Recipe for Labor Day Weekened!

Herbed Turkey Burger w/ Zucchini Buns

 

Recipe for Labor Day Weekend!

 

This looks WONDERFUL! I'm thinking with Labor Day Weekend coming upon us that these will be on the menu! Stop over at Queen Of Quinoa's blog to get the recipe, there is no Quinoa in this recipe  ;0)   She has a nice listing of recipes and they are all gluten free. Many can be easily made corn free and dairy free too.

 

Enjoy!

Moe

LEGOS, LEGOS, LEGOS!!!

Can any child have TOO many Legos? Well with having an only child, I'm thinking that we have too many here! lol.
This week was the 'cleaning of the Legos' here. They were all dusty and really needed cleaned up. Our son likes to keep his Lego creations out on display, well guess what? Dust loves Legos and we have dust mite allergies around here.

So into the bathtub went the Legos.

 Now they are all drying, this is just one small batch......LOL.

Through all this we learned about buoyancy and how things float or sink. We learned just how much dust can accumulate and how dust ends up acting like mud in water.

There are some great learning opportunities for our only children that we homeschool, in regards to Lego products. There are Lego 4-H groups, Lego Robotics 4-H groups, Lego Library Clubs,  and so much more!  There are also some cute builds to make over at Lego.com. Join the mailing list and they will send you a monthly item to build: make sure you print out the instructions when you get them, since the build will become locked after that month and you can't print it out after that. And of course there is the field trip of a life time LegoLand!!!  We have been to one of the LegoLands and had a lot of fun.

How have you incorporated Legos in to your homeschooling? One thing that we have done is purchase one of the Lego Sticker books such as Lego Minifigure Ultimate Sticker Collection.

We then take a notebook and our son puts stickers on the notebook paper and then writes a Lego story about the Mini-figures. It's been a lot of fun for us. And it helps with spelling, handwriting, creative writing and grammar  :O)       All in an easy fun format, it does not even feel like school. Yes, hahaha, it's that sneaky homeschool learning that our kids get in and don't even know it. Sometimes I will just have him grab the notebook and put a few stickers in and take off in the car on a busy day. I don't grade for penmanship on the days he is writing in the car though, as it's hard to write neatly in a moving car. Sometimes the stories conclude that day and other times the stories continue on. Why not write out a Lego lesson plan today! Surprise your child with some Lego fun.

  

Now for the million dollar question, how do yo organize all your child's Legos? We have been just dumping them into Rough Tote containers. But we are looking for something new and different. Our son wants those Lego drawers, but I refuse to pay $40 for them!

I can't wait to hear from you and get some organizing ideas.

Have a great week!

Moe



Book review coming your way soon!

Book review coming your way soon!

I just received a copy of Too Much Stuff from author Kathryn Porter and will be snuggling up with a warm blanket to read up on how I start "Winning the War Against Clutter." Stay tuned for more on this! It was also exciting to find out that Kathryn Porter and I have a lot in common, just a few things are chickens and homeschooling. What a small world.

Have a great week!

Sunday Dinner of Chicken & Noodles

Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Corn Free Chicken and Noodles.
This turned out really well!  It's also gluten free, dairy free and corn free! But please don't let that scare you off if you don't have to be FREE of foods.

I baked one of our farm fresh chickens yesterday and picked it clean. (Saved the bones for rich broth).
So here goes the recipe.
2 boxes of Hodgson Mill gluten free pastas  I LOVE THEIR PASTA!! (It's non GMO & has golden milled flax seed in it too!), you may use wheat pasta too. Cook pasta until just under done.
3 cans of Cream of Whatever Soup your family likes (I make my own gluten, corn and dairy free and will include the recipe below.)
Chopped up chicken, (in a pinch you could use canned chicken (check label for gf/cf/df if needed), cooked chicken breasts) however much your family likes. I used up the entire 6# chicken that I baked, my guys must see meat in the food or they think they will die of starvation! lol........
Mix this all together and heat until warm. I then served and sprinkled on some Penzeys Spices Pasta Sprinkle (ingredients sweet basil, Turkish oregano, thyme and garlic). I LOVE THEIR SPICES! You could also add some seasoning salt (not corn free). This recipe made enough for my guys and for about 6 single servings in the freezer for me.

Next time I make this I think I would saute some onions, celery and carrots to add to the mix and then add some frozen green beans.  To put a spin on these as leftovers, you could spoon this into an 8x8 pan, mix in some leftover veggies and cover with some gluten free, corn free, dairy free biscuit topping and have chicken, noodles and biscuits!

