Big Dreams & Simple Pleasures

A few years ago I signed up to receive a free, quarterly magazine called “What’s Cooking” from Kraft.  Now, the recipes are all on-line.

The recipes are generally very simple, easy to follow and, frankly, the pictures of the finished product are very inspiring!  I have enjoyed using and modifying these recipes over the years.  It’s kind of an on-going joke in my house that I never really follow a cooking recipe to the letter, but that creative aspect is part of what I love most about cooking… well, and tasting the results!

Here is an example of one of my successful modifications:

I made “Better-Than-Ever Beef Enchiladas”  into a vegetarian dish!

-My original recipe called for a 540 mL can of black beans which I used but, oddly, they seem to have forgotten to include that in the online recipe!  It’s kind of important!
-Instead of ground beef I used about 1/2 cup cottage cheese and extra salsa.
-I used grated extra-old white cheddar,
-I used an organic Italian dressing,
-I added garlic and chili spices instead of cilantro since I’m not a huge fan of cilantro and my hubby doesn’t really like it at all.

Here is how it turned out, we loved it!

Let me know what you think!

Thanks for tuning in.

I am a singer / songwriter / guitar player / vocal coach.  I have run this website since 2001 and have recently turned it into the blog you are now reading… thank you for that!

I have been on a pretty cool journey over the past few years.  My husband, Glenn and I have made some changes in our lives that we never would have envisioned when we met 10 years ago.  When we moved to Aurora, Ontario, my home town, in 2003, we became active in the Green Party of Canada.  In May of 2005, we started the Newmarket-Aurora Federal Green Party Association, and Glenn was nominated as the candidate.  He ran in two federal elections, 2006 and 2008, both being a test of our wills and our relationship, but we have come out stronger than ever.

Getting involved changed our lives for the better.  Now, everything we do is with a consciousness of progressively lessening our footprint on the earth.

What have we done?  Here’s the short list of the big changes:

◆    We moved from a medium sized detached home to a smaller town home
◆    We sold a car and became a one car family
◆    I found work locally instead of driving a daily commute totalling over an hour and a half
◆    Glenn changed jobs and started commuting to work on the GO Train
◆    We started vegetable gardening in our tiny backyard
◆    In the summer, we try to buy food exclusively from local farmers

It seems like a lot and, well, I guess it is!  Of course, none of this happened over night, but the benefits have been so worth it!  Our health is better, we have both lost weight in a healthy way, we have more financial freedom, we still have a beautiful home we are proud of, and one of the best benefits is our peace of mind.  We can’t do everything, but we can do what we can.

I started this blog to share with you some of my stories and discoveries.  Thanks for tuning in.