Wednesday, February 27, 2013

I'm sick and tired of the pessimist!

I used to follow all kinds of Prepping blogs and sites but I've stopped.  Many of them are now saying our government is going to fall and the United States is all non-Christian and will be paying the price.  Most of them are moving to other countries.  Well all I can say is "Good Riddance!" 

I still say we are a long ways from Armageddon, a very long way from the end.  I might not like our current government but it is duly elected and I still say they can't screw up to bad.  That forecast of the US becoming the biggest oil producer by 2020 is going to keep us from totally dying financially.

So they can all go but this is my country.  I have served 12 years in the military and I will still fight to keep my country free.  I firmly believe in free elections and our Constitution. 

So I no longer consider myself a prepper but a self reliant person instead.  I take responsibility for providing for myself and my family.  I still believe each family should have at least a 3 month supply of food, supplies and money and work toward a year supply.  That way you are able to ride out your personal storms.  When jobs are lost or sudden hospitalizes wipe your family out, having your supplies on hand can help you survive.

I know some places like Washington DC might feel like Christianity is dead but I can tell you after traveling all over our country that I know Christianity is alive and well. I live in a very Christian area.  And I firmly plan on staying right here and riding out any storms coming my way.

So smile and keep on doing what you can.

Blessings,
Cherlynn
brchbell@yahoo.com


Friday, February 22, 2013

Yum! I've finally found a gluten free Pizza crust we all love!

My greatest crisis when I became gluten free was giving up pizza!  I've tried lots of gluten free pizza's and none of them have been acceptable.  This last week, three of my online GF friends mentioned they were trying or had tried cauliflower pizza crust and it was so good the whole family loved it.  So now I've tired it to and even though I'm the only one who swells shut around gluten my whole famliy agreed the Gf cauliflower pizza crust was very good indeed! 
So here's my recipe, tried and know It's good! 

Cauliflower Pizza Crust
8 Servings

Ingredients
½ head cauliflower (about 2 cups riced)(I used the whole head)
1 Clove garlic minced
1 Cup part-skim shredded mozzarella cheese
1 egg beaten
1 Tsp basil
1 Tsp oregano

Instructions~
Pre-heat oven to 400 F.~
Prep a cookie sheet or pizza stone. You can grease the cookie sheet
or use parchment paper. (I used a Pampered Chef baking stone, which
doesnt require any prep if its seasoned.)~
Remove the stems and leaves from your cauliflower and chop the
florets into chunks. Add to a food processor (I used my Vitamix) and
pulse just until the texture is similar to rice. If you dont have a food
processor or Vitamix, you can grate the cauliflower with a cheese grater
or chop it.~
Saute cauliflower rice in a non-stick skillet over medium heat and
cook until translucent, approximately 6-8 minutes. (You can use the
microwave for this as well. Just place cauliflower in an uncovered
microwave-safe bowl and cook for 8 minutes.)~
In a bowl combine the cooked cauliflower with all remaining
ingredients.~
Spread dough out evenly over parchment paper (or stone) about ¼ to
1/3 of an inch thick. The pizza should be about 9-10 inches in diameter.~
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the crust is golden, crispy on the
edges and cooked through the middle.~
Remove the crust from the oven.~
Top with pizza sauce and toppings. Be careful not to add too many
heavy toppings as you don't want to weigh down the crust.~
Broil the pizza for 5 minutes, or until the toppings are hot and the
cheese is melted. Allow the pizza to cool for 2-3 minutes then cut and
serve immediately.~



You can top the pizza with whatever you like, just make sure the
toppings are already cooked since you'll only be broiling the pizza for a
few minutes. Also keep in mind that the cauliflower crust isn't quite as hearty as most regular dough-based
crusts so you don't want to weigh it down with a ton of ingredients. Keep is simple.~

We found that this folds over in half very well and made it easy to eat our slice of pizza.  I won't say you can't taste the cauliflower at all because I could taste it but it was a milder taste and the pizza was so very good. One of my online friends steamed her cauliflower and then had to press it to get the excess water out.  I sauteed mine in a dry cast iron skillet and it worked very well without adding water to it.  My husband liked it mostly because it was a much healthier pizza.  Just veggies, herbs and cheese. Yum!  Give it a try and let me know how your family likes it! I'll probably do up several of these and freeze them to use later.  The store had heads of cauliflower for 79 cents when I went Wednesday so got to do something with it all!  Oh I'm so happy to have pizza I can eat again!

Cherlynn
brchbell@yahoo.com




Thursday, February 21, 2013

It's snowing

For two years now we've had very little in the way of moisture.  They say we'll get 6 to 14 inches of snow today.  Sure hoping they are right.  We really need any and all moisture to break our drought and replenish the water levels. 

