A Weekend: One for the Books

This past weekend, Christopher and I had nothing to do and nowhere to go; the weather forecast was looking windy and cold, so we planned ahead by cleaning the house on Thursday, and getting groceries on Friday.  After the cleaning, we had a really easy dinner of canned mushroom soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.

Once we were home on Friday evening and had unloaded the groceries, we prepared a tray of nachos and got cozy on the couch with Diagnosis, and new episodes of Working Moms.

We were warm, comfortable, and settled in for the weekend.

It wasn't long before we were falling asleep, so we called it a night.  On Saturday morning I made a batch of my favourite overnight oats (they don't actually need to be left overnight):

Once we were done breakfast and coffee, we got to work on making a batch of perogies.  The filling was mashed potato, mashed beet, fresh dill, and goat cheese.

 

A loaded plate of them for lunch (sour cream, simulated bacon bits, green onion, sriracha):

All afternoon we listened to music, watched The Pursuit (a really interesting documentary about capitalism), episodes of Unnatural Selection (a docuseries about biohacking), and more Diagnosis (an intense docuseries about unsolved medical mysteries; it makes me cry).

On Saturday evening, we whipped up a batch of copycat Panera broccoli and cheddar soup.

That evening we watched Chance the Rapper on Saturday Night Live.

A while back we made pumpkin pancakes and froze the leftovers.  On Sunday morning we just popped these into the toaster, whipped some cream, and sat down to a lovely breakfast.

Breakfast took such little time, and we were up quite early, so the day felt really long, which was absolutely glorious, especially since we had woken up to a layer of snow outside.

I started and finished this book on Sunday, and absolutely loved it!

Christopher worked on his music (he's combining live bass with electronic music that he's making on a free tablet he got from work years ago).

And he read a good chunk of this book; he can hardly put it down.

We listened to tunes and decided we'd listen to each record we own, one by one throughout the winter.

I read through the newest issue of Food Network Magazine and tore out all the recipes that sounded good.  I have too many of these in a drawer, all stacked up, along with every other recipe we have.  I see an organization project in the future!  

All afternoon we had a pot of smokey, hearty chili simmering on the stove.

It was the perfect meal to ease into this wintry weather.

We ate dinner early, so we still had the whole evening ahead of us - ahhhh.  Now that's what I call a weekend.

I love getting up early so the days feel extra long.

How was your weekend?  Did you get snow?

What are you reading?

We want Chilly Willy!!

When we make chili ...

 
It's usually a freezing cold day.

We soak a bean/lentil mixture overnight.

We don't follow a recipe, but we usually use onions, garlic, celery or mushrooms, hot peppers, ground beef, diced tomatoes, other tomato product we might have on hand, beans and a lot of spices.

If we have green onions, cheese, or sour cream, those find their way on top.

We find something to dip in it.  This is especially easy if we have some slightly overcooked cornbread left from the weekend.

Someone goes back for seconds.

 
Wouldn't you?

We eat until we're stuffed, and look into the pot hopeful for leftovers.

We breath a sigh of relief and smile - there are leftovers.

Then the late night wheels begin turning in Jolene's mind, and she starts thinking that chili cheese dogs would make a really good late night snack this weekend ... just sayin'.

Finish the sentence:  When I/we make chili ...

Vegetarian Meal #8 of 10

Okay ... after reading your comments to yesterday's post, I totally feel boring in the popcorn department! You guys put some crazy, yet interesting things on your popcorn! What I am wondering is, what made you want to try new flavourings for the first time?? Are you really that adventurous!? I am a chicken, and never venture beyond the butter or margarine world. Hence, my boring popcorn last night:

You know how a few weeks ago I woke up to snow ...
Well that is all gone now. It was nearly hot last weekend.
And this morning I woke up to pouring rain! This is Saskatchewan weather for ya!

So when it is pouring rain, and cool, and dark, breakfast can only be one thing ...
OATS!



(1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond breeze, 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup oats, homemade pumpkin butter, and pumpkin seeds)

I had a mid-morning glo-bar snack:



Then for lunch I had perogies:



And the terrible two:


(old Cheddar and pears go fabulously together).

I have had more of an appetite than usual today, and by 3:30 I was haaaaaangry!
I had my 2nd LARA Bar:



This one was even more delicious than the last. I am so happy I finally tried these bars.
They are a little on the sweet side, and since I don't have a sweet tooth, I can only eat about 1/2 at a time - but I do love 'em.

Dinner was Vegetarian Meal #8 of 10

Red Tofu and Bean Chili

Ingredients:

- 2 t olive oil
- 3 cups chopped onion
- 1/4 cup chili powder
- 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 2 minced garlic cloves
- 3 cups veggie stock
- 1 can kidney beans, drained
- 1 can black beans, drained
- 1 can chopped tomatoes, drained
- 1 can mushrooms
- 1/2 block extra firm tofu
- Cheddar cheese to sprinkle on before serving

Directions:

• Heat oil, add onion, saute 5 min.
• Add spices, and saute 30 seconds
• Add stock, beans, tomatoes, bring to a boil
• Add tofu and mushrooms
• Simmer about 45 min. or 1 hr.
• Sprinkle shredded cheese on top before serving

I just realized that I didn't eat very many fruits/ veggies today. Guess that means I should have a GM tomorrow morning.

I really try to get my veggies in everyday, but some days (like today) I realize that it just didn't happen. No sweat. I will just have more tomorrow :-)

How do you maintain balance in your diet? Do you strive for a certain # of servings of the different food groups, or just eat what you feel like eating?