Easter 2015

We had lots of activities this Easter. Hadley was able to do three egg hunts. Hadley had an Easter program at school. We made Resurrection Rolls. Attended "A Walk With Jesus" event at church. Easter morning at church. Lunch with family. And at some point I know Hadley also dyed eggs. 

Hadley's Easter program at school. She was so proud of her little dress. She had two Easter dresses this year because I bought her a dress she had picked out. Then her Aunt Vickie bought her this dress. We decided she would wear the dress Aunt Vickie got her to her school program. Then she could wear the dress she picked out for church, Easter morning. 

Resurrection Rolls!
These were so fun for Hadley. If you have never done Resurrection Rolls you need to google the recipe and make them next year. The concept is that you use a marshmallow. You prepare it with oil and spices like they prepared Jesus' body. Then you put it in the roll like the  cloths they covered him with. Then you put him in the tomb (oven) and when you pull them out the marshmallow is gone just like Jesus is Risen! I know this will now be a yearly tradition for us.

Hadley & Hayden Easter morning. 

All of us Easter morning in front of the tomb. We had a live program the night before called "A walk with Jesus" that goes through the story of the Jesus' death and resurrection. 

Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving is such a busy time. People are traveling. People are cleaning and preparing houses for visitors. Someone(s) is cooking the meal. And the crazies are scoping out the sales ads for Black Friday.

For us, we do the same thing every year for the holidays. We spend Thanksgiving with my family. We will spend Christmas with Lee's family. This is just what works best for us because each of our families has a more consistent holiday than the other. 

This year, all of my side of the family was at my grandparents house. Of course we all pigged out. I remembered that this time last year Hadley was just five months old. I had made her sweet potatoes puree' to try for her first Thanksgiving. That is where she developed her love of sweet potatoes. This year Lee carried Hadley through the lunch line. He filled her plate with everything. Literally, everything. And she pigged out, too. She even had pumpkin pie for dessert. Well, actually, she took the pie off her plate and placed it on her tray. She opted to just eat Cool Whip... by itself. Go figure.

I, personally, am not a big fan of turkey. Luckily, my grandma fixes both turkey and ham. But my absolute favorite holiday food is homemade noodles. I, recently, learned that my grandma got this recipe from my great grandma {my grandpa's mother}.

After lunch my aunt mentioned that she wanted to take a family picture. Then I got the not so genius idea for all of us to go to the park and take pictures. I had my camera and my uncle Ricky had his even nicer camera too.  I have no idea why I suggested this. Well -- back up -- I suggested it because I also wanted some family pictures. But I cannot help my personality and I'm easily irritated in large groups. Naturally, it became a joke as to "hurry up before Heather gets any more mad!" ...At least they understand I'm crazy :) We ended up with a hand full of good shots of all families! It was worth it.

Granny Pope's Homemade Noodles

1 1/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 small or medium sized eggs

1 egg shell of water

NOTE: If you are using large eggs then use 1 1/2 cup flour instead

Mix the flour and salt in a bowl. While in the bowl make a well in the flour for the egg and water mixture to sit. Stir the egg mixture in with the flour until soft. Knead until the dough is formed. (It may not take all the flour). Roll out very thin on a well floured board. Let dry for several hours. Cut noodles very thin with a knife. These can be prepared and stored in the freezer until needed.

To cook the noodles use a large pot of boiling chicken broth. Drop the noodles in the boiling broth until the noodles are tender. Adjust your salt seasoning to taste.

NOTE: If you cook them frozen, it usually takes 40 minutes. Remember, there is no need to thaw them out before cooking. Just drop them in the pan!

g-free for me.

With tests showing that my husband's gallbladder was only function at 16% (40% is considered low-functioning), we assumed that the removal of it, back in 2010, would cure his pain. Now, with it being almost two years later, he is still in pain. 

Recently, he began doing some research. He would search his symptoms and ironically gallbladder disease would never show up as a cause. After a couple weeks of research, all signs point to gluten intolerance. 

Do you realize how many things contain some form of gluten? It's unreal! We went through our cabinets and realized that we would need to throw about just about everything...literally, everything! 

No wheat, in any form.

No barley.

No malt.

No rye.

No breaded or floured or "crusted" meat, poultry, seafood, or vegetables.

No soy sauce.

No teriyaki sauce.

...but after years of pain, we have decided to give gluten free a try. 

Last week I did all of our basic grocery shopping at Aldi. Ya know, your fruits, vegetables, meats, your basics. Then I went to Reasor's in Jenks to buy my g-free flour and bread and whatever else I stumbled upon. The Reasor's in Jenks has the largest variety of g-free food because Mr. and Mrs. Reasor live in Jenks, OK. Mrs. Reasor has Celiacs Disease. So to accommodate Mrs. Reasor's g-free lifestyle, they keep the Jenks store fully stoked with things she can eat. Lucky for us, Jenks is the closest Reasor's to our house :) With all that being said, I assumed that changing to g-free ingredients, cooking, and lifestyle, it would be really expensive. Well, come to find out, I spent the exact same amount of money that I would have just buying all my regular groceries at Wal-Mart. It all worked out!! 

We haven't fully "converted" to completely g-free yet. We are trying things here and there. Lee tried the sliced bread that I bought. He said it doesn't have a bad flavor, but the texture is weird (which we knew would be). He said, "Imagine eating a sandwich on a cracker. With every bite you take, it crumbles and falls apart." But like I told him, there were plenty of other brands of bread we can try. 

Last night I made our favorite: Fried Chicken :) Who doesn't love fried chicken? Well, it was my first attempt at doing it g-free and with g-free flour. It worked out and was pretty yummy too!

I planned to do more g-free cooking this week, but I threw my back out like an old person yesterday so I'm out of commission for a few day. Bummer. 

Slow Cooker BBQ chicken and cheesy bacon potatoes

I found a recipe for slow cooker steak and baked potatoes. I tried it out and it was amazing!! It was so easy and so yummy!!!!

To put it all in the slow cooker you need to either spray cooking spray on the bottom or (like I did) lay a piece of foil on the bottom. Place meat on bottom. Then lay a piece of foil on top of the meat. Then wrap your potatoes in foil and place them on top. Put the lid on and cook ALL DAY on LOW.

The next week I started thinking about the same "concept" of that meal. I replaced the steak with some frozen chicken breasts and added BBQ sauce on top. Same meal - different meat! Also, instead of having baked potatoes, I cooked the potatoes the same, but I made them "chessy bacon potatoes." These are just a little concoction a whipped up one day. They are a mix between potato skins and cheese fries. They are not heart healthy to say the least so I don't make them often. But for the night BBQ chicken and cheesy bacon potatoes were a good splurge that night. Here are a few pictures of that meal.

This is how it should look all piled in the slow cooker.

Lee suggested this BBQ. It's really good!

Fried bacon for the potatoes

After the potatoes are cooked a spread a tiny tiny bit of butter on each half. Then I sprinkle each half with Seasoned Salt.

Add shredded cheese. We like them extra cheesy. Don't judge us!

I said it wasn't heart healthy!!!

Finished product! Soo yummy and so easy since it all basically cooks in the slow cooker.