Halloween Night Chili

Yesterday at gymnastics, of of my best girlfriends said she was making a huge pot of chili for Halloween night supper. Boo thought this was the best idea he'd heard in his whole 5 years, and announced to Daddy last night that we were having chili for supper tonight. This, of course, put a sparkle in both of my men's eyes. It's a good thing I had all the needed supplies, or Miss Jen would have found another 4 on her front porch tonight with bowls and spoons.

Here's how I started it. 

2 pounds of lean ground beef went into my dutch oven over high heat. I added salt, chili powder, cumin, paprika, and garlic to the meat as it was browning. I then diced 2 medium white onions and added them to the browned/spiced meat. I didn't drain what little fat was there. That's FLAVOR!  I then poured in about a cup of burgundy wine to both deglaze and add richness.

Over night, I soaked about 2 cups of dried pinto beans in water and 3 small dried bay leaves. If you suddenly want to have chili, and haven't done this step, you can cook the beans in the mixture dry, but you'll need more time, more water, and the texture won't be the same. Or, you can use canned beans. 

Now, remember... When I'm cooking, I almost NEVER use a recipe. Yet, somehow, I'm able to do things like this, where the volume of what I've done is slam damn perfect.

So, after adding a small can of tomato paste, and giving it a good stir...

It goes on the back burner on low...

Gets her lid put on, and she will sit right here and slowly and gently simmer all day until the beans are tender and all the favors are mingled, yummy, and perfect. I'll taste throughout the afternoon and adjust flavor says need-be. 

Throughout the afternoon, I stirred, tasted, and looked at consistency. There looked to be too much water early afternoon, but the beans were still a little too firm, I knew they would need that water, so I didn't add a thickener. To thicken your chili, you can keep some of your soaked beans out of the mix, put them in a separate cooking pot, then blend them into a purée once they are cooked tender, and add that purée to your chili. Natural thickener that's still gluten free.

Late afternoon, it needed both salt and more spices. I added more kosher salt and chili powder. I used all my cumin in the meat mixture first thing, so I started hunting through the spice cabinet for something chili-like to add that wasn't spicy. The kids and I are hot-wimps. Low and behold, I found some taco seasoning. I gave it a smell, it smelled like a good blend to add to what I already had, so I put a good bit in. I gave it a stir, and a new taste, and dubbed it AWESOME!

Both kids tasted, and the girl said, "It's delicious!", and the boy closed his eyes, chewed, thought about it, smiled, and said, "That's it. Yes, that'll do."

Here's the final product. Me Saucy dubbed it just about perfect. For his bowl I added about a tablespoon of dried chipotle chili flakes. I brought it to him while he was outside doling out the candy to the trick-or-treaters. Upon careful consideration, he said the only thing that would have made it better, would have been cheese and diced raw red onion.

So there we have it. Oh, ps, the girl child didn't eat it for supper. I made her scrambled eggs instead. She's in her 3-year-old, "I only want to eat things that are white, light brown, yellow, or orange" phase. You know, grilled cheese, peanut butter sandwiches, chicken nuggets, Mac-N-Cheese, Cheerioes, milk, bananas, oranges, scrambled eggs. Instead of fight with her, I just make sure she has a balanced day based on what she will eat. OH, and I forgot... She'll eat her weight in broccoli. That's the only thing not white, orange, yellow, or light brown that she'll eat.

Ok, enough about what my mini-me's diet. This is about chili! Wonderful, warm, thick, hearty chili. And it was awesome. 

Stay hungry and play with your food.

 

Gummy Bear Science

Yesterday, Tuesday, is science day here at preschool home-school. I went to my favorite resource, Pinterest, and looked up fun science experiments. There are tons of cool choices, and yes, I've made a pin board for future classes and ideas. 

The Gummy Bear absorbtion experiment was the one we could do with supplies here at home. 

Luckily, the gummy bears that we had on-hand were from the Carter administration, so they were adequately prepared to take on a good bit of water for a drastic change.

The hardest part of the experiment was keeping the little's hands off them, keeping them from eating the control group, keeping them from eating the experiment, and keeping them from stirring the gummy bears.

