Category: Health

My Kids Are Really Thankful for Good Food

I’ve been trying to figure what kind of treats or snacks I can make for the kids (and Jon and I, too).

We need cookies and crackers and snacks for school.  My kids are AMAZING, and I’ve said before that they have no issues with fruits and veggies, but I like to have vareity, and try to find special things that they could eat or snack on so they aren’t “the weird kids” who only eat fruits and veggies.

I shared my recipe that I found for Oatmeal Cookies, those are a big hit in our house (either the zucchini or pumpkin variety), but I have yet to try them with carrots.  Soon, maybe this week – if I have time……

I found a recipe for healthy rice krispie treats made with tahini…..which is just sesame butter.  I thought they were delicious, and Jon thought they were okay, and the kids hated them……..BUT they made me think of Granola Bars, and so I went searching for Granola Bar recipes.

Lala, H. can eat these – no corn syrup!

So, I used this recipe, and best of all, you can put whatever you want in them, and make them as thick or thin or big or small as you want.  I think that you could even make granola for cereal……AND, it is SUPER EASY to make.

Granola BarsHomemade Granola Bars

3 cups Rolled Oats (I use old fashioned)
1 1/2 cups chopped Pecans
1/4 cup Flax Seeds
1/2 cup Sesame Seeds

2 cups Puffed Rice Brown Cereal
2 cups Dried Fruit

1 cup of Honey
1 tsp Salt
1/2 cup Tahini
2 Tblsp Butter (optional)
2 tsp Vanilla

Directions

1.   Heat Oven to 350 degrees Farenheit
2.   Spread first group of ingredients on 2 baking pans and toast for about 15 minutes, or until you can smell the toasted nuts.
3.   Remove from oven and place in LARGE mixing bowl, and add the 2nd group of ingredients and mix well.
4.   Heat (over low heat) the Honey, Salt, Tahini, (butter, if using) and vanilla until well combined
5.   Add sticky mixture to the dry mixture and stir well
6.   Spread mix into 2 greased pans…it’s your choice as to how thick you want to make it.
7.   Press firmly so it all sticks togetther
8.   Bake for about 15-20 minutes (less for chewier – more for crunchier bars)
9.   Let granola cool only slighty before you cut into bars, but wait until they are completely cool to remove from the pans.
10.  Wrap each bar individually in plastic wrap and store in an air tight container…..could store 2 weeks or longer if they make it that far……

I substituted and added here and there, but kept the general outline as my guidline.  I’ll explain what I did and some of my thoughts. 

I did use pecans, but you could use whatever nuts you wanted to use or don’t use nuts if you can’t for health/school reasons.  I used a bit more than the 2 cups of puffed brown rice cereal, but again, if you can’t find any, use 2 cups of somthing else.  I used raisins, but would advise that whatever fruit you use that you chop it up first.  The raisins puffed up and made my bars a bit wobbly and I had to smush them down flat.  I also added a handful of Carob chips to further entice the kids to give it a try….not that I needed to.  (Ah Hindsight but it’s a nice treat!)  If you can’t find Tahini (it’s in the ethinc food section in our Superstore or at a health food store) you could use any type of butter ie peanut or cashew or almond or whatever….I’m sure you could even substitute it for something else like molasses or something else.

I used only one pan, and they were freaky thick.  It’s totally feasable to use both pans.  I put the mixture in and then used a rolling pin to smush it flat into the pan.  Watch it carefully when it’s cooking, as you don’t want it to burn.  When I pulled it out, I gave it about 1 minute and then I used my pizza cutter to cut it up.  I got 30 pieces, but could easily have got double that if I’d used 2 pans.  I wrapped it up later that night when it was totally cool and stored it in Ziploc bags.  So far we’ve plowed through almost half of it, and I can see that I’ll definately have to make more of this. 

And then………. we are having our Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow at GF Strong with Chris.  It should be interesting ’cause we are bringing the dinner in, and hopefully we have figured out a way to have it still be warm when we get there.

Making the dinner got me thinking about how I’m not preparing the whole meal and how that it will have foods that we are not supposed to eat because most of my family is not eating they same way that we are.  I initially thought that I would just let the kids cheat, and for some of it I will, but then I started thinking about and wondering if I could make a pie that tasted good, but was within our eating guidlines, and then I wouldn’t be so stressed about the kids having dessert or having no dessert.

