Build it and they will eat it

This technique works wonders with Aria when it comes to salad. She use to eat salad all the time but now she isn’t a fan of the lettuce which really isn’t my concern, my concern is I still want her be able to get excited and enjoy eating vegetables raw and not JUST cooked.

So a little while ago I started doing “Build your own salad” where I bring out a bunch of different vegetables, seeds, nuts and raisin/craisin type things and let Aria decide what she would like, with of course a few suggestions that she agrees to. Here is a picture of what I used for choices at our last meal:

Some basic veggies that ALWAYS go in salads for her is cucumber and avacado. Then from there it changes from night to night. Seeing as we had leftovers from the turkey dinner we had a turkey salad with cucumber, avacado, craisins and turkey. She really has a lot of fun and gets excited about it, which is kind of the goal for me and in the end we have a young girl eating lots of veggies…YAY

Dairy-free ice cream, movies and daisies

Okay so life has been going pretty good. Got Aria going to strong start again (a free preschool type program where the parent and child interact, play games, do art, sing songs etc) and she is just loving it. I am going to try and make sure we go at least twice a week so that it becomes a regular routine for her. She really does enjoy it and gets to see her friends a lot more often because of it.

In other news, I also borrowed our neighbour’s ice cream maker and made our first batch today of dairy-free ice cream. Very simple recipe that I made up which is two cans of coconut milk and half a fresh pineapple! Throw it in together to the machine and let the machine do the rest of the work! Next I am going to try dairy free chocolate sorbet from this website http://dairyfreecooking.about.com/od/icecream/r/chocolatesorbet.html I will let you know how it turns out.

I also got to go to the movie Julie and Julia tonight…that was a nice break…from half my kids hahahaha…I had Tevye with me but he slept through 2/3s of it and then was very happy the rest of the time. YAY. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE Meryl Streep, she is just AMAZING and wonderful. If you haven’t seen it, its funny, I highly suggest it.

Ah and my wonderful husband being SO energetic about getting me a surprise ended up, by accident, sending me 3 dozen daisies A WEEK EARLY of our 4 year anniversary (coming up this oct 1). What a sweet guy he is, he knows they are my favorite and he even told me that he was thinking about getting me a potted plant but decided that I needed a vase for flowers that he would want to get me in the future and so went with a bundle that came with a vase.

Don’t know where I would be right now without him, but I know I am happy right where I am WITH him. Yes and I am missing in LOTS now that he is back to work up in the Fort Mac camps. His rotation is only 3 weeks and 1 week but he couldn’t come home the first rotation so I think that is why its the hardest right now. He’s gone for 2 months…:( Mom and Dad how did you ever do it for all those years? Your courage, stamina and patience are qualities I hold you in high regard for!

I realized just now I am starting to ramble, I think that means its been a while since I last wrote…so with that said I will stop now and try to focus my next one a little more. Sorry about that! And to send you off with lots of awwwwws and ooooos here is a video of the kids.

Just a glimpse at this boy’s speed! CIAO

Odds’n'Ends of the Last Month

Okay so these last couple of weeks have been busy….can you tell? The update on a small scale are as follows:

1) Tevye is a rolling master! He gets everywhere. I can’t turn my back without him moving at least 3 feet! See video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pJTNPUgY2E (for some reason it won’t let me actually upload it to the blog so I put it in my youtube page.

2) Aria finished up her second set of swimming classes and loved it! She definitely enjoyed swimming, making friends and loved her teacher.

3) Jessie is back to work up in Fort MacMurray. He is doing quite a bit better then he has in the last long while. Jessie has found a diet that works for him and is managing it very well. He will be gone for two months this rotation because the flights are too crazy expensive this round but we should be good after that to have him home for the regular 3 weeks in and one week out. He also just had his 27th birthday on August 30, which we had to celebrate early cause of him leaving but we had a good time and I made my first gluten free carrot cake, twas delicious.

4) I am doing Belly dancing classes that a friend holds for free at her house. They are really awesome! Meeting a lot of other ladies as well and my friend Amy is coming with me so its tons of fun.

