Saturday's

 Hi there everyone, been awhile since I last posted. 18 days to be exact....where does time go???? Don't you just love Saturday's?
I do, sometimes I wish everyday was Saturday, but then again, maybe not, probably would get tired of Saturday's.

Been busy this month....my birthday month. I am now legally 73 yrs old. How did that happen???? My mind still says I am maybe about 37 years old, but the body is not agreeing with my mind....lol.

Had a Doctor's appointment this past week. An annual check-up and blood tests. My A1C was 6.2..yay for that, Doctor cut my diabetes pills down, this is good, maybe someday I won't have to take any pills for diabetes. My Vitamin B-12 was a bit high, so instead of 1000g, down to 500g....okay, I can do that. Cholesterol was a bit high, so he wants me to work on my diet (so tired of dieting), and do a little bit more exercises. I guess I can do that. I miss my dog Kylie, cause we took walks everyday, she kept me busy everyday...since she has been gone, don't go for walks around the block any more. (Cute dog up above, sweet.) This house is so quiet without her too. 

Had to get my driver's licence renewed...that was sort of scary for me. Don't know why, but I just was not looking forward to that experience at all. $34.00 later, I was walking out the door an hour later....whew!!

Still working on the cookbook, been typing recipes into the Fundcraft program. We are at 135 recipes, working towards 200 recipes. We don't have far to go. Then, I need to organize the recipes and put them in the right dividers. We were trying for December to finish, but found out we had to be done collecting by the 15th of this month. We are going to try for January and hopefully have the cookbooks done by February. We'll see how that goes.

I thought I would add one of the recipes I entered into the cookbook. I actually made this tonight and it was REALLY GOOD!! It is called;
"One-Pot Spaghetti Dinner"
1 lb. lean ground beef(90% lean)
1 3/4 c. sliced fresh mushrooms(I used canned)
3 c. tomato juice
1 can(14 1/2oz)no salt-diced tomatoes 
1 can(8oz.)no salt-tomato sauce
1 Tbsp. dried minced onion
1/2 tsp. salt(optional)
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. ground mustard
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/8 tsp. ground allspice
1/8 tsp. ground mase(optional)(I had no mase)
6 oz. uncooked multi-grain spaghetti-broken in pieces
Fresh mozzarella cheese, shredded
Parmesan cheese(optional)

1) In a dutch oven, or big pot, cook beef and mushrooms over medium heat and meat is no longer pink; drain if needed. Add tomato juice(I added the whole can), tomatoes, tomato sauce, dried onion, and seasonings.
2) Bring to a boil. Stir in the spaghetti. Simmer, covered 12-15 minutes or until the spaghetti is tender. If desired, serve with cheese on top.

Been busy watching my Hockey games. My Chicago Blackhawks are not doing that great right now...but I have high hopes. There is still 5 more months to play in the regular season and then the Stanley Cup Play-offs that will last till June. So there is still plenty of time for them to make it for the play-offs. I will let you know how they do.

Well, time to close, did not mean for this to be so long.....but, I get a little bit wordy sometimes. You all have a great week-end and keep looking up, better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise 

Vegie Marinara Sauce....mmmmmm

Hi everyone.....do you see the light at the end of the tunnel??? I heard the weather is going to be 35 degrees this weekend OH AND daylight savings begins too..."Spring ahead" which means our days will be longer....THAT is a sign of SPRING to me. Yes....we are all looking forward to nicer days ahead.

Well today I made some more Vegie Marinara Sauce, thanks to Biz at: http://www.mybizzykitchen.com (for some reason my link button does not work, after 4 tries, decided to just type in Biz's blog address) I love this recipe and it sure is a good way to get all your vegies in one dish, not only for kiddo's but for us adults too!!! So thanks Biz, for a wonderful recipe, this and lasagna soup have to be my favorite all time recipes!!!

MMMMMMMM~~~~~~Vegie Marinara Sauce. Roasted the vegies last night, beans, onion, broccoli, tomato, pepper, garlic, olive oil, and salt and pepper and seasoning. Place on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. Roasted at 325 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes or until done. After roasting, let cool then put in a pot. I then added 1-28 oz can of diced tomatoes, 1-28 oz water, 1 teasp. basil and 1 teasp. Italian spices. I let it sit in the frig. overnight (only because there was no time to finish it) Maybe, letting it sit overnight, the spices and vegies can work together and blend well for a more Italianey taste.

Today while making JP's lunch, I took the pot out and heated it up till boiling, then turned down the heat. (which reminds me, I probably will add a couple of pinches of cayanne pepper to this pot of sauce after it is finished.

Brought out the immersable blender and started blending all the vegies together till they were blended. MMMM looking forward to some of this.

Here is the finished project, about this point you can add the hot pepper if you like. Or some hot sauce. How ever much you would like.

You can see in this picture the sauce looks chunky, almost as if there is some kind of meat in the sauce....but there is not. As I said before....mmmmm....looking forward to a taste of this on Spaghetti, spaghetti squash, sauce for pizza, maybe cook up some cabbage and pour some of this sauce over it.....the ideas are endless I think.

I found this picture I took a while back of some vegie sauce on spaghetti, must have taken a month or so ago. But this is what it looks like. One thing I like to do is put some mozzorella on the sauce and melt in the microwave. MMMM just tastes soooo gooooood!!!!

So have a great day, and I hope you try this recipe, it's actually lots of fun to make and is very good and versitile too. Take care and talk to you later, keep looking up!!
Cheers ~ Louise

Okay....This is a REALLY Good Recipe!!!

Hi Everyone...hope you had a great evening and a better day today!! Well, I made this wonderful spaghetti sauce last night...this is my second batch of goodness!! I got this recipe from Biz, Here is where you can find the recipe. Sure hope this link worked for you. Apparently the link did not work so here is her address: http://mybizzykitchen/2014/01/10/pissed Just type it in and you'll find her recipe.

This is how I changed up Biz's recipe. I had two tomatoes, but half went on JP's salad. So I used 1 1/2 tomatoes, 1 pepper and squirted some crushed garlic on the inside of the peppers, 1 small onion, maybe a cup of small carrots and sliced them in half, maybe half of a shredded zucchini, and 4-5 halved stalks of celery. I then sprinkled olive oil on the vegies then sprinkled some seasoning called "Mad Dog and Merrill's Gramma Hazel's seasoning" or you can use salt and pepper, omit if you like and add your own favorite seasoning. Chopped spinach.

Roasted the vegetables for an hour at 325. I let the vegies cool down then put them in a pot with a 16 oz can of diced tomatoes. I tried to find canned tomatoes with the lowest grams of sugar. Added 1 teaspoon of Italian seasoning and some crushed red pepper (optional)

Cooked till hot, and with an immersion blender, blended until the vegetables are pureed. Here is where I added the chopped spinach and cooked a bit longer till the spinach wilted.

I plated out the spaghetti, poured the sauce over it then added some mozzarella on top and melted in the micro.

First bite waiting to be taken....mmmmmmm.....was it ever gooooood. JP came home at 1:00 am. Gave him his bowl of fruit and toast and a big plate of spaghetti and sauce, he finished that up and then asked for another plateful....I guess he likes it too.

So there you have it, recipe of the month and it is a keeper. I may not ever buy another can or jar of spaghetti sauce again, now that I have this recipe, I like it so much. You all have a great day and keep looking up. Cheers ~ Louise