2015 Time For A Change

Mixing things up on the Adoptive Mom Homeschooling An Only Child blog. Let me know what you think. I am trying a few different looks to see what goes over well.

Things have been crazy around here, my husband was injured at work and has been recovering at home. We have had some fun eating out of the pantry to save on groceries.

Learn to eat from your pantry to save post coming soon!

Homeschooling updates and some other goodies coming your way in the new year! What is working in your homeschool? What are you tossing out? Changing things up this semester?

I also have a prayer request for one of readers, Deb, she is also homeschooling an only child...who is going off to college this year!! YEAH!! Please pray for her family as her Dad passed away this week.

How is your New Year going? I am praising the Lord for the wonderful sunshine that He is giving us this winter. It's wonderful to sit in my sunroom and work on my blog.

We are going to change the look of things from the dreary winter blog look to a fresh new look.

Let me know what you think!

Thanks,
Moe

Makin' Space

YEAH!!!!!!!!!!  We are making space and using up food. It's so fun to go shopping from the pantry. I found some cans of fruit hidden in the back and 2 more can of Lentil soup (my guys fell in love with this, got it for .25¢ a can at the Amish Salvage store).

I've still got about 15 cans of beef broth (not gluten free) that I need to use up. Any ideas of what I can make my guys? They like soup, but then they also like crackers in soup and those have bad oils in them, so they are a no no for my husband.

Moe

Gluten Free Rotisserie Chicken recipe

In keeping with the pantry challenge theme I'm are shopping from the freezer this week. I have 1 whole chicken and 1 cut up chicken left. So today we are having either Rhodie (a Rhode Island Red rooster) or Freddie (a Leghorn), both were 4-H Grand Champions in 2010. These chickens fit nicley in a crockpot.

Gluten Free Rotisserie Chicken

4-5 lb chicken (I think we are using a 3lb one today)

2 tsp kosher salt or more if you like it salty like the store bought ones, I skipped the salt

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp onion powder (I would go 2 tsp next time)

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp Italian seasoning (I would make this 1 tbls next time)

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (I think I will skip this next time it was a bit spicy for me)

1/2 tsp black pepper

pinch of chili pepper (if you want) I used chili powder (too much spice for me)

4 cloves garlic

1 yellow onion quartered

Skin the chicken if you want to (I don't)

Remove all the goodies from the cavity

mix all seasonings and sprinkle inside and outside the chicken

put garlic and onions inside chicken cavity.

Put bird in breast side DOWN in crockpot.

DO NOT ADD WATER-no liquid is needed for this recipe.

Cover and cook on high 4-5 hours or low up to 8 hours. The longer you cook this the more tender it is. I am also going to put a few washed/scrubbed potatoes in the bottom of the pot to cook. YUM!

For safety sake when I have the time, I put the crockpot on high for the first hour to make sure that the temperature gets good and hot and then I turn it to low for the rest of the day. Always cook thawed chicken in the crockpot NEVER frozen since the inside of the bird stays at the wrong temperature for too long while in the crockpot and bacteria can start to grow.

This was pretty good, both my guys liked it, but it was too spicy hot for me, I like a bit of heat, but this was really warm. So you can see my changes for next time in (   ).
If you are not daring enough to try this recipe, just sprinkle your chicken with Lawyr's Seasoning Salt and turn the crockpot on. YUM!!! But way too much sodium for this body  :O( 

Moe

Pantry Challenge January Round Up

Let me count the ways that I bombed this past month in the Pantry Challenge.....lol. But I had fun and hope you did too.

For starters DO NOT EVER shop for groceries after being under anesthetic..lol. I felt so well after my upper and lower scopes that we decided to shop at Meijers (remember I love that place!), I wandered through and blew a cool $50 some odd dollars, can't find the receipt now. Got some wonderful produce (did I ever tell you how I just love Meijers produce? I think it's the lighting!).
My dear husband pushed the cart dutifully up and down the isles for me as I plucked things off the shelf (who knows what!) and dropped them into the cart. What on earth was I thinking? That is right I was not in my right mind and what did that paper say that I signed before surgery? "I will not make any financial decisions for 24 hours." I wonder now, does grocery shopping fall under that category? I think so! That brings me up to $122.09 for the month.