5) Going to be doing an informal photo shoot with some friends and their daughters at a park next week. I am trying to get myself in the same mind set as Jessie so we can start on this photography business sooner, cause hey this could be a job I can do at home as well! Here’s a picture of Aria and three of the girls on a walk we did on Monday, I sort of glamoured it up a bit.

I think that sort of sums it up.  Oh and some exciting news! I don’t know if any of you know who Hayao Miyazaki…the writer and director of movies like Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service, My Friend Totoro….well he’s done it again PONYO is his new one…I am sooo pumped! I love LOVE his films. They are so magical! You can see the trailer here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lfjww2cA2FE

That was sort of random. Well til next time!

Dr. appointments, hair cuts and belated b-day presents

Well I think we have been very patient, some people think maybe too patient, trying to figure out what is wrong with Jessie’s stomach area…the news so far is we haven’t gotten anywhere too fast, even with all that has been going on.

Let me elaborate, he finally had the ultrasound at the beginning of July having his doctors appointment on July 24th…can you guess what the ultrasound revealed? Yup you got it, nothing.  We are sadly convinced that our doctor thinks there is nothing wrong with jessie. On the other hand we went to a naturalpath who gave jessie a digestive pill and saw first hand the pain he goes through on a regular basis and she was extremely eager to try and resolve the pain, which was a wonderful change! She put Jessie on a strict diet of salads(chewed til they were basically water in his mouth), fruit smoothies (also being very aware of getting some protein), aloe vera juice and slippery elm tea. This Wednesday he would have been on it for 2 weeks and it seemed to have had an effect for the first little while but now he is back in pain. He is continuing the diet to finish his two weeks because he feels even though it is not healing the problem it is probably doing some very much good for him in the process.

On the good side of things we heard back from the andoscopy specialist and jessie has his initial consultation with the specialist on Aug 5th… *crosses my fingers this one brings results*

In the mean time we went to the zellers discount store and picked up some hair dye adding some FUNK to his life .

Since jessie has so little hair to do and some much dye left over our room mate Ian decided to use up the rest of the dye. Also I took half an hour and cut his hair, unfortunately I didn’t get a picture but two heads of hair and both dyed for under 10 bucks….I think I did pretty good.

Oh as for the belated b-day present….

Yes it is exactly what it looks like….a juicer. I was looking at buying one at liquidation world for only 25 dollars but I held off thanks to Jessie’s advice because low and behold the boys found one at zellers that was originally closer to 200 dollars that they got for 33….yeah Ian had to tell me otherwise i would have given him heck.  So yeah i now own a really awesome juicer!

Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Chocolate-Free Cupcakes

Okay so I was given a gluten free recipe book a couple years back and its only now starting to get some use but boy does this woman know what she’s talking about!

The book I got this from is called The Best-Ever Wheat- and Gluten-Free Baking Book, it is on page 215 and  has the delectable title Sour Cream Fudge Cupcakes. Now due to the fact that my husband is celiac and it runs deep on his side of the family the kids are on the celiac diet as well, not to mention my eldest daughter Aria can’t have Chocolate and the whole family seems to have their own personal intolerancess to dairy SO with all that said I took a chance and made these gluten free cupcakes dairy-free and chocolate free with fantastic results at Aria’s 3rd B-day.

Here it is (I will give the original recipe with my variations included):

Wet Ingredients:

4 Tbl (55 g) butter (I substituted with margarine)

1/2 cup (120 ml) water

2 eggs, separated and beaten

1/2 tsp vanilla flavoring or extract

1/2 cup (60 g) GF sour cream (I used Tofutti Sour Supreme instead)

Dry Ingredients:

1/2 cup (25 g) pure GF cocoa powder (I used Carob powder)

1 cup (200 g) sugar (or 1 1/2 tsp stevia)

1 1/2 cup (150 g) quinoa flour (I used Celimix rice flour)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp xanthan gum

GREASE your heaviest muffin tin and line with paper cups. Spray paper muffin cups with oil for easy release. Place butter and water in saucepan, heat until butter is melted. REMOVE from heat. WHISK in cocoa powder. SIFT together the sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cream of tartar and xanthan gum  in a bowl. ADD the egg whites until stiff but not dry. FOLD egg whites into batter. SPOON batter into prepared muffin tin. MAKE at 375 degrees Fahrenheit  for 20 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in center comes out clean.