I used a clear plastic reusable container and put a few inches of cool tap water in it. Then placed the rock solid (they honestly made a thump sound when they hit the bottom) gummy bears into the water. 

The 5 year old and 3 year old were really very good about the experiment. They would go running to check on it every 30 minutes or so, exclaim over what they saw, then go back to building with their blocks or coloring.

I started to throw it out last night after they went to bed, thinking they would dissolve completely in the water over night, but I didn't throw them away, and they didn't dissolve. The picture above is from the next morning. Both kids were very excited to see what happened over night, and we're very impressed with how much water they had absorbed.

The very next thing they said was, "can we eat them now?". 

We also learned that gummy bears that have been soaked in water for about 20 hours are very soft and squishy.

And slippery!

They're pretty hard to pick up, in fact.

VERY HARD to pick up.

Mommy ended up helping...

And then they were gone. The control group was left. Both little's wanted to try to eat them, but both spit them out. I would have to guess we were more along the side of the consistency of Jolly Rancher's than gummy bears, at this point in their life cycle.

So there we have the gummy bear absorbtion experiment. I need to pick up food coloring for next weeks class, so keep an eye out for our color experiments.

Have fun, and remember to play with your food!

Sewing Knees

I needed to break out the needle and thread the other night to patch a favorite stuffed animal. Emergency medical sewturing was needed, so as a little girl with huge blue eyes looked on, I carefully sewed up a lambs front paw.

This sudenly sparked the sewing bug, so I got out a project I've been meaning to tackle for a long time. Our son is rough in his jeans. The knees are almost always blown out before he grows out of them, but I keep him in them as long as I can. I'm cheap. I don't want to throw away a perfectly good pair of jeans that just need a bit of mending. Plus, I can just patch the knees and then his little sister can wear them.

Remember the cheap part? I also keep just about every random article of fabric for "projects". I'm SURE I'm going to make a T-Shirt quilt for my husband from all his 2,000 antique T-Shirts. I also want to make blankets for the kids out of their old baby blankets and uber cute baby clothes that were "special". This being said, I still have crib sheets too because they are nice large pieces of fabric for these "projects" I have in mind.

So I have blue jeans with holes in the knees and pink Minnie Mouse fabric from a crib sheet. Viola! Knee patches. I found the spot in the elastic where it was sewn together, made a small snip in the hem to get to it, then pulled it free in one long piece. (Kept, of course, for another project.) I then cut 2 squares from the sheet and folded them into 4 pieces for durability, and sewed them to the inside of the holy knee. I used purple thread, and left it looking hand done. I didn't futz over making it look professional or exact. And I think they are PERFECT! Here are pictures from the 2 pair I've finished.

Day 5 of GNC "Detox & "Cleanse", and it's over because it's crap.

In my carbohydrate and sugar overload last night, I realized after climbing into bed that I had forgotten my PM pack. I took it this morning, and haven't noticed ANYTHING different from yesterday. In fact, after discovering the gluten in the 2 pills, and eliminating them from the collection, there is really nothing to report...shall we say...biologically in the plumbing.

The good news about the ridiculous dinner I had last night is that I didn't gain anything. I didn't lose, but didn't gain, so I call that a draw. Not a win, and not a loss.

Woke up early this morning and couldn't go back to sleep, so I came on downstairs for coffee, a fire, and the morning news. I made bacon in the oven, and it was the BEST BATCH EVER! My 3 year old disappeared and was quiet for too long before I realized she had helped herself to the chewy batch I made for my Honey. He likes it a little less "done" than I do. I like mine about 4.12 seconds shy of burnt. I don't want any "give" in my bacon at all. 

The kids had cereal and bacon for breakfast. I just had my coffee and bacon. 

We dropped Boo off at martial arts practice, and then GG and I drove across town to the drive through Starbucks. I ordered a sugar free vanilla skim latte, then we drove back to pick up The Boo. Perfect timing, and he was VERY excited that he got to use 2 nunchucks today. 

It's 1:30, and everyone has had lunch. The kids their favorite versions of PB&J. GG likes hers sans J. Boo likes his "triple decker" style, which I made one day when we had 5 pieces of bread left. 2 went to GG's sandwich and with 3 left over, I made Boo a 3-piece sandwich. He LOVED it. I had my regular lettuce roast beef wrap and seltzer water.

