Sausage from scratch (LS)

With Bobble being on a sodium restriction, I have to try my best to make things he enjoyed to where he can have them. Sausage is one of those things. You can't buy premade sausage and expect it to be low-sodium, so I've had to try my hand at making my own and tweaking it. I use this recipe for sausage patties (or sticks) and for crumbled sausage atop pizza. You can make it using Turkey, Chicken, or Pork. The following is made with pork.
 

Leftovers (Hubby and I didn't eat any this time, or there wouldn't have been any patties left)

These were already chilled when I took a picture. Sorry!

SAUSAGE
1 1/2lb lean ground pork (chicken, or turkey)
2 cloves crushed garlic
1T dried parsley
1t paprika
1/2t dried sage
1/2t (pink himalayan sea) salt
1/2t fresh ground pepper (I prefer a mix of peppercorns, but black pepper works, too)
1/4t dried minced onion
1/4t oregano
1/4t thyme

Simply mix all of the above and fry it up. I like using my ceramic cuisinart skillet so I don't even need to use any oil, though you can add a bit of olive, canola, or sunflower oil to fry it up if you need. (While I love sunflower oil, please be aware that it will burn faster and splatter more, so keep an eye on it!)

A serving size is supposed to be 4 oz, and will be approximately 265mg of sodium. There are supposed to be 6 servings for 1 1/2 lbs of meat. While it might not sound like a lot, when you're making sausage patties (mini, toddler sized) and you get 6 of them for less than a 1/6 of the mixture, you realize that they aren't getting that much sodium. Of course, the actual serving size would depend on how you prepare and serve it. The amount of sodium in the entire recipe above is 1590mg, so you can figure out the amount per serving for your house.

I made 8 mini patties (2 went with Bobble to school, Squiggle ate one for breakfast, so you see the 5 left over) and crumbled the rest to go in a tortellini dish this evening and on pizza tomorrow night.

** I cut the amount of salt down to 1/4t and everyone still loved the taste, so that brings the entire recipe down to about 1,055mg for the entire batch. We tend to use half of the batch (~528mg sodium) for ground sausage on a pizza, and either freeze the other half or make patties/sticks out of them **

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post. All thoughts are my own and may differ from your own. Post contains affiliate links.

Taste of the Tropics Mighty Leaf Giveaway

For the tea lover in your house! Who wouldn't want to win three delicious flavours of tea and a lovely travel mug?

Mighty Leaf Tea "Taste Of The Tropics" Giveaway With TeaTop Brew Travel Mug ($50 ARV)

Sponsored By: Mighty Leaf Tea

Hosted By: Deliciously Savvy

Co-Hosted By:

Michigan Savings and More

Sweepstakes Fanatics

&

Just Another Mom

A Big Shout Out To All Of The Other Fabulous Blogs That Helped Make This Possible!!!

Deliciously Savvy was Lucky Enough To Receive a "Taste Of The Tropics" Mighty Leaf Tea Gift Pack With The TeaTop Brew Travel Mug for review. This is a company that my mom has fallen in love with. She is a HUGE Tea Drinker and I decided that I wanted to see what all of the talk was about. See My Review HERE.

1 LUCKY Winner will receive a "Taste of the Tropics" Gift Pack and a TeaTop Brew Travel Mug!

What is included in the "Taste of the Tropics" Gift Pack you ask? Well....

1 box of Mighty Leaf Tea Vanilla Bean

• Leaves: Medium sized black tea
• Aroma: Sweet, perfumed nose with woody undertones
• Color: Reddish black liquor
• Taste: A rich and malty blend of black tea leaves with Madagascar vanilla

1 box of Mighty Leaf Tea Green Tea Tropical

• Leaves: Flat green leaf tea, dried fruit, flowers
• Aroma: Bright tropical fruit nose
• Color: Pale green liqour
• Taste: Smooth green tea balanced with flowery and tropical fruit notes

1 box of Mighty Leaf Tea Organic African Nectar

• Leaves: Fine, needle-like rooibos leaves, dried flowers
• Aroma: Lively tropical notes
• Color: Jewel red liqour
• Taste: A rich and full bodied herbal infusion, honey-like and tropical

+ PLUS 1 TeaTop Brew Travel Mug

Check Out Mighty Leaf Tea Today!

FACEBOOK ~ TWITTER ~ PINTEREST

1 LUCKY WINNER will receive the Mighty Leaf Tea Taste of The Tropics Gift Pack and the TeaTop Brew Travel Mug! ($50 ARV)

Giveaway Dates: 11/09 12AM EST until 11/25 12AM EST

Giveaway Valid for US Residents ONLY and must be 18+ to enter

This giveaway is in no way endorsed, affiliated or associated with Facebook,

Twitter or any other Social Media Networking Site. This giveaway is valid only

in the Continental United States. Entrants must be 18+ years of age to enter.

This giveaway will end at 12:00 AM (EST) 11/25/2014.

And Now To The Giveaway.......Good Luck!

Colouring

Like most moms out there, I sometimes find myself not spending enough time doing activities with my little ones. When it's warmer out, that's a lot easier. I could go outside and play with them, garden with them, take walks, etc. Even having them play near me while I garden or work in the yard is sometimes enough because we still get interaction.

When it gets colder, it isn't always so easy. Bobble loves doing puzzles and memory match card games. I love these games too, but Squiggle likes to destroy the game/puzzle or try to eat them. Some days I feel like we are limited to watching movies or shows together and that's it, but I don't want to just sit around all day and I sure don't want my kids doing that.

Lately, Bobble has taken to colouring. I mean really taken to colouring. He started with just scribbling, then progressed to a pretty neat rainbow colourscheme (below).

After a few weeks, he started colouring certain things inside the lines, leaving other parts of the picture rainbow (below).



