Lemon Spaghetti…With Shrimp

IMG_0219It’s the summertime and I want to be outside as much as possible, meaning I want to be in the kitchen as little as possible!  Enter lemon spaghetti with shrimp. It’s one of my go-to meals because it takes less than 30 minutes to prepare.  Plus, I always have shrimp in the freezer.  My family loves this dish and I make it a couple of times a month.

I first saw this recipe on Everyday Italian with Giada de Laurentiis on the Food Network.  I must have talked about the show a lot because that Mother’s Day, I received Giada’s Everyday Italian cookbook.

A few months later, we were visiting my sister-in-law and I made lemon spaghetti for dinner when company was coming.  Everybody loved it, down to the toddler who ate only the lemon spaghetti!  It’s still a favorite at my sister-in-law’s house.

IMG_0216The recipe is so easy that you don’t really need the book.  I play around with the measurements sometimes and it still tastes great every time.

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Vancouver and Maui…Work, Then Play!

Ka'anapali Beach (Maui) with the island of Lanai in the background
Ka’anapali Beach (Maui) with the island of Lanai in the background

It seems that summer vacation has taken over my blog because I haven’t posted in about six weeks!  So, it’s no surprise that this post is about our recent trip to Vancouver and Maui.

Because I plan any family trips we take, I get to ultimately decide (with some input from my husband and kids, of course) what we do.  This puts quite a bit of pressure on me, but it’s always worth it and my family tells me that they see more than most people do in any given city!  Admittedly, I tend to cram a lot into each day.

One of the things that works for us is to sightsee first and then end up on a beach somewhere where we can just relax.  I’m sure many people do this.  It just makes sense to get the walking and touring out of the way, knowing that the reward is some serious downtime.

In mid-June this year, we went to Vancouver and Maui.  It wasn’t the original plan, but an itinerary change beyond our control allowed us to sneak in a few days in Vancouver before hitting the beach.  Here’s what we did.

Vancouver from Grouse Mountain
Vancouver from Grouse Mountain

Vancouver
To get to Maui from Toronto, there are no direct flights, so you have to stop somewhere along the way.  My husband and I had been to Vancouver many years ago and the stop in Vancouver was the perfect opportunity to visit again and take the kids to see the west coast of Canada. Continue reading

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