Supper was a hamburger patty at the neighborhood Halloween block party. And gin and 7-up. 

The next morning, after eating almost nothing, and drinking the hard stuff, I was not feeling very awesome. Sunday was a fairly normal day, a lot like the others. He kids wake me up, I feed them, have coffee, then have some breakfast a little later, or skip on until lunch. Supper was flank steak and baked oven fries.

On Monday, I wasn't feeling well, but not like the headache from Sunday morning. My tummy hurt. Up early with the kids, let my Honey sleep in, then went to a Dr appt check up, then home to work on projects with the family. Upon coming home, I spent most of the rest of the day running to the potty. My husband took the kids to the gym around mid-afternoon, and I was feeling so awful. That I thought I may have caught the flu. I checked my temp, and I was normal, but I sure wasn't feeling normal. Everything hurt. Skin, hair, tummy, and I was COLD. I'm never cold. The back door was open, and I finally shut it and went to the thermostat to verify my suspicion that it was clearly in the 40's in the house. Imagine my surprise to discover it was 71! 

I considered putting a chicken in the oven, then sending my Honey a text to tell him I was going to bed, and that dinner was in the oven, with a reminder of what temp to cook the bird. While I was prepping the chicken, I felt nauseous, and really thought I was going to barf all over the kitchen. But slowly, I felt better. I even had supper with the family, and it was delicious. But, 20 minutes after supper,  I was back in the potty feeling terrible again. Off to bed for me.

Today is Tuesday, and things are the same. After eating, I feel terrible. Then after several hours, I feel well again, and even a little hungry. I eat, and feel horrible again for a few hours, then a little better, then fine. Then I eat, and it starts over. The scale-obsessed side of me doesn't mind so much. The mommy that needs to get things done, who can't go to bed because her kids will destroy the house, and is counting down the minutes until Daddy comes home (181 until he's off work, then another 64 after that before he's home), is quite over this bug, and is looking forward to a happy tummy, hopefully tomorrow.

Oh, and the detox & cleanse set was nothing more than a gigantic waste of time, money, and hope. If anything, it cleaned out the things in my system that would have fought off this bug. 

Day 4 of GNC "Cleanse & Detox"

It's 11:21 am, and I'm just now having my breakfast Shakeology shake. I took my AM vitamin pack when the boy woke up and wanted his breakfast. I had my coffee while he was eating his breakfast, then the girl came down for hers. The kids started playing with play dough and I went up to switch, fold, and put away a load of laundry. I vacuumed the master bedroom floor before starting so I had a dog-hair-free place to fold and sort. Dishes are done, kids have now had their lunches, and the dryer is telling me it thinks it's done with this load. It is not done. It takes our dryer at least 2 full cycles to really dry a load. Especially if it has jeans, sweatshirts, or towels in it.

I lost a little again yesterday. I think I'm down 2 in 3 days, which isn't bad. 

Lunch was my triple decker lettuce and roast beef wrap. And what is this? It's 5:30, and I didn't have celery and peanut butter today! Whoop Whoop! Today has been a day of tieing up loose ends around the house. Complete (well, a solid 93.68%) laundry "doing", folding, hanging, and putting away. I sewed pink flowery patches into my sons holy-knee jeans for hand-me-downs for my daughter. I swept a lot. It seemed like I was sweeping a good part of both yesterday and today. Inside, the back deck, the deck stairs, the front porch, the front steps... And yet there is still dog and cat hair, and rouge play dough nuggets still in sight. 

Tonight's supper will be flank steak, unless my Honey vetoes and wants to order in. The only things for a gluten free couple to eat via delivery are freakin' expensive, so as much as I love the ease of ordering out, I feel both guilty about my waist line, and the pocket book when it's over.

Well, he didn't want flank steak, or ANYTHING when he got home, so I made gluten free spaghetti noodles with butter, olive oil, pepper, and fresh rosemary. Then a bowl of chocolate ice cream with dark chocolate sauce, toffee bits, and Reese's pieces. Half way through I was already feeling nasty, so I gave it to our son. 

I feel GROSS!! Ugh. Bad idea Carter Ann! BAD IDEA!

