Turkey Burgers

5 lb chub of ground Turkey (Smart & Final has this for a good price)
1 red bell pepper
2 green bell peppers
1 small onion
1 15 oz container of italian bread crumbs
5 eggs, beaten

Defrost your ground turkey.  Cut bell peppers and onion into big chunks.  Process in a food processor until chopped up (make sure you don’t liquify it).  Squeeze out some of the juice.  Put everything into a BIG bowl and mix well with your hands.  Form into patties.  (Remember that they will not reduce in size like beef patties will.)  Cook on a griddle.  This will make about 24 good size patties.  My family ate 12 patties at one sitting.  I put the other 12 patties on a wax paper lined cookie sheet and froze them.  Once solid, I put them in a plastic freezer bag for dinner another time.

Enjoy!

P.S. Sorry for no real picture!  They were gone before I thought to post it!

I’d also like to wish my mother a wonderful day… I am so blessed to be able to live right next door to my mom.  She is part of almost every day of my family’s life.  I wouldn’t want it any other way.  She and I usually walk every morning and talk about our day and what is going on in our world.  It is something I look forward to and cherish.

Mom, you are so special to me.  I am so thankful for everything you do for us.  Thank you for your wisdom, your friendship and, most of all, your unconditional love.  I love you!

So, yeah, this all makes sense, but how do you TEACH it? Well, you start early…

In one website I read they suggested that you need to start teaching it when kids are between four and seven years old.  This makes a lot of sense to me because at four they are past the conflicting time of transitioning from a baby into a child (see my previous post here about this) and after age seven they start transitioning out of the “core” phase of learning and start having many more interests. “Core phase”, in Thomas Jefferson Education philosophy, is the stage where the focus of education is “right and wrong” and “good and bad”.  Teaching initiative fits right in with this.

When your kids are young, it is really easy to just do everything for them.  You know what I mean… it takes ten times longer to have them help you clean the living room than to just do it yourself!  But don’t go that route.  It isn’t helping your kids, it is hurting them.  Take the time when they are young to teach them what needs to be done and how to do it.   Teaching initiative is a type of discipline that must be taught.  A child needs to be shown how to see things that need to be done.  Between the ages of 4 and 7 kids need to be shown what to do… for example, you can’t just say, “Go clean your room.” You have to SHOW them what that means.

I think initiative is the outcome of discipline.  A child who is not disciplined has a harder time being self-disciplined.  Without being self-disciplined they will find it much harder to be proactive and take initiative.

When I first started thinking about homeschooling we had a five year old, two three-year-olds, and a newborn.  I knew that homeschooling was a fantastic education method.  I did tons of research.  I found the method and curriculum that I wanted.  My biggest concern wasn’t socialization or any of the other stuff… it was if I would be able to handle it.  I yelled a lot back then.  I thought that was the only way to make myself heard.  Well, I took 2 years to make the leap and when I did, I had a plan.  I had the boys help me with everything they could.  They had chores.  I bought plastic cups and plates so they could do the dishes safely.  I showed them how to clean the bathroom.  I also figured out the key to discipline… follow through.  This allowed me to stop yelling.

Consistent follow through is really important. If kids know what the consequences are of their actions, good and bad, there doesn’t have to be yelling… or at least as much!  One thing I did at the beginning to help focus on the good (which is always the best way to go) and to provide good consequences for the boys, thus encouraging initiative, was I bought a couple rolls of nickels and labeled a plastic cup for each boy.  During the day I would look for them doing things right.  Every time I saw something, I made a big deal and put a nickel in their cup.  After they had enough money in their cup, I’d take them to get something at the store.  I kept it up for quite awhile and then stopped the nickels.  The boys didn’t really need the money.  The positive reinforcement was enough.

As my kids got older, they naturally grew into taking more and more initiative.  It also helped that I am able to reward it when I see it.  For example, I have one son that is very into video games.  We have serious limitations in place on gaming time but when he shows initiative and gets his work done early, I reward him with some extra game time.

You probably wonder what kind of entrepreneurs my kids are.  Well, my oldest has written and self published a book that is available on Amazon, had his own snack shop, tutored, and has done yard work to earn money.  My twins teach music lessons, perform for private parties, and have also done yard work.  My fourth son took over his oldest brother’s snack business when he went to college, and has also made money with recycling and making and selling cookie dough.  My youngest is still in that “core phase” and I’m working with him to teach him more about it, but having his big brothers around is making it much easier this time around!

