Yummy Vegetable Soup

I love soup.  I could eat it every day, even in the middle of summer.  There is this organic vegetable soup that I would sometimes buy for lunch for the boys and I, and we all really like it.  But it gets costly buying it all the time, there would never be enough veggies in it, and I know it was loaded with salt (hence why it tasted so good!).  I tried on several occasions to make my own vegetable soup but it never tasted as good so I would just revert back to buying the store bought stuff.  Finally I think I got it, a super yummy homemade vegetable soup.

I based it loosely on this recipe that I found but ended up tweaking it depending on what veggies I had available.  I'm also pretty bad at keeping track of amounts, but this is basically how I made it today:

Vegetable Soup

1 diced potato

2 or 3 chopped carrots

1/2 chopped onion

2 stalks chopped celery

1 pint diced cherry tomatoes (or you can used canned diced tomatoes)

1 cup frozen peas

1 cup frozen corn

1/2 can drained and rinsed kidney beans

3-4 cups vegetable juice

2-3 cups vegetable broth or water (whatever I have really)

*the amounts of liquids vary, I basically just keep adding until the pot is full

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1-2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp dried herbs

1 cup cooked pasta

Put all veggies, liquids, and seasonings in a pot and simmer until vegetables are tender.  Add cooked pasta last.  You could do rice instead if desired.

This makes a huge batch so we can eat soup all week or even freeze some.  I love it because it tastes good, and it has a good variety of vegetables in it that my picky kids will actually eat.  They especially love kidney beans so I like putting them in for that reason, but you could use chickpeas instead.

You could add any veggies you want to this really, I would have put some green beans in as well if I had some, or maybe some leeks or even broccoli.

Going to eat some now!  Yum!

It's almost planting season!

A few weeks ago the seeds we had ordered for our vegetable garden arrived and for the past few weeks we've been busy thinking about and planning how we are going to sow and plant them.  We have about 70 varieties of vegetables and some fruits that we will be sowing from seed.  Tyler went out and bought a large binder with plastic sleeves and calendar sheets so that we can organize them all and keep track of the sowing/transplanting/harvesting schedule.  It's taken a lot of thought to organize it all but we're in pretty good shape.

I've been spending lots of time familiarizing myself with all the different seeds and their needs.  I've categorized them and come up with a sowing plan so we know what seeds need to be started and transplanted when.  We'll be starting our first bunch this week.  March will actually be very busy with the majority of seeds needing to be started indoors, but there are plenty that will be started in April, May, and even throughout the summer as well.  We will pretty much constantly be sowing, transplanting or harvesting our fruits and vegetables from March through to September.

This week construction of the hoop houses began and they will be ready to go soon, however we will be starting the seeds in the basement since they will need warmer temperatures than the hoop houses can provide.  Once they are seedlings most of them can be moved into the hoop houses until they are ready to go into the ground in May.  Tyler has build a light table to go in the basement for starting the seeds. 

I am so excited for this adventure.  When I read through my books I do feel a little overwhelmed as it just all seems so complicated on paper, especially since we are ambitious and starting quite big.  But I think we'll just going to jump in and see what works, and I think between the two of us we will have enough knowledge and experience to be successful.

Some of the varieties of plants we will be growing include: onions, beets, celery, broccoli and rapini, artichokes (Tristan's favourite vegetable!), corn, cabbage, beans, peas, many types of lettuces and leafy greens, several varieties of carrot, tomatoes, and cucumber, and of course an extensive selection of herbs.  We're also going to grow melons and strawberries, as well as squash and pumpkins.  Tyler really wants to try and grow a giant pumpkin!  I've also got some sunflower seeds to plant as well just because I thought it would be nice to have some on the property, and maybe we will be able to get some more seeds out of them as well.  We're going to try growing peanuts as well.  I'm sure there are a few more vegetables I missed, we ordered a lot!  All this in addition to the hops.

Ultimately it is my goal to be able to grow almost all of our vegetables and as much fruit as we can as well (we already have apple trees on the property, as well as other berry and currant bushes).  I would like to learn how to successfully preserve our harvest through canning, drying and freezing so that we can eat our own produce year round.  We should be able to grow some stuff year round in the hoop houses as well.  It's a little scary to take all this on knowing that we will be having a new baby in the family right in the middle of the season, but hopefully together we can pull it off.

