Meditteranean sandwiches and baby squirrels!

Finally! Blogger is working again. It felt like an eternity that it was down.

It's been quite the couple of days in my backyard. Since I got the feeder it's become quite the little animal sanctuary. All kinds of birds seem to flock here to hang out. It's incredible, and I am definitely not complaining. Yesterday I found the most amazing, beautiful and oh-so-sad thing while I was putting laundry on the line outside. This little guy in the picture to the right came out from under the hedge looking quite shaky and weak. He is obviously too young to be away from his mama, so I can only guess that something terrible happened to her. He wasn't very afraid of me, and had no energy to run when I walked over to him. I stuck a dish of seed under the hedge, and sure enough, the little guy (who we have named Stonewall) jumped on and started feasting. In the afternoon, another little guy came out from the hedge with the same shaky legs, only he was black (and we have named him Shadow). Unlike Stonewall, this one is a lot more timid with humans and made some really sweet protective sounds when I went to put the dish near him. THEN.. in the evening Kyle walked outside the front door with our dog Tibbs, and two more little black squirrels came running up to Tibbs! Not only that, but when Kyle and Avery went to take a bike ride down to the YMCA, these two little ones chased them down our driveway, and then headed down the road towards them. I feel so bad for these little orphans! I have told the kids that we can't befriend them since it really isn't good for their future. We will be putting out some seed and water for the next week or two until they seem stronger and more capable of living on their own. The two babies who chased Kyle and Avery on their bikes are off on an adventure already, down a different street. I miss them already! The other two were seen in our yard this morning, looking a bit stronger.

Isn't this little one sweet? He's the timid guy who was making adorable sounds.

Dinner was simple and delicious yesterday. I made a Mediterranean sandwich on focaccia bread with a side of canned baked beans. I got the sandwich from The Essential Vegetarian, but altered it a bit.

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Mediterranean Sandwiches

1 focaccia loaf

(you can make your own or buy one... I was going to bake one, but with the squirrel chaos, I ended up buying one)

1/2 red onion, sliced very thinly

1 green pepper, sliced very thinly

2 tbsp fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced

5 cloves garlic, crushed, divided

3 tsp balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

1 cup medium cheddar cheese, grated

Preheat the oven to 350. Line an oven tray with aluminum foil.

Combine the sliced onion, green pepper, red pepper, basil and 2 cloves of garlic in a bowl with the balsamic vinegar. Stir to combine, cover and set aside.

Mix the olive oil with the remaining 3 cloves of garlic. Slice the focaccia in half with a serrated knife and brush the bottom half with the olive oil and garlic mixture.

Pile the veggies on top of the oil brushed focaccia, and top with the grated cheddar. Add the top half of the focaccia and place on the prepared baking tray.

Cook for about 15 minutes, until cheese melts.

Vegetable Studel.

I am quickly becoming one of those bird watching people. When I wake up in the morning I quickly check to see if anyone is visiting my feeder. When I have a few minutes to spare, I sit on the porch with my camera to see if I can find some new birds out there. I get downright giddy when I do discover a new one. You should have seen me when I saw my first (and so far only) cardinal perched on my feeder. I was running around jumping through the house with excitement. Then when these little goldfinches (as seen in the photograph) came I had a repeat performance. Happily, these little tweeters come to my feeder often.. at least a half dozen times a day (that I notice). They have the most beautiful song! My feeder makes me smile. A lot.

Dinner tonight was not a failure (unlike yesterday!)! It was a new recipe that I found in my Essential Vegetarian cookbook, and it turned out fantastic. I tweaked it a bit... of course... and every single one of us felt it was a hit. I love it when that happens. I see many different options for changing it up, too. I was going to make a caesar salad with this, but the day got away from me, so we settled for watermelon on the side. It was the perfect addition because it was pretty hot and muggy out.

Vegetable Strudel

2 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, thinly sliced

1 red pepper, cut into strips

1 green pepper, cup into strips

2 medium zucchini, sliced

6 cloves garlic, minced

6 sheets filo pastry, thawed

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/3 cup basil leaves, finely sliced

3/4 cup old cheddar cheese, grated

2 tbsp sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 400. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.

Heat the olive oil in a wok and fry the onion until it's tender (3-5 minutes). Add the red pepper, the green pepper, the zucchini and the garlic, and cook with the onion for another 5 minutes until soft. Set wok aside so the vegetables will cool.

