Weekend

We put up our Christmas tree today. It went better than I expected it to go. DS did his best to help and DD did he best to take the tree apart. I'd decided maybe I could forgo tying the tree to the wall. I figured our tree would be safe on the table since it's a cute little 3 foot tree. Nope. DD thew it over her head behind he back. It landed on her brother and she was triumphant.

My husband got me an early gift - a mini muffin tin. I've wanted one for a while. It will be perfect for making kiddo sized snacks. Now if only I could still get my son to eat something other than a chocolate chip muffin. I am thinking of making a fruit muffin with pureed fruit and sticking some chocolate chips on top to see if he'd go for it.

DD is starting to come out of the super bad sickness funk - hopefully her ear will start to be less disgusting sooon. I am so over green goo leaking out of my child. Not cool. I am hoping her eating will pick up she had maybe 10oz formula, 6oz Pedialyte and 4oz of apple sauce. Not enough.

Friday Photo Feature

This past week I decided to try baking yeast bread in the crock pot. It worked. It was a little heavy but it worked and I plan on tweaking the recipe and baking method.

Banana Bread

I had 2 bananas way past their prime so while dinner was in the oven I whipped up this banana bread to go in the crock pot. I recently got a 6 quart slow cooker so I can now bake my quick breads in a loaf cans I have instead of round baking dishes. The apple and pear puree replaces the egg and milk found in most typically recipes.

2 very ripe bananas mashed
4oz stage 2 pureed pears
4oz unsweetened apple sauce
1\4 cup oil [I used safflower]
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1\2 cup brown sugar
1\2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1\4 teaspoon salt

Mix wet and dry separately. Mix together. Don't worry about lumps. Pour into greased baking dish. You can bake in a crock pot by placing on an overturned bowl. Add some water [1\2inch to the bottom of the crock. Pop on the lid and bake on high for 3-3.5 hours. You'll know it's done same way you tell if it's done from the oven. Your whole house will smell like banana bread, a cake tester or tooth pick will come out clean from the middle. You can also bake in the oven at 350 for about an hour check it and rotate it if your oven typically needs that when baking.

This is about an hour into baking - the batter has doubled. See how the baking dish is sitting on an overturned bowl. I added maybe 1\2 inch of water. It was gone by the time the bread was done 3 hours later.




This was the bread after about 3 hours give or take 10 minutes. It was perfect. It bounced back and pulled away from the sides perfectly.

Vanilla cupcakes

Picture added 10\23\11 - they were really yummy.


I modified this recipe. I decided on cupcakes for DD's birthday - half the recipe made 5 cupcakes so for a big family you may have to triple [or more] my recipe.

http://www.myvegancookbook.com/recipes/recipe.php?id=73




Preheat your oven to 350 and put cupcake papers in.


1 cup AP flour
1\2 cup sugar
1\4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1\4 tsp baking soda
1\2 cup vanilla rice milk
2 tbsp safflower oil
1\2 tsp white vinegar
1tsp vanilla

'Cream' oil and sugar together. Add the rest of the liquid ingredients. Mix. Add baking soda and powder, salt then stir the flour in until just mixed together. It will be lumpy. It will work out.

Bake for 20-25 minutes - rotate the pan half way through.

The batter tastes just as good as typical cupcake batter. I promise I'll add a photo later.

Birthday

On Thursday my baby girl turns two. I can hardly believe it. On one hand it's gone by so fast. One minute I am going to the hospital to have her and the next she'd running after her brother playing army men screaming 'attack!'.
On the other we have had a long, scary road of hospitalizations, allergies, seizures, Epi-Pens, medications, elimination diets, formula trials, scopes, blood work and those made time drag on. She is an amazing person. I am very blessed to know her and my life is only better for it. I love seeing her personality unfold before me - I don't know who she will be but I am so amazed at being included in this journey. No matter how stressful the medical stuff can be. Like every Momma I hope I make the right choices and guide her the best way. I have said sorry more than once already and I am sure I will a lot more. Hopefully she understands when I mess up I am trying my best and coming from a place of love and wanting the best for her. Although I bet, like me she won't get it until she becomes a mother herself.

As for birthdays - CAKE!! I am attempting a cake recipe to make 'safe' cake for her. No eggs, milk, butter....I am modifying a recipe I found to use things she can take and I've already trialed. I will share that recipe and hopefully a picture.

I got a new crock pot. Swoon. It's HUGE and fits a full sized loaf pan so I can try more baking. I am super excited. I also got a tiny one extra - I wonder if a cheese dip is in our future for Husband and I for date night. Although we've been on a pop corn kick right now I toss mine with olive oil, garlic powder, a little sugar and dried dill. Amazing!

Muffins & Jam

So I had some blueberries past their prime - not good enough to eat fresh but not bad. I also cut up 2 apples and cooked them down with some sugar, mashed with the potato masher and called it jam. DS of course says "Where are the muffins?" as he always does.

I wanted my daughter to have muffins too. She's almost two now and she knows when someone gets to eat something and she can't. I looked online and found a recipe by Chef Bette. I had to make a lot of changes but it turned out well.

Here's the original recipe. http://www.your-vegetarian-kitchen.com/basic-eggless-muffin-recipe.html

My recipe

1\2 Cup vanilla rice milk
1 Cup all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons safflower oil
1 tablespoon real maple syrup
1\4 tsp salt


I mixed them using the muffin method. Mixed together dry then wet. Added wet to dry and mixed just enough. Baked them at 400. I did cut the batch in half but I got 9 little muffins out of it - some plain and some with mini chocolate chips for my son.

They did not taste very sweet to me but DD LOVED them. I will make a full batch next time and try some of the other ideas I had. Like using whole wheat flour or replacing some of the milk with fruit puree. I even thought about using jam as a fruit surprise.