Review and Giveaway for Operation Blesssing’s Recipes from Around the World

As a homeschooling mother, I am always on the lookout for interesting cookbooks to utilize in our home.  “Recipes from Around the World” provides just such an experience.  This soft-covered cookbook includes 34 different recipes from around the world.

With recipes from around the world including from Asia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Israel, Kenya, Mexico, Peru, and the United States, this little book offers a large variety of choices.

Some of the recipes had familiar names such as Swiss Steak, Enchiladas, plus Rice and Beans.  Other recipes were not at all familiar to me, such as Gado Gado from Asia, Shashuka from Israel, and Loma Saltada.  Yet, they inspired me to learn more about the recipes as well as the countries they are from too.

In addition to the recipes, each country has an introduction with information such as about Operation Blessing building a well for clean drinking and cooking water in the Nuu’s village.  Nuu is an elderly woman who needed safe water in order to live.

Operation Blessing strives to improve the conditions of people around the world.  The proceeds from this cookbook will help achieve that goal.  They do everything from disaster relief to clean water.

So if you are looking for an interesting cookbook that offers the opportunity to help those less fortunate across the globe, check out this cookbook for yourself.  You can get your own copy of this cookbook here for a donation of any size.

Also, you have the opportunity to get free recipe cards.  They are pleased to offer four (4) recipe cards inspired by international recipes from Operation Blessing’s latest cookbook, “Recipes From Around the World.” Anyone can sign up to receive this free gift after which, requests will be processed and delivered straight to their mailbox. by clicking here.

Click here or on the graphic below for a chance to win a copy of this cookbook.

Weekly Wrap-Up for the week ending January 13, 2019

So this week, we resumed some semblance of normalcy around our home.  String, Band, and Tennis also resumed.  So once again, people are practicing their instruments.  Also, it meant I am having to drive people from point A to point B, since we only have two vehicles currently and our oldest son needs to drive the truck to get to and from work.

For Thursday being the first time our youngest son went back to tennis, I felt he did really good.  This afternoon he went out with some friends to practice tennis for about an hour so we will see how that goes.

Our family became the proud owners of two Instant Pots in the last two months, so we have been using them for cooking.  Last night, we attempted to make cubed steak in the Instant Pot.  However, we ran into technical difficulties.  We coated the meat with flour and added flour to the beef broth to make a gravy.  Unfortunately, it wanted to try to burn, so we wound up restarting twice before putting that meal on hold and fixing something else.  But, we plan on trying again, with just browning the meat and putting the beef broth in the Instant Pot and once the meat is done, we will make the gravy.  I will let you know how it turns out.  One thing we made this past week in the Instant Pot that turned out really good is Georgia style, Brunswick Stew.  I love how the pork, chicken, lima beans, and vinegar-based barbecue sauce all come together to make a really tasty dish.  Of course, the potatoes, onions, and corn and okra we put in it helped also.  Using a whole chicken we cooked into the Instant Pot and some of the leftover Pioneer Woman Dr. Pepper pulled pork made it really good.  Also, we added some extra vinegar to kick it up a little.

During the last month, we also acquired an Air Fryer, so be watching for me to share what we are cooking in it.  If you have any favorite recipes for an air fryer, I would love for you to share them with me.  Part of what took so long for us to purchase one was trying to find one large enough for our family.

So what is going on where you are?  I would love to hear from you.  Also, if you have an Instant Pot and have any favorite recipes, I would love to hear from you about them as well.

Thoughts for Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Since October 14th, our family has been in birthday mode.  Our daughter celebrated her 16th birthday on the 14th.  Then on the 20th, our youngest son turned 18.  Finally, on the 23rd, our second son turned 20.  So now we are done with birthdays for the year.

For today’s installment of Tasty Tuesdays, we made Ham Bean Soup over the weekend and had some ham left over.  So tonight I took the ham,  a stick of butter, some milk, and a two-pound block of cheddar cheese.  Here is the final product.

And finally, from the Art Department, here are two pictures – one is an original our daugther did some time ago and the other is a redo she completed this week.

