Our Chicken Whisperer

The chickens love this girl!

They run to her...

...and will follow her anywhere!

For the Love of Eggs: Part 5

The chicken coop, as it was, wasn't quite how we imagined a chicken coop should look.

So after some research my husband built some nest boxes, (which we call the Chicken Hotel),

and he added a few places for the chickens to roost.

This week, after all the time and money we've spent caring for the chickens, they finally started earning their keep!

On Monday, we found three eggs.

Tuesday, we got one more.

So far today, we've found two.

And all but one of them have been found on a shelf in the barn on a pile of plastic bags.

 Silly chickens.

(Glass eggs to plant in the nesting boxes have been added to my shopping list...)

For the Love of Eggs: Part 4

The chicken run is finished!  We got the chicken wire on, then my husband and son went back and closed the seams with heavy duty wire.

 Then he built a door, and I filled in the trenches to bury the wire.

 Once everything was secure, we let the chickens out into the run,

 which resulted in happy kids and happy chickens!

For the Love of Eggs: Part 3

We started with fifteen chicks in a box...

in our guest room.

A week later, the fourteen that survived moved to the bathtub.

They quickly outgrew the bathtub too, so they've moved into the chicken coop a little ahead of schedule.

The chicken run is almost done; just a few more finishing touches left to add...like chicken wire!

For the Love of Eggs: Part 2

The Chicken Run

***

First we dug a trench a foot deep around the perimeter of the run.

And by "we", I mean my husband.

While he worked on the trench, I dug post holes.

12 of them.

For the Love of Eggs: Part 1

Have I ever shown you the chicken coop that's on our property?

Well, here it is from the outside,

and this is the inside.

Exciting, isn't it?

Under the current management it has not seen much use, but that's about to change...

Still Hungry...Maybe

After dinner, Mr. Adorable came and found me where I was working.

Mr. Adorable: Mom, I'm still hungry.

Me: Really?

Mr. Adorable: Yeah, but if I don't like the idea, I'm not going to have it.

Me: You mean, if I tell you that you can have a carrot, you won't still be hungry?

Mr. Adorable: Yeah.

Me: You can have a carrot.

Mr. Adorable: I guess I'm full.

Mommy's Recipes

I like to eat. So does my family.

Naturally, I started collecting cookbooks. And cooking magazines. And recipes scribbled on 3x5 cards. And ideas printed off the internet or jotted down on scratch paper. I even have a recipe that I found tucked between the pages of one of my grandma's cookbooks. It's a newspaper clipping ... in Spanish.

By 2008, the collection took up an entire six feet of shelving. I was just a little bit overwhelmed.

So I started a blog to help keep track of our favorite recipes. It serves many purposes.

1. Our favorite recipes are preserved for posterity (or at least for as long as blogspot's server lasts) on the internet, where

2. I can access them even when I am not at home.

3. It makes it very easy to share my recipes with friends when they ask. (Hi Amy!) :)

4. And if anything ever happens to my recipe notebook (see below), I can very easily put together a new one.

The blog is handy, all right, but it wasn't helping any with the cookbook clutter. However, moving was a great excuse to purge the cookbook shelves. I recycled magazines, took some cookbooks to a used book store, tossed scraps of paper in the trash...and stuffed two folders full of recipes to try.

Once most of the boxes were unpacked and we felt kind of settled in here, I started another serious purge of the remaining recipes. I typed up and posted on the blog the ones that we've tried and liked, then went through the whole blog and printed out every recipe. I stuck those pages in a binder filled with page protectors and now my recipes are legible, organized, and protected from spills.

Unfortunately, I still have a whole box of cookbooks to unpack.

I have no idea where I'm going to put them.

Which is why they are still not unpacked.

But I can still cook my family's favorite meals, thanks to Mommy's Recipes!

(Does that sound like a cheesy infomercial, or what?!?)

