I've mentioned before that I lived in London for a long while and in Switzerland for a short while and that I worked at Pax Lodge and Our Chalet during that time.
Working at World Centre means that on a fairly regularly basis I said goodbye to some of the women I lived and worked with and hello to some new ones. And by fairly regularly, I mean at least once a month there was a staff changeover of between one and four people.
Now, these women were usually in three to six month volunteer positions, but long(er) term staff changed as well. We all lived, worked, slept, and ate in the same building. Because most of us weren't from London, we became travelling and site seeing companions and by default we often ended up as friends.
There are many women who were part of my experiences at Pax Lodge and Our Chalet that I still consider very good friends. And some of them are so very different from me and have such different lives than me that I can't imagine we would have necessarily met, let alone become friends, if it weren't for our common World Centre experience.
ANYWAY...all that rambling is because yesterday we hopped in the car after J had gymnastics to have lunch at the airport.
Yes. At the airport.
Actually at the Fairmont. Which is a lovely place to have lunch if you have a few dollars burning a whole in your pocket and you have three hours. We had a great time. For the second time in two weeks.
We met my friend Heather and her friend Maia at the arrivals area and trekked across the airport. Heather and I worked together at Pax Lodge and Maia currently works at Pax Lodge. And Heather worked there until last year.
And even though it's been about 15 months since I saw Heather, and even though we've been bad about keeping in touch because some of us had crazy things happen with our jobs and some of us got new jobs and some of us went travelling in Africa and some of us have two year olds and a husband, well we just picked up where we left off 15 months ago. The only differences were the addition of Maia, who fit right in, and J is now a walking, talking small person, not a baby. And when we saw Heather 15 months ago, well, we picked up where we had left off 20 months before that.
And I love friendship like that.
I need friendships like that. Because if you check out Heddy's blog, you'll see that I'm a bit of a hermit these days and being able to dive right it like no time has passed is important.
Yeah.
Sorry, no pictures. We were enjoying the company too much!
PS Hi to all my pick-up-where-we-left off friends...I know there are a few of you read my ramblings! Hope we can pick up where left off sometime soon!
Monday, January 31, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
Flavoured yogurt
36.21 Try 50 new recipes
So I didn't actually use a recipe to make this, but I'm counting it anyway since I've never made it before.
J loves yogurt, especially flavoured yogurt. She'd eat it all day if I let her. But the amount of sugar bugged me. A lot. Some brands are better than others - they use sugar not corn syrup, but I still wasn't happy. And I wasn't sure what to do about it.
Hello? Shannon? Make it yourself.
Oh yeah. That's a good idea....
J was very excited to help - it's fun to dump things into the blender and press the buttons...although, note to self, ALWAYS plug the blender in AFTER putting the lid on. And ALWAYS unplug the blender BEFORE taking the lid off. We didn't have a yogurt-covered-ceiling disaster, but I certainly saw the potential for that!
We used a good quality plain yogurt - just milk, cream and bacterial cultures. We added 1/2 tsp of vanilla, 1 banana and about 2 cups of frozen fruit (a mix of peaches, mangoes, and strawberries). We added a drizzle of honey and then J pressed the crush ice button.
Yummy! She's so proud of herself...telling me over and over that she made yogurt last night.
It's so good! And not too sweet. I think next time I'd strain the yogurt first and maybe add one more banana and probably skip the vanilla...or at least reduce it. One 750g carton of yogurt made about 1250g of yogurt (otherwise known as one container of plain yogurt made one and two thirds containers of flavoured yogurt)
Blueberry and raspberry are our next experiments.
So I didn't actually use a recipe to make this, but I'm counting it anyway since I've never made it before.
J loves yogurt, especially flavoured yogurt. She'd eat it all day if I let her. But the amount of sugar bugged me. A lot. Some brands are better than others - they use sugar not corn syrup, but I still wasn't happy. And I wasn't sure what to do about it.
Hello? Shannon? Make it yourself.
Oh yeah. That's a good idea....
