Menuplan week#6, 2013, with recipe

It`s been a while since I posted last time, and my blog wil definately not be the most updated one. It just has to be that way when you have two boys, one of them with special needs, one husband with his own firm, and so many redecorationideas, homeschooling ideas and selfsufficient ideas in your head at the same time.

But this week I got around and planned a menu. Sooo.

Monday: Lentil and tomatosoup with roasted chickpeas (se recipe down under)
Tuesday: Homemade fishpudding with spinach and shrimps in, served with herbsauce and greens
Wednesday: Mushroom soup with leek
Thursday: Cod with eggbutter and carrot/greens (we are not found of potatoes)
Friday: Wholewheat pasta with tomatosauce and a big green sallad
Saturday: riceporridge (my kids all time favourite) and homemade pizza for the evening.
Sunday: Not planned





My kids loved the octopus and crab sausages from my last blogpost, and this week we are also thinking about making some pig in a blanket for them too.





So for the recipe of Lentil and Tomatosoup with roasted chickpeas

Lentilsoup
You will need: 
1 can tomatoes (400grams) or you could use fresh
1 onion
250 grams of red lentils
1 liters of vegetable bulion

Dice the onion, fry it untill ligth golden, have all the others ingredients in the pan, and let it simmer for 25 minutes. Add salt and peppers, and herbs to taste. You could also put in chillipepper, but I will leave this out since my boys are not found of hot food.

Roasted Chickpeas
You will need:
Soak 1-2 dl of Chickpeas, or rince and drain one can. Dry them
Add them to a bakingplate, add coockingoil - I will use coconutoil, and spices for your choice. I`ve seen this been done with lots of diferent spices, like the hot chillis, to the mild salt+pepper. We wil probably go for something with garlic and thyme since those are my favourites.

I am linking up at Menu Plan Monday, over at orgjunkie.com  

Menuplan monday week #2, 2013

What a lovely week! I am bursting with inspiration to redecorate, organize and fix stuff in the home. I wil have a post about that and the progress in my Simple living Challenge for 2013 up later this week, but today it it monday, and mondays always start with a menuplanner!  I love how this little doing each week keeps me more organized and saves me money.

Menuplan week #2, 2013

Monday: Homemade springrolls with a fresh green salad on the side
Tuesday: Lentilsoup
Wednesday: Salmon Filets over Couscous, served with cucumber sallad
Thursday: Paleo meatballs made of pork, with Zucchini Noodles, and a homemade tomatosauce
Friday: homemade glutenfree fishsticks, fried sweetpotatoes, ketchup, sallad
Saturday: grilled porkmeat, zucchini noodles, marinated mushrooms, and a green sallad
Sunday: Leftovermeat from saturday in a homemade stew, served with veggies and brown rice

As I look over it, I actually have almost everything, and thing I will only spend about 10 dollars in the store this week. Maybee I`ll need to stock up on more sallad-stuff, but the rest I have. Nice to know!

If you want to take a look at the recipe I wil use, you can take a look at my Menuplan Monday pinboard at Pinterest.

Will make something exiting for my kids lunchboxes this week too. I tend to make them sausages octopus once in a while, but this time I wil try with crabs too. So cute :)

http://bentoboxlove.tumblr.com/post/2175722948/crab-octopus-sausages

I`m linking up at at Organizing Junkie on menuplan monday

Home organizing in 2013

A new year is fast aproaching, and I`ve told myself that 2013 is going to be my year!
My home, no mater how long we are going to stay, is becomming just that, my home. I want to get more pictures up on the wall, make the house more comfy, organize it and make it the way I (we) want it to bee.

At the moment, my husband is setting up a fireplace for me, I have no idea where in the living room it wil be, but I have my suspicions. I think it will be a blessing for us to have up a fireplace in our home, since this winter is verry cold and we had to have our two boys in our room at nigth to keep the warm up. These days we are staying in my father in laws house, while they are away on holliday, so we can put in the fireplace, and isolate the floor from underneat. 

My husband is also making me a huge suprice. He has been carrying woodplanks, and tools in to our home, and I cant look. It is killing me. But he says it is something I really want, so I cross my fingers for a readingnook in the kitchen or a chicken coop. Cant understand why he would bild a chicken coop inside thougth, so I`m hoping for the first. 

My organizingplans during 2013
My plan is to tackle every room in our house, and get rid of everything (and I mean EVERYTHING!) that we dont use, love or need. I am going to try to sell of must of the things, but will be giving away or even throwing some things. And then, when spring comes we wil also tackle the garden. And I wil try to blog about the whole process, from the before pictures, during and finished pictures, and even counting sold products and earnings from this. 

