Honey Cookies and an Update

We have been very busy here lately.  We have been processing deer, training puppies, and my health has taken a dive again.


Since I have been sick Hubby has been staying home more and reading Mother Earth News Archives. He found a great recipe for Honey Cookies. It is the chocolate oatmeal no bake cookies but made with honey. They came out creamer and less rich. I poured it in a greased pan and cut then into chunks. (I had two deer to process today so I was lazy when it came time to make them into cookies.)

 
1 stick margarine

3/4 c honey

3/4 c milk

3 TBS cocoa powder

1 Cup Chunky peanut butter

3 cups of oats

Heat the margarine, honey, milk, and cocoa powder to a boil. Boil rapidly for 3 minuets. Then add peanut butter and oats. Spread in a buttered cake pan. Let cool and cut into squares.


Wesley is still on his cooking quest. When he went to get his hair cut he talked to his hair dresser about cooking. (Yes he has a hair dresser not a barber lol) They were talking about Paula Deen. She told him to watch Rachel Ray. So this weekend I found him a show on Hulu. He told me that she used EVOO and not butter. He was Southern and Butter was what he was going to use.  So Paula Deen you won that battle by a land slide.


Now on to my health. Every one knows that I am diabetic, and have high blood pressure. They takes away sodium and sugar from my diet. Then I had high potassium. Now I have to much acid and phosphorus in my blood. So Now my diet it limited to very little. I can have vegetables, one hot dog, one egg, or a piece of fresh sausage. So if any one has any ideas please let me know.


Handme still has not returned. I bite the bullet and got the kids lab/husky puppies. This was an adventure at first. They are 8 weeks old and to small to stay out side.  I had them in my house but it looked like World War 3 in my house. So I put then in their crate on the front porch at night . They cried to much every time that hubby got up at 3:30 in the morning. So now when we are not here and at night they are sleeping in the chicken house with the long run.   The boy is named Cowboy and the Girl is named Kita. Wesley has been keeping them running so at night they are happy to go to their beds and sleep.

Wesley's Creamy Pasta

Today for lunch Wesley decided to make a pasta. So I took him to the store. This is what he came up with.

5 Hot Italian Sausages (Johnsville of course.)
3 Small Cans of mushrooms (drained)
1 can of Rotel (drained)
1 medium onion (diced)
1 pint of half and half
about 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese (yes the stuff in the can)
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Pasta (Your Choice. He used the spiral pasta to grab the sauce)(Cooked according to package directions)

First thing he did was bake the sausages. (He hates the splatter when you fry them.) He sauteed the onion and mushrooms in the Olive oil. After the onions were tender he added the can of  drained rotel. He cooked this until the tomatoes were wilted down just a bit. He added the half and half, cheese and salt and pepper. He cooked this until it thickened up just a little. Add cooked pasta and serve.

When he served it he sliced the sausages to put on top since he called them optional.  He also had bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, and crushed red pepper flakes out to add to it if you wanted to.

He also stated that if you wanted to leave the sausage off that is fine. He would put sauteed asparagus,spinach  or broccoli in it. He also thought some ham might be good in it too.

*He had help with the dicing, opening of cans, draining of cans, and pasta. (No I would not turn my 7 year old loose in the kitchen and just let him go. lol)

Again he came up with a winner. I love to let them take control of a meal every once in a while.

He also is asking for help. He needs some ideas for oysters. He is dying to try to cook with them but doesn't just want fried oysters. So if you have any ideas please feel free to share.

Portabella Mushroom Pizzas

Tonight while grilling hubby's steaks I decided to try something different. I took Portabella Mushroom caps (the large ones) and removed the stems. I then coated them with a little olive oil and salt. I placed them on the grill stem side down until they were tender on that side. When I flipped them over I added fresh spinach leaves, sliced cherry tomatoes, and whole milk Mozzarella Cheese. When the cheese was melted  I removed them drizzled them with a little olive oil and some cooked garlic.  I have seen these at Kroger but they are $7 for two of them and all they have is  cheese and spinach on them. I like being able to put other stuff in them.

These were low in sodium, high in taste and my children ate a whole on a piece.

This is the second day in a row that Wesley has given up meat when offered. I asked him if he wanted any steak tonight and a grilled hamburger last night. He has turned it down every time.

I let my kids make the decision on what to eat. They help pick out the food, they help cook it, and they eat what they want with in reason. So far they have been about 90% vegetarian since we started in that direction. I did grill some shrimp and they ate a few but not many. I am proud of them.

We are still experimenting and finding things we like to eat. Rebekka takes the fruit I keep and makes fruit salad with it. We bought a pomegranate for the salad this week.

The only problem we are going to have is eating out. Around here we do not have vegetarian or vegan food in restaurants. I live in the heart of the South. I am 2 hours away from Nashville or Huntsville Alabama.

