Breakfast

So, warm food seems to be the order of the day lately...and the heartier the better for us.

I've been doing steel cut oatmeal in the rice cooker lately. I've tried various crock pot oatmeal recipes and they never seem to work well, although many people swear differently. I think my crock pots are either too new or too large.

Anyway, I recently got a rice cooker and I love it. I use it daily, sometimes even for rice.

So, here's the latest:

1 part steel cut oats
4 parts water
cinnamon
brown sugar or maple syrup

soak over night in rice cooker
have first person up plug it in and start it (that would be my husband or me)
sometimes cook a second time

give it a quick stir and serve.

tonight, I'm trying to dried apples in it, but Ithink those will have to be added in the morning.

Awesome Musgovian Chicken and Lentil Soup

Even my pickiest is eating this as a bedtime snack right now.....The recipe says "chicken" but I made it with left over, frozen turkey from the last holiday....

12 c. broth/stock
2 c.(one can) tomato sauce
1 c. hot salsa
1 c. lime juice
left over cooked chicken (maybe 2-3 c.)
lentils (I think 2 c.)
-------------------------
cook all the above until lentils are cooked (20-30 min)
--------------------------
add 2 c. pasta. Cook until al dente.

Musgovian cuisine: this must go, that must go

This makes a HUGE batch because I mostly doubled a recipe I found. I'm trying to cook a HUGE pot of soup/chili/stew early in the week--have some officially for one meal, freeze some for a day when I forget about doing a meal (you'd be surprised how often that happens), and have some left over for kids to snack on during hte week.

Oh, for pasta, I used alphabet pasta because I found a bag buried in a drawer....the kids, especially, the older two, were giddy.

is anyone there?

Just wanted to say that I love my rice cooker.

I read that a crock pot costs 2-4 cents per hour and a stove top costs 35 cents per hour.

Figure a rice cooker must be close to a crock pot

Last night, I warmed up 4 pre-cooked, left over chicken thighs in the steamer, while I made seasoned rice below.

I'm giddy with delight.

Looking for small-footed men???

At least two of you have husbands who are not humongous...

I'm looking for a pair of men's 9 or 9.5 dress shoes, ideally black. To be worn for several hours on Sept. 13th, by Aidan, with his borrowed suit, at his grandfather's memorial service.

The black shoes I bought him 6 months ago for my mom's service are now at Goodwill, because they were 7.5 or 8. HOw dare he grow?

Since we really have no place for him to wear dress shoes (unless he gets to go to a dance with his girlio...although I think you have to be in high school to attend high school dances...not **this** high school, but **a** high school), I hate to purchase another pair, even at WalMart prices.

I'm also looking for a size 16 or 18 dress shirt...white would be safest, but a pattern/stripe would work as well....short sleeve (AAidan hates long sleeves plus I don't forsee a huge cold snap) that he could wear with a suit jacket (dark blue or black-I have a hard time telling-with a barely contrasting pin stripe).

...also at BigLots...

Annie's organic mac and cheese (not that I think it really matters at that level of food) and organic spaghetti sauce (which was really yummy on the Barilla Spinach and Cheese Tortellini for 1.30). All told, tortellini with sauce ended up costing less than $3 for four of us. Also, for those ofyou who buy bread, BL had 100% whole wheat for 1.40/loaf (my kids are begging me not to bring any more panera into our house). And cans of organic lentil soup for $1/can (for me, that's 3-4$ for soup for a meal, probably less expensive than if I made it myself if I include the energy to run the stove, oven, or crock pot.

I love BL.....otoh, they have stopped carrying the DebbieLongWhiteBaskets and are now carrying a modernized version and slightly raised their prices on them. Otooh (on the other other hand), they are a neater look and are still less expensive than the TraditionalDebbieLongWhiteBaskets at Walmart.

Zyrtec at Big Lots

for $2 for 14, 10mg tablets.

Also, puffs plus tissues for $1.60 for 160 tissues (most boxes have 132).

Also basalmic vinegarette dressing (for salad pita) for $1.50.

Our version of Nathan’s Adaptation of Kansiye (Guinean Goulash)

Nathan’s Adaptation of

Kansiye (Guinean Goulash)

2 lb. shoulder roast
1/8 tsp. black pepper
1/8 tsp. thyme
2+ cloves garlic (minced)
1/8 tsp ground cloves
pinch of cayenne pepper
1 12-oz can tomato sauce
¼ cp. Water
3 TBS all natural (no added sugar or salt) peanut butter (softened in microwave)
1 cup unsalted peanuts

Put all in crockpot for I forget how long...till done.

Very Yummy!


Brown meat with onions and garlic.
Add spices.
Combine tomato sauce, water, and V-8. Add to seasoned meat.
Add peanut butter to mixture.
Cook over medium heat for one hour until meat is tender.
Shortly before serving, add peanuts.
Serve hot over brown rice.