All Natural Oven Cleaner

Hello my friends! Hope you are having a fantastic week so far! I can't believe I am actually going to put these before photos on the internet for the world to see. I am so embarrassed that this disaster exists in my house. Well, it existed, it's gone now, thankfully!

My kitchen gets a LOT of action. I make about 15 full dinners a week (since my kids don't actually eat the same dinner I make for the hubs and I) and I bake two to three times a week. My oven is on all day and night some days - it takes many hours to bake 200+ cupcakes! The end result of all of this baking, cooking and frozen pizza heating is a really, really nasty looking oven.

I absolutely HATE using my self-clean option on the oven. I hate that it takes four hours, that it puts my smoke detectors on overdrive and it makes my entire house smell like ash. I am also not a fan of using harsh chemicals to clean the oven. The last time I used those I thought my throat was closing up on me! So, I took to Pinterest to find an all natural (and hopefully cheap!) way to get my nasty oven clean.

The only two ingredients in my cleaning arsenal this afternoon were extremely inexpensive and items I have on hand all the time - white vinegar and baking soda. I used almost an entire box of baking soda for this project, but I think that's likely because my oven was so gross!

I just took the baking soda and layered a large amount all over the surfaces on the oven, inside the door, on the base of the oven. 

Then poured a bunch of white vinegar all over the surfaces. The powder/vinegar combo sizzles a little when the ingredients combined.

  

I set the timer for 20 minutes, and took a little puzzle break with my kitchen helper. When the timer buzzed, it was time for the elbow grease. 

I'm not gonna lie, it took a LOT of elbow grease to get the mess out of my oven. Make sure you have some old kitchen cloths to do the scrubbing, because they will need to be trashed after! I probably scrubbed for a good 20-30 minutes to get all of the gunk off. 

However, a total time commitment of an hour (from baking soda to waiting and scrubbing) and my oven was clean without my house smelling like chemicals or smoke!

When the oven door dried, there was a little bit of white residue from the baking soda/vinegar, but it wiped away easily with a wet cloth. Thanks for stopping by for a read today! Hope these little tips can help your kitchen to sparkle!



Linking to Joyful Homemaking, Not Just a Housewife and A Bowl Full of Lemons.

Ravioli Lasagne Recipe

Hello my friends! I hope today finds you healthy and happy :) I'm back today with a delicious recipe to share with you. I was inspired by my husband, and his love for all things cheese when putting together this dinner. It was a definite hit and I'm sure your family will love it too.

I'm not going to lie and tell you that this recipe is low-fat or healthy, because it's not! It's rich and delicious and I will definitely be making this recipe again and again. But in moderation, of course, and served with a side salad!!

You could use any type of ravioli for this recipe (and if you're really talented, you could use homemade ravioli, but I'm not that talented!). I found ravioli stuffed with farmer's sausage, my husband's absolute favorite thing. I added one of my favorite ingredients, Boursin cheese.

I was really hoping for leftovers of this meal that I could bring to work for lunch the next day, but there were none. My husband ate the ENTIRE dish of lasagne!

Ravioli Lasagne

Ingredients

1 package prepared fresh ravioli noodles
1 brick Boursin cheese (I used garlic and fine herb)
2 cups prepared pasta sauce (I used my crockpot marinara sauce and added ground chorizo sausage, but any sauce will work)
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 375F. In a medium bowl, break apart the Boursin cheese and combine with shredded mozzarella.

In an 8x8 baking dish layer your ingredients. Start with 1/3 of your sauce mixture. Next place a layer of ravioli noodles on the sauce, and cover with 1/3 of the cheese mixture. Repeat two more times, ending with the last of the cheese mixture.

Cover the baking dish with tin foil and bake your delicious lasagne for about 45 minutes, until the cheese is luscious and melty. Remove the foil and keep baking for another 5-10 minutes so the top layer of cheese bakes up nice and crispy.

