Election and sick days

We've been somewhat home bound the last four days. N has developed the cough I had a few weeks ago. He doesn't have any other cold or flu symptoms, but his cough is relentless at times. I kept him home from school Monday and Tuesday to continue his breathing treatments and meds. My deal with the boys is that if they stay home from school they have to take a nap or have quiet time in their rooms. The meds and rest time have helped and he seems to be back on his feet. Because he wasn't super sick he still had energy to do crafts and low key things around the house.

I started the day today with an early morning work out at 5:40. L has been waking up between 5:45 and 6:00 every single morning (including weekends) for the last few weeks. D and I trying to figure out why he wakes up at that time. This morning while I was exercising I heard our neighbor's dog, Moose, bark and I heard an obnoxious whistle blowing train plow through town. And just a few minutes later L made his way downstairs... I think we figured out what's happening...Hmmm.

 Later in the morning, N and I took L to school. We then proceeded to cast our (well, my) vote. N showed a great interest in the process of voting and the election, so we did a few fun things to learn more about it. We created a word search online using election/presidential related words and names. N found two boxes and turned them into voting boxes. L and I played along and voted for our president of choice. (Our choices were Obama and Thomas Jefferson despite the fact that we learned the candidates today are Obama and Romney.) We also made ballots to vote for what we're going to eat for dinner. We each chose a meat (chicken or hot dog), veggie (mushrooms or brussell sprouts), side choices were rice and "no opponent" and fruit choices were apples or pears. I put brussell sprouts on the ballot as a total joke 'cause I already knew I was making chicken marsala with mushrooms and I thought nobody would vote for brussell sprous. L voted for them. Stinker. Anyway. I made a ballot for each person and each person circled their choices and placed their ballot in the ballot box. It was fun. The boys enjoyed it and hopefully they learned something.

This afternoon L only took a 40 minute nap (may have only been 39 minutes, but who's counting?). Therefore we had a lot of time this afternoon to work with, so I got supplies out for the boys to do this water coloring project. They really enjoyed it and actually painted for nearly an hour. We made numerous paintings that actually turned out pretty cool!

A little while later we constructed a tent that was really cool. I wish I would have taken a picture of it because we even put Christmas lights inside of the tent that the boys were tickled about.

Needless to say, it's only 8pm and I'm exhausted. I'm actually considering going to bed, but I have numerous baskets of laundry to fold. You know you need to fold laundry when the boys are wearing pajamas that consist of one piece that is heavy winter fleece with shorts that are two sizes too small. Ha!

Eureka!! Single Serve Brownie

I just figured out how to make a gluten and dairy free single serve brownie that tastes good. I used Pamela's Gluten Free Brownie Mix. I figured out that if I use the Pamela's brownie mix from the 16 oz bag that it costs almost half the price as compared to purchasing Pamela's single serving brownie packets. I realize the single serve brownie packets are very convenient. You can take them to a party and make your own brownie if a gluten free option is not available. That's great. But, if you're at home and only wanna make one brownie, this is a more economical way to go. I'm sure I could make this even less expensive by making my own brownie mix from gluten free flours and cocoa powder, but, at this time, I'm happy with the "semi-homemade" route. Here it goes!!

1/2 cup Pamela's Brownie Mix
2 TBSP veg oil (or olive oil if needed)
2-3 TBSP water (slowly stir in to the consistency you like)

Pour brownie mix and veg oil into a mug. Pour in 2 TBSP water in, stir and add more water if needed. I think I ended up with a full three TBSP's of water. Cook in microwave for 1 minute thirty seconds on 60-70% power. (My micro is 1800 watts, so I find I have to cook most of our food at partial power 'cause the full power scorches things). Check after one and a half minutes. Add thirty second intervals as needed until cooked to your preference. Enjoy!

