Mara's favorite Chicken Salad

I made this chicken salad for Mara a few weeks ago, and she now asks me for it ALL the time! She has definitely developed a love for salads-chicken, egg, her avocado salad....

This chicken salad couldn't get any easier, and its definitely a toddler-pleaser. Even Analese-who is a "peabutter and jelly kind-of-girl", loves to eat this for lunch. We serve it on the Chebe Flatbread-which is truly the best gluten-free, soy-free, and dairy-free bread for sandwiches and salads.

As for measurements, again we just kind of throw everything together, so feel free to add as much or as little of something, depending on what you like.

Ingredients

• boneless, skinless chicken breast, cooked and chopped or shredded
• apple, diced
• celery, chopped
• dried prunes, chopped thinly
• canola mayonnaise (we use Spectrum's Canola Mayo, but safflower mayo would work, or any other acceptable choice that works for you)
• Salt and pepper to taste
  

Combine ingredients. Done! Serve on a bed of lettuce or spinach, or on warm flatbread....yum!
My husband has also added the following to his: curry powder, or old bay seasoning...both were very good!
(I do recommend making it a few hours beforehand so that the ingredients can combine together in the fridge for better taste, but this isn't absolutely necessary.)

The Love of Smoothies

When I first found out I was pregnant, I eliminated my daily cup of coffee and instead, replaced it with a smoothie. I really wanted the girls to drink it as well, as Analese does not like most fruit and neither one drinks juice.

The girls were not impressed, and refused to drink more then a sip. So I let it go...sort of.

Every morning I offered them a sip of mine. Some mornings was a yes, some a no.

Then, I unknowingly bought the best "bribe" for getting both girls to want to drink a smoothie. A "Blend-n-Go Cup" that comes with a straw.

The straw is the best part. Funny how I had never thought of that before!

Now, the girls each drink an almost full glass of smoothie every morning. Mara, with her smaller glass, will drink 2-3 glassfuls! I am in heaven, it is so exciting to see them drink up , knowing how nutritious these things are.

Because of course, now that they love smoothies, I have begun adding more and more to it! Along with our fruit, yogurt, juice and milk, I also add some probiotics, hemp seed oil, flaxseed, my Juice Plus supplements-both fruits and veggies, and calcium powder.

Oh-and a handful of spinach.

I waited a bit before adding the spinach, hemp seed oil, and flaxseed. I started off with the basics, and each week we added a bit more. The girls "help" me make our smoothies every morning, and really enjoy it. They help me decide what fruits to put it, what new things to try, etc. Yesterday we used our simple orange squeezer to add some freshly squeezed clemantines to our smoothie. The girls loved taking turns squeezing the juice out, and I just enjoyed giving them the experience.

So here our basic smoothie recipe. I have to admit that I was shocked that both girls guzzled down their smoothie the first time I added hemp seed oil to it. I added 1 tablespoon, and could taste it right away (so you may want to start out with a smaller dose for those more finicky tastebuds!) With everything else, I have found that as long as they can taste what appeals to them, they are fine with anything else. In our case its bananas! Also, by letting them help you make it and giving them more control in what goes in it, has helped tremendously in this household!

I should also note that I don't really give "amounts" as it totally depends on what you like, don't like. This is just the basics of what we are drinking every morning. Hope it inspires you!

Basic Smoothie Recipe

• Bananas
• Blueberries (we use frozen)
• raspberries
• blackberries
• mango
  
• 1/2 cup Ricera rice yogurt (we use strawberry)
• orange juice
• vanilla hemp milk (or any other acceptable choice!)
• handful of chopped spinach
• 1 tablespoon hemp seed oil
• 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed

We have also added (and enjoyed):

• kiwi
• strawberries
• cherries
• avocado

Some Updates

I know, I know...it has been a looong time since I have posted! Not due to lack of recipes of course, but lack of time. This semester is proving to be very time-consuming as well, and I am so looking forward to May 4th-when I am officially done until the Fall!

So we are all surviving. We survived Easter, which brought on some added stress for me in finding ways for Mara to participate in Easter hunts without too much intervention from me. As she gets older, I have to admit that I struggle with this. I do not want my child to be singled out, or miss out on normal childhood fun. But ultimately this isn't possible, as everything seems to revolve around food. Sigh....

Our little Mara is doing well. We have had problems in the past month-she was suddenly waking up 6-10 times a night and we could not figure out why. Other changes we saw: diaper rash, eczema appearing once again on her lower back and around her mouth. We knew something was upsetting her, it was so frustrating not to know what! Finally, last week she had two mucous-filled diapers. And that was it. She began sleeping through the night once again, and things seem to be getting back to normal. At least my fingers are crossed that it is!

The pregnancy is going well...I am now almost 27 weeks! This may be the fastest pregnancy, and I hope once school is out Ill have a bit more time to just enjoy and reflect on it a bit.

So, just a quick update. I plan to do some changes to the site soon, making it a bit more functional. So stay tuned :)

Recipe: Peabutter Cookies

Warning: these are NOT the most nutritious cookies! I debated whether or not to post this recipe just yet, as I plan to experiment with sugar alternatives because I hate the amount of refined sugar that are in these cookies. So I will keep you updated and hopefully post a healthier alternative in the future! Otherwise, these will just be an occasional treat for our girls.

I found a recipe for "Flourless cookies" from "The Gluten-Free Gourmet Cooks Comfort Foods" by Bette Hagman. This is a great book, as she also tries to eliminate dairy from her recipes ...so less modifying for me! The original recipe uses peanut butter, and I made it without modifications first, adding the Enjoy Life chocolate chips with it. They were delicious, and if you can have peanut butter, I highly recommend them! The author recommends using a processed peanut butter, but we found one that was still natural but had the added salt.

