An Alternative to the Everyday Meatball

Our family really enjoys going to Carrabba’s to eat as it is one place where I feel like they actually CARE about gluten-free customers.  Not that no mistakes are made, but rest assured, the manager is all over those guys like white on rice when they don’t use a fresh bowl to mix my salad and a lone crouton makes it’s way into my salad.

Anyway, I got this idea from what Andrew orders just about every time we go.  He gets spaghetti, something Samuel and I cannot have there,  because the pasta is wheat pasta.  But it looks goooooood!  It comes with two rather large Italian sausages on top of this huge bowl of spaghetti.  That part looks a little weird, but that’s just me cuz I live in the country and have nothing but men in my house.  The sausages just look a little…uh…like something your pet would leave behind.  OK, ok….doesn’t sound like something you’d wanna eat, right?  Well, Italian sausage is GOOD.  So, what I did at home was cook the sausages on the grill (you could probably just use a frying pan) and then cut them in slices when they were cooked through.  I then added the sausage slices to my pasta sauce and let it simmer a bit.  Yummo!  Really nice change of pace  and much easier than making your own meatballs, that’s for sure!!

Guess what’s for dinner tonight!?

Parents in Pain – Part II

My heart is heavy, again.  And you know what?  I know I’m not the only one.  My blog has the capacity to show me what words or terms are used in search engines that bring people to my blog.  Do you know that at LEAST once a week, someone uses the words “parents in pain” as a search term?  It shocked me; it really did.  Not that I didn’t think parents were in pain.  THAT I knew.  But those particular search words being used?  Brings one directly to my blog.  God wanted me to know that.  And I want YOU to know that I am praying for all the hurting parents out there.  I don’t know you; I don’t know your situation.  But I know that my God can comfort you and heal your pain.

The enemy has such a foot hold in this nation, in the church and in the family.  So many are reaching out for something to fill the void that is within them and the enemy is full of promises.  If you are holding on to a religion, if you are holding onto a person or relationship, if you are holding onto a pastor, a counselor  or teacher….if you are holding onto ANYTHING but Jesus Christ for your needs, you will be disappointed.  Am I saying that following Christ is full of happiness?  No.  He promises us scripture that we will have pain and trouble in this world.  But HE has overcome this world!  He is the only One who will give you Hope.  If someone else is giving you hope, forget it.  It isn’t their’s to give!  He IS our Hope.  He is waiting for you to stop leaning on your friends, your family, your church, etc and come to Him alone for what you need.

Is it wrong to lean on friends, family or church?  Of course not.  God gave them to you, to help you.  But maybe you are using others to fill your needs, rather than meeting with God in that lonely, painful place, much like the Garden of Gethsemane was to Christ before His death on the cross.  We all need to go to that place, be dreadfully honest with the Father about how we feel, and glean from Him strength, hope and love that no one else can begin to impart to us.  As a friend, it is hard for me to let my hurting friends go there.  I want to take that pain away from them.  I want to stop the suffering.  I want to minister to them.  How selfish of me!  It isn’t about me!  This is between them and God.  Who am *I* to think that I could spare them of any of the pain that God sees fit to use to bring them to that closeness with Him.

When you are fighting a battle, where it seems that even those who are supposed to love you are willing to climb over the bodies of their “loved ones” to gain ground, seek the face of Jesus.  Look into His eyes, for only there will you find the peace that a parent in pain can find.

Tweakalicious Stroganoff Recipe!

I posted a Beef Stroganoff  recipe a back in February.  You can click HERE to view the “original” recipe I posted.   As I was thumbing through my recipes recently, I was reminiscing about a sausage stroganoff my Mama used to make.  I asked her if I was remembering correctly, since my memory fails me quite often when my fibromyalgia is flaring.  As tasty as the beef stroganoff was, it was really lacking when you actually bit into the meat.  The gravy was awesome, but if you used a chunky form of beef, it was bland inside.  So, tonight I tried what I’d been dreaming about the last couple weeks.   Here is the tweaked recipe.

Gluten Free Sausage/Beef Stroganoff

SERVES 6

Curried Chicken

One of the many things I need to post on that has occurred in the past 3 1/2 months is our week long vacation to Topsail Beach, NC with family.  My sister-in-law, Joy, made a dish that everyone loves, because in the end, you make it like you want it.  It is very simple and naturally gluten free.  No special ingredients needed!

Ingredients:

32 oz chicken broth

cooked chicken from 6 chicken breasts or one whole chicken

1 onion sauteed in EVOO

1/4  cup cornstarch to thicken

3 Tbs Indian Curry

garlic salt to taste…I added a couple cloves fresh garlic and used regular salt to taste

Saute onion and garlic in EVOO .  Add chicken broth and heat through.  Then add the cornstarch to thicken it like gravy.  I would suggest reserving a small amount of the chicken broth to the cornstarch and mixing it into a liquid rather than adding the dry cornstarch.  It prevents lumps of cornstarch that you have to work yourself to death to get them out!  Lastly, add the curry and salt to taste.   Serve over rice.  Top with condiments!