Then another $49.56 at the local grocery store this was sort of a woe is me shopping trip, I had to do the prep for my upper/lower scopes (drink the nasty stuff to clean your insides out) and I wanted to treat myself, so I bought my favorite soda Canada Dry, my favorite kool-aid drink TANG, the good ice pops (not those nasty cheap watered down ice pops......lol). Since I knew once the tests were done I would be back on a gluten free diet, I got some Lenders Bagels and Thomason English Muffins, no generics for me on those! I also bought the good juices to drink during my prep time, nothing like Welches White Grape Juice $4.50 a bottle and Mango Peach Juice. Those items added up very quickly. $171.65 for the month.

Then on 1/30/12 I ran to the store real quick like for milk & chicken (remember I did not want to butcher our laying hens so I had to buy chicken)........that cost me $23.76.
They had milk on sale for $1.50 so bought a few of those,
Cannelli Beans on sale for $1.00 a can, I stocked up on those since I can sneak them into a lot of things..lol
Tyson Chicken was on sale for $1.99 lb.

January 2012 cost us $195.41 for three people, doing homeschool math that comes to an average of $65.14 per person for a month or an average of $48.85 per week. I was hoping for less, but I know that I could have done without the $50 bucks spent on surgery day, I am still kicking myself for that one! I am thankful for what I saved and did not spend with being gluten and dairy free, I could have spent a lot more $$ on fancy products.

How is your February going on the pantry challenge? I am going to just keep on going with it and see where it leads me. Remember if you are not gluten free or dairy free you can still use my recipes (comment if you have questions about them), just use whole wheat or white flour and regular dairy and butter in the recipes.

If you are new around here we are having a Pantry Challenge, here is how it works.........It's easy, before you head to the grocery store, shop your freezer, refrigerator and cabinets to see what you can use up. For the first 3 weeks I try to only buy milk, butter and bread, since I usually have an abundance of canned fruits and veggies on hand. If you don't have chickens you may need to buy eggs :-p Make a family game out of this, let the kids pick some can goodies from the cabinet, find some meat in the freezer and go from there.
Moe

Month 2 of my Pantry Challenge & recipes

Tonight for dinner we had Chicken Stew as I call it. All from the pantry except for the chicken (did not want to have to butcher a hen for dinner....lol. So I let Tyson do the dirty work!)

I sliced up a bunch of celery, carrots, onion and put them in some olive oil and sauteed them.

Dumped those into the crockpot with a 32 oz container of NO SALT GF chicken broth,

cut up the chicken breasts (3 of them) added those to the crockpot,

sprinkled in some cumin (1/2 tsp or so),

1 tsp of poultry seasoning,

1/2 tsp of Kitchen Bouquet,

1/2 tsp of Marjoram.

A can of black beans drained and rinsed 

a large can of green beans (I think around 30 oz or so?) drained and rinsed.

I cooked that on high for an hour and then on low for about 3 hours. But you could put it on low all day and just leave it. I had some brown rice in the fridge leftover so I tossed that in about the last hour. It was a hit!!

Moe's Gluten Free/Dairy Free Chicken Stew

A fine meal like this was not be complete without a wonderful dessert!!

Moe's Gluten Free/Dairy Free Peanut Butter Truffle Brownie

1 box of Gluten Free Hodgson Mill Brownie Mix (use regular brownie mix if you can eat wheat  :)

I used 2 eggs to make the cake like brownies and followed the recipe on the box.

Then to make the peanut butter filling (use Sunbutter if you have allergies to peanut butter)

Filling

1/2 cup Fleischmann's salt free margarine (it's dairy free too!), softened (or use real butter)

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

2 cups powdered sugar

2 teaspoons Almond/soy or dairy milk (I added a bit more to make it more creamy)

Blend with mixer until creamy. Then I cut the brownie in 1/2 with a knife, layed on the filling and then put the top of the brownie on. It's 1/2 gone already! lol

Moe

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Bars recipe

I found this recipe over on the Tessa the Domestic Diva: Wholesome, Allergy-Friendly Living blog here is a link to the recipe: chocolate peanut butter cookie bars, I plan on making these this weekend

The above photo is from http://tessadomesticdiva.blogspot.com/. check out her site for other gluten free and dairy free recipes. Lots of yummy & kid friendly recipes over there.

Have a great weekend,
Moe

Pantry Challenge recipe

Yummy recipe from my blogging friend over at the goodcheapeats blog, click on the link to go to the recipe for Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake. The recipe is NOT GF, but you can use any of the baking mix/flour mixes and it will work fine. I also used dairy free margarine and Almond milk to make ours.

