Weekly Menu November 11, 2009

I’m late, yes, I know….

I think I’m going to try to do these Wed to Wed as that’s the day my local grocery has it’s super sales… and Wed is the day they have Super Meat Sales. So I need to let the idea’s percolate in my brain for a couple of days LOL….

So anyways.

Wed - Beef Broccoli with Rice (without the oyster sauce and add a little brown sugar and ginger)

Thurs – MeatLump and Baby Heads with butter and lemon pepper with GF noodles w/ Parmesan (this is a joke, it’s really meatloaf, and it’s really Brussels sprouts, but my kids are sick little jokers)

EDIT - I got sick, so easy dinner was in the cards!

Fri -(was) Spaghetti Tacos (actually) GF pasta alfredo with skinless boneless chicken breasts and broccoli mixed in

Sat – (still sick – was!) Italian Chicken with ‘fried’ garlic green beans and almond rice casserole

Actually! Honey’s Cookin so sausages with homefries in garlic all cooked together in a dutch oven

Sun – We decided to keep doing fighter practice over here for ease of putting small ones down to sleep, and the fact that we have the biggest yard and most varied kid age toys. So Italian chicken and almond rice has been moved to Sun night.

Mon - ‘Thai’ Chicken Soup

Tues - Oven Fried Cube Steak with gravy, homefries and salad

Teen Gluten Free and “Thai” Chicken Soup November 11, 2009

 

 

My 15 yo daughter recently (like a month ago) decided that even though she can’t get tests to say definitively that she has Celiac disease like mom. She can look in the mirror, and she can talk with mom about what Mom’s symptoms were like when she was 15.
Lets see.

1. Stabbing pain under left rib – check
2. Major issues with mood swings and serious depression – check
3. Everything is FULL OF DRAMA AND OMG MOM! – check
4. Headaches every afternoon – check
5. Occasional stomachaches – check
6. Occasional bouts with the Big D – check
7. Occasional neuropathy in hands and feet – check
8. Pretty severe bone/muscle pain a couple of times a week – check

Then throw in some of her own symptoms, like a blood vessel in her hand popping about once a month (very painfully too) and you’ve got a teen who is willing to try and feel better.

This time last year, it was NO WAY mom, I’m not EVAR depriving myself of all these foods that I love.  But then the depression hit, and you would do anything not to feel like that again. Not to mention the daily headaches right when she needs to practice her clarinet and oboe, right when she’s got homework, and right when she’s trying to talk on the phone, type on the internet and do chores at the same time.

So she approached me, I was supportive. I made her awesome lunches to take to school, other kids were jealous LOL. I made sure we had plenty of snack foods and yummy stuff that was healthy for her to have around the house.

Then she started feeling better…. then she started feeling MUCH better.

This of course, seriously upset her. My younger daughters say stuff like ‘thanks Dad for the monkey arms!’ or ‘Thanks Dad for the hairy back!’ But Morgan says ‘Thanks mom for the Celiac!’ with just the right tone of sarcasm! Even though she feels so much better, and even though she’s been prevented from all the medical issues I had as an adult… She still mourns (and whines). I point out that my dad is being tested, that her G. Grandmother has all the symptoms and that BOTH of her parents died of complications from probable celiac disease in the 40’s. But of course it’s my fault (same as the big butt, large upper arms and shortness are all my fault too LOL!!)

My Grandmother and Grandfather in 1950

Luckily. She’s got a mom who is a good cook, and luckily she loves to experiment with foods. (eating them not cooking them) So it’s a simple matter to make delicious food that she loves and is naturally gluten free most of the time.

Then 3 days ago, one of her good friends that lives about 3 houses down from us was put on a gluten-free diet by his doctor. Now she has a buddy to commiserate with. But unlike her, Micheal doesn’t have a family that is supportive, he’s pretty much stuck eating meat and potatoes unless he comes over here. And that gives Morgan an appreciation for just how good she has it.

And that’s never a bad thing for a teen, especially when it’s NOT their mother reminding them LOL!!

So what did Morgan take to lunch today? In her cute little thermos she took a large serving of our ‘Thai’ Chicken Soup.

