Happy Halloween to All!
What are you getting up to this Halloween?
We carved pumpkins, roasted the seeds and watched some Halloween movies like Beetlejuice, Nightmare Before Christmas and Brother’s Grimm 😀
Planet IndigenUS at Harbourfront
Planet IndigenUS is one of the largest international Indigenous arts festivals in the world and we were able to catch some of the presentations while everyone was here. For approximately ten days, people from all over the world came here to perform or experience the different artistic styles through dance, music, art, poetry and storytelling.
More than the indigenous people from North America, we were able to enjoy some smooth, mellow sounds from Rhombus (Wellington, New Zealand) – Visit their site: Rhombus
and a very high-energy performance from Ernest The Magnifico (Sydney, Australia) – Visit his site: Ernest the Magnifico
Free Printable Alphabet Worksheets from AnimalAdventureBook.com
Just finished putting up some more free printable worksheets on AnimalAdventureBook.com.
If you know a little one who loves animals and would like to practice their writing skills… or just need something to occupy the young ones while out, please check out the site (by clicking the photo below).
I would also appreciate to hear what you think about the current site, so if you would please give me some feedback in the comment section below, I can then make the site better for the children 😀
Support Canada’s Beautiful Environment and Stop Enbridge from Lying to Us
Enbridge has been releasing many different ads promoting their plans to build a tar sands pipeline that could lead to “500 oil tankers a year laden with toxic heavy crude will have to weave through the 4th most dangerous waterway in the world, making sharp, 90° turns through twisting, rocky passages.”
To get public support for their project, Enbridge decided to simply erase 1000 km2 of islands located right in the Douglas Channel to make it seem perfectly safe. In reality, such a gamble could absolutely devastate the natural environment.
I’m sure no one would want something like this to happen right in their backyards, so please show support and stop this madness by signing this petition and spreading the word to others.
Click on the image for a closer look.
Homemade Vegetable Chicken Soup
We had a sudden shift of cool rainy weather come in, making it a wonderful time for some hearty soup.
As usual, I wasn’t quite sure what was going to go into the soup or how it would end up tasting, but I just went along with what we had and added a couple of things from the grocery store to pad it out.
The end result? One of the nicest soups I’ve had in years!
Ingredients:
4-6 chicken thighs (with bone and skin)
1 ½-2 chicken bouillon cubes
4 small potatoes (cubed)
1 large carrot (cubed)
4 large mushrooms (cubed)
1 small chopped onion
4-6 chopped cloves of garlic
1 can red kidney beans (rinsed)
3 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 teaspoon dried basil
1-2 dried bay leaves
1 pinch of cumin powder
1 pinch of seasoning salt
1 pinch of shichimi (You can find shichimi on Amazon
salt and pepper to taste
Procedure:
Place 1 L of water in a medium to large pot over high heat.
Add chicken thighs, potatoes and carrots.
Add 1 ½-2 chicken bouillon cubes, followed by salt, pepper, garlic powder, rosemary, cumin, basil, shichimi and bay leaves.
Once the water begins to boil, reduce to medium heat.
On a small pan, lightly fry chopped onions with a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil over medium heat.
After 2 minutes or so, add garlic to the onions and fry for an additional minute.
Remove from heat and add the onions and garlic to the boiling pot.
Add mushrooms and kidney beans to the pot then boil for a few more minutes.
Add chives and parsley to the boiling pot and allow to cook for 1 minute before removing the soup from the heat.
Enjoy with garlic bread or herb crackers!
*The soup tastes even better the day after!*
How to: Recycle Old Packaging for Ice Cubes
For those of you who may have a lot of product packages around the home and would like to find some use for them, consider turning some into fun ice cube trays.
A while ago, I bought myself these adorable ninja-shaped cookie cutters
I washed the package insert and filled it with iced tea.
I then gently placed it on a flat surface in the freezer and left it there for about an hour.
They turned out great!
You can then add them to drinks for have them “fight” while whirling in a bowl of cold water.
Try this out with different packages like plastic egg cartons, electronics packages and more to see what comes out when you add a little water or juice to them!
***If you would like to get your own ninja cutters, you can click here to find them on Amazon
