Gluten Free Bread Products and Flour

First, I would like to welcome anyone who may have been directed here through Heather's blog.  I didn't know that you would necessarily be interested in my back story since you don't know me, but feel free to browse around.  My blog is an eclectic mish mash of gardening things, cooking, family stuff, crafts,...  Whatever I feel like writing about.  You can see by the dates of some of my posts I don't keep up on my posts as regularly as Heather does.  I hope that you find my information useful.  I share my knowledge randomly with no real order or thought to it really, but I think that may partly me a function of my lack of clarity in thought recently.  It is my goal to be more purposeful in my posts and share my journey back to health and wellness.

 In the Wheat Belly book Dr. Davis says to eliminate pretty much ALL grains.  Well, judging by my list from Wednesday's post I am sure that you can see that would be a near impossibility.  There is NO way I could get the rest of the family to abandon ALL grains in favor of veggies and meats almost exclusively so we are taking a baby step by eliminating wheat.

I have greatly reduced the wheat we have been consuming over the course of the last month or so.  While I haven't seen a significant drop in weight the needle on the scale has budged a little so it has given me hope that the more I do toward that end, the more the scale will go down for me.

What are some of the things we have done so far?

1.  I have begun coating our baked boneless skinless chicken breasts in potato chip crumbs or rice flour instead of the usual flour, bread, cereal, or crackers I have used in the past.  It is similar to fried chicken, very tender and oh so good.  I even use chicken that is boneless and skinless and it is still tender and juicy with a crispy coating.

2.  My battered fish has used my own home made gluten free flour mixture in place of the regular flour that I would have used before.  This flour has also been used in place of many other recipes I already used in the past without making any other adjustments.

3.  I also use my gluten free flour to make my own gluten free bread.  The flavor lacks nothing, but it is a bit more dense than flour I have used before.  I am still working on tweaking it to make the best bread possible, but aside from the bread seeming like it should raise a bit more I have been very happy with the loaves I have produced

4.  I have made pizza crust from cauliflower.

I plan on doing more in the coming days and weeks, but sometimes our busy schedule prevents me from experimenting much.  That, and someone else likes to cook too (though I suspect that this person is just trying to avoid me making too many healthy dishes).

Now, on to the recipes!!!!

Baked Chicken Breasts-  Soak chicken in milk (I like to use milk kefir as well which imparts a slightly tangy flavor) to make it more tender using a baggie to allow meat to be immersed in milk.  Several hours is ideal but at least 30 minutes.  Mix 1 c flour alternative (if you are using potato chip crumbs you may need more than that) with 1/2 t salt, 1/2 t pepper, 1/2 t Italian seasoning and mix well.  Remove chicken from milk and dredge in flour mixture, them place in a greased baking dish.  Bake at 400 for about 30 minutes or until juices run clear.  Bone in takes a bit longer, boneless takes less time.  It also varies depending on the thickness of your meat.

Beer Battered Fish-  2 eggs, 6 oz beer (allow to go flat), 1 c flour substitute,1 t baking powder, 2 t baking soda, 1 t salt, 1 T oil (whatever type you are frying it in), 1/2 t pepper, a splash of lemon juice, and a sprinkle of milled flax seeds.  Combine all ingredients together.  Dip fish into batter mixture and cook in  fryer preheated to 350.  Fry about 5 minutes until golden brown.

Gluten Free White Bread-  use 1 1/4 c water/milk/milk kefir, 3 c flour substitute, 1 1/2 t salt, 3 T sugar, 2 T butter, 1 1/2 T dry milk, 1 1/2 t yeast, sprinkle flax seeds.  Mix, knead, let rise, and bake as you would any other bread.  This will not rise like the gluten filled flours do

Pizza crust- Use a head of cauliflower, cut florets off and grind cauliflower in food processor, steam until soft, and allow to cool.  Place in a towel and then squeeze the liquid out of the cauliflower until it is dry.  (This is the step I missed last time and it turned out a bit soft and mooshy, and stuck to the pizza pan.)

Measure out 3 c (or close to it) and place the cauliflower into a mixing bowl. Add cheese.  1/4 c parmesan, 1/4 c cheddar cheese (or any cheese you want really but at least 2 types really enhances the flavor of the crust), 1/2 t each salt, dried crushed oregano, dried crushed rosemary, garlic powder, and onion powder, mix then add an egg to hold it all together.