I invented this a few years ago while pregnant with Morgan’s baby sister and Hot and Sour Soup was the ONLY thing keeping me fed. It killed my nausea and made me feel like 100 bucks. I wanted to know if there were other relatively spicy foods that I could eat and feel better.

Thai Chicken Soup

• 8 cups chicken broth
• 1/4 cup sesame oil
• 1 bunch green onions
• 1 whole chicken
• 1 whole cabbage – regular or Asian – diced
• 1 can water chestnuts
• 1 can sliced bamboo
• 1 can black beans
• 1 jar Thai Spicy Sweet Sauce (GF)
• 2 TB diced garlic
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 2 cups snow peas (optional)

I usually cook the chicken in the crockpot the day before in 6 cups of water. I debone it and use the broth it creates in the stew.

In sauce pan, place oil, garlic, ginger and chicken and sautee for about 15 min. Then place in 8 cups of chicken broth. Add in the diced cabbage, water chestnuts, sliced bamboo, and beans. Simmer for about 20 min. Then add in the sweet chili sauce, snow peas and garnish with the diced green onions to serve.

This soup also has the added benefit of all the goodness of mom’s homemade chicken soup, but with added ’spicy’ to clear your sick head too. It makes a great out of the box comfort food at our house. I usually freeze individual portions after Morgan and I stuff ourselves silly LOL!

Kaia’s 2nd Birthday Partay August 9, 2009

what’s This?

Obviously a pink heart right?

Into cutey delicious gluten-free cupcakes!

Bad picture of the castle cake (that’s a vinland flag)

She ate the crown first, then the whole frog head as screams of ’she must be Ozzie Osbourn’s daughter’ rang in the background

and Owyn’s sloppy goblins he cooked in the crockpot with momma’s supervision – he’s eight

Kombucha Tea = Vinegar! July 23, 2009

Click the picture to go directly to an article by Arwen O’Reilly about Kombucha (picture is her’s as well! isn’t it awesome!!)

This article/recipe is for those of you who already own a kombucha SCOBY, or have access to getting one, and are semi-familiar with the premise of Kombucha Tea. I’m not going to make any health claims or any boasts about how awesome it is.

I will however say I’m a busy woman. And I take time, several hours a month, and put it into making kombucha, so you can draw your conclusions for that LOL

Making Kombucha Tea into Vinegar for home use

Step 1. Make tea – 4 tea bags for vinegar, 6 for drinking kombucha
Step 2. When tea is done, but still hot – add in 3/4 cup of sugar for each gallon of water
Step 3. You let the water cool to room temp.
Step 4. Add the tea to your kombucha tea starter, and the kombucha mushroom that you’ve put in a big container (5 gallon bucket, 5 gallon water jug, etc)
Step 5. Let it sit about a week and a half in a cool dark place.
Step 6. Using a pressure cooker or large 4/5 gallon pot, place a filter where you can dump the kombucha tea through it. I use a large cloth one over the top of my pot.  Run all the kombucha tea through a filter. When the cloth starts getting clogged with debris. I take it off and rinse it, then put it back on. I keep dumping the kombucha in the pot until I’ve got about 3 inches left in the bottom of my container (the starter tea) and the mushroom of course.
Step 7. Put the pot on simmer for about 2 hours if it’s a large pot. If it’s a pressure cooker, 20 min on 10lbs. The idea is to kill all the bacteria in the kombucha tea that make up the SCOBY or the ‘mother’ so no new one can grow.
Step 8. It’s now vinegar, run it through another filter, to catch all of the dead ‘mother’ particles.
Step 9. Place your vinegar in it’s storage containers.

I use vinegar all over the house. I use it as a hair rinse in the bathroom. It’s in several small spray bottles all over the house with some basil tea as a homemade ‘febreeze’. It’s in a gallon container in the laundry room to put in a downy ball for each load of laundry (it makes hung laundry less crunchy, helps eliminate problems with hard water, which is important to me as we use cloth diapers and cloth pads) We use it in cleaning counters, sinks, and most especially in cleaning hard water off of the shower walls, shower fixtures and toilet insides. I also give vinegar to my neighbors, who love it LOL.

