Pancakes: w/ No Egg, No Milk!

My favorite breakfast food is blueberry pancakes, and I've been on an quest to not only find a way to have them, but how to make them quickly too.  Thanks to some creativity with Bisquick I think I might FINALLY have perfected the recipe!!  And who said you have to wait until the weekend for special breakfast foods like this, when thy can be whipped up SO quick!

As you might already know, as a breastfeeding Mama, I need to stay away from what our baby is allergic to.  Cooking in general is a challenge when I can't use milk (whey, casein), soy (soy lecithin is in everything!), eggs, and peanuts.  So My mission is to find alternative ways of making favorites so this little kiddo can eventually grow-up not feeling deprived of experiencing everyday foods!

Ok, so for this morning: PANCAKES!!

First and foremost, I use coconut oil on the pan.  Cooking spray is hard to find without an allergen-free label so I'm just avoiding it for now.  If you find one, let me know and I'll snatch it up!  The other trick is to your the white box of Heart Smart Bisquick.  here's the recipe on the side of the box...

...and here's how I altered it to be safe and tastier too!

PANCAKES

2 cups Heart Smart Bisquick

1¼ almond milk (regular)

1 Tbsp orange juice

1 tsp sugar

¼ tsp vanilla extract

Now just stir all together and cook on the pan like you would for typical pancakes.  And if you're like me, add blueberries! Yum!

And you might be wondering, "why orange juice?" My husband found it was a nice alternative to the egg because of the color and we're thinking it has something to do with the citrus reaction to the baking soda that is probably in the Bisquick.

Vinca vs. Impatients

Most people know Impatients.  They are a hardy flower and provide flowers all spring, summer, and even autumn long.  But it's not my first choice.  I love Vincas!

Aren't they little beauties?!

Vincas look like the same flower and bloom consistently throughout the same period of time, and super easy to take care of, so what's the difference?  The biggest difference is that these little lovelies are hungry for the sunshine!  Impatients tend to wilt with too much sunlight and will thrive better in partial shade.  The front of my home isn't the greatest place to plant flowers (or even grass for that matter!) because we get WAY too much sun.  So my simple fix is to find flowers that thrive in the sunshine.

Another great reason to use vincas are that they are known to be resistant to deer!  Go figure!

These plants look so similar, that to the common gardener it's hard to tell which one you've bought unless you read the tag.  Here is a great website that clearly lays out the major differences so you can tell if you have inpatients or vinca:  vinca vs. impatients

After morning nap we went to the garden center for flowers. Like I mentioned above, my favorite go-to flower is Vinca's these past few years so I like to put them everywhere! They look like impatients but have lots of flowers all spring/summer long, and even last most of autumn too! But you have to watch the circular ads (or check online) because the stores don't seem to cary many of these and once they are all purchased, they are gone for good. Maybe it's because they aren't as commonly known as inpatients, begonias, marigolds...

At home the baby rolled around on the deck so I could plant some of the new flowers in our hanging baskets.  Here's what I did:

Gather materials needed: dirt, flowers, pots.
I only used top soil for this project because the potting soil
around the flower root system was nutrient-rich enough

.

1.) You can buy these little cuties in a
6 pack for under $2 at Lowe's!!

2.) Slightly push up from the bottom
to loosen from package

3.) Place plant roots carefully unto pot

4.) Arrange flowers & place dirt around
the root system to keep sturdy

5.) Very important: water new plantings

6.) Display with pride!

Edible Playdough

I've heard that you can make a safe edible playdough out of marshmallow Peeps so in the spirit of Easter, I thought it might be a fun for our little keiki.  I think it was more fun for Mommy because she just wanted to eat it.  But it's worth remembering for when she gets older.  

I found this recipe at www.kidsactivitiesblog.com which always has super fun ideas, and my favorite, it's broken down by kid age groups.  So here's what I did:

Ingredients

Pop in microwave

Stir and Play!

Angel Food Cake

According to my Grandma, my Papa's favorite cake was Angel Food cake.  It's SO easy and luckily for me, I've recently realized that I can eat this with my no milk/no soy diet!  Finally some baked goods around this home!

This is all you need + 1&1/4 cups of water:

 Just a few tips for us folks who have to avoid certain products: use coconut oil!

 Just pop a spoonful in the microwave and then use a paper towel to rub a little on the bunt pan.

 I typically go the old fashion route for the easy stir baking by using a whisk.  Only stir until mixed, it will be watery and foamy.

I let my batter sit for just a few minutes to let it fluff up before putting it into the middle rack of the oven.  The cake will rise within minutes and then continue to bake.  Once the cake is done, turn upside down on a cooling rack.  Once cool, pull cake carefully out of the pan and place on a cake serving platter.  I typically serve with thawed sliced strawberries which can be found in the freezer isle near the ice cream.

