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

Homemade Greek Yogurt

I've been toying with the idea of trying to make my own yogurt for awhile now, and with literally 100s of recipes online, it really is a matter of just picking one. Last week one of the ladies from my mommy group posted a recipe for Homemade Greek Yogurt that looked so easy. Knowing she had great success, I thought I'd give it a try. 

I'm not going to go into grand details since I followed the recipe pretty much exactly (except I halved it) but here is the rundown:

- Heat up 4 cups of milk in a saucepan until it reaches 180F exactly. 

- Let it cool until it is between 110-120F

- Stir in 1 tsp of plain yogurt

- Let it incubate for 8-12 hours in the oven (we left ours for 12 hours)

- Strain

- Mix in flavour. We added about a 1 tsp of vanilla and 1.5 tbsp of honey

There's a few things I wanted to mention:

This recipe is super super easy, but slightly time consuming. It took about an hour to heat up, then cool down the milk to the desired temperatures. However after that was done, I just put the bowl in the oven overnight. 

Jason took it out the next morning since I was at work and left it to strain for several hours in the fridge. We weren't sure how long we were suppose to leave it, so we just let it hang until supper time. 

Unless you like plain yogurt, you pretty much need to add a sweetener of some kind. This time we chose honey, next time I think we'll try maple syrup. 

In conclusion, we'll definitely be doing this again!

Click here for the recipe. 

Kitchen? check!

This weekend's nesting target was the kitchen.  The very much over due kitchen. 

We (mostly Jason) ended up cleaning almost all the cupboards. And I am so grateful, because now our kitchen is truly clean and organized. 

He started by tackling the lazy susan containing my baking ingredients. Turns out there was mould in a the back corners! Gross. So he ended up actually taking everything out, including the lazy susan itself. He then washed and repainted the cupboards. We decided to move the pots and pans into that corner, and take the food out, in case the mould reappears. 

Which means we then tackled the former pot and pan cupboard, cleaning it then putting my baking supplies away in an organized fashion (because that is how I roll). I was also able to continue my mason jar obsession. I seriously love mason jars. They are great to store stuff, especially things that you want to keep fresh like spices, herbs, nuts and the all important chocolate chips. 

After that, he worked on the drawers with Kaleb. I'm sad that I missed that. They did an excellent job and now instead of being a complete upside down mess, we can easily find what we're looking for. 

They also did the lazy susan with our canned goods, pasts, soups and stuff. Ever since we made a conscious effort to "clean" eating, that cupboard is quite bare. Same goes for our chips, crackers and snacks cupboard. That one Jason and I did during nap time today. Jason also cleaned the cupboard that contains all the electric gadgets and the oven drawer. 

So basically, our kitchen is spotless and organized, just the way this nesting mama likes it. Next stop: closets.  

This Week's Menu

We will be busy packing all week for our vacation, so this week's menu consists of easy food choices! 

Saturday: Steak, Potatoes and Ceasar Salad

Sunday: Taco night

Monday: Chicken thighs with oven fries

Tuesday: Pork Chops and Rice

Wednesday: Sausage

Thursday: Pizza

Friday: TBA - we'll be on VACATION!!!!!!! (I'm not excited at all)