Wednesday: full and with some sweetness

Tomorrow is NYC med appt day.

Routine test but still not a fun test for one in our family.

Prayers requested.
***
I lit my lampadas last night and this morning for the first time
since my injury in May!

***

Today was a good day.

I went to PT and am progressing well.

Figured out with the left over chicken

(actually from the chicken and biscuits made earlier)

that I will make chicken fajita.

 I have on hand: 

1. precooked chicken 2. soft burrito "shells" 3. avocado

 4. tomato 5. salsa 6. white cheddar cheese. 7. sour cream. 

I could easily cook up some rice to add and could fry up an onion and add spices. 

***

We are still in the unbloggable hard but thank God that HE knows about it

and how it will be resolved in time.

***

We prayed the Akathist to the Protection of the Mother of God tonight.

I am so very glad.

***

We watched the Waltons again tonight, so nice.

***

Hoping tomorrow to report on a successful return from NYC,

chicken fajitas and a cozy night.

***

God is with us, 

in all things, He is WITH us.

Delicious Creamy Garlic Pasta with Chicken

First, the chicken Pasta from this recipe

I made this garlic pasta chicken dish tonight! The only thing 

I did differently is used 3 cloves of garlic, sauteed in oil at the beginning,

for about a minute or so....

 Easy and delicious!!! Very savory!!! 

I would do more pasta with it next time and consider adding some veggies

 that would go well with the overall taste. It was delicious!

 I think a vegan/vegetarian version would be possible as well! 

Note: if I did more pasta and vegetables, 

I would need to increase the sauce + garlic and herbs. But it would totally be doable. 

I would have to make this in my Dutch Oven however, 

as my fry pan *just* held all of this once the pasta and chicken were added! 

I used 3 chicken breasts FYI.

***

I also made my annual fall sour cream apple pie 

that Alicia P blogged about nearly 10 years ago

and that Mat. Emily introduced me to via her blog

I think in the first year of my marriage...

my Husband LOVES this pie! 

***

I also managed to clean the hall bathroom!

(It really needed it, yikes!)...

***

It was a really nice dinner,

great conversation and discussing many ideas

and theological things within Christianity and within

Orthodoxy.  

A real blessing!

***

Tomorrow is a prep day for a non-panic routine medical test

that will be done Thursday.  I do ask your prayers for myself

and my Husband that all will go well with this.

***

I hope all of you had some good moments in today and that

God gives you peace in the midst of struggles you

may be having.  

May we be always under His mercy!

Monday: busy but with blessings

So I was going to make that tomato pasta dish for tomorrow,

then I realized that with a medical (routine, no panic or worry) test

any seeds are out and we called and sure enough, even tomato seeds!

So, all of my sauce went into glass jars 2/3rd full and then put in freezer!

Thankfully I know it freezes well! 

****

(I was asked by a dear reader if I had any tips on how to save food...

my Husband is much better and more vigilant in this area than myself. 

(I actually need to figure out how to use the rest of the fresh basil I have in 

the fridge and am not a huge pesto fan!) ... on reflection this is what I would say:

1. try to keep fridge under control so you know what's in it. 

2. think of things to cook/bake that you already have

3. try not to buy (Esp fresh) more than you can make reasonably.

It's something I struggle with, esp. when hit with things like the cold I had 

a month or so ago or when my foot was hurting more than I anticipated.

4.  if you don't think you will get to the food and it can be frozen, then freezing it is a 

good option.)

****

So I switched gears since we are having a friend over for dinner and I found this recipe

that sounds great - will use up the noodles that are already cooked and 

a pasta with cream sauce (and garlic) with chicken sounds just perfect to me

right now... will have a Romaine lettuce salad on the side!

I hope to make this delicious sour cream apple pie

as well, as Mr Husband loved it and said he would like this 

more than the orange cake I was thinking of making (which I do hope to make

but later! It looks and sounds wonderful!)...

****

So today was busy! Figuring out what to serve tomorrow,

getting all the sauce ready to freeze, I made a fast and quick chicken pot pie...

I wrote this earlier about it:

Chicken pot pie: lesson learned, half the biscuits (Pillsbury) as it did not bake evenly.

 ... but the flavour was great! So still a win! 

next time I will half the biscuits as the inside of the biscuits did not fully bake + it was hard to get the inside ingredients hot enough. But it was good!

What I had in it was:

frozen thawed broccoli, cooked chicken, cream gravy. 