I hope you love this recipe as much as we did! Thanks for stopping by for a read today, I really appreciate it!



Linking to Joyful Homemaking, Not Just a Housewife and A Bowl Full of Lemons.

Menu Plan Monday - May 6, 2013

Oh what a glorious morning! The perfect way to start a week filled with sun, fun and adventures! We had a lovely weekend filled with bbq dinners with amazing people.

We actually managed to stick to our menu plan pretty successfully last week! Yay! The ravioli lasagne that I created for dinner one night was amazing and I’ll have the recipe all ready for you guys tomorrow hopefully.

The weather this week is supposed to be amazing all week long. I am looking forward to stooping with the neighbours during the week and then having a few lovely dinners with my mom and my mother in law on the weekend. I was really hoping to get a super cute Mother’s Day craft done and ready for the blog this week, but I just don’t see that happening with weather like this!!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you all have a fantastic week!

On the menu this week:

Monday: Lasagne Monday
Tuesday: Perogies and Guinness brats
Wednesday: Teriyaki salmon, rice and salad
Thursday: Beef tacos & cheese quesadillas
Friday: Shake and bake chicken with mashed potatoes
Saturday: Mother’s Day dinner #1
Sunday: Mother’s Day dinner #2

I’ll be linking my menu plan up to OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday – check it out!!

Spring Mantle - Go Canucks Go!

Hi Everyone!! Today begins a big week in our house, in our town, province and country. Playoff hockey begins this week, and specifically for our house, Canucks playoff hockey starts tonight!

After taking down my Easter mantle, I promised my friend Krista that I would not put up another "theme" mantle until at least fall or Christmas.... yeah, that didn't happen!

Our playoff hockey display is filled with our favorite Canucks memorabilia. We have our Christmas nutcracker that comes out at Christmas and in late spring, some repurposed car flags and a teeny tiny Canucks emblazoned Stanley Cup (free from a case of beer years ago).

Front and centre in our display are some family heirlooms. My husband's Auntie Trudy and Uncle Harry were BIG time sports fans and loved Canucks hockey. When Auntie Trudy passed away, Brett brought home this vintage 1970's Canucks beer stein and a tiny little Canucks ring. Auntie Trudy must have had tiny finger, because this is one tiny little ring.

My girls, dressed head to toe in their Canucks tshirts, hoodies, and socks helped me decorate the mantle. Miss A let me use her blue and green beaded necklaces, we used the hubs' hats, and a headband that Miss A made in preschool. We also have a commemorative banner from when my favorite Canuck, Trevor Linden retired. 

Although I am sure some of my husbands friends would say differently, I know that nothing I do will affect how my favorite team plays, but any little bit of positivity has to help their chances, right??

Thanks for stopping by today. Oh, and GO CANUCKS GO!!!

Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce

 
Hello my friends! Hope this lovely day finds you happy and healthy.

I am so excited to share a recipe with you today! For those of you who know me well, you know my favorite restaurant is White Spot. I freaking love White Spot. They make the best burgers, and have awesome fries. No meal would be complete, however without my favorite White Spot Honey Mustard dip for my fries (and occassionally for my burger!).

Over the years I have bought every type of honey mustard on the market trying to find one that tasted like my favorite dip. It simply does not exist. Rather than give up, I have honed my honey mustard making skills over the years and have come up with a nearly perfect honey mustard. I think if I tried this recipe with full fat mayonnaise, it may well be perfect.

This recipe makes a fairly large batch, but with the amount of chicken nuggets and fries we go through in my house, it doesn't actually last that long!


Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups mayonnaise
1/2 cup honey
1/4 regular mustard
1-2 tbsp curry powder

Instructions
In a medium bowl, whisk together all of the ingredients. Chill in the fridge for 20-30 minutes to allow all of the flavors to come together. Serve with chicken strips, french fries, or anything really!!

Store in the fridge in an airtight container.

 

Thanks for stopping by for a read today! 