Cold Teething Toy

I have a few teething toys in the house for baby. I admittedly love Sophie the Giraffe because she is just so darn cute and she is helping baby’s teeth to come in quicker than I thought. Thus we have entered into the teething stage complete with the screaming, crying, drooling, and constantly chewing on everything in sight. Funny how it’s the simple at-home remedies that always seem to work the best. I have to give credit to my husband for this one: a frozen wet washcloth. He was reading up on the countless advice given to parents about teething when he came across the suggestion to give baby frozen wet washcloths from the freezer to help soothe the pain. So today I found an old hand towel and chopped it up. It’s simple enough for any mom to try!

First take any hand towel you have (and don’t mind destroying for the purpose).

Then, cut it in half, then cut it in half again twice more. My towel make 8 squares.

I would suggest shaking the towel pieces out at this point to rid the squares of flaking towel pieces. I would have preferably done this outside, but since it’s mid-winter here for us, I shook it over the sink. And boy am I glad I did! Those little pieces got everywhere!!

Soak the towel squares in water and then squeeze out excess water. I’m not sure if baby is going to prefer flat squares or squishy balls so I made both. I just popped these into a freezer bag and stuck it in the freezer during nap time so hopefully they will freeze until crunchy but soft, about 30-60minutes.

What works for your little one? Do you have any tricks to share? I read a good suggestion to actually soak the towels in chamomile tea. The cold will reduce swelling and the tea will apparently soothe some of the pain. I might have to try this next time!


UPDATE: The cloths only last about 10minutes or so, and baby seems to like both the flat squares AND the squishy balls. I didn’t find the chamomile tea made much of a difference for my little one, but it was worth a try.

Chocolate Cake

UPDATE: Please note this is not "top 8" allergen-free-friendly!! 

Who doesn't love a good chocolate cake? Surprisingly me... I typically don't opt for cake, I'm more a freshly baked pie kinda girl. But my husband loves chocolate cake, so what more says "I love you!" than coming home to a surprise in the middle of the work week? And oh my goodness, I think I finally found a chocolate cake I love too!! Yum!!!

Here's my new twist on Devil's food cake:

Ingredients:

1 box of Devil's Food Cake

1 package of chocolate instant pudding (I like the sugar-free/fat-free box)

1 12 oz package chocolate chips

1 cup low-fat sour cream

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*F

2. Prepare cake mix according to directions on box.

3. Stir in chocolate pudding mix, sour cream , and chocolate chips

4. Grease two 9 inch round baking pans; divide mix into each pan

5. Bake for 45 minutes.

I insert a toothpick into the center of cake; it should come out clean when cake is ready. I'm not good at making chocolate frosting so I cheated today and used a very thin layer of store-bought frosting. It's also a great time saver too! I suggest serving it up with a nice glass of cold milk

Shopping Savings

We all love saving money, but how many of us are extreme coupon shoppers? Kudos to those of you who are, but I am certainly not good at it (maybe I can learn from you one day!) But I like to think of myself as a gal that likes to find good deals. For me, that means using coupons when I can, pre-planning my trips to the store if possible, stocking up the basement for my family's future needs or even just scouting out which store carries the product I like for less.

Plus who doesn't love coming out of a store feeling like "Wow! I just saved how much?!" So here are my personal rules for what I consider a good deal:

1. Don't purchase things just because it's on sale or have a coupon for. If I don't typically use it or I don't actually want it, I don't buy it.

2. A "good deal" means I can save at least 25% or more in a shopping trip. Anything higher than 25% is simply a bigger happy dance when I come home and more $$ in my pocket.

3. The savings needs to outweigh the price of gas it costs to get to the store. If it costs less to have it shipped free from the store to my home, it's worth the wait.

4. Time is valuable too. I don't want to spend too much time coupon hunting. If it takes me an hour to find coupons that total $3, then it really isn't worth it to me.

5. Have fun and don't have too many rules or it gets too confusing!

So I've been running low on a few things in my home and I had a $10 off $100 at BJ's coupon in the mail. I like BJ's for buying things in bulk since the unit price tends to be a good deal, especially when using coupons. I looked at my house inventory and decided I needed more paper towels, tissues, dish detergent, cleaning products, and sponges in the house. So I took maybe 15 minutes to look through the in-club coupons I had available to use and also checked coupons.com to see what I should purchase. And off I went...

But ladies, let me tell you what was the best part of this trip: My husband came shopping with me! How lucky am I that he was willing to endure a coupon shopping trip? I honestly needed him because I needed help lifting up items because my wrists have been bothering me lately, and he was a great help! So if you are lucky to have a helper too, be sure you pay attention to their needs as well. My poor husband was busy doing yard work all day so the least I could do was take a pit-stop to Starbucks for a nice cup of coffee for him prior to shopping. (Oh yeah, and we used a gift card, so "free" coffee is always a great treat!)

Here's the break-down of our trip to BJ's:

I had a coupon for all but 2 items on my list: Tilex Mold&Mildew and Snuggles Fabric Sofetner sheets, but I had a coupon for all the other items. Plus, since my order came to a total of $107.71, I could use my $10 off $100 total order. So my shopping total came to $78.71 ...that's a savings of 27% Yippie!!