Surprises are really everywhere!

I have to write this post here, because surprises really are everywhere! 

You see, I haven't added to this blog in a very long time.  I had given up on it all together actually!  But there are some of you that have been posting comments which tells me that my itty bitty blog is still being read!

Well, Holy Crap!

I have started a new one over here, at A Life Most Bizarre, if you are interested in reading what's up lately.  I will try to come back here more often.

So, Thanks for reading and keeping my life full of surprises!


Cheers, Sylvie!

bahamian recipes

No  this isn't going to be another new year post about the resolutions, diets and fads to "Plan" for.  thank the gods....

 

This is a post to catalogue the two things I loved the most about eating in the Bahamas!  I couldn't find another place to keep these recipes so here they are.

 

Anyway, it is also an attempt to enjoy the Pantry Challenge Month from over on Good Cheap Eats.  Will you try it out?  It is a challenge to use up what you already have in the fridge, freezer and/or pantry cupboards.  The key is to plan it all out carefully so you spend as little as possible in the grocery store this month.

So, while I have many more recipes and food ideas to add to the menu this month I want to incorporate these recipes as well.

peas n rice

Ingredients:

• 1 small onion
• 1 small sweet pepper
• 1 tbsp cooking oil
• 2 strips cooked bacon
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• Three or four sprigs of fresh thyme
• Salt  & red pepper to taste
• 1 tsp browning (optional)
• 1 chopped fresh tomato (optional)
• 1 large can of regular pigeon peas or pigeon peas in coconut milk
• 2 cups uncooked long grain white rice
• 3 cups water

Directions:

• Dice onion and sweet pepper
• In a hard-bottom pot heat up oil and fry onion, sweet pepper, and bacon along with the thyme
• Stir in tomato paste, add salt and pepper to taste (and optional browning and chopped tomato)
• Add the pigeon peas and stir well, add water and bring to a boil. Season to taste.
• Add the rice until it is about an inch and a half below the water line
• Stir well, lower the stove to medium with pot uncovered
• While the pot is simmering, stir at regular intervals
• When the rice has absorbed most of the water, turn the stove to low heat and cover the pot
• Leave to steam until fully cooked
• Enjoy with meat or fish

mac n cheese

Spicy Variations

Ready to take your mac and cheese up another notch? Many locals love to concoct spicier versions of this dish, mixing in more mild tabasco sauce or including larger quantities of the much hotter crushed “goat pepper” (like a Habanero), jalapeños, or fiery “bird pepper” as it’s called here on the islands. If you want to test out a hotter variety of your own, try this one, made with chilli peppers, thyme, garlic, salt, paprika, and cayenne pepper. Talk about a flavour explosion!

How to Make at Home

For a Traditional Pan of Bahamian Macaroni and Cheese, follow this recipe adopted from Kev’s Bahamian Baked Macaroni:

Ingredients

• 1 lb uncooked elbow macaroni
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 (16 ounce) bags cheddar cheese
• 1/2 large green bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 large white onion, diced
• 4 eggs
• black pepper
• 2 pinches salt
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• 1 habanero pepper, diced
• 12 ounces evaporated milk

Directions

1. Add 2 pinches of salt to large pot of water. Bring water to a boil and add uncooked macaroni pasta. Boil until tender.
2. Strain macaroni and place back in pot. Add butter and stir in macaroni until butter melts.
3. Slowly stir in most of cheese evenly. Reserve 8 ounces (or half of a 16 ounce bag) for later topping.
4. Add paprika, black pepper, onion, bell pepper, and 1/2 of a finely diced habanero or goat pepper. Stir well until cheese is melted and blended.
5. Beat eggs lightly and stir into mixture.
6. Slowly add evaporated milk, pouring about half a cup at a time. Stir well, and spread the mixture evenly into a large prepared baking pan about 13 x 9.
7. Top with remainder of cheese and loosely cover with foil.
8. Bake at 375°F for 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes or until top is a golden color.
9. Allow macaroni to cool for 45-50 minutes until room temperature before serving.

Run of Bad Luck...Part 2

Wow, What a Week!!!

I thought it can't get any more hectic than what I told you about in my last post....Boy, Was I Wrong!!

This being the final week before our trip there were a few things that needed to be done to "catch up".  I use quotations because of its significance, as there are never enough ways and days to actually do this strange and elusive THING.

Anyway, Monday was trim the in-laws hedge day.  Yes, in the rain.  Sick, I know.  But, when we come back there will be no moment the first week back to do it, and then we'll be right into the thick of a heat wave, I just know it!

Then Tuesday, My older two boys have been in drama class and this particular Tuesday was their last rehearsal and then the performance...all in one day.

