My Plan Monday.....

Wow.  Well, I think I am back for a while!   I didn't realize how long it had been since I have posted here.   The holidays really got me off with my blogging!   Plus, I've been super busy sewing up a storm for my little one who is due to arrive at the end of this month.   I will share all of the projects that I have done for him in another post.   So, today I decided it was was past time to get things rolling here again!   I spent today working on a new banner and I think I like it!   I wanted to have some photos of the things that I will be sharing here, so I had a lot of fun looking through tons of photos for the right ones.  :-)

Usually on Mondays I share my weekly plan, with our menu and things I want to make and do, but since I am so far along in my pregnancy now (38 weeks tomorrow!) I really haven't had a plan.  lol    My only plan has been to make it through each day and wait until my little one decides to let me know he's ready to make his appearance.   This part of pregnancy is the hardest for me, because I am not a patient person!   Waiting and not knowing when I'm going to go into labor really drives me crazy. lol

So, here is our menu for this week.   I'm trying several new recipes this week, too.  One of my goals for this year is to try to cut out as much dairy from my diet as I can.   I have a lot of sinus issues and this past year they have really been bothering me, so I want to see if cutting dairy out will help with that problem.   I have added a few new cookbooks to my collection that are all vegan recipes and this month I'm trying two recipes from the book, "Vegan on the Cheap" by Robin Robertson.

Sunday-
Salmon Chowder
Lettuce Salad
Cornbread Sticks

Monday-
Penne with Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce
Oven-roasted Cauliflower
Bread Sticks

Tuesday-
Hashbrown Quiche
Fruit Salad

Wednesday-
Moroccan-Inspired Lentil Soup
Couscous
Naan bread

Thursday-
Roasted Vegetable Sandwiches with Creamy White Bean Spread
Salad

Friday-
Tilapia with Grapefruit Salsa
Rice
Steamed Vegetables

I will be sharing these recipes throughout this week! :-)

I hope that you all have been doing well.....it is good to be back and I look forward to spending some time visiting my favorite blogs.   I haven't even been keeping up with those and I know that I've missed so many wonderful projects and shares from everyone!   Hopefully, the next time I disappear is because I'm busy with our new little arrival!

God Bless!
di

Well, I did it....

I entered my first quilt contest.   I'm not sure why, because I know that it it was closely looked at, it's far from being a quality piece of workmanship.  I'm still learning. ;-)   But, I really love this quilt and on Friday it's going to be packed up until next Autumn.  So, I thought I'd give it a shot.  The contest is being hosted at Quilting Gallery and this weeks theme is "Thanksgiving" so I am going for it.  I entered.  lol

If you'd like to stop by their site and vote, that would be wonderful, even if it's not for my quilt!  ;-)  There are so many talented quilters out there.....and it's a great prize that's up for grabs!  Voting starts on Friday. :-)

I spent this morning doing some cooking for Thanksgiving.  Yep.  Already.  I know that there is no way that I can handle standing the entire day on Thursday cooking, so I've decided to break things up into three days worth.  Today I made my grandma's candied cinnamon apples, a cheese ball and got the cucumbers soaking for sour cream cucumbers.  Tomorrow, I'll finish the cucumbers, make two pumpkin pies and a real cheesecake.  Then, I'll just have casseroles to bake up on Thursday.  The wonderful thing is that my husband smokes the turkey, so I have my oven to myself all day!  

I'm really not looking forward to being pregnant on Thanksgiving. Well, I'm not looking forward to my next OB check the first Monday of December and getting on that scale! lol  I had my check-up yesterday and somehow I gained 4 pounds the past two weeks!  I'm not sure what happened, because I haven't been eating any different or worse....I've only been gaining about 1/2 a pound each visit my whole pregnancy.  So, as I'm doing all of this baking and looking at all of the containers of sour cream, cream cheese, and butter.....ugh!  lol  It's just not fair!  But, I'm pretty sure that at least one of those pounds that I gained was in the clothes I had on.  I was so cold yesterday and had a cam on, a t-shirt, and two sweaters, not to mention knee highs and jeans.  That all adds up, right? lol 

Are you all ready for the big day?  Before we know it, it will be Christmas......this time of year always goes by so fast!  

Take care and God Bless,

di

My Plan Monday.....

