Tuna and Black Bean Soup

To tell you the truth, a soup with canned tuna as an ingredient never interested me at all. To me, canned tuna was a lunch for when I was feeling extremely lazy and uncreative.. is that a word?

Anyways, the family that I am a nanny for had me make this for them one night for dinner, and I couldn't resist but to make it myself. It is one of the tastiest soups I've ever had!

You will need:
1 Fennel bulb chopped small
1 Small onion, diced
2 Garlic cloves, minced
1 Large can of stewed tomatoes
1 Can black beans, drained/rinsed
1 Can of clam nectar (sounds nasty, but adds to the flavour of the soup!)
2 Tbsp Olive oil
1 Can tuna, drained
1 Tsp Parsley (dried)
1 Tsp Oregano (dried)
1 Tsp Basil (dried)

First, you want to open all your cans and drain what needs to be drained and rise what needs to be rinsed.. (Or not, I'm just weird like that)

Chop the onions and the fennel bulb so they are roughly the same size, so they cook evenly.

Heat up your pan on medium heat with your 2 Tbsp of olive oil and garlic

Add the onions and the fennel and cook on medium heat until the onions start to become translucent.

 When the onions are translucent, add the clam nectar and the can of tomatoes. (also add your herbs)

When that has come to a boil, add your can of rinsed black beans and the can of tuna.

Mix well and add salt and pepper to season

Turn down to low, cover and let sit for about half an hour to an hour. The longer you leave it, the more tender the veggies will be!

Slow Cooker Thai Coconut Soup

1 (14 oz) can coconut milk

1 Tbsp Thai curry paste

2 cups water

2 tsp chicken bouillon granules

3/4 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs, cut into small cubes 

4 oz white mushrooms, sliced

2 lemongrass stalks, bruised 

2 limes, juiced

1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

Salt and pepper

1.  Combine milk, curry paste, water, bouillon, chicken, mushrooms and lemongrass in slow cooker.

2.  Cover and cook on LOW for about 4 hours, or on HIGH for about 2-3.

3.  Remove lemongrass and discard.

4.  Add in juice of limes and cilantro.  Plenty of salt and pepper to taste.  Stir and serve.

Recipe found HERE

"To Die For" Garlic Cheese Rolls

Okay, I absolutely HAVE to share this recipe.
I found it about 3 days ago on pinterest and have made it twice since (so you know it's a good one!)

You Will Need:
Flour
Sugar
Salt
Yeast
Warm Water
Cheese
Garlic
Butter or Margarine
A 9 x 13 casserole dish

First I start out with my all purpose dough (I used this instead of the dough recipe that was on the other blog) I've used this dough recipe for everything. Cinnamon buns, dinner buns, pizza crust, calzones, cheese sticks... the possibilities are endless!

Carlye's Amazing All-Purpose Dough Recipe:
2 1/2 to 3 cups of Flour
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tsp Salt
1 Pkg or 2 1/4 Tsp Yeast
1 Cup very warm water

Mix all the ingredients together with one cup of flour to start, gradually add the rest of the flour and knead to create a ball of doughy goodness. Let rest in a warm spot for half an hour before preparing.

Next what you want to do is roll the dough out just as you would to make cinnamon buns, except you are not putting a sweet filling in this.

Mix about half a cup of butter or margarine with 1 - 2 garlic cloves (depends on how much you love garlic) Spread this all over one side of the dough. Then, add some grated cheese (or just parmesan) and roll up like you would with cinnamon rolls.

Slice into 2 inch long buns and arrange in your casserole dish (you don't need to grease the pan, these suckers will do it themselves!) if you would like to, add cheese to the top.

Bake at 350 until golden brown! Your family will be fighting over these things!

Recipe originally found HERE

Visiting Home...

This weekend was amazing.
We had the privilege of visiting our home church in Abbotsford, Emmanuel Mennonite. To be honest I wasn't looking forward to it because I knew leaving was going to be hard. We got to see so many good friends, and people we truly missed. Sitting with our friend Amanda during the service was such a blessing, I got to hold Micah as he fell asleep on me for a good part of the service, and seeing Joel so happy and actually have him remember who I am was a lot of fun. I am already looking forward to our next visit to Emmanuel. I remember when we first moved to Abbotsford and I had a bad attitude about moving there. At that point in my life I was never prepared to call Abbotsford "home". But over the almost 2 years we lived there I have grown to love Abbotsford, especially the people and the community. Vancouver is also my home. This is where I have made lifelong friends, and where I met the love of my life. It is where sometimes, I feel closest with the Lord than I have anywhere else. I think about this and look at the art piece that Jordan's mom gave us last christmas which says "Home is wherever we are, as long as there's love there too" and this reminds me that I have lots of homes. Vancouver, Abbotsford, Nanaimo, Ucluelet... wherever we are is home, as long as there's love there too.

Practicum!

For those of you that prayed (if anyone even reads this) it worked! I have a meeting with a practicum site across the street from my house next week! Now I just need you to pray that everything goes smoothly!

Our new home

Jordan and I are settling quite nicely into our new place in Vancouver. Jordan is working full time at Grace Mansion (a second stage housing project for people coming out of treatment) and casual at Union Gospel Mission, both of which are across the street from our house! I have started my position nannying for a family that lives very close to our house. Here are some photos of our new place if you haven't seen them on facebook!

 I absolutely LOVE our antique gas stove!

 Our bedroom is absolutely tiny, but it's cozy!

 All of the doors are original to the house, including door knobs, leaded windows.. so beautiful!

 No bathtub, but I can deal with that!

 The living space

 Our very cute little fireplace! (excited to hang stocking on this for christmas!)

 Our view out onto our patio, reminds me of Europe!

 The backyard

 The front (back) door!

And the queen of the castle!

Our place is small but comfortable. We're settling in and getting comfortable with our new but familiar surroundings. I'm still looking for a daycare to complete my practicum hours for my ECE certificate, so prayers would be appreciated! The plum trees in our backyard is going to yield some tasty jam in the next couple weeks, I will be sure to post photos of that!