Gluten free zucchini bread

So I am new to the gluten free way of life. If I was left to my own devices I totally would be eating all the bread I could. But having a baby with multiple food allergies has been interesting. I am always looking for ways to make yummy things he can eat. I was so excited the Bisquick created an awesome gluten free baking mix. It is truly wonderful. Here is one sweet treat I recently made. I really can't tell it is not wheat based. 

Gluten free Zucchini Bread 

 

2c bisquick gluten free 

2c shredded zucchini

3 eggs

2/3c sugar 

1/4 oil ( I used coconut)

1tsp vanilla

1tsp cinnamon

1tsp nutmeg

1/2c chopped nuts (optional) 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix everything together  . Beat well for about a minute. Pour into a well greased loaf pan. Bake for approximately 1 hour. 

We moved!!!

So life once again became crazy. We bought a second house! 

Around Christmas we began to talk about how we were starting to outgrow our house. Since it seems like we will be in Augusta for awhile we decided to begin looking. I started looking for short sales in target areas. Short sales as I came to realize are a total nightmare. I was beginning to get discouraged. So I thought what the heck...I should pray about it. So I did. I kept looking and found our new home. It is in a neighborhood that I had not previously been looking in (typically out of our price range), and was plenty of space. It was a bit over budget but I decide to set up an appointment anyway. I was scheduled to look at it on Thursday. On Monday, as I was pulling the listing link to send to my mom, low and behold the price was just dropped by $20,000. I Pushed up the viewing and we put an offer the next day. By the beginning of the next week we had an offer accepted and they were going to fix everything we asked for. God was definitely in this process. 

So it has been a month now and we love it. So happy with the house! 

My political rant

I do not often go off on political tangents but today a comment just sent me over the edge. I am so sick and tired of constantly having to defend my conservative christian beliefs. I believe some things are just wrong. There's no grey are. It is black and white. There is a differnce between right and wrong. We cannot go through life with the believe that it is ok to do someting morally wrong under the guise that it is just someones person opinion. I want my children to grow up know the difference between right and wrong. So this will be my one and only political rant on the blog.
Abortion
 Abortion is wrong. It is not a woman's right to kill her baby whether he or she has been born or not.
Psalm 51:5 – “I was born a sinner – yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.” (NLT)
Jeremiah 1:5 – “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb.” (NLT)
I believe that God has the ultimate say in when a baby, inside of outside of the womb, dies. I had a miscarriage at 18 week. I did not mourn the death of a ball of cells. I mourned the death of my baby. He was no less of a baby because he was not viable. I do not know how a person can so causally end another persons life our of convience.
Spending
Running a household I cannot spend more that we take in on things that we do not need. I can’t just decide that I want it anyway and go take some money from someone else to cover it. Why should this be ok for the government? Under the constitution, the role of the federal government is to provide national security, a post office, courts, and build roads and bridges to promote interstate commerce. That is it. Most of the other things that they do now (such as health and education) are intended to be regulated by individual states. We (I mean my family personally) are already heavily taxed and are not rich. I am sick of seeing people at the grocery store wearing designer clothes, with new manicures and new iphones, driving new cars, but paying with food stamps. The government is not to solution to all of your problems. I do not want to be beholden to the government for all things. Sharing the wealth is not something I am game for. My husband works for what we have. If he lost his job I can guarantee you he would take any available job (even beneath his usual pay grade or educational experience) in order to provide for his family. We do not expect nor want to government to take care of us. I don’t know when Americans lost all sense of pride in themselves.
Immigration
Did you know that Canada has very strick immigration laws. Even if you have a job waiting for you they only let a certain number of people in per year. If they let everyone in there is the belief that it would run down the system too much. A non-partisan report in 2007 from the Congressional Budget Office concluded that most estimates show that illegal immigrants impose a net cost to state and local governments. I know that most people in this contry were from families of immigrants at one time. How many of those families snuck into the counrty? I have a feeling most came leagally. I am all for legal immigration. This country was build by immigrants. I am not ok with illigally coming over.

Dr. Seuss' Birthday

So today is Dr. Seuss' Birthday. It seems that every school around here, with the exception of Simon's, is doing something fun. Even though they were not officially doing anything I decided to make something anyway. After looking through Pinterest and getting tips from my neighbor Danyell, we settled on "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish Jell0". Other than the fish getting a bit slimey (which the kids did not seem to mind) it turned out cute.

So I was looking around on the internet and saw this interesting list and I thought that it was appropriate for today.

21 Lessons Learned from Dr. Seuss

:

1.Be a thinker of great things. Dr. Seuss teaches us, “Oh, the things you can think up if only you try!”

2.Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it. Sometimes you just don’t know what you’ve got until after it’s gone. In Bartholomew and the Ooblek, King Didd got what he wished for, but the sticky Ooblek goo was worse than the fog, snow, sunshine, and rain that it replaced. The King quickly wanted his old weather back and he learned to appreciate it.

3.Be your best you. In the words of Dr. Seuss, “There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” Make the most of what you’ve got. In Yertle the Turtle, we see “feather envy” and it’s a gentle reminder to be careful what you wish for and appreciate what you’ve got.

