Vegan Alfredo

We made this the other night as per the recipe food on this site. We decided we would adjust it more to our tastes.

I found the original too peppery, Hubby said it was not garlic enough, (I agreed.) JT insisted it needed Parsley. :)

so here is our preferred version.

2T olive oil
4 cloves garlic smashed and minced
2 1/4C almond milk
3-3 1/2C chopped Cauiliflower
3/4t salt
1t peper, oregano, basil
juice of half a lemon. (or 1T lemon juice)
1/4 C and 2T nutritional yeast.
Pinch or 2 of parsley

In med pot, heat oil, and garlic until garlic is turning brown.
add in Almond milk and let com to a boil
Turn down heat. add cauliflower, salt, pepper, oregano, and basil. cook until cauliflower is soft. (8-10 mins)
let cool until safe enough to put in your blender.
blend cauliflower mix with lemon and nutritional yeast until creamy.

stir in parsley.

add over your favourite noodle, or noodle type substitute.

We easily fed 6 with this recipe. But 3 of the 6 are under 10. :) so it is probably a 4 adult meal.

faux red lobster buiscuts. veganized!

so, with my oldest having stomach issues currently. I am looking to perfect a faux red lobster biscuit recipe... dairy free.
ahhh
 so. here is my current work in progress. We shall see how much tweaking is needed!!
we tried it, it is pretty good, but we will be adding more nutritional yeast next time.

2C all-purpose flour
1 T baking powder
1 T granulated sugar
1 T garlic powder
¾ t kosher salt
½C coconut oil (or butter substitute)
1/4C coconut oil (or butter substitute) 
1C Almond milk
1/4C nutritional yeast
½t  dried parsley

Preheat oven to 450°F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

In a large mixing bowl combine flour, baking powder, sugar, garlic and ½ tsp salt.  Whisk until well combined.  Add melted coconut oil and milk and whisk just until flour is all wet, do not over mix.  Add Nutritional yeast and fold in with a spoon.

Drop heaping spoonfuls onto baking sheet.  Bake for 10-12 minutes, until biscuits are golden brown.

Meanwhile melt remaining ½ stick (¼ cup) of coconut oil in small mixing bowl.  Microwave for 5 seconds or until it is melted.  Add ¼ teaspoon salt and parsley.  Stir with pastry brush. 

grab those biscuits out of the oven and give the a brush.

Enjoy!!!

And we give tuna rice casserole a try.

We periodically order grocery boxes. These are great. we often get things that I love but would not normally buy because of cost, and no one in the house but me would eat. Like swiss chard and garlic scape.  Our boxes generally come with recipes that incorporate some of the items.  

 The kids and I generally try them out when DH isn't home. Of course, the kids are by far my biggest food critics. CJ at this point will eat just about anything I put in front of him. (he is almost a teen now, man can that kid pack it away!!) But he lets me know what he thinks. I am glad for that. he has learned to be pretty easy with it. 

This one got a big thumbs up from CJ, a tolerable but I don't really love it from JT and AJ and, of course, the Princess wouldn't even try it. This is not the recipe as it was written. This is it how I made it. Taste testing it before the oven I felt it was written to be so bland. This is my spiced up version. Feel free to drop the seasonings if you are out or if they are not your thing.

Tuna Rice Casserole serves 4

    *2 C water                                  1 can tuna drained 

*1 C rice                                    1 can green beans drained & rinsed

2-3 tbsp butter or oil                  1 can mushroom pieces drained

1 sm onion chopped                   pepper to taste

3 tbsp flour                                dash of garlic powder and seasoning salt (or just salt)

1 1/2 C milk                              grated cheese enough to cover top

1tsp Worcestershire sauce

*Use 2 1/2 - 3 cups of left over rice OR Make rice to package directions.

(usually 2C water, boil, add 1 C rice. Lower heat and cover until rice is tender and water is absorbed. approx. 20 mins.)

While rice is cooking... make the sauce (you can also skip this whole next paragraph and heat a can of mushroom soup with a half can of water in your saucepan)

Melt butter or heat oil in lg saucepan. Add onion and cook until soft (3-5 mins). Add flour, stir while cooking (about 5 more mins). pour milk in slowly while stirring. Add Worcestershire sauce. Allow to boil and thicken.

