Early Mommy's Day Present

So this weekend, hubby was allowed out of his quarantine upstairs.  He's finally on the tail end of his cold, and little guy is about halfway through his antibiotics for his double ear infection.  I can't wait for that to be done...the antibiotics are causing bad diapers and now a rash.  :(
We did manage to get out this weekend.  We went to the store to get some more plants for my garden--we got watermelon, honeydew melon, pineapple basil, and a jalepeno plant--and then stop to visit my parents.  Got everything planted, a few tomatoes staked, and got to pick my first (non-insect ridden) tomato! Plus, a huge, previously unidentified squash-type plant finally started producing produce--and it is zucchini.  :)  Yay!

But the big news came after I had taken care of and expanded my garden.  An idea had planted itself in my head awhile back (<---like what I did there??  Planted...garden...hahaha!!), and I hadn't been able to uproot (LOL!!) it since.  So I asked for my Mother's Day present yesterday.  I called around to a few places in town and found a place that carried what I was looking for.  I told DH what I was wanting, and after Z took his nap, we set off to the store.  Which store?  The feed store.  Why?  Chicks, of course! 

That's right...I've decided to further my little "farm" by adding farm animals.  Three adorable little chicks are now part of our family!!

I've only named one of them--the yellow one.  Her name is Annie.  Why?  Because it was the first thing that popped into my head when I found out that she is an Orpington chicken.  Little Orpington Annie.  Haha!!  I am on a roll!!  The yellow/black/brown one is a silky chicken (she has feathers down her legs), and the bigger black/white/grey one is Plymouth Rock chicken.  All girls. 

So next for us to do is build a coop and a run for them to live in when they get a little older.  Right now they are housed in Z's play yard (we detached only four panels to make a square pen) in the garage.  We do have owls and hawks out here, so I don't want them out in the open just yet.  

Does anyone have ideas for a chicken coop?  I know we are most likely going to make our own, but I am also thinking of things that we can use to repurpose them.  Suggestions? Feel free to comment!  I would love to hear ideas!! 



Dinner Tonight--GF Sloppy Joe Casserole

I know, I know...I've been missing.  Why?  Because another wave of sickness has a grip on my household.  Munchkin brought home a cold with him, and he kindly shared it with the rest of us...actually hittng DH much harder than the rest of us.  Considering he doesn't ever get sick, he has officially been banned to the upstairs of the house so that the rest of us--who are almost well--don't fall back into the sickness cycle.  Z not only brought home the cold, but it turned into a double ear infection.  Unfortunately, we found this out when I had to leave town for a speaking engagement...which will be a different post.  :)  But now, I'll just share what we will be having for dinner tonight! 

This has also found rotation into our go-to meal selections.  It's easy, fast, and oh so good.  Plus, it brings back a meal that I haven't been able to enjoy since being GF.  I miss hamburgers a lot, and although I know that there are GF bread options (and my favorite recipe is in this post), it's not always the same. (Honestly, before I had to be GF, I wasn't much of a bread fan.  LOL!)  Still, I have fond memories of when I was a kid, having dinner with my family, and sometimes getting to eat some wonderful, messy sloppy joes.  Now, while this meal is not on a bun, it is pretty close to perfect in my book!

GF Sloppy Joe Casserole

1 lb. ground beef
1/2 c. chopped onion, carmelized
1 can Sloppy Joe sauce
1 c. shredded colby jack cheese
2 eggs, beaten
1 c. milk
1 c. Gluten Free Bisquick mix

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Lightly grease an 8x8 glass baking dish.  Cook beef and drain, add onion and saute together for a few minutes.  Add sloppy joe mix, and stir to combine.  Add cheese and stir til melted.  Pour into greased glass baking dish.  In a medium mixing bowl, combine GF Bisquick mix, eggs, and milk.  Stir until well blended.  Pour the Bisquick mixture over the top of the sloppy joe mixture and spread to edges.  Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes or until it is golden brown.