The interesting thing about this dish is the next step – the condiments!  Have available an array of items to go on top of your dish, so each individual can make it their on concoction.   These are what we had available.

peanuts

coconut flakes

raisins

pineapple chunks

boiled eggs, crumbled

jarred mango chutney – found in the Asian section of the grocery store

Drop me a note if you try it and let me know what you think!  To me, the chutney makes it, because it is a bit spicy.  This is also a dish that will freeze well, so you can make a large batch and save some for a busy day when cooking dinner isn’t looking too promising.  I’ve had a lot of those lately!

Enjoy!!

I’m Gonna Do It!

A Special Thank You

I’ll be going in for my surgery in the morning, Tuesday, at 7:15 a.m.   I am amazed at how the body of Christ has been at work on my behalf.  I have so many people all over praying for me!  I am so thankful for each and every one of you.  I can say that I am going into this surgery with complete peace.  God is in control and I feel He has brought me to the doctor He chose for me.

So THANK YOU!  I appreciate the prayers you have lifted up for me and would be very thankful to continue to have them.  Hopefully Kenny can update on my Facebook tomorrow afternoon and let everyone know how I am doing.  I am scheduled to come home on Wednesday.

Blessings to each and every one of you!

“Backed” into a Corner

I know a lot of you, my sweet friends, are wondering what is going on with me physically.  I figured this was a pretty central place to let everyone know what’s going on.

I have had worsening back pain for several weeks.  I received an epidural injection several weeks ago and only had relief for a couple days from it.  The pain down my right leg has gotten almost constant and made walking difficult unless I had the maximum amount of tylenol AND advil in me at the same time.  This would take the edge off.  I went for a new MRI on Sunday morning, with contrast, and I am so glad I did.

My doctor has been working out of town this week but when the nurse called him with the results, he said today that he wanted me in to see a neurosurgeon ASAP…preferably today or tomorrow!  I was a little alarmed at the urgency, but I understand why at this point.

I met with a neurosurgeon this afternoon, after getting one hours notice of the appointment and knowing I would be worked in and would likely have to wait a couple hours to be seen.  I was at Rex at 3 p.m. to pic up my MRI pics and was then to go to the surgeon’s office by 3:30.  I was back and forth with different folks on the phone for upwards of an hour, because this particular surgeon is not “in network” with our insurance.  He comes highly recommended by several other docs.  We got the insurance stuff worked out and I waited till almost 6 p.m. to be seen.  I was very pleased with him, his knowledge and his explanation of what they needed to do.

I have two very LARGE herniated (ruptured) discs, 7 mm and 12 mm, between L3 and L4 and between L4 and L5.  The one below that has a mild bulge, but he isn’t concerned about that one.  He was describing it to me and came out and said, “You can basically see it from across the room.”  They were very sympathetic to the amount of pain I HAD to be suffering.  The nerve roots are “displaced” and the sac around the nerves has thinned out completely due to the pressure.

It was almost 6:30 p.m. when I left his office and as of now, they hope to do surgery on Tuesday,  May 5th.  I’ll find out for sure tomorrow because he was going to alter his schedule a bit.  He was easy to talk to and he explained what he will do very well.  The surgery will take 4 hours or more.  They will remove both the discs completely and replace them with a substance that contains stem cells (not fetal…I asked).  This material will form new bone in place of the discs.  Then he will put a “cage” around it with screws.   I will possibly come home the same day, but more than likely the next day.  We’ll see…I anticipate the latter and I am a weenie when it comes to pain.

The absolutely WONDERFUL thing about this is that I will never have to worry about by back going out again.  If he just removed the disc material that is coming out, he said it would recur.  I’ve had quite enough recurrence with my back since I first injured it 15 years ago.  I am SO thankful to have HOPE and I praise God for bringing me to this particular doctor, that my current back doctor AND my chiropractor both recommend highly.

He has also given me a couple prescriptions, Percocet and Valium, so I don’t need to continue the 4 advil/2 extra strengh tylenol all day long.  I’m afraid it’s gonna zonk me out, but it will be good for the beginning of the day when I have several painful hours waiting for the other stuff to kick in after sleeping at night.

I would appreciate your prayers.  I am in the middle of a whopper of a fibromyalgia flare, probably due to the stress my body is under with my back, so my pain has been everywhere else in my body as well.   I’ll be so glad for some pain relief.  I’ll also have to deal with Celiac issues at the hospital.  I’ve been told many hospitals aren’t very “in the know” about the dietary restrictions.   If I need to make food ahead of time and have it brought in, I’ll just have to do it.

