Art by Ingrid Glaw

I had done some exploring elsewhere but my computer died and I've lost the photos so explored today.

I went to my aunt and uncles place for the weekend. They live in the country. The first photo is my uncle giving us a ride on the tracker. Te second is a shot of their yard.

We drove to the small city of Selkirk, MB. These are just a couple photos taken from the car window. Some farm land and the Red River.

Remember the story about the man on the greyhound in canada who went crazy and cut someones head off? This is part of the mental hospital where he is being kept. There's a bunch of buildings but I only got a shot of this one. I took it from the car again.

We drove through a park. My uncle has problems walking so we didn't get out of the car. I took my photos through the window. There were a bunch of old boats on display in the park.

Parts of the park and river.

Bridge over the river.

We had a bonfire when we got home.

I did Earth Hour with my aunt (my uncle cheated) so we had some bread and milk with candles to light it.

(from left to right, top to bottom) Feb 13 & 14: Valentines, Feb 15 and 16: Dreamcatchers made out of old cds/dvds.

Feb 17: Collaberated with a 7 year old at day care to make a mini-zine called "Why Summer is Awesome!"

Feb 18: butterfly for a swap at swap-bot. For 'Silly. Wacky and Unusual- Holidays" This was for 'learn about butterflies day'.

Feb 20-29: For 2 weeks I was doing ATCs with the daycare kids. They loved it.

Feb 28 2012: Chicken Parmesan

Cook breaded chicken fingers according to instructions on the box. Boil noodles. Place noodles on a plate, place chicken strips on top, then pasta sauce and shredded cheese. Microwave a minute to melt the cheese.

This is a very simple and delicious meal.

Feb 28 2012: Banana Pudding

This is the Recipe The pudding was okay. It had a bit of an odd texture. I'll make pudding again but I'll try a different recipe.

Feb 29 2012 Banana Pancakes

This is the recipe. These are really really good. I added chocolate chips to some and that was even better.

Okay I cheated a bit on Feb 25 and 26 because I needed to use up left overs.

Feb 25 2012: Rice Omelet

Just mixed eggs with left over rice. It didn't taste bad it didn't taste good just rather bland. Very filling though.

Feb 26 2012: Hash Browns

I had left over potatoe and meat so I fried them together to make hash browns. The were pretty good.

Feb 27 2012: Marinated Pork Chop

In a ziploc bag put 2 tbsp vinegar, 1 tsp mustard, 1 tsp worchester sauce,  1tsp soya sauce, 1 clove garlic chopped, dash salt and pepper. Place pork chop in bag, shack it around a bit. Place in fridge over night. Grill Pork Chop.

Thoughts: This was very, very good. I will try it again some day.

Feb 22 2012:  Chocolate Banana Oatmeal (plus a poached egg)

The chocolate banana oatmeal was easy. Place chopped banana in the bowl. Cook oats as directed on package. Pour oats over bananas. Take a tablespoon full of nutella and stir together with banana and oatmeal.

One of my favourite dishes is eggs benedict so I was practicing making a poached egg. I need more practice, there was a lot of water in it.

Didn't miss Feb 23 and 24th Just can't remember the recipe.

Feb 19 2012: Banana French Toast

Like regular french toast just add banana. Beat two eggs. Mash up a banana. Mix mashed banana with beated eggs. Dip slices of bread into banana egg mix. Sprinkle with cinnamon.

Thoughts: Very yummy. The banana add a nice sweetness to the french toast.

Feb 20 2012: Bannock and Chicken Stew

Bannock is a simple bread made by the native american. Meant to be made using very basic ingredients so anyone can make it. Feb 20th was Lois Riel Day, a holiday with native american roots so it is traditional to make bannock for this day.

To make bannock mix 3 cups flour, 1 tsp salt, 2 tbsp baking powder, 1/4 melted butter and 1 and 1/2 cup water. Mix together. Form into a ball. knead about 10 times , flatten into a 1 inch thick flat circle.

Either fry in a frying pan over med heat, 15 minutes per side or bake at 350 for 30 mins.

Thoughts: Very easy. I used the baked method, I'd like to try it in the frying pan some time.

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To make the stew I placed 2 chicken breasts into a pot (I purchase chicken breast with skin and back attached. It's much cheaper, the skin is easy to remove and the bone can go into the soup.. Filled it with half water, half milk until chicken is just submerged. Add 1 chopped garlic clove, 1 tbsp dried thyme, salt, pepper and a chicken boullion cube. Let simmer 30 minutes. Remove chicken, cut bones off, chop up meat and return to stew. Add Potatoes and any desired veggies (carrot, peas, corn etc).  shimmer 20 - 30 minutes until veggies are soft. Mix 2 tbsp flour with milk or water. slowly stir into stew, keep stirring until it is nicely thickened.

Thoughts: Love this recipe, it's delicious and filling and makes a lot. I think I got 5 bowls of soup out of mine.

Feb 21 2012: Cola Roast

This is really easy. Place your roast in a roast pan (I used pork roast). Pour 1 cup cola over top followed by a package of onion soup mix. I added potatoes and carrots beside the roast because it saves time but you don't have to do that. Cook 400 for 1.5 hours. Remove roast from drippings and set aside.  Pour drippings into pot over med heat. Mix 2 tbsp flour with water. Slowly pour flour mix into dripping, stirring continously until thickened.

