Soup and Salad, anyone?

Yesterday I made butternut squash soup (as per the meal plan for this week) and it was AMAZING! Seriously, I am not a gigantic fan of butternut squash, but this soup was gourmet (in the words of my friend Jen). I would DEFINITELY make it again and on top of it all, I bought a hand mixer that you just mix right in the pot to save time and unecessary dirtying of pots and pans. So I'm pumped to make my own soup a lot more as well as salad dressings and fun stuff like that. (Yes, there is ravioli in the soup - the recipe called for it and so I did and it tasted delish as well as filling me up more than just having a bowl of soup).

comments from my last post

I should have predicted this question. :)

Anonymous said...

hmmm... have you considered the position of McCain supports war which is also killing / murdering innocent people?

10:36 PM

Vanessa said...

Thank you Anonymous for being brave enough to leave your name. :)

Actually this is THE MOST common thing I've heard and while I'm not pro-war by any means the death of innocent people due to war is not the final aim of war. Civilian casualties are considered accidents and as I said, the death of civilians are not the intent of any war.

The final aim of abortion IS the murdering of innocent people. AND the number of babies murdered EVERY SINGLE DAY in the US is over 4000.

So if I have to pick between someone who is pro murdering 1.5 million innocent babies every year or someone who is pro war (civilian casualties for this war approx 100,000 per year)...well, I'm going to go with the one who is pro war.

But that's just me.

Abortion and the election

I want to write something about the US Elections. And specifically abortion. Sigh. But it weighs far too heavy on my heart. But here I go.

All I know is that I could never vote for someone who is in favour of abortion. It absolutely breaks my heart.
I admit I don't know everything. John McCain is not perfect and to be honest I don't really know too much of what he stands for. But I admit that the issue of abortion is one that for me is enough to cause me to NOT vote for someone. I'm not necessarily a supporter of John McCain, but I can say with certainty that if I were a US citizen, I couldn't vote for Barack Obama.

As I write this it is projected that Barack Obama will be the next president of the United States of America. I have mixed feelings. There is no doubt that Obama is charismatic. It's clear that he wants to bring something new to table and to change the face of the United States. But will it be for the better? I really don't know. Only time will really tell.

meal planning update

Meal plan update:
Monday's meal wasn't mexican because I didn't get a chance to actually GO TO THE GROCERY STORE so instead I made a Cheesy Chicken & Squash casserole - I made it up and it actually tasted GOOD. I'm not very good at "making up" my own recipes so I am quite proud of myself. We had leftovers for lunch today.
Today I got to the groery store so we are having beef stew as planned. It smells GOO-OOD (that's 2 syllables for those of you who were wondering).
Tomorrow I will attempt to make stuffed shells (with pork) so we'll see how that goes.
Thursday is Jamie's birthday so I'm saving salmon for another day and Jamie and I will go out somewhere (I think).
Friday will be soup and salad as planned but Food Basics didn't have any Butternut squash!!! This is precisely why I shop at Zehrs. They are more expensive, but they have everything I need and it's all DELISH. :)

Also, I'm pretty darn excited that I used up my nasty-looking (I mean...slightly old?) carrots in the stew. They're fine if I cut off the things at the end and peel them, right?
:)

stop me now

I honestly think I could eat 1 Reece's peanut butter cup every 5 minutes for the rest of my life and not get sick of them.

thinking ahead

I just ordered our Christmas card online. I know. It's November 3rd and I'm WAY too excited about this but it's pretty much our nicest Christmas greeting EVER. PUMPED. :) It's a photo and a card all mixed into one.
I figure I'm way ahead of the game now and should have plenty 'o time to sort out addresses and stamps and all that good stuff. :)

meal planning

I'm attempting to start doing a weekly meal plan. I've realized that in life I am really good and starting new things - it's persevering to the end that I often fail at.
So we'll see how long this lasts.
I'm going to try having a category for each day and then changing up the recipes (because I, a) like trying new recipes and b) get bored with the same thing every week).
So these are the categories I'm trying for this month:

Monday: Mexican food
Tuesday: crock pot
Wednesday: Pasta
Thursday: fish
Friday: soup & salad
Saturday: something easy
Sunday: free for all

I may change up the categories, but these are the ones I will use for the month of November.
For this week my meal plan is as follows:

Monday: chicken fajitas
Tuesday: beef stew
Wednesday: stuffed pasta shells (potentially pork or turkey)
Thursday: maple-glazed salmon
Friday: Butternut squash with ravioli soup and probably an Apple & Spinach salad with Cheese
Saturday: we're out of town
Sunday...scrounge up whatever we can find

So we'll see how this goes. I think this will accomplish a few important things:
1. Eating better - not eating junk or poorly because it's already planned
2. No last minute fumbling around and stress to figure out what's for dinner
3. appropriate grocery lists and eating what is in the fridge
4. Hopefully saving money since only buying what we'll eat.

