Don’t buy that stuff in a Jar

Home Made Salsa

A cruising of my overflowing slightly dysfunctional pantry revealed an absence of a jar of salsa. Salsa – a condiment – one that the Thorpe children, all three of them, eat a lot of.  So on the grocery list it goes. 

Once at the store and after reading all the ingredients (Just what is monosulphates?)  I determined I can make this stuff myself and probably just as economical as buying a big jug of it at sams.  Of course, I turned to pinterest where I found literally dozens of recipes for homemade salsa.

Some used canned tomatoes, some fresh and some fresh and roasted.  Now I’m all about trying to eat healthy and fresher foods.  But I’m going to draw the line at roasting.  Also, tomatoes aren’t in season and are too expensive at the grocery store to use fresh.  That narrowed it down to using canned tomatoes for this experiment.

I also had to do some climbing for this one.  My big food processor is in the pantry on the top shelf.  You know, out of the way.  Of course Scott put it up there.  So if this gets posted before noon today, it means that I didn’t fall and break anything getting that monster down.

Good news:  I didn’t fall and managed to pull it down by the cord AND it didn’t land on my head.  Then I gave it a bath, completely submerging it in hot soapy water.  I worked with a couple of germaphobes way too long. Now hoping I don’t get electrocuted.

I found several basic recip1es and combined them to the following:

2 cans of diced tomatoes with chilies
½ small onion
1 glove of garlic peeled and smashed OR
1 tsp. of garlic powder OR
1 tsp. of minced garlic (my choice but not all 3, unless you have vampires in the family)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cumin
Pinch or sugar or tsp. of honey ( I’m using honey)
Small bunch of cilantro
Squeeze juice of 1/2 of lime

Combine in food processor or blender and process until smooth.  Give it a taste and adjust seasoning.  I liked this recipe because it didn’t have a lot of salt.  So definitely adjust to your taste.  I also did not add any additional jalapeno peppers.  If you like it hot, go ahead and add some peppers too!

Once you get it flavored up, place in a jar/container and refrigerate.  I imagine this will really get “gooder” as it sits.

 

 

          “Gooder” – and HC2 term that is a word, at least at our house.

Enjoy with your favorite chips.  Now I need to find a hiding place in the fridge or else I’ll be making another batch before next week!

***UPDATE***

Do not use your food processor.  It made a big old mess.  Transferred to the blender and it literally took 30 seconds.  It is amazing salsa.  If I can learn how to fry chips we may never eat at another Mexican restaurant again!!

Camping with Kids: Part II

Thorpe Style Camping 101

There are two kinds of people.  Camping people and motel people.  And you know which one you are. 

Then there are two kinds of campers…tent campers and well, those of us who don’t tent camp.  When Mama retired, she bought the Cougar, a 5^th wheel camper, to have to spend time with the girls.  So far, we have taken it to the beach, the lake and the race track.

One of our favorite camp grounds around here is Cottonhill over near Fort Gaines.  The girls have made friends over there and we normally see some of the local “camping people”.  Wink wink, we know who we are!

CottonHill sunset

                                                     
We take the bikes, the boat, the tube, lots of chairs and an shade tent.  It use to take Forevah to get set up.  Now, Scott backs up the camper while I line him up to the hook ups.  Maddie helps him level while I start taking out all the stuff and getting set up outside.
Green carpet. Check. Table for cooking supplies. Check. Big Cooler. Check. And on it goes.  The other two girls help with the unloading and tablecloths.  Within about 30 to 45 minutes we are chilling at the lake. 

We’ve been camping since before HC3 was born.  So we’ve had toddlers, infants and now…teens.  Sooo, if you are camping with kids and preteens, What do you take? And how much?

 

I try to plan a menu and we actually do some light cooking.  But it really helps to pre-cook or in my case overcook to prepare for meals.  I have an electric skillet, a griddle, an electric burner, a small toaster, a coffee pot and a Coleman camping grill.  This means we have a pretty large extension cord and a plug strip.  **Note:  Plug your extension cord directly into the electric hookup.  Learned this one the hard way…kept blowing the breaker when using the plug on the outside of the camper.