Recipe for gluten free, dairy free, corn free Cream of Whatever Soup
I found this one over at Allrecipes.com

A flavorful condensed cream of chicken soup base recipe for use in dishes that call for canned creamed soups

Yield:

3 cups (about 2 cans)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt (or less; taste to test)
1/4 teaspoon parsley
dash of paprika
1 1/2 cups milk (I used homemade rice milk)
3/4 cup flour (I used gluten free, but use wheat if you want)

Instructions:

1. In medium-sized saucepan, boil chicken broth, 1/2 cup of the milk, and the seasonings for a minute or two (longer if using fresh onions or garlic).
2. In a bowl, whisk together the remaining 1 cup of milk and flour. Add to boiling mixture and continue whisking briskly until mixture boils and thickens.

Gluten free, dairy free, corn free Pineapple Ice Cream

This was such an easy recipe!! Until I left the room and the timer went off and I did not hear it.......LOL!  It made a huge mess, but it tasted so good! Here is the quick and easy recipe.

Gluten free, dairy free, corn free Pineapple Ice Cream
Pineapple Ice Cream (or sorbet, whatever you want to call it.)
I used 1 fresh pineapple (you can use canned but it does contain corn in the citric acid) add pineapple and juice to blender, blend until smooth.
Then add in 1 cup sugar or more (use whatever sweetener you desire)
Then add about 1/4 cup of OJ of your choice (I had orange pineapple on hand).
Blend it all together and taste. You want this pretty sweet, because once ice creams or sorbets freeze they don't taste as sweet because your tongue gets numb from the cold. I think I ended up adding about 1 1/2 cups of sugar.
You can also add a bit of gluten free vanilla if you like.
Then pour into your ice cream maker and process as directed. I did mine for 20 mins, but forgot about it and it went for about 32 minutes.....LOL. As you can see my results. But it tasted really good!

Enjoy!
Moe

"Is this drug corn free?"

It's one of those weeks already. I've been to the allergist again due to a corn reaction, I was told to get some allergy meds. But of course the allergist could not tell me which ones to take because she had no idea if it was corn free or not.

Fast forward to the pharmacist and guess what? He could not help me either. So both told me to start calling the manufactures of these drugs. Well here is just one response for you, it's pretty much a repeat of all the other companies responses I got.  Lets just say I am trying to "Be angry and sin not."

"While we perform comprehensive testing on the more common ingredients that may provide an allergic reaction such as gluten, nuts etc., unfortunately, it is impossible to test for every ingredient and we cannot guarantee that our products are corn-free, since the source of an ingredient may change from time to time. Some of the ingredients in the product may have been purchased by us from outside distributors and we cannot say with absolute certainty that cross contamination with this ingredient did not occur at their facilities. We understand how difficult this can be for you and hope we can suggest an alternative product should you remain concerned about the possibility of an allergic reaction.

We suggest speaking to your health care provider as he/she is more familiar with your allergy related reactions/symptoms. Your your physician is really best suited to respond to any concerns that you might have about any of the product's listed ingredients and the potential for an allergic reaction, based upon your individual sensitivities. If you decide to try the product and you are dissatisfied for any reason, please contact us and we would be happy to refund you the purchase price.

Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies fully comply with all regulations on ingredients in the countries in which our products are sold. Wherever regulatory authorities have set limits on certain ingredients, our product formulations either meet those limits or contain a lesser amount of the regulated ingredient. We are committed to maintaining the high standards of quality and safety that have been our hallmark for generations of consumers.Consumer Care Center"

Thank you for NOTHING!
So here is the response that I sent to them.

"Just to let you know I contacted you because my allergist and my pharmacist could not help with the ingredients list, so they both told me to contact the manufactures directly to find out what products would be safe for me. Since you make the product, you should know what is in it.

Thank you,"

Some days I feel like I'm at the end of my rope and I just can't go on. I had a nurse argue with me yesterday about whether or not one of my RX drugs contained corn. She flat out told me that there is NO WAY that X drug contains corn. Well she is wrong and I plan on photo copying the ingredient list that I have from my pharmacist and giving it to her. Cornstarch is one of the main ingredients in the prescription! I think that cornstarch is CORN! lol  Am I wrong? Please, please correct me if I am wrong.

Yes, it has been an evil corn week here, maybe even month   :O)

Have a great gluten free, corn free, dairy free, homeschooling, only childing week!!

Moe

100 Gluten Free Lunch Ideas

We started school today and that got me thinking about lunches. We pack a lunch anytime we leave the house since it's hard to find corn free foods, gluten free is much easier now though, especially when you have great list from friends over at glutenfreeville.com.  Use this link to find 100 Gluten Free School Lunch Ideas.




