It will be a busy end of our week with packing up, preparing food, yard work and cleaning the house in preparation for a fun getaway with friends coming up!! We are beyond excited for this annual Memorial Day Weekend with our friends!
Javon was thrilled when I let him help all day!!... He washed his hands and with a bit of guidance from me he made two batches of chocolate chip cookies...:) I was really glad for him to!... We had some great conversations, with his endless questions about Heaven and Jesus it made for some deep thought from me to know how to answer some of his tough questions! I love this time with just him and I! Soon school will be over and I will miss days like today!
I made lots of things in the kitchen for Jordan today! He likes to have special treats to when we go to the mountains. With the rest of us eating more "junky" he feels left out at times. I also like to have things in the freezer for those "go to" moments so I stocked it up today after not baking for a few weeks...
Gluten free cookies...
They look a bit flat but they really are good!
Recipe...
1 cup plus 3 Tbsp. Silvana's All-Purpose Flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup all vegetable oil (coconut works great)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg (duck here)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup choc chips
Bake 8-10 minutes at 375'
Brownies...
Gluten Free Brownies...
1 cup semisweet choc chips (melted)
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 Tbsp. water
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs (duck here)
1/2 cup Silvana's All Purpose Flour
1/4 tsp. salt
Bake 20-25 minutes at 350'
I also made some muffins... The pumpkin ones I shared on an earlier post but I was out of canned pumpkin so I used applesauce and replaced the pumpkin pie spice for cinnamon and they turned out really good! I love to share these with Jordan even though he can be rather protective of his desserts...:)
All his sweets got individually wrapped, even the cookies. They keep better in the freezer and also this makes it a bit harder to just grab one any old time... I find when I have his sweets in the house he thinks anytime is "sweet time" even though he is learning that his body will let him know what it does not appreciate so he is doing much better with his portions!
After making Jordan's sweets and as I was baking Javon's cookie dough we made puppy chow and pretzel bark... I'm known to bring these things along to the mountains so to keep up with the tradition I decided I better get busy today since later this week I will not want to be in the kitchen so much!...
 |
| truly addicting and sinful!... Good thing we don't go to the cabin every week-end! |
These big containers of sweet snacks are packed tightly and hopefully hidden well enough that they won't get dug into before the party begins!...:)
Jordan's meals were kind of on my mind so after the sweets were out of the way today I set about making him lots of mini meals. A variety of meats and veggies were used to give him some choices.
I mixed shrimp and fish with corn pasta and peas. Every dish got grilled onions and peppers since this is Jordan's favorite to help add the flavor...:) Mushrooms went into some dishes to. Chicken and shrimp, Pork chops off the grill and loose sausage (gluten free and no pepper) with tiny potatoes and brown rice, and different veggies. Peas are Jordan's favorite and since he dumps these dishes out onto a bed of greens I don't go overboard with greens in his dishes like I do my own...:)
Sixteen individual portions vac packed and in the freezer will be a huge help to me in the next few weeks! I also grilled chicken and pork chops on the grill and cooled and vac packed them for the freezer. It really helps to have meat prepared ahead of time since throwing the veggies together takes only minutes...:) Some of these meals will go along to the cabin to less my stress while hanging with friends...:)
I also made sloppy Joe with venison and that is also in the freezer. This is great as a chip dip with corn chips although Jordan can only have a few corn chips at a time. I like to make a batch of waffle bread now and then for the freezer to, the sloppy joe is great on this waffle bread with greens and tomato...
I did share the waffle bread recipe on an earlier post... Since I'm sharing so many recipes since Jordan is doing "gluten, dairy, egg" free I want to do a side bar and organize it all so if you want a recipe you will find it there... One day I will have the time to figure it out, until then hang in there...:)
It was a lovely day and spending all day in the kitchen was not really my job of choice today but I will be so glad for all the kitchen work in the days ahead! I was so busy in the kitchen I never even took time to start my daily load of laundry! This means extra laundry room time coming up tomorrow!:)
Javon loves to sing! I love that he loves to sing like I do!! He is the only one of my children that I ever remember of that sings so much! We had Conrad Fisher's play list going in the kitchen today as we worked and we both sang along often!...:)
The Little's brought in a few "Praying Mantis" cocoons the other week. They found them on the bushes and put them in a jar with a few holes on the top. We also places in the jar a wet paper towel for moisture and today when Jen came home she spied little baby "Praying Mantis" moving inside the jar!! Hundreds of them!! They were right in front of my eyes all day as the jar was on my kitchen windowsill but I didn't even notice them! I guess I had a mission in mind...:)
We laid down out on the porch and had the jar tilted sideways... We watched all the baby Praying Mantis run to freedom!! We still have one cocoon left on the windowsill we will be watching...:)
Yesterday's Brunch at Kath's was fun... It was great to spend time with friends for a few hours. We had brunch on the porch in the sun and the day was sure a beauty!!
This is one of the adorable little people I got to love on...:)
 |
| Aunt Suz introduced baby Alan to strawberries...:) This child could be mine! He looks so much like my Justin! We hear it all the time and I love it!...:) |
It felt strange to be childless on this outing... Javon had a "Lunch Bunch" day at school. They are still making up those snow days!! He will go to school a week longer then his siblings! He wanted Rachel Ann to get him one more time before his school is over so I let her get him yesterday. He spent an hour with her and baby Ava...:) Ava is so good for Javon!... They are so cute together!!
To those of you that wonder who I talk about so much... Sweet baby Ava and her wonderful mother...:)
I love this baby girl like my own! She lights up every time she sees Javon and I!! Thanks for sharing her with us Rachel Ann!! It was not that long ago that I was sharing my tiny baby with you!! Time gets away so fast, cherish every moment with your sweet baby girl!!...:)
My morning started out with a three mile run to drop off the van to get the air conditioner worked on. (Since I started running I never get a ride to drop off or pick up the van anymore... When it needs oil change, inspection or tire fixes I just run instead of get a ride...:) Dave got his run this evening going to pick it up for me...:) We love to run when we have a destination rather then just the blocks all the time...:) ) My run was a great start to an all day kitchen day!! Morning runs keep me from eating junky during the day so as I was baking goodies my snacks were still on fruit...:) Maybe since I spent so much time in the kitchen today I can get another morning run tomorrow. I did think of the lunches for tomorrow as I was in the kitchen so I'm thinking I can get out again...:) Only a few more days of school then I can do every run in the morning!...:)
I'm off to get fresh air while we still have daylight... We are so enjoying our long daylight hours in the evening!
No comments:
Post a Comment