Buffalo Chicken Soup

Buffalo chicken soup

1 lb chicken Breast
2 Tbsp rice flour (You can use regular all-purpose flour if you are not making it GF)
salt and pepper
1 Tbsp butter
1 onion
2 carrots
2 stalks of celery
4 c chicken broth
1/2 cup Frank's Hot Sauce
1 c Noodles (I use Schar Penne)
3/4 c blue cheese, crumbled (Optional)

· Dredge the chicken cubes in  flour, and season lightly with salt and pepper.
· Melt the butter in a big pot, and brown the chicken on all sides. 

- Remove the chicken from the pot and stir in the vegetables.
· Cook the vegetables over medium-low heat until softened.
· Add the chicken and stir in the chicken broth, hot sauce and noodles.
· Bring to a simmer and cook about fifteen minutes, until noodles are tender. Or you can cook the noodles to al dente in another pot drain and rinse.  I do this when Toby wants to take it to work and reheat.  All he has to do is heat the soup up and add the cold noodles.
· Serve with Bleu cheese if you like, I don't because I do not like Bleu cheese!

Henry is 1!

One year ago today we were blessed with the arrival of our second son after 6 years of TTC!

Happy 1st Birthday Henry!

I will post pics after Sunday when we do the cake!  Should be interesting seeing as he is most definitely tactilely defensive.

Homemade Granola Bars

As part of my plan for eating healthier now the weather is better I made homemade granola bars last night and this morning.  I did not use honey in my recipe because babies up to the age of 2yrs old can not take honey due to the possibility of botulism spores in the honey.

Again a very healthy and basic recipe, the butter probably makes it higher calorie than I would like but growing babies need fats to help their brains and nervous system grow so I am sticking with this one :)

Easy Granola Bars

½ cup butter
½ cup brown sugar
4 tablespoons corn syrup (Or a mix of syrup and honey if you like)
2 1/3 cups quick cooking oats (I used 1 cup quick cook and 1 1/3 cups regular oats)

Grease an 8×8 pan.

Combine the butter, brown sugar and corn syrup in a pan and stir constantly over medium heat until butter melts, sugar dissolves, and mixture is smooth.

Remove from heat and add oats. Stir well until oats are well coated. 

At this point you can add a cup of any of these (Craisins, Raisins, Chocolate Chips) we like the craisins a lot!

Spread mixture into 8×8 or similar pan. Bake at 350 for 22 minutes. 

Cool 5 minutes and cut into bars. 

Cool for about 1 hour more in the pan and then remove bars from the pan.

At the time of publishing I have made 4 batches of granola, craisins, raisin, Choc chip and rocky road.

Banana Bread

Last night I baked a couple of loaves of Banana Bread which were not only gluten-free but also did not contain any milk which I fear Henry is allergic to.  I buy organic bananas when I see them at the grocery or pick them up when I goto Jungle Jim's.  However we can not eat a whole bunch before they go bad so I simply drop them in a ziploc bag and freeze them until I have enough for Banana Bread.  When I am ready to use them I just get them out and let them thaw on the counter for an hour or two.  This makes them really easy to squeeze out of the skin and no additional mashing is needed, I just add it to my mixture and stir.

I use the recipe below but last night I doubled it to make 2 loaves.  Feel free to substitute the Xanthan Gum and GF All-purpose Blend for regular AP flour if you don't have any Gluten allergies or you're baking for friends.  There are no nuts in this recipe so it is a relatively allergen friendly recipe; however adding a cup of chopped nuts or raisins in it is entirely optional and according to your own needs.

Enjoy!

Easy Gluten-Free Banana Bread Recipe

1/3 cup Oil
2/3 cup Brown sugar, packed
2 large Eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups All-purpose gluten-free flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons Cinnamon
1 teaspoon Xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 1/2 cups Mashed ripe bananas

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 9x5-inch non-stick loaf pan.

Cream together oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla in large bowl. Add flour, xanthan gum, salt, baking powder and cinnamon to egg mixture, alternating with bananas.

Beat until smooth. Batter will be somewhat soft. Transfer to pan.

