So we were able to stretch our meal plan last week to last another couple of days by eating leftovers on the second night so I'm a bit late getting this put together. We're still working on eating as much as we can from the pantry, fridge and freezer but I'll have to pick up a few things tomorrow.

As the autumn weather is upon us here I have been craving some good hearty soups, if anyone has any good recipes they would like to share please do!

Tuesday: potatoes, vegetables and salmon-missed it last week

Wednesday: creamy burrito casserole

Thursday: grilled ham sandwiches and curried carrot soup

Friday: lasagna and salad

Saturday: pizza- I love this recipe, quick, easy and with half whole wheat flour it turned out perfect! Makes a whole cookie sheet too.

Sunday: Leftovers

for more meal plan ideas and recipes head over to Menu Plan Monday

food for thought...God's pharmacy

Thought this was neat...

A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye… and YES, science now shows carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.

A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart has four chambers and is red. All of the research shows tomatoes are loaded with lycopine and are indeed pure heart and blood food.

Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today sh ow s grape s are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food. (For more heart-healthy remedies, visit www.BloodPressureNormalized.com and www.CholesterolSecrets.com)

A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums.
Even the wrinkles or folds on the nut are just like the neo-cortex. We now know walnuts help develop more than three (3) dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.

Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys. (For a natural kidney stone remedy, visit www.KidneyStoneNaturalTreatment.com)

Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and many more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don't have enough sodium in your diet, the body pulls it from the bones, thus making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.

Avocadoes, Eggplant and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today's research shows that when a woman eats one avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight, and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this? It takes exactly nine (9) months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (mo dern science has only studied and named about 141 of them)

Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the mobility of male sperm and increase the numbers of Sperm as well to overcome male sterility. (For more info about male sexual health, visit www.NaturallyStiff.com)

Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic
index of diabetics.

Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries.

Oranges, Grapefruits, and other Citrus fruits look just like the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts.

Onions look like the body's cells. Today's research shows onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells. They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes. A working companion, Garlic, also helps eliminate waste materials and dangerous free radicals from the body.

about those muffins...

Here is the recipe as promised for the muffins I made a few weeks ago. They are great on their own but if you like some added sweetness I have included the recipe that my Nanny-in-law sent me for caramel icing.

Yogurt Blueberry Bran Muffins from Muffins: A Cookbook

2 cups plain yogurt (if you use flavoured reduce sugar accordingly)
2 tsp baking soda
1 cup brown sugar or less to taste
2 eggs
1 cup oil
2 cups natural bran
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup blueberries

1. Measure yogurt into medium bowl. Mix in soda and set aside. (Don't leave too long.)
2. In large bowl beat together eggs, sugar and oil.
3. Stir in Bran and vanilla.
4. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and add mixture alternately with yogurt.
5. Fold in berries.
6. Bake at 350 for 35 mins or until poke in centre comes out clean.

Caramel Icing or Hard Sauce from The Kitchens of Saint John

1/4 cup butter (or margarine)
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp milk
1 cup icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Melt butter in saucepan, add brown sugar, Stir over low heat for 2 minutes. Add milk and continue stirring until mixture comes to a boil. Remove from heat. Add icing sugar and beat until creamy. Add vanilla.

You might want to change it a little to thin it somewhat. However, it tastes just right with blueberry muffins.

I'm back to meal planning after a crazy 2 weeks! This week I really based the meals off of food that we already had on hand to minimize the grocery bill since we just purchased a 1975 Boler, our very first travel trailer. I've included a couple of other family's favourites that I found while meal planning this morning and one of our own, happy meal planning!

Monday:
Mexican Mesagne

Tuesday:
Salmon, roasted potatoes and veggies

Wednesday:
Spaghetti and salad

Thursday:
Cheesy Chicken and Rice

Friday:
Baked Taco Salad, a family favourite!