Garden Bounty

This is my garden. It consists of three large pots containing large, unproductive plants. We don't even know for sure what we planted. It's kind of pathetic.

OK, it's very pathetic!

Most of my friends have real gardens, the kind that get planted in the ground, on time, and that actually produce enough vegetables to eat.

Lucky for me, though, sometimes my friends have plants that overproduce, and they start giving fruits and vegetables away.

So far this summer we've been given blackberries, crookneck squash, basil and other herbs, yellow squash, cucumbers, green bell peppers, zucchini, and now cherry tomatoes. A lot of cherry tomatoes! (Thanks, Deborah!)

I kind of like this gardening business! My friends do all the work, and I reap only the benefits. I get to spend time with other moms, my kids get to play with other kids, and oh, yeah, we get to eat lots of yummy things, too!

Six Hours Later...

Today was our designated commissary shopping trip for the month, but we never just go to the commissary. If we're going to be out and about, I want to get it all done, so we don't have to go out again. So, we went to the PX mall, the commissary, Sam's Club, Walmart, and Kroger, and we did it all in almost exactly six hours. We got groceries, produce, cleaning supplies, diapers, and a new office chair, and while we were at Sam's Club, we also got a pair of glasses tightened.

The chair was in a huge box, and it wouldn't fit anywhere except for behind the passenger seat in the van, in front of the toddler's carseat. He liked his temporary footrest, though. My youngest daughter had two packages of toilet paper and a box of pears for her footrest, and the oldest two girls shared the back

row of the van with a huge insulated bag full of cold food.

It took me an hour to unload the van.

It took another half an hour to get all the cold food put away in the fridge and freezer, and all the rest of our purchases unpacked and set on the counter. They will live there temporarily in relative safety from my littlest helper until I have a chance to put them away.

I don't even want to talk about the state of my fridge.

Let's just say that we'll need to eat a lot of food before I can even begin to think about buying more milk or making yogurt.

I spent a lot of money. I am very, very tired.

I don't have to go back to the commissary until October (or so).

I'm not complaining! :)

Unintentional Air Freshener

I got some fresh herbs from a friend this week, and decided to dry some of them.  I couldn't think of very many places that were high enough to be safely out of a toddler's reach, so I hung them from the knobs of my higher kitchen cabinets.

I don't imagine that I will ever combine these two herbs in a recipe, but as they dry we can smell them throughout the entire kitchen, and they smell SO good together!  We've got a couple bunches of mint, and one bunch of oregano.

It's organic, chemical-free air freshener 

that will end up re-purposed as tea and 

seasonings!  Two for the price of one, 

except that it was free!  (Thanks Amy!)

Head over to Tammy's Recipes for 

more useful kitchen tips!

Of Vegetables and Kids

Our commissary has two sizes of bags in the produce section.  There are the normal, kinda flimsy bags that most grocery stores have, and there are some really big, strong bags that can be used for the bigger vegetables, like heads of lettuce, piles of spinach, bundles of kale or chard...even stalks of rhubarb can stand up in those bags!  For most of our produce, we use the little, flimsy bags, but I like the big ones for things like bananas, corn, and broccoli.  

Today, while I was picking through the asparagus, I let my two oldest daughters fill one of those small bags half-way full of green beans.  They did a good job, so when they asked if they could get some broccoli too, I said yes.  While I waited, I busied myself with checking my list, making sure Mr. Adorable was sitting down, and preventing my 5-year-old from squishing the grapes.  

Until I heard the older couple next to me chuckling.  "You don't see that every day!", the man said to his wife.

THAT would be my two very busy 7-year-old daughters, filling one of those really, big, strong plastic produce bags to the very top with broccoli.  I made them put half of it back.  "But, Mom!", they protested loudly, "We LIKE broccoli!"

The older couple laughed out loud.  

