Sauteed Brussels Sprouts

Being adventurous and trying new things is good while on the other hand, it can be down right scary. As a parent, I want my son to know it is good to be adventurous and try new things.  Let me tell you, this recipe, Sauteed Brussels Sprouts is an adventure you want to take.

Sauteed Brussels Sprouts

Brussels sprouts are a new favorite vegetable for our family. Being real here... I never tasted them until about a month ago and I was pleasantly surprised that I actually liked them.  I have my sister, Lisa, to thank for getting me hooked on these little green gems.

For several years I have heard her talk about Brussels sprouts and asparagus and I finally got tired of hearing about them and decided it was time to do something about it.  I bought a pound of  asparagus and was able to find loose Brussels sprouts and bought six. Yeah,  I did not want to spend a lot of money on something I was afraid no one would like, so six it was.  I called Lisa and she told me both ways she cooks her sprouts and I went from there to create our new favorite side dish. The Brussels sprouts won hands down  and the asparagus was okay, but it was NOT our favorite. (I may have to get a little creative with the asparagus and give them a try again.)  When she heard about our new-found love, she was happy and she now has my recipe for Sauteed Brussels Sprouts.

Sauteed Brussels Sprouts

Ingredients:

1 pound Brussels sprouts
1 Tablespoo  bacon grease
4-6 slices bacon chopped
1 small onion diced
4-5 mushrooms sliced
1 garlic clove, minced
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Cut off the brown ends of the Brussels sprouts and remove any yellow leaves and cut in half, length wise. In a frying pan, heat bacon grease. Fry the bacon and onions until the bacon is cooked, not too crispy. Add the mushrooms and garlic and saute for about a 3-4 minutes. Add the Brussels sprouts and seasoning, continue sauteing until the Brussels sprouts become soft, not mushy. Remove from heat and serve.

I test my Brussels sprouts while they are cooking, under cooked sprouts are not good but neither are over cooked sprouts.

I'd love to hear if you try the recipe.

Just Need a Break

Sometimes you just need a break! That is what we are doing today ~ a day off from regular book learning. Jamie spent all weekend in class for the state hunter safety course and after two and half days he was begging for a break from school work. We have been schooling non stop since the first of January, so a little break is needed. In fact, I was a little happy he asked if we could take today off; how could I not give in?

**This post contains an affiliate link.

The only actual work he is doing is reading the book William Wallace for his research paper. Actually, WE are reading it together. There is so much about Wallace's life that is unknown, while many facts have been distorted because of Hollywood. My grandmother was a Wallace and very proud of it. Knowing this, Jamie has a real interest in our Scottish ancestry.

While Jamie is reading, I am finishing up some planning for the next year. While I have most of my curriculum chosen, there are still a couple of areas where I am scratching my head in wonder. I know by the time I am ready to order everything, I will have made my decision.

In the past, I have kicked around the idea of year round schooling and could never quite make a go of it. But, this next school year is going to be the starting of something I feel we need to do. Jamie wants to graduate early, but I don't see early as a year, but around Christmas of his senior year. I graduated at Christmas and was able to work a job afterwards. Since Jamie has begun talking about it a little, I'll be encouraging it a lot. I think it will be good for him and me.

I found a really good thing about planning for high school. When I come across something but don't feel Jamie will be ready for it this coming year, I am making notes about it for the future years. You can see my HIGH SCHOOL NOTEBOOK in the above picture. It is divided up for the next four years so anything I think is grade appropriate is jotted down along with the website.  ** I do not do any research without this notebook because I will end up with a thousand sheets of paper with small notes written on them.**

One day, I will let you take a peek inside my high school planning notebook.

Springtime Planning is Under Way

It can be a little discouraging to think about gardening when there is five inches of snow on the ground and the temperatures are hovering around -20 degrees. But, I'm thinking about it and planning for my garden. Springtime Planning is under way and I'm ready for it.

If the weatherman is correct, our spring temperatures will be arriving in less than two weeks. When I say spring temperatures, I'm meaning 40 degrees. It doesn't take much to make me happy.

