The Center of My World

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Tuesday Talk

Vegetarian

I made a nice tofu scramble for my breakfast today. I have to say, I am loving these! They are easy, yummy, quick and versatile. All the things I like best in a meal!


I made pea soup for my lunch/supper last night. I was really good and I even got Little Princess to eat about 4 spoonfuls of it. So that was an accomplishment!

Here is the recipe I used. I added a little spinach for extra nutritiona and blended it before I served it up.

Split Pea Soup

Yield 4-6 servings

Ingredients

2 c dry split peas, rinsed
6-8 c vegetable stock
1 large onion (2 c)
1 carrot
2 T butter or olive oil
3-5 cloves minced garlic
1 t minced rosemary
1 t salt
2 t pepper

Directions

Place the peas and 6 c stock in a saucepan over high heat. Bring to a boil, lower heat, and partially cover.

Meanwhile, chop the onions and carrot and sauté in butter/olive oil for about 10 minutes, until onions are somewhat translucent. Add the garlic and rosemary and sauté for another 5 minutes. Add the onion mixture into the peas along with the salt and pepper. Simmer for another 40 minutes or so, until the peas are mushy and falling apart. If at any point the soup seems too dry, add more water or stock.

If you like a thick, hearty soup, you can purée some or all of it.

Tea

I mentioned the other day about this new tea (Celestial Seasonsings Honey Vanilla White Chai Tea) I have been drinking lately. I have to say it truly is the most delicious, relaxing tea I have ever drank. I take a sip and I can feel the tension just ease out of my body. The rich clear creamy taste is absolutely soothing and the fact that there are no calories and no caffiene are just a bonus. And even though I am the biggest coffee addict in the known free world, I have even found myself drinking a cup of tea first thing in the morning instead of coffee. I just love it and it feels so luxurious. It feels like I am drinking something that is a treat rather than something that is good for me.

Winter Hassel

Remember that pic I posted of my progress in shovelling the driveway? Well I got about half my driveway done the next day. I was determined! I was going to finish this driveway supposing it took me 5 days of shovelling! You would have been proud! I went out despite back pain and sleeplessness. Nothing was going to stop me!

But then Sunday night, my body played a practial joke on me and I suddenly had a swollen knee and much knee pain. Now you can imagine how much of a hassel this is when you spend a lot of time running up and down 2 flights of stairs! So despite all the determination in the world there was no shovelling for me yesterday or today. What a ROYAL PAIN! I have half my driveway shovelled and I can't get out there and do the rest!

Feeding Time

Little Princess

Little Princess came up to me while I was chopping spinach for a nice spinach salad and asked me a question which froze me in my tracks, "What is that green stuff mommy?" Oh NO! Pop Quiz! I wasn't prepared for this! I didn't study the answers. There is a definite right and wrong answer here and suprisingly the answer is NOT spinach. I quickly scan through possible answers in my head, "vegetables?" nope that's not it. "Spinach?" definitely not! Hmmmm . . . . "Lettuce?" BING BING BING! Give the woman a prize that is the winning answer! Testing my theory, I casually say, "Lettuce" as I continue chopping. I watch a little hand go over to the bag and pull a bit of spinach out and tentatively taste it. Smiling, she munches happily while I silently celebrate that I have successfully gotten spinach her lips.

I have a little confession. Lean over closely and I will whisper it to you . . . . I sometimes lie to my daughter . . . . there I've said it! I feel better. There are all kinds of foods which are only acceptable if you give them the right name. Vegetable soup is only good if you call it letter soup because according to little princess, every child knows that vegetables are yucky, right? (trust me it took me a while to figure this one out). Kraft Dinner is okay but only if you call it macaroni and cheese and add extra cheese and nothing else to it. Rice is okay but only if cooked with so much chicken bouillon that it turns yellow. Anything with enough salt to send your blood pressure soaring is fine. (Keep the salt shake out of her reach if you don't want to see half the bottle disappear). And in this battle of the belly, I play the game. I worry about her food intake and I say whatever I have to say to make the food make the journey from her plate to her mouth.

