Just a Thought About Food

A possible conversation from 1954:
Wow, Mary, you can afford to buy TV dinners? I wish James made enough to buy those. I guess I'll have to stick with cooking from scratch.
Now, fast-forward 60 years to 2014:
Wow, Kimmy, you can afford fresh produce to cook from scratch? I wish Rick made enough for that. I guess we will have to keep eating our $1.25 frozen dinners.

There is no denying that food prices have been on the rise, and the biggest rise has been in the meat and produce sections.

While shopping the other day, I was shocked when I got three (THREE) compliments on the ratio of fresh to processed foods in my cart and one comment (to the girls) about how great a mommy they had for getting so many fresh fruits and veggies for them (that they love). Now, I'm not writing this to brag, I didn't even know these ladies, they stopped me to say these things! These comments really got me thinking about how food is viewed today.

It seems as though everyone is talking about obesity in the last few years. It is so bad (according to Mrs. Obama) that there are several doctors around the country who are recommending their obese patients take part in "dietary counseling". This basically means that they are being told how to eat healthful foods. That's great and eating real foods is the best way (in my unprofessional opinion) to lose weight. I've lost 35 lbs in the last year mostly by eating "real" foods. But the problem is that the majority of obesity is among those with lower incomes. Why is that a problem? Because, it is cheaper to buy processed "fake" foods than it is to buy fresh "real" foods!

As an example of my point, here is a cost breakdown of that shopping trip:
"Fake" foods (1/2 the cart, a rare occasion that I have this much): $100.81
"Real" foods (1/2  the cart): $215.10

Seriously!

This is what I found the baby playing with while I was writing my previous post:

And she was very unhappy when I took it away! Then Lilly (coming to see what I had done to "her baby") saw it a and wanted it. Both of them screamed when I threw it in the back yard, that's when it hit me:

I HAVE 2 TOMBOYS!!

Excuse me, but I requested girls. Oh well, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised, since I'm a tomboy too. 

Sorry, I didn't hear you.

I said, I'm a tomboy too.

I guess none of us will be "girly girls".



Forward!

Obama Campaign 2012 (definitely NOT an endorsement!)

I know it has been a LONG while since I last posted, and I will explain in a future post. But today I just couldn't let this pass. I don't engage in politics much, but that is rapidly changing (I guess Obama did change one person, just not how he wanted!). The Washington Times had some interesting information about the new Obama campaign slogan, here. 

This is the new Obama campaign commercial:

In 2008 the slogan was Hope & Change, "change" has certainly taken place (not for the better though). Now that the "change" is in place we need to move "Forward", right? Do you know what the word "Forward" has been used for since as early as 1844? This is what wikipedia has to say about it:

The name Forward carries a special meaning in socialist political terminology. It has been frequently used as a name for socialist, communist and other leftwing newspapers and publications. For example, Vpered (Russian language for 'Forward') was the name of the publication that Lenin started after having resigned from the Iskra editorial board in 1905 after a clash with Georgi Plekhanov and the Mensheviks.^[1]

^{Now, there are a couple of possibilities here.}

^{First, the POTUS' campaign people didn't research this term before using it. This is quite possible since his speech writers had him say that Pres. Rutherford B. Hayes was afraid of change in the form of the telephone. Truth is, President Hayes was the president who had the first telephone installed in the White House.}

^{Second, this campaign slogan is a reflection of the views of the POTUS and those around him. Again very possible since there have been several socialistic leaning policies passed under this administration.}

^{And third, a combination of both.}

^{That is what I think has happened. What do you think about this new campaign slogan and it's past uses?}

UPDATE: Since I posted this yesterday, the wikipedia stub has been nominated for deletion. Check it out before it is gone! 

It's a......

Girl! Tempest Quin was born at 11:32 am on May 26th, 2011! Her birth story is soon to come.

Breakfast for dinner!

I LOVE breakfast for dinner! Especially when I'm trying a new recipe, cause I have more time in case it takes longer than expected. I saw this one on Paula's Best Dishes on Food Network. I love potato pancakes or "tater cakes" as I called them growing up. My granny made them from our leftover mashed potatoes. I would even ask her to make extra so she could make tater cakes the next morning so when I saw this recipe I knew I had to try it. Here is the recipe for Paula Dean's Smashed potato pancakes.

• 6 cups Yukon gold potatoes peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces 
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 3 1/2 cups panko bread crumbs, divided (2 1/2 cups and 1 cup)
• 1 large egg, slightly beaten
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar
• 1/2 cup cooked and crumbled bacon
• 1/2 cup green onion (I didn't have green onion so I used some onion I had cooked yesterday)
• 1/4 cup room temp butter
• 1/4 sour cream
• 3 tablespoons olive oil

In large pot, add potatoes and cover with water.Bring to a boil over medium high heat; then reduce heat, and simmer until tender about 10-12 minutes. Drain well and add to a large bowl.