Once your crust is mixed you are ready to bake it!  I think I will try to use my baking stone next time, but whatever you do, make sure to grease the pan or you will loose some of your yummy pizza to the pan.  Spread out your crust evenly on your pizza pan or baking sheet.  Try to have it about 1/4 of an inch thick if possible.  Bake at 450 for approximately 10 minute, until golden brown.

Top your pizza with desired ingredients )I made my own from tomato paste, but we'll talk about that another time! Bake an additional 5-8 minutes (or until your cheese is melted to your desired color) then serve.

Now, for the flour substitute I've been using.  It is really delicious and hard to tell it isn't regular flour though you need to be careful when making rising crust items.  I'd suggest reading some gluten free baking books if this is something you want to learn more about.  When just used in place of flour for coating meats I don't think it matters much.

I used my wondermill to make my own flour from products I had on hand since the gluten free flour is so expensive to purchase.  I think I will do a cost comparison post in the future...

1 c rice flour
1 c oat flour
1 c potato flakes
1 c tapioca flour
1/4 c cornstarch
3 1/2 t guar gum

Use cup for cup the way you would use your normal flour possibly adding a small amount of extra fat in your recipe.

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Cindy

Why try Gluten Free?

Earlier I wrote a post about doing a gluten free trial and some of my thoughts as well as a few things I have read about gluten from various sources that all had a very similar message.  Cut the wheat to improve your health.  It will allow your body to do what it was built to do which is to heal itself when things go wrong with it.  I told you I would discuss with you the reasons for our gluten free trial later this week, so here it is.

We actually have many contributing factors that I think reflect much of what is going on in the rest of America as well.  Brain fog, inability to loose weight, joint pain, hypothyroidism, prediabetic, IBS, low energy levels, bladder issues, ADD, headaches, acid reflux, depression, I could go on and on.

I have been trying to lose weight for years, but I haven't successfully been able to do so since 13 years ago before my daughter was born.  Did I suddenly forget how to exercise and eat healthy?  Well, if you listen to the medical community that is the obvious fact.  I have been told to quit eating so many cookies, to be more active, eat healthier foods, and on and on.  I don't know about you, but I hate being lectured about things I already know.  It's even worse when you are trying to do these things but no one believes you and judges you to be a fat, lazy slob.  They have looked at my food journals and basically said I was lying and I must have forgotten to write down a bunch of food.  Seriously.  Then the medical community wonders why WE have so little faith in THEM?

My son has been a 3 sport athlete for 4 years.  At first the weight just fell off.  Being so active and lifting weights brought about a bit transformation in him.  But he totally stalled out when it came to weight loss for wrestling season this year.  None of our prior weight loss ideas has helped him a bit this year either.  What happened?

I could go on and on giving the back stories behind all of the symptoms listed above, but I think you get the point here.  I have been thinking and thinking about this and it just doesn't add up.  Is it the chemicals and preservatives in processed foods?  Overuse of prescription medications?  What gives?

Several years ago I began by cutting out the ready to eat processed foods that we used to buy from the store.  I began canning, dehydrating, and freezing foods that I grew myself or bought on sale and in season from farmers and grocery stores alike.  It does make more work for me, but it has helped some with things like ADD, but it hasn't completely solved all of our issues.  I continued to search for answers to our health dilemmas.

While studying natural remedies to replace some of the prescription and OTC medications we have been taking I kept coming up with the same information.  Our bodies have natural abilities to heal themselves.  Not that we will ever be able to stop everything completely, but it is a nice goal to wish for.  I began to wonder though, what was stopping my body from reaching it's full potential to heal itself?  The search continued.  I began seeing a chiropractor which has helped to increase my energy levels and clear the brain fog, but I still haven't been able to achieve much in the way of weight loss.

Now comes in the gluten free option.  I read the book Wheat Belly which I saw both on Dr. Oz and a few of my friends were trying it and seeing great results.  That book dealt with EVERYTHING on our list, plus others that weren't even on there.  Wow.  I think it's worth a try.  I mean, after examining our regular diet I noticed that we ate ALL of the no-no foods on a regular basis.  ESPECIALLY wheat.  Really.  Wow.  I never imagined that could cause so many issues, but it really does make sense.  When you overload so much on one particular category of foods, I suppose that is what you get.  I just can't help but wonder why wheat is in everything we eat.  I guess I'll be making MORE of our own stuff.

