Meal planning

I decided to start shopping differently. I realized when I had a bunch of food but 1-2 items missing from each meal I typically make I need to shop differently. So I wrote out what I typically make and what I make 1-2 times a month. Wrote a list based on what I need for those items and the extras [snacks, drinks] and the usual stuff - flour, baking powder, salt.

I did amazing! My husband was amazed at how much money we had left over.

I also found a recipe to replace hamburger helper. It was good. I didn't have sour cream so I didn't use it. Turned out very yummy! It made a lot we all ate and DH had seconds and we still had another portion big enough for DH for left overs.

http://family.go. com/food/recipe-ew-504953-hamburger-buddy-t/ - unbreak the link.

Hamburger cooked with veggies and then boiled in beef broth with noodles. I plan on grating more veggies to add into it next time. Carrot and mushrooms are a good start. I also have to chop the mushrooms finer to get past Mr. Picky.

Happy Hanukkah

Today is the first day of Hanukkah. I decided it would be a good start to teach DS about it.


I also decided to make Latkes. All the recipes included eggs which we can't do. I winged it based on several recipes I read. Apple sauce seemed fitting. I dipped mine in apple sauce and it was really good.

8 medium grated potatoes, grated
1 medium onion, grated
Squeeze as much water out of these as possible.
pepper and salt
some apple sauce [I used about 2oz] to replace the egg
3-4tsp of all purpose flour

I fried them in Canola oil and Olive oil since olive oil is traditional.

My son was into the whole sword fight part of the Jewish people taking back their temple. He also got his first chocolate coin.

Big long very bad day

Well it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Nobody was hurt. Nobody was hospitalized.


We had a full day at the hospital. Every 3 months all the specialists want to see both kids. I also need new scripts every 3 months for everything from Speech Therapy to formula.


To make things more interesting my son began throwing up on the way to the hospital. It's like 50 miles or so one way. Far for us. We rarely leave the county otherwise. Thankfully we stopped in a tiny town. It was like on TV - Bank, Post Office, Gas Station and inside the Gas Station Attendant was shooting the breeze with the town policeman and the oldman...it was awesome. Said lady working at the gas station was kind enough to let us have like 300 paper towels and bags for both his clothes and to cover the car seat. She even found a box we lined with a bag to serve as 'barf bucket'.

Note to self: Remember to also pack UNDERWEAR for extra clothes. Thankfully my son who tells everyone everything didn't tell everyone we saw today that he was going Commando. I was thanking God for that - after several hours and doctors all running at least 30 minutes behind a piece I would have dropped to my knees and balled like a baby.

Not over the underwear. Over how stressful things can be. I love my babies so much. I'd give a kidney to make them better. Anything. Most of the time I am on top of things other times I want to have a good cry because it's not fair.

DD barfed from being so upset because we totally were an HOUR late for nap time thanks to late doctors. She freaked. Thankfully everything is better now. Naps have been taking, car seat cover has been washed. Momma has chocolate.

My house is trashed. My speech therapist will be here in 13 hours and it will probably still be bad when she gets here. I did however put together chicken noodle soup and put it in the crock pot - so we'll have good food - full of veggies and chicken and homemade stock.

I'd rather that than fast junk and a clean house although I'd like to be June Cleaver and do it all in pearls with perfect hair. One day I will be more awesome. Today I know my babies are loved. I know I advocated for their health and well being to the best of my ability. I know they feel happy and secure.

I also know when my son is too old to call chicken noodle soup chicken little soup anymore I will be sad. That's the stuff life is made for. <3 Love.

Crock Pot Salisbury Steak

So I decided to make Salisbury steak. I totally forgot to take pictures! My husband has bought frozen tenderized steaks that I had to make something with. I cooked an onion & can of mushrooms in a pan until the onions turned clear and dumped them over 2 big steaks[they were frozen but thin enough I didn't worry about it] in the crock pot set on high. Then I heated 2.5 cups of beef broth [from a box - low sodium] in the pan whisking in enough powder of brown gravy mix. Once it began to thicken I dumped it over the steaks and popped the lid on the crock Cooked on high for an hour and then dropped to low for the last 90 minutes. Made mashed potatoes and called it dinner. I am sure we could have had another veggie but the gravy was SO amazingly awesome DH and I both has seconds of potatoes just to eat the gravy. The left over steak and gravy went to work with DH with bread for his lunch. He said it was amazing even re-heated.

It was not salty even with using the mix and the broth but you'll have to judge how your family likes their food.

