I woke up this morning to a sweet text message from a blocked number saying ' You're beautiful, remember to tell yourself that every day and smile. You're beautiful when you smile' Yes, some people might find it weird, I found it really sweet. I obviously don't know who this person is but it made my day.

So remember, YOU'RE beautiful and wonderful and amazing. And don't forget to smile today.

Happy Friday, Everyone!!

When it's cold and wet outside, I love comfort food. My favourite comfort food ever is a perogie dish that one of my mothers ex boyfriends made all the time.

It's kind of cold out and threatening to rain/snow today. Even though I'm exhausted today, I think I'm going to make it anyway. I never got the recipe from him, but I watched him make it so many times that I'm able to make it with my own spin.

Here's how I make it

1KG bag perogies of your choice. I use frozen, potato, bacon and onion.
1 rasher of bacon. I use reduced salt.
1 white onion
1 can of cream of mushroom soup. I use low fat
A few tablespoons of milk

Boil as many perogies as you want. I make a big batch.. While the perogies are boiling, I dice up bacon and fry it until it's really crispy. With a slatted spoon, remove the bacon from the fat and put it in a bowl to cool. Pour the bacon fat into a bowl. Dice onion if you life onion. If not, don't use it. Cook the diced onion in a bit of bacon fat. Once translucent, move to a bowl and cover with tin foil. Once the perogies float, strain them. Heat a pan on Medium-High, put some bacon fat in the pan and put one layer of perogies. Turn them to get both sides a lightly brown. Whisk the mushroom soup with 2 or 3 tablespoons of milk to thin the soup to make the sauce. Add it to a sauce pan and heat until warm.

Drizzle sauce over perogies, sprinkle bacon and onion. enjoy!

Dechlan has his physical yesterday. He of course had to get vaccinations which went over so well. And thankfully are the last ones until he is 12 years old.

He's a tall and skinny boy. He's 42.5 inches tall and 42lbs. He's extremely healthy too. Everything is good. Some of his development is behind but we knew that. We're waiting for his appointment with the  development specialist in June.

We've decided to NOT send him to school for the rest of the year. We kind of want to hear what the doctor has to say. Plus he keeps having accidents. It's getting a bit frustrating for all of us.

But all in all, he's doing great.

I'm digging it!! My reading list is so much easier to use. I'm a happy girl! Usually new layouts means something awful.

Anyway, I like it. I like it a lot!

This is by far my favourite recipe. I make it almost every week. It's healthy and yummy and no can tell that it's vegan. The guys that Nick works with LOVE it. 

Vegan Blueberry Loaf/Cupcakes

1/2 cup soy margarine
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup soymilk
2 cups  frozen blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 F

Mix margarine, sugar, applesauce, vanilla and soy milk in 1 bowl until well combined.
Sift flour, salt, baking powder in a small bowl. Add to wet ingredients. combine until no lumps are left. Add blueberries.

Bake in loaf pan for 1 hour or until knife/skewer comes out clean.

For cupcakes, fill paper holders 3/4 of the way. Bake for 35 minutes.

I've recently come to the realization that I'm tired of hating myself. Yes, I'm fat. Being fat isn't who I am. Being fat is just what I look like. It doesn't change my personality. I'm still the same person I was 5 years ago before I got fat.

I came to this conclusion when I was working out and working out and working out, eating healthy and doing everything right and I still wasn't losing weight. I was hating seeing myself in the mirror and clothes shopping.

I've decided that I will not spend hours every day working out. The only time I ever saw improvement was when I was working out 3 hours per day. That isn't realistic. I can't do that every day.

Yes, I will watch what I eat. Yes, I will do some sort of physical activity. No, I will not weigh myself all the time. I will not focus on the number. I will focus on being happy. I'm done hating myself.

I'm healthy. There isn't anything really wrong with me. PCOS started before I was fat. I'm still beautiful. My husband thinks I'm beautiful. I deserve to be happy. I will gain self-esteem and confidence.

I owe it to myself.

Since I'm lactose intolerant, I don't drink milk. I hate using milk in food and baking because it always makes me sick. I've always used soy milk in everything but even that makes my stomach hurt a bit. I love to use soy milk in baking.

Last week, I was going to make some vegan blueberry loaf for Nick to take to work. Metro was out of soy milk so I bought Almond milk. FYI, not a good replacement in that recipe. It turned out kind of gross.

 Anyway, they don't sell small containers of almond milk so I had to buy the bigger container. I'm not one for wasting things so I let Dechlan try it. He LOVES IT. Nick tried it and HE loves it. I haven't tried it straight but I did try it in my coffee today and it was really good. I got the vanilla flavour and it's a great replacement for coffee creamer. Less calories too.

We've decided not to buy regular milk now. We're all stuck on almond milk. The great part is that it has a lot of calcium in it. It's perfect.

Have you tried almond milk?