So, what did we like to eat before going gluten free?  Well, some of our favorite meals include burgers, chicken dumpling soup with a loaf of bread, grilled cheese and tomato soup, spaghetti, pizza, brats, breaded chicken baked in the oven, battered fish, ...  Notice what they all have in common?  Yup.  Wheat in every item there.  Guess who's in for a total meal make over?  Yup.  That's my next post.  So far we have tried a few items that I want to share with you.  I did manage to lose a couple of pounds so far so things are moving in the right direction for me.  Once I can get the rest of the family to jump on the bandwagon it won't be so hard to resist the temptations they keep presenting.

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Cindy

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Wow, it's been quite a while since I've gone blog hopping again. I have really been missing hanging out with my cyber buddies, but the recession we are in has caused me to do a lot of looking for more ways to cut our expenses further than I already have. Of course the bank has not helped us at all, so I've had to be very creative in my searches.

I have searched for home health remedies to move us further away from the world of chemicals (for cleaning our house and healing our bodies), recipes for eating healthy without having to spend an arm and a leg on prepackaged (and preservative laden) foods, soap recipes (and yes, I did finally make some soap), and new insurance providers (for everything but our life and dental insurance which are the only products that haven't raised their premiums through the roof). If things stay on track with our finances and we have no other increased or added expenses we should manage to come through this storm in just a few months, then I can concentrate more on getting our health on track (which I have spent considerable amounts of time researching).

I decided about my recent thoughts on how companies who have to do with our health really don't care about the customer, they're way more concerned with making money in the short run. They need to focus on the future and they too could even help us get out of our economic recession.

When my husband and I got married we paid very little (maybe $100? I can't remember for sure) for our health insurance and it was excellent. It included 100% of maternity costs being covered, free yearly well visits, and we only paid 20% of the trip to the doctor costs up to our deductible and insurance paid 100% after that. We also never paid more than the stated office visit copays for other visits.

Fast forward 15 years...

Starting in January we will be paying over $600 per month for our health insurance through my husband's employer who pays half of the cost of this insurance. We still get yearly well visits, but somehow our well visits are never viewed as well visits and I have to fight with the insurance company them to get them to pay. Any trips I make to the doctor almost always comes completely out of my pocket. I have never actually gotten to the point of paying our deductible and then having them pay 80% because we rarely ever go to the doctor.

Besides the monthly insurance cost, I am also paying $78 per month to one clinic and $40 to another for past visits , labs, mammograms (plus 10% interest because I can't afford to pay the bill in full) that my insurance didn't feel the need to pay. Add to that our monthly prescriptions and we are well over $800 per month just paying for our health. That's crazy!!!! Who has any money left for food once we pay for that AND our mortgage? If we could just reduce those expenses for each and every American family by $200 per household, we would all have a whole lot more money to spend on other goods and services.

Any rational human being can see that by having a family pay less money for health care costs, the family could afford to buy healthier foods and health club memberships with the money they are saving. This would reduce the overall medical cost to the health insurance company giving them greater profits within several years.

If people are healthier it would also reduce the number of visits needed to doctor offices giving the doctors more time to concentrate on helping their patients to get healthy and reducing the numbers of malpractice claims. The doctor wouldn't have so many people to take care of that they don't spend the time to get all of the information they should have had. This would give the doctors more money because they wouldn't have to spend so much of their money on malpractice insurance. It would also save the clinics money because they wouldn't be so over run with patients that they need 4 receptionists to check patients in and verify their insurance plans.

Prepackaged foods are very inexpensive, but they are also not very good for us. They have few nutrients in them and lots of added chemicals and preservatives. Spending all of our money on paying drug companies, insurance companies, and clinic and doctor bills leaves us with less money for taking care of ourselves. This actually makes us LESS healthy because we are forced to buy more inexpensively produced foods in order to have enough food and skipping the health club memberships because it's not something we really "HAVE" to have. These foods add to our inability to loose weight, our feelings of tiredness, and lack of motivation to exercise compounding the problems that we already have.

I don't think people in the health care system should be large for profit companies. If everyone could stop being greedy for just a moment and just use the brains that God gave us, they could actually spend some time and energy to help people live healthier lives we would be a healthier, wealthier, and happier country.

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Cindy

Stepping Slowly Toward Self Sufficiency

When we moved here almost four years ago I had no hopes or aspirations of trying to produce anything of my own except beautiful plants and flowers to landscape my yard with. It sure is funny how time can change our attitudes.