Meals for Camping week:

1.     Taco’s:  You can’t mess this up.  Brown and season your ground meat of choice.  All the other fixings are easy.  This go round we are trying the Doritos taco bags.  Check out pinterest, but basically open a bag of Fritos or Doritos add meat, lettuce, sour cream, cheese and a fork.  Portable and easy to eat outside.  Awesome

2.     Spaghetti:  Make a wash pot full prior to your camping trip.  Freeze in a big ice cream bucket.  Reheat in your electric skillet.  Add a prepackaged salad and voila!  Easy dinner the kids will eat.  And who cares if they make a mess?  They eat outside and can wash off in the lake!

3.     Hot dogs/Hamburgers…you got to grill at least once.  And by far this is a favorite.  To make the trip easier go ahead and pat out those burgers and freeze between wax paper.  Makes it much easier to use the amount you need.  You will be amazed at how many friends you accumulate when you camp and cook!

Fun note: Take some wire hangers or buy the nice camping forks from Wally world.  Let the kids cook those hot dogs over the fire.

 

4.     Boston Butt:  Crock pot it once you get there or cook ahead.  I like to cook ahead, have for one meal then freeze for the camping trip.  Add buns and some cut up veggies.  Great lunch for hungry swimmers!

 

5.     Big Breakfast Sunday:  This means I’m cooking.  Grits in a pot on the electric burner.  Bacon in the electric skillet, pancakes on the griddle.  To keep things hot, we use a tortillas warmer.  They sell them at wal-mart and you’ll want more than one.  Breakfast is an easy meal to make self-service Holiday Inn style.  Big kids and cook their own pancakes or waffles and an adult can help the little ones.

6.     Tin Foil:  You can cook about anything in tinfoil over your campfire.  So take a big roll of heavy duty!

Other items to take are homemade baked muffins for breakfast, lots of pre cut vegetables for self serve snacks, fruit, homemade cookies or brownies for after tubing.

Now for the fun stuff with little kids:

 1.      Bicycles are instant fun, even their trikes…just don’t forget helmets. Like the Thorpe kids will have their helmets on, right.

2.      Bubbles, sidewalk chalk and other cheapo entertainment type toys. We have a toy box, an old paper box, with sand toys, wiffle ball sets, etc.

3.      For rest or down time, a few coloring books and crayons.

4.      Try to camp near the playground.

5.      Life vest. Life vest. Life vest. If you are doing water sports make sure you have vests specific for children and their weight.           

 

As you and your family camp, you will figure out what works for y’all.  You might be the all fend for yourself and eat a sandwich type.  Or maybe your family prefers the back to nature hike and eat granola.  Or maybe you become the campground gourmet that smells up the campground and ticks off all of us who aren’t!!

Either way, get a tent or starter camper and hit the road.  I can’t believe we have been camping for 10 plus years.  We have great memories and have had some wonderful times with our girls.  Now get out there, get your gear or camper ready.  It is spring break and time to hit the lake or beach with your family.

Camping with Kids

Part I:  Our Family Camping History

My family didn’t camp when I was a kid.  No tent camping, no camper.  Just weekends at the lake in the trailer.  The same lake.  The same trailer.

I’ve wanted a camper or RV for as long as I can remember.  But it was when I was racing that the RV/camper bug bit really hard.  My first racing job was an internship with Racing for Kids magazine.  My boss and I spent the night at Daytona in her parents Fleetwood Bounder.  It was great.  Grilling out and hanging with the other race fans.

The DH and I met racing which means we both got a little gypsy in us.  We’ve both had the same goal of a motor home, retiring and riding all over this country. When the girls (HC1 &HC2) were little, we went to numerous RV shows and dealerships.  One of my fondest memories is watching “me can do it” HC2 crawling her cute little diapered behind up the steps of a Fleetwood Bounder at a Marietta, GA show room. 

Shortly after, we purchased our first motor home, a 30 foot Allegro.  We had previously borrowed it from a favorite neighbor Mr. Carl aka Santa (ask Scott about Santa and Mimi’s fruitcake!)  Carl had purchased the RV to drag his Harley around with and wound up not using it much.  So of course next thing I know, the Allegro had moved driveways.