Place one sheet of filo pastry on the counter and brush with the melted butter. Layer with another filo sheet, and brush it with butter. Continue until all the the filo is stacked up. Place the vegetables on one half of the filo pastry, leaving 2 inches at each end. Add the basil leaves and cheese. Fold the filo ends in to the middle (I used a bit of butter on the ends, too) and then fold the pastry over. Place it seam side down on your prepared baking sheet. Spread with remaining butter, and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes until it's golden brown. Serve immediately.

Pasta Fail!

Guess who was dumb enough to put sunscreen on her daughter and not on herself? Yeah, that would be me. I joined Rhianna's class at Celebration of Dance and that sun was beaming down pretty good. I have proof on my chest, arms and face. I should have thought about sunscreening myself while I was putting it on my little girl. Oh well, you live, you learn. (Or not, since I do this pretty much every single year!)

For dinner I made a pasta dish I found on Eat Me, Delicious. It's called Pasta with Portobello Mushrooms in a Mustard Wine Sauce. It looked very promising, and I couldn't wait to try it, but in the end I was terribly disappointed. I hate when I build something up in my mind and then in the end it's nothing like I thought it would be. I loved the method in which it's made, but I'm thinking of making this style of pasta with a spinach and mascarpone sauce instead. I loved the toasted pine nuts and the mushrooms. I loved the garlic and onion and chilies. It was just the overpowering sauce that I didn't care for. I even made more pasta than the recipe called for, and used a little less mustard. I guess some are winners and some are not. And what works for one person, doesn't work for everyone.

I also used my creativity in the kitchen and came up with these savory muffins that turned out not half bad. I think next time I may add some chives, and perhaps even some cheese. Yes, I really do love me some cheese.

Onion and Garlic Muffins

4 cups all purpose flour

4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

4 tbsp vegetable oil

2 cups sour milk (just add a tablespoon or two of vinegar and let it sit for a bit)

1 tbsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp dried parsley

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 400. Lightly oil 12 muffin tins.

Mix all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add the oil and milk and stir to combine. Add to the muffin tins.

Bake for 15-18 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

Black Bean Soup and Date Square

Today was not the first time I made this slow cooker soup. My friend Michelle sent me the recipe about a year ago and told me I'd love it. I put it on the menu, bought the ingredients and threw it together. Now one thing you may not know about me is that I often don't follow recipes to a tee. I like to change them up, and usually do. Sometimes unintentionally. The first time I made this soup I changed it up unintentionally. It was bad. So very bad. The recipe calls for a tablespoon of finely chopped chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. I, carelessly, read that as a can of peppers. A can! I can't even begin to tell you the kind of spice that soup had. I could not figure out how these friends of ours could handle that kind of spice! I love spice... I really do. But that was purely painful. My poor kids ate a few bites of that soup before I told them to stop. My husband forced himself to eat almost an entire bowl that night, but couldn't handle the leftovers. I sent an email to my friend asking her if it was supposed to be that spicy. I then figured it out. I used the whole dang can of peppers. She called me up and laughed at me. A lot. I also laughed at myself. It's been almost a year now, and I finally got over the nightmare that was the spicy black bean soup. I made it again today and it was delicious. The boys gobbled it up, Rhianna almost finished her bowl, and Kyle had a second helping. Phew! It's much better when you only add 1 tablespoon of chipotle peppers. I did change it up a tiny bit as I always do, but this time they were safe changes.

Slow Cooker Black Bean Soup

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped finely

4 cans black beans, drained and rinsed (I used 2-14oz cans and 2-19oz cans)

6 cups vegetable stock

1 red pepper, chopped

6-8 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbsp finely chopped chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (for me it was 1 pepper)

3 tbsp cumin

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

4 tbsp lime juice

sour cream

green onion, finely sliced

Saute onion in oil until softened.

Add the onion to the slow cooker. Then add the beans, vegetable stock, red pepper, garlic, chipotle pepper, cumin, salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Cook on low for 8-10 hours. Add the lime juice and mix roughly with an immersion blender. Top each bowl of soup with sour cream and green onion.

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Yesterday I mentioned that I made a date square for my Mum for Mother's Day. This was my first time making the recipe from How it all Vegan!, and I definitely approved. Yummy! I'm glad I sent most of the slice home with her, though, because today I ate 3 pieces of it. So good!

Date Square

Filling:

1 cup water

2 cups pitted dates, chopped

1/2 tsp salt

Crust:

4 cups rolled oats

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup margarine

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup water, if needed

Preheat oven to 350.