So, I’ve made a pumpkin pie, and judging by the fact that Geli came back for 3 pieces (I made them just slivers.) I’m saying that it was a hit.

Xan and her Pie

My mom makes Tenderflake pie crusts and swears by them, and (when she makes them) makes the BEST pie crusts EVER!  They are SO light and flakey and crisp. 

I just followed the recipe on the box, but instead of regular wheat flour, I used Stoneground Spelt Flour, and it made an AMAZING pie crust.  My only complaint would be that I rolled it too thin, and you couldn’t hardly taste it with the pie filling, but the kids have picked off the crust from around the edges of the left over  1/3 of the pie that I said they couldn’t eat, so it must be a big hit (at least in their minds).

 I was a little more worried about the filler than the crust, although I’ll admit I was hoping it wouldn’t be a cardboard pie crust.

The recipe I used calls for

2 cans of Pumpkin puree (14 oz cans)
4 large Eggs
3/4 cup of Milk(I used Soy)
3/4 cup of Honey
1 tsp Vanilla
1 tsp ground Cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground Nutmeg
1/8 tsp Salt
1/8 tsp ground Cloves

Mix all the ingredients together and pour into unbaked 9 inch pie crust.  Bake at 375 degrees for 55 minutes or until center is almost set.  Turn off oven and let it sit ’till it cools a bit.

I would say that if you are sitting comparing a regular pumpin pie with my honey/soy pie, that you might be disappointed.  BUT WE LOVE IT.  It set just like a regular pie, and tastes SOOOOOOOOO GOOD!  The kids love it, and I love that I can let them have it and not feel bad.  I’m going to try to make another pie tonight, but am not sure if I’m going to try to make a no sugar peach or apple one.  I was thinking about using a can of peaches in unsweetened juice and cooking down the juice into a syrup to use instead of using sugar.  We’ll see.  At the very least, I might just make another pumpkin pie. 

 I’m just glad that I have a few more sweet treats to put in the kids lunches once in a while.

Well, I have to get off here and go and be thankful for my family.

 Happy Canadian Thanksgiving to y’all!

The 6th Week Pleasure

So, It’s my birthday tomorow.  Pretty exciting stuff. 

 I had really wanted to be finished having kids before I was 30, and had everything worked out acording to MY plans, Nathaniel would have been born in May of 2005, and then a couple of months later I would have turned 30……things don’t always turn out like you plan.  Now here I am, and Josiah was born a month and a half befire I turned 32.

That seems kinda weird, ’cause I remember my mom turning 32.  I would have been 9 or 10 years old, and she was my mom….and seemed so grown up.  Now here I am, with my own 10 year old, and I keep hoping that no one will find out that I’m just playing house, ’cause I don’t feel “grown up”, at least not as old as my perception of my 32 year old mother.  Not that I think that 32 is old – ’cause I don’t, but to a 10 year old…..I think  hope I come across as pretty grown up and mature….

So, do you all have any idea as to what happens in a young mom’s life around 6 weeks post partum….yup!  You got it!

Nothing says Happy Birthday like a sweet trip to the OB/GYN! 

I have been putting off making my 6 week checkup, and well, seeing as  I’m now late for it, I figured I’d call, and if I were lucky they’d be booked up until the 10th week of Octember…..NO SUCH LUCK!  The receptionist calms says, “I can fit you in tomorrow at 1:50pm…….

Thanks!  Thanks so much for fitting me in.  I love me some stirrup time.  Happy birthday, yeehaw! 

At least I know, I’ll be taking a shower tomorrow, and those have been in short supply around here recently.

Giddyup!

And We’re Moving On…….

We are still doing the healthy food thingy over here, in fact Jon is halfway through a real honest to goodness cleanse.  He’s doing the First Cleanse by Renew Life.

Its a gentle cleanse, and takes 15 days to do.  It says that based on the toxins and “stuff” (my term not theirs) that it’s clearing from your body you might feel like crap (again, my words – not theirs) and possible have an upser tummy or (wicked – my adjective – not theirs) headaches for the first 2 to 3 days.

