Something Tasty in a Hurry

I can really appreciate having something ready and tasty to eat in a hurry for those times I'm not in the mood to prepare something or am really hungry. I'm almost always leaning towards something on the sweet side also. So in an effort to eat more green foods I found this idea of having ready made fruit and yogurt parfaits, great! Another great re-use for your left over jars too. So now your up-cycled jars are travelling parfait jars. You can easily grab one to go.

Simply put a layer of fruit and low fat Greek yogurt in jars or two layers of yogurt with the fruit in between is nice. I make up to 3 or 4 jars ready sitting in the fridge.

Have some easy to make granola on hand to sprinkle on top for when you pop the lid off and want to dig in.

This honey granola variation is so tasty, and easy:

1 1/2 cups old fashioned oats

1 cup of slivered almonds

1/4 cup canola oil

1/4 cup honey

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. salt

~Mix all these ingredients together in a large bowl until the mixture is equally coated.

Then spread it out on parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Bake at 325 for about 15-20 min. or until golden colour. Once it is cooled you can store it in another re-purposed jar.

 

I'm really hooked on these parfaits. They are so yummy and I can feel good about eating them.

 

 

Gingerbread Coffee

Coming in from the cold, I love to have something to warm me up. For the kids it is hot chocolate of course. Homemade is the best! (Mix 1 tb. of cold milk in a mug with 1 tb. of cocoa, and 2 tb. sugar until smooth. Stir in 1 cup hot milk. Easy:) For me... coffee.
I love coffee. Also I love the flavours that each season brings. For the Christmas/winter it's peppermint, chocolate, and gingerbread.
And again trying to not frequent the coffee shops to often, I came up with a gingerbread creamer, concoction.

Its very simple, here it is:
In a small microwavable bowl, mix: 2 tb. cream with 1 tb. sugar, 1/4 tsp. ginger, 1/4 tsp. cinnamon, and a pinch nutmeg. Stir well. Nuke (microwave) for 30 seconds. Then whisk in 3/4 cup of cream. Use a funnel to pour into a small bottle with a good seal. Give it a good shake before each use. Enjoy the warm cozy feeling.

To Inspire Cozy Feelings on a Chilly Day...Vermicellisoep met balletjes

 "While I relish our warm months, winter forms our character and brings out our best."
- Tom Allen

 

- 25 c. temperatures, and/or 40 km winds and/or 4 ft. high snow drifts. (All of which we have experienced this past month) This definitely makes me want to get back in the house and thaw out stay cozy.

Now for inspiring coziness: Vermicellisoep met balletjes (Vermicelli soup with ground meat balls) a yummy traditional Dutch soup.
I like a big pot (mmm... left overs!)
-10 cups of beef soup stock
-1/2 teaspoon of ground mace
-1 cup broken vermicelli or you can use spaghetti noodles
-1 cup ground beef
-1/2 teaspoon each: salt, pepper
-1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
-1 bread kupje (the crusty end of the bread)
-1 egg
-a bit of flour
-2 thinly sliced carrots
-2 stalks chopped celery
Prepare your little meat balls by mixing the meat with the salt, pepper, nutmeg, the kupje crumbled, and the egg. Smoosh it together and make tiny balls a bit bigger than a marble. Roll 'em in a bit of flour.
Get your beef stock boiling, add the mace. Reduce to a light bubbling. Add noodles, then  the meat balls. Dump in the veggies. Taste test. Maybe more salt or pepper or maybe even mace.
This soup has a great unique taste.

Now I'm ready to go out again and shovel a path as I walk the kids to school!
::I am constantly filled with thankfulness to the Lord for the things most of us, feel are necessary but are really blessed privileges. Snow shovels, mittens, boots and scarves, warm home, and warm food. Thank you Father::

What book is all About Ckicken?

  Hencyclopedia! (groan) The kids told this one and it made me think about this yummy meal I made the other day called  Lemon-Dill Chicken Popover. It was so delicious and not a bad idea to make for a warm summer day. You only use the oven for about 25 min. and you microwave the rest.
  For the popover:
3 tb. butter, melted and divided.
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
6 eggs
1 cup milk

For the filling:
2 cups frozen mix carrots, broccoli florets, cauliflower
1 med. onion, chopped
1 tb. butter
2 cups cubed cooked chicken
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
1 med. red pepper, diced
1 tb. lemon juice
1 tsp dill weed
 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese


Brush the bottom of a deep dish pie plate with 1 tb butter, set aside. In a bowl combine the flour and salt, mix in the eggs, milk and remaining butter until smooth. Pour into prepared pie plate.
Bake at 400 degrees for 20 min. Reduce heat to 350; bake 5-10 min. longer or until golden brow and centre is set.
In a microwave safe bowl, combine veggies, onions, and butter, cover and microwave 5-10 min. Add the remaining ingredients except cheese and microwave another 4 min. Stir in cheese.
Spoon the mixture onto the top of the popover, cut into wedges and serve immediately. (This does reheat well too)

It was so nice to sit on the veranda this evening while we ate. It made me slow down the pace. Taking the time to take the meal outside, I was able to hear the birds chirp, feel the breeze, and I could smell the flowers that are blooming all around. Taking the time to be in the moment and enjoy it, has been difficult lately. You see, my family and I had decided to make a big move, some 3,300 km away in another province. This has brought on a lot of work in preparation with big time purging. To be honest I would definitely call us "pack-rats". And having a house that is much too big for our family of 5 has made it more than easy to fill it up. "You never know when you might need it" - has always been our motto.
And here is another one that I followed with out wanting to admit it:

Found this in the window of a store, last month!

"A bargain is something you can't use at a price you can't resist."  -Franklin P. Jones. That would be the blame of all my books. I had shelves lining every wall in my upstairs hall.  About 3 book shelves as well, with not enough time to read them all. Too many cook books, not enough time to make every meal. Too many clothes with only one body to wear them on. Cd's that I knew I didn't want to listen to. More mugs than I would ever need to drink out of. All this and it doesn't even get to my husbands tool hoarding issues. When we had to face all this clutter it made me think -  O Lord, are you leading us to move, in part, that we would deal with this over crowding of stuff? I keep telling myself - LEARN FROM THIS... We can have a fresh start. I now truly realise that this is an issue, and here is the perfect chance to deal with it. But I can't fool myself. I can foresee that its probably like dropping a bunch of weight. It's not the hardest thing to loose the weight its keeping it off.

More PIZZA and a new Drive - along Discovery

This was a creation this past week. Its pizza that almost tastes like a cheese burger. Both go great together. Don't get scared off by the pickles, you would be surprised at how good it all goes together.
To start off I used half of my pizza dough recipe.
Brown a pound of ground beef, with half a sliced onion. After that mix in about a 1/2 cup ketchup.
After you have spread the dough out onto a large rectangle pizza pan, spread 1/3 cup of onion chip dip. This could be replaced with onion cream cheese spread. Sprinkle the meat mixture over the dough and dip. Then a mixture of mozzarella and cheddar goes on top. Bake in oven at 425 degrees, for about 15 min. Slice up some dill pickles and sprinkle on the top.

I was excited to see a species of duck I've never seen before. Probably just never had the chance to see them before, but I found out they like small bodies of water and rivers. So these Hooded Merganser's were right at home in the Ottawa River. They eat small fish and other small living creatures in the water. And they were doing just that when I spotted them this past weekend. I was a passenger while my hubby was driving when I spotted the beautiful male and his female. I was interested in finding out what kind of duck they were and also found out that they nest in tree cavities near the water, and their bills are serrated for catching the food they eat, as well as having an extra membrane to cover their eyes for when they dive under water (like a frog).
This makes me think about this quote I read not too long ago..."Familiarity with nature never breeds contempt. The more one learns, the more he expects surprises, and the more he becomes aware of the inscrutable." -Archibald Rutledge

Easier than you think--Gourmet Chicken Pizza

 To start off its always best to have seasoned salt on hand. It makes everything tastier!
This is the recipe given to me by my mom:
1/4 cup e. salt and paprika
3 tbsp. pepper
1 tbsp. basil
2 tsp. e. garlic pwd. and thyme
1 1/2 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. e. curry pwd. , dried marjoram, cayenne pepper, and celery salt
Mix up and store in a small container.

For the pizza you need:
1 batch of pizza dough (yesterdays recipe here) stretched out on oiled pizza pan.
2 heaping tablespoons of basil pesto (so far I have been using store bought), this is spread over the  dough.
1 to 2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese sprinkled over the pesto
1 chicken breast which you fry in an oiled cast iron frying pan with as much seasoned salt as you see fit. Cook, until all pink is gone, and then I slice up into bite size pieces. Toss this over the cheese.
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced and pan fried in the hot pan you just used for the chicken. When that has nicely caramelised, toss that evenly on the pizza.
1/2 cup of salsa, which is from the batch I made up this past fall, recipe here. Dollop this over the pie.
Preheat oven to 425, and Bake for 15-20 min.
Its so good, I don't even crave take-out pizza!

First Comes... Dough - Pizza Dough

Awwwwe... The great and multi-purposeful pizza dough! There are many directions one can take with a simple batch of pizza dough. But my all time fav. (lately) is a chicken pizza. The following recipe makes one thick crust, or two small thin crusts.