 

If you are a homeschool blogger and are interested in becoming part of the Home School Review Crew, applications are now open for new bloggers.  So check it out for yourself.

So what have you been up to this week?  If you would like to read what the other members of the Home School Review Crew are blogging about this week, click here or on the graphic below.

 

Tasty Tuesdays for October 9, 2018

For this installment of Tasty Tuesdays, instead of focusing on meals my husband or myself prepared, I am going to highlight our two oldest children (both sons).  Our second child and second son makes a fantastic curry, and every once in a while, I ask him to fix it for our family.  It is something he does fantastic cooking.  Yesterday he prepared his curry for us.  Only this time, he did a few things differently (and because he prefers to not be in photos, I am going to have to write about it rather than show you pictures).  This time, he added freshly grated ginger root and 2 freshly grated apples.  Also, he added soy sauce, ketchup, and a few other miscellaneous ingredients along with the two boxes of Mild Curry Mix we bought at the store.

I have to say it turned out fantastic.  Our son began cooking the meal in the morning, so it simmered for a good portion of the day.  Our house smelled incredible, and he kept us laughing for most of the day…  The end result was incredible.  The only disappointment was the lack of leftovers.  Because he is also my son who loves noodles, he served it over noodles.  I have to say the meal was a complete success.

Today our oldest son and I had to go out and do some errands since he did not have to work.  So while we were out, we picked up some London broil so he could try out the new dehydrator he bought a few weeks ago.  He broke out the soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and other seasonings and began marinading the meat.  So here are some pictures of that.

I can not wait to try this.  Now it will marinade overnight, and then tomorrow, my son will continue the process.  I will be back to post more pictures.

So what is going on in your world?  I would love to hear from you.  If you would like to read what other members of the Home School Review Crew are blogging about, click here or on the graphic below.

Weekly Wrap-Up for the week ending on August 12, 2018

 

So this week was the week our youngest son attended our church’s service camp.  The youth arrived at the church Tuesday morning complete with clothes, sleeping bags, pillows, Bibles, and whatever else they may need for the week.  They spent their days doing things at, for and with the Youth Group.  They ate all their meals at the church and then had various evening activities including going to play laser tag one night and swimming another night.  At the end of the activities, the girls went to the home of one of the adult leader’s family, while the boys were divided among two different homes.  Our son really enjoyed himself.

This was also a week where very little book work was done, but I have been working on planning our new school year.  Our 15-year-old daughter will be entering 10th grade.  Here is what I have planned for her to do:

• CTC Math
• Picta Dicta
• Grammar Planet
• American Literature
• TruthQuest History
• Biology/Nature Study
• Violin
• Art
• Bible Study with me
• Latin

Our 17-year-old son will be doing:

• CTC Math
• Bible Study
• Picta Dicta
• Grammar Planet
• Literature
• Exploring World History by Notgrass
• Chemistry/Marine Biology
• Latin or Japanese
• Bible Lessons
• Photography

Our son is taking responsibility for his own schedule and is inputting them into Homeschool Planet himself.  I am in the process of entering my daughter’s lessons myself.  However, it seems like interruptions sometimes happen and distractions are bad.  But I am fairly happy with our choices.

Wednesday morning, I received a phone call from one of the ladies at our church.  She wanted to know if I could come to help her prepare some pears for canning.  I found out another lady from the church was coming as well.  So I spent about an hour or so of my time helping peel, core, wash the pears along with a few other tasks.  Then as our reward, I was given pears to bring home for our family to “put up” or can.  Originally I wanted to can pear slices.  However, our oldest son decided we needed to make pear preserves like his paternal grandmother did/does.  So he called for instructions and this afternoon, my three sons and I worked to peel, cut and core the pears.  My oldest and youngest son both work independently.  However, my second son decided we should have some kind of assembly line going.  So he peeled the pears, and then I cut them into slices and cored them.  All in all, it went very well considering we had almost 30 pounds of pears to do. I really enjoyed working with my sons.

For dinner, we decided to have a whole roasted chicken along with stuffing.  After the work we did today, a fairly easy dinner like that was appreciated.