NEXT… Innovation!

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

Ingredients:
1/2 Cup margarine
1 Cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tbsp vinegar
1 tsp vanilla
3-4 mashed ripe bananas
2 1/2 cups flour (I use whole wheat)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda (I use an additional 1/2 tsp with whole wheat flour)
1/2 Cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream margarine and sugar. Add eggs and mix thoroughly.  Measure out milk and add vinegar and let set for a few minutes.  Add to sugar mixture and mix.  Add vanilla and bananas and mix well.  In a separate bowl whisk together flour, salt and baking soda. Add to wet ingredients and mix until combined.  Add in chocolate chips and mix until combined.  Bake for 18 to 20 minutes in greased muffin pans.  Makes about 12 muffins. Enjoy!

When I have quite a few bananas that I need to use in something I make a double recipe and freeze half.  It is wonderful to be able to pull out frozen muffins and make them when I need them!  Check out my post on freezer muffins for more info!

Our parents were told to go to college and get a good job.  They assumed they would be spending pretty much their whole life in that job.  We were told to do the same thing but our generation found that the job situation was a lot different!  Very few people can stay in one job their whole life these days.  Many people change careers several times in their lifetime… and the more flexible you are in this area, the better off you are financially these days!  Our kids, if we tell them to do what our parents did, or what we did, won’t have what they need to be successful, which, unfortunately, many of them are finding out the hard way.

Our kids need to have the skills of entrepreneurs.  Now, this doesn’t mean they all have to be one… they can be intrapreneurs too (employees with an entrepreneur mindset). In DeMille’s class he suggested that the skills they need to learn are 1. initiative, 2. innovation, 3. ingenuity, 4. tenacity, and 5. leadership.  The question is how do we do this?  How do we give our kids these important skills?

Well, I have some ideas and I’ll be sharing them with you in the next few weeks, so stay tuned!

I made lemonade concentrate and then canned it so that I don’t have to use up space in my freezer or fridge.  It took some time but was worth it.  The only cost was my time and the sugar.  I had everything else. When I was all done, I had enough concentrate to make over 35 gallons of lemonade!  Hopefully that will last us awhile!  Here is the recipe:

Lemonade Concentrate

Equal amounts lemon juice, water, and sugar.

Get canner and jars ready to can.  I always boil my jars and lids.

Mix lemon juice, water and sugar in large pot.  Be sure you leave enough room in the pot to allow it to boil up a little.  Bring to a boil.  This takes a little while.  Stir occasionally.  As soon as it boils it is ready to can.  Fill your jars and boil them for 15 minutes in the canner.  Let them cool down and then store them in the cupboard for up to a year.  To use them, just combine with 3 to 4 parts water for every part concentrate.  Enjoy!

The beef jerky was so easy.  Buy a lean piece of beef (the butcher suggested London Broil) and have them slice it really thin.  Take it home and put it in a plastic bag with you favorite marinade and let it sit overnight.  Then spray your dehydrator trays with cooking spray and lay out your marinated beef.  Be sure to leave a little room between each piece so they don’t stick.  Then just plug it in.  It took about 6 hours.  I sent some with my husband and kids on a Scout overnight and got rave reviews.  I’m looking forward to doing it again but on a bigger scale.  During the summer London Broil goes on sale all the time.  I’m going to buy a big chunk and make a bunch.  By then I’d like to have a vacuum sealer so that I can store the jerky for awhile.  At this point it is disappearing pretty quickly so I’m not worried about it going bad!

I saw the idea for dehydrating strawberries on Pintrest.  (I LOVE Pintrest!) It took a lot longer to dehydrate the strawberries.  Probably about 18 hours.  I didn’t spray the trays but I did turn the cut pieces half way through.  Next time I’ll spray… a bunch of them stuck.  Anyway, I just sliced them pretty thin and spread them out on the trays and plugged it in.  After they were done I put them in a baggie and in the freezer since most of my kids don’t like them.  I liked them and my youngest should as well.  Even if no one does, I can re-hydrate them and use them in recipes when ever I want.  This way I don’t have to pay the higher prices when they are out of season (when I usually want to use them.)