Gluten Free Quinoa and Mushroom Meatballs

Dairy Free, Vegan and Tasty!

 

We had four goals when we set out on this food adventure to create a gluten free, dairy free carb reduced, vegan substitute for meatballs. We looked at over 50 recipes looking for the right combinations of herbs and spices, binding agents and protein.  

We will continue to experiment with binding agents as this recipe works for meatballs, sloppy Joes and Shepard's Pie it did not stand up to the hamburger in a bun set.  It falls apart after the first bite.

We were pleased enough to post the recipe for you to enjoy.  We knew we had it right when our grandson and daughter both said "not bad".  

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup of quinoa
• 2 teaspoons coconut oil
• 2 medium cooking onions chopped
• 1 ½ cups finely chopped mushrooms
• 4 cloves of garlic minced fine
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 4 teaspoon ground chai seeds
• 4 Tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons Lea & Perrin Sauce
• 1 Tablespoon Basil (chopped)
• 1 Tablespoon Oregano (chopped)
• Salt and pepper to your taste

Directions:

1. Rinse the quinoa and cook as per package once cooked set aside in a large bowl to cool
2. In a small bowl add your ground chai seeds, water and Lea & Perrin Sauce
3. In a frying pan add 2 teaspoons coconut oil and saute the onion until translucent  set aside
4. In the same frying pan now add your chopped mushroom, garlic, cinnamon and thyme and cook for no more than 2 minutes at the every end add the contents of the bowl with the ground chai seeds and quickly mix into the mushroom mixture
5. In a large bowl mix everything together, form your meatballs and fry until brown on both sides.

Enjoy from our table to yours

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2014 twosnydergirls

Angel's Trumpet Charles Grimaldi (Brugmansia)

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Jane Addams a Woman of History

Jane was born September 6, 1860 the youngest of nine children.  Her childhood was marked by death and disease.  Her mother died when she was two years old, four of her siblings by her eighth birthday and at four Jane was diagnosed with Pott’s disease, tuberculosis which left her spine disfigured, she grew up believing herself to be ugly.

Influenced by the writing of Charles Dickens, Tolstoy, Mazzini’s Duties of Man, the stories of her mother’s work with poor of Cedarville and fathers political views, Jane grew-up with a strong belief that society did not have to stay the same that social change was possible if people care and Jane Addam did care.

She graduated from Rockford Female Seminary, in Rockford Illinois only to have tragedy visited Jane once again, her father died.  Her inheritance allowed Jane to realize her dream.

Jane traveled to in England where she experienced firsthand the benefits of the Settlement movement and upon her return to the United States she started the Settlement Hull house in Chicago.

Jane moved into the Hull house and lived there until her death on May 21, 1935.  Within this enlightened, socially conscious community Jane found the opportunity to put her ideas for social change and social advocacy to paper, writing eleven books and many articles.

A pacifist Jane wrote and advocated loudly for peace and the human treatment of all people during and after WWI chairing the Women’s Conference for Peace in the Hague and founded the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

In 1931 Jane was the second woman and the first American woman to receive the Noble Peace Prize.  Jane worked for social reform for immigrants, women and children assisting in the development of:

• Immigrants Protective League
• Juvenile Protective Association
• the separation of adult and juvenile courts
• Legislation for women and children
• is considered a founding agent in the field of Social Work
• and so much more

Jane Addams is a woman who while living a financially privileged life she used her intelligence and inheritance to make social change happen.  

As parents and grandparents let’s tell Jane Addams’ story to our children and encourage them to explore literature that challenges our current social norms and encourage independent thought and boldness in the face of social injustice.  

Finally is not enough to acknowledge the problems in our society.  Jane was also influenced by her parents behaviors - their action.  

We the parents and grandparents of today have within us the power to do something about the social injustice we see – we need to volunteer, walk, bake, stalk shelves to become active in changing the social injustice that we see around us.

Please learn more about Jane Addams explore the links below:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Addams
• http://www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull/_learn/_aboutjane/aboutjane.html
• http://www.biography.com/people/jane-addams-9176298#other-roles
• http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1931/addams-facts.html

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2014 twosnydergirls

Knitting the Sky

August 2014

August like July was cloudy with too many days where there were severe thunderstorm warnings.  The lack of sunshine has started to affect the garden.

I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers,

 From the seas and the streams;
I bear light shade for the leaves when laid
         In their noonday dreams.
From my wings are shaken the dews that waken
         The sweet buds every one,
When rocked to rest on their mother's breast,
         As she dances about the sun.
I wield the flail of the lashing hail,
         And whiten the green plains under,
And then again I dissolve it in rain,
         And laugh as I pass in thunder.
Excerpt from The Cloud by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Knitting the Sky is the creative genius of Leafcutter Designs and I encourage you to visit their website and begin to knit your sky just click on the logo below

 The yarn used in this project was purchased from Docknits in Port Elgin Ontario to visit this website please just click on the logo below

Join me in Knitting the sky.  

Just look up and pick up your knitting needles.

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2014 twosnydergirls

Ten Things I Wish I Had Asked My Grandparents

There are so many things that I wish I had paid attention too when I was a child and of course they are all things that a child would not know to remember.

1. What was Grandpa John’s favourite colour?
2. What was my great grandfather like as a father?
3. What was the most important lesson they learned as a grandparent?
4. What wisdom would they pass on to me?
5. What are their fondest memories of their grandparents?
6. What was Grandma Almeda’s favourite hymn?
7. What were their dreams for me their granddaughter?
8. What was it like for Grandpa David to spend over a year in hospital?
9. What were their greatest disappointments?
10. What were their favourite scriptures the one that brought comfort and hope to them?

Who were they as people not just as my grandparents?

Our grandchildren are not thinking about these question now and they will someday. 

Today is Grandparent’s Day in North America and rather than focusing on what our grandchildren give us, spent time passing on information that they might what to know years from now about you.

Make this a part of how you get to know them.  Ask questions about who they are and then answer the same question for them, by passing on stories from your childhood, telling them about you.

Ensuring they know us both as people and as their grandparents is one of the fundamental gift that we can give our grandchildren.  

It is in knowing us they ultimately will come to understand themselves as grandparents someday.

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2014 twosnydergirls