I am used to being a city girl, I've lived in town my whole life. I never dreamed or imagined how so many things that we use are made, they just came to our house from the grocery store shelf. Well, obviously we all know that's not true. It seemed like such hard work and really we should leave cheesemaking to the experts, right?

As I've lived in the country new insights have come to me through many avenues including nature, new friendships, and checking out books from the local library. Our health has continued on a gradual decline and I have begun to search for alternatives that do not include taking pills for the rest of our lives.

It occurred to me as I was reading one of the many diet books from my own personal library that many people are declining in health, and it's not just the unhealthy people either. What's the cause? I am no scientist, nor have I done any experiments to confirm my theory, but the more I think about it the more I feel that chemicals in our every day products are part of the blame.

What better way to begin thinking about self sufficiency? It's not a program that a bunch of hippies are attempting to implement going back to the 1800's, but it's a way to provide some things for ourselves and to know what's in the products that we consume.

When we moved here we found that we had an abundance of wild blackberries, blueberries, and strawberries growing in the fringes of the woods surrounding our house. It was a nice bonus since my children tend to prefer sweeter fruits to the healthier vegetables. We have since added plenty more plants to help provide us with inexpensive, chemical free food. (To see a list please check out my side bar.) Last year I decided to take it a step further and planted a veggie garden. After much research, I combined a bunch of different organically based garden styles into one with which I had tremendous success. It was so successful that I added two more beds which I just finished filling with dirt this spring. Unfortunately it doesn't appear that this dirt was as rich as the last batch that I used, but I will continue to enrich it and hope for more future successes.

My nine year old daughter has begun to "bud" as well. This perplexes me since no one in our family was early to develop that I can recall. I was talking with a bunch of mothers on one of my many recent field trips about this fact. We came to the conclusion that it's probably due to the growth hormones given to animals whose meat and milk we consume. These same animals are also fed lots of antibiotics which we feel is contributing to the antibiotic resistance that we hear so much about these days. These conversations got me wanting to raise my own meat and milk products as well. I know that this can't happen anytime soon since we can not have livestock in our development, but once we move I think I may just have to look into the possibilities.

While I will never produce my own beer (I hate the stuff and don't feel that it's worth the effort), I can see myself doing many other things on our little homestead. What's even better about this approach to living is the fact that we can all do little things that fit into the lives we want to lead and we don't have to wait for any government's slow wheels to bring a change about.

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!Cindy

Mulching Does Wonders

We got a bunch of yummy wild blackberries last year, but they were rather small. They made an extremely tasty jam too! This year I decided to mulch a few of them and see what happened.

Look at the difference...

This was one of the two bushes I mulched. It was absolutely bursting with robust, juicy berries.

This was not mulched. Many of the berries dried out. Those that didn't were small and not nearly as satisfying to eat on a hot summer day.

I think I'll be mulching more plants next year. Hopefully I'll get some paths cut and have a nice berry area in my yard.

Now, to make some more blackberry jam. It's SO easy! Also WAY less expensive than buying jars of jam at the store. My recipe is a freezer jam so it doesn't need to be pressure canned OR cooked. My kids like to help me pick the berries, we have even taken their grandma and their dad picking with us. They could probably make the recipe too if I could trust them not to eat all of the berries on me...

Pick your berries. You'll need about 3 cups of crushed berries for this recipe. I like to be lazy and crush my berries in the blender. It does a bit more than just crush them but it turns out great.

Once the berries are crushed, add sure gel of your choice and sugar. I used Sweet and Low to help with my son's prediabetic condition. The recipe calls for 5 cups of sugar I think, but I used the equivalent of about 3 cups. My jam is plenty sweet. I think you should make it as sweet as you prefer. You can taste it before it gels, it'll just be syrupy and may drip on your shirt. (Don't even ASK how I know!)

Mix together throughly. Pour jam into jars leaving about 1/4 inch space at the top. Let set up for up to 24 hours at room temperature until thickened. Store in refrigerator for up to three weeks or freeze. (Make sure jars you use are freezer safe.) Enjoy!

That will keep us in jam for a while...

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

A Healthier Blueberry Muffin

My son has been dying for some blueberry muffins. Wanting to feed him what he wants but still trying to help him with his diet and health issues I changed the usual recipe to lower the glycemic index. I thought they were good. If you don't like the wheat flavor (son didn't like it) maybe exchange it for oats in place of the wheat flour. I think I will try that next time.