All of my seed catalogs came in January and as soon as I found a moment, I began flipping through them. I normally buy from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and this year I'll be buying our onion sets from one of the growers in Walla Walla, Washington. Last summer's garden was pretty much a trial run since moving here and not knowing how things would grow, we planted a few things just to see how they would do. We got carrots, onions and a few broccoli, my cucumbers failed horribly. But, I'm feeling adventurous and I'm excited about what we are planning on growing this year.

Beans and Peas ~  Red Beans, Pinto Beans, Black Eye Peas
Bell Peppers
Broccoli
Brussel Sprouts ~ has become a family favorite recently, so I'm going to give it a go at trying.
Cabbage
Carrots
Collard Greens
Cucumbers
Squash
Tomatoes
Turnip Greens

I would love to plant corn, but I really don't have enough room to plant any to make it worth while, so I'll wait until I find it for sale on the side of the road like I did last year.

There is a spot in the front yard I want to turn into a flower bed, so hopefully I can plant several different flowers there. One flower, I am planning on is the Bells of Ireland. I'm thinking I want to plant both annuals and perennials or maybe just a couple of little bushes. Once the warmer weather sets in and the snow melts hopefully I'll be able to make up my mind.

I can't wait to sink my toes in the dirt. How 'bout you, are you springtime planning?

Our Favorite Roku Channels

If you missed my post about Ditching the Satellite Dish, you'll want to read about why we chose to stop paying to watch TV and switched over to Roku.  I'm SHARING OUR FAVORITE ROKU CHANNELS today since everyone has their favorites.

There are literally hundreds of channels to choose from on the Roku box. Over the past week, we have spent much time checking out any channels that looked interesting. While some were duds, others were pots of gold. Roku offers channels for children, families, movies, recipes, sports, weather, you name it, it is probably on there.

These are just a few of our  channels that we have added:

Netflix is our pay subscription. We love it, we've been members for several years and are happy with it.

PBS has a channel and I'm loving it the most because it picks up our location in Montana, which means we can watch Backroads of Montana and learn about our state. For my Georgia friends, this show is very similar to Georgia Traveler.

The History Channel, who'd a thought it? There are some interesting shows, but not many that we watch since THC has followed many others and now requires a TV service provider to watch many of their shows.

The Smithsonian Channel,  quite a few educational programs. They also provide 1-3 minute videos on certain subjects. You can learn a lot in those few minutes.

AllFitness TV, every imaginable type of workout is on this channel.

Pilates has its own channel.

Gooseberry Patch shows short videos for recipes that are published in their cookbooks.

BYUTV, has family friendly programming. You will have to know their schedule to watch any favorite shows. I like to watch American Ride, and Wind at My Back. I can't wait for the return of Granite Flats.

Radio Classic Broadcast, I enjoy listening to these when I'm in the living cleaning or just knitting.

Pandora, my husband was quick on the draw for this channel and added his account before I could add mine. So needless to say, I added some of my favorite Pandora radio stations to his, so I can listen. :)

iEducation, has  short videos on math, science, economics and other subjects.

Innovative Language, is a month paid channel, but they also have individual foreign language channels for $ .99 a month. At the beginning of March, I'll be subscribing to a foreign language channel for Jamie, to give it a try. Hopefully, it will turn into something good for school.

The next few, if you can look over their crazy timing loop for ads, have some very good classic shows like The Beverly Hillbillies, The Lucy Show and Bonanza. Family Fun Flix, Classic Western, Saddle Up Western, Pop Flix. 

For those who LOVE the outdoor/hunting/fishing channels. You are in luck, because there are several to choose from. Bowhunting.com, WildTV (paid), Wired Outdoors, Demand the Outdoors (paid), Heading Outdoors, TMP Outdoors, WildADRENALINE, HUNT365TV, MyOutdoorTV (paid), New England Outback, and TEAMKILLZONE Outdoors (paid).

Let's talk about advertising for a bit. On regular TV, there is NO CONTROL over what is aired. Truthfully, the same thing goes with the ads that are aired on some of these Roku channels. But, I have NOT seen anything questionable. Most of the ads are "As Seen on TV" items and prescription medicine lawsuit ads and cell phone ads. The FoxNow Channel also airs previews of their shows  Nothing out of the ordinary or questionable. ~ What a relief!

