Juliebove

I made gluten-free coffee cake for tomorrow and I will be making a sausage casserole to go with.  Everyone is on their own for lunch.  Probably sandwiches.  For dinner, lemon chicken, plain white rice and green beans.  Candy and cookies leftover from Christmas Eve if they want dessert.

I actually keep three pans on top of my stove.  One is my Rachel Ray pasta pot.  One is a Circulon skillet that is huge.  Both are so large they are difficult to get into the cupboard.  I can put them in but it's like a puzzle to do it.  Everything has to go in just so.  I use one or the other or both on pretty much a daily basis.  The other is an old Revereware pan that I use for making popcorn.  I use it several times a week so I just leave it out.

People do that to us all the time.  Often they just aren't thinking.  Or they don't realize that what they are giving you is something you can't have.  We just got home baked cookies.  We just put them aside for my husband.  If you don't have a friend or family member to pass them on to, then just donate to the food bank...assuming they are not home baked.  If so I guess you'll just have to throw them out.

Years ago I had a neighbor who always gave me these "mints" that she made.  To me they were like eating lumps of toothpaste.  They were just horrible!  I couldn't pass them on because they were so horrible.  I couldn't throw them out because we shared the same garbage can.  I didn't have a garbage disposal.  I would just flush them down the toilet, one every day.  By the time they were all flushed, I'd get a new batch.

We have to have a super quick to fix meal tomorrow so I'm heating up a turkey breast that is already cooked, making instant mashed potatoes with water and Nucoa only (no milk) and I'll probably pop open a can of green beans.

I have a question. I have some leftover pot roast, a box of opened beef stock I don't think I'll use within a week, and some leftover tinkyada noodles. Can I made a soup out of this stuff? Or should I freeze it?

Leftover pot roast makes the best soup!  I would also add some veggies such as onions carrots and celery at a minimum.  Maybe also green beans, corn and peas.  Heat it through and then add the noodles since they are already cooked.

I had been making tuna casserole that daughter liked but I hated.  Since we can't have dairy, I couldn't use cream of mushroom soup.  I know Campbell's isn't gluten-free but I read that some other brand is.  Anyway...  I was sort of making my own using a combination of fresh and dried mushrooms, onions, rice milk and olive oil.  I just didn't like the taste.

I just found Imagine brand vegetarian mushroom gravy.  It comes in a box.  I decided to use it for the casserole.  

I used a lot of Costco brand Albacore tuna.  Added in a small amount of quinoa macaroni that had been cooked to al dente.  Then the gravy, some Just Onions (freeze dried onions), parsley, a little salt and a lot of freshly ground black pepper.  Heated it through in a covered casserole.

I could not tell that it was not made with cream of mushroom soup except that it didn't have those icky grey bits of rubbery mushroom that the soup has.  It was very good and we all liked it.  Must get some more of that gravy!

We brought some of our own food but the desserts that I made were not good.  Daughter had some boxed chocolate chip cookies.  She ate some and left some there for tomorrow when we are celebrating my SIL's birthday.

I guess I'm the only one who doesn't mind ener-g bread. I buy the "light tapioca" and now they have a new  "corn loaf".  It's not corn bread but a light bread.  When you look at the calorie counts on most gluten-free breads, it's very difficult to fit into a Weight Watchers plan.  The light tapioca is about 90 cal (I think) and on WW it counts as 1 point.  The new corn loaf is 45 calories and 2 slices are 1 point.  They are both fine toasted.

Daughter loves the corn loaf toasted and with butter, faux butter and maybe cinnamon and sugar.  She loves the Rice Starch bread for sandwiches and also for toast.  She will eat the tapioca if that's all we can get.  It is readily available at most stores here.

Last year I made apple crisp.  This year I will make pumpkin bread and cranberry muffins.

I plan to make the cheesy hash browns on Halloween.  I know daughter would love the fried rice but she's allergic to peas and I'm allergic to eggs so that's a no go.  I wish they made some other flavors that were gluten free.

Forgive me for this, but she sounds really spoiled..  It shouldn't matter what her "definition" of a present is.. The rolling dance bag sounds fantastic, and she does want one, and it IS thoughtful, and if she can't see that then she might need to learn a lesson.  And even if she doesn't believe in Santa this year you could still do the naughty card and get her nothing..maybe that will show that she can't "expect" presents under the tree or demand certain criteria.

Also, even if you aren't religious or don't have tons of family around, Christmas still isn't 100% about the gifts.  Maybe you guys could build some decorations together, watch movies together, drink some hot cocoa or whatever..it sounds like you two need some bonding.