Scott went back to racing part time following the ARCA series. We helped Mark Gibson during the 2003 season and the home motor (per HC1) was great.  Scott would get off of work at the body shop and I’d have the old girl loaded up and ready to roll.

We would leave out for Kentucky, Nashville or Salem Indiana and a few spots in between.  We’d drop the dinette, put a bed rail up and dose the girls up with a little Benadryl and down the road we went.  Bungee cords might have been involved as a safety precaution.

Often times, we would follow AP and Mark in the big truck.  On one such occasion, Scott decided I needed to learn to drive.  So over Mount Eagle I went and we all lived to tell about it.  Of course, my favorite “teach Rebecca to drive” moment occurred on our way to Kentucky.  We had us a convoy headed through Louisville KY.  Three little girls were bouncing on the rear bed and the motor home was just a swaying.  It was rush hour traffic.  I had a semi on my right and a concrete wall on my left.

Poor Scott was drawn up in the nagivator seat like a sour prune.  AP was on the CB harassing me and at least two more vehicles of teammates were attempting to follow and not wreck from the CB chatter.  I had a grip on that steering wheel so tight, I thought I'd bent it.

By far, our best ARCA racing home motor story involves the departed Bobby Hamilton, former truck series champion.  I drove the home motor and Scott drove the race car transporter.  We had loaded an assortment of bicycles in the car hauler plus had tons of gear in the motor home.

We pulled into Kentucky Speedway’s Competitor RV lot.  Scott had HC1 & 2 in the truck and I had HC3 who was an infant and Gracie the dog.  I picked our usual spot and backed her on in.  We had a couple of crew guys with campers and normally all camped in a row.  As I waited for Scott to get parked, a beautiful maroon Prevost pulled in an parked a few spots down from my left.  Bobby Hamilton soon got out and was talking with some more folks setting up camp sites.

Scott and the girls drove up and we started unloading: dog, wagon, stroller, three kids.  It looked like the little allegro had threw up the Clampetts.  Next thing we know, Bobby fired up the prevost, pulled in the middle of the lot and backed into a spot on the other side.

Scott and I both died laughing.  We told that story all weekend and somebody finally said something to Bobby.  He finally walked over and said it didn’t have anything to do with the kids.  He just wanted to be on the other side.  Yeah, Right Bob.  I believed you.

I guess you had to have been there.  We had a blast in that ugly little motor home.  I always had four or five kids in my RV even though it was the smallest one in the lot.

We also learned a lot in the little allegro.  What to bring, how to pack one tight and what to leave at home. I can’t wait until we finally have us a big rig, diesel pusher with an outside entertainment center, extra fridge and basement storage.  That's right...the Clampetts are gonna move on up!

Anti-Fast Food: Homemade Pizza

One of the biggest budget killers for us has always been that last minute run through the drive thru.  With three growing girls to feed, this can be very expensive.  Busy days and evenings make it hard on us moms.  Last Thursday, we had one of those days.  No left overs in the fridge and we were all tired and ill.  Yikes.

What to do?  I threw together some pizza dough (recipe from the Big Chicken roll up dough).  My kitchen aid mixer has been getting a workout here lately.  I highly recommend using your mixer and dough hook if you have one. 

 This time, I modified the recipe by adding a little more olive oil, Italian seasonings and some garlic salt.  This will make enough dough for two pizzas on my PC small round baking stone.

After giving the dough about 20 minutes to “rest” I divided it in half and rolled it out on my stone.  I baked it for about 5 minutes.  For sauce, I opened a jar of Prego that was in the pantry and used some turkey peperoni that was in the freezer.  Shredded cheese is a stable for us. (I can’t hold a block of cheese with the right hand and grate it any more.  And, I’m afraid I’ll lose a finger if I try that grater leftie.)  Bake for about 7-9 minutes or until it is as brown as you want.

 

In just a few minutes, I had a homemade pepperoni pizza in the oven.  It might not have been pizza hut, but it didn’t last long either.  As soon as it was scarfed down, I threw together another one. 

No, I didn’t sneak any veggies in this one, although I’m sure I could figure something out.  And since I had all of the ingredients in the pantry, we saved a whole lot of money.  Total Cost for two pizzas:  Maybe about $5.00.  We used ½ package of turkey pepperoni ($1.50), 1 bag of cheese ($1.66), and ½ jar of Prego ($.85). 

