Chore Chart

Jed and I created this chore chart. It has worked so well for us. Enjoy!

Tiffany christensen chore chart

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Pasta Salad

1 lb. whole wheat spaghetti noodles

Instructions for Dressing:

1/2 packet of Good Seasons Italian Salad Dressing

1/8 cup white vinegar

1 1/2 TBSP. water

Shake

Add 1/8 cup olive oil

1/8 cup water

Shake again

Add dressing to cooked noodles; add olives, drained and rinsed kidney beans, cucumber pieces, and top with Suddenly Salad seasoning.

Chill.

Aunt Margaret's Fruit Dressing

I don't know how to healthify this-maybe it's just a once a year thing!

1 egg

1 Tbsp flour

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup pineapple juice

1/2 Tbsp lemon juice

3 Tbsp orange juice

1/2 cup heavy cream, whipped.

1. Mix flour and sugar together.

2. Beat egg and combine with flour and sugar.

3. Add fruit juices and cook in double boiler (we just did it in pan-depends on elevation) until thick, stirring constantly (it will thicken more as it cools.)

4. Chill sauce.

5. Add whipped cream when ready to serve.

6. Serve on top of jell-o salad.

Cheese Sauce

We made this in culinary arts today and it was really good-I'm not going to lie. I have a lot of issues with this though.. first of all, margarine? Is that even food? Butter would be better, but still... I'm thinking olive oil, rice milk, and nutritional yeast. We'll see how it goes because this is a really good dip. Any other ideas?

Thick White Sauce/Medium/Thin

3 tablespoons margarine/2/1

3 tablespoons flour/2/1

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

1. Melt butter in a sauce pan and whisk in flour and salt until smooth.

2. Gradually stir in cold milk, cooking over direct heat and stirring constantly until sauce boils; reduce heat slightly and continue to stir until sauce becomes smooth and thick.

3. When sauce thickens, simmer for an additional 10 minutes over very low heat, stirring occasionally. Stir carefully to avoid lumps.

4. If sauce becomes lumpy, use a stick blender or rotary beater to blend out lumps, or press through a sieve.

Cheese Sauce

3/4 cup water

1/3 pound fresh broccoli, chopped

1-2 stalks celery, chopped (3/4 cup)

1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)

1/3 cup sharp Cheddar cheese, grated

2 tablespoons jalapeno peppers

1. Saute onions.

2. Make 1 cup thick white sauce

3. Stir in 1/3 cup cheese until it melts.

4. Stir in jalapenos. Serve with tortilla chips.

We served it over toast. Big hit!

Tuesday Night Dinner

Last night I made sweet potato fries. We love them, but we had never made them before. I got my recipe here. They were way good. Not crispy like the ones at the store, but super tasty! I made some brown rice seasoned with cardamom and cumin. I like it, but my kids didn't. Then I made Kale Salad. I ripped it into small pieces and seasoned it with olive oil, lemon juice, chili pepper, and sea salt that I rubbed into it. Everyone like it but Emmett so that's another meal we can add to our list! Yay.

Monday Night Dinner

Tonight I learned how to correctly make pasta. You start with lots of cold water, get it boiling, whisk in 2 TBSP. sea salt to the water, and add noodles. You let it cook until you can see a white dot in the middle of the pasta if you cut it open. If the whole thing is white, it's not finished. If there is no white, it's soggy. Take out a cup of water so you can season your sauce with it if you need, or cook your peas in it. I also perfectly steamed (thanks to Rouxbe.com again) some asparagas, carrots, and broccoli and added it to our pasta sauce. I got the pasta sauce at Costco and it is amazing! It's called Dave's Gourmet Butternut Squash Sauce.

Perfect Sunday Dinner

Today for dinner I made Tortilla de Tapas (recipe from Rouxbe.com), which is sort of like an omelet, but mostly potatoes. I served it with a spinach salad. I added pomegranate berries, a small thing of peaches with juice, and roasted pecans. It was a hit! We also had some leftover pumpkin and cream cheese frosting so I made my first pumpkin roll. We hid it from the kids!

How to cook oatmeal

Days that I am feeling way ambitious I pull out the oat groats and Marga Mill (pictured above) and roll my own. Days I am in a hurry, I use quick oats. Supposedly it is more nutritious to mill your own because once the oat groats are broken open, the nutrient content goes down just like wheat flour. You can read about it rolling your own oats and purchase a Marga Mill here.

1 3/4 cup water

dash of salt

1 cup oatmeal

Boil water and salt. Add oats and bring to boil. Once it is boiling, turn heat to low, put a lid on it and set your timer for 5 minutes. It is done when the water is absorbed and it is chewy.

P.S. Has anybody had success soaking their oatmeal for 24 hours? I tried with kefir and it tasted like.. well, let's just say we threw it away! I read about it here.

Naturally Sweetened Oatmeal (well, with raisins :)

I'm not a huge fan of oatmeal without some sort of sweetener, but I am trying to find alternates to concentrated sweeteners. Here's what a I came up with. First bite is a far cry from sweet, BUT once you bite into a raisin the rest is delicious!

1 cup cooked oatmeal (click here for directions)

1/4 cup original almond milk

1/4 cup raisins (any dried fruit would be good)

1 teaspoon flax seed

4 or 5 chopped pecans ( I just crack 'em with my fingers right then)

cinnamon

nutmeg

cardamom if you like it

Kefir blender pancakes

1 cup sprouted, dehydrated wheat kernels
1 cup kefir (could use buttermilk if you do dairy)
1/4 cup water
2 eggs
1/4 cup sunflower oil (preferably coconut oil.. unless your son is allergic to coconut!)
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder (aluminum free)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
3 tablespoons brown sugar (could use sucanat)

Mix kefir with water. You should have 1 1/4 cups total. Mix 1 cup of kefir/water mixture with wheat kernels in blender until you can see that the wheat is ground down. Add the rest of the kefir/water mixture, and all other ingredients on high for one minute. Pour onto griddle and flip just before you see the bubbles popping.

Top with whatever, but we love pumpkin maple butter spread from Costco and if they stop making it we might die!

Eat so many pancakes that you make yourself sick but you don't care because they are the best freakin' pancakes you've ever had.