J was very excited to help - it's fun to dump things into the blender and press the buttons...although, note to self, ALWAYS plug the blender in AFTER putting the lid on. And ALWAYS unplug the blender BEFORE taking the lid off. We didn't have a yogurt-covered-ceiling disaster, but I certainly saw the potential for that!
We used a good quality plain yogurt - just milk, cream and bacterial cultures. We added 1/2 tsp of vanilla, 1 banana and about 2 cups of frozen fruit (a mix of peaches, mangoes, and strawberries). We added a drizzle of honey and then J pressed the crush ice button.
Yummy! She's so proud of herself...telling me over and over that she made yogurt last night.
It's so good! And not too sweet. I think next time I'd strain the yogurt first and maybe add one more banana and probably skip the vanilla...or at least reduce it. One 750g carton of yogurt made about 1250g of yogurt (otherwise known as one container of plain yogurt made one and two thirds containers of flavoured yogurt)
Blueberry and raspberry are our next experiments.
Black Bean Hummus
36.20 Try 50 new recipes
One of the things I miss the most right now is hummus. No chick peas on the GAPS diet.
So I went on a search for something that could be a substitute.
And I found a million recipes for black bean hummus. But the one on the Globe and Mail site was the one that caught my taste buds.
It is good...not quite a perfect substitute, but it will do. I think when I make it again, I'd take out the red pepper flakes and add some cumin.
One of the things I miss the most right now is hummus. No chick peas on the GAPS diet.
So I went on a search for something that could be a substitute.
And I found a million recipes for black bean hummus. But the one on the Globe and Mail site was the one that caught my taste buds.
It is good...not quite a perfect substitute, but it will do. I think when I make it again, I'd take out the red pepper flakes and add some cumin.
Three Bean Lentil Soup
36.19 Try 50 new recipes
We finally got the slow cooker fixed. And that meant we needed to use it. I have the Canadian Living Slow Cooker cookbook and I've made a few recipes from it. I decided to try something new - something that was pretty much GAPS friendly - and that I could leave on for 8-9 hours on low. I decided on Three Bean Lentil Soup.
It was so good. J liked it. Alex loved it (and he "doesn't like" curry). It was yummy and warm and could cook forever. And it makes tons. Which I somehow forgot. Because I made it again a week later even though I had a good two days worth of leftovers in the freezer. No worries though. It will get eaten!
We finally got the slow cooker fixed. And that meant we needed to use it. I have the Canadian Living Slow Cooker cookbook and I've made a few recipes from it. I decided to try something new - something that was pretty much GAPS friendly - and that I could leave on for 8-9 hours on low. I decided on Three Bean Lentil Soup.
It was so good. J liked it. Alex loved it (and he "doesn't like" curry). It was yummy and warm and could cook forever. And it makes tons. Which I somehow forgot. Because I made it again a week later even though I had a good two days worth of leftovers in the freezer. No worries though. It will get eaten!
The homemade LÄRABAR
36.18 Try 50 new recipes
So, I'm a bit late to the LÄRABAR party...I didn't realize they were available this side of the border until I happened upon them in Choices before Christmas.
This is one of my favourite flavours. Yummy lime!
But at close to $2 a pop, these are expensive. But they're a great snack that is GAPS friendly. And it's hard to find GAPS friendly snacks. I figured there must be some way to duplicate the yumminess without the cost. I did some searching and found a bunch of blogs with recipes. I settled on this one and settled on the Almond-Apricot variation.
I toasted my almonds and then got out the mini food processor.
MMMM....
This is the smushed up fruit...
Smushed up fruit with almonds on top.
The goodness all kneaded together and ready to shape into bars.
Soooo good! I doubled the recipe and they lasted for a few days in the fridge. I'll be making these again for sure! I think if I made almond-apricot again, I'd decrease the almonds a bit and add more dates. But that's just me.
This weekend I'm going to try to replicate the lime bar....yummy!
So, I'm a bit late to the LÄRABAR party...I didn't realize they were available this side of the border until I happened upon them in Choices before Christmas.
This is one of my favourite flavours. Yummy lime!
