Ramblings

For the past few days I've had odd thoughts but not enough to blog about. So here is a mix mash of those thoughts.

First of all, I think any parent knows the frustration of not being able to get close to your DH/ SO without a child getting in the middle. This was especially true the other night, when Wyatt knew exactly the most inopportune time to wake up. So put the first notch under frustrated witch.

Then we ran out of soda.  I normally drink cherry 7up which is caffeine free (because I breastfeed I no longer drink caffeinated drinks on a daily basis) but I have got to have a bit of sugar at least! I use to be a Pepsi drinker. Dh and I would go through 4 liters of Pepsi daily. I stole one of DH's 24oz Pepsi's because I ran out of mine, only for him to take the very last one to work yesterday. Put a second notch under frustrated and getting even more mad witch. The more the day went the more I got mad. Especially when DS dumped my crappy lemonade all over the floor. Enter 3rd most irritating part of my day, because other than water that was the last thing to drink in the household. And I don't drink tap water.

I thought today would get even worse when a truancy officer showed up at my door today. Not to worry though, he was here looking for a different family. I wonder though if he read my note on the door saying to knock loudly because we home school. Technically it's K12, but same diff.

After all those gray spots in my week. Something wonderful happened. A neighbor bought too much food she couldn't fit in the freezer so she gave us some fresh veggies and some microwavable dinners. This is greatly needed since our pantry is looking bare and still a couple more days till I'm able to buy food. It never ceases to amaze me when people give to others without expectation of compensation. In my world, good deeds are almost never free. So I'm thankful to this woman and to the Lord and Lady for looking over us.

Ok I know all that doesn't make for a very cohesive post, but I warned you it was ramblings.

Blessings, Love and Light.
SWC

Recycled Craftiness - Stale Bread Makeover

I love it when I can take something that would end up being trash and make it into something new and interesting. Last week I baked a honey sunflower seed bread. It was yummy, but I made two loaves and that ended up being too much. Normally it would just get thrown away. But I'm an avid fan of Food Network and they always give tips on what you can do with stale bread.

One of those tips is to make bread pudding. Now honestly when my mother made bread pudding when I was a kid I hated it. But I think that's just because my mother is an even worse cook than I am. It was always runny and tasted like uncooked egg. So I make a point to try things I once thought gross, as long as my mother isn't cooking it. *wink*

I think I did an even better job than she would have. Its too hot yet so I haven't gotten a chance to taste it, but it looks delicious.

UPDATE: We've tried it and we all love it. Yay. Though I do wish I had put cinnamon and brown sugar on top. So I'm happy to have learned a little more about cooking today and added another recipe to my repertoire. 

My Bread Pudding. It looks yummy!

I love getting recipes from Allrecipes.com. So here's the one I followed.

Bread Pudding II Recipe

Ingredients

• 6 slices day-old bread
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/2 cup raisins (optional) - I left this out since my bread had sunflower seeds in it.
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 2 cups milk
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Break bread into small pieces into an 8 inch square baking pan. Drizzle melted butter or margarine over bread. If desired, sprinkle with raisins.
3. In a medium mixing bowl, combine eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. Beat until well mixed. Pour over bread, and lightly push down with a fork until bread is covered and soaking up the egg mixture.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until the top springs back when lightly tapped. 

Waste Not Want Not

Tonight I watched a special on the Food Network called "The Big Waste". Four popular chefs were challenged to cook a meal worthy of fine dining for 100 people. The catch, all ingredients are to be foods that were on their way to the garbage bins.

It's amazing the kinds of foods sitting in the back of stores just waiting to be trashed. These items are not always cheap either. Expensive foods like Halibut, Clams, Beef ribs, and loads of fruits and vegetables all thrown away because they have a tiny nick or they've simply been returned to the store.

Think about when you shop for your groceries. When picking out a peach, will you pick the one that has a small pinkie finger sized cut, or the unblemished perfect peach? That one with the small cut gets thrown away because no one wants to buy it. There is absolutely nothing different about it besides that very tiny area.

Now think about all the homeless, starving people in the world. Instead of using this unwanted food it's thrown away. We are a spoiled nation. We've been taught to expect the best of everything. Foods oddly shaped or simply fruit picked from an orchard that's fallen from the ground is ignored. If it's not normal or "pretty" its got to be bad right? Wrong!

If you haven't watched this special I highly recommend it. It really makes you think how wasteful we all are. I'm sad to say I'm just as guilty. I use to throw out meat all the time because I was forced to buy more than I really needed to. I either had to cook it all and eat it over several days, or throw away uncooked meat. Freezing it always resulted in freezer burn and less room in my fridge.

My MIL has a vacuum sealer so when she buys her meat she cuts the large packages into portions before they are frozen. That way when she cooks she isn't using more than whats needed. When we are on our own again I see that we are going to save a lot of money by having one of them.

What do you do to avoid wasting food?

Mortality

Death is no more than passing from one room into another.
Helen Keller

This week I can't help but to think of my own mortality. My mother came close to leaving this world on Thanksgiving, and it's really brought home that I'm not a kid or young adult anymore. We can leave this world at any time. Our actions or inactions will decide our fate. 

Death to me is just a transition to a new place. I neither aim for it, nor wish to avoid it at all costs. It simply is. That said, I don't believe on putting the peddle to the metal and speeding toward it. Yet, isn't that what my mother has done by living an unhealthy lifestyle for 60 years? She's ate what she wants, however much she wants her entire life. And that has led to two heart attacks on her 60th birthday. She is healing btw, but we still do not know how much damage to her heart was done.

I certainly don't want to spend my 60th birthday in the hospital fighting for my life. Yet, what am I willing to do to avoid it? Well I need to go back on the diet I started last year. And somehow work in an exercise routine. It would help tremendously if I had my own space! That way I could control what kind of foods are in the household and how the food is prepared. Here there is a table with way too much temptation and loading foods with fat is just how it's "suppose" to be. It's hearty food and delicious. It's just way too tempting to pile a lot of food on our plates and gorge oneself.

And then we come to our activity, or lack thereof. I am self conscious of exercising with people present. I've tried before and I'm just too shy. I always feel like people are judging me. That's why I liked when I joined Curves last year because IF there were people there, it was all women with "real" bodies. Not stick thin or beefed up with muscle's like some other gyms. Most of the time though I could time my visits where the area was mine alone. I went in, sweat my bottom off, and left with none there to witness. Maybe I can check into joining a YMCA or something. I thought about it before but I didn't have transportation. 


I know one thing, if this week hasn't taught me anything else, it's that I don't want to be my mother.