- Slice up half a medium zucchini and then quarter the slices.
- Do the same for a medium-small yellow squash.
- Put them in your skillet with 1/2 a cup of milk and a 1/3 cup of butter on medium heat.
- Add about 1 1/2 cups of pineapple juice. (I used Langers) The milk will start to curdle but don't freak out. It will be good. :)
- Add more milk. (1/2 cup to 3/4 cup.)
- Throw in some mushrooms. My mushrooms had been in my freezer, whole, and wouldn't slice so I threw in about 5 or 6 whole ones. It kinda turned getting a mushroom into a treat. :) However, if you don't want to brave whole mushrooms, go ahead and slice them. :)
- Slice and then quarter a medium-small tomato. Add.
- At this point you'll notice that despite the chunks of veggies your actual sauce is looking pretty thin. This is when I opened my cupboard for my white flour, stopped myself, and spontaneously decided that wheat flour would better lend itself to the overall texture and taste of the sauce. HOME RUN. Spoon in your wheat flour a couple tablespoons at a time, stir in and repeat until you reach your desired consistency.
- While stirring in the flour, add 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt and about 1/2 a teaspoon of pepper.
- Add about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of peas, as desired.
- Leave sauce on your stove on low just long enough to warm up your peas. Serve over egg noodles, or whatever else you happen to have on hand. Enjoy. :)
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Squash and Wheat Sauce
I made up a sauce tonight. Usually when I make up recipes I don't measure anything out, I just eyeball it, which is what I did tonight, too. This makes it tricky to write down. :/ So instead of thinking of this recipe as an exact method, think of it as a guide and feel free to add a bit more or a bit less. :)
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
You're Dehydrated!!!
Nothing makes you feel like a dork quite like ignoring your blog for whole month! Whoops. Oh well.
So I have a friend who's an internationally certified phytotherapist. I called her up yesterday because my daughter is secreting mucous from her eyes. She in turn asked me how her fluids are doing: yellow yuckies up her nose and strong smelling urine, which means that she's sick and dehydrated!
For the sick part, I've been instructed to get Essential Oil of Eucalyptus and to put ONE DROP on Reita's collar. When the smell is gone is when I know to put on another drop. Inhaling the fumes of the Eucalyptus will kill the bacteria and viruses. As my phytotherapist put it, Eucalyptus is a very gentle plant but tough on bacteria and viruses. Sounds like a mom! Very gentle, except for when there's a problem! ;)
For the dehydration part I've been instructed to have Reita drink half her body weight in water (ozs). So Reita, weighing about 24 pounds right now, needs to be drinking about 12 ounces of water a DAY.
I then received a very thorough education on dehydration. People think that dehydration means cracked lips and dry mouth, like in the movies, but that's not the case! Because your body requires water in order to operate - every function your body performs requires water. When the body does not have enough water the immune system shuts down so that the body can take care of the problem. Without sufficient water the cells will then mutate into other conditions, common conditions that we're all afraid of, such as the following: asthma, allergies, obesity, diabetes, CANCER... These things are all symptoms of dehydration. So really what we need to do is to DRINK WATER! We should all be drinking half our body weight in water (ozs). We should also be using about a teaspoon of unrefined salt (sea salt) because the water will flush out the minerals in our bodies, which we need, so we need to replenish the minerals with the salt. Now it has to be unrefined salt because the regular white table salt has had all of its minerals removed. (Unrefined salt will look slightly pink with some darker flecks. The coloration is because of the minerals.)
The sad thing is that most people are dehydrated and don't even realize it. :(
When my husband got home from work last night I was talking to him about some of the things my friend was telling me and then it hit me! My husband enjoys the amount of health that he does because he's always drinking water! He drinks at least 2 liters a day, hasn't gained any weight since high school and rarely gets sick. When he does get sick it's never in the same way as the rest of us. He might feel a little yucky, but it only ever lasts a day or 2. Me, when I get sick, I'm sick for at least a week. I need more water! And so do you!
www.watercure.com
http://www.integratedhealthca.com/
So I have a friend who's an internationally certified phytotherapist. I called her up yesterday because my daughter is secreting mucous from her eyes. She in turn asked me how her fluids are doing: yellow yuckies up her nose and strong smelling urine, which means that she's sick and dehydrated!