My oldest asks me if I had a chance to get their pictures ready for the marquee.  Um...No.  Thank God for Walmart Photocentre!!  Online download of the pictures to pick up an hour later!  I then realized that we have no gps unit for this trip and we wanted one.  This particular Walmart was sold out, and they were out of duffle bags to use as suitcases...crap.

We raced out of the store to go from South Keys to Orleans.  Arrived with ten minutes to spare!Yahoo!  Made it! but still nothing.

\the next dayI then raced over to a different Walmart with my three year old to find that dang Gps unit and duffle bags.  Last one and the box had not been opened!  Great Luck!  I decided to grab a few pre cut trays of healthy foods for the kids back at the theatre, as it was a hot day and they were going to be hanging around a lot longer than usual.  Good thing I did, because not one child had a snack with them!

I called hubby to make sure he was going to be there for three when the show started...it is now two pm... my cell had died and I actually found a thing called a payphone! 

And guess what!

His power steering busted and he needed to get to the garage asap....so could I meet him there and pick him up?

Our garage is back near our end of town! 45 mins away


So, back onto the highway.  25 minutes later I pull into the garage, ten minutes wait and we are back on the highway to get back to the theatre....made it just in time to pay for tickets and fiddle with the video camera that isn't working!!

Crap!!

On the way into the theatre I touched something on the screen and all of a sudden I could see!  Thank God!!  There are Grand-parents that are going to want to see this! 

So, now our car is in the shop, power steering needs an overhaul, timing belt and water pump were due, so they'll get it done now...they get to keep the car until we come home. Cha-ching!

Wish us luck, it looks like we may need it!

A Run of Bad Luck???

Well Now!

WT_!!

Yesterday, my hubby was driving home from work at around 3am and a "hobo" (his words not mine) walked across Hunt Club road, right in front of his car, without looking, almost causing his wandering days to be over!

Rattled and unnerved, not even a block later hubby ran over a raccoon!  Just rolled right over the huge monster as it raced out from the dark.  OMG!

THEN....Today....

Hubby dropped a cast iron patio umbrella holder on his big toe!  Now, huge, purple and angry, he had to come home from work, unable to put on his safety boots.

Sigh, our vacation in  a week and a half cannot come fast enough!!

My (long) list of failures!

  Well,

Here I am, There you are!

It has been months since I've been back.  You, I know I suck!  Let's just list this as failure #1.  I don't seem have much direction lately, not that I had much before.

So, straight off, I apologize.  It is inconsiderate of me.

Now onto my list of failures.  This list consists of the things I planned to do, planned to change, and planned to share with you .  Eek! I really DO suck!

#1.   Blogging at regular intervals

#2.   Last October I wrote a post about our change of diet, including removing sugar          from our lives.  Fat Chance, my family refused to do it, and I am weak enough not to have pushed harder!

#3    same goes for veganism
#4    and Vegetarianism


Granted though, that I have iron deficiency and #3 and 4 make it very difficult to feel healthy when I can't get in enough iron!!

#5     Finishing my first novel
#6     Getting my Baby Diaper Rash spray business off the ground
#7     My homeschooled kids tried "real" school this year and failed miserably
#8     My homeschooled kids are not geniuses, and are not ahead of their peers
#9     My home reno is STILL not finished! (5yrs later!!)
#10   More debt than income, 'nuff said.

Can I keep going?  Sure, but I'm depressed enough that I want to go lay down.

Everyone blogs about how wonderful things are going, how motivated they are, how much they are doing....positive sunshine shining out of their asses.  Well, I cry BullShit!  No one person can be so bloody wonderful, all-of-the-time!

Enough people!

Trying admitting the truth!

Try a blog post about how well everything is NOT going right now!  Please let us know that you're human!


So, tell me, how shitty are things going for you right now?

Got Pumpkin??

Who doesn't love SOMETHING in pumpkin??

Something....anything??

If the answer is you...try these...not too heavy on the pumpkin flavour.  you may be converted!

2      cups    flour
1      pkg      instant butterscotch pudding mix
2      tsp       baking soda
1      tbsp.    ground cinnamon
1      tsp       ground ginger
1/2   tsp       ground allspice
1/2   tsp      ground cloves
1/3   cup     finely chopped candied ginger slices
1      cup     butter, room temp
1      cup     granulated sugar ( not the time to worry about sugar folks!)
1      cup     packed brown sugar (honest not the time!)
4                 eggs
1      tsp      vanilla
15   oz        pumpkin puree


Cream the butter and sugars together first until light and fluffy, this is important because the butter needs to be evenly distributed before you add the flours, otherwise you'll end up over mixing it.

