{ Home, garden, a tip and a recipe }

Good morning everyone, hope you're having a great start to your day.  

 

It is Friday, and I for one am so happy.  For one reason because it's the start of the weekend, and also because Curt and I plan on doing a little date tomorrow morning.  You know those kind of dates that you start appreciating when you're older?

 

In our youth a movie and a dinner was what we considered a good date, but the past few years, in our fourties, we realized that the kind of date we enjoy is a Saturday morning, thrift store browsing, book shopping, hitting up either Lowe's or Home Depot, and a little lunch before heading home and relaxing the rest of the day.

 

It may sound a bit boring to some of you, maybe the younger ladies, but I think for us ladies around my age and older, it's exactly the kind of moments with our husbands that we appreciate.

 

Before I start talking to you, I must say that I'm proud of myself this week, for keeping my camera glued to my side, taking pictures, and making a conscious effort to blog every day.  It has felt so good, it's like meeting an old friend.

Thank you also for the kind comments on my last post about old fashioned blogging, I knew you all would understand what I mean.   Kristina from A Pioneer Woman mentioned that she is most likely ending her blog she doesn't want to be boring, and doesn't get many comments.

I completely understand what she is saying, and I used to feel this way too, but I was reminded by no doubt God, that I'm not blogging for anyone other than myself.  That this is my little corner to jot down my memories, to keep a record online of my life and that although comments are wonderful and I certainly love receiving yours, they are not a must have for my blogging.  The minute I changed that way of thinking, I felt such pressure off of me to blog, to continue just writing as if I'm journaling.  It honestly frees you up.

Now do you want to see what I did yesterday?  Come on with me, I promise I will even give you a cup of coffee or tea.  However I don't have any cake or sweets, because I haven't been eating them, although talking about it now makes me want some.  Oh no LOL

I wanted to show you my garden real quick.  We opted for container gardening this year, save for a few things like potatoes, rosemary, basil and mint which are in the ground, but everything else is in containers.  I wasn't sure how that would work, and I've always envisioned my gardens in the ground, as I've done for years now, but hubby convinced me this year to try it this way, and I'm very glad that I did.

Everything is thriving and I've harvested a few a couple of times, and as you can see they are growing again.  I have quite a bit of chili peppers this year because I use them a lot and also want to can some for later in the year.

The only plants that I have had no luck with this year, have been my tomatoes.  I have 5 tomato plants and none have grown, given me any tomatoes.  I thought it was just me but I've seen multiple people complaining about the same, so I am stumped.  Not sure what happened.  Oh well, maybe next year.

I pottered around the house, doing what needed to be done, but also taking a few moments between washing laundry, or waiting for my instant pot to finish cooking, to read a few pages in my book.

 

The book I need to mail off was wrapped, and I have to remember to get it out by the 14th so that I get my book credit.  A little frustrated at the moment, because even though I placed it in my mailbox yesterday, the mailman didn't take it and it's still sitting there.  If it is not taken by the end of the day, I'll have to physically drop it off tomorrow morning when we're in town.

I know, it's not the end of the world but it's a little annoying especially since I tried to get it out as quick as possible, after the request came in.

 

 

Also cooked up my chickpeas for the next week or two.  I buy the dry chickpeas and then cook them, divide them into ziploc bags and freeze them.  I just remove a bag as I need it and it saves me a ton of time during the week.

 

Now, let me show you a little tip.  I shared it I think last year on my Instagram stories and it was one of the tips that got the most reactions from my followers over there.  

 

It's something that is so simple but oh my gosh, I wish I had known this years ago, it would have saved me from frustrating when dealing with Tupperware that is stained with any kind of tomato sauce.  You make a yummy tomato sauce based meal, you save it in the Tupperware and then it's stained orange for the rest of it's life.   

This trick will stop that from happening and it really does work.  I learned it through a Brazilian older lady that I saw on Youtube.  You will love it.

 

Basically, you are going to take your Tupperware, and it's best to do this right after you remove the food, don't let it sit for too long, although I have had success even with those stubborn stains.

Pour a little hot water into the bottom, add some dishwashing liquid, and then add a small paper towel.  Close the lid tightly, then shake, shake, SHAKE it.  I usually just shake it hard for about 30 seconds or so.  That's it.  Open it up, toss the paper towel and be amazed.  It's crazy, really!

 

Try it and let me know what you think.

 

Ok, now just quickly wanted to share this super easy recipe that makes a perfect breakfast or lunch, and it uses up leftover roasted vegetables.

 

Just take your leftover veggies, or cut up some vegetables if you don't have leftovers.  In a casserole baking dish, add salt, pepper, whatever else spices you want, then add in some eggs.  It will depend on the amount of vegetables you have, I only added 4 eggs to mine. 

 

Give it a good stir, pop some shredded cheese on top, and bake at 375 for about 20 minutes or until the egg is cooked and toasty and brown.

