Whatcha Eating??

When I was little I was infamous for always asking people "whatcha eating?" I think it was a mix between curiosity and wanting to taste everything everyone ever ate. I loved food. I loved cooking it, eating it and shopping for it and I still do. Well, maybe not quite as much as I used to because I now have dietary or monetary restrictions, but I still love food!

Fast forward to now. I was standing in the kitchen the other day, cooking up something or another, and my son walked in. He pushed a chair up next to me and promptly climbed up and leaned over my bowl. He then looked up at me and proceeded to say "Mamma, whatcha makin'?" "Can I have some?"

My heart melted just a little that day :)

Wheat-Free Pancakes

I found this wheat-free recipe for pancakes on Bob's Red Mill and it is great! The pancakes are golden and slightly crispy on the outside and fluffy and moist on the inside.

Rice and Oat Pancakes

Ingredients:
- 2 large eggs, divided into whites and yolks

- 1 1/4 cup brown rice flour

- 2 tsp baking powder (I use this homemade version which is corn free)

- 1 tsp baking soda

Cauliflower Pizza Crust

Pizza! Pizza! Pizza!

I am kind of excited that I have figured out a way to do pizza even on my new and restricted diet!

I am not eating wheat, which in most cases would mean I should be able to eat a gluten-free pizza.....well..... I am also not eating potato, soy or corn either and let me tell you that really limits the gluten-free choices out there! And yes I know that pizza is not a necessity by any stretch of the imagination but that does not mean that I don't enjoy eating a slice every once in a while. 

I am not going to pretend like I invented this new, revolutionary, never-before-tried recipe for amazing pizza crust. As a matter of fact it has been around for a while and I found the original recipe here on a blog called The Lucky Penny. Check it out, there are pictures and such! 

Arg!!! Grease Stains

My daughter has a purple t-shirt that is nothing special really, it wasn't even expensive. 

It is a basic, solid colored, dark purple shirt. 

I like this shirt because it is simple and no-frill and it looks cute on her.

It is one of those great basics to have on hand. 

As you can tell I am quite fond of this shirt :)

Now imagine how I felt when I pulled it off the drying rack, 

after the last time it was washed, and it looked like this!!

I have NO IDEA what in the world my child did or spilled on this to make it look like this!

AFTER being washed!

Sweet Potato and Cauliflower Mash aka "Yummo"

The first time I made this mash for my kids they responded by saying it was Yummo! Therefore anytime they ask what we are having for dinner and this is on the menu, that's the name "Yummo"

Sweet Potato and Cauliflower Mash (Yummo)

Ingredients:

Approx. 2 lbs sweet potato
1 lb frozen cauliflower, thawed
butter (can omit for dairy free)
salt and pepper to taste

Jan 4th - Meals prepared ahead of time is the way to go!

Today was a relatively "easy" food day because all our meals were in the fridge, more or less ready to just heat and serve. I have vowed to myself many a time to cook in bulk, freeze meals and be better prepared. And I will try again :) New year, new chance!

I would like to note that my husband was not there for neither breakfast nor lunch today, which made those meals stretch a bit further. 

Also, even though today's meals seem entirely devoid of vegetables I will note that the besides the soup being a veggie soup the meatballs have both mushrooms and carrots in them already. But do not worry, of course I will not keep our vegetable intake this low forever, but for now I am convinced we will be A-OK :) 

Today I Made Time

As I take a look around my house this evening I see scattered toys, a pile of dishes and the mountain of laundry that was supposed to be done today...on laundry day. I see towels and bath toys on the floor in the bathroom, yogurt smeared all over a highchair and pastel colored high heeled shoes tossed over by the bookshelf.

Then I take a closer look and instead of scattered toys I see the Duplo cake my middle daughter made me and the stuffed bear my son dragged around hugging today, I see the book I read to my son and the kitchen items my daughter "bought" and tucked into a bag.

Instead of a pile of dishes I see the remains of the homemade lunch my daughter happily brought to school and the dinner my kids all sat down at the table together and enjoyed. 

Spring has Sprung, Summer has Slipped Away and School is about to be in Session!

Yes, I know we all say the same things, but here goes.....Where did summer go???? I feel like it was just yesterday that school let out and the thermometer inched its way up and up and we got ready to tackle our summer "bucket list". 

Ok, so we do not have an official bucket list but I have a million things inside of my head that I think we should do, or places we should go. But, in all honesty, I think we did maybe a handful of those things...and that is even counting one of them twice! (We ate cupcakes from an actual cupcake place! Two times! Which might not seem like a big deal to most people, but to people with allergic children it is a relatively big deal :))

Back to the whole summer is gone concept....this year the summer ending is marking a brand new phase in our life. We are officially elementary school parents, and I am scared out my mind! I know this sounds absolutely silly, but I am convinced I am twice as nervous as my daughter who is way up there on the nervous-like-no-other scale. I told my husband that I think it is due to the fact that I did not grow up here and elementary school in Norway is very different than here (or at least it was when I attended it). 