In a small saucepan, bring the water to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium and add the dates and 1/2 tsp salt. Simmer until the dates are soft and will mix easily with the water. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the oats, flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. Add the margarine and oil, and stir together until well combined. If the crust is too dry, add the water (I definitely did).

Press half of the mixture into the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan. Spread the date mixture over top. Sprinkle with remaining crust mixture.

Cook for 25-40 minutes, until the top is lightly browned and tender. The crust will harden as it cools, so cut it into slices before it gets to difficult.

My Mother's Day, in many photos.

My Mother's Day was fantastic from start to finish. I took about a million photos to remember each moment with, and here are some of them. :)

As I mentioned earlier, I got breakfast in bed. It was amazingly good.. you could just taste the love that went into it. There is nothing sweeter than having your children and husband make something especially for you. I enjoyed every bite I had, and even those that I shared with a certain little someone or two (coughRhiannacoughTiernancough) or even three (Scootie cat 'shared' my toast with me.. she loves margarine and she's too sweet to say no to, so she licked a slice). I even enjoyed the bites that were ruined by the orange juice flood after Kyle accidently knocked my glass over onto my plate. Haha! I may not have eaten those bites, but I appreciated every single one of them.

Nothing beats the company I had in bed while I ate it either. ♥

I got some beautiful handmade cards from all three kids. This is the front of the one from Ave. Avery is not one to enjoy card making, so for him to go ahead and make one without being prompted? That means the world to me. He doesn't enjoy drawing or spelling... he'd rather be out playing sports. I LOVE that he drew the two of us holding hands since he really doesn't do that with me anymore.

Awww. What a sweet boy he is. He may be full on into the almost teen years (hello, eye rolling!), but he's still a really good kid.

I love Tiernan's attention to detail! The rainbow's colours, the height between us, the words 'red' and 'blue' being written in those colours, the heart instead of an 'o' in love. He's so thoughtful. I also love that he signed the back with 'love, TBone'. :D

Rhianna, in true Rhianna form, made me two cards. She made one at school (as well as the cutest CD photo), and then came home and made one more. This is the inside of the one she made me at home. So sweet! I love the little cut out hearts and extra messages.

This is the front of Rhianna's school card. How I wish I had lips like that! ;)

The letter she wrote for me on the inside brought tears to my eyes. Heck, all of the cards did that. I'm a big ol' sap.

And my most amazing husband gave me the most beautiful card I've ever seen. A perfectly beautiful card, and a perfectly beautiful day.

After breakfast and morning chores, I helped Rhianna with her school project of a map of her neighbourhood while I baked some date square for my Mum. She loves date square (as do I.. and all my kids I later came to find out!), but never makes it because my Dad can't stand it. Seemed like a perfect Mother's Day surprise. :) I meant to take a picture of a slice and put up the recipe on here, but blanked out. I'll add it to tomorrow's blog post.

We sat outside on the back porch for hours watching the birds. Okay, the kids sat for a while, but then went to ride bikes. Kyle and I on the other hand? We enjoyed every second on our porch. I was taking pictures of robins (and morning doves and crows and chickadees...)... but more importantly....

... I was waiting for birds to find my new bird feeder that Kyle and the kids bought me for Mother's Day!!! Oh, I am one happy woman. :) If I ever go missing you'll likely find me on my back porch. I love birds so much, and could watch them all day long. When this little sparrow landed and I managed to get a photo (or 15!), I was giddy!

One more bird picture because I can't resist. This grackle was fun to observe. He stood on my neighbour's chimney keeping watch and communicating with all the other grackles in the area. Very, very cool to listen to their wide array of calls.

My parents came over and Kyle cooked up his specialty - crepes! Oh my, you have not lived until you have eaten Kyle's crepes. Everyone loves them. People try them, and then they keep coming back for more. They really are that good. Anyway, we ate crepes, and then we headed to the 'cheese park' for a little while. I figured it was fitting to get a picture of me with my own mama. :)

After my folks left, the kids went into their rooms for some quiet reading time so Kyle and I could watch the latest Doctor Who episode, and then we brought the kids out of bed to watch the two hour season finale of the Amazing Race. What a way to cap off my day!

And because without this guy....

... or this guy....

... or these two, I wouldn't have been a Mummy in the first place. So a big thank you for being so wonderful, for making my job so easy, and for all your love you show me. Today was awesome. I couldn't have asked for a better day. I love you!

I love being a mummy!

