Microwave Meatloaf

Okay, so I know you read the title and are thinking "you can't make good meatloaf in the microwave!" Aaaah but you can and here it is.

1 lb ground chuck or ground round
1 onion finely diced
1 tsp Paul Prudhomme's Poultry Seasoning
pinch salt
pinch of black pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp minced fresh parsley (or dried if need be, but use 1/2 tsp if dried)
1/8 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 c Italian bread crumbs or crushed saltine crackers
1/2 cup spaghetti sauce (I use Meir Glen Garden Vegetable)
1 egg

Mix all the ingredients together well in a microwave safe - oven safe pyrex dish. Shape mixture into a ring, forming around the outside edge of the bowl. Microwave 7 minutes. Remove and squirt ketchup over the top. Microwave another 7-8 minutes. To finish you can place in the oven or under a low broiler for a crunchier top. When finished cooking, the fat from the beef will pool in the center hole of the ring and you can use a turkey baster to remove it or simply mop it up with paper towels.

What I love is that this is so fast and the shape allows you to remove the fat, which otherwise would absorb back into your meatloaf and make it all greasy. bleck!

So yummy with mashed potatoes and green beans or your veggie of choice. This also makes great meatloaf sandwiches the next day cold and freezes really well. You can make this gluten free by simply using Gluten Free Crackers for your bread crumbs. Doubles or triples really well too. But you will have to increase your cooking time if you do.

New Recipe Page

So cooking is once again on my mind, now that we are on our summer break. And because of that I thought I would add a recipe page on this blog and give everyone a heads up that it was there.
I've added a new recipe page here, since more people seem to read this blog than my other one. Just click on the side bar where it says Recipes to view the newest page. There are some yummy recipes on it and even more at my other blog. I intend on adding more that are not related to food allergies here at this blog to keep down the confusion.

Happy Cooking!

CTG Week 7

Squirt wrote a summary sheet about crystal growing and her observations. We learned about hieroglyphs, papyrus making, the 2nd Commandment, and Abraham- Sarah- and Isaac. Squirt drew her own cartouche using info from pg 41 of the Ancient Egypt book. She wrote a summary about what she learned about Egyptian reading and writing. And of course the 3 Rs are always completed each day.

I have not been really crazy about the Genesis for Kids science book. We have been skipping that for now. I have a science book I will be using down the road instead of the Genesis for Kids.

Squirt listened to Summer from Vivaldi's Four Seasons and drew two pictures.

We put Abraham, Sarah and Isaac on our timeline.

And we prepared for VBS and the start of the rest of the month off for our summer break. Can't wait for some beach time!

CTG more from Week 6

So here's a picture of our cube made out of paper pyramids. We finally managed the project after a template was created by our friend's science genius hubby. They emailed it to us and I simply printed it out. Squirt cut it out, folded and taped, and put it together. Worked great! The math in the book to calculate the slope of the sides of the pyramid was not clear and the math was way more than I could handle. So thankful I have such smart friends!

Squirt also managed to see the pyramid crystals we grew last week using water and super washing soda. It took about a day and a half before we started to see our first crystals develop. The started growing on the sides of the glass first and then a small thin layer developed around the surface of the water attached to the string. Here is our final project after about four days of growing. There was a larger layer of crystals on the string but they broke off when we pulled the string up out of the water. They looked the most like pyramids after about 48 hours or so. But we took off for Memorial Day, so I didn't get take pictures until four days into the project. Two days of growing would have given a sufficient product to see pyramid shaped crystals.

CTG Week 6 and Genesis Bookmark

I mentioned Squirt making a Genesis bookmark a while back and then forgot to post the pic once she finished it. So here is the Genesis bookmark-

We simply copied our timeline piece for Genesis 1:1 from my TM's appendix. I copied it onto card stock and then we cut it down after Squirt colored it. I covered it with contact paper for durability.

This week Squirt has done a number of projects. Lots of summaries and vocabulary work.

She and Buddy listened to Vivaldi's Four Seasons movement Summer. They will paint or draw to it next week.

