I Heart Valentine's Day

I've been using the new Gluten Free Betty Crocker cake mixes to make cupcakes for Connor (and his class). The mixes are expensive, but man they rock. Some people say that they can taste the rice flour in those. I say if you can taste the rice flour you don't have enough icing on it. I've had them without icing though and can't taste anything but chocolate cupcake.



Because I thought he might feel bad if he had to eat different cake than the other kids, I volunteered to make the cake for the class 100 day celebration as well. The 1 is GF but the zeros are just regular cake mix. I didn't do that because of the taste, but because of the expense. With only the 1 being GF it's a $10.00 cake. If the zeros were GF too it would be a $20.00 cake. It was delicious y'all.





The 100 should have stood for everything I did that week. When did Valentine's day become so hectic? We had the 100 day celebration, a field trip, a school project due, valentine's for both of the boys classes, teacher presents, conversation hearts for husbands work friends, conversation hearts for some of the moms at the preschool, a present for our baby sitter, presents for the boys and for husband. Granted I didn't have to volunteer to make a cake and cupcakes that week, but it wasn't the baking that was difficult. It was everything else with it. I'm all for bringing back the Valentine's day that was just a bunch of paper cards. I miss simplicity.

Knock on Wood

I've had a lot of questions over the past few weeks about the GF diet and how it's going. And the answer? Fantastic. Connor is super conscious about not eating foods with gluten in them. The truth is, I was worried about him feeling like the weird kid, but in fact it's the opposite. It makes him feel like the special kid. He's proud of his diet and doesn't seem to feel deprived at all.
One of the Moms at the preschool asked him last week if he he wanted some chips to which he responded, "Only if they don't have gluten in them." I can't believe that this is the thing that he's chosen to listen to us about. He doesn't listen to much he has to say, but he hasn't rebelled at all with the new diet. I am beyond surprised. I wonder if maybe he feels better without it.
We are starting to see changes. It might actually be WORKING! It seems to be happening slowly, but it's happening. He hasn't gotten a yellow card in school in 3 and a half weeks and that's never happened before. I couldn't be more proud. The circles under his eyes seem to be lighter also.
Making lunches and dinners are starting to be less of a challenge for me and we are probably eating better that we ever have, consistantly. We always have eaten fairly well, but without the gluten we can't just order pizza one night. Which sort of sucks. But is better for everyone.
He hasn't been sick as much either. And his moluscum is finally going away. I can attribute that to the vinegar baths and tea tree oil that we've been trying. It's so much easier than the Dr's approach to it, which was to burn it off. That might have worked for me if he'd only had 3 spots of it, but since he had 20 there was no way I was going to torment him like that. Especally since I kept feeling like with the eczema and the moluscum that something was going on with his immune system. Didn't it make sense that these were symptoms of a bigger problem? Why did I stop using holistic medicine in the first place? That probably deserves it's own entry though. For now I'm just glad that finally we are able to utilize the tools that will best help Connor be the best Connor he can be.

GF Baking 101

Gluten Free baking is interesting, my friends. It's completely different than baking with wheat and in some ways it's easier. Aside from the 5363 ingredients that it takes to make something that looks like bread and tastes like rice smells, there's no kneeding, you just mix, rise and bake. Here are some observations I've made so far.


- The GF dough isn't like dough. It's like cake batter. Bread has to be poured or spread, (in the case of pizza crust) into the pan.

- Do not taste it. GF Cookie dough doesn't taste anything like the cookie dough that you make yourself or buy in tubes at the grocery. It's fairly close, but just not quite right.

- Let your bread cool completely before slicing it.

- GF baking can be expensive. However, homemade GF muffins are cheaper than traditional wheat bakery muffins.

- When it doesn't turn out according to plan it will be upsetting. Possibly if it does turn out it will be upsetting if you aren't used to the flavor of the new flours and are expecting wheat flavor.

- It doesn't taste like wheat. You can't make it taste like wheat. But you can give it the texture of wheat, and then mask the flavor with other things. (Like peperoni, mushrooms and extra cheese).

- Set your expectations low. And hope to be pleasantly surprised.



These cookies don't look exactly like a traditional chocolate chip cookie, but they are close enough. I thought they were pretty good considering they were made from things that had names like, millet and sorghum. I made enough batter to freeze so that we could have decent cookies whenever we wanted.

Check it peeps. It's not stuffed crust, but it was pretty damn good for a gluten free pizza crust I had to mix, rise and bake 12 hours in advance. Because you know, I'm not doing anything else around here.

Tears of joy.

Snow Daze

We didn't get a whole lot of great pictures in the snow this year for some reason. I think it's because we turned on the gas fireplace which the kids have never seen on before. They were so enthralled by having fire in the living room that they didn't want to leave the fireplace.

The Sugar Bear however was all about charming our (generous) neighbor into going down the hill with him. I might have done it, but that sled looked pretty small and I didn't want to get half way down the hill, have it explode underneath me and then continue the rest of the way Looney Tunes style.

Connor walking up the hill after limping down it with the Bilibo. He was pretty miffed over something but we never figured out what. We have determined that some days his problem is that he is just prematurely 14 years old. You know. whatever.

Tristan digging for worms. It doesn't matter the weather. If that kid is outside he's looking for worms for his worm farm. It lives on our kitchen counter. I know, right? Now you can't WAIT to come over for dinner!

Whose yer Loser?

You may have received an email from me regarding the MOMS Club Biggest Loser competition that we are holding to benefit the SPD Foundation. Now believe it or not, donating to the SPD Foundation wasn't even my idea. In fact, at first I didn't want to do it because I didn't want people to think that I had engineered something towards my own cause. But I talked to a couple of other Mommies, who thought that it would be better to help a foundation that at least had something to do with someone that we knew rather than just a nameless foundation just because. But since I happen to be involved with the SPD Foundation anyway, it's full steam ahead.
The competition involves participants, (like me and Jorma) losing weight and getting a pledge amount from sponsors for each pound that we lose. If you didn't receive an email from me and want to support the cause, bring it on. We'll take your money. Or at least we'll take your money to the MOMS Club to give to the SPD Foundation. I'm posting random updates on the blog so that everyone can gain amusement from our loss. It should be entertaining at the least.