Puffy Recipe

I found a quick breakfast recipe hidden in my stack of grocery store cookbook. You know those little cookbooks that stare at you while you are waiting to check out (if not then I know you are secretly reading those trashy tabloids. Not to worry those two head aliens are crazy! Well that and all those glossy celebrity magazines, where everyone looks perfect in messed up relationships and who looks great in a bikini.) anyway I used to have a slight problem that I had to kick. I think I bought all of those little magazines for two years straight. I finally stopped buying them and gave all but four away. One of them is all about breakfast. This is important because breakfast around here is oatmeal, or eggs. I am not a morning person, my kids are. As soon as they wake up they ask what is for breakfast. I growl while I pour coffee and aim for the easiest way to make breakfast. The puffy pancake should called perfect because it requires almost no thought before my first cup of coffee. Here is a link to Betty Crocker's recipe for puffy pancakes  http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/puffy-oven-pancake-with-berry-topping/fa1070e1-1aed-438d-87c7-5366ff90fff3


Puffy Pancakes

Ingredients 

2 tablespoons butter (I use the stick kind and don't always measure but it puffs up more with a little more butter)
2 eggs (Farm fresh eggs are the best but any kind will do)
1/2 cup flour (Whole wheat flour also works great)
1/2 cup milk (Any kind of milk can be used. I have used heavy cream, raw milk, almond milk, and whole organic milk.
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon extract (Your favorite extract works and adds a hint of a lovely flavor I have used peppermint, vanilla, coconut, and almond extract but any flavor works. Also instead you can use citrus zest such as lemon and oranges)
Toppings can be anything you like the recipe suggests 2 cups fresh berries, but I dust it with powdered sugar and top with nuts, coconut flakes, berries, apple slices, and dried fruit. Use what you like or what the kids like.

Directions

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Put your butter into a pie pan (or what ever pan you have. I like to cut the butter into smaller pieces so that it melts faster.) Put the pan in the oven. Mix the eggs, flour, milk, salt, and extract in a bowl. When the butter is melted take your pan out of the oven pour the batter into the pan put into the oven for 25 minutes. Serve hot with your topping of choice.

That is it! Easy. My kids think I am wonderful every time I make this, I am willing to bet that your kids will think the same about you.

I do not have any pictures of this wonderful pancake.  Here is the one from Betty's website

http://www.bettycrocker.com

I hope that you have a wonderful week filled with Love and Laughter. Be well Friends.

My faith in the begining

Faith is a personal journey. Each of us has to our own path that fits well with our families and lives. I believe that there is more than one path, religion to God. Today I would like to share with you how I came to God. It is only a puzzle piece to the whole story. Before I found God I lost him. It is true, I have always had a feeling that some supreme being was out there watching over all of us, and I personally was not alone in this world. A few years ago, about four since you asked my husband had cancer. As a result he started researching religions. He is a very meticulous man (One of the many reason I love him) he watched documentaries, he read books, he looked for the beginning until he was satisfied. He also discovered Asherah, God’s wife. There is a story that in the early Jewish religion that all of the priest that worship Asherah were taken to the top of a mountain and slaughtered ending the teachings of God’s wife for political reasons. When I learned about this I realized that all religion is manmade, I felt torn apart. Broken. I struggled for a very long while whether God exists at all. I told you I lost him. I no longer want to celebrate arbitrary holidays, that had lost all many and seemed to become over night about greed. At the same time our family was attending church irregularly. Churches that our friends liked. Churches that did not fit us. Not that anyone of those churches were wrong, they were spreading the word of God and praising him, helping each one of those people to grow. I felt lost, completely and utterly lost. Then Rob and I were asked to go to a small group about marriage. We agreed. This is where I begin to see the beauty of the Holy Spirit. It was through those women that spoke about God that I found the light. God is in each one of us, and if we let him he will work through us. I also joined a MOPS group around this time and again I found God not in the words of the bible (I have 6 versions) but in the hearts of the women at my table and around me. These women who were grateful for life, and were kind to me showed me who God wants us to be. I also watched The Case for Faith and found that faith is a choice. We can choose to believe or we could choose not to. It is a choice. I know believe that all Holy works were inspired by God by written by man. Man is flawed and cannot fully understand the Glory of God. We cannot know the truth. Why else would there be so many beautiful religions that Glorify his Name. None of them are wrong they are each only a small piece of the puzzle, none of them are perfect. We can only strive to do what is virtuous and honor God with our actions towards one another. Because you never know when you inspire an Atheist to believe, you never know when your hope raises another person’s heart .  You never know when or where but as long as you are striving to be better in the name of God he will work through you.

