Bye-Bye Crockpot

“Everything’s impossible until somebody does it.” – Batman

Yep, it's a goner! 

Ran the dishwasher and then while unloading it I grabbed out the lid to my new crockpot and it just shattered all over the place. Big shocker!!!

While the shock wears off, head on over to my favorites gluten free (you will never know these recipes are gluten free) Crockpot website. A Year Of Slow Cooking She has a recipe for EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR!!! Our faves are the Rotisserie Style Chicken it rivals Costco! and Refried Beans, I do add a bit of bacon grease to these

Always read to the bottom of Stephanie's recipes because she give you a review by her family and any tweaks that she decides to make after they try the recipe.

Enjoy, while I shop for the new Crockpot or many an InstaPot???

Moe

Gluten FREE & Corn FREE recipe

Carla's Gluten Free Recipe Box had a wonderful recipe this week that you just have to try! gluten free vegetable soup. This can be corn free if you make your own broth or use a corn free broth and check the beans for corn in the ingredients. This sounds so good for those rainy days we have been having here.  Easy lunches for those last few days of school too.

Enjoy!
Moe

Freebie from a friends blog

Lynns Kitchen Adventures blog is offering a really cool menu planning print out for FREE! Can't beat that. She also has lots of neat things over there. Check her out she has regular recipes and a section with allergy recipes. Very tasty ideas.

I notice that I feel much better about having to follow a restricted allergy free diet when I plan ahead. If I don't plan and then meal time comes around, it's very hard to just grab something and eat it. I had a rough patch today. I made up a big batch of chicken, potatoes, celery and carrots in the crockpot. It was wonderful, but we were running low on the veggies, so I thought I would add my favorite Asian rice noodles. Cooked them up and had a small bowl of them with some butter on top, I felt not so great for awhile, fuzzy brain, racing heart, aching joints all the sudden, flushed face. Our son grabs the noodle bag out of the trash and says

"MOM!!! These have cornstarch in them!"

I was shocked, I don't know what I was thinking when I bought them!  It's plain as day, WATER, RICE, CORNSTARCH. Nothing hidden, but I sure did goof and now I am paying for it.  And I ruined a yummy batch of food that I made for myself. Oh, well my guys will enjoy it.

Live and learn.

Moe

FREEBIE just for you!!

I came across this great resource this week and am filling mine out today!!  The weekly menu planner from the simple natural nourishing blog. This is going to be a great help in using up what I have in my freezer. I have cleaned out the bottom shelf of my freezer. YEAH!

Have a wonderful week!
Moe

Soup Supper anyone?

This is day 11 in my own pantry challenge and I found some soups hidden away in the cabinet. Soup suppers can be a very frugal way to feed your family. Think ahead in the day and get the bread machine out too. Make some sort of yummy bread, that always makes a meal seem special, or swing by the grocery store and pick up a loaf of crusty french bread if you are not gluten free. Pop a pan of brownies in the oven too. It's little things like that, that keep my husband from saying "Were only having soup?"

Also you might think about adding to your soup or mixing flavors, sometimes I will mix the Chunky soups or Progresso ones. Such as 2 different types of beef soups or 2 different types of potato soups and add some extra corn, green beans, peas, carrots, canned potatoes, whatever your family likes, this way it sort of bulks up the soup, as my guys don't care much for runny soups. Sometimes I add a bit of cornstarch (1/2 cup cold water to 1 tablespoon corn starch, stir it up well and add to boiling soup, stir until thickened, about 3 minutes).

If you make a potato soup you might try sprinkling some cooked bacon on top or a touch of cheese (if you can have dairy) and even some parsley. YUM!! Search the web for some very frugal potato soup recipes!!

For the homeschooling mom soup suppers can be a huge blessing!! Easy meal, no planning and you can even let the kids pick 'their own can of soup'. Or you can dump all the ingredients into the crockpot first thing in the morning, get the bread machine up and running and dinner cooks while you teach. What a blessing a soup supper can be.

Enjoy a soup meal each week and I bet you will save a few calories and $$ in the new year!

SOUP's ON!!

Moe