Yeah, i mostly use soy sour cream, tho i'm trying to get one kid off soy, so i might use canned coconut milk with a little lemon juice as a sour cream sub sometimes. In summer i like to make sour cream coffee cake, too, with berries in it . . . mmm. I only do these things on weekends, or birthdays, or holidays. And rarely more than twice a month. gluten free baking is so expensive.

Remove leaves from stems. Slice the stems like celery and saute with 2 pieces of bacon and 3 cloves minced garlic and a few scallions. When that stuff is well cooked, add in the chard leaves. Stir occasionally until done, about 5 minutes. Season with lemon juice and salt

Ok, to be fair, I have ended up converting a lot of recipes . . . i have weird allergies. So, my standard flour mix for quick breads and cakes is equal parts corn flour, bean flour, potato starch, arrowroot starch, coconut flour and quinoa flakes. But for most muffins, I will use 1/4 cup less flour than required and use a 'multigrain' mix for the last quarter cup - buckwheat groats, rice bran, hemp protein powder. And for less moist muffins (ones that dont have banana or apple or squash), i'll just reduce the flour by 1/4 cup. And add maybe 3/4 tsp of gum. So, some of our faves: sour cream chocolate chip pumpkin bacon - i added another egg and some water, because the batter seemed dry I cant find the rest . . . so . . . SQUASH BREAD: dense but VERY popular in my house 1 3/4 C. flour 1 tsp guar; 3/4 C. light brown sugar, packed 2 t. baking powder ¼ tsp soda 1/2 tsp. salt 1+ tsp. ground ginger 1+ tsp nutmeg 3 tsp cinnamon 1/4 C. milk (or buttermilk) 1 C. packed cooked butternut squash 2 large eggs ¼ c oil Pre-heat oven to 350° F. Grease a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. Fit a food processor bowl with the metal blade attachment. Place the flour, sugar, and other dry ingredients in the bowl. Pulse a few times to combine. Add the milk, eggs, oil and the squash. Pulse just until a smooth, thick batter is formed. (i add some molasses and butter if the squash wasnt already buttered leftovers) Spread the batter in the prepared pan and cover with topping, bake for 40 - 45 minutes at 350° F (top with1/3 cup finely chopped walnuts, 2 tablespoons sugar) ZUCHINI BREAD zest of 2 lemons 3 eggs (or part subs) 1/2 c vegetable oil 1/2 c yoghurt (I used orange flavor) 1/2 c brown sugar 1/2 c white sugar 2 tsps vanilla 3-4 c grated summer squash 1 c mini chocochips (optional) 3 c flour (add 2 tsp guar if gf) 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda 1 tsp cinnamon Preheat oven to 350 and spray 2 loaf pans (3x5 or 4x8) with non-stick spray Grate squash in food processor if you have one, to save time. Grate the zest (lightly) in to a large bowl. Add and beat by hand eggs, oil and yoghurt. Mix in the sugars and vanilla. Mix in the squash and optional chips. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, powder, soda and cinnamon Add dry ingredients to wet and stir until just blended (do not overmix) Put half in each prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in to center comes out clean (no batter stuck to it). Cool at least 5 minutes before removing from pan. Miniature Cranberry Muffins Ingredients: 2 c flour (1 tsp gum) ¾ c sugar 2 tsp BP ½ c butter (subs?) 2/3 c buttermilk (subs) 2 eggs 1 tsp vanilla 1 ½ c cranberries ¼ c oil topping: ¼ c sugar 3 TB flour 1 TB butter 1 tsp cinnamon Place cranberries and butter in food processor, pulse a few times. Add remaining ingredients, pulse 5 times or until just mixed. Fill greased mini-muffin tins 2/3 full. Sprinkle on topping. Bakes at 375 for 15 minutes. Makes 48 minis.

I'm gluten free, so I'm not going to bother posting my recipes. I cook them as muffins most of the time now, because gluten free bread can fall so easily. My main recent muffin has been a squash/pumpkin muffin - with pumpkin pie spice and nuts on top! I made banana the other day and my kid flipped! He just asked for bacon muffins, and indeed, I have a recipe for pumpkin bacon muffins. I also used to do zucchini, apple. My teen's fave is chocolate-chip-cherry.

My father explained it as people who believed Jesus was the messiah but want to celebrate him in a jewish way

I grew up Jewish and my father was the most religious of our family. At some point he became a messianic jew. He brought me to a service once (and it kinda freaked me out). I'm pretty sure there were people in the congregation who came from both directions, Jews and Christians who felt this was the right spiritual path for them. So to me, it means . . someone who attends a Messianic Jewish congregation or self-identifies that way. Why does it matter which way they got there? I mean, in most churches, do they distinguish between people who were born in to the church or who converted in?

When I was at Penn State, you had to have a major for paperwork purposes. If you were exploring options, they had undecided (i think it was called something else) as your major while you took classes and figured it out. I'm not sure why its so funny?