4.Bend your world in wonderful ways. Nobody bends it like the Cat in the Hat. From the metaphors you use, to the thinks that you think, you can shape your world that’s right in front of you.

5.Don’t put yourself in a box. You’re only limited by your own imagination. The Cat in the Hat teaches us how to let our imaginations run wild.

6.Don’t waste your time worrying who’s better than who. In Yertle the Turtle, Dr. Seuss teaches us that “You have better things to do than argue who’s better than who.”

7.Dream it and do it. You can move mountains when you put your mind to it. Direct your life like a blockbuster and make things happen.

8.Edutainment wins over boring and ho-hum. With whacky words, wondrous worlds, and fantastical characters, Dr. Seuss taught us the edutainment is how you change a child’s life. Reading is only boring if you make it so.

9.Kindle your curiosity. Keep your mind open and your eyes peeled. Stay curious and follow your growth.

10.Life happens in moments at a time. Don’t miss out on life by tuning out the little things along the way.

11.Own your fun. There’s more to do than play in the rain. When you’re bored, you’re boring. The Cat in the Hat teaches us to be the maker of our own fun. Make each day your own special blend of whatever it is that best floats your boat.

12.Play at your day. You can play at your day, in every way.

13.Persistence pays off. Be relentless in your pursuit of things. In Green Eggs and Ham, it was through persistence that Sam-I-Am finally got the unnamed character to try the green eggs and ham. In real life, Dr. Seuss’s first children’s book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, was rejected 27 times before being published by Vanguard Press.

14.Treat people fairly and squarely. In The Sneetches and Other Stories, Dr. Seuss shows us that we can’t judge people by their lot in life or whether they have a star on their belly. In Yertle the Turtle, it’s a reminder not to climb over people on your way to the top, because they’re same people you’ll see on your way back down.

15.Try it … you just might like it. In Green Eggs and Ham, when the unnamed character was surprised to find out that he actually likes green eggs and ham once he tried them. You just never know until you try.

16.Saying you’re sorry can help make things right. In Bartholomew and the Oobleck, when the king finally said the magic words, “I’m sorry,” and “it’s all my fault,” he helped make things right again.

17.See the bright side of things. It’s a great day for up, when you can see the sunny side of things. Sure sometimes you’ll have to work at it, but positivity is a skill. Do it daily.

18.Setbacks happen. Deal with them and move on. Make trouble think twice about messing with you.

19.Some people are much more unlucky than you. When you’re down in the dumps and things get real bad, remind yourself that somewhere, somehow, someway … somebody is much “more unlucky than you.”

20.Success is a journey and we all have our own paths. Make your journey count. Don’t let fear stop you. Don’t let conventional wisdom stop you. Lead the life you want to live, and when there’s no path, make one.

21.Your voice counts. In Horton Hears a Who, Dr. Seuss shows us how one little voice can tip the scale … after all, “A person’s a person, no matter how small.”

Back Again

So...After an eventful year I am back to blogging. Life has been a bit crazy. We are still in Augusta (much to my dismay), and have added another family member. We welcomed an 8 lb 9 oz ball of energy in September. Samuel is now 5 months old and we are finally starting to settle in to somewhat of a routine. Samuel is a good baby overall. He has been very colicky though. I thought Simon was a fussy baby...boy, was I wrong. Samuel does not cry often, just fusses. We have not determined that he has Silent reflux. Oh the joys of mothering. So after a cold, ear infection, sinus infection and 2 different antibiotics he is finally well. All is clear besides the reflux. We are now on our second prescription for that. Zantac made him not eat and he was much worse. Now we shall try Prevacid. Hopefully he will become a better baby once that is taken care of. I will keep you all posted.

Other that that there has not been a lot going on. Clay is still with Coram and traveling a lot. He is gone until at least 7pm most evenings. We have gotten used to it though. It is all just part of the norm now. So now that we are settled into out new form of crazy, I will hopefully be on here more often. So we shall see how well I keep up.

Coffeemate Bistro Party

Coffeemate has a wonderful opportunity for me to have a free friday coffee party. They were so awesome that they gave me all of the materials for the coffee and 16 coupons to give to my guest. We has a wonderful time. It was so fun to get together and enjoy eachothers company. I would like to share the love with you all. I have 5 coupons for free coffeemate creamer, up to a $3.99 value. It is such a great thing. It allows you to get the big bottle for free. What could be better that that. In order to get an entry just follow my blog and let me know that you did so in the comments. I will draw a winner on Valentine's day.

Couponing

Since it is the new year and many have made alot of resolutions I will share mine (a few weeks late, i know). I have vowed to get better about my couponing. As it stands right now I spend approx. $125 per week of all of our groceries, toiletries, and pet food. I do coupon. I save around $60 every week. I think that I am doing ok. When I break it down it is only about 33% savings. The problem is that I am stuck in a rut. I can't seem to get the budget any lower. I really prefer to by fresh, whole food. I try to keep the family at least 80-85% whole foods. As much as I would love to go 100% whole food, I know that we will get busy and what take-out, or something quick. I can't figure out a way to get whole foods lower. Any suggestions?