I made a few additions to our recipe that I made this morning. It was very quick to make and did not mess up my morning routine. It took about as much time as it does for me to make eggs and toast for everyone.

Going along with our pantry challenge theme I had some cranberries and golden raisins that needed used up. I also wanted to limit the oil so I used 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce and 1/4 cup oil, also we are working on adding more fiber to our diet so I sprinkled in 3 tsp Ener-G Pure Rice Bran (can’t even tell it’s in there). And I doubled the topping recipe YUM!! My guys like it and so did I.

I love how the topping soaks into the coffee cake. Those chunks of Cinnamon topping were wonderful! I always double the topping on stuff like this.

Thanks for the great recipe idea on a cold morning!

This is a KEEPER!

Have a blessed day.
Moe

What we have been eating.

We have found some goodies in the freezer.
Beef roast in crockpot with Italian seasoning (beef sandwiches)
Pastrami lunch meat (frozen)
Beef soup for lunch (frozen)
Pork chops with seasonings on them (freezer)
Chocolate chip pancakes (freezer)
GF/CF cupcakes (freezer)
Lentil soup for lunch (canned) added a can of corn and sprinkled a bit of cheese on top for color
Corn (pantry)
Greenbeans (pantry)
Fruit cocktail (pantry)
Homemade cocoa mix (top of the fridge)
More partial bags of cold cereal (top of fridge)

Pork Chops & Oven Roasted Veggies
I made pork chops again this week. I cooked them in a skillet with olive oil and some seasonings on med/high for about 20 min or until brown on each side, then I add about 1/2 cup of water and then cover (you could use broth or creamed soup if you are not doing low sodium/gluten free/dairy free like me) and cook for about 45-60 min until they are the desired tenderness, I like them falling apart) add more liquid if they are not done, so you don't burn them.

Then in the oven I made cut up roasted veggies with skins left on, I had a yam, white potatoes, celery, mushrooms, zucchinis, onions and I tossed all those in a bag with lemon juice, garlic and olive oil. Baked first 3 items for around 30 min at 450, then added the rest in and baked another 30 min at 375 until done. I did stir them a few times and check potatoes for doneness. Our 11yr old asked why the potatoes turned orange in the oven, he had never had a sweet potato before. He loved them and so did DH. I actually liked them myself, in years past I had had baked ones that were stringy and nasty, so I just assumed that they were all like that. Well I have a new veggie that I like!! Yams or sweet potatoes (same thing right? correct me if I am wrong please).

What have you been eating?
Moe

Beef & Noodles from the pantry challenge

I found a packet of Italian Beef seasoning hidden in the cabinet. Got a beef roast out of the freezer and put it in the crockpot with about 6 cups of water. Left it on for 10 hours on low (1st hour on high), then I used up some noodles from the cabinet, cooked them part way on the stove, drained and then added them to the beef in the crockpot. I stirred it up and left if on for another 5 hours on low. YUM!! Ate that with some leftover veggies and tonight we are having it over baguettes (found those on the day old bread rack for $1.29.)

What are you feasting on from the pantry?

Moe

What have we been eating?

Well let me see, we have had some very warm weather here so we did campfire school (homeschooling around the campfire), I found 2 packages of hotdogs in the freezer and some hard marshmallows in the back of the pantry that someone had failed to close up with a twist tie.
Note to self: marshmallows burn very easily when they are dried out. We did not have any hotdog buns or chocolate to make smores, but that was OK! We had fun anyway and saved some carbs :O)

I almost fired up the grill, but I thought, ya know we are going to be out here doing school for the day, so why not just roast 2 hotdogs at a time until both packages are cooked. So we had grilled hotdogs for a few lunches last week.

We had some extra eggs to use up, it's amazing how the chickens can lay a GAZILLION eggs one week and then almost nothing the next week! Or the week that we really need eggs, the dear child forgets to collect them (I refuse to use eggs that have been sitting in the nesting boxes too long, I know they are suppose to be fine, but I am sort of a freak about these things.) So anyway we had a gazillion eggs this week, so I made up a large batch of french toast and we had that for several breakfasts, and guess what? When you don't have hotdog buns, a hotdog on french toast bread is pretty good (minus the syrup!). Guess you would call it A Pig In A French Toast (or maybe A Pig In A French Afgan? lol) Anyway it was good.

