Vegetarian Oat Patties

I'm always a sucker for Gayle's Frugal Recipe Swap. While I eat a little poultry now and then, I've spent most of my life as a vegetarian, and this recipe is one of my favorites! It is seriously delicious... even meat eaters devour it! Even though it has 5 eggs, I still consider it a frugal recipe because it feeds my family of 6 for TWO nights. I serve it with homemade gravy (or store bought mushroom gravy in a pinch) and a salad.

Vegetarian Oat Patties

2 C cottage cheese
2 C bread crumbs
2 C quick oats
2 onions, chopped fine
5 eggs
1/2 can evaporated milk
1/2 tsp sage
1/2 tsp soy sauce
salt to taste

Mix all ingredients. Roll into meatball size balls and slightly flatten. Pan fry in a small amount of oil until light brown. Serve with gravy. YES.... It is THAT easy!

UGH... 10 Reasons I'm About To Lose It

It's been just one of those weeks. The kind where you want to crawl into bed and cry, and maybe stay in there for a MONTH! You know.... I 'm a believer in "enemy attacks", and let me tell you, I feel like I'm going down! Seriously, if one more ounce of stress is placed on me, I'm gonna crack.

Now here is where I start whining. Since I never write on this blog anymore, I probably don't have any readers, so I guess I'm safe to unload without any "sorry I'm so bitchy" disclaimers.

1. One of my kids got lice. YUCK. I have never had to deal with this before, but the school has had a huge problem with it this year. Well, my kiddo admits to sharing a hat with a friend, and a week later I'm still boiling brushes, washing sheets, combing hair, and gagging. Yes, I might have not mentioned I have a very weak stomach when it comes to bugs. The entire time I'm combing out the eggs (blughughgh) I'm making gagging noises. My kiddo started crying "mom, your freaking me out" Oh it is quite the ordeal.

2. The stress of not knowing what is going on with my husbands job is overwhelming. Daily we vacillate from thinking that everything is going to be OK, to oh crap... we are going to have to move into my parents basement. It's not like there is a ton of high paying financial jobs around here, so might we have a move in the near future???? However, with the economy so horrible, are there high paying financial jobs ANYWHERE? Do we just start over??? The sad thing about climbing corporate ladders? The long fall down.

3. Teen troubles. Anyone who has a strong willed 12 year old daughter understands that this SUCKS! I really need a Christian support group for teenage parents. Sadly the only class around is offered by families who's kids are still young enough that the parents are under the delusion they can avoid teenage attitudes by their sheer parenting perfection! Ah, I remember those days.... Reality bites.

4. At work, I'm surrounded by Christians who don't like God. Sounds weird, but it's true! They believe, but don't want anything to do with him. Now the big problem is that my life is CENTERED around him. This is really tearing me up from within. I don't want to ruin my witness by being too "preachy" (not actually preaching, just giving God the glory), however if I turn off my open reliance on him, at what point to I get sucked up into world? I am an opinionated Jesus freak... do I change to make the world more comfortable with me?????

5. Even though I only work 15 hours a week, it's enough to cause chaos in my house keeping routine and put a damper on my frugality. Plus my stupid oven broke. We've been eating conveniently which has added 5 pounds bringing me back into the 150's and making me console myself with Hershey's chocolate bars (I've ate 4 in the last 3 days).

6. I'm PMSing

7. Small towns piss me off (too long of a rant to even get into it)

8. We owe a ton of taxes, our savings is tied up in bank stock (that we bought at $23... now it's $3) and my kid needs braces. Lets add in a few car payments, our $800 a month health care insurance, and the possibility of Obama and we may just decide quit working and live off the state (I think we'd have far more $$$ that way). America has made it far more convenient to be a welfare slacker than to work your butt off (so you can pay for everyone elses food, health care, homes, etc).

9. My 6 year old son informed me a girl from his class was going to "hook him up" with her "hot" cousin. God help us.

10. My faith is being tested in every way. I feel so weak... like everything could be lost in a heartbeat. Like tightrope walking... with no safety net.

Workin' Girl

So here I sit on a Saturday morning thinking about the promises I made to share all about my new job, my dead cat, etc. Really, if I wanted to get my blog up to date I should talk about the economy and it's effect on my husband's job first... but I'm too tired to go there this morning so my slightly out of order story will start with my new job.