Banana Bread

This banana bread recipe is one of my all time favorites! 

Most of the time I make mine in muffin tins but a loaf pan is also great. The original recipe is from a beautiful blog called Attic24; however, as with most of my cooking, I have made a couple of substitutions in order to make it more allergy friendly.

I will give you the original recipe first and then the tweaked one after.

Banana Bread (or Muffins) - Original 
100g soft butter/margarine
175g light brown sugar
2 ripe bananas
2 eggs
225 g flour
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
50g chopped walnuts (optional)
2 Tblsp milk (only if adding nuts)

A Winning Attitude

The other day at about 5 in the afternoon my 3 year old and 5 year old were running around the house burning off excess energy. They would start at the front door, yell "ready, set, go!" and take off running towards the fireplace. The first few rounds they did just that, running back and forth between the entry and the living room. However, after a while my 5 year old suggested they make it a running competition and my 3 year old gladly accepted the challenge.

Back at the front door, they lined up, yelled "ready, set, go!" and off they went! 

Not Just Any Oatmeal Cookie

I baked some yummy oatmeal cookies last week and I want to share the recipe with you. You have to keep an open mind about these because they are quite good, despite their somewhat odd list of ingredients. Most importantly, they are the perfect protein boosted treat/snack for my food sensitive children.

The original recipe for Lady A’s Oatmeal Cookies can be found on my friend Kristi’s Baby Food Steps blog here. She gets all the credit for coming up with these! Also, if you want to learn more about salicylates which is the latest food sensitivity we are tackling then take a look here. Kristi explains it better than I ever could.

Back to the cookies…I have made them exactly as the recipe states on Kristi’s blog, and both our family and our friends liked them. My only “complaint” was that they were a bit too sweet for my taste which is why I came up with this modified version:

Lady A’s Chicken Oatmeal Cookies with Applesauce and Maple Syrup

Like a Child

I wish I could dream like my children. Their dreams are so attainable and are not weighted down by reason or worries about all the things that might not make them happen.

I wish I was as easily amused as my children. A milk moustache, little brother having a crumb stuck on his nose, mamma dropping a spoon so cereal splashes all over the floor. Little things that can be so funny to little minds.

I wish I could laugh like my children. Their laughter comes from a place deep inside their bellies, it rumbles through their little bodies and come out into the world with such vivid gusto.

Progress Report

I am finally sitting down to write another blog post, despite my month-long dry spell, I am determined to get back to it. Since almost a quarter of the year has passed I decided that a recap of my progress in relation to my New Years Challenges would be suitable. I am simply walking through the challenges and how I am doing with each one:

Challenge 1 - Organization, organization, organization!

I am extremely proud to say that I FINALLY feel like I have made real progress when it comes to organization. This is mostly due to the fact that I spent the better part of spring break on a solo organization mission while my husband and two oldest kids were away at my in-laws. I will touch more on the specifics of this later, but all that is important to note is that my house is mostly organized and it is "20 minutes from company-ready" which I will also explain later. It is a huge relief and though there are some smaller projects here and there to tackle still, the HUGE ones are done!! So stop on by :) (As long as you give me 20 minutes heads up....)

Valentine's Day Treats

My daughter has been in preschool for a whole 5 months or so and I feel like there is always something "special" going on. A special craft, a special program, a special snack, a special lunch and so forth an so on. As a mom of a child with allergies these special events turn into a bit of a production for me since I do want to try to provide a very similar, allergy-friendly alternative for my daughter. To be honest, I would be quite ok if there were less "special" things and more of the "normal" things. 

Anyhow, to recap some of the events we have had in these 5 short months...there are of course all the birthdays with a special birthday snack. Then there was the hot-dog lunch, the Christmas party (which I still intend to post about later on), and father's night. All of these required a special meal or snack or treat. Oh and not to forget the firetruck craft and the gingerbread decorating. The firetruck was made from graham crackers, oreos and pink icing. Thankfully there are allergy-friendly alternatives to both grahams and oreos and beet juice makes icing pink, so after a get-your-kids-piled-in-the-car-and-run-into-the-specialty-grocery-store-with-all-three-in-tow-BEFORE-school-starts-in-the-morning scramble we did manage to make it happen on short notice. And as far as gingerbread goes, mamma can stay up and make dough the night before, sure thing! 

Revelation Update

I just want to let you know that battle hair has officially been won! We have now had four days without hair-catastrophes. Four whole days! I will never go back to using any other type of hairbrush ever again. It feels great to check that battle off my list! .....Never mind the remaining gazillion other battles I still need to keep fighting….

I might just have had a revelation!

So this may not seem like a big deal to most people, but it might just be a HUGE deal to me!

Here is the scenario:

Every morning I try to brush my oldest daughter's hair and get her ready for school or for the day.

Every morning her hair is one gigantic, tangled mess and I have no idea how it became like that.

Every morning we have a meltdown or a screaming fit or lots of lots of tears because my daughter is sooooo tender-headed.

Every morning I bite my tongue in a desperate attempt to try to stay calm (see challenge #5).