Food – Page 3 – xangelle.com

It’s all about the Chocolate, Baby!

Living with food allergies can be difficult at times but it’s not the end of the world. Yes, there are definite challenges, but we manage work within the limitations and still live and eat amazingly.

Any effort that we have to go through is SO worth the vibrant health that we get to experience….ya know, minus that whole cancer thing….ummmmm, yah moving on….

Siah has an egg and dairy allergy and to look at him, you would never know that he has allergies. He doesn’t have dark circles and bags under his eyes or eczema on his skin. He is almost never sick and never seems to have “bowel issues”…trying to be subtle here. He is one healthy little boy.

In this picture, if you look, you can see all the little scratch marks on his face. He would claw himself all day and all night because his skin was bothering him so bad….I had already eliminated dairy from my diet at this point

In this picture, you can see some of the eczema on his face. I remember when I saw this picture I was so excited, because he looked SO AMAZING. He was starting to heal at this point. At it’s worst, he was an oozing mess all over the top of his head, down his forehead, into his eyes and all over his cheeks and chin. It was horrible.

The rest of us, don’t eat dairy because it does not agree with us. It’s not an allergy like Siah, but more of an intolerance. When he eats dairy, he gets sick with vomiting and diarrhea and has eczema and it’s nasty. The rest of us might get bloated, or have tummy aches, headaches, or might just feel “off” or “icky” and most of the time, it’s just not worth it, especially when there are so many amazing tasting substitutes.

One thing that I’ve tried to do ever since we found out about Siah’s allergies is to make life as normal as possible. We eat ice cream, and pizza and have chocolate and pretty much anything that we want to eat…..we eat. I’ve just found dairy and egg free substitutes.

Special days like Valentines and Easter and Christmas can be difficult, but I’ve tried very hard to not have my kids feel like they’ve been denied “normal” while keeping things safe for everyone.

With the Christmas season comes Chocolate Advent Calendar’s and in past years, I’ve done many different things, from creating envelopes with different “things” to do or eat. I’ve put Jelly Beans into an Advent Calendar and that’s worked, but the best thing that I’ve done is to just “alter” the advent calendar’s so that they are dairy free.

First thing to do…..Get your Calendar and slice open the flap at the back, trying not to destroy the flap because you’ll want to seal it up again when you’re all done.

You’ll need to open it carefully and pull out that tray that’s inside. It might be glued to the cardboard and so you’ll have to carefully pull it apart and away from the box in order to get it out.

Then you’ll need to dump out all the original chocolates, and dispose of the original’s….I had 2 big girls that were willing to deal with a bit of an upset tummy to be able to eat the chocolates.

Then you need to get yourself a dairy-free chocolate bar. This particular one is from Super store. You can find dark chocolate that has no dairy in it if you search and read a million labels. This one is great because it doesn’t taste too dark and bitter and *the bonus in my eyes* it has almonds in it. YUM!

Break it into hunks and melt it down. I used about half the bar and melted it in the microwave for about a minute and a half.

I used a spoon to drop the melted chocolate into the plastic try.

You take your completed tray and pop it in the freezer to set the chocolate. It only takes a few minutes to set it enough to continue on with this whole ordeal.

While you are waiting, you could clean up the dishes that you’ve used, or just use the time to finish up any of the leftover chocolate…..MMMMMMM Chocolate!

After a few minutes, the chocolate is set enough to carry on. I pulled out my glue gun and heated it up and glued a few strips on the tray…..this will help the tray to stick to the box and then all the chocolates won’t fall out or slide all over the place.

You have to work quite quickly here because you want to get the tray back into the box before the glue cools and hardens….so slide it back into the box and you’ve got to make sure that it’s facing the right direction….one way it lines up with all the little doors and the other way it doesn’t….I’ve learned the hard way. Not fun!

You can just press on it gently to make sure that the glue is stuck to the box…

This picture has nothing to do with anything….I just think he’s very cute and he was sitting watching me with this “What the heck are you doing?” look……

Flip the box over and run a strip of glue along the back flap

and then seal that sucker up…..My 2 big girl helpers managed to shred the top of this flap and so it required a little extra lovin’ to get it sealed up properly.

Here are the calendar’s waiting for the kids to open them.

Opening the special Dairy-Free Christmas Calendar that is totally safe for him……

Everybody is excited about chocolate….

