remembrance day

John 15: 12-13 (NLT)
12 This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. 13 There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.



Thank you to those who have served defending their lands and the lands of others in hopes of freedom for all.

Pray for peace.

ode to the slow cooker

I recently acquired a 3.5 quart slow cooker from a generous soul so I thought I would try out a "big" slow cooker recipe that I couldn't make in my small one. Slow Cooker Chicken Taco soup won because I had most of the ingredients on hand. My modifications included:

• Chicken stock instead of beer
• 28 oz can diced tomatoes
• 19 oz can of beans
• 1/4 cup tomato sauce
• 12 oz can corn
• 2 chicken thighs
• no sour cream

It was delicious though I would add another can of beans next time, with nacho chips it certainly hit the spot.
In case you weren't aware flu season is upon us, and let me tell you some sort of stomach flu bug body slammed me last week. My meal plan went out the window and my husband was so glad I had made the Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup before I got sick.

My father-in-law is coming for a visit this week and we are very excited to see him. While he is here the boys are going to work on our Boler so I will be sure to have some delicious meals for them at supper time to thank them for their hard work.

With that in mind I am off to tidy up the spare room which means hauling boxes of clothing to the basement. A good time to go through my clothes to put summer stuff away and give away the stuff I don't need. Goodbye summer dresses, I will miss you...


Monday:
Teriyaki Pork Tenderloin with potatoes, squash and corn.

Tuesday:
Leftovers

Wednesday:
Chili and homemade corn bread

Thursday:
Baked Beans and Ham and homemade brown bread

Friday:
Shepherd's Pie and salad

Saturday:
Perogies, sausage and salad

Sunday:
Cheesy Chicken and rice or homemade pizza

Be sure to head over to Laura's site for other great menu plan ideas

Meal Plan Monday errr Tuesday

As the weather gets colder I have been enjoying cooking more and more, it's so nice to have a warm kitchen smelling of freshly baked goods. Soups are so good this time of year to warm you up from the inside out. A few weeks ago I tried out curry carrot soup click here for the recipe. It was very good, but now it is frozen in portions in the freezer as I was unaware that hubby dislikes blended soups...too much like eating baby food he says. Well he was trooper and ate it when he came home from work saying it was good and only later when I was in a less fragile state admitted that it wasn't his favourite...so if anyone wants to have some curry carrot soup with me come on over! I served it with cheese bread which was more like a cheese biscuit loaf, this was also very good and my hubby loved it.

Onto the menu for this week...

Monday:
Leftover spaghetti bake

Tuesday:
Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup

Wednesday:
Pork Chops with squash, potatoes and carrots

Thursday:
Leftovers maybe in the form of Shepherd's Pie

Friday:
Baked Beans and homemade molasses brown bread

Saturday:
Perogies with sausage

Sunday:
Leftover buffet

For more great meal plan ideas head over to Laura's site

meanwhile back at the blog

So I didn't take an intentional hiatus just been busy with life but I'm back. Wow, October flew by and we're progressing through November, hard to believe.

October in a nutshell:
Thanksgiving was nice, we were invited to eat with our friends and their family which was so great since we aren't able to visit our family for a while. I even got to try sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top, so delicious and to think I've always called yams sweet potatoes...it's sad really the sheltered life I've led.

Next up was my birthday, we decided to be practical and have fun so we took the hour drive to the "big city" haha and went to Costco for dog food and appetizers before we enjoyed dinner at Eastside Mario's and a movie. Appetizers at Costco?! come on if you've ever been to a Costco you know to check out the food section where there are usually samplers = fun and cost effective. Just to be clear we brought the dog food home to the dogs..okay then. There really wasn't any movie playing that I had a burning desire to see so we settled on Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist..it was kinda funny but soo not my favourite movie. Still it was nice to go out to a movie and enjoy my birthday. Oh AND while at Costco we saw these movie deals for sale, they include two tickets, two pops and a popcorn for $21. Now when we do go out to movies we don't buy movie treats but we splurged and since the movie alone was $10 each it was perfect. Check them out if you are going out for a movie night!

We finished re-painting the living room and hall in a colour called muddy river, it's a nice colour and looks great with the blue kitchen, I loved the sunny yellow but the open concept style of our house just didn't really allow for the two colours to live harmoniously. It is soooo nice to have it all done, furniture back in place and pictures on the walls. My mood has improved drastically since we got everything put back together.
On Halloween night I stayed home with the pups to hand out goodies and decided to dress up because well I just love getting dressed up. I also love carving pumpkins. This year I did an owl but it was too soon and she shrivelled, soooo the backside of that pumpkin ended up as stars and I did another one as a pirate as per hubby's request. We had quite a few kidlets stop by and one in particular cracked me up, not because of his costume but by what he said, it went something like this...

Kid glances into living room while receiving his treats...
kid: "you use one of those??? said in utter disbelief
Hubby following kid's gaze... "use what?"
"one of THOSE" (gesturing wildly with arms in shape of the letter V) "on top of the tv"
at this point my hubby realizes he is talking about our antenna...no we don't have cable, a sad thing for hubby.
Thanks kid for bringing it up...it was too cute, I bet he has only seen tv antennas on old tv shows or something. Wait til you see our ringer washing machine...just kidding.

Well it's now November and it is also late so I am off to bed to give my body the rest it needs to combat cold season. More posts to come including Menu Plan Monday..tomorrow. I know *gasp* on Tuesday...