Easy is good!

I am disabled with Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis.  As such, one of my many life mottos is, “Easy is good!”  I struggle with weakness and fatigue so I try to make life simple.  With that being said, welcome to In the Kitchen with MS -- Makeit Simple!  And this could apply to ANYone, really…Moms, seniors, any one who’s busy and doesn’t have a lot of time for fixing meals.

I always loved to cook, however I no longer cook the way I used to.  I look for recipes that are fast and easy, and prefer ones I can make in a crock pot or casserole dish.  I like a “medium-size” recipe that will yield about four servings.  That way, I have leftovers (which I LOVE!) and/or extra helpings that I can freeze for later.

Some additional “helps” that I do--when I get a LOT veggies and am not going to use them immediately, I try to freeze each in their own baggies.  This works with almost anything—onion, green peppers (green, red and hot ones!), broccoli, cauliflower, etc.  Whenever I need them for cooking, they’re right in the freezer.  Same with ground beef.  Either I make hamburger patties and freeze them, or I brown the burger in pieces and freeze that to use in chili, soups or casseroles.

I also like to make up my own recipes.  When I can, I go gluten-free.  (I feel better when I cut out the gluten, MS-wise.  By the way, this appears to be helping a LOT of MSers.  Gluten-free!).  One evening I made, what I call, Chicken Veggie Pasta.

Made gluten-free pasta.  Sautéed garlic in olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan, then threw in some hunks of chicken to warm up.  (Made the chicken in the crock pot the night before.)  In another small pan, par-boiled a crook-neck squash, drained, cut in pieces and added them to the chicken. Cut up a tomato.  Added a handful of cooled, cooked black beans.  Grated Parmesan.  Threw it all together in the pan with the garlic chicken, covered, cooked on low until hot.  Then, poured this on top of the pasta.  Pretty tasty.  Even for being (GASP!) gluten-free.

Meet my 4-legged "kidz!"

I hope to cover a variety of topics on this blog:  Greyhounds, recipes, Multiple Sclerosis, volunteering, the Answer to life, amateur digital photography, books, humor…and YOUR ideas about where you would like to go on this journey.

I think I’ll begin with my four-legged family.  I am a Greyhound Mom, and adopted my first retired racing Greyhound in 2002.  I will talk about ALL of my “kidz” later on, to be sure.  But I have only two right now—the oldest is my fawn-colored boy Max who will be 13 this May.  The second is a seven year old red fawn and black brindle girl, Mia Pasha, and each of her names is from my two closest friends.

My favorite story is about, Max.  A few years ago, I was fostering another Greyhound in addition to mine.  She found the basket of stuffie toys that I have for my Greys, she found a toy she liked, and promptly trotted out the dog door with the toy in her mouth!

I was outside on the patio and thought that I’d just retrieve the toy when she dropped it.  But I didn’t have to!  Max then came out the dog door, looked at me as if to say in disgust, “Doesn’t that new dog know any better?!  We don’t take our toys outside!”  He went up to her and took the toy from her, turned around and took the toy into the house!  I never taught him to do that!

But he is a very smart boy…well, he’s an old man at 13.  Ah, he’ll always be Mommy’s Boy!

I’ll think of a story to tell about Mia Pasha tomorrow.