You are currently browsing the monthly archive for January 2013.
Woohoo! Back to no waste again…mind you its been horribly cold here – deep freeze – and well, NO ONE wants to go out in it to grocery shop. Even I don’t want to ‘pop in’ somewhere after I’ve dropped the hubster at work. Thus forcing me to use my creative thinking paired with my deep freezer & well stocked pantry. But ya know, I’m alright with that 🙂
How’d you do?
On Friday’s, I share what food items that I have ‘wasted’ by letting spoil during the week from forgetfulness and/or neglect. Kristen over at The Frugal Girl has inspired me to publicly post in hopes of reducing waste. (Food Waste Friday is now being co-hosted every other week with Simply Being Mum – pop on over to take a peek!)
I suddenly had the urge to visit our local bulk store after catching up with Ree’s blog this morning. [Yes – Ree Drummond aka The Pioneer Woman] And just like Ree…I needed to find a way to justify it. I finally caved after lunch and drug my dad out with me. (He had been hibernating from the deep freeze we’re going through and has refused to go out) Together, we ‘browsed’ every aisle of the bulk store of course after stopping at both the bank and the little produce store next door 😉
You can read more about Ree’s ‘motivating’ post here.
All I gotta say is: Damn you Ree Drummond!
*shakes fist & pops a peach gummy ring into her mouth*
Happy Birthday To Meee!!!
Guess what today is? 😉
The hubster and I tend not to make a big deal of birthdays unless there’s children involved. We mainly just give a lil something (if anything) and have or partake in a celebratory meal. No big shin digs, nothing extravagant. Simpletons we are.
This year the wonderful hubster decided to send a super beautiful arrangement of long stem roses. Quite a shock as he’s not a flower giver nor am I one to request them. We both admire them but that’s about it. Like I said, quite a shock. The florist wasn’t able to guarantee a delivery for today, even with an order placed in advance so these beautiful babies were delivered on Friday around dinnertime.
The arrangement was HUGE!
(almost as wide as my stairs)
Just gorgeous!
I love the aroma that they’re giving off – wonderful!
Also spent the day cooped up at home, hibernating from the cold snap we’re experiencing (temps of -13*C + windchill = -28*C = YIKES!) and decided to paint my nails. I let a week pass by with nails ‘au naturel’. Thought I’d give the whole ‘accent nail’ another try. Whatchas think about this combo? You can read about my first attempt here.
Also being served up for dinner – chili (with an overload of veggies & beans).
I thought it was appropriate for an effin freezing day. Don’t you? Not sure what other surprises this day will hold but if you ask me, I’m OK with it.
One of the best things I’ve learned to make from scratch is ginger tea. We tend to drink a lot of it from fall to spring when the weather gets all wonky and cold or when we’re feeling under the weather. We usually drink this tea about three times a week. It helps keep our immune systems running more efficiently.
I take about a 2″ knob of fresh ginger (well ok, its more like 4″) and slice it very thin then simmer it in about 3c-4c water for at least 30 mins or longer. The longer you simmer, the more concentrated & powerful it becomes. Oh – spicy too. At this point, if you’re a masochist brave enough to drink it straight up – more power to you. Though I love it super spicy, I’ll admit that even *I* need to add honey to help tone it down. To be even more crazy, I’ll add a wedge of citrus – take your pick: lemon, lime or orange. I know – bonkers huh?
Gaah! My luck seems to have dwindled but I’m not too worried about it. The only waste I have to report this week, the last lil bit of juice in two different cartons. Probably about a cup and a half’s worth of juice? They were both probably still drinkable but with having sat opened in the fridge with the date passed (more then a week) I wasn’t about to risk it.
How’d you do?
On Friday’s, I share what food items that I have ‘wasted’ by letting spoil during the week from forgetfulness and/or neglect. Kristen over at The Frugal Girl has inspired me to publicly post in hopes of reducing waste. (Food Waste Friday is now being co-hosted every other week with Simply Being Mum – pop on over to take a peek!)
Over the holidays, I decided to try my hand at making a breakfast casserole. Having never really made one, it sounded simple enough. As usual, I took to the internet and found that a lot of the recipes called for cream cheese or a can of cream of ___ soup. I skipped over those recipes as I was hoping for something somewhat healthy. It was hard to find one recipe that I liked as a whole so I decided to wing it instead.