Mash the potatoes with garlic, salt and pepper. Fold in 2 1/2 cups panko, the egg, cheese, bacon, onion, butter, and sour cream. Form into 3 inch patties. Put the remaining 1cup panko in a shallow dish and dredge the potato patties in crumbs.

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium high heat. Add the potato patties, and cook until brown and crisp, 3-4 minutes per side.

     
Everybody LOVED them! Jeremiah even ate them, with syrup (don't ask). They were great, I think they are better than my granny's. This will definitely become a welcome addition to our Saturday morning breakfasts!

Easy Hamburger Hotdish

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 medium yellow onion
• 2 cans cream of mushroom soup
• 2 cans tomato soup
• 2 cups elbow macaroni, uncooked
•  salt, to taste
• pepper, to taste

Chop onion. Add onion to hamburger and brown over medium heat until fully cooked.

While browning hamburger, bring 5qts of water to a boil and cook macaroni until tender. (10-12 mins)

Drain pasta from water and add to the cooked meat, then add soups.

Simmer over medium heat until heated thoroughly.

Ok, Russell LOVED it, Jeremiah refused to try it, and I didn't care for it.

Chicken Bundles

Ok, so I forgot about a Mary Kay party that I was going to tonight so I didn't have time to make the potato pancakes that I mentioned earlier, but I did do my one new recipe today with the chicken bundles. Here is the recipe:

• 1(8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon dill weed 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 4 cups cooked cubed chicken(I only used 2 or 2 1/2 cups to stretch the chicken I have for other dishes)
• 1/2 cup finely chopped celery(I didn't have any to put in, and even if I did I probably wouldn't have used it cause I don't care for celery)
• 4 green onions,with tops, thinly sliced (I didn't have green onions so I chopped up half a regular onion)
• 3(8 ounce) tubes refrigerated crescent rolls
• 1/4 cup butter, or margarine, melted (I only used a few tablespoons)
• 1/4 cup breadcrumbs (my favorite is Panko Japanese bread crumbs)

In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, milk, dill, salt, and pepper until smooth.

Stir in chicken, celery, and onions.

Unroll crescent roll dough and separate into 12 rectangle, four from each tube; place on greased baking sheet (or lined with parchment paper) and press the perforations together.
Spoon 1/3 cup chicken mixture into center of each rectangle. Bring edges up to center and pinch to seal.

Brush with butter; sprinkle with breadcrumbs.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes, or until golden.

I have to say they were wonderful! Russell absolutely loved them, he even asked when we were going to have them again. Jeremiah refused to even try them. However, I only used about half the amount of meat that the recipe called for and I had at least 3/4 cup of chicken left after filling all the roll dough. And I would roll out the dough a little more to make it easier to seal them.    

A New Challenge!

I don't post every day and I have a bad habit of not cooking every day, not even for dinner. We sometimes just do frozen pizza. So, I have decided to challenge myself. To help me post more often and to help me cook every day. Here is the challenge, I am going to cook at least one new recipe a day for 30 days and then I will post that recipe on here. These recipe challenge will not just be for dinner, it will include recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, desert, or even snacks. But it will have to be a recipe that I have never used before. I will also post the reactions that I get from the family (or friends) about each recipe. So, we'll see how well I do sticking with this challenge. I will be posting later about Chicken Bundles and Smashed Potato Pancacks.

Seriously! It's uncalled for!

It really and truly is uncalled for! There is a blog that I had been following for several years now, I found it compelling because it is about a family who have two sets of twins [all of the children are under the age of 6(2 when I first started following)]. She says she is a Christian, though I'm not sure what denomination.This blog has been relatively clean with the occasional euphamisam  for curse words. However, these euphamisams have slowly gone away and have been replaced with the full blown curse words. This includes taking the Lord's name in vain! SERIOUSLY! You say you are a Christian, yet you chose to allow these words to come out of your mouth (or fingers when you chose to type them). That is what gets me, it's not like you are talking and it slips out (the real danger in using euphamisams), but when you type this stuff on your blog you have consciously chosen to use these curse words and to take the Lord's name in vain! I do NOT  like vulgarity, and I especially do NOT care to see someone who says they are a Christian use the Lord's name in vain. That is why I will NO LONGER follow this blog. Good bye sweet children that this blog was about, I enjoyed seeing your smiling faces in all those pictures and hearing about all of your adventures, but the vulgarity in the posts is not what I signed up for.

