We had 3 leftover chicken thighs from last night, partial bags/containers of broccoli, peas and grape tomatoes, and about three-quarters of a package of velveeta cheese.  Plus we had homemade broth in the freezer and tons of rice and milk so that is what turned into our supper!

Not the peanut butter though!  That is just on the counter because I eat it everyday and don’t usually put it away.

I ended up measuring what I had just to see what was in it so here were my ingredients:

• 2 cups uncooked white rice
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 10oz frozen broccoli
• 2oz frozen peas
• 2.5oz fresh grape tomatoes
• 12oz Velveeta
• 8oz cooked chicken
• 1 cup whole milk

I cooked the rice in the broth and while that was going I shredded the chicken.  I was originally going to use brown rice but when I looked at the 45 minute cook time I decided maybe I would just use white rice with a 20 minute cook time instead!  Using real rice and not Minute rice is a lot different and I never think to cook a bunch of rice ahead of time to have ready so lately we haven’t eaten much rice.  The chicken had seasoned breading on it from last night and I shredded most of that as well and tossed it in the bowl with the chicken so I didn’t add much else for seasoning since I figured that would do it just fine.  Once the rice was done I dumped the chicken into that pot and in a separate pot I mixed the milk, Velveeta, frozen vegetables and tomatoes and I cooked it until the cheese was melted and the veggies were thawed and then I dumped that into the bigger rice/chicken pot and mixed it altogether.  Then it went into a casserole dish (which I sprayed with cooking spray just incase!) and I sprinkled a bit of season salt and paprika on top to make it pretty and it went into the fridge for later.

I figured it wouldn’t be all that healthy with all the cheese in it, even with the few vegetables but when I entered it into the recipe analyzer that I like it turned out reasonable.  For daily requirements it has about 30% calcium, 56% vitamin C, 16% iron, and 16% vitamin A.  Plus a good amount of protein and carbohydrates.  It has probably a bit too much fat for one recipe and it doesn’t have much fiber (2g/serving) but using brown rice and a bit less Velveeta would probably fix that and if I had had a whole bag of frozen broccoli I would have used the entire thing too for more vegetables.  At least we should have plenty for supper and lunches tomorrow which is nice, and maybe I’ll bring home some lettuce for salad to go with it or something.  I think I could handle that!

I keep meaning to take some pictures of our newest snow, some of our snow banks are a least as tall as Buddy and Cora now but I never remember to take my camera outside with me… maybe tomorrow!

Here is the link to the chicken recipe and here is the huge disaster of a mess I made in our kitchen trying to make it!

Mine didn’t turn out as good as hers… probably because I only glanced at the directions before I started, and did a couple things a bit wrong, and then realized it when I went back to check more directions.  I’m not necessarily good at reading and following directions! But I saved it, it turned out fine.. not as good, but still just fine! Plus we had enough leftover for lunch and some for supper tomorrow night too.

We had it with buttermilk biscuits, steamed broccoli with a bit of cheese on top, and sweet potato slices.  I didn’t love the sweet potatoes but I ate them mixed with chicken or broccoli to hide them and there are, unfortunately, enough for leftovers tomorrow so I will eat them then too.  Probably hidden, but I’ll eat them!

Since we both worked today and then Joe had to plow and do his training after work we just had a simple spaghetti supper with enough leftovers to feed us for lunch tomorrow and give the dogs a little bit of a snack.

I didn’t feel like hauling out all the vegetables to make a big salad so I grabbed tomatoes and lettuce and that was it.  Too bad I didn’t realize that tomato was basically the only vegetable we were already eating because then I could have picked a pepper or carrot instead! Oh well.  We got a large, large dose of tomato tonight.. especially since I made the spaghetti with extra sauce! Mmm.

Cora and Buddy got a little bit of spaghetti leftovers along with a meatball for a snack.  Mostly for Buddy because he doesn’t eat much anymore and has lost a lot of weight and we want to spoil him because he is old and won’t last too much longer but Cora did get some too because we never want her to feel all left out either! Both dogs really love spaghetti and meatballs!

And finally, I mentioned matching outfits.  While Joe was plowing and after I finished most of my own chores I went upstairs and changed into my blue comfy pants and my Canal run shirt from the run Joe and I did together last summer.  When Joe came in from plowing he went right up to workout and didn’t notice my outfit so when he came downstairs after his shower he accidentally picked the same outfit that I had on and we matched! It was pretty cute.  I couldn’t have picked better myself

We are so cool.

