Magnificent Marvelous Honey Mustard Sauce

Who doesn't love honey mustard sauce?  I know we do at our house.  Who doesn't need a sauce that is versatile and can be used for a dipping sauce or a glaze for meats or vegetables.  It is just totally yummy.   It can be adjusted to your taste, but here is the basics.

I had mixed the mustards and honey together.   I have added the cayenne (to taste) and smoked paprika (you can use regular paprika but I like the smoky flavor)

All stirred together, as is it is a great dipping sauce for chicken tenders/nuggets or you can use it as a glaze for meats or for vegetables.  

This is a pork loin and potatoes that have been glazed in my magnificent marvelous honey mustard sauce.  Made a great Sunday dinner with the family.

Magnificent Marvelous Honey Mustard Sauce

• 1/2 c Brown spicy mustard
• 1/4 c yellow mustard
• 1/4 c honey
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tbsp smoked paprika

Mixed together and taste.  Adjust to your liking.  Enjoy

Meatloaf Lasagana-Pregnancy craving gone terribly right

For my friend Sheri.  Love you girl.

I know I already did a couple of post this week, but this was a matter of great importance.  My friend Sheri has just gotten past the morning sickness stage of pregnancy.  She posted on Facebook today that she was craving 2 things and couldn't  decide which one to have for dinner.  Her cravings were Meatloaf and Lasagna.  I suggested her Husband, Ray a chef, make her Italian meatloaf lasagna. But it got my brain firing.  So we are having meatloaf lasagna for dinner.  It looks and smells yummy so far. I have full recipes for everything at the bottom but you could substitute, store bought sauce, your meatloaf recipe, or your cheese mixture.  It is pretty fixable so have fun and enjoy.

First start the sauce.  To start my homemade sauce, I chop up 1 medium onion, 4 cloves of garlic, a carrot, a stalk of celery,
and 4 mushrooms in about a teaspoon of olive oil.

The carrots and celery give the sauce a little sweetness and a little robustness.  Not to mention that is some vegetables and vitamins that the kids won't even notice.

6 pints (or 6 16 oz cans) of Tomato sauce Some parsley, oregano, Italian seasoning, and red pepper flakes with the vegetables from before.  Simmer on medium low for about an hour.

I learned this sauce from an Italian when we were living in Germany.  It is yummy but the traditional sauce takes a couple of days.  I shorten the process.

As the sauce cooks down and the flavors condense and meld together your sauce may look like this.

Next you need to make your meatloaf and get it in the oven.  Use your meatloaf recipe because everybody has a different idea of meatloaf, but a drier meatloaf is a little better. But instead of adding tomato sauce or catsup to the mix add about 2/3 a cup of your sauce to give it a little more of an Italian flavor.  It just adds a little something to it.

The filling mixture is Ricotta, Parmesan, and Mozzarella cheeses with an egg, a couple of mushrooms some oregano and parsley.  And to boost the vegetable factor I dice up some spinach. 

Cut up your meatloaf into strips for easy layering.

Now to assemble the layers and bake. After that Yummy time.

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Cover the top with  the rest of your sauce.  Then sprinkle some cheese on top.  Throw it in the oven for about 45 minutes.

When it is bubbly and done pull it out of the oven and let it rest for about 5 minutes.  Then cut and serve.

Looks so good.  It would be a great date night dinner for you and your husband.  

How good does this look?

Homemade Pasta Sauce

• 6 pints or 6 16 oz cans of tomato sauce
• 1/4 c sugar
• 1/4 c your favorite wine
• 1 carrot, 
• 1 celery stalk
• 1 onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• 4 mushrooms (optional)
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 3 tbsp parsley
• 2 tbsp Italian seasoning
• 1 tsp of red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp of pepper

Dice the vegetables and saute them in the olive oil.  In a dutch oven or large sauce pan add the tomato sauce, vegetables, wine, sugar and seasonings together. Simmer on low medium heat for at least an hour stirring every few minutes.

Cheese mixture for Lasagna

• 16 oz Ricotta cheese
• 3/4 c Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 c Mozzarella cheese
• 1 Egg
• 1 cup shredded Spinach
• 4 mushrooms diced
• 1 tbsp parsley
• 1 tsp oregano

Mix them all together and layer into what ever Lasagna your wish.

Media Likes Turning Diabetes into a Joke

It is no secret that the media likes to make jokes about diabetes and being fat.  There is a problem

Sophie now.  

with that.  Not all diabetes is the same.  Type 1 diabetes is different than Type 2.  Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disorder.  The body attacked itself and in this particular case it attacked the Beta Cells in the Pancreas that makes insulin.  Type 2 has various other reason that cause it, some of them are weight and bad eating habits, others are just genetics.  You don't have to be fat to be a Type 2 diabetic. But the media and Michelle Obama shown a light on stopping diabetes, but they never said which type.  You can to some extent prevent Type 2 diabetes, but you can't prevent Type 1.   So what comes out the of the media's disinformation.  You get children with Type 1 being told a bunch of bull Hockey that lead to false hope, and bad feelings about themselves.

She is my super hero because she fights daily
for her life. Insulin isn't just medicine,
IT IS LIFE SUPPORT.  Without Insulin a
Type 1 Diabetic will die. She is so
 brave to face it.