Here's the recipe

1 cup milk (I added a little extra because wheat flour soaks up moisture)
1/4 cup oil (I used 1/2 cup applesauce instead)
1/2 tsp lemon extract
1 egg
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour (I sifted it to add some air so they wouldn't be so dense)
1/3 cup splenda (to get some browning effect that normal sugar helps with, I added a few drops of liquid stevia extract to the batter)
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
a sprinkling each of ground flax seed and wheat germ
1 cup fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Grease bottoms of 12 cup muffin tin.
Divide batter among cups.
Bake about 25 minutes until golden brown.
Remove from pan immediately.


Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

Stamp Out Hunger

I just remembered that tomorrow is Stamp Out Hunger Day. You may have forgotten too, so here's your reminder! It's a rather new phenomenon that our wonderful US postal carriers participate in one day per year. You may want to check to see if your local post office participates.

If you don't know what it is, I'd be happy to tell you about it.

We can leave a bag of non-perishable food items by our mailbox before our usual delivery occurs tomorrow morning. I like plastic to use bags for this purpose because it helps to protect the contents inside from the elements.

When the mail is delivered, your postal carrier will pick up the bag(s) of food and the post office will bring the bags of food to your local food shelf.

It's a great way to help keep the food shelves supplied because many people seem to forget about sending food or money to the food shelves when there isn't a big local food drive of some sort going on. I have heard that the utilization of food shelves is far higher now than it has been in past years. I am sure that this economic downturn is a major cause of this need.

I will donate some of our pantry staples tomorrow since we will soon have an abundance of fruits and vegetables to feed my kids from our wonderful new veggie garden. I don't plan on feeding my family much prepackaged food soon anyway if I can talk Cheesehead into following this whole Maker's Diet that I've been reading about. God will provide us with what we need just as he does the chipmunks, rabbits, birds, bears, deer, and squirrels.

It's amazing how many people forget that simple things like soap, ketchup, noodles, bbq sauce, and baked beans don't need to come from cans, boxes, or jars. I used to be one of those people. I'm glad I'm not anymore. Here's hoping that I find enough time to take care of my family, myself, AND my plants throughout this season as well as trying to make healthier versions of commercial products for my family. I'm going to have my hands full, aren't I?

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

All I Want for Christmas

All of this talk about Santa stories, kindness from strangers, and thinking about son questioning the exsistance of the tooth fairy has really got my mind racing.

OFB from Poor Richard's Alamac wrote a letter to Santa on their blog. I thought that would be a wonderful idea and I decided Santa could come and read it on my blog just as easily as he could open an envelope.

Dear Santa,

Thank you so much for the kind gifts you have given to my family in the past. I know that in these tough economic times our Christmas may not end up as robust as it has in the past, but I do hope to give my children the best Christmas possible. If that means I don't get gifts, so be it. It is gift enough to see their eyes light up on Christmas morning, hearing their giddy squeals, and helping them excitedly ripping open their new packages for us to play with together. Please help me to get enough work so we can get our bills paid off as quickly as possble. If there is some money left in the budget I would greatly appreciate a food dehydrator and a pressure canner to preserve my future garden foods with and maybe a camera that I can see images of pictures I am taking on the screen.

I know that my kids would love a Wii system. I know that they are hard to come by, but they like to play video games so much I really think having a system which requires movement from the video game players might help with the much wished for weight loss. You know this is seriously needed by 3/4 of our family, what great motivation a video game system could be to aid us in getting in shape.

Cheesehead has been seriously drooling over a slicer so we can buy meats and cheeses in bulk and save more money. He could also really use some new shoes, pants, and shirts since our clothing budget has been non-existant recently.

I know that you will do your best to help us. Please feel free to let me know what kind of treats you would prefer for us to set out for you on Christmas Eve by voting on the sidebar poll.

Love,
Cindy

P.S. Please take the cross ornament that Peanut made for you last year. It is 1/2 way up the tree and it clearly states "for Santa" on it.

Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

Home Made Goodness

Look what I've been working on today! Son had a sleepover with one of his football player team mates. They had a blast playing games together. Peanut was feeling a bit left out from the boy's game playing so I involved her in some cooking activities. We also made sugar free cherry jello, but I didn't take a picture of that, I forgot about it until just now.