But at close to $2 a pop, these are expensive. But they're a great snack that is GAPS friendly. And it's hard to find GAPS friendly snacks. I figured there must be some way to duplicate the yumminess without the cost. I did some searching and found a bunch of blogs with recipes. I settled on this one and settled on the Almond-Apricot variation.
I toasted my almonds and then got out the mini food processor.
MMMM....
This is the smushed up fruit...
Smushed up fruit with almonds on top.
The goodness all kneaded together and ready to shape into bars.
Soooo good! I doubled the recipe and they lasted for a few days in the fridge. I'll be making these again for sure! I think if I made almond-apricot again, I'd decrease the almonds a bit and add more dates. But that's just me.
This weekend I'm going to try to replicate the lime bar....yummy!
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Moroccan Chicken
36.17 Try 50 new recipes
I think this might be a Bonnie Stern recipe, but I'm not sure. It's in my recipe book - which means it's hand written and doesn't have a source...it was yummy...
And even better for lunch the next day! This one I will definitely make again (I'm not sure how it got into my book - that space is usually reserved for things I've made and I know I'll make again...oh well...)
I think this might be a Bonnie Stern recipe, but I'm not sure. It's in my recipe book - which means it's hand written and doesn't have a source...it was yummy...
And even better for lunch the next day! This one I will definitely make again (I'm not sure how it got into my book - that space is usually reserved for things I've made and I know I'll make again...oh well...)
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Christmas giving
or 90. Sponsor a family at Christmas
My sisters and I decided that this year instead of buying gifts for our parents we would sponsor a family instead. For a number of years my mom has been talking about an article she gave us that came from The Globe and Mail or Macleans or something about a couple who asked their grown children to do something for someone else instead of buying them gifts at Christmas. On Christmas morning they received a letter from each of their kids explaining what they did.
I told Alex what we were doing and we decided that we would do the same for his parents, which meant we were able to spend more to help the family that we were paired with. We also decided that instead of spending money on gifts for some of our friends, we'd use it for this family (and they all thought that was a great gift...none of them felt like they were missing out on more stuff)
We were paired with a single mom with a daughter the same age as J. We had requested a family with a child close to J's age so that we could explain to her what we were doing and maybe she'd understand better the importance if the child was her age.
I spoke to the mom before we did any shopping and I was blown away by her greatfulness for our help and at that point all she'd received from us was a phone call. We wanted to make sure there was a gift for her too and when I asked her if there was anything she needed or wanted, she told me no, that her daughter needed to be taken care of first. I haven't been in her situation, but I understand looking after your child before yourself. I would immediately give up whatever I had to if it meant J was warm and fed and dressed. She did eventually say that a $5 or $10 gift certificate to one of two stores would be wonderful. We ended up getting her a larger gift certificate from one of the stores and some pampering stuff.
Rebecca picked up a gift for the little girl from the store where she works and J had a great time helping me choose pjs and slippers for the little girl. She was a bit perplexed about why the little girl needed pjs. After a discussion about how not everybody is as lucky as we are and sometimes it is very hard for mommies and daddies to buy new things for their kids, she had a better grasp of the whole thing - she told me "I a little bit sad that little girl no be lucky like me."
The day we dropped the things off, the four of us spent the morning at the grocery store choosing all of the groceries. We were paired with our family through the Salvation Army and they provide a list of suggested groceries, which was certainly helpful. J knew where we were going and helped carry a bag into the house. The little girl was napping when we got there and J was a bit upset she didn't get to take her coat off and play a little bit.
As we left, the mom gave us a card, thanking us for everything. We sat in the car before we left, recovering from the emotional impact the morning had on us. It was very overwhelming and when we walked into the suite, we were all moved...
Christmas day we gave the card from the family to my parents and they were thrilled that we had decided to help a family in need as our gift to them. My dad told us it was the best gift he'd ever received.
And you know, while it was a gift that we gave, it was probably also one of the best Christmas gifts I have ever received. I was reminded of the simple things, the gratitude the family expressed was genuine and huge, and we gave my parents something meaningful.