 

That is it.  It's healthy, it's delicious and like I already said, it's a great breakfast or lunch.

 

How yummy does that look right?  

Anyway, that was my Thursday, I didn't get to workout yesterday, wasn't feeling 100%.  I started feeling like I was developing a UTI, so immediately started drinking cranberry juice and upped my water intake too, although I already drinking seas of water.  I did my walking, didn't even hit my 10k steps, only made it to 7000, but that's ok.

I feel so much better today, and the UTI is practically gone.  So I will be back to working out today, thankfully, I actually missed it and feel so weird not doing it.

This post is much longer than I anticipated, so if you've managed to make it all the way here, thank you for hanging in there.  My word, I can talk when I get going.

Whew!

Right, I'm gonna end this post, but just quickly, the pictures I just posted above, are of what I am currently reading in my bible.  I felt like I needed to reread the book of Revelation.  Some people dislike it, some fear it, some love it.  I am in the love it camp, though I won't lie and say that some of the things don't freak me out or make me a big anxious, but I think overall the message is not to cause fear, but rather to inspire and to motivate us to walk closer to God knowing that at the end of this craziness that we call world and life, we will be in Heaven with our loved ones.

Now, with that said, I feel like even though I'm already on verse 18 and there are only 22 verses in Revelation, I am stuck.  I can't leave, and just have this overwhelming feeling of needing to dive deeper, to understand better and to stay in this book until I feel that I can move on.

I am currently looking for a good Bible study on Revelation, so if you know of one, or have studied it yourself, PLEASE leave it down below.  

I will look for a good one when we are downtown tomorrow, but in the meantime I am going to finish reading in the Bible, then I'm going to start again from verse 1, but this time I will read it, then read the commentary by J. Vernon McGee which my wonderful late mother in law Pat gave us for Christmas, many years ago.  It is the whole commentary for the entire Bible so it's a great study resource.

I honestly can't wait to dive deeper and understand a bit more.  There are just things that don't add up to me, especially timelines and so on.  

Alright, now I've babbled enough.  It's time to jump off here, get some steps in, do my workout really quickly, then finish reading Revelation and probably take a little break.  I need to lay down, I've got a horrid sinus headache brought on from the terrible allergies going around right now.  

I hope you all have a wonderful Friday.  I will show you what I get on my outing tomorrow, so come back for that.  

Have a blessed one friends,

xoxoxoxo

{ Busy day in the kitchen }

 

 

It had been a long time since I walked into the kitchen, and spent some hours pottering around, cooking, baking, prepping and just enjoying being in that little space. 

 

The kitchen is the heart of the home!

 

I have always said that my favorite room in my homes, the many we've lived in, has always been the kitchen.  But when Curt retired from the Air Force, 7 years ago, our lives took a huge tumble, and everything that I was used to, the routines, the schedules, the moments I had perfected over the years, just fell to the wayside.

I've struggled to find my footing since then.

"But it's been 7 years Sandra, surely by now you've gotten back on track?".

Well, no.  You would think that 7 years is long enough to get back to that way of doing things, but the truth is that life has changed and I don't think I will ever truly get back to exactly how I used to do things.  It's understandable, I'm older, my children are older, we are in a different State, we've been through a lot and frankly, we are not the people we were back in those days.

 

I've slowly been molding a new way of doing things, pulling some of the old habits and incorporating newer routines and so forth.

Yesterday though, was a day that very much reminded me of the way things used to be.

I was in my kitchen for hours, and I loved every second spent in there.

I was mostly trying to do some food prep and getting some things ready for Thanksgiving, and by that I mean making sure I had all the ingredients I needed on hand, ordering some last minute things from Walmart pick up, and doing some baking because I needed to use up cranberries before they went bad.

 

 I had picked up this magazine from Taste of Home, a while ago, and the recipe on the cover was calling my name.  I had everything I needed on hand so quickly whipped up this Chocolate Chip Cranberry Bread, the recipe will be on my food blog today.

 

I have about 2 cups of cranberries left so I'm going to make some homemade cranberry sauce today.  I have never made it myself so we will see how that turns out, and of course I'll share with you my thoughts and the recipe too.

I also had some oranges that were starting to go back, so got those sliced up and in the oven to dry, for my orange garlands.  I make one every year, to hang over the fireplace and as a decoration for my real Christmas tree.

 

While working in the kitchen, I put my instant pot to good use.  I don't know about you all, but I love mine so much and use it at least 4 times a week, some weeks I am using mine every single day.

I cooked up some sweet potatoes, I realized I only had 2 so I've added a bag of sweet potatoes to my Walmart pick up.  My Jasmine will never forgive me if I don't make some sweet potato casserole for her.

And with the remaining potatoes, I will make a sweet potato pie and then slice some up for fries, blanche and freeze them for future meals.

