new blog

I need a change, still working on the details.  I want a blog with a positive outlook, that's why I thought of sewpositivelyme.blogspot.com
I will start fresh at that website soon.

Recipes for August 17

Wow this year is flying by.  I have a few finished quilts to show!!  The weather has been pretty cool for summer around here so the upstairs sewing room is not too hot.  I will show the two finished quilts very soon.
Here is the menu for this week.  I made a wonderful Short Rib Lasagna last night with some homemade focaccia.  The lasagna will be lunch for many of the days this week and the bread will be used quite often for the early part of the week.

Sunday Tomato Soup with Ham and Cheese panini

Monday Zucchini-Potato Soup with Bread (pg 125 Everyday Cooking with Dr Dean Orish)

Tuesday Corn Pancakes and Swiss Chard with Roasted Onions (pg 157 Everyday cooking with Dr Dean Orish)

Wednesday Roasted Cauliflower and Chickpeas

Thursday Baked Eggs on Roasted Cherry Tomatoes with toast and goat cheese

Friday Black Bean Burgers

Vacation and Weekly menu

Rumor is that some people are missing my weekly menus.  We went on vacation in March and then I stopped posting.  We had a wonderful trip and the weather was perfect.  We left here with winter coats and 4 hours later it was temps in the 80's.  The kids are doing great and growing so quickly.

 

I did get a few new cookbooks recently.  I have cooked from all of them and I'm quite happy with my choices.  I will write some reviews on those very soon.  This week I am back to a few of my favorite food blogs.   

Sunday April 6

Breakfast: Cherry Almond Scones

Dinner: Jason's Favorite

Monday April 7 Green Powerhouse Pesto Plate make taco fillings

Tuesday April 8 Sweet Potato and Black Bean Tacos

Wednesday April 9 Greek Farro and Chickpea Salad

Thursday April 10 dinner with the quilting ladies

Friday April 11 Quesadillas with corn and avocado

Weekly Menu

It's that most wonderful time.  I have planned my weekly menu.  Last week included some wonderful meals at some restaurants.  Two of them left me so full.  This year meals have been very healthy and packed with veggies.  At most I think the calories are about 400 per meal, many are less than 400.  Monday night I bet I ate about 1500 for dinner.  That was quite a shock to my body.  Don't get me wrong it was a fabulous feast but not something I want to do again for a very long time.  
This week I have included a few more meat meals.  Still vegetarian for most days.  Eating plant based has been great.  Have a look over my meals and certainly see if any of them look like something you want to add to your menu.

Monday  Spaghetti Squash Lasagna Bowl, simple salad

Tuesday Big Comfy Sweet Potato, Beet and Goat Cheese Salad

Wednesday Curried Cashew Burgers, Orange Infused Roasted Green Beans and Red Peppers

Thursday Avocado White Bean Wrap, Chips and Fruit

Friday  Roasted Vegetable Pasta, Carrot Salad with Dill

Saturday Breakfast  Multigrain Waffles, Vanilla Cream and Blueberries

Lunch Leftovers
Dinner Italian Sausage, Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni, Spicy Parmesan Green Beans and Kale

Sunday Breakfast Egg and Hash Brown Casserole

Lunch  Chickpea Stew, Fruit

Dinner Pot Roast with Risotto Cakes 

Weekly menu

I had another wonderful week of food.  Cooking at home is really one of my favorite things.  Doing that saves money, improves health and makes me happy.  What more could you want?  Well this week things are different.  I have dinner with coworkers and a couple of dinners with family this week.  We are going to a local brewery on Valentine's Day for a fun 6 course dinner.  Saturday we are having dinner at a friends house.  Compared to my normal week this is really a quite busy week. I have been sewing a lot quite recently and I do hope to get my camera back out and start showing off my work.