Hope you all enjoy as much as I do!!

Last Night's Menu--Cheesy Pork and Rice Casserole

This was a surprisingly WONDERFUL meal that was also fairly quick to make.  Not to mention, both of my guys--big and little--loved it!! I can definitely see this becoming a go to meal for us.  :)

I found this in one of my GF magazines, but had to make some adjustments since I didn't have what they used on hand.  So I'll let you know what I used.  It will turn out great!!

Cheesy Pork and Rice Casserole

1 can Progresso Chicken Enchilada Soup
3/4 c. water
1 pouch Uncle Bens Boil-In-A-Bag Brown Rice (about 3/4 c.)
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can corn, drained
4 boneless porkchops, 1" thick
1 c. shredded Colby-Monterey Jack cheese blend

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In an ungreased 9x9 baking dish, mix soup, rice, water, corn, and beans.  Place in pork chops and sink in a bit.  Top with cheese.
Bake for 45 minutes or until pork is done, and rice is tender. 

I served it with refried beans as well.  So good!!  Enjoy!!

Wordless Wednesday--National Pet Owner's Day

My pups--at our old house!

New App for Weekly Circulars

As  I said before, I am still new to the iPad.  I have been playing around with it, and I love it!  A lot of what I have been using it for is to manage the house.  Since we are a single income family and we have Z in daycare twice a week, I do what I can to pinch pennies where I can.  Yes, I use coupons.  No, not like the Extreme Couponers on TLC.  My cousin Sarah does a great job, and I am doing what I can to learn from her.  Every Sunday I usually buy three papers, comb thru the circulars and coupons, and then wait to hear from Sarah.  :)  Sometimes I can do a trip or two on my own and do a decent job, but most of the time, by midweek I have misplaced the circulars or Z has gotten them in his grasp (and proceeded to shred them). 

Then, today, I found this app.  It is called "Weekly" and it has all the circulars from your area! You can even save a shopping list by touching the item you want to add.  I used it this morning to make a trip to CVS, and it was super helpful!

Best of all??  It's FREE!!

Wordless Wednesday--National Siblings Day (yesterday)

For my favorite brother and Big Sis.  :)

Two old pics that still make me smile.  :)



Sick...and Tired...

Why is it that when you need to get things done you tend to get sick?  Or someone close to you that needs constant care gets sick?

That's what has been going on in our house the past week and a half or so.  The day that we left town (a week ago Saturday) was the day that little guy decided to get sick...for the first time ever.  Go figure.  We were invited to our first birthday party, which happened to be three hours away, and we weren't going to miss it.  Z woke up with a fever, nothing serious. and we attributed it to teething.  Just as we have the past few weeks.  He's had a really hard time cutting two bottom ones, and the last one is just starting to poke out.  So we packed up and off we went.  He did fine on the drive, and when we got to the hotel, went right down for a nap. 

(Now, on a side note, the hotel was AWESOME.  I loved it!  We bid on the room thru Priceline, and got it for WAY less than what their normal price was.  Not that we got to stay for too long, but I'm getting to that...)

We got to the party on time, even tho the house numbers are all wonky out there.  And Z had a great time, even tho you could tell he was a bit on the reserved side.  It was a lot of fun! The parents are gluten free, so there were two cakes--a regular chocolate cake and a GF chocolate cake (and it was wonderful--a Betty Crocker mix, and tasted great!!).  Ami did an amazing job with the dinosaur theme, and all the kids really enjoyed themselves.  But after a few hours, Z's temp spiked again, and we went back to the hotel to rest and get his temp back down.  Yet once again, it went back down, so we returned to our friend's house for dinner.  We didn't get to stay too long...bedtime for little guy came quickly, and we went back to our hotel.