My daughter Sophie is a Type 1 Diabetic.  She was diagnosed at 3 years old.  She turns 8 years old this year and has thrived e of her diabetes.  It is a constant fight to control her glucose (blood sugar).  It is an even harder fight to battle the stupidity of people.  On more than one occasion people have made comments that are hurtful to my daughter because of their stupidity and ignorance.

We were in a grocery with Sophie.  Handy Hubby and I were talking about products comparing which would be a wiser choice for Sophie's diabetes.  This well meaning woman interrupted us, "If you put her on a diet and make her lose weight she will no longer be diabetic."  That happened 6 months before the picture to the left was taken.  As you can see, the girl didn't have any weight to lose.

 Sophie getting treated at Arkansas Children's
Hospital after a Care flight to the hospital.
This is day 2 of 5 for new diagnosis of Type 1
diabetes. Keep in mind she is 3 here.

Why do people think it is okay to say things like this to mothers with diabetic children?  For one, Michelle Obama and the Media have painted diabetes with a broad brush that includes both types of diabetes as something you have done to yourself.  The media and TV shows have made jokes about diabetes.  Just in the last 2 months I can call to mind 2 instances.  One of which is an mistake of ignorance, that was Fuller House.There was a joke about handing out raisins and diabetes pamphlets at Halloween.  That is a simple lack of knowledge of the different types of diabetes.  While it is hurtful to young impressionable diabetics, it comes from a lack of knowledge. The other instance is was this past weekend on SNL. The made a joke about McDonald's making Big Macs in 2 sizes now for each type of Diabetes.  Why is this more offensive?  Because they know there are 2 types of diabetes and still joke about both as if it is the person's fault.  

This what Sophie uses on a typical day.
This is the minimum.  7 finger sticks  to
check her glucose and 4 shots of insulin.
How  different would your day be if
this was added to your daily routine?

This is at Texas Children's
Hospital in Houston Texas.
She got croup at 5 years old.
Her doctor prescribed her
steroids to help with her
breathing.  The problem here
steroids raise your blood glucose.
Sophie's went so high she went into
DKA (Diabetic KetoAcidosis).
She spent 5 more days in a hospital.
Every cold/flu or other bug can bring
us to a hospital stay even when we are
careful. 

Life is difficult enough for a diabetic whether type 1 or type 2 without everybody telling you its your fault. Imagine being a young girl that even as an 8 year old likes fashion, fashion world tells every girl/lady/woman/female that they aren't good enough to begin with, now picture the media telling her it was her fault she is diabetic.  This is why, in my opinion, we have a drastic increase in cases of Diabolemia. Diabolemia is a condition where mainly girls with diabetes believe they need to lose weight and so they stop taking there insulin to put themselves into DKA (a serious condition where the body starts eating its own muscle and organs start shutting down) so they can lose weight.

Now think about this, would you go to an 8 year old with cancer and imply it is there fault they have SNL to make jokes about cancers?  No then why with diabetes.
cancer?  Would it be acceptable for

Sophie and her brothers.  

There are Type 1 parents calling for a boycott of SNL and NBC that is there choice.  I am not asking you to do that. Although writing letters would be helpful. I am posting a link where you can read another mothers response to the SNL joke.

SNL Diabetic Joke

Thank you.

Yummy Peach Betty.

Every once and a while we all need a dessert.  This is a yummy dessert that you can feel less guilty for eating.  I mean we do need fruit and oats in our diet.  How about a beautiful peach betty with oats in the crust.  Well, that is the perfect thing on a cold winter day.  Right?!? My answer is yes.  And once you master the crust you can make betty out of any fruit pie filling so you can customize it to what's in season, what's on sale, what you like, or what some body else likes.   Oats are healthy, they are good for cholesterol and more.  This could also be made gluten free  or vegan easily.

This is  a quart of  Peach pie filling I canned last summer.  But you could use 2 cans of pie filling, or a couple of cans of just canned fruit.  You can also use fresh fruit. 

Add the oats to the dry mix and stir.

Added the flour and sugars in a medium mixing bowl.  You can
put 1/2 c of oats in the blender or food processor and turn it into
Oat flour instead of regular flour, or you can use any flour you like.

Use a dough blender or whatever you have to cutter the butter (or what ever solid fat you would like) and continue working it until it is mixed and looks like crumbs.  This will take a little bit of time, but worth it.

Then pile it on tome of the fruit filling and  place in the oven at 350 for 45 minutes to an hour or until the crust is golden brown and some of the filling is bubbling up.  For  some  pans like this one where the betty reaches the top of the pan, I pan it on top of a cookie sheet to make cleaning easier because it is likely to bubble over a little bit.  And I hate cleaning the oven,


For a  real treat  on warmer days, you can eat with vanilla ice cream on top. That is Handy Hubby's favorite way to eat it.  Especially if it is peach, strawberry, or blackberry betty.


Betty Crust Recipe

• 1/2 c flour 
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1/2 c brown sugar
• 3/4 c oatmeal
• 1/2 c or 1 stick of butter
• 2 tbsp cinnamon
• 1tsp nutmeg
• pinch of salt (1/4 or less tsp)

 For filling 

2 cans of pie filling or any other fruit in other forms.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes to an hour.  Until golden brown and bubbly.