All it took was 2 hours.........

and I made enough meals to last us all week:

I made a cheese, onion and mushroom quiche, some baked potatoes, two shepherd's pie and a bean lasagna. 

I had a lot of mushrooms, and a few onions that needed to be used up, along with a lump of Harvati Cheese, so all that was saying made me into a quiche.  Of course put potatoes onto bake at the same time.

The Bean Lasagna recipe is from here.  The recipe says it feeds 12, I think more realistically 6.   Here is a Iink to the Pulse Pledge Site with more recipes on it. I took out a pound of ground beef (mince) and used half a pound for that recipe.  With the rest I used it to make two meals of shepherd's pies by bulking it up with veggies and we will also have pickled beets with them.  I love pickled beets with shepherd's pie.

So our menu plan this week will consist of:

Quiche with baked potatoes and ceaser salad.
Quiche with fries and baked beans
Shepherd's pie with pickled beets x 2
Bean Lasagna with garlic bread probably twice and I'll freeze one meal for next week.

I am quite proud of myself for actually doing a menu plan and a batch cook all in one day!!!  That is really good for me, as I do not like menu planning for some reason. 

You may have noticed there are only six meals there, I want to see what I have in leftovers and make a meal out of them later in the week.

Did you menu plan this week?  Also I have a big bag of cornmeal.  I need some ideas on what to do with it?

Best ever dressing for salad greens....

Back in December when I hosted the Book Club pot luck, one of the ladies brought over a salad.  We all just loved it and there wasn't a scrap left.  I asked the lady who brought it for the recipe and I have made it a few times.  However it's the dressing that is a winner and so much better than the bought stuff.

To make the dressing you need the following:

1/4 to 1/2 cup of Olive Oil
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon, or 1 squirt of Dijon mustard
Sprinkle of salt.

Place all ingredients in a small jar:

Shake it all up and pour on your salad greens.  Refrigerate any leftovers; keeps for a few days.

The recipe for the salad is this:

1 Pkg baby spinach
1/2 pomegranate
1/3 c crumbled feta
candied walnuts or pecans
1/3 c sunflower seeds
blueberries

You can add or subtract whatever you like or don't like.  We like it with just salad greens and crumbled feta.

An easy way to get the seeds from a pomegranate is cut the pomegranate into quarters.  Place in a bowl of water and remove the seeds while in the water.  The white bits float to the top while the seeds settle in the bottom.

Penguins and Monster's, oh my!

On Saturday I was on babysitting duty while Our Little Munchkin's parents went on a "date," to the boat show.

I picked up these cookies for our treat, you can read more about them here:

We had fun biting off their heads, and then the "arms."  I also showed Munchkin how to walk like a penguin.  At Christmas we had Christmas Crackers that had wind up penguins in them.  I brought that game down so we played with the wind up penguins for a bit. I got the Christmas Crackers from Pier 1 , 2016's Christmas Crackers are going to be these ones.  All bought on sale of course!

After we played with the penguin's I brought out the monster book.

You had to put the eyes, nose and mouth on the monster's faces.  They are reusable stickers so she should get a bit of use out of them. 

Then she decided to go "grocery shopping,"

The only problem with that is it is really hard to carry three baskets, and trying to push your grocery trolley with teddy in it, with only two arms!!

She was a delight and very well behaved.  She is growing up so fast and you can actually have a conversation with her and get somewhere!!

Little Munchkin's outfit is from Gymboree, this top and these leggings, all bought on sale of course.

I wonder who came up with this idea?

I guess it's one way of relaxing you if you have trouble going - just sniff the toilet paper.  I bought some as it was the same price and size of the regular toilet paper.

I went grocery shopping on Friday and spent $85.20, with savings of $10.00.  A couple of good deals for me were mushrooms at 99 cents per half pound container.  Remember when buying mushrooms, to transfer them into brown paper bags, as they keep longer.  I get mine at the dollar store.  I have started buying a little more at a Canadian store called Giant Tiger.  They always have one of two good deals on.  This week jam was on sale for $2 for a 500 ml jar, which is a fantastic price.  Also  got half and half for under $2.  Click on this link to see what half and half is...LOL

I saw this link on Facebook and thought it was really neat.  Dd made Our Little Munchkin a similar mobile for her bedroom.

Now I'm off to the bathroom to sniff some toilet paper!!

A rather expensive way to end the week...........

We moved into this house in June of 2014.  Since September of 2014 I have been asking our local Township when will we be getting a property tax bill.

What is property tax?

Property tax is a levy based on the assessed value of property.

(photo credit)

If you own a property you have to pay it.  In other countries it is called different things.  To cut a long and boring/annoying story short, we finally got the bill (s) this week, and so they now have to be paid, by January 29th.  The bills are only up to the end of 2015, not sure what is happening yet for 2016, when I go into the Township office this morning I will no doubt find out what's going on.  There is a lot more to this story about why it has taken so long to get the bill and why it has to be paid by the end of the month, but various government departments at Federal, Provincial and local levels will all come out looking bad if I go into detail.  Suffice to say, there are a number of people who are incompetent and should not be in the jobs that they are in!  But trying to get anyone to take ownership of their mistakes is like trying to get blood out of stone.

Our bill is well over $5,000 which is actually less than I thought, as we were not assessed as high as I thought we would have been.  It's still a lot of money, but I was prepared for this.  The day we moved in I put away money each week specifically for the property taxes, as I knew sooner or later we would get a bill.  Mind you even I didn't imagine it would take this long.  Some people had been in their homes 2 + years without a bill, so their tax bill would have been a lot higher.  I only hope everyone had enough common sense to put money away like I did?

