Wordless Wednesday

This Week's Menu

Last week was another busy week at our house but for the most part, we were able to stay on track menu wise. The PF Chang's Chicken was simply amazing as always and the rest of the week was pretty good too. 

This week will be another simple week (I seem to say that often) but it's true. I'll be on the go as always with the kiddos, Jason has come down with a cold and we're heading home this weekend so we need to prepare for that. 

Saturday: Steak with peppercorn sauce

Sunday: Supper at my mom's

Monday: Pasta with rose sauce Homemade soup for my sickly husband

Tuesday: Sausage with jasmine rice

Wednesday: Super Bean Burrito

Thursday: Pizza

Friday: Fast food

Wordless Wednesday

Tips and Tricks: Making gravy

Gravy
   noun
       Sauce made from the drippings of cooked meat. Known for making all food delicious. 


Making gravy is super simple, but it occurred to me that not everyone knows how. These directions are for (a small) chicken gravy and I've even broken it down into steps for added simplicity. 

Step 1: Prepare the bird. 
In the bottom of my roasting pan, I put: 1/2 onion, 2 garlic cloves, 1 celery and 1 carrot; all cut into chunks. I then add two bay leaves, a carton of chicken broth (sodium reduced) and salt, thyme and lots of pepper on the chicken.

Step 2: Cook the bird.
Cook at 400F for 20-30 minutes uncovered, then cover and bake at 300F until cooked. (Times will vary depending on size of bird but I always give myself 3 hours, which is more then enough.) The bird is cooked when it has reached an internal temperature of 185F. It's usually doing the splits at this point.

Step 3: Separate the stock
Once the bird is cooked, remove from pan and tent it (place foil over top) on a plate so it can rest.  Remove the big bits from the stock and let the stock sit, so it will separate. The fat will float to the top, with the stock staying in the bottom.

Optional Step, part A:  Make a roux: Gently spoon out the fat and put in a small saucepan. Add in a tbsp or two of Bisto Savoury Gravy or you can simply use flour. Cook on medium heat for a couple minutes, whisking constantly. It may become chunky, that's normal but do not brown the flour if you go that route.
Optional Step, part B: Add in the remainder of your stock and continue heating, whisking frequently. Any chunks should disappear with the whisking. Bring to a gentle boil (you may need to turn down the heat). Proceed to step 5.

Step 4: Gently spoon off some of the fat and discard. Place stock in a sauce pan over medium heat, whisking frequently. Bring to a gentle boil. 

Step 5: Make a slurry: put a heaping tablespoon of cornstarch in a mug, add enough water to dissolve it completely (1/4 to 1/3 cup). Slowly pour small amounts of your cornstarch mixture into the stock while whisking. You'll notice it thicken as it boils. It must boil to thicken. If after adding all of your slurry, you find the gravy not thick enough, make more and add it in (just remember, the gravy will thicken slightly as it cools). 

Congratulations!! You've made gravy!! 

This Week's Menu

Last week I didn't do a menu post for a couple reasons: a) I forgot and b) it wasn't very exciting and changed a couple times. My lovely husband was out of town Wednesday and didn't have supper with us on Thursday so it made for simple, quick meals. Super simple actually, my mom took us out for supper on Wednesday! The other nights I made Lasagna, Super Bean Burritos (again) and Mac and Cheese.  


This week's menu will be as follows: 

Saturday: Salad with ground chicken in a taco bowl.
I can't get enough of the PF Chang's Lettuce Wraps recipe. I am seriously in love. Especially when I can get a pound of ground chicken for $4! Hello, cheap dinner!

Sunday: Whole chicken with mashed potatoes, stuffing, veg and gravy

Monday: Leftovers. With Cauliflower

Tuesday: Pizza with (hopefully) chicken on it

Wednesday: Pork chops with rice

Thursday: Pasta with rose sauce.
For this recipe I just skip the wine and use more broth.

Friday: TBA

Wordless Wednesday

Tips and Tricks: Quick Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

We love spaghetti in this house, especially homemade but it can take forever to make. Meatballs are another hit, but again, take forever. My solution: cans of pre-seasoned tomatoes and italian sausage. Sounds crazy? Probably, but hey it tastes good. 

Step 1: Set your oven to 350F. 

