Meal Plan Monday – Nov 15th

It’s been a long time sing I’ve participated in I’m and Organizing Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday. We’ve stocked up quite a bit on food in the last month and I want to make sure that we use the food with as little waste as possible in a somewhat organized manner. I also want to see how little we can get away with spending at the grocery store as our grocery bill seems to have almost double in the last year. I know both kids are eating more but DOUBLED?!?!?

Here’s what’s on the menu this week.

Monday: Crockpot chicken with mushrooms. I think in a tomato style sauce but I’m not sure yet. We’ll serve this over rice.

Tuesday: Chicken soup (with leftover chicken…there will be some) with sweet potato and swiss chard (the last from my garden).

Wednesday: chana masala

Thursday: spaghetti with the left over tomatoes from the chana masala.

Friday: Whatever fresh fish we find at the store with salad.

Saturday: likely Mexican this week (re-fried beans would be good this week, I think).

Sunday: Pork chops with potatoes, carrots and turnips.

I’ve been nominated!

For a Homeschool Blog Award.

I’m thrilled and honoured (and I admit it, SURPRISED!) I’m up with some other really awesome blogs that I love. I feel a bit bad that my blog has become a bit neglected but I have tons of new stuff coming up (including scheduling ideas for keeping up with your housework). I’m feeling much more organized these days so I will be back with lots.

I’d appreciate your votes, my friends (you can vote once a day) PLEASE VOTE! (click here) There’s lots of other great blogs there, too, so check them out, too.

A Meal Just for You

Baked beans

A mountain of homemade (white) bread

Grandpère aux sirop d’erable

My little French Canadian family

When Baby Sleeps

Mama makes apple pie!

All this was done while Liam read to us about Leonardo Da Vinci and Morgaine got a lesson on using watercolour pencils to create more realistic drawings. I’m feeling quite accomplished and could get used to a baby that takes a good two hour nap in the afternoon.

A Gardening Update

After a rocky start, my garden has finally started producing for us. We’ve had decent success with pretty much everything that we’ve grown this year. We did loose our corn but I wasn’t expecting that to amount to anything. Our chard didn’t quite survive it’s encounter with fungus (or something) though it is still trying to come back . The lettuce was not terribly successful as we’ve come to realize that earwigs love it as much as we do. I’m not sure that we’d plant it again next year. We got our money’s worth but that’s about it.

Each morning we are able to go out and harvest green beens, cucumbers, zucchini, herbs…

and finally tomatoes fresh from the vine.

Here are a just a few we rescued after Earl.

We also have red cabbage that is ready to be picked and onions, too (they taste so good but we didn’t get as many as I anticipated (I know very little about gardening and thought we were going to get bunches of onions). One batch of carrots look great, a bunch in another box didn’t grow at all. We are enjoying our leeks very much and are hoping for beets (though if what I pulled today is any indication then we are going to be VERY disappointed). We have peppers galore just getting a wee bit bigger. Spinach was most definitely worth it, though we would plant less next year. I would say it has been a pretty successful garden and if it grows as well next year then we will have made back our money and more with the start up costs we had this year.

MUCH better than last year and that is all we could have hoped for.

How are your gardens doing? Are you enjoying your produce? Let me know!

A Wee Bit of Canning

If you follow me on Facebook at all, you know that I have been trying my hand at home canning again this year. We try to eat as locally as possible and with my freezer mishap from last year I figured that it would be best to can as much Cape Breton goodness as possible this year. I don’t go all out with my canning like one of my friends, Lindsay (I want to spend a day in the kitchen with her family *lol*) but I do try and have even attempted to go beyond just relish and fruit ketsup this year.

So far this year we have:

• 6 pints of vegetable antipasto
• 2 pints and 6 half pints of bread and butter pickles
• 1.5 liters of dill pickles
• 6 pints of dillweed relish
• 4 half pints of zucchini marmalade (yummy stuff)
• 4 half pints of wild blueberry freezer jam

I just went out today and picked up 64 jars for 20 dollars so I think I will be busy for the next little while. Now, if only I could get over my fear of botulism *lol*.

A Budding Chef….

Liam has been begging me for months and months to open a cafe at our house. I told him that running a cafe would be lots and lots of work and having a baby around while setting up a cafe and serving customers would be hard (to which Liam replied, “We could keep the baby upstairs when there are people here, Mum”) However, he has continued to ask about opening a restaurant and talking about how he is going to be a chef maybe when he is 8. As a result, I’ve decided to let the child open up his own restaurant and feed the family (hey, that’s what homeschooling is about, isn’t it?)

Yesterday was the official launch of Liam’s Delisio Restaurant. Liam chose what he would like to prepare and wrote out his grocery list. He chose the produce he needed from the market and then did the majority of the food preparation himself while following the recipe. He worked well, and mostly stayed on task, to prepare us a lovely family meal.

Liam’s Meatball Fusilli with Vegetables

The verdict: The meal was DELICIOUS, but Liam wants to try it a couple more times before he thinks it would be good enough to write down on his menu! Liam plans to write on his blog about his restaurant just as soon as he finishes his math work so be sure to check in tonight to see what he has to say.

Liam plans on attending culinary school when he is “10 or maybe 12″ so I am sure that there will be many a yummy meal in our future!

A Budding Chef….

Liam has been begging me for months and months to open a cafe at our house. I told him that running a cafe would be lots and lots of work and having a baby around while setting up a cafe and serving customers would be hard (to which Liam replied, “We could keep the baby upstairs when there are people here, Mum”) However, he has continued to ask about opening a restaurant and talking about how he is going to be a chef maybe when he is 8. As a result, I’ve decided to let the child open up his own restaurant and feed the family (hey, that’s what homeschooling is about, isn’t it?)

