Monday 29 February 2016

Because She Needs to be Kept Busy #1

While I was still pregnant with C, one of the things on my list of "things I must do before my life gets crazy with two kids under two" was to make busy boxes to keep K occupied while I was nursing the baby. I ended up making 5 boxes to keep things fresh for K. In reality, I could have just made this first one and she would have been fine because C was super efficient at nursing and would take 20 minutes max. I've been spoiled with this baby. Most of the contents of the boxes were purchased at Dollarama, Walmart or The Real Canadian Superstore. I would definitely recommend hitting up the dollar store first because a few things I purchased at the grocery store I found cheaper at Dollarama. Oh well. Here are the contents of Busy Box #1:




  1. Plastic Cupcakes - These were found at the dollar store and K would ask to play with these over and over again. If I had a box full of cupcakes she would have been in heaven. 
  2. Mini Board Books - I bought a box of 12 of these books from Walmart and split them up between the boxes. These are Sesame Street themed but I also have Disney Movies and Paw Patrol
  3. Plastic Dinosaurs - K has started to get more interested in these now that she has been watching Dinosaur Train.
  4. Stickers & Construction Paper - These were another Dollarama find. I liked these stickers because they were easy to remove from the plastic. The construction paper is the perfect size for these boxes. K enjoys taking them on and off the paper which makes me a little crazy. 
  5. Flashcards - From the dollar store again. They are made by Fisher Price and have lots of different shapes and colours. K really likes looking at these and naming the objects.
  6. Popsicle Stick Shapes - These were made using coloured popsicle sticks and velcro dots with adhesive on them. The idea is that K would make different shapes with these but I think she is still a bit too young for that. I found the idea here

Wednesday 24 February 2016

Because We Need to Eat - Feb. 22-26

This week we did not do a big grocery shop. Because of C's baptism and a birthday party and Chinese New Year's party on Saturday groceries just did not happen. We have milk and few fresh fruits and veggies from last week, along with more freezer meals and frozen fruits and veggies to eat up so here is our "No New Groceries" meal plan for the week.




Pasta Bake with Caesar Salad - this is a recipe that I put together from two other recipes. K is being a bit funny with vegetables these days so next time I would probably mince instead of chop up the carrots, however she ate the leftovers today without picking out the carrots. Toddlers...so confusing!


  

  • Package of ground turkey
  • 1 small cooking onion, chopped or minced
  • 2 medium carrots, chopped or minced
  • 1 celery stalk, chopped or minced
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 3/4 cups of dried macaroni
  • 1 650 ml jar of pasta sauce
  • 1 1/4 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese
  1. Preheat oven to 375 F
  2. Cook pasta according to directions, drain and set aside
  3. In a large saucepan or frying pan cook meat over medium-high heat, for 8-10 minutes or until no longer pink; drain the fat
  4. Add celery, carrots, onion, and garlic and simmer, uncovered, for 12-15 minutes
  5. Combine pasta sauce and 1 cup of cheese in a large bowl. Add cooked pasta and meat mxture. Stir to combine
  6. Spoon mixture into a 2-quart casserole dish and bake, covered, for 35-40 minutes
  7. Uncover and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake for 5 more minutes or until cheese is melted

Creamy Chicken Casserole - This was a freezer meal that we haven't tried yet but it is pretty basic and easy.

Slow Cooker Pizza Bake - Looking forward to this one because of the pepperoni, I'm not going to lie. 

Spinach Omelette with Peas & Carrots - K loves omelettes but doesn't like when they are too hot (temperature-wise) but has trouble being patient and waiting for it to cool down. I use an omelette pan which makes this super easy. I put in one egg, some defrosted frozen spinach, cottage cheese (sometimes other cheese), and a sprinkle of garlic powder. We had some parmesan cheese leftover from C's baptism so I put that on top once the omelette was cooked. 




Cheese & Crackers with Frozen Broccoli - I know. It seems weird but it is easy. I sometimes put cream cheese on the crackers instead of cheddar cheese. The broccoli is for a token vegetable. 

Mini Pancake Muffins - I used a boxed pancake mix but if you want a from-scratch recipe click here. All I did, after mixing the pancake batter, was add an egg. K helped and put a frozen berry (cherries, blackberries, blueberries) in each muffin. I baked them in a mini muffin pan at 350 F for 13-15 minutes. Super easy and K scarfed down 6 of them. 