Step 2: Make the sauce:

Ingredients:
1 tbsp of Olive Oil  (optional)
Small (or half a regular) Onion, Diced (optional)

2-3 Garlic Cloves, finely chopped (optional)

1 tbsp of Italian Herbs (ie: Oregano, Basil, Marjoram, Rosemary, Thyme) (optional)

1 can of Diced Tomatoes with Italian Spices (I like to use Aylmer, no salt added and often on sale!)

1 can of Diced Tomatoes 

5 cubes of Frozen Chicken Broth (just over 1/2 cup)

1 tbsp of White Sugar
Salt and Pepper to taste

Saute the onion and the garlic in olive oil until softened, about 2-3 minutes. Add in herbs and stir around, followed by the tomatoes, broth and sugar. (At this point I start the meatballs) Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer with lid slightly ajar. I like to let it simmer for at least an hour, stirring every 10 minutes or so.

Step 3: Make the meatballs:

Cut the sausage into equal size chunks, about half to one inch wide. Place sausage "balls" on a baking sheet. Put into the preheated oven and cook for 30 to 45 minutes, depending on size.  

Step 4: Start cooking the noodles. 

Directions are on the box of spaghetti. 

Step 5: Finish up the sauce

With an immersion blender, puree the sauce until it has reached your desired consistency. Add in the meatballs and voila! You have yummy homemade spaghetti and meatballs. 

This Week's Menu

Last week was short and it was great! We had lettuce wraps, which are quite possibly my favourite meal. I love those things! This time we changed it up though: I just got up the lettuce and put the meat mixture on top. We also had bean burritos again, and again, they were awesome! Especially with a little bit of fresh lime squeezed on top. Yum.  I ended up making a Sweet Potato/Carrot/White Potato mash to go with the chicken and it was also really good. It was nice to have something other then the standard rice or potatoes. 

This week we strayed from our routine. We went to the grocery store Saturday planning on just picking up fruit, but ended up doing our groceries. 

Saturday: Moose steaks with peppercorn sauce and Barley with vegetables

Sunday: Weekly supper at my moms

Monday: "Homemade" Spaghetti with "meatballs"
I'll be posting in this week's Tips and Tricks what exactly this means. 

Tuesday: Chicken thighs with sweet potato oven fries
I flipped through a cookbook while visiting my dad and came across sweet potato wedge fries. Basically you slice them on a mandolin, toss in olive oil and bake in the oven. We'll try it and see what happens.

Wednesday: Freezer dive

Thursday: Lettuce wraps and rice
I seriously love these things! And when the ground chicken was on sale cheap, I picked up 3 for the freezer, so it's technically a freezer dive. 

Friday: Pizza!

Wordless Wednesday

This Week's Menu

Last week was good. We were busy prepping and getting ready to go home that the week just flew by.  I had planned to make some sort of burrito on Wednesday, preferably meatless. After quite a bit of searching, I found this recipe for Super Bean Burritos and boy was it good!

This week's menu won't be complicated, since we didn't get home until last night and we're exhausted. It's always enjoyable going home, but late nights and early mornings take a toll.


Monday: We bummed supper at my mom's

Tuesday: Lettuce Wraps with Jasmine Rice

Wednesday: Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken with Sweet Potato something

Thursday: Bean Burritos

Friday: Pizza!!

Wordless Wednesday

Tips and Tricks Tuesday

I use chicken broth frequently when I cook. It's a simple way to add great flavour to dishes - from rice to spaghetti sauce to soups. A simple way to cut down on the cost of buying is to make your own and freeze it. My favourite way is in ice cube trays. Most trays are 2 tbsp, making a perfect size for throwing a couple in a dish. Once they are frozen, I simply throw them into a ziploc freezer bag for more practical storage. I'll also freeze them in 1 cup bags for when I make things like soup. 

Making your own chicken broth is also super easy, here are a couple different ways:

With a turkey neck

You'll need: 

1 turkey neck

1 carrot, roughly chopped

1 celery, roughly chopped

1 small onion, roughly chopped

2-3 bay leaves

1 tsp to 1 tbsp peppercorns

5 cups water

Place all of the ingredients in a pot and simmer on low for 2-4 hours. Strain. Broth will keep in fridge for up to a week, longer when frozen. 

This is my favourite way to make broth. I always make it when I cook a turkey, I just combine the broth from the actual turkey then freeze. The more broth the better!