I guess they couldn't help it.  :)

Country Pantry Goodies

The Country Pantry is the little Mennonite store that we went to on Monday, and I think it's my new favorite store.  Not only does it remind me of the little store we had when I was growing up, but it is just crammed full of good things, and good deals!  I went specifically to get the wheat I need (to grind in my new grain mill), and I came home with a load of hard-to-find goodies.

In addition to the 50 pound bag of wheat, I got a jar of local raw honey, wheat gluten, Real Salt, alphabet noodles, arrowroot powder, unsweetened carob chips, roasted peas, and whole, hormone/antibiotic free, non-homogenized milk.  When I got home and did a little research, I discovered that they also have grass-fed beef, which is hard enough for me to find that it would be worth going back just for that!  (They also have farm fresh eggs, but I'm getting those for free from a friend.)  After a little more research, I figured out that buying milk from them, I will save $3/gallon over buying from Walmart, and save $4/gallon over buying from the commissary (factoring in the $2 glass milk bottle deposit, of course).  That's a huge savings, AND the best milk I can find!  What a deal!

Are you wondering why all these things have me so excited?  It's partly because of what I've learned lately about food (Have you read that book I recommended yet?), and it's partly because, well, this is my life!  I am a wife and a mom.  I have two adults (usually) and four growing kids to feed.  A large portion of my time is spent in the kitchen cooking the healthiest food I know how.  When I'm not in the kitchen I'm probably thinking about making tasty, healthy food, and sometimes (because there are four of these growing kids!) my time is spent finding the absolute best deal I can find on good, healthy food.  Instead of feeling overwhelmed by my new choices, I have decided to enjoy the adventure and tackle the challenges.  Mary Poppins sums it up well, I think;  "In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun!"  

Yes, I did just quote Mary Poppins.  (What is wrong with me?!?)  And yes, I am having fun!  :)

An Introduction

I'd like you to meet the newest addition to my kitchen.  Isn't it beautiful?  I haven't actually used it yet, but even so, I love that it came with a motorized base AND a free hand crank base too.

This is going to be fun!  :)

P.S.  It's a grain mill!

The Things I Read

Let me introduce you to my new word of the week:

Orthorexia, from the Greek "ortho-" (right and correct) + "exia" (appetite) = right appetite

It sounds innocent enough, doesn't it?  Eating right is a good thing, but orthorexic is a term that is being used in America to describe people with an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating.  I am spending quite a bit of time and energy on the subject lately, but I am doing my best to avoid becoming one of them.  :)

On the other hand, when I began to avoid foods that contain "high frucsish corn syrup" (as my 5-year-old calls it), I began to wonder about all those other ingredients and chemicals (listed and unlisted) we were consuming mindlessly.  Diabetes runs in our family, and I was (and am!) determined to begin preventing it now, for both myself and for my children, but there are so many theories and diets out there that it seemed almost impossible to know which one is "right".  I've been reading blogs written by nutritionally minded Christian women, and there were a few books on the subject that were repeatedly mentioned.  However, since I refuse to take advice from random people that I don't even know, I decided to read some books for myself and draw my own conclusions.  First I did a bunch of research online and came up with a list of books I wanted to read, and then we made a trip to the library.  I came home with titles like Real Food by Nina Planck, In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan, For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway, and The Omnivores Dilemma by Michael Pollan.

First I read Real Food; What to Eat and Why by Nina Planck, and I learned about things like cholesterol (which I have never understood until now!), why eggs and milk are good for us, and how "they" raise and feed the meat we eat.  It was an interesting book, but as one critic pointed out, the author's sole qualifications are that "she grew up on a farm and her parents served good food, she is healthy and she has managed/owned greenmarket stores".  I also hesitate to take everything she wrote at face value for the simple reason that she accepts as fact the theory of evolution.  If she ignores even the existence of our Creator, how can I possibly trust her to guide me in my quest to eat right? 

