Linky Love: Curry, Bracelets and a Camera Strap Cover

Hubs surprised me with a new camera last night, so of course my first priority is clearly to make this.

image from The Cottage Home

This chickpea potato curry is so delicious, one of my favourite recipes ever. Hubs the self professed carnivore even gave it rave reviews.

image from Simply Recipes

Remember how I said I need fabric? Well I found some.

image from Three Dolls Fabric

I saw this bracelet   on Love but I think my new camera may have eaten up my gift quota for a while.

image from Ponder and Stitch

For more links go visit Staci

I've been menu planning but I never get around to posting my menu. The last 2 weeks have been really using my memory since my list keeps getting mangled by tiny hands. So for the sake of my memory, I am posting this here in hopes that dinner time will go a little smoother.


Monday: Creamy baked mostacolli

Tuesday:  Slow Cooker Baked Beans and molasses brown bread

Wednesday: Meaty Squash Soup and buns

Thursday: Leftover Buffet

Friday: Roasted garlic chicken and spinach pizza

Saturday: Loaded Tostadas

For more meal plans visit Laura

Top Ten Tuesday: Canadian Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving this past weekend and that means we spent time with some great friends, family and ate some delicious food so here it is, top ten Thanksgiving foods.

1. Turkey, obviously! Never had a deep fried one but would love to try it.

2. Sweet Potato Casserole. Different from yams so I learned 2 years ago and pure yumminess especially when mixed with butter and brown sugar and topped with marshmallows... (okay so every photo I found appears to be made with yams...hmmm) googled the difference

3. Yams...yes they're good too especially when baked in orange juice, mmm.

4. Potatoes and gravy. Yes they must go together, they are one entity.

5. Cranberries. I could eat my weight in these, seriously.

6. Carrots and other vegetables. Really these are eaten to even out the turkey, gravy and cranberry sauce and to soak up some of the not so good for you stuff.

7. Stuffing/Dressing. I detest the stuff but I understand it really isn't turkey dinner without it.

8. Pumpkin Pie. Again I'm not a fan but it is very thanksgiving-ish dessert.

9. Ice Cream cake. Okay not traditional but we had it and it was scrumptious.

10. Rolls. Mmm so buttery and good.

We took a lovely walk with the dogs on Thanksgiving Sunday and enjoyed the crisp air, blue skies and crunchy leaves. I LOVE autumn!

 For more Top Ten fun go visit Amanda.

Meal Plan

I LOVE autumn, love it! It means warm soups, drinks, and just a general coziness that I love. I'll be baking some pumpkin yumminess and we'll be enjoying Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday most likely. Other than that, here's what we'll be eating for the week.

Monday: Burgers as requested by my husband so we can use some yummy spicy peppers given to us from a friend's greenhouse.

Tuesday: Copycat Olive Garden Chicken and Gnocchi soup but with pasta

Wednesday: Stir Fry

Thursday: Cheesy Chicken and Rice casserole

Friday: Burritos

Saturday: Leftovers

Sunday: Thanksgiving dinner?

For more menu plans head over to Laura's site

Saturday Stumbles

Some nifty links I came across this week

• To buy organic or not that is the question. Here's a handy dandy little list showing the dirty dozen and the clean 15 to help you get the most for your money.

• Made this and this for dinners and they were both hits!

• Reading this book right now and it has really hit home in my heart about being a mom, good stuff.

• If you are looking for a good party check out The Ultimate Blog Party, there are way too many good links to list here so go see!

Click here for more good links

Top Ten Tuesday: Things to Make with Ground Meat

We buy our ground meat in bulk and there was a sale soooo, we've been eating a lot of it lately. I've been going through my collection of recipes to create dinners with our freezer stash. Join me in our ground meat adventures :)

1. Rachael Ray's Mega Turkey Nacho Dinner: My FAVOURITE recipe of all time! As in what I want for my birthday dinner, or any other night.

2. Burgers: Really try this:

• ground meat
• ketchup
• bbq sauce
• egg
• onion soup mix
• salt & peppa
• garlic

I've only come to like burgers in the past year, around the same time I got pregnant, I blame it on pregnancy.