Gender Bender

We have decided not to find out the gender of the baby this go round, and when I say "we" I really mean I made the decision for us. Russell does not like surprises, so it's no wonder that he doesn't want to wait until delivery. He has asked repeatedly if only he could find out, but if he knows he would most definitely let it slip in some way, thus ruining the surprise for me! I gave in to his desire to know while pregnant with Jeremiah and with Lilly, but seeing as how this will be our last child (fingers crossed, knock on wood and all that stuff) I WANT MY SURPRISE! Now, I know some would say "But you have already had sooo many surprises in the last couple years, how could you possibly stand to have another surprise? Especially about gender?" Yes, both pregnancies came as a surprise or a shock (however you want to put it). But if I can handle these surprises, something like gender is a tiny thing compared to finding out I was pregnant 5 months after having Lilly. 


I have a feeling though that this one is a girl. My reason for this is that, other than the asthma stuff, this pregnancy has been identical to my pregnancy with Lilly. Russell, like any father (of course), wants another boy. 


Jeremiah, however, wants a boy but says it will be a girl. He said the whole time with Lilly that she was going to be a girl. He was so insistent that it was a girl that when I went to my ultrasound to find out, I asked him what he would do if it was a brother. His response, "It's not gonna be!" A and Z have no preference at all. Although, I think A is hoping for another sister because she is afraid that any brother is going to annoy her and bug her as much as her other ones do. 


I am planning on doing as many of the old wives tale gender predictions as I can. I will post the results on here and some time at the end of May we will find out how many of them were right!  

Weather and sickness!

 Ok, I seriously dislike the weather here in Memphis! Saturday was beautiful, sunny and in the 70's! You could go outside without a jacket.  In fact, that is exactly what we did.

       

  

 

However, Sunday the weather started to turn cold again! By today (Wednesday) it is down in the 20's!

And what has this weather change done? It has made us sick! Jeremiah luckily only has a stuffy nose. I have a stuffy nose and a cough (which bothers my asthma). But Lilly? She has bronchitis (AGAIN)! And guess what! The more she has things like bronchitis and sinus infections and pneumonia, the more likely she is to grow into asthma when she is older. With the fact that I have asthma that possibility rises even higher! Isn't that fun?    

So sue me!

Ok, so it's been 5 months since I last posted, but it's been a busy 5 months! First, Lilly was in the hospital for a week (maybe less) because she was not gaining weight properly. Also, I started having asthma attacks about 3-4 times a week, and found out I was pregnant (AGAIN!). So things have been a little crazy lately. But then things are going to get even crazier in the next few months, with the MSOP lectures coming up in March. 


Updates


In August, Lilly was put in the hospital because she was not gaining weight. The problem turned out to be that I was not producing enough milk. So we switched her to formula and she started gaining immediately, and now at 9 months she is 18 lbs. Around the last week of September she started what we have called the "army crawl". She would pull herself along with her forearms and use her toes to push forward. By New Years she was on all fours crawling around, and started pulling herself up on the furniture. Now, she is walking around with the furniture and transferring from one thing to another. She will be walking before long!


As for the asthma attacks(I didn't know they were asthma attacks at the time), they started around the beginning of September. In November I finally got a referral to a Pulmanologist who said I have asthma and that pregnancy can exacerbate the problem even if I had not had any  before. 


Oh yeah, pregnancy! The last week of September I found out that I'm pregnant, AGAIN! Why I even thought about taking a test is beyond me, because I had not had any symptoms, nor had I had a missed period(because I had not had one since having Lilly). I had no clue how far along I was, and I was scared to death. How was I going to get through another pregnancy while chasing after a baby who was starting to crawl and was still getting up in the middle of the night? What was I going to do with a baby and a toddler? I have to admit, I was anything but happy. But I felt guilty about not being happy. How many couples struggle to have children? I have at least 3 friends who tried for years to have their kids, some even took fertility treatment(not a cheap thing!). Yet I can get pregnant without trying! Using different forms of birth control even! It took a while but I have come to terms with reality, and as of this posting I am 23 weeks along. The due date is May 25th(or the 27th, they can't make up their minds).  

Prune Cakes for My "Old Man"!

• 1/4 cups all purpose flour (I used whole wheat)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (I used kosher)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup old fashioned or quick cook oats, uncooked
• 1/3 cup skim milk
• 3/4 cup applesauce, unsweetened
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1 Tablespoon canola oil
• 1 large egg
• 3 medium carrots (1.5 cups)
• 1/2 cup prunes, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 400*F. Grease 12 standard muffin-pan cups or line cups with paper liners.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; stir in oats. In medium bowl, with fork, mix milk, applesauce, brown sugar, molasses, oil, and egg until blended; stir in carrots and prunes. Add applesauce mixture to flour mixture; stir just until flour is moistened (batter will be lumpy).
3. Spoon batter into prepared muffin-pan cups (muffin cups will be full). Bake 23 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean. Immediately remove muffins from pan. Serve warm, or cool on wire rack to serve later.