Day 3 of GNC "Detox & Cleanse"

Let me be clear, I am NOT following the suggested daily eating plan in the package. I picked one that would still allow me to eat pretty much normally. Normal for me is meats and veggies. I'm not a bad eater, I'm an A LOT eater. Portion sizes are my issue. Our kids were asking in swimming class what their favorite flavor of ice cream was, and neither of them answered. They actually looked over at me to see if I could help with the answer. Snacks in our house are cheese and fruit. 

The scale this morning showed a re-gain of 1.8 of yesterday's 2.0 loss, but with the amount of peanut butter I ate mid-day, and 3 glasses of wine last night, I'm not surprised. But again...remember...this is why I like weighing daily! I now know EXACTLY what peanut butter and wine do to "my" body. Also, please remember that EVERY "body" is different. Chemistry is different and unique in each creature, and comparing ourselves to one another is about as useful as comparing a swimming pool to a coffee table.

Kid 1 was up before 7:00, so we came down for his breakfast and my coffee. I took my AM packet and picked out the one with the wheat. I've had 1 cup of pumpkin coffee and sugar free pumpkin creamer so far. I'll be getting another as soon as I finish my morning notes here. 

If you're like most people, when you hear of a "cleanse" you think about the poops that will ensue. Here's a brief update. If you don't care to know this much about the process, skip to the next paragraph. Day 1, I felt the need to go, but no cramping, gas pains, or other ill effects. Day 2, each trip to the potty was met with a little poopies, but it wasn't an, "Oh my God! I have to go NOW!" In fact, there hasn't been any of those at all. I'm perfectly capable of going about my daily activities without fear of being out running errands and needing to immediately find a potty. And then, keep in mind, that on days 1 and half of day 2, I was taking the vitamins that contained wheat, so part of the past 2 days potty visits could have been attributed to that.

It's 1:00, and we're home from the gym/swimming. The kids have swim lessons and I wore my suit today and swam laps while they were in class. After making the kids' PB&J's, I made a triple decker roast beef lettuce wrap. Leaf of romaine lettuce, mayo, thin sliced deli roast beef (x3) stacked and rolled up. AWESOME. However, I'm still hungry. Trying to think of what else to eat...

I had more celery and PB. It's my favorite snack. Soft, crunchy, warm, cool, sweet, salty. Lordy it's awesome.

Dinner for me was a left over pork chop from last nights supper, cut up and put on a bed of chopped romaine lettuce with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper. Green tea and seltzer water to drink. I remembered my dinner time vitamins, minus the one with gluten, of course, and then my Honey and I went to bed and watched 2 episodes of Scandal on Netflix. We're about mid-way through season 2 now.

Leftover Stew

Tonight's supper wasn't so much a recipe, but a method. We had leftover pork roast from last night's slow cooker awesomeness, and both leftover pork tenderloin and leftover roasted chicken from this week all in the fridge. There wasn't enough to give everyone at the table the same thing of any one of the above, but by combining them, I was able to make an AWESOME stew. 

I started with your standard onion, carrot, and celery mixture in olive oil, and started to soften them over medium heat. I buy the celery bunches that have the tops still on them. They are cheeper than the "hearts" only, and I always use the leaves and tops in soups, stocks and stews. I chopped one onion, about a cup of celery tops, and about another cup or 2 of chopped baby carrots, which we always have around for the kids snacks, and my Honey's hummus addiction. While they were happily mingling in the Dutch oven, I cut up the leftover meat trio and then put that I as well. I took a quart of homemade chicken stock out of the freezer and placed that in the pot too. Yes, still frozen. It will melt while the veggies continue to soften, and eventually everything simmers beautifully. I added salt to taste and a little jarred pesto, then covered it and left it alone while I went put back to push the kids in the swings.

I checked on it after about 30 minutes, and it seemed a little "flat", so I added liquid smoke. It seemed a little thin, so I took a bag of gluten free crackers that were mostly crumbs anyway, and I began to crush them. My 5 year old thought this looked like TONS of fun, so I gave him the bag, and he helped me crush the last of the remaining crackers. He then got his stool, and added the crumbs to the pot. I stirred, and it instantly reminded me of chicken tortilla soup...but with 2/3 pork.