These two have almost the same hair-do…

I think he approves….

These pictures would be so much cuter if he didn’t have that giant booger in his nostril…Oh Well…just keeping it real. I wonder if I coulda photo-shopped that sucker outta there….yah probably, oh well…..

Definately a happy boy with his “daiwy-fwee chawclut”…….

Even the older ones still get excited about their chocolate calendar’s….

I love having my kids be able to participate safely in some of the treats and special things in life, and any extra effort that it might take to make this happen is SO worth it, to me.

Maple Taffy

So it’s been snowing ALL DAY and the kids came straight home from school today and I’ve not seen them inside yet….

I was trying to think up a fun snack for them and I wondered if it would be easy to make maple taffy and really….it couldn’t be easier.

You need real maple syrup and snow.

Okay, you need to boil the maple syrup first, but really that’s not difficult. Most of the articles that I read mentioned a need for a candy thermometer but I just winged it and VOILA…….

You boil the maple syrup for a while. It needs to get over 260 degrees Fahrenheit and it needs to thicken up a little, so I probably boiled it for about 10 mins.

Then I took my pot outside and found some clean snow and using a spoon, drizzled some onto the snow. Then I called Jeremy over and asked him to eat some of my yellow snow – which he emphatically declined….until I mentioned that it was maple candy.

Here it is in the snow….

And after a few seconds….it comes out more solid, like this…..

And after you’ve taken a big, chewy bite, it looks more like this…

It’s chewy like toffee but tastes like maple syrup. So Delicious and so easy.

Have you made this before? Am I just really behind the times?

(part 2 of “Getting away from it all” coming soon)

Start of Another Week

Time just keeps moving forward and I find myself frustrated at all the things that I want to do that I never accomplish.

I’m doing lots, but I still feel like I’m running from behind trying to catch up. I “HATE” that feeling of not ever getting things done, but it seems to be the “norm” around here these days.

A little while ago, (I’d guess at a week ago, but I think it was even further ago than that) Geli’s friend came over to hang out and her Mom had picked up both the girls from school and dropped them off at our house.

When she came, she brought the MOST delicious Vegan Fudge Brownies….

I wish I had gotten a picture of them, but they were so good that we pretty much devoured them before I even thought to snap a photo of them and then I was just to lazy and tired to snap a picture of the remaining few pieces after we had all gorged ourselves on the delicious treat.

Siah was particularly thrilled and kept coming back asking for more and more and more.

The next morning we woke up and came downstairs and this was the sight that greeted us…

He had come downstairs first thing in the morning and found the tinfoil that had been covering the brownies…

It was SOOOOO delicious that he had to scrape every last lick from the tin foil…..

Such a silly little boy, but it really was very delicious and we were so thankful to have been blessed like that.

Siah Safe

Anyone who knows me, knows that I love to cook and bake. Often it’s a challenge to work with Siah’s Allergies and “the way we eat” and come up with food that looks and tastes as delicious as “regular, normal” food. It’s regular and normal for us, but I’d like to be able to serve it to you and have you not notice the difference. I also don’t want to always have to give Siah something different from the rest of us. It’s important to me that he understands that he needs to be careful when he goes out, but that here in our home, he never has to worry or feel “different” or “strange”. It’s a challenge that I’m usually up to, but in the past few months, I’ve not done a ton of baking and I’ve mostly stuck to our regular go-to meals.

But recently, I’ve been thinking about Chicken Lasagna.

My Aunty Lori makes an amazing Chicken Lasagna. Although I’ve never had “her” Chicken Lasagna, my dad had “her” lasagna (when visiting them in the Great White North – they live in the boonies.) and loved it so much that he asked her for the recipe. He’s made it a few times and MMMMmmmmmm – YUMMY! It’s a Tomatoe based Lasagna.

I asked for the recipe a bit ago and my mom even printed it off for me, but the paper got wet and then Siah destroyed it…so I still need to get it, because it’s one of Geli’s favorites and apparently, I “wreck” my lasagnas because I put too many veggies into them.

I’ve also tried a few times to make a White Cheese Sauce based Chicken Lasagna, but according to my kids…..I’ve had some “interesting” but not horrible results and yet nothing that was FABULOUS – until yesterday…….

I made a lasagna yesterday “based” on this recipe….with substitutions and additions, of course.