Berry Banana Smoothie with Pretzels - I really want to try to add greens to my smoothies but haven't worked up the courage yet. Soon...possibly! Here's my recipe:


  • 1 cup of yogurt (I used plain Greek yogurt this time)
  • 1 cup of frozen berries
  • 1 banana
  • 1/4 cup of milk
  1. Place all ingredients in a blender
  2. Blend until smooth

Tuesday 23 February 2016

Because She is Born of Water and the Spirit - C's Baptism

Infant baptism can be a bit of a controversial subject but I'm Presbyterian and that's what we do. I know it doesn't mean that C now has a free pass into heaven but we understand it more as God grafting her into His family and that one day C will have to make her own decision to follow Jesus. Not only do we, as parents, promise to raise her up in the Christian faith but our congregation also makes a covenant to support us, as parents, and to love C. It's pretty awesome! 

Mark and I were also asked if we would share our faith stories during the service which was something we hadn't done before. That was also powerful. I was able to really think through my life and focus on some tougher times that I've just glossed over in my memory but in reality were a major moment of surrender for me. When I was working on my testimony my minister referenced Luke 14: 31-33 and encouraged me to think of a time when my will was at odds with God's and when I finally decided to surrender to Him and His plan for my life. Again, it was pretty awesome!

C's baptism was also an opportunity for us to celebrate with family and friends so we invited people back to our house for lunch. What to feed 20+ people when we just had K's birthday party less than a month ago? Well, soup and buns of course. 

The Menu

2. Tomato Basil Soup (I need to ask my mom for the recipe so stay tuned...)
4. White and Whole Wheat buns with butter (no cold cuts this time as we were trying to keep costs down)
5. Caesar Salad (we still had salad dressing and croutons left over from K's birthday, so why not?)
6. Red Velvet Cake (store-bought, on sale from the Real Canadian Superstore)
7. Vanilla cupcakes (I have a nephew with a chocolate allergy)
8. Vanilla ice cream
9. Italian Soda, Coke, Sprite, and Water to drink

This menu worked really well. We had a little bit of soup leftover. We froze some and are planning on eating the rest for lunches this week. We had way too many buns since I bought a large bag from Costco but those we froze, too, and may work well for garlic bread. 

The Decor

1. God Bless Clare banner - I bought this from Target for K's baptism and have been able to reuse it multiple times as it wipes off with water. Although, I may need to use a magic eraser soon to remove the chalk pen residue. I'm trying to improve my chalk lettering so I used this pin for my alphabet inspiration. 


2. I am a Child of God printable and a picture of my darling girl - You can download this printable for free here. I put the picture frame on a cake stand because we had a bunch of crockpots in front of it and I needed that cutie to be seen!


3. Tablecloth - I used two dollar store table cloths. The pink was leftover from K's party and I folded a white one into thirds and put it in the middle of the table. 

I tried to keep it simple since I have the tendency to go overboard and with two kids, I just don't have that time anymore.

The Gifts

Our church does something quite special for baptisms. It was my mom's idea so that make it extra special. A blanket is given to the child to remind them that God wraps them in His love. Here's a picture of C with the blanket my mom made. It has minky on the back so it is extra soft and cuddly.

My sister and her family also gave C this Jelly Cat bunny and this book, "Little One, God Loves You" by Amy Warren Hilliker.


C's baptism was a beautiful day in so many ways but the most important thing for me to remember is that God has loaned this beautiful, smiley girl to us and I need to be thankful and cherish each moment with her. 

Wednesday 17 February 2016

Because We Need to Eat - Feb. 15-19

Right now the baby is sleeping, the toddler has pulled every book off the bookshelf but is sitting, reading each one, and I have sufficiently tidied my house. Breathe. I know this moment won't last but I am breathing it in. 

Lask week hit our family like a mack truck. C caught some sort of bug and had a cough that could break your heart. Then the stomach flu came for me. Are moms even allowed to get sick? In the midst of trying to recover from that, K developed a fever and a cough. And despite all of that we still tried to go to church and we still went to my sister's for Family Day. After four sleepless nights I'm hoping we learned a lesson. 

Needless to say meal planning wasn't our main focus but that is life. So, instead of pretending like I have it all together every week here is our pieced together plan.



English Muffin Pizzas with Edamame
Two of my favourite things! I could eat edamame like chips. 