Puppy Chow Oatmeal

A few weeks ago I stumbled across an interview with Kath from Katheats.com about her interest in oats. The interview was interesting and I've been eating oats almost every day since I tuned in. Kath creates delicious and sometimes unusual recipes with oats, fruit, nuts and nut butter. She's inspired me to get creative using a variety of ingredients. My most recent concoction is below. I'm somewhat jokingly calling it "Puppy Chow Oatmeal." Maybe if I give it a cute name my kids will eat it, right? Anyway... I had the idea to create a chocolate, peanut butter bowl of oats for night time when I'm craving something sweet but don't have the energy to whip up a homemade gluten and dairy free dessert. I found a  recipe on Pinterest and tried  it, but decided it wasn't quite what I was looking for. So I tweaked it and came up with something that suits my taste buds. You can almost halve this recipe for a night time snack portion or you can eat the whole recipe as a sizeable afternoon snack. Here it goes.

1/2 cup gluten free oats
1 cup vanilla almond milk
1 TBSP cocoa powder
1 TBSP light brown sugar
1-2 teaspoons peanut butter
1-2 teaspoons chocolate chips

I like Kath's method of cooking the oats, but I don't use the cut up bananas in this particular recipe.So, put oats and milk in a pan at the same time. Let it reach a boil and stir it a few times. Lower heat and let it simmer until desired texture. Stir in cocoa powder and brown sugar. I like to pour the oats into a big bowl, set the spoon with peanut butter in the bowl and cover it with the lid from the pot. I let it sit for a few minutes to allow the peanut butter to melt. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top and enjoy!! Savor. Mmmm..So yummy on a cool afternoon or evening.

Over the last few weeks we've had a bundle of apples to eat, so I made a "Caramel apple" oatmeal using chopped apples, brown sugar, a tiny squirt of caramel sauce, a drop of peanut butter in the middle and about three walnuts broken into pieces on top for crunch. Mmmm. So good! The fruit and oat recipes are so warm and comforting in the morning and keep me full until lunch without needing a snack.

GFDF Lasagna (pasta bake)

I found this recipe on Pinterest for a gluten free, dairy free lasagna. It looked very tasty and somewhat easy to follow, so I tried it. When I got to the store to buy the lasagna noodles I realized just how much more expensive they were than the macaroni shaped gluten free noodles, so I opted for the macaroni noodles instead. That is where this isn't exactly lasagna, but more of a pasta bake. The original recipe is here. You can see that I simplified it by using a jar of sauce rather than making the sauce and I didn't use quite as many veggies as certain family members do not care for onions or red peppers. So, here it goes....

1 pkg sliced mushrooms (chopped)

3 cloves garlic (pushed through garlic press)

1 pkg turkey Italian sausage links (removed from casings)

1  26  oz jar spaghetti sauce

1 bag gluten free macaroni noodles (*)

1 cup cashews (soaked 30 min or as long as six hours)

3/4 cup water

1 egg 

1 handful fresh parsley

Pinches of salt, garlic salt

Turn on pot of water for noodles.

Saute mushroom and garlic in olive oil.

Add Italian sausage to skillet.

Once sausage is cooked through, add the jar of spaghetti sauce. Simmer for twenty minutes.

Cook pasta while red sauce simmers.

Cashew sauce...After cashews have soaked, drain them. Place in blender with 3/4 cup water. Blend until nice and smooth. Add egg, parsley, salt and garlic salt. Blend just until mixed, but not too long as the parsley will turn the sauce green. 

Layer in 8x8 dish as follows (below).Cover dish with foil. Cook in oven at 350 for thirty minutes. Remove foil, turn heat up to 375 and cook for additional 10 to 15 minutes, until bubbly.

Red sauce in bottom of pan

Top red sauce with cashew sauce.

Noodle layer

Cashew sauce on top of noodles.

Red sauce.

Noodles

Cashew sauce

Red Sauce (end with red sauce on top)

*  I ended up using about 3/4 of the bag of noodles in the "lasagna" and saved the rest for lunch the next day. 

**I did this recipe in steps. I made the red sauce and cooked the pasta during L's nap time and stored them in the fridge. I made the cashew sauce right before I was ready to assemble the dish and cook it at dinner time.