Effects of Chocolate on my kid!

So I have known for quite sometime that Aria is very sensitive to chocolate, doesn’t matter what time of the day she has it that night putting her to sleep is impossible. Funny thing is she can have lots of sugar, get a big rush and still go to bed that night but one LITTLE piece of chocolate and it takes usually about an hour and a half at least.

Now to explain where this is going, I was on a baking kick last night andwanted to make chocolate chip muffins, oatmeal muffins and granola. I started by making the chocolate chip muffins (its the only kind our roommate will eat) but then I ran out of eggs for the other muffins so I made the granola and opted to make the other muffins the next day when I had more eggs. Not really thinking, it was right before bed and she was a bit hungry I gave her HALF of a muffin, which probably had a total of 3 or 4 chocolate chips in it. Well we went to do our usual routine of brushing the teeth, washing the hands, going to the potty, reading 2 or 3 stories…then she had to go potty again, which I was totally cool with so we do that and its a number two so YAY….we go back say our prayers, sing our good night song and I go to say good night and she says she has to go potty again, so we go to the bathroom. Well she sat there for 10  minutes and nothing happened, then she said she was all done and I tried tucking her in again. As soon as the light was off she started yelling that she had to go Pee Pee, lets just say this happened another 3 times, each potty sitting lasting about 5 to 15 mins with nothing. I was starting to get the idea that this was being used as an excuse to stay up but I also didn’t want to be the bad parent that said “you can’t go potty anymore” and she ends up peeing in her diaper and being very upset or worse, traumatized.

By the seventh time I realized I was starting to get very upset with her and frustrated at the fact that it was an hour after her bedtime and she still wasn’t asleep! I decided to not stay in the bathroom with her and be in my room tidying up (which is right next door)  so that I could disconnect and let her do what she needed to do without me in her face trying to rationalize that fact that nothing was coming out. Alas I calmed myself down and said to her, “Aria when you are all done mommy will come cuddle you for a few minutes in bed to help you go to sleep.”  I guess that was a very satisfying answer to her because she was off her potty and in bed in about a minute, I then laid down with her for about five to ten minutes until she was very very calm and then left…..and she went to sleep.

Once I successfully did this, I was A) proud of the way I decided to handle it and B) trying to figure out why she reacted in such a way. As I was cleaning up some of my baking stuff I thought of everything that she had eaten, which was no different then her diet has been in the last two months at least. Then I realized that that LITTLE half piece of a muffin with those 3 or 4 chocolate chips was the only difference. She had not had chocolate in well over a month and the last time she was this hard to put to sleep she had had chocolate….URIKA! Another toddler mystery case solved!

So….lesson learned, now I have to go and buy some blueberries so I can make Aria some muffins she can eat.

Amazing Food!

Okay so I have to tell you of the WONDERFUL dinner we had the other day.  Might give those who have gluten allergies/sensitivities as well as Lactose intolerances some nice ideas.

So this dinner came as compliments of Daniel the chef and Michelle the hostess….but I am definitely going to try it sometime!

First Daniel made rice with peas and carrots. Then for rice toppers he marinated extra hard tofu in a chicken broth the night before to help give it flavor, then put it into a stirfry with cauliflower, onions and potatoes along with a yellow curry. The other dish he made was tandoori chicken with cauliflower, onions and potatoes. In case the tandoori was too spicey for us he made a goats milk tzekiki sauce with mint and cucumbers. As a type of bread he made a gluten-free sort of flat patty/bread which was wonderful to soak up any of the leftover sauce. Then we STILL weren’t done! Michelle (who is lactose intolerant) made a tofu cheesecake. Now I have some pretty bad memories of tofu cheesecake but this one was REALLY good. She blended up medium tofu in with pineapples, vanilla extract and something else but I can’t remember what. It was very subtle but helped with the blandness of the tofu. She then crumbled gluten-free cookies mixed with a little bit of rice flour to make the bottom. Then topped it off with cherries!! It was SO good Aria had two pieces!

So yeah some neat ideas for those with limited diets! Hope you enjoy.