As you know we are working on becoming Catholic. One of the reasons that we chose this path is because the Church allows people to take a journey. Before you can be baptized, confirmed, or take part in the Communion you have to take a class to be sure that you want to commit to the Catholic Church. Many of the other churches we went to in search of the “one” would baptize anyone who wanted to be saved, and you could be saved by raising your hand. There is nothing wrong with this God is supervising and loves all of his children. God knew that I needed to take a slower path, I needed to come to him slowly. Now we have been attending Mass for 2 ½ years and at Easter we will be Catholic. That is not to say that our journey is over, no quite contrary it is only beginning.

Why am I writing to you about my faith today? I wanted to share part of my story, and I wanted to remind you to be gentle and kind and loving to others. Of course I know that you are wonderful as you are. Sometimes we can say things that seem very small but can cause great joy or distress. Be mindful of others. 

I hope that your week is bright with the sounds of Love and Laughter. Be well my friends.

Changing the game plan

This last week I have been in a funky mood, you know the kind that is starting to stink at the back of the refrigerator. My attitude has been in the toilet and mostly blah. I felt totally deflated and then I woke up and realized that I was the problem. Me. I was the problem with my life, not school, not the kids’ noise, not my husband being constantly busy, not the dog eating everything he can sneak while we are not looking, no not anything other thing. I was the problem, am the problem. My attitude, mood swings directly affect those around me and this week it has been a bit sour.



The first step to any problem is admitting the problem. Hello My Name is Trisha and I am a problem. Done. Now for the game plan. One of the things that drive me completely nuts is my messy house. I have two boys who come through it like a tornado every few minutes, a dog that likes to roll around in the dead grass and shake it off the minutes he comes back into the house, a cat who rolls around in the leaves and then lays on the clean laundry, and my husband who thinks it is perfectly acceptable to garden in the bath tub and on any given window sill. These are the people I blame; now I am the person responsible for cleaning after them. I often try to make weekend clean up fun for everyone so that I feel like I am not alone in housecleaning, this past weekend we decided on trying out housecleaning Bingo. Fail, Epic Fail. While I was looking up bingo cards on the web I came across http://flylady.net/. It is a website dedicated to helping poor slobs like me to get their act together. It is a 31 day step program that helps (it claims). So far the website looks like it might help so today I am going to start.



Day 1. Shine your sink. http://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/flying-lessons/shine-sink/



Day 2. Get dressed to the shoes. (Um, but I haven’t finished my coffee yet.)





Another problem I have been mulling over is the fact that we still eat processed bread. We have given up most other processed food, I say most because chocolate, coffee, flours, and sugar. Am I really so lazy that I can’t make fresh bread for my family, seriously I have a bread maker. The answer is no, I often run out of flour. I think I found a reasonable solution at amazon, I can buy 25 pounds of Organic, unbleached flour and have it shipped to me for free. I love Amazon Prime for this reason, the free shipping that is. They also offer a subscription to the flour to lower the cost. http://www.greatrivermilling.com/. So starting on the first I will be buying 25 pounds of flour every other month for about 92 cents a pound. Problem number two solved.



As for many of my other problems well I think is mostly a lesson in being grateful. Grateful that I have two beautiful children. Thankful that my husband chose me. Grateful for our house that the bank owns but they allow us to act like we do. Grateful that my husband works a job that allows me to stay at home with our children. Thankful that he is willing to pay for my education even though I might not work later either. I am grateful that I have this life. I am happy.



I hope that you are happy today too, and that your week is filled with Love and Laughter. Be well my friends.

Moments

Yesterday was was my baby's birthday. I can not believe that he has grown up so fast. Every time one of my children have a birthday I reflect on the past birthdays and the future ones. One day they may not want to celebrate with their parents. They will want to go out to dinner with all of their friends instead of choosing their homemade birthday dinner from me. I realize that I only have a few years left before they are adults. These sweet years are mine forever, because for them they will become part of the fiber that they are made out of. The story's they tell their future wives and children. I am hoping that by having this tradition of a big meal of their choice and all of us being together will bring them home. Maybe the hardest part of being in the military is knowing that there is a real chance that the kids might move away from us. The difference is I know that I will go to them. I am living the dream right now, living the moments that I will remember my whole life.

I made my sweet little man a Cape for his birthday.



I hope your week is filled with Love and Laughter. Be well my friends.