My wonderful husband recently found Orrington Farms Brown Gravy Mix. It's soy free! We haven't had gravy mix in a few years since we noticed one by one the mixes we used to buy started becoming 'soy contaminated' as we say in our house. Not that I don't mind making my own gravy but sometimes you know you want that 'brown gravy' taste [think poutine - it's just not the same with something else] and I cannot seem to replicate it completely from scratch. Google them and check out their products. I know I'll be seeing what else they have to offer and will be buying this gravy mix again.


If you don't know what Poutine is or you've never had it. Try it! If you can't get cheese curd - grated mozzarella works well even if some fans might turn up their nose. Fries, cheese and gravy! Nom!!

Halloween

I think overall we have a fun Halloween. My tip my hat to my husband. After being up for like 26 hours [he didn't take a nap to spend more time with the kids Saturday knowing he worked overnight] he came home from work Sunday morning. Slept for only 4 hours got up because he wanted us to go to Trick or Treat through History out at the museum. It was a lot of fun. My son had trouble understanding he couldn't sit on the 200 year old sofa and was shocked to learn little boys wore dresses in the 1850s as babies and toddlers. Each room had a period appropriate Halloween thing for the kids and Mom and Dad got to look around at the cool exhibits. Being in Illinois we got to meet Abe Lincoln of course. My daughter was scared of him - being just turned two she still didn't really get it but she loved walking around and was willing to drag us along to go quicker.
We came home to a beautifully roasted chicken I'd put in the crock pot six hours before. It was perfect. $4 for a 5lb whole chicken - we'll get another meal or 2 out of it. I can't decide because hot chicken sandwiches or chicken salad or soup. I saved the broth I didn't use for gravy...it was amazing!! I put some have looked better carrots on the bottom to act like a roasting wrack so the chicken didn't stick to the bottom of the crock and burn. Roasting in chicken juice sure did give those carrots a second life.
Monday my son went to school in the morning. I went to see the end of the day. He had fun. After lunch we got ready. Another truck or treat, a trip to the park and then this HUGE trunk or Treat to end the night. It got cold on the end. The kids didn't like their costumes so I dressed them up as Farmers with overalls, plaid shirts and my son carried a bucket instead of a pumpkin. They had music and games. Not many people where we went even the other side of town had their lights on. Good thing we planned to go to other events instead of door-to-door.
Then Daddy got to come home and help with bedtime and go to work. Daddy sure was tired when he got home. He rocked it out though. Awesome Dad.

Dear Halloween Candy companies,

Why write "this is not packaged for individual sale" when you know people will be giving them away. Food allergies can be deadly. We have to avoid so much, don't ruin a fun day with unlabeled candy. Put your ingredient list and warnings on EVERY product you sell. It's good for everyone. Parents of children with food allergies will support you, as in buy your products and recommend your products to fellow parents of allergy kids.

Dear some stupid parents,

Painting your kid to really look dead is creepy. It's not fun. Maybe I am a stick in the mud but I have no desire to know what my baby looks like dead. Letting your 10 year old dress up like a "zombie hooker" makes parents like me want to SMACK you. Protect your child's innocence as long as you can. It's short lived as it is.

In the kitchen

One of the benefits of having a family with allergies is having to learn to cook and bake from scratch. I cannot pick up most take out or use a box of something as easily as other families. Most packaged products have soy or dairy or worse do not declare they package in the same factory as a product with an allergen - like peanuts or eggs.

This morning I put chicken in the crock pot with a little water, onions, garlic, pepper and salt. I'll have 1 piece for dinner and the other 2 will become chicken salad tomorrow. I made the boys a meat loaf - DH loves it and I have finally perfected my recipe. I cannot use store bought bread crumbs as they all have soy now so I crush up plain crackers. Sometimes I use bread crumbled up but it's 5 days until pay day and I didn't want to waste the bread.

Some meals are more expensive than others - recipes that call for safflower or coconut oil etc so I have to know where to be cheap. Surprisingly enough I have found a lot of off brand products are better about not having soy protein this or modified food protein that or milk, egg etc in a product that doesn't need it. When did bread need milk or eggs? Know how hard it is to find a store bought bread without soy, dairy, egg, oats or issues with coming into contact with nuts...yeah

I am thinking of investing in a bread machine.

I said this is a benefit because I am getting my family back to real food. Back to basics. Fruit, vegetables, meat, grains the only things really that sounds like a science experiment is the formula and we're glad for it. My husband complains but he gladly eats rice, more veggies and drinks water everyday. That is a huge step when I married him he ate four vegetables regular canned peas, corn, green beans and potatoes most of those came in instant flakes. Not that canned veggies or instant potatoes don't have their place but a baked potato is really awesome isn't it? If you can't do dairy try olive oil, garlic, pepper and salt and dill better yet if the dill is fresh. AMAZING.

