Month: May 2021

Posted in menu plan monday, Menu planning

Mom, What’s for dinner? – Meal Plan Week of May 31st, 2021

Posted on by traci

I planned out the meal for Memorial Day. Then Oldest needed to make sure it was an American meal. I don’t know what an unAmerican meal would look like according to him.

Here is our menu for the week. As you can see most of it is easy meals to put together. I think Friday’s is going to be the hardest meal because I’ve got to make the crust. I have a pizza crust kit, so that shouldn’t be too hard.

Monday – Memorial Day

Burgers (Impossible burger for me), Corn on the Cob, Chips, Baked Beans, Cucumbers

Tuesday

Rice and Beans, Roasted Cauliflower & Broccoli

Wednesday

Tacos, Roasted veggies

Thursday

Shrimp scampi on gluten free pasta, chicken from freezer for the family

Friday

Pizza and cheese bread

Breakfasts for this week keep changing. I ordered Kodiak’s gluten free protein pancake mix which came yesterday. So that is going to be some of my breakfasts. Another breakfast idea is to have smoothies with chia seeds and hemp hearts, if I can find them. They were not at Aldi’s when I checked the other day.

Lunches are often difficult for me. I’ve been on a grilled cheese kick lately since I have some gluten free sour dough bread. I’ll eat the grilled cheese with either a salad or a veggie. Another lunch idea is a snack plate of cheese, olives, nuts, maybe a hard boiled egg, and crackers. I may add some tuna to it. I eat a mostly vegetarian diet with the exception of seafood.

If you would like some other breakfast ideas, please click on this link. Here are some lunch ideas. And dinner ideas

Happy eating,
Traci

Posted in Recipes

Homemade GF brownies

Posted on by traci

Homemade Brownies

  • Servings: 16
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Ingredients

-2/3 semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips (dairy free for Paleo brownies)

-5 Tbsp. coconut oil

-2/3 c. coconut sugar

-2 eggs

-1 tsp. vanilla extract

-2/3 blanched almond flour

-2 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder or cacao powder1

-1 tsp. baking soda

-1/4 tsp. salt/

-Mix ins:  2/3 c. chocolate chips or chopped nuts


Directions

  1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line an 8 x 8 baking pan with parchment paper or spray with non stick spray.
  2. In a small saucepan, melt chocolate and coconut oil over LOW heat until it’s smooth and glossy.
  3. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
  4. In a small bowl, whisk together the coconut sugar and eggs.  (I used my Kitchen Aid)  Set aside.
  5. In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.  (Almond flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
  6. Whisk together the sugar-egg mixture and the melted chocolate until smooth.  Stir in vanilla.  Mix.
  7. Fold in the dry ingredients. until mixed.
  8. Fold in the mix-ins.
  9. Pour into the prepared baking dish.
  10. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.  (Mine took almost 30 minutes.)  Make sure the center is cooked.
  11. Remove from oven and allow to cool before cutting.
  12. Enjoy!

Posted in Animal, local sights, photograph, photographs, Photography, Pictures

Meeting Ducks for the First Time

Posted on by traci

Gaston, our puppy, and I had gone to drop off Oldest at school yesterday morning. When we dropped off Youngest an hour prior, it had been super foggy. So foggy that Oldest, who was in the car, told me that it reminded him of a horror movie. He was expecting some tentacles to drop out of the sky.

Since the drive to Oldest’s school is country roads, we opted to wait a little bit before driving him to school. Once we got to his school, the sky had changed from super foggy to a glorious blue sky.

Gaston had seen a duck once before from a distance. However, this was the first time he saw one up close. He kept trying to get to the ducks.

He also enjoyed meeting a few other dogs.

Dobby, our previous dog, was adventurous. Fortunately Gaston is the same way. He is going to love exploring places around our area this summer.

Have a blessed day,
Traci

Posted in Random, Randomness

Our Life was Turned Upside Down

Posted on by traci

While I was at the dietician’s office on Monday, Oldest called me. He had been in an accident. Even though his car had been hit, he was okay just shaken up.

He was getting ready to turn when a truck going straight through the light sped up. The driver of the truck clipped Oldest before hitting a pole. Since Nick had gone in the intersection, he was cited for failure to yield. As a result of the accident, the front driver’s side was demolished.

We are waiting on word from the juvenile court for when he is supposed to go to court. His license is probably suspended. However that doesn’t matter; because he doesn’t want to drive right now.

Now Hubby and I are driving him around. Luckily he is now on summer vacation, so I don’t have to drive the 20 minute commute back and forth to his school. However, he is working, so I have to drop him off and then pick him up. His job is only a 5 minute drive from our house which helps. The problem is he closes which means he is done at the earliest at 10:45 and at the latest 11:30. For a person who shuts down beginning at 9 pm, that is tough for me.

I’m leaving in a few weeks for my annual EPIC trip with my best friend/ chosen sister. He needs to get those rides lined up because I won’t be around to pick him up.

I drove him to school 2 times this week and then home 1 time. The only good thing about driving him was our puppy went with us. After dropping him off, we went for a walk in the town where his school is located. Gaston, our puppy, loved meeting ducks for the first time. That was fun to see him try to get at the ducks as they were swimming around. He didn’t get far because of the leash.

So how’s your summer going?

Have a blessed day,
Traci

Posted in menu plan monday, Menu planning, Recipes

Menu plan: May 24, 2021

Posted on by traci

Yesterday I went to see my dietician. We came up with a b rough plan for me eating. I’m dealing with disordered eating, trying to lose weight, and change of diet in the past month. I have moved back to eating a gluten free mostly vegetarian diet. My exception is seafood.

After meeting with her, I went home and wrote out a meal plan with items needed at the grocery store. Crossed out items are items I already have at home. Highlighted items were bought.

Well, the Kodiak cakes were a bust. I will change that to smoothies.

Posted in Random, Randomness

Be Present (How to Build Rapport Part 1)

Posted on by traci

I just ended my 21st year of teaching special education. One of my skill sets is the ability to build rapport with my students. Over the years I have realized that rapport cannot be forced or bought. Some students will be receptive towards creating a bond with their teacher while others are more reserved. I have many students who I have had rapport with while others I have taught and then they moved on without us truly developing any sort of rapport. Instead of seeing me as an ally who has their back, they saw me as a hindrance.

I’m going to begin a series where I’m going to talk about how to build rapport with students. I don’t know how many parts will be to this series because I keep coming up with more ways.

Be Present

Honestly I think this is one of the best ways to build rapport with students. Sometimes you need to put the computers, manipulatives, assignments, and even phones down and just show the students that you really care. If you are worrying about the next thing, the students won’t have your full attention. In this fast paced world of ours, we often don’t get the human connections that we crave. Being present and in moment with the students allows them to know you really care about them, their dreams, their worries, and/or their preferences. You learn who they are as a person and how they learn.

During virtual teaching, it was so hard to be present with students. Many times they were just black boxes with names on the screen. You could call their name a billion times with no response. Some of my best moments with students were the times we finished the work for the day and just talked to each other. I learned about their dog and their favorite dog who had died. During the year, I watched them blossom over the year. The young man went from wanting to get off the computer to play Fortnite to wanting to draw.

Join me next time for another strategy to help you develop rapport with students.

Stay kind!

Have a magical day,
Traci