I found some BLSL chicken breast in the freezer and made this yummy recipe (same recipe that I used at Christmas time with a turkey, but made it with chicken this time.)

Heat oven to 350
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 c light mayo (not Miracle Whip)
2 tsp (or more) thyme
2 tsp (or more) rosemary
2 tsp (or more) pepper
2 tsp (or more) oregano
1/4 cup melted butter or margarine (I used unsalted)
mix all the ingredients together and spoon over chicken. Cover with foil and bake 45 min or until chicken is done.

I found the recipe for the mayonnaise roasted turkey at the blog SheWearsManyHats.com, click on the link and it will take you to the recipe for the turkey.

I served the chicken with Jasmine rice from the pantry, I used my rice cooker (you use whatever type of rice you have in the pantry & can make this recipe on the stove top too)
While the rice was cooking I added
2 T olive oil
1/2 T chili powder
1/2T curry powder
I would have added some cumin, but I was out and it was too pricey for my pantry challenge ;-) I had some carrots to use up so I tossed those through my Salad Shooter on 'shred' and it added some fiber and color to the dish. You might want to add a dash of salt (remember the doctor put me on a low sodium diet last week, so I am learning to taste my food and not taste salt BAH HUMBUG!!

Dessert Scotcharoos

Had some peanut butter in the pantry so I made peanut butter rice crispy treats.
1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup peanut butter (we like creamy)
1 cup white sugar (wonder what brown sugar would taste like?)
2 tsp vanilla (GF)
5-6 cups rice crisp cereal (GF)
put everything in the saucepan except cereal, melt and stir together. Then add cereal and mix, pour into 9x13 pan and start eating.......lol.
then if you need it even sweeter add the topping (sometimes we just eat it!)
1 cup chocolate chips (GF/CF)
1 cup butterscotch chips (GF/CF)
melt in a pan very carefully so they don't burn or microwave until melted. Stir well and pour over Scotcharoos, let harden and eat. YUMMM!!

We have also been eating cereal from the top of the fridge, lots of partial boxes up there and one morning I made a suprise breakfast of rice crispy treats........LOL. Oh, well they would have put sugar on the rice cereal anyway, so why not serve them up a nice hot breakfast of melted marshmellows in cereal??

The guys found a few Hot Pockets in the bottom of the freezer and I found some Rice Dream Ice Cream, had a slight layer of ice on the top, but still good....lol.

What have you been eating this week?

Enjoy the saving that you are getting out of eating from the pantry.
Moe

Soup recipe for you

Come on over to one of my favorite blogs "The Gluten-Free Homemaker" she has a wonderful recipe for beef vegetable soup slow cooker just click on the link and make a big crockpot full of this yummy goodness!

If you are not gluten free, just use regular flour in this recipe.

While the crockpot is cooking away, relax with  good book and your kids snuggled up around you and make some memories.
Enjoy!
Moe

Pantry Challenge Day 9 How is it going?

Just checking in to see how it's going. Remember you can still buy groceries, but do your best to eat from what you have in the house, it's like FREE food!! I'm needing some raisins, but I fear stepping into the grocery store and buying more stuff! lol. If you see a great buy on something, feel free to stock up on it, but also use what you already have too.

My doctor put me on a diuretic this week and I was told to really be watching my salt. So that has made things interesting on the pantry challenge to say the least. So I got some low-salt cookbooks from the library (we love that place!), found a recipe for no salt cream soup (not great, but it was OK). I had ground beef in the freezer, rice in the pantry and celery in the fridge, also had all the ingredients for the 'cream of no sodium soup'. I used coconut milk to make that, it was the unsweetened kind, but it still had an odd sweetness to it (oh well, at least I am using it up in the pantry challenge). I made beef & rice casserole for myself (gluten free) and then I made the guys a regular one using up 2 cans of Campbell's cream soups from the pantry. I also had made some wild rice from the pantry and used that in their recipe.

For desert I made a apple buckle (some call it apple betty) using gluten free flours, apple pie filling and Rice Bran flakes to add some fiber without changing the taste or texture.

Apple Buckle with yummy coconut ice cream to go with it.