Now what to do with all this left-over Halloween candy......

lens

I got one! I got one! I got one! Now all I needs is a camera bag. :)

tangible

I think I REALLY want one of these.
My creative juices are starting to flow again and I'm dying to snap away!
In this digital age, I'm craving something more tangible. Changing film, waiting for it to develop, getting your pictures back and looking through them in the hopes that some of them turned out.
Hmm...maybe....we'll see.

LOL (for real)

Oh how I love The Office. In every episode (usually) there is at least ONE line that makes me laugh out loud and long enough to miss what's happening for the following 30 seconds.
When today's episode gets posted online I'll post the part that made me laugh tonight.

Google Maps

A huge step forward for Google Maps.
I just printed out directions for a place in Kitchener that I have never been to and the very last direction stated that I needed to turn Right and that MY DESTINATION WAS ON MY LEFT!!!! This is life changing. (Perhaps on the smaller end of the life changing continuum.) How many times have I wondered if my destination was on my left or my right!?!??!
I *heart* Google.

27

So today was my birthday. I woke up grumpy because I didn't want to have to change Noah's diaper, but unfortunately for me, Jamie doesn't read minds. I changed the diaper.
BUT then Jamie played with and fed Noah and I went back to bed. I got scrambied eggs and bacon for breakfast and a new pair of Emus.
Tonight Jamie and I went out for dessert at the new Symposium restaurant (and had $11/glass wine for only $4 - well Jamie did anyway. I went for the Aussie $6/glass). After a delicious and decadent dessert we went across the street to Chapters to mill about, but before we got into Chapters we noticed our old car in the parking lot!!! We knew it was our old Civic because it had the Ron Jon Surf Shop sticker still in the exact same spot on the bumper. It was kinda funny and sad to see it again. We had so many great memories in that car!
When we got home I was hoping to see Alana (our babysitter) on the couch but alas. She was not. Darn. I knew Noah wouldn't stay asleep the ONE night we go out. He's been sleeping just fine when we're home...dang. He's still having trouble settling down. :(
Happy Birthday to me.
27 sounds...old. I don't feel 27. I feel....23. I think. I'm okay with getting older. I don't really worry about it too much. It's just weird. Time keeps a-passing and I understand now how old people can't remember how old they are. "I'm in my 70's I think".
I still hesitate when I give my age. "Am I 26 or 27? I'm pretty sure I'm not 25 anymore...."
All in all, a good day. COLD. But good.
This time last year I was VERY pregnant. And it was like 25 degrees or something.

missing $

Whoa. I just checked my bank account online and saw that I my account was not where it should be. I was all like, what the?
Quickly checked the recent transactions and saw that there were TWO withdrawls of $500 each. SOMEONE STOLE $1000 from me. Called my bank. I gotta call another place tomorrow morning for the fraud on my card. Freaky stuff, but apparently I'll get it back.
How does that happen? My card (and Jamie's card) is still with me. No one stole my card but they were able to steal the info and somehow make a card to take out the cash? I have no idea about how any of this stuff works. There is a big, bad world out there that I have zero clue about.

The Shack

This summer while in Tanzania I was listening to a sermon by Mark Driscoll - I think on the subject of the trinity. He made a quick comment about a book called The Shack and quickly shared his concerns that this was hitting the Christian community, people were gobbling it up and there were some heretical statements in the book. He encouraged his church NOT to read it.
Now of course my curiosity was piqued. One of the girls with us in Africa happened to have it and lent it to me after she was done. I read it. I was swept away by the emotions (powerful and raw) and the story (heartbreaking and tragic) of the book. But I was torn. At the very same time there were some things that felt wrong and bothered me in my heart. Vague statements that alluded to Unitarianism and weird personifications. I've never felt that reading a book before. Being so torn about what I actually feel about it after I've put it down.
When I got home I started hearing more and more about it. Rave reviews. Scathing reviews. I've seen so many people I know read it, love it, and recommend it.
In the end, I don't know that I'd recommend it to very many people. There are too many tricky things in there and as my cousin (in-law?) said on his blog:
"Certainly there is some good teaching in The Shack, but there is so much bad teaching that it becomes a chore to sort out the good from the bad, and you need to ask yourself why it is a good idea to read a book where you will have to spend so much time sifting the wheat from the chaff (and there’s quite a bit of chaff to sift!)."
I also listened to a sermon that Tim (Jamie's cousin) recommends at the end of his blog post on The Shack which you can listen to here. Think very carefully about what you read, even if it is, "just a novel".
*On a side note, I feel like I could go on and on about how concerned I am about so many people loving and recommending this book, but I think there is already far too much hype about this book and I need to let it be and move on. Just check out Tim's blog post (it's lengthy but so good) for more resources and Biblical thoughts on this book.

mirror, mirror on the wall

I've been thinking about getting a mirror for our front entrance (our only entrance I guess...unless you're into scaling 4 storey buildings). Currently it has this:
But sometimes it's nice to look at yourself as you head out the door because who knows? You may have broccoli in your teeth, or a cheerio stuck in your hair...
So I've got my eye on a few, like this one or maybe this one.