September 2021 – Abby's Conundrum

Recipe Round Up

It can be so difficult to eat a clean diet let alone factoring in the individual allergy needs of a family. Add on top of that our helter-skelter schedule, and you’ve got a perfect recipe- for failure. Today I’m gonna share some of my favorite tried and true allergen friendly recipes that I always have cooked up ready in the freezer or prepared in bulk one a week, in order to keep our health a top priority. All of these recipes I’ve tried many times, with great success and they are relatively quick and easy. Here we go!

Breakfast:

Granola

This might be tooting my own horn a bit, but I heavily rely on my homemade granola for a easy breakfast item. The best thing about this recipe is that is not loaded with sugar and PUFAs. It can be easily be altered to accommodate all types of allergies.

https://abbybrock.com/?m=202012

Bagels

This is my favorite bagel recipe. It is easily adaptable for add in’s as well. I let the dough sit overnight as suggested, then once shaped I’ve let them sit for as long as another 12 hrs in the fridge before cooking them. I always long ferment anything with wheat and gluten.

https://everydayfull.com/sourdough-bagels/

Hash

I’m a firm believer in the concept of “whatchyagot stew” , basically, being creative and throwing complementary ingredients together to make something yummy, and easy. Our recent favorite is diced sweet potatoes with diced bacon, tossed together an roasted on a sheet pan. That’s it. Literally, just play it by preference on ratios, and skip oils and seasonings. It’s a family favorite.

Lunch/Dinner:

Our lunch is frequently left overs from the night before, so I’ve combined these two categories.

Vegan Soups

Who doesn’t love soup? Maybe I’m on an extra soup kick because of the season, but these are usually in our meal rotation chilly weather or warm!

https://www.gimmesomeoven.com/italian-lentil-soup-recipe/

https://feelgoodfoodie.net/recipe/creamy-vegetable-soup/

https://againstallgrain.com/2011/11/01/paleo-and-scd-pumpkin-soup/ this one is also good with added Italian sausage if you want to make it with a meat option . Also, just buy her cookbook Celebrations. It is worth every penny.

Meat Based

We buy our grass fed beef in bulk from the nicest small time farmer on the Eastern side of our state (if you want a reference hit me up!). If you are going to invest in your food, make it the MEAT. Here are some recipes we use and we all love.

https://wonkywonderful.com/garlic-rosemary-whole-30-meatballs/ highly recommend pairing with brown rice that has been soaked for 12+ hrs.

https://natashaskitchen.com/beef-stew-recipe/ this stew is delish, just make sure to leave out the flour. You don’t really need it in my option anyways.

http://www.oursmallhours.com/grain-free-meatloaf/?epik=dj0yJnU9X2JuXzVxbTkxaVhFUm96dDB4N3dvMVlrZWdrUWhrZEkmcD0wJm49WG9TUnd5ZVl1V0NQTGthdXZwdVpUdyZ0PUFBQUFBR0ZUekRF Sub the butter for olive oil and leave off the cheese for a dairy free option.

Side note: Don’t be afraid of cooking steak for kiddos, once I finally figure how to cook one properly (hint: less cook time than you think!) my kids loved it!

Sides

As you know I am a big believer in freezer meals which tend to be one stop shop type of things. Sometimes I add a soaked grain side, or a salad, or bread. Usually it is whatever I had time to make or had the ingredients handy for. In the summer my salad garden helps out there, or in winter I’ve usually canned some veggies to rely on, have some frozen, or will try and eat only the seasonal veggies available in the stores. If I’m gonna be fancy and cook something though, here are some I might choose:

https://www.rockrecipes.com/lemon-herb-roasted-potatoes/

https://mamashire.com/the-best-gluten-free-cornbread-recipe/ use egg replacer and only coconut milk to make this vegan and almond/cashew free. Pair with stew, yum!

Pizza

It’s taken me YEARS to find a sourdough pizza recipe that works and is fool proof (honestly, I need 90% of my recipes to be brain dead, this momma is spinning fifty plates all at once, all the time). This.is.the.one. Once you get a rhythm down it’s a piece of cake. I can shape and cook 8 of these in 30 minutes. Just leave off the cheese to make it dairy free!

https://littlespoonfarm.com/sourdough-pizza-crust-recipe/

Dessert

I’m going to be honest with you. Allergy friendly baking is even more of a challenge than cooking. However, with training, even my littles now look for recipes that are allergen friendly if they want to make cookies, or to plan for birthday cakes. My son is a whiz at cookie making and helps me read labels the stores all the time. It has become such a bonding experience, and I’m really proud of him. Here are some of our favorite cookies, crisps, and mixes!