Nothing too exciting... I'm working at a local cafe directly across the street from my kids school 2 - 3 days a week. I only work during school hours (8:00ish to 1:00ish), and will still spend the majority of my time at home (or helping in the classroom).I get the cool title of Batista, but really I'm just serving coffee to old guys and hearing all the small town chatter.

Basically, we saw our income drop considerably, and we were having to make cuts. One of the things that was putting a strain on our shrinking budget were my children's activities (dance,gymnastcis, etc). We were down to a necessity only budget so the kids activities were going to have to go. That's when I heard about the job and decided to apply.

There you have it! I actually like working. I'm pretty social so this is a good outlet for me. It's not demanding, time consuming, or difficult so it keeps me open to focus on my priorities... my family. And the best perk? Free espresso!

The down side? Well, I have to wear black so I'm looking pretty goth these days ( ; and avoiding all that small town GOSSIP!

What Should I Post About?

I can't believe it's been nearly three weeks since I've posted... and I left with a recipe post at that! So much is going on in my life that I need hours to write it all down. I think the daunting task of getting my blog up to date part of what keeps me away.

So what should I post about?

The bad economy and it's effect on our family?

My dead cat?

Our week at fair?

My new job?

My father?

Our choice to stay put in the country?

How stupid I think this whole Obama media hyped election is?


HELP! Where should I start?

Zucchini Casserole to Die For

Gayle over at The Grocery Cart Challenge is having a frugal recipe swap. Our garden is producing TONS of Zucchini, and this recipe is a delicious (all though incredibly fattening) way to use it up. Below is a variation of a recipe I found online.

Zucchini Casserole to Die For

45 min | 15 min prep

SERVES 6 -8

6 cups zucchini grated or diced (I grated it)
1 cup grated carrot
1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 cup butter
1 (10 3/4 ounce) can cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
1 (8 ounce) package seasoned stuffing mix
1/2 cup shredded cheddar

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a small bowl, combine cream of chicken soup and sour cream; set aside.

In a large skillet, melt butter over medium-high heat.

Add onion and sauté until soft.

Add grated or diced zucchini and grated carrots.

Stir frequently until zucchini is soft; about 5 minutes.

In a large mixing bowl, combine cooked veggies, soup mixture and seasoned stuffing together, stirring gently until well mixed.

Spread into a lightly greased 13"x9" baking dish.

Sprinkle cheddar over top.

Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes.

To make it a main dish you could add diced chicken... or barbecue chicken and have this as a side. Honestly... I'd just skip the chicken all together and eat nothing but this... it's THAT good!

On a frugal note, I wait until the stuffing mix goes on sale for $1 a box and stock up (we have another favorite recipe that call for it). I also grate and freeze my zucchini when I have it (free from my garden) so I can use it through the winter in breads and casseroles. If I buy the soup mix and sour cream on sale, this recipe costs less than $3, and is more than enough for 6.

Yesterday

We had quite the traumatic day yesterday.

My husband is part of a volunteer fire department where we live. It's a group of 60 or so farmers (and the random rural banker thrown in for good measure). Several times a summer, a small fire will start up in the wheat fields and it's put out within an hour. Pretty simple stuff..... usually.

Yesterday my husband was called out on a fire. I didn't think much of it. I was making my husband's favorite dinner, and it was just about finished when he got the call. I was irritated. Irritated because he would miss dinner, because I had to take the kids to the 4-H meeting by myself. He asked me to make him a sandwich so he didn't have to leave hungry. I said no.

I fed the kids and got ready for 4-H. With the kids screaming in the car "hurry up mom, we're late" I started to walk outside, but as my foot touched the first step on my porch, I heard God say "you forgot to pray for Chris". I always pray when he heads out for a fire, but this time I HAD indeed forgotten, so I said a prayer for his safety and went off to 4-H.

As we sat outside our group leaders home during our meeting, their phone kept ringing. It was ignored, and we carried about with our decorating and sheep details. Finally someone decided to answer the phone.

Chris had been pulled from the fire and was in the emergency room.

I knew nothing. I drove 90 miles an hour. I prayed like I never have prayed before.

Once I arrived in the emergency room I was bombarded with insurance questions... whay do they do that? All I wanted to do was find out how he was.

They only gave me a few facts

1. He was alive
2. He was talking
3. People were still trapped in the fire

I instantly broke down. I thought of our friends and neighbors that were out in the fire. Who was it still trapped inside?

