Fall is whispering

I was noticing the activity of the birds yesterday. The pretty song birds have left the area now, and what remains is the tough year round birds, who seem to be in a flurry of activity lately. The squirrels are more active and we are starting to see a lot more yellowjackets swarming around as the flowers die. Fall is in the air with these signs, and it made me realize that I am going to have to start looking for some fall clothes for the boy. Most of his cool weather wardrobe is falling off of him now, so it's a must do thing. Most of my cool weather gear is pretty stained and beat up, but I am a little nervous about purchasing many new items at the moment with following this new plan.I have complete confidence that is is and will continue to work, and I don't want to spend a lot of money on clothes just to have them be too big in a couple of weeks time. Perhaps the Goodwill would be the best option for now. I am going to have to move soon on this.

Breakfast was Banana Bread oatmeal, to make use of the one lonely and very over ripe banana in the house. Yes, bananas do freeze, but our freezer is a bit jumbled at the moment and I was afraid I would lose he banana in there. For two people take 1 banana and mash it, then add 1 cup rolled oats, 2 2/3 cu water, a tablespoon brown sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon and a sprinkle of nutmeg. Cook as normal, and then in the bowls put 1 tsp olive oil and 1 T almond butter. ( putting it in first helps it to melt better) .Divide the oatmeal between the two bowls and top with 1 T crushed walnuts, 1 T coconut flakes, 1 T raw sunflower seeds( a little more protein) 1 T% chocolate yogert covered rasind( still trying to use them up) and 2 T ground flax meal. I had coffee , water and supplements with this.

Lunch was a kid pleaser- open faced sloppy joes with celery, carrots and cucmbers and a carton of pro-biotic yogert. I am begining to think sloppy joes may be a miracle food. I have never known an occasion when they were served and there was not enough to go around. Weird ! Thes were made with ground turkey, a half of an onion and orange pepper diced. Brown the meat, add the veggies, cover and cook. Then toss in some katsup and BBQ sauce till it looks moist enough,cover and let simmer about 5 minutes. I used a pound of turkey, divided it int 4 portions and froze 2 for later. The remaining two were divided over 4 halves of Arnold's thins. Yes, a real life fraction exercise there ! My son, like most kids, loves these. I think they are just okay- perhaps because as a kid this was about the only thing served at every birthday party !

Our afterschool snack. Throat is still irritated, but getting better. Now it is only icky when I get a coughing fit.

A crockpot chicken dish was planned , but plans were changed and there was no need for crock pot fare. I really do not like chicken in the crock pot, as it gets dried out, so I opted to make grilled terriaki chicken. In a zip lock bag combine 2 heaping tablespoons brown sugar with 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1 tsp garlic powder and 1/2 tsp ginger and 1 T olive oil. Squish it together and then add 3 chicken breasts. roll the meat around in the bag to coat and then place the bag in a 9x13 pan and refrigerate for at least an hour ( or freeze at this point if using fresh raw chicken). At dinner time I grilled it on the George Forman grill and served it with whole wheat couscous and steamed broccoli seasoned with garlic powder. We are big garlic fans here. Wonder if that is the reason no one here is into Twilight ??


Evening consisted of printing next weeks materials, Ghost Hunters and his new favorite evening snack. It was a good day.