You guessed it...his temp returned, and with a vengeance.  He was fussy all night, and at 2am, he felt warmer than he had been.  I checked...his temp was 103.5.  I was really worried, checked my email again (I had emailed the doctor several times keeping her updated, but she wasn't concerned--she said to worry at 105, but I couldn't help worrying), and then talked with DH about going home.  Both of us were too worried to sleep, so we packed up and went home. Monday we went to the doctor and found out that Z was officially sick for the first time...with a sinus infection caused by teething.  Ten days of antibiotics (should be done tomorrow!), and of course I am allergic to the one they gave him.  They assured me drug allergies are not genetic, but I've been watching like a hawk to make sure.

He was better in time for the egg "hunt" at his new school.  Yep...he's started "school" twice a week for only a half day each time.  We wanted him to be able to interact with other kids and learn to be away from Mommy and Daddy.  Plus it is also an opportunity for us to meet other parents with children his age.  So far, so good...for the most part.  :)  Still, he's fighting the end of these cruds, and I'm looking forward to getting some sleep when it's all done.  And hopefully I won't fall behind again!

Monday's Menu--Baked Chicken and Rice

Last night we had a wonderful gluten-free dinner of baked chicken and rice.  Most soy sauces contain wheat, making it off limits, but I have been really wanting to cook with soy sauce again. I have been keeping an eye out for some GF soy sauce when I went to the store, and this last trip I finally found it--buried behind some other sauces and not in the GF section. Then I had to find a recipe to use it in to test it out.  :)

I recently found a magazine on my iPad that has me thrilled.  It is called Delight Gluten Free.  I found so many recipes that I am just dying to try, but the one for baked chicken caught my eye.  Since I really don't like spicy things and Z doesn't either, I tweaked it a bit so that it would fit what we like.  Here's what we had:

Baked Chicken

3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 c. margarine, melted
2 Tbsp. honey mustard
1 Tbsp. honey
1 Tbsp. gluten free soy sauce (I used Gluten-Free Kikkoman Soy Sauce)
1 tsp. onion powder

1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Put the chicken breasts in a baking dish (I used 8x8) and set aside.  In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the margarine, honey mustard, honey, GF soy sauce, onion powder, and salt.  Bake for one hour.  Serve chicken over cooked rice.

Enjoy!


April is SAAM!

April is SAAM--Sexual Assault Awareness Month!  This is always a big deal to me, as in my previous life (before being a SAHM) I was a sexual assault advocate and education specialist.  The theme this year is "Get Social!"  Bring awareness by spreading the word and bringing it to light--make others aware, help prevent, and show other victims that they are not alone. 

My primary place that I did all my work was on a college campus.  Why?  Because that is where it happened to me.  So here are some statistics about college and sexual assault, from the National Sexual Violence Resource Center:

It is estimated that the percentage of completed or attempted rape victimization among women in higher educational institutions may be between 20% and 25% over the course of a college career.

Among college women, 9 in 10 victims of rape and sexual assault knew their offender.

Almost 12.8% of completed rapes, 35% of attempted rapes, and 22.9% of threatened rapes happened during a date.

2.8% experienced either a completed rape (1.7%) or an attempted rape (1.1%) during the six-month period in which the study was conducted. Of victims, 22.8% were victims of multiple rapes. If this data is calculated for a calendar year period, nearly 5% of college women are victimized during any given calendar year.

It is estimated that for every 1,000 women attending a college or university, there are 35 incidents of rape each academic year.

Off-campus sexual victimization is much more common among college women than on-campus victimization. Of victims of completed rape 33.7% were victimized on campus and 66.3% off campus.

Less than 5% of completed or attempted rapes against college women were reported to law enforcement. However, in 2/3rds of the incidents the victim did tell another person, usually a friend, not family or school officials.

Throughout the month, I will be sharing more information about sexual assault and violence.  So GET SOCIAL, and spread the word!!

Wordless Wednesday--the 5K Run/1K Inspiration Walk

From the Spunky Shaylah 5K Run/1K Inspiration Walk; photo credit to Tiffany Chapman Photography. And here is more info about what happened to Shaylah Dame.