Grand total not including flour: $4.01. Now that is my kind of fast food!

Freeby Alert

To "celebrate" my new Facebook page, The Adaptive Mama, I am going to give away a copy of one of my most favored cookbooks, Shared Secrets from Mitchell EMC.  My Mama has many copies of the EMC cookbooks.  In fact, back in the day, these cookbooks were printed up at The Camilla Enterprise where she worked and I basically grew up.  I have made many laps around tables, putting cook books together.

Mama has numerous editions of the old red ones and even a green one. I may not get much from my folks monetarily when they pass, but I get every single one of those cookbooks.  Every now and then, being the only child pays off!!

These books have some great recipes from all over the EMC's service territory.  But what makes them really special to me, is the notes and dog ears left by my Granny and my Mama.  Plus they read like the history of this area.

So if you enjoy cooking from "scratch" or need a book with recipes plain old down home cooking, go over to the facebook page like and share.  At 200 likes, I will give away the cookbook and you just never know what else I might round up to go with it!

Frozen PB Cookie Balls…Great for Busy Moms

These little jewels were born of frustration.  The Middle child, aka HC2, short for hoodlum child #2, doesn’t eat.  All day.  What, a member of the Newton Thorpe household that doesn’t eat?  Say it ain’t so.  Ahhh, tis true.  She will go to school, not eat breakfast, break or lunch.  So when she gets home, I’m trying to find something she will eat. 

Now, don’t be calling DFCS and telling them I don’t feed my children.  We have plenty of food in the house.  Lack of appetite is a side effect of her school meds.  It is a battle we have been fighting for six years with her.

HC2 and HC3 love anything homemade and baked.  While researching future posts about freezer cooking (RAD style) I came across freezing balls of cookie dough.  Duh…that would be great since I only need to cook 10-12 per batch, once or twice a week.

After fetching the hoodies (yes, I call them that to their faces, albeit with love and affection), I went to work mixing up a batch of peanut butter cookies.  I rolled the dough into balls and baked about 20 for our test run.  They were a successful hit:  HC2 ate the majority of them.  Whew.

The rest of the dough was rolled into 1 inch balls and placed on wax paper on a metal pan and put in the freezer.  Once slightly frozen, I placed in a freezer bag.  I now have about 52 future cookies hanging out in the freezer.  I can place them on a cookie sheet to thaw, go get the Hoodies from school, and pop in the oven when we get home.  This is a quick easy snack and I controlled the ingredients.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups crunchy peanut butter
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) softened unsalted butter
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, (spooned and leveled)
1 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cream Peanut butter, sugar and butter, when mixed add the egg and dry ingredients.  Mix well.  Roll into 1 inch balls, flatten with a fork to get that bakery looking criss-cross pattern and bake on cookie sheet.  I use parchment paper, just because I like the finished cookie.  Bake for 12-14 minutes, but check them…a thinner cookie will bake quicker.

 

Cimzia Update

Warning: Medical talk…a teeny bit graphic for the needle queasy type.

My new meds came in last Thursday all packed up and surrounded by cold packs.  Having no idea what was in there, I eagerly opened the box.  Wow!  The syringes were really cute and get this, designed ergonomically for RAD patients.

Since I didn’t want to “lose” the weekend, I decided to inject Sunday evening.  And although these adorable little vials of medicine are friendly to the joint challenged community, I still had to rely on my Mother to handle the sticking part.  Which, by the way, she does with entirely too much relish.  Being right handed is proven to be a challenge since my right wrist is permanently knitted together.  I am still learning to conquer the world as a leftie. Smiley face.

I read the instructions several times.  She read them too.  I also read the white paper included in the box, seeking out those side effects in the finest of print.  I didn’t see anything abnormal, other than immediate death by heart attack, so we proceeded onward.

Now when this pack says inject at a 45 degree angle like a dart that is what it means.  The needles are not very sharp and not tiny either.  So the first injection wasn’t pleasant and the meds burn.  The directions said to inject in fat and if using two injections put one in stomach and one in the leg.  Oh well.  My belly is wide enough for two injections per me, one on the left and one on the right.