Okay, here we are!  It's the week of Thanksgiving!  I just can't believe it.   We've already had a long morning here.  GG was up before 6 a.m. (she usually sleeps until 10 a.m.!) because she had a bad dream.  I had been up since before 5 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep because I just couldn't get comfortable and my stomach feels a little icky.  So, we've both been up and way too early than we are used to!  I'm just hoping that she takes a nap soon, so that I can try to rest as well.  My stomach still feels icky and I'm hoping it's just because I'm overly tired and not because I'm catching the stomach flu. Oh, that would just be horrible!  29 weeks pregnant with the stomach flu and during the week of Thanksgiving!  That would not be good!

I've been getting really anxious to start bringing out Christmas decorations, but I refuse to put any out until after Thanksgiving.  ;-) Plus, I've been enjoying the Autumn table topper quilt that I made so much, I'm going to hate to put it away.  It's been chilly here in the Heartland and I'm not liking it too much.  It always takes me a month or so to get used to it.  I've been freezing for the past few weeks, to the point of wearing my Long John's underneath my clothes!   But, by February and we're having 30 degree weather, I'll be running around without a coat on, because we had just gone through December and January with below freezing temperatures and blizzard-like winds!

I had a pretty productive weekend.  I even did our weekly grocery shopping by myself this week.  I know, it sounds silly, but usually my husband goes and that means that our 3-year old goes, too.  He always keeps her and they go get things, but I must admit that it sure was nice to go by myself this time, especially since I was doing some serious, Thanksgiving dinner shopping.  I only bought food for meals through Thursday.  Our grocery budget is actually for Friday through Thursday.  So, it's been hard for me to share menus for Monday-Sunday, because that's now how I plan them.  I might just start sharing them the way that I do them, because it will just be easier.

So, here's the menu for this week!

Sunday- Szechuan Noodles with Chicken (stirred in afterwards, since I don't eat chicken!), Green Beans in Miso Sauce
Monday- Guiltless Alfredo Sauce on Fettuccine , Steamed Cauliflower with Cheese Sauce, Lettuce Salad
Tuesday - Hashbrown Quiche, Fruit Salad
Wednesday - Best Tuna Melts, Roasted Heirloom Potatoes
Thursday - Thanksgiving Day- Smoked Turkey, Morningstar Farms Vegetarian Chicken Patties with white gravy for me, Golden Corn Bake, Green Bean Casserole, Stuffind, Mashed Potatoes with Gravy, Cucumbers in Sour Cream, Grandma's Candied Cinnamon Apples, Pumpkin Pie, Cheesecake with Cherry Topping
Friday - Leftovers!

And, to snack on Thursday through the weekend football games:  Relish Tray, Vegetables with Ranch Dip, and Creamy Cheese Ball with Crackers

I'm going to break things up and try to cook a few things on Tuesday, Wednesday and then the rest on Thursday.  The best thing about my husband smoking the turkey is that it doesn't hog up oven all day!  But, I figure that I'll make the cinnamon apples and cucumbers in sour cream on Tuesday, because they get better after a day or so.  Then make the pumpkin pies and cheese cake on Wednesday.  Then I'll just need to bake the corn casserole and green bean casserole on Thursday.

As far as other projects for this week, all my free time will be spent finishing up my Ritzy Cracker Quilt. I finished the quilt top and backing last night.  Now the fun part, pinning the sandwich all together!  Ugh.  It really tries my patience!  I'm really excited about machine quilting this one and hopefully getting it done by this weekend.

Time to try to rest up a bit......

Take care and God Bless!
di

WIP's for Sew and Tell Friday :-)

Good afternoon everyone!  Well, it has been one crazy week here at my house.  My poor husband has been working non-stop since Saturday night.  I'm talking, up at 4 a.m. and working late into the night, once until 1:30 a.m. the next day!   I'll just say that he's been working so much, I almost think it would have been better if he had gone out of town for business.  At least that way it would have been easier on me.  I know that sounds strange, but it's hard when he has to work so much like that, but I know he's still here in town and not far away from me.  It seems worse when he's close by, but I still can't see him.  At least when he's out of town, I KNOW that I can't see him. lol  I'm not sure if that makes any sense, but I don't feel like anything makes much sense this week.  I'm tired and worn out from my week-long, no breaks from my no-napping, non-stop talking three year old, sweetie, GG.  I'm just incredibly grateful that tonight is my FarmGirl meeting, so I get some time away tonight with the girls!  FarmGirls are groups of ladies who enjoy the magazine Mary Jane's Farm and I'm lucky enough to have an awesome group of ladies who get together once a month.  Sometimes we make things, sometimes we cook, sometimes we just sit, chat and laugh a lot.  It's wonderful!

