Wanted to share a couple of new recipes we have tried out this past week - both from the Whole Foods website. I love this website for recipes because you can search by your dietary needs. So I usually look for gluten free recipes and then scan for egg less/nut less recipes or substitutions I can make.
First off, Salmon Chowder. This was a big hit with me, Harper & Ash...Helena, not so much. She ate the salmon out of it, though. That's about all you can ask from her most of the time. :) The only modification I made was I used some leftover salmon I had instead of raw. It probably flaked up a bit more than if you cooked in the soup from raw, but it was still yummy. Also, yummy the next day for lunch!
Second was Tamale Casserole. Seriously, Ash & I probably could have eaten the whole pan. And Helena tried it after much coaxing and we asked her what she thought and she said, "I don't want to tell you." Which means she liked it. Funny. I used a gluten free cornbread mix made with Ener-G egg substitute and I used normal milk instead of buttermilk. Oh, and no green chilies since I didn't want it to be too spicy for the kiddos. Fabulous! This one for sure is on the permanent list of "food we can all agree on." (Yes, I really have a list with this title.)
-Emily :)
Monday, February 27, 2012
Thursday, February 23, 2012
New Official Jobby Job
Well folks, I'm officially entering the part-time working world. No, my blog hasn't hit pay dirt....(har har).
I'll be doing office/marketing/fundraising stuff for Helena's school -- Dancing Moose Montessori. :) I'm super excited about a lot of aspects of the job and love the fact that I get to take the kids with me and they can go to school while I work. Even Harper is a montessori kid now! (He's been doing great in his new class!) And the generous tuition discount doesn't hurt either.
The worst part of the job is that we have to be there pretty early...7 a.m. So, that will be an adjustment to our schedule but hopefully it won't be too painful. I don't have to feed the kids breakfast before we go, so that cuts a lot of getting ready time out of the equation. I'll only be working until 10 a.m. right now, everyday, but eventually it will be a couple of hours more.
My official start date is March 5th. I'm excited to be doing something more than what I have been, but kind of sad that this phase of our lives is coming to a close. But, it's going to be a good thing for everyone, I hope. I honestly never envisioned myself as a SAHM forever. This is probably one of the better scenarios I could have envisioned for my work/life/mom balance.
Anyway, more later, but just wanted to share our fun news!
-Emily :)
I'll be doing office/marketing/fundraising stuff for Helena's school -- Dancing Moose Montessori. :) I'm super excited about a lot of aspects of the job and love the fact that I get to take the kids with me and they can go to school while I work. Even Harper is a montessori kid now! (He's been doing great in his new class!) And the generous tuition discount doesn't hurt either.
The worst part of the job is that we have to be there pretty early...7 a.m. So, that will be an adjustment to our schedule but hopefully it won't be too painful. I don't have to feed the kids breakfast before we go, so that cuts a lot of getting ready time out of the equation. I'll only be working until 10 a.m. right now, everyday, but eventually it will be a couple of hours more.
My official start date is March 5th. I'm excited to be doing something more than what I have been, but kind of sad that this phase of our lives is coming to a close. But, it's going to be a good thing for everyone, I hope. I honestly never envisioned myself as a SAHM forever. This is probably one of the better scenarios I could have envisioned for my work/life/mom balance.
Anyway, more later, but just wanted to share our fun news!
-Emily :)
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Bob!
Helena got a major new 'do yesterday. So cute! It's kind of funny, Helena has had fewer haircuts than Harper...you know, since she really didn't get hair until she was like 2! The stylist blow dried it and curled it under, but don't worry, it's all curly today. :) Helena wasn't a fan of the blow drying...she kept asking "Are you done with that thing now?!?" When the stylist conferred with me that she was having trouble making her 'straight' hair even, I informed her that we wouldn't be 'styling' her hair this way at home. No time! :) But yesterday it was straight and fancy and sparkly! :)
- Emily :)
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| We're at that 'I can't smile normally' stage. |
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| Love it! :) |
Friday, February 17, 2012
Media Funnies
This is the kind of stuff that makes front page news in Utah:
http://www.ksl.com/?sid=19248440
Hilarious. And I really can't think of another area of the country where these types of things would actually be 'news'. It was a multi-day story, even.