Remove from heat and add cooked rice, tuna green beans, mushrooms and mix well. Add seasonings to taste. Put casserole into a lightly greesed 8x8x2inch baking pan sprinkle with cheese. Bake for 20 – 25 mins or until hot at 375F or 190C

Thinking Ahead

I have been having this idea for quite a while now. I am completely sure I am not the first one to ever do this, but I have a great desire, now that I am looking having a child in their teenage years straight in the face,  to make sure that I am going to be setting them all up to be successful out of the home. (sigh) so I have this idea to put together a book that they can take with them when they go off on their  own world adventure of just the way we do things. I am not talking about lists of rules or anything similar, But more like a guide to recipe's they like, hints and tips. you know stuff so I know they will not be looking in their cupboards and then going for take out and help them keep their clothes clean.

Hubby and I do insist that most of the time the kids go to the grocery store with us.  I was surprised when I was married the first time that my then husband was so unaware of how to shop. And even still his desire to have a freezer full of ready made meals and not cook at all. Or even his lack of appreciation for the time that went into making a meal (burnt or not). Now, I'm not knocking ready made dinners, they do have a time and a place. My current hubby used to be quite happy eating them from time to time. Now he won't touch them, but that is my bad influence. (way over salted!!)

So anyways. short story long, ;) I am planning on (see if I can keep it up this time) getting back here. I do not want a huge page file on my computer and this way in the future, I can grab my labels and print off everything in some sort of order.


<3     Guys, if your reading this in the future, here is your digital version. :)   <3

We do everything we can to travel on the cheap. In light of our most recent road trip, I have a few tips that can help with planning an inexpensive vacay.  If you have anything to add, feel free to add it to the comments section!!

1) scan the Internet. Then call the hotel directly!!

We stayed at the extended stay in Ottawa. It was a great hotel. Very clean. By calling the hotel directly we saved $5.00 off the posted Expedia cost. I have yet to call some where directly and not have them beat or match the cheapest price I find I line. And call as close to the date you want to go. We usually wait until the morning we are leaving. Sounds risky, but just make sure you have a back up plan. 

2) Bring food!!

By far for us, the biggest expense in traveling is food costs. For all 6 of us to eat out it is just crazy. We are always bringing coolers with us with drinks, fruit and cut up veg, sandwich fixings, salads, what ever we can easily take with us and do up right in our rooms.  Also a lot of grocery stores have not meals you can buy that are hot and you can get a few meals out of. Lugging a cooler is well worth it and has saved us a fortune! Recently we have discovered that you can also book decent priced suite rooms. So having that kitchenette is awesome. ( as well as extra space with the 6 of us!!) and we found that the money we saved having the option to cook a meal was well worth the extra money for the room. 

3) conntenetail or grab and go breakfasts. Here is another thing that I think is worth the few extra dollars in a room Rental. (If you don't want to bring your breakfast in the cooler) breakfast is expensive in most restaurants. Not worth spending money on. 

4) if you need to eat In a restaurant do it at lunch!
I live for hot meals. Not always easy when you are traveling on the cheap. Lunch prices are most often better.  For slightly smaller portions. The service is usually faster since its not crazy busy, and leftovers will make a great midnight snack ;)

5) week day travel!!

Our jobs are super flexible, and since we homeschool. We always travel during the week.  Hotel rates are generally better, and lot of times the cost of doing things is a bit less. Money saved all around!!

6) take your job with you!!
Ouch right. no  one really want's to. I have 2 home based businesses that I can easily take with me on the road, AND it doesn't feel like I'm working at all, so, it feels good when you can pay for your trip while on your trip. :)

7) look for deals on activities!
This seems like a no brainer. But I've totally forgot to do this! some museum's have free days, or buy to go to tihs one and get in this one free/%off etc. IF you can book around this. AWESOME. and leads me too...

8) get a hotel close to where you plan to visit.
You can save a ton on not having to park!! or even if the transit route is easy.

Road trip!

This past week, right after regular public schools started, we finally had the chance to take off for a few days! We try to head out a few times a year, to do something fun with the kids. We haven't had a chance to take our trailer out yet {:( }. Hopefully soon. I was really wanting to take the kids to the ROyal Ontario Museum. Then hubby found out that the Star Wars exhibition had been extended at the Canadian Aviation Museum. Since he is a hard core Star Wars fan, and I have 4 mini Star Wars fans in the house, clearly I was outnumbered!! 

