Thanksgiving Weekend 2016

It was a cold and snowy Thanksgiving this year, but honestly, I feel like it added an element of warmth and coziness that I enjoy when hanging out with family all weekend.

It started snowing on Friday and we debated waiting until Saturday morning to make the drive up to Red Deer, but at the last minute we loaded up the car and headed out late in the evening. I was already packed and ready to go, and there's something I like about waking up in the morning and already being where I'm supposed to be, rather than rushing to get somewhere the next day.

We spent the weekend at my sister-in-law's place and while we had originally planned to come home on Sunday, we ended up staying until late Monday afternoon. The holiday weekends we spend at Patty's are some of my favourites. We all just hang out in our PJ's, eat lots of delicious food, watch movies, play games and drink wine (ginger ale for me this weekend!). Sully adores being around his big cousins and the two dogs, and it was just really nice to have a weekend with no agenda, no driving, no running errands and no where else to be.

I didn't take very many pictures, and there's no need for a play by play of what we did(n't) do, but here's a few snapshots to capture the memories. I'm so very thankful for my family (those near and far), our health, good food, warm beds, nature walks, and our country.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my Canadian friends & family! I hope you were able to enjoy some time surrounded by the people you love.

Tried & True: Recipes From Pinterest You Need to Make

Pinterest gets a bad wrap sometimes. Yes, I see how it can be the rabbit hole of pinning DIY projects you will never, ever make, ridiculous recipes you will never cook, or hairstyles your arms will never allow you to attempt. So what's the point, right?

If used correctly, I think Pinterest is pretty awesome. I've utilized it for fashion advice when I'm not sure how to style a certain pair of boots, I pin hair inspiration photos for my hair stylist, recipes for meal planning, and realistic DIY crafts that not only have I made, but didn't break the bank either.

I don't spend a lot of time on it, but the one thing I use it for almost daily, is meal planning. When I'm reading blogs or articles that share recipes that sounds like something I will make, I will pin it to my "yum - recipes to try" board. Or, if I'm looking for a certain type of recipe, I will search for it on Pinterest.

This is where things get overwhelming though. Recently, I realized I had over 250 recipes pinned in my recipes to try board. That's an insane amount of pins to scroll through each week I'm meal planning, or when I'm trying to find a particular recipe I've already made and want to make again. So, like I mentioned in this post, I organized my boards into recipes to try and tried & true boards. This way, at least the recipes I've already tried and will definitely make again, I can move over to one of my tried & true boards. I can't even begin to tell you how awesome it is to have such organized boards! I also always make comments underneath the pin on any changes I may have made to the original recipe so I don't forget for the next time.

The other thing I find can be overwhelming or intimidating about using recipes on Pinterest to meal plan is, how do you even know said recipe is worth making? I mean, there are literally a billion pinned recipes on there. Some have tens or hundreds of pins, while others have thousands. But here's the thing with Pinterest - A LOT of people just pin for the sake of pinning, and never make a single meal they pin. So while I like to believe that a muffin recipe with 5 thousand pins is going to be a good one, sometimes you just don't know for sure.

That's where I come in! I use my Pinterest recipe boards almost exclusively for meal planning. I do have my favourite cookbooks, but overall, I just find it easier to use Pinterest if I can. For the most part, I'd say I've had a pretty good success rate with the recipes I've made from Pinterest. There have definitely been more than a handful of ones I would never make again though, and those I just delete off my boards right away.

Anyway, consider me your guinea pig if you will! I thought every month, I'd recap the recipes I've made from Pinterest that were big wins in our house and that I think you should make too. Essentially, I'm taking the guess work out of it for you ;)


DINNER RECIPES

Crock Pot Chicken Soup: Pinned only 6 times

Thoughts: I discovered this recipe thanks to Carly and I loved the simplicity of it over baking an actual chicken pot pie. I used leftover rotisserie chicken and just threw it in in the last hour of cooking or so. I know this easily could have been done on the stove, but it's nice to just throw things in the slow cooker and forget about it. This was huge hit with Sully. I knew I would want the comfort of the crust found in traditional pot pie, so I made some quick Pillsbury biscuits to go with it.