I think there was a mixup at the factory, I wasn't supposed to get the skinny kid. I wasn't supposed to get the kid who doesn't eat. I was a fat kid, I understand fat kids, I know how to deal with fat kids. A skinny kid is like an alien to me. I know how to limit food intake and to make the child make healthier snack choices. And since people frown on you sitting on your child and shoving food into her, I don't know to make a kid eat. They say that a child will eat what they need, but they never met my underweight, stubborn kid who would rather be hungry than forced to eat something that is on the ever-changing unacceptable list. Ever "What is that mommy" is a pass or fail exam and I didn't study!

Does someone have the manual on this kid? I think they forgot to turn on the hungry button.

Winter

By the way, who ever decided to send us this weather, Very Funny! That's enough gosh darned snow! Now give me my sun back!

Sunday Stuff

Snow Overload

I went out shovelling this mountain of snow in our driveway yesterday with all the good intentions of getting it all done. But I discovered that shovelling snow in your driveway and shovelling snow in your driveway when you have to throw it over your head are two different things. I got part way down my driveway and I had to stop, my back was killing me! I even had to get up out of bed at 5 this morning and lay on the couch my back was that sore. Now the crazy part of this story is that I am considering going back out again today.

To give you some perspective, this is my neighbour across the road's driveway

And this is the driveway I share with my neighbour, (my half is the one that is half shovelled.)

My Kitchen

Since I moved into this house, I have struggled with trying to do something I liked with my kitchen. It had this odd little cubby whole with no plug outlet in it and it needs more cupboard space and a good paint job. But I do think that how I have it now is really good. Since I bought shelving to make good use of the cubby space the layout makes more sense.

Here are some pics. I am open to suggestions. Keep in mind that the bag beside the shelf is a birthday present for the adorable little boy next door and I hope to soon put the freezer in the basement if I can convince Prince Charming of it. When I put the freezer in the basement the table the the fridge will switch places.

Tea

I have been trying to expand my drinking habits to include something other than coffee and water. I have tried two teas lately that rather enjoy. The Green tea has gensing that takes some getting used to and I usually drink this one with a little lemon and splenda in it. The Vanilla Chai is heavenly and I drink that with just a little splenda. It is creamy and wonderful and neither one has calories or caffiene!

Little Princess

Little Princess has gotten into the habit of doing the funniest thing with the folding chair. She opens it up and sits behind it and performs little puppet shows with whatever happens to be at her reach. Today it was a scrap of leather. She is such a riot sometimes watching her imagination take flight just makes me smile.

Soft

Theme: Soft Become a Photo Hunter View Blogroll

The theme for today's Saturday Photo Hunt was soft and while there may be nothing soft in this picture it was the one word that I feel when I look at it. I love the softness of her face, the beauty of her eyes, even when closed, the halo of hair around her face and the utter softness and love I feel when I look at it. So this is my submission for today.

Life in a musical

It is impossible to be unhappy with Little Princess around. I sit in front of the television in the evening flipping channels trying to find something to watch and I hear a little voice singing with growing intensity, like an actor warming up for the big finale in the closing number of a great musical, her voice soars to new hieghts singing some song that only she knows. And I smile. As she winds down and moves on to a more melodic peaceful tune, I listen to her and think how blessed I am to have a child that awakes in the middle of the night and bursts into songs instead of tears. I have a child who comes out for a drink and a snack and trots happily back up the stairs in her droopy bum jammies with her dolly tucked tightly under her arm and plays and sings quite happily until she is ready to climb back into her big bed and go to sleep. Sure, she is awake and sure she is probably making a mess in her room, but isn't that better than the alternative. She is happy and she is just so happy that it bursts out of her in song. We should all live our lives that way.

The Sad Truth about Vegetarianism in this City

I have been searching in vain in this city in three stores now for a vegetarian cookbook or a magazine or at this point even a pamphlet with recipes in it for vegetarians would do. There is nothing. I can't find a lot of the staples people have in other areas. I live in the capital of this province and I can't find a darned vegetarian cookbook, Seitan, or Tempeh!!! I am going to try making Seitan when I get brave enough. But I do wish that there were more vegetarians in the fish and potatoes, meat-loving province I live in. To a lot of the people I know eating a vegetarian lifestyle is an unheard of concept and vegan is a foreign language. It isn't going to stop me but I had to let off a little steam about it. I can't be too upset about it, Little Princess is breaking into her third chorus of the "I love my peanuts song" that she is composing at the moment and I need to enjoy the moment.