Last week favorites are the Veggie Lasagna and the Eggnog French Toast

Sunday

Lunch Leftovers

Dinner Pad Thai

Monday Dinner with Co-workers

Tuesday Winter Abundance Bowl

Wednesday Dinner Out

Thursday Vegetable Quesadilla  

Friday Date Night (make cheese ball)

Saturday

Breakfast Breakfast Taco

Lunch  Quinoa Cauliflower Bowl (make rice for lunch on Sunday)

Dinner Cheese Ball

Sunday

Breakfast Breakfast Sandwich

Lunch  Chicken Fried Rice

Dinner Beef and Broccoli with brown rice

Recipes for the week of Feb 3

It is suppose to be another cold, snowy week.  Weather reports on snow totals are all over the place, anywhere from 6 to 30 inches.  Let's mix things up this week.  Some day pretend it's warm and have tropical like meals, other days it's soup to keep us warm and one day I'll spice things up.

Last week I loved the meals.  January was very plant based.  I love that change in the way we eat.  Some days I do need to think about serving us more.  I think I should still keep the 3 serving per meal in mind.  It's easy to mix together veggies and grain and feel it is a complete meal.  Some days that works great, other day I am left feeling like something was missing.  We have saved money and while changes in health are hard to see I do feel great.

Monday  Teriyaki Chickpeas with steamed snow peas.

Tuesday Sweet Potato, Carrot and Red Lentil Soup.

Wednesday Honey Chipotle Chicken Bowl

Thursday Date Night

Friday Veggie Lasagna

Saturday

Breakfast Eggnog French Toast

Lunch Pearl Barley salad

Dinner  Lentil Lettuce Cups

Sunday

Breakfast  Overnight Oats

  

Last week of Jan 2014!

Eating less meat has been great.  I loved all of last week recipes.  My favorite was the Skillet Gnocchi with Chard and White Beans.  I don't know if we have been saving as much money as I thought we would.  Time will tell though.  One change I have thought about is cooking dried beans instead of using so many canned beans.  That will require a bit more planning though.  Maybe I'll try that a few weeks in February and see how it goes.  This week is another week of recipes available online.  Finding online recipes makes planning a menu and shopping list so quick and easy.    

Sunday

Breakfast Eggs and Bacon Breakfast Pizza

Lunch:  Cool Ranch Crock pot Chicken  (use leftovers for lunch during week)

Dinner:  Chickpea piccata, rice and broccoli

Monday  Spaghetti Squash Recipe with Spinach, Feta & Basil White Beans

Tuesday  Winter Lentil Soup

Wednesday  Brussels Sprouts Tacos with Caramelized Shallot Salsa

Thursday: Date night!

Friday  Barley and Lentil Salad with Goat Cheese

It's still cold outside

Polar air is coming back down this week.  We need some hearty meals to warm us up. All the recipes this week have links so you can easily take a look at what we are eating.  Last week the meals were great.  I can certainly see making all of the recipes again.

Recipes from online sources

Monday Jan 20  Cauliflower and Chickpea Curry

Tuesday Jan 21 Warm Quinoa Salad

Wednesday Jan 22 Skillet Gnocchi with Chard and White Beans

Thursday Jan 23 Date Night

Friday Jan 24 Irish white bean and cabbage stew

Saturday Jan 25 Celery Root and Kale Soup

This week's menu

Last week the dinners were quite good.  The only complaint is with the meatloaf bites, way too much spice.  I had to eat a large bite of mashed potatoes with just a little bite of the "meatloaf".  I would make it again but reduce all spices by at least half.  This week we will eat a little more meat but still go heavy on the veggies.  I will be excited to report back again and let you know how the meals were.  Let's keep eating healthy in 2014!!

Cookbook for week (unless another link given)  Happy Herbivore Light and Lean

Sat (Jan 11)  Lunch  bbq salad (pg 133)

Dinner White Chicken Chili (SCR pg 132), cornbread

Sun (Jan 12) Breakfast waffles, bacon

Lunch bangkok curry (pg 163), brown rice

Dinner game day loaded potato (pg 196)

Monday (Jan 13) Dinner leftover chicken chili

Tuesday (Jan 14)  Lentil Joes (pg 59), roasted potatoes, salad

Wednesday (Jan 15)  Quinoa Curry Cakes (pg 68), hummus, salad with lemon dressing

Thursday (Jan 16) Date night!!

Friday (Jan 17) Bok Choy and Cauliflower Stir Fry  brown rice

Happy 2014!

