Update: Big Chicken Roll Up

With a few modifications, this will appear on the menu again.  Thorpes are finicky eaters so I made a few changes to the original recipe that I posted.

First I began with homemade pizza dough.  For real.  Making dough was much easier than I originally thought AND cheaper cause the ingredients were in the pantry.

The kitchen aid did all the work…I used a basic pizza dough recipe: 

3 cups flour

1 cup water
2 tbls olive oil
1tsp dry yeast
1tsp salt
(Additional seasonings…Italian or parm cheese)
Cover dough and let rise for about 20-30 minutes...longer if you have the time.

I mixed up my homemade cream of soup mix (very oniony, but worked in chicken mixture) added the chopped chicken and broccoli.

 Next up, spread over the dough...watch the ends, since you will roll it jelly roll style.

 

Forgot to bake on my stone bar pan. Sad face.  Will do next time.  Then I rolled it all up.

 

 Rolled up on greased, actually sprayed, pan.

 

And, the finished product.  All three girls plus Scott said it was very good.  I think the dough could have used some additional flavoring.  I may add a tablespoon of melted butter to the next one.  Of course the girls said more cheese, but I was trying to conserve some WW points.

Maddie said the dough would be great to roll a pizza up in and we may try that the next go round!  Enjoy and modify to what will work for your family.

 

Health Update...New Meds coming soon

New Meds

I was diagnosed a little over two years ago with rheumatoid autoimmune disease.  (It ain’t arthritis people.  I only wish.) My first line of treatment was lots of Aleve and prednisone.  And wallah!! Gained 20 pounds.  My doctor finally put me on methotrexate (MTX) and it was absolutely horrible.  I started at a pretty high dose and my system just couldn’t tolerate it.

I made rounds to several doctors seeking to “relieve” the side effects but to no avail.  MTX just didn’t work for me.  Frustrated with the two doctors who wouldn’t communicate I stopped all treatment except for some ibuprofen.  My thoughts were dang.  I’m either frying my liver or frying my stomach.  Give me fried stomach and a G tube.

Alas, that was a bad decision.  During the 8 months that I self-medicated and self-treated, I back pedaled. HARD.  My right wrist is permanently knitted together and my knees, especially the left one are shot out.  Plus my hips drive me bonkers.  So if you are new to RAD, TAKE YOUR MEDS.

I didn’t realize just how quickly the disease could degenerate my joints.  Add the Sjogren’s syndrome attacking my moisture glands and it has become a big whopping barrel of crappiness.  In November, (maybe after a recommendation from the family orthopedic which I’m sure came from insistence from my mother), I sought out a different Doctor.  He is very young.  But cute so that helps.

He recommended changing meds and suggested I tried Arava.  It had lessened side effects when compared to the MTX (no nausea, less headache, pill and not injection).  However, I continued to have the same female related side effect. 

I have been off treatment for about 7 weeks and am beginning to really feel the stiffness in my joints.  So thankful for my electric blanket collection and assorted heating pads, without them, I wouldn’t have made it through this cold weather.

Due to the rapid decline in joints, especially this left knee, he recommended a try a biologic.  This is what I requested from the first doctor, aggressive treatment.  Finally.   I am also fortunate that I can get help from the pharmaceutical company.  

My meds should arrive tomorrow.  I will be taking Cimzia by injections and I will rely on my mother to help me with those.  Right hand no bendy, therefore no self injections for me.

I have been online today reading the Cimzia literature and trying to figure out whether to expect side effects.  Previously injection day was Saturday evening so I could take my chemo cocktail and sleep most of the nausea off.  Praying this goes easier and my disease progression will lessen.  Maybe even stop.

I truly want a treatment that works so my family can figure out our “new” normal and get on with getting on.  So stay tuned…I’ll update on the new meds next week.

Menu Planning for March

Off and Running...

I’m off to a good start for this week’s goals.  I can already see the dining room table and I have about 3 weeks of menus to work from.  We will have an occasional leftover night and freeze individual meals for Scott.  Definitely helps in getting the most out of our grocery dollars.