I know I'm going to be hugely pregnant soon, but it is still my hope to play as active a roll in the creation and maintenance of our vegetable gardens as I can.  Me and my belly will be out there planting and weeding as long as I can still manage it.  I'm also hoping that getting the boys involved from a young age will teach them the value of the land and what it means to grow our own food.  Maybe if I'm really lucky they will start to eat more vegetables too!

Spring is in the Air

I know we have been really lucky with our winter this year in that it was very mild and we didn't get completely buried in snow.  Well, I guess it depends on who you talk to, most of the crazy winter nuts that live in our town were hugely disappointed with how winter was this year.  I was not complaining.  I've said it before, I don't hate winter, the cold, or snow, nevertheless I quite enjoyed this past winter where it wasn't bitterly cold and I didn't have to dig my car out of 2 feet of snow everyday. 

Despite the easy winter we had I will still be happy to see the end of it and am glad that it seems to be wrapping up early.  I know technically we still have 2 weeks of the season left, but that hasn't stopped me from teaching the kids to chant "Go away winter!  Hurry up spring!" with me on a regular basis.  I'm just ready to not have to deal with so many layers just to go on the simplest of errands.

So it seems our chants have been heard, and in true Canadian form we went from -20 degrees two days ago to +15 today.  Heavenly.  There is nothing like the feeling of that first true spring-like day.  The sun was up early and it was hard to ignore the fact that it was light out when I woke up and the birds were actually singing.  There was a bit of that wicked spring wind blowing today but at least it wasn't bitterly cold.  Yep, it was a lovely 'spring' day.

I could not ignore the call of spring and so the kids and I headed out for a walk in the afternoon.  It's not like we haven't been out walking for months, because of the mild winter we had gotten out a lot more than we would of in past winters.  But today felt different.  Maybe it was because it was so warm and comfortable, and we didn't have to wear so many layers.  It might of been just the feeling that everyone was emerging from their winter hibernation.  We kept running into familiar faces, and even though they were all people we would see around all winter at the Y, it was still nice to see them outside. 

We wandered around for a bit before heading back home.  On the way home, this local man passed by us in his motorized wheelchair.  He is often out and about, cruising the streets with a very loud sound system blasting music.  I have heard him play anything and everything, from Celine Dion to Abba to Elton John to Lady Gaga.  Today as he approached I heard the most lovely song - Daydream Believer.  Not sure if he was playing it as a tribute to the late Davy Jones, or if it was just a coincidence, but I couldn't help but smile and sing along as he passed. 

What a lovely day.

Baking With Children

I don't like to do it.  It always seems like a fun activity, but in the end I find it's almost more frustrating than it's worth.  Still, every now and then I attempt it because I know my kids will have fun and we all enjoy the goodies that come out of it.

I used to enjoy baking before I had kids.  Not so much since becoming a mom.  But I do love baked goods!  And I do like to try and make them myself instead of buying store bought stuff.  I figure that even if I make goodies that are full of sugar, they're at least not full of chemicals and preservatives like the stuff you buy at the grocery store.

When Tristan was younger, a little older than two, I could set him up with two bowls, a few cups and spoons, and some flour and he would scoop the flour from one bowl to the next for hours while I baked.  It was messy, but he loved it.  Finn is not quite that age yet and so it doesn't occupy him quite the same way, and Tristan is older now and so he wants to be more involved.

My problem is I'm too much of a control and a clean freak to let him do that much.  I can set him up with stuff to mix and try not to cringe too much when I see it spilling all over the place.  That part is easy.  But the constant sticking his hands in the bowl, trying to eat it when I told him not to because of the raw eggs, and requests for the goodies to be done so he can eat them really starts to get to me.  He's 3.5 now and so patience is a little hard to come by (for both of us!).

Nope, I'm not really cut out to bake with small children.

Nevertheless, we attempted to make some muffins today and it was fun for the boys.  Finn scooped some flour for about 5mins before getting bored and wandering off, and Tristan helped mix the filling for the muffins as well as all the dry ingredients.  And of course, he was VERY proud of himself when they were done and when Daddy got home proudly exclaimed that he had helped make them.  So that in itself does make it worth it.