For the sick part, I've been instructed to get Essential Oil of Eucalyptus and to put ONE DROP on Reita's collar. When the smell is gone is when I know to put on another drop. Inhaling the fumes of the Eucalyptus will kill the bacteria and viruses. As my phytotherapist put it, Eucalyptus is a very gentle plant but tough on bacteria and viruses. Sounds like a mom! Very gentle, except for when there's a problem! ;)
For the dehydration part I've been instructed to have Reita drink half her body weight in water (ozs). So Reita, weighing about 24 pounds right now, needs to be drinking about 12 ounces of water a DAY.
I then received a very thorough education on dehydration. People think that dehydration means cracked lips and dry mouth, like in the movies, but that's not the case! Because your body requires water in order to operate - every function your body performs requires water. When the body does not have enough water the immune system shuts down so that the body can take care of the problem. Without sufficient water the cells will then mutate into other conditions, common conditions that we're all afraid of, such as the following: asthma, allergies, obesity, diabetes, CANCER... These things are all symptoms of dehydration. So really what we need to do is to DRINK WATER! We should all be drinking half our body weight in water (ozs). We should also be using about a teaspoon of unrefined salt (sea salt) because the water will flush out the minerals in our bodies, which we need, so we need to replenish the minerals with the salt. Now it has to be unrefined salt because the regular white table salt has had all of its minerals removed. (Unrefined salt will look slightly pink with some darker flecks. The coloration is because of the minerals.)
The sad thing is that most people are dehydrated and don't even realize it. :(
When my husband got home from work last night I was talking to him about some of the things my friend was telling me and then it hit me! My husband enjoys the amount of health that he does because he's always drinking water! He drinks at least 2 liters a day, hasn't gained any weight since high school and rarely gets sick. When he does get sick it's never in the same way as the rest of us. He might feel a little yucky, but it only ever lasts a day or 2. Me, when I get sick, I'm sick for at least a week. I need more water! And so do you!
www.watercure.com
http://www.integratedhealthca.com/
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Sour Cream
You know, I think about writing in my blog basically every day and I don't, so I'm sorry. Having 3 small children certainly takes its toll on my time, though to be fair, it IS the holidays and I was gone for a week. I don't go online when I'm away from home, as a general rule.
But that's not the point today, folks. The point today, is SOUR CREAM.
Most of us have recipes that call for sour cream, and nothing is more disappointing than starting to make some yummy Texas Sheet Cake only to discover that you're out or sour cream. :(
To save the cake, here's what you'll want to do:
Mix 1TBSP of lemon juice with 1 cup of milk. The lemon juice will curdle the milk. I find that allowing it to sit about 5 minutes enhances the flavor a bit and will help your cake to rise a little better. The longer it sits the chunkier your milk will be when you add it to the ingredients. If you don't have lemon juice use vinegar instead.
Also, you can make sour cream using 1 TBSP of lemon juice (or vinegar) and 1 cup of cottage cheese, well blended.
But that's not the point today, folks. The point today, is SOUR CREAM.
Most of us have recipes that call for sour cream, and nothing is more disappointing than starting to make some yummy Texas Sheet Cake only to discover that you're out or sour cream. :(
To save the cake, here's what you'll want to do:
Mix 1TBSP of lemon juice with 1 cup of milk. The lemon juice will curdle the milk. I find that allowing it to sit about 5 minutes enhances the flavor a bit and will help your cake to rise a little better. The longer it sits the chunkier your milk will be when you add it to the ingredients. If you don't have lemon juice use vinegar instead.
Also, you can make sour cream using 1 TBSP of lemon juice (or vinegar) and 1 cup of cottage cheese, well blended.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
The Toddler Bed (dun-dun-dun)
A few days ago I tell Merrill, "I think Reita's ready for a toddler bed." He nods but doesn't say anything.
So today, I get to sleep in a little bit while all my early birds are up. As in, I was the only one interested in sleeping after 6 am. :/ While I'm sleeping, Merrill decides to take down the crib and set up the toddler bed in the kids' room. Without making sure I'm ready to deal with it yet. I said Reita was ready, I never said I was! >.< Merrill took my earlier comment to mean that he could set up her toddler bed whenever he was ready. FAIL.