Biscuits baking on top, Husband wanted a pie crust bottom.

It tasted great! Just have to tweak the top + leave some openings for better baking 

in the top of this pot pie!

***

I still want to make the vegetable pot pie,

I merely realized that this is a bigger project than I had time for today.

We enjoyed some Junior's Cheesecake from our local grocery store! 

And we watched the very first episode of season 1 of the Waltons! 

It was so nice to do! 

***

I had PT today too! So it was a really busy day today.

I am hoping at least that sleep will be sweet tonight.

God bless you all.

I don't always have time to reply to all comments but PLEASE know that

EACH of them is SUCH a blessing to me and I really appreciate them!

****

PS: I love my spice racks! As I wrote elsewhere today:

One of the many things that I love about my home is my 3 spice racks. 

One wall hanging rack was my Mother's and the other my Oma's (my Mom's Mom), 

and the spinner was a Value Village find in about 2002 or so when I still lived in BC! ♡♡♡

Sunday evening: Chicken with a delicious Pasta

Today was a good day.

Trip to church went smoothly,

we were at our far-away church;

it was so wonderful to see all the kids; to be there;

to just be happy there, with everyone, and the choir 

singing, and everyone taking a part... 

We went out with a dear friend and our Munckin for

ice cream and a good long talk.

Post liturgical nap after we got home and later this 

simple dinner of Pasta and Baked Chicken.

My foot's a bit sore from walking a lot today but

I am making a lot of progress and that is good.

I am going to DV use the left over noodles, sauce, 

grate some wonderful organic white cheddar cheese

and layer these and bake them for a meal on Tuesday.

I hope to make chicken pot pie tomorrow 

with the rest of our left over chicken and gravy.

I feel like our personal HARD is staring us a bit in the face

and I am trying to remember that the only face I need to look at

is our Lord Jesus Christ's.

Chicken & Biscuits with Gravy

Vintage Betty Crocker 

Oven-Baked Chicken and Biscuits.

Not hard to make, everything fit to shove over and bake the 

drop biscuits which tasted wonderful

with the chicken-cream gravy on top!

Very filling and an easy to make flaky biscuit! 

I kind of cheated and did not properly cut the shortening in

but added the milk and then used my pastry cutter to mix it all up,

using a knife at the end for scraping the pastry cutter and final

stirring.... a spoon dropped them in and it baked up wonderfully!

I had to bake them longer than the 15 minutes to get them 

to brown up a bit.  This would easily feed 4 people!

We only had 1 drumstick each and will have a repeat for dinner;

2 large chicken breasts are left and one of the is going to be

for a make-shift "chicken parm" 

(but with white cheddar, since that is what we have on hand) 

and the the other baked chicken breast DV is going to be

for chicken pot pie, with the left over gravy! 

Friday: Cleaning, Cooking and Gratefulness

Today I was really grateful that I can walk again,

that I was able to go to NYC yesterday.

Playing that Chess game was a highlight for me,

just something fun and spontaneous with my Husband. 

Today was house cleaning day;

bed linens changed, laundry done and put away; floors mopped;

tomorrow I hope to get the bathroom sinks washed.

Mr Husband, valiantly, helped.

I baked pre-prepared shrimp and we had a salad;

for dinner salad and baked potato for Mr Husband,

salad and then oatmeal with raisins and honey for me. 

After I came home from PT (so glad for this help),

I baked pre-made vegan organic cinnamon rolls,

joking that organic sugar must surely be good for you ;)

It's nice to have a treat with my Husband; we don't actually do so 

that much, usually.

I've been having fun picking out different teacups. 

I am glad for today. 

We are still in the midst of the hard, but have a bit of

breathing room at present.

Trying to just be where I am today and try to trust God.

I've been able to do a bit of reading in our library

and that is a blessing.

It's going to take time to get one's life back after

the year we have had;

it's still not sewing time, though I did fix an

unexpected hole in a long black shirt/skirt/tunic that I have

(it was thrifted) and my Husband commented that I may want to 

have something over it to cover up my bad fix job (it bunched).

I find this funny and am not worried about it over all. 

I prepared a pasta sauce for the slow cooker tonight

and hope to make it tomorrow.

I hope to freeze some of it and am so glad I got to make this;

it's a lovely sauce;

I still can't find Italian Plum tomatoes with juice

(not a purred sauce) so we will see how this ends up...

I know last time I was disappointed, I hope for better this time....