In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan, was also very interesting (although also written from an evolutionist viewpoint), and better written (and researched) than Real Food.  It seemed to cover the same ground as Real Food did, but the last third of the book delved into more of howwe Americans eat instead of what we eat.  The author gives advice such as "Eat meals."  "Eat at a table.  No, a desk is not a table."  "Don't get your fuel from the same place your car does."  "Try not to eat alone."  "Eat slowly."  I really enjoyed that book, but the same principle applied; the author ignored even the existence of our Creator.

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway has nothing to do with food. But it was really, really good!  I had a hard time putting it down.  (But that has nothing to do with orthorexia or the subjects of food and nutrition.)

During my research I had come across another book called The Maker's Diet by Jordan Rubin, so I decided to look into it.  (Literally!  Amazon has that neat feature where you can actually read parts of books.)  It looked like too much of one man's experience and not enough of what I wanted, so I kept looking.  I got side-tracked in my search by the title of a book by the same author, The Maker's Diet for Weight-Loss.  (What mother of four with some weight to losewouldn't get side-tracked by a title like that?!?)  I used the same neat "pre-read" feature, and found almost instantly that that book wasn't for me either.  However, the time I spent researching Jordan Rubin's books was not wasted, because on one of the pages in The Maker's Diet for Weight Loss, he quoted from a book called What the Bible Says About Healthy Livingby Rex Russell, MD.

Ah.  How refreshing!  A book about healthy living (not just eating), based on Biblical truths, written by a man who not only is a Christian, but who has his MD and is diabetic.  All of the qualifications I was looking for, all wrapped up in one author!  I bought this book, and as soon as it came in the mail, I started reading.  It was fascinating!  The text is easy to read, liberally sprinkled with Bible verses and references (as a book entitled "What the Bible Says About..."  should be!), and equal parts "ewwww factor" and funny.  When I finished the book, I immediately wanted to share everything I'd learned from it with everyone I know.  The only problem is that while I was immersed in this book, I was also finishing reading through Romans, (both books cover the subject of "the law").  While I would actually highly recommend reading through both concurrently (Romans shone more light on what I was reading in Russell's book and made it easier to understand, and vice versa), I came across a passage in Romans 14 (specifically verse 22!) that struck a nerve:

²⁰Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. ²¹It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.

 ²²So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves. ²³But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.

So, while I would love to tell you what you should and should not be eating, I will refrain, and instead I will just highly recommend that you read for yourself What The Bible Says About Healthy Living by Rex Russell, MD, and form your own conclusions.  

Oh, and The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan?  I decided not to read it at all.  It seems to me that only an orthorexic would read four thick books on the subject of food in one week, so I'm going to keep it to three, and go back and read What The Bible Says About Healthy Living again instead.  :)

Not My Mother's Yogurt

I have never really liked yogurt.  Especially the homemade plain yogurt my mom used to make in the hotbox when we lived in Peru, South America (Sorry, Mom!).  So I simply avoided eating it.

When my two oldest girls were little, I used to buy them those special baby yogurts.  I figured that I should at least taste what I was feeding my kids, and what do you know?!?  They were pretty good!  I started buying yogurt for me, too, in all the fancy flavors I could find.  After a while, the girls were both eating yogurt at least once a day, too, and it was cheaper to buy them the same kinds I was buying for my husband and I.  When my youngest daughter graduated to eating "big people yogurt" too, it got to be a little bit expensive.  We were going through at least 25 yogurts a week, usually more, and the commissary doesn't carry any (cheaper) generic brands.

When I was pregnant with my son, I had gestational diabetes, and I had to pay attention to how many carbohydrates were in each thing I ate.  Just one of my favorite yogurts filled my entire quota of carbs for a snack, (and it was too many carbs for my breakfast), and I began to examine the label a little closer.  Sugar. Lots of sugar.