Evan and Reita were pretty excited though. Evan more so than Reita, but still, she was pretty happy once it was all done and she could actually climb INTO bed.
So far, so good. Until naptime hit. *B00* Evan and Reita played in their room for almost an hour before I was able to go get them. (I was busy with Bruce...) I was able to get Evan to lay down and nap, but as far as Reita was concerned... EPIC FAIL. She was so upset that mommy and daddy both wanted her to take a nap in that bed. She got so worked up she wouldn't settle down while in her room, so in the interest of her sanity, we let her out. :/ Then we gave her a sammich. :)
Needless to say, I was NOT looking forward to bedtime. It took me 10 minutes to convince Reita to be ok with being left alone in her new bed. I wanted her to feel good about being in it, especially after how badly things went down this afternoon.
Sure enough, *as soon as I left the room Reita got out of bed and Evan jumped right out of his bed too. They started playing with the door. I went in, got them back into bed, left.* Repeat from * to * 2 times. (A little crochet humor, sorry if you don't get it. ;) After threatening to leave the door closed didn't work (it's usually open so they can get light from the hall) I then threatened to take away their babies. (When I was pregnant with Reita a friend suggested I get Evan a baby doll to help him understand about babies. It worked great! It's kinda like his teddy bear. Reita has a stuffed doll too; got it for her when I was prego with Brucey.)
Evan hates it when I take away his toys so he stayed in bed. Reita got back out of bed, so I had to take away her baby. I got her in bed and left. After a couple more times of this, with me taking away different stuffed toys that she had on her bed, I finally started putting her in the corner AS WELL AS take away toys. This happened 2-3 times. :( Out of bed again, I go in there, she sees me and immediately runs to the corner as though we're playing a game! O_o
Ok, I admit it, that was cute and I was amused, but only because I wasn't that frustrated yet. (Had to remind myself not to laugh though.)
Several toys and times out later, she runs out into the hallway with a toy IN HER HAND, sees me, holds the toy out for me and runs back into her room! ACK! o_O
Ok, I admit it, that was cute and I would have been amused, if I hadn't been so frustrated! I grabbed that toy, fwapped her tooshy - gently, because I'm not into spanking - and ushered her back into bed. I think this is when it really clicked that, while she felt we were playing a game, I WASN'T! We had been at it for at least 45 minutes, maybe 50, and I was getting FED UP! No more corners, no more Mrs. Nice Mom, "Get your butt into bed!" She came out crying, I plopped her back into bed. After a couple of times of that I reminded myself that she's just a little girl and I needed to be nice. It was hard to be nice though, because I was frustrated and her crying woke up Bruce. :( But the next time she came out I took her hand and walked her back into bed. This happened about 3 or 4 more times.
Finally, she decided to cry a little more in her bed, settle down and go to sleep! *Whew* (Nope, that one's not a crochet joke. ;) I'm really hoping that tomorrow works out better!
On a more relaxing and tender note...
Today, I've been working on a star washcloth. See pattern here:
http://bellacrochet.blogspot.com/2010/06/little-star-dish-cloth-or-wash-cloth.html
Evan and Reita like to get hold of my projects while I'm working on them and "crochet". I let them have their fun, because I think it will help maintain their interest and help them want to learn for reals when they're old enough to do it.
So Evan gets the washcloth and the hook out of my crochet bag and starts "working" on it. As he does, he says, "I'm making a star."
"Yeah," I say.
"Yeah, and Heavenly Father's gonna put it in the sky!"
Aww...!
(His Great Grandma gave us a book a few years ago called "There Was No Snow On Christmas Eve" about the birth of Jesus, so we've talked about the Star of Bethlehem. He being only 3, I've told him that it's "the special star Heavenly Father put in the sky because he was SO HAPPY Jesus was born". Hence, his comment.)
