Meal Planning via Pinterest

  Every two weeks, I do a big grocery shopping trip. The day before I go, I sit down & plan my menu for the coming two weeks. I look in my freezer & fridge to see what I have on hand & try to incorporate those things into my meals to save on costs. Why buy extra ingredients when you already have some on hand?

  Since discovering Pinterest, I've come across a whole new world of delicious looking recipes. This week, I've decided to put some of those yummy looking dishes onto my meal plan. I told myself to stop dreaming of cooking & baking those fabulous recipes & start DOING it! I love to try new recipes. Love, love, LOVE! But I have stipulations for the recipes I pick.

• I have to know what all the ingredients are. Or at least be able to easily find out what they are. See, I'm willing to learn new things.
• The ingredients have to be easy to find. I don't want to have to run into 5 stores to do my shopping.
• They have to be somewhat easy to make. I don't do incredibly detailed recipes.
• They have to be ready in 1 hour tops! (Excluding crock pot recipes, of course.) I have a few exceptions to this rule, but they're pretty few & far between. I start cooking supper between 4:00 - 4:30 p.m. & we eat between 5:00 - 5:30. 

  So, when I look at a recipe with those conditions in mind, I can easily decide whether to make it or not. 

  As I said, this week I turned to Pinterest for inspiration. Wanna see what made my list? Here's my plan:

1) Hamburger soup (a recipe from one of my cookbooks) with Red Lobster biscuits

2) Cajun Chicken Pasta

3) Mini Frittatas & salad 

4) Lemon Chicken Breasts with roasted potatoes & salad

5) Bean & sausage soup (my own recipe) with homemade Crescent Rolls

6) Pizza (cuz a girl's gotta have one night off, right? *wink*)

7) Lentil Tacos

8) Greek Pasta Salad (my mom's recipe - I'll post it soon.)

Goodies / Extras for the lunch box, snacks, or desserts:

Best Ever Blueberry Muffins (a favourite recipe I've been making for years)

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Chewy Granola Bars

  That's my plan & we'll see if I stick to it! ;) Most weeks I do, but there's the odd one that I veer from the path that I've laid out. I'll be sure to let you know how the recipes turn out. I usually divide new recipes into a few different categories:

• Make again
• Make often
• Don't bother making again

  You should see my cookbooks. Full of notes, they are. 

"So & so liked this one". 

"Blah. Don't bother with this one again." 

The favourite note that still makes me smile is on a soup recipe that my mom made when I still lived at home. It says, "This soup ROCKS MY WORLD!" Truly. I still make it & it's a family favourite. :)

  Have you tried any recipes you've found on Pinterest lately? What were they? How did they turn out - would you make them again?

Enjoy your day!

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Paper Boxes for Cards

  As I explained on Monday, I'm in the throws of making all kinds of cards, boxes, & tags for an upcoming craft sale I will be attending. Today I'm giving you a peek at the boxes I'm making to house a collection of my handmade cards. These hold about 10 cards - 15 if you pack them in. These boxes are super easy to make, but do require accurate measuring & cutting. :)

They're a great way to use up scrap patterned paper too! 

If you would like to have measurements & instructions on how to make these boxes, 

leave me a comment & I'll do up a tutorial for these. 

I aim to please. :)

** Update: Click HERE to see the tutorial you asked for!! **

Enjoy your day!

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Before & After Home Tour (Part 4)

  It's been awhile since I've blogged about our house, so today I'm adding the newest addition to the Home Tour Series. Our master bedroom. I was a little tentative about posting this with the room the way it is. But let's be real... life isn't always perfect & neither are our houses. This is how the room looks right now. But there are still some changes to take place.

  When we bought the house, the master bedroom was done in a faux stainless steel look complete with a silver painted shade, upholstery tacks in the walls, & old shag carpet.

We painted, pulled out the carpet, put down laminate, put up new window coverings & things are looking much more welcoming.