So I borrowed a little trick from a friend who is a registered dietitian and mother of four, and began mixing the sugared, flavored yogurts with plain yogurt for the kids' snacks.  Three scoops of plain yogurt for each kid, and one scoop of flavored came out perfectly.  We used only one yogurt a day (for the kids, anyway) and they no longer complained that their yogurt was too sweet.

When my husband deployed again, and I quit buying yogurt for his lunches, the kids and I started mixing other things into our plain yogurt for snacks.  We've had it with raisins, frozen fruit, honey, jam, brown sugar, and granola.  Most recently, our favorite way to eat yogurt is plain...and warm.  (I can hear you now..."Eww!  Warm yogurt?!?  That's disgusting!"  Bear with me...)

I was now buying plain yogurt in those two pound containers, and we were eating so much of it  that I was beginning (again) to question the cost, not to mention the fact that two times out of three the commissary was out of it when we needed it.  So I looked online and found a recipe for making yogurt in the crockpot.  And it actually works!  The first time I tried it, it was ready right at breakfast time, and all four kids practically inhaled their huge servings of warm yogurt, and then they asked for more.  Well, except for Mr. Adorable.  The only words he said the entire time were, "Mmmm.  Mmmm.  Mmmm.", and then finally he asked for more too.  "Mo, Mama!"

Yesterday I made it again in my new crockpot, but a double batch this time.  I had also found a recipe for vanilla yogurt, but it called for almost as much sugar as it did milk, so I decided to just try adding vanilla to the milk and see what happened.  I made the vanilla yogurt in my old, smaller crockpot.  I started both batches yesterday morning, and by 9:00 last night they were done.  I waited until 11:00 to put all the yogurt in jars, and I ran out of jars before I had emptied the crockpot of vanilla yogurt.  There was about 3/4 of a glass left over of the most liquid-y of the still-warm yogurt.

So I drank it.  It was so good that I mixed a little milk into another glassful of yogurt this morning for breakfast.

It is definitely not my mother's yogurt.

Tired of Broken Jars

I make vegetable stock to use in our soups, and then I freeze it until I'm ready to use it.  I don't like to use Ziploc bags to freeze it in, because I always make a mess, so I experimented with quart jars.  I made sure it had cooled completely before I filled the jars, left the lids off until it was frozen solid, and I left plenty of space for the stock to expand, and still the jars kept breaking in the freezer!  I did a little research and discovered that I was not the only one to have this problem, so I thought a little harder and came up with a new solution.

I freeze the stock in a muffin pan.  I can control how much goes in each cup before I freeze it, and my quart jars don't break any more!  It's also a lot easier to get the stock out of the jar, and I don't have to use all of it if I don't need it.  This method also works well for my chicken and turkey soup bases and for the beef stock I make out of the leftover roast juices.

I think this would also work well for freezing leftover soups!  It would be frozen in nice little portions, simple and easy to warm up for one, two, or more people, and the smaller portions melt faster, too.  A good thing when it's lunchtime and your children are starving!

I only wish I'd thought of this sooner!

There are always lots of great ideas and recipes on Kitchen Tip Tuesdays at Tammysrecipes.com!

Group Cooking 101

I'll admit it.  I have not been very excited about the prospect of having the kids help me in the kitchen.  They're 7, 7, 4, and 21 months, and they're messy, they're slow, and they tend to enjoy the strangest things at the most inopportune moments.  It is SO much easier and faster to do it myself.

On the other hand, I want to teach them how to cook, and they're eager to learn, so I decided (and yes, it took a conscious decision) to start teaching them now, before they decide it's not fun anymore.  I just make sure we're making something that is easily salvageable in case of accidents, and that we have plenty of time to get it put together.  And I'm teaching them to start with a clean work area and to clean up after themselves as we go.  :)

So, the other day for lunch, we made Creamed Tuna on toast because our bread was going stale.  (You wanted the truth, right?)  :)  My part of the process sounded something like this (names have been changed to protect the innocent):

