yummy dinner #2

tonight's dinner was from my most favourite of all my cookbooks, la dolce vegan by sarah kramer. i swear i use this book a minimum of 3 meals out of the 5 i cook during the week (paul's in charge of sat & sun dinners). this was my first attempt with this recipe and it was soooo yummy!

tonight i made butternut squash & lentil soup with ginger. we had it with fresh 9-grain rustic bread from brick bakery, drizzled with olive oil.
sadly, this photo does not do justice to the soup. it was such a flavourful and slightly spicy meal. the generous amount of fresh ginger really added a nice flavour.

rating: 10/10

yummy dinner #1

i've always been really inspired by bloggers that post delicious-looking meals they've made. one blog i miss dearly is dinner daily. i used to get lots of quick and interesting meal ideas from her.

anyhow, i'm going to give this a try myself mostly to have a record of meals i've made and enjoyed. i'm not sure how long this will last as i'm often in too much of a rush to start eating. running to find the camera (and working batteries) before digging in can be a bit of a hassle. but here goes attempt #1.

this is what we had for dinner tonight.
penne with chickpeas, baby spinach, and sundried tomatoes from quick fix vegetarian

it was so easy to make and turned out really yummy. basically it's just a quick sauce made from minced garlic, canned (diced) tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, chickpeas, a bag of baby spinach, and s&p . i sprinkled some sunflower seeds on top for some crunch.

the verdict: 9/10

happy earth day!

hope everyone's enjoying this sunshiney earth day!

i thought it would be fun to show you some of the earth-friendly goodies i've been crushing on over at etsy.

poppy bobbypins made with recycled vintage fabric by foundling


sweater dress made from repurposed sweaters by devilmademedoit

broken plate ring by the broken plate


messenger bag made from a men's suit jacket by rumah kampung


jounals made from old highschool yearbook pictures by christine renee


dog collars made from recycled ties by annie's sweatshop (we just bought this one for noah a couple of months ago)


also made with a repurposed tie, this "necklace" by sam's shop


pretty vintage slip embellished by bayou salvage


handwoven brooch made from grocery bags by frucci design


and i could really use these reusable bags for our frequent trips to bulk barn (handmade by kootsac)

if only i could plant a money tree for earth day.....

weekend in the city

oh my goodness...the weather here was AMAZING this weekend! this afternoon paul and i went on a field trip to allen gardens to look at all of the beautiful flowers and plants. it was my very first visit and it did not disappoint!

looking up at the beautiful glass roof from inside the main greenhouse


there were beautiful tropical flowers tucked into every corner of the greenhouses






i especially loved the cactus & succulent greenhouse



there was even a cute doggy hanging out inside

this place was so much fun and (surprisingly) absolutely free! highly recommended if you haven't been before.

more of my pictures from today are over at flickr...

junk mail revolution

i've started a one-woman junk mail revolution. i'm tired of getting heaps of unaddressed mail in our mailbox even though we clearly have a "No Junkmail or Flyers" sign on our box.

so i've started on my personal campaign to annoy the hell out of the people who send this stuff.

i'm collecting unaddressed mail that comes to our door and sticking it in those "postage paid when mailed in canada" envelopes...this one was conveniently included with a junk mail advertisement yesterday.

with just 2 days worth of mail, i've managed to stuff the envelope as full as i possibly could. i'm mailing it back to this company tomorrow and they can be flooded with junkmail for a change. and even better: they have to PAY to have it sent to them!


does this make me a bad person?

anyone want to join me?

p.s. it should also be noted that the company who will soon be receiving my junk mail package was outed as a bit of a scam by my hero, wendy mesley awhile back.

the fur was flying

the things we won't do for our fur kids.

we used to take noah to a groomer every 4 months or so. a really lovely woman who always did such a nice job. but here's the thing: noah is such a sensitive little guy that he would come back from the doggy salon acting freaky. at first it would last a few days but then it would start lasting 7 or 8 days before he got back to normal. it was really upsetting for all of us.

in the fall, we decided to cut his hair ourselves. yep, DIY baby! the doggy equivalent of putting a bowl on his head!

on sunday noah got a shampoo and haircut. the 3 of us were locked in the bathroom for 3 whole hours! but only one of us got lots of cookies.....


we cut off enough hair to make another dog!

and after it was all over:

now we have a clipped (and very happy) poochie!

friday night at the rom

paul and i wanted to start our weekend by going out on the town. we were excited to see the movie smart people, but after reading many baaaad reviews, paul suggested we check out the ROM instead. we've been wanting to see the crystal since it opened and with half-off admission on friday evening, it was a perfect opportunity!

paul in front of the museum

the new wing of the museum is really beautiful! it's much more light and airy now. i especially loved that they kept parts of the old brick facade where the old and new wings met. a really lovely touch!

we saw the darwin exhibit which was really huge...give yourself a couple of hours to go through it if you decide to check it out. there's a lot of great information to read alongside the displays.

and after that we still had a bit of time to visit the ancient greek and roman displays. we were in awe of the artistic and detailed coins and spent a lot of time "oohing" and "ahhing" over them. i totally fell in love with the greek jewellery. here's a terrible picture of some beautiful gold earrings with bird charms.

i also loved the sculptures.


sometimes it's nice to be a tourist in your own city!

where i've been, what i've been doing...

since we last spoke, i've:
* baked banana loaf and brownies
* decided brown rice kicks white rice's ass
* added a bunch of stuff to my etsy shop
* tried to eat greens at least 3x a week
* completed term 2 report cards
* started visiting the amigurumi farm again
* and last friday, went to see margaret cho tape her interview for the hour!

carla got us tickets and it was soooo much fun! the funny thing is the studio was smaller than it looks on tv. george's interview with margaret cho was really funny! see for yourself...it's going to be on tv tonight!

all of my pictures turned out blurry like this one.

thanks again for the fun afternoon, carla!