My plan: 

Living room
If the fireplace is set where I wanted it, I want to try to rearange the furnitures to see if that could make it more cozy. That way we could have the warm from the fireplace in the seating area, and not just the dining area. I also want to ad a picture list over the sofa, and have som cabinets over there again for books, papers etc. An extended officeplace axtually. Oh, and I want to have cds there too. But, first I need to go through them, try to save some that has been ripped by the kids, and get away all the stuff we dont use at a regular time.

Like this, picturelist and bookshelves.

Me and my husbands bedroom
I`ve told you before. There is not much moore room than the bed on the floor in this room. But we do have shelves on the wall for storing towels, bedlinens etc. I also want to have my jewlery here, and have seen a cute sulution for storing those on Pineterest. Making a frame of some lists we have left from the redecoration last year, and having chickenwire inside. I have all that stuff just lying around. 

The kids room
We need more storage for their schoolsupplies and hobby stuff. I am thinking of letting them help me make small storage from old spraypainted cans. I also think we need to purge good through their toys and make a little extra room in the basement for a box of toys to take out during summer, or something like that. Also we need something like a dresser/drawer underneath their desk. 

Not quite how I see it, but somewhat like it anyway. Storage under desk.

The hall.
My hall is just perfect at the moment. I need to purge through the cabinets, and drop of the textiles that are too old, to used out, to big etc to charity, and I also wants some more pictures. Other than that, its perfect. 

The storage room upstairs.
I have no Idea where to start on this one. I need more shelves, and I need to throw out half of whats in here, i think. 

The kitchen. 
If my husband are making me a reading nook now, I dont need to do anything about that. If he is not, than I am thinking about making it out of an expedit bokshelve from IKEA, and lots of pillows. The area is somewhat idiotic, so I need to make mesurings etc.
I also need to take everything out of the cupboards and rearange it. I cant have on cupboard with everything stored in tigth. Also, the plates we use one-two times a year can be stored somewhere else. 

The diningarea
This also does not need any work. It is just plain the table with foldingchairs since we dont have room for ordinary. If I need to do something here, I would paint the table white. 

The little home office
This one actually is in our kitchen. On the other side of the cupboards, next to the reading nook. And at the moment we have only one small desk here, and a blackboard. Nothing more. We need bookshelves for storing our accounting, both personal and business. I need room for my sewingmachine, and I need space for my scrappingsupplies. 

The basement
This room is like the whole problemarea. Here we store everything we dont need. As I mentioned earlier I have shampoo for a lifetime supply down there after I closed my shop. This wil be the big tackling place. I need to go throug all of the stuff. I need to sell away the good stuff. I need to donate my kids old clothes to charity. I need to get the nostalgic stuff like the bunkbed my grandpa made for my mother and her sister to our familys farmhouse. And I need to get the junk out!
There is also a little room down in the basement. Its perfect for a small pantry. (Have I told you I dream of a pantry!) Check out my pantry inspiration on Pinterest.

This is how my pantry can look like. Who can do some magic tricks for me?

And this could be the door for my pantry. LOVE!

2012 in a review

I actually just started blogging here, but I have been blogging for some years in my mother language Norwegian, and I tend to have a year in review post over there, so I decided I needed one here to. 

January: I had just started my newest job as a manager. I actually started it in october 2011, but my contract was signed in january. I had been working there before, with different owner, and I was dreaming for this job, the full-time manager job, daytime and all!

February: Oh, the fun starts at school. Or, to say it the other way, it allready had been there for a long time, but in February we started the action to get my son to learn something. Our cat was born.

March; My husbands grandmom died. I throwed my first rawfood class. Our car broke down totall. 

Weleda cupcakes at a get-together at work in march. The glaze is made out of Weledas popular rosecream.

April: My son got his first diagnose. We got our cat home! He is called Buzz Ligthyear. Over easter the fun also started at work!

May: We traveled by plain to a foreign city to buy a new car, on the way home we got the news that our old neighbour Alexander Dale Oen (the swimmer) had died, only 26 years old. I started on a class to become a rawfood coach. My birthday, turning 26. Oh, how my husband supriced me with a camping trip, just the two of us! And I also had the first meeting at work regarding all the mess.

The wiew from the campingplace me and my husband went on my birthay-suprice.

June: Went to the countryside (my cottage) and stayed there almost the whole month. Was sick from work. Went vegan for two weeks. My new nephew was born.

