Many have asked, what has happened to Simon, the Christmas present that Santa brought, you know, the present that cause me to seriously consider Judaism? That one.

People have said, you post pictures of gummy worms and spray paint, but none of your dog. And people have said that they’ve been too nervous to ask me about him, thinking that I may have dropped him off at the end of an old abandoned dirt road, and I’ve said, do you suppose he would stay there?

Seriously, I’m kidding.  Simon is still around, still cute and still pees on the floor.  I still only threaten to give him away if my children don’t start helping with him and it still falls on deaf ears.

Plus, he’s just really hard to take pictures of.

He just doesn’t stay still.

But he’s sort of hard not to like.

Try as I might.

When we’re not watching the Dragon’s Den, we’re watching the Food Network.  We love Ina and Giada, Bobby and Man Versus Food is one of our favourites, even thou he makes me nauseous.  And we really love Chopped!

In case you’ve missed it, it’s where 4 chefs get a basket filled with 3 unusual ingredients when paired together.  They make an appetizer, one gets the chop.  The next stage is a main, then another gets chopped.  And then on to the dessert round where one of the two gets 10 g’s.  Colin and I cozzied up to it and discuss who should get chopped and what we’d make if we had that basket.

Then the other day, Colin says, “Mom, make me a dessert round basket,” and of course, always encouraging his culinary creativity, I obliged!

Here is Colin’s basket:

And the reveal

Raspberries, Jello, gummy worms,  Rice Crispy squares and 8 minutes, because well, he is 8 after all.

And your time starts….now!

And time is up. Evan and I were the judges.  And as you can imagine, Colin didn’t get chopped.

And as you’ve likely guessed, we’ve played chopped every day since.

This won’t be good for my low-carb diet.

I’m addicted to The Dragon’s Den.  Seriously, it’s the best show.  The kids and I watch it all the time.  We’ll guess whether or not they’ll get the money, then debate about whether or not we’d give them the money, and then usually discuss our multi-million-dollar ideas.  It’s a lot of fun.

Then we usually google that company and see where they are now.  And sometimes, we end up buying that product.  Such is the case with Holy Crap.

I bought 6 bags (3 bags of Skinny B and 3 bags of Holy Crap, which as far as I can tell, the only difference between Holy Crap and Skinny B is the dried fruit added in the Holy Crap).  Anyway, I think I gave 3 bags away.  It makes a really fun hostess gift.

What does one do with Holy Crap?  Well, I love it on Greek yogurt, on steel cut oats, baked in muffins, I just like it.  I like it so much, I wanted to order more, and then decided, surely, I can make this stuff.

It doesn’t look exactly the same, but here is the recipe I have found that is good:

1 cup Hemp seed

1 cup whole buckwheat

1 cup Chai seed (a kind reader pointed out that it’s actually Chia seed, there’s a big difference:)

(for the Holy Crap option add)

1/2 cup raisons

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup dried apples chopped.

Mix together and stored in an airtight container in the fridge.  All ingredients are usually found at the bulk barn.

Here is my Holy Crap steel cut oats recipe:

1 cups of milk

1/4 cup of water

1/4 cup of steel cut oats (my absolute FAV)

pinch of salt

1 cinnamon stick

1/8 cup of my Holy Crap mixture

Throw it all in a baking dish and bake for 45 minutes at 325.

Great with real maple syrup, fresh fruit, and greek yogurt.  Delicious.

The sun came out on Sunday.  HALLELUJAH!!

It inspired me to do a little back deck makeover of our upper deck.  It’s a small deck that leads to a much larger deck where our table is for outdoor dining.  But it’s a great little area where we have it covered with a gazebo, we have lots of comfy seating, it’s right of the living room so David and I venture out there most evenings where I’ll have a glass of wine and he’ll have a cigar and we’ll talk, we’ll laugh, and almost always, I’ll complain about the smell of his cigar.

And let’s just say it’s pretty plain.  It’s lovely, but there is no colour, and since Sunday was so beautiful, and I vowed not to leave the house because I’ve been running around so much, I took this day to add some colour to our lives, and also vowed to not exceed $50.

This budget would have to include the flowers, which might seem impossible, given that flowers can be expensive, but because I read my Lighthouse Log (plug) I discovered that Kent had a sale.  I got 3 GORGEOUS hanging baskets for $14.99 each.  You’re thinking, well, that blows your budget right there.  And yes, it left me with no extra money, but fortunately, I’m a hoarder.

I can’t tell you the last time I threw out a pickle jar, or a jam jar for that matter.  So I just spray painted the inside of all my jars and tied twine around the rim.  I added a candle and voila.  Since I had the twine, the spray paint and about a hundred tea lights, the lighting costs were nothing. While I was at it, I also spray painted the little table which had started to rust.   You all know how I feel about spray paint right? I should be it’s spokesperson.

I needed a mat.  I suppose I could have painted the deck, Lord only knows it needs to be scraped and painted, but I didn’t really want to or have time or the budget, so I simple took an old piece of cushion floor (go to Taylor Flooring, ask her April, tell her I sent you), and then I wallpapered it (remember my little pantry makeover??  I had left overs).  Anyway, I glued it to the back of the cushion floor and then shellacked it. I know it won’t last forever.  That’s ok, it was free.

I’ll just flip it over and spraypaint it if it gets destroyed by dampness, or it the dog pees on it.  Thou I expect that won’t happen.  He’s far too content peeing on the kitchen floor.   Don’t I just love my dog?

But in the mean time, I am loving the colour I have added for just $50.

Next makeover on a budget:  my lower deck.