Shopping Trip

I had a wonderful Girls day out with my neighbour. We went shopping bought stuff for our kids had fun spending too much money and enjoying our time out as adult women with no kids in tow who still saw our kids in every item on every shelf we saw. It was wonderful and Bought some shelves for a pantry in my kitchen that I am so proud of. They look wonderful and I thought it was a creative use of space. I will share pics with you later, but I just had to share how much fun a girl who hates to leave the house in the winter had today when she finally pushed herself out that front door. Thanks neighbour for the companionship and the trip. I had fun.

Friday Feast

Click on the picture to join in the Friday Feast Fun! Have a Great Friday!

Appetizer
Where on your body do you have a scar, and what caused it?
I have a little scar on my hand from a cut when I was a child and I have four small scars on my stomach from when I had surgery.

Soup
What is something that has happened to you that you would consider a miracle?
I was outside playing in a swimming pool all by myself when I walked off the shallow end into the deep end. I couldn't swim and I was panicking when someone looked out and saw me. I was saved and it is a miracle that someone happened to see me at that moment

Salad
Name a television personality who really gets on your nerves.
This one is hard, I am sure there must be one, but I can't think of any. Most of the ones who get on peoples nerves, I feel sorry for. I guess if I had to pick one, I would say Paris Hilton because she is only famous for being rich and really has nothing constructive to add.

Main Course
What was a funny word you said as a child (such as "pasketti" for "spaghetti")?
I don't remember any words I used to say, but Little Princess used to say "Osht" for "soft". I LOVED it and I wish it never went away.

Dessert
Fill in the blank: I have always thought ______ was ______.
I have always thought that winter was too cold and long.

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Scrapbooking

In other news. I did a couple of pages yesterday. I did one for my friend to let her know how important she is to our family. And of Little Princess's face because I could be biased but I think she has the most striking eyes and I love how she is constantly singing.

Vegetarian

I have to say, I LOVED my tofu scramble yesterday! It was soo good for breakfast that I made another version for supper. It tasted heavenly and it let me do my favorite kind of cooking. What I call kitchen sink cooking where I throw a little bit of this and a little bit of everything but the kitchen sink. I truly loved it. I also discovered that I like a firm tofu a lot. I like the chewy texture of it.

I made a curry type tofu scramble for breakfast:

I made a spinach salad and a fruit salad for my lunch which was wonderful! It just tasted soo good that I didn't feel like I was trying to eat healthy.

And I made another kind of tofu scramble for supper which was just as wonderful! I am so pleased that I was brave enough to try this. Now that I love this, it is vegan all the way baby!


Weigh In

I have been a little embarrassed lately at how much my weight has fluctuated since going vegetarian, but I have been making healthy changes anyway. The way I thought about it, if you eat right and watch what you eat, eventually it has to show on the scales. You can't get fat eating fruits and vegetables. And this week it showed up finally!

Last week I was 198 lbs and this week I am 195 lbs! Wooohooo!!! I am thrilled. I am eating healthy, I feel wonderful and I am finally on the way down on the scales.

Thursday Thirteen

Little note: This is the last official week for Thursday Thirteens. I just want to thank Leanne for bring us Thursday Thirteens. I am really going to miss this fun visit with all our blog friends. I would also like to thank Leanne, Nancy and Lindsey for all their hard work each week. We love you and appreciate you guys!