When my Honey got home from work, I put on a pot of brown rice, and tasted the stew again. It needed a touch of both acid and sweetness. So, one of my favorite ingredients went in, balsamic vinegar. When I went back to theAnd then, it was PERFECT! 

We each ate it a little differently. The 3 year old liked hers "separate". Rice on one side of the bowl and stew on the other. The 5 year old boy liked it mixed, but nothing added. The Daddy person liked it with crushed red peppers, and I put black pepper and olive oil on mine.

There is enough for him to take it to work with him tomorrow for lunch, and more that I can freeze for his lunches later this fall too. I just have to remember to label it! I'm terrible about forgetting what I put in the freezer...

So remember, a meal can be just the beginning. Someone else's recipe is nothing more than a good start. Eat what you like, and it's ok if you don't always like what you make.

Slow Cooker Cider, Garlic, Rosemary Pork Roast with Spinach & Onion Garlic Gravy

For the pork...

2 pound Pork Loin (not tender loin, but the chunk that would be cut into pork chops)

12oz bottle of apple cider

6-8 whole garlic cloves

2 large spears of Rosemary

Salt & Pepper to taste

Pour cider in, put garlic cloves and rosemary in, then place roast on top of garlic and rosemary. My slow cooker has a temp probe (thermometer) and allows me to cook an item until the temp is perfect, then it turns itself to "Warm". I set it to 160, and let it do it's thing. When the internal temp was 160, it switched to "warm" and made a heavenly tender roast!

For the Spinach...

6 cups of frozen copped spinach, thawed and cooked in hot water. (Either microwave it or boil it on the stove. You're only heating it up because I don't know many people who would like to eat frozen spinach with their supper.)

For the gravy...

1 md white onion cut into petals

1 md red onion cut into petals 

Olive oil

Salt

2 T butter

2 T gluten free flour mix (I used brown rice)

All the cooking liquid left in the slow cooker (I had 2 cups worth)

Drizzle a little olive oil in pan, put all onion petals into pan, add salt (both for taste, and to bring out the moisture in the onions so they will brown and caramalize). Cook them on medium/low. This is important because you need to make sure you don't burn the onions. This is the longest part of the "standing at the stove" cooking. After they are soft and translucent (kinda starting to look like they could be almost clear, but not quite) use a slotted spoon and fish out the garlic cloves from the pork cooking liquid. I used the same slotted spoon, and the wooden spoon I had been stirring the onions with to smush the garlic. Let the onions and garlic continue to slowly cook and become a pretty soft brown.  Increase the heat to medium or medium high then add the 2 tablespoons of butter and let it melt in with the onions. Add the 2 tablespoons of brown rice flour and stir with a whisk to incorporate. It will turn into a paste that will coat each onion. Stir around a little for about a minute. Add the cooking liquid and stir. Once it starts to bubble, you can turn it way down and cover it if you need to.

To plate..

Bring out roast and slice into 1/2 inch slices.

Squeeze excess water from spinach

Place a spoonful of spinach in the center of the plate

Put your pork slice(s) on top of the spinach

Spoon your gravy on top of the pork slices

For the kids, I piled cut up pork on spinach for our son, then added ketchup.

For our daughter, it was just spinach and pork. With ketchup in the side.

Our son, however, ended up LOVING the gravy and the Mommy-Daddy plating, so he ended up eating a great deal from my plate. And he's 5.

My husband and I both added fresh cracked black pepper to our plates, as I've found that the kids eat more if I don't cook with pepper. Which is fine by us, because I love the flavor of fresh pepper on my food, and my husband loves hotter peppers. We have grinders of dried jalapeños, dried chipotle peppers, and your every day crushed red pepper flakes. He likes to pick and choose based on the dish and his mood. I'm a wimp, so I don't often partake in the spicy additives.

So here's the super supper from last night.  Hope you love it as much as we did. And, since it was done and cooked when Daddy came home, we sat right down, ate, then still had time to go for a bike ride after supper.