"Everyone washed their hands with soap?  OK, Addie, you can unwrap this butter and put it in the pan.  No, if you want to unwrap the butter you can do it now and get a drink after you're done.  Molly, please get the flour.  Julia, find a tablespoon.  That's a cup.  You need one of the spoons that says 1 TBS on it.  Molly, if you keep whining at me you won't get to do anything else.  You'll get a turn doing something.  I know, you can get the toaster out and put the bread in it.  Addie, are you about done opening the butter?  Julia, while we're waiting for the butter you can measure one tablespoon of flour, but don't dump it in yet.  Isaiah, take the ball out of the kitchen.  No, I'll pour the milk into the measuring cup because I just opened this gallon and it's too heavy for you, Molly.  Addie, is that butter unwrapped yet?  Put it in the pan and throw the paper away, then wash your hands again.  Molly, stir this butter until it melts, but be careful not to touch the pan.  It's hot.  Julia, you can put the flour in and then get one more spoonful.  Molly, keep stirring all over the pan so that the flour doesn't stick and burn.  No, thank you Julia, I'll put the milk in.  Keep stirring, Molly.  Julia, you can put the flour away.  Yes, Addie, you can get out the ketchup.  Hold on a minute, Julia.  I don't know yet what you can do next.  Addie, why are you getting the stool?  No, the ketchup is in the fridge!  Isaiah, please shut the drawer.  Here, Molly, let me stir for a minute to make sure it's mixed up good before we put more in.  Julia, it's your turn to stir.  Molly, fill this tablespoon two times with ketchup and dump it in.  Isaiah, get out of the cupboard!  Yes, Addie, you can put the ketchup away.  No, please put it in right side up, it's too full to put upside down yet.  It keeps falling over.  Would you like to help open the tuna fish?  These are neat packages Daddy bought, aren't they?  Keep stirring Julia.  What?!?  They even put corn syrup in Worcestershire sauce!  OK, dump the tuna in, Addie, but be careful of the hot pan.  Just one, Molly, and let Addie open the other two.  You can push down the thing on the toaster now, Molly.  Let me break up those chunks, Julia, I don't want you to get splashed.  Molly get plates, Julia get forks, Isaiah get in your highchair.  Everyone helped, Molly, not just you and Julia.  Quit trying to upset your sister.  Who wants milk?"

In spite of the chaos, it was kind of fun!  So, after snack, when no one wanted to help me work in the kitchen, I wondered aloud if I had enough energy to make the cookies I had planned to make.  Julia immediately changed her mind and volunteered to help me.

So, Julia and I made cookies Thursday afternoon, just the two of us.

And since Addie was the only one still at the table after lunch when I discovered that my new crock pot had been delivered, she helped me create "Stoneless Stone Soup".

Molly, not to be left out, helped make bread later in the afternoon to go with our soup.

And we all survived the experience!  :)

Soup's On!

My new Crock Pot came on Thursday!

When I tried to make a double batch of Crock Pot Granola and barely had room to stir, and when our favorite recipe of Crock Pot Ajiaco came close to overflowing the pot, I decided it was time to research and buy a bigger Crock Pot.

I had a hard time finding what I wanted.  I knew I wanted an oval one, 6 quart capacity or larger, with white stoneware, and after doing some research, I also knew that I didn't want a "smart" one with pre-set hour selections.  My initial shopping ventures made me think that the Crock Pot I was hoping to find did not exist.  But I persevered, and finally found what I had in mind, and it was exactly what I wanted!

What I want to know is, when did I become this person...this person that got so excited about the delivery of her new Crock Pot that she immediately washed it and began to make soup?

Not My Mother's Casserole

When we were first married, my husband and I had a deal.  He cooked, I cleaned up after him.  That system worked for a few years, but when I started working only part-time and eventually not at all, I took over the cooking.  I will freely admit how much I really enjoyed that first phase of our marriage, because I have never liked to cook.  I knew HOW, (Mom made sure of that!), but I didn't have to like it.

