Stuffed Peppers or How to Cook a Delicious Meal with Bits and Pieces of Leftovers and Free Food

Last Sunday I decided to see what I could make with some of the odds and sods that were hanging out in the fridge and the pantry.  As it turned out, with a little imagination, I had the makings of a delicious meal! This doesn't happen very often when all of the little containers of leftovers can work together and make something that is greater than the sum of its parts. But...it worked...and I was delighted as this is SO NOT MY FORTE!
Well, let's see what we have...in the fridge...a hunk of cheddar that is starting to dry out at the edges. Not too appealing on its own.

 In the pantry - a box of black beans and rice. Now, I don't buy these sorts of packaged foods but for 7 years I had a parent pack me a big bag of mixes and spices and packaged sauces at Christmas and at the end of the school year as a gift. He was retired from McCormicks where they make all of these things and they cost him next to nothing. My daughter LOVED all the free packs of Swiss Chalet sauce and I appreciated the abundance of spices!

In the fridge - TOO MANY PEPPERS! (Why does this make me think of that childhood book ' "The Five Little Peppers"? By mistake both Michael and I had bought a package of peppers the previous week- what was I going to do with them all??

A jar of leftover tomato sauce....ok, an idea is starting to come to me...

A handful of wilted green onions - cleaned up and chopped up they don't look so bad...

I got a good amount of grated cheddar from that partially dried out block.

I won, yes won, a bottle of Frank's RedHot sauce (yum yum) at school when we had our chili lunch - those who brought in chili to share, like me, got a nice little gift box and this was in it! LOVE this stuff!

 I had an over abundance of zucchini thanks to buying an extra large package at Costco - need to get rid of some of them as they don't last long....

 The result?  Stuffed peppers, vegetarian style! I don't usually cook by the seat of my pants like this, this is more Michael's area of expertise whereas I usually use a recipe. But as he was in Miami at a conference for the weekend and because I was feeling inspired by this mix of available ingredients I went for it!

First I put cleaned out the peppers and added a big spoonful of tomato sauce.

I cooked up the black beans and rice and added a healthy portion to the peppers... along with a shake or two of Frank's hot sauce :) Did I say I LOVE that sauce??

 These two pictures are reversed...I added chopped up zucchini then another dollop of tomato sauce.

 and another shake or two of Frank's hot sauce, truth be told...

Then I topped the whole thing with grated cheddar.....

 covered with tinfoil and baked for 25 minutes in a 375 oven.  I tested the peppers with a fork as I didn't want them to get mushy but I felt they needed more time so I popped them back in for another 15 minutes for a total of 40 minutes in all.

Perfect! I added a few chopped green onions and dug right in! Sooooooooooo tasty! Even my daughter had one....or two...
Close...

Closer.... 

Closest!

 A nicely balanced vegetarian dish with a little red wine on the side...nom nom nom!

Leftovers for lunch! I felt pretty proud of myself for using up some things that had sat in my pantry and fridge for awhile and might have ended up getting tossed out as food waste. Cost of this meal??

Hmmmmmmmmmm, I wonder what I can create out of free/old stuff today???

Financial Crunchies

Sounds like a new breakfast cereal!

So I was just crunching some numbers - it seems I do that a lot lately. My latest financial challenge was to find out if I could manage just on my pension while carrying two homes as there will probably be some overlap between selling the condo and moving into our PEI farmhouse. The good news is that I could but I wouldn't have much leeway and while that makes me a little nervous it's better than being in the hole every month.

Not having a lot of wiggle room means I need to set aside some $$ for renos and redecorating when it comes time to sell the condo - I'll be honest - the house is looking a bit tired. I'm hoping with a lot of decluttering, new flooring throughout, a fresh coat of paint in every room and careful staging that once again its great qualities will shine forth and someone will nab it quickly! I don't want to have to pay for two homes for very long!

Did I tell you about a great book I read lately? No? Well I am now - it's called "Forks over Knives" and actually it was a documentary I watched but I purchased and read the accompanying "Forks over Knives" cookbook. It's a bout living on a totally plant-based diet which I've been trying to do. (Chocolate comes from a plant....right?")

So since January I've only eaten meat once or twice and can say I don't miss it one little bit. This is not to say I'm a total vegetarian - I'm not. If I get a craving for chicken wings I won't deny myself - it just hasn't happened yet. And give up lobster when in PEI? Not a chance! But again it will be when my body tells me -  I WANT LOBSTER! 

I also continue to avoid wheat products having read "Wheat Belly" over Christmas. So I am looking for some good gluten-free recipes for my breadmaker so if you have any let me know! I've printed a few off the internet but haven't tried any yet. And again, it's not like I'm never going to eat wheat again - but I WON'T eat any GMO wheat - EVER! Or any other GMO food if I can help it. I did buy some Red Fife wheat flour at the Bulk Barn but haven't baked with it yet. I don't think I could ever be 100% vegan, vegetarian or anything else as I do like a lot of variety and am a natural born rule breaker so why bother setting myself up for failure. I am only human after all. Shocking, I know!

Here's what we made last weekend:

I made Lentil Tomato Spinach soup and it was soooooooooooooo good. And no oil used either! I sauteed my onions and SIX CLOVES OF GARLIC!! just adding a bit of water to keep stuff from sticking...

added can of tomatoes.....

Oops...had the name of the soup a little wrong... it's Lentil Soup with Cauliflower, Potatoes and Spinach!!

 I've been using a lot of the spice turmeric lately as it is a natural anti-inflammatory and I'm still recovering from the pinched nerve in my neck. This recipe has a bit of curry too.

 Yes, I put the recipe book on my Kindle - it was about half the price of the actual BOOK. And takes up a lot less space on my small kitchen counter.