From the Farm

I wanted to do a post on why I chose to buy directly from the farm instead of supporting the factory farm industry. It is really easy to tell you that I want to support my farmer that I want to build a relationship with the people who are feeding my food. In a lot of ways I wish that was the only reason we switched to farm raised meat and eggs. The truth is that after making the decision to switch did we start to build the relationships. I am glad we did! It has helped me feel like I am part of the puzzle for the first time. By choosing to buy my eggs from http://www.hansonfamilyfarm.com/index.html I know that my money is going to this family, it helps to feed the chickens an organic feed to supplement when the grass is dormant or the chickens need extra nutrition. They are the stewards of the food I eat, they get up in the wee hours of the morning to make sure that the animals are well cared for, and they don’t stop until it is dark and beyond. I am grateful for all that this small family farm does for my family. They deserve the price that they are asking. I will never ask them to lower their costs because they work hard and deserve the fair price they ask for.



When I was part of the problem and buy cheap eggs, and meat I was supporting a different kind of environment. One where chickens are crammed in a cage, each chicken barely has enough space to sit and rest. Chickens that die are left in the cage to be stomped until it is a crinkled mess. I supported the overuse of antibiotics in these animals so that the people in charge don’t have to treat the animals with respect. I was supporting the cutting off of beaks so the cramped birds wouldn’t get board and peck at each other. I supported the manure being spread in improper ways, the cancer that spread to local neighbors through their drinking water, and I supported the way these companies treated their farmers.  By turning a blind eye, by acting in ignorance I was the problem. What do you think you are getting when you spend 79 cents per pound for chicken? You are not getting the word of that farmer because the farmer is turning a blind eye to the problem because he or she is only making pennies on that product. They are barely making it on the money they receive. Did you know that in order for chicken to be labeled as free range they only need a small door on one end of a giant building that allow them access to the sunshine and grass, but because all of the animals’ food and water is inside the building they rarely if ever venture out? Did you know that arsenic was used to get the chickens to eat more, and to counter act the poison they gave the birds antibiotics? Don’t believe me, here is an article written in August of 2011 http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2011-06-08-fda-chicken-arsenic_n.htm. That is right friends the FDA says arsenic is Okay for chickens that you eat. Would you feed it to your children?



These are a few of the reasons to switch. This is only the very tip of the iceberg. This problem effects the environment. I haven’t even told you the benefits of grass fed beef and why we switched to it. I will be happy to show you my research, to point you to books to read, to the documentaries to watch. This information is out there. Start by googleing factory farms and look at the images. You don’t even have to read the articles look at how those animals are treated. You can google local farmers in your area and see the difference in the pictures. Only you can drive to those farms, or call those farmers and ask if you can see how they are treating the animals. I bet they will let you. That they will be happy to share why they choose to farm the way they do. I was part of the problem for years. Me, I did not know any better. I did not know. That is why I am sharing with you. This is why I am encouraging you, empowering you. Together we can make a change. Together we can change the food system. We can demand better! We can show the FDA that we know better and can do better. They are not protecting us. They are doing tests to see if we can eat small amounts of arsenic, not stopping it. Yes, I know it is expensive. But you can pay the farmer or you can pay the doctor. Let me tell you from my personal experience it is so much sweeter to thank the farmer for their hard work. To hand my money over to them and know the only middle man involved is me because I use the money my husband makes to support this family. I know it is hard to contemplate spending more on food, but maybe it is time we realize as a culture that food is a need and not worth buying cheap quality. Please consider going to a farmers market asking questions. Look into Joel Salatin. You can read his books, watch him on youtube, or find him here http://www.polyfacefarms.com/. His theory on farming is what we should be looking for in farmers. You have the power to change and by changing we change the food system. I am sorry for the lecture. I am very passionate about this topic.



I hope your week is filled with Love and Laughter. Be well friends.

Chicken Pizza

Last night for dinner I made a lovely Chicken pizza. I did not take pictures so you will have to trust me when I tell you it was as pretty as it sounds. Two days ago I made lemon chicken in the crock pot. For this recipe I used the leftover chicken.

Lemon chicken Arugula Pizza



Ingredients:



About 2 cups chicken

About 2 cups Arugula

6 oz Goat Cheese
A big handful of strawberries

Salt

Pepper

Pizza dough (I make sourdough bread dough but your favorite dough will be perfect)



Preheat the oven 400 degrees. Roll out the dough on to the pan. Spread the chicken around evenly, tear the arugula in to bite sized pieces and spread on top of the chicken. Sprinkle the goat cheese over the pizza. Slice the strawberries and place them on top. Salt and pepper. Put in the oven for about 30-40 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.