With this recipe, make sure to use avocado oil instead of canola, and I use coconut milk instead of rice milk.
https://allergyawesomeness.com/christmas-chocolate-peppermint-crinkle-cookies-gf-vegan-peanuttree-nut-free/

I’ve successfully used coconut flour instead of oat flour, egg replacer instead of flax, and left out the walnuts and yet this recipe still worked great. These are some of my all time faves!https://beamingbaker.com/my-favorite-vegan-oatmeal-chocolate-chip-cookies-gluten-free-dairy-free/

It is so simple to make a crisp allergen friendly, I highly recommend it to anyone struggling to fix a dessert for a friend with allergies, or as a starting point for themselves. Here is a mind-blowingly good one: https://beamingbaker.com/paleo-apple-pecan-coconut-crisp-vegan-gluten-free-dairy-free-refined-sugar-free/#tasty-recipes-21436-jump-target

Full disclosure: I cannot make a “birthday cake” type cake from scratch without real eggs. It just doesn’t work well for me. So, I highly recommend using a mix if you have to go the vegan and gluten free route. We love the brand Pamelas for just about everything; brownies, cake, cornbread, you name it. The down side is that it is expensive. So, we usually only buy those for special occasions.

If you CAN eat eggs and dairy, try this recipe out. I’ve made it a couple times for parties and it was a huge hit. Dead easy, and looks totally gourmet. https://www.girlgonegourmet.com/flourless-chocolate-cake/

That’s a wrap!

I’ve spent years baking and cooking around diets without eggs, gluten, dairy, wheat, soy, PUFAS, nuts, and beans. I’ve cooked and baked for the GAPS diet and the Auto Immune Protocol. While I am not perfect at always getting every recipe right, or slip up in ingredients from time to time, I’d like to let any and all knowledge I have be known and *hopefully* helpful to anyone searching for answers. It has been a very long and very hard road for me and my family to travel, but it is SO WORTH IT. If you are starting on your journey or stuck in the middle, chin up! You can do hard things!

Our Fall Morning Basket

Remember when I talked about our morning basket and how I had planned out all our themes for the year? Well, today I got to reorganize and set up our fall themes for the morning basket, which are Halloween and All Saints’ Day. I thought I could give you a peep at what we will be doing starting next week, breaking it up by subject. A new theme always gives the school mornings a little breath of fresh air!

So, if you’ll remember, the morning basket is just a snippet of a given subject that is covered in more detail throughout the week, usually on a every-other-day schedule. It is not the main text and work, but some of the fun activities or a component that is most beneficial when revisited every day, like memory work. For added fun I like to throw in crafts and games that are not school related per se, but are a fun bonus.

History

We are still working through our state study book, C reads about one state a day. I added the state and capitol flash cards as well as some cds that we listen to in the car full of patriotic music. We are really digging the music and love blasting it in the car!

Religion

Miss A is going to start confession prep this year so we are brushing up on our catechism. She is reading out of this book aloud to us a little each day. We are still chipping away at our Bible audiobook each morning and have finished the gospels and are into the Acts of the Apostles. I am still loving this Catholic signs and symbols book and highly recommend it. We read about symbol a day.

Art

Although we’ve read through some of this art book before, we are really taking our time with it and reading about the different art movements as they correlate to our history timeline. We recently read about the Impressionists and Post-Impressionist, so for the rest of the month we will be working on making paintings styled after some of the famous artists of those periods. First up, Édouard Manet!

Memory work

The kiddos memory capabilities will never cease to amaze me! Gotta capitalize on that, am I right? They have been memorizing poetry since they were four years old and I’m proud to say they are still going strong. I love to find poems that inspire them. A is currently working on The Flag Goes By by Henry Bennet and C is working on The Fool’s Prayer by Edward Sill. Both so epic! Of course they are usually less excited about math but there is no better substitute for learning math facts than good ol’ flash cards.

Seasonal

Now comes the good stuff! Just kidding, it’s all good stuff! Seriously though, it’s taken me awhile to curate exactly what I like to do for Halloween and All Saints’ day, I’ve tried lots of different options. It’s not easy to find things that are simple enough for the kids to do *mostly* on their own and also be something you can feel good about spending valuable school time on. I found this banner on Teachers Pay Teachers, and I am so looking forward to making it with the kids! What a learning activity! I plan on doing two Saints a day (school days), all the way up to November 1st. We will have quite the banner draped all along the walls!

We do celebrate Halloween, or All Hallows’ Eve, but are pretty mellow about it. We dress up and trick or treat and carve pumpkins but the kids usually don’t eat any of their candy (we give them the option of the Switch Witch) and we are all in bed by 9pm. I don’t hate it, haha! I think carving pumpkins is one of the best family traditions we’ve ever started, it is fantastic! We can barely wait and usually end up carving them really early in October and then they rot super fast but we don’t even care. It is so fun to see the kids become more and more skilled over the years! However, why not use those pumpkins for learning before they head to the compost? I’ve been using this flip book activity for a couple years and it is always a hit. Come to think of it, I might need to find something more tricky for next year, it might be getting boring for my smart kidlets!