Thirteen Things about Twisted Cinderella

1. I am going to be trying Tofu Scramble for breakfast tomorrow. If I like it, it will replace my scrambled eggs for breakfast in an attempt to make veganism easier. 2. I tried to get Tempeh and Seitan today at the store but they didn't have any. I am hoping to be able to find some at our local whole foods store when I check it out. 3. Little Princess was back in preschool today for the for the first time since last thursday. She finally had no fever. She still has congestion on her lungs though. 4. I cheated and had vegetarian pizza for supper tonight. All that fat and calories! I am not having my regular cheat day on Saturday to make up for it. 5. Prince Charming is the worst procrastinator in the world. He was supposed to have a paper handed in last Wednesday and he is handing it in Tomorrow! Thank god his teacher bought his excuses. 6. Prince Charming is coming close to the end of his course. He has two months left. 7. I love American Idol, but I keep missing it. It is up against Prince Charming's shows and I usually fall asleep before it comes on again at 12:30. 8. The most fun season I ever had watching it was when I watched Season Two with Notsosnowwhite. 9. Shows are always so much more fun when you watch them with someone else who is into them too. 10. Our street is still barely wide enough for a car to get through since the snowstorm on Tuesday. The roads are awful and banks are so high that people plowing their driveway with push snowblowers are having troubles blowing it up high enough to get over the bank. 11. I hate winter. I am not a 'yay! lets go skiing person'. When it snows I just want to cuddle up in my house with cup of coffee, a good book and a chocolate bar and hide until spring. 12. I forgot something at the grocery store today and I am so against leaving the hosue right now that I am waiting until next grocery day to get it. I am pathetic aren't I? 13. I can't wait until summer when I can sit outside with my neighbour and watch our kids play and hold her adorable baby girl. I want to take so many pictures of her. She is just so beautiful she inspires the artist in me. I want to take pics of her. Pics of her with her siblings. Pics of her with her mommy and daddy. See I get carried away. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! Leave a comment and I will add you here

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Thursday Thirteen

My Little Mermaid

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Tuesday Talk

Invented Supper


So let me set the scene. I am in the kitchen with no-meat meatballs ready to go and I realize I have no idea what I am doing with them. I start pulling random ingredients from my fridge and freezer to invent a supper. Here is kind of how it went:

1. "MMmmm . . . corn? Yeah, corn would be nice tonight. I will microwave about 1/2 cup of corn to go with supper." So the corn goes on the counter.


2. "Let me see what is in this fridge . . . OH! I see squash! I can do something with that." and the squash goes on the counter.


3. "I wonder what I should do with the no-meat meatballs? Well they will need a sauce. Here lets throw in some broccoli and cauliflower. Well that looks yummy, but it still isn't a sauce. Okay lets start with the basis of the sauce. I can put in 1/2 cup of water and a 1 tsp of vegetable bullion in on the no-meat meatballs and broccoli and cauliflower. Well that is a start, but what do I do with it?"


4. So now I am standing in front of my fridge with no idea what I am going to add to my sauce. I pick up some sugar free maple syrup and pour a random amount of that in on the no-meat meatballs. After that I add some soya sauce.


5. Next, after it is cooked, I taste it. Terrified that I have ruined all that perfectly good food. It was heavenly! It was just so good!

The Squash, I roasted in the oven cut in half and cut side down in about 1/4 inch of water. When it was just about cooked (just about 35 minutes) I turned it over and put a tiny bit of margarine and salt all over it. After that I put a tablespoon of sugar free apricot jam in each half and spread over it. It was YUMMY!!! It was my favorite veggie supper so far!

Scrapbooking

Snowed In!

We had quite the storm last night. The power kept flickering but it stayed (Thank God! Little Princess is terrified of the dark). The wind roared around the house. And I am scared of the wind. It is silly I know but I have been that way since I survived a hurricane. The wind blows and makes things shake and rattle and I wince. But anyway, we made it through and the house is half-buried in snow. I am going to go out and try to shovel us out a bit. I need to get groceries and I don't know if the roads are even cleared yet. It is pretty heavy snow out there. All up and down our street people are shovelling their driveways in groups, in little shovelling parties.

Monday mumblings

Diet and Exercise

I am concentrating on making fruits and vegetables the basis of my meals as opposed to grains and starches. Trying to get lots of veggies and fruits into my diet should help to fight this battle without feeling deprived.

I am also going to try to get more exercise and get more activity. This has got to help too.