3. Sloppy Joes: try this

• ground meat
• tomato sauce
• basilsalt & peppa
• chipotle chili powder
• garlic powder
• onion powder

4. Lasagne: Cheesey meaty goodness. My favourite trick is a little nutmeg in the ricotta/cottage cheese.

5. Rachael Ray's Super-sized 7-Layer Casserole: A supper-fied 7 layer dip! yes!

6. Brown Bag Burritos: great for lunches!

7. Mexican Pile-Up: Like deconstructed tacos, yummy! A family favourite.

8. Baked Taco Salad: another family favourite

9. Taco Salad: just the normal kind not baked :)

10. Spaghetti: I've only liked spaghetti since I've been married..I know what kid doesn't like spaghetti?

Go visit Amanda for more top tens

Good Stuff Saturday

Awesome pancakes, seriously. I always used mix because my mom always used mix but we ran out sooooo on Shrove Tuesday we tried these and they are fantastic! It has changed my pancake making forever!

Cute tattoo: perfect for any baker, especially a cupcake obsessed baker.

Learning to Run Plan: Never been a runner but would like to be, what better time than when I am at my heaviest and most tired as a new mom (eye roll)

Shrove Tuesday

According to Wikipedia: the day is often known as Pancake Day. Making and eating such foods was considered a last feast with ingredients such as sugar, fat and eggs, whose consumption was traditionally restricted during the ritual fasting associated with Lent.

So tonight we're having pancakes. I mean really can you go wrong with sugar, fat and eggs?

cool days = warm drinks

I love curling up with a good book and a warm drink that's been topped with some milk foam. I've never been a fan of whipped cream and last year I found a milk frother on sale...tadaa! Skim milk goes in the microwave then gets frothed and a regular drink gets fancy. I don't know what it is but it seems to taste better when it looks like this, or maybe it's just pregnancy talking.

If you've never tried a London Fog I highly recommend it!

S'more Cookies

1 cup margerine softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1&1/3 cup flour
1 cup graham cracker crumbs or 16 crackers crushed
1/8 tsp salt
mini marshmallows or large ones quartered
2/3 cup chocolate chips
2 Tbsp peanut butter

Preheat oven to 325. In a large bowl beat marg. and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, beat. Add flour, cracker crumbs & salt, beat until stiff dough forms. Put heaping tsp of dough on ungreased cookie sheet and indent each with a thumb print. Bake 10-12 mins.
Put 2 mini marshmallows on each or a quarter of a big one, bake for 2-3 mins more.
Meanwhile melt chocolate chips (and I added peanut butter which wasn't called for in the original recipe but was delicious), dollop on cookies as they emerge from the oven.
Enjoy!

I made these the other night thanks to my sister for giving me the recipe, great for those times when a campfire just isn't possible :)

autumn goodies

Our ladies Bible study had a luncheon last week so I decided to whip up some pumpkin muffins. I had some Martha Stewart autumn stencils that mom gave me as part of a shower gift so this was a perfect opportunity to try them out.

Voila pretty pumpkin muffins to delight the tastebuds, mm mmm.

Next, to try these adorable owl cupcakes how fun are they??

Meal Plan Monday

Autumn is my absolute favourite time of the year, warm days cool nights, spices and warm drinks, I just love it all.

This upcoming weekend is Thanksgiving up here in the great white north so we'll be celebrating with friends on Monday and enjoying a delicious feast. Until then we'll be indulging in some cool weather meals.

Monday: Homemade pizza

Tuesday: Leftovers

Wednesday: boiled ham dinner

Thursday: manicotti

Friday: baked beans and brown bread

Saturday: cheesy chicken and rice bake

Sunday: Leftovers

Monday: Thanksgiving dinner

for more yummy idea's check out Laura's site

We're flying home this week for a much needed vacation to visit all our family, soo excited. Until then we still need to eat so...

Monday: Turkey Croquettes with Spinach Mashers and Pan Gravy

Tuesday: Asian Style BBQ Pork Chops

Wednesday: Creamy Chicken Enchiladas with Broccoli

Thursday: Leftover buffet

Friday: Air plane/Airport food

Saturday & Sunday: ? staying with our parents

Iced cappuccinos, particularly those from Tim Hortons but any frosty creamy coffee flavoured drink is one of my favourite summer indulgences.

On a good day caffeine makes me wired so I avoid it, now being pregnant I have an even better reason to avoid caffeine. So I have been making my own iced capps at home. The tastiest recipe I've found is this:
homemade iced cappuccino
1 cup skim milk
1 tsp instant coffee powder (or you could use a bit of brewed coffee if you had some leftover)
4 tsp sugar
4-6 ice cubes

Blend until slushy and frothy and enjoy.
This also has much less fat than the store bought variety so I can enjoy it with less guilt :)

But I have been experimenting and to make it even better I save any leftover decaf flavoured coffee that I make every so often in the morning and freeze it in ice cube trays. I cut the instant coffee powder down and use frozen flavoured coffee cubes, mmmm. I hear the blender calling my name now :)

Not to mention this way is much cheaper, so that's what works for me.
To see other things that work check out Works For Me Wednesday .

