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Hey guys,

Sorry I let this blog go for so long. It's been busy and stressful around here for many reasons and I haven't had a chance to blog in a while.

I promise to get blogging again very soon!

Hope you all had an awesome Halloween!

Guess What?

I'm very excited to let you all know that we are expecting another baby in March!

Jars and Jars of Tomato!

Our tomatoes seemed to take forever to ripen but one day they suddenly turned red. All of them. And they have stopped. We can hardly keep up with all the tomatoes. We actually pulled out 2 whole plants because they were just taking over the garden and all our time.

Daphne is very skilled at picking tomatoes and she loves to help!

Thankfully for us my mom offered to can them for us so we got 5 big jars of garden tomatoes! 

Check out my moms blog at readymadecosmos.blogspot.com. She has a post up about the jarring process!

Vegan Tofu Coconut Curry

A fast and easy vegan curry for a week night meal. I always start by toasting the chickpeas so they are a little crunchy but you don't have to. Infact, if you skip the roasting and add chickpeas straight from the can this recipe takes even less time.

Start by adding extra firm tofu, chickpeas and spices (curry powder, turmeric, garam masala, chili powder, chili flakes, s&p) to a large pan with some oil and cook for 5-7 minutes. I never measure my spices... I throw them in to taste but usually I am heaviest on turmeric as I like that metallic flavour it has. Weird, I know.

Then you add one can of shaken coconut milk and half a small can (like 2 tablespoons) of tomato paste. Let it simmer for a few minutes and the add chopped garlic. I used 3-5 large cloves but I'm pretty much made of garlic. The flavour cooks out a lot but it's still obviously garlicy so add whatever amount you would feel comfortable with.

I also roasted the cauliflower to give it a little extra flavour before I added it to the curry. About 10 minutes at 400C. You can skip this step to save time, as well, just by chopping the cauliflower florets pretty small and letting it simmer in the curry (lid on) for 10 or so minutes.

Serve with basmati rice or naan. It thickens up nicely and you can control how much sauce is left by cooking with the lid on or off.

I have't been much into meat lately...and by that I mean I have gone back to my glory days as a vegetarian. I was meatless for about 15 years before I got married. It has given me some motivation to find new and exciting meatless dishes. This one was a real winner. There was obviously no meat in it but the tofu soaks up so much curry flavour you can't really tell what is is :P 

And for $2.79 worth of tofu we had two dinner portions and 3 meals left over for lunches...can't beat the meatless savings.

Pumpkin Patch

We were driving past a pumpkin patch the other day and I mentioned how much I love pumpkins.

Will said "it's gourd-geous"

......................................................

Playtime at the park!

Progress in Lady D's Room

We finally got Daphne's room painted! Settled on mauve for the walls after 2 or 3 last minute changes of mind. It looks great and it's going to go perfectly with the decor I've picked out so far.

Still have a few more things to pick up but we have lots of time. Thankfully my parents have a dresser that they are no longer using and is already painted the colour we want. Thanks ma and pa!

We still don't have the floors installed. It's been 3 weeks since they were ordered so I think the company is just dragging there feet at this point. I was ok with the delay cause it made it easier to paint without having to worry about the floors. But now that the walls are all done I'm a little perturbed. I'm gonna pull out my best "don't fuck with me" voice and see how quickly they get done. Wish me luck!

Once the floors are done the contractors will be back to install the trim, electrical stuff and ceiling light. Then we can finally start moving stuff in. Everything is living in our room right now and I'm getting pretty sick of looking at it scattered everywhere!

Chickpea/Sweet Potato Buddha Bowls!

I finally got around to making those buddha bowls I talked about like 2 months ago. Roasted sweet potato, onion, broccoli and kale. Crispy and spicy chickpeas. All topped with a light yogurt and lemon dressing.

It was almost too easy. It's literally just a giant bowl of vegetables. I've made this a few times since I finally tried it out. I love a big bowl of such colourful veggies!

Yum

Basil Overload

We can hardly keep up with our basil this year! It's terrfic. We love pesto and there has been no shortage.

It's really too bad Daphne doesn't like pesto pasta.

Just kidding!