Italian Turkey Soup with Garlic Bread
Since I wasn't in the mood for eating we didn't get around to making this meal. Let's try again!

Again, this meal wasn't eaten last week. This time we'll have brown-sugar glazed carrots. This recipe is so easy and uses baby carrots so no chopping required!

Meat Pie with Sweet Potato Fries and Cauliflower
This is a store bought meat pie, frozen fries and cauliflower. This is a Friday meal. It will keep us from eating fast food but to be honest it will be really yummy.

Cheese and Crackers with Strawberries
Nothing fancy here.

Tuna Wraps with Squash
I like to sneak some grated carrots in the wrap. K usually finds them eventually and picks them out but it is worth a try. She loves frozen squash, though, and often asks for seconds.

Peanut Butter Toast with Cottage Cheese and Pineapple
We have a play date on this day so I will need something fast to feed her. She won't eat the cottage cheese. It's a texture thing but I will keep giving it to her.
I definitely wasn't about to tackle these snacks last week so they are on the list for this week since I still have all the ingredients. 

K really likes these and they were pretty easy to make. Considering all the frozen bananas I have in my freezer it's a good choice for Frugal February. 

Tuesday 16 February 2016

Because There is Something Romantic About a Hand-made Valentine

Granted my kid is two and has no idea what Valentine's Day is, I still thought it would be more romantic if "we" made her valentines for preschool ourselves. Here's what "we" made in a few easy steps! (Please note that "we" will be in quotation marks whenever I was the one that did most of the work.)


  1. Cut out two hearts - I used my Silhouette for this and it was super easy. I found a pattern that had a scalloped and a regular heart all in one. I used solid cardstock for the regular inner heart and a variety of patterned cardstock for the scalloped heart. I then glued the regular heart on top of the scalloped. 
  2. Stamp your images - The Close to My Heart stamp I used was a promotion a few years ago but I can't stop loving the cute little owls. Glacier was my colour of choice for the tiny heart background piece and Archival Black was used for the "To/From Box" and the adorable baby owl. 
  3. Cut out the images - I used the Silhouette to cut out my squares and fussy cut (using my own hands) the owl. 
  4. Attach to hearts - And we're almost done! As a treat for K's valentines, we attached a small heart sticker sheet to the back of each card with a little Zot (glue dot). K legitimately helped with this part. 
Since it is Frugal February and all, I was happy to say that these valentines cost us...$0! Woot woot! I love being able to use some of the many craft supplies I already have and not having to enter Walmart or Dollarama with two kids to buy anything is a bonus for me. 

Although K's participation in this craft was a bit limited I still wanted her to take some ownership over her valentines. Is that silly? Possibly, but even doing something as small as sticking the stickers on the back taught her that these were hers and created an opportunity for us to talk about this holiday and what giving them to her friends was all about. 

Here are the Close to My Heart products I used to make this craft.

"Whoo's Your Valentine" Stamp Set, Archival Black Ink, Glacier Ink
Sprtiz Cleaner, 2x2 Stamp block, Non-stick Micro-tip Scissors,
Stamp Scrubber

Tuesday 9 February 2016

Because We Need to Eat - Feb. 08-11

When Mark and I first got married we started meal planning for the week. I would have to say that this is the one habit that we've been super consistent with doing the last four years. Once K started eating solid foods I became really interested in feeding her yummy and mostly healthy dishes.

I'm not my mother. She can just look in the fridge and pull together an amazing meal. I'm also too chicken to try to do that and much prefer following a recipe. (It's the whole "I like to follow the rules" issue I have). One thing I'm not afraid of doing, though, is trying a new recipe and my Pinterest boards are full of recipes that I want to try and have tried. I also have a few cookbooks that I love and a few other cookbooks that I'm going to try some recipes from before I declutter them for good. 


Each week, if all goes as planned, I will post my meal plan. I'm extremely lucky that Mark likes to cook and volunteered (or was volun-told, I can't remember) to plan and cook for us on the weekends. The added bonus I have is my mom. She lives nearby and we will often head over to her place for lunch and/or dinner sometimes multiple times a week. Yes. I am spoiled. K often gets a variety of fruit, granola bars, and the ever-controversial goldfish crackers for a snack so I will just post the special snacks that I try to make her. 

Mark has dubbed this month "Frugal February" so we've been trying to eat from the freezer to keep our grocery bills to under $100 a week. Before I had C, my mom and I spent a day making freezer meals and I ended up with 18 of them. We're still working through them but this week all our meals are freezer meals. I will post links to the recipes I found on Pinterest below this week's meal plan. 


