Soup's On!

Thursday was a cold snowy day, with bands of snow coming in from the lake all day.  Now granted it wasn't like the foot of snow we received a week ago, but it was a few inches.

We were due to go west of Toronto to watch eldest grand daughter in a gymnastics competition, but decided with the weather the way it was we would stay at home.

On the weekend dd brought up a veggie tray with a dip and left it with us.  There were carrots, celery, cauliflower and broccoli.  I chopped up the celery, carrots, along with an onion using my new chopper; which by the way works great, and stuck them in a bag in the freezer for later use.

Thursday was a soup kind of day and decided to make a curried veggie and lentil soup.  One veggie I hate with a passion is celery.  So I knew I had to make sure to disguise the taste of the celery.

Dd also left a package of this Boursin cheese.

So I put that in the pot to melt with various seasonings and cooked everything through.

Pureed it all with my stick blender and I have to say it was pretty good, and no taste of celery!!!

Is there a veggie you hate?

Champagne Bubbles.............

One of our neighbours up the road posted on our subdivision Facebook site, that she had free veggie plants she was giving away.  I reached out to her and asked her if I could have a couple and she said yes.

I picked up a yellow bell pepper, a chocolate bell pepper, a jalapeno pepper and two cherry tomato plants.  I gave the pepper plants to our son, as he has more room than I have to plant them, plus I know he'll give me any excess he has.

Here are my cherry tomato plants, I am hoping this tub is large enough, it should be:

and this is where the blog post title comes in; the name of this variety is champagne bubbles, as they are a yellow variety.

I am going to pop by this ladies house and give her a set of my reusable produce bags as a thank you gift for the plants.

Do you have a veggie garden?  Or just veggies in tubs?

Costco and cooking

Went to Costco on Monday morning to pick up a few things, as we are forecast for snow for the next few days.  Just renewed my membership, so going into my second year with the membership and very happy with it.  I did spend $75 on that lot, but there is 3 weeks worth of bread, probably the same with the yogurt.  Same with the fruit snacks.  There are ten pieces of garlic naan, so that will be part of five meals for the pair of us.  The hummus was a great deal at $6.99 for 24 mini containers.  I have one with rice crackers for my lunch every day.

Now one thing I did buy were these kitchen garbage bags.  It's the first time I have bought them.  They were $19.99 and they will last me probably just over 2 years.  I normally empty our kitchen bin a couple times a week.

This is our kitchen bin, it's under the sink.

It turns out that they are exactly the same as the ones I buy in Walmart and they are about a 1/3rd cheaper than if I were to buy the same quantity in Walmart, so a win, win situation.

Made a garden salad on Monday morning for a couple of days.  This is the before:

This is the after.  It's a bit heavy on the tomatoes, as they needed using up as they were going soft.

Also had some potatoes that needed using up.  Diced them up and put the dressing over them and will roast them in the oven while I bake a quiche.

Now granted prepping all those veggies took a while, but supper is now organized for the next couple of days.

Do you cook once and eat multiple times in your house?
 

Bits and bobs...........

Just having a catch up.  Been a busy weekend with one thing and another.  Snowed on Sunday, so we had a lazy snow day.  Hubby was watching football games from the UK.  He wanted to see the Wrexham game.  We watched the series on Netflix, Welcome to Wrexham, which was interesting.

On Saturday I went to Shopper's Drug Mart to pick up some things that were on sale.  You also got either 20 or 30k in points when you spent over $60.  I was lucky and got the 30k.  I stocked up on toilet paper; had coupons to make them cheaper.  Stocked up on coffee and picked up some "fancier" shampoo that was on clearance, along with the usual eggs.

This is what I spent and how many points I ended up with.

I spent $65.32, and got over 36k in points which is worth $36.  I had already cashed in $60 worth of points the day before, so my balance is down slightly at 313,114 points.  When I was in SDM, I actually stopped in my tracks as I was wandering round as I was shocked at the price increases in a lot of items.  I truly can't believe how much everything has gone up.

Got a couple of book reviews published also on Saturday, you can read them, here and here.

Someone was saying I didn't have much produce in my fridge.  I had a look (Sunday morning) and I have 3 romaine lettuce hearts, 3 sweet peppers, cabbage, carrots, rutabaga, courgette/zucchini, red onions, yellow onions and a cauliflower.  I maybe didn't have much in the photos, here.  I also have mandarins and bananas in the fruit bowl and potatoes in the cupboard.

I am going to make cabbage roll casserole, cauliflower with cheese sauce and garlic bread; shepherds pie, chicken and veggie stir fry this week, so that will use up a lot of veggies.  I may also make a lentil and sweet pepper soup for my lunch this week.  I got the sweet peppers on sale for $1.89 for the 3 which was a super deal.

