Wall Talk

I always try to ask for a few handmade gifts each year for Christmas.  My sister is crafty, my sister in law is getting craftier by the day, and my family knows that I'm crafty. 

 This year I asked for some vinyl wall talk, since Jill has a Silhouette....note: this was before I knew I was getting one! LOL! So this week as I finished unpacking my suitcase, (yes unpacking from Christmas, and yes we got home on January 3rd, and yes I just put the suitcase away) I decided to put up the lovely wall talk Jill made me. 

 

I cant' wait to add some cutlery/kitchen themed art work on either side to balance it out.  Stay tuned!

Gettin' OLD!

Did you know that it's February this week?  Like on Wednesday? 2 days from now!  That snuck up on me.  Usually I'm right on top of February.  Why?  Because my birthday is in February. 

In fact I'm a week away from my birthday.  A week away from 28 for that matter.  Good gravy, 28!  When did that happen?  I'm kinda looking forward to 28 - if I'm really being honest.  I like the number.  It looks nice.  I think it's gonna feel nice.  I don't feel 28.  I feel like I'm still 17-ish.  I don't know when it happened, but all of a sudden it looks as though I'm adult. 

The past 28 years haven't been easy. 

Especially last year.  I pray that 28 will be better.  

Stay tuned for my birthday blog post and my list of "Things That Are Great About 28!"

PS: If you're thinking about a b-day bloggy gift, I'd love to hit 40 followers! 

Pineapple Cheesecake

Ok, I kind of lied.  This isn't a traditional cheesecake.  Wait, don't go!  It's just as delicious and a lot easier on the waistline.  And it's foolproof to make.  Doesn't that sound good?   Here's how to do it. 

I'm not sure if you can see in the bottom right hand corner of the recipe, but my sister Jill wrote "Chill, not you, the cake".

 Leslie's Pineapple Cheese Cake

1 7oz package of chocolate wafers or crumbs

1/2 Cup margarine, melted

1 8oz package of cream cheese (I use light)

1 Cup icing sugar

2 packages/envelopes of Dream Whip, prepared

1 can crushed pineapple

This first time I made this recipe I had no clue what Dream Whip was or the cookie crumbs.  Here's what you want to look for when you go shopping.

If you bought wafers, crush them with a rolling pin or any other method you like.  I always buy the crumbs!  Makes life easier.

Anywho, once you've got the crumbs mix about 2 cups with the 1/2 cup melted margarine.  This will create your crust and topping.  Evently press the wet crumb mixture into the bottom of your favourite dish.  I usually use a 9 x 12 glass baking dish.  If you want a thicker/deeper piece of cake I would recommend using a 9 x 9 pan.  Try to reserve some crumbs, about 1/4 cup...you'll see why.

Next prepare the filling.  As mentioned in the ingredients list, you do need to prepare the 2 envelopes of Dream Whip as according to the package directions. 

 Which means combine milk, vanilla extract and the Dream Whipe envelopes in a large bowl and mix on the highest setting until peaks form, 5-7 minutes.

Mmmmmm.  Once that's done add in the softened cream cheese, icing sugar and crushed pineapple.  No need to drain the pineapple, dump the whole can in!

Stir until well mixed.  Depening on how soft your cream cheese is you may notice some chunks ( I mean that in the best possible way) of cream cheese.  That's totally ok.  Don't stress.

Then pour it over your chocolate crumb crust! 
Feel free to use a spatula to ensure it's evenly spread out.

Almost done.  To finish it off, sprinkle the remaining wafer crumbs over the top.

Perfect.  Put this bad boy in the freezer for 2-24 hours.  I always  make it the night before.  Just make sure to take it out for 10-15 minutes before serving it, or else you'll have a heck of a time trying to cut nice pieces!

Not to toot my own horn, but my friends drool over this cake.  I often make it for birthdays (including mine) but it's easy enough to throw together anytime. 
I promise you will not be dissapointed!

My Meatless Monday @ My Sweet and Savoury

 

Cabbage Soup Diet Soup

As I mentioned yesterday I'm doing the Cabbage Soup Diet this week.  Today is Beef and Tomatoes (and soup-of course).  Can't wait for my rosemary steak! If you're interested in the Cabbage Soup Diet, here is my adapted recipe for the soup. 

Leslie's Cabbage Soup

What  you'll need

Green Onions

Green Peppers

Cabbage

Carrots

Celery

Mushrooms

Canned Tomatoes

Low Sodium V8 Juice

Knorr Low Sodium Vegetable Soup Mix

Low Sodium Chicken Bullion

Red Chili Flakes & Fresh Ground Pepper

10" or 12" SHARP chef knife

Slice up one bunch of green onions.  In a stock pot, spray Pam (instead of oil or butter) and saute the onions for a few minutes. 

While that's cooking, chop up your green pepper into bite sized pieces and add to the pot.  I used 2 green peppers.  Mine weren't the best flavour  so they gave the soup a bitter tang. 