Ice!!!!!!!!

So we get up yesterday at 5:45 so that Russ would be ready to leave at around 7:30 to go to the lectureship that the MSOP students were supposed to go to at the Nesbitt church of Christ. As I'm getting ready to start breakfast we get an e-mail saying that the students were not going to Nesbitt because of inclement weather. At this point nothing was happening outside, so we call to make sure. No lectureships, no school. By 7:00 it starts raining, then it turned to sleet, that turned to snow, that turned back into sleet, then it turned back into rain. It rained for the rest of the day, stopping around 10 or so at night.

This is what we woke up to this morning:

The school library

So much ice that it broke some of the trees
My friends car
Our car
The air conditioning unit
This is a SINGLE blade of grass


Hopefully all this ice will be gone by tomorrow so we won't have a hard time getting to Independence for worship services.

Example of our new meals

Just to give a comparison of the difference in the way we ate before and after the health problems.

This is most likely what we would have eaten before:

Here is an example of what we eat now:

The burgers are now turkey burgers seasoned with Mrs. Dash, No Salt and blue cheese on top, the fries are baked sweet potato fries, and a small salad was added.

It's a bit different than we're used to, but we've been eating this way for the last three weeks, and Russ has lost around 20 pounds.

Eight months of changes

The past eight months have had a lot of changes for our family. The first of which was uprooting ourselves to move halfway across the state of Tennessee to Memphis. The purpose of this move was so Russell could attend the Memphis School of Preaching, a school with a two year program to help Christian men to become knowledgeable Gospel preachers.

We moved into our apartment on June 26th, and three days later, on the 29th the summer session started full swing. They had one week of classes, then the next week they were sent on a door knocking campaign trip to Chattanooga for the GBN Lectureships. This had to be one of the hardest weeks of my married life. It was the first time Russell and I had spent a night apart in the entire time we've been married. But after four sleepless nights, and three days packed with visits to the zoo, the kids and I made it through the week and Russell returned late on Thurs. night.

The next three or four weeks were uneventful with days filled with classes, and nights filled with studying the Bible and books, working on memory work and attending the Power Lectures at the Southaven church of Christ.

We then had a two week break between the summer session and the first quarter, so we when back to Crossville to spend time with Russell's mom and step-father. During this break we found out we were going to have another HUGE change in our lives. We found out that we were going to have a baby! This was totally unexpected and unplanned, but a blessing nonetheless.

After we recovered from the shock of this news, everything was progressing uneventfully. We found out that the baby is a girl and we chose the name Lilly Rose because I've had it in mind since I was 8 or 9.

School was going along fine until two days before Christmas. Russell had a blackout, and passed out in class. a week and a half later he had another. He had had these before, but never this close together. So we make an appointment with the doctor, who started a series of test on Russ, blood work to check his blood sugar, heart tests, and she sent him to a neurologist. The neurologist diagnosed him with seizures(what we were calling blackouts) and sleep apnea. The results of these test showed that he has glucose intolerance, and a benign tachycardia; in english this means he is pre-diabetic and has a racing heart rate. The treatment of these conditions are medication for the seizures and the heart rate, and a diet to lose weight for the pre-diabetes.
So far the diet seems to be working, in two weeks Russ has lost about 12 lbs(on our scales, not the Dr.). Plus, he hasn't had a seizure since Friday. He is going to the sleep center tonight for a sleep study to see how bad his sleep apnea is. We will find out in a couple weeks if he will need a machine to sleep with.

About us and this blog

My name is Christie and my husband is Russell. We have been happily married for seven years. He is my best friend in the world, and the man who saved my life (in a manner of speaking). Not long after we were married we started a Bible study that resulted in my obeying the Gospel. We are both members of the New Testament church of Christ, and I have had the joy over the years of watching my husband grow in his knowledge of the Bible and in his desire to preach the Truth.
We have six children, five here with us on earth and one waiting for us in paradise. First off, there is A,15, second is Z, 11, Jeremiah, 7, Jessie would have been 3 this year, Lilly Rose, 2, and Tempest, 1. We strive to be the best Christian parents that we can be, teaching our children to obey the Truth and serve the True and Living God.
This blog is about our family, the changes that come about in our lives, and the way that we handle them. So sit back and join us on this journey we call life.