With the dietary restrictions and lifestyle choices that we have/have made, I pretty much “always” alter recipes and mostly, I have pretty great results. In this recipe, I use brown rice lasagna noodles, vegan Becel for the butter, Spelt Flour, Soy Milk, Goat Mozzarella, a hard Sheep Cheese for the Parmesan, Cheuvre for the Ricotta, and just because I know my kids preferences, I used carrots and zucchini instead of spinach. It was sooo YUMMY!

I love it when I find a “traditional meal” that I can alter to fit in with the allergies and intolerances within our family. In fact, It was yummy enough that I bet I could have fed it to you and you’d have never known it was “different” or “altered”.

You can’t very well have a delicious meal like that without dessert, can you?

Well, we don’t hardly EVER have dessert, but we do like snacks. This past week, a wonderful lady brought us a meal and included with the meal were the most amazing double Chocolate Chip Cookies. ~~Like a pig, I devoured~~ We finished what was brought, and then ~~they were so delicious that I~~ we wanted more.

I’m not sure if the cookies we were given were dairy and egg free, BUT…..no worries because ~~they never lasted long enough for Siah to know that they were even in the house~~ I found a recipe and made some unbelievably delicious Double Chocolate Chip Cookies that even Siah can eat.

Again, with the substitutes….I used Spelt Flour, Vegan Becel, Ener-G Egg Replacer, and President’s Choice Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chipits (these chipits have no dairy. MMMmmm). These are AMAZING!

There is no way that these could be considered “healthy”, but at the very least, they won’t upset our tummies, and Siah can eat them without us worrying about his allergies.

Highlighting the Highlights

So I turned 35 a few days ago and while it wasn’t the best birthday that I’ve had, I suppose that it could have been worse. As it turns out……it is what it is and there is nothing that I can do to change or to alter it and so here are the highlights of it all….

This is a picture of me bright and early on my 35th birthday. This is the “raw” me. No make up, no hair (ha) and wearing a pretty bland, white tank and jeans.

As much as this is not my FAVORITE picture of me….I suppose that it could be a lot worse and I’m not entirely disappointed in how 35 looks on me. Eh?

Here is the Birthday Banana that the girls made for me. Very creative if you ask me……

Then there was the crazy, no good, horrible, terrible day that happened. In the evening, my momma came over and took the kids and I down to Derby Reach. We picked up some sushi and ate at a picnic table as the evening turned to night. It was a break from the craziness of the day and a treat. Jon and I used to go for a weekly sushi date before Angelica was diagnosed and we haven’t gone since. Thank, Momma! I love you. You have and continue to be such a help and encouragement to me.

Momma took Siah for a sleepover on Saturday night and after we woke up on Sunday morning we went for breakfast at Ricky’s Restaurant. This is another favorite thing of mine to do. I love breakfast…..any time of the day. Eggs and Hashbrowns and bacon or sausage………MMMMMMmmmmm! Debbie, Denver and Jack joined us. In all the insanity of this whole crazy journey, it’s nice to do something ordinary.

The kids and I came home and spent the rest of Sunday as just a quiet at home day. I figured that if I was going to get all the kids down to bed on my own that I’d need to start early. We had a few too many leftover’s in the fridge and so rather than spending time cooking, I re-heated and everyone got to choose a little bit of this and a little bit of that. My mom came over just as things were warming and she stayed for dinner. I was able to get the dishes cleaned and the kids in jammies while she held Judah. So SO nice.

Just as I was shooshing the kids upstairs to read before I turned out their lights, my sister Debbie came rushing into my house carrying a cake stand…….with a cake. SURPRISE!

They sang happy birthday to me….

Even Judah joined in with a few squeeks and squawks…..

And we even managed to get Jon in on the action through Skype. (Geli was sleeping thanks to some meds.)

After my post mentioned emotional eating, I’ve made a few changes for myself, my health and my diet; and the cake Debbie brought over was sooooo appreciated.

Isn’t that amazing? It’s watermelon on the bottom two layers, and a layer of canteloupe and a layer of pineapple. With thin layers of strawberries and banana’s in between. The sauce is a soy yogurt blended with strawberries, and those are grapes for fancy candles…..

Debbie is amazing.

It was even more delicious than it looks and was a great way to end off the day after my 35th birthday.

What was even better, was that I managed to get all the kids asleep early and was in bed, myself, by 8:30pm. Sleep is an amazing thing.

