Valentines Decorations

Now that February is here its time to break out the "lovey" decorations!! I love all the pinks, reds and blacks. Here is just the start to my valentines decorations. From the left I started out with some framed subway art. I got the pattern over here but because we don't have a coloured printer I decided to print it black and white on pink card stock. The pink paper makes the ink look brown so it goes great in this brown 8x10 frame.

I also used the scrabble pieces to spell out be mine on one and valentine on another. The xo xo blocks were some cubes that I have painted white, inked in red and the xo xo are puffy stickers from the dollar store.

The frame in the middle of me and hubby is my valentines gift to him. Its a scrap layout that I put onto a canvas which was bought at the dollar store. I painted the outside of the canvas black used modge podge to put my scrap layout onto it.

The other frame is a collage from that I cut valentine paper to fit into and used my circut to spell out L O V E.

Now of course you need some candy for the special day so I made this cool gum ball machine with inspiration from i love nap time. Eben sure had a lot of fun painting the pots red and he was even more happy to see it filled with candy when he got up this morning. It still needs to ball for the top so I will have to check around the house today to see if I can find anything.

So for some more really cool Valentine ideas check out we are that family

Chili

This was a very delicious meal that was used for a couple of days of left overs and is now stored away in lunch containers for Micah to take to work.

Here is the basics of what I did.

Fry up onion, garlic, peppers, and celery

In a crock pot put in some crushed tomatoes, water, bbq sauce, chili powder, taco seasoning, a little brown sugar and add your fried stuff. Then add a can of rinsed black beans, kidney beans (really any kind of beans you would like) . Also I cooked up 1 cup of green lentils according to the package and added them into the chili to give it some thickness.

Towards the end of cooking I added some frozen corn.

This was very yummy served with my favorite corn bread recipe

Taco night

Ok so here we go week three. We are still doing great on my no meat cooking we are enjoying lots of new recipes that will be added to our monthly meal plans. Let me know by leaving a comment what recipe you and your family have enjoyed the most that you made!!!

Here is a special post from my friend Kristi. Its her version of veggie taco night at their house!

All the yummy fixing you and your family like. Here is Kristi's list

Yellow Peppers

Green Peppers

Tomatoes

Cucumbers (our kids love those on tacos)

Lettuce

Corn

Sour Cream

Cheese

Mild Salsa

The "meat" part of these taco's is black beans. To cook them you can drain them (if you are using canned and make sure you rinse them to get some of the added salt off) and fry them up in a frying pan with onions and garlic. For the taco seasoning if you aren't using packaged stuff you can make your own taco flavoring mix with this recipe. When the beans are a little soft mash them up a bit.

Add your meat mixture to warmed tortilla shells and let the family serve up their own! If you aren't eating grains simply make a taco salad with all the fixing.

:

Thanks Kristi for the idea we will be serving these up at the Peterson house this week!

broccoli quiche

Last night we enjoyed a delicious broccoli quiche. You can make this without a crust as well.

Here is a basic recipe that I used

stir fry
onion
green peppers
sweet peppers

Whisk together 4 eggs and 1 cup of milk ( I used skim milk and some cold water mixed together) and 1 tbsp flour*. Add stir fried vegetables (once cooled) and cooked broccoli. Pour mixture into pie plate and bake at 350-375 for 50 minutes or until egg is set.

* When you add the flour it looks clumpy but don't worry it will turn out yummy!

Tonight's supper is one of our favorite breakfast foods. Baked Oatmeal with yogurt and blueberries!!

Week 2

So here we go week two into our vegetarian life style. So far we are enjoying the meals I have been making. We do feel a lot fuller (from all the vegetables and beans) and a lot more musical! hehehe

Yeserday I cooked a crock pot of beans for supper that we enjoyed with scalloped potatoes. Now tonight I will use the left overs to make rice and bean quesadillas.

So how is everyone else making out?? Any one want to share a delicious recipe for me to guest post. Let me know I will put it up for ya!

Red Lentil Soup

Last night we attended an international pot luck so I thought since we loved the BBQ lentils so much that I would double the recipe and take them. My doubling lentils attempt failed and I was left with a pot of mushy looking red lentils and I quickly remembered a recipe my dear friend Mel gave me so it quickly turned into red lentil soup.

This is a fast and delicious recipes. As we were finishing up the last of this today for lunch hubby said..."this is so good I would buy it at a restaurant"

Red Lentil soup
1 tablespoon peanut oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger root
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 cup dry red lentils
1 cup butternut squash - peeled, seeded, and cubed
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
2 cups veggie stock or water
1 (14 ounce) can coconut milk
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1 pinch cayenne pepper
1 pinch ground nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
cilantro for garnish

Directions

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat, and cook the onion, ginger, garlic, until onion is tender.
Mix the lentils, squash, and cilantro into the pot. Stir in the stock, coconut milk, and tomato paste. Season with curry powder, cumin,cayenne pepper, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer 30 minutes, or until lentils and squash are tender.

Garnish with cilantro and enjoy.

Pad Thai Noodles

So no picture of last nights meal but it was very very delicious. We stir fried some vegetables (carrots, ginger, garlic, onions, spinach and peppers) then we added some ingredients to make a sauce (natural peanut butter, lemon juice, ketchup, soya sauce, sesame oil, red curry paste and crushed peanuts) and finally throw in some rice noodles that have been soaked in water!!

Quick, easy and delicious.

Hope everyone is enjoying the fast