I’ve been thinking of the great meals we had on the train… the first morning we didn’t know where the dining car was and made the best of what we found in another car,,,
then we discovered where the dining car was, and had excellent meals from then on, lol… at each meal you got to choose between three options…
and at each meal we ended up sitting with people who we hadn’t met before…
Sunday, spent the entire day in the garden… it was warm and sunny…
set out all the chair cushions and even brought out the decorative ones…
then, most of the fish came outside… a few just wouldn’t be caught, lol… apparently a project for another day…
tea, reading, and bird watching took up a good part of the day… I am loving the sound portion of my Merlin App… it has come in especially helpful for me to identify the many sparrows that come and go…
White-Crowned, White-Throated, Harris’s, Song, and Chipping Sparrows have all been around for the last week or so…
checked out the fence with the little person and his daddy on one side, as I contemplate the style of the new fence that is in the works, and had tea and snacks with the ones on the other side… they enjoy sitting by the pond and the sound of the running water…
ate all my meals on the deck, breakfast and lunch on the back, and supper on the upper…
phone calls, emails, in-person visits, and text messages came throughout the day…
made a hot breakfast, cause it felt like that kind of day, and then gathered the ingredients to prepare ham, cabbage and potatoes…
this would give it time to cook and then cool before heating it up for supper…
while that was cooking, I finished shredding the rest of the cabbage, a bit of green onion, and some carrot… I added the last of the dressing I had in the cupboard and finished that recipe…
finally, I cut and scooped three ripe avocados into containers to go into the freezer for smoothies…
yesterday I prepared zucchini basil soup…
feels a bit like I am getting ready for hibernation…
I didn’t leave the house today and spent most of the day reading… I was enjoying a favourite author’s story and had trouble putting the book down, lol…
when I wasn’t reading I was making soup and meat sauce…
the soup is delicious… I used half of a roasted butternut squash, onion, celery and coconut milk… there is enough for two meals which is great… as we adjust to this colder weather I think soup will be a welcome treat…
the meat sauce used tomatoes from my neighbours, onion, oregano and ground beef… it made a lot and I will probably freeze a bit and use the rest with spaghetti…
it is always nice to have a few meals prepared and ready ahead of time;-)…
all of the day’s meals had some portion of leftovers from the day before…
breakfast was some of the leftover boiled new potatoes scrambled up with fresh eggs…
lunch was a salad made with some of the leftover chicken… it also included onion, fresh dill, celery, a bit of miracle whip… and a few slices of the baguette from the night before…
supper was a lamb shank with a leftover veggie medley of the new potatoes, carrots and asparagus… added a bit of red wine to the lamb gravy…
since the reminder in January that my eating habits had loosened up a bit too much, I’ve been eating less and much better…
I’ve also been reaching my step goal every day, even though it is not a huge goal…
I am walking a figure eight in the living and dining room, and sometimes on the deck… if I walk on the treadmill my hip gets really grumpy so I am not doing that just now…
today, as I sat in the living room looking out the window I spent a few happy moments remembering the wonderful neighbours we have had over the years…
our next door neighbours became our very good friends… when the girls were first born they would take them home so that we could eat our supper without interruption… the girls would go over to their house to see if “Uncle Buzz could come out to play?” and he did… we fed them on Wednesday nights and they babysat while we went bowling… at one point Ellen produced a cookbook for each of them with all of the recipes she made that we all loved…
the neighbour across the street made Barbie clothes and we shared many meals and coffee on the deck…
the neighbour a few houses down the lane would come and help my beloved with whatever project he was working on and they had such fun together…
the neighbour across the back lane shared their pool…
these days we aren’t quite as close to the neighbours, as all of those have gone, but they are all kind and caring in their own way…
made me think of today’s contemplating card;-)…
maybe, if the world ever returns to some semblance of normal, I will have them all over for a meal and time together;-)…
had a bit of a giggle when I told my daughter that I had mushrooms and bacon with croutons for my supper recently…
she wondered if it was an actual meal…
I shared how it was certainly a meal when I was a teenager although then when my mom or dad made it, it was on toast, not with croutons…
so, for me it is comfort food… I feel that we are eating a lot of comfort food these days as we try to figure out what our next steps will be…
so many of the meals we ate a long time ago might not have been considered as nutritious as what is being eaten these days… I think of corn on the cob and fresh tomatoes, spaghetti and meatballs without any vegetables, macaroni and cheese on its own, lol… a lot more fresh veggies are part of our meals today…
but it is fun to remember, and recreate some of those old recipes…
Wednesday was Canada Takeout day and I decided to support Pho Hoang, a local restaurant which always produces delicious food…
I used a different app than normal, which appears to make sure that all the money goes to the restaurant…
whenever I order I try to get enough for at least a couple of meals…
this time I got 3 different things… the pho soup is always enough for two meals…
I also got shrimp garden rolls which I had for my supper as they are best when eaten fresh… finally I ordered sweet potato and shrimp crepes… I had a couple with the rolls;-)…
my dinner was delicious…
since then I’ve had pho for two meals as well as enjoying the sweet potato and shrimp crepes for a breakfast…