Nutrition and Cooking as an Elective Course Sweet and Sour Chicken

As an elective course, for 9th grade, DJ is taking a very basic Nutrition class.  As part of that class, he is also learning to cook, and wash dishes.  He cooks almost every week night, and is responsible for kitchen clean up on those same nights.  He has basically learned to cook our family favorites, and most common menu items.  We had lots of extra apples, so last month for our 4H meeting he made homemade apple cider, in the slow cooker.  It was a big hit, though most kids still chose the soda over apple cider.  The adults loved it, and we had some for home too.  Then this past week, he made homemade applesauce in the slow cooker.  Super simple and delicious.  It had no sugar added which was good, but I think I like it just a little bit sweeter.  Today we decided to learn to make Sweet and Sour Chicken.  We love it when we eat out, so might as well try it.  Now, any other time I have tried to duplicate Chinese food, it is not successful, so I was kind of not optimistic.  I did not tell him that, lol.  It actually was super easy, and super delicious.  A new favorite here at our house.  The only thing we changed about the recipe was, we served with linguine noodles not rice,  no soy sauce, and accidentally used olive oil instead of regular oil.  That just made it a little less crispy, but no other effect on flavor.  We doubled the sauce, and saved some to use next week with pork.  For the recipe we used, click here.

All three of the recipes mentioned were found on Pinterest.  I love Pinterest!

How To Make Rock Candy, Fortified Cereal Science Experiment

We were actually going to make this for our playdate tomorrow, but I had no idea it took so long, and you need quite a few Mason Jars to make enough for everyone. So I will aim to make it for an upcoming playdate. It really is quite simple and you can make a variety of colors and flavors.

Last Thursday we did a Science experiment to teach about fortified food. You will need a strong magnet, a refrigerator magnet is probably not strong enough, cereal that has at least 50% iron without adding milk. You can find that info on the label of the package. Then you just pour some cereal in a bowl and crunch it up into small pieces. Then swirl the magnet around in the crushed cereal. Using a magnifying glass have your children inspect the magnet, and ask them what they think is stuck on the magnet. DJ got it on the second guess. He guessed sugar first but then quickly realized that sugar is not attracted to a magnet. Then explain how cereals and other foods are fortified to aid in getting proper nutrition for children and adults. This is an easy and inexpensive Science experiment. Only took maybe ten minutes, if that.

Animal Control Frustrations Grrr!!!

For those of you who have read my blog for any length of time, know I have been fighting with Animal Control for years to get these ferell cats under control. To make a very long story short, we found a home for one female kitten the last time the mother had a litter. We are still tending, and feeding to the two males that no one wants. The mother appears to have had another litter, though not in my bushes this time. However a very tiny kitten was found wandering around my yard this morning, looking very haggard and hungry. This kitten weighs no more than one pound. Of course my kids make me feel like a cad, so I can not just ignore it, but I am not the town pound either. I put it in the pet carrier, with a blanket, fed it, and gave it some milk, and tried to figure out what to do. Animal control has never been helpful, if you remember when I called the county humane society I was told no kittens, but if I wanted to pay for some very expensive tests, and have them spade, all out of my own pocket they would send them to another shelter. Outrageous I know, so I figured calling them would be no good. So I called the next county over, and they told me they would not take them from another county, to call the county administrator. Which I did, he referred me to someone else, who referred me back to animal control, who told me they no longer have a contract with the town. Grr I am not happy at all. So then she told me if I wanted to pay 25 dollars, and transport said kitten to her, she would take it to the animal shelter on my behalf. So now I am either stuck with this very tiny, needy kitten, or I have to pay 25 dollars out of my own pocket. What I would really like to know is if the City of Trenton decided to sever their ties with the Gilchrist County Animal Control, then why are they not providing the service themselves. Well I was told because tax payers already pay for the service, and the county should be providing said service. Seems tax payers were actually being charged twice. I really do not care about any of this, but I do care that I can not afford to feed, and take care of every stray that wanders onto my property. I can not kill it either, or just drop it off in the woods, as many have suggested. No one wants to deal with these ferrell animals, and it is getting out of control. There is a meeting Monday evening, and if I can make it I will. If not I will call the city manager back on Tuesday to see what happened. If anyone has ever dealt with this sort of stuff in your neighborhoods, I would love some good advice.

Lesson Plans For 10/15/09:

DJ:
Health: Healthy food choices, label reading
Language Arts: Quotation marks, prefixes, homographs
Spelling/Vocab: Write each word two times each
Math: Division, greater than and less than, subtraction
Cursive Writing
Reading Comprehension: Worksheet

Caitlin:
Health: Healthy food choices
Alphabet Book: Letter U
Math: Telling Time
Reading: HOP Tag
Site words
Printing Practice
Address and phone number learn to write them