This is definitely something we'll be doing again.
My sisters and I decided that this year instead of buying gifts for our parents we would sponsor a family instead. For a number of years my mom has been talking about an article she gave us that came from The Globe and Mail or Macleans or something about a couple who asked their grown children to do something for someone else instead of buying them gifts at Christmas. On Christmas morning they received a letter from each of their kids explaining what they did.
I told Alex what we were doing and we decided that we would do the same for his parents, which meant we were able to spend more to help the family that we were paired with. We also decided that instead of spending money on gifts for some of our friends, we'd use it for this family (and they all thought that was a great gift...none of them felt like they were missing out on more stuff)
We were paired with a single mom with a daughter the same age as J. We had requested a family with a child close to J's age so that we could explain to her what we were doing and maybe she'd understand better the importance if the child was her age.
I spoke to the mom before we did any shopping and I was blown away by her greatfulness for our help and at that point all she'd received from us was a phone call. We wanted to make sure there was a gift for her too and when I asked her if there was anything she needed or wanted, she told me no, that her daughter needed to be taken care of first. I haven't been in her situation, but I understand looking after your child before yourself. I would immediately give up whatever I had to if it meant J was warm and fed and dressed. She did eventually say that a $5 or $10 gift certificate to one of two stores would be wonderful. We ended up getting her a larger gift certificate from one of the stores and some pampering stuff.
Rebecca picked up a gift for the little girl from the store where she works and J had a great time helping me choose pjs and slippers for the little girl. She was a bit perplexed about why the little girl needed pjs. After a discussion about how not everybody is as lucky as we are and sometimes it is very hard for mommies and daddies to buy new things for their kids, she had a better grasp of the whole thing - she told me "I a little bit sad that little girl no be lucky like me."
The day we dropped the things off, the four of us spent the morning at the grocery store choosing all of the groceries. We were paired with our family through the Salvation Army and they provide a list of suggested groceries, which was certainly helpful. J knew where we were going and helped carry a bag into the house. The little girl was napping when we got there and J was a bit upset she didn't get to take her coat off and play a little bit.
As we left, the mom gave us a card, thanking us for everything. We sat in the car before we left, recovering from the emotional impact the morning had on us. It was very overwhelming and when we walked into the suite, we were all moved...
Christmas day we gave the card from the family to my parents and they were thrilled that we had decided to help a family in need as our gift to them. My dad told us it was the best gift he'd ever received.
And you know, while it was a gift that we gave, it was probably also one of the best Christmas gifts I have ever received. I was reminded of the simple things, the gratitude the family expressed was genuine and huge, and we gave my parents something meaningful.
This is definitely something we'll be doing again.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Daydreaming...
Decluttering is progressing very well, although so far it is kind of hard to see the results. Alex got rid of two boxes from the storage room on Sunday night and I think we only kept two things. Total. From two full-sized bankers' boxes.
Before you read on, I'm not keeping any secrets from you guys about moving. We're not moving. Just to be clear. Okay. And this does relate to decluttering. I'm just a bit longwinded (like you didn't know that...)
I don't know where it came from but for the last week I've been daydreaming. About moving. About moving far away. Moving far away to a foreign country. But only for a few years. Like maybe three. So we'd get the feel of the place. But then we could come home. Because I'm all about home.
In my daydream we'd have to leave pretty much everything behind. And each take two suitcases. Eeeep. Two suitcases multiplied by a family of three equals six. That's it. Except really it's eight. Because somehow Alex gets a great job and has to go over before us so I go with him for a week to find somewhere to live and make it inhabitable and then I come home and deal with the loose ends here before J and I head over to wherever our new home is.
So, as I've been doing normal house stuff, like cooking, washing dishes, doing laundry, picking up eighty million toys twenty four times a day, I've been evaluating our stuff - would I keep this? Would I store it? Would I pack it?
If we were coming back there's lots we would store - furniture, books, kitchen stuff - and lots we would give away, toss, or donate - clothing, toys, books (yes, it goes both places), things - but there's not a whole lot we'd take.