Roku also has private channels that are not listed in the channel store. While many are free, there are also some paid subscription channels. I'm still learning why there are "open" and "private" channels.

At the moment, my husband and I are not willing to spend any more money on watching TV.  Maybe later on when we feel the need, we will be a little adventurous and try one of the paid channels.

Any time, I sit down in front of the TV now, I get a warm fuzzy feeling knowing, I do not have a contract over my head with a dreaded monthly statement landing in my post office box, nor am I paying to watch any of it unless it is on Netflix.

Like I said before, cutting the cord to pay TV is not for everyone. It is something you HAVE to WANT to DO and ARE WILLING to take the PLUNGE.

If you are a Roku watcher, what are some of your favorite channels?

Ditching the Satellite Dish

The day I called Direct TV was a huge mistake! When we first moved here, we really thought we needed local channels because of the weather. Yeah, right! Our "local" channels were Bismarck channels and by the time any weather was heading towards Bismarck it had already moved from this area. Yeah, so local channels were not so local.

In the past, we cut the plug to pay TV and lived happily for several years. We were able to watch all of our favorite shows, just a day later online. We subscribed to Netflix and watched many full running series of shows we missed by not paying to watch TV. We were happy! We had extra money in our pockets! We even added to our DVD collection and we were happy ~ we had new things to watch when we wanted and extra money in our pockets. We were very HAPPY! We had TOTAL CONTROL over what was being aired into our home.

Before we moved here, we thought about buying a Roku box because of all the FREE channels they have to offer and then we moved and the idea left us until last fall. When I think about all the money we threw out the window, I could just kick myself!

After spending an average $75 a month for almost a year, we were READY to cut the cord to the satellite dish. After doing some minor calculations and planning we knew just when it would benefit our pockets to disconnect from the ever looming contracted monthly bill. Yes, we terminated our service early. Yes, we had to pay a fee. But, that fee was a TINY percentage of the $750 we would be paying to not terminate. Confused?... Simply, we are saving 78% by terminating our service before November.

After owning our Roku box for three months, it will have paid for itself and all the viewing of shows and movies will have cost us nothing except for our $8.00 a month for the Netflix subscription.

Saving money was the MAIN reason for cutting the cord to pay TV. Taking control of what is coming into our home is something that I have tried to do for years and it was the SECOND reason why we choose this route. But, as long as commercials are being aired, THERE IS NO TRUE CONTROL.

There is a lot that can be written about making this change, but I won't because it is something that is a personal preference and it does take sacrificing. If someone is not WILLING to sacrifice a little, then making this change is not going to work.

I'm working on another post about the Roku channels that we have added and are enjoying. Be watching for it, because if you are a homeschooling family ~ Roku has some really neat channels for students and children that are quite educational and they are FREE.

***Here's my post called Our Favorite Roku Channels.

A Little School, A Little Gardening, A Little Meat and A Little Cleaning

It's hard to believe there are only two more weeks in this month! This time of year seems to fly quickly out the door for me. We begin to buckle down in our school work, making sure EVERYTHING in the core subjects are completed while adding some light electives to round out the school year. Yes, I'm one of those moms who complete EVERYTHING since everything counts towards hours for our school year.  The state of Montana does not require a set number of days, but hours. The hours can be a good thing while it can be a bad thing for some. I like the hours, because we can spend extra time on something fun and exciting and not have to monkey around with a calendar like I did in Georgia.

I'm also pre-planning for the beginning of our HIGH SCHOOL years which start in the fall. I can't believe Jamie will be starting his ninth grade year! I never thought we would make it this far, but we are peddling right along. I'm a little nervous about the next four years and I'm actually looking into online classes for him, so we will see how everything works out.

Another exciting thing about this time of year for me, are all of the seed catalogs have hit the post office box. After seeing how the growing season is here, and how some things grow and not grow, we are in the planning stages of raised beds this year. I have one REALLY good area that needs to be built up for a bed that runs along the side of the garage. It has a low spot where water tends to sit after the snow melts, so a little work and that area will be up and ready for seedlings once all the snow is gone.