So what did we make today?  I decided to try this recipe I found on Pinterest for Strawberries and Cream Muffins.  They were a fair bit of work (or maybe they just seemed that way with two little people trying to 'help'), but they were very very yummy.  Of course I opted to use whole wheat flour instead of white flour, and because Tristan wanted 'sprinkle cupcakes' instead of muffins we sprinkled some red sugar sprinkles on top of them before popping them in the oven.

I'm feeling rather ambitious this week so I'm thinking after we've polished off all the strawberries and cream muffins we'll bake some banana ones.  At least those ones are a little easier to make.

Life on the Bay These Days

You know, when I first started this blog I used to write a lot about random things that happened here, which was the point of starting it in the first place.  I still kind of do that, but I realized that there are often a lot of things going on that I would have written about before, but don't bother to anymore.  Which is kind of sad, afterall this is supposed to be about our life here.  Guess I've just gotten lazy.  I've also diverted a lot of that stuff to my other two more specific blogs.  Stuff about the boys gets put on my Dear Children, Love Mommy blog because I just found it easier to record everything about them in one spot, and also to write directly to them.  Stuff about this latest pregnancy gets put on my Doula Ambition blog.  I started that one as a place to keep all my pregnancy and childbirth thoughts, since I am very much into that kind of stuff, but since getting pregnant have also been journalling about my pregnancy there since it seemed appropriate.  So now I often feel like this blog is missing out on a lot of stuff that gets put elsewhere. 

Time for a little update on how Life on the Bay has been treating us.

It's still pretty awesome.

Life

Is good.  We have had a mild winter which has allowed us to stay active and not feel too cooped up in the house.  Tristan goes to school in the mornings and is doing very well there.  Finley enjoys his time with me in the mornings and we busy ourselves with trips to the YMCA or the Early Years Centre.  Rarely are we at home in the mornings and that's how we like it.  The afternoons are sometimes filled with classes for Tristan like skiing (which are now over) and junior chefs, but often we like to just stay in since the mornings are so busy.  I do look forward to the spring and summer though when we can just go play in the backyard or go for walks without having to worry about snowsuits, hats, mitts, and boots.  The boys are good, Tyler is good, I am good, the pregnancy is good.  I feel great and really can't complain about much.

Friends are the best

I'm still hanging out with the same wonderful group of ladies I met over the summer, and we've formed some great friendships.  Some of them have returned to work, and we don't see each other during the week for playdates as often since winter arrived but we make a point of getting together as much as we can otherwise.  We have been meeting for coffee every few weeks, and also planning girls' nights once a month or so as well.  Last time we went glow in the dark bowling which was fun.  This weekend we're having dinner and going dancing afterwards to celebrate one lady's birthday.  Well, not sure how keen I will be to go bar hopping at almost 5mos pregnant, but we'll see.  We also still plan playdates on the weekends, often meeting up for gymnastics, skating, or tobogganing with the kids.  In addition to the great close friends I've made, I'm also making new friends all the time.  When I first moved here and started looking for friends, I was always looking for people to connect with and hoping that it would turn into the kind of friendships where we hung out a lot.  I have been lucky to find that with my group of friends, but am also learning that I can be friends with a lot of different people, and those friendships can all mean different things.  Some women are other moms that I see at the same places every week, and we get a chance to talk there but don't necessarily plan anything outside of that.  Other people I've just become familiar with from running into around town.  It's been a really great feeling to know that I've met and connected with so many different people on so many different levels.

Fitness

This has been a big topic for me over the past year as I have strived to become more active, and I am still keeping up with it and going strong.  I always feel there is room for improvement in this department but then I also have to think about time constraints and that my family comes first, and also the physical restraints of pregnancy.  But there are times where I think I just want to spend hours in the gym working out and getting in shape.  Maybe one day.  I do manage to go to the gym about 5 times a week.  These days all I want to do is hoop and have been doing that as much as possible, but I have been doing spinning once a week still as well as some prenatal fitness and working out on the machines in the gym.  A friend of mine just sent me several great prenatal workout dvds in the mail as well so I am going to start incorporating those into my day as well at home while the boys are napping.  I think my hard work is paying off as I have been feeling great and I think I look fairly fit even for 20wks pregnant.  I do hope that I can stay in better shape for this pregnancy than I did for my last two, and also that I can snap back into shape quickly afterwards.

