2013 Resolutions and Goals

Welcome 2013!! Although 2012 was a wonderful year filled with fun, family and adventure, I am looking forward to the new adventures we will take this year.

Do you make New Year’s Resolutions? Last year was the first year that I made some resolutions and actually stuck to them. I resolved to learn to run. And I did. I ran. After nine months of training, the hubs and I ran our very first half marathon!! Funny that it took nine months to train, because that race was just about as painful as a pregnancy and childbirth!
I can happily say that this year I do not need to resolve to exercise more. I am committed to my twice weekly spin classes and three times weekly boot camps, and I love them! This year my resolutions are going to be tough, for me anyway.

Hopefully by putting my resolutions up here I’ll work a little harder knowing that the blogiverse is watching! So far we are almost two weeks into 2013 and I have been doing fairly well with my resolutions.

1. Take a multivitamin. Every day. When I made this resolution, I promptly went to the medicine cabinet and grabbed out the women’s multi-vitamins. Then I checked the expiry date. January 2011. I guess I should have figured since they were prenatal vitamins and my youngest child is almost FOUR! Since then I picked up a new package of vitamins, and now religiously take a multi-vitamin, plus vitamins D, C, and a B Complex.

2. Stop swearing. I’m not gonna lie, I have a potty mouth. It’s bad. There are some really bad words that I say a LOT. I am on day eleven of trying my super-duper very best to stop with the bad language. I’ve taken to given my hand a smack when I slip and let a bad word out. It’s working a little, but I still have a long way to go.... perhaps this resolution will take as long to accomplish as the learning to run took in 2012.

3. Learn to say no. This is probably going to be harder to conquer than the bad language! I am famous for over committing myself and my family to four, five even six parties or events on one weekend. I do it all the time!

OK, now that the resolutions are out there for the world to read, it’s time to establish some goals for 2013!

Photo taken by the amazing Alana Joy Photography

1. I am going to try to consciously spend more quality time with my family. I am extremely lucky to work part time and would love to continue to do so, but I need to spend the extra time that I have with the girls playing games and lying on the floor with Lalaloopsy dolls and Hello Kitty. I am too quick to pack the girls up and cart them along with me to do whatever I want or need to do instead of intentionally spending time playing. So there, I need to PLAY more.

2. I need to make more time for my amazing husband. Without (much) complaining, he gets our little household up and running in the mornings while I’m at the gym. He brings the girls to school every day and oh yeah – he does ALL the laundry. He’s great, and I need to find a way to spend time with him. My husband works an afternoon shift, and we only see each other from 7:30-8am in the mornings and from 10:30 until whenever I fall asleep at night. I need to actually schedule dates for just the two of us. We never go out just the two of us, so I’m hoping that 2013 can be the year of the date!

3. I’m going to keep on keeping on with my exercise, but try to make better eating choices. Hopefully I’ll be able to add more vegetables to the meals I make for the family (if only I could bribe Miss A to eat some of those vegetables!!).

OK, I’ve been rambling on long enough now. Thanks for reading this insanely long post!! I hope that if you made resolutions that you are successful!! 
 
All the best in 2013,

New Year, New Menu Plan - Jan 7, 2013

Eila Bean and her birthday cake for Jesus!

Hello everyone! I’m finally back!! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. My little family spent the entire month of December having a blast completing all of the items on our Advent activity calendar. We saw Christmas lights in our jammies, we made a birthday cake for Jesus, we watched Christmas movies and drank a LOT of hot chocolate!

My girls decided to leave Santa chips and cheesy salsa - he gets too many cookies!

I was lucky enough to be off work for almost the entire two weeks the kids were off of school. Miss A’s class put on an adorable Christmas concert (though all the songs were about winter, none actually about Christmas), Miss E’s class had a classroom party and I got to hang out and see her play with her little friends and eat snowman cupcakes.

Have you taken down your Christmas decorations yet? After putting ours up mid-November, and having a ton of presents and toys filling the living room, it was such a great feeling deconstructing Christmas. I was really conscious of only putting up the decorations that I truly loved and that had a place in our home this Christmas, so putting Christmas away was really easy!

Sorry for the iPhone pics in this post, I haven't downloaded all of my photos from the real camera!!