I'm not a baby

My daughter who's proud to be a 2 year old has declared baby food off limits. I had been slowly but surely using up the last of our baby food and not making new. It's hard through - trying to get food into her diet other ways. She's rejecting acorn squash apple sauce which made me feel so creative at the time. I guess this is life - now she wants big girl food all the time. Can't blame her.

I am going to try sweet potato fries again. I'm trying to find bigger safe noodles - alphabets are hard to scoop up and eat. Maybe I'll find stars or something.

She's doing really well - loves pears, peaches, apples, crackers.

We failed our lamb trial. I was wondering how much we'd be able to add to her diet when it's $6.87 a pound but it would have been nice to have an easy protein. I am thinking of trying Sunflower seed butter - see if that will work since it's a seed not a nut\legume.

In other news my son is five years old in a week! He refuses to have a party and does NOT want presents or anything else which will make him five. So once again I am keeping his birthday low key since he doesn't want a party. We'll see how this goes.

Friday Photo Feature

A blog I regularly read does a Friday Photo Feature. The blogger is in Australia which is why I am posting this today.

Growing up a meal we had often was macaroni and stewed tomatoes. Yesterday I couldn't think of what to make so I made this. For some reason my son is rejecting noodles so I asked him if he'd eat bows the last time we were at the store. He agreed and ended up eating two plain bow noodles. No sauce! Its cheap, comforting and satisfying. You can top this with cheese and it's great with a crusty bread to dip.

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!

First tastes of Fall

Homemade Alphabet soup

I used beef broth which my husband loved and instead of actual tomatoes, tomato paste so the boys wouldn't complain about tomato pieces. Alphabet noodles because my son loves alphabet soup in the can and the car noodles get too mushy.


Canadian style baked beans. Even after soaking them for about 18 hours or so they took a long time. Next time I think I might boil them after soaking them overnight before adding them to the crock pot with the goodies. I did not use bacon or ham and they still tasted amazing.




This is the first Pumpkin Puree of the season. I steamed the tiny pumpkin in a pot on the stove only took about 25 minutes. Usually I do hard squash in the crock pot and it takes about 3.5 hours. She doesn't like it plain or flavored like pumpkin pie [cinnamon and sugar added] but she loves it mixed with apple sauce.

Salsa

I wanted salsa so I decided I had most of the ingredients I needed so I would make it. I was happy with how it turned out and it was even better the second and third day. I diced tomatoes, red onion, green pepper, minced garlic, pineapple[used canned] and then added cumin, cilantro, lots of fresh cracked pepper, salt and a splash of vinegar.

I think next time I will use more tomato and lemon or lime juice instead of vinegar.

I also made Spanish rice in the rice cooker. I copied what they had in the ingredients on the back of the box of 'Spanish rice mix' for the ingredients.

1 cup of white rice, picked over, rinsed and drained in the rice cooker pot.

I took a 4 cup liquid measure and put in 1 tablespoon of each red onion, green pepper and tomato paste[we felt it was too much so next time I will use half the tomato paste]. Finely chop those onions and peppers. Add enough chicken broth to bring the liquid up to 1 2\3 cup.

20 cranks of fresh ground black pepper

1\2 tsp dried cilantro

1\4 tsp ground cumin

I would salt the water well if you don't use chicken broth but I didn't use salt as the chicken broth is salty on it's own.

1 cup of rice cooks perfectly in 1 3\4 cups liquid. I figure the rice will hold on to some water from being rinsed and some liquid from the tomato paste, veggies etc.

Add liquid to rice and stir. Put in rice cooker and set to cook. It will pop up when it's done.

I was very happy with the rice. My husband has seconds and usually he's not a rice fan and even my son ate it.I also might try it with brown rice once I can figure out how to cook brown rice in the rice cooker.

Breakfast

We finished our first week of school. Last week I knew I'd have to encourage my son to eat breakfast so I stocked up on eggs. Scrambled eggs take less than 5 minutes and he LOVES them. Two eggs scrambled or 1 egg and 1 sliced banana or 1 egg and some yogurt.

My son doesn't see cereal as breakfast and he'd never eat it covered with milk so I don't get to cop out at breakfast. I used to make pancakes, french toast and waffles in advance to re-heat in the toaster. It was wonderful. He however has decided he will only eat store waffles and won't touch French toast or re-heated pancakes anymore. I tried to get him to try home fries calling them breakfast french fries but he wouldn't go for it. Maybe if I just bake regular cut potato fries to serve with bacon and eggs he'd at least try it.

Will be hunting down breakfast recipes.

Summer winding down

I have been enjoying the last few weeks of summer with my family. Sure summer doesn't officially end until mid September but school starts next week. We done some fun things including going on a picnic with friends.

