Menu for Week 44

Breakfasts:
M: oatmeal porridge
T: cereal
W: flavoured oatmeal porridge (homemade pumpkin spice and brown sugar)
T: 4 grain porridge
F: cereal
S: Overnight Granola

½ dl brown sugar
½ dl honey
½ dl oil
½ tsp cinnamon
8 dl oats

½ dl raisins
½ dl coconut
1/4 dl sunflowers seeds
(½ dl chopped nuts)
(whatever you like in your granola)

Bring brown sugar, honey and oil to a simmer and remove immediately from heat. Stir in cinnamon and then oats. Mix until oats are well covered with honey mixture. Pour into a lined baking dish.

Put in a 175° celcius oven for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and stir. Put back in oven, turn heat off and leave in oven overnight. Before serving, mix in raisins, coconut, sunflowers seeds and any nuts, etc. you would like.
S: cereal

Lunches:
M: leftover mashed potatoes and salmon
T - F: leftovers from the night before
S: Chickpea Noodle Soup









S: leftovers

Dinners:
M: My son made Broccoli Carrot Stir-Fry that we had with nuts and rice









T: Red Lentil Sweet Potato Soup

2 tbsp oil
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into chunks
1 carrot, peeled and cut into chunks
1-2 potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1 ml garlic powder
½ tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp cumin
1 L water
1 vegetable broth cube
1½ c red lentils, rinsed well
(salt)

Heat oil and saute celery. Add vegetables and stir for a bit. Add water, broth cube and spices. Bring to a boil and add red lentils. Reduce heat and cook for 20 minutes or until vegetables are done. Purée until smooth.

W: Pan Fried Potatoes (without onions or spices), fish sticks, lettuce and spinach salad with buttermilk dressing









T: shrimp and pollack sauce with macaroni, lettuce and carrot
F: french fries and frankfurters, fresh spinach and red bell pepper, homemade Sweet Salad Dressing for the first time (1 tbsp sugar, dash salt, 1 tsp lemon juice, 1 tsp vinegar, 1 tbsp oil - tried olive oil but not to our taste, mix well together)
S: macaroni, frankfurters, red pepper
S: leftovers

Evening Snacks:
M: bread, cheese spread and honey melon
T: apples
W: bacon and toast, kiwi
T: popcorn, apple
F: bread and cheese, honey crunch apples
S: -
S: grapes

Thanksgiving Week

I find it hard to follow any menu I make because life happens. Last week, for example, my bike kept getting a flat tire and instead of going to the store by bike I decided to go home and fix it, so we ate what I could find from the cupboard. And then one day my son went to eat at his grandparent's. By posting about last week's menu I can also add pictures!

Breakfasts:
M: oatmeal porridge
T: Cereal
W: 4 grain porridge
T: Raisin and brown sugar oatmeal porridge
F: muesli
S: whipped chocolate semolina porridge

S: Eggless "Buttermilk" Pancakes (I didn't bother to use any egg replacer because there were both baking soda and powder in the recipe) and homemade strawberry jam from the freezer

Lunches:
M: boxed macaroni
T: leftover chili
W: peanut butter and banana sandwiches
T: grilled cheese sandwiches
F: ate out
S: tomato tuna sauce and broken spaghetti
One can of tuna in tomato sauce, few cubes of frozen spinach, frozen peas, milk, oregano, curry and chili powder. Heat until spinach has defrosted and everything has heated through.
Take spaghetti and break into small pieces. Cook as package directs.

Serve.
S: cheese sandwiches with homemade flat bread

Dinners:
M: homemade chili

T: Thanksgiving meal: homemade Tofu turkey stuffed with stuffing, homemade "cranberry" sauce (really made with red whortleberries), ovenbaked sweet potato cubes (just a bit of butter on top), twice baked potato casserole, mushy peas

W: leftovers from Thanksgiving meal
T: whole wheat fusilli and tomato sauce
F: how can I not remember?
S: my son made homemade pizza (we're looking for new dough recipes if you have any)
S: my son went to his grandparent's, so I just snacked

Evening Snacks:
M: date squares

T: carrot "pumpkin" pie with vanilla ice cream (I seldom see pumpkins sold here, so I make the pie from carrots)

W: last of date squares
T: "pumpkin" pie
F: apples
S: "pumpkin" pie
S: "pumpkin" pie and vanilla ice cream

See more menus for this week at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Pink Project Bag, Part 2

I realized after I had cut out the material that I might have difficulty sewing the pieces of my bag together because the seams would be down the middle and there weren't side seams.