Have you been having fun with this? Make it fun, have the kids go into the pantry and make some sort of fun meal. Our meals don't have to look like Julia Childs (loved watching her as a child with my mother). Any creative meals come across your table this past week?
Moe

Pantry Challenge day 8

I found some grilled burgers in the freezer from late this summer and we had those for one dinner, then I made Salisbury steaks for the next night. I used up the rest of the hamburgers and 2 cans of beef broth mixed with some cornstarch and dried onions. I put those into a pot with a lid and put them on med/low for about 45 min minutes, I served with green beans (1 can cut & 1 can string) and packaged rice mix (all from the pantry).

Any good recipes coming your way? Share them with us.
Moe

Pantry Challenge Day 7

Had to do a bit of grocery shopping. Went to Mejiers (Chorus of Angels music.......lol) shopped the produce, I think it's the lighting in that place! I could go broke shopping the produce section in that store. It's like the Garden of Eden in there! lol. They had those huge deli trays of cut of veggies & dip on clearance for $3.50, I bought one and my guys have gobbled it up. I got a few carrots, 1 piece of cauliflower and a few pieces of broccoli. I normally don't buy those trays, but the regular price was $7.99 so I snatched one up. I also bought some apples, mushrooms, eggs (we like store bought hard boiled eggs, better than our fresh eggs from our ranch, they are very hard to peel since they are so fresh) fresh green beans, cantaloupe (threw it away, it was very sour and cost me $2.99), bananas, almond milk and regular milk, kiwis, cherries ($2.99 lbs could not pass those up!), carrots and a case of Pepsi (cheaper for me to buy it, than for Dh to get it out of a machine at work. So this week I spent $33.31 on groceries this week for 3 people. I don't think that was too bad at all.
How did you do?
Moe

Pantry Challenege Day 6

We cleaned out the refrigerator and had leftovers, along with corn from the freezer, canned fruit and veggies from the pantry. Sent hubby to work with cookies from the freezer and our large stash of fresh giant oranges from the local school band.

How are you doing? I have a large can of black beans, got any suggestions to hide those in something? We are not big bean eaters (well we like greenbeans......lol) and I bought those when I was on a 'lets get healthy kick.'  Yeah, the family really likes when mom gets on that high horse. lol

Moe

Pantry Challenge Day 5

I thought I would share some pictures of my stockpiles.......lol. I have a few.

First here is my stash of food that sits above my washer & dryer.

This is my NON gluten free stash of things that I need to use up.

My top of the refrigerator stash......ignore the dust up there! I'm too short to see it, so I don't dust if often :O)

My Lazy-Susan cabinet or better known as "The finger pinching spinner thing" to my toddler son back in the day. lol. Yes I have a ton of Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce because the Amish salvage store has it for like .95¢ per bottle and the expiration date is 2013. YUM!

For some reason the server is rejecting my final picture, which is of a tiny cabinet that my Dh and Ds have munchies & snacks stored in. It's not real large, but it has Ritz Crackers, hot cocoa packets and stuff like that in it.

Feel free to share your stash photos with us. I've not even ventured to take pictures of the freezers yet.......lol. Maybe next week.

Happy frugal cooking this month.

Moe

Pantry Challenge Day 4

I used up some zucchinis, mushrooms, carrots, garlic and chicken (from freezer). I put all that in a pan with some olive oil, cooked it up and sprinkled on a tough of seasoning salt. Went over well and I cleaned out some veggies that I had on hand. I think I will make some brown rice that I have (sitting in the pantry in the far back dark corner!) and add that along with a scrambled egg to last nights leftovers to make a fried rice. YUM!

What have you made?
Moe

Pantry Challenge!!!

How about it?? Anyone game for a pantry challenge? It's easy, before you head to the grocery store, shop your freezer, refrigerator and cabinets to see what you can use up. For the first 3 weeks I try to only buy milk, butter and bread, since I usually have an abundance of canned fruits and veggies on hand. If you don't have chickens you may need to buy eggs  :-p    Make a family game out of this, let the kids pick some can goodies from the cabinet, find some meat in the freezer and go from there.

Feel free to post here and let us know how it's going for you, ask for hints and tips on how to go about doing your pantry challenge. I for one sometimes need some help using up those odd cans of black beans, pinto beans and mole sauce that I bought for some odd reason....lol.

This is a great money saver to start the new year out. I think about many of my readers that are saving to adopt and homeschool moms that are eeking out a tight budget. I hope that this post will be a blessing to your household.

What kind of weird things do you have in your cabinet, freezer or refrigerator that need used up? Use things up before they go bad. Get creative and see what interesting things you can make.

Have a wonderful week!
Moe