Over the weekend, when trying to plan out the menu for this week I decided to clean out and organize our freezers. Mostly this was because I bought groceries and when I opened my mini-deep freeze there was no room for the newly purchased pizzas!

I used the trunk of hubs’ car as my sorting table and pulling e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g out of the deep freeze. As I was going along, I took an inventory on my iPhone of what kinds of food in the freezer. I was surprised to learn that I had four bags of perogies, ELEVEN bags of French fries (I stock up when they go on sale for $1 a bag!) and a few bags of chicken breasts (I thought I was completely out!).

The next thing on the list was menu planning! I printed out a blank January calendar, and started plugging in recipes using ingredients from the freezer inventory! I now have an entire month of dinners planned out and will hopefully be spending very little on groceries this month! I’m also hoping to maybe squeeze in a freezer cooking day at some point this month, but that would be a bonus!!

Recipe for this amazing dish

On the menu this week:

Monday: Perogies and sausage
Tuesday: Teriyaki Chicken Stirfry with Noodles
Wednesday: Lasagne Wednesday
Thursday: BBQ chicken breasts, potatoes and corn
Friday: Butter chicken and steamed rice
Saturday: Dinner out!
Sunday: Tortellini with prawns in boursin sauce

I will be linking my menu up with Org Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday. Come check it out for hundreds of recipes and meal ideas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Hey guys! Did you miss me? Sorry I have been MIA for the past couple of weeks. Between getting ready for Christmas, the shopping, wrapping, card writing, baking, reading Christmas books, going to parties and of course our Advent calendar activities life has been super hectic. I usually work during the day and blog when the kids go to bed.

The bean making presents for her classmates:)

The past few weeks have been filled with advent activities that keep us up past bedtime and making for a super tired mama! Unfortunately when it comes to fitting in all of the activities for the kids, making time for the hubs and spending time with loved ones, something has to fall by the wayside, and for me, that’s my blogging time. 

Just SOME of the Christmas baking that went on in our house!

I have been pretty diligent about taking photos of our adventures and our baking fun so I can post them later. I am hoping to plan a Christmas in January to post all of the fun we have had in December!

SNOW DAY!!

In case I don’t have a chance to get back on here until after next week, Merry Christmas everyone! I hope God blesses you and your family with joy and peace this year. With all of the tragedy in the world, especially the senseless loss of lives in Connecticut two weeks ago, I want to encourage you to hold your children close. 
 
Spend as much time with your family as you can this Christmas. At the end of the day, no matter how hard you work or how much time you spend blogging or surfing the internet, nothing is as important as the time you spend making memories with family and friends.
Merry Christmas!!

Menu Plan Monday - Dec 17, 2012

In our jammies, hot chocolate in hand, heading out to check out the Christmas lights!!

Wow, am I ever behind today! I know I haven’t posted in a week, but we have been enjoying our Advent activities so much that by the time I have the girls home and in bed every night I’m pooped and heading to bed myself!

This weekend we only had two parties! It was awesome to be able to enjoy both events without having to rush off to make somewhere else before the next party started!! We made these adorable snowman cupcakes for the parties. The kids loved them, and the adults did too!

On the Menu This Week:

Monday: Leftovers from the delicious family dinner at my brother’s house! YUM!
Tuesday: Beer battered fish and chips
Wednesday: Turkey Burgers and salad
Thursday: Veggie Pizza and Salad
Friday: Turkey Tacos
Saturday: Perogies and farmer sausage
Sunday: Roasted turkey breast, mashed potatoes and veggies

I will be linking my menu plan to Org Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday – Check it out for hundreds of menus and meal ideas!!

Menu Plan Monday – Dec 10, 2012

Good morning everyone! Well, we survived the party weekend! Five parties in one weekend made for some chaos, but mostly a lot of fun! This weekend we only have two parties, so it should be much more relaxed!

On Sunday, I had ten lovely ladies over for my 7th Annual Cookie Exchange. I’ll be putting together a post on how to throw a successful (and delicious) cookie exchange, along with the recipe that I made for the party. 
 
This week’s menu is a mix of family favorites, and quick, easy meals. 
 