Pesto is a full body experience for Daphne :P

Vegan Chocolate Cake (and less than vegan buttercream)

I'm not a vegan, nor do I play one on tv. I'm only trying this cake because you can make it all in the cake pan and it looks super easy. And I'm always up for trying new things.

I didn't end up making this in the cake pan, though. It was easier to mix in a big bowl and I don't mind doing one extra dish. If that is the cost of chocolate cake I am in!

So your supposed to mix all your dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt) in your pan or a bowl and then make three indents. Fill one with vanilla, one with oil and one with vinegar. Then you dump a cup of water over the top and mix until it's smooth.

Here it is before it goes into the oven.

And here it is after baking at 350 for 35 minutes. The house smells amazing! I made a coffee and cinnamon butter cream.....just to ensure this "vegan" cake wasn't so vegan anymore.

I think she liked it.

Planning Daphne's New Room!

We had always planned to move Daphne into the other room eventually. With the unexpected renovation we had a little push to get it done.

One of my inspo pics

My inspiration for her room was for it to be super clean and modern. I want you to walk in and known this is a toddlers room, cause of the toys, but take those out and it could be a teenagers room, or even a guest room.

Lot's of white, pale pink on the walls, and some gold accents. I found some gold circle wall decals on amazon that will work perfectly. Shout out to Heather for the idea!

We are trying to do this room really cheaply. So we cheaped out on a few things that we can replace later with better quality. For example; the curtain rods have plastic ends instead of metal (they cost $8), I'm reusing 2 lamps we already own, we are repainting a bedside table so we don't have to buy a new one...stuff like that.

I'm very excited to get this room going. I'll probably post some updates on our progress or possibly just the finished room. I do hope to have it done before the end of the year.

Lemony Paneer Curry

I saw this recipe at CURRY AND SPICE a few days ago and I put it in the back of my mind for something to try. Our grocery store doesn't sell paneer and although I have made it before I enjoy the convenience of it already being made for me. So I waited until we were able to get into the "big city" and picked some up.


Head over to CURRY AND SPICE to see a more detailed recipe.

I have had mixed results with recipes where the tomatoes are supposed to "melt" but this one seemed to work out very well. I tried to follow the recipe she posted exactly but I don't have lemon or lime leaves so I just used a peeled the rind off a lemon and let that cook in the sauce for a bit.




Turned out really well. I made it exactly as she wrote it (other than the lemon and lime leaves) and there are a couple of tweaks I would make to suit us. Next time I would probably make it with chicken as well. Paneer is hard to find and the store bought stuff isn't that good. I also think it could have used just a little bit of spice. Just a kiss of heat at the end.

Will definitely make this recipe again. Took probably 20 minutes total to make, which is perfect for those night it takes 2 hours for your daughter to go to sleep and it's all of a sudden 9:45pm and your like "guess we should eat something."

I love these summer days...

These summer days are the best.

We had a leisurely breakfast follow by colouring pretty much everything I would allow her to colour. Then we read every single book we own....twice.

A quick snack of apples and she was on the go again. Outside this time to get some play in before the UV got too high. Sliding, running through the sprinkler, investigating the garden. It was a lovely day. Really hot and sunny but the humidex wasn't as bad as it had been.

After at least an hour Daphne started to slow down and eventually crawled over to mom for a snuggle. So we came inside for some Paw Patrol and a snack. She chugged a big glass of lemonade and was ready for her nap.

The afternoon consisted of laps around the kitchen, endless Itsy Bitsy Spider/Wheels on the Bus/If Your Happy and You Know It renditions, and of course more colouring.

Excitement for when dad arrives home...and he even bought me a book I had been looking for. What a swell guy.

Grilled cheese for the lady and artichoke linguine for the larger humans. Daphne always heads to bed around 7pm and I always feel like I could follow right behind. I managed to stay up and watch some Olympics with the hubz before passing out.

These days go by too quickly...the summer will be gone before we know it :(

Nature Baby

There is a trail I used to go to with my parents called Mill of Kintail. It has a few real hiking trails and a nice easy loop for those less coordinated. We took D there for a little run around and she had a BLAST!

It was almost impossible to get a picture of her face. She was an actual blur of activity the whole time. It was great though. Took about 40 minutes to get those tiny legs around the smaller-easy loop but I think it's safe to say we will be going back