Pickey Eater? No problem.

It seems like I've been gone forever! In Blog space I have. It's time to get back in the swing of things. The move in compleate and we are settled in. Now If you've read my blog before you know that I have a son who's got some issues with food. He's Special needs sure but I don't feel the need to lable him that way. He's a good loving little boy and I work around some of his issues using these tricks and recipies.

Using:
Orange Puree.
It's high in vitamins A and C and Fiber.

White Puree
High in Fiber, Protein, and Iron.

Purple Puree (sounds yummy huh?)
High in vitamins A,C and E, Calcium, and flavonoids.

Now I'm sitting here trying to think. I can give you the Puree recipes first or the other ones or just list them I guess. Ok so here goes with these 3 purees I make 4 meals that my son does not have an issue eating.

1.) Power Bagels
You can prep and refridgerate, then bake anytime for a snack.
2.) Crunchy Mac and Cheese
It gets a whole new boost with a whole grain topping
3.) Super Burgers
Ketchup or mayo/mustard mae the puree undetectable
4.) Brownies
Using any browine mix you like.

 Orange Puree.
In a pot, cover 1 yam (peeled and cut in chunks) with cold water. Boil for 25 minutes, or until very tender. Drain and puree in food processor or blender with 2 Tbs water until compleatly smooth, 1 minute. if neessary, add up to 1 tablespoon pf water to make it smoother.
                   (Use in crunchy Mac & Cheese and Power bagles)

White Puree.
Pulse Cannellini Beans (15-oz can, rinsed and drained) and 1 Tbs water in a food processer until smooth, about 1 minute. Puree should be the consistancty of peanut butter. If nescessary, add additional water, 1 teaspoon at a time, until there are no bean flecks visable.
                    ( Use in Crunch Mac, and Power bagles.)
Purple Puree.
Put two 10-0z packages frozen spinach in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer 6-7 minutes. Drain. Puree the spinach,  1 1/2 cups blueberries (puree if frozen and yes thats right blue berries), 1/2 tsp lemon juice, and 2 tbs water in a food processor until smooth, 1 minute. If nessary add 1 tablespoon water to make puree smoother.
                  (use in Super Burgers and Brownies)

Power Bagles: My son thinks they are mini pizza's
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/4 cup white puree
3 tbs orange puree
4 mini-bagles sliced in half (I use whole wheat)
1 cup grated part-skim mozzarella

Preheat oven or toaster oven to 350 degress. Combine tomato sauce with white and orange puree. Mix well.
Spread 1-2 tablespoons of sauce on each bagle half, and then top completely with 2 tablespoons grated cheese. Bake 5-6 minutes

Crunchy Mac & cheese:
Cooking Spray
1 cup whole-grain cereal flakes
1/4 cup wheat germ, un sweetend
2 Tbs greated parmesan
6-oz package of Mac and Cheese
1/4 to 1/2 cup white puree
1/4 to 1/2 orange puree
2 Tbs butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Coat cassarole dish with cooking spray. Put cereal in zip-close bag and crush to crumbs. Pour crumbs in a bowl and mix in wheat germ and parm cheese.
Prepare Mac & Cheese according to package instructions. adding white and orange puree or both (don't use anymore then 1/2 cup puree total per 6-oz box of macaroni.) Transfer into cassarole dish, sprinkle with crunchy topping and dot with butter. backe 10-15 minutes.

Super Burgers:
1 egg
1/4 cup Purple puree
2 Tbs Ketchup
1 Tsp salt
1/4 Cup fresh whole wheat bread crumbs or white.
1 lb ground beef ( I use turkey but you can taste the puree more)
Cooking spray
8 Slices american cheese, optional
8 Hamburger buns
And any garnish you like.

In a large bowl, mix egg, purple puree, ketchup, salt, and bread crumbs until cumbined. And Ground Beef, mixing with hands until well combined.  If too sticky add a few more bread crumbs. Using damp hands, shape into 8 fairly thin patties. Coat a large skillet with cooking spray. Heat over meduim-high heat. Cook burgers 3 minutes per side and add cheese if you use it. Serve on buns with ketchup and I like pickles with it.

