Ghouls And Food Item #4

First on the agenda?  Halloween pictures!!!
A random pumpkin at one of the houses that we stopped at.  Did I mention that it’s freezing out?  No?  Well, it is!  Here’s the proof: The kids were cold too and didn’t want to go to as many houses as usual.  Amen!  We came home and caught the tail end of Beetlejuice instead. 
Kinda random, but our house has 4 bedrooms.  Three of the 4 have original hardwood flooring (the house was built in 1962) and one has carpet.  This is the room that we use as an “office”.  I hate vacuuming so disliking carpet follows suit. Also, and I hate to admit this, but one of my cats decided to be spiteful one day and peed on the rug.  Bad ass feline!  Needless to say the smell won’t come out no matter what I do so the carpet has got to go.  We went out last weekend and bought some of that “click” hardwood as it was on sale at Home Depot.  My hubby hasn’t gotten started yet, but when he does I plan to take the opportunity to spruce up some of the furniture in there, rearrange things and maybe buy a love seat and some contemporary coffee tables to spruce things up!  I’ll be sure to post before, during and after photos once we get started.
I took DS to Starbucks after his game yesterday: See, bucks is at the mall which is where I really wanted to go but I knew he wouldn’t want to.  Enter bribery:
As long as he was nursing that vanilla bean frap he was agreeable to any store I wanted to check out.  :)
I bought a new kind of oats at The Bulk Barn the other day:
 
They’re dense and have a great chew factor to them.  They take a bit longer to cook but are well worth it.   I topped my first bowl of them with coconut butter, carob chips and walnut pieces. These are a few more of my eats:
I can’t believe we’re on week 4 of the Thanks & Giving food drive!  So something I’m thankful for this week is the city I live in.  The community is on the small side, walkable, has lots of green space and most importantly is a SAFE place to raise my kids in.  I’ve lived here all my life; my kids actually go to the same elementary school that I did!  HA!  My neighbourhood is quiet, friendly and sports some amazing views.  I really can’t picture myself living anywhere else!  Do you love your city?  And now for the food item of the week: Canned vegetables!  Again, you can buy any brand you want, any vegetable you want.  I got peas and carrots because they were on sale 3/$2.00 this week.  Remember to check out the Thanks & Giving tab at the top of the blog if you’ve missed an item.
Hope you all have a great few days!  I’ll be back either Tuesday or Wednesday…
Bye for now!!

Cold Weather Meals & Pumpkin Carving

The weather has taken a turn this week and it has been dull and cold.  This is the kind of weather that has me making really hearty, stick-to-your-rib meals for dinner.  Wednesday DS had a hockey practice from 5:30-6:20 and then had to be across town for his 6:45-7:30 swimming lesson.  Thankful this doesn’t happen very often.  I needed a meal that was fast, had staying power and most importantly, was something that he likes.  With no immediate plans in mind I put a turkey breast in the crock pot with some water, carrots, celery & onion so I at least had a starting point.  While on the treadmill I thought to turn it into a pulled “pork” type of meal, but we already had that Monday.  Hmmm….the next idea was to shred the meat, puree the veggies with some of the broth and stir it all together with some tomato sauce.  Perfect!  I served it over WW macaroni noodles with freshly grated parm on top:
My next creation came about Thursday night in the form of stoup.  I thawed out a smallish pork tenderloin and had a ½ pack of TJ’s Harvest Blend and some tomato sauce hanging around.  These ingredients started my thinking process.  Here’s what I did:
*chop an onion, a few carrots and some celery and sauté for about 5 minutes in deep pot with about a tbsp of olive oil
*add 1 pkg of chopped Portobello caps and spices of your choice and cook another 5 minutes or so
*remove veggies from pot and add sliced pork tenderloin (or chicken) and cook until both sides are golden brown
*add veg back into pot along with 3 cups of stock and a 19oz can of tomato sauce
*bring to boil then add your grain of choice
*bring back to boil, lower heat and cook covered as per the grain you are using.  (The harvest blend took 15 minutes.)
* serve piping hot with some grated cheese on top
This was a real winner and really helped in using up some odds and ends I had floating around.  I took some for lunch today and added a good splash of water to bring it to more of a soup consistency.
Yum!
In my last post I promised pumpkin pictures and we’ve had quite the carving party tonight so it’s time to deliver on my promise!  First, these are the “templates” the kids chose:
DD went the simple route while DS must think his Dad is an artist!  The pumpkins have been on the front porch so the guts were not only slimy, but COLD!
Hard at work: And the finished products! Aren’t they AWESOME????
A peek at my eats! For a quick pre pumpkin carving meal I made some scrambled eggs with turkey and this cheese:
Then I nestled the eggs in one of these wraps: With salsa… Dinner is served!  I’ll be back Sunday night with Halloween pictures,  the Thanks & Giving food item of the week and a giveaway!!!  Until then, tonight’s sunset….
Bye for now!!