My 2 Year Old July 22, 2009

My baby is 2 today. At 4:15 in the morning 2 years ago my water broke (a first for me after 3 other children) and we embarked on this new adventure after only a couple of hours in the hospital. Kaia shot out of me so fast, with only 1 push, the midwife barely had a chance to catch her. Kaia’s daddy flinched watching Kaia slide towards the floor. Then she stopped slipping, yelled and yelled and yelled while they weighed her, checked her signs. Then they handed her to me to nurse and she ate with gusto for 45 min. Little piggy.

Kaia is so different from my other children in a lot of ways. She says Who-wee instead of horse and  chocklitt in a deep growly voice like her big sister did as a toddler. Her penchant for getting up between 5:30 and 6:15 is definitely like her big brother Owyn. He’s often found getting her a bowl of cereal, and then getting me while she’s happily munching. Just because the two of them awake at about the same time.

Otherwise, she’s daring, climbing trees, ladders, shelves, tables, you name it, with ease. I think she’s fallen maybe a couple of times. No serious bruises or bumps. My other kids have been covered in both to the point where I was scared to take them out publicly for fear people would think we were abusive! She KNOWS how very cute she is, and utilizes that with every breath, batting her eyelashes, fluffing her hair, the perfectly turned smile, with just the right amount of dimple. She loves wearing beautiful clothes, but has no problems with putting on a gorgeous dress, then going outside and helping me dig holes, or climb trees, or dump dirt into her water table to make mud pies.

She’s a dancer. I really believe that this little girl has got talent, serious talent. We are going to have to find the money somewhere to get her dance lessons, because talent like this shouldn’t be squandered. I danced as a child, and did ballet, until I was old enough to be on toe shoes (before my teachers daughter, who was the same age, because I was that good), but we moved, and we were poor. And I’m not built like a dancer. Never have been. Maybe a dancer for rap video’s when I was thin. But Kaia doesn’t have my body. She’s got her daddy’s body. And he’s tall, thin, and with long long legs and muscles that would be perfect for dancing (if only he had rhythm LOL).

Kaia’s almost completely potty trained now, and she did it herself honestly. She still wears diapers to bed and if we are going to be out of the house for more than 30 min. But I guess it’s time to sell off my diaper stash. I’m going to be sad to see it go. Seriously. However, and here is where birthday comes in LOL. We don’t have money for presents, and we don’t have money for decorations. But I do sew, and I do have a cretive mind.

What does Kaia need? Well she needs panties to be honest! She’s wearing her 7 yo sisters right now, and while Ingrid is very very thin, so they kind of fit, they are very saggy, and they aren’t Kaia’s. So after I’m done typing this out, I’m going to finish sewing Kaia some panties out of one of her daddy’s old t-shirts and appliqueing some decorations on them. She’s going to squeal with delight I know it LOL!  Kaia also needs more nightgowns, I got so sucked into depression with my 3 oldest children gone to their fathers for the summer that I just wasn’t capable of anything but doing normal household chores. My brain isn’t wired to be creative and to create when I’m that sad.

I’m also finishing up the birthday banner I started, and Kaia also saw this dress on a blog I was reading:

and is now DEMANDING a dress like this. Yes, she’s only 2. You’d think she’s 4 with how she picks up on the fact that ‘mommy can make this for me’

So today, it’s underwear with hearts and starting a rainbow dress for Kaia. Then finishing a banner (it’s only bias tape, I don’t know why I’m resisting *sigh*) Then MAYBE another nightgown. At least I’m helping to get rid of more of my fabric stash right?

I’m also making my ‘famous among friends’ crockpot spaghetti sauce, and the kids are already saying ‘It smells so gooooood’ and ‘It’s making me huuuuungry’ LOL, plus a chocolate brownie cake (GF) with chocolate icing. Because Kaia IS a girl (and is related to me LOL)

My Local Publix is Awesome July 21, 2009

A week and a half or so ago, I did my monthly shopping trip into the town about 30 miles away. I live in a very small rural town, which does have a grocery store, but some items are SO expensive, that it’s often worth it for me to shop elsewhere if I need more than just milk and other basics (though their meat sales are awesome). They also don’t have very many gluten-free options, besides what is naturally so (and Chex! yay!). So I take a long drive with a ton of kids in tow, and we make a day out of grocery shopping. Everyone comes back exhausted from all the searching, scanning aisles, the long drive, all the walking, and just brain fogged and the heat!

