Parties, Dinners and Waffles

Hello!  How was everyone’s week?  Mine turned out to be pretty busy; both at work and home.  It’s all good, though.  I prefer a busy work week because busy = FAST and who doesn’t appreciate a quick work week?  The weekend has been really fun!  Friday we partied the night away at Noah’s hockey team’s fundraiser dinner/dance.  What a GREAT night!  Dinner, dancing, drinks socializing, ticket selling; the evening was a HUGE success.  The early numbers are in and it’s looking like we raised almost $12,000 for the team’s budget.  This money is used for tournament fees, extra (specialized) training for the boys and team building events off the ice.   Noah took a picture of us before we left;
 
Saturday the boys had their first win of the season!  They’re doing pretty good this year compared to others….1 win, 3 ties and 2 losses.  Today Noah was back on the (indoor) soccer field for practice.  This will be a weekly thing now.  It was nice to catch up with the soccer parents!  I miss them after spending so much time together this summer. 
I once again stuck to my menu plan for the week.  The only night I didn’t was pasta night (Thursday) because the kids wanted hotdogs instead so Jason and I ate turkey sausage.   Here’s a recap of the weeks eats;

Monday night we did a chicken on the BBQ rotisserie.  I also sliced 3 potatoes and a red onion and placed them in foil with some butter, S&P.  The package joined the chicken on the BBQ.  Veggies brought up the side.  Tuesday night the fam had pizza.  I went with a sandwich filled with brie, avocado, tomato and lettuce on GF bread: Wednesday was pork chop night.  I just did up a pan of fast fry chops, made a pot of quinoa that I jazzed up with freshly grated parm and salsa and sautéed spinach and mushrooms for some greens: Enter turkey sausage night!  The sides were kept super simple; corn and basmati rice. Friday was party night so the kidlets enjoyed Subway.  There was lots of food at the party….carved pork & beef, 2 pasta dishes, salads, bread cheese & fruits trays…I had a bit of beef, salad and cheese, but wasn't too hungry.  Usually, when I’m in a situation where there are lots of people and activity around me, I tend to forget about the food and focus on the excitement.  Anyone else like this?
Monday was Thanksgiving in Canada, but we celebrated on Sunday at my parents place.  The weather was SO gorgeous that we ate outside!  We’ve NEVER been able to eat Thanksgiving dinner outside!  Mom made a turkey with all the fixings.  My plate looked like this; Everything was SO delicious!  
This morning I made two batches of waffles; sweet & savoury.  They’re a gluten free recipe that I found at this site.  The original recipe was done first, as is:
I topped 2 with raspberry syrup and agave for a delicious breakfast!
To the second batch I added salt, pepper and chilli flakes and omitted the cinnamon.  Once the batter came together I stirred in 2 cups of grated sharp cheddar cheese: These will be used in tomorrow night’s dinner.  Speaking of tomorrow, you can check out next week’s menu plan on my facebook page. 
What was your favourite meal last week??
Bye for now!

Some Sad News & Last Week’s Menu Plan in Review

Hi, everyone!  It’s Thanksgiving weekend in Canada and I’ll soon be on my way to my parents house for a great dinner, but I wanted to touch base to let you see how my menu plan from last week went and to share a bit of crappy news.  :/
This past Tuesday night I received a phone call from the Humane Society letting me know that one of my fur babies, Charlie had been hit by a car.  He did not survive.  I can’t even describe how heartbroken I was….and still am.  We adopted Charlie 9 yrs ago when he was barely old enough to be separated from his Mom.  He always had a real natural instinct to go out; for the better part of 8yrs we did our very best to keep him in.  This past summer he  started to act out somewhat so we decided to let him explore knowing full well that being hit by a car was a very real danger.  He was good about staying on our property, but a few weeks ago something compelled me to put the collar on him that we got when we adopted Pepper from the Humane Society.  I am SO thankful that I did or we’d still be wondering what happened to him.  The girl who took the call let me know that although he’d been hit, he was not run over.  When she arrived a small group of people were with him; someone even put a sweater on him.  She rushed him to the emergency vet clinic, but he died on the way.  The fact that people stopped to help our little cat gives me such peace.  Although we weren’t home when this happened, he was not alone at the end. 
I will be perfectly honest here; after Tuesday I was not in the mood to cook or eat, but I did stick to my menu plan!   And I have photo evidence!!!
Monday night’s crock pot vegetable & chick pea curry…. Tuesday night’s BBQ’d chicken thighs with corn and some gluten free bread that my hubby surprised me with! Here’s Wednesday night’s Pineapple Quinoa Cashew stir fry from Veganomicon: And Thursday night was pasta night.  Noah had a hockey game and I always try to get some pasta into him on these nights! These are rice noodles, the fam had regular WW pasta.  On Friday I stuck to the turkey sausage and the fam had peas and mac & cheese with theirs.  I decided to slice mine and serve it over some leftover pasta: Then for lunch yesterday I ate the last little bit of pasta with sautéed spinach. There’s no photo evidence, but we enjoyed homemade chicken burgers for dinner last night.  Yummy! 
You can check out what this week’s menu looks like over at my Facebook page.  Also, don’t forget to enter my Saybon Candy giveaway…there’s still time!!
Bye for now!!