Down on the Farm

Progress on the hops farm has been great.  The mild winter has really been a blessing in that department because it allowed Tyler and John to get a lot of work done.  When I look back over the past few months I cannot believe how much they have accomplished together.  They have installed all the poles for the front 6 acres to be planted, built a barn, made a road, and built a bridge from the ground up.  Not just any bridge either, a proper bridge that will have to carry vehicles over the river.  A lot of time, planning, and money went into the design and construction of the bridge, and now it is almost complete.  It has been very exciting for Tyler to design and build it, and see it come to life.  I know he is very proud, and he should be.  I have gone through the seed catalogues and placed the order for all of our vegetable seeds, which should be arriving this week.  In the next few weeks our hoop houses will be built, and then we can begin starting our seedlings inside to get a head start on the growing season.  There is no way to describe how amazing everything is going on the farm, and we are excited to see what the next few months have in store as well.

Other Events

What other things have we been up to this year so far?  In January I participated in the Romp to Stomp out breast cancer 5km snowshoe walk with one of my new friends.  The weather was perfect and we had a wonderful day walking and raising money for breast cancer research.  That same weekend Tyler took Tristan on his very first overnight ice fishing adventure.  He had a great time, but it was still too much for him and by the end of it he was very tired and got a little sick.  Still, he loves to talk about the trip and how much fun he had.  In February Tyler's sister Rachael got married to her fiancee Scott.  The whole wedding was just lovely and we were happy to be a part of it.

That pretty much sums up how our winter has been, and it's only been less than 2 months!  Needless to say life is busy, but it's a good busy.  We are always optimistic, always looking forward.  It feels good to be happy and to have a good attitude about life.  Onwards and upwards from here! 

Pregnant Hula Hooping

Inspiration.....

I don't look like this.  I wish I did, but not even close.  First of all, I'm not that cute when I'm pregnant.  I'm short and round and funny-shaped.  And second, I'm not even a fraction as good a hooper as this woman. 

But actually, I'm doing pretty good so far!  I've only been hooping for a month or so and am surprising even myself at the ease with which I am picking it up.  Ok, I don't have much finesse yet, but I can do a few tricks that are pretty cool.  In addition to basic hip and waist hooping, I am just getting the hang of chest hooping and leg hooping.  I can bring the hoop up from my waist over my head and back down again in several different fashions.  And I can 'walk' the hoop up my arms and shoulders and onto my neck, then back down again.  Not too bad for an amateur!  It's not usually pretty to watch as I'm sure I often look like a flailing chicken or a crazy penguin, but I can work on being pretty later.  For now I just need to learn the moves.  There are other little things I work on too like arm hooping and isolations. 

But it's SO much fun and SO addictive, and I'm SO glad I am able to do this while pregnant and seeing videos like the one above give me hope that this is something I can do right throughout this whole pregnancy.

So here are some pictures taken at last week's workshop.  I'm 19wks pregnant.

I've been getting to the Y to practice almost every day, because I really want to get good at this hooping stuff!

Single Serving Chocolate Cake in 5 Minutes

And from the too good to be true category....

I found this on Pinterest (which I am starting to get addicted too though still not as much as some people I know).  Last night I saw it, checked out the recipe, realized I had all the ingredients, and decided to give it a shot.

What is it you might ask?  Well, it's a single serving of decadent chocolate cake that is not unhealthy and that you can make in 5mins.  I know, I know, how is this possible?  Well, it is.  The recipe works, it's relatively healthy, and it's easy.

And so, I share it with you here (though it's taken from the blog Chocolate Covered Katie, so I cannot take any credit for this brilliant invention).

• 1 tablespoon plus 2 tsp cocoa powder
• 3 tablespoons spelt flour (or white, or even peanut or coconut flour)
• 1/2 tsp instant coffee granules
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 2 tsp evaporated cane juice (or sugar)
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 stevia packet (or 1 more tablespoon sugar)
• 1 tablespoon coconut or veg oil 3 tablespoons milk of choice
• 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

Combine dry ingredients and mix very, very well. Add liquid, stir, then transfer to a little dish, ramekin, or even a coffee mug. Microwave 45-50 seconds (or more, depending on how powerful your microwave is). If you don’t want to eat it straight out of the dish, be sure to spray your dish first (and then wait for the cake to cool before trying to remove it).

So fast, so easy, so yummy.  So much so that I made it again today.  And maybe later tonight.  Oh dear.