I spent this week finishing up a baby quilt.  I can't share it just yet, but hopefully I will be able to soon!  Now it's just waiting for it's recipient to be born!  I am also waiting because I want to put his name, birthdate and such on the label.  I'm really excited how this quilt turned out, too!  I was excited at first, then started doubting my color choices, then started liking it again, then more doubt started sinking in, but now that it's all together and finished, I'm just thrilled to pieces with it! :-)

With that project finished, I was able to start working on my Ritzy Cracker Quilt by Mary Lane Brown from the Tulip Patch through the Moda Bake Shop.   I'm using Moda Fruitcake charm packs by Basic Grey.

I've been working on this one bit by bit each day.  One night I cut the charms....

The next night I sewed the first part of the block together and yesterday I sewed the patterned triangles on to each block.

Today I've been working on sewing all of the white triangles onto each block.  I'll be working on this tomorrow, too, since I'll be gone all this evening.  This is the most involved block that I've worked on to date.  And, my first time using triangles!  So, I've been going slow and making sure that I have them centered and such.

Here is what one of the finished blocks looks like.  I just have 41 more to do! lol  Then the fun part.  I get to decide how I want to lay them all out.  This is the first time that I get to make a decision like this!  There are several different layouts for this block to make the quilt top, so I guess I'll just play around with them and see what I like the best.  I've never had choices like this before and I'm used to being told how to lay each block out, so this is another first for me!

Oh, and look what I got in the mail yesterday!!!!!  Isn't it beautiful????  Oh, I just can't wait to open this up and see all of the amazing fabrics!

Another first......my first time purchasing fabric on-line.  I bought this jelly roll through The Fat Quarter Shop and had a great experience with them.  I ordered it late on Sunday night and it arrived in the mail Thursday afternoon.  Great service!  I am going to turn this into a quilt for the living room.  Hopefully I will get it done before Christmas! lol  I am just swooning over this jelly roll and couldn't live with out it.  It fits our color scheme perfectly, with the bright reds and greens to the blue, which matches the walls in our living room.  I can't wait to start working on this!  Now the hard part though, deciding which pattern to use!

I guess I have a semi-finish to share this week......I finished up this embroidery one night when I just couldn't sit at the sewing machine anymore.  My belly is getting too big and my ribs start killing me if I sit too long.  So, I picked this up and finished it up one night.  I love it to pieces and I am going to put it on a mug rug.  It's a free pattern from Wild Olive.

So, that's it for my rambling today!  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and have some time to get crafty!  Can you believe that it's almost Thanksgiving?????

I'm linking up with Amylouwho's Sew & Tell Friday's......be sure to click on the image below and visit all of the other wonderful and amazingly talented ladies out there who are sharing this week!

God Bless,
di

{Virtual} Coffee.....

Good morning......thanks for joining me for coffee today....well, I have to admit that I forgot to buy myself some decaff coffee beans over the weekend and I'm still coffee-less....so, it's a packet of instant spiced apple cider for me this morning.  For some strange reason, I can't drink hot tea in the morning.  I haven't ever been able to.  It makes my stomach upset.  So, thank goodness I have these cider packets.  I really needed something warm and comforting this morning.

If we were sitting down for coffee today, the first thing that I would do would be to thank you for visiting with me.  Especially if you stopped by last week and talked to me.  Last week wasn't going well for us at all as a family, and I had to do some real-life venting.  I sure hope I didn't scare anyone away!

I'd tell you that things are going better this week and we actually had a busy weekend running here and there.  We had big plans of going to our new Trader Joe's and when we went outside Friday night to get in the car, we were greeted with a thick blanket of snow that was covering everything!  Oh, it was so icky out, too!  It was that sleeting/snow mix and the roads were covered with slush.  So, we put off going to Trader Joe's, but trekked out in the muck to get our Indian carry-out. lol  I do love the snow, but I hate the cold.  And boy, does it ever get cold here in the Heartland in the winter!  Last year, we were covered under many feet of snow the entire winter.  It was awful!  This year, I'm due with Peanut right in the middle of winter......I'm just very, very grateful that we have a 4-wheel drive SUV and live only a few blocks from the hospital and it's pretty much down hill most of the way. lol