I hope to try at least one new crock pot and one new main course dish each month.  Of course, modifying recipes to fit my finicky eaters can be a real pain.  M eats everything, C eats like a bird unless it’s junk and AB eats country.  Try pleasing all those palates at one time. 

So tomorrow night we are going to try a big chicken roll up.  I found the recipe on pinterest but will need to make some drastic modifications for my crown.

Ingredients
Pizza dough (can use store bought or make your own)
Two cups of diced chicken breast/tenders
Cream of soup mix (one making)
Ranch dressing to taste
Broccoli florets
Cheese (however cheesy your crew likes it)

Preheat oven at 400.  Roll out pizza dough into a triangle.  Mix together soup, ranch seasoning and add diced chicken and cheese.  Spread evenly across dough.  Remember: you are going to roll this up.  Sprinkle with some broccoli florets aka shrubbery.  I am going to nuke my broccoli for about 1 minute to soften.  Roll up like a jelly roll.  Pinch or tuck ends if you can.  Bake on greased cookie sheet or stone for 20 minutes.  Remove from oven and sprinkle a little cheese on top.

I plan to bake on my Pampered Chef bar pan stone and use parchment paper.  My oven cooks hot so I will watch carefully at 20 minutes to see if it needs to bake longer.

I am hoping this goes over well with the hoodlums and doesn’t point me out with Weight Watchers. I will post some pictures and update after dinner tomorrow.

Until then, I need to find one more crock pot recipe.  I am open to ideas or suggestions.  We seem to eat the same old same old. I really would like to add more variety in our meals especially vegetables and fruits.

Breaking News: The Kitchen is Mopped

Oh yeah, I mopped. I mopped. I mopped. Rap that people!!

Dancing in kitchen (in my head) Woot Woot!!  I am proud of me. Just in time for afternoon coffee break!

It's All a Bad Dream

House Cleaning Update

I have never been that great of a housekeeper, even before I was diagnosed with RAD.  Add some stiff joints, a non-bending right wrist, bummed left knee and general overall sorenes and keeping a slightly clean house becomes a nightmare.

When I first contracted RAD, I honestly thought I’d get a little chemo, take some magic pill and poof! Back to new.  Well, it hasn’t quite worked like that.  Rheumatoid Autoimmune Disease is a nightmare.  You know, that one you have over and over again.  Every. Single. Night.

Plus I have done exactly what my doctor told me not to do.  “Over do” it this week.  He said take it slow and build up your daily activities level.  Umm huh. He obviously doesn’t know how long I’ve neglected my house. 

My right wrist is killing me this morning and as soon as this post is up, I plan to wrap it in a heating pad for about 15-20 minutes.  I know when the pain gets to the “gnaw it off” stage I’ve gone a tick too far.  I was a bit overly optimistic on how much I could get done.  Sad face. Sigh.

Rheumie problem: I have sooo much left to do.  I am absolutely determined to mop the kitchen today.  Hoping that after heat therapy, I can get back on my list.  And I had planned to do some sweeping in the dining room and family room.  I literally could sweep this house daily.  An entire house of hardwood floors are not for us #rheumies. (Great twitter hash…have learned a lot this way.)

While doing all this cleaning I've realized that I need to work on  “re-learning” how to do some tasks with my left hand dominate, like mopping, sweeping and general wiping up around the kitchen.  I would also like to learn to use a knife with my left hand.  That could be interesting.  Hmmm…Might want to notify the ER on that one.

Also on the list, doing a little research on adaptive aids for plain old daily living.  I’ve figured out the teeth brushing with the left hand, but there are other activities like getting dressed, buttons, etc. that occasionally can be a problem.  And believe me, you want me dressed.  Every day.

So while I ponder adapting to being a leftie, it’s off to wrap this wrist and a rest break.  I’m even going to read a book recently given to me by a great lady, Mrs. Grace.  Maybe I'll take a 30 minute break.  Sounds great to me!