Meal plan for two adults and a hungry toddler. Includes dinner, lunches, and snacks.

Ham & Broccoli Quiche with Raw Veggies & Dip
My mom made this quiche for us. I usually make a straight broccoli and cheese quiche from the Baby-Led Weaning cookbook but she had some leftover ham that she donated. This week we had a leftover orange pepper and some snap peas from last week's shop so we munched on those with some Ranch dressing for dip.

Meatloaf with Mashed Potatoes & Broccoli
I haven't tried this meatloaf yet. It is currently sitting in my crockpot and was a frozen brick when I put it in. My fingers are crossed that it turns out alright, It is slathered in The Keg BBQ sauce and ketchup so how bad can it be? This is Mark's comfort food and I sometimes let him add some seasoning to the mashed potatoes when he get's home from work. The broccoli I usually just steam.


Macaroni & Beef with Frozen Veggies
I made two of these on our freezer cooking day. I wasn't blown away by it but I think I may add some more cheese this time. Maybe a combo of cheddar and mozzarella. The frozen veggies just need to be used up. I have a few bags in the freezer so I'll just see how the mood strikes me. 

Italian Turkey Soup with Garlic Bread
I really liked this soup. Up until November I hadn't really made soup before. I know...shocking. I had enough trouble making soup from a can as a teenager so I've stayed away from it. We'll probably eat this on Friday since that's the day that we usually resort to fast food since both Mark and I are exhausted by the end of the week. I've been trying to have easy-to-make meals or pizza so that I won't give in to temptation. 

I made a bunch of these a few weeks ago and threw them in the freezer. K really likes them, especially if I let her dip them in ketchup or mustard. I try to include a veggie for her at lunch time and sometimes it's a frozen one, like the cauliflower in this case. 


English Muffin Pizzas & Peas
I love English muffin pizzas. I really do. And I'm talking just pepperoni and cheese, here. Although if we have a green pepper I'll put that on, too. The peas are frozen but are pleasing to K and I force myself to eat them with her when really I just want the English muffin pizza. 

I have not made these before but they seem healthy and I have a bag of frozen blueberries in the freezer.

Banana Bread
This recipe comes from the Annabel Karmel's Eating for Two cookbook which I was supposed to cook from when pregnant and did not. So to justify it's existence on my cookbook shelf I'm making banana bread this week. I also have about three bags of frozen bananas so those need to be used up, too. 

Sunday 7 February 2016

Because Heart-Shaped Food Tastes Better

A few years ago, Mark and I hosted a Valentine's Day brunch for my brother and his girlfriend. Since that holiday of love is approaching once more I thought I'd share some of the themed food we made. 




Bacon Hearts
Preheat your oven to 400 F. Cut the bacon in half and fold into a heart shape. Bake on a cookie sheet with sides for 18-20 minutes or until done. 

Heart-Shaped Eggs in Toast
My hearts would have been better if I had a heart-shaped cookie cutter but alas my free-hand hearts didn't turn out that badly. 
We cut out a heart shape from the centre of the bread and toasted one side in a frying pan. We flipped the bread and cracked an egg into the centre of the toast and cooked until the bottom was toasted and the egg had set. 

Strawberries and Whipped Cream
Not pictured but especially delicious for me (not Mark as he is not a fruit fan) were the strawberries we dipped in whipped cream. 

I'm hoping to do a repeat of this meal on Valentine's Day this year. Now that K is two I think she'd really appreciate this and I know she'd love the strawberries! 

Saturday 6 February 2016

Because...

"Never start a sentence with "because." Is that even a real grammar rule? I'm not sure but that phrase from elementary school English is running around in my head right now. And if, by chance, it is a rule I am going to do something out of character here. I'm going to break it. Because I want to. Because I think it sounds nice. Because I want to explain why I am writing this blog. 

So, why this blog?

Because I am a writer. 

Because I am a self-proclaimed curator of ideas. 

Because sometimes I have some pretty good ideas of my own. 

Because sometimes my brain feels fuzzy and I need to use it in a different way.

Because I am part of a funny, beautiful family and I need to share that.

Because Jesus saved me and I need to share that.

So as I share my heart and my home with you I hope that you will get some ideas and inspiration because life is about sharing and I'm feeling called to share.