July: On the 3th, I quitted my job! Still stayed in the countryside. Broke the vegan thing by eating chicken buffalo wings at Dolly Dimples.

August: School starts the 16th. DS4 also started his new kindergarden that day. A new and big kindergarden. My husband got a new baby sister.

I actually made my own favorite flower in the flowerbed I made out of an old wheelbarrow.

September:  We got a call on the 20th, about a hospital stay for me and my son, we needed to anwear rigth away if we wanted it, because we neded to go in on the 27th.

October: For the whole month of october we stayed indors at the hospital. Finnished on November the 1th, with three new diagnoses for my son.

November: Went by beiing sick all the time. Both me and the kids. Started seiing a familytherapist to help us with our oldest sons diagnoses and problems. My husband started working again. We brougth a second car for my husbands firm. School was just worsening for my son.

Desember:  Found out that the room we stayed in on the hospital for 7 weeks was infected, and now closed due to health risk, no wonder I am sick all the time. My husbands grandpa died. We moved in to my father in laws house while they where away on holliday because it was -15 degrees outside and our barn was cold inside to.

Choosing to live more simple

Before we moved here, we lived in a huge house. Downstairs was more than enough for us, with a large washingroom, bathroom (only thing is, it lacked the battub i so want) two large bedroms, kitchen and living room with dining area. In addition to this there where three bedroms upstairs and a hughe hall. We tend do just use the upstairs for our mess. Yepp, we had so much space that we could store all things. ALL!!

It was expencive to heat up the house, since there where no fireplace. The heat just went up stairs, and I did not wanted to use the upstairs at all. It definately was a nice charming home, a little chabby chic, and rigth there by the sea and the old traditional bakery from early 1900 (no function there today)
In addition to heating we needed to pay rent for it, and to tell you the truth, we did not have the ammount of money to pay of our rent, power and to pay down our debts. We always putted of our debts, and they grow.

So, when we finaly decided to move here we live now, it was a huge turn for me. We now had twice as little room as we where used to. My bedroom just contains my bed, because there are no more room on the floor. The kids room is actually in a really good size. The living room, kitchen and dining area now are just as big as our kitchen was before. Oh, and we have no washingroom, no bathroom and just alittle storageroom.

We are blessed to have this opportunity, since we now dont pay any rent, and verry little power. We have furnished the whole house ourself, down to the walls we built to seperate the kitchen from the hall. We got the kitchen from a local freecycle, and it contains two dobble uppercabinets, and three cabinets, a small fridge and a small stove with only two plates. The living area is combined livingroom, and office. In the small storageroom we have a portable toilett. To use the shower we need to go to the neighbour (my father in law.) We have a wasingmachine, wich we share with my father in law and his family. No dryer. We have no dishwasher either. And we gave up the cable. The kids have a tv to watch in the livingroom, but there are only dvd`s and games on it. We also have no water in our house.

Now that we dont have anymore room to store our mess, you would think that we dont have any, rigth? Well, we have a cold basement. Perfectly for our canned goods. And, I`ve stored all the mess there. I really hate it! So, today I told my husband that I need to get my act together in the basement, to clean up the mess. I have so much clothes left from my two boys, and I also runned a onlineshop before, and I have a huge stock left that did not sell. My husband jokes that I dont need to buy more shampoo for the rest of my life. I think it`s true ;)
My organization goal for 2013 is to get rid of all the stuff left from my shop, and also give the leftover clothes from my boys to charity. Because, we want to start isloating the basement, so we can have an extra room there, and a bathroom. We definately want to have water input by the end of next year if not sooner.

This post is shared at Frugal Fridays over at Life as Mom.

My big challenge for 2013

Ok, so we in our little family have given ourselve a huge challenge for 2013. The challenge combines many small areas of our life, and we hope it can help us to complete our life a little more, to make our living more sustainable and maybe even making us more self-sufficient.

We are having a not-buying-it year! To not buy anything new for a hwole year is scaring, and inspiring. Because, what do we actually need? That is what I am going to find out during 2013. I do not belive that I need a new pair of jeans, when I already have five at home. Or that my kids needs a new skylander to their playstation game. There is a difference between needing an wanting, and that is the thing I need to teach both my kids and myself.