Here's the part I wasn't crazy about revealing: The dresser in our room leaves something to be desired. Another word to describe it is B-O-R-I-N-G. I've got plans for it. It's on my to-do list. I promise once it gets finished, I'll post pics. Here's an idea for it:

Source

I love the stripes.

What's on your project list this week? Leave me a comment to tell me. I'm all about reader interaction. :)

Enjoy your day!

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Tuesday Talent Show

Ta-da Tuesday

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Christmas Gift Tags

  Well, after a yummy week of cookie goodness, I'm taking a break from baking this week & am putting my creative focus on my paper crafts. I've been asked to do a booth at my church's fall festival at the end of this month, so I'm working like a crazy woman to get greeting cards, gift card holders, boxes, & gift tags made to sell at my booth. A friend of mine who is also a card maker is going to join me & sell her goodies as well. I'm excited & nervous at the same time.  I'm excited to have a venue to show / sell to people I know, but I also hope people like what I have to offer. In any case, it will be a fun time with yummy food & good friends.

  I'm also excited to see what my fellow crafters have whipped up. I'll be sure to take pics & post them.

  This past week, we had my mom-in-love, Ethel & my sister-in-love, Jodi staying with us. While they were here, they helped me create the gift tags I will be selling at the fall festival. We fired up my Cricut & started cutting! Ornaments, mittens, snowflakes, & stockings were all fashioned into cute little tags.

  So, without further ado, here's what I've been working on:

  What do you think? Can you see yourself adding these cute little tags to your Christmas gifts this year? Which are your favourites?


  MAYBE I'll make up some more & do a give away!! What do you think?

Enjoy Your Day!

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Cookie Week Finale / Peanut Butter Nummies

Cookie Week - Day 5

  Cookie week has been so great! I wish I could have had you all to my house for a cookie tasting party. 

  On a side note, I have been baking & photographing all these cookies for about a month. I've also been brushing up on my photography skills in the last month. If you look back over this week's posts, you'll probably be able to tell which photos were taken at the beginning of the cookie photo journey & which were taken towards the end. I'm happy to see improvement in my photography in the past month.

  I'm saving my absolute favourite cookie for last. My Peanut Butter Nummies are amazing, if I do say so myself. This is such a moist, chewy peanut butter cookie. No dry, crumbly business here.

Peanut Butter Nummies
makes 2 dozen

3/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup shortening
1-1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
3 Tbsp. milk
1 Tbsp. vanilla
--
1-3/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
--
1 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 375º F.

Cream first 6 ingredients until smooth. Combine dry ingredients & add to peanut butter mixture. Blend. Drop by teaspoon onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Cool slightly, then remove to wire rack to cool completely.

~~~~~

Well, that wraps up my first cookie week! Perhaps I'll make it an annual affair?? What do you think? I'm definitely considering doing a Cookie Week: Christmas Edition come December. Then I can get out my fancier recipes. I'd better get baking so I'm ready in time! Thanks so much for joining me. I love my bloggy friends.

Enjoy your day!

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Cookie Week / Ginger Softies

Cookie Week - Day 4

  Ginger is one of my favourite flavours. Especially in tea & sweets. Do you agree? Good. We'll get along splendidly. 

  Enter: Ginger Softies. Lovely, subtle ginger taste. Soft, chewy cookie goodness. What's not to love?

Ginger Softies

makes 5 dozen small cookies

Before you start making these, just know that you have to refrigerate the dough for a few hours or overnight.

2 cups white sugar

3/4 cup butter or margarine

--

2 eggs

1/2 cup molasses

2 tsp. baking soda

2 Tbsp. vinegar

--

3-1/2 cup flour

2 tsp. ginger

Cream sugar & butter; then add eggs, molasses, baking soda, & vinegar. Add dry ingredients. Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight. Roll into balls. Dip in sugar. Bake at 350º for 10 minutes. 

~~~~~

Do tell! What's been your favourite cookie of the week so far??