I thought it would be fun to share what I cook.  Every week I plan out a menu.  For 2014 I am trying to eat plant based 5 days a week and 2 days a week eat some meat if I want to.  I think cutting back on meat eating will be great for many reasons.  I will eat more vegetables and beans, this is great for my health.  I will save money, meat prices have certainly been on the rise.  I will help the environment, I do lots of things around the house to reduce my carbon footprint and this is really one of the last things I need to do.

Cookbook for the week  Happy Herbivore Light and Lean

Saturday Jan 4  Loaded Mexican baked potato (pg 195)

Sunday Jan 5 breakfast pancakes with fruit,

Lunch Scott’s burrito (pg 101)

Dinner Italian bowl (pg 95)

Monday Jan 6

Lunch:Lentil Kale Potato soup

Dinner:Meatloaf bites (pg 79) mashed potatoes, veggies

Tuesday Jan 7 Thai tacos (pg 64)

Wednesday Jan 8 bbq salad (pg 133)

Thursday Jan 9 bangkok curry (pg 163), brown rice

Friday Jan 10 Steak, parmesan greens (pg 181), roasted potatoes

 

It's cooling off around here

And that means more sewing!!
Summer has ended and fall is going strong.  We have visited a few farms, moved some of the native plants around in the garden, and my sewing has picked up.

Let's talk about sewing first.  I made some pretty cute Halloween decorations for this year.  I will be having the supper club over for dinner on Oct. 29 so I thought a little festive look was in order.
I started using these directions for making a bunting.  I am quite happy with how quickly this came together and it is quite cute.  I am certainly not good at decorating mantels but this will do for October. 

After making the bunting, I still had lots of fabric left over and thought why not make a table runner.  I googled easy Halloween table runner and found this super cute one.  I quickly got to work and it is so easy.  I can see making this again and again.  Here is a look at my version and a few close ups so you can see how cute these fabrics are. 

Last weekend we had fun a Feel Good Farm.  They hold a party every fall and it is such a fun time.  Great food, bluegrass music, hayrides and more.  It rained right as we arrived and we waited for the storm to pass.  It was muddy but the sun came out and fun was had by everyone.

Happy Quilting 

 Cathy

Unforgettable

Really in every way.   Who could it be.  My grandmother of course.  She recently passed away.  It was a complete surprise but she did have 84 great years.  She was quite but commanded authority.  She always thought it was funny that my dad and his brothers could get so worked up while watching TV, especially when watching sports.   She really was the backbone to the family.  She loved to host and play with her grandchildren and great grandchildren.  As a kid you knew ice cream was in the freezer, as luck would have it she worked with a dairy company.  Also Swedish fish on top of the freezer.  She would gives the parents a break by taking us to the park or out for a walk.  She loved to play cards and dominoes.  She was quite competitive.  My guess is if you could have played cards with her you would not have noticed this competitive side but I promise you there was this special sparkle in her eyes when you made the wrong move.  I'm truly thankful to have had so many great years with her.

This is the quilt I made for her.  It was the first quilt I finished and the second quilt I started.

Here she is with a few of her great grandchildren.  If you look closely you can see the quilt I made her, it is folded on the back of the couch.

Here is a more recent picture at a graduation party for one of her grandkids.

 A sad time for me but
Happy Quilting everyone
Cathy

February with the quilt guild

February was a very nice month around here. The weather was cold and quilting did happen. February was also also a great month for the guild. The meeting did run long since there was so much to talk about. Since this month does include Presidents Day in the USA the guild also honors past presidents. It is great seeing who has given so much time to the guild. Also the guild showed off the opportunity quilt for this year (we can no longer call it a raffle quilt). I do wish I would have remember to take my camera for this meeting. This quilt is from keepsake quilting so you can see it just not that great quilting. Amish with a twist  Brian Haggard gave the lecture. He did a great job and certainly showed off many quilts which I'm sure inspired many people, including me. While his style is much different than mine, nearly a complete 180 different way, I did learn to print photos on fabric paper. While it is not a hard thing to do he did share a few tips. He mentioned cheap brand are not good to use. If you want to reduce the pink color in sepia tones change the photo to black and white first and then to sepia tones. Those are the only tips I can remember right now but if I think of more I will post more on printing photos on fabric.