Add the spices next, then the eggs one at a time (or they will splash about) then add the pudding mix, mix well, add the pumpkin next and mix well.  (make sure you puree it if you roast a pie pumpkin from the fresh state as it will be too stringy)  add the vanilla, then slowly add the flour mixing until only just mixed in.

Grease your tins or silicone liners or use foil lined liners as I found paper liners stick too much to the muffin.

Bake in 350f  12-15 mins.   Makes 24 muffins if regular tin is filled 3/4 full.

Home made Instant Oatmeal

Here's my favourite Instant Oatmeal, hope you like it! It is so much healthier than the boxed versions sitting on store shelves.

1/2 - 3/4 cup 1 minute oats
1 cup of milk of your choice, I love unsweetened almond milk

mix together and put into microwave for 2-3 minutes, until soft.  add in your fave toppings.

examples:
1 tbsp. brown sugar 2 tbsp. maple syrup
mashed banana
applesauce and cinnamon
blueberries
strawberries

keep trying new combos!

Home made Chai Tea Bliss!!

My hubby loves Chai Tea.  if he has to have it bagged he prefers Twinings, but....I made it for him from scratch once and he asks for this whenever I have more time as he says it tastes so much better!

so for Chai lovers here you go:


For a mug size cup:

1 1/2 cups water
8 whole cloves
8 green cardamom pods
1  1inch piece of cinnamon
2-3 tea bags of black tea or green tea

milk and sugar to taste

Simmer spices in water on the stovetop in a pot with a tight fitting lid, watch out not to boil off the water!  Add tea bags and simmer until darkness is to your liking.  Add sugar then milk, strain and serve.

My larger pot version of extra spice chai

3 cups water
15  whole cloves
15 green cardamom pods
1  3 inch piece of cinnamon
3-4 tea bags black or green

Milk and Sugar to taste.

Same method as above.

Mom's Perfect Pancakes

Original Recipe:

1 1/2  cup  flour
   2      tbsp. sugar
   3      tsp.    baking powder
   1               egg, large
   2     tbsp.   oil
   1      tsp.    vanilla
 1 3/4  cups  milk, soy milk, almond milk or what ever you choose


Mix well with a fork and pour into hot buttered pan by 1/4 cupfulls.

Can be wrapped in waxed paper and frozen.


Changes the I make once in a while:

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour, (or combo of white, ww, with 1/4 cup substituted for soy flour)
2       tbsp.  sugar substitute, (Or 2 tbsp. applesauce, and add two tbsp. flour)
3       tsp. baking powder
1       egg (or 1 Tbsp ground flaxseed with 3 tbsp. warm water)
2       tbsp. oil (or melted butter)
1 tsp vanilla (Or any flavouring of your choice)
1 3/4 cups liquid ( milk dairy non-dairy, mashed banana, applesauce)

what do you feel like today?

measurements equivalencies

I hope i'll be able to read this!  I want to upload my cook book pages to throw away all the pages I have! 

Our year of healthful eating has begun...sigh wish me luck

I have to say that this quest of mine is probably getting oneveryone's nerves!  I read...a lot!!... and i watch food documentaries...a lot... and if one of those sources makes sense i try to implement their advice for my family. Not an easy job, let me tell ya!!

This September, 2014, my oldest boys, 12 & 8, have gone to school. The second time for my oldest but the first tine for my second. Talk about stressful! My middle son is already incredibly picky about what he will eat, now with the stress of school, he eats even less! Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!<(

I didn't do too badly feeding healthy foods, but realized after two months of working out, and hard, at the gym and not having lost ANY weight that there still had to be something wrong with my diet. 

Enter in SUGAR.

All the things that we eat are loaded with sugar...and i don't have large amounts of processed foods in my house! Yet, it still sneaks ( guilty) into our foods via the baked goods i offer, juice, our favourite crackers, peanut butter, middle son's fave nutella, pasta sauces, and the list goes on!

So, with everyone having been sick these past two weeks, including me, I have researched changes for my recipes to reduce or eliminate sugar from mybaked goods and from our drinks.

Tough luck!

It has been hard, Daddy is having the hardest time of all, by sneaking in the cake from the freezer! The juice boxes for the kids lunches have been replaced with water bottles.

Although i am still having an impossible time getting Chet to eat his lunch.

Help is appreciated!

So, today i am roasting pumkpins and their seeds. Going to see what ican make from this without buying  cans of pumpkin puree.

I seem to be ranting now, so i'll leave off for now.

What do you do to reduce sugar consumption in your family's diet?