So today  my baby girls are home for the weekend and I am baking bread.  I really miss making bread and they wanted toast.  And then I'll make some GF brownies.  Reheating yesterdays Broccoli cheese soup in the crockpot.  Might make up some GF fry bread to go with the soup. 

So today is a lazy time together.  We're watching movies and playing games and just enjoying each other's company.  A good thing to do when you are getting snowed in. 

I think any time you can get time with your family is a good thing.  So just enjoy the moment when you get them!


Blessings,
Cherlynn
brchbell@yahoo.com


Sunday, February 3, 2013

Survival Mode


Okay, I don't usually get into politics but I feel like this is becoming a survival item.  This is something that has bothered me more and more over the last several years so today I'm speaking out. Since the early 1960's it's been a big movement to make women equal to men in all ways.  But now anyone with half a mind can see what they've worked at has done much more to destroy women not help them. 

We are blasted every where we turn with what the media claims is how our women should act and none of them are to their benefit. I look all around me and see that most women are expected to "shack up" instead of getting married.  They get stuck with the kids and have to work full time and take care of the house and cook the meals and don't even get a marriage license to go with it.  Most have also been taught via media when things get tough or you just get bored you just walk away from any signs of family and start over with someone new.  Sounds like they turned our women into what my Momma would of called whores.  

I posted a comment on Facebook early last week.  I remember jumping rope as a kid and singing little tunes and one of them was one I hadn't heard in years.  "First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in the baby carriage."  It sure has been forgotten by most. 

A couple days ago I ran across this list of 25 things that have happened due to the sexual equality process that has been going on for over 40 years now.   You can read it and ponder if you think all this has been good for us or not.


#1 There are 19 million new STD infections in the United States every single year.  Approximately half of them happen to young people in the 15 to 24-year-old age bracket.
#2 It costs the U.S. health care system approximately $17,000,000,000 every single year to treat sexually transmitted diseases.
#3 There were more than 1.4 million cases of chlamydia reported in the United States in 2011.  An astounding 33 percent of those cases involved Americans that were younger than 20 years of age.
#4 It is estimated that about one out of every six Americans between the ages of 14 and 49 have genital herpes.
#5 24,000 American women become infertile each year due to undiagnosed STDs.
#6 In the United States today, approximately 47 percent of all high school students have had sex.
#7 Sadly, one out of every four teen girls in the U.S. has at least one sexually transmitted disease.
#8 According to one survey, 24 percent of all U.S. teens that have STDs say that they still have unprotected sex.
#9 Amazingly, one out of every five teen girls in the U.S. actually wants to be a teenage mother.
#10 If you can believe it, the United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate on the entire planet.  In fact, the United States has a teen pregnancy rate that is more than twice as high as Canada, more than three times as high as France and more than seven times as high as Japan.
#11 When men don’t have to wait until they get married to have sex, then they are likely to delay marriage or never get married at all.  According to the Pew Research Center, only 51 percent of all Americans that are at least 18 years old are currently married.  Back in 1960, 72 percent of all U.S. adults were married.
#12 Today, an all-time low 44.2 percent of all Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 are married.
#13 In the United States today, more than half of all couples “move in together” before they get married.
#14 The divorce rate for couples that live together first is significantly higher than for those that do not.
#15 America has the highest divorce rate on the globe by a wide margin.
#16 For women under the age of 30 living in the United States today, more than half of all babies are being born out of wedlock.
#17 At this point, more than one out of every four children in the United States is being raised by a single parent.
#18 Approximately 42 percent of all single mothers in the United States are on food stamps.
#19 The sexual revolution has caused women to be primarily looked at as sex objects.  In this kind of environment, it should be no surprise that there has been an absolute explosion of pornography in recent years.  An astounding 30 percent of all Internet traffic now goes to pornography websites, and the U.S. produces more pornography than any other nation has in the history of the world.
#20 One survey discovered that 25 percent of all employees that have Internet access in America visit sex websites while they are at work.
#21 Overall, more than 50 million babies have been killed in America since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973.
#22 When you total up all forms of abortion, including those caused by the abortion drug RU 486, the grand total comes to more than a million abortions performed in the United States every single year.
#23 The number of American babies killed by abortion each year is roughly equal to the number of U.S. military deaths that have occurred in all of the wars that the United States has ever been involved in combined.
#24 It has been reported that a staggering 41 percent of all New York City pregnancies end in abortion.
#25 One study found that 86 percent of all abortions are done for the sake of convenience.

No clue if we can reverse this or not but I had to speak out in hopes we can save our children and or nation.

Cherlynn
brchbell@yahoo.com