On the Menu This Week:
Monday: Guinness brats, scalloped potatoes and beans
Tuesday: Chicken Alfredo Pasta
Wednesday: Lasagne Wednesday
Thursday: Fish and Chips
Friday: Teriyaki Chicken Stir Fry
Saturday: Neighbourhood Christmas dinner! We are bringing mashed and roast potatoes!
Sunday: Family dinner at my brother’s house! We are bringing some super cute cupcakes. I’ll share the recipe and how-to next week!

I will be linking my menu plan to Org Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday – Check it out for hundreds of menus and meal ideas!!

Menu Plan Monday - Dec 3, 2012

What a whirlwind! Another successful charity event for the ladies in my family! We all got together, had a fantastic potluck lunch and gathered up a HUGE pile of baby supplies for donation to our local children’s charity Basics for Babies. I’m so proud of the ladies in my family! They are certainly a beautiful and thoughtful bunch!

What a lovely bunch of ladies and a big pile of donations!!

We also had three other parties this weekend, and had a great time at all three! I’m almost glad to be back at work this week, almost! I’m counting down the days until Christmas vacation. Lucky for me, the girls are SUPER excited every morning to wake up and see what activities mommy and daddy have planned in the Advent calendar. So far we have seen a Christmas movie as a family (Rise of the Guardians, SO GOOD!) and put together a box of food for the food bank. Up tonight? Make a paper chain and a new ornament for the Christmas tree!

With five more events scheduled for this weekend, at least I know I won’t have to do a lot of cooking this week! In fact, with the prep work required for the cookie party this weekend, a lot of our dinners will be of the frozen variety! Sorry hubby!!
On the Menu This Week:
Monday: Garlic Bread Pizza
Tuesday: Teriyaki Salmon, with rice and veggies
Wednesday: Homemade beer battered fish and chips

 

Thursday:  Chicken and cheese calzone
Friday: Work Christmas Party #1
Saturday: Work Christmas Party #2
Sunday: Cookie Party Day!! Dinner will likely be the leftover appetizers and cookies!

I will be linking my menu plan to Org Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday – Check it out for hundreds of menus and meal ideas!!

Butter Chicken Lasagne

I have a fantastic recipe to share with you all today!!! Last week the hubs was watching Recipe to Riches and saw a chef making Butter Chicken Lasagne. He immediately called me and told me that I had to find that recipe and make it immediately.

I couldn’t find a recipe online on the Food Network, so I thought I better find my own! A little while ago I had purchased this Butter Chicken seasoning from Epicure Selections, but hadn’t had a chance to try it out. This was the perfect opportunity! It was super easy to put together, and the recipe came together seamlessly.
I planned to use the butter chicken in place of marinara sauce in a regular lasagne-style recipe. My husband said that it was one of the best things he had ever eaten, and he ate three huge pieces. I ran up to my local Indian shop and picked up samosas for a side dish – they made it the perfect meal!
Butter Chicken Lasagne

The ricotta cheese is totally missing from the photo!!

Ingredients
2 lbs chicken, cubed
1 large onion, diced
2 tbsp butter
1 pkg Epicure's What's For Dinner? Butter Chicken Recipe Seasoning Mix
1/2 cup (125 ml) crushed tomatoes
1 cup (250 ml) water
2 lbs (1 kg) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed
1/2 cup (125 ml) cream, sour cream, or thick yogurt (I used Greek Yogurt)
1 package oven ready lasagne noodles
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
½ cup Parmesan cheese
Instructions

Melt butter in large frying pan or skillet. Add onions and cook until lightly golden. Sprinkle contents of Butter Chicken Recipe Seasoning Mix over onions. Stir while cooking for 1 minute.

Stir in tomatoes and water and bring to a boil. Add chicken and simmer for 10 minutes, or until chicken is cooked. Remove from heat. Stir in cream or yogurt and let cool slightly.
In a separate bowl, mix together ricotta cheese and shredded mozzarella. 

 
Layer three lasagne noodles in the bottom of your pan. Cover with 1/3 of the butter chicken and 1/3 of the cheese mixture. Repeat three times. Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese on top.
Loosely cover the pan with foil and bake at 375F for one hour, removing the foil for the last ten minutes to broil the cheese.

I will hopefully be linking this recipe up to A Bowl Full of Lemons, Delightful Order, Doodles and Stitches and Joyful Homemaking.