So, it wasn’t all bad……more like difficult or tough or just not what I was expecting or had hoped for.

But, we carry on.

Barfing Sucks

Geli had her appointment on Tuesday for this week’s dose of chemotherapy.

Not surprising her counts were low enough to score her a free bag of platelets. In fact, she was actually too low to receive the intra-muscular injections BUT………there seems to be WAY TOO MANY BUTS recently……..they were out of platelets and had to have some brought in from an outside source.

They did end up giving her the injection anyway and had her hold bags of ice on her thighs to help her blood clot. (Platelets help your blood to clot and when they are low you are more susceptible to nose bleeds and other uncontrolled bleeding from cuts or bad bruising.) After the injections, they have to observe Angelica for 3 hours to make certain that she doesn’t have a serious allergic reaction and so if they had waited for a couple of hours until the platelets came in and then gave the platelets over an hours time period and then gave the intra-muscular injections and then watched her for the 3 hours…..well, they wouldn’t have been able to leave the hospital until after 7:30pm. This way, they were able to leave and get home by 6pm. So, it cut a few hours off the day, which was nice.

Angelica felt pretty good on Tuesday during the day, but started to feel a bit off by the time they got home…..She ate about half of her dinner and then started to really struggle with nausea. She tried valiantly to not barf but about 10:30pm she just couldn’t fight anymore. It was not pretty and it was the start of a very long, very nasty night.

We were up ALL night with her barfing and barfing and barfing and nothing was helping.

Finally she fell asleep around 5am and slept until the next “episode” at 7am. She managed to eat a tiny bit of breakfast, took her meds and around 10:30am was having a hard time keeping her eyes open or being able to sit up and so I sent her off to bed. She slept hard, only waking for me to give her some more anti-nausea meds at 11am and then slept until 2pm.

When she woke up, she ate some soup and crackers and seemed to look and act a little perkier than she had been. She seemed to be acting like she might be on the mend in the afternoon. Although, she was still pretty tired; she tried to eat some dinner and then when the other kids went to bed around 8pm….she did too.

I had planned on going to an exercise class with my sister and so I dragged myself off to the class and although it wasn’t my best class, for having next to no sleep, it wasn’t too bad.

I wondered how the night would go for us, but aside from our two littlest men tag teaming each other and managing to wake us every other hour, it was a pretty quiet night.

This morning, I was so tired, I couldn’t get up and so Jon got the kids up and off to school and I was surprised to hear that Geli had been up and at ’em like nothing was wrong…..AWESOME!

Her and Jon headed off to a BC BioMedical Lab to get her blood work done to see if she’d need another transfusion tomorrow and then they came home.

I asked Geli if she’d like to make some buns or bread with me and she was quite excited by the idea. If Geli was excited…..Siah was ECSTATIC! He LOVES to cook and bake. I’m not usually so excited as he makes quite a mess and making buns is already quite a messy endeavor, but I figured we could try to make it work.

Here is Siah, excited by his little bit of dough. (We were at “waiting for it to rise” stage)

In this next picture you can the “mess” a bit clearer…..Siah really “gets into” his baking.

I told Geli that this could be a “Home Ec.” class and that part of the Home Ec. mark always included the clean up.

We waited for the dough to rise and then punched it down, then it rose again and we punched it down again and then broke the dough up to make Cinnamon Buns, Coconut Buns, Cheese Buns and Plain Buns. The Coconut Buns are baking, but here are the rest of the buns still rising.

Angelica and Jon have gone to the High School to meet with her teachers. Based on her number today, she will be able to attend school on Monday. (They are trending upward, and should be okay for Monday.) She has more chemo on Tuesday, but should be good to go for Wednesday through the following Monday. Then she starts the Third Round of her treatment on Tuesday September 21st and that stage requires her to be admitted for 3-4 days every 2 weeks.

We are praying that Angelica would remain healthy and be able to attend school over this next week and a bit and that she would totally enjoy her school time and be able to feel integrated in with all her other class mates. Also that our other kids would remain healthy and not pick up any illness from the other kids in their school.

Rice Balls just for fun

Jon and Geli are at BC Children’s today. We have no idea if they’ll be coming home today or not. She is still vomiting and still has a headache. She is scheduled for a lumbar puncture and one dose of chemo and then……..ya, I have no clue.