The total cost for this pizza is $10 or $2.50 per person in a family of four.

The total calories per slice 132.  I ate two slices.

I hope you discover a new favorite pizza this week, that it is filled with Love and Laughter. Be well friends.

My family is completely obsessed with food

I have a confession to make, one that you have probably already guessed, but here it is all the same. My family is completely obsessed with food. I read cookbooks when I am not reading for my college classes. My husband is getting a degree in Horticulture. My kids wake asking what we are going to eat for all of the days meals. Our food is about more than what we put in our mouth, it is about who raises it, who grows it, how it is grown, where it came from, and what is in it. I know a lot of people who say my kids won’t eat this or that or my favorite they will only eat ______ fill in the blank. My question is this, what have you told your kids about food? Why do you keep giving it to them? When my kids start asking for something and demanding and refusing to eat anything else we stop eating it. Ice cream is a good example we go months without it so that it is a special occasion. Today we wrote our list of meals for the next couple of weeks, Damian pulled out the cookbooks and chose what sounded good to him Spicy sausage tortillas, Chicken pasta salad, Broccoli Orecchietta, and Cassoulet. James wanted Cauliflower Macaroni and cheese and Roasted Root Vegetable Pizza. When I put a meal on the table James asked what it in it so we spend ten to fifteen minutes talking about what the ingredients are and how I cooked them. We talk about gardening, a lot. What we hope to grow, when we need to start seeds, or when to plant the transplants. My kids all ways ask is that edible?

We also talk about composting and recycling. Because of our chose to be as sustainable as possible we only take our trash to the curb once every two weeks, and the same with the recycling bins. It is a nice realization that we have reduced our waste so much. I know that we have a long way to go before we completely sustainable but I know that we will get there one day, year from now. There is no time limit but the fact we are actively making improvements is a success.

Last month I read an article on the use of wood pulp as filler in food. The USDA allows up to 10% of any food to contain this wood pulp. Yeah that extra fiber in your bread or cereal it could be wood, you’ll never know because it is called cellulose in the ingredients. You can read about it here  http://www.thestreet.com/story/11012915/1/cellulose-wood-pulp-never-tasted-so-good.html.  Here is a fun fact about cellulose it is also used insulation, that’s right insulating your house. Wood pulp it is the modern day Soylent Green.  Shortly after reading more about the wood in meat products as well as breads and cereal, we went out to eat for the last time. I ordered nachos and it hit home when that plate was set in front of me. What is in that? I looked up almost in tears and said, “I don’t think we can eat out anymore.” My husband said simply, “Yeah, I think you may be right.” We have taken out almost all processed foods. We still eat frozen vegetables, canned tomatoes, chocolate, coffee, and bread. Yeah I know it probably has wood in it, but it is the hardest thing to switch over to completely homemade bread all of the time. I am hoping to buy flour in bulk this year to make it easier to make bread at home. I want unbleached flour. Turns out it is not readily available at local super stores.  Here is our boards of dinner meals for the next two weeks.  

Now you know I have horrible handwriting.

Why do I have 20 meals listed and there are only 18 days left in the month; you ask. We like to have a couple of extra meals in case nothing else sounds good. I want to share this journey with you. One thing I realized is how much less it is to just eat at home, even with the grass fed meat. A couple of days ago we had Jamie Oliver's Sweet and Sour Pork with brown rice and Roasted purple Cauliflower. The total cost per person was only $3.75. Let me tell you I do not skimp on food either. Don't believe me? Let's take the chicken listed at the top of my list.

Let's say I paid 18 dollars for that lovely bird. First, because I haven't learned to cut up the chicken I will usually roast it in the crockpot with an onion $1, a couple of cloves of garlic 20 cents, sliced lemons $1 and rosemary from our garden. So far for the chicken it is up to $22.00. Wait I use this chicken for two meals and chicken broth. So lets divide the price by 2 which is $11.00. So here is what we might have with the chicken.

Chicken       $11.00

Brown rice  $     .50

frozen veg   $   1.50

Total            $13.00 now we divide that by four and we have $3.25 for our whole meal. A lot of times we will have a green smoothie but we use the greens we are growing in our garden and a handful of frozen fruit at most it might make that individual total go up fifty cents. I want to encourage you to eat at home too. I have tons of cookbooks and I am more then happy to tell you how it is going complete with the total cost of the meals. It is completely reasonable to buy organic food, local food, and grass fed meat.

I want to leave you with a quote from Oprah Winfrey, "When you know better, you do better."

I hope that your week is filled with a revelation that moves you, Love and Laughter. Be well Friends!