Flatbread success!

As many of you know, my kids have food allergies. Although I have been baking my own bread for months now, they are still missing out on another of their favorites - flatbread/tortillas. All the tortillas and flatbreads I can find in the store have soy in them - sometimes egg - and we can't do those.

I finally grabbed a recipe off of my favorite recipe site (www.allrecipes.com) and gave it a try.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Authentic-Mexican-Tortillas/Detail.aspx

Attached I would like to share with you the photos I took of the process.

Notes: I used butter instead of shortening - shortening is just so disgusting, really. Next time I will cut back on the butter even more.

Also, this recipes lends itself well to a cinnamon/sugar twist or an apple/cinnamon twist! YUM!

I can't wait to add some more recipes to my bread arsenal!

- Enjoy! Jenny

Update and GARDEN TIME!!!

A quick update on working. I have not lost my inspiration, but, the newspaper I was working for has yet to fill my position and well, the paper was looking really THIN. I offered that I would freelance for them for a while. It is much better because I can pick and choose as I wish and I could even go away on vacation in the summer and not think twice about it. I won't have deadlines hanging over my head, etc.
So, what does this say about staying at home? I think it is temporary and it also has not changed the things that really matter, like me being at home at night and being able to help with homework, etc. It seems like it might work. I think my thoughts about this for now is that I don't care about any job more than I care about being at home and really never want to! So - that has not changed. Also, I have been facing some difficult health challenges since I quit my job. I feel optimistic and feel that God definitely has a plan - but I feel working a little will help me take my mind off if it.
Well, even Caroline Ingalls worked in the restuarant eventually right? :)
GARDEN GARDEN GARDEN
We had 2 days in the 60's last week and all of a sudden I got my garden-on!
I went outside while the boys played and enjoyed the smell of fresh earth as if it was waking up from a long nap. I ripped out all of the dead sunflower stalks and Jerusalem artichoke stalks and raked, and straightened and lifted and staked. I think it's very spiritual -- getting a garden started, I mean.
We all start our spiritual lives hoping for the best - trouble always comes and it's then we need most to depend on God. In a garden, you plant those weak little seedlings and hope for the best - you surround them with cups, cover them in cold, water and feed them.  But the late frost and the hot winds of August come - and you wonder if anything will make it at all.  But, lo and behold, there comes a day when you see the beautiful yellow pumpkin flower beginning to grow a fruit, or the tomato plant with little green orbs, or the potato plants sprouting above the earth. Oh so satisfying!
WIth hard work, prayer and patience, you will bear fruit.  With your marriage, your children, your dreams.  I pray both your own life and your gardening life will be FRUITFUL! I will be posting alot about the spiritual parallels between our walk with God and our gardens.
I have posted a photo of the garden plot in early March before it was completely thawed and one after I cleaned it up...more to come and God bless!

Nature can be so healing

I wanted to share some photos I took while on a prayer walk today. When life is pressing down on your, there really is no better place to go than outside. After this snow filled winter, many people have remarked that they have a new respect for the term "cabin fever." The need to get outdoors, hear the birds and look up at the sky can prove to be so healing and perspective giving. It reminds me where we stand in the universe and that no matter that is going on in your life, life is moving forward.
Please, go outside today!

The Future of Food

There was a time when I was blissfully ignorant about the food I was eating.  I ate whichever pre packaged cookies and crackers out of any box I wanted, picked up non seasonal produce, not organic, and didn't care where food came from as long as it "looked good."

No more.

Since my boys were diagnosed with food allergies, my pursuit of the origins of the food we eat has grown tremendously.  I have read books, watched documentaries, done research on line, all with a grain of salt mind you, and have decided that the farming industry and food industries in general are in serious trouble and they are causing US to be in serious trouble as well.

Sad to say, but many of the government's leaders in the food industry (FDA, EPA) have also been high ranking leaders in the largest chemical/seed/pesticide company in the world (?) Monsanto.  That seems fishy, doesn't it?

Anyway, most of the corn available in the US is genetically modified. It has been modified in some way from it's natural form to be more 'durable.'  According to reasearch, it may even mean that they corn has pesticide 'grown into' it from a cellular level!  Scary!  How about a nice ear of pesticide-corn kids?    Corn syrup is in a huge list of grocery store items...breads, cookies, crackers, juices, ketchup, vitamins, and the list goes on.

Don't you ever wonder why kids have developed allergies the way they have?  I have come to the firm conclusion that it is because we have tampered with food to the point where our bodies do not know how to process it anymore.

My son, we thought, was allergic to milk when he was born.  Being a difficult nurser, we turned to soy formula. I wonder to this day if that is, in part, the cause of his food allergies.  ?

Here are some more websites to look at in order to become more educated about this issue.
Friends, be in ignorant bliss no more...

http://www.thefutureoffood.com/
http://www.nongmoproject.org/
http://www.truefoodnow.org/
http://www.nourishingourchildren.org/