Part of this is because it’s literally a search in every single aisle of Publix to find something.
So I emailed my local Publix’s manager after our last trip. I didn’t get anything back. Then last night I got a phone call!

The manager wanted to talk to me about a whole bunch of different things, and to also tell me she’d taken at least one of my suggestions to heart and was going to implement it. Plus, adding a few additional foods I’d suggested! We talked for maybe 20 minutes, and she told me she’d been on vacation and didn’t get my letter until last Friday. But she wanted to make sure all her ducks were in a row before she called me. She said that she’d been getting a lot of complaints lately about the fact that you literally had to search the whole store for the GF food. Some is in the diabetic section, some in the baking section. It’s crazy. I’ve gotten so upset, using my months allowance on stuff I wouldn’t have bought if I’d had a better choice (quinoa macaroni noodles) then finding Tinkyada noodles in the diabetic section. The manager told me that even if the food was half eaten, that if I thought it was gross, found a better product at the store, whatever, that she knew I shopped there, and they’d take it back for the full price returned so I could get what I really wanted, but couldn’t find.
The manager told me she’s got a ton more gluten-free food in the warehouse, but they just simply don’t have room for it at the moment. She also said she’s getting the materials together to build an extra 8-10 feet on the Health Food section, to make a single GF section. She said until then, things are going to have to be all mixed in together, but she loved my idea to her about putting out ‘eye grabbers’ I think she called them. You know, the brightly colored signs that stick out and say *75% off* or *On Sale*, but instead, they are going to stay *Gluten-Free* How cool is that?!

So I’ve never met any other Celiacs here, I’ve started a group on Yahoogroups for local Celiacs, but this gives me hope that our Publix is being so cool and accommodating. Maybe I ought to put up a sign advertising the group there! It’d be so lovely to have a potluck where I could eat everything and my kids could play with other kids who ate gluten-free as well. (I’d also love to start a Celiacs club for people who need a support person at the hospital – but that’s another post)

I’m so so happy with the manager at Publix. It’s lovely to know that she really cares about her customers, and will really think about what they said. It’s also nice to know that our GF section is just going to get bigger and better! It may be a longer drive to Publix for me than some other places, but she’s definitely pulling me away from them! She also told me that I didn’t need to go to the Asian food store if I’d just tell her what I wanted. I laughed and told her that she could definitely get ahold of Mochiko, but Cassava flour was probably beyond her (and she wouldn’t want to go to all the trouble for something that wouldn’t give her much return).

Also, if you guys would give me a list of things you just cannot live without as far as GF things go. My list includes Pamela’s bread mix and Tinkyada noodles. Plus Mi-Del Arrowroot and Ginger cookies. But we haven’t had much of a chance to get new GF items and just try them out because of where we live (no trader joes or health food stores) so some suggestions for me, to suggest to the Publix Manager would be great!

Overall, I’m just tickled pink by the whole thing. It’s so nice to see that people really do care.

Meredith

Chicken Verde Tamales June 24, 2009

So today I finally got the tamales done.

A few days ago, I put a whole fryer chicken in the crockpot with a cup of water and let it cook for hoooooouuuuuurs. Yes dears, probably about 12 hours LOL! I put it in the fridge before going to bed.

Day 2? I deboned the chicken, the bones were nice and soft at this point and my dog was quite please with her chicken broth and bones breakfast.

I put all the chicken meat back in the crockpot with a can of diced green chiles, and a small jar of salsa verde.

I let it cook about 3 hours, added a can of black beans, some cumin, garlic, salt, cilantro and another can of green chiles. (heh)

For the tamale/masa covering, I followed the instruction upon my package, but instead of using lard, I used bacon grease. Mmmmmm bacon. It really added SO much extra flavor and didn’t detract at all from the taste.

The kids have declared them best ever and kept hovering over the pot I had them steaming in LOL! Even the picky 2 year old ate a small one.