I came into our marriage with a boatload of family recipes and familiar cookbooks, and collected more along the way.  I discovered Cooking Light magazine in 2003, and suddenly, cooking was fun!  I was trying new, sometimes exotic recipes that were actually good for us!  I tried something new almost every night, and I spent a lot of my spare time reading through other people's published recipes.

That phase didn't last long, though.  Maybe remodeling a townhouse with three little girls ages three and under had something to do with it...or maybe it was the cross-country move to our new home that killed it, but whatever it was, by the time my husband deployed to Iraq, I was back to basic, boring meals.  Whatever was quick, relatively balanced, and easy to make, that's what was for dinner.  Eat-it-anyway food.

When my husband returned home from Iraq, I started cooking again.  Nothing fancy, but things that actually took prep time.  Things I had to plan ahead for.  There-are-no-leftovers food.

That didn't last long either.  I got pregnant with Mr. Adorable, and I.  Was.  Exhausted.  All the time.  I was doing good to get something -- anything -- on the table.  And then I had 3 kids and an infant.  And I started homeschooling.  And for 11 weeks I had to cook in a kitchen the size of a postage stamp, that had a teeny tiny fridge and no oven.  With three pots and a skillet.  At-least-we're-eating food.

The one thing that was consistent through all of those phases was my attitude.  I was selfish.  I still am, but I'm admitting it now.  :)  I didn't want to spend time cooking, because that took away even more time from the little "me" time I had left in my day.  

I've spent quite a bit of time in the past year or so with three women, Elisabeth, Charlotte, and Tammy, who have greatly influenced my thinking, and my attitude.  Elisabeth Elliot started the changing process for me when a friend re-introduced me to her books.  Her words, some gentle reminders, some not-so-gentle statements, addressed my root issue of selfishness and challenged me to aim higher.  I am a wife and mother -- THIS is my calling, my portion.  (Including the cooking part, which has slowly BECOME my "me" time, even when I share it.)  Charlotte Mason, while addressing the issue of the Will in teaching children, showed me that when I change my thoughts, my attitude will change along with them.  And then Lindafay, who led me to Charlotte, "introduced" me to Tammy's Recipes through a link in her side-bar.

Oh my.  A recipe blog.  Filled with common sense, a good attitude, good recipes, and links every Tuesday to OTHER blogs full of recipes, ideas, and thoughts.  As I read through Tammy's blog, and others I found through hers, I started thinking about not just WHAT to cook for dinner, but about things like WHAT is IN what I'm cooking for dinner, and how high our grocery bill really WAS every week.

It didn't take long for me to get excited about cooking again.  I was already enjoying the challenge of cooking more from scratch, trying new recipes (although recipe blogs can be addicting!), tweaking old ones to suit our tastes, and seeing just how low I could get the grocery bill ... and then I started reading the labels on everything I buy.

I've always tried to pay attention to the labels on the foods I give my family, doing the "good mommy" thing by avoiding the "bad fats" and making sure sugar wasn't TOO high on the ingredients list.  BUT.  I started reading the labels on my favorite "staple" items too.  High Fructose Corn Syrup, Corn Syrup, and Sugar as the first or second ingredients in "healthy" foods.  MSG, and Polymonuglutasucramites, and glurocamodirides, (yes, I made those two words up), and more unpronounceable chemical additives.  I quit buying them.

Yeah, I've made some big changes lately.  Mostly it's my attitude that has changed, but the way I shop and the way I cook have changed, too.  And I'm making some little changes as well.  

Take tonight, for instance.  I made one of my mom's recipes, Hamburger Green Bean Casserole, but I made a few changes.  I made my own Cream of Mushroom soup instead of using a can, and I used plain yogurt instead of sour cream.  Mom's recipe is very good the way it is, and those were the only two things I changed, but it was Not My Mother's Casserole anymore.

It was mine.  :)