The great thing about homemade things is you know exactly what goes in to it. No chemicals and I can control the amount of sugar my kids eat. I am trying to help my kids learn proper serving sizes of foods too, I am hoping they can avoid the road I am on with constant weight struggles. I am too late to keep this from happening to son, but Peanut will hopefully benefit from all of this effort at least. It also didn't cost much, I just had to buy a box of pectin for the blackberry jelly.



I found a recipe for blackberry jelly that only called for me to use 4 cups of the blackberries I had, so I am planning on making Cheesehead some blackberry cobbler a bit later today too. We also made apple jelly, but no one has tried it yet. Of course that meant we HAD to have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. The boys both chose the fresh blackberry jelly for their sandwiches. Peanut wanted the Smucker's brand. (She doesn't like to try anything new, but I'm sure she'll come around in time.) I was lucky the MIL had given me some tomatoes in freezer safe jars last year. I saved them all and now I can store the extra jelly in the freezer until we're ready for more. I'm asking for canning equipment for Christmas so I can keep them on shelves in the future, but it worked out perfect for now. Son's friend liked the jelly so much he asked if he could have a jar to take home. I said that would be fine. I feel that's a great compliment coming from a 10 year old boy, isn't it?

Son's friend can be picky with his eating habits too, so I fed them foods I thought the kids would all eat. Homemade applesauce was one of the things I served. Son's friend said it was even better than the stuff that comes in the jars at the store. (He wanted a jar of this too, but the kids had just eaten the last of it.) I'm going to have to buy more apples too, son wants to have homemade apple sauce as his birthday treat for school at the end of this week. Instead of canning my homemade applesauce, I usually put it in individual containers in the fridge. That way it's already portioned out and it's easy to grab some to put in the kids' lunch pails.




Peanut likes to help me decorate baked goods. I had her choose the color she wanted to make the vanilla frosting. She chose yellow because it's both of her grandma's favorite color. Too bad they live too far away so I can't give them each one. She stirred in the food coloring diligently until it was evenly distributed through all of the frosting. I wish it had occured to me to have her get out the Betty Crocker Cake Decorating Kit that we got her for her last birthday. Another thing I just thought of!



We have an abundance of sprinkles in our cupboard. I like to stock up on things that are on the clearance racks at the end of whatever season, that's how I got all of these. We had some great fall sprinkles in our stash. What fun. We shouldn't run out of treats for a while now, should we?

Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

Chicken Soup for the Football Player

Another crazy busy day is drawing to a close. We had quite a hectic morning around here. I made son put his own pads into hisfootball game pants again today, I had to listen to plenty of complaints about the twisted belt while I worked in the kitchen, but he's a smart boy and got it all figured out eventually.

I had to scour the fridge for some food for Cheesehead to bring to eat at work today. Many people buy lunches when they go to work, but we really can't afford that luxury at this point so I NEEDED to find something he would eat. I hope I am able to scrounge up some more, I have $5 in our grocery budget until next paycheck. It sure would be nice if Mom would send more than just enough to cover the utilities and insurance for the MN house when she sends us her rent this month. The last couple of months that's what she's done so our food supply is rapidly dwindling. I hate to say anything to her about it though since my recently divorced sister is expecting her 5th child any day. Sister is unable to work right now and for probably a couple of months after and she has not been at her job long enough to get paid disability time. She is also battling her first ex-husband for custody of her two oldest children. I hate to worry anyone with my itty bitty problems. I know God will help us muddle through somehow. I just wish we could get that house sold so I don't have to have the foreclosures finalized. My first mortgage is in the process of forclosing and my second has turned me over to a collection agency because I haven't been able to afford to pay them either. I really wish the bank hadn't forced me to take that second out on that house, I wouldn't have to worry quite a much. We are very nervous that they are going to try to get a judgement against us even though we've done everything we possibly can to get our home sold. I'd appreciate if if people out there could say some prayers for us to get our family through this bumpy time.

Once Cheesehead's lunch pail was securely packed with enough food for two meals, I started to try to figure out what the kids and I would be eating today. I found three pieces of chicken in the fridge. I could have just had us eat them for one meal with ech of us getting one piece, but since money is tight and we are trying to eat healthier anyway, I managed to stretch it into two meals. Both of which the kids complained about. Go figure!

Lunch was chicken salad sandwiches sans veggies I put in last time. Son didn't complain too hard and managed to choke the sandwich down this time, but Peanut refused to even touch her sandwich no matter what I did. SIGH.