I am now taking oldest grandson for swimming lessons every Friday, so I will be popping into another store I don't normally drive to, to pick up their deals as well.

I made Cabbage Casserole for supper on Sunday.  It will last us a couple of suppers.  I first posted this recipe here back in August 2008. It takes a while to bake in the oven, so it was good to cook it on a Sunday when the hydro is cheaper.  I love eating the crispy edges!!

It was yummy, been a while since I had made it, so made a lovely change.  Plus there is enough for another meal.

This weekend seems to have flown by.  Going to spend Sunday night doing a bit more cross stitch.  Still have one more book mark to complete after this one.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend? 

I'm not a vegetarian, but

I don't eat a lot of meat.  The following is one of my favourite meals.  It's a big pasta bowl full of lettuce, cucumber, red onion, tomato, raw cauliflower, alfalfa micro greens and canned mixed beans.

 I don't skimp on the salad dressing and usually use Three Cheese Ranch dressing, it's my guilty pleasure!!

I buy these cans of beans from Wal-Mart, and they are a great value (!!) at under $1 a can.

 Looking at the nutrition chart, they are also good for you and a great protein source instead of meat.

By the time I chomp through that bowl of goodies, I will be full.

What is your go too low calorie meal?

Vegetarian and recipe...........

I am not a vegetarian and probably never will be but, I am eating less and less meat as the years pass by.  Last week I did have some bacon on a Caesar salad, but that was it.  I am trying to incorporate more fibre and vegetables in my diet as the older I am getting my digestive system seems to be changing.

After making my veggie and lentil curry for the past couple of weeks, I decided to make a chickpea and vegetable curry.  I mean who does not love cooking a meal where all you do is cut up veggies, throw them in a pan, add some spices and other ingredients and let it all bubble away for half an hour?  And the best thing of all is you can use up what you have.

So here is a photo of what I used in my chickpea and vegetable curry:

As you can see, I used carrots, onions, half a package of frozen spinach sort of defrosted, an orange bell pepper, a big can of chickpeas (got it on clearance for 50 cents), 1/2 can coconut milk, large can diced tomatoes, dash of olive oil and two heaped teaspoons of Patak mild curry paste, salt and pepper and the garlic from the hummus.

For some strange reason, our local Walmart has trouble keeping the regular Sabra Hummus in stock, and for my lunch I love hummus and rice crackers.  I had to pick up the garlic hummus which I find too garlicky for me.  So I decided to use the garlic in the hummus in my curry, see all that garlic in the middle of the tub:

To a lot of people this type of recipe is something they make all the time, for me it's something new and I am loving it.

I made some brown basmati rice as a side just because if I give dh the curry he'll need more carbs.  I will have a little rice but fill up on the curry itself.  This big pan will be enough for dh and I for one nights supper and me for another three or four nights supper.  I'll just cook something else for dh the other nights I am eating this; he likes his meat!!!

Also with the cooler nights, this is both filling and warming for the body.

No Pan Haggarty last night...

Was too tired to make the Pan Haggarty, had this instead:

It was so good and used up a few things in the fridge.

The sweet peppers are coming along nicely.

 As are the mini yellow tomatoes.

 Picked rhubarb from this pot, the blueberries are nearly ready as are the strawberries.  They will all be transplanted out of this pot when done.

 This begonia I have on the front porch is so pretty.

That's it from me!!  Over to you.........

Told dd not to waste her money buying these..........

but when I saw them half price I figured I would try them out.  They are Presidents Choice fully washed and trimmed veggies.  They are normally $4.99 for a 907 gram (just under 2 lbs) bag.  I picked up a bag of mixed veggies.

And one of the broccoli.

So I took the carrots and as there were only 12 oz added a couple more carrots I had in the fridge to make a batch of carrot soup for my lunch for at least three or four days.

The broccoli from the mixed veggie bag, I steamed and made a broccoli and cheese quiche, so that will last us two meals.

With the cauliflower and some of the broccoli from the broccoli bag I steamed it and will make some cheese sauce for a cauliflower and broccoli cheese sauce casserole.  With take the two crusts from the loaf of bread and make bread crumbs for a topping on the casserole with garlic bread.

The rest of the broccoli I blanched and I put into two freezer bags to use at a later date.  I wish I had picked up some more bags as I think at half price they were good value.

What's funny is that I was talking to our son and mentioned to him that we were having broccoli and cheese quiche and Greek salad for supper and would he like to stop by for his supper.  He declined as he couldn't imagine not eating meat as part of his supper.  He's a meat eater through and through.  I think its from all the years he spent working part time in the meat department of a grocery store.  He started when he was 14 and only left when he left university and started work full time.  He knows more about meat than I do, he knows how to prepare it and what are the best cuts.  Me I don't mind meat, but it doesn't bother me if I don't eat it every day.