When I did this cleanse last year, I had a bit of a headache for the first 2 days, and was fine after that.  Jon, on the other hand, felt like someone took a 2 x 4 and wacked him repeatedly in the back of the head  for a whole week.  That was on top of some intestinal discomfort, and EXTREME fatigue.  He must have needed some cleaning out, eh?

Just over a week into it, and he’s starting to feel human again.

Anyway, we are still trying to be healthy and eat healthy, and I’ve found the MOST AMAZING cookie recipe, and being the sharing type that I am – I’m going to share it with you.

Oatmeal Cookies with Zucchini

1/2 cup shortening (I use Organic butter)
3/4 cup honey
1 egg
1 cup of whole wheat flour (I use Kamut flour)
1 cup of regular flour (I use 1.5 cups of Spelt flour)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp of nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup grated zucchini
1 cup oatmeal
1 cup raisins

Instructions:  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Cream together the shortening and honey.  Add the egg and beat well.  Stir together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.  Add the  dry mixture  alternately with the zucchini to the egg miture.  Stir in the oatmeal and raisins.  Drop by teaspoons onto greased cookie sheet.  Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

These are DELICIOUS, and I even made some last night and didn’t have any zucchini on hand, but used canned pumpkin, and they are amazing.  I think I might try it with carrot as well.  They are a bit muffin-like in texture, and one of these days I’m going to try and make them with a butter substitute like oil or applesauce.  Then they would be wheat, sugar and dairy free.  For now, I’ll be happy with the wheat and sugar free side of it.

So, this post has taken forever to type (cause I was nursing), and now I have to go and get changed because Sia barfed his entire feed all over me and him……lovely! 

Ta Ta for now!

ps. I keep them in a sealed container so they stay moist, but my kids love them and that’s what counts (aside from the healthy aspect – of course)

Every other day….or so….

So I was looking at my calendar on the side (over there on the left hand side – see that litle calendar of September) and if I write today, then I’ve done every other day this week.  That’s pretty good considering my track record lately.

Josiah is …..well, no he’s not really getting into a routine, at least not a predictable one.  He is nursing every 3 hours now instead of every 2 hours, and if I (whispering so no one will crucify me for doing this) put him on his tummy, he will sleep a little in between feedings, and my poor aching back can get a little bit of a break.

Yes, I know all about SIDS, and how to “put your baby BACK to sleep”, but all of my monkeys have flailed around on their backs and woken up every 3 minutes, and Josiah hates to be swaddled because he likes his hands up by his face, and really…I don’t have time to argue about this, because the kid is going to wake up, and then I’m occupied, so…..seeing as it’s my blog…..we are moving on.

Jeremy post dental surgeryJeremy had dental surgery today.  We are terrible parents, and he has a bazillion cavities, and one of his teeth was rotten so bad, that it needed a rooth canal, and so they just yanked it out and put a spacer in it’s place.  Then he had 2 teeth crowned, and a couple other fillings.  I’d like to say that we are not terribly parents, but I really don’t know.  Does he just have bad teeth.  When they came out at a year old, they had little brown spots on them, and I wonder if it had something to do with all the meds he was on as an infant, or if he just has extremely soft teeth.  I do know that he didn’t get the same care and attention as Geli and Xan, but I didn’t think we were THAT lax.  Oh well, I can beat myself up over it or move on and let it go.  We’ve been EXTREMELY dilligent with his teeth and brushing and flossing, and now that everything is fixed, we’l be able to tell in 6 months to a year if it’s us or his cruddy teeth.  Is it bad that I’m hoping it’s the teeth?

The picture is him post surgery and laying very quietly.  I think I’d like him to have surgery once a week if it means he’s going to be still and quiet for the whole day.  Just kidding!  sort of!

And, I’m tired!  Yup, I was so tired last night, while I was waiting for 10:30pm to roll around so we could give Josiah a bath and then I could nurse him to sleep, that I almost cried thinking about having to get up with him in the middle of the night. 

We made it until bed time, though, and the wonderful little man fell asleep at 11pm, and didn’t wake up unti 3:56am….and I didn’t cry when I got up to change his diaper.  Yah for me! And a huge YAh for him.  All of my kids have been pretty good in the sleep department, and it’s nice to have another one that looks like he won’t be doing the “up every hour or even every other hour” night feeds.  I don’t like those!  And no one in my family likes me when I have to do one of those.  Heck, I don’t even like me when I have to do one of those.  Mean and Nasty!