Upcoming Reviews & Crew Activities:

• God Schooling: How God Intended Children to Learn by Julie Polanco
• Branch Out World
• Back to School Crew Blog Hop
• GrammarPlanet

 

So what is going on in your world?  I would love to hear from you.

If you would like to read what other members of the Home School Review Crew are writing about this week, click here or on the graphic below.

Thoughts for Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Last Thursday, we had to take our youngest son back to the hearing doctor.  While there we went back to the waterfront.  Here is a picture from our first visit of the flags we saw from one part of the waterfront park.  The second picture is one we took from right beside the flags.

This past week saw our family get a new to us freezer that did not work when we plugged it in.  So we are trying to see if we can get it to work. It will be so nice to have two freezers again.  We like to have one for meat/poultry/pork/fish/shrimp etc. and then the second freezer we like to use for vegetables, fruit and other items.

We have started using the program “Plan to Eat” to help with grocery shopping, meal planning, and even with grocery shopping lists.  I am trying to incorporate some variety into our meals and menu planning.  With that, I want to move into our Tasty Tuesday portion of the day.

For our Tasty Tuesday meal for this week, I want to share the Shrimp Scampi we had on Friday night.  We used frozen shrimp we bought at the military commissary in Corpus Christi, olive oil, fresh parsley, diced onions, minced garlic, butter and some cooking white wine.  I found the original recipe online and then tweaked it to meet our family’s likes.  We chopped the onion very fine because I have some children who are not fans of onions.  Then I added the white wine for flavor and body even though it was not called for initially.  Finally, we served it over mini bowtie pasta.  The meal was served with a baguette.  I have to say we all enjoyed the meal.

Here are some photographs of the meal.

Then for dinner tonight, we had fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans and corn.  Here is a picture of a piece of fried chicken and the mashed potatoes.  My husband does an absolutely amazing job of frying the chicken.

I would love to hear what is going on in your world.  Click here or on the graphic below to read what other members of the Home School Review Crew are blogging about this week.

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Thoughts for Tuesday, July 24, 2018

So over the last two weeks, my husband re-enlisted for what should be the last time.  We only have about 4 years until he reaches the mandatory retirement age for the US Army Reserves.

We also took our youngest son to see an Ear doctor in Port Lavaca, Texas – which is about 30 minutes away from where we are living.  One of the fun parts of being the military is constantly having to find new doctors and traveling to new places to find ones that are willing to take the military health insurance.

After seeing the doctor, we drove down to see the water.  You see my husband and all four of our children were born in Jacksonville, North Carolina – which is roughly 30 minutes or so from the Atlantic Ocean.  So all of them have great ties to the water.  Here are some photographs I took using my iphone.

And her are some more photographs.

We want to take the entire family back so we can have a picnic by the water.

For this week’s edition of Tasty Tuesday’s, here are some photographs of some food we had:

On rare ocassions, my husband and I have the opporunity to eat out alone.  This past Friday was one of those times.  Dennis, my husband, had to go to renew his military id and I rode along with him.  While in Corpus Christi, we stopped to do some grocery shopping, which included one of favorite stores – Sprouts.  But before wetry tackled our grocery shopping, we decided to try a new place to eat called Jason’s Deli.  Upon walking in, we went to place our orders and found a fantatstic variety of items to choose from to eat.  We had options ranging from soup, sandwiches, salads and more.  We both decided to have the half-sandwich and one-trip to the salad bar combo.  In addition to our California Club sandwich and salad bar trip, we also had the option to have fruit, chips or something else that escapes my mind right now.  We both selected the fruit and it was fantastic.

So what is going in your world?  I would love to hear from you.  If you would like to read what other members of the Home School Review Crew are blogging about this week, click here or on the graphic below.

Thoughts for Tuesday, July 10, 2018

This past week our son started working as a Certified Nursing Assistant.  He seems to really be doing well and enjoying his work.  Because of the 4th of July, we did not have band or piano lessons.  We celebrated Independence Day with a quiet day at home.

Here are some tasty dishes we had during the past week.  We had spaghetti with homemade sauce, stuffed shells, manicotti, and shrimp kebabs.  All in all it was a good week of eating.