Are you a meat eater or do you prefer your veggies?

Half way through the month already....

June is just flying by it seems.  Monday was humid all day and so I dragged my heels all day.  I did get more recipes input into the system and now only need five more recipes.  However this had brought up another issue.  People who have left it to last minute to give me recipes will not be able to have them input, as a lot are recipes I already have.  So now I am having to call people to give me alternative recipes, which means more work.  As at the end of the day I don't want duplicate recipes in the book.  We have finally decided on a name for the book:

Three Churches Cook 2010

Why that name, well there are three churches involved in this, and rather than have each church named and there be an argument as to whose name should go first.  The title we chose was nice and simple, and to the point.  As at the end of the day it's not the title that sells the book its the recipes inside of it.

I took the first vegetables out of the garden on Monday, just some lettuce and some radish, but it's a start regardless.  The tomatoes are starting to flower, as are the peas.  The weeds are growing like crazy devils!!!  I hope next year it will be a lot easier in the veggie patch.

It was actually a little cooler after supper so I got an hour and a half of weeding done, which may not seem a lot but it was a start.  Plus by the time I had finished my back was killing me.  Still it's a start, and I did manage to get the potato rows all weeded and "hilled" them up a bit more, plus a little more weeding in other parts of the veggie patch.  I wll go out again after supper on Tuesday night and do more.

Hope you have a lovely Tuesday. 

First a confession....

I went and spent all my money in my Daily Savings Pot on Saturday. All $151 of it, plus an extra 92 cents.

What did I spend it on, all those plants below, plus two bags of cow manure and a 50 lb sack of Yukon Gold Seed potatoes.

The Colarado and Norway Spruce were on sale for $4.99 each, normally they are $9.99 each; I picked up a dozen of them.  I got a couple of primula's on sale for $1.99 each, plus a lavender plant called Boysenberry Ruffles

I also got a Hydrangea called Pinky Winky what a cute name it has.  I have never grown a hydrangea before.

I also got a Vibernum Trilobada Bailey, not sure if it's the compact variety though?  Will have to check into that, going to put it on our back fence.  It will add some colour in the fall when it turns bright red.

I also bought a Pillar Clematis, Clematis × jouiniana ‘Mrs Robert Brydon," I have put it in the garden where I have this statue thing, that it can grow up and through it.

Then I got the 50 lb bag of Yukon Gold seed potatoes, so I guess I will be busy planting them in the next week or so!

I spent the morning in the garden planting some veggie seeds.  I got a row of peas planted; half a row of radishes, half a row of beetroot, and a row of carrots.

I also made a cold frame out of breeze blocks and clear plastic.  I forgot to take a photo, but will show you it when I get a chance.

I managed to get some more of the field cut on Saturday night, so that's about two thirds of it done, so one more night and it should be done.

Also I am going to be the official greeter at church for the next couple of weeks.  That should be interesting; so fingers crossed I get plenty of sleep and am in a good mood!!!

Enjoy your Sunday.

(ALSO I KNOW I SOUND LIKE A BROKEN RECORD, SAYING THE SAME OLD THING, BUT ONCE AGAIN I APOLOGISE FOR NOT COMMENTING ON EVERYONE'S BLOGS, TIME IS NOT ON MY SIDE AT THE MOMENT, THERE JUST ISN'T ENOUGH TIME IN THE DAY TO GET EVERYTHING DONE, SORRY.)

I got a good telling off, #2 carrots and other stuff

Everything I am going to talk about happened on Sunday, however as I had already prepared Monday's post, I had to wait until today to tell you all about it.

First of all who told me off.......this little fella did:

Why, because I decided to fill the bird feeder when he wanted to feed. I mean he wouldn't shut up while I was filling the feeder, and as I said to him, he would get a better meal if he left me alone for a few minutes, as I was filling up the feeder with a variety of seeds; but on and on he went.

On Sunday we had to go to a Funeral Visitation (a Funeral Visitation, in the United States and Canada, a funeral custom where a mourner visits the deceased person's family and views the body lying in the casket, either at a funeral home or church. ) It was for one of dh's friends mother who had just passed away. She was the double of my Nana when she died, quite eerie.

We had to go past Holland Marsh and I saw a couple of signs for #2 Carrots ideal for Deer, Cattle and something else, can't remember what the something else was. So me and dh were discussing the fact that we didn't know what the difference was between a #1 carrot and a #2 carrot. On the way back, I remembered I needed some carrots so we called in at a farmer's market at Holland Marsh, and in there was these huge bags of carrots. Too many for us, so I picked up a 10lb bag for $3.49. Anyhow, I asked the lady what was #2 carrot and she said they were carrots that got broken in the washing machine's and were not good enough for the main grocery stores. I asked how much the bag's in the store were and she said $5, and the bags weighed between 40 to 50lbs each. Bargain or what? However I just couldn't see me and dh ploughing through a 40 lb bag of carrots before becoming utterly and totally sick of carrots. By the way, does anyone know if there are #3 carrots?