I have found one little item that I want, and I just need to save up the money to get it.  It’s not too expensive, but I don’t have any discretionary fnds right now, and I don’t want to go back to doing lunch monitoring at the school right now.

Any way, enough about that, it’s this cool little device.

The Itzbeen!

It counts time and helps to keep track of how long you fed and which side you last nursed on.  It keeps track of the details so that you and your sleep deprived brain doesn’t have to.  It even has a little flash light so you can see your baby in the dark – if you’re anal and just want to check that they are still breathing in their little bassinette right beside you….’cause it’s not like you didnt’ hear them grunting and moaning around a gas bubble about 20 seconds ago.

Anyway, it’s totally cool, and I can buy one on-line, or they have them at a shop in Vancouver.  It’s totally affordable at about $40, and SO worth the hassle of not having to try and recall all that information.

So, I’m sitting here in my pyjamas, and cooking some rice noodles for J to eat, and Sia is sleeping, and I really have to go and try to do “something”…..I’m not sure what the something is…..there are just so many somethings that need to be done.  Maybe I’ll just ignore it all and read.  That’s “something” – isn’t it?

Edited to Add:

I’d love to start my own on-line store with all the cool baby items that I’ve found  and endorse.  Doesn’t that sound like fun?  I’ve been thinking about it for a while, and will have to talk to Jon about it to see if it’s even worth pursuing the thought any further.  It’s not like I wouldn’t be ble to get a smoking website – I even know an amazing web designer who I could probably convince to make me one for some “favors”.  What do you think about the idea?

Is it really still this week?

I have a hard time believeing that I wrote that post only 4 days ago.

This has been the LOOOOOOONGEST week ever, and truthfully – It’s not over, yet……

Tuesday I was part of a pre-conference all day meeting that was pretty fun.  Wednesday I was able to make it in to see Chris, although he was a bit backed up, and I didn’t get to see him as much as I would have liked to.  I got home from seeing him, and had a message waiting for me on my home phone……..from my doctor’s office……the Obstetrical Doctor……telling me not to worry, just to call…………..

Yah Right!  Those calls are almost NEVER good!  So, I call back, but I know it’s about the gestational diabetes test that I took last week.  YUP!  I flunked the one hour test, and have to go in  for the 3 hour.

It oculd have been worse news.  I could have had such bad levels that they would have just sent me to the gestational diabetes clinic, and we could have carried on from there.

Apparently, the cut off level is 7.8, and I was at an 8.4 – anything higher than a 10.3, and I would have had a direct pass to the clinic.  So, I still have a chance at passing the 3 hour, although when I went in to pick up the requisition from the office yesterday, the nurse didn’t really think that would be the case.  I’ll just have to show her……

So, I called my naturopath, to ask a few questions, and she has put me on some stuff that is supposed to level my blood sugar levels, and I’m back HARD CORE on the candida diet cause it’s supposed to also stabilize blood sugar levels.  So much fun – not!

I will admit that the news that I had flunked came at a not-so-fabulous time.  I am doing okay emotionally.  Not fabulous, but better than really bad!  With everything else that is going on, this one more piece of news kinda pushed me over the edge and I had a bad night on Wednesday night.  Kept obsessing about everything, and couldn’t sleep until after 2am.  Nice, eh?  Especially as I had to get up at 6:30am the next morning to take a shower before I started Thursday.

Thursday was a crazy busy day.  Did a ton of running around, and had to drive into Langley to pick up the Meds from the Naturopath, and was supposed to pick up one thing from a Pharmacy, but I hit 3 different ones, and it wasn’t available at any of them.  I had to blast home ’cause the kids were walking – at least that gave me a few extra minutes.  It’s the difference between thinking that I have to go and pick them up around 2:30pm, or they come home around 3pm.  Their schoool actually gets out at 2:48pm, but if you want a parking spot you have to come a bit early, and you have to factor in the driving time (even if it is only 3 minutes) – when they walk home – I don’t even have to think about them until they show up just after 3pm – that is soooooo nice!