I'd tell you that last night I was able to finish a baby quilt for a dear friend.  I'm so excited to have it done!  It's in the washer right now and after its' all dried, it will be all snuggly and have those fun wrinkles in it from the machine quilting.  Then I'd whisper to you this silly secret.....that every time I wash and dry a quilt that I've made, I get so afraid that I'm going to open the door to the washer or dryer and it's going to have fallen apart. lol  Isn't that the silliest thing?  I don't know why.  Maybe it's because I've sat for so many hours sewing all of those pieces together.....but when I open that dryer and see my quilt still in one piece, I always breathe a sigh of relief!  I also have fabric washing for my next quilt which is going to be made from Christmas fabric and kept on top of our dinner table through Christmas.  I can't wait to get started on it!

I'd also have to confess that I bought another sewing book.  I just haven't been able to resist all of the amazing books out there that are full of fun and beautiful sewing projects.  Thank goodness for Borders coupons!  I also ordered my first jelly roll of fabric......it's Christmas-themed too and I am so anxious for that to come in the mail!  I think that quilting has been my form of nesting, because I've been sewing up a storm for the past few months.  :-)

I sure hope that you are all doing well and had a good week.  I still can't believe that Thanksgiving is right around the corner.  I wonder if we're going to have a White Thanksgiving?  I just got our weather update on my phone and they are calling for snow early tomorrow morning......we still have a bit left in the shadows here and there in the neighborhood.  And I ready for winter?  Are you? lol

Take care and thanks so much for joining me for coffee, well hot  spiced apple cider, this morning!

God Bless,
di

{Virtual} Coffee at Lucky Number 13

My Plan Monday

Well, here we are and it's Monday again.  And, we're getting closer and closer to Thanksgiving!  I just can't believe that!  Have you started planning your Thanksgiving Dinner yet?  I haven't!  And, I'm not quite sure what to do either.  My son is working all that week, including Thanksgiving Day, he has a steady girlfriend and I'm not sure if she's going to make it over at all, my mom isn't going to be able to come up this year, so it's just us.  My oldest daughter will not be joining us because of the horrible conflict she insists on bringing into our house, which is sad but necessary.  I will probably make what I always make, and those things all make copious amounts, so we will be able to live off of left-overs for at least a week after our big dinner.  lol

We ended up having a very busy weekend.  Friday night we were hit with our first Winter Storm Watch.  My husband and I decided to get carry-out from our favorite Indian restaurant, opened up the garage door to run and get our food and everything was completely covered in at least an inch of snow!  It was pretty icky driving, but that didn't stop us from getting that food. lol  I adore Indian food and that warm, spicy dinner was just the right thing on a snowy, cold night.

We did all sorts of running around with errands on Saturday and Sunday.  Which was good, because we got a lot done, but bad, because we didn't really plan meals too well, so we went to the grocery store both of those evenings to buy things for dinner that night.  I'm really not quite sure why, but if I had planned those two meals and bought the food with our weekly groceries, we would have been fine with our budgeted money for that week.  But for some reason, after getting our grocery money on Friday, getting carry-out on Friday and then shopping Saturday and Sunday for meals, we have about $40 left for groceries until next Friday!  So, needless to say, there won't be a nice menu plan for this week for me to share.  It's going to be "scavenging in the kitchen" menu week. lol  Which is probably good, because I do have things for meals that will last us through till Friday and no matter what, we are determined to stick to our "cash only" budget.

So, just sitting here and thinking about what I have on hand in the kitchen that I can make for dinner the next few days, I can sketch out this meal plan:

Monday- spaghetti and sauce, veggie from freezer, french bread
Tuesday- oven BBQ chicken, oven fried potatoes, biscuits
Wednesday- tuna patties, rice, fruit salad
Thursday- pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, fruit
Friday- Yeah!  Time to run to the store!  We did it, back to real menu planning and sticking to it!

Going through weeks like this really helps me see how important menu planning is for us to stick to our grocery budget each week and to just keep me sane.  It's just too stressful for me to wake up in the morning and think, um....what should we have for dinner tonight?  If I have it all planned out ahead of time, I wake up, look at my paper on the fridge and it says, "You're making this today for dinner!" and I say, "Great! Guess I'm making that for dinner tonight!  No worries!" lol

As for things on my "To-Do" list......well, I'm still working on that one quilt that I shared a little peek of on Friday.  This morning I pinned the binding strips together and as soon as my little one wakes up, I will sew them together.  I just don't have a place where I can go sew quietly.  Not that my machine is loud, but I want her to sleep as long as she can!  So, my goal is to get that binding on completely today and it's finished.  Right now it's sitting on a kitchen chair all folded up and it looks so neat.  I really need to stack up the few quilts that I have here that I've made and kept and get a picture.  I absolutely love the pictures I see on other quilter's blogs of stacks of folded quilts!