Brownies:
Cooking spray
1 box about 21 oz brownie mix
1/2 wheat germ, unsweetend
2 large eggs
1/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup purple puree

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 13 x 9 - inch or 9 inch square pan with cooking spray.
Measure and discard 1/2 cup of the dry packaged brownie mix (replace with 1/2 cup wheat germ) Mix all ingredients together and blend well. Fallow package directions for baking time, depending on the size of the pan.

Enjoy!!!


All credit goes to (Parenting Magizine) I think is where I got it.

Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

I love giving old things new life. Yesterday as part of my Upcyling work I took a vase/pitcher I got from my grandma, She has had it for as long as I can remember and one day gave it to me..But it wasn't really my taste on color. Regardless I still LOVED it. I'm very sentimental / traditional... So here's what I did.

I washed it off first, then took one can of heirloom white spray paint (My favorite color)
























I let it sit over night and have the finished piece. Granted it's nothing you would ever want to drink out of but it wasn't made for that to begin with right?  So now it has a new life to it and I'm it LLLUUURRRVVVEE with it!

Slow Cooker Recipe #2 Roast

I have many roast recipes but this one is my fav and the most basic. I sometimes add potatoes to it to take out and mash later. Since they soak up the flavor it's really good lol.


Take one good size roast ( I really have no specific measurements to this one thats why I love it)
5 garlic cloves
salt and pepper
I use beef broth and fill it till it's about half way up the meat then pour water in till it barley covers it.


When you take the meat out place it on a cutting board use a good sharp small (like pearing knife) and poke holes all over the roast. Put the cloves in random order all over the roast and put in the crockpot. Add rest of the ingredients and place on high for about 6-8 hours

Slow Cooker Recipe #1 Baked potato soup

Ingredients:
2 large onions, chopped
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups water, divided
4 cups chicken broth
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
1-1/2 cups mashed potato flakes
1/2 pound sliced bacon, cooked and crumbled
3/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
1 cup half and half cream
1/2 cup shredded cheddar
2 green onions sliced

In a large nonstick skillet, saute onions in butter until tender. Stir in flour. Gradually stir for 2 minutes or until thickened  Transfer to 5-qt slow cooker.

Add the broth, potatoes, potato flakes, bacon, pepper, salt, basil, thyme and remaining water. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or until potatoes are tender. Stir in the cream; heat through. and cheese and onoins to taste.

Our Angel Food Ministries order is here!

I've been pretty busy packing for our move on Friday, But I'm taking a minute to post the Angel Food Ministries order I was telling you guys about. Keep in mind I only spent $142.00

These are 2 steaks out of the many we got from our orders. They are high quality from what we can tell. They do come frozen but I'm not disappointed to say the least.

I've said this before I need to get better at taking before and after pictures. Aside from the Sherbet ice cream and the two packages of meat at the very bottom of the right corner our freezer was EMPTY.  All of the bottom is meat (aside from mentioned) the steaks are right above my current food. Top shelf is all veggies, Waffle fries, twice baked potatoes, Already cooked meatloaf, and sloppy joe mix.

Bottom is Chicken breast, Not sure whats in the vacuumed sealed thing right below it, unbreaded chicken wings, and the desert item (cookies) at the top is from them there's also Whiting fish fillets below the chicken wings you can't really see in the picture.

The Fridge! All of the fresh produce is from Angel Food along with the eggs on the second shelf. None of the fruit came bruised and all of the veggies are fresh.

     

Seedless grapes, Baby carrots and Celery are from them 

Red potatoes are from them. 

the rest were all Shelf Stable food I received from AFM as well we are very exited and happy to receive this amount of food this helps our family of four out tremendously! And cut our food budget of $450 a month in HALF.

Tonights dinner was some of the steaks corn and the twice baked potatoes I was a little iffy about those before I tried them. But they were really good!


 Here's their link. Please check them out! They do amazing things!
http://www.angelfoodministries.com/

Is it Autism...

April is Autism Awareness Month.


   I've never posted on my children before. And do want to keep most of their lives private..So I still probably won't say much about them. But my eldest son has something that should be shared in my opinion and talked about.


