Smorgasbord blog posting! Take your pick!

There are many people I’ve been meaning to get back to about different subjects. So read the blog and find the answer to your question or questions. I’ll try to get back to regular emailing after the dogs go home. I do read my email everyday, even if I don’t get around to responding. I also check the blog comments daily.

Cream Cheese Chicken works really well with Beef Stew Chunks or Stir-fry Beef. And stir-fry beef is generally cheaper and cooks faster than the beef stew chunks even though they’re both from the same cut of beef. You just substitute the can of cream of chicken soup for cream of mushroom soup in the recipe.

Whole grain brown rice freezes better than white rice because it doesn’t get soggy when reheating. It’s also healthier. We weaned our family off of white rice very gradually: 1 part brown rice to 10 parts white rice, 1 part brown rice to 8 parts white rice, 1 part brown rice to 6 parts white rice, and so on. Now it’s full brown rice we consume at home. We don’t even notice the difference in yummy dishes like sausage casserole, or topped with cream cheese chicken (or beef now), “Fast Beans”, and more. We don’t generally eat it plain anyway.

We like to cook up a whole rice pot of brown rice (four or five cups) and freeze the leftovers. It comes in handy when we need rice for sausage casserole or “Fast Beans” which is what we call bean and cheese and rice combined. “Fast Beans” is very inexpensive when you cook the beans at home instead of buying canned beans. We cook the beans in our crock-pots overnight. When they’re cooled the next morning, we bag them in two to three cup baggies, lay them flat to freeze and file them like books in our freezer. So, “Fast Beans” usually ends up feeding one adult and three kids lunch and costing about $1.15 with cheese, $.75 without. “Fast Beans” is much cheaper and healthier than fast food. McChickens or Double Cheeseburgers, fries and water for the four of us costs about five dollars and five hours of exercise for me. Healthy beans, whole grain rice, low fat mozzarella (or whatever cheese you have on hand) makes for a yummy dish packed with nutrients and enough protein to insure a two-hour nap from the little people.

I found out the kids prefer canned spinach if it’s straight out of the can and cold—it can’t be warm. They will actually beg for it and come running when they see me opening a can. Fresh spinach cooked they don’t care for, and raw spinach is okay if doused in salad dressing and mingled with other crunchy veggies.

Pookie thinks that he’s the only person who can claim red as a favorite color. We were watching Dragon tales and cartoon Emmy says, “I will pick the red ones because red’s my favorite color.” Pookie turns to me and says, “But Mommy, red is my favorite color.” So Pookie learned about sharing interests and favorites. Everyone can enjoy red now.

We recently purchase a 50 lb. box of Bi-O-Kleen Premium Laundry Powder from http://www.comfybummy.com/. I hadn’t even thought of purchasing a "Natural Cleaning" product until I received one full scoop sample with my last order of diaper covers from them. I was amazed at how many loads one full scoop did and how clean everything was. It’s far better than Tide. Danny and I calculated it and figured out that with how many times we have to re-wash with Tide or how smells are still in the laundry and diapers, Bi-O-Kleen comes out much more economical. And it makes me feel good that it’s good for the environment too and doesn’t leave a residue that will irritate G’s sensitive skin. I don’t even have to use fabric softener anymore. I think I may have to use fabric softener in the winter when it’s really dry. That’s saying something coming from a fabric softener addict. If I do 21 loads a week, which even washing cloth diapers I don’t come anywhere close to, this box will last me 1 full year.

I got the Dust Buster. Now I’m waiting for some dust to bust. With the dogs here I’ve been sweeping up dust puppies all day. Tomorrow when the Dust Buster is fully charged I can see how powerful it really is.

The super glue worked on my cracked heel. Now I need to glue the other one.

Today I said to G mid-tantrum in the middle of the mall, “I will listen to you when your voice is as calm as mine.” She shrieked back, “No Mommy! Calm as MINE!”