Last but not least, we always make bats during this time of year. It’s quite a nostalgic craft because I first made them with C when it was just him and me all day, many moons ago. So even if it seems juvenile for a 7 and 9 year old, they really love it and it always makes me laugh to see how their personalities come out in their bats. Last year A’s had a pink hair bow and C’s had wildly different sized eyes, haha! We usually only make a few, but who knows what will happen! My children surprise me everyday.

Well, that’s it guys! I can’t wait to dig into this morning basket soon. Hopefully you have a morning ritual that inspires you as well. Happy fall y’all!

Ellensburg Field Trip

Bring on autumn! I am so ready. The smell of apples cooking and the crisp air has me all giddy. We were driving home from church today and I saw the ticket stands being put up at our local pumpkin patch/corn maze and I promptly shrieked, “SPOOKY SEASON!”. Luckily, I did not startle Husband who was driving. It’s like he knows me or something 😉.

With autumn came the start of soccer practices which started off really well. I think it will be a smooth season for both the kids, and fingers crossed it won’t be too hectic for Husband and I. Go Cheetahs! Go Wizards! School has been humming along well, I’m finding the year round schooling is taking quite a bit of pressure off me.

We took a long weekend on Friday to go on a short geology/history field trip to Ellensburg. We met my parents and several of my sisters there; it is always a treat to see them. As part of our history portion of the trip we stayed in a Sioux replica teepee! It was so incredibly fun! On Friday we had great weather but it stormed like crazy that night so our shoes got wet because we left them outside, that wasn’t too bad as they dried out inside on a heater. Personally, I love storms and enjoyed listening to the wind during the night. I was super excited to go “glamping” for the first time! I’m totally sold on it.

Our teepee! Complete with mini fridge, heaters, and beds.

Phases of the moon painted all around the top

We also went on a few hikes. The first was to see a old homestead and school from the 1800s. They had quite a collection of old farming equipment too.

The second hike was to see some very old basalt columns for Azelie’s geology enrichment. We found some volcanic rocks too. Ellensburg has amazing geology.

Our last stop was at the local museum to combine our geology and history exploration. First, we got to see a one of a kind rock, Ellensburg Blue, a completely unique agate not found anywhere else in the world. The museum has a great little collection of lots of types of crystals and rocks. They also have a good selection of historical displays, including artifacts from the Civil War, Korean War, WWI and WW2. We are studying early modern history this year so this museum was perfect.

Of course no trip to Eastern Washington is complete without a stop at a produce stand or two. The rest of the weekend will be full of apple sauce making and preparing for the week ahead. Happy fall y’all!

Cosima 2

Cosima is two years old! I say it every time my children have birthdays but man! That went by fast.

I am fairly convinced that the older I get the faster time moves. It’s a terrifying and invigorating conundrum but accepting that our time with our children is so short makes me glad I’ve stayed home to school and raise these munchkins. It’s worth it to embrace the slow pace with our kids because time will march relentlessly on won’t it?

I truly believe that raising children is by far the greatest privilege and responsibility that one can have. We really only get to borrow them for a short while don’t we?

Cosima Philomena Eponine, you and your siblings are my greatest adventure. Thank you for choosing me to be your mom. I love you Little Swan.

Mount Rainier

Our last camping trip of the year was a success! We visited Mount Rainier, which we have done before, but this time stayed at the Ohanapecosh campground on the Sunrise side of the mountain.

The campsite was great and we practically had the place to ourselves. The loop we stayed in was almost empty, but we couldn’t figure out why because the sites were secluded and the Ohanapecosh river serenaded us just 50 yards away. It was quite idyllic. There were reports of a forest fire many miles away, and smoke possibly effecting the area but we didn’t experience anything worse than a little haze part of one day. We lucked out!

The views were breath taking as always and the kids are well trained hikers. The Grove of the Patriarchs has been on our list to visit and it was incredible!

The hike to Silver Falls leaves right from our campsite loop and while we didn’t go that way this time (since we connected two hikes together) we throughly plan on taking advantage of that handiness next time.

We drove to Naches Peak were wowed by the view of Rainier and the alpine meadows and lakes. We even hiked on a bit of the Wonderland Trail.

I think the kiddos favorite part was the river by the campground. On the opposite loop the river was set up to be easily accessible. Crystal clear water flowed slowly and in several waist deep pools making it very safe, and many kids were swimming! Whew! Chilly water but they seemed to have a blast.

Camping with kids is a lot of work (particularly when your toddler decides to not sleep) but it is always worth it and so important for them (and me!) to experience nature that way. One of my favorite things about Mt Rainier camping is that there is no cell service! I really enjoy unplugging. Next year though, we need to go for longer because two nights away just isn’t enough time to explore or relax with my family. But! I will take what I can get and am very grateful for such a glorious place to visit so close by.

A great camping trip, then home to celebrate this little lady turning two!

Till next time, Rainier!