She attempted to do the project from the Pyramids book displaying the stability of a pyramid structure versus a cube. She built the pyramid with six smaller pyramids.

But then we hit a speed bump with the six pyramids that were suppose to fit together to make a cube. I guess I didn't get the angle of pyramids' sides exactly 45 degrees, so they didn't fit together without big gaps. hmmm Daddy the mathematician's turn.....

We checked on our bread project and still no change (it may take a few weeks before we see anything)

Squirt started her Ten Commandments memorization. I had some left over packing stuff that was brown paper and already nicely crumpled, so that became our stone tablets for the wall. I think the font size was a little small, but oh well. It worked and we get the point. 

I am continually amazed at my daughter's ability to memorize things, ie scripture, poems, songs etc. I wish that I had that gift many times. ILL Lesson 13 poem memorization was a piece of cake for her, as usual.

We will start our crystal growing experiment this week. All our science projects seem to be long term processes. I hope to post pictures later of what we grew. I plan on using Super Washing Soda instead of baking soda as my TM suggests, simply because I have more washing soda on hand to waste. Need my baking soda for ummmm .....baking.

So we will be taking our summer break pretty soon. Warm weather, sand, salt water, relaxing times are calling (and hopefully no oil slick).

New Bread Recipe

I added a new version of my homemade wheat bread to my recipes on my other blog. You can find it at http://quietlyrunningtherace.blogspot.com/2010/05/bread-recipe-2.html

Yummmm!

CTG Week 5

I only have a few minutes this morning, so I will try and get in the highlight from this week. We did allot of catching up, including finishing things from last week.

Squirt finished her King Menes crown

I think she did really well. The only thing I helped her with was fitting for her head. 

I picked up the CD of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons at convention last weekend. The kids listened to the Spring Movement. Squirt, naturally, danced to it while listening. I put on Smetana's The Moldau after that for them to listen to (a much better example of tone painting!)

Then the next day they painted Spring inspired paintings while listening to Vivaldi. 

Here they are in different stages.

Buddy's

(painting rain)

Finished work (the bottom was a river)

Squirt

Painting one (She was unhappy with her finished product. So I let her paint another one the next day)

2nd try-

using watercolor pencils and watercolor paints

Squirt did the paper pyramid poject and made an extra for Buddy (he destroyed it pretty quickly)

We couldn't do the pyramid sugar cube project, because I couldn't  find sugar cubes anywhere. So Squirt made a step pyramid with legos instead.

(she tucked in doll furniture, little figures, and a block for the sarcophagus)

We did the science project from week 4. I didn't have cheap bread to use. To quote Squirt when she read the science project instructions "you aren't going to use your good bread, are you?!"  (I make my own bread. You can find the recipe here . So we waited till I bought some white bread. Pictures to come when we see the finished results. It was to teach about preservation and decay related to mummification.

We added Pyramids in Egypt (2500 BC) to the timeline.

Squirt has memorized all the Old Testament books and can now spell them all correctly. 

We did all the usual English, Math, Greek root work etc.

Buddy had a better day yesterday (first time in a long time). He is still having major issues, but we take it one day at a time believing that one day the Lord will heal him. He has had a rough time with his shots recently and Spring has been hard. You can read about our experience here . Hopefully when the air clears out of so many inhalant allergens he will feel better and can control his temper more easily. I am trying to always remember to be thankful to the Lord for Him and stay patient with him no matter how he behaves. Some days it is really difficult, but I know that when I am weak that the Lord is my strength. 

Lots of of fun this week. 

Buddy started using his new preschool toys that I picked up last weekend at convention. You can look at them here. He really likes the kids puzzle.

 He has been having fun having me hold up a piece and he imitates the way the person is standing. 

We started using the number puzzle and he has enjoyed that too. 

It seems like a perfect fit for him. He is smart enough to start Kindergarten early. But I didn't feel like he was ready for the writing in it yet. So we will have fun with all the preschool stuff. I'm thankful it came with lots of ideas of how to use each item in many educational ways. I do hope to pick up some cutting things for him so he can also enjoy cutting and pasting. 

Til next time...