After a few minutes they took me back to see my husband. He was hooked up to all sorts of machines, receiving oxygen, skin and clothes black with smoke, but he was alive and doing well.

After I held him and cried, I found out that indeed our dearest neighbor was one of those trapped. Sobs and prayers continued.

While fighting the fire, several volunteers went down into a steep ravine a few hundred feet deep. With a sudden shift of the wind the fire changed course and cut my husband off from the others. He had no idea what lay behind the wall of fire that separated them. But he did know what lay between his death and safety. The 100 foot wall of the ravine.

With all of his energy he climbed the ravine with the fire behind him. The smoke filled his lungs, and the heat was unbearable. At one point he said he gave up. He rested on a rock staring at the fire... praying to God that he didn't have to die this way. Fear of the pain as the deafening roar of the flames pounded in his head. At that point he passed out, but awoke to find himself climbing the final stretch of the ravine. Once at top fellow volunteers threw him into a pick up, fled from the flames and rushed him to the hospital.

He did not receive a single burn.

While he suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning, he was expected to have a full recovery.

The friends that were trapped have their own terrifying story, but they too escaped.

The fire was finally put out this afternoon. It got so bad they had to close down the interstate and bring in the firefighters from as far as 100 miles away.


On a final note, I would like to mention that it was around 6:00 that my husband almost died. God stopped me to pray at 6:00.

God is good.

God's Only Plan?

The following post is a response to what my friend Rachelle wrote. Have you ever started to write a comment and 30 minutes later you are 1/2 way through a mini novel? Yeah, that's why I put it over here instead. Go check out her post first!

Public school for us has been a HUGE positive. I can honestly say, I LOVE my kids school. I am SO glad I listened to God and not my own fears and sent them to PS. It took me nearly a year to let my guard down enough really appreciate the positives though. At first, all I could do was search for the ways it was ruining my kids. All those years of homeschooling had conditioned me to think it was an evil government institution, ready to ruin my children. What I didn't count on was that real living people actually worked there.

There are great kids in the public schools! Oh and yes there are the bad ones, but once you stop fearing "the bad kids" and spend a moment to get to know them, they are just scared and often unloved kids, FULL of God's potential!

I disagree that public school can't be in God's plan for our families. I KNOW his plan contains both public school AND homeschool. I also know we are called to be a light unto the world.

As parents it is our responsibility to educate our children in the way of God. Oh but the lessons they are learning now about God, the lost, and love FAR surpass those I taught them in the safe confines of our homeschool bubble.

My 12 year old daughter has brought 7 unsaved kids to youth group... four of which have become regular attenders, three of them saved. I have no doubt we are well within God's plan.

My kids have learned bad words, heard s*xual comments, been told about evolution, heard the cries of neglected classmates, seen the anger in the fatherless.... They have been teased and had their feelings hurt. With all that we are still VERY happy with PS.

My children have made GOOD friends, but still love the hurting. They are learning to love those who hurt them. They are learning you don't have to agree with the authority, but you do have to respect their position. Even my 5 year old is capable of learning these things and acting as a light to his classroom. Oh, and here is the shocker.. my kids are learning academics! Yes, it's true! The public school can and does teach my children! While my kids are advanced in many areas, they don't know it all, nor do I. Everyone had different gifts. I actually attended my 10 year old's science class on Wednesday's last year, and learned right along with my daughter. Also, my children were far more motivated to do a good job on reports, assignments, etc, because they were publicly recocnized by the school and classmates for a job well done. That was HUGE for us.

Now I say all these things not to say that homeschool is in any way inferior to Public Schooling. It's not, and in some ways it is better. Yet the point here is that there are MANY positives in public school. Your kids CAN thrive... just like in homeschool, they CAN fail. It's all about GOD'S will and purpose for your family.

I spent years miserable in homeschooling, because I inncorectly beleived it was God's ONLY way. I personally beleive if homeschooling is NOT going well for several seasons... I'm not just talking one or two bad months here, but consistently... that you should prayerfully seek a different direction. You MAY be missing out on your family's purpose.

Our kids success has far less to do with where they go to school (or don't), but where they come home to. My kids come home to loving parents who love them AND the Lord with all of our hearts. We are involved, and CONTINUE to teach them what we know. We are nowhere near perfect.. but we know a lot about grace...
Public school hasn't changed any of that. If anything, it's made us stronger. ~Karlie