These are also great ideas for adult on the go lunches! After looking at this list it helped spur some corn free ideas in my brain too. It's so easy to get into the same rut of eating the same stuff over and over again. I like to look around and see what is out there and make it corn free.

Had to get a little Star Wars in here for my son who is a big fan!

Post some lunch ideas that you frequent.

Enjoy your lunch!
Moe

Beef Stew slow cooker recipe

It's finally cooling off here a bit so I've started cooking some hearty meals around here. I use my crockpot/slow cooker all summer long, but when it's time for school to start, I get that slow cooker crockpot really fired up! This time I made some Corn Free, Gluten Free & Dairy Free Beef Stew.
I found some flank steak on sale, cut that up into small pieces, cut up some organic carrots and added some garden fresh green beans. Poured in 2 cups of water (I don't always add water to my crockpot, but I wanted some beef broth to put in the freezer), added some fresh ground pepper, about 3 teaspoons of Grandmas Molasses (corn free & gluten free-had to call the company to find this out), 2 tablespoons of Soy Sauce (corn free/gluten free brand), 1 tablespoon of Bragg Liquid Aminos (tastes like soy sauce to me but with less sodium and it's also Certified NON-GMO liquid protein concentrate), if you don't have Braggs, just add more soy sauce, and finally I added a teaspoon of Sea Salt.
If you don't have the allergy restrictions you can add mixed veggies, corn, mushrooms, potatoes, tomatoes and whatever seasoning sounds good to you.

I'm sort of funny about my beef, I like it very tender. So I put it in the crockpot for 3 hours on high and then about 5 hours on low. You can just leave it on low all day or put it on high for 4 hour.

I did not serve anything with this since I'm sort of doing a rotation diet so as not to get another allergy started. But this would be good with the beef stew and juices poured over mashed potatoes, rice or brown rice pasta. 

Next week I will share my new dairy free, corn free and gluten free cantaloupe sorbet recipe.......SO EASY!!  I'm loving my new ice cream maker BIG TIME!

Have a wonderful weekend!
Moe

Praying in the new homeschool year

I plan on printing out & laminating this very nice prayer reminder that was sent to me by another homeschooling mom. You will find it here  on the keeping it personal website you can print out an 11x17 or 8.5x11 size 31 Biblical Virtues to pray for your children chart.

Check it out, it's super nice!!

Have a great weekend.
Moe

Are you a good mom?

I've been pondering that question for awhile now as I've been sick again with corn allergies sneaking up on me from somewhere. I've been miserable and tend to make everyone else miserable during this time. ( or so I think!)

I read a blog post about stay at home moms and as I read through it, I got thinking about what in my mind a good mom is and what a good housekeeper is. Well here is what I came up with, that I picture in my own mind when I think of a good mom and how my home should look.

A clean bedroom, toys picked up and kids playing well together.

The house is always neat, never any dirty dishes in the sink and bedrooms are neat.

Clean house, everything in it's place, bedrooms neat and tidy and no piles of dirty laundry.

 

Smiling happy kids, no dirty dishes, no piles of dirty laundry and clean bedrooms.

Where on earth did I ever get the mindset that this is what my life should be like with my family? Of course there is no dirty laundry, dirty dishes, piles of mail and magazines, messy cluttered kids rooms or toys all strewn about. These are FAKE homes, they are sets/props in which people/actors PRETEND to be homemakers, wives and mothers. Wow can our perspectives on life really be that inspired and convinced by years of media? I'm saddened that I allowed myself to believe this lie, of how things should be in my life. Is this what the Lord has for me? Am I reaping His very best for my life and my family?  Here is a link to the blog post, I hope it helps you to gain the perspective that the Lord has for you and your home. http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevinwax/2012/08/

May you find blessings in your family life this week.
Moe

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas!!!
Oh, wait it's only Christmas at my house......lol. UPS delivered our homeschooling books today. You would think it was Christmas morning around here. Our son is just begging to get into the box. I think I will wait for a rainy day before I let him open it. hehehehe.

Am I mean?

I just praise my Lord and Savior for the blessing that homeschooling has been and is to our family. Just seeing the love of learning that our son has now it's incredible.  There are not many "I don't want to go to school days" anymore. Life of course is no where near perfection, but God's word in the Bible does not promise perfection in our earthly lives.

We have more "What are we learning today" days and that is a blessing. Another one I like to hear is, "Can we do another Bible lesson?" I also take on questions such as "Why do we have to learn story problems?" You will have to tune in next time to hear the answer that I gave to that one.

We are spending some time this week packaging up personal hygiene bags for needy school children and then another day we will be passing those out, along with backpacks full of school supplies to needy children in our community.

Have a wonderful weekend!
Moe