However not everyone does that do they; think ahead?  I am one of the strange people out there that do not like owing money.  It has been really bothering me that the taxes were due, but it was out of my control as I had no bill.

I have mentioned this time and time again on my blog, but as part of planning ahead I put money away each week for various things in my "boxes."

I put $20 in my birthday box.

I put $20 in my Christmas box.

I put $50 in my other box.  My other box has been covering wedding's recently, and yes we have another coming up in March.

These boxes are a life saver to me, as Christmas is taken care of more or less with that box.  I always have money in the birthday box, for birthdays, and when you are forking out $300 + for a money envelope for every wedding that too is a life saver.

If that amount of money is too much for you to save each week, how about coming up with even $2 or $5 a week in a box to cover Christmas.  Even then you will have over $100 saved by the end of the year, which will cover all the cost's of extra food and drink at Christmas?

I am going to talk more about Christmas over the next few days as it's never too early to start!

2016 The International Year of Pulses

"Pulses are part of the legume family, but the term “pulse” refers only to the dried seed. Dried peas, edible beans, lentils and chickpeas are the most common varieties of pulses."

(credit to: Pulse Canada dot com for the above quote)

I stumbled upon this as I have been picking up my neighbours newspaper while they have been away.  It's The Globe and Mail, a bit too highbrow for me, but it has a Sudoku, so I am not going to turn it down, as I love doing the Sudoku's; keep's the brain ticking over.

Anyhoo, I digress.  In Wednesday's paper there was an article about this "newest" food trend.  I read the article with interest, as I don't mind pulses; I don't use them much but with the price of food increasing by the second they are a good cheap alternate to some other foods.  Plus they are good for you.  It also helps that The UN had declared 2016 The International Year of the Pulses.

Not only is there an article in the Globe and Mail, but CBC News has it's own article here.  Canadian Chef Michael Smith is spearheading the campaign, at least in Canada, for us all to eat more pulses, and there is even a website for us to sign up to pledge we will eat half a cup of pulses per week for ten weeks. www.pulsepledge.com    I must say after looking around the site there are some yummy recipes on there that pretty easy to make.  One of my favourites and one I think I may make next week was Bean Lasagna.

If you have just over six minutes to spare you may want to listen to this recording of Chef Michael Smith talking about how good pulses are for you.

A couple of facts about pulses:

Pulses have twice as much protein as whole grains such as wheat, barley or rice. 

Pulses are high in fibre, which helps decrease and control cholesterol and blood sugar levels.

Pulses are also high in B-vitamins, and key minerals including iron, potassium, magnesium and zinc.

I have posted a couple recipes over the years on my blog that include pulses.  One of my favourites is Lentil Stew.  Not only is it vegetarian it is also vegan. 

Then there is my "famous" Baked Bean Lasagna  This was one of the first recipes I posted back in 2008, when I first started my blog.  Mark's and Spencer recipe that I have been making for years.

I also posted a 50 + 1 recipes for Chickpeas here, I do not know if all the links work though.

Plus a 50 + 1 recipe for Kidney Beans.  Now when I do my menu plan for next week, I am going to include at least one meal that has some sort of pulse in it.

Do you eat a lot of pulses in your house?

Should we try again

I am the worst blogger out there, really.  What is my problem?  It's a new year so like a lot of you out there I guess I'll make a belated New Year's resolution and start blogging again.  I think my problem is that I have a pretty boring mundane life, and who on earth would want to read about it?  I do though have a few things in the works though and over the next few months I will begin to share with you what's going on.

The one thing I will share with you today though, is that we are going to be grandparents again TWICE this year in the space of a week or two.  Our Little Princess and Our Little Man are getting a brother or sister at the end of May and Our Little Munchkin will be getting a brother or sister a week or two later.

So as you can imagine, quilting and knitting are high on my to-do list this year.  However I also have a number of other things on my to-do list for the year.  I wonder of I make a list, it will help me achieve them?  I guess it won't hurt?

1. Prepare for two new grand babies.
2. Knitting a pair of socks - it has been on my to-do list since I started knitting.
3. Prepare "stock" for a table at a Christmas Sale in November/December - I'll talk about that at a later date.
4. Finish the basement, or get as much done as possible to the carpeting stage, so in Spring of 2017 all we have to do is put the carpet down there.  This situation is all down to money.
5. Put plans in motion for dh to retire in the next couple of years - this is something I would like to explore more in depth and will do in many posts over the year.
6. Explore more ways to save money and share with you all, what works and what doesn't.
7. Be more organized.  I know I do have that "A" type personality, but I have been letting things slip recently, so need to be more on top of things.
8. Get the rest of the main floor decorated - another big chunk will be done by the end of the month.
9. Try and go away on vacation later in the year.
10. Menu plan - this is a hard one for me, but if I do it I feel more organized.
11. Come up with ways to save money when grocery shopping, as believe me the price of food is rising by the day.

If there is a subject you would like me to explore please let me know.

And finally, just because, here is my first knitting for one of the new babies to be.  It's one of the baby gnomes, customized by me.  He or she is less than six inches in height.

That is the phone next to it, and I made a matching baby hat.  The books on the side are ones I have to review, so keep an eye out for those reviews.  Fingers crossed I can manage a post for tomorrow!!