Mothering Many

Just a couple of things real quick this morning, before I tackle the couch of disaster, write yet more lesson plans and take kids to the doctor. Oh, and shower. Must shower.

Happy Tax Time, and if you have a new baby, it’s even better. If you have a cute new baby (and aren’t they all?) it could be almost fantastic. Yeah, a fantastic tax time. Amazing thought that, huh?

It’s a contest from TurboTax called “America’s Cutest Last-Minute Tax Deduction.” Parents with children born in December 2007 are invited to upload a photo of their newborn to the contest’s web site, where their fellow taxpayers will vote for the cutest and most original photo of the baby. The winner will receive a $5,000 savings bond ($10,000 upon maturity). The site is www.CutestTaxDeduction.com. The contest ends January 9.

That’s today, so hurry up! Good thing we live in the digital age, huh?

Moving on to the food part, my friend Amy showed me this site, and I thought you would all enjoy have a peek at this. The article is on food for a family of four in 1952. Be sure to click the picture, because the full version is awe inspiring.

Ok, gather the kids, all of you put on your aprons and lets get cooking! I want to tell you about a cool game for kids. And maybe for moms if the kids aren’t watching. (Ruthless Ruth kicked my butt with spaghetti, just so you know. Ahem.) The Good Food Fight is just what it sounds like: You have a food fight with healthy, nutritious food that happens to be tasty. The effects are pretty cool and it’s tempting to duck when that food comes sailing at you. And how do I know it’s tasty? All the recipes are on the site! Eat Better America has developed the game to highlight its healthy recipes. You can also find fitness tips and advice for a healthy lifestyle.

I don’t know about you, but I struggle with teaching my children about nutrition. It’s just not something that comes up in ordinary conversation. Perhaps I will use this game to open the discussion.

I just checked out my search engine hits. I do that now and again, just for giggles. I’m now the sixth result for “grits in the crockpot”. Now, just a few days before I wrote my post with that name, I had searched on the same term to get a recipe for same. I didn’t find one exactly like I needed, so I just did it how I needed to do it, and hoped for the best. My recipe worked, and so, apparently, did my post title. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t have paid a search engine marketing firm to get a better result in just three days.

Here’s a site I have been meaning to tel you about for quite a while. I think you home-schoolers will find it very useful. World Cooking has a nice collection of recipes from around the world. And don’t forget the flags. They’d be great printed out for you note-bookers, along with pictures of the foods!

I have a little story and a recipe. They sort of go together. I’ve been taking grits to church the past couple of Sundays, and apparently, i will be bringing them for the rest of my natural life. It started as a joke, and then everyone just enjoyed them so much, that I am going to continue it.

Here’s how I make them. Using 4 parts water and one part grits, add the water to the crockpot, and stir in the grits. Put the whole thing in microwave and cook it on high long enough to bring it to a boil, then put the crock back in the base, and cook it on high for a while, up to a couple hours, depending on how thick you like your grits. I take mine unseasoned, and let people fix them as they like.

Now, I have a wee issue with my crockpot. It has no handles. Umm, no, let me re-phrase. My old crockpot has no handles. I’m getting this one tomorrow:

See the nice handles?? And do you also see the locking lid, perfect for moving a full crockpot from one place to another?

Yes!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, one word of warning: if you take bacon with your grits, be sure to also take along the best radar detector you can find. You will need it to clock the speed at which the bacon disappears. We clocked out at 6 pounds in 15 minutes, divided by 45ish people. Just sayin’

Technorati Tags: grits, recipe, grits recipe, crockpot recipe

My menu is totally lax this week as I just went and bought what was on sale, because dh got home early one day, and I knew better than to wait to go ashopping, having learned my lesson last week. None the less, here it is, such as it is:

chicken
chicken
spaghetti
hamburgers
tacos
hamburger helper
pork chops

I hope everyone is a little better organized in this department than I am this week, LOL

Oh my goodness, but we ate well tonight! Dh got through with his work early, so I ran off to the grocery store before Stuntman’s practice (yay, he has to be at the football field at 7:30 AM tomorrow–yes, that’s in the “at morning”). Provisions were obtained, and tonight the table fairly groaned with all the goodness. And I don’t have a dinky table, people. Mine is larger than many conference tables I’ve seen. We had shake&bake pork chops, green bean casserole and homemade macaroni and cheese.

Technorati Tags: homemade macaroni and cheese

Remember that lovely menu I posted on Monday? So far we have had tacos (not on that menu), beans and rice (not on that menu), and chuck steak (not on that menu). Tonight dh will be bringing home deli chicken (not on that menu). Are you noticing a trend (not on that menu)?

I haven’t been grocery shopping because the kids are having practice almost every night. The coaches keep them until they need landscape lighting to see their way home. There was no practice last night, but it was called off so late that I didn’t have the list made yet. I’m planning to go tomorrow night–my early Saturday morning WalMart runs having been canceled due to ball games.

Do you that picture over there? That my friends, acquaintances and casual readers is a florescent light and I want one. I want it in the kitchen, between the stove and the sink, so I can plug it into the gfci outlet. Right now there is a panel under the cabinets, and I am not sure why, because it’s the only one in the whole kitchen that’s not open. I’d like to put the florescent up in there and have recessed lighting. And then I could see to cook. In fact, one above the counters on either side of the kitchen would tickle me near ’bout to death. I’ve had fluorescents in a couple of my kitchens and they are really awesome there. I don’t particularly care for them in other rooms, but in the kitchen, fluorescents rock.

Hmmm, now I have myself thinking about using fluorescents to replace the incandescents totally….. We just started using those “energy smart” bulbs as the ones we have burn out. Do you think DH will think I’m crazy if I change my mind again? Well, crazier than he already thinks I am? I mean, I just want to be able to see to cook his food. Is that such a bad thing? Really, it would all be for him, see.

I’ve been doing a new thing with the kids the past couple of menu planning sessions. I wait until we are all sitting around the table, and I ask them what they want to eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner and a snack, and I write down what they say. Each person gets to pick one of each, and then I buy the ingredients for that stuff. I cook those items until they are all cooked and eaten and then we do it again. That kinda messes up the Menu Plan Monday thing I had going on, BUT! Today is Monday, and it is also menu writing day, so hey, I can play! Yay ME!

So, in an undetermined order, here’s what we are eating for supper for the next however long it lasts.

• beef roast, potatoes, gravy, veggie
• corned beef, fried cabbage, cous-cous (“way to mix Irish and Greek food there, Mom” I was told. I don’t care, I think it will be tasty!)
• Fried chicken, rice, gravy, veggie
• hamburgers, pasta salad
• pork chops, homemade mac and cheese, green bean casserole
• BBQ ribs, potato salad, veggie

Hmm, I guess I could just share the menu plan when we make them, huh? And then share the link t that on Monday, huh? My thinker is slow, but it’s thorough once it gets going, LOL! I’ve heard that you can take stuff to help that, but drug treatment is just not high on my must do list right now.