And in other mormon media, behold a (what I deem bizarre) billboard not too far from my house:
Sorry for the graininess (I took it with my phone from my car)-- the billboard reads: "CSI: PROVO Decaffeinated DNA." Apparently a play now showing nearby.
After a quick google search, turns out this show is a parody of life in Utah. Whew. I thought it was for real. Would that surprise anyone?!?
Ahhh, Utah. You're funny.
-Emily :)
http://www.ksl.com/?sid=19248440
Hilarious. And I really can't think of another area of the country where these types of things would actually be 'news'. It was a multi-day story, even.
And in other mormon media, behold a (what I deem bizarre) billboard not too far from my house:
Sorry for the graininess (I took it with my phone from my car)-- the billboard reads: "CSI: PROVO Decaffeinated DNA." Apparently a play now showing nearby.
After a quick google search, turns out this show is a parody of life in Utah. Whew. I thought it was for real. Would that surprise anyone?!?
Ahhh, Utah. You're funny.
-Emily :)
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Snowy Sunday
I know, it's Tuesday. But bear with me...
We've been enjoying the past couple of weekends with Ash home and not working the whole weekend! Yay! So nice for him to have some downtime after working so much in Dec./Jan.
Anyway, on Sunday we went to a fast food joint for lunch and it had a little playplace that was just the right size for Harper and Helena. And, they had it all to themselves. Welcome to Sundays in West Jordan! Where the heathens play at Arctic Circle alone!
They had a blast (they didn't even notice that Ash and I ate ice cream without them....) and as we were leaving Helena said:
"Well, that was just delightful. Can we do this again sometime?"
-Emily :)
We've been enjoying the past couple of weekends with Ash home and not working the whole weekend! Yay! So nice for him to have some downtime after working so much in Dec./Jan.
Anyway, on Sunday we went to a fast food joint for lunch and it had a little playplace that was just the right size for Harper and Helena. And, they had it all to themselves. Welcome to Sundays in West Jordan! Where the heathens play at Arctic Circle alone!
They had a blast (they didn't even notice that Ash and I ate ice cream without them....) and as we were leaving Helena said:
"Well, that was just delightful. Can we do this again sometime?"
-Emily :)
Monday, February 13, 2012
Eating / Allergy Update
I keep forgetting that I haven't posted an eating/allergy update at all since I broke the news of Harper's allergies and Ash's giving up gluten a few months ago.
Turns out Harper is highly allergic to nuts (specifically almonds, cashews and peanuts) and moderately allergic to eggs. It's more likely he'll grow out of the egg allergy than the nut ones. But, we'll see. It will be interesting to see if and when we reintroduce things what his actual reactions are. You know, when he can tell us more than "itchy" and "yucky" and throw a plate across the room.
We've been doing well so far. LOTS of eating at home, which is good for us and our bank account. And I'm glad that me staying home for now means I'm totally in control of his diet for the most part. The hardest thing is going to a party/potluck/eating at someone else's house, to be honest. Ash can usually deal by pre-eating or just not eating, but other times I take food for Harper just in case. We were at a breakfast potluck the other day and Ash & Harper shared some fruit while Helena and I ate muffins and egg casserole. Harper had a hard time understanding why he couldn't share the chocolate chip muffin (there were tears). Poor guy!
Christmas meal planning with our entire family was fun....we tried some new things and there were several 'conference calls' about menu planning and who couldn't eat what and what the hell is gluten exactly anyway?!?
The hardest meal is breakfast -- no eggs in anything for breakfast is hard. So oftentimes I'll make eggs/toast/sausage and Harper will just have the sausage and toast and Ash will have his GF bread. Another example is the other night I made chicken fingers using crushed up tortilla chips as the 'breading' (with eggs as the 'sticky stuff'). So me, Helena, and Ash ate the tortilla chicken fingers, while I cooked Harper a plain piece of chicken without the eggy stuff. Kind of a pain, but such is life. We all rarely eat the exact same version of things at meals where we're all together.
