Wednesday, September 30, 2009

New School Year

We have started the 2009-2010 school year!  This is my 11th year homeschooling the kids.  It has really flown by.  I love it.  It is hard, tiring, trying at times, rewarding, fun, and sometimes tedious and boring!  I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Now that Bubba is in 2nd grade and a full blown school kid I am finding that teaching 4 different grades everyday is kind of time consuming!  This year I have a 10th, 7th, 5th and 2nd grader. 

TTO (the tall one), Nollie, Pookie and Bubba

To add all sorts of fun to our school day we adopted a kitten from a friend.  She is great incentive to finish work quickly.  Everyone wants to hold Kitty Diddle.  She is a sweet little thing. 
Isn't she pretty!

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Polenta with Turkey Sausage and Greens


This dish came out very tasty. Even the kids liked it. I was worried that the green stuff and the texture would be met with curled noses and tears. This recipe came from a Weight Watcher's cookbook that I found at a yard sale for a quarter! It is called Everybody Loves Chicken. It is a great cookbook and way worth the quarter.

Polenta with Turkey Sausage and Greens
Serves 6
1 cup of coarse ground cornmeal
4 cups of water
1/2 tsp salt

6 spicy Italian turkey sausage (I used sweet Italian because of the kids)
14oz can of mustard greens (just greens and water!)

Bring water to a boil, slowly whisk in cornmeal. Keep whisking and simmering until it is as thick as you like and smooth. It will thicken more as it sets.

Squeeze sausage out of casing into a skillet sprayed with cooking spray. Crumble and brown sausage until cooked through. Add can of mustard greens (Liquid and all! The liquid has lots of vitamins.)stir over low heat until greens are cooked through.

If counting Weight Watcher points measure out 1/2 cup of polenta into a bowl. Top with approximately 1/6 of the sausage and greens mixture. Sprinkle with 1/2 TB of parmesan cheese. 6pts.

Tastes good the next day for lunch too! Just heat it all in the microwave and chow down.

Cornmeal and canned greens are great food storage items. I buy popcorn (not microwave popcorn, the real deal!) in 50lb bags at Sam's. I grind that in my grain mill for cornmeal. Grind as needed to retain vitamins and to keep it as fresh as possible. If you grind more than you will use then freeze the rest.

This looked very pretty in the bowl. Kind of Italian Country comfort food. Unfortunetly I was too hungry to go find my camera! Instead I am posting a picture of the canned greens I buy. They are cheap and simple. No additives.

This meal is a great budget stretcher too.
Greens .59
Sausage reduced for quick sale - $2.00 (at my grocery store they ALWAYS have quick sale turkey sausage)
Cornmeal:  Pennies for 1 cup of cornmeal.

Under $3 for the entire meal or aproximately .50 per serving.
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