Slow Cooker Garlic Lemon Chicken Breast

I recently bought a crockpot for $30 CDN at Walmart, and it has been a Godsend for making meals during the week. This recipe is from Allrecipes, the original recipe called for Cilantro, but I didn't have that on hand. 

There's bokeh in the soup! Yay ~

Ingredients

• 1 jar (16 ounces) salsa (garlic flavouring)
• 1 package of dry taco seasoning
• 2 tbsp of lemon juice
• 3 lbs of chicken breast

Steps:

1. Put in salsa, taco seasoning and lemon juice in the slow cooker, mix.
2. Slowcook on "high" for 4 hours. 
3. Shred the chicken with fork, serve with sauce.

STEP BY STEP ILLUSTRATED INSTRUCTIONS

Perfect Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Original recipe from Canadian Living - I always love their recipes. Everything I've baked from them has come out perfectly. 

Ingredients

• 2.5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 0.5 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup milk mixed with 1 tsp lemon juice, let stand for 5 minutes)
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips

Steps:

Preheat oven to 357 degrees Fahrenheit. Line muffin tray with paper liners. 

1. Mix together all-purpose flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
2. In a separate bowl mix together eggs, buttermilk vegetable oil, and vanilla.
3. Add flour mixture gradually to egg/milk mixture until well mixed.
4. Stir in chocolate chips.
5. Fill muffin paper liners 3/4 full. 
6. Bake for 25 minutes or until cake taster comes out clean. 

Halifax, Nova Scotia

I was in Halifax, Nova Scotia for an academic conference. Its my first time in the Maritimes, and really the first time outside of Ontario (except for Montreal, Quebec, but thats so close to Ontario it almost doesn't count). For the most part I did travel alone, and although I had some reservations about this I actually really enjoyed it! I travelled at my own pace and did the things I wanted to do without obligation to stick to someone's schedule.

I was staying at an Airbnb by the downtown Halifax harbourfront and its beautiful here. The owner is an architect and has fantastic taste in home decor as I've slowly been taking my own little notes here and there for ideas on my own place.

My host gave me a quick tour of Halifax after picking me up from the airport, we drove through Darmouth, which he dubbed "the Dark Side" and he said its much like the "Scarborough" of Toronto. This area is not as affluent as downtown Halifax and tends to be considered a bit more sketchy by the locals. We crossed the McDonald toll bridge (lo and behold, a toll bridge).

Here are my photos from the trip:

Halifax Seaport Farmer's Market

DIY Minion Costume: The Outfit + Minion Hat for Halloween

While browsing Pinterest I came across a DIY Minion Tutorial that I really liked. So I decided, since I've been piecing together some past cosplays, why not make my own Halloween costume?

Supplies

Minion Goggles [tutorial here]

• Using supplies from Home Depot and the dollar store, I cover a tutorial on DIY Minion Goggles here.

Minion Outfit [scroll down for logo print out how-to]

• Yellow Shirt ($6.95 from H&M)
• Blue Shorts/skirt ($12 from H&M)
• Knee-High Socks ($9 from Walmart)
• Black Shoes (flats) ($9 from Walmart) 
• Suspenders ($9.50 from Hot Topic)
• Print logo to t-shirt ~$22

Minion Hat [for tutorial, scroll down]

• Craft Foam for minion hat (< $10)
• Glue gun with glue (less than $4 at the dollar store)

Getting the Printed-Tee

There were several options to get the printed logo, this "Gru Logo" which I have provided in large resolution here [click for large version, png]: