Tasty Tuesday ( a little early)- Megs' Pilgrims Pie

This is great to make with your Thanksgiving leftovers.  I first made it a few years ago and its something we love to eat after the main meal.  Depending on how you feel after you eat your meal, you can make this right away with the leftovers but instead of baking right away, put it in the fridge and then bake it the next day in the oven for 40 mins.  

Cooked Turkey 1.5-2 cups finely diced up or ground ( I used the meat grinder attachment for my kitchenaid mixer)

Cranberry Sauce 1/2 cup ( homemade if possible)^

 Mashed Potatoes- 2-3 cups or 1 box of instant

Gravy- 1/2- 1 cup*

 Stuffing - 1-3 cups ( you can use boxed or homemade.  Below I used boxed as my husband ate all the homemade)

Creamed Corn- 1 can

Preheat oven to 350F

Grease casserole dish.  Place ground turkey in botton the dish.  It should completely cover bottom. Place blobs on cranberry sauce on top.

Next place mash potatoes and smooth then cover with gravy

Put stuffing on top of that.  I didn't have too much stuffing left but I spread it out the best I could.

The cover with creamed corn and spread out.

Place completed casserole in the over for 20-40 mins depending on how warm you want it to be.  

If you like to have a crispier style of casserole with the potatoes on top then put

turkey, cranberry, stuffing, creamed corn, gravy, then mashed potatoes.

^How to make cranberry sauce

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

1 bag of fresh or frozen cranberries

Boil water and sugar together in a small pot.  When it comes to a boil, add the cranberries.  They will start to pop.  Allow to slowly simmer for 10-15 mins, then remove from heat and allow to cool.  For this casserole you only need 1/2 a batch of this so 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 water and 1/2 bag of cranberries

*Homemade gravy

I boiled the turkey carcass when I removed the meat for about 2 hrs.  I then strained out the chunks and had broth left over.  

2 cups of broth

2 tbsp bistro gravy mix

Mashed Potatoes

1 bag of new/ baby potatoes

1/2 cup sour cream ( low fat or fat free)

Salt and Pepper

I love how easy mashed potatoes are to make when you leave the skin on.

Quarter the potatoes and boil until you can stick a fork into them easily.  Use a masher and mash them up.  Add the sour cream and salt and pepper to taste.  This makes creamy tasting mashed potatoes without a lot of added fat.

Tasty Tuesday: Cranberry Lemon Loaf

This is my latest thing that I have been baking.  It is so yummy.  I got the basis of the recipe from Chatelaine Magazine.  http://www.chatelaine.com/recipe/quick-and-easy/classic-lemon-loaf/

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups (425 mL) all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp (5 mL) baking powder
• 1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt
• 1 1/2 tsp lemon zest ( or add lemon extract to wet ingredients)
• 1/2 cup (125 mL) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup (250 mL) granulated sugar
• 2  eggs
• 1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla
• 2/3 cup (150 mL) milk
• 1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries

For the glaze

• 1 cup sifted icing sugar
• 2 to 3 tbsp lemon juice   

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9×5-in. loaf pan. Stir flour with baking powder and salt in a small bowl. Stir in lemon zest. Beat butter in a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium. Gradually beat in sugar. Beat for 2 min. Beat in eggs, vanilla and milk. Fold in flour mixture just until combined. Add cranberries. Don’t overmix. Pour into loaf pan and smooth top.
• Bake in centre of oven until golden and cake tester inserted into centre of loaf comes out clean, 55 to 65 min. Don’t worry if the tops of your loaf cracks: Because it sets before batter has fully risen, it will split as it bakes. Transfer pan to a rack. Cool loaf in pan 10 min.
• 

  Stir icing sugar with lemon juice in a small bowl until smooth. Brush glaze overtop warm loaf, letting glaze run down the sides. Let cool completely in pan.

I've made it in a loaf pan which is more 8 by 3.  I also used my mini loaf pans and cooked it for about 40 mins.  The cranberries add a great flavour as they burst open as the loaf cooks.  

6 Months Old

On Friday, Johnny turned 6 months old.

He is 19lbs 12 oz.  He is getting so big.  He is able to sit up on his own now for short spurts.  He started out so small and now he is getting to be quite big.  He is growing so quickly. 

Life gets busy

Since where I live the summers are short, I try to take advantage of the warm weather while it lasts. I took the kids to the park every day and lots of walks. The weather is starting to cool down now, so while we will still go to the park we won't go everyday. The Chief is also back to work so that means more work keeping the house clean for me. 

A few of our activties from the last few warm days.

As the weather gets cooler, I tend to get into the baking spirit.  I love to make breads, rolls, baked goods, and soups.  I am going to start experimenting with making soups in the crock pot so they are nice and warm when we get home from morning preschool playgroup.  Ben loves to eat soup.

I plan to share with you the ones I find to be quite yummy.  

World Breastfeeding Week

So apparently this week is world Breastfeeding week.  Everywhere I have seen pictures and stories about different people's experiences feeding their baby.  

Both my babies have been Breastfed exclusively. While Ben did get one bottle of formula as a newborn as I was sleep deprived and needed to rest. ( those 6 hours of sleep in one night after having 6 hours of sleep in 3 days was glorious), the rest of the time it has been breast milk only. 

I can say that my Breastfed kids are thriving.  I can also say that my sister's kids who were formula fed are also thriving.  They were both fed with love whether it was from the boob or the bottle.  

So why did I choose to breastfeed

1.  My body makes milk.  I wanted to use it.

2. Breast milk changes to meet the babies needs

3. I'm lazy and couldn't imagine washing bottles or getting out of bed to warm a bottle

While I know that Breastfeeding doesn't always make life easy especially when your children don't want to take a bottle of expressed milk, it was the right choice for me.  I understand that it doesn't work out for everyone or they make different choices which is your right as a parent.  In the end as along as we are feeding are children and they are thriving that is all that matters.  

Happy World Breastfeeding Week.  

Johnny is 20 weeks old

While he is not officially 5 months until August 13, today he is 20 weeks. He is starting to stay sitting him up if I support him.  He has really great head control.  He loves to giggle and laugh. 

He is starting to enjoy tummy time more and more. 

Overall he is a pretty happy baby although he does have his moments of being cranky. 

Camping: How it went

Sorry for the delay.  It took a few days to get back into normal routine/ catch up on sleep.  

Camping went pretty well. Nap time was a little difficult.  Ben wanted to snuggle with me or was too wound up.  Thankfully he would sleep in the stroller and a few times he was tired and put himself to sleep in the tent. 

Bedtime was another issue. In northern Ontario in July it stays very bright till late, like 10:30-11:00pm. Bedtime was pretty late with Ben going to bed around 10 and waking at 6am when the sun came up.  

During the day, we went for walks or ran around the campsite which was huge. 

Oh, and fed chipmunks

We had a lot of fun with the chipmunks. 

We even had these guy visit our campsite

Thankfully he didn't hang around too much.

We also had a red squirrel that like peanuts too

Overall camping was fun.  We went swimming, we enjoyed the outdoors.  The baby was pretty easy. The 2 year a little challenging.  The Mosquitos were unforgiving. Both kids looked like they had the chicken pox from all the bites. I'll have to get some better kid friendly bug spray for their faces.  

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