I knew we had some errands to run in town and we'd be getting home around dinner time, so I made dinner in the slowcooker before we left for the game too. I made some chicken soup so we could just serve it up and eat right when we got home. While neither of the kids seemed to care much for it, I helped myself to two generous portions of it. There are plenty of leftovers too, looks like I've got my lunch for every day next week already made! I'll have chicken soup coming out my ears by week's end.



My chicken soup recipe was quite simple actually. I used the meat from the two chicken breasts which I diced, 3 chopped stalks of celery (including the tops that just a few months ago I used to discard), 1/2 an onion chopped, uncooked rice in an unknown quantity, a can of sliced carrots, leftover green beans, garlic salt, chicken broth, and seasoned salt. I added plenty of water, set the pot on low and it cooked while we were gone. The house smelled wonderful when we returned.



Today was also picture day. We were the second people from the Gators team to get there today. I made a point of being extra early today so I couldn't be belittled and made to feel small anymore. I am thankful that son was able to get his individual picture taken before the game since I figured he'd be filthy after the game. Luckily he has such short hair that the sweat under his helmet didn't affect his hari style in the least.

I saw the coach that looked me up at practice shaking son's hand. When I asked son about it later son reported that the coach told him that he was glad we got there on time. I asked son if he mentioned the lateness from last time had nothing really to do with us, but he's too nice to say anything either.

You'll notice that OUR scoreboard is off in the above picture. Hmm, I guess the electricity to run it costs too much or something. Oh well!



Peanut made several friends in the three hours we hung around the football stadium. Somehow she managed to get dirtier than my son who was out on the field did.



It was another good game. While the ending score ended up being close to the last game's score, this team put up a better defense. We were able to switch the lines without having to scramble to make special arrangements this time. The ending score was 22-0 this time earned throughout the whole game this time. I think having a team big enough to form two completely seperate lines helps our players stay rested, fresh, and on top of their game.

I thought this picture was funny. If you look on the far right side of the screen you'll see a player with both hands raised above his shoulders in a kind of "I don't know" gesture and a small boy wrapped around his legs. That's son. When I asked him about the picture he said he didn't want to get a penalty called on him for touching the kids so he made sure everyone could see he wasn't. He's a big time rule follwer and knows all of the professional football player rules. He gets a bit upset at times when penalties don't get called on some of the kids who break the rules.

Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

THE Best Chili I Ever Made

As you may know, I am trying to help my family eat healthier. I finely chopped many vegetables and added them to the meat mixture. I didn't tell them what I put in it until they all finished their meals. They were raving about it too. There was so much deep, robust flavor I just HAD to come and share it with you.



I browned about a pound and a half of hamburger in a non-stick skillet, w/o any oil. I'm sure ground turkey would have been a healthier option, but I'm trying to ease into the flavor changes gradually. Maybe next time?

The meat cooked in it's natural fats. Once some of the fat had cooked out of the meat, I added (all finely chopped in my Pampered Chef Food Chopper prior to adding to the meat)1/2 of a white onion, 1/2 of a green pepper, 2 of MIL's small jars of canned tomatoes, 3 radishes, and 5 stalks of celery.

Cook until vegetables are tender. Then I drained the fat (which I'm saving for a future soap making project) and added it to the crock pot. I also added 1 can dark red kidney beans, 1 can chili beans, 2 cans tomato sauce, and 2 cans of tomatoes.

Cook on high for 3-5 hours covered. Stir occassionally. Serve and enjoy.

Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

Would you Join us for Lunch?

I tried to sneak some extra veggies into son's lunch today. He didn't seem to mind the spinach I had in our salad the other day. What did I do?

I cut up two grilled chicken breasts. I put 2 pickles, 2 radishes, and a stalk of celery into my food chopper and finely chopped them. I then added some light mayonaise and served the chicken salad on a bed of spinach on whole wheat bread. I thought it sounded good.

He likes the fruit I served, so I just thinly sliced them and placed them on the plate next to the sandwich. To drink was a glass of mandarin orange flavored water. I thought it was really good.

I even used a small plate to trick the mind into thinking it had a full plate of food.



Apparently he didn't like it though, he didn't even eat a bite of the sandwich. Grrr. Better luck next time, I hope. I have quite a bit left over too. I dread the thought of attempting to feed this to Peanut when she returns from Grandma's house. Did I make a bad combination?

Hopefully I'll have better luck with dinner. I am going to bake some boneless, skinless chicken breasts along with some carrots. I'll also serve a nice big salad with it along with light salad dressing. Does that sound like a bad idea?

Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy