May 31, 2013

TIMELESS RECIPES: VEGETARIAN WEEK PART 1

Once before I decided to do a vegetarian week (5 days) and it was asurprisingly really easy to stick to considering I did absolutely no preparation for it. So after this past week I felt it was time to do it again. Someone consumed way too much food last week so this was much needed.

I prepared by looking up 5 different vegetarian recipes before I went grocery shopping, so that I would have all the ingredients ready and available to me. Not only were these meals vegetarian buy they were also completely new recipes that I had not tried before so you can also look at this as a recipe review as well!

Monday:

Mushroom Parmesan Penne

 

The recipe is simple. You cannot mess this one up. For such a simple recipe this worked great. The longest part was when i was waiting for the penne to cook. I followed the recipe closely only during the last 30 second of cooking the mushrooms I added fresh diced tomatoes and the parsley. I like my tomato slightly cooked...more warmed rather than cooked.


Tueday:

Korma


 

I LOVE Indian food but have always been intimidated to try it because of the many components. I will not lie, this recipe took a while to prep for. Im not sure how others do it, but I like to prep all my ingredients before I start anything to avoid feeling frazzled when I get into the heat of things. The only thing i would change about this recipe is to parboil the potatoes and carrots prior to preparing the meal as it took about 30 minutes for them to tendurize rather than the 10 minutes the recipe called for. Also I would add slightly less cream as it again took longer for it to reduce. This was to die for!!!

I will share the other wonderfull recipes that I've tried this week. One think that this Veggie week has taught me is that you do not need meat in order to have a wonderful meal!

May 26, 2013

mother struggles



The boys and I made some play dough this morning. After the disaster that was yesterday (not getting into it. I have two boys...you get the picture!) I decided that I needed to keep them occupied.

Motherhood has me ragged these days. I shake with fear over having to spend hours with them when Aaron is not with me. Joshua is at that age where suddenly I make absolutely no sense to him! I could have sworn that I at least had another 5 years before I had to deal with that.

Lucas pretty much does what Joshua does and its frustrating.

Who's up for a third kid :D ?????.....*Ashley gives blank stare*

My saving grace has been the fact that Aaron put a fence around the patio giving us private outdoor space. Before lunch I released the children and watched from the living room as they played for a good two hours while I drank a beer and watched reality television.

I am looking forward to my day off tomorrow and since its an American holiday the boys still have school/daycare!!! I really need tomorrow to recover and hopefully come Tuesday I'll start to feel a bit more positive.

May 17, 2013

KINGSTON


A few years ago I had a dream. One of those long, drawn out vivid dreams that seem almost like a movie but felt more like a memory.  I was in an old city, stone buildings, a center square, water nearby. Just off the coast was a ship half sunk in the water, it was brownish red from the rust and standing on a large rock at the edge of the water was a young girl looking out in at the horizon. The feeling I got from her was loss, sadness, waiting, separation, love.

A few months or so after that dream Aaron, Joshua and I (back when it was the three of us) took a trip up to Kingston because Aaron said it would be fun. I had never been. When I got there my dream hit me and everything I saw I kept thinking to myself  I’ve seen this! I am convinced that I’ve lived in this place before as anyone who truly knows me knows that im a big believer in past lives. It felt and still feels like home.  The only other time I’ve felt like this was when I gave birth to my first son Joshua. There have been people who I’ve met where I have an instant connection and no doubt felt like we had been together before, but not even that has happened to me more than twice.

A few weekend ago, I went back home.


 

 
 

 
It was a great day trip! The boys were at grandma and grandpas for the weekend so Aaron and I used out time wisely! We really had nothing planned other than to do a haunted walk at Fort Henry (I'd post pictures but iPhone pics at night in a dark fort are of poor quality!). Before the tour was went on boat cruise around the thousand Islands and explored the old city before grabbing dinner. We had an amazing time!