Although this is a crappy photo, here is what they look like:
I also took this photo as I couldn't get over how much they were charging for bunches of greenery, and people were buying them!!

Now I am not a big fan of those fashion magazine, like Vogue or Flaire. Anyhow, dd sent some magazines up to me via ds, and one of them was Vanity Fair, which I would never purchase in a month of Sunday's. That was until now. It was the September '09 edition and boy was it interesting, I read a very interesting but scathing post on Ruth Madoff. They had articles on Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson and lots of other interesting articles. I must remember to ask dd to keep anymore she gets. It turns out the people who lived in the condo before them didn't bother to cancel their magazine subscription and never left a forwarding address. They send all over mail back to sender, but keep the magazines!!!

Busy day here at the Acreage.........

I had a busy day on the Acreage. I decided it was time to use up the bits and bobs in the fridge. I had some apples that needed stewing, so I stewed them. I baked Carrot Zucchini Muffins, the recipe is here I forgot though to take photos, sorry. I gave half a dozen to the mail lady and some potatoes, and she gave me another 4 cucumbers. Not sure what I am going to do with them?

I had a cauliflower to use up, so made cauliflower with cheese sauce and it was so good.

I also roasted some of the potatoes with olive oil, garlic and red onions. They were so good.
Here are my small potatoes blanched and ready for the freezer. I am hoping they will be good for Christmas Day lunch, I'll let you know then!!

I got a lot more grass cut, so only have half of Kamikaze Hill to do then I am done for another week. I planted a couple rows of spinach, they take 30 days to grow, so hopefully I'll get a crop before the first frost.

It was a lovely day on Wednesday with no humidity at all, and temperatures in the low 20's, just perfect. Dh was in fact a little cool, and threw a fleece blanket over him while he slept/watched the news!! That poor man hasn't seen a full episode of the news in years, he always falls asleep part way through. Mind you if you'd been on the go since 4.20am, by 6pm you'll no doubt be tired!!

I put the rest of the potatoes down the old basement, as the windows are all blocked up, so there is no natural light down there. I am hoping I won't have to buy potatoes until at least Christmas.

Took your advise.....................

I did pick some raspberries, 21 half pints for sale and a small dish for us.



I cut some grass and even picked some weeds out of the veggie patch, and I have discovered I have five butternut squash plants growing in amongst the weeds. The three zucchini plants are flowering.

I even dug up a potato top to see how they are coming along, and below is what I dug up. They are of course not ready but there was enough for me and dh's supper on Tuesday night and they were ssssoooooo good, very sweet and very tender.

The most amazing thing about all this we weren't even planning on putting in a vegetable garden this year, so everything is a bonus.

So the doctors visit. I now have a outer ear infection, not an inner ear infection now, so have antibiotic drops for my ears, why I couldn't have got these last week is beyond me? I also have drops for my eyes, a nasal spray and some allergy medication for night. I would actually like to have an allergy test to see exactly what I have allergies too, which I think would be helpful, wouldn't you?

Friday was a bit of a blah day........

Not sure what happened, but I ended up hurting my other shoulder on Thursday so when I got up on Friday I felt rotten. Not only that, but Wednesday and Thursday were pretty hot days, and on Thursday I remembered to put on my hat when I was gardening, but totally forgot to put sunscreen on and have burned my shoulders.

My dad popped over on Friday to do a couple of jobs for us. We have a deck on the side and the back of the house. The only way on and off the deck is through the patio doors in the family room? There were no steps on this deck, so my dad built some steps so when we get the new windows and doors in there, they don't have to keep walking through the family room.

Then my dad showed me how to plant potatoes.

I have to say I was disappointed as I only got four rows of potatoes planted in the area I had dug out. Still my dad reckons we should have enough potatoes there for around 3 months which is better than nothing.

I made a couple of quiches in the morning, as I had a few things that wanted using up in the fridge. I gave one to my dad to take home for his supper.

With the leftover pastry I made a rhubarb pie, as I still have a lot of rhubarb to pick.


We had a guy come over to give us a quote on putting in a wood burning insert into our fireplace. I should have the quote by Tuesday at the latest. We are looking at this model, the Kodiak 1700 with a brushed nickel trim. He was saying that we should order 3 bush cords of wood. How much do you pay for a bush cord of wood? I was told it is cheapest to buy it this time of year. Oh and for those of you who don't know what a bush cord of wood is (ME!!) click on this link.

Will say though, as the day progressed my shoulder got a little better. I think I need to rest it up for a couple of days, and lay off the heavy gardening. I guess I should just get back to mowing the lawn, as that doesn't use my shoulder!!