I hope you'll join me again tomorrow for the grand finale... Peanut Butter Nummies! Until then...

Enjoy your day!

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Cookie Week / Double Chocolate Cookies

Cookie Week - Day 3

  I'm loving cookie week! Thanks so much for joining me. 

  These cookies are really versatile. You can mix your chip flavours to vary the flavour of these cookies. Think: Chocolate chips, mint chips, peanut butter chips, white chocolate chips, etc. 

Double Chocolate Cookies

makes 2-1/2 dozen

2-1/4 cup flour

2/3 cup cocoa

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

--

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

3/4 cup white sugar

2/3 packed brown sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

--

2 eggs

--

1-2/3 cups chocolate chips (or try a mixture of peanut butter chips & chocolate chips or mint chips & chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 350º F.

Combine dry ingredients. Set aside. 

In separate bowl, beat butter, sugars, & vanilla until creamy. 

Beat in eggs. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. 

Drop by teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Cool for 2 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely. 

~~~~~

Come back tomorrow for Ginger Softies. I scream! You scream! We all scream for cook-ies! Um, ya. I never claimed to be a poet.

Enjoy your day, fellow bakers!

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Cookie Week / Haystacks

Cookie Week - Day 2

  This cookie recipe comes from my mother-in-law, Ethel. She's an amazing baker & was kind enough to share this recipe with me. 

  These are super fast, no bake cookies. Perfect for days you just don't want to turn on the oven.

Haystacks
makes 15

3 cups oats
1 cup coconut (long, not fine)
6 tsp. cocoa
--
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup milk
2 cups brown sugar (loose, don't pack)
--
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix first 3 ingredients well.

Heat butter, brown sugar, & milk in a pot. Take it off the heat when it just starts to bubble. Or, if you're careful, you can do this step in the microwave. Be careful though, it can easily boil over. Stir often & watch closely.

Add vanilla & pour into the first mixture. Stir well. Drop by spoonful onto waxed or parchment paper. Freeze for 15 minutes. Remove & place into a container. Store in the refrigerator.

Join me tomorrow for Double Chocolate Cookies. Yay for cookie week!

Enjoy your day!

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Cookie Week Kickoff! Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Cookie Week - Day 1

  Welcome to cookie week! This week I will be sharing my favourite simple, everyday type cookies. Nothing too fancy here. Just tasty cookies to satisfy your sweet tooth, to make for a simple dessert, or for your kid's lunch boxes. I'm kicking cookie making into high gear and starting things off with these totally delish oatmeal raisin cookies. 

  Before I say anything else though, I must say Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians! I hope you have a marvellous day with family & friends. 

  Okay, back to cookie business.

  Funny cookie story: About a year ago, I made these cookies, only when I made them I was out of regular oats & only had a porridge blend on hand. It was made of all kinds of grains - high fibre grains, if you get my drift. The cookies turned out quite good & tasted delicious & my husband had several that day. The next day he asked me what I had put in those cookies because he had spent quite a bit of time in the bathroom, if you know what I mean. I hadn't even thought to warn him before eating them! After that, we called that particular batch of cookies "Remember They Are High Fibre Cookies". :)

Don't you love the owl napkin? I sure do!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

makes 3 dozen

1 1/4 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

--

1 1/2 cup flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/8 tsp. nutmeg or allspice

-- 

3 cups oats

1 cup raisins or 2 cups chocolate chips 

(Just to switch things up a bit, although you'd have to change the name of the cookie to Oatmeal Chocolate Chip. I make both varieties regularly.)

Heat oven to 375º F. Cream butter & sugars until light & fluffy. Beat in egg & vanilla. 

Mix dry ingredients. Add to creamed mixture. Stir in oats, then raisins. 

Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 8 minutes. Cool for a minute before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. 

~~~~~

I'm looking forward to sharing some of my favourite recipes with you this week! I hope you'll join me again tomorrow for Haystack Cookies.