So, that Morning we had the kids pack up and away we went. We can't tell our guys we are going anywhere until we are almost out the door. They get crazy no sleep excited. And/or really sick with excitement. 

 We stayed at a great hotel in Ottawa. The extended stay. We chose it because  it had a "grab and go" breakfast. A kitchenette, and separate bedroom. The bathroom was a bit weird. You didn't want anyone to whip open the door if you were standing in front of the sink or tub, but it was nice. the front desk called up 30 mins after check in to see it everything was alright with our room. And, the price was right. 137.00+.

Now, I am not a Star Wars fan. But the exhibit was pretty cool. Even educational. They talked a lot about science, how people are influence by different aspect of their culture, genes and the tied it all back to aspects of the movie and how these things build to influence the movie characters. I was pretty impressed. Even if I didn't get the planet stuff and fighter stuff ;) 

Worm composter!!

I have been dying to make a worm composter since last spring. But, amount other distraction, I couldn't get past the cost of buying the "right" worms (15.00+ a lbs) and getting them shipped here. So I never bothered. But, thanks to a last minute trip to the farmers market today I found some at $4.00 a lbs!! So of course we got some and home we came to make our very own vermicomposter!! It's hard to be trying to teach your children to be earth stewards if we aren't doing what we can when it's made affordable to us. 

I had watched a few you tube videos so I had a basic idea. But wanted a few more ideas before we got started. This is what we came up with when we mixed together what we saw and co pared it to what we had.

Materials:

1 18G storage bin

1half height storage bin

One peice of cardboard

Newspaper

A bit of soil

Drill

1/4" drill bit

Ok so first the monsters and I drilled 6 holes in the bottom of our bin. It has a contoured bottom, so we made sure to drill the holes where it would be the lowest points 

Mind the mess we spent the long weekend getting the trailer out and set up so we could check it. 

My timid man getting a turn.

Yes even the baby gets to drill the holes. Got to teach them they can do it young!

Poor babe wanted to do it all himself. Couldn't quite hold the button down. 

See my little half side bin there? Next we drilled holes around the lower end of the big bin, but still low enough that they would be inside the half size bin. (No photos. By this time everyone wanted a shot at the drill again and I had C.J. Help to watch many fingers. Then we drilled a few holes. Around the top of the bin just under where the bin lid sat, but higher then we figured we would let the worms get. These are for air circulation. And one in the top. Inside we added our piece of cardboard squished into the bottom. And the kids shredded a nice bed of newspaper to the bin. 

 You can see the holes in this one. And we put alayer  of soil on the paper and the worms in.  We then set the bigger bin into the half size one to catch all the "worm tea" so we can put that in the garden too and to stop the little buggers from escaping!! 

I think at a later time I will drill a few more holes throughout the middle and put some screening across them to increase air circulation.  And maybe a layer of stones in the bottom of the smaller bin to raise the big one out of it a bit so they don't get too wet in the bottom. We will have to move this inside and downstairs as the summer gets hotter. But for now this is where it will live. So. Here's hoping we don't kill them!! 

Sorting things out

As a side...
this took me several weeks to write and I apologize for the jumbled mess it is. it is unclear and not well written, and missing some parts.


In 2008 my grandmother died.
She is my mothers mom.
After battling several times with breast cancer and wining three fights, Cancer eventually won the war with her body. She fought for 7 plus years. I didn't go to see her in her last 5 months of life here. I was, at that time pregnant with my second son. I was asked not to go and see her so that she wouldn't feel bad about dying before our baby was born. She never knew I was pregnant. My sister (K) is an amazing RPN. She was able to help provide end of life care to my grandmother. she would stop by on her way to and from Clients and was able to send information along to us. After my grandmother could no longer stay at home, she went to a hospice. She was expected to be there for a week Grandma passed away 3 1/2 weeks later on May 14th It was just after Mothers day weekend. my mom went to Burlington to spend as much time there as she could. During that time Todd and I did her job here as well as our own. (I worked full time then running a salon.) my mom didn't have a job at that time that didn't allow for days off. So the responsibility was left to us to take care of everything at home. I would do it again. But I missed my chance to say good bye.

I don't pretend that I know either of my sets of Grand parents well. We lived 3 hours away. Not a fun drive. But in the past few years I began to get to know My Dad's Mom better. Began to find common threads in our lives. I liked that Grandma F talked to me like an equal. And I liked that when you asked a question you got an answer. an honest one from what I know. seeing the strong bond that my Kids have with my parents, And Todd's with his makes me crave a connection to my Grandparents as well.