Most recently, he's started colouring items all one colour... well, mostly (below). I admit, I miss that pretty neat rainbow of colours that didn't follow the lines at all.



Squiggle is also pretty intrigued by crayons so she likes to scribble away on paper. This morning, hubby got up and also started colouring a sportscar image while Squiggle coloured a dinosaur. Sadly, it was the last dinosaur. I was browsing online for some new colouring books when I realized they have some pretty awesome colouring books for adults or older children. I decided that I needed to purchase some of the more detailed books for hubby and myself.

Everyone was happily colouring together this morning and it was nice and quiet. Conversation, but no screaming or throwing things. It was very nice, and it wasn't the television. Granted, it was still sitting around, but it was using imagination and still interacting together. Much nicer. I think I might make it a weekly family thing, maybe set some time aside for us all to spend time together just colouring. It's a nice, calming activity, too. Win-win?

Here are a few of the books I was looking at (the pictures are links):

 

 

What do you do together as a family when it's not good outside weather?

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff is was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. Post contains affiliate links.

How to make Spaghetti Squash

 
How to make a spaghetti squash:

1) Wash squash off!
(You should wash all fruits and veggies off before cutting into them, as the knife will bring bacteria from the outside of the veggie into the flesh. This is especially important if you're eating the fruit or veggie raw, and one of the reasons Cantaloupe can be such a big cause of illness like e. coli.)

2) Slice squash in half long-ways and scoop out the seeds.

3) Place squash in a wax-paper lined dish, cut-side down, and bake for about 45 minutes at 350F, or until inside is tender enough for a fork to easily slice through to the peel.

4) When cooled, take a fork and scrape/rake the inside of the squash. This will release the squash in long strands, much like spaghetti.

Voila! You've made a spaghetti squash!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. Post contains affiliate links.

Lifestyle Changes

Many of you saw that Bobble was admitted to a local Children's Hospital last month. First, I'd like to thank you all for understanding my lack of posts during this time. I had a couple each week scheduled through most of October, but when we ended up in Children's, the continuation of blogging halted and no new posts got scheduled.

 

Thankfully, Bobble is home and doing well now. What had happened, in the most basic way of describing it, were his kidneys were acting up. He was retaining all his fluid instead of peeing, and the poor child gained 8 pounds of water weight. That's an awful lot of weight for a 3 year old to gain. He was admitted at 46lbs. He was 38lbs a few days after discharge.

8 Days before admittance to Children's

We are very thankful that everything seems to be going well, and they said this could easily have been a fluke and will never happen again. We still need to monitor him for a while, testing urine for protein and watching his weight for subtle gaining that might not be visible right away.

Day after coming home from Children's

What this also means is that we must limit his sodium. I'm going to be sharing some of our recipes that are low sodium as we make them or try them out, and also what brands I find (of various foods) that contain the lowest amount of sodium. We've found that watching sodium is much harder than watching something like sugar, artificial ingredients, etc. Thankfully, we rarely eat processed foods in our house, and we don't really eat fast food (though the occasional Chipotle stop does happen, I have trouble calling Chipotle fast food). The dietician said we should be fine, then. Still, I'm having a hard time adjusting his meals to keep it below 1500mg/day because he is on a strong dose of steroids to send this (Nephrotic Syndrome) into remission and get everything functioning well on its own. This means he wants to eat. ALL. DAY. LONG.

Thank you all for your kind words while he was in the hospital, and for understanding in the lull in blogging. I hope you will continue to follow us on our clean eating journey (now gone low-sodium!), and I welcome any tips you have, including brand suggestions for foods!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own.

Mighty Leaf Tea Blogger Opp

Blogger Opp ~ Mighty Leaf Tea "Taste Of The Tropics" Giveaway With TeaTop Brew Travel Mug ($50 ARV)

Deliciously Savvy was Lucky Enough To Receive a Taste Of The Tropics Mighty Leaf Tea Gift Pack With The TeaTop Brew Travel Mug for review. This is a company that my mom has fallen in love with. She is a HUGE Tea Drinker and I decided that I wanted to see what all of the talk was about. Mighty Leaf Tea sent me the items above to try out for myself and my family loves it! I am a southern Sweet Tea drinker... so in all honesty.... my husband is really taking over this review opportunity for me. He loves them all, but especially the Green Tea Tropical. My husband is all about a cup of hot tea.... so he loves this. Anyone who has a tea drinker in their family..... this is the perfect gift for them!

Check Out Mighty Leaf Tea Today!

FACEBOOK ~ TWITTER ~ PINTEREST

So.... For Anyone Interested.... I need Help To Promote This Giveaway! Free Links and Co-Host Spots available for all!

1 LUCKY WINNER will receive the Mighty Leaf Tea Taste of The Tropics Gift Pack and the TeaTop Brew Travel Mug! ($50 ARV)

Sign Ups Close: 11/07

Giveaway Dates: 11/09 12AM EST until 11/25 12AM EST

2 FREE Links with Announcement Post (Twitter, Pinterest, Bloglovin' & Instagram)

***If you do not want to post the announcement you will receive 2 links for $3 (payable to mcushing7@hotmail.com via PayPal)***

ANNOUNCEMENT POST HERE

Co-Hosts Needed ~ $5 for 5 Links of your choice (any links you want!) PLUS the 2 FREE links with announcement gives Co-Hosts 7 Links total PLUS Your Blog Name Listed on Giveaway Post and a Co-Host Page linked back to your blog PLUS an extra follow page, secret word page (maybe 2 depending on # of sign ups from announcement posts)

Other Options Available On Sign Up Form

SIGN UP HERE

Giveaway Valid for US Residents ONLY and must be 18+ to enter