 

Over the weekend, we got in contact with a Primitive Baptist Church in our area and decided to attend there this Sunday.  Here is a picture of the hymnal they use.  The church is having a four-day meeting this weekend, so we plan on going to the meeting Thursday night.   One of my favorite things about attending a Primitive Baptist Church is that all the singing is acapella.  So the harmony of voices tends to be amazing.  This church was no exception.  It was the first time in over 4 years that we were able to attend a Primitive Baptist Church and we look forward to returning to visit.  Only our youngest son was able to attend on Sunday, but it was still a wonderful time.

One of the other good things about Primitive Baptist Churches is the way they welcome visitors.  Although we did not know anyone when we walked in, we walked out feeling like we were part of their family.  The other good thing is that when they serve a meal (which they did after the services), everyone is always welcome to come and the food is always amazing.

So what has been going on in your world?  I would love to hear from you.

If you would like to read what other members of the Home School Review Crew have been up to, click here or on the graphic below.

Thoughts for Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Lately I have been on a real recipe cooking kick.  I want to eat different things and add some variety to our meal plan.  So over the last 7 days, I tried two different recipes that were new to our family.  The first was Brunswick Stew, which I made using a recipe I found online and then tweaking it.  As part of this recipe, I also experimented with making a Carolina-style Vinegar based barbecue sauce.  Now normally, I would not need to do this becacuse my father-in-law makes the absolute best homemade barbecue sauce ever.  However, livng in Texas for the past two years means our supply had ran out and we have not have the means or opportunity to restock.  I have to say it turned out really well.  I used a mixture of pork and chicken along with lima beans, corn, potatoes, chicken broth, crushed tomatoes, the barbecue sauce and some spices.  I have to say it turned out amazing.

The second new recipe I tried was stuffed shells, which we had for dinner last night.  They turned out really delicious.  We served it with spagetti and meat sauce.  I just wish I could find an amazing lactose-free mozzarella cheese, so our oldest son could partake of the amazing tastes with us.  Here is a picture.

 

On the subject of our oldest son, he did his orientation on Friday and began working as a Nursing Assistant on Saturday.  He works four days on and then has off two days.  So he worked Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and will have tomorrow (Wednesday, July 4th and Thursday, July 5th).  He seems to really like it.  So we will see how things go.  With him leaving the house at around 5:15 to 5:30 in the morning and not getting home until around 3 in the afternoon, I have not gotten a picture of him in his new scrubs yet but I will.

So what is going on in your life?  I would love to hear from you.  If you would like to see what other members of the Home School Review Crew are up to this week, click here or on the graphic below.

Tasty Tuesday – May 1, 2018

Our family loves being able to sit down and eat together.  One of our favorite style of meals is grilling food.  With the addition of our cowboy grill along with our regular grill that includes both a gas (propane) grill  as well as a charcoal grill.  Often we make shish-k-bobs.  Another thing we like grilling is fish.  Ribs take a high place as well.

Here are some pictures of food we have cooked on our grills.

One of the benefits of living in Texas is that we can basically grill year round.  So we frequently enjoy fish, meat, hamburgers, hot dogs, bratwursts, sausages, chicken, pork, shrimp and more on our grill.  I am blessed to have a husband and sons who love to cook on the grill for me.  When we use the grill, typically everyone takes part in preparing our food.

So what are you eating now?  I would love to hear from you.

The topic on the Home School  Review Crew Link-up for today is “Homeschooling with the Brain in MInd”.  I always try to do this.  I tend to like and excel at different things from our children.  When it comes to my children, all of them are as different as can be.  None of them plan on doing the same thing in life.  They also do not share the same interest.  Nor do they enjoy the same style of materials.  So I try to take those things into account when I make curriculum choices.  Our daughter loves anything to do with art, so I try to find things that excite that part of her brain.  Our youngest son enjoys anything to do with music, so we are exploring ways to build on this for him.  So if you homeschool, how do you take your childrens’ brains into account? Or how do you take into account your brain when making curriculum choices?

If you would like to read what other members of the Home School Review Crew are posting about this week, click here or on the graphic below.