Verdict: Comfort food at it's finest. and this literally took minutes to throw into the slow cooker. Perfect for those cold days and when you don't have a lot of time. If you use raw chicken, then you will need to give it more time to cook.

Slow Cooker Pot Roast with Potatoes: Pinned over 7k times

Thoughts: I also snagged this recipe from Carly, and I was intrigued because I love pot roast, but I've never done it in the slow cooker before. It was super simple and smelt amazing while cooking. Unfortunately, I wasn't really thinking and I bought a higher quality cut of roast since it was the same price as the lesser quality, so this meant my cut was way more lean and wasn't as tender as I like a roast to be. That being said, had I been thinking, I could have cooked it for a shorter amount of time and it may have come out more tender. Lesson learned!

Verdict: Definitely a must make. The leftover juices make for a delicious gravy or Au Jus. Consider choosing a fattier cut of roast so yours doesn't dry out like mine did.


BAKING RECIPES

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread: Pinned over 50k times

Thoughts: I had a ton of zucchini last month to use up from my grandma's garden so I knew I wanted to bake with it. I perused a bunch of loaf recipes before deciding upon this one. I liked that I already had everything on hand to make it and that the only sweetener it called for was honey. It did call for white whole wheat pantry which I didn't have (and didn't even know was a thing), so I took my chances and used all-purpose flour with good success.

Verdict: You guys, this was THE BEST loaf I have ever made. So delicious, and moist! We gobbled it up in just a few short days. I'm not sure I'll ever make another loaf again.

Chocolate Zucchini Banana Muffins: Pinned 7.5k times

Thoughts: Figured these would be a hit with the toddler, and I was right. I used coconut oil for the oil and brown sugar, but half the amount the original recipe called for and they were still moist and sweet. We topped with sprinkles instead of sugar as well.

Verdict: Definitely a fun way to disguise zucchini in chocolate. Super moist and Sully asked for one every single morning until they were gone.

and last but not least...

5 Ingredient Banana Almond Butter Muffins: Pinned 12.5k times

Thoughts: Super easy to make and ingredients I always have on hand and I liked that the batter was blended in a high speed blender for a really smooth consistency. I added peanut butter chips to my batter and baked in a mini muffin tin for about 9 minutes.

Verdict: I loved these, as did Jim, but for some reason, Sully was not a fan. I thought they were the perfect little snack for me throughout the day as I found just one or two very satisfying.


Over to you:

Do you love or hate Pinterest?

How do you like to use it? Do you make recipes you pin on there?

Currently...{October}

I have always said these are my favourite types of posts to do, yet somehow I haven't done a Currently post since May?! And you guys, somehow it's already October?! September, where did you go? I love fall though. Always have, always will. And so far, we are having a beautiful October. The weather is still warm (although there's no denying a nip in the air), the colourful leaves are still mostly on the trees (yay!), and I broke out my slow cooker last week! Not that I'm against using it during the summer months, I just don't find myself making slow cooker recipes that much when it's warmer out.

Anyway, here's a little look at what I'm currently up to!

Thinking about: how my baby is going to be here in less than three months now! I will be having another scheduled c-section with this baby (you can see more info on this in Sully's birth story post) and last week I received a letter in the mail with our scheduled date (December 28, 2016). Let me tell you, receiving that letter was both humorous and scary! Funny because, the letter is so "official", and it's kind of weird to be given the exact date and time to be at the hospital to have your baby. Of course, I could still go into labour earlier than this, but let's hope that doesn't happen! Scary because, it reminds me that this is all real and happening sooner than I think. Three months isn't a very long time in the grand scheme of things! Think about how quickly Christmas always sneaks up on you! I still plan to fully celebrate and decorate for Christmas, but I know I will have to be super organized and not wait until the last minute to put up the tree, shop for gifts, bake Christmas cookies, etc.