But this is not your ordinary not-buying-it year. Oh noo. We already did that back in 2008 (when I was pregnant and only had one kid aging 3, who did not know about wanting things) We are taking it a whole step further.. Here is our plan:

Spending: 

• Not buying anything new clothes or accessories for the whole year. I think er have enough in our closet already, and I also know that my kids can inheritance from older uncles. If there is an unforseen need there is a second hand shop in the nearby town. I do know that my youngest kid needs a warm overall for outdoors in the kindergarden, but I will shop at home first (looking through all the clothes from his older brother) 
• Not buying any toys. Not new, not used. I am amazed by how much toys a kid have in todays life. Oh my! I have almost every toy from when I grew up, and I am only 26. My kids toys could fill two huge rooms! I am not kidding. We have agreed to try to make some familyfun, like bowling from old canning jars etc. 
• Not buying any new furnitures. No problem at all I think. We have been used the local freecycle the last year anyway. 
• If anything gets broken, try to fix it with glue, sewing etc.

Food and nutrition

• Plan a menu every week on sundays. Use what we have at home in our pantry, garden, freezer etc first. Plan the rest of the meals on sales from the stores, and only use the over all good deal stores, not the "good deal but overall a steal" stores. 
• Not eating out on fastfood or resturants. 
• Dont buy any coffe on the go. 
• Dont buying any food on the store when out and about just because we are hungry. Bring lunches/food for everyone when leaving home, and if it gets too bad buy an apple.. 
• Avoid sodas, juices etc. 
• Avoid candy
• Avoid sugars in all forms (white flours, pasta, juice etc) This one is a hard one, but we are all agree, and we do want a better life. 
• For adults: not drinking alkohol. I have no need for this, and my husband is also on board. We had the same thing for 2012, and we only drank beer at two occations, and coffe and bailys on christmas eve.
• Not buying more tea before it is all empty. Who has over 40 sorts of bagged tea in their pantry anyway, rigth? Oh, and there are som loose tea to, so I need to use up that too. I am way to glad in trying out new teas..

Family time

• Mom is spoiled with a class of mindfullness and meditation. 
• Dad has his usually man-day. 
• Datenight wil be a movie on webtv or some of the hundreds we have in the basement. Vegetables and dip. I also gave my husband twelve dates (one each month) for christmas this year, because we need to spend some time together alone, away from the house. Just us. 
• The kids wants to make gifts for birthays, so it wil be exiting to see what we can do there. 
• We also want to do more activities as a family. Go fishing, finding berries and mushrooms, go hiking, klimb the mountains, make a bondfire etc. Do instead of buing.  

Self-sufficiency

• Get some chickens for fresh eggs. We need to build a coop and run. 
• Compost! Building a composter must be done first
• Grow a garden. I have a garden, but it is small, I want to dig up the whole feeld here. There are a deer family who have their walk rigth where I want to make my garden, so we need to look at opportunities here in the spring. Already started planning what kind of herbs and vegetables I want to grow. 
• Go fishing and get crabs and shells, and also try to pick and dry kelp. 
• Use natures bounty. Pick berries, the green weeds like nettles, birch and dandilion. 
• Teach myself to canning. I have a good place in the basement for pickles and jams. 
• I also want to learn to make kombucha, kefir and sourdough

Economy

• Cut ut all subscriptions we dont need. At this time this post counts one, so not big of a deal here now. 
• Pay down the rest of the debt. 
• Start saving for our dreamhome.  

Environment

• Get better to turn things off when leaving a room, and not using the stand by. 
• Not using the dryer. Instead get another drying rack. 
• Dont use the car that often. Since we live in the middle of no-where this one is kind of hard, but we could take our bikes to the store, dobble fun - work out as well.

We would probably get more on our list as the year comes to us, but at this moment, this is the list. I am so looking forward to stick to it.
Are you in on any of theese, or do you even have your own? I want to know!

This post is shared on the Simple Lives Thursday

Still a Merry Christmas to you!

I want to use this opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas.

We celebrated on the 24th on the evening, with our traditional dinner lamb ribs, rutabaga mash, and ricecream for dessert. Oh, and we had a cup of coffe and baileys at the heat of the nigth. 

All in all it was a great evening, but I am so glad it is all over for now, because Christmas tends to bring so much stress. 

The next stress now is New Years Eve.
But I have made up my mind to not think about it now. I dont have a dress, so I wil just find one in my closet (as I always do anyway) and the kids have jeans and shirts. I dont even know if we wil bother going to a gathering this year, or to stay in home. The downside to staying home is that I`ll have to cook a nice dinner by myself. I love when everyone else are doing it for me. It`s not that I cant do it, its just that I am better with the everyday dinners than the turkey and stuffing kind of thing. 

Oh! And for 2013 I have a huge challenge for myself. I wil post about it someday later this week. It is huge, and it i challenging for real.