Wake me up when it's all over

For my unborn children, I gave up sanity and clarity along with wine and caffeine. Don't worry. After they were born and finished nursing, the caffeine and wine came back. But, I have ADHD, and was unable to take my medication during pregnancy, nursing, and trying to get pregnant. After our second (and, subsequently, last) child, I stayed at home to raise them. I was a stay at home Mom for about a year and a half. Then I went to work in a small law office part time, then went to work at a friends company. There was a Ritalin shortage nationwide, and getting my Rx's filled became almost impossible. I asked my GP, who had taken over my Rx after my diagnosis, if we could switch to something different so I could be more consistent. He felt I needed to see a psychiatrist because s/he would have more knowledge regarding what I needed.

Right about this time, we found the blood clot. The blood clot terrified me, so when I finally made the apt with the psychiatrist, I was understandably depressed, anxious, and due to new pressures at work, I was all-in-all a hot mess. My new psychiatrist put me on antidepressants because she thought I was depressed, and not ADHD. 

So here I was, almost 20 years after my initial diagnosis, being told I wasn't ADHD, I was depressed. Well, I thought, "Here we go again". I thought that, because all through out high school Drs put me on anti-depressants over and over again. Both of my parents were/are clinically depressed, so it was though that this was my "problem" too. My mother was stubborn, and with my IQ being higher than hers, and she being a Duke University graduate, she just knew I was capable of anything, and I just wasn't applying myself. She wouldn't even allow me to go through ADHD testing. It wasn't until after she passed away that I was tested and diagnosed.

For the next year I visited my new psychiatrist every 4 to 6 weeks for an update. In that time, I lost my job because my attention to detail, ability to focus or finish a project was nonexistent. I stayed on my blood thinners as treatment for the clot, and tried to manage the day-to-day. The laundry piled up at home. The dishes were only done when my husband came home. Projects were started and stopped. Rooms were half clean, half decorated, or partially rearranged. The garden and swing-set area never received mulch. Things that needed to get done were overwhelming and too much to deal with. Little things were fun for a little while, but then I was frustrated when the kids needed something and it pulled me away from what I was working on. 

Then I just got fed up. Enough is enough. I asked my psychiatrist about Ritalin again. She wouldn't put me on it or any other stimulant while I was on the blood thinners. So I asked my GP who said I would be on the thinners for at least two years.

No. No way. This is crazy. 

I hadn't made an appointment with a hematologist because I didn't want to insult my GP. I know...I know...I'm way too southern for my own good. I didn't want to appear to question him, or "go over his head". But finally I got over it and made the appointment with a hematologist. She looked at all the tests and results from the prior year, took two more tests, one was the ONLY test not performed at the hospital when I was sent to the ER with the original clot, the other was a test to see if there was an active clot anywhere in my system. Both came back negative and I was off the thinners within a week of seeing her.

Back to the psychiatrist I went. We had a longer then normal appointment so we could further discuss my ADHD symptoms, and she agreed. I'm ADHD For Sure! I was given a new medication, a derivative of Ritalin, and I took that bad boy the second I got in the car from filling my Rx. 

Within an hour I wanted to go back to her office to hug her. For the first time in several years I felt like I was back to being whole. I've described my ADHD as being in a room with only a strobe-light on. There is furniture and large balls on the floor and I have to make my way across the room. Yes, I can see, but it's not clear. In fact, it's a little scary. My meds are like turning on the overhead light. I can see everything. The room is still cluttered, but I can very easily navigate my way through quickly, efficiently, and safely.

In the past week, I have finished projects that have been half done for years. I've started more projects that are still undone. The house is (kinda) clean, the laundry is almost caught up. The dishes don't look like a mountain of torture, but are still in the sink right now. Some piles of "things" have been gone through and sorted. Things have been thrown away, organized, and discovered. I have another week on this dosage, and I'm going to tell her it's a great start. We're not quite there yet, but it's such a great start. 

For those without a brain abnormality, it's impossible to understand the feeling of "softness" that comes from getting the chemistry correct. I use the word "soft" because it's just like finally being able to relax and breathe. For years I rememberd what it was like to be able to do ten things all at once and be spectacular at them all! Then I would look around and couldn't do one thing. Couldn't do one hing AT ALL, let alone do it well. I lost my job, I lost friends, I lost myself. But then I took control and fought my way back. I'm back and I'm awake, and I sincerely hope that all the fog is over.