Noah!

Fun times with my mom and aunt, my cousin and daughter!

BC ferries!  Off to Victoria!

Love this pic of my son and I!

Tea at the Empress with my
sister-in-law and daughter....and she loved EVERY minute!

Simply delicious!

Me driving a boat at Mara Lake!   Who woulda thought???

Ahhhh...back to school....Grade 7 and 9!  Wha???????

Katy!!!!!!  We love Katy!!!!!!!  What a great show!

Here's to summer!    Bring on the fall (I guess).   I did get a great gift from my sister-in-law which I have now decided (after writing this blog post),  I will use to survive September...."Fifty Excuses for Wine"...here is one of my faves....

Love this......it's the only way to survive September....
how many days til Thanksgiving???