Saturday:
Quick and Easy Homemade Pizza switched up the recipe to include wholewheat flour

Sunday:
Leftovers

For more great meal ideas head over to Organizing Junkie

mmm mmm meal plan

Mexican is my husband's and my favourite kind of food and I had a hankering but how's a girl to make Mexican food without taco seasoning?? I dug in my spice cupboard and found a good basic recipe then tweaked it. So if you have the spicy hankering and no spice mix here is how you make your own:

Homemade Taco Seasoning
1 Tbsp chili powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp paprika
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
Mix all together in a container or baggie and keep in your cupboard for your next fiesta. I tripled this and have it stored for future hankerings. *You can add 1/4 tsp onion powder if you have it I just didn't have it on hand.

Monday:
baked taco salad (recipe below)

Tuesday:
Baked Ziti

Wednesday:
Baked beans

Thursday:
Curried Carrot Soup with whole grain grilled ham sandwiches

Friday:
homemade pizza

Saturday:
Chicken Tetrazzini recipe from the happy housewife

Sunday:
Leftover buffet

Baked Taco Salad
1 lb ground beef
1 1/2 cups refried beans
1 cup corn
1 cup shredded cheese
2 Tbsp homemade taco seasoning

Brown ground beef, drain and mix in taco seasoning. Mix beef and beans together to make for easier spreading and spread in bottom of 9x9 pan, layer corn on top then sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 325 for 20-25 mins until cheese is melted.

Layer nacho chips, scoop of above mixture, and toppings of your choice like lettuce, peppers, sour cream, ranch dressing, salsa etc.

My husband loves this and wants me to please please make it again.

For more great meal plan idea visit Organizing Junkie

just a little sweet

Blueberry yogurt bran muffins with caramel icing (hard sauce) delicious, I'll share the recipes once I have them typed up...but for now I'm curling up with a cup of tea.

Florida with Fay

So we just got back from Florida a week ago. Now you may ask, who goes to Florida n August? well, we do! It just worked out best that way for everyone's schedule and we found a good deal on flights so away we went.

First of all August is hot, we left home during a heat snap of 35+ degrees and ended up in Orlando as tropical storm Fay approached the coast. We landed on Monday night and once we met up with my mom and sister, crammed the 5 suitcases into our rental car we were on our way to Sarasota. Now one of the top ten things you don't want to hear the radio announcer say as you are driving is the name of the county you just entered preceded by the words, evacuation...Fortunately it was for mobile homes in the area but still we listened intently on our 2 hour drive to make sure our condo would still be there when we arrived. As we neared the coast we passed stores with plywood and giant garage doors covering windows, made us a little uneasy but kind of exciting for us Canadians. Before we headed to bed that night Fay was scheduled to make landfall early the next morning on the same coast we were on.

Fay hit 2 hours south of us at 5am and we awoke to high winds, big waves and dark clouds. The beach was still beautiful but not nice enough to stay out for any period of time, so what did we do..well went shopping of course. Had to go behind plywood barricades to make it into Marshalls but we had a good day of shopping. Our next few days were the same as the storm continued to hit other parts of Florida, swooping around us! Thank you Lord.


One evening as we ate supper, I went back into the kitchen to get something and crawling across my path was a bug...from the kitchen the other heard..."ummm what does a cockroach look like?" Mom was convinced it was just some kind of beetle and after using my sister's sandal (much to her horror)to squash it many many times we finally killed it. Mom was still convinced it wasn't a roach until I pointed to our roach's twin on my laptop screen...oh.
Cockroach count = 1


On Friday we packed up and headed back to Orlando to visit Disney World. Orlando was hot, the storm was in Northern Florida by this point. When we first arrived at the house I was about to open the door to go look at the pool when I noticed a bug on the ground, yep cockroach #2. One evening Bronwyn and Nat were laying on the deck as I floated in the pool, Nat looked over at the bottom of the screen and saw a cockroach staring at him then it began moving toward him, I have never seen him or Bronwyn move so fast. Cockroach count = 3. Mom found and killed 2 more "beetles" inside over the next few days.

We packed our days full with Disney and even went home for supper then Nat and I went back to the parks on a couple of occasions to see more sights and ride more rides. What a great trip, we were so sad to leave especially having to say goodbye to my mom and sister for a while.
Cockroach count = 5