She ate some yesterday, but she’s obviously not well. I really hate seeing her like she is. It’s pretty brutal.

Yesterday while Geli and Judah slept, I cooked.

I bought this recipe book on the advice of my naturopathic doctor and it’s probably one of my favorite recipe books ever.

The author, Cynthia Lair, has her own Amazon page where you can read blog posts and you can even subscribe to her You Tube Channel….where she hosts her cooking show – Cookus Interruptus.

We have found some of our all time family favorite meals and snacks from this book and yesterday, Josiah and I decided to try making the rice balls.

I know it sounds funny and honestly, its as simple as it sounds, but totally healthy and DELICIOUS. Even better, Siah had a ton of fun helping and then eating them.

Here you can see what’s involved…

I prepared the sesame salt in advance by toasting sesame seeds and then grinding them with sea salt.

I also steamed the rice which is a blend of brown and sweet rice and let it cool to room temperature.

That’s is the total of the ingredients involved. Rice, sesame seeds and sea salt. AWESOME!

One the rice was cooled to room temperature we started.

You need a bowl of water to keep your hands moist so that the rice won’t stick to them. You wet your hands and take a small ball sized amount of rice and roll and press it into a ball and then you roll it in the sesame salt…

It’s pretty much that simple.

They are ready to eat right away. Here Siah shows that you can dip them in soy sauce. We use Braggs Aminos. So SO delicious!

You can see by looking at his shirt that we really jump into cooking….like totally and completely….or maybe he just had a dirty shirt from lunch!

Mmmmmmm! They are so delicious.

These would be fabulous for school lunches and they last for 5 days in a sealed container in the fridge.

We’ll definitely be making more of these in the future.

I’d totally recommend this recipe book to anyone. It has tons of delicious whole foods recipes and they are easy to prepare.

A Little Catch Up……with pictures

You might think that caring for a newborn in a hospital shouldn’t be that difficult and well….its not difficult – it’s just challenging.

Either I hold him or I put him down on my cot or Geli holds him, but really I don’t like to let him cry or fuss too much as I don’t want to bother the nurses or any of the other patients on the ward and so the majority of the time…..I’m holding Judah.

Which, to be honest, I’m not too upset about, but it really means that there is almost nothing that I can get done that requires 2 hands…..but I am getting really good at doing mostly everything with one hand…..mostly everything. Somethings just require focus and concentration and we’ll just leave it at that………

About 2 weeks ago, Angelica did something to her left hamstring and it spasm-ed and pulled all tight and totally confused the Dr’s and nurses and physio-therapists……everyone was wondering if it was something related to the chemo meds, but in the long run…we’re thinking muscle spasm as it’s been able to be worked out…..mostly!

The physio-therapist came and suggested some exercises…..this was about as far as she could bend it….

And so as not to hurt it more and so that she wouldn’t torque her body trying to compensate for the hurt leg, they suggested she use crutches for a while….

I will admit that I was a bit worried as she had been kind of dragging the leg like it was dead or like she was the Hunchback of Notre Dame…..but the crutches have been given back and aside from a little bit of tightness which she is working on stretching out….it’s almost as good as new. We are so thankful that wasn’t a big deal.

The nurses here seem to be so amazed at how independent and responsible that Geli is. She is really taking responsibility for her own health in so many ways and gets up and makes her own meals when she is hungry….that’s the one that seems to really amaze people. I just figured that it was normal for a 13 year old girl to know how to cook…..seems normal to me, anyway?!?

She made perogies the other day….her favorite, but because her body is currently in a diabetic state – they are not something she can have very often…which is very sad!

Most of the time when I have to run to the toilet….Geli holds Judah and is typically able to get him to settle down if he’s a bit fussy. She’s an AMAZING big sister….

Last Thursday was the first time that we had all been home together as a family of seven….since our lives changed on June 16th…..it was so nice to all be together, even if only for a few hours.

Headed Home in the Van…Dad had run to Starbucks quickly!

Geli really wanted to have a barbeque lunch and asked that we pick up some chips because you can’t have a barbeque without chips…..

Making Lunch

She took her portion and then Siah claimed the rest of the bag as his own and valiantly fought off having to share with the other kids….little brat!!!

Jeremy worked on keeping things real by parking his butt in front of the Computer pretty much the whole time….

I don’t know how we missed out on Xani, but she was there….I promise!

and Nana got in some sweet baby cuddles….It was a pretty hot day….hence the naked baby!

