Best cookies I ever made!

Healthy for ya Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie

3/4 cup raw sugar (turbinado)

1/4 cup regular brown sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened to room temperature

1 egg 1 tsp vanilla

1 TBL milk

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (whole wheat pastry flour or just plain whole wheat flour)

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)

1 1/2 cup uncooked oats

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Directions:- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

- Combine the sugars in an electric mixer.

- Cream the sugars with the softened butter.

- Add in the egg, vanilla, and milk. Cream until smooth.

- In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon. Add slowly to the wet mixture until incorporated.

- Once smooth, stir in the oats, chocolate chips, and walnuts.

- Using a teaspoon or a small ice cream/cookie scoop, drop rounded teaspoons about 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

- Bake for 12-15 minutes or until lightly golden around the edges. Makes around 2 dozen.

Happy Halloween!!

OCTOMOM!

My mom is okay!

Today I brought mom for her alleged breast biopsy, but when the doctor examined her he said there was NOTHING there to biopsy! SO whatever bump she had, be it an inflamed milk duct or whatever was gone... could've been all the prayers, huh? We were so relieved! Meanwhile I mentioned to the nurse practitioner that since my biopsy 2 1/2 weeks ago, I have a really big knot in my breast and she says, "Oh thats probably just a little hematoma." And then she take a look at it and says, "Oh no, that's a really BIG hematoma, I'll have to get Dr. Breaux to take a look at this!" So he does and agrees that it is pretty big! So on the spot, they hook me up to an ultrasound machine and he numbs me up and sticks yet another needle in my breast, (which I will now call the PIN CUSHION!) and he proceeds to try to draw some fluid out of it, unsuccessfully! He only got a tiny bit of blood out, the blood was too thick, so the remedy now is just time, as time passes it should all get absorbed! Oh the drama.... I told them that I was THE DESIGNATED driver today, not the patient! But it wasn't too bad. I survived once more, a little procedure on my breast! And thank you God, my mom's boob is okay! My boob on the other hand is begging for a break!

Am ready to change it up a bit!

Just as I was ready to refresh the concept of my blog and make it a Food/Entertaining blog, I am emotionally on hold again as we await a doctor's appointment for my mom with a surgeon for a breast biopsy on Wednesday! It was my intention to refocus and not dwell on cancer anymore, and so here we are faced with yet one more possibility! Such is life! We are of course praying for a good result and I will keep you posted on the outcome, meanwhile I will dabble in presenting my new found love of testing out healthy recipes that are delicious! We are trying to keep away from all white processed foods, mainly refined sugar, white bread, pasta etc. Today I made these Mini Whole Wheat Biscuit French Onion Soup Bowls!! I searched high and low for whole wheat refrigerated biscuits... of course Rayne and Crowley had none! So I made my own whole wheat biscuits from scratch!

So here is the recipe: (does not include the biscuit recipe)

Take a muffin pan and spray the back side of it with non stick spray, and then mold a biscuit onto each cup and bake at 400 degrees until set!

Slice up one Jumbo Sweet Vidalia Onion and cook in two tablespoons olive oil with salt and pepper until carmelized, about 15 minutes.

Then melt 3 Tablespoons butter and stir in about 4 tablespoons flour and add 1/2 pint heavy cream, whisking as you add it. As it thickens, whisk in 1 cup grated swiss (the recipe called for gruyere, NOT IN THE BOUDREAUX BUDGET this week) Stir until smooth.

Fill each cup with the onions, cheese sauce, and more grated cheese. Top with paprika and one small leaf of fresh basil. (I always have a pot of fresh basil on my patio).

Bake for 5 minutes until cheese is melted. Yummy and pretty!!!

Hope you enjoy! I will continue to post about my family's activities, as well as keeping you updated on my health and now my mom's too! And I will always, of course, post lots of cute grandbaby pictures!! :)

Paws for PInk Day at Rayne Catholic

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Evie and Audrey at the Pumpkin Patch!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Back to Holy Toledo!

This past weekend my girlfriends and I went back to Toledo Bend to the lakehouse for a luxuriously relaxing weekend! It was exactly a year ago that we had gone after my two breast surgeries and lymph node disection. At that time I was in a lot of pain, both physical and emotional. I was so relieved this year after my biopsy results, that I went ready to celebrate life and have lots of fun. And I did, as we were also celebrating another friends ABSCENCE of cancer! As life goes, when you gather 8 beautiful souls together, there is always some healing to be done. One could not even imagine the profound sense of love in our circle! When women gather with open hearts and trust, miracles happen that we can never plan for. We lift each other in pain and joy and sometimes there is only a moment between the two, so we stay on our spiritual toes when dare pray in a circle! I was surrounded by the beauty of nature, a wonderful lakehouse and friends with hearts of gold. I long for my children to gather friendships like these made of solid gold!

We had the best weekend ever... I treated them to a surprise performance of my own "BEYONCE' BOUDREAUX" rendition of SINGLE LADIES!!!! I love when people laugh, even when it is at me! And oh, uh uh, did they LAUGH!

Had a cancer scare!

When I went for my mammogram 3 weeks ago, the radiology doctor said there was "an area of concern" on my xrays. After numerous more xrays, he sent me on to my surgeon for a biopsy. It took a little while to get in and I finally had the biopsy last Friday morning. I must admit that for those 15 days of waiting I became more and more anxious as each day would pass! I was told that if the cancer would have reoccurred in the same breast it would have meant that I would've needed a mastectomy. I spent very much time and energy trying to prepare myself for the worst! (Where is the old optimistic Madelene?) Yesterday morning I got the call from Dr. Breaux's office, and when I saw his name on the caller ID I was petrified to answer the phone! When I finally answered, how exciting it was to find out that the specks on my mammogram were fibrocystic calcifications. I am determined to eliminate anything in my diet that would contribute to the formation of these deposits! And also supplement with things that would help get rid of them!

I was instructed to have mammograms every 6 months as opposed to once a year, now that this has happened, to keep a close watch on this situation! It was a very emotionally draining experience and I need a vacation! Which is what I will get this weekend when some of my girlfriends and I head out to the lakehouse at Toledo Bend!!

Am so looking forward to some relaxation and laughter!

Homecoming Dance for the twins!

For a long time it felt like I would FOREVER have small babies to look after! Probably because I kept giving birth to very many babies! And then we blinked and tonight we sent our beautiful twin "babies" off to a homecoming dance! Wow! Unbelievable! Suddenly time is quickly moving forward and my children are growing up right before my eyes! Although preparing teenage girls for their first homecoming dance can be somewhat challenging, when I got home after we went to take their pictures I was convinced they would have a good night! Hope they did!

Evie encouraging mimi to enjoy our local culture!

Today I met Bryan and Kristin and Evie for lunch at the park. It was the Bach lunch where local musicians play during the lunch hour and people just chill out and enjoy our local culture. Today was really "chank a chank" day. Bryan picked us up some sushi from Tsunami. I enjoyed it. I got the vegetable sushi, it was good! Evie will be much like her Pasquier cousins, very culturally educated, with an appreciation for many things!