So, last night after I gave a really lame attempt at getting the kids off to bed (Jon normally does the bedtime routine ’cause I hate the 500 million stall tactics, and hove no patience at that point), I laid down with J to get him to settle down and go to sleep……..and I fell asleep!  That’s not really a problem except for the fact that I’d told Xan that I’d come and lay with her for a minute as soon as J was asleep.   I think I stalled her off until tonight!  At least that what I remember from my end of the conversation, mind you I wouldnt’ bet he most reliable person to ask at that point ’cause I was mostly asleep.

I woke up feeling pretty good this morning.  The kids got off to school, and I got ready for the day.  I’ve been shopping this morning already, and visited Jon at the conference.  I’m home now – OBVIOUSLY – and am just finishing up a salad with some chicken on it, and have to get busy.

I have a bunch of stuff that I NEED to get done, and it has to be done either today or tomorrow.  I should really just do it today to get it over and done with.  I’ve been feeling more pregnant, and awkward as far as my body goes.  I’m getting bigger, and am starting to feel a bit uncomfortable, but I’m not complaining…..too much!

I’ll be 29 weeks tomorrow, and am so excited to have made it this far.  Only a bit longer and our sweet little boy will be here.  I have an ultrasound on Tuesday, and it will be fun to get another peek at him.

Well, that’s my week so far.  Hope you’ve all had a fabulous week, and have an even better weekend.

Little but of this, and a little bit of that…….and way too many pictures

So, yesterday was Mother’s Day, and you should all be so lucky as me!

No, I didn’t get any jewelery or trips to fabulous warm tropical places (I could only wish), but I did get served breakfast in the dining room.  We have “fancy” oatmeal and tea.  Basically we had porridge in fancy dishes, and used my fancy teas cups.  It was really fancy. *snort*

I opened all the kids crap lovingly made treasures and oohd and aaahhhd appropriately, then we went to church, where I’ve discovered that I’m getting a little too round for my guitar to be hanging off the front end of my belly.  I have to play once more in 2 weeks, and then I think that might be it.

After church, we came home and Jon had made a pork roast, with potatoes and veggies and gravy.  It was delicious!  Apparently, Jeremy likes potatoes – Can you tell?

Poatoe Man
No, we didn’t let him eat that many, but he was more than a little put out that we’d dare to take some of them away.  Silly boy!

It was a nice day, and probably the nicest part of it didn’t even happen to me.  We told Chris that it was Mother’s Day today, and just left it at that.  We didn’t tell him that he should do or say anything to Momma, but the next time that she came into his room, he motioned her over and gave her a kiss, and told her that he liked the shirt she was wearing.  See, like I said, it didn’t even happen to me, but it was pretty special to be there to see it happen.

This morning we had another wonderful, amazing, mind blowing thing happen.  We’ve been rotating through 3 breakfasts at our house – Oatmeal, Eggs & Hashbrowns, and Pancakes.  We have had milk alternatives available, and even had a bag of Kamut puffs in the cupboard, but the kids weren’t far enough removed from regular milk and regular cereal to really “buy into” eating this new crap (as they thought of it).

Well, apparently, two months of the same 3 things for breakfast and no cow’s milk or cereal has broken them down.  We got up a bit late this morning, and I suggested that Jon offer them cereal with Rice milk, Kamut puffs and Maple syrup drizzled on top.

Rice Milk, Cereal and Maple Syrup
Under the guise of making himself a bowl of cereal, he offered them each a bite, and you’d have thought that we were offering them the nectar of the gods.  Their eyes rolled back up in their heads, and we had to shake them to come out of their self induced hypnotic state.

They scarfed down a bowl each, and them came back asking for a second.  It was the easiest breakfast that we’ve made in 2 months, and while the cereal is a bit more expensive, we will add it into our rotation maybe once or twice a week.

Kids eating HEALTY cereal and LOVIN’ IT!
It is getting easier to convince them to try new stuff.  I guess it just sometimes takes a bit to get the old taste out of your memory, to allow the space to be able to try new stuff.  That’s just me waxing all philosophical…..how does it sound……personally, I think it just sounds like crap, but almost like intelligent crap, eh?