Have now added the potatoes and spinach and cauliflower - yum yum!

Pretty complementary colours - bright green lentils!

Meanwhile Michael was cooking up some porkchops to add to something else  he was cooking and while normally that smell would make me drool I found it made me kind of nauseous!

This is Aloo Gobi that Michael made - delicious! However it wasn't very moist so I've found another similar recipe except with more liquid in it. Can you tell I got a  good deal on cauliflower this week?? Good thing I like it!
Now I must go get ready - I'm going to go see "Life of Pi" with a girlfriend!
Have a great weekend everyone!

From Blog Reading to Basketball

I have to say I've spent a delightful few hours catching up on everyone's blog today. It was so much fun - everyone seems to be posting about my favorite topics: food, books and saving money!! Poor Carla is menu challenged but she did finally organize her week's meals! Lisa had me thinking back to the Great Depression and the meals our mothers made with every little scrap they could find. Jane gave me a good laugh reminiscing about school meals and stodgy puddings! That reminded me me of the lumps in my mother's famous oatmeal that had me gagging every morning before school! Many more of you amazed me with your grocery savings this week, something us Canadians can only dream about! And lovely Lena had me drooling in envy with her snowy day baking - Coconut Cinnamon Rolls - check it out (recipe included)!

 And now.....on to basketball. Last night will be known as the night we had better seats than the mayor!!! That's him looking bored sitting next to the red-haired boy. BEHIND US I MIGHT ADD! We have friends with season's tickets in the first row on the floor and when they can't use them they give them to us! Lucky us!

It was a thriller of a game. Our London Lightning team was playing the team from Summerside, PEI (our FUTURE  HOME team :) but we were cheering for London last night. The Summerside Storm led for most of the game but London went ahead in the 4th quarter. Then, with only seconds left, Summerside tied the game! In a 5 minute overtime period London pulled ahead again and won the game!

This is the initial tip-off, man can that guy ever jump HIGH!!

One of the Lightning team dancers - this girl just happens to go to the highschool I work at :)

I like taking shots from different angles...

 and that got me interested in the colourful footwear on the floor...

 not to mention LARGE footwear...

 I think these were the largest!!

 These take the "brightest footwear" category...

Here's London's coach in the blue jacket. He's very colourful in more ways than one! or two! I took a lot of photos of him but because he's constantly in action they are usually blurry.

Like now for example...

Crap...they tied it up! (Nice muscles...not that I noticed....)

 No, please, say it ain't so!  This young fellow, last name Moss, is only about 5'8" at most but he's always on the court - he scores many a 3 pointer AND almost always gets the rebounds and speedy?, oh my! What he lacks in height he more than makes up for in talent!

 Thought we had that game in the bag...

He's ok but I thought he was gonna end up on my lap....darn....

Summerside's tallest and largest footed player!

 You can see tiny Moss (#6) in comparison to the BIG guys!

This one's going in!! Woot woot!

I had a clear shot of their faces I thought... STOP MOVING!!

We ended the evening by dropping into our favorite restaurant - JAMBALAYA!! I haven't been there for ages. Thank you Kevin and Denise for the spicy rice and chocolate cheesecake and glass of wine - the cheesecake was beyond words :) And so good to see you Sam and Serena!

By the Numbers - Keeping it Simple

It's been a long time since I've talked about those all important NUMBERS: number of days until summer holidays when we can go east again, number of days until I retire and of course - the financial numbers - how much I'm saving and how much I need to pay off. 

Down the side of my blog....WAY down....are my two counters - and I am happy to report that there are only 124 days until summer begins with the annual trek to PEI and only 491 days until RETIREMENT!!  YOWZER!! Getting below 500 days is so exciting!

Below my two counters are the financials. I just updated them and this is where I'm KEEPING IT SIMPLE! There are only two financial bars now plus the one that I've completed which was the repayment of my Line of Credit last year. I could delete it, I suppose, but it was such a HUGE moment I'm not ready to let go of the reminder of one of the most significant financial accomplishments of my life! Oh yes, and the Line of Credit account is officially CLOSED!

It was either April or May of last year that I emptied every savings account I had (with the exception of RSPs) and paid off the remainder of my Line of Credit. It felt a little scary, no a LOT scary but I felt I could replenish my savings accounts pretty quick since I'd no longer be making payments on the Line of Credit.  Here it is 9 or 10 months later and I've resaved $15,000 plus I made a $2400 RSP contribution today. I am still on track to save $100,000 by the time I retire plus I am steadily reducing my PEI mortgage month by month. I've reduced the amortization period by 8 years over the past 2.5 years by paying an extra $42.00 twice a month and when I renew in August at a lower interest rate the amortization will be reduced even more.

Eventually I'll sell my condo and add that to my little nest egg of savings. People tell me I'm lucky because as a teacher I have a defined benefits pension tied to the rate of inflation. Believe me, luck had nothing to do with it. I've had hefty deductions taken off the top of my paycheques for over twenty years now. That's why my RSP room each year is only around $2400. I've put the maximum into my RSP that I'm allowed annually plus 12% of each paycheque goes into my pension plan.

I won't be living high off the hog. Retiring two years early means a smaller monthly pension.  Happily, my needs are few and my wants fewer.  I have no consumer debt and hope to have my PEI mortgage paid off within the next few years. I'll manage quite nicely on my monthly income and can look forward to getting more pension monies as I age - CPP (can begin to collect at age 60 or higher) and OAS at age 65.

 With low monthly costs I'll still be able to save each month to pay for home and vehicle maintenance as well as travel. I plan to have a barn built on my land and renovate my kitchen.

Best of all I plan to watch the sun rise every morning from my front porch - free of charge!