Thoughts: Makes great gray and I liked the potatoes baked with the roast.

I decided to challege myself to try a new recipe everyday (hopefully health ones). I also challenged myself to update my blog regularly but as you can see I am far behind. Let's see if I can catch up

Feb 16 2012 : Crepes with berries and fried banana.

For the crepes I mixed 1 egg, 1/2 cup water, 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup milk, dash of salt and tbsp melted butter, blended together. I put a spoonful of mix into a greased frying pan on medium heat, and spread the batter thin. I waited a couple minutes until the crepe was mostly cooked then flipped it to brown the other side. Repeat with the rest of the crepes.

For the berry filling I just placed frozen berries in a pot and heated then. I then took a tsp of flour, mixed it with water and slowly poured it into the berries. Stirring the berries continuously until they were nicely thickened.

For the fried bananas I just sprinkled cinnamon on the banana piece and fried them.

The red on top is just nesquick strawberry syrup.

Thoughts: Crepes are easy and always good. A very versitile food that can be stuffed with many things. The berry filling was a little sour so a little sugar could be added to sweeten it up. Fried Bananas are really good and easy too.

Feb 17 2012: Fried peanut butter and banana sandwich with fried nectarine.

To make the sandwich just spread peanut butter on the bread. Mash up a banana and spread on the bread. Close up the sandwich with you second slice of bread. Melt some butter in a frying pan. Fry sandwich golden brown.

Fried nectarine was made the same at fried banana. Sprinkle some cinnamon on and fry on butter.

Thought: Easy and very yummy but also probable not healthy so it's probable best as a once in awhile treat.

Feb 18 2012: Egg Nests

I saw this recipe somewhere on the internet and thought it looked interesting so I tried it. Separate the eggs, put the yolks aside, put the egg whites in a blender. Add some salt. Blend until fluffy but not stiff. Spoon egg white fluffy onto lightly toasted bread. Make a hole in the centre and gentle place the egg yolk into it. Bake in oven until whites are browned and yolk is set.

Thoughts: I looks nice but it doesn't taste much different aside from a different texture so it may not be worth the extra effort.

From left to right: Feb 1 6:30 am walking to work in the morning, Feb 2 2pm walking to work in the afternoon, Feb 3 noon bought some valentine gifts.

Feb 4 My 2nd cousin made me a balloon animal, this morning I held it up to the window as the sun was rising, it looked possessed. Feb 5, reorganized my craft/ work area. Feb 6, valentine tree at work.

Feb 7 Chicken Parmesan for supper, yum! Feb 8 took a walk through a park during work break Feb 9 Bought a star fruit to see how it taste, I didn't like the taste but it makes for a pretty garnish.

Feb 10 a lego house built with the kids at daycare. Feb 11 cracks in the river ice. Feb 12 took this photo at the mall, I liked the shadows.

Feb 12 photo taken on my walk to work. Feb 13 6pm and the sun is setting, hooray the days are getting longer. Feb 14 Died my hair and finished a scarf.

Feb 15 Photo taken on the way to work. Feb 16 Star Fruit, very pretty but I don't like the taste. Feb 17 old fashion mixer.

Feb 18, went skating on the river trail, Feb 19 photo taken while walking to my aunts. Feb 20 I found a spiderman chocolate egg at the store, it had a lil cyclops toy in it. I'll buy another sometime and hope for a spider-man or nightcrawler

Feb 21, necklace making supplies, Feb 22 Just leaving for work. Feb 23 Photo of the sky.

Feb 24, Brought a dragonfruit to the daycare, put googly eyes on it to make it look like a fish. Feb 25, went to assiniboine park. Feb 26 it snowed alot.

Feb 27, tobaggan hill. Feb 28 6pm, the days are get longer and longer.

I took the bus down to assiniboine park, cross a bridge over the assiniboine river and met up with my cousins at the zoo. I bought myself a Zoo membership ($40 for a year) so I can go anytime I want to now.

There's the Assiniboine bridge I crossed to get to the zoo.

Now here are some zoo animals.

They're building a huge new polar bear exhibit. It'll be at least another year before the polar bears can come but right now they have the information centre done.

This cute lil mink was so hyper he just kept running back and forth.

Tucan Ridge, the rainforest area of the zoo.

I partially explored the river trail in january This month I finished exploring the rest of it.

I went 2 days. On saturday feb 11th I walked the trail with some friends and on saturday feb 18th I went to skate the trail on my own. These are combinations of photos from both days. Both days were nice and sunny.

On Feb 11th we got there at 1pm and went for lunch before our walk, I had a hot dog and hot chocolate.

On Feb 18th I got there at 10 am and went for lunch after I skated the trail, I had a slice of pizza.

These are photos of the river trail, it's right on top of the frozen river. They drill holes into the ice to get the trees to stand.

Some nice pattern frozen in the ice.

There were warming huts all along the river trail. This one was nice because it stored fire wood and had a bonfire in the middle.

This warming hut was made of wood and snow. I climbed on top to take some photos.

This one was made of foam.

This is my least favourite of the warming hut, it doesn't look very practical.

This one made of rope is pretty.

A tin foil warming hut.

The last and my favourite of the warming huts. It's made of birch banches and smells wonderful.

Closer to where the river trail begins there are some activities going on....

There were games, free hot chocolate, bonfires etc.

They had a place set up to build lil inunukshuks out of ice. They were pretty when the sunlight hit them.