:)
So today, I get to sleep in a little bit while all my early birds are up. As in, I was the only one interested in sleeping after 6 am. :/ While I'm sleeping, Merrill decides to take down the crib and set up the toddler bed in the kids' room. Without making sure I'm ready to deal with it yet. I said Reita was ready, I never said I was! >.< Merrill took my earlier comment to mean that he could set up her toddler bed whenever he was ready. FAIL.
Evan and Reita were pretty excited though. Evan more so than Reita, but still, she was pretty happy once it was all done and she could actually climb INTO bed.
So far, so good. Until naptime hit. *B00* Evan and Reita played in their room for almost an hour before I was able to go get them. (I was busy with Bruce...) I was able to get Evan to lay down and nap, but as far as Reita was concerned... EPIC FAIL. She was so upset that mommy and daddy both wanted her to take a nap in that bed. She got so worked up she wouldn't settle down while in her room, so in the interest of her sanity, we let her out. :/ Then we gave her a sammich. :)
Needless to say, I was NOT looking forward to bedtime. It took me 10 minutes to convince Reita to be ok with being left alone in her new bed. I wanted her to feel good about being in it, especially after how badly things went down this afternoon.
Sure enough, *as soon as I left the room Reita got out of bed and Evan jumped right out of his bed too. They started playing with the door. I went in, got them back into bed, left.* Repeat from * to * 2 times. (A little crochet humor, sorry if you don't get it. ;) After threatening to leave the door closed didn't work (it's usually open so they can get light from the hall) I then threatened to take away their babies. (When I was pregnant with Reita a friend suggested I get Evan a baby doll to help him understand about babies. It worked great! It's kinda like his teddy bear. Reita has a stuffed doll too; got it for her when I was prego with Brucey.)
Evan hates it when I take away his toys so he stayed in bed. Reita got back out of bed, so I had to take away her baby. I got her in bed and left. After a couple more times of this, with me taking away different stuffed toys that she had on her bed, I finally started putting her in the corner AS WELL AS take away toys. This happened 2-3 times. :( Out of bed again, I go in there, she sees me and immediately runs to the corner as though we're playing a game! O_o
Ok, I admit it, that was cute and I was amused, but only because I wasn't that frustrated yet. (Had to remind myself not to laugh though.)
Several toys and times out later, she runs out into the hallway with a toy IN HER HAND, sees me, holds the toy out for me and runs back into her room! ACK! o_O
Ok, I admit it, that was cute and I would have been amused, if I hadn't been so frustrated! I grabbed that toy, fwapped her tooshy - gently, because I'm not into spanking - and ushered her back into bed. I think this is when it really clicked that, while she felt we were playing a game, I WASN'T! We had been at it for at least 45 minutes, maybe 50, and I was getting FED UP! No more corners, no more Mrs. Nice Mom, "Get your butt into bed!" She came out crying, I plopped her back into bed. After a couple of times of that I reminded myself that she's just a little girl and I needed to be nice. It was hard to be nice though, because I was frustrated and her crying woke up Bruce. :( But the next time she came out I took her hand and walked her back into bed. This happened about 3 or 4 more times.
Finally, she decided to cry a little more in her bed, settle down and go to sleep! *Whew* (Nope, that one's not a crochet joke. ;) I'm really hoping that tomorrow works out better!
On a more relaxing and tender note...
Today, I've been working on a star washcloth. See pattern here:
http://bellacrochet.blogspot.com/2010/06/little-star-dish-cloth-or-wash-cloth.html
Evan and Reita like to get hold of my projects while I'm working on them and "crochet". I let them have their fun, because I think it will help maintain their interest and help them want to learn for reals when they're old enough to do it.
So Evan gets the washcloth and the hook out of my crochet bag and starts "working" on it. As he does, he says, "I'm making a star."
"Yeah," I say.
"Yeah, and Heavenly Father's gonna put it in the sky!"
Aww...!
(His Great Grandma gave us a book a few years ago called "There Was No Snow On Christmas Eve" about the birth of Jesus, so we've talked about the Star of Bethlehem. He being only 3, I've told him that it's "the special star Heavenly Father put in the sky because he was SO HAPPY Jesus was born". Hence, his comment.)
:)
Sunday, November 20, 2011
The Joys of Home Improvement!
