Today Was the Day

So today was it! I haven't seen the kids this excited since Christmas and I think they counted down more days than they did in December. But not everybody was counting...

Yesterday I had Princess with me when I stopped by the bank. I wrote a check and then waited while the teller passed me 8 ten-dollar bills. "Why do you need all those tens?" questioned Princess. I just gave her a "duh" look.  "Seriously?" I asked. "What is tomorrow?"

She sat there for a minute, confusion evident on her face. "I don't know, what is it?" I counted back the money just to make sure it was right."Now why would I need 8 ten-dollar bills?" This conversation continued for about three minutes until I finally reminded her. "The sugar challenge???"

She giggled, "Oh yeah...there is that."

After six weeks of no-sugar, we are all glad to finally be finished. The thing I missed the most was ice cream. My sweetie went to the store for bananas and he brought home a box of my favorite, Burnt Almond Fudge. Not trusting myself with the ice cream scoop, I asked him to make me a small bowl. Regardless of the fact that everyone told me I wouldn't crave sugar anymore and the chocolate wouldn't taste good...you've heard them all...that was one of the most amazing bowls of ice cream I have ever eaten!

There is nothing like a little absence to make the heart (and the tastebuds) grow fonder!

Food for Thought: Amish Friendship Bread

I was introduced to Amish Friendship Bread by the same friend who gave me the sourdough starter. (She’s not Amish either…) She just showed up on our doorstep with a plate of this delicious sweet bread and a Ziploc bag filled with starter. I’m a real sweet bread fan and I’m not sure I bothered to share except with my sweetie, of course.

I’ve told you before that the starter kind of ruled my life for a while and for about 3 months Teach and the Dog Walker made Amish Friendship Bread every time we made sourdough. They started messing around with the recipe by substituting the applesauce for some of the cooking oil and using white chocolate chips instead of the regular kind. Actually, they weren’t really white, they were some red and green striped ones I bought on clearance and threw in the freezer for times when we were desperate. The kids decided that made the best tasting bread. I finally had to put the nix on this delicious treat because we all gained about five pounds. We also took six loaves to a family party and they were eaten up almost before the meal was started. Let me know what you think!

Amish Friendship Bread


1 cup sourdough starter
3 eggs
½ cup oil
½ cup applesauce
½ cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
2 cup flour
1 small box of instant vanilla pudding (sugar-free works fine)
1 cup chocolate chips (semi-sweet, milk or white chocolate all work well)

Spray two medium loaf pans with cooking spray. Mix in separate bowl, ½ cup sugar and 1 ½ tsp cinnamon. Use ½ of this mixture to dust the bottom of the pan and the other half on top of the batter in the pans.

Mix all ingredients well before adding chocolate chips.

  Bake for 45 – 60 minutes at 325 degrees until knife comes out clean.

Food for Thought: Navajo Tacos and Snow Scones

Clipart borrowed from Living Our Dream Life

 As my Mormon friends know, last weekend was General Conference weekend. That means what my kids call "church on TV," but it also means that the guys over age 12 all attend a special meeting at 6:00 on Saturday night at the church.  Several years ago, it was suggested that to encourage the younger boys to want to attend a meeting on Saturday night, that we plan a special treat afterwards. The first couple of years we made homemade donuts. The kids loved that because it was the only time of the year we made them. But they were difficult and my sweetie has Type 2 Diabetes so we started looking for a recipe he didn’t like so much.

Then we started making scones since the Gym Rat loves a good scone with cinnamon and sugar. But one day the Dog Walker decided he wanted ice cream for his after-meeting treat. This didn’t sit so well with the Gym Rat, so we decided to make both, scones and ice cream sundaes for dessert. That’s when my Dog Walker devised his brilliant beyond brilliant recipe for what he calls Snow Scones.

Now we make chili on Friday and then we make tons of scones and have Navajo Tacos and Snow Scones for Saturday. Unfortunately, my sweetie makes the chili and I haven’t convinced him to part with his recipe yet (that’s because he makes it a little differently every time!) but for now here are the recipes for our version of Navajo Tacos and Dog Walker’s soon-to-be-world-famous Snow Scones.


Navajo Tacos

frozen roll dough (like Rhodes)
cooking oil
prepared chili
lettuce
grated cheese
tomatoes
corn
olives
sour cream

Thaw out the roll dough by placing it on cookie sheets and covering with plastic wrap. Make sure you use some cooking spray on the sheets and wrap so they don’t stick to the dough. When the dough is completely thawed but not yet begun to rise, heat your cooking oil. You can do this in a frying pan but it must be at least an inch deep. We use a deep fryer, but either way will work.

Pic from Mitchell Butte Diner

Pull the dough flat with your fingers, trying not to rip it. It needs to be about ¼" thick. Then drop it in the hot oil. When the edges start to brown, flip it over. When it is a beautiful brown color, pull it out and let it drain on paper towels.

Cover that nice hot scone with warm chili, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream, sliced olives and corn. (My sweetie says to pass on the corn, but we like it.)


Snow Scones

frozen roll dough
cooking oil
vanilla ice cream
chocolate syrup
strawberry jam
nuts – other sundae toppings

Follow the above instructions for making your scones. Then build yourself a sundae on the top of the scone. For the kids I tear the scones up just to make them easier to eat, but if you want pretty, do it like the one in the picture. Enjoy!

Pain and Triumph

I have fat genes and I have fat jeans! Unfortunately for me, thunder thighs seem to run in my family. I’ve been on dozens of diets, but losing weight is definitely one of the hardest things I’ve never managed to do.

When I was pregnant with number 4 I was borderline gestational diabetes. I was unhappy and unhealthy. The scales tipped past the 300 mark and my baby was born at 10 lbs 1 ½ oz. She was beautiful and healthy, but she looked like she was 3 months old rather than a newborn. I managed to drop back below that ugly number, but then I got pregnant again. Number 5 was 9 lbs 2 oz. This trend just couldn’t continue.

It was about that time that we started building a new house in a new neighborhood. I was excited to learn that church sports included volleyball. My sweetie agreed to join me on the co-ed team. I loved to play, but my weight made it difficult for me to move quickly around the court. I tried my best, but one Thursday night I moved toward the ball, heard a small "pop," and that was it. I couldn’t stand up! My knee was totally gone.

My hubby got to me first. He and a neighbor pulled me upright but I had no control over that leg and nearly collapsed. They moved me to the sidelines and then eventually to our car. I had torn my ACL and the only way to repair it was surgery. It was 1995 and the surgical techniques were not as advanced as they are now. I was forced to choose between a cadaver and my own hamstring for the repair. Since I was not excited about the thoughts of someone’s dead body part in me, I chose my hamstring. That was my first mistake!

It is still painful… No one mentioned that it would be a year before I would be able to have mobility without pain. That I would have to wear a brace for months…that crutches were difficult when you had a two-year-old crying and wanting to be picked up. As lousy as the recovery proved to be, one good thing happened…I lost weight! Lots of weight! Over 40 pounds!

It was just too hard to drag myself to the kitchen to get food during the day and I had to rely on someone else to take care of me at night. I managed to keep that weight off and it has made all the difference in how good I feel and how much exercise I can do. The knee still aches when the weather changes, and I have lovely scars that run up the front of my leg, but as far as diets go, it was the one that worked the best.