Recent Discovers

I've recently cut out all dairy from my diet. No small feat with the amount of milk that is consumed in my house! On a good note - I'm not gassy, bloated, or running the the bathroom within an hour after eating any more. And I'm not up 3 times a night either! The real downside has been finding food that I can eat.

No going out for coffee and doughnuts.

No cream in your coffee when you go out either!

No eating at the church buffets because nobody cooks without some dairy in the food

No hotdogs

No cheeseburgers

No really good food from Olive Garden or Red Lobster (I get to go there once a year and now even that isn't fun!)

No turkey on Thanksgiving

No blue cheese dressing

But I really can't argue with the good side, I do feel better. I am eating healthy, still getting lots of calcium and such. Just more home cooking then anything else.

its official!

We've officially become the fryers in the family! We've been frying up chicken, cheese, hush puppies and corn dogs all to the rest of the families delite! I use to love fried foods, now... not so much. We did about 75 cheese sticks on Sunday and froze about 25 for later frying. My waistline can't take much more...

:)

Its been a few months.... feels like years but anyway... I just had to talk about what I'm cooking this weekend.

We did a fish fry a few weeks ago and it got me thinking... how do you fry mozzarella??? So I checked a few sites and tried my hand at it.... What do you think?

This is all that made it to the plate for pictures, the kids snagged them all before I could even plate them!

But that was last night.... Tonight it's ratatouille. Basic recipe with Herbs de Provence.

Can't get a good picture at the moment, still cooking. I'm planning on serving this over a baked potato. I know not the traditional way but then... I'm not traditional. So on to the recipe....

eggplant

zucchini

yellow squash

cherry tomatoes

olive oil

Herbs de Provence

salt and pepper

Cut everything to bite size pieces and place in mixing bowl.

Add olive oil (I didn't measure just went twice around the bowl)

Add all the seasonings (again, no measuring, just till it looked good)

Toss all until everything is well coated

Spread out onto a cookie sheet in a single layer

Bake/roast uncovered at 400 for about 40 minutes, stirring once

No for me, I'm planning on making baked potatoes for dinner for the kids, so I'll be having this on to of my potato in place of my normal toppings.

I'll let you know how it tastes!

Gotta love Mondays

Ok, A is home sick, I called off work. Now to get laundry done, kitchen cleaned, and try to find the bathroom. Can I do it? Nope! Instead I'm going to type.
Little lady hit the ball yesterday and made it to first base! Then stole 2nd and 3rd before getting out at home.
Rerun has still not hit the ball. Really need to practice with him.
A finished up track but will miss the all city meet since they rescheduled it twice and now its on a day she can't make.
Little lady and Rerun both have a music concert tomorrow. Now to remember to record it for their daddy.
Mom's hubby is in the nursing home, not sure if he's going to be coming home or not. Last I heard he wasn't able to walk and since there are stairs at their house, he has to stay put.
Me... busy as ever. Can't think of what to write so maybe I will go and do the housework, or read, can't decide.

What a day

now I remember why I don't ready everyone's posts, either here in blogland or on facebook. I really do have a hard time with other people's problems.
You're having a hard day? I feel your pain and wish there was some way I can help
You're mad at me for what I said or did? I want nothing more then to fix it and make you love me again
You're hurting and crying and scared? I want to jump in my car or on a plane and hold you till you feel better
But I can't. I can't do any of those things, I'm stuck here taking care of my family, raising my kids, and living as best as I can. Reading others posts makes me realize just how great I have it, which only depresses me and makes me wish I could help you have a great life too.

Today I drove Jess to Rainbow to see her doc. Seeing her coughing and hurting, I just wanted to yell at the doc to fix her. But he can't, nobody can. CF sucks.

I read my sister's latest blog post. I want to hold her and tell her that its all ok, but I can't. Life is such that we don't see each other but once a year if we are lucky.

Damn it, I hate it when I get this way. Life sucks sometimes.... Now to put on the happy face, go to work and smile.

First RVDC meeting of the year

Last night we got the 4 incharge ladies together for an hour meeting that lasted 2. It was GREAT! We talked about craft ideas, program ideas, cache placements, unit placements and all sorts of other stuff!

No tie-dye this year, but duct tape has returned, bigger and better then ever!
Each unit will be getting about a 1/2 day of geocaching experience, maybe more if I can find some more scouting geocachers that want to help.
I'm checking on the Oberline heritage center for our field trip, underground railroad should be interesting this year
We are going to talk to the metro parks about bringing Ohio Mammals this year

Next meeting is in a month, hope to have it all nailed down by there.

Ugh!

Library didn't open until noon! Didn't make it yesterday, won't make it today either.

On a good note the cookies are IN!!! Anyone interested in Girl Scout cookies??

Girl Scout troop 17

I have decided to go in search of old GS information from my troop 17 years. I searched 3 months worth of film yesterday, talk about a dizzying event! Then found a simpler way and found that we had done a paper and can recycle event in Sept. of 1984, the only thing regarding our troop that made it into the archives for the Chronicle Telegram. :(
So, today I'm going to go to the North Ridgeville library in hopes that they have the Press and Light on film there and see what I can find.

I did find a really neat binder of Girl Scout history for Lorain county that someone had put together for the Elyria library. Really neat stuff!

Here's hoping that I have better luck today!

Cooking classes and menu ideas

We're starting a cooking group at the church. Once a month, freeze the meal cooking. We're starting with 5 meals, all chicken. No real side dishes or veggies just the main dish. We'll see how it goes. It got me thinking, all these sites tote $100/week for a family of 4. Well I have a family of 5, with big appitites. Can it really be done?? Well all of January was only $350.93, and that included going out to eat. Now most Sunday dinners are at my in-laws so that's 1 less dinner. Lunches for me are leftovers, for the kids its PBJ or lunchmeat. Jer will buy lunchmeat or soup and keep it at the office for the week. So having seen this, I'd say that yes we can do 6 dinners, breakfast and lunch all for under an average of $400 per month.
Now to see if we can stick to it. I haven't done any shopping for this weeks meals so I'll start with tonight's shopping and see what happens.