 On April 3rd Dad's mother passed away. (when I started typing this she was still alive. When I originally got to this spot, She had been gone only a few days.) 2 years ago it had become apparent that grandma wasn't well. After several trips to the ER for various other complaints it was discovered that she had cancer. She had surgery and it appeared to have been erraticated. .
nearing the middle of last summer during a routine check up in the area of the surgery two small masses were discovered. K was then put charge of medical care for both of my Dad's parents By my grandmother at the suggestion of my Dad. After several appt's to decide what was to be done, it was decided that it was in fact a reoccurrence of cancer but likely so slow growing and she would probably have several (I think the number 5ish was through around) years left if she chose to not undergo treatment for the tumours.She was apparently very insistent that treatment was not an option. My Grandfather has had many strokes and medical issues in the course of the last 30 years that she had been his primary care giver and she was not wanting to be to incapacitated to care for him. At his insistence they packed up and left for florida for a few winter months and returned in March. A few weeks later and after two trips to the ER it was discovered that the cancer had moved much quicker then anyone could have predicted.  3 months at this point was an optimistic assumption. She would not leave the hospital. E-Mails flew from the finger tips of K to the family with up to the minute updates. Through all of this from the beginning we were and are blessed to have someone with such intimate knowledge. We actually knew what was really going on.  She knew the right questions to ask.  I hadn't seen my grandmother since last summer. I was making plans to go up to see her. What is it they say. life is what happens when your too busy making plans? We weren't able to make it up until the end of that week. I really wanted her to meet M.J. Tuesday morning K called and told me that I had 48 hours at the most. She knew my desire to get M.J. there. I know how selfish that is. Don't think I don't know. an hours later K called me back and got Todd on the phone and told him if we weren't already in the van on our way we wouldn't make it. I was just finishing with a client. So we sat and waited. What else do you do. after a short time I went and sat by myself with M.J. in my arms sleeping on the edge of my bed. I tell you I felt her. it was a brief moment. It moved by quick it was warm and comfortable, but then it was gone. And then the phone rang, and I realized what had happened. I'm not sure if she came here as she passed through, or if I just felt her relief. she had been asking K a lot of questions the day before about who would take care of Grandpa. I think she just wanted reassurance. I missed my chance to say Good bye. But I suppose she may have come to say it anyways.

STRETCH.....

I do suppose its time to shake off the cobwebs...

