Baked Enchiladas and a Muddy Situation!

I'm feeling quite blessed lately. The winter that just passed made me grateful for mornings like this one. I don't know what's going on...maybe my age and lady phases of my life (how's that for being "PC"??)...either my nights are filled with nightmares (one recurring since I was 8 years old) or painful muscle tensing or night sweats - all of which are symptoms of this "great" change I'm going through at 49 years old, sigh. This is another big annoyance in my life that I have no control over so I'm just allowing it to happen without getting too stressed about it! Going through these hard times makes me very grateful for a day where I wake up after eight or nine hours of sleep! Anyway, I was blessed with the latter all last night - the cold night sweats. As I shivered my way to another extra blanket at 6am, I just gave up and started my day! I'm glad I got up though, I saw the sun rise. And since it's Good Friday, the village is as quiet as a mouse, all I heard were the birds chirping and the river flowing.

And I saw the moon set as well!!! :)  These were taken with my Canon camera. The android phone camera likely wouldn't have cut the mustard for these shots. I adore everything about the earth and today I have so much gratitude for what I have in my life, where I'm living and everyone and every critter in my life. Despite the struggles I live with on a daily basis, life is pretty darn good. :)

It was such a nice sunny day yesterday that I spent most of it outside on the porch reading my cookbooks. I have 23 of 29 meals planned already! Today I'm going to plan the rest of the meals, plus sides and desserts. The next step will be to make the shopping list according to the flyers and what's on sale. I usually plan an additional 5 'bonus' meals...that's just in case what I need isn't on sale, so I can easily switch dinners in my plan. The dogs were out with me all day too. Jack is going to get crow's feet from squinting in the sun! My little fella is 11 years old this year, we got him when he was 9...I hope he sticks around another 9 years! :) He's brought so much to my life, he's taught me a lot about shelter dogs. :)

The girls are so happy to be outside too. Charlie and Marlene will stay out on the snow all day long until it's time to eat now!

I've mentioned that we are currently renting...our landlord is, how can I put this...cheap and lazy, there I said it! Our driveway is dirt and this is our third spring here and every year there is a window of time where you just can't use the driveway or this happens. Guess whose car this is? The CHEESE NIP lady's!!! Okay, she's not the Cheese Nip lady but she's the one from the government who came to pick up those burned crackers and drop off some forms for me! OMG...I felt so bad, but I told her to park on the street!!!

This was the scene after the tow truck got her out...we're kind of stuck in the driveway for a few more days. We're going to try to dig a trench so that the mud will drain...but the ground is still really cold. Usually I back up on to the remaining snow and gun it out of the driveway so I don't get stuck! when I have to park back in, I take a running reverse from my neighbours lovely concrete driveway across the road. Of course though, there were the usual promises of a new drainage system this summer from the landlord...I'm not holding my breath, anyway, at least we don't have to go out before Wednesday! Any tips for a bandaid during the thaw? 

The alfalfa and spring salad mix are coming along! I can taste these in a few more days! :)

More spinach sprouts are popping up.

And more beet sprouts too. I've never grown these two crops before. I hope they're successful! The parsley hasn't shown any signs of life yet.

Last night's dinner was Baked Enchiladas. We're still on our Mexican-themed food kick. This couldn't be easier to make. Just layers of tortillas, salsa, cooked chicken, cooked beans, olives, chives, tomatoes and topped with cheese and cilantro.

With a blob of sour cream, that's another delicious comfort meal. I didn't have fresh cilantro so I used the ones I dried last fall from the garden. There are leftovers for tomorrow's dinner! By the way...

Do you know how to de-pimiento-fy an olive the easy way? I DIDN'T. Alex has a food intolerance to peppers, and those little pimientos in the olives are just as bad for him so I always take them out. I used to slice them in half then jiggle them out the slippery frustrating way. I don't know what made me think of this, but if anyone can use this tip, go for it! Life is now much easier lol!