Food Allergies

So I don't really talk about this much but since having children (3 of the 4) with food allergies, I often avoid certain things for our family. I do sometimes experiment which substitutions but often times we avoid certain things all together.

One of those things that I love is banana bread, and I haven't made it ever from scratch and I refused to make it from a pack because I know that the ingredients could have nuts in it. And no matter what nut I wanted to put in it at least one of my children with allergies would be allergic to it. And it never crossed my mind to actually make it without nuts. Which is weird because we make chocolate chip cookies, and brownies and every other dessert that calls for nuts without them.

So today I looked at my fruit basket and thought I really want to make banana bread with those really ripe bananas. I have been freezing the bad ones for months for smoothies or milkshakes but I really wanted banana bread.

So I searched online for the perfect quick recipe to make before the kids got home from school and it was one that jumped right out at me from here http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/banana_bread/

And although it took an hour to cook it was nice to have this waiting for the kids for an after school snack...

And they loved it! I pulled out my glass cake stand that I got for $2 at a garage sale and it looks really cute on the stand. I love fall, it's cool enough to experiment with baking recipes and not feel like you are burning up! So this week I say if it's cooling down where you are at, try a recipe that you haven't tried or haven't made in awhile.  Smiles, Tracy

I am sitting down to take a mini break just to tell you all about my day. It has been a really busy one, well that isn't anything unusual. But I am just tired because Nya had been tossing and crying out all night last night. Which I knew would happen because she has a little tip of her tooth showing! Yes we are now teething, well she is and I am sleeping less. She has been a lot better than all the other kids (so far with teething) but she is mellow baby, she doesn't really cry even when her big sister takes something from her (which by the way has started to happen).

So enough about that...I called my Grandma today. Today was her first day home after being in the hospital for a week. And I am so ready to move to be with her, but she is so against it. I understand why but at the same time I know that she would love for us to be with her.

Let's see what else can I share...I really don't have anything except that I have been running all over the place taking care of business and also getting school planning done for LaTrele. He is going to write a book report and make a presentation of his topic. He selected monkeys/gorillas as his mammal to work on. It was so nice to see him in the library actually looking up his own books and using the web/search and catalog to find them. I am so glad that I showed him how to do it...so now I can find books for everyone else and work on family learning. I had fun teaching LeiLani how to use a mouse today. She has used the computer tons but never really got the clicking down so it was nice to see her using it. She was so excited about that.

Oh and since I haven't shared what's for dinner in a while, I took photos of what I am working on right now...Beef and Veggie Teriyaki. I had the meat marinating since lunch. But the noodles came into plan when I decided to stop by Aldi and grab a bag of carrots and maybe some other veggie to put in it...and that is when I found a whole selection of Asia specialities. So now we are having noodles and baby corn too!

Just a little updating...Some quick photos I forgot to add!

I am so excited because I just found another feature to add to the blog. And I can't wait to load it up with websites/blogs that I checkout frequently. I am falling in love with so many blogs, and yes it is an addiction! Truly it is. My little recipe box is filling to the brim with tons of recipes that I just gotta try out. Today while checking out flickr.com I found a scrapbooker that I thought had some awesome pics of food...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/taraanderson/

And I will be on the look out for other awesome food recipes. I am still putting together my seafood menu for Christmas. And I hope my van will be fixed (please Lord) before I miss the local sales on Lobster tails!

I volunteered at kidos school and because of that I got to get free pics of them. I was excited because I was able to get the photos on cd for 2 or the 3 kiddos. But I just had to show off LeiLani's pics...she was so cute on that day!! Although right at this moment she is yelling Mommie at the top of her lungs!

And just one other quick photo of LeiLani outside walking in for the first time in fall/winter. It snowed a few hours later so I was glad to get out when we did, especially because she cried because she had to walk in the snow. She didn't want it on her boots and she surely didn't like when I picked it up and tried to put it in her gloves. She wasn't happy at all. And one quick one from this last weekend. The kids were on their way outside to play in the snow with Dad. As I look at the photo I can really see how much LeiLani's hair has grown just in the last month.

So now family can see the most current pics of the kiddos. The school one will be coming in the mail within the week with Christmas cards.

Challenges...Free Gifts and Completed pages...

I am excited to be finishing an entire year of challenges on twopeasinabucket.com. I don't know if I will continue the challenges but they surely have been tons of fun. So if you want an end of the year push to get pages done here is the link to the challenge http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/mb.asp?cmd=display&thread_id=2700421

I have been looking up all kinds of recipes this week. We have decided after the great soul food Thanksgiving feast we had, that we aren't going to do a traditional Christmas dinner this year. Instead it will most likely be seafood/fish and pasta. I know it doesn't sound normal at all, but I can't wait! I have been looking for tons of recipes for lobster, and shrimp and debating on what I want to do. One of our favorite recipes is lobster pizza http://www.recipezaar.com/Lobster-Pizza-130845 but it won't make the cut for Christmas. I was thinking of making it an appetizer but hubby suggested just making it on Fridays as we normally do. But if you make the lobster pizza recipe, I suggest that you use plain butter and add fresh garlic to it...it tastes so good! I have never used the Land of Lakes roasted garlic spread!