You want to see pictures? My oldest daughter took them, she’s a much better photog than I ever thought of being. I’m artsy in a lot of ways, but not THAT one LOL

Spreading the masa on the cornhusk

Now for the filling

Rolling the tamale up

Tieing a knot on the tamales

Tamales in the pot for their steaming

Kaia entertaining herself while mom makes dinner

My photog doing a self portrait with her little sister

Potter Puppet Pals Cake May 17, 2009

I’ll just go ahead and upload all the pictures from Morgan’s cake. Sadly, one picture turned out from Ian’s mandrake fondant sculptures. They turned out pretty neat looking, but more like pissed old men than whining babies LOL. However, they sunk into the ice cream, rather than hanging around on top. So the visual wasn’t quite the same, but the kids really loved them heh

I’ll go ahead and point you at Niel Cicierega if you are wondering WHY in the heck we did a cake like this. We are big fans at this house *grins*

Then on to Morgan’s cake:

Morgan's drawing used for the pattern

Morgan wanted a white cake with rainbow sprinkles

After dying the fondant with decent dye, I put them in bags, or on wax paper to roll out

After rolling them out. I put the pattern pieces on them and cut them out with a very sharp, small knife

Then I started putting them all together

Morgan, dressed as Harry Potter looks on in glee (that’s my daughter’s expression for glee) She’d probably kill me if she knew I included that picture

After putting most of it together, I cut the edge off the purple

Then added the ‘wrist’ for the puppet master

The whole thing together

Then my VERY FIRST time ever writing on a cake. So please don’t make fun of me LOL, it says ‘Voldemorts Nipple’

Then, they destroyed all my hard work!

MANLY Sloppy Joes February 24, 2009

I’m *still* working on the draft I started last week talking about Ian’s (my 9 yo) first venture into cooking dinner for the family. It was so succesful that he’s doing it every week now. He was very very please with his ability to cook dinner. A little impatient with my ‘mom-like’ need to show him how to cut most efficiently and safely and he wouldn’t even let me STIR. He kept saying I was trying to take over! Not a pretty picture he painted of me LOL.

Anyways, this week’s dinner was ‘Manly Sloppy Joes’

The deal is, I give him 10 dollars (which should be MORE than enough) and he has to shop for all the ingredients on his list, keep it under 10 dollars, and if there is enough left over, he can buy dessert. We didn’t have dessert this time (I gave him more ideas, like instant pudding and cake mix for instance so maybe next time).

But anyways, this accomplishes a few things.

1. Ability to read and follow directions precisely

2. Knowledge of how a stove works, how food goes together, experience in seasoning things and figuring out in his brain what HE likes and what works for him.

3. Knowlege that HE is capable of feeding himself yumy food, that HE can cook food his whole family will eat and love.

4. Experience in shopping. Not only does this teach him to read lables, comparison shop and budget. But it gives him experience in doing it with guidelines yes, but doing it HIMSELF, and the only safety net is the cashier saying ‘That’ll be 10.53 please’ when he knows darn well he’s only got 10 dollars. So the thought of being told he didn’t have enough money made him read prices very carefully and do math very carefully (in his head even)

5. Self confidence, life skills, math skills, reading skills, comprehension skills, budgeting skills. All things that I think are important for someone I’d like to grow up into a responsible adult.

My ex-husband could cook ramen, mac and cheese and lots of breakfast egg things, like omelets and scrambled eggs. But pretty much everything else he knows about cooking came from me. He turned out to be an awesome student and outstripped me in a couple of areas (his pancakes are WAY better than mine, even GF) and I’ve learned things from him (omelets escaped me for years). But his lack of knowledge hurt him in his adult life. Not knowing how to cook the most basic of things made him feel helpless and left him at the mercy of whatever the chow-hall provided on base. Not something we want for any of our children. Anways, I’ll hop off this soapbox now…. and without further ado..

Manly Sloppy Joes

(hello, they are MANLY because Ian cooked em right?)

