Barbecue Skillet Dinner

So it is nothing fancy, but it is one of the few dinners I have managed to make in my less than amazing surroundings. No repair work has started YET. More than a month since the storm, and all we have had is stop gap quick fixes. One check is in, but we can't spend it yet. How is it that funds instantly come out of my account when I use a debit card, but my 13,000 some dollars from the insurance needs a week? This is pretty amazing how it goes out but not in. The best news is a cool front. Even though I still have plastic sheeting everywhere and missing walls and ceilings, at least it is not 95 degrees in the kitchen. I grabbed some veggies at Aldi the other day, and I am taking advantage of the cooler temps. I know the rebuilding will be starting in earnest next week, and the house will be a major construction zone, certainly not a place to cook. Unless I could convince the guys that drywall dust is parmesan cheese, that is.

The other bad news is that my youngest is suffering through a relapse of his IBS issues. He is undergoing some major life stress with a new full time job, full time college hours, and a house that is...ummm..( guess I have complained enough there) I can't wonder how he is stressed. He is working as an assistant teacher at a Head Start program. Who would not be stressed with twenty 3 and 4 year old kids all day? Two teachers only. That is a stresser enough!

We are putting him back--on his own request--on the GAPS/SCD diet. It eliminates starches and most sugars while adding in healing bone broths and probiotics. That means mom has some major work ahead in the kitchen. Keeping up with an organic when possible, all home prepared regimen occupies a few hours in the day. I will probably have to move my food prep over to my mom's house during the home fix. Eating out at restaurants is such a gamble. Even small food additives lurk everywhere and can ruin his healing progress. Eating clean is a job in itself. I will share some of my recipes I prepare for him. Even though his diet is often more strict that the low carb routine we generally follow, they do often overlap. Tonight's skillet supper is an example. The ingredients are the same, he just needed his cooked longer for digestibility.

It is basically just a round up of vegetables, fried up with ground beef and seasoned with some garlic and home made barbecue sauce, a touch of mustard and some crumbled bacon. Embarrassing to post on a food blog, but it is what it is. Even the photo had to be taken on the stove because my only source of natural light is covered in a plastic tarp. Appetizing? Not so much.  It did taste like home cooking, though. We have missed those folksy meals.I won't make you laugh at the "recipe" so just know that we dined on cabbage, onion, zucchini, tomatoes and sauce. My sauce is wonderful made with Wright's liquid smoke and it is legal for my kiddo's plan. My friend Maria blogged about a prebiotic sweetener that will be good for Christian to use. I am buying that soon. I will bake up some goodies and let you know our review. Check out her post of fudge cookies. Mmm. Maria is a wealth of information...if only I knew half of what she does! Good to have friends, though.

Tired of chicken salads, I have cheated on my low carb more times than I care to admit lately. I have proven that the Diner system is fabulous, but a working kitchen is required to keep it up! My Mulitply Meals are all eaten up, as are many of my Freezer Favorites. I use my Babycakes machine for easy breakfast muffins before it gets too hot. I still have uncooked meat, waiting to become the next homecooked meal, but it only works when the kitchen is open. John found insulation in his tea the other day. Wonder how many cancers that can cause!?!

Can't wait for things to get back to normal. I have even been suffering the loss of my computer for a few days. It is back, although it is still an old hand me down from my oldest. Slow but connected at least. A normal home is still weeks away, but the roof will be going on soon...then the wall and ceilings, the fence, then painting, the flooring, then putting it all back together. We are still trying to figure out where to put all the furniture during the repairs. I have most of the new things chosen, but then I know it is going to make my old stuff look even worse. I have the most awful countertops and backsplash. They came with the house and can't seem to be registered on the color wheel. Next to gray, they look beige. Next to beige, they are gray. The wallpaper is coming down, no one wants to hang new paper, and I can't find a color to match. Such details are making me crazy--almost as nuts as I am trying to deal with the insurance company. Still, we are very grateful to have been covered, and to get some updates we could not otherwise afford. In the end it will be worth it...I think...If I keep finding more things that really need to be updated this could be an expensive storm indeed. Keep in touch, Diners. I will be back in force soon. Hope things are good for you.Maybe I will do a kitchen reveal like they do on the decorator blogs. Or maybe not. I will still have those countertops...