The time flew by WAY TOO FAST and we hd to head back into the hospital. It was so nice to “BE” together in the comfort of our own home…..and hopefully we’ll be back together again very soon!

And now, my littlest baby is starting to fuss and I must go and get him….

Like Ships Passing in the Night….

Jon went home today to spend a little time with the kids and like ships passing in the night……Judah and I took over at the hospital.

It’s nice to see Geli, and nice to be able to sit (see previous post where I birthed an almost 10lb baby) and not be stressing about the 3 highly active kids at home…..or on the flip side to be stressing about my family taking care of my 3 highly active kids. But, I really REALLY miss Jon. I can’t wait to be able to see him and spend some time with him….talking, loving, just being….but it my be a little bit longer before that really happens. And…..such is life!

I ran into someone on Saturday at Superstore and shared a bit about our story. I got to the part where I mentioned that my eldest daughter was just diagnosed with Leukemia….and to be honest, there is a part of saying that, that just seems so dream like….its like I’m watching or hearing someone else talking about their life….There is this feeling that this can’t possibly be MY life…..my daughter’s life…..my family’s life…..that I’m talking about. It still seems a bit surreal.

And yet, it’s WAY TOO REAL….

We’ve shared some pictures, and talked about some of the better times, and about how Geli is doing so well (and she really is) about how we have peace knowing that this will work out, and about how we feel really very positive about this whole situation, and yet there is this other side to this whole situation…..No one really wants to talk about the negative stuff, but I am going to mention it so that if you pray…you know how to pray….

There are times, when Angelica is sick…..That’s hard. The chemo meds make her feel quite nauseous and when you are feeling that sick…..then nothing feels good. It’s the worst right after she receives the chemo….She gets the chemo on Fridays and then feels crappy right through to Sunday or Monday. It makes life very, very miserable.

The bone marrow biopsy hurts….and even though Geli is given meds to sedate her, it ends up feeling like she’s got a giant bruise on the back of her hip. This makes laying or sitting in bed hurt or ache a bit. Again, not fun!

There is a spot of irritation on the back of her throat, and while we are so thankful that Geli doesn’t appear to have massive sores from her mouth down through her digestive system, this little irritation (that they are keeping a close eye on) bugs her just enough that she wants to clear her throat and/or eat something to distract from the tickle feeling. it also makes her feel like she wants to gag….and that sucks!

Her left leg has a cramp behind the knee that extends up into the back of her thigh and they can’t seem to figure out why it’s doing this. It seems to have a numb spot in it and they’ve ruled out that it might be neurological….but don’t have any concrete reason as to why it’s done this….and so she is on crutches because they don’t want her torquing her body like she was, trying to compensate for her leg.

One of her chemo meds is a steriod and it is wreaking havoc with her sugar levels and they have been CRAZY high. Basically, the steriod has put her in a diabetic state. She doesn’t have diabetes, but her body is not able to produce enough insulin to compensate for what the steriod is messing with and so she is on Insulin and has to inject herself 4 times a day. We seem to have finally been able to get the levels under control….just barely. Today was the first day that 3 out of 4 readings were within the acceptable range…..just barely within acceptable, but still within….up unti today they’ve all been almost double what they should have been.

Also, we should be getting the report from the bone marrow biopsy that they did on Friday…..the previous two biopsy’s showed that 86% of her bone marrow was filled with leukemia cells and with the second biopsy it had dropped to 57%. We are praying for an even better report to come tomorrow…..

And, we are also requesting prayer that Angelica and everyone in our family….both immediate and extended would be and remain healthy.

We’d also love that the infection that Geli had to be completely wiped out of her body asap so that we can all go home together……that would be such a HUGE blessing……

She’s been in the hospital now for 19 days….and although the staff here at Children’s Hospital is amazing and we can’t complain about our stay….it would be so nice to have our family reunited once again and all under one roof.

I’d also like to take a quick moment to say thank you to everyone who has co-ordinated with my sister Michelle regarding meals for our family. The meals have been amazing. There hasn’t been one yet that wasn’t delicious and such a huge HUGE blessing. I’m so thankful to all stepped in and helped us out in this way. It’s so amazing to me to know that my kids and family are able to eat well and that I don’t have to be stressing about them eating out or eating unhealthily.