So there you have it.  Thanks for your support and mostly for your prayers, especially that my back doesn’t reach an emergency level before I have the surgery.  It’s been a rough day but I am so thankful that I know the Lord will bring me through.

Gratitude Revisited

This title sounds like I only come to this topic occasionally.  I do hope that I display more gratitude than I do complaint.  It can be hard to balance with chronic pain.  But today I want to look at some specifics.  I don’t know what # this is in my list and actually, I’m gonna stop worrying with the numbers.  I’m just going to share.

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I manage a co-op in NC that orders wheat and other grains from Wheat Montana.  You may also remember that I was diagnosed with Celiac disease last summer.  Many of the folks in my co-op are surprised to still see me doing this.  When I began several years ago, it was partly selfish and partly out of helping others get grain at good prices.  I made our own bread for several years.  But that has changed.  Unfortunately I’m back to buying bread that won’t mold even if given a couple weeks…yuck. ( I really need to get to whole foods for some decent bread for them.)  Regardless of the fact that *I* can’t eat wheat, it is a much needed and wanted staple to many diets.  I enjoy being on the computer and thanks to Amy McCoy who has blessed me with her computer expertise, I now have a website that helps SO much in the administration of the orders.  God has blessed me with Nancy O’Connor to manage the delivery in Cary each cycle and she has done an awesome job.  Scott and Kerri Forney have been willing to manage a drop in Louisburg twice a year which blesses over 40 people each order so that they don’t have to drive another hour to Cary to get their grain.  And without the individuals who come and do the back breaking job of unloading up to 10 pallets of grain out of a transfer truck…well, it would not be possible without them.  No way!  All of these people are a blessing to me.  All the moms who cannot unload because they have little children to care for are also blessing me by allowing us to bless them.   I hope it is an example to these kids of one way the body of Christ works.  I make no excuses when I ask for prayer or mention God in my emails or newsletters to the co-op.  God has given me the skills to still be able to minister in this way and He alone has blessed this co-op.   My prayer at this point is that it grows as the Lord wills so that others in NC can benefit from having deliveries closer to their homes.

Tomorrow I am schedule to have an epidural injection of cortisone in my lumbar area.  I am so grateful to have found this doctor.  I said at one time that I would never have a cortisone shot.  Well, I’ve had two, at the same time and I am so glad I did.  I am praying that this one, in a different location, will relieve the inflammation that is causing my right leg to be my enemy.   If it does not, there is still a plan…to get a new MRI and see if something else is going on.  May God guide the Dr. I’s hands tomorrow and give him wisdom…and accuracy!  LOL!  My mother has worse problems with her back than I do and we are actually going together.  She gets her injection an hour after mine and my daddy is the chauffeur!  I am blessed by both of them!

Spring is coming…soon!  The Carolina wrens have come home and wake me most morning now with their unique chirp…although 5 a.m. is a wee bit early!  I have purchased three self watering containers and plan to have several vegetables on the deck this year.  I am excited and nervous all at the same time, but looking forward to needing the produce department a wee bit less this summer.

There are always blessings…even if we have trained ourselves by default to miss them.  My prayer for you is that your eyes are opened to NEW blessings today!  Make sure to share them with someone else!

The Gluten Free Dinner Table – Week of Feb. 15th

I will not lie… I have only used one of these recipes this week, but I have tried them all and want to share them with you.  I’m still in a lot of pain with my back and well, it was easier to stick with things I was familiar with making.

Beef Stroganoff

To be honest, I’m not sure the proper way to post this recipe since it was one I tweaked to meet my needs and to meet the ingredients I had in the cabinets, so I’ll make sure I give credit where credit is due.   I found this recipe on Recipezaar and the comments were so interesting, I was intrigued.   There were a couple ingredients that I’d never used in my Plain Jane stroganoffs in the past and I was hoping with the tweaking that it would be one that my husband would be game for having again.  The key with Kenny and stroganoff is…don’t let him even come CLOSE to seeing sour cream.  It doesn’t matter what the final result is, if he knows there is sour cream…I’m just sayin’.

Here is the recipe with my changes…

Gluten Free Beef Stroganoff

SERVES 4

Sausage Rolls

I really need to make these again because they are one of Samuel’s favorite things for breakfast.  It is very simple and they reheat nicely.  The recipe is here on Pamela’s website.

Ginger Lemon Girl’s Everyday Chocolate Cake

Let me first of all say…NO WAY to having this every day!  It is just too good!  If you do choose to have it every day, email me in a few weeks and I’ll send you the link to Weight Watchers on the web. 