On a completely different topic, what do you think of my blog's new look? I'm excited to have it up & running. I'm so happy with the finished product. 

See you tomorrow!

Enjoy your day!

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Scrapbooking our summer vacation

  I'm almost finished scrapbooking the photos from our summer vacation to Jasper National Park. I got these 4 layouts done last weekend. 

  Sorry about the less-than-perfect photos of the layouts. I was photographing them in the evening when I had no natural light. 

  I used Echo Park's Country Drive collection for 'Hangin' Out'.

  More Echo Park on this one. I used the Splash collection for 'River Rafting'. I printed a Picnik collage onto an 8x10 sheet & trimmed the sides to make it the 8x8 square I wanted.

  

  I used mostly My Mind's Eye for 'Evening Walk'.

  'Maligne Canyon' was made with a mish mash of products.

  What crafty projects have you been up to?? Drop me a comment & let me know. I'd love to hear from you.

  I'm excited about this coming week. We're headed out of town tomorrow for my husband's grandpa's 90th birthday celebration. On Monday, we have Thanksgiving with my family. Later that day, my mom-in-law & sister-in-law are coming for a week long visit. We love having them!

  Another fun thing about next week is going to be.... Cookie Week! Oh yes. I'm going to be posting 5 of my favourite every day cookie recipes. I hope you'll join me. It's going to be tasty.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm thankful for you.

Don't Mess with My Pumpkins!

  Fall decor is lovely... until it gets stolen!! Grrr! Last night, my husband came home from an evening meeting to find one of my lovely pumpkins (previously residing on our front porch) smashed in front of our next door neighbour's house. I'm positive it wasn't my neighbour's doing. Likely some passing kid thinking it was funny. Don't get me going. Just let me start & finish by asking you to please teach your kids to respect other people's property. I will stop my rant there.

  I'm trying to just forgive & move on. But to protect my remaining pumpkins from harm, what can I do? I thought I might carve something like this into them...

What do you think? Perhaps throwing some explosives into the mix would help as well?? 

I'm trying to enjoy my day. Enjoy yours!

"Thankful" thanksgiving banner

  Well, here in Canada, Thanksgiving is coming up soon. This weekend, in fact! Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, pumpkin pie... Mmmm... is it dinner time yet, Mom? :) We're so blessed to be invited to my parent's for Thanksgiving dinner on Monday. It's one of my favourite times of year. 

  For Thanksgiving, I like to add some extra touches to my fall decor. I made this Thanksgiving banner to display at this time of year. 

  I started with 8x8 squares of patterned paper. Then, I wanted to round the corners off to make them look "leaf-ish". I actually used a soup bowl to trace the rounded edge & free cut them. 

Then I:

-inked the edges 

-cut the letters with my cricut 

-stamped leaves in fall-ish colours & cut them out

-gathered all my fall type stickers, etc.

-started decorating!

  Then I punched holes in the top of each "leaf" & used ribbon to connect them into a banner. I hung it under my bar top between the living room & kitchen. 

  Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians! 

I'm thankful for:

My loving Saviour, Jesus Christ

My wonderful husband

My precious children

My warm, comfy home

My fabulous friends

My great church family

And really, what else do I need?

What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?

Enjoy your day!

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Simple from-scratch pancakes

Every weekend while I grew up, my dad would whip up a batch of his famous pancakes. These deliciously simple pancakes are one of my dad's specialties. I've adopted the recipe he can recite by heart & now I make it often for my family. Who needs a mix when they're this simple to whip up?

Dad's Pancakes
makes about 12


2 cups flour
1/4 cup white sugar
5 tsp. baking powder
2 cups milk
2 eggs
2 Tbsp. oil (I use canola)

Mix dry ingredients, then add wet ingredients & whisk until smooth. Heat skillet or frying pan over medium-low heat. Add batter & cook pancakes for approx. 3-4 minutes per side. Serve with fruit, butter, & maple syrup.

Enjoy you day!

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Chef In Training