My insides feel all jiggly (real word, I say so). There's a lot I want to do, but I can't seem to organize myself. And there are even more on the need/have to do list. I read a professional organizer once about doing things in 18 minute increments. Eighteen minutes?! Well, it's more than 15, which doesn't seem like enough, but less than 30, which can be too much. If at the end of the time you want to continue, you set the timer again for another 18 minutes. I can do that. Ruth has a great idea for around the house, too. We call it 10 Things. Quite simply, you pick up and put away 10 things from whatever room you're in. Usually we're in the living/dining/kitchen, which accumulates the most stuff. The front of our house is open, so it really counts at one room. But what does this mean for the have to's for today? Well, there's laundry; the good thing about laundry is that it almost takes care of itself. Except that I have some delicates that need to be done, which means that they have to dry flat & that means finding places for them to dry. And some other things that need to go into the dryer bags & they don't take too long, which is good & bad. I'm also washing sheets, which are a pain to fold. And yes, I can fold fitted sheets! But I digress. There are the "flat surfaces" that need dealing with. Any flat surface in our house is a magnet for papers. Ugh! the papers! I just don't know what to do with all the papers Teddy brings home from school. I had this great idea at the beginning of the school year to make a pocket folder, one pocket for each month, but there's no way this can work given the amount that comes home! And then there's just dealing with Teddy's room. I can't even begin--it would be a whole day.I started off thinking that I would do things today that I wanted to do. But when I do things that I want to do, I feel guilty. As if I have to do the "want to's" are a reward for getting the other things done. I know, I know, I really need to get over this. And yes, I need to organize my time better. And a thousand other things. I'm feeling kinda crafty today. Cooking counts as a craft, right? There are some things that cross over. Like, if I buckled down & made a menu plan, I would save time and money. I could just add that to the to do list. I think I just heard the dryer,Susan
In the past 2 days I've discovered that 2 blogs I really, really like have shut down. How's that for irony? Nothing like getting you back into the blogging game but not being able to read your favorite blogs!
Susan
Sunday night dinner--finally something goes right for me this weekend!
Nothing this weekend went the way it was supposed to. Stupid rain. Stupid cancer. Stupid daylight savings time or whatever it is that we're in now.
So with no actual plans for dinner and no time to prepare anything, I somehow managed to pull something off. And it even tasted good!
CHICKEN FLORENTINE-ish
1 lb cooked, diced chicken (I used frozen tenders)
1 can Progresso creamy mushroom soup (gluten free as of this writing!)
low-fat milk
1 bag frozen, chopped spinach (fresh spinach might work, but this was what I had)
8 oz gluten-free pasta (I used rotini)
1/2 cup shredded Swiss cheese
Put the soup in a large skillet, add half a can of water (if I had white wine I would have used that) and half a can of low-fat milk. Add the spinach, and bring to a simmer. Add the pasta, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes, or until the pasta is barely done. Stir in the chicken, and continue cooking until the pasta is finished and the chicken is heated. Add the cheese; season to taste with salt and pepper.
Teddy had his yearly allergist appointment today. It was nice to have an appointment that wasn't dictated by an allergic "event." No shots, no scratch tests.
Teddy did pretty well. He was so nervous that he was going to get a shot! Ruth came to the appointment (she stayed home sick from work with a cold); we both assured him that there was no shot, as did the nurse. It wasn't until he saw the doctor that he was a believer.
There was an incident (last summer?) where right before bed Teddy said that his mouth felt like it does when he has peanut butter. Although we couldn't think where he might have had contact, our policy is that if says it, we believe him. We gave him Benadryl, bundled him up (he was about to go to bed), and headed to the ER. When thinking about it later, we realized that it may have been something in the tropical fruit salsa that we purchased at a local farm stand that they make themselves. We haven't purchased it since. We described it to the doctor, and she thinks it may have been an incident of oral allergy syndrome (OAS), which I also suffer from (can't eat raw cherries, apples, or peaches).
Next up, getting him to the GI.
Susan
Teddy's bedtime book tonight was Mommy, Mama, and Me by Leslea Newman. I was afraid that it would be little young for him, but he loved it!I'd been on the waiting list for it at the library for a while and was surprise when it came in that it was a board book. Even though most nights we read from a chapter book, some nights you just need a little book.
But back to the book. When we were done, Teddy was excited that the child in the book had 2 mom's, just like he does. The child in the book is pretty gender neutral, so I told him the child was a boy.
It was great to hear him say, "This book is about us!"
Susan
Tomorrow is our congregation's Thanksgiving service. It's one of the rare occasions where we have communion. This year, like last, it will be a cornbread & apple cider communion. And again this year I was asked to make the cornbread (actually, mini muffins).
This is how you know it's Unitarian: the cornbread is gluten-free, nut-free, peanut-free, soy-free, and vegan. Last year I made the same muffins, but egg-free cooking was pretty new to me and I was afraid to try it. In the spirit on inclusion, I decided to go for it this year. Our minister's daughter has an egg allergy, and I wanted her to be able to participate in the occasion.
Sadly, we won't be attending the service. Teddy's been sick since Wednesday and while he is better today, he won't be well enough tomorrow. I don't think he'll be going to school Monday, either.
I don't remember where I got the original corn muffin recipe. Teddy loves it. I make it weekly and he takes 3 of the mini muffins to school for snack. The original recipe called for Pamela's all-purpose gluten-free baking mix. As Teddy has a nut allergy, using that is out of the question. I've adapted a gluten-free flour mix that I think is excellent (& will post soon), or use any you like.
Corn Muffins, gluten-free
makes about 4 dozen mini muffins
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups corn meal
3/4 cups gluten-free flour
1/2 cups sugar
1 T baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk (non-dairy if desired)
2 eggs (or equilivent egg replacer)
3 T melted butter (or oil)
Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 400, spray mini muffin pan with non-stick spray.
All ingredients should be at room temperature.
In a medium bowl, combine corn meal, GF flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
In a small bowl, whisk together milk, eggs, and melted butter.
Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the milk mixture. Mix until just combined. Scoop batter into prepared pan.
Bake 15 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Turn out onto cooling rack & let cool completely.
Enjoy!
Susan
Ruth & I had an actual date Saturday night--babysitter & everything! We decided to go to the movies, but under NO circumstances was it to be a movie by Disney or Pixar.
We saw Julie & Julia. And we loved it! Unfortunately, I really regretted eating at the mall food court before. We didn't get ill, it was just the decision to eat at the food court that seemed... wrong. (being at a mall on a Saturday night is a discussion for another day)
And speaking of movies, we try to do pizza & movie night once a week. The day has been changing, but we think we've hit on the perfect day--Thursday! Ruth works from home on Thursdays, so we can start the movie earlier than other weeknights. Weekends are just too busy to try to do it, so there you are.
This last weeks movie was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Teddy hasn't been great about seeing the classic Disney movies. No matter how hard we try to tell him that there's a happy ending, you just have to get through the scary parts, he has never been able to watch one all the way through. Maybe 6 1/2 is the magic number, because we watched it all the way through this time.
Pizza this week was frozen. Teddy had his Amy's gluten-free rice crust pizza with added turkey pepperoni, and Ruth & I had a frozen everything.
Next week I hope to make pizza from scratch; not sure what the movie will be.
Susan