What a beautiful morning! I'm currently sitting in bed with my blinds and window open, listening to the birds singing and my wind chime gently jingling. The sky is clear blue, the breeze is gentle and whispers promises of a wonderful day. Inside my house I hear some busy little bees whipping up a surprise Mother's Day breakfast for me which will be served to me in bed. I may not know what it is, but I sure know that something smells delicious! This is our Mother's Day tradition every year. I sleep in (or at least lay in) until they bring me my breakfast in bed. Each child picks out one item for me to eat.. something they know I love. I still remember the year that I ended up with pancakes (Avery), chips and dip (Rhianna) and some fruit slices (Tiernan). It was so sweet it brought tears to my eyes. I get the feeling that this year will not bring any chips and dip. ;)

My sister Carole came by yesterday with her friend Audrey. I hadn't seen Audrey since Tiernan & Grayson celebrated their first birthdays! That was in 2002. Time flies, but she hasn't changed one iota. She's still sweet, quiet, kind and has a fantastic laugh. We took a walk down to the "cheese park" (as my kids love to call it) and Carole and Rhianna were able to have some bonding time on the swings. It's not often that an Auntie can bond with a niece or nephew since there are often cousins around. And let's face it... Cousins > Aunties. It's just the way it goes. I'm very glad they were able to come over.

Food was a disaster yesterday. It was one of those days where it seemed like I couldn't do anything right in the kitchen. I made a dish that I got from a friend of mine and I don't know what I did wrong, but it was definitely not a hit for us. I may try making it again, but tweaking it to our tastes. I was glad that my sister and her friend didn't end up staying for dinner once I was sitting down eating. Tiernan was the only one who really liked the meal. At least the cucumber salad and buns were really good, right? It was also Date Night In. We watched 127 Hours (OMG!) and ate the Fudgey Brownie I made from The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes. I didn't expect the brownie to be so... gooey, so I ended up over cooking it a bit. The edges were too crispy, but the centre was delicious. It wasn't what I would expect from a brownie, but tasty all the same.

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Fudgey Brownie

3/4 cup flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

6 tbsp margarine

1/3 cup plus 1/2 cup chocolate chips, divided

1/4 cup baking cocoa

2 tbsp ground flaxseed

1/3 cup water

1 cup sugar

2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease an 8x8 inch baking pan.

In a small bowl sift together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

Heat 1/3 cup chocolate chips, margarine and cocoa over low heat (it suggests double boiler, but I just take time with it instead). Stir until smooth. Set aside to cool slightly.

In a large bowl, mix ground flaxseed with water with a handheld mixer for about 2 minutes until it's a little gooey. Add the chocolate mixture, and mix until combined. Add the sugar and vanilla and beat again. Add the dry ingredients, and beat until thoroughly mixed. Stir in the remaining chocolate chips.

Pour into the baking dish. Cook for about 30-35 minutes. The crust should be flaky on the top. Don't overcook it like me!

Let it cool for 30 minutes on a cooling rack.

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And now I hear my busy bees coming with my breakfast in bed! Perfect timing.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL MY MUMMY FRIENDS AND FAMILY.

Coraline, Punky Brewster and Pretzel Bites!

Friday, Friday, Fri-day! Friday, Friday, Fri-day! Oh yes, indeed! Hello, weekend! Hello, fun!

Friday means Fun Food, right? That was indeed the case today. I made some pretzel bites that I found on Vegan Dad's blog. They're basically little veggie dogs wrapped in pretzel dough. The kids loved them, and since that was the point, I'm sure I'll be making them again. I served them with fries and some curried mayo that Kyle whipped up, some fruit (canteloupe, honeydew melon, and pineapple) and pickles. Interesting combo, I know. I definitely didn't get through much from my plate - my appetite is terrible now that I'm sick. Everyone else polished everything off, though. For Family Movie Night we watched Coraline (I was the only one who had seen it) followed up by the best show EVERRRRR! I found a Punky Brewster Disc 1, Season 1 at a thrift store here in town and squealed with delight. I couldn't wait to share it with the kids. Turns out they love it just as much as me. We watched three episodes tonight, and will likely finish it off tomorrow sometime.

I even had some leftover dough to make a pretzel for each of us. :)

Tomorrow was supposed to be incredibly busy, but now it looks like two of the activities from our to-do list have been postponed for other days. I'm certainly not complaining. This will give me some more time to try to shake this crazy cough of mine. I am looking forward to my sister Carole and her good friend (almost lifelong!) Audrey coming over. Hopefully the weather forecast is right and tomorrow is a beautiful day.

Happy weekend, friends!