Yesterday was the official launch of Liam’s Delisio Restaurant. Liam chose what he would like to prepare and wrote out his grocery list. He chose the produce he needed from the market and then did the majority of the food preparation himself while following the recipe. He worked well, and mostly stayed on task, to prepare us a lovely family meal.

Liam’s Meatball Fusilli with Vegetables

The verdict: The meal was DELICIOUS, but Liam wants to try it a couple more times before he thinks it would be good enough to write down on his menu! Liam plans to write on his blog about his restaurant just as soon as he finishes his math work so be sure to check in tonight to see what he has to say.

Liam plans on attending culinary school when he is “10 or maybe 12″ so I am sure that there will be many a yummy meal in our future!

A Story of Scones and a Baby

My friend posted a scone recipe. Thinking that scones are pretty straight forward, I decide that they would be easy enough for me to make with the kids. Liam and Morgaine are more than willing to help, especially when I tell them that they will be the ones doing most of the work. Wee baby gets strapped into the ring sling so that I have two hands available should I need to jump in to rescue the recipe. For all of 30 seconds things go well. We pull out the flour, butter, and baking powder. Then looking at my two children working together in the kitchen, I get a feeling of warmth and happiness. However, as a new mother, feelings of warmth and happiness are often accompanied by the flow of breast milk. Ruadhán, smelling (and likely feeling) the milk, starts to wiggle around and make his wee baby grunts and well, of course my milk starts even more. Wet circles begin to form on my chest. The kids have by this point measured the ingredients and are waiting for a spice from the top shelf. Being notoriously clumsy, I remove wee baby from the carrier and lay him on the couch. He is quiet. All is well. I climbed on the chair and lean over to reach into the cupboard. The baby, realizing I am gone, SCREAMS….

Drip….

Drip……

Drip……

Drip……..

There’s breastmilk falling on my TOES!

The spice in question is nowhere to be found so I grab the next best thing, hop down, and run to the screaming baby who is now red with rage and has huge alligator tears streaming down his cheeks. I’m soaked, the kids are excitedly asking what they need to do next while jumping up and down, despite being in my arms, Ruadhán continues to scream. I grab the butter from the fridge, cut off a half cup chunk and toss it into the bowl and tell the kids to break it up with their fingers (hey, the recipe says we can use our hands). I sit with the baby at the table to oversee and nurse. The baby latches and then pulls off, the milk arches in the air and lands on the table just inches away from the mixing bowl. On then off. On then off. On then off. Meanwhile, the older two are letting the butter melt in their hands instead of blending the chunks of butter into the flour. It’s time for me to rescue the recipe and besides the baby has no interest in nursing. Back into the carrier he goes. No sooner in, then he started to scream AGAIN! Just wanting the recipe done at this point, I take over. Toss in a couple eggs, get both hands into the mixture and bop around

Up and down……

Back and forth……

Side to side…..

Trying quite UNSUCCESSFULLY to soothe the now quite distressed infant.

Form a ball…..the baby SCREAMS!

Cut the dough…..the baby SCREAMS!

Place the dough on a baking tray….the baby SCREAMS!

Open the oven and place the try inside….the baby sighs and falls asleep!

The scones turn out magnificently.

A Story of Scones and a Baby

My friend posted a scone recipe. Thinking that scones are pretty straight forward, I decide that they would be easy enough for me to make with the kids. Liam and Morgaine are more than willing to help, especially when I tell them that they will be the ones doing most of the work. Wee baby gets strapped into the ring sling so that I have two hands available should I need to jump in to rescue the recipe. For all of 30 seconds things go well. We pull out the flour, butter, and baking powder. Then looking at my two children working together in the kitchen, I get a feeling of warmth and happiness. However, as a new mother, feelings of warmth and happiness are often accompanied by the flow of breast milk. Ruadhán, smelling (and likely feeling) the milk, starts to wiggle around and make his wee baby grunts and well, of course my milk starts even more. Wet circles begin to form on my chest. The kids have by this point measured the ingredients and are waiting for a spice from the top shelf. Being notoriously clumsy, I remove wee baby from the carrier and lay him on the couch. He is quiet. All is well. I climbed on the chair and lean over to reach into the cupboard. The baby, realizing I am gone, SCREAMS….

Drip….

Drip……

Drip……

Drip……..

There’s breastmilk falling on my TOES!

The spice in question is nowhere to be found so I grab the next best thing, hop down, and run to the screaming baby who is now red with rage and has huge alligator tears streaming down his cheeks. I’m soaked, the kids are excitedly asking what they need to do next while jumping up and down, despite being in my arms, Ruadhán continues to scream. I grab the butter from the fridge, cut off a half cup chunk and toss it into the bowl and tell the kids to break it up with their fingers (hey, the recipe says we can use our hands). I sit with the baby at the table to oversee and nurse. The baby latches and then pulls off, the milk arches in the air and lands on the table just inches away from the mixing bowl. On then off. On then off. On then off. Meanwhile, the older two are letting the butter melt in their hands instead of blending the chunks of butter into the flour. It’s time for me to rescue the recipe and besides the baby has no interest in nursing. Back into the carrier he goes. No sooner in, then he started to scream AGAIN! Just wanting the recipe done at this point, I take over. Toss in a couple eggs, get both hands into the mixture and bop around

Up and down……

Back and forth……

Side to side…..

Trying quite UNSUCCESSFULLY to soothe the now quite distressed infant.

Form a ball…..the baby SCREAMS!

Cut the dough…..the baby SCREAMS!

Place the dough on a baking tray….the baby SCREAMS!

Open the oven and place the try inside….the baby sighs and falls asleep!

The scones turn out magnificently.