Lentil Soup

3-1/2 medium potatoes, chopped
1/2 can diced tomatoes
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 pound polish sausage, sliced
1/2 package lentils
salt & pepper to taste

1. Place the potatoes, tomatoes, onion, garlic, and sausage in a large pot with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, and cook 15 minutes.
2. Stir lentils into the pot. Add more water if necessary to just cover all ingredients. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, and continue cooking 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until lentils are tender.

Serves 6
prep time: 15 mins
cook time: 35 mins
total time: 50 mins


this is what i'm making for supper today. i can't wait. although, i've read some of the reviews, and they said to cook it longer to let the flavours mix (personally, i think stews should be cooked a long time, anyway, for just that reason. but that's me.) and to let the lentils fully cook. we'll see how it goes. i'll post the review after supper.

(if you click on the title of this post, it will take you to allrecipes.com and you can see the nutritional information, for those of you who like to know that stuff. and there's links to related recipes... that site is so addictive sometimes. LOL) 

UPDATE: ok, so, you should know my culinary stylings well enough by now to know that i rarely (if ever) follow a recipe exactly. this was no exception. i used 4 large potatoes, i didn't mesure the lentils so i have no idea how much i dumped in (yes, dumped. it was a lot), and i added a few herbs and spices to it. thyme and parsley, and since i'm too lazy to walk across the kitchen to grab some garlic and press it and put that into the pot and then wash the garlic residuals out of the press... i used garlic powder instead. beyond that, i pretty much stuck to the recipe. although i thought it needed a touch more salt, but that's ok, i just doused mine in salt, and left the kids salt-less. 

REVIEW: wonderful!!! the kids and i all have seconds (although since i had asher's which he barely touched, i think i had thirds. LOL) whatever, we all loved it, there's TONS leftover, and i can't wait to have it again!! this will definitely become a regular in our house. i TOTALLY recommend it. enjoy! :)

We Heart Recipes

another heart mom (wendy, chris' mom) and i have started a blog together (yes, i know, i have a lot of blogs. LOL). it is a recipe blog called We Heart Recipes, and we post heart-friendly recipes (most of the time; there will be the occasional comfort-food recipe, as well). we'll be posting fairly regularly, not only the recipes but also any conditions it may help (i just posted the fat-free creamy pasta sauce i made for asher's chylothorax). there are some great links to check out, and our boys' stories. check it out, and check back regularly.

and for the record, the cappuccino at the top is decaf. ;)

My Mother's Day gifts from Blithe and Bram

ok, so apparently the kids have learned patience from me... so they gave me their gifts now instead of sunday... which i don't mind, actually. i don't like waiting. ;)

Blithe gave me her gift as soon as she got home from school. it's a beautiful butterfly purse-type thing made with fun foam. it's lovely and decorated with butterflies and hearts and glitter glue (is it really mother's day without glitter glue? i don't think so.) it was beautiful.

then she read me the poem she wrote for me:

My Mom
Mom always says that i am special.
She would tell you i'm so smart.
Mom helps me when i'm hurt.
She and i like to go to the park.
Mom can't stand it when i don't clean up.
She loves it when i help her.
And now that Mother's Day is here,
She deserves a great big cheer!

and fyi... it's all true. blithe is very special, so smart, and she doesn't clean up... and i would love it if she would help me. ;)

Bram gave me a beautiful picture he drew of our family, a bit picasso-esque (whom i love, btw, so i'm not complaining) since we have no arms, apparently, but he drew it himself and it's lovely. he made an adorable frame for it, covered in fun foam caterpillars. and on the back he wrote (by himself, no less!),

I love Mom. love from Bram

:)

and this was wrapped up in a painting he did, of the beach. the water was a purple mass of paint in the middle of the page, "because i wanted it to look like it was snowing in the summer." ok.

he also gave me a page that tells what mommies do, according to his class:

they help you get dressed
they help to feed you supper
they give us breakfast
they have a shower
they do the laundry
if you're too small to reach the light they lift you up
if you get sick, really really sick, they take you in the car and help you throw up in a bag.
they give you hugs before you fall asleep (that's bram's answer, by the way)
they give kisses when you go to bed
they help us blow up balloons
if you get hurt they put on a bandaid
they help their daughter or son write words
when bad dreams happen they carry you into their bed
they help you to read your book
they clip our toe nails and finger nails
they tuck you in when you go to sleep
they help you pack when you go on a trip
they read us bedtime stories
they help you make fish crafts

so there you have it. mother's day, a couple days early, but absolutely lovely.