The heat has finally lifted so we were able to enjoy some hot meals like spaghetti - first my son rejected sauce and now noodles. He did however try meatloaf this week. My husband said it was my best meatloaf yet - full of veggies so I felt good feeding it to him. My son was not impressed.Although he was optimistic about trying it which is nice.This morning we discovered yogurt in a tube is awesome.

Next week I get to get back into making breakfast every day and having fun school snacks made and packed every morning. We've met his teacher [same as last year] and Pre-K 4 should be lots of fun. He'll be one of the 'big' kids this year. He'll also be joined by one of his best friends who's starting school. Miss fussy boots will be here with me for another couple of years. One of the perks of having fall babies - you get an extra year home with them. Wub.

Today as part of dinner we had Super Fries. Oven baked fries topped with bacon bits, minced onion, shredded Cheddar cheese while the fries are hot so the cheese melts and then some sour cream. I always salt and pepper my fries before building. You can also use green onion instead but I like them on top with the sour cream cold not warmed up by the hot fries. Yummy!

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.

Winter Squash

One great and easy thing to feed babies & toddlers is squash. I prefer to cook butternut squash, acorn squash and pumpkin in the crock pot. split, seed and chop into small enough pieces to into into your crock pot flesh side down. Add about half an inch of water, cover and set on high. In 3.5 hours you'll have cooked squash. Cool and scoop out of the skins. Blended with some of the cooking water it makes great puree or with a fork or potato masher to have more texture for an older baby\toddlers. I prefer mine mashed with butter and brown sugar but real maple syrup is awesome and pumpkin is great for bread and pie of course.


I did however notice in the summer the acorn squash I made for my daughter was bitter. So I came up with an idea as I didn't want the squash to go to waste.

Flesh of one acorn squash, pureed about 4 cups
2 cups of unsweetened apple sauce
dash of cinnamon
1 tablespoon white sugar

I mixed it all in the blended it all in my regular blender. I would guess other sweeteners would work too or not using one at all.

My daughter loves acorn squash apple sauce - I'm so glad I did it.

Another great way to use it is in bread [banana squash bread] or muffins. My son hopefully will never know his chocolate chip muffins for school have a serving of veggies in them.

Apple-Pear-Squash & Blueberry bread

8oz of pear-squash puree
1.5 cups of apple sauce
1\4 cup oil
1\2 cup brown sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
dash of cinnamon
1\4 teaspoon salt
2\3 cup fresh whole blueberries

Mix dry. Mix wet. Combine. Fold berries in at the end. I washed them and patted them dry.

As for baking I would expect it would bake in an oven like a typical banana bread. I however have never baked this in my oven. I bake it in the crock pot.

Pour battered into a greased dish smaller than the vessel of the crock pot. Turn a heat safe bowl over inside the crock pot.I just use a small cereal bowl. Make sure it's not too high as the lid of the crock pot has to fit on top with the bread in the dish inside. Add half an inch of water. Place dish inside the crock pot on the over turned bowl. Put lid on crock pot. Cook on high. It won't look like it's doing anything but you will see about an hour inside the batter swell and 2.5 hours in or so you will begin to smell cooking bread. 3.5-4 hours later your bread will be done. Use a knife when it comes out clean it's done.

Warm with butter it was even an awesome Momma breakfast.

Pancakes

I found a recipe for vegan pancakes for the kids. While my son can have lactose free milk my daughter cannot have any dairy or eggs.I am trying to have more and more recipes everyone in the family can eat. Sometimes looking for vegan recipes can be frustrating as people simply replace dairy with soy or some other food which is also an allergen. Or these recipes are long and involve complicated things I can't find in a typical grocery store. Although this is easier as no one in our family is gluten or corn free.

I found this recipe from allrecipes.com:

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups water
• 1 tablespoon oil - plus extra to fry with if you need\want to.
  

It works well. They turn out nice and fluffy and even passed as 'normal' pancakes for my husband. However plain pancakes [my son does not do sauce - like maple syrup] can get boring so I tweaked the recipe.

Vanilla maple vegan pancakes

3\4 cup Whole Wheat flour
1\2 cup all purpose flour
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups vanilla rice milk
1 tablespoon real maple syrup
1 tablespoon oil

Oil to fry with - I use coconut oil shortening while safflower oil in the batter.

I have made this recipe with cow's milk, water, rice milk without issue. I have also used canola, safflower or coconut oil without noticing a difference. So it seems an easy recipe to modify for allergies and switching things up. Mix and cook like typical pancakes - mix dry, then wet, mix together and cook in frying pan or griddle and I use a little oil or coconut shortening - helps to keep from sticking and with browning.

I am going to try adding blueberries and other fruit some time soon - we'll see how that turns out.