Britt and I bake!

Last Tuesday Britt and I spent our first day baking. We perused Britt's new cookbook for the best recipe according to the ingredients I had on hand. It's sort of hard to do anything spectacular when you're missing key ingredients , so we chose a recipe from the Heirloom Baking with the Brass Sisters cook.
Lots a great sounding recipes that have been passed down the generations, the one we made was the chocolate fudge pie. Even though it sounds intriguing it was really more like a brownie which was great for us! My husband and I started dieting soooo baking brownies was sort of a no no but I had planned ahead and purchased Splenda sugar and brown sugar substitute to help cut the calories.
The finished pie had a cake like quality , light fluffy delicate chocolate flavor and the added bonus of less calories due to the Splenda substitution. It was a hit with everyone.

I am trying to talk Britt into a bagel recipe I found. Bagels yum! We'll see how it goes. Smiles. Susan

New Years Resolution.

My New Years resolution?? Losing weight what else? Like millions of others out there in blog land. My husband and I have decided to do this together. Armed with a online diet site, I am entering our food intake at the end of each meal. I have the luxury of being able to do this since I work from home. This amazing little site actually takes everything I enter and breaks it down into fats, proteins, carbs etc. Also allows me to choose my weight loss time frame and any adjustments I need to make in our calorie intake to achieve our goals.
Because of this I will be looking to leaner versions of Britt's and my cooking experience will Julia and Martha. Taste of Home has desserts that are low cal so I will be perusing those recipes as well.
Tonight I made Cayenne Chicken Breast Salad. I love this recipe it's so easy and the chicken is yummy.
The Recipe is this:
1 cup mayo use Best Foods light if you are cutting back on fats.
1 tbl onion powder
1/4 tsp red pepper more if you like it spicy otherwise this will just add flavor
2 tbl lime juice
1 tbl garlic powder
Four boneless skinless chicken breast
Mix all ingredients together, bast chicken both sides place on plate add remaining mayo mix on top cover and refrig until ready to grill or bake. I usually use my Foreman grill it's great about 8 to 10 minutes and you are done! Baking allow 35 to45 minutes to cook.

after that the options are endless. Cube the chicken and make wraps , or have whole breast and add your favorite veggies, or chicken tacos fresco or have a great salad . I used romaine lettuce, green onions, black beans, Roma tomatoes, cheese and the chicken breast small dollop of guacamole. Use any light dressing and eat! ~Susan~

WELCOME TO FRENCH PRAIRIE PRIMS!

This blog will be a new journey for my art as well and my personal experiences with my 19 yr old grandson. I have enlisted my eldest grandson, Britt, to help me on this journey. Britt is autistic, high functioning but he does have the quirks that come with autism, like walking 5 miles in freezing weather without his jacket or only eating meat cheese and broccoli. There was a time we felt we would be lucky if he survived to see his 10Th birthday. When his 10Th birthday came around I think the whole family collectively held our breath.

Britt was born with pulmonary hypertension, a nearly always fatal disease. While I won't go into his lengthy health issues other than to say " Bless God" he has been healed from that terrible disease ! While fighting his way through this illness, that fact of his autism went virtually undetected until he reached high school. Mainly because he had missed so much school that when all was cleared away , Britt, still had learning issues. He successfully graduated high school , and hopefully will be attending college here shortly. In the mealtime, after viewing Julia and Julie or is it the other way around ? Oh well, we have decided to take advantage of the time while Britt on the Educational Institution gets it's act together on his behalf. He has always wanted to be a chef , and would like attend the Le Cordon Bleu here in Oregon. However, Britt doesn't drive , and he is not really ready to take on that challenges involved with living away from home , at least not yet.

So Britt and I , will cook our way through Julia Child's cookbook with a little Martha Stewart thrown in for good measure. However I will NOT be making the calf hoof jell thingy!
I am an artist and have been encouraging Britt with his drawing, so now he wants to also learn the art of anime, a field I know nothing about. I am not sure how these 2 things to will fit together but I am going to help him with the foundations of both at least until he is able to to start college. Which may not be until Fall of 2010.

I will be posting our results online with pictures. Hopefully, we will both be learning our way around the fine art of French Cooking, can you say butter? and dip a toe or two into the art of Anime. Did you know there are free tutorials on almost anything you would like to learn? The Internet is an amazing place!

With Christmas on its way we will probably be starting right after. I need 2 things to get started. A Julia Child's cookbook, and a Anime art book. A Christmas Hint!

Until then I wish and pray that all of us have a joyous Christmas and Happy New Year! Let us all pray for those who serve our country so we can live free! ~Susan~