Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Allergy Free Friday/Tuesday.....

To be fair, I haven't cooked in a LONG LONG time...I have been extra busy, and way tired lately. But I won't let you down. These came from the TastyKitchen.com gluten free section! I love the recipe for Dairy Free Sweetened Condensed Milk! Enjoy!


Gluten Free Coconut Cookie Bars

For the sweet tooth in you!

  • FOR THE HOMEMADE CONDENSED MILK:
  • ½ cupsAlmond Milk, Or Preferred Milk Alternative
  • ¼ cupsAgave Nectar
  • 1-½ TablespoonChia Seeds
  • _____
  • FOR THE BARS:
  • ½ cupsEarth Balance Butter, Room Temperature
  • 2 cupsBlanched Almond Flour
  • 1 cupTapioca Or Arrowroot Flour
  • ½ teaspoonsSea Salt
  • ½ teaspoonsBaking Soda
  • 1 wholeEgg
  • 1 TablespoonVanilla Extract
  • ½ cupsAgave Nectar
  • 1 cupChocolate Chips, Dairy Free
  • 1 cupChopped Walnuts
  • 2 cupsSweetened Coconut, Divided

1. Preheat the oven to 325ºF.

2. Stir together the almond milk, agave, and chia seeds to make homemade condensed milk. Set aside to thicken.

3. Line a 7 x 11 in. glass baking dish with parchment paper and lightly spray with cooking oil.

3. For the cookie batter, set out the butter to bring to room temperature.

4. In a large bowl, whisk together the blanched almond flour, tapioca flour, salt, and soda.

5. Beat butter on medium-high until light and fluffy.

6. Add in the egg, vanilla, and agave. Beat until well combined.

7. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir well.

8. Pour half of the cookie dough into the baking dish and even out with the back of a spoon.

9. Then spread out the chocolate chips over the cookie dough.

10. Then spread out a layer of walnuts, the remaining cookie dough, one cup of coconut, the milk mixture, then finally the remaining cup of coconut.

11. Slightly press down on the top layer of coconut.

12. Bake for 30–40 minutes or until browned and the center is no longer jiggly. Rotate halfway through baking.

Friday, May 27, 2011

Welcome!

Welcome to the world Maya! at 9lbs 13 oz and 24 hours of Labor you have already given your mama a run for her money! We can't wait to meet you! Amazing the miracles from Heaven we receive. Congratulations mom and dad! She is beautiful! I'll post a picture as soon as I get one on the e-mail!

love you all!


Monday, May 16, 2011

Gardening and Gnomes...don't mix.


I have a little Gnome...he's just over 2 feet tall! He drinks an awful lot of milk, and LOVES garbage trucks. And can't stay out of my garden.

Gardens and Gnomes don't mix.

I nurtured, loved, and protected my plants, 8 tomatoes and 7 peppers, 2 rows of peas and 2 of beets, 1 of carrots 1 of lettuce and 1 of radishes. They we're doing beautifully.

Then the Gnome arrived.

He managed to crush, or bury 6 of my tomatoes...

...step on 4 peppers.....

pull up 3 peas.....

and drown the rest in WAY too much water.

How...do you say....did this happen?

In all of 20 minutes while I tried to take a shower.

The End....

...of my garden.

Off to the gardening store....
again
next week
when I stop steaming.

The real end. Hopefully.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

My Mantra


I love my 2 year old....

I love my 2 year old....

I love my 2 year old....

Who sits on time out next to me as I write this.....

Who opened 3 card games and threw them down the stairs....

Who dumped out a bowl of cereal and milk on the table this morning....

Who refuses to do his buisness in the toilet today....

Who makes it very very hard to love him....

...and yet very easy.

I love my 2 year old...

Friday, May 6, 2011

Mothers Day, unplugged.


Sunday is Mothers Day, a day to celebrate all the perfect mothers! Go ahead, ask anyone. They'll tell you how wonderful their mother is, how she always had fresh baked cookies, and fresh pressed linens... how she smelled of roses, and always wore a smile on her face. I can tell you my mother was perfect!


Now, all you mothers out there reading this. Don't roll your eyes, don't be alarmed, and for heaven sakes...keep reading!!

I was recently in a mothers day play written by a very talented mother in our ward. It was perfect. Full of mothers struggling to get the house clean, struggling to understand their children, struggling to get their scriptures read. Perfect mothers, just like you and me.




When I say perfect, I don't mean cookies, and smiles perfect. I mean mothers who are trying. Who struggle every day with decisions. Who celebrate their children's tiny steps forward and cry when their child struggles. Mothers who love their neighbors children when they can't have any of their own. Mothers who pour their hearts out to their Heavenly Father every night, pleading for help, for strength, and for the ability to be what their children need. Mothers who never find the end of the laundry pile, who never find enough time to snuggle, who never find the bottom of the kitchen sink. These mothers are the perfect ones, the ones who care, who try and who think they are constantly not making it.