Linking to Joyful Homemaking, Not Just a Housewife and A Bowl Full of Lemons.

Menu Plan Monday - April 29, 2013

Good morning!! Happy Monday everyone! After a couple of crazy busy weekends and baking a couple of hundred cupcakes, I’m back and ready to menu plan!

For the past couple of weeks we have been menu plan-less. Meaning we had to (GASP!) willy-nilly make meal planning decisions – never a good thing in our house. The first week I was attending wedding events for the beautiful bride in the photo above (doesn’t she look gorgeous!!). Mandy’s wedding events meant that I was eating delicious Indian food all week long! The downside of that is the hubs was working so he had to fend for himself most of the week. Since I usually cook dinner at least five times a week, I felt bad leaving the hubs to fend for himself!


Miss A's dance performance night - sorry for the lighting, but doesn't she look cute??

I am trying out a new recipe this week. We usually have lasagne for dinner at least once a week, on a night when the kids have dance/swimming/some other event. Most weeks we have a Costco lasagne that we cook on those evenings. I saw a recipe (not sure where, but probably on Pinterest) for a lasagne that is made with ravioli noodles instead of regular lasagne noodles. I picked up some yummy filled ravioli last night and will be trying out a complete made up recipe later this week. If it turns out as fantastic as I hope it will, I will be sure to share with you all!

Just SOME of the cupcakes I made for Miss A's performance night:)

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you all have a fantastic week!

On the menu this week:

Monday: Roast Chicken, Rachel Salad & buns
Tuesday: Cashew Chicken in the crockpot, stir fry veggies and rice
Wednesday: Ravioli Lasagne (recipe to come!)
Thursday: Chicken parmesan, spaghetti with red sauce
Friday: Meatloaf, mashed potatoes and veggies in cheese sauce
Saturday: Dinner with our friends Kim & Mark!
Sunday: Salmon, Rice and veggies

I’ll be linking my menu plan up to OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday – check it out!!

Menu Plan Monday - April 15, 2013

Good morning!! I hope you are having a fantastic Monday! We had a great weekend here, lots of playing outside, Miss A finally figured out how to ride a pogo stick, and Miss E sunk a few baskets on our neighbourhood kid-sized basketball hoop. We all had a great time.

Yes, I gave my kids knives - they picked out peppers and wanted to learn to cut them!

As many of you know, I have a VERY picky six year old eater on my hands. Miss A only eats about 6 things on a regular basis. It’s absolute torture when planning dinner at a friend’s house, or a big family feast – we know she’s either going to eat a bun with butter, or we have to bring our own food for her. Well, last week we started a new bribery scheme challenge with Miss A. She gets to pick what new items she wants to try and when she tries at least a bite, she gets to fill in a square on her chart. When the chart is full, she can pick a Lego set from the toy store.

Yes, I know that this means I am basically paying my child to eat, but I’m at the point where I will try anything!! I tried the cookbook where you “sneak” veggies into your kids food, but sneaking cauliflower into meatloaf only works if your kid will eat the meatloaf!!

I don’t know how much actual cooking I’m going to get done this week!! My friend is getting married and is having a full on Indian wedding, so this week I will be getting all done up for a Ladies Party, Wedding and Reception! Throw in Miss A’s dance performance night, and there are a whole bunch of nights I don’t need to cook dinner! Oh well, that gives me time to suss out some new recipes for next week’s menu.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you all have a fantastic week!

On the menu this week:

Monday: Lasagne Monday!
Tuesday: Stuffed chicken, potatoes, veggies & stuffing
Wednesday: Dinner out at the Ladies Party! Pizza for the hubs & kids
Thursday: Meatloaf, spaghetti with homemade marinara sauce
Friday: Perogies, beans and Guinness brats
Saturday: Miss A’s Dance Performance!
Sunday: Wedding Reception! Indian food tonight!

I’ll be linking my menu plan up to OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday – check it out!!