Meatless Monday: Lentil Loaf

Today, we had a Meatless Monday! 🙂 I have been slowly introducing the children to Lentil & Beans. It hasn’t been a favourite, but all the children are eager to try at least one bite! I made up this Lentil Loaf recipe as I went along, but the kids and I thought it turned out great!! 🙂 I combined a lentil loaf recipe & my tried & true meatloaf recipe. This is what I came up with:

2/3 cup Lentils
1.5 cups Water
1 cup Rolled Oats
1 Egg
1/2 cup Chicken Broth (Homemade)
1/2 tsp Basil
1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
1/2 tbsp Parsley
2 Individual Packets Dry Lipton Beef Vegetable Soup Mix
Shredded Cracker Barrel Marble Cheese

First, bring lentils and water to a boil, and simmer until lentils are soft. (about 40 minutes) Then, add all other ingredients (except cheese). Mix well. Spoon into a greased muffin tin. Bake at 400F for 40 minutes. Sprinkle cheese on top. Bake another 10 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. I put this into a muffin pan, instead of a loaf pan, so that the children would each have an individual loaf. But, you could also bake it in a loaf pan.

For more information on cooking with pulses please check out the Manitoba Pulse Growers website. Under the Consumer menu, there is information on where to buy pulses, how to cook with them, and also some recipes.

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Canned Beans

What better way to celebrate Food Day Canada than by canning beans grown in my own garden! For more info on Food Day Canada check out this webpage. The daycare children and I planted a garden this spring. We enjoyed learning about all the different seeds. The children liked planting the “big” seeds the best!

All summer, we have been watering our garden, and pulling the weeds. This past week, we’ve been picking the beans, and tipping & tailing them. Since it’s cool today, I figured it would be a great day to can the beans. My Mom & Grandma have been using this recipe for years!

After tipping, & tailing & cutting the beans, the next step is to blanch the beans. You do this first by covering them with water, and bring it to a boil. Then you pour off the water, and cool the beans with cold water.

After measuring the beans, you add 2 tsp Pickling salt, and 2 tbsp Vinegar for every 4 cups beans. Cover the beans with boiling water, and boil for 20 minutes. Place beans & water in sterile jars.

Finished!!!!!! 🙂 Can’t wait to eat these beans in the middle of winter, and remind the children of all the work that we did to grow & can them!

Honey takes swelling out of wasp sting

Tonight, while mowing my Grandparent’s grass, I got stung twice by a wasp. The first sting was on my wrist, the second on my cheek.

Of course, being me, I immediately started going in to shock! It felt like I had walked into a freezer, and I started shaking. Once I got into the house, Grandma told me that I should put some honey on the stings to help with the swelling. We immediately put some honey on band-aids and put them on the stings. I didn’t get any before pics, as I was kinda trying to ward off shock! 🙂 The spot of both stings had a welt the size of my thumb nail. However, 3 hours later, I took the band-aids off, and I discovered other than a VERY tiny pin prick red mark, there was NO other swelling or welting!

So, if you get stung by a bee, wasp, or hornet try putting honey on it! 🙂

EDIT: There was no swelling, however, in the days that followed my wrist was fairly itchy.

Fabric Covered Bulletin Board

Have you ever look at your bulletin board and wished that it looked more stylish? When I painted my office space, I really didn’t want to put my ragedy old bulletin board back on the wall. After searching Pinterest, I stumbled across a couple ideas of glueing fabric onto the bulletin board. I, of course, had to try this out for my self.

First Step: Paint the trim (I used left-over latex paint)

Second Step: Cut fabric to the size of the bulletin board (I cut it slightly larger than the inside measurement of the frame). Then spray glue onto the board, and smooth the fabric onto the board.

Step Three: After the fabric was in place, I used a butter knife, and pushed the fabric edges underneath the frame of the bulletin board. I left it over night to give it extra time to dry.

Step Four: The next evening, I hung it on the wall…..

See what you think…..

It’s so pretty I don’t even want to put my papers, and tacks back on it! 🙂 I plan on making some stylish push pins to go with my stylish board by glueing buttons to flat push pins. But, that requires a trip to my Grandma’s house, to dig through 82 years of old buttons! (Can’t Wait!!!!!)

Hour Bread Recipe

I’ve been making my own bread for about a year now. People keep asking me how I have the time to bake bread, and honestly I’m a little embarassed to admit but my bread recipe only takes about 1 hour 15 minutes to make.

     

First Step: Mixing ingredients together:

Allow dough to rise in warm place (NOT hot oven! I simply turn the light on for a bit of heat) for 20 minutes.

Then divide the dough into 4 pans, and let rise for another 20 minutes.

Bake at 375 F for 20 minutes.

YUMMY FRESH BREAD IN ONLY A LITTLE OVER ONE HOUR!!!!!

 

Puddling Jumping

It rained today at nap time, but once all the children were up….. we couldn’t resist donning our rubber boots and heading outside to go….PUDDLE JUMPING!!!!!!!

The view from the top of the driveway!

At first they just walked and stood in the puddles

And of course, everyone had to see if the water would come over the tops of their boots!!!! (What’s more fun than that??)

And then…….the jumping started!!!!!!

And the splashing!!!!!

And falling!!!! (Followed quickly by laughing!) LOL

And more splashing!!

We all got soaked! But we had SO much fun on a rainy day!!!!

I really wish that I could show you the children’s faces!!

They had such huge smiles!