Rena Untitled...intro paragraph

  Rena opened her eyes when her alarm chimed and had a moment of panic when she forgot where she was.  Sitting upright quickly she looked around frantically before remembering she was in her new apartment.  She was in New York City.  Then a wave of mortification passed through her as she remembered why she was there.

  Flopping back onto her pillows she tried to bury herself and forget what she had to do today.  Hiding almost worked, until the nagging voice in her head made her come out of bed and get started with her day.

Walking into her bathroom she stared at herself in the mirror,"Sure! Youcan be reasonable now! Where were you three months ago!" With a deep sigh she reached over to start the shower, hoping against all hope that the day won't be as bad as she feared.

Kandinsky project

http://kidsartists.blogspot.ca/2011/02/concentric-circles-in-style-of.html

I love how simply this lesson is.  I have been scouring books at the library for an idea of how to present this particular painting to my boys and found tonight when doing another search.  This was myfirst hit for tonights search....can't imagine why i haven't seen this one before!

Another hit...not quite a sucker punch

Just spent some time google searching a title of a book i read ages ago, but felt it needed a re-read.  After searching on and off for weeks i finally found it: one minute millionaire.

Anyway, in my search box i typed in " woman having to make a million dollars to get back her kids story line".  Yes, fourth or fifth on the list was the book i was looking for but also on this list was amanda hocking....ebook author.

Self-published e-book author whom is now published on paper and has her first three books optioned to be movies!

Why this is a hit for me (a slap or even a punch) to my ego is i have been toying with storylines in my head for years and thinking that "there's no way that I could do this and people would actually want to read it!!"

And, while looking for something else, a not-so-gentle reminder makes itself known and i realize what it is i am not doing....again.

However, i do realize that the list of things that i want to be doing is a touch longer than one or two things so i do know that not all can be done. 

Time is short on this earth and to be spending sooo much of it doing things we don't want to be doing is a terrible waste!!!

Changes need to be done asap!!!!!

Tempting Tuesday

Todays recipe of pullingan idea out of the air is.....

Homestyle philly cheese steak sandwich

How:
Leftover cheese bread stickcut inhalf
Stew beef sliced small
Steak sauce
Onions, fried
Cheese

Cook the beef with the sauce pour over bread cover with fried onions and cheese

Result....yummy!

Caution: must use a low salt and milder variety of sauce next time as it is intense and salty

New to do list september

For september:

Figure out a budget to get ahead...not fall behind or break even
Continue planning for december trip
Birthday cakes
Muffins
Menu planning
Cleaning schedule and list for kids jobs
List of planned financial expenses coming up
Winter clothing check up
List of repairs for home
Schedule to get sample bottles filled up andshipped out

Tricky Thursday

Today I am going to attempt the daring...a pulled pork bbq recipe WITHOUT pork!

I hope it goes well!

Dried tvp granules soaked in warm water
Chicken and rib bbq sauce
Leftover biscuits
Cheese

I will post a pic, if it works out well.  Wish me luck!

Planning to do list

Here is my to do list:

Laminate stars
Write out passages from How to eat fried worms in improper grammatical form
Use red marker to edit passages using editting symbols
Create poster board for reading stars
Create poster board for monthly reading trackers
Create flash cards for hooked on phonics set 2
Create poster board for postcard project
Create poster board for book and movie comparison
Create poster board for tv/game time allowance

School planning- part 3

I bought the stars you see, hopefully, to use as a reading log for our wall.  I am looking for something cute to draw on a white poster board with an inspiring reading/ star quote.  I hope i' ll find something.

Distraction projects

I figured that with all my planning it would be good to come up with a few activities or projects that are not school centred but fun centred therfore giving the  kids the idea that they are being given a day off, or afree day. They would be  learning something anyway, but kids like a break from scholarly learning.

1. World license plates - a cool site to see all the different license plates in  the  world.  Using Ontario plates guidelines they can create their own vanity plates to put on the wall.

2.Family newsletter - write about what they are learning, loving, hating, things they've seen and  done etc.

3. Postcrossing.com - postcard program with people worldwide

4. X-Mas thumbprint ornament project with photo glued to one side.

5. Create a country

6. Artist appreciation- learn about an artist,  view some of their work, recreate a piece your own way...add names and dates to abc book

7. Grow bulbs in water indoors, measure and chart their progress

8. Glow in the dark bowling at home- use plastic pop bottles filled with water, crack a glow stick and put one in each bottle and close tightly, trydifferent kinds of balls to find one strong enough to knock them down but not break open.

9. Treasure hunts- using pictures, words and riddles or clues

10. Bake cupcakes and decorate them to look like dirt and worms

11. Activities from 3 puzzle books

For now these 11 will do, but as ifind more i may add them here and on my pinterest page if it is an online tidbit.