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Wednesday, July 22, 2009

My Own Personal Homeschool Conference!

I am really so excited. The Homeschool Conference that I would normally attend was last weekend. For months I have really been wanting to go, but I just could not bring myself to spend the money--tickets to the conference, gas, hotel, food, etc. I have been looking at "conferences" held online--where you can listen live or download the chats for later. Still, the one I found was a little more expensive than I was willing to spend. Then, through The Homeschool Lounge, I came across the Heart of the Matter online conference! The 2009 conference costs $12.95. I got to digging, looking, and found that I really like the topics from the 2008 conference. I was bummed! I missed those. And, yet, hark! I was able to get all the downloads from 2008 as well as a ticket to 2009 for $19.95! Yeah! I have my own conference going on while I am cleaning and doing dishes. Although, I need to sit down and re-listen to a few because I need to take some notes.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Dinner of the Day - Well Dinner Last Night

I made one of my quick and easy-to-love dinners. Spaghetti in a pot. I made spaghetti sauce (I have also used jarred sauce before). When it was hot, I added in a box of whole wheat rotini noodles and a cup of water. It went into the oven on 350º for about an hour. I served it with green beans.

In the past, I have cooked this entirely on the stovetop. I have also put it in the oven at 275º when I was going to be gone from the house for a little while.

Thoughts on this meal: Quick, easy, filling, yummy. Not anything overly exciting, but not anything to sneeze at either.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Dinner of the Day

Egg Casserole

Over medium heat, saute 2 tsp. minced garlic in approximately 2 Tbs. olive oil. Add fresh baby spinach (amount depends on taste). Cover and cook over low heat until wilted.

In a 9"x13" pan sprayed with cooking spray, layer 1 pkg. Simply Potatoes (diced with onion), wilted spinach, 4 ounces chopped ham and crumbled goat cheese (amount to taste). Whisk 1 dozen eggs with milk or water and seasonings (I used salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder). Pour egg mixture into pan over potatoes and spinach. I baked this at 275º for about an hour and 15 minutes since I had to run kids to karate. It could also be baked at 350º for a lesser amount of time. Bake until a knife comes out clean.


I served this with:

Banana Blueberry Muffins

I simply made my favorite banana muffins:

2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup mashed ripe banana
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Adding: 1 pint blueberries.

Topped with: Crumbs from blueberry granola

In a medium bowl mix flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside.

In a separate bowl cream oil and sugar, add eggs and vanilla and mix until smooth. Stir in milk and mashed banana and mix well.

Fold in flour mixture into the liquid ingredients until combined.

Fill greased muffin tins two-thirds of the way full.


Bake in a preheated 350º oven for 25 to 30 minutes.


Thoughts on this meal:
It's a keeper! Everyone loves eggs. It was quick and easy and I was able to let it cook while I was away. I really need to stock up on blueberries while they are on sale ($1.00 a pint!) Got the bananas at a great deal--$.89/3 pounds at Costco.

First post on a new blog

O.K., so why am I here? Not the BIG "Why am I here?" Just why do I want to blog. Well, I feel the need to be heard. The thought occurs that I may not be heard by anyone in particular, but I will have at least put my thoughts out there.

What do I want this blog to be? I want to keep track of my day to day life. What I am doing with my children. The meals I am preparing. I want to have a place to comment about things I see in my world. And I say my world because even though the world is so large, my little corner is so very teeny tiny.

So to start. I have recently been on a quest to feed my family less meat. Not for any noble cause like I have compassion on all the animals (although I am not without feelings for them). But I was in Sprouts one day shopping. I looked down at my cart and was simply disgusted my the amount of meat I had in the cart and the lack of vegetables. I put all the meat back that day and strolled around the produce section. I came home that night and made roasted vegetable and black bean burritos. I had started a new journey for us. Now it is my goal to greatly reduce our meat consumption--though not completely. It is my hope that this blog helps me keep track of what meals I have prepared thereby making a template for me to shop and cook by.