The most common side effect, watch the injection site for rash or reaction, did not occur.  Yippee!! And as far as other side effects, I’m doing OK.  I have had a dull headache this week that has gradually gotten better and I’ve been a little achy and tired.  It is hard to tell if it is the cool damp weather or the injection.  I know my bones are ready for some warmth…these last two weeks have been painful.  Nothing I can’t handle with a little ibuprofen. 

The doctor offered prednisone until I could get the meds in my system good.  I said no thanks.  Let me tough it out.  I’ve been making very slow progress on weight loss and didn’t want to give up that ground to a steroid bump.

The best think about Cimzia is I don’t inject again for two weeks.  I will take another “double” dose followed by a third double dose in two additional weeks.  Hopefully at that time, I can go on the maintenance dosage of one vial every two weeks.  After about 12 weeks, I might be able to inject monthly.  So here’s to praying this is the biologic that will work for me and ease the disease progression.  I badly want to get back to a “normal” life.

Homemade Taco Seasoning

I made my mix on Sunday afternoon, trying diligently to get all of my goals for the prior week accomplished.  And this was one of them.  I had some of the spices in my pantry.  However, I also bought some new because I couldn’t tell how old and didn’t know how long the spices had been in the pantry.  Probably, since we moved in nearly 7 years ago.  Yes, it has been that long.

So I gathered up all the spices and the recipe that I was planning to loosely follow.  I also had a pack of taco seasoning in the pantry and had previously read all of its ingredients.   Oooh Yuck! Many words which I can’t pronounce and that ain’t because they are Spanish words.  Talk about scientific and in our food.

 

The following is the “recipe” I used and multiplied by 9.  I figured if I was gonna stand there and measure, I wanted enough spice to last a while.  We eat homemade Mexican a lot at our house.  “A” has been lobbying for Taco Tuesday for some time and “C” will eat chips, meat and cheese when she won’t eat anything else.

1tbsp chili powder

¼ tsp. garlic powder
¼ tsp. onion powder
¼ tsp. crushed red pepper (I used cayenne pepper)
¼ tsp. oregano
½ tsp. paprika
1 ½ tsp. ground cumin
½ tsp. salt (you may want more to your family’s taste)
1 tsp. pepper

 

What I learned…this is probably cheaper if you and a friend, or two, go to Sam’s and buy the chili powder, cumin and paprika in the $4.88 canister.  Maybe pick up a bottle of wine and voila!  You have a spice party!! The Sam’s size spices would make plenty of homemade seasoning for several people due to only using small quantities of the other spices.

Also, I up-cycled an empty peanut butter jar and washed it thoroughly. (Y’all like that term…my Grannies had no clue that saving all those mayo jars and peanut butter jars was recycling! Who knew???)

Bonus Post: Banana Nut Bread

I cleaned out the refrigerator and was appalled, ashamed and downright annoyed with myself at how much money I threw in the trashcan.  Several months ago, Scott cleaned out the camper fridge and all the stuff from it wound up in the house.  Add some very busy schedules and it became a glorified mess.

So I chunked at least a week’s worth of our grocery budget in the dump.  Sigh.

And then, two very ripe bananas started staring at me.  And staring.  I couldn’t throw them away.  Just couldn’t.

So they became this:

Recipe is from the Shared Secrets from Mitchell EMC.  If you don’t have this awesome recipe book, go get one.  I give them a lot as wedding presents.  It has many timeless recipes from some great ladies that are no longer with us.  You will use this book, dog ear the pages, splatter stuff on it and thoroughly enjoy it!

Banana Nut Bread (Gloria Davis)

2 cups plain flour

¼ tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. soda
1 ½ cup sugar (I used part white, part brown)
3 eggs
¼ cups sour milk (I used plain old skim)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup bananas, mashed
1 tsp. lemon juice (didn’t have any, so left out)
½ cup nuts, chopped (probably used a few more)

And "C" ate it all up.  She loved it.  Considering that she hasn’t been eating much these last few weeks, I was thrilled when she kept coming back for more.  FYI: I baked in my PC stone fluted tube stone.

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!!