Know this, mothers, you are making it. Look in your children's eyes and see that you are exactly who they need and want. Exactly who their Heavenly Father desired for them.




So while you clean yet another bum, or wipe up another spill. Smile, you are perfect, perfect for your children, exactly the mother they need.





Happy Mothers Day!

Library Adventures!




We try to hit the library at least once every 2 weeks. I try really hard to make it once a week. The kids have at least an hour of paroosing books and reading, not to mention one hour of quiet! What a place! And it’s free! Well, today was a quick day, Haley had to get to school, we only had 30 minutes. So in we went, Haley, Shawn and Max (the 9 month old I watch). We paroosed, we read, we had a great time and 15 minutes to get Haley to school. Checking out, shawn started to push buttons and run around, not a good sign. I just had to reach the door before he broke something!

We made it to the car without a major incident…then it happened. I reached into my pocket, no keys. I checked the baby seat, no keys. The bag with the books, no keys. Haley’s pocket, no keys. My back pockets incase my dairyair had hidden them from me. No keys. So, maybe they fell out in the car?! I had left the window cracked, and reached in to open the door, I barely fit. There goes the car alarm. I pushed every button, no dice. It still wailed, I put all the kids in their seats and shut the door to run back into the Library to see if they we’re sitting on the counter. No dice. By now all the other cars we’re beeping as various library patrons tried to shut off the alarm. Back out to the car. It had stopped! Maybe Haley found the keys! I opened the door, there it goes again. No, I didn’t find the keys mama. Back into the library, now I’ve enlisted the librarian to help search the joint. No dice. Finally I remember sitting next to the computers on my way to the counter to wait my turn. Yep. There they are. By now I have gathered a good looking group in the parking lot, checking to see if it’s their car. I causally slip in and drive away, unnoticed…I wish.


Gluten Free Friday--Darn good Cornbread!

I've adapted this recipe from a blog I found. www.glutenfreegirl.com Great recipes, unfortunately it hasn't been updated in years. So it's what I call a living dead blog.

But this recipe was darn good. Even mark liked it!

Gluten Free Corn bread

1/4 cup sorghum flour
1/4 cup tapioca starch
1/4 cup potato starch
1/4 cup sweet rice flour
1/4 cup sugar
4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp xantham gum
1/4 cup shortening (not nucoa, use shortening)
2 large eggs
1 cup milk (I used coconut,, you can use whatever you fancy)
1 cup yellow cornmeal.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

combine flours by sifting them into a large bowl...or just put them in a bowl and use the whisk to combine. Add all remaining dry ingredients.

Cut the shorting in with a pastry cutter, I used a fork.

Combine eggs, and milk in a small bowl and whisk. Make a well in the dry and add the wet. Stir until all is combined. Do not over mix! (put away the electric mixer!)

Pour into a greased 9x9 pan, or pie dish. Bake for 20-25 minutes. This is important! Keep an eye on it! When it pulls away from the sides of the pan or a toothpick comes out clean and it's golden brown remove it from the oven! Don't dry it out. Now serve with a cube of nucoa whipped with some honey.

Heaven!

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Haley's Dance Recycle

Yes, I know it's called a recital...however Haley insists it's a Recycle! This is her dance recycle for 2011, she's in a little after school dance club, they meet Wednesdays right after school in the school auditorium. And though I know they are not learning a whole lot, they are having great fun! Sorry about the quality, Shawn kept grabbing my arm!


Well if there is one thing my daughter inherited from me it's her hip shake! hehehe... poor girl. I was teased about that all through high school, very embarrassing. However, I can say with some certainty that I inherited it from my grandpa Jeff! Doubt me, watch him walk! You know the walk! We all inherited it!

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Wuv...True Wuv...



Wuv....is what brings us together today....

Just look at this pudgy face, and fist full of dandelions...in his room I have a picture and it says:

A Rose can say I love you
An Orchid can enthrall
but a weed bouquet in a chubby fist
now that's the best of all!





and here is my girl...I wuv that she wuv's soccer...she just jogs around, without much drive to dive in and steal the ball, but she sure is a great goalie! (she's in the sage green at the back)



I love this kid too...who is so kind, and yet devious all at the same time. Who will not do something just to make me happy, or will do something because he knows it is right...can you make sense of that?



So, on this blessed occasion...Remember that sometimes weeds are better then roses...






And True Love can come in all sizes, even 2' nothing.
True Wuv