Bake 9x5" loaf for 1 hour

Domestic Violence isn't going to go away if you ignore it!

I mentioned in a post earlier that I have had experience with Domestic Violence.  Let me rephrase that.

I was a victim of Domestic Violence and I am a survivor.

Bet you didn't know that about me huh?  What you NEED to know about DV is it can happen to anyone, regardless of race, sex or age.  It's not about intelligence or how much money you have.  It is about loss of control or rather control exerted over one individual that they do not even realize is happening.

I still find it difficult to write about this because it seems like once you are labelled a victim you will always have that label.  I don't like labels, as those that know me well will know.  I do know this, the more we can reach out to men, women or children who are victims of abuse the more we can help, educate and prevent.

Abuse comes in many forms, it can be physical, sexual, emotional or financial.  Often when we think of Domestic Violence we envisage bruises and broken bones.  What about emotional abuse, where threats are made to guilt an individual into doing what they want or financial abuse, where an individual has no financial freedom at all because the abuser is controlling all the finances.  In each case the victim is trapped or led to believe they are trapped.  What they need is a way to escape.

Here are 2 things you can provide a victim so they can find the help they need.

http://www.ndvh.org/

1−800−799−SAFE (7233)


I also have access to information through Mary Kay Ash's Charitable Foundation, like door hangers and information sheets.  If you know a Mary Kay Consultant they can hook you up, if not let me know.  I am more than happy to provide these resources to those that need it.

Remember there is no face of DV, you never can tell who a victim is until it is too late.

Happy Mother's Day!

No I'm not a time traveler, nor are you late!  Today is Mother's Day in England.  It is traditionally the 4th Sunday in Lent.  Not sure how the date was chosen here, it was very confusing for a while that's for sure.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY for all the Mums in England.

Meal planning and other money saving tips!

A friend recently asked me how I planned my meals so I sent her this week's menu.  I do not plan lunches and breakfasts because as a family we're not all up at the same time and because DH works swing shifts we can not all eat at the same time even on the weekends.  Same goes for lunches.  I do make a big effort for the evening meal though because Brandon and I both eat then and that is one meal even DH can have some f even if it means packing it and reheating it later.

So this weeks menu:-

Monday:- Tacos, Corn Cake, Refried Beans and homemade salsa
Tuesday:- Lasagna
Wednesday:- Chicken, beansprouts and baby bok choi stir fry with jasmine rice
Thursday:- Tomato Soup and grilled cheese sandwiches
Friday:- Chicken and vegetable Tikka Masala and Basmati Rice
Saturday:- Leftovers and Sandwiches
Sunday:- Crawfish at Pappadeaux

Next week's menu is looking like this so far:-

Monday:- Shepherd's Pie
Tuesday:- Brunch for dinner
Wednesday:- Steamed fish with ginger and green onion and Jasmine Rice
Thursday:-
Friday:- Leftovers and Sandwiches
Saturday:-  Pork chops, egg and tomato sauce with Jasmine rice
Sunday:-

There are holes still because I haven't decided what I want to do on Sunday and Thursday, I have 2 dinners in mind that are interchangeable.

I shop on either Thursday or Friday and get everything I need for the upcoming week.  Leftover and Sandwiches days often fall on the days DH is gone for a double shift, which makes very good use of leftovers.  Also I try to plan an eat out day so I can get a break and give my kitchen a rest ;)  All the dishes I make are enough to feed a family of 4 or more.  I don't try to scale down because I know for lunches etc... it is much healthier to fix a small portion of leftovers than goto McDonald's or any other fast food joint.

I also stay way within budget when I grocery shop this way.  I only have what I need on my list plus breakfast foods and of course I use what I have in my pantry which incidentally is emptying quite nicely!

Diaper Shower cont...

So here it is the Diaper Cake.  I left it pretty simple because I feel sometimes these things can get pretty garish if you try to pile too much onto it.

And my rather pathetic attempt at a Yellow cake with Chocolate frosting and Blue icing.

NOT terribly happy with this one.  Will have to practice more in the future.