This past week was Albertsons' meat sale. The sale usually comes between my shopping days, but this time it hit perfectly and I was able to take advantage of it. I was a little saddened when I found out that some locations, like the Colorado stores had better prices on their meat, but I'm happy for $1.88 a pound.

I was able to stock up on chicken and ground beef which will help in the budget over the next few months.  I divided up the chicken and ground meat into smaller portions for the freezer. I normally do not buy beef because of the high purine levels in it, but the price was cheaper than turkey.  Angus is a big part of the beef industry out here and most of the restaurants use it and many stores don't label the meat as being Angus because of that, I try to stay away from any beef since all it takes is one bite of Angus to set off a gout flare up in my husband. ~Yeah, we eat A LOT of white meat. I also bought two roasts, since they were B1G1 and after I saw the look in my husband's eyes when he looked at them. He loves roast and since he doesn't eat a lot of beef, we gave in. One is in the crock pot at the moment and the other is out in the big freezer for later on. I also have my pineapple juice on hand so just in case.
 

I haven't bought any breakfast sausage in almost a year. Yes, I'm still making my own and it tastes so much better than store bought. Any time I can buy a pork roast/loin I do it. I was able to get two half pork loins this time. We ground 1 ½ and the other half, I sliced. We were able to get six pounds of sausage out of the loins and several freezer bags of pork "chops".

Wondering how much I bought and spent? Well, I spent $58 on $110 worth of meat.

• Chicken ~ 12 pounds    
• Ground Beef ~ 6 pounds
• Pork Loins~ 10 pounds 
• Roasts ~ 6 pounds 

Spring cleaning is just around the corner for me. Actually, I don't do "spring cleaning" any more but I do an in depth cleaning of one room a month and it's that weekend again. Last month, was the laundry and sewing room. This month, is Jamie's room. I'm looking forward to this room, because I'm crazy! That's right, I'm crazy to be wanting to deep clean his room and closet but it has to be done and I don't want any field mice making their home in his closet. Since his closet is prime real estate for field mice, it's best if I clean it so I know there won't be any surprises running out at me, when I open the door. Thankfully, it hasn't happened yet, but the way he keeps his closet, I'm surprised nothing has been found in it.

It's January 16, 2014 and I hope you have an amazing day!

Reusable Dusting Cloths

I LOVE dusting! No, really I don't, but it is a household job that is on  the top of my list of jobs I dread the least.  I remember growing up and dusting for my Maw Maw. She always had lemon scented polish and I loved it! That lemony smell was what I loved about dusting her house. Sadly, my sister loved dusting her house also, so we had to take turns each week with the dusting and vacuuming. I really dislike vacuuming in those days because my grandmother owned an extremely heavy canister vacuum cleaner and the crazy thing would roll under tables and into corners and it would get hung and no matter how hard I would pull the hose, that thing wasn't going anywhere. Needless to say, I don't own a canister vacuum cleaner.





To this day, I still love the lemony scent of furniture polish because it brings back the memories of dusting when I was a little girl. Yes, I use it in my home on a weekly basis because dry dusting has never done a thing for me except move dust around to land on the furniture again soon after I was finished with the chore.

Not long after I was married, I bought one of those Static Dusters. You know the one where you spun it around in your hands to open it and then rubbed it across the tv screen and then dusted with it. Nope, it didn't work for me.

Those cute little Swiffer dusters... yeah, I dislike those also, because they REALLY do not work and they cost money to replace. I'm not one to fork out money for a disposable dusting rag on a stick. I do love the wand part of the duster because it gives me a little more length to my reaching. I liked the idea so much, I signed up for a free sample just so I could get the wand. Shameless, I know!

I came across THIS tutorial on making your own reusable dusting cloths. I made a couple on Saturday using leftover flannel and sack cloth pieces. After using both, I have to admit I like the sack cloth one better. Maybe, because I normally dust with an old t-shirt and they both dust the same.

These pictures show the cloths after only one washing and drying. The sack cloth did not fray as much as the flannel, but after the second washing it frayed more.

The good things about making these: I use up scrapes of fabric I have no other use for because of their sizes. I'm not throwing money away when I take them off to replace them since I can wash them and reuse them until they are dead. I'm saving money! Who doesn't like saving money?