Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Pumpkin Patch


This post should really be entitled "Camping" but our trip ended up being a bust and we only made it through one night of the long weekend planned. Unfortunately, I knew that would happen! Quin is literally the impossible child, and with her being 17 months old, (in my opinion the worst age) it seemed like a recipe for disaster to go tent camping! And it was. I was awake All. Night. Long. 
Quin wanted to just lay on top of me and of course I didn't sleep a wink between her squirming, talking, laughing, crying, playing, whimpering, screaming and randomly sleeping. On top of the fact that being awake in itself was horrendous, our air mattress sprung a leak and after only a couple of hours, we were all on the hard ground. Perfect ending to a perfect night. All I can say is, Friday night, after a hot shower, being in my own bed with my pregnancy pillow felt like the best thing that ever happened. 

Since we ended up with a nice free weekend, we decided we should take advantage of lounging, cleaning and going to the pumpkin patch and Disney Land. The pumpkin patch we went to was AMAZING! Seriously, I cannot believe something so amazing could be that close to my house! It was absolutely beautiful with rolling hills and a gazillion things to do. The girls absolutely loved it! We got to go on a wagon ride and enjoyed the petting zoo as well as a hawaiian shave ice. Yum! The ONLY thing I was bummed about is the fact that it was almost 90 degrees. I wanted it to feel like fall when we went to the pumpkin patch and carved our pumpkins. Oh well! Can't complain since we really did have a great time. 












Friday, October 5, 2012

Dairy & Gluten Free Chicken Pot Pie

I had a lot of people asking for this recipe, so I figured I'd just write it down and anyone who wants it can have it! I do have to admit that I took a non gluten free/dairy free recipe and converted it, so I had to tweak it WHILE I was cooking more than once. Therefore, if this doesn't turn out good, I warned you. ha!


This is what Celery Root looks like! Who knew? This is one crazy vegetable! Or root...... 


Pot Pie Filling
3 c chicken broth
3/4 frozen green peas, thawed
1 cup potato, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 cup sweet potato, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 cup celery root, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 cup parsnip, cut into 1/2-inch thick slices
1 cup chopped carrot
1/2 cup fresh corn cut off cob (or frozen thawed)
1 lb skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
1/3 cup superfine brown rice flour (Or corn starch)
1 1/2 c non dairy milk such as rice or hemp 
1/4 c fresh parsley, chopped
2 tbs fresh thyme, chopped
Salt/pepper


Bring the chicken broth to a boil in a Dutch Oven or large skillet.  Add all the veggies, cover, reduce the heat, and simmer for 6 minutes.  Add the chicken, and cook 5 minutes or until the chicken is done. Remove chicken and veggies from broth with slotted spoon and reserve in separate bowl.

Increase the heat under the broth to medium.  Put the brown rice flour or corn starch  in a separate bowl and gradually whisk in the milk.  Add the milk mixture to the broth, and cook for 5 minutes or until thickened, stirring frequently. 
(This is where things got tricky for me. I initially added WAY to much brown rice flour, (2/3 cup!) so I ended up having to add an extra cup+ of milk to even it all out. 1/3 cup brown rice flour/corn starch should be sufficient, but if you need a thicker sauce, add a little more flour/corn starch with a little more milk and keep adding to your chicken stock mix slowly until it's the right consistency.) 
Add the chicken and veggie mixture back into your thickened broth with, parsley, thyme, salt, and pepper.
(You could even add a bit of nutmeg which would taste great!)

At this point, I got lazy to I threw some puff pastry on top....but For gluten free add your favorite gluten free biscuits or gluten free cornbread on top!  Bake on 375 for around 20 minutes or until  your cornbread/biscuit topping is done.

 Below I added an allergen  free cornbread recipe! 

Allergen Free Cornbread
Cybele Pascal

1 Cup King Arthur gluten free Multi-purpose flour, or Authentic Food GF Classical Blend
3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 3/4 cups rice milk
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp honey
2 tsp Ener-G egg replacer mixed with 4 Tbsp rice milk
1/4 cup canola oil



  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Preheat the pan, along with your oven, this will give you a nice crust. I use a 10-inch cast iron skillet (the traditional way), but you may also use a similarly sized baking pan, square or round, it doesn’t matter.
  2. Combine flour mix, cornmeal, xanthan gum, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
  3. Combine rice milk, lemon juice, and honey. Whisk well.  Set aside for 10 minutes.  Combine egg replacer with rice milk.  Add rice milk/lemon juice mixture to flour mixture, along with egg replacer and canola oil.  Beat until smooth.
  4. Remove hot pan from oven and quickly spray with canola oil spray or other oil of choice.  Pour in batter and set pan in center of oven.  Bake 25 minutes at 400 degrees, then turn heat down to 300 degrees and bake another 10 minutes or so until set in the center.  Remove from oven. Let cool about 15 minutes before slicing into squares or pie-shaped wedges.
© 2010 by Cybele Pascal

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Celebrate!

We got to spend a lovely Saturday afternoon with friends for their little girl's 1st birthday. Honestly, I think the first year goes by so quickly it's not fair. I also think that babies change the most drastically in the first year so it's kind of hard to wrap your head around as a parent. It was such a sweet thing to watch the kiddos play together and see how big they've all gotten. I literally still can't believe I'm having another baby in just a few months! Just adding to the madness! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET PENELOPE! 


 Birthday girl eating her cake
 Opening gifts is exciting business! 