No, I'm not talking about the old comedy with Tim Allen. ;) I'm talking about my basement. My house was vacant for 3 years before we bought it and during one of those years it wasn't winterized properly and it flooded. :( So most of the walls and all of the carpet had to be torn out, which is fine really, because the layout downstairs was lame.
Merrill has been working on renovating the bathroom downstairs. It has no walls, no attached toilet or sink or tub. It's been pretty extensive. The tub is almost ready to be attached to pipes and yesterday Merrill was building some framework for installing shelves in the shower. He accidentally hit a pipe and, you guessed it, water went spraying out all over the place. *B00* He had to hurry up and turn off the water to the house. There was no warning and I just so happened to be doing dishes while he was doing this. D:
Happily, I had some water stored in juice containers. You know, the non-refrigerated 64 oz jugs. I have several of them full of water hanging out in my basement, so we still have water to drink and wash with. Yay! Which is great, because I'd really hate to have to go to my neighbor's house and ask for water. I have great neighbors and all, but no one wants to answer the door 2-3 times a day to "lend" you water.
Me: Hey neighbor, can I borrow some of your water?
Neighbor: Sure, but I don't want it back!
Merrill has been working on renovating the bathroom downstairs. It has no walls, no attached toilet or sink or tub. It's been pretty extensive. The tub is almost ready to be attached to pipes and yesterday Merrill was building some framework for installing shelves in the shower. He accidentally hit a pipe and, you guessed it, water went spraying out all over the place. *B00* He had to hurry up and turn off the water to the house. There was no warning and I just so happened to be doing dishes while he was doing this. D:
Happily, I had some water stored in juice containers. You know, the non-refrigerated 64 oz jugs. I have several of them full of water hanging out in my basement, so we still have water to drink and wash with. Yay! Which is great, because I'd really hate to have to go to my neighbor's house and ask for water. I have great neighbors and all, but no one wants to answer the door 2-3 times a day to "lend" you water.
Me: Hey neighbor, can I borrow some of your water?
Neighbor: Sure, but I don't want it back!
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Hey There!
So I've been thinking about starting a blog for a while. In my search for ever more cute patterns to crochet, I've come across a lot of really neat blogs which is what got me thinking about having one, but I thought, I don't really design enough stuff to actually do a crochet blog like all these other fabulous ladies I come into contact with...
But then tonight, I had an epiphany as I made dinner... I ALSO MAKE UP RECIPES! Plus, I'm really good at rambling and some people find it to be entertaining, so I that's when I decided that I really CAN have enough content for a blog. :D It's kinda exciting. Especially because I often feel kinda isolated from the world. I have 3 totally adorable kids, but with my van in the shop all I do is stay at home with them. :/ Having a blog will be just like talking to adults! If you're not a mom, you're probably thinking, Big deal, I talk to adults all the time. Adults, however, don't ask questions like, "Mom, what happened?" when they throw up and they don't hold cups full of juice like it's a toy doll and then walk all over the house with it.
Obviously, I have young children. They are 3 years, 19 months and 3 months as of this writing. I LOVE my children, but the occasional adult conversation is refreshing, like a nice cool glass of water when you've been thirsty for about, oh, a week. :P
So this is my first rambling, or thought, if you will. TA-DA! I am on my way to blogging bliss. :)
But then tonight, I had an epiphany as I made dinner... I ALSO MAKE UP RECIPES! Plus, I'm really good at rambling and some people find it to be entertaining, so I that's when I decided that I really CAN have enough content for a blog. :D It's kinda exciting. Especially because I often feel kinda isolated from the world. I have 3 totally adorable kids, but with my van in the shop all I do is stay at home with them. :/ Having a blog will be just like talking to adults! If you're not a mom, you're probably thinking, Big deal, I talk to adults all the time. Adults, however, don't ask questions like, "Mom, what happened?" when they throw up and they don't hold cups full of juice like it's a toy doll and then walk all over the house with it.
Obviously, I have young children. They are 3 years, 19 months and 3 months as of this writing. I LOVE my children, but the occasional adult conversation is refreshing, like a nice cool glass of water when you've been thirsty for about, oh, a week. :P
So this is my first rambling, or thought, if you will. TA-DA! I am on my way to blogging bliss. :)
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