When cooking a turkey or chicken

Place the same ingredients as above in a roaster with turkey (or chicken). Use less water, about 4 cups.  For a really flavourful tasting broth (and gravy), use chicken broth instead of water. Dress the bird as you wish. Cover to cook - you don't want all those juices evaporating!

Alternatively, you can cook a chicken in a crockpot. I use approximately 3 cups of water since the crockpot really traps all moisture. 

Making broth from chicken bones

You can do the same as the neck method with the carcass. Simply use enough water to almost cover the carcass, you may want to double the vegetables though. Since the bones are already cooked, this method takes considerably longer - approximately 8 hours. 

Whichever method you choose, taste test the broth to ensure it has the desired "strength". 

Happy simmering!

This Week's Menu

Last week turned out really good. The turkey was amazing, as turkey always is. The mustard sauce for the pulled pork was really good, the pork was ok. I don't *love* pork shoulder in general, so it's hard for me to rave about it.


This week's menu is all about freezer diving. We cleaned out / organized our freezers yesterday and realized we have a ton of food in them. 

Saturday: We went out for supper at the fancy restaurant with friends.

Sunday: Shepard's pie

Monday: Porchetta with rice

We bought this back in November from the fancy grocery store in the next city over. We cooked half and froze the other. It was delish and I can't wait for Monday!

Tuesday: Whole chicken with mashed potatoes

Yes, we vacuumed sealed a whole chicken. I'll throw it in the crockpot in the morning with an onion, some garlic, bay leaves, salt, pepper, thyme and a couple broth ice cubes. The skin won't get crispy, but it'll give me a really good broth.  

Wednesday: some sort of burritos

Thursday: Finger foods and spicy fries.
The only processed food in the freezer. We have it on hand for the desperate or lazy nights. I foresee Thursday as being a lazy night. 

Friday: We'll be travelling back home for Annabel's baptism Sunday, so Wendy's?

Wordless Wednesday

This Week's Menu

We have a renewed sense of living on the cheap here at Our little Northern Life. So as a result, our weekly menus are even more simplified. We only buy meat if it's on sale (and at a good price) and frequently freezer dive. But here's the thing with freezer diving in our house - we freezer dive for real food. We've stopped buying processed food and we've noticed a big difference on our grocery bill. That's not to say that we've stopped striving for low bills though. If our bill is under $100 per week - I consider that a huge success! 

With that said, this week's flyer was uninspiring. (Yes, flyer, singular - we only have one grocery store.) We bought a pork roast for pulled pork and some sausage, that's it in terms of meat. So we decided to cook the turkey we had in the freezer on Sunday, which would give us 2 additional meals, plus lunches, plus at least one freezer package. We also have some wild meat in there, so we had that with a relatively new recipe - barley and vegetables. So good, so easy. Anyway, enough with the jibber jabber, onto the menu:

Saturday: Moose steaks with peppercorn sauce and Barley with vegetables

I made a few alterations on these recipes since I didn't have all the ingredients on hand. For the peppercorn sauce: thyme sprig = dried thyme, green peppercorns = fresh cracked pepper, grainy dijon mustard = regular dijon mustard and I skipped the brandy altogether. For the barley, I simply made it with carrots, celery, onion and beef broth for the liquid. 

Sunday: Turkey with mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy. 

Monday: Turkey Quesadillas

Tuesday:  Pulled pork with mustard bbq sauce and macaroni salad

Again for this pulled pork recipe I didn't have all the ingredients, such as the bacon, thyme, jalapeno and grainy mustard. I just skipped them, except the grainy mustard where again I used dijon. 

Wednesday: Fettucini alfredo with turkey

Thursday: Sausage and basmati rice

Friday: Pizza!

Wonderful Two

It's happened. My baby boy is two. TWO! Where has time gone? It seems like just yesterday he was this itty bitty baby, now he's a robust toddler, full of energy and laughter.

To celebrate his birthday, we had a small party with his grandparents, my aunt, uncle and his girlfriend. 

We picked up some helium balloons and I've got to say, best money ever spent. He was so excited when he woke up to discover them in the hallway. Then it was an all new excitement when he saw the regular ones on the ground!

We decided on a train theme since he's still in love with Thomas. I didn't go overboard though, just the cake and his shirt. Speaking of cake, I got a little ambitious this year. I followed the Betty Crocker tutorial and it turned out quite well. It tasted good too!