This is what I came up with: started with a layer of hash brown style potatoes, a thin layer of shredded cheese followed by a mixed layer of diced onions, bell peppers & green onions, then a layer of seasoned browned ground pork topped with cheese & remainder of diced veggies to make it look purdy on top. 😉 I poured a mixture of seasoned eggs & milk over top and gave the pan a lil shake and a couple of bangs on the counter to help the egg mixture coat everything with its yummy goodness.
Looks pretty good if you ask me.
Baked for about an hour at 350*F.
I used the knife test to ensure that the eggs had cooked through.
Voila!
As delicious as it was, I’ll admit that I’ll be making a few tweaks for round two. The wonderful hubster said it was tasty and it was but for some reason, I thought it was going to be super spectacular. I guess this is where the cream cheese/cream of ___ soups come into play?
Going forward, I think I’ll use less potatoes and mix the cooked meat, cheese & veggies into the egg mixture before pouring over the potato layer, ensuring that everything is submerged in the egg mixture.
Since I made the casserole from scratch, I knew every ingredient that went into it and was also able to control the fat and salt content. Bonus if you ask me. Would I make this again? Oh heck yes! Especially since it made 8 good sized portions. We had plenty of leftovers and those my friends, made my weekend even easier. 🙂
Have you tried making a breakfast casserole? Do you have a favourite recipe?
An annual tradition that the hubster and I seemed to have been repeating: midnight nibblys with some bubbly to ring in the New Year. Since we had an early dinner with the family (you can read about that here) and it was fast approaching midnight, we were getting excited and a bit peckish. I went and fired up the oven, tossed in the h’ors d’oeuvres to warm while the hubster cracked open the champagne. Real champagne, not sparkling wine posing as champagne. For some reason he’s a stickler about it being true champagne. I’m alright with that as we don’t drink champagne any other time of the year.
The feast:
jalapeno poppers, cheese sticks, coconut shrimp and jalapeno bacon wrapped meatball lollipops. YUM!
Cheers!!
What did you do to ring in the New Year? Any traditions?
No waste again. 😀 I am completely amazed at how well we’re doing. I have noticed that we tend to grocery shop less, buy more on the few trips that we do make and are just making due without what we thought we needed. Eating from the freezer & stockpile are helping big time too. I don’t want to jinx it by saying we’re actually meal planning b/c we’re not but its very similar. More along the lines of “We have X and X so that’s good enough for dinner tonight plus X and X for tomorrow and then there’s leftovers…..” You get the idea. Whatever this is called, its working!
How’d you do?
On Friday’s, I share what food items that I have ‘wasted’ by letting spoil during the week from forgetfulness and/or neglect. Kristen over at The Frugal Girl has inspired me to publicly post in hopes of reducing waste. (Food Waste Friday is now being co-hosted every other week with Simply Being Mum – pop on over to take a peek!)
Ever since having my nails done while on vacation back in Nov’2012, I find that I tend to keep my hands in better condition. You know…keeping them moisturized, not tugging on or chewing hangnails etc. Due to the fact that I had chosen a shellac mani, I needed to find time to have it removed which never seemed to pan out. I had that mani on for about a month! Confessions of loving manicures here.
So here’s a shot of my own home mani complete with accent nail. I have no idea where/how this trend started but I thought I’d try my hand at it (pun intended!) I love bold and bright colours but with never having experienced the accent nail, I thought I’d go subtle.
What do you think? Are you a fan of the accent nail?
New Year’s Eve rolled around and my sis called to let us know she was in town and wanted to know if we would like to meet up for dinner. So after getting ready last minute, we jumped at the offer and headed out the door. We went a bit early as well fearing crowds of people and our choice of restaurant being booked solid.
Starter: broth type soup
Soy sauce chicken with a few slices of spicy jelly fish salad on top.
Baby bok choy, simmered with ground pork & garlic cloves.
Chinese style lobster!
(the only way lobster should be prepared – ever IMO)
Abalone w/Chinese mushrooms over baby bok choy.
All in all, it was a mighty tasty meal with great company and no family drama. Going in early for dinner helped a lot as the restaurant did fill up and was very loud by the time we were leaving. What more could a girl ask for on New Year’s Eve?
myliladventures 