 Oh my goodness gracious I love this picture of all the kids playing 
 with the fake food and shopping cart.
 You have no idea how hard we tried to get them all in looking for a picture. 

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Won't Back Down

In seems like in light of our REALLY exciting news, there isn't much else to crazy to write about. I thought about maybe waiting for something else to come up before I posted, but hey, what's the point? I think I'm probably at that place in my life where stuff just isn't THAT exciting on a day to day basis.

I did however get to go out with my sister, ALONE, for an entire evening of eating way to much at PF Chang's and attending the movie premiere for "Won't Back Down." Anyone who has children will understand how truly thrilling something like this can be. To top it all off, since my sister Ashley is so awesome, we were VIP to the movie, had a taped off row, AND got free popcorn and a drink. That's big stuff, people!

I first must start off by saying that this movie was amazing! I went into the premiere without even having seen a preview or trailer, so I had no idea what the movie was about or what to expect. It was so heartwarming and really inspiring. I will admit that I did cry.....and I think every other person in the whole theater did as well! If you get a chance, go see the movie! We also got to meet the main little boy from the film, Dante Brown. He was adorable. Overall it was a really fun evening and I'm glad my sister and I could actually sit and talk without all the kiddos running around. That literally never happens. N.E.V.E.R.

 Can you tell the food was the highlight of my night? haha. I'm still dreaming about it.



Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Baby's Make Me Happy....

And VERY sick! Which is why I've been so absent from blogging these past few months! We've finally started announcing that we are pregnant! I'm 14 1/2 weeks and extremely excited to be adding to our family. I guess come February I'll have to change the name of my blog! You never know how it's going to be with each pregnancy, so I was hoping for the best but really expecting the worst. I was very ill with Ruby, but didn't suffer more than a couple of days of sickness with Quin, so it seemed natural that this time around I would be sick again....and boy was I! I've just now started feeling like a normal person again! There were weeks where I would barely make it downstairs with the girls, feed them breakfast and then find my place on the couch for the entire day unless I absolutely HAD to get up. It all seems like a blur now, I kind of don't know how we did it, but we did! Watching WAY more tv than we ever have in our lives! Ruby is absolutely ecstatic that we're having another baby and from day one has been convinced without wavering that it's a boy. We found out on Saturday that it IS indeed a boy & are all overjoyed with the happy news. Adam's been outnumbered all this time and I think he's excited to have a little buddy to play football with. Although, I'm convinced he'll end up being a musician or artist and won't like sports :)
I don't really know why, but it's been a really rough pregnancy for me in more ways than being sick. I've been very emotional and worried. I'm always worried when I'm pregnant, but I just keep hearing story after story about horrible things happening and become increasingly more afraid. I hate that fear & I know ultimately that God has this baby and our future in His hands, so I'm trying to let go. It just seems like with each of my pregnancies I become more fearful. Pray for me if you think about it! 
It's funny how with the third pregnancy your body knows exactly what to do. I popped out instantly! I cannot believe how pregnant I look already. The picture below of my belly is from a couple weeks ago, so I'm even bigger now! I look more like I'm 20 something weeks than 14!! 
 It still absolutely amazes me how a baby grows! Ruby & I LOVE looking at our weekly growth chart and reading about the changes in our little guy. Ruby saw this picture and said "Awww. He's cute. He doesn't have any hair! He's just a boy, mom." This was a few days before we found out. 
 And here is one of our ultrasound pictures. Definitely different than my girl ultrasound pictures!! :) 
 We announced it to our family with carrot cake! My sister made an adorable video that I'll share too! 



Sunday, August 19, 2012

A Week of New Dinners

*I should start by saying this post has been a NIGHTMARE to get up! Blogger is NOT working and I've tried a gazillion times to post this week with no good results. Some of my pictures were deleted as well, so this is the best I could do!!! 

I've been looking around trying to find some new meals to make recently & these are the six I tried for this last week. They all turned out really yummy and I definitely will be adding them to my list! (Can you tell chicken was on sale this week?)

***I cannot believe I left out a recipe that happened to be our FAVORITE out of all of them!! I've updated & added the THIN BURGER! YUMMMM!!***

1. Chinese Chicken Salad

2. THIN BURGER


3. Sausage Scallopini (recipe will be at end of post) 

4. Coconut Chicken Nuggets



5. Chicken Tortilla Soup 
my house smelled like HEAVEN while this was cooking! 


6. Chicken Fajitas 

7. Martha's Bean Burritos  
I added sauted bell pepper and onions - and I actually didn't follow the recipe exactly.....I made my own beans and didn't add rice but added some chopped chicken instead and they were yummy! I think it's pretty obvious this is simple and versatile :) 
 


*Sausage Scallopini Recipe
1 lb sweet Italian sausage
2 garlic cloves - chopped
1 medium sweet onion - julienned
1 red pepper - julienned
1 green pepper - julienned
3 TBS olive oil
1 lb can crushed or diced tomatoes
1 can of tomato paste (6 oz)
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 pound pasta

DIRECTIONS
1. Combine all ingredients (except pasta) in a slow cooker. Cook on high for 3 hours stirring occasionally.
2. Toward the end of cooking time, remove the sausage, slice into smaller pieces, then return to slow cooker.
3. Cook pasta
4. Toss everything together and enjoy!

*I sauteed mushrooms and zucchini separately and added it to the finished product, and I also cooked spaghetti squash and used that as the "pasta." This was VERY tasty!