I made this cake for Samuel’s 19th birthday last fall, making two round layers and using icing from a can.  You can NOT tell that this is gluten free.  We served it to over 25 college students and no one was the wiser.  It felt like such an accomplishment!  You will notice a carrot cake recipe on the page I linked above.  I have not personally made this but have heard rave reviews from the gals on the Gluten Free Recipes email loop.

Let me know if you try one of these and how it turns out!  I love hearing from my readers!

Parents in Pain

The older my sons get, the more I see people I know and love in pain – a kind of pain only a parent can feel.   As I have been thinking about this blog post throughout the day, I was reminded of when my own parents told me when I was young that I couldn’t understand the pain they felt as parents.  For a child, it is impossible.  I know you heard it too.  But I don’t think many of us really understood.  Really, we couldn’t.  You cannot understand the pain of miscarriage until you have experienced it yourself.  You cannot understand the pain of childbirth, unless you have gone through it.  You can describe it, but the description will always be inadequate.  Both of these examples refer to being a parent, a parent in pain.

There are so many different types of pain a parent can experience.  But I find there seems to be a common thread.  We lack control.  I’m not referring to being a control freak or anything of the sort.  But so often our children experience things that if WE could change them, we would!  We would take away the pain of illness…whether it be a “simple” ear infection or life threatening cancer.  We do what we can to take it away or stop the pain.  Giving those medications helps us to feel in control, but are we?

What about the pain a child experiences when they are hurt by others.  Maybe your husband has been transferred and you will be moving across the country.  As adults, we have more of an understanding of being able to keep in touch with close friends, but a child many times doesn’t understand that.  And many times those relationships are just over.  The loneliness they feel in  a new place, when they haven’t developed the coping skills that we have to deal with it.  We can’t take that pain away from them, but we would give our left arm for our child to have a friend.

Your child may have a disability, be it a learning disability that no one can see or a physical challenge that causes them pain emotionally as well as physically.  The teasing from others, the feelings of failure…what parent hasn’t cried with their child over these things or wanted to take them away.  In all these issues, we cannot ultimately control what happens to our child.   But we know who does control it and we must choose to put our trust in Him….or not.

As our children  grow out of the childhood years and into adolescence,  our roles change a bit.  We are, or should be, less authoritative and more of a guide.  All the teaching we have done should have firmed up in their hearts.  A new independence is born in many children.  Do they look to us for guidance, or are they rebelling against all they have been taught?  This is a new kind of pain and in some ways, it hurts even more.

In III John 1:4  John states, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.”  I have wondered of late, as I see other parents in pain, is the converse also true?  Is there no greater sorrow than to hear that our children are NOT walking in truth?  I think it is very possible.  And again, there is that thread of needing/wanting control.  Wouldn’t we do anything we could possibly do to stop them down a road of destruction?  What if this?  What if that?  If only I had this or that?  But that would mean WE were the ones in control…thank God we aren’t.

One tendency I have seen in myself when I was younger, was the tendency to judge those parents in pain.  I had my own “what ifs” and “if onlys.”  I saw things I would do differently with my own children.  We don’t want to let that possibility cross our minds…that our own children might make really bad choices one day.  But folks, it is only by God’s grace that we are not ALL walking in the same place!  Many parents walk this road to one degree or another.  They children may not be renouncing their faith, but they may be making decisions that can only reap fruitlessness.  We would all do anything to bring our children on their knees before the God of the universe!  That is not our job!  In fact, they are not even OURS!  They belong to Him!

Before you cast judgement on a parent in pain, try to put yourself in their shoes.  The pain, the shame, the embarrassment, the feelings of failure,  the FEAR…all these human emotions, some of which show a lack of trust in the ONLY trustworthy ONE…these are emotions you yourself might feel one day.  It is possible, you know?  Even if you do EVERYTHING right!  It could be you.  It might be you right now.  Are you a parent?  Are you in pain?  Is letting go and “letting God” about to kill you inside right now?  Are you able to be like Abraham and put your Isaac on the alter?  Are you willing to let them go and allow GOD to work in their hearts?  It’s the hardest thing you will ever do and possibly one of the most painful.  It sure shows us how easy it is to put our love for our children above our love for our Lord, doesn’t it?  Don’t hide.  There are others who have walked in your shoes who want to love you and comfort you, as the Lord comforted them.  Not everyone will judge you….but some will.  One day you may be bringing them comfort as they walk the same road.  And you will remember that one day you were the judging one, then the hurting one.  May we as the body of Christ minister to those parents…the parents in pain.  May we minister to those young people, love them, speak truth to them in love, maybe even share the horrid path we ourselves walked one day…when we were in THEIR shoes.

II Corinthians 1:3

“Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort.”