Jon took me to Starbucks this morning, because we were having an Administrative meeting.  He brought his Administrative stuff, and I brought my administrative stuff, and we had a coffee while working on our respective “stuffs.”  It was quite nice, and I even cheated and had a big ol’ piece of carrot cake. 

Jon’s coffee and my Carrot Cake….MMMmmmm!
Don’t even start to lecture me about all the bad stuff in it that I’m not supposed to eat.  This is my last week, and then I HAVE to be freaky careful about eating any wheat and dairy.  From 28 weeks on, I’m supposed to stick to the diet without wavering.  The hopes are that if I do have any actual “allergies” to either wheat or dairy that if I stay away from them from 28 weeks on, then I shouldn’t pass the allergy onto our little boy!  That would be nice.  So, I’m not trying to go overboard this week, but don’t shoot me if I cheat a little.

Well, I’ve got to go and do some work for Jon, and then get busy cleaning the house!  Hate Housecleaning!  It never ends!

Our Fun For The Day….

We really didn’t have anything planned for today, and just needed to pick a few things up here and there.

We decided to head out to Anita’s Organic Grain & Flour Mill to see what their store was like, and to get a feel for what they had, and what we could get.

We have been buying our Kamut and Spelt flour at the Ladybug Organic store, and I knew that they got it from this Anita’s Place, and I even knew that it was out in Chilliwack.  I hadn’t found their website, but Jon took a look, and found it for me.  YAH!  We e-mailed them for a price list, and discovered that we really liked their prices, and as far as distance, it works out to about the same to head in to Langley or out to Chilliwack, and so we decided to check them out one day.

Today just happened to be that day.

20 KGs of Kamut and Spelt Flour
It is just a tiny, little, almost a shack, but I was very excited.  Their prices were amazing, as far as healthy, organic weird flours go, and they even had  rolled kamut and spelt flakes.  Jeremy’s VEGA test showed that he was okay with Oatmeal, and so we do make it.  I am still  intolerant to oatmeal,  and so shouldn’t really have it all that often.  To see that I could make a pot of porridge out of Kamut Flakes or even Spelt flakes was awesome.  They look almost exactly the same as old fashioned rolled oats, and just enable us to add a little more variety into our lives.  YAH! We didn’t pick any of the rolled grains up today, but will go back in the near future to pick some up.  I did make some Kamut tortillas today, and the kids were thrilled.  I didn’t make any last week, and it made lunches more difficult.

I have also tried a loaf of Spelt/Kamut breaf made with oil, flour, salt, and baking powder.  We’ll try it out tomorow morning, and see how it tastes.  It’s the quick and lazy way to make bread.  I still haven’t tried out the long and difficult way.  I’m a bit scared that after all the effort I have to go through, that it would still taste lousy, and then I’d be annoyed.  Well, I will probably just go for it this week.  It’s basically a sourdough starter bread, so it takes a week to just get the starter ready, but again the only ingredients are water, flour and sea salt.  If I can make it for cheaper than $6.00 a loaf, then I’m doing fabulous.

A friend is lending me her baby bath, and a swing, and so that’s very exciting.  Jon and I were talking today, and we want to get all the “Big” stuff done before July 1st.  The kids are done school at the end of June, and I really don’t want them involved in all the painting and set up of the baby’s room.  The little finishing things, sure – no problem, but not the painting and puttying and sanding and crib set up and other stuff.

That means, that not only do we have to do the walls in the baby’s room, but we also have to get a crib and a change table and a dresser.  We are hoping ot be able to get stuff that matches.  Knowing that this might be our last baby, and that it’s kind of a special event, we just want to do it extra special.  I might have found the bedding that I want.  I like this pattern.  I’m just struggling over the price.  It’s a much better price than what I saw it for in the store today, but still………GULP!

Oh well!  It’ll all come together eventually, and I don’t need to worry!  I know that! 

I’m off to bed now, but I just wanted to say one more thing. 

To all the Mother’s with living children, and especially those who have children that are not living…..I hope you have a peaceful day tomorrow and that it would be filled with hope and love and very special thoughts and memories.

And to everyone else, may you be thankful that you had a mother who brought you into this world, and that you are alive and well, regardless of your life’s circumstances.

May tomorrow be a special day for you all!