Snappy-Apple-Sauce

 Quite a few of my apples were not lookin too hot.

 
Look at this one...and he was one of many sad lookin apples.

 So I decided it was time to make applesauce. I have heard of making applesauce without peeling the apples and so I thought I'd give it a shot.
 Just had to wash up the apples good and cut out the bad spots.

 
Then I just used my handy apple slicing tool, to cut them up and get rid of the core. This was so quick compared to the usual process of peeling and cutting.

I added the juice of a lemon for flavour and to keep the sauce a bit lighter in colour.

 After I put my big batch of apples, lemon juice, and a half cup of water in a large pot, I put the lid on and let it cook over medium heat until the apples were all soft.
 I guess some would use a food mill to make it into the sauce, but I just poured the soft apples into my colander and used a wooden spoon to squish through to separate the peels. Very easy and it took much less time then if I had peeled all them apples.
 I do declare, I like the unpeeled applesauce version. Easy, Healthy, and Thrifty. I like this combination!

Tourtiere and Stories

 Gotta say this is a great meal for those gusty fall days. The recipe for this Tourtiere I found in the Harrowsmith Country magazine. It is excellent. The days have been so dark and wet lately. Thankfully we had been out of the storms path here in Southern Quebec. Also family in Southern Ontario did not feel much of the Storm hit either. But prayers are with those who have suffered through it.
 With this type of weather I wonder if it has been making me feel more tired? All the dark clouds that are gathered in the sky. Each time I look out the window I see within the frame a beautiful mosaic of clouds in an array of blues. As I was driving I looked up and there appeared to be levels. It made the sky look like you could drive to it and hop on a cloud to step up and climb higher and higher.
 This extra time spent indoors and feeling tired sure makes one want to curl up with a book.

All sunny skies would be too bright,

All morning hours mean too much light,

All laughing days too gay a strain;

There must be clouds, and night, and rain,

And shut-in days, to make us see

The beauty of life's tapestry

-unknown

Buried Treasure

 This is what I read on my perpetual flip calendar at the end of my long day in the kitchen...
 The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer. In the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees. We should establish ourselves in a sense of God's presence by continually conversing with him. -Brother Lawrence
 I was able to make some buried treasure (frozen veggies), with getting a really good deal on large 10kg. bags of carrots and onions. I par-boiled the carrots to freeze well.
 Method: Peel and slice the carrots of course. Have a large pot 1/2 full of water set to boil as you are preparing the carrots. Once the water is boiling, dump the carrots in and bring to a boil and then let them boil for 2 or 3 min. Have a bowl of cold water set near by to ladle the cooked carrots out with a slotted spoon and into the cold water. This stopps the carrots from cooking any longer. Then dump into a collandar.

Once dripp dried, I bagged them in clean milk bags (which make great cost efficient freezer bags and is a great way to make use of somthing regularly discarded right away) and closed them off with a milk bag closure.

 

Apple Loaf

I reciently bought a bushel of apples so I'm gunna be baking a lot of appley things. I made two of these with the following recipe and brought one to bible study. Itwas liked so much, that the recipe was requested.

 

2 cups peeled chopped apples (about 3 med. apples)
2 cups sugar, mixed with the apples
3 cups of flour
3 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup of butter, melted
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
-- > Heat oven to 325. Grease two loaf pans. In a large bowl mix all the dry ingredients. Stir in the apple-sugar mixture. Mix in the remaining 3 (wet) ingredients. Divide into the 2 pans. Bake for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours.

 

After all the chopping it was refreshing to get out for a walk and enjoy all the browns and yellows left on the trees. This oak behind the kids was so beautiful. The diversity and mixture of colours of and on each leaf  was gorgeous!

 

"Come on guys, smile nice!"

 

 

"OK..."

 

Tomato Soup Sky

 This was the sight out of my kitchen window the other morning...ahh so beautiful

And this was our fuel for the afternoon while my sister and I chopped and stacked wood. This soup was adapted from a recipe in The Pioneer Woman Cooks cookbook. It makes a non-tomato-soup-liker into a tomato-soup-lover. So here is my lower cost & calorie version (and you can use up some tomatoes from the garden for this recipe):
1 med onion, diced
6 tbsp. butter or margarine
8-10 small tomatoes washed and stems cut out. To remove skin, place in pot of boiling water until you can see the skin begin to peel away and get wrinkly. It takes about a min. Then dunk into cold water, and the skin will slip right off.
5 cups tomato juice or cocktail
3 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. chicken soup base
pepper
2 cups milk (I used skim)
2 tbsp. each: dried parsley and basil

Process --- > Melt the butter in a large pot, and cook the onions. Then add the rest of the ingredients, plus a cup of water, excluding the milk and herbs. Simmer the soup over medium heat. Turn off the heat just before it boils then add the last 3 ingredients. And now if you have a hand mixer that will make it easy to puree the soup to make it smooth. Now that is some yummy soup.

