I am going to start off saying I am by no means an expert at this next topic...heck I'm a rank amateur.  I am, however,  learning all I can about this topic and most of all I'm loving the process.  What am I talking about? sourdough bread making.  Huh? you say.  I started reading about this method of making bread quite innocently one night and I became obsessed with the idea.  You can actually make bread without commercial yeast added using only cultures that you grew on your own made out of water and flour.  My interest was peaked.

I started to Google this subject and was overwhelmed with the amount of information that exists on this subject and before long it was after midnight.  I printed off this detailed tutorial and filed it in my recipe binder under breads.  The next morning I woke up all bleary eyed but ready to tackle the exciting world of sourdough bread....How pathetic does that sound?  I found the perfect jar to house my little "pet yeast" in and mixed the required amount of 1 cup of water and 1 cup flour, gave it a good stir and set it on a ... Read More »

Like so many others I am sick of watching those numbers at the pumps climb higher and higher.  Although we don't go through as much gas as we used to living farther away from town, I am starting to look at ways to cut what little we do use.  Luckily my hubby works 3 miles from home but with the warm weather upon us he decided to be pro-active and ride his "then" non-existent bike back and forth to work.  Great idea! now we need that all important element to make this happen...a bike.  A quick look at Kijiij classified ads and we were one step closer to peddling our way to saving some moolah. By supper time Saturday we had the truck loaded with his and hers 21 speed mountain bikes, three helmets and a double stroller/bike trailer, all for $200.  

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  I have a love/hate relationship with plastic storage containers.  I love the ease and convenience for storing leftovers and other freezer bound goodies but I hate storing them, washing them and most of all the unhealthy (BPA) aspect of them.  I am trying to slowly wean myself off plastic but I still have an abundance kicking around and needed to come up with a way to organize it.  Past attempts failed miserably and always ended with me tossing ziploc freezables around like a mad woman, not pretty trust me.  Also somebody please help me solve the mystery as to why the tops always go missing?  Somewhere in this house is a large stash of single socks and Tupperware covers....

 

I started this transformation using 4 large Rubbermaid cont ... Read More »

My super talented photographer/scrapbooker friend Kathy is giving away the cutest book and cards for a bride to be. I don't know anyone at the moment getting married so if anybody does, check it out. 

While there check out her beautiful work, she took quite a few pictures of both my children and was blessed enough to have her there for a photo shoot for my last child hours after he was born.  I cherish these pictures every day and have them on my wall all over the house. 

Friday morning we (my wonderful husband) managed to snag a good deal on some chicken.  Saturday morning I woke up to a boatload of poultry that had to be dealt with so I set forth to tackle the job.  First I tossed all of the legs into a large pot to boil and once cooked I kindly asked my hubby to de bone the meat (a job I cannot stomach). He saved all of the remnants for a broth that I allowed to simmer all day combined with some veggies and seasonings.  With the cut up chicken I was able to make 2 meals of barbecue drumsticks with a home made barbecue sauce and a large casserole of chicken and stuffing casserole, 2 large portions of creamed chicken to top over rice plus 4 jars of broth for future meals. 

Monday - After spending the majority of the day Saturday and part of Sunday working in the garden, I wanted something quick and easy.  I decided to thaw one of the jars of broth and heat along with some margarine, flour, milk and spices to create a basic sauce.  I dumped in some frozen veggies and some leftovers skillet corn and topped it off with chunked frozen chicken breasts that I found in the back of the freezer.  I decided to serve this over some brown rice cooked in some broth and seasonings.

Tuesday - tuna buns and macaroni and tomatoes. This is so simple and involves mixin ... Read More »

 

For all you Canadians (and some fortunate Northern States) you are probably all too familiar with Tim Horton's.  This coffee shop franchise has the market around here and people say "you can't swing a dead cat by the tail without hitting a Tim Hortons"  All joking aside, you can find one of these at every intersection in every town and even have them strategically placed in the middle of nowhere...literally!.  I find this coffee phenomenon fascinating,  especially when morning "caffeine lacking" motorists think basic rules of the road do not apply when they proceed to block major intersections awaiting their turn at the mile long drive thru.  This place is also a popular hang out in winter where countless snow bound Maritimers flock to the nearest Timmies, drink numerous rounds of "Double Doubles" and complain about  the weather.  Seriously, what else is there to do in minus 20 and 8 feet of snow?  Come summer time we switch to caffeinated iced capps and continue to complain about, you guessed it,  the weather...and the influx of mosquitos.   

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We have been very busy landscaping and sprucing up the backyard and surrounding property.  Up until last year we looked like we were a test site for missiles and could not have imagined the yard looking presentable let alone beautiful.  It has been a huge undertaking and one that involved 80 dump truck loads of fill,  over a 100 bags of dirt, and countless hours to get where we are.  By no means are we ready for the cover of Better Homes and Gardens but we can now safely let the kids play outside without fear of losing them in a sinkhole. 

One of the main areas that we are trying to focus on is the vegetable garden.  This area is outlined using old split rail fencing that lines the driveway to the garage and behind that is a grove of trees whic ... Read More »

    

 

I am lucky in the fact that I have a small room off my kitchen that serves as the kids playroom.  It is conveniently located close enough that the kids are not too far yet a distance that allows me to get something done during the day...like eating.  The mess is contained (most of the times) to this area and cleans up in no time due to the system I implemented. 

Lucky for me my Dad is quite handy and built me this unit to stash away the TV, VCR and CD player. The numerous shelves are a perfect fit for all of the totes filled with small pieces of assorted toys.  This became especially important with the arrival of Dane and the fact that he puts anything and everything (edible or not) in his mouth.  These totes are labelled for specific items and Landon has been trained (brainwashed) early to take down few at a time making the task of cleaning up bearable. 

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Ok this tip is not unique nor earth shattering, but it makes a small part of my life a little easier.

I received this popular book for Christmas and although I started using it regularly I quickly lost my gusto.   I am not sure why,  I already had the purees made up for the baby, so why not incorporate them into some of the recipes?  I tried a couple, some were great and some were not so great (muffins) but I did get some great tips that I continue to use to this day. 

Ok, so many of you are going to lose a great deal of respect for me....here goes nothing....I feed my kids KD.  There I said it!  My son loves the stuff so much and I try to make it for him on occasion as a treat for lunch.    I took the advice of the author and tossed in this a couple of frozen butternut squash or sweet potato to add a little nutritional value to an otherwise over processed boxed meal.  He did not seem to notice anything, although he did look at it a little funny and knew something was up. (don't mess with a toddlers KD).  The one thing that I loved about this deceptive trick other than the obvious of feeding him a little bit of something healthy, I especi ... Read More »

  Monday - Chicken Fried Rice.  I love how Donna creates well rounded meals and spices up otherwise boring veggies (I can honestly say green beans are my least favourite veggie) after seeing how she jazzed these up I immediately wanted to give them a try. Tucked away in the back of my freezer I know I have some chunked chicken which will make this rice recipe a breeze.

Tuesday - Meatball sandwiches and peas.  It is amazing what you find in the freezer after months of not cleaning it out.  I found a large portion of prepared meatballs to add to some spaghetti sauce for an easy dinner of toasted meatball subs

Wednesday - Chicken and crock pot quinoa.  With my $3 off coupon at our local Bulk Barn I stocked up on some organic quinoa in the hopes of making this recipe.  After having this on my "to make" list I am finally going to give it a shot.

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