Reading: I just started Still Mine, a thriller/mystery about a girl on the run (Clare) and a girl that has gone missing (Shayna). Everyone in the small town that Shayna is from seems to be hiding something, and Clare must face her own secrets and demons, including what ties her to Shayna, in order to uncover the mystery surrounding Shayna's disappearance. It's too early to say if it's going to be any good, but I'm hopeful!

I'll also be diving into Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children soon here as it was the book picked for my online book club - if you missed that post, check it out here and come join us!

Listening to: Remember the band Blue October? I was obsessed with their album Foiled, back in 2007/2008. I listened to that album over and over. And then completely forgot about them until this past month when I happened to catch one of their new songs on the radio. I immediately went home and looked Blue October up and I can't believe I've missed FOUR albums since Foiled was released. I've only downloaded and listened to their most recent album, Home, and it's pretty great. My favourite song is Home, and it's been on repeat for days in the car. It even makes me tear up a bit when I pay attention to the lyrics. Such a great song!

Watching: So I haven't been reading as much these past two months and I think that's because I've been watching more Netflix than normal. There's just not enough time in the day to do both! Grey's Anatomy season 12 was FINALLY added to Netflix Canada so I've just started that, and same with The Walking Dead season 6. I also started watching Gilmore Girls from the very beginning because I just don't know which episodes I've seen and what I haven't. I never watched the show religiously, but my mom and sister did so I caught episodes here and there. I'm realizing in this first season that I've seen more than I thought, but I don't think I've seen as much in the later seasons. Anyway, Jim was painting our bathroom the other day while I was watching it in bed and he said it's the most annoying show to listen to because all anyone does on the show is bicker! I can see his point, but I still love it! Although, it's going to take me forever to get caught up in time for the reunion episodes.

And who's watching This is Us?! I've only watched the first episode, but I was instantly hooked! I don't often expect too much from a pilot and will usually give a show a few episodes before calling it quits, but you guys, this show (so far) seems like it's going to be a good one!

Eating: FIGS! Haha, I already talked about this in my last post, but I'm loving fresh figs right now and I'm going to be sad when my last clamshell is all gone. On Sunday night, thanks to Becky's inspiration, I made fig jam, chicken, arugula and Brie cheese pizza and oh my god you guys, it was DELICIOUS. I scored a beautiful jar of fig jam on sale at Homesense the other week and I'm going to need to go look for more as I ended up needing the whole jar for two pizzas. Totally worth it though!

I've also been going hard on the meal planning lately, including baking (somewhat) healthy treats for the week. I love my cookbooks, but lately it's just been easier to use Pinterest to meal plan. I make a lot of meals from Pinterest, and since I know it can be overwhelming to use, I thought I'd start a monthly post on where I share the meals I've made from it that I think everyone needs to try! Consider me your guinea pig. Check back tomorrow for that post!

Wearing: This question is no fun when you're pregnant. Or at least, not very interesting. I have to say though, I'm glad for the cooler weather as I much prefer to dress my bump in leggings and layers. I do think I'm going to need to invest in a maternity winter coat as 3 months of cold weather is too long to get away with just sweaters.

Laughing about: 

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Haha remember this show?! Oh, Arthur.

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Leggings for the win!

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Looking forward to: Thanksgiving this weekend! I feel like I haven't had stuffing or turkey in ages and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to pigging out! We'll be seeing my nephews and sister-in-law and I feel like I haven't seen them in a long time (although it was only a month ago) so it will be great to get together with them.


Your turn! Tell me:

Current favourite song?

Are you watching This is Us? Thoughts?


*Linking up with Kristen & Gretchen for What's New With You? **haha apparently I can't read a calendar and got my dates wrong...link up is on Thursday!