Wesley is already planning on trying the tofu bacon, hot dogs and such. If I can get him to eat those may be he wont want to eat out so much.  I think he is going to miss what he qualifies as junk food.  I am really trying to stay away from processed foods due to my sodium problems. But I figure I can make him chips, pizzas, and such where they are way more healthier than store bought ones.

Tomorrow on the menu is spaghetti squash with garlic butter. I will let yall know how it goes.

Change The World Wednesday Nov. 2, 2011

It is Wednesday again and you all know what that means. It is Change the World Wednesday.  http://reducefootprints.blogspot.com/2011/11/change-world-wednesday-ctww.html    

This week I just copied down the challenges here. (Yes I cheated but at least I gave the credit where credit is due. )

MONTH-LONG CHALLENGE: This month make note of the electricity (Kilowatts) used in your home (find this number on your electric bill, by reading the meter, by using a home electricity monitor, etc.). Then, spend one month reducing that number by 10%. In December we'll come back and report on our success including the actions we've taken to reduce our usage.

  There are several ways to cut energy. Here is an article from Mother Earth News that has great tips. 
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Renewable-Energy/Save-Money-On-Energy.aspx?utm_campaign=Green+Energy&utm_medium=email&utm_source=iPost&utm_content=07.24.09+GEGH

We also have a contest in the house to see who can turn off the most light switches at a time. While this makes my daughter mad my 7 year old son will go thru the house turning off everything not just lights if no one is near it. If someone is in the kitchen cooking and they leave the room for a minuet he turns off the light. Some times being the little boy he is he even turns off the light while my daughter is still in the kitchen.

WEEK-LONG CHALLENGE: This week, eat Vegan for one entire day. That means, for one entire day eat only plant-based foods ... no meat, poultry, fish, dairy, etc.

This one is not to hard to do around here. We have been slowly going vegetarian/ vegan. My son told me he would be a vegetarian as long as he could have his meat. (yes I secertly laughed at him) But that being said when I cook all vegetables and then cook Hubby meat for dinner Wesley will pick the vegetables every time. he problem he would have going vegan is the cheese, milk, egg, and yogurt. Bekka and I chose to go vegetarian/vegan due to health issues. We are both diabetic and I have some other health issues that require low sodium and extra minerals. The only reason I am not totally vegan is the cheese issue. I have only been eating low fat ricotta cheese lately since it is low in sodium but I need that extra boost of calcium.

The best way to get your children involved in going vegetarian/vegan or just eating more vegetables is to get them involved.  I let both of my children go shopping with me. They are always happy to try something new if they picked it out. I also get them involved in cooking. Bekka loves to play mix and match stir fry. She takes what ever we have on hand and comes up with some sort of stir fry.  Wesley is getting involved too. We have the wood heater going so he has a frying pan he uses and he plays with vegetables and fruit. Some days it is not all that good but at least he is figuring out what goes with what. The other night he made a yogurt and fruit salad. He took Trix yogurt, apples, and grapes and mixed them together. This would have been great until I bit down into a piece of garlic. Today he experimented with garlic butter. We had asparagus (ok that was good), raw coconut (it was ok) and pomegranate seeds (not to great but not to bad either.)  He feels great accomplishment in this. I do not let him waste food he just gets a little piece of something to try out. He is exploring flavors, textures, and different combinations.

It is helping so far in my swelling and  blood pressure. I am waiting to see how it effects my blood sugar. Rebekka's blood sugar has stabilized and they have taken her off one of her meds since we have started going mostly vegetarian. Yes there are a few slip ups. I am only human but it is an on going process and I am working hard at it. I have eaten meat for over 35 years.  Now only if we could get hubby on board and then I would not have meat in the house at all.

I almost forgot that Our friend SmallftPrints from the Change the World Wednesday Challenge gave me this great site on Vegan cooking.  http://www.veganwolf.com/keep_on_hand.htm

Change The World Wednesday Challange

Today's blog post is about Change The World Wednesday Challenge from Small Foot Prints.

This week is about lowering your pets impact on the planet.

Here are a few things we do and a couple ideas that I probably should do.

The first thing we do is buy pet supplies that last. The bedding, combs, and such. If you buy good quality the first time then you do not have to replace it as often.

The second thing is to reuse. We use our plastic cups from fast food to scoop the feed, totes that have small cracks in them for food or water. The best thing for watering large livestock and such is a reclaimed bathtub from where they are remodeling a house.

Third is the feed. We buy our corn from a local farmer so we reuse containers. Our hogs (when we have them) get food from a restaurant kitchen. No not the stuff from the tables but the kitchen. That way it doesn't end up in the dump. All our left overs from our kitchen are put into the animal feed or compost depending on what it is. We spread it around to the goat, chickens, and dogs.

The fourth is we look for earth friendly shampoos and meds for you pets. I read labels and look for recycled containers.