But I have been looking forever for a lemon meringue pie that I would love. I think I am going to maybe stop the search for that and look for a square instead. I hope to find one that everyone in our family will love to eat. It is hard to have sweets when you have a couple of kiddos that have allergies to everything that goes into them. And although this is the case for lemon meringue pie/squares...Shoot I am prego and have been craving it!

Let's see what else is going on? Not a lot, my van didn't work this morning. I was so frustrated because I need to be able to get around and of course it had to die the one day that I had planned to go shopping for diapers and washing powder. I thought that was funny, so no laundry for me today!! LOL!!

We still don't have our tree up! We are so bad, company came over on Thanksgiving and so we didn't eat and then put up the tree as we usually do. So hopefully we will get it up real soon. Kentrel's birthday is this week and I don't want to have to do it this weekend before his party but that might be the only time we truly can get it done. I can't believe that we will have a 12yr old.

Oh my personal goal for this month is to complete all the pages of pics that I have developed for 2008...that is about 20 plus layouts....this normally wouldn't be that difficult of a goal, but considering the fact that I still have all day sickness, I am going to be amazed if I get into the basement to scrap. But I am going to try.

A good chef, a great cook or someone willing to learn more!

I often wonder what makes some people such great cooks. Is it because they have all the tools in their kitchens and the latest gadgets and gizmos. But what about people ( like me) who don't have all those things but people love their cooking. Would I truly be considered a chef if I had a cook off with one of those famous Food network chefs or would I be embarrassed and sent home? I don't think that I would win a competition but I know that I wouldn't be sent home, at least not on the first day...lol lol



I often think about new recipes and how I can make things better. Now my family loves almost everything that I put on their plates and even the little ones eat their veggies when I cook them . But I have been trying out tons of recipes from several sites that I love to read and look at...and I can say that these recipes have rocked our world. I thought that my little recipe box was full of awesome works that I had created. But nothing prepared me for what I found on these sites. Some were fancy and required things that I didn't have but I used things that I had (a trick I learned from my Grandma). I swear I never remember her using a rolling pin ever (but I can't make a pizza crust without one) ...but that didn't make her pie crusts any less delicious.



So I have decided that since I don't have a food processor, or a awesome mixer that can make cakes, and crusts and more I should still try making those recipes with what I have. Maybe stop buying premade doughs and use the knowledge of what I had growing up to make those things again. There is nothing wrong with using store bought items and I am not bashing them at all...in fact they have helped me make some awesome dishes...but my hubby told me the other day, after I mentioned I wanted to make a cake from scratch, that he missed all the from scratch stuff I used to make. He missed the cookies, the thin crust pizzas and all that so I decided that I am going to every once in awhile pull out the flour and butter and my hand held mixer and use them again.

I have used them recently but mostly for store bought cake,brownie and pizza crust mixes...so now I am going to try to get some new from scratch things and have the kiddos help me make them. I do miss cooking with them, and when school starts it always seems like the day is so short that we don't get to do all the fun things that we do in the summer. I haven't made cupcakes since September. And that is just not right! Especially since I have been craving cupcakes, and hate store bought ones. I just don't like store bought icing maybe that is why I don't like store bought cakes and such...well not all stores, Lunds/Byerlys has always been able to draw me in every once in awhile.



And I think I will start posting pics of my recipes and things I have tried although I hate my kitchen, and one day hope to win a million dollars just to have a "real" kitchen that I can use and be proud of. But the reason why I think I should do it is because I love my food creations. And I am happy to make things for my family and I look at some many awesome kitchens and think wow I bet they make awesome food in there...but no one seems to post the not so cute pics of their not so perfect kitchens. I wish I would have been wiser when selecting my house at 24 and knew that my kitchen would not be as satisfying although it was 3 times larger than our apartment's kitchen...oh if I would have known how quickly I would be unsatisfied with not having more counter space when it came to cooking and how my kitchen table would have to serve as a counter on most days...But oh well I won't complain too much. I just know now that once we sell this house and move on, the kitchen will be the first thing I consider in the new house, and bathrooms/bedroom ratio will come next! But that's off topic....

I think that what makes a person a great cook, is the ability to keep learning, keep trying new things and of course to experiment with everything that you can. No one taught me how to cook but I learned from doing! So now that I going to have 4 children sooner than later, I am going to start finding ways to stretch our dollars more and learn new recipes in the process.

So my challenge for bloggers is to try out a new recipe and post it and give a review of it. I am going to try to do this once a week. I love this idea! Let's get cooking!!