If you're wondering how to make sweet potato in the instant pot, I place them on the metal trivet, or you can use a steaming basket (which reminds me I don't have one for my pressure cooker, so I think I'll add that to my Christmas wish list lol).

Anyway, wash the potatoes, add them to the trivet or basket, add a cup of water, and then pressure cook on HIGH for 26 minutes for 4 to 5 potatoes.  Quick release the steam.

Since I only had 2 potatoes I cooked them for 20 minutes, and it is the perfect timing.  Once they were out, I let them cool slightly and then pulled the skin right off, and put them in the fridge until I use them.

 

While the food was cooking and baking in the kitchen, I gave my fireplace a quick clean to get it ready for winter.  We have had pretty good temperatures so far, and we never light the fire unless it gets to 30 degrees or below.

I must say, these cold winter like mornings have been wonderful.  Oatmeal has been my go to breakfast, and now that I've figured out how to make it in the instant pot, I'm loving it even more.

 

I'm a creamy oatmeal kinda girl, my daughter on the other hand loves thick clumpy oatmeal. 

 

If you enjoy creamy oatmeal like I do, then here is the recipe for you, give it a try and let me know what you think.

 

Instant Pot Creamy Oatmeal

 

1 and half cups old fashioned oats

1 and 3/4 cups of water

2 and 1/4 cup milk

4 tablespoons brown sugar

 

Cook on HIGH pressure for 6 minutes, then do a quick release.

 

Note:  If you use steel cut oats, cook for 5 minutes on HIGH,  then naturally release for 20 minutes.

If you use quick oats, cook for just 1 minute on HIGH and do a quick release.

Today, I plan on making all of my pies, and then just do the turkey and side dishes tomorrow.   I think I will more than likely put up a Thanksgiving post with the food I'm making including the recipes.  

Are you having a Thanksgiving dinner with family, or is it just you and your immediately family at home?  What are you fixing, keeping with the traditional big Thanksgiving meal or making it smaller, changing it up this year?

Would love to know what your plans are, let's have a chat down below :)

{ Meal plan with me - Old recipe collection }

I'm getting ready to menu plan for the next two weeks.  I was looking for inspiration and while cleaning my kitchen cabinets yesterday, came across some of my old recipe collections.

You probably have some of these yourself.  I started collecting them many, many years ago, when Jasmine was still little.  I've always been fascinated by old cookbooks and recipes.

Actually, my greatgrandmother has this cookbook, a really old Portuguese cookbook that I adored.  I had my eye on it for the longest time and really wanted to have it for myself, but she ended up giving it to my Uncle, and when he passed away the book just disappeared along with a lot of his belongings.  (his wife at the time just cut off all communication with our family).

It always stuck with me, because I loved that book so much and it was well taken care of and one of my greatgrandma's prized possessions, so when she gave it away to someone else I felt quite sad.  I can't help but think that if it had been with me, it would still have been here and used and loved.  But, let bygones be bygones.

Here's the book, it was called "ABC da Culinaria by Etelvina Lopes de Almeida.

As I was sitting down to get started, I thought I would bring you along with me and actually show you what I ended up doing with the old recipes.

A lot of these I found at Yard sales or thrift stores. 

And some I bought, or my husband bought for me.  I enjoy these recipes because they're not fancy or require all these gourmet ingredients to produce, tasty, home cooked food.  At the end of the day, whether you work at home or outside the home, you don't want to spend hours trying to fix super complicated meals.

I've pulled out my meal plan book, and I've showed you this before in a previous post about the notebooks I use for meal planning and my budget and bills.

As you can see above that was from the last menu plan.  I always write the menu on one side and the grocery list on the other, it makes it easier when I go grocery shopping because if I ever wonder why I am buying a specific ingredient, I can quickly glance over the menu and see what it's for. 

It's also happened before, that I couldn't find something I needed, and having the menu plan with me, I was able to quickly change the meal, right there at the store.

One thing I don't like about these, is that a lot of them came with no box or folder or anything to put them in, so I had them in tupperware boxes, which is not the best way to keep them and it made it quite difficult to flip through and find what I wanted.

I had these blue dollar store containers, so I popped them all into one and not only do they fit but they make it extremely easy to quickly browse through.

The container now sits on my cookbook shelf and I have easy access to it, when I need to look for a recipe, I pull the container down, find what I need and back it goes.

I found a few recipes that I want to make this meal plan and am quite excited to try those.  There's nothing worth than getting stuck in a rut when it comes to dinners, is there?

I would love to know if you all have some of these recipe collections too or if you use them at all.

Updated the food blog!

Did you hear that?  That was the sound of people all over the world, gasping in shock.

I took a few moments today to update the food blog and add a few recipes, I still have a few more to get on there when I get a chance, but at least it's a start right?

Here are the recipes just newly added.....

Chipotle Burrito Bowls

Pumpkin Donuts with Buttermilk Glaze




Philly Cheesesteak Star

Carrot Cake