Fall is . . .

 Colourful canopies of leaves




Wearing cosy sweaters outside

Re-exploring what feels like new surroundings

Stacking wood to keep cosy

Playing in the cool crisp air

With smells of earth and leaves

and Enjoying what the harvest has turned out

and turning it into creations such as

Tomato Salsa
This is the recipe I use every time I have a big batch of tomatoes.

8 cups peeled chopped tomatoes
4 cups chopped peppers
4 cups chopped onions
2 cups vinegar
1 or 2 finely chopped jalapeno peppers
8 cloves garlic, minced
5.5 oz. tin tomato paste
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 TB. salt
2 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. oregano

Put it all in the pot and bring to a boil over med.-high heat. Lower heat and simmer for at least an hour. Although I did for about half the day because I like a thicker salsa.
For storing, I like keeping it simple, so I just freeze batches in plastic containers.

Pumpin out some Pumpkin Recipes!

I don't know why I haven't grown pumpkins other years! I love pumpkin and its so awfully expensive in those cans in the grocery store. So here is a little of what I have been doing with my pumpkiny goodness...

 

I was gunna post a close up of the pie for the recipe,

 

oh well... here is the recipe for this Pumpkin Pie:
Mix all these ingredients and dump it into an unbaked pie crust,
2 cups pumpkin puree
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tsp pumpkin spice (or 1/2tsp cinnamon, 1/8 tsp each: nutmeg, allspice, ginger, cloves)
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 cup evaporated milk
Bake at 375 degrees for an hour or until knife inserted near the centre comes out clean.

Just in case you are wondering about how to get that pumpkin puree out of your cute little pumpkin. Here is the easiest way I have found. Cut it in half, scoop out the seeds and stringy stuff. Save the seeds (more on that later), place cut side down in a baking dish with an inch of water. Put in the oven at 425 degrees for 30-45 min depending on the size of your pumpkin. To check for doneness, just stick it with a fork. If it pierces easily, its done! If not....cook it longer :)

Seeds can be washed off of all the stringy slime, let air dry on a cookie sheet. Then mix in a bowl with a little oil (1 tbs.), spread on the cookie sheet, and sprinkle on a seasoning like salt mmmm. Bake at 300 degrees for 30-45 min.

And now you can turn the heat off because the oven has been on for so long that its nice and toasty warm from all the baking being done.

Next up in my Pumpkiny future is: Pumpkin soup, and Pumpkin Buns! 

Great - Easy Cucumber Relish

Another use for extra cucumbers, a Great Relish. I even made a convert out of my non relish liking husband! 
You take your washed cucumbers and peeled onions and grate them with a large hole grater. I used an old large ice cream container, and when that was done sprinkled on 2 tbs. of salt, put the lid on and let sit for a couple hours.
After that drain the liquid into a bowl from the cucumbers and onions. Reserve 1/2 cup of the liquid and put into a pot with the vinegar. Discard the rest of the liquid. Set that on a med.-high heat on the stove top. Meanwhile mix the remainder ingredients, in a bowl. 

 Once the liquid is bubbling whisk in the sugar and spice mix, until it is dissolved  Then mix in the cucumbers and onions. Stir frequently for about 15 min. When it has thickened, remove from heat to cool off. 

Once it has cooled divide into containers to put into the freezer. Remember to leave a half inch space for the top of the jar, so it can expand when it freezes.

Super Slippery Fun

"Buttercup", our new addition is doing very well. She has grown and it is still hard to believe she even weighs about 3 lbs.! Holly is doing an awesome job being her mummy.

Another cucumber idea. Its something of a cold cucumber tea. I adapted it from the prevention's flat belly diet. To 8 cups of water add a large sliced cucumber, tsp of ground ginger (I would have used fresh if I had it, but this tasted fine) a couple tablespoons of dried peppermint (again with the woulda used fresh if I had it) And half a lemons juice. Toss the pieces in with the rest ( but of course I only had bottled juice) Let sit overnight or so and the water is so tasty and refreshing. Its ugh hum.....spa water. ;)

This is a great idea for kids (sorry I should not limit this to just childs play), or anyone, on a hot summer day. 

You stick the kids in the trampoline, and just add soap and water!!

Ever seen a soap angel before!?

Its handy too for when they are looking a little dull, and crusty. They clean up real well with this fun. :D

Super Slippery Fun