I'm having a great time furnishing our new "home" in my head. I figure I'd get most of my stuff there, but on a much smaller scale than here. Because really, I could survive with just a blender. don't *need* an immersion blender, a full sized food processor, and a mini food processor as well (just for the record, I do use all of them). We could get by with fewer things like sheets and towels, we'd just have to do more laundry.
And because I've been home, feeling sorry for myself, with a sore throat, I've been browsing rentals and properties for sale all over Europe. And you know what, I might complain sometimes that we don't have much space, but we have two bathrooms. And a dryer. And a dishwasher. And 950 square feet. Some of the places I've been browsing have, oh, 800 square feet and THREE or FOUR bedrooms. And cost six times as much as our place. Although, if I look at more rural properties or in larger cities that are not London or Paris (hello suburbs of Manchester) we could potentially (based on similar lending laws and salaries) purchase a large home.
I'm having fun thinking about how to scale down and how I'd decorate a clean slate like that...and it's actually motivated me to get rid of more things that I would have. Besides a tidy, well organized house with minimal clutter, my goal, one day (likely years from now), is to only have Christmas decorations, baby stuff, and one set of tires in our storage room. And maybe all those boxes for small appliances that we haven't tossed yet because they make moving so much easier. We don't need them. And if we needed space for something more important they could go, but the coffee pot and the slow cooker and the food processor all fit so well in their own boxes and that made our last two moves so much better....
Before you read on, I'm not keeping any secrets from you guys about moving. We're not moving. Just to be clear. Okay. And this does relate to decluttering. I'm just a bit longwinded (like you didn't know that...)
I don't know where it came from but for the last week I've been daydreaming. About moving. About moving far away. Moving far away to a foreign country. But only for a few years. Like maybe three. So we'd get the feel of the place. But then we could come home. Because I'm all about home.
In my daydream we'd have to leave pretty much everything behind. And each take two suitcases. Eeeep. Two suitcases multiplied by a family of three equals six. That's it. Except really it's eight. Because somehow Alex gets a great job and has to go over before us so I go with him for a week to find somewhere to live and make it inhabitable and then I come home and deal with the loose ends here before J and I head over to wherever our new home is.
So, as I've been doing normal house stuff, like cooking, washing dishes, doing laundry, picking up eighty million toys twenty four times a day, I've been evaluating our stuff - would I keep this? Would I store it? Would I pack it?
If we were coming back there's lots we would store - furniture, books, kitchen stuff - and lots we would give away, toss, or donate - clothing, toys, books (yes, it goes both places), things - but there's not a whole lot we'd take.
I'm having a great time furnishing our new "home" in my head. I figure I'd get most of my stuff there, but on a much smaller scale than here. Because really, I could survive with just a blender. don't *need* an immersion blender, a full sized food processor, and a mini food processor as well (just for the record, I do use all of them). We could get by with fewer things like sheets and towels, we'd just have to do more laundry.
And because I've been home, feeling sorry for myself, with a sore throat, I've been browsing rentals and properties for sale all over Europe. And you know what, I might complain sometimes that we don't have much space, but we have two bathrooms. And a dryer. And a dishwasher. And 950 square feet. Some of the places I've been browsing have, oh, 800 square feet and THREE or FOUR bedrooms. And cost six times as much as our place. Although, if I look at more rural properties or in larger cities that are not London or Paris (hello suburbs of Manchester) we could potentially (based on similar lending laws and salaries) purchase a large home.
I'm having fun thinking about how to scale down and how I'd decorate a clean slate like that...and it's actually motivated me to get rid of more things that I would have. Besides a tidy, well organized house with minimal clutter, my goal, one day (likely years from now), is to only have Christmas decorations, baby stuff, and one set of tires in our storage room. And maybe all those boxes for small appliances that we haven't tossed yet because they make moving so much easier. We don't need them. And if we needed space for something more important they could go, but the coffee pot and the slow cooker and the food processor all fit so well in their own boxes and that made our last two moves so much better....