What's for dinner?

Recently my like for cooking dinner has wavered and flickered and turned into more of a dread. I'm meal planning to make it easier so I don't have to think about it as much and just do it. Ugh the thought of dinner just does nothing for me, I'd rather eat some raw fruits and veggies. I guess there could be worse pregnancy cravings :)

So for this week I will be attempting:

Monday: Chicken a la King

Tuesday: Chili and cornbread

Wednesday: honey chicken kebabs and potatoes (carried forward from last week)

Thursday: Spinach mushroom manicotti and garlic bread (carried forward)

Friday:Awesome slow cooker pot roast and veggies

Saturday: homemade mac and cheese

Sunday: Lasagne and salad

Want some more ideas?

Why does eating outside make everything taste better? It just does somehow. We had a picnic at the lake on our anniversary, and it was deeelicious! I made pastrami sandwiches on french bread (my hubby's fave), mock mojitos, veggies, dip and slurpees for dessert.



I'm looking forward to enjoying some more outdoor meals as the summer progresses but, for this week we'll be enjoying:

Monday: We had taco salad last night, yummy!

Tuesday: Spinach mushroom manicotti and garlic bread

Wednesday: honey chicken kebabs and potatoes

Thursday: Burritos

Friday: Homemade pizza

Saturday: Spaghetti with homemade sauce

For more great meal ideas check out menu plan monday

Almost summer days...

call for iced capps! I just can't bear to pay the 3 bucks or whatever it is for these delicious frothy wonders so I pulled out my personal blender (one of my favourite kitchen appliances) and put this together.

homemade iced cappucino
1 cup skim milk
1 tsp instant coffee powder (or you could use a bit of brewed coffee if you had some leftover)
4 tsp sugar
4-6 ice cubes

Blend until slushy and frothy and enjoy.
This also has much less fat than the store bought variety so I can enjoy it with less guilt :)

p.s. for any of you reading this who know me and my strong reaction to caffeine and are concerned, I use decaf :)

meal plan monday

I found a recipe for crockpot falafel through my friend Kate and gave it a try last week. They were delicious!!! My hubby the carnivore even gave them rave reviews so they will definitely be on our menu again.We ate them in spinach wraps that I had on hand, topped with cheese, peppers, baby spinach and some light ranch dressing, delicious! Next time I hope to make homemade tzatziki and pita bread to go with them.

For this week we'll be enjoying:

Monday: leftovers

Tuesday: mexican pile-up

Wednesday: slow cooker pot roast with potatoes and veggies

Thursday: grilled shrimp with veggies

Friday: baked beans with homemade molasses brown bread

Saturday: leftovers

Sunday: homemade pizza and salad

For more meal plan ideas head over to organizing junkie .

Meal Plan Monday

Yay it's March! that means we're one month closer to summer!! woot! Mind you we've been having some beautiful weather here, bright sunny days that are very motivating and the dogs and I have been enjoying walking in the sunshine after what seems like a long winter.

My brother-in-law is visiting for his March break so as I've been planning my meals I've been trying to keep in mind that I am feeding two men and me. That means moooore food. This week has gone well so far so we'll see what next week holds, I'll try not to kill him with veggies :).

Oh I almost forgot to mention that last week I made my very first pot roast, this recipe really is awesome, if you've never made one you should try it!

So on the menu for this week we have:

Monday: Chili

Tuesday: Chicken a La King

Wednesday: Chili dogs and salad

Thursday: Stacked Enchilada Pie

Friday: Homemade pizza

Saturday: Veggie Pot Pie

Sunday: Spaghetti

For more great meal plan ideas visit Organizing Junkie

I can't believe another week has flown by, and it's almost thanksgiving! I'm planning on making a Thanksgiving meal for just the two of us, it will be a mini version so I might just get some turkey drumsticks or something instead of cooking a whole bird.
I made lasagna last night, modified the recipe according to what I had and wow it was good! Hubby raved and is excited that I made two 8x8 pans so we have one in the freezer all ready to go.
I'm going to get some pictures and recipes up here but for now I'm going to scoot to the grocery store...have a great week!

Tuesday:
Lentil Tacos

Wednesday:
Potatoes, Veggies and Chicken

Thursday:
Barley Veggie Soup with grilled sandwiches

Friday:
Spaghetti with Salad

Saturday:
Homemade pizza try this with half whole wheat flour, delish!

Sunday:
Thanksgiving meal

Monday:
Leftovers

for more great meal ideas check out Menu Plan Monday