Then, it's time to start working on the Christmas table topper quilt.  I have the charm packs cut out and waiting.  I just need to cut out the white pieces of fabric and I can start sewing the blocks together.  This is a new block for me to try and a little more involved.  I'm moving into working with a new shape, triangles!  So, I'm going to take it slow and do my best to keep my seams all nice and happy.  

In our running around over the weekend, we stopped by Borders and I had to buy another sewing book, of course.  It's turned into an addiction!  But, I had $10 in Borders Bucks and a 33% off coupon.  I had to use that $10, right? lol  So, I picked up "Sewing Green: 25 Projects Made with Repurposed and Organic Materials" by Betz White.   I've picked this one up several times, but always ended up buying something else instead.  I'm so glad I got it!  It has some great projects in it and I can't wait to start sewing some of them up!  I also got the Winter 2010 issue of Quilts and More.  I absolutely love this magazine and I sure wish that I was published more then 4 times a year.  It's always fun of a great variety of projects.  I'm so excited, because I found a quilt in it that I am so excited to make!  It's actually the quilt on the cover.....the version of the quilt that's inside the magazine is what sold me on the pattern.  I'm pretty sure it's the colors that sold me on it, too. lol   I have been eying the Bliss jelly roll for awhile and this is the quilt I'm going to make with it!  I think it will look great in our living room!

Well, I've rambled on quite a bit this morning and not my little one is awake, so I had better go and start my day!  I hope you all have a wonderful Monday and are able to spend some time today doing something crafty!

God Bless!
di

Pumpkin Cranberry Bread with Streusel Topping

Yes, another pumpkin recipe......are you getting tired of me sharing them yet? lol  I just had to try this one, because I LOVE cranberries.  I have to admit that I even eat them raw, by the handfuls.  I have since I was a kid......they are so tart, but I just love them.  ;-)

So, yesterday I knew that I was going to have the oven on later to make cornbread muffins, so I decided to go ahead and make this quick bread, too.  I found the recipe at All Recipes and after reading through some of the comments, I went ahead and used some of their suggestions for changing up the recipe.  You can find the original recipe here at All Recipes.  As I was making this, I discovered that I had less than 1/4 cup of vegetable oil.  Someone said they used half applesauce/half vegetable oil and I didn't have any of applesauce either.  But, I do have a cupboard full of Cranapple Butter that I made in August, so I used that.  I also decided to add a streusel topping.  I absolutely adore streusel and couldn't resist putting it on top of this bread!  When I make this again, I will probably add more cranberries, because I love them so.  You could also add some chopped walnuts or something like that, but I'm not a huge fan of nuts in my quick breads. ;-)

This makes two loaves, so I sliced one of them up for my husband to take to work today.  I told him to share and make some friends. lol  They always love getting homemade treats there. ;-)

Pumpkin Cranberry Bread with Streusel Topping:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 5 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 (15 ounce) can LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
• 4 eggs
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup apple sauce
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries, sliced in half

streusel topping:

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup butter

ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9 x 5-inch loaf pans.

Combine flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Combine sugar, brown sugar, pumpkin, eggs, vegetable oil, apple sauce and orange juice in large mixer bowl; beat until just blended. Add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture; stir just until moistened. Fold in cranberries. Spoon batter into prepared loaf pans.

Mix together the sugar and flour.  Using a large cheese grater, grate the butter into the bowl with the flour and sugar.  Add in some ground cinnamon.  I didn't measure it, I just added it until it looked good. lol  Using my hands, I mixed everything together until it started coming together in large pea sized pieces.  Sprinkle the streusel on top of each loaf.  

Bake for 60 to 65 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

This smells so good when it's cooking!  I sliced one up last night for my husband.  It was still really moist and a little hard to handle.  But, the slice that I cut this morning from our loaf was just perfect!  So, letting it sit overnight really helped it a lot.  

I hope you enjoy this one!  It's so yummy!  Humm.......now, what pumpkin recipe can I try next?

God Bless, 

di