Next slice your head of cabbage in half (this is why you need a good knife).  Then cut the cabbage into bite sized pieces.  You'll see that I sliced mine and then chopped up the slices, much like you would when cutting up an onion. 

 Put the cabbage in the pot with the other veggies and allow to cook for several minutes.

While that's cooking slice your carrots, mushrooms, and celery.  If you hate mushrooms, you can leave them out.  Add these veggies to your pot.  This does make a lot of soup.  I started my first batch in my Dutch Oven and had to move it over to my BIG stock pot.  Use a big pot!

Once all the veggies are in add your canned tomatoes.  I used 2 cans of diced tomatoes.  Don't use the seasoned ones because they have a lot of extra sugar and salt.  I also added red chili flakes and fresh ground pepper to give it some zing.

Now to add the broth.  Empty the Knorr soup into a 4 cup Pyrex measuring cup with boiling water.  Stir and add to the veggies.  Next do 4 cups of chicken broth.  I make this chicken broth diluted probably half the suggested powder to water ratio.  You really want to avoid salt at all costs.  Lastly I add 3-4 cups of low sodium V8 vegetable juice.  I found one that is low sodium and high in fibre and used that for my second batch.

Allow to simmer.  Online says 2 hours...I say until the veggies are cooked.  You don't want a totally mushy soup.  Now, be prepared, because your house will stink like cabbage.  You won't notice it unless you leave and come back :) 

Just a warning!

If you like minestrone you will probably like this soup.  I made 2 batches-I'm sure we won't go through the whole second batch, so I froze it.  Ty likes it quite a bit.  However the soup is starting to get monotonous...Day 5. But usually there are other things to eat besides the soup.  Now excuse me while I go make some steak!  Yee haw!

 

  You can get all the facts and info online at the Cabbage Soup Diet website

Diet - boo!

Well it's 2012, it's still January and like many of you I'm working on loosing weight, for a few reasons. One I'm not totally happy with how I look. Two, I'm getting married in 7 months and even though I already look amazing in my dress I would love to look more amazing-er.... Is that a word? Whatever. So this week I'm working on the cabbage soup diet. It's not that radical of a "diet". It's still allows you to eat as much as you like, only of certain things on certain days.

I'm on day 4. It's the bananas and milk day; which means I can eat up to 8 bananas, as much skim milk as I like and the soup. Totally doable!

The soup. According to some of the stuff I read online people didn't like the soup. I don't mind the soup, but I'll admit I probably cheated a little bit. I will share my adapted cabbage soup tomorrow. It's pretty good, actually.

The best news? I've lost 6 pounds since Sunday when I started the diet. (9 pounds since the beginning of January). It's not the easiest diet; mostly because I don't like to be restricted. It's tough to know that there is delicious cheese in my fridge but all I'm allowed to eat is fruit and veggies. I'm real bad with will power. However I do feel that my appetite has changed and decreased, so I hope to maintain my smaller portions and increased fruit and veggies. And even though the number on the scale isn't where I'd like it to be, it's dropping and surprisingly seeing the numbers go down made me feel really good!

Deep Freeze

It's been quite chilly ever since January started. We were incredibly spoiled over Christmas in Saskatchewan, almost enjoying a brown Christmas (no snow). But Mother Nature is back in full force. And not just in BC, it seems like everywhere is suffering from some cold winter weather. The only bonus? Awesome snowy pictures!

Amazing Christmas Present



Oh yes, you better believe it! I got a brand spankin' new Silhouette Cameo for Christmas! So the other night Ty and I picked it up and went to town.





I'm only slightly excited

My tiny dancer brain can't figure it out! 

Boxes are hard!  Ta Da-I have a cutting mat! 

Clearly I'm having some difficulties, and Ty just stands by and watches me struggle! 

Look at that face.....that is the face of a sad panda 

Finally free!  

I do what now? 

Here we go! First test! 

First Sihouette project. A thank you card for Ty.
 You know you have an amazing fiance when he buys you something for your hobby that he knowingly understands will make you spend hours upon hours in the basement making cards and scrapbooking. He's just the greatest! 

  

Scavenger Hunt Sundays #1

Don't tell anyone I missed the first week of Scavenger Hunt Sundays of 2012....but I'm here now and I'm dedicated to being  somewhat consistent in posting for this party!

Big thanks goes to the lurvely Ashley who hosts and inspires this party every week.  I'm currently looking for my wedding photographer....if she lived in Canada, well boy howdy I'd like to hire her...or if she was interested in visiting beautiful British Columbia this summer maybe we could work something out?

Anywho, here are my images for this week.  Enjoy!

   Stacked Up

 Sadly these pictures were ridiculously easy to get..... hence two entries for this word!


Frozen

Can you guess where this is?


Winter Wonderland

We have no snow (thankfully) so this was as close as I could get


Sweet

Just one of the many boxes of chocolate my students gave me at Christmastime


Hole
This was definitely the hardest one this week
Hole implies negative space, so how do you take a a picture of something that isn't?