Little princess MJ was born December 20th 2011. Much to the excitement of her 3 older brothers. Really CJ has wanted a sister since I became pregnant with JT, My second little angel. In fact, he was asking for one before that. I suppose we will see if they are still that excited to have a sister in a few years.. lol.
M.J. came a full 36 days early, so we spent the first 7 days in the special care nursery. so yes, Christmas kinda sucked. But on the plus side, our experience in special care was way better then last time. Seems as though they may have taken my letter to heart after my last stay.
We went grocery shopping Late Tuesday morning. I was feeling completely like crap. tired and sick. just totally drained. while we were walking (OK i was waddling far behind.) every so often I had to stop and catch my breath. some where in the back of my mind I was thinking to myself "Please don't be in labour, Please" I knew from having AJ that at 36 weeks I would be in for a hospital stay if the babe decided to make an appearance. and I really wanted to make it until after christmas to Know for sure that It would be a healthy birth. We were funny enough also using this grocery shopping trip to purchase all out birthing snacks and refreshments. Nice thing about having a midwife this time is I knew I wouldn't be starved during labour! By the time we were loading the groceries in the van I was pretty sure a call to my wonderful midwife would have to be placed. (I was told by her that if I even suspected I was in labour to call since I have a habit of being quick. The day before she had giving T a run Down on how to deliver the baby Should things progress really quick. I know they do it for everyone, but seemed a little more important considering. lol.)  I did however keep it to myself. I didn't want to freak Todd out before we got home,  I thought it would be best to not worry the kids, and lets face it, Denial. Being in labour was not in my plans for the day and, don't tell my dad I admitted this, I'm a bit of a control freak, but that's just between you and me eh? We get home and I leave Todd to empty the groceries out of the van and go lay down. I had been timing on the way home (Pretty sure he caught on to that) and after laying and staring at the clock for 30 mins, decided it was time to break down and call. as I was on the phone with my midwife my membrane ruptured and it was decided that to the hospital we would go. It was 3:00pm at this time. After being hooked up to a monitor to see what was what It turned out that my membrane had ruptured and I was having regular contractions, but they really weren't strong enough to do anything, but i wasn't going to get sent home either. It was decided that I would stay and be left in labour, But if things didn't progress on there own I was getting a drip in the morning. well that was not in the plan at all. Around 4:30, after having a discussion with my midwife she decided she would maybe go home and come back when things were progressing along. We talked about how the baby had to come in the next 12 hours as my waters had ruptured and she helped me come to terms with the fact that this baby was coming early whether I liked it or not. I discussed my concern from my last experience with the Special care nursery and she assured me that they would be there to advocate for me. So around this time I decided to see what I could do to gentle help it along. after several trips to empty my bladder and standing around my tiny assessment area it was decided to move us to a birthing suite. My midwife stayed on. This was around 5:00pm. My progress was also being monitored by an OB/GYN because there was concern that I would need meds to get it going the next day.  Labour SLOWLY progressed. By 7:00pm or so I was only 4 CM. In the past I would have had the baby by then. But she was still high up and not engaged. so labour on I did. The contractions were only 3 -4 mins apart, but they weren't really doing a lot. Todd and I were left alone a lot of the time which was nice. at about 8:30 After having a nice visit with a friend who works i the lab at the hospital, I decided I wasn't going to be in labour all night soI started to grab ahold of the IV stand and leaned over and started rocking. Thankfully, this did it's job and my contractions became more intense. By 9:30 the second midwife was called in. I had also gotten up on the bed on my knees and hung over the back for support. (Highly recommended by the way!!) In my past labours I was always been forced to labour on my back for the convenience of the drs's and nurses, so I was thrilled that not only midwife allowed me to labour how I needed, but the nurse that was helping for the OB/YN was helping me and had great suggestions for keeping me up. Mj was born at 11:31PM that night (Finally!) and had low blood sugar and had a low temp. But her breathing was fantastic. (in fact I almost didn't have to leave her in special care.) She was there for 7 days however. she developed Sleep Apnea type symptoms on the third day of the stay. I came home for 4 hours to see my boys open their Christmas gifts Christmas day and then went back to my care by parent room. Santa visited the babies in the nursery and they all got gifts and beautiful hand knit hats and boots. MJ was finally discharged on the 27th of december with a clean bill of health.

Swimming today!!

My poor JT. My middle guy does not like Swimming lessons. The worst part about it is he does a super job, once he gets in the pool and stops crying. So, I have been telling him.. (Ok so bribing him. but lets not split hairs) That if he gets in the pool like a "big boy" with his instructor, and doesn't cry for the first 10 mins like he normally does I will make him, or buy him, what ever he wants for supper. You know what he picks. Kraft dinner. Plain old comes in a box Kraft dinner. Needless to say I'm not a huge fan. I didn't mind it before, but right now being pregnant the idea of Kraft dinner is ICK. Sounds like it will be a two supper night in out house tonight!

This morning we received in the mail JT's Primer math book. they are his first ones so he was super pumped and this afternoon finished all 14 pages of lesson one. We use the Math-U-See program for our homeschooling. It is an awesome program that we just love. I am actually for the first time learning and getting math along with CJ. So it's a huge bonus. Math has never been my thing. and I have on several occasions heard a few of my mom's friends say something along the lines of "Should she be homeschooling? Weren't her math grades terrible in school." sigh.. what they don't understand.

Tomorrow I have some major baking planned. Today I made some Cherry Pie filling (As per the recipe at "The cup cake project" Yes I'm addicted to that site right now!!) and the Home made Maraschino Cherries off of her blog too. they are both sitting on my counter right now cooling. Man to theMaraschino cherries ever smell boozy right now, and if I wasn't pregnant I would totally take a shot of the liquid they are soaking in!! I'll post some photos later (or more probably tomorrow at this point) Once I get started on the Cupcakes that will go with them. I'm making her Black forest cupcakes. I originally bumped into her blog trying to find some cute cupcakes for AJ's 2nd Birthday party and have been stuck to it ever since. But I promise that not all the recipes that I use will be from her site. and they won't all be sweets either!!