So after I was able to eat more then my share of these cookies, I also wanted to try and make some for Mara. It wasn't fair for her to see her mother stuffing her face, now is it? I immediately wanted to try her peabutter and see how it worked. I also added some raisins as well. These cookies only take a few minutes to make, another plus for me , as I am not the best at planning!
Both girls LOVE these cookies! The biggest difference I found between the two batches (besides the taste) was that the peabutter cookies did not spread out like the peanut butter ones did. Which actually worked out well, as I made small mini-cookies to keep the total sugar intake low for one sitting! Plus, these cookies are pretty filling, so I think a smaller cookie is ideal. Both girls prefer these cookies over anything else I have made, so I am even more determined to try to reduce the amount of refined sugar!

Here's the recipe, enjoy!

Peabutter Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup peabutter
• 2 eggs
  
• 1 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp gluten-free vanilla
• 3/4 cups raisins (optional)

Using your mixer, blend the peabutter and brown sugar together. Add the eggs, one at a time. Add the baking soda and vanilla and blend until completely mixed. Add the raisins and blend by hand.
Drop cookies onto greased cookie sheets or parchment paper (we used parchment paper).

Bake 8-11 minutes in a preheated oven at 350 degrees.

Product Review: For Chocolate Lovers!

I have not had a chocolate bar for over two years. I love chocolate, but have never been one to buy lots of candy bars, etc. Ever since I have gone off of dairy and soy, I have been asking for safe chocolate. For Easter. Valentine's Day, Christmas. Even Mother's day!

But no chocolate for me. My husband is wonderful, but not a "plan in advance" kind of guy, so he never researched where to get this for me. Wile I enjoy the "Enjoy Life" chocolate chips, I just really wanted something different, a bit smoother......

So imagine my surprise when he came home Sunday afternoon with a CHOCOLATE BAR! For ME!! I was beyond excited. I wanted to savor it, and did not even open it until later when the girls were in bed.

The chocolate is from "Equal Exchange" and the safe kind for me (no dairy, no soy) was the dark chocolate. It was organic dark chocolate with pure cocoa nibs. Are you salivating yet?

Oh my, was this delicious. This chocolate just melted in my mouth. I tried my best to eat a bit at a time, but sadly finished it off yesterday. I just looked and found that it is available though my buying club...I just have to decide if I really want 12 of these things in my house! Plus, at $3.49 a bar, it is a pricey treat for me.

But, one I have been waiting for for a very long time!

Recipe: Creamy Pasta with Mushrooms

I have been so excited to share this recipe, as it is a personal favorite of mine at the moment! One thing I really miss about being off of dairy is the ability to have creamy pasta dishes. I saw this recipe in one my of favorite cookbooks at the moment (which I do highly recommend!) I saw that she used white beans in order to create a creamy texture and I just had to try it!

We modified the recipe a bit. For one, it calls for 3 strips of uncured pork or turkey bacon (cooked and chopped). We could not find any turkey bacon that declares itself "gluten-free" so we skipped this. We also changed the ingredient amounts, adding more beans for an even creamier texture, less garlic (so the girls would eat it) and 1/2 the canola oil mentioned.

We also added 2 cooked skinless chicken breasts, sliced up. This was a wonderful addition! It reminded me of my favorite Italian restaurant's "House special"-with the only difference being that their chicken was breaded. Next time I hope to "bread" the chicken beforehand.

I was very impressed, and absolutely loved it! I have made it a couple times since, in order to have it for lunch. I even made it for my husband's parents, and I don't think they even realized it had beans in it :)

So enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 4-5 tablespoons of white beans, pureed (we used some of the canola oil to puree beans in blender)
• 3-4 medium mushrooms, sliced
• 3 fresh basil leaves (or 1 tsp dried)
• 1/2 pound cooked corn spaghetti (or any other acceptable spaghetti noodle)
• 1-2 skinless chicken breasts, cooked and sliced.
  

In a small saucepan, combine the oil, garlic, salt and pepper. Simmer over very low heat for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
Add the beans, mushroom and basil (if you wish to add bacon, add this as well)
Simmer for another 3-5 minutes, stirring frequently.
Add to the cooked pasta, and toss to distribute the sauce evenly. Add the chicken slices and serve!

If you plan to fee more people and use more pasta, definitely double the sauce!

Food Trial: Oats

When Mara was a baby and we still were not sure of the extent of her food issues, we-as many parents do, introduced her to oats. I was already aware of her problems with wheat, but was not aware of the cross contamination issue with wheat and oats.

Anyway, at first Mara seemed to do OK with oats, and for the first coupe of times she ate it, she really seemed to enjoy it. I was so excited to have another kind of cereal to feed her!

Then she started waking up throughout the night, more so then usual. Lots of crying, lots of very painful gas. She refused to sleep during the day and just wanted to be held. All the time.

It wasn't until her mucous-filled diapers that we suddenly figured out that it was the oats. We were still learning, and somewhat in denial.

So no more oats for us. Once we figured out her issues with gluten, we assumed that that is why she couldn't tolerate the oats.

Last week my husband came home with this: Bob's Gluten-free oats! I was so excited, as I missed eating oatmeal and being able to use it in cooking.

We tried it with Mara and she loved them with bananas-of course. On Sunday we gave them to her again. Sunday night she was up a few times, crying hysterically. My husband had gone in and rubbed her back, and told me he thought it was her stomach.

Silly me, didn't put two and two together until the next day. Naptime was again filled with tears, and lots of painful gas. As I was sitting there with her, I finally had my lightbulb moment that it had to be the oats.

Another mucous-filled diaper when she woke up confirmed it for us.

So no more oats once again! At least I was able to eat two bowls of it before-hand :)