But that figured itself out when I started pinning the pieces together and one went inside the other!

I think both of them turned out fine and I should make some more some day. My sister's bag is on the left and mine is on the right. As you can see my handle is narrower and that is because of the seam down the middle.

What I've Tossed this week.

Last week's task was to empty one binder and it wasn't as hard as I thought. I kept 32 pages but tossed ?? (haven't counted them yet!).

Well, haven't knit much

I didn't know what size needles I used for the last pair of gloves I knit for my son, nor do I know what this yarn is, so I started with 3.5 mm needles but they were too big, so now I'm trying 3 mm.

Second Binder

I managed to get rid of most of the papers from last week's binder. I've got about 10 more, so I'll try to do another this week. I need to put new material on some of my chairs. I've already borrowed the stapler twice to do them, but still haven't done them. I'm aiming to get at least one done this week.

Pink Project Bag, Part 1

I thought that I would get the most out of the material for my bag and decided to cut the material differently than my sister's. I folded the material and pattern in half so that I could position the handle as far up as possible and get a bit longer bag. It meant that the seams would be down the middle, but that didn't bother me.

I put pins over the edge of the pattern piece so that I wouldn't forget and cut along it but left the material longer for this bag.

I didn't really think it through and once I had cut out the pieces I noticed that I would have to sew the handle edges in the round rather than flat like my sister's. Fortunately the openings were big enough that I could fit them over the arm.

Stitches Ripped

When my son was much younger I knit him an almost complete balaclava but I never finished the face edging. I don't remember why, but probably he didn't want to wear them anymore. I need to knit him some gloves as it is difficult to find ones with long enough fingers and I remembered the balaclava. As you can see it no longer fits him! I've undone it all, washed it and it's drying now. Hopefully I can start them on the weekend. I don't know what wool it is so I don't know what size needles to use. Which is a pain because I'll have to keep asking him to try them on!

Tasks For The Week

I've got 5 pairs of similar black or blue shorts that are my year round at home clothes. The back seam wears out and I just sew it again. It's been a really long time since I repaired them and they are loose enough that it isn't really noticeable. But it's time to do them. I've only got three to work on as I'm wearing a pair and a pair are in the laundry. So they will get done when they are washed, before next task day!

When you think that you can take shortcuts but really shouldn't bad things happen! I didn't bother to pin the extra material out of the way and ended up sewing it to the seam. Great I thought, I can use it on the blog post. Sew, sew. And I did it again on another one!

My son will probably be going off to university next year, so I'll have to move to a smaller place. We live in a big two bedroom apartment and I'll more than likely have to move to a small one bedroom, which means that I'll have to get rid of a lot of stuff. Knowing how well I like to procrastinate I should get started.

I finished my studies 11 years ago and still have a lot of my notes and stuff in one cupboard. I thought that I could start there and go through it. Maybe a binder a week until they are done? This week's has 7 sections so I'm aiming to look at one section a day.

This Week's Menu

We ended up not having most of what I had planned for last week, so I'll bring some of it over to this week.

Breakfasts:
M: oatmeal porridge
T: Cereal
W: 4 grain porridge
T: Raisin and brown sugar oatmeal porridge
F: Whipped porridge (apple and cinnamon?)
S: Toast and homemade apple jam
S: Eggless pancakes and maple syrup (we didn't have them last week)

Lunches:









Weekdays: Aiming to have leftovers from the night before
M: Cashew Salmon Bake (pictured), baked potato and carrot slices
S: grilled cheese with red pepper

Dinners:
M: coconut red lentils, brown rice
T: french fries (haven't had them in sooo long) and veggie balls
W: spaghetti and homemade sauce (trying carrot and zucchini)
T: spinach and chickpea pie
F: Chili
S: undecided
S: undecided

Evening Snacks:
M: Banana Granola, strawberry soy yogurt, grapes
T: brownies (again), mandarin
W: last piece of marmalade cake from freezer, kiwi?
T: Apple and Red Lingonberry Whipped Porridge
F: Bread and cheese, banana?
S: apple crisp
S: date squares?