We had pizza for lunch around 4pm so we didn’t really eat a huge supper at 8 when we finally got around to it. We had leftover fish soup and salad with a bunch of vegetables.  It was pretty tasty for being an easy supper.

While we were swimming all of the animals were behaving except this one.  I should mention too that I vacuumed this room only like 6 hours before and it was so nice looking.  Somehow, Cora decided to open a bag of rabbit bedding, tiny little shreds of pine, and spread them all out.  She also ripped numerous holes in the bag so that no matter how I touch it I will spill more until it is gone (or until I get tired of it and dump it into a trash bag!).  Thank goodness only a small portion of the bag is on the floor, I don’t even want to know how much of a mess the entire bag would have been! On the positive side, the room smelled nice and fresh and woodsy which was a bonus!

Thankfully it was gutted, so Joe just had to fillet it, and then he used the head and bones to make fish stock for some soup.

We had breaded fish sticks and fish soup all from the same fish.  The fish sticks were more like nuggets, there was a lot of fish in each one.  The breading was made from blue corn meal and then spices and seasonings that I’m not totally sure on… it was good though!  The soup had big chunks of garlic and potato in it and I think there was some pureed broccoli and maybe mushroom in there as well, and I know there was some green onion.  We didn’t have any fish nuggets leftover but there was just enough soup left for us to save for later.

I poured boiling water over them in a bowl so that their skins would split.  Most of them did but not all of them.  It might just be easier to cut them all in half like some of the directions I saw did.

After I drained them I had two choices, corn syrup or sugar coated.  Of course I picked the stickier option of corn syrup. So I coated them all and then poured them onto a pan lined with tinfoil.  At the very least I should have oiled the tinfoil or used a silpat instead because dried, sticky corn syrup doesn’t come off tinfoil.  It sticks and rips and makes for some inedible cranberries… but I didn’t know that by this point.

I turned the oven on at 350 for a little while and then turned it off and left the pan in there overnight.  They did dry, but not entirely.  Enough to be edible had I not glued them to the tinfoil accidentally though.  Next time I see them on sale, if I even bother to get any, I’ll try some different methods to see if those work better!  And, it might just be worth it to buy already dried cranberries… even if it is more expensive it is so much easier and less sticky!

Pita bread cooking in the oven on top of cooling racks

And then they went into a paper bag to soften up a bit.  I think I could have let them soften even more but they worked.

The rice just came from a bag, pre-seasoned and ready to cook.  It was good though, better than I probably would have made.  The chicken was different than hers too because I didn’t use all the same spices, I just used what I found in the cupboard and called it good.  The sauce turned out good though, and it worked well with my homemade yogurt and I liked the pita bread too.  Obviously it smelled alright because Buddy was right next to me asking for food… most likely chicken!

Pork and Mushroom, homemade, eggrolls…  minus a few mushrooms that I stole from the pan And homemade tuna sushi with cucumber and avocado in them as well.  I had some eggroll and they were super good and tasty but my favourite was the sushi!  I’m pretty sure I ate most of them…and then Joe cut up more for me from extra that he made as well.  I had a ridiculous amount of sushi but it was so good! The sauce is wasabi powder mixed with soy sauce.  I could eat it everyday!

Cheesecake for dessert! This was store-bought but it was still very tasty and we have some leftover for the next couple of days well.  Overall a perfect birthday!

This is what his Powerbreathe looks like.  Inside there is a resistance so when you breathe through it, it is more difficult than just breathing normally and it helps strengthen the breathing muscles which then helps improve performance.  I don’t think the workouts are too long but they are very difficult! I haven’t exercised with this thing but I did try it out when Joe first got it and even just standing in the kitchen it was hard to breathe through!  Here is a link to the Powerbreathe website if anyone wants to know more about them!

Cora playing… Joe’s family might recognize this as her Christmas toy but she managed to untie the knots and unravel it one day so I tied a bunch of new knots in it.  It’s a little bit longer than it was because I couldn’t fix it quite the same as it was but she still plays with it!

Anyways today I took my elderly friend Eleanor out and then I came home and did tons of laundry… all the sheets and couch blankets and clothes, the only laundry I didn’t do was the curtains which I may do later in the week.  I did a lot of sweeping and vacuuming and emptying trash cans.  Just normal things that we normally do but I tried to do it all mostly today so the rest of the week I wouldn’t have to and I could do fun things like get one of the looms out or some of my basket weaving supplies… we’ll see!  Joe had to work today and has to work all week but we will have the weekend off together which will be nice!