Update on Brownie Mix

My largest mixing bowl, and it is a big one, would not hold the 8 cups. So I had to do some math, and some algebra.  Yuck.  But I figured it out.  Plus I only had self rising flour.  So I left out the baking powder and the salt. 

After the above mathematics, I mixed together ingredients, reducing the recipe by 3/4.  I also substituted 2 cups of stevia for 2 cups of sugar.  This added to the cost, but it was my personal preference. I also added per the request of C about 1/2 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips.

The batter tasted very sweet.  I mixed up per the 1/2 cup of oil, 1/3 cup water but used two eggs because they were small.  I also baked in a 8X10ish glass pan for about 18 minutes at 350.  Since my oven gets a overheated at times, I might have left them in a few minutes too long so watch closely. 

M and I both agreed a tiny bit dry.  So either I will reduce cooking time or add more moisture/oil.  Cost per batch all sugar mix $1.13. Cost per batch with stevia $1.30.  So, cheaper than the $1.25 per mix at the Wally World and a whole lot healthier.

This is a very sweet and chocolaty brownie.  To reduce per batch cost, the cocoa can be bought in bulk from Sam's and the sugar could probably be reduced.

Click on picture to take you to post with Brownie mix recipe.




 

Homemade and fresh from the oven...

Here we go Again!!

Mama is BACK!!
After taking a day to be pseudo lazy and rest, I am trying to get back in the groove of being at home again.  I stayed home from the time Maddie was 9 months old until we moved back down to Camilla.  And it is an adjustment.  Notice I didn’t say that I was not working during that time.  I did work, several part time jobs and stayed at home during the day with the M, C and the teenage son.
We somehow made it work back then and I figure we should be able to muddle through it again.  So here’s to motherhood, laundry, dishes and taxi driving, once again. (Raising coffee cup!!)

Project for the day...

I am making homemade brownie mix.  This is my effort to save some bucks AND to make sure that I can control the level of preservatives in my darling daughter’s foods, especially snacks.  I have been looking at a lot of the mix recipes on Pinterest and realized that I have the majority of the ingredients in my pantry…duh…no need to keep giving my money to Wal-Mart.

Brownie Mix

8 cups sugar (may reduce or use half splenda)
8 cups flour
4 cups cocoa
1 ½ cup milk powder
6 tsp. baking powder
1 ½ tsp. salt

Mix together and store in airtight container or your freezer

 To Bake:

2 ½ cup mix
½ cup oil
1/3 cup water
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg

For cake like brownies add 2 eggs

Will let you know how this comes out.  Mixing up today and hoping to bake a batch this afternoon for the trio of darling daughters.

This Week’s Projects…

1.       Mop the kitchen…and laundry room.  Missed it today so hoping tomorrow.
2.       See Kitchen counters…working on it a bit everyday
3.       Make Brownie Mix
4.       Make Soup Mix
5.       Make homemade clothes washing detergent

Next Week’s Projects

1.       Continue the kitchen and laundry cleaning and sorting
2.       Clean and find the other half of dining room table
3.       Steam mop dining room floors
4.       Make taco seasoning mix
5.       Menu planning….must start again!

RAD update…
I had some issues with the Arava and had to quit taking it.  I have applied to start a biologic in the next few weeks. Now, we are just trying to get all the paperwork done.  Left knee is totally shot, which is the reason for attempting to lose some lard.  Preserving mobility and quality of life has become a BIG priority in my life.

Last batch of blood work was ok.  I am still having some Vitamin D issues and iron issues.  I had hoped a better diet would help.  Guess I need to work harder on that one!

The Doc said not to go completely crazy and attempt to clean my entire house and yard in one week.  Like that ain’t happening.  I’d be ecstatic if the house was back to pseudo normal in a month! And not try to run a marathon either.  Hold off on those Zumba plans until I’ve walked a few weeks.   Basically, to take exercise slowly.  These days I do everything slowly!!