Vegetarian

I am not sure, but this is what I am thinking of for my supper tonight:

Basic vegetable stirfy
Serves 2
Ingredients

1 cup broccoli, cut into bite size pieces
1 cup cauliflower, cut into bite sized pieces
½ cup snow peas
1 large carrot, cut into bit size pieces
1 cube vegetable boullion
2-3 garlic cloves (finely diced)
6 tbs water

Directions:
Lightly spray a large wok or deep frying pan with cooking spray. Add garlic to pan and saute the garlic until softened.
Add the 6 tablespoons of water to softened garlic along with the boullion cube . Once the boullion is dissolved start adding the vegetables in the order of time needed to cook each - cauliflower, carrots, broccoli, snow peas, stirring constantly, until the vegetables are “tender crisp” or to yourown taste.
If the vegetables need more cooking time you can add a few tablespoons of water to the pan/wok and left to cook a little longer if desired. If there is any water leftover then it may be discarded and a little low-sodium soya sauce or teriaki sauce (to taste) can be stirred into the vegetables.

Little Princess

Little Princess woke up with a fever again today. Poor kid. Apparently this flu she has is still kicking her butt. she is up in bed, watching "Blues Clues" cuddled under her blanks. Poor baby. Although, I secretly think she is a little happy to be home with mommy.

Scrapbooking

Prince Charming didn't like this quote on this page. But I love this movie. I love the idea that every little girl and deserves to be a Princess.

Cartoon

Not much on the go for today. I have a houseful of mess to clean up, a sick little girl to take care of, and laundry to do. Hopefully, I will get all of that done, while making my little girl a little happier. Have a great monday everyone!

Sunday Stuff

Scrapbooking

I liked the one pic I did yesterday soo much I had to do a scrapbook page of it all by itself. Here it is!

I had intended to put several pics of her face on this page, but when I did this effect on the first one, I knew that this had to be a simple page. I didn't want to clutter it up with stuff.

Little Princess

And with my long post yesterday I didn't even tell you about our day at Kinderstart on Friday. It went pretty well. It was only for about an hour and Little Princess was well enough for that. She didn't want to go, but she loved playing when she got there. She had a lot of fun and cried when we had to leave. She informed me when she got home that she didn't want to go to Preschool anymore, she wanted to go to Kindergarten. Apparently she says that Preschool is too much work for her. She did the pattern project while she was there and the teacher told us that using 4 colors in a pattern was really good, that it was grade one level patterning. did a worried mommy's heart proud to hear that.

My 1 point Veggie Soup

Looking through my comments yesterday, I had a few requests for my soup recipe. As with all my recipes, I play around with the ingredients to fit what I have in the house. This is basically the recipe for my soup.

LOW FAT VEGETABLE SOUP

2 cups vegetable broth
1 can diced tomatoes
1 clove minced garlic
1 onion, chopped
1 cup chopped mushrooms
1 zucchini
1 carrots
1 pepper chopped (optional)
1 russet potato, skin on, chopped
1 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat a four-quart Dutch oven on medium heat. Add vegetable broth and tomatoes. Add remaining ingredients as prepared. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes.

Antique

Theme: Antique Become a Photo Hunter View Blogroll

Not antique but certainly old is the picture above of my parents wedding. I have antique books but with so many moves I am not sure where they are at the moment.

I have a couple of other pics I thought I would share today as I am in a picture sharing mood.

Here is a pic of our gigantic heart shaped cookies on my terrible cookie sheet.

This is my new thermal coffee pot. I LOVE it. I can go to bed and wake up to the best coffee in the world, that is kept hot and fresh and waiting for me. Now if I could only get it to take out the garbage, I wouldn't need Prince Charming anymore! LOL.

I love this pic. I know it is blurry but I love it anyway. I am not sure why. It just strikes something in me, I guess.

Here is a scrapbook page I have done yesterday. I really like the colors in it.

Vegetarian

One thing I noticed about trying to go vegan is that I feel better after drinking soy milk. I always had issues where when I drank milk, I felt bloated and yucky and kind of nauseas. Drinking soy milk takes that feeling away.

One thing I miss is eggs. I have snuck a few in the past couple of days. I know I shouldn't but I find they fill me up with low points. I am working on low point filling meals. If you have any ideas, I would certainly appreciate them!

I made this great Vegan Italian Style soup yesterday and it was only 1 Weight Watchers Point for the whole pot! Mmmm . . . and it smells heavenly.

I also made this has hash type supper with 2/3 cup of Yves Ground Round, 2 small potatoes, cauliflour, onion, mushroom, a little zucchini and cabbage. I cooked it up really well and it was wonderful! The cauliflour actually tasted like the potatoes!