Thank you to every single one who has brought a meal……I am so grateful. I feel so very loved, and supported and blessed. It means a lot to me that you all would work within our dietary needs and requests and still help us out.

Thank You!

Appy’s Night Out

We went over to my sister’s house on Friday night for an appy’s night.

I was stressing a little about finding some appy’s to bring that were not only delicious, but also easy to make and I wanted them to fit within the dietary guidelines that I’m choosing to live with.

I feel WAY healthier when I’m not eating dairy or wheat and I try to avoid meat the majority of the time.

So, if you take those requirements and then add a bit of preggo brain….I was seriously struggling to come up with something aside from the Chevre (Goat Cheese), Roasted Garlic and Pappad (Lentil Flour Crisps) that I ALWAYS bring.

It’s delicious, so I don’t mind bringing it, but I like to have new ideas to share and try…..

Finally about 4pm (We were supposed to be there at 6pm) I wondered about making a Greek Salad Bite and I also had some idea about a mini dessert that would involve some sort of wafer or cookie base and berries. At first I was trying to come up with something that would glue the berry to the cookie like custard or whipping cream, but then I wondered if I could use the same chocolate that I use to make my non-dairy fondue. MMMMMM, It sounded like it would be delicious.

Jon and I ran up to the store and picked up the ingredients that we would need and came home and slapped it all together and whadda know….both ides were a rousing success.

Here are the Greek Salad Bites…..

I bought cherry tomatoes, mini cucumbers, goat feta, green peppers, purple onion and klamata olives.

I cut the cherry tomatoes in half, sliced the mini cucumbers, cubed the goat feta, cut the peppers and onion into small squares and halved the olives.

Then I put a half a cherry tomato on the toothpick and put the wedge of cucumber on next to make sure the seeds and juice wouldn’t fall out. I then placed a cube of the feta, then the purple onion slice followed by the pepper and topped off with the olive.

I made up the dressing (just a regular greek salad dressing, either homemade or bottled would work) and put all of the “bites” into a container to take them to the party. I poured the dressing all over the top and let it sit until I got there. I pulled them out and put them on the plate and TADA!!!!!! Delicious appy’s that just happen to be vegetarian….

To make the little berry desserts, I bought some Nila Wafer’s from the store along with some non-dairy chocolate bars and some Silk Soy Creamer. (I figured that if If I had to I could just use the Nila Wafers but I was trying to find something that I could eat without compromising.) You should be able to get chocolate bars that aren’t made with dairy at your local grocery store, you just have to look at the ingredients. They will probably be plain and also a dark chocolate. I also popped over to our health food store and they had some chocolate mini cookies that were dairy and wheat free and so I picked up those as well. When I got home, I melted the chocolate and then stirred in the soy creamer to make it a little bit softer.

I laid the cookies down on a plate, spread a dollop of the chocolate onto each cookie and then placed a berry on the top of each one. I used blueberries and raspberries, but I also think that strawberries and banana’s would also be delicious…..YUM!!!!!

Both of these dishes were completely finished off and along with everything else that was brought, it was an amazing evening of good food and great friends.

I love to be able to bring food that fits within the lifestyle choices that I’ve made, but that others are willing to eat because it’s JUST. THAT. DELICIOUS!

I am not as strict about my diet as I could be, but I do try to make the best choices when I can so that when I can’t…..I really don’t need to worry about it. I try to live healthy, but I don’t want my choices to leave me unable to ever enjoy life….at this point, eating dairy or wheat or meat makes me feel uncomfortable, but it won’t kill me…..but if I can live (and eat) in a way that doesn’t make me uncomfortable – then I want to make that choice……and, if I decide that I really want that piece of cheesecake at the restaurant…..then I’ll have it knowing that I’ll most likely end up with a gut ache and a few other unmentionable side effects.

But, I do love it when I can come up with ideas that work, are delicious, and keep me healthy and happy. The biggest bonus is when other’s don’t even realize that I’m feeling them food that’s “abnormal” (to them).

Do you have any dietary limitations and do you have any good ol’ standby’s for parties or get together’s? I’d love to hear how you cope with food allergies, intolerances or even medically necessary avoidances (like sugar for diabetics???).

You can see the set from the Appy’s Night here…Not even one shot of me…can you tell who had the camera….and by the few pics taken – not for long, eh? We were having too much fun chatting and eating.

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