Sigh. New plate update.

Sooooooooooo.  Less than 2 months after buying our new plates, we have our first casualty.

And of course, it's on one of my favorites too. 

Movie night dinner

Do you have "special" family dinners - movie nights, game nights, party nights?

We mostly do movie nights, and sometimes we don't even get to the actual movie!  

For The Boy it's more about the snacks, the blanket and pillow beds on 

the floor and/or couch, and the dinner.

Our 2 special dinners for these nights are either pizza or nachos.  

The Boy prefers pizza because sometimes we get to eat it in the living room 

while watching the movie.  Pretty special.  

I usually prefer nachos because it's quicker than making pizza dough, and also?  Guacamole.  

I made some (what I thought were) killer nachos this weekend, but The Boy 

turned his nose up at them.  Not interested. 

 "I just don't like nachos anymore" he told me, which, ouch.  This is MY child???

So I guess I'm on the lookout for another Movie Night Meal.  

Or maybe nachos for us, and a PBJ for the nacho haters...

Double peanut butter muffins

I've had a large (LARGE) can of pumpkin puree in my cupboard for a few months.

Seriously, why do they need to make the cans so big???

It was time to use it or lose it, so I tried some flourless peanut butter muffins from the interwebs.

These are all about the chocolate and peanut butter.  And they are SO good!

I made them in regular size muffin tins, and added 1/2 tsp of salt.

They are fudgey and delicious and really good for breakfast with a glass of milk.

Recipe: Flourless double peanut butter chocolate muffins

11-16

I am so sad about the latest attack in Paris.  My heart aches for everyone.

I can't even fathom the pain that those involved and affected by this tragedy - and other horrific tragedies around the world - are suffering.

The world is truly in a terrible and frightening place right now.

Pray for Paris.  Pray for the refugees.  Pray for Japan.  Pray for Baghdad. 
Pray for those without water or food.

Pray for the World.

Pray for Peace.

11-15

11-14

Jean Jullien

Instagram Follow Friday - Week 2

 Here's this weeks 3 coolio accounts -

Joe Kwon of The Avett Brothers. Food and Music.

Emma Hansen is a BC born model and yoga teacher, among other things.  Emma suffered the loss of her son earlier this year, and has been documenting her journey on Instagram.  She inspired me to share a little bit about the loss of our daughter.

Chrissy Teigen is a model, blogger, cookbook author and tv host.  She is funny, creative, and doesn't give a rats ass what anyone thinks.

Morning photo

This photo contains 3 things I love -

Smoothies

Bacon and scrambled eggs with seasoned salt

My new daily journal

I'd like to think I'm a fairly organized person, but I'm not.  

I'd like to think I have a good memory, which is also not true.

I feel like I am constantly forgetting things, which sadly is VERY true, so I was quite interested when I happened across some information on Bullet Journaling. There is way too much to say about it, but it's a system - a flexible system - of organizing a notebook into keeping your appointments, tasks, goals, lists, pretty much whatever you want to track.

I bought myself a $1.25 notebook and $1.00 worth of small labels at the dollar store to get started.  Then I read some posts over at Miss Zoot, thought about what my goals were with this system, and got started.  I made myself a page for goals/tasks for the month, some pages for notes I think I'll use (Stuff to Know, Gift Ideas, Movies to see, Books to Read), and then a section for daily happenings.  

 

I've been using the notebook for just under a month now and I'm so happy with it.  I use a couple of elastic bands to keep it shut and throw it in my purse so I've always got it with me in case I need to add something.  (Which I did yesterday!  I felt so grown up pulling it out and adding a note.  Go me.)

I try to remember to check it every morning for not only that day, but the week.  

I definitely feel more organized and while I still don't accomplish as much as I'd like in the timeliest of manners, I'm feeling more like I've got a hold of things, and that's important to me.  

Check out Miss Zoot's posts, and there's tons of stuff (obvs) if you google bullet journal.

If you're super creative or artistic, check out pinterest too. 

11/11

Be willing

Games

Do you like board games?

When I was a kid I didn't play much - my friends and I could always find something 

more exciting to do; I am an only child, and my parents weren't much into them. 

I loved The Game of Life, and Big Bucks (Canadian Monopoly) and of course, Trivial Pursuit.  My absolute favorite was called Mystery Mansion, where you had to build a house and search for treasure.  Ah, I wish I still had that one.  How could I have gotten rid of it???

The Mister and I used to have a games night with another couple years and years back, once a month.  We'd alternate board games with card games.

We used to take cards and games camping too.

I've always dreamed of playing board games with my kids, and The Boy is showing some interest in actually playing the games, not just flinging the pieces everywhere.

We bought him the Minion version of Trouble in the summer, but man that game can take forever , and the opportunity of sending your opponents back to start over doesn't sit well with him, unless he's the one sending someone back.

I picked up Junior Monopoly last weekend, and we gave it a try.  It was fun, straightforward, and pretty quick to play, so the game was over before his attention span gave out.

Do you play family board games?  What are your favorites?  

Are you a lenient player, or a cutthroat, win at all costs one?

Gratitude

Today I am grateful for

The Mister and how much he loves me and our family

My Children

Yoga class, and my teacher

The sunshine

A new day

What are you grateful for today?

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds, too late for this year

How do you feel about pumpkin seeds? 

I'm pretty iffy on them myself. I always seem to tire of them 

before they're done, and The Mister is not a fan. 

The Boy isn't either, but he begged me to roast some this year.  

I was reaching for the olive oil when I decided to jazz things up and use coconut oil instead.

Coconut oil is a big deal superfood, but it's also really delicious.

A friend of mine who cooks a lot of curries always cooks her meat in coconut oil 

rather than canola or olive. I've started doing that now, and sometimes with our veggies too.

