Preparing for the Christmas Season

Well, the holidays will soon be upon us, and one of the things I wanted/needed to get done was an advent calendar for my niece and nephew. I thought it would be a good idea to share this years advent calendar version now, in case anyone wanted to use the idea. I'm quite pleased with it. I've also got the pastry bug in my system, which is pleasing Phatdogg to no end. The trick I've found, and may have mentioned before, is to include any pastries in with my grain/veggie servings. Oh, and not to go overboard too. I highly recommend going to the various sites of the brands of ingredients you may have lying around, for example Robin Hood. I found a great oatmeal cookie recipe there that included wheat germ and a lot of other healthy ingredients.
So, the advent calendar is simple and if I do say so myself, ingenious. Doubtful I'm the first to think of it, but I didn't find anything like it on the web when I searched for ideas. I did find this idea http://zombieandprejudice.blogspot.com/2009/11/getting-crafty-with-it-homemade-advent.html and may do it in the future, if not for an advent calendar, maybe for Lent.
The Hershey Kisses rose bud has been around for a while, so I made up 24 and put a corresponding date on the leaf. I arranged them in a decorative plant holder, the chocolate for the 25th is underneath them all and a bit larger. The cello wrap for them is a Santa print, but a combination of red and green, or multi-colours would be great too. The best thing is, they also can look like led lights, so using pipe cleaners to attach them together and numbering the cello wrap would work well too I think.

Experiment will continue, not sure the Blog will...

In the beginning, finding topics to talk about was easy. I have found it difficult to come up with something to talk about, and Phatdogg is blogged out. I certainly do not wish to bore anyone with menial details. I could continue with updates on dishes and recipes I find and try out, but I don't feel that is necessarily connected to staying on CFG. We are committed to maintaining the dietary requirements of the food guide, but it's pretty much same-o same-o. I think that for now, I will leave the blog up, and if I come across those recipes or dishes that may interest you I will put up a post. I apologize that we won't be blogging more frequently, but I can assure everyone, I love following Canada's Food Guide, and have no desire to end it.

Chugging along...

Much like the trains that chug through our community we are chugging along with CFG. With the holidays behind us, we've worked our way back into a nice routine. Actually, the routine is kinda boring. Today is shopping day, and we will be loading up on fruits and veg, and I will try to find our source of meat servings for the week. Typically, I have been buying one large type of meat, be it a roast, a chicken etc. , which serves us for 3-4 days. (We supplement with meat alternatives for a few of our meals during the week too). The cost of meat can be quite outrageous, and as tasty as those steaks and fillets look, they would only offer us one serving. Last weeks roast beef, provided serving options of sandwiches, roast beef with veg and rice sides, and if I do say so myself, 3 truly amazing homemade beef & veggie pot pies. I took a photo of the pies after I made them from scatch, but no other photos, what was I thinking? So I will just have to make them again the next time roast beef is up for the week, and make sure I document the preparation etc. for your viewing pleasure.
What I find I am missing right now is the variety of fruit that we enjoyed over the summer. Now is the time for all the wonderful root veggies to grace our plates, but we do enjoy berries. Frozen are okay, but nothing beats fresh. This is also the time for soups, and I have a number of yummy soups in mind, ham and lentil, cauliflower with corn, broccoli with chicken. I will keep you posted on those as well.
For now, I think I may consider pulled pork for this week's meaty option. Mmmm, pulled pork.