Valentine’s Day, Recipes and a Cat Video

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!!  Did anyone do anything special over the weekend to celebrate?  My hubby, parents and I go to a dance each year that is put on by the kid’s school as a fundraiser.  It’s always a fun night with a dinner, dancing a silent auction as well as a live one.  This year I bid on a custom made blanket box and won it!  I did take a picture, but it’s too dark out so it didn’t do it justice.  For now it will go into our computer room, but once we get our new furniture in the living room it will move there.  Here are some  photos from the night:  
Other than that the week seemed really low key.  I was still out of the house each evening, but didn’t feel nearly as rushed as I usually do.  Hey!  I’m not gonna question it!  This week coming DS is on the ice 3 times, I’m at Pilate’s Tuesday, DD has dance tonight and Friday I’m going to visit friends of mine who just had their second baby.  Looking forward to baby snuggles!!  Yesterday was blissfully free so I made a few meals to carry us through the week.  Whenever I make bone in chicken I save the bones in a bag in the freezer.  Once it’s full, like yesterday, I put them in the crock pot, cover them with water and set it to low for the day.  This gives us a few meals worth of homemade chicken soup to work with.  Next I made 2 batches of muffins; Blueberry Corn Muffins and Banana Dark Chocolate Walnut.   Recipes!!  Recipes!!
Blueberry Corn Muffins

• 1.5 cups WW flour
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 5 Tbsp sugar
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup butter milk*
• 3 tbsp canola oil
• 1 egg or 1/4 cup Egg Beaters or 1 flax egg*
• 1/5 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

1. Preheat oven to 400*C, lightly grease a 12 cup muffin pan
2. Whisk first 6 ingredients in a large bowl
3. Whisk buttermilk, oil and egg until combined well
4. Add wet to dry just until mixture is moist
5. Gently stir in blueberries
6. Fill muffin tin and bake 20 minutes
7. Let cool completely before storing

*I never buy buttermilk.  The easiest thing to do is add 1 tbsp of vinegar or lemon juice to your milk of choice and letting it sit for a few minutes.  Voila….buttermilk.  I always use Almond Breeze in my baking.  To make a flax egg combine 1 tbsp ground flax and 3 tbsp of water.  Stir then let sit for a few minutes.
Banana Dark Chocolate Walnut Muffins

• 1 cup WW flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup Quaker oats
• 1 egg, beaten or 1/4 cup Egg Beaters or 1 flax egg
• 3 tbsp melted butter
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup well mashed bananas (about 2 medium)
• 1/2 cup walnut pieces
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 400*C and grease a 12 cup muffin tin
2. Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl
3. Stir in oats
4. Add the next 4 ingredients and combine
5. Stir in walnuts and dark chocolate chips
6. Bake for 20 minutes

I also made Averie’s Sweet and Sour Honey Lemon Tofu and Chipotle Salsa Lentils with Mixed Vegetables.  That’s what my hubby and I ate for dinner last night:
And today’s lunch was more lentils with some chicken from the broth I made!
My hubby made breakfast for me this weekend; oats with blueberries and dark chocolate chips:
And waffles which I choose the same oats toppings for.  LOL
I enjoyed some fabulous sandwiches over the weekend, too.  It’s nice to have the time to devote to my meals!
One night I made “pizza rolls”. 
I simply divided the dough in half, rolled it out and filled it with tomato sauce, ham, roasted red peppers, goat cheese and marble cheese.  Then I baked it for 20 minutes at 475*C.
I let the rolls cooled for a few minutes then sliced and served! The kids thought this meal was especially cool.  Hehe! Another night I made Mu Shu Chicken, but subbed sliced pork chops in for the chicken.  It turned out really good!
I think I’ll leave the food at that for today, but I will leave you with a quick video of Pepper.  He begs to go out on the deck and usually wants back in within a few minutes.  This is what he does when we “ignore” him!

Bye for now!!