Roast your washed and dried pumpkin seeds in a 350' oven with some coconut oil and a sprinkle of salt.  Cook for 10 minutes, remove and stir, then return to the oven for another 5 to 10

 minutes until colored and fragrant.

Or just come over to my house for all the pumpkin seeds that no one here is eating.  Sigh.

Instagram Follow Friday - Week 1

I have a small Instagram addiction.  I love checking it a few times (ahem) a day.

Here's 3 of my favorite accounts I follow:

David Lebovitz- Mega food blogger.  Records his life in Paris and his travels elsewhere. 

Big Gal Yoga- I love this account!  Not only does Val rock yoga, she's also confidant and super inspiring.

Fowl Language Comics - If you have kids, this will make you say "It me."

Waffled Pumpkin Cinnamon Buns

I impulse purchased a can of pumpkin cinnamon rolls last month 

and then they sat and sat in the fridge. 

My family doesn't have much of a sweet tooth, and I really shouldn't make sweet stuff 

because they don't eat it, and then I feel like I have to, and I shouldn't. 

 I had a eureka moment - I remembered multiple posts on Pinterest 

about cooking cinnamon buns in waffle makers. 

Why the heck not. 

I heated up the ole waffle maker and sprayed it down with cooking spray.

The buns were separated and slightly squished, and then tossed on the iron.

They didn't take long to cook - 4 minutes or so.  

We spread some of the included icing on them and dug in.

They were fun, and good.  The Boy thought they were hilarious, and ate his up, so that was a bonus.

I wouldn't run out and buy another can to make these next weekend, but if I did impulse purchase another tin, this would be in the running.

Hearts for breakfast

I was pretty pleased with this breakfast - coconut yogurt, chopped strawberries, and hemp hearts.

Have you tried hemp hearts?  I've seen them around for a long time but just tried them for the first time last month.  They are like chia and flax, all up in the fiber, protein and omega buisness. 

 But these have a delicious nutty flavor.  So good you could eat them straight up.

Like chia and flax they can be added to smoothies, batters for pancakes 

muffins etc, salads,yogurt, oatmeal.

Also like your other seeds, store in the fridge to keep them fresher for longer.

Me

Roasted Pepper and Goat Cheese Puree

I've used a fantastic book for starting my babies on foods - Cooking for Baby.  I got this as a gift from a fellow blogger when The Boy was born, and it is such a great book.

Now everyone is different, and everyone is entitled to their opinions on stuff.  For me it was important to make baby food.   Some people want to, some don't.  You do you.  

I found this book to be an amazing resource for all things baby food related - how to prepare and store, what foods to start with, what to delay or avoid.  

The recipes are not bland - dal, curry, tabbouli, burritos - babies/toddlers 

don't need to eat boring foods.

One I was anxious to try this time around was the Roasted Red Pepper and Goat Cheese Puree.

It was quick to make - only 2 ingredients!  A large red bell pepper is roasted, skinned and seeded, then pureed with 1 1/2 ounces of goat cheese.  

Unfortunately for The Baby, the bell pepper wasn't very sweet and the goats cheese (as goat cheese is) was very tangy.  It did not go over well, and was rejected on subsequent attempts.  

The Mister and The Boy had no interest in it either, so it was up to me to eat it up.  

Some was used as a dip for raw veggies, but my favorite was as a spread for 

toasted English Muffins.  So good!

Check out Cooking for Baby here

Leftover Turkey Curry

Around day 3 of leftovers I start losing interest.  Doesn't really matter what the

 leftover is, except pizza.  I NEVER get tired of leftover pizza.

Turkey leftovers are always a problem because the turkey always seems to get so dry so quickly.

I figured a curry was the way to go to take care of the last couple of cups of bird.

I used this recipe from Mark Bittman because I had all the ingredients plus it 

only called for 2 cups of turkey.  I used a bag of my handy dandy frozen spinach in 

place of the fresh, because that's what I had.

This was a fast weekend lunch that everyone - including The Boy AND The Baby enjoyed, 

much to my surprise.

This was my first curry I've made that didn't use curry powder or paste.  

I omitted the cayenne for the babies, but it was still nice and flavorful.  

A definite keeper.

Stuffing Waffles

My favorite part of  a Thanksgiving dinner has always been the stuffing.  I could eat a big plate of stuffing and gravy, maybe with a little turkey, and be perfectly happy.  

I admit, I am scared of cooking turkeys.  I'm terrified that I'll under cook them and won't notice, and make my family sick.  So because of this fear I've only cooked maybe 3 or 4 turkeys in my life.  I rely on my parents for a turkey feast at Thanksgiving.  

My mom has moved away from cooking the homemade bread stuffing right in the turkey and either bakes the stuffing in a dish in the oven, or makes packaged stuffing.  

I am not a snob, and have nothing against packaged stuffing.
There's a box of it in my kitchen right now.  There were 2 boxes, but I used one to
make Stuffing Waffles.

After this Thanksgiving my parents tried a stuffing waffle recipe where the dry stuffing mix is processed until it's ground up and then mixed in a batter.  They thought they were ok, but wouldn't make them again.  I did some searching around and found a few recipes where they used prepared stuffing and then mixed in eggs and broth to bind the waffles so they'd stay together while cooking.

To use up our turkey and gravy leftovers, I made a box of stuffing and added some extra water - about 1/4 cup.  I let the stuffing cool for a bit before I made the waffles because I'd planned to add an egg for binding, but decided at the last minute to try without it.  I portioned the stuffing into 4 balls, then pressed each into a squareish shape, slapped them on the waffle maker, and closed it up.

They were ridiculously good!  I loved the crispy exterior with the gravy and tender turkey.

The Stuffing Waffle should not just be saved for leftovers - I would definitely make these to be part of any poultry/gravy feast.