It's also hard to bake without gluten or eggs. There are good substitutes for eggs and gluten, but when you eliminate both it sometimes gets a little hairy -- things tend to just not stick together as well. Oftentimes substitutes for gluten contain nuts as well. This has resulted in me pretty much not baking for the most part. Or, I'll just bake something for the kids and I. I've had some success with a banana bread recipe that was egg/gluten/nut free. And I also found an awesome sugar cookie recipe so Harper can decorate cookies for holidays (a popular afternoon activity for us around here).
So, there you have it, the food allergy update. I'm still feeling my way through it and trying new things and looking up new resources. Thank goodness there are readily available substitutes nowadays. I can't imagine having all of these allergy issues 50 years ago! And I'll try to be better about posting recipes I've been trying along the way. :)
-Emily :)
Turns out Harper is highly allergic to nuts (specifically almonds, cashews and peanuts) and moderately allergic to eggs. It's more likely he'll grow out of the egg allergy than the nut ones. But, we'll see. It will be interesting to see if and when we reintroduce things what his actual reactions are. You know, when he can tell us more than "itchy" and "yucky" and throw a plate across the room.
We've been doing well so far. LOTS of eating at home, which is good for us and our bank account. And I'm glad that me staying home for now means I'm totally in control of his diet for the most part. The hardest thing is going to a party/potluck/eating at someone else's house, to be honest. Ash can usually deal by pre-eating or just not eating, but other times I take food for Harper just in case. We were at a breakfast potluck the other day and Ash & Harper shared some fruit while Helena and I ate muffins and egg casserole. Harper had a hard time understanding why he couldn't share the chocolate chip muffin (there were tears). Poor guy!
Christmas meal planning with our entire family was fun....we tried some new things and there were several 'conference calls' about menu planning and who couldn't eat what and what the hell is gluten exactly anyway?!?
The hardest meal is breakfast -- no eggs in anything for breakfast is hard. So oftentimes I'll make eggs/toast/sausage and Harper will just have the sausage and toast and Ash will have his GF bread. Another example is the other night I made chicken fingers using crushed up tortilla chips as the 'breading' (with eggs as the 'sticky stuff'). So me, Helena, and Ash ate the tortilla chicken fingers, while I cooked Harper a plain piece of chicken without the eggy stuff. Kind of a pain, but such is life. We all rarely eat the exact same version of things at meals where we're all together.
It's also hard to bake without gluten or eggs. There are good substitutes for eggs and gluten, but when you eliminate both it sometimes gets a little hairy -- things tend to just not stick together as well. Oftentimes substitutes for gluten contain nuts as well. This has resulted in me pretty much not baking for the most part. Or, I'll just bake something for the kids and I. I've had some success with a banana bread recipe that was egg/gluten/nut free. And I also found an awesome sugar cookie recipe so Harper can decorate cookies for holidays (a popular afternoon activity for us around here).
So, there you have it, the food allergy update. I'm still feeling my way through it and trying new things and looking up new resources. Thank goodness there are readily available substitutes nowadays. I can't imagine having all of these allergy issues 50 years ago! And I'll try to be better about posting recipes I've been trying along the way. :)
-Emily :)
Frog!
Helena is participating in 'Animal Club' this month at school -- basically an after school class with her favorite teacher ever where they learn all about animals.
I picked her up last week and this was her 'homework':
Yep, taking care of a little African Dwarf frog. Helena's been very good at remembering to feed it (much better than me...) and so far Harper has yet to dump it out of the bowl.
We've got one more week with the little fella and then we can either give him back or adopt him. I'm praying Helena doesn't want to adopt him...
-Emily :)
I picked her up last week and this was her 'homework':
Yep, taking care of a little African Dwarf frog. Helena's been very good at remembering to feed it (much better than me...) and so far Harper has yet to dump it out of the bowl.
-Emily :)
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