Thursday, January 20, 2011
25. Stick to our budget for Christmas gifts
We did it...I'm pretty sure that all of our Christmas bills have come in (there might be one more, but it's small) and we're under budget. About 10%. I'm not entirely sure of the breakdown, but I might go through and take a look at specifics. Maybe.
A few years ago we decided that we needed a special account just for Christmas. We contribute a set amount to the account every month. It's nice to have a decent sum of cash to spend at Christmas without worrying about where it's coming from. It's also nice to be able to buy gifts in the summer and have the money sitting there ready to be spent.
We use the money in that account for everything - gifts, stamps, postage for parcels, extra or special food for baking or cooking or parties, special events we go to, everything. We didn't actually do any Christmas stuff that cost money this year, but other years we went on the Stanley Park train or to special Christmas performances.
We made some changes to what we did this year and we're going to keep most of them for next year I think. We didn't buy much for J - she got a Raffi DVD from us (but she doesn't know it yet...it didn't arrive in time for Christmas, so I'm holding on to it until we NEED it!) and a book. Santa brought her a few small things and some play dough. And that was it...from us...she certainly received many nice things from everyone else!
We bought each other things that we had each asked for - not anything crazy or big or expensive. My family asked for a list and we tried to put things on the list that we needed or that didn't take up much space. We got some great gifts from them - including tickets to the movies and a circus show (awesome at not taking up space!) and we got an Aquarium membership.
We gave gifts that we bought. We gave gifts that we made. We gave Alex's grandma coupons for meals with us - the idea was that we'd take dinner to her house and have a visit with her and then leave her some containers of leftovers for her fridge/freezer. We sponsored a family (more on that in another post) as a gift for my parents and Alex's parents and some of our friends. We tried to buy gifts that were on lists or that were consumable (food, special soap, gift cards).
And in the end, we stuck to our budget.
A few years ago we decided that we needed a special account just for Christmas. We contribute a set amount to the account every month. It's nice to have a decent sum of cash to spend at Christmas without worrying about where it's coming from. It's also nice to be able to buy gifts in the summer and have the money sitting there ready to be spent.
We use the money in that account for everything - gifts, stamps, postage for parcels, extra or special food for baking or cooking or parties, special events we go to, everything. We didn't actually do any Christmas stuff that cost money this year, but other years we went on the Stanley Park train or to special Christmas performances.
We made some changes to what we did this year and we're going to keep most of them for next year I think. We didn't buy much for J - she got a Raffi DVD from us (but she doesn't know it yet...it didn't arrive in time for Christmas, so I'm holding on to it until we NEED it!) and a book. Santa brought her a few small things and some play dough. And that was it...from us...she certainly received many nice things from everyone else!
We bought each other things that we had each asked for - not anything crazy or big or expensive. My family asked for a list and we tried to put things on the list that we needed or that didn't take up much space. We got some great gifts from them - including tickets to the movies and a circus show (awesome at not taking up space!) and we got an Aquarium membership.
We gave gifts that we bought. We gave gifts that we made. We gave Alex's grandma coupons for meals with us - the idea was that we'd take dinner to her house and have a visit with her and then leave her some containers of leftovers for her fridge/freezer. We sponsored a family (more on that in another post) as a gift for my parents and Alex's parents and some of our friends. We tried to buy gifts that were on lists or that were consumable (food, special soap, gift cards).
And in the end, we stuck to our budget.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Deliciousness in a pan
36.16 Try 50 new recipes - Mars Bar Squares
or so I hear...
I made these yummy bars that Melynda blogged about for the ladies who sit on the same committee as me. They said they were delicious (I can't wait for the GAPS diet to be done so I can sample some of those things...)
The ladies were happy I only put four bars in each package...they figured that was more than enough yummy goodness for them for two days (our meeting was all weekend)
or so I hear...
I made these yummy bars that Melynda blogged about for the ladies who sit on the same committee as me. They said they were delicious (I can't wait for the GAPS diet to be done so I can sample some of those things...)
The ladies were happy I only put four bars in each package...they figured that was more than enough yummy goodness for them for two days (our meeting was all weekend)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