Bonding is certainly not something we need.  Most of the time it is just the two of us here and she is like my shadow.  I can not go anywhere without her.

She is spoiled.  She's an only child.  I don't see anything wrong with being spoiled.  I was spoiled and I still am.

As for as expecting presents under the tree, I think that's pretty much a given.

Have you asked her?  I would start there.  Maybe she would like to "collect" gifts for less fortunate kids.  I have seen children do birthday parties where all the toys the get, they give to charity.  This age is difficult (mine are 16, 18, 19, and 22, so they have all kinds of "wants" now! )

Currently she can't think of anything she wants.  I suggested a rolling bag to take to the dance conventions later in the year.  Although she wants one, she doesn't want it as a gift.  

When I was a kid, we got tons of gifts.  My parents still give us tons of gifts.  A lot of them tend to be useful things or things we would need.  Like when we were kids we'd get socks, underwear, nightclothes, etc.  Apparently these days those things do not go over well with the kids.  My nephew who is soon to be 22 used to refer to those things as un-presents.

My daughter believes that a present must have a lot of thought put into it.  And I do try to do that.  She also seems not to want to get useful things as presents.

We do give to assorted charities.  She always buys toys for giving trees and the like.  We give to pet places.  And we give to the food bank.

One thing we are working on right now is the giant surprise ball.  I started doing this years ago, mainly out of boredom and as a way to get rid of a lot of little things I'd accrued that I didn't want or need.  Like the prizes you get at various home parties.  I also put candy in that ball.

Each year the ball gets a little more elaborate.  I try to put at least a couple of things in there specifically that each person could use or might like.  We sit at my parent's dining room table and pass the ball around.  We unwrap the crepe paper and when we get a prize, we pass the ball to the next person.  We keep going until all the prizes are gone.  The big prize goes in the center.  We also decided that we can swap for other people's prizes.  So that way the individual servings of Thousand Island salad dressing can go to my SIL.

I am hoping that between now and Christmas, she will find something that she wants.

You really do have to be careful of the cross contamination.  Sometimes my daughter has insisted on eating something that says "May contain..."  In her case it is more than just wheat.  Hers are allergies.  Almost always when she eats stuff like that she gets sick.  We will no longer buy those things, nor will be buy if it says made on shared equipment.

It's easy to avoid the obvious.  It's not so easy to avoid that which we can not see.  Daughter gets a rash when she comes in contact with wheat.  Before I knew any better, I was using a body wash or shampoo or something with wheat in it.  Can't remember.  That small residue left in the tub, even though I thought I was rinsing it well was enough to make her break out.

OTOH, it is easy for us to blame our allergies when we do get sick.  We don't have celiac.  Just allergies.  But I can see how someone with celiac would naturally assume that they were glutened when they get sick.  I realize this isn't always the case.  One just tends to look for the most obvious cause.

I read in another thread that someone made gluten-free cornbread and then cut into bite-sized cubes and baked, then made traditional cornbread stuffing.

I think you could also use a packaged gluten-free bread and make your own breadcrumbs/cubes.

Check locally, too.  There's a gluten-free bakery near me that is offering gluten-free breadcrumbs for sale during the holidays.

I did that with some purchased cornbread.  I can't remember the exact name of the company.  Allergy Foods or Allergen Foods or something like that.  They used to sell it by the sheet.  They no longer do but they do sell the mix.  It requires no egg or dairy.  When the sheet arrived, I didn't have time to deal with it and just stuck it aside.  When we got home, it had fallen and it broke.  I trimmed up the biggest piece and was able to cut it into squares.  We ate it with beans or chili or something.  Can't remember.  

The rest of it, I sort of just crumbled it up and made a stuffing using a recipe I got online.  Daughter loved it.

Just because she is in special ed doesn't mean that she is doomed as far as college goes. Check into community colleges when the time comes, many have programs that may be a good fit for her. Encourage her, help her with homework or see if there are tutoring programs. If you have a local college many times college kids will be willing to tutor and sometimes high school kids will also to get that volunteer credit. Just because she is in special ed now doesn't mean she will always be there. I worked in a special ed room for a while and we had kids in there that would go into mainstream classes for some coursework and be in our room for other stuff. Stay postive about her future so that she can be also.

She has a tutor.

I can't help her with her homework for two reasons.  When I do, she gets it wrong because I got it wrong.  And we don't work well together.