ah, it's so lovely being home :)

so, it was absolutely beautiful outside today, so we went... well, outside! i walked downtown to run some errands (and got most of my bills paid off entirely!!! hooray!!!!), and started on my job search. while i was out, my mom took the boys for a walk to the flower garden a few blocks away. after i picked blithe up from the bus stop, we walked home and decided to stay outdoors for a little while.

well! i decided to get to work in the garden. and much to my surprise, there's actually stuff growing in there!! i had forgotten that i planted garlic last year, so that's already coming up nicely. and the lavendar wintered very well, so it's coming back already, too.

asher, for those who are somehow unaware, is a boy. a normal boy. a very normal boy. which means...

where there's dirt, there's asher.

lucky for him, i was digging around in the soil, and found a nice long worm for him. he loved it!!! he named it Squirmy. it's in his hands in that picture. he didn't want to put little squirmy down. he wanted to bring him inside and have him as a pet. my mom heard that and said, "um.... no. squirmy stays outside " (my mom is not a fan of worms.)

and this all happened, you'll note...

at home.

:)

i don't know if this is crazy... or the most brilliant thing i have ever heard!!!

so, i'm a fan of etsy on facebook, and today they post this link about "How to Live Well Without a Job and With (Almost) No Money"... and i think i'm hooked. i just might have to buy this book... at some point. this woman and her father live a sustainable, self-sufficient life, and aren't hippies! they look like normal people!! how cool is that?!

Creamy Pasta Sauce (fat-free)

ok, so of course, asher's surgery earlier this month couldn't go entirely smoothly. sure, the surgery itself was "uneventful," but because this is asher, there are lingering complications. the biggest one (not only due to severity but also because it affects all of us at home), is something called "chylothorax." during the surgery, a lymph node was nicked. lymph nodes take fat out of the bloodstream, and when they leak, the fatty substance (called "chyle") fills the space around the lungs. if left untreated, it can suffocate you. nice, eh? ugh. the treatment for this is a fat-free diet for 6 weeks.

so we have started a new diet at home. i refuse to make more than one meal at a time. everyone eats the same thing. no exceptions. now, i have always cooked somewhat low-fat (just ignore the labels "deep fried", "cheese" and "sausage"... i did say "somewhat" after all...). but now i have to eliminate ALL fat from our home. in some ways, this is proving more difficult than i anticipated. on the other hand... i now get to try all kinds of recipes i hadn't attempted yet. and (surprise, surprise) i've decided to share some of these fat-free recipes with you, gentle reader. bon appetit!

and be warned... this is a typical heather-ish recipe. you know what to expect.

Creamy Pasta Sauce (and yes, it's fat-free)

250 ml fat-free cream cheese (Philly makes a 95% fat-free one, which is allowed)
some spinach
some mushrooms
some sundried-tomatoes (that's right! they're fat-free!!)
skim milk (which i don't hate)

i've picked up a few tricks along the way, so i tried "sauteeing" the mushrooms with water instead of butter. they didn't turn out perfectly, but it helped. then i added the spinach. mixed them all together in the pan. then i added the cream cheese. the whole container (which, admittedly, is the only reason i know how much i used. teehee). the cream cheese actually becomes nice and creamy and delicious at this point. i blanched the sundried tomatoes before throwing them into the sauce (i just used the pasta water for this; it gave the noodles a nice hint o' flavour, too). i didn't plan on using the milk, but the sauce just like that was pretty thick, so i added some milk ("until it looked right") to thin it a bit.

and the review? de. lish. ous. and so simple, and so fat-free, and relatively cheap (because i had sundried tomatoes on hand already). the kids all loved it. in fact, they all had seconds! it was so easy and good and healthy... i'm totally making this again. maybe next time i'll grill some chicken breast and throw that in, too. but we'd already had quite a bit of protein today, so i left it out tonight. but definitely next time! :)

so glad i procrastinated this afternoon...

because i got to chat with a friend, and i was complaining that i have to do dishes this afternoon before we leave. and she said

"set the timer for 15 mins, and when it goes, stop."

WHA-?!?!

i have to finish dishes, laundry/packing, and tidying. if we devote 15 mins at a time to each task, we could get it all done!!!! and not be overwhelmed!!!!!!

could this be true??????

i'm gonna give it a whirl, and see how it works out. i'll let you know.