1 lb ground beef or turkey

1 can tomato paste

2 TB worchestishire sauce

1 TB brown sugar

1 diced bell pepper

1 half diced red onion

garlic powder (to taste)

black pepper (to taste)

salt (to taste)

1 pack of hamburger buns or your favorite GF recipe (mom uses chicken cans for buns)

Brown meat, while it’s browning, stir frequently to make sure it doesn’t get lumpy. Dice onions and put them in with the meat, then dice up bell pepper and put in with the meat. When meat is browned, drain the grease. Salt, pepper and garlic the mixture. Add in tomatoe paste, brown sugar and w. sauce. Let simmer on low for about 20 min stirring occasionally.

Serve on hamburger buns.

In which my Geek Status is Injured February 10, 2009

I have been helping out my across the street neighbor for a while. Because I showed her kindness when she was having trouble with Code Enforcement here in town, and spent 2 days seriously slogging through nasty rotten books, many trips to the dump and complete body exhaustion (not to mention messing with my asthma badly) when her own 3 sons could barely be bothered to show up… Well, she considers me a friend, and I consider her one as well.

Miss Jean was a schoolteacher for a long time. She says she just can’t do it anymore because the new methods of teaching children she considers, well… she puts a funnel to her ear and mime’s pouring things in. I agree to some extent. I think there have been a lot of strides in teaching methods since the 70s and 80’s when I got my elementary education in. But I also think that education has been dumbed down considerably. I remember my social studies books and history books. They aren’t ANYTHING like what children get now. Now they seem like they are mostly pictures, hardly any ‘big’ words. And the words that ARE difficult are usually things like ‘germination’ or something that they really can’t get rid of.

Anyways. So these past couple of days she’s given me a massive amount of homeschooling stuff. Thousands of dollars worth of homeschooling stuff. I’m so very lucky that when I was really feeling the need to get more curriculum, and branch out into newer materials, I was literally handed them! Including puzzles, wall hangers, cd-roms, poster board, books, teachers guides.

I was also given about 12 sheets of aluminum roofing ranging from 10 ft to 1 foot in length, plus chicken wire. So I won’t need to buy materials to make a chicken tractor. I’m just going to have to invent a blueprint for one, since I can’t find even one to buy for 10-12 chickens, let alone a free one. Just very expensive to build (almost 200 dollars) blueprints for 5-6 chickens, and people telling me it can’t be done light enough to be a ‘tractor’ for 10-12 chickens (whatever, *rolls eyes*)
Anyways, amongst all the other free things that Miss Jean gave me over the last few days, the last item to gave to me was a computer tower. She told me that she’d paid for it, and that she wanted Windows 2000 on it, but the guy loaded something that had a sword instead. I was curious, I’ll admit. I figured that even if it had a teeny little hard drive, at least the kids could use it for homeschooling right?

So I plug it in when I get home and what pops up?
Slax Kill Bill Edition
hahahahahahaha, what kinda of Joker gives an oldChristian school teacher lady this? I giggle.
I’ll admit now, I’ve never used Linux, I’ve never even seen it used. I poked around at it a bit, and since it has a GASP hard disk drive, I inserted a couple left over from our days of Gateways (I’ve embarrassed myself even more haven’t I?) and Morgan’s homeschooling. I found her plant journal from when she was 7. It was sooo cute. She was whining about how much hard work she’d put in (this is 11 days into planting things) and NOTHING had grown yet. She was SO MAD, she wrote! heheheheh.

I also found the Valentines card she made me in paint LOL. It also opened some old word documents. But I can’t figure out if I can load cd-roms on it.
Any of you reading run linux? be kind enough to give me some pointers? Can I load homeschooling programs meant for Windows or Mac on this computer? I’ll probably go study this some more (I’m good at that LOL) but my brain is quite full enough for the day…

I’m exhausted with the amount of work I’ve been doing lately (canning, new unit in homeschooling, tilling ground for spring, planting starter seeds, helping Miss Jean and another friend, Kaia’s teething badly and is CRABBY and MEAN, Honey is sick again, massive amounts of laundry from when I was sick, I can’t believe I’m still catching up!! Plus my dog is doing some fairly awful gastrointestinal things lately)

Oh, and Ian, my 9 year old, cooked dinner for the first time tonight! Beef Stew, and it was well loved by all. Kaia had THIRDS!