And last but not least is we water all our animals out of the creek in front of the house or rain barrels. This water is better for them because it has no chemicals in it like fluoride or chlorine.

Recipes and Pics From This Weekend

This weekend Hubby promised the kids he would take them squirrel hunting. Yes this just thrills me. No not the hunting part but the squirrel part. I eat deer but that is about where I draw the line on the meat from game animals. They ended up with three squirrels. That is perfect since there are three of them.

Anybody that has read my blog or has known me for a while knows that Hubby loves to cook outside. He would rather eat food cooked on an open fire in cast iron that any thing else in the world.  Here is his squirrel recipe and a corn fritter we put together. I made the batter and he fried them.

 First thing you need here is some squirrels. Thankfully he handed them to me already cleaned.  The next step is to wash them and get off all the hair. This is a hard thing to do as it loves to stick. Then we soaked them over night in salt water. I drained them and cut them into pieces. I removed the legs and left the ribs and back bones together. He then parboiled them for about 30 minuets at a good rolling boil. Then he drained them and let them cool. I coated them in butter milk then seasoned flour. I set them on a baking sheet and let them sit for 15 minuets to let the flour stick. He then fried them covered in a cast iron skillet in lard.

Here is Wesley eating his first squirrel leg. Yes he asked me why I did not eat one. I told him I don't make him eat things he doesn't like and I do not like squirrel and he left it at that. I did not tell him I will not eat frog, rabbit or squirrel. Two are to close to the rodent family for my taste and I am not starving and The other reminds me of Kermit the frog to much.

 Here is the recipe for the corn fritters.
1 cup self rising flour
1 cup self rising cornmeal
2 eggs
1 can cream corn
1 cup pepper jack cheese
1 small onion minced
3 tablespoons of pickled jalapeno minced
season salt to taste
right at 1 cup butter milk

I mixed all the wet ingredients in one bowl and all the dry in another. I then added the wet to the dry and stirred until mixed together. I used right at a cup of nonfat buttermilk. It may need more if you want a thinner batter. He fried these in lard so they had a slight bacon flavor to them as well.

 Here is a look at my lardo. I removed it from salt and rinsed it. I then dried it really well. I then placed it in the fridge in a zip bag for later use. I did try it but since my car is still broke down and I did not have any good bread in the house I did the red neck thing. I sliced it really thin and put it on some saltine crackers and broiled it in the oven. It did really great even Hubby ate it. I just coated it in a mix of molasses, curing salt, thyme, black pepper corns, garlic, and rosemary. I then put it in the fridge for two weeks covered.

 This is the view from the back of my house. We have some trees turning but most are just brown due to lack of rain this year.

 This is from the back of the field towards the house.

 If you pull up in my yard you would think we are nuts. The grass at the barn is over our heads. Since the flood we have not had any animals out there. We decided to let it grow up for the wild life. When we did this we had a rabbit explosion.  We will clean it up when we fix the fence and put more live stock back out there. But for now we have some of the cutest baby rabbits running out there. I can watch them from my bed room window.

 People on twitter hear me talk about Smokie. (@waylandcook) Well here is one of his pictures. He is a double haired Pom. His hair is cut short here. He needs your thoughts and prayers right now. He is going nuts on me. When he is left alone and has one flea on him he chews his self. Right now he has no hair on his rear end. We are doctoring the scratches and handling the flea that is driving him nuts. If any one knows what to do for him when he is alone in the house please let me know. He has separation problems and does not understand he can not go every where I do. (No he is not spoiled at all lol)

And since Halloween is just around the corner here is one of Wesley's Scary pictures. Bekka and Wesley  were playing at taking pictures with her camera. I think he is supposed to be growling at the camera but I still think he looks mean. Handme is just happy to be there and is sticking out his tongue at you.

Italian Sausage Pasta Bake

Wesley wanted to make something with Italian Sausage. He got a taste of it this last week and decided he liked it alot.  Here is what Rebekka, Wesley and I came up with from things in our kitchen. Sorry I did not get a good picture of it. It did not want its picture taken.

One small package of pasta (your choice)
One package of Johnsville Italian Sausage- hot, mild, or sweet
One jar of artichokes - drained
2 Cans of Mushrooms- drained
2 Tablespoons minced Garlic
Small Onion
Can or Jar of your favorite Sauce
Cheese of your choice

Rebekka boiled the noodles according to package directions and drain. We sauteed the vegetables and added the sauce. We then mixed the noodles and sauce together and placed in a 9 by 13 casserole dish.We took cooked Italian Sausages and sliced them. Placed them on top of the noodles. We then topped it with cheese and baked it until the cheese was nice and bubbly. Then you can cut it out into squares and serve.

This is a great way to use left over vegetables or sausages. (Not that we would ever have any left over sausages)