We kept supper simple too, homemade lasagna, ceasar salad and bread. My lovely husband spent the entire day cooking, but it was so worth it since it was so good!

Kaleb's birthday was a wonderful evening and I'm so glad to have such wonderful family and friends! Now onto the terrible twos....

Year in Review

Well, what can I say, 2013 has been quite the year for our family. Our baby blossomed into an active toddler and we welcomed a new addition.

January saw me going back to work after been on maternity leave for a year. That was very difficult for all of us. It meant that I had to leave my baby boy at the babysitters every morning, me fighting tears, him in a full out freak out. After almost two months, he was able to be dropped off with no tears shed! It was also an adjustment for family life and dynamic. I was no longer able to get laundry, vacuuming, even supper done in the same way as before but by the end if February, we had our new schedule down. In January we also found out that I was pregnant!

The rest of the winter was pretty uneventful, Kaleb went to swimming lessons, Jason and I worked, I kept the new baby safe and warm.

May brought warm weather, meaning Kaleb could go out and play more, and we could start yard work and the gardens. We were lucky enough to receive a play set from the neighbours and Jason built a sand box for Kaleb.

June and July brought us beautiful weather, which means camping! It was a little different this year since Kaleb slept in the bunks, but he loved it. We were also able to enjoy outings at the splash pad in town.

The end of July and beginning August was very rainy this year making things sucky. We did however still go camping for a week at Jason's parent's campground, followed by our annual weekend camping trip with our friends. I also went on sick leave in the middle of august so I was able to enjoy the end of summer relaxing in the shade.

September was exciting, we welcomed our baby girl Annabel! We were so overjoyed to have her, we now have the perfect millionaires family as they say. We also welcomed a hockey player from the local team into our home for the season. He's actually one of Jason's students and has been a great guest.

The fall was all about adjusting to life with 2 under 2 for me. It is both rewarding and challenging. I truly believe we had her at the right time, Kaleb is old enough that he likes to help, but young enough that he doesn't get into too much trouble playing on his own when need be. He also loves his sister to pieces, showering her with kisses.

December was full of fun. Annabel's tummy troubles subsided, I got her sleeping on track and she became so chill, the world's best baby. Kaleb became potty trained at the beginning of the month and has been doing so well. We also celebrated 3 different Christmases, meaning Kaleb got thoroughly spoiled, as did Annabel.

If the way 2013 is ending is any indication on what 2014 is going to look like, we are going to have an awesome year, full of family, friends and laughter.

Wishing you all the best in the coming year.

Annabel

Here she is! Little miss Annabel 

Born September 17, 2013 at 6:22 a.m.

8 pounds, 2 ounces and 21.5 inches long.

Obviously it's been some time between her birth and this post. This photo was actually from when she was a month old and is quite possibly my favourite photos of her. 

Her birth was very long. Very very long considering it was my second time in less then 2 years. I was in early-labour for 3 days. In real labour for 20 hours. It's all but a distant memory now though, as she lights up our life in more ways then we could have ever imagined. 

August

Playing in the rain.

So apparently I didn't write a post in August. Oops. So here's a bit of a recap....

My last day of being physically at work was the 1st and I started vacation! We spent the week camping with Jason's parents at a private campground. It was fun, but the week was definitely too short. It doesn't help that we only had a few nice days of decent weather and even then, describing it as "decent" is a bit of a stretch.

The Friday we packed up and headed to Esker Lakes Provincial Park for the weekend. We met up with 3 other couples and their kids and had a blast. We happened to be there at the perfect time, the blueberries were in season! And this park is full of blueberries. Like, walk out of our trailer and pick blueberries full. It was awesome.

Blueberries!

After that we spent the next two weeks catching up on all sorts of stuff at home. We also went to the campground where my mom is for a weekend. One of my friends got married in the city near us, so we took full advantage and went for our a kid free weekend. It was actually one of the first times that we leave Kaleb for that long. It was nice but we definitely missed him.

Sadly Jason had to go back to work the last week of August and it's been a bit of an adjustment for all of us. Poor Kaleb wakes up every morning asking for Papa. His excitement when papa arrives at 5 is just adorable though!

Summer time fun.

Oh and I'm still pregnant. Very pregnant. But we're in the home stretch now. Baby should be here within 3 weeks! Eek!

Hope you had a great summer and here's to an amazing fall!

Wordless Wednesday