I plan my weeks starting wed or thurs so I can avoid the saturday rush at whole foods - but I think I already have the following week planned. I'm still kinda amazed by all you who plan breakfast and dinner. Breakfast here is cereal with nuts or frozen bagel w pb. Lunch is leftover or sandwiches. R - 3 teacup chicken on rice, veggie F - sub sandwiches St - pot roast, mashed potatoes Sn - hot dogs, biscuits, cold veggies M - pork chops, baked beans, rice T - tacos W - roast chicken, potatoes, vegg

I love it too! i watched it on netflix

I cant find the exact one, but I got mine on cafepress

What I really miss, being vegan now, for allergy reasons, is my cheese soups. I used to make a broccoli cheese soup (which i kinda made up - probably saute onions in butter, add chicken broth, chopped broccoli, thyme, black pepper, cook until broccoli is done, add milk or cream, heat, add corn starch/milk to thicken, then melt in a stick of good cheddar). I also used to make this cheese/vegetable chowder, which is probably what I based the broccoli soup on. Hubby hates creamy soups, so now the creamiest soups I make are just potato soups that cook until the potatoes fall apart.

Oh, i used to make from-scratch soysauge - it was yummy

Ok, but cooking vegetarian dinners wont help if they go load on up on donuts afterwards. Are you guys already vegetarians? Because ravioli is starch and cheese (which is fat). I mean, healthy vegetarian is, to me, stir fry on brown rice with tofu, or chili and corn bread with lot of veggies in the chili (peppers, tomatoes, corn, carrots). Maybe soups? But if they are eating lots of junk, the best thing to do is make meals they find satisfying so they dont snack so much. So if meat makes them more satisfied, give them lower fat meat options. And think of cheese as a condiment - its mostly fat, and a little protein. We arent vegetarian, and its been a long time since i was. But i made cuban black beans and rice yesterday, adding 2 sausages, and it was fantastic!

I would look in to slow cooker meals and just eat sandwiches for lunch - there should be some all-natural cold cuts somewhere in the store, no? PB and jelly? Smoothies . . . and snacks can be nuts, dried fruit, chips, celery and carrot sticks

LOE has good customer service, you could call or email and they could probably help you choose where to start. I started when my son was 9 and they only had essentials, but it definitely helped his reading. I cant remember the word, but we were reading a book together and i corrected him on a 'tion' . . like connection or reaction or something . . .and he looked at me and said "Since when does t say 'sh'?" . . . I said "we'll get there soon!" It really makes more sense once you've learned the deeper 'phonics' and rules.

My first 2 kids would bring me books to read to them, constantly, by the time they were 2. My third kid couldnt much sit through books until he was 7. He loves being read to now. I dont worry much.

We also use an ipod touch. He sets timers for various things he needs to do, and we use Cozi for checklists.

Sorry if this is inappropriate, but I just made cuban black beans for the first time - i followed this recipe almost exactly, except I used a little red wine i had in the fridge and a little sherry, and I added 2 chorizo . . . it was SOOO yummy! Teen ate a bowl but wont eat the leftovers. Dh had two servings, even tho he actually had salmon which he'd requested lol

I used frontline for at least a decade, and it finally stopped working for me. I switched to comfortis 2 months ago and it work - fast. But omg forcing those pills down cats throats is torture . . . the dog ate it covered in pb.

kids. They can be annoying. Work on accepting it without anger and responding in a useful way. Sometimes I remind them, sometimes I stay with them (biting my tongue), sometimes I will just insist that I know they know how. Kinda depends on the task, the kid, the age, the day.

I was an engineering major in college. I never took earth science past elementary school. I took 2 years of chemistry in high school.

The easiest transition would be something like Time4Learning, which covers all subjects (lightly) on line. Its a monthly subscription so its easy to stop. If you want to put them back in to school soon, you would want to follow the general idea of what they are doing - but if you are homeschooling to give them a better education, following a bad school's program doesnt make sense! I would focus on skills (math, reading and writing) and do content areas in fun ways - history can be liberty's kids, field trips, etc. Or an Usborne World Histry encyclopedia. Science could be a book of experiments - or another usborne book - or library books, if you have any. You can just find materials to study whatever your kids are interested in - knights and castles and the middle ages? Animals? (our first year, my son and i made a book about the various animals our local zoo has, using library books, and then brought the book with us to the zoo!) How well do your kids read? write/spell? I'm currently in love with Logic of English, which is an intensive phonics based reading/spelling program - i only used essentials for my then-9-yo, but i've heard great things about foundations. Often, homeschool stores are heavy in christian curriculum, so if thats not what you want, you might need to look a bit more.

Hubby is 6 months older than I am. It was pretty funny to us that we are so close - both of us had seriously dated someone 17 years older than ourselves before getting together (which explains why dh thought he'd never have kids - before me, his serious relationships were with older women)

I never even bought the HIG and used singapore for . . . .a year, then we went free-form without much curriculum

I HAVE experienced what you are talking about, but i am not a natural speller and I am LOVING the rules of LOE. However, I didnt try it with my son until we'd tried Spelling Power and failed with it. I am not sure LOE is necessary for natural spellers?