The following Saturday we had a wonderful workshop. The kit for the workshop did end up costing us 10 dollars more than he had previously stated and that did cause me a ton of stress. The church where we were holding the workshop didn't have open wifi and I couldn't prove the cost he had stated. I didn't know what to do and really at that moment thought I was going to hate this workshop. I think do to this stress, I was the first one done piecing my block. This worked out well because I got to take some pictures and then move onto hand embroidery. While I am certainly no where near a great hand embroider I do love it. Brian really did a great job showing us stitches and coming around to everyone to help us along. He drew on great patterns. It was also a nice workshop in that the block was pieced together very quickly and then the sewing machines were put away. Everyone got to move into groups and chat while stitching away. I really do think that helped us to get to know some members of the guild better.

Big Finish

 After Mary Huey came to speak to the guild she brought up some amazing points.  Use the fabric you have bought.  She recently helped a man whose wife passed away sell all her quilting/sewing supplies.  She mentioned how hard it was to see all this amazing stuff sell for much less than it was worth.  She also in the same manner mentioned to finish the UFO by finishing them or realizing you won't finish it and change those to something you will finish.  The last point she mentioned that really stuck with me is sew a little everyday.  Your sewing skills will improve and you will be amazing with even a few minutes everyday how much you will get done.  Now I would completely be lying if I said I have been sewing everyday but I have been sewing much more often.  With this happening I thought I might be able to work on some big finishes this year. 

This quilt is a gift for a co worker.  He spent 20 years, before working at IU, with the Army.  Then it was over 20 years at IU.  I have worked with him for about 7 years.  I picked out the fabrics first.  Red, white and blue seems like the obvious choice.  I looked at probably 10 different patterns before I found what seems like the perfect one.  Finding this pattern was just one of the very lucky things that sometimes happen.  I was getting together to sew with a few of my favorite quilting friends and one of them a just bought the pattern.  I really thought this one had a great look right away.  The very next day I was at Quilts Plus buying this pattern and wonderful ruler.  You can make templates for the pattern but the ruler certainly made this quite a bit easier.  This quilt goes together very quickly and I certainly think I will be using this pattern again. 


After working with red, white and blue for a bit I got bored with the colors.  While I'm sure the quilt would have been nice with just those colors something was missing for me.  As I thought about it this quilt needed more color.  Orange was an easy choice.  It is one of my favorite colors to put in a quilt and it is easy to have red smoothly move towards orange.  Green and purple did the same with blue and the addition of these colors really help this quilt pop.  Not being one who follows directions well, I did end up changing the way I made this quilt.  The pattern calls for a jelly roll and I already had fat quarters.  Instead of cutting those fat quarters into 2 1/2 inch strips I just cut them into strips 1 inch to 2 1/2 inches wide. 

Once I had the top completed I called (maybe texted)  my friend Steph.  I asked if she would teach me to use her long arm machine.  She agreed and I am so excited I had the chance to use it.  One night I came over and practiced and the next time it was onto the quilt.  I had tons of fun and really can see why using a long arm machine for quilting is so nice.  While that kind of machine is way outside my budget, I really do appreciate Steph letting me try it out and I may even be back quilting some charity quilts soon.

Oh you should also take a look at this very fun back.  He likes Superman, news and crosswords.  That white spot will soon get a label.

 

I do love the way this quilt turned out and soon enough I will be handing it off.  Here's to hoping he will like it.

Happy Quilting

Cathy

Push It

My head is silly and I understand that.  Salt 'N' Pepa popped back into my brain again.  Babies are coming faster than I can make quilts.  Okay clearly people did give me plenty of notice but I seem to like last minute deadlines.  For all the new moms giving birth push it seems like a good song.

This has given me a chance to look at all the cute fabrics for little boys and girls recently and the designers are doing a great job.  With great fabrics to show off a simple design seemed like the way to go.  I googled simple baby quilts and this was the first image to pop up. It  is a quick and easy baby quilt  and super cute.

  I really did get this cut out, sewed together and quilted in one evening.  Getting the binding on took a little while.  Once I found this cute little stripe I got quite excited and the binding went on quite smoothly. 

You will see this pattern pop up a few more time.  This one is going to a sweet little boy that one of my friends gave birth to a couple of months ago.  Mom and baby are doing quite well.  

Happy Quilting

Cathy