I had Kaiden in the late winter of 2006. My husband and myself we're very young when we had him. But from the start we noticed something was off with Kaiden. Don't get me wrong he was a great baby. But he just was not hitting any mile stones at the right times everything seemed to have at least a six month delay. All his doctors would say he just needed to catch up he's fine. When Kaiden was a year old we met up with a old friend who had her baby exactly 2 weeks and 15 minutes after Kaiden was born. Granted she had a girl and I know all babies develop differently. But her baby was TALKING and CRAWLING. Mine just sort of set there and scooted. 


 Immediately things come to mind. like "I'm a bad mom!", "I don't spend enough time with him", "I'm doing things wrong". 


So I take him back to the doctors..By now it's another year of the same thing. "he will catch up" And I've now had a second baby who's hitting all the milestones and in some ways surpassing his elder brother. My husband joins the army in the spring of 2009 and we move to an army base is Georgia and soon deploys to Iraq for a year. And I take Kaiden to go in (not to his normal doctor but one on call) to have his ears tested. The doctor asks me how many a word vocabulary does Kaiden have. My response. "He doesn't." Kaiden in total could say maybe 5 words to the point of understanding them. Not clear and most of the time if he said anything it was baby talk. He was 3 years old a very smart kid other wise and able to figure out puzzles and much to my dismay taking things apart.


Anyway the doctor pretty much said "WHAT? and no one has caught this?!?" Most doctors never gave me the time of day much less actually listened to what I had to say about my child but this one "on call" doctor noticed right away something was wrong. The next week I had a referral to speech therapy. 


About a month later we had not one but 2 diagnosis. 
Kaiden has a speech apraxia. 
     Apraxia is a speech disorder in which a person has trouble saying what he or she wants to say correctly and consistently. It is not due to weakness or paralysis of the speech muscles (the muscles of the face, tongue, and lips). The severity of apraxia of speech can range from mild to severe. He is on the severe end of the spectrum. But has improved greatly with therapy. Basically his brain does not communicate with his tongue the right way.


Second:
Sensory Processing Disorder 
Which is really hard to explain.. It's a mixture of everything of how one learns and receives information, it comes with eating issues and behavioral issues...


 You can find more on it here:
http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/

Kaiden now sees a speech therapist, physical therapist and an occupational therapist. He's improved so much in the last year. But in the last few months we found he also may have ADHD and they are not ruling out a form of high functioning Autism. His processing disorder already had put him in the autism spectrum. So we are off to a neurologist next. What I'm saying/trying to say is that Autism is out there it can happen to anyone. I sat there for the longest time wondering what I had done wrong. I've met so many family with special needs children since moving to this base in Georgia and all of them are truly amazing kids and their parents are just as scared/concerned/knowing and understanding as I am. If you suspect something is wrong with your child don't be afraid to speak up and say something like I was scared to. And know that you aren't alone and most of these kids go on to living somewhat normal lives.

All that Southern Food!

I know it's unhealthy but it's comfort food. can we say YUM. I'll post more healthy recipes I just had to get these out of my system!

Pork chops and Milk gravy:

4 slices bacon
4 large thick pork chops
1/2 cup flour
salt and pepper
1 1/2 cup milk

Fry the bacon first, then dip the chops in flour, with salt and pepper. Save whats left of the flour. Fr the chops in the hot bacon drippings until brown on both sides. Turn down heat, cover, and cook till chops are tender and throughly cooked-About 30 min. Stir your left over flour into the fat and cook till browned. Pour milk over the chops and simmer till gravy is thickened.

Southern-Fried Chicken:
1 good-sized fryer or pan
Salt and pepper
Milk
1 1/2 cups sifted flour

Cut chicken into serving pieces. Rub well with salt and pepper. Let stand 30 minutes. Then soak in milk another 30 minutes. Put flour, a little salt and pepper, and chicken into a bag, and shake well until every piece is coated. Fry in hot, deep fryer at high heat or 400 degrees, until golden brown. Leave heavy pieces in a little longer then the smaller ones.


I'll leave room for some requests I have recipe's for:
 Buttermilk Biscuits
 Skillet Corn Bread
Coconut Cream Pie
Pecan Pie
Chicken and dumplings
Fried Ham with Red-eye Gravy
Grits
Fried Catfish
Regular Milk Gravy
Snap Beans
Black-Eyed Peas
Creamed Corn
Lima Beans & Butter Beans
Candied Yams
Fried Okra
Turnip and Collard Greens