Mongolian Beef (Soy, Dairy, Gluten Free!)

This turned out super yummy! It was just as good as the Chinese takeout at our local restaurant!

Ingredients:

Vegetable oil
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
2 tablespoon minced garlic
1 cup Coconut Aminos or low sodium soy sauce if you aren’t soy free
1 cup water
1 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 pounds of flank stead or stir fry steak
1/2 cup tapioca starch
6 scallions (green parts only), sliced into 1-inch pieces

Directions:

Heat 2 teaspoons vegetable oil in a small saucepot over medium-low heat. Add the ginger and garlic and sauté until golden, about 2 minutes. Add the aminos or soy sauce and water, stirring to combine.

Stir in the brown sugar and increase the heat to medium. Bring the sauce to a boil for 3 minutes. Remove the sauce from the heat and set aside.

Slice the flank steak against the grain into 1/4-inch pieces, then toss it with the tapioca starch. Place the coated pieces of steak in a sieve and shake off any excess cornstarch. Allow the steak to sit 10 for minutes.

Place a large sauté pan or wok over medium-high heat and add 1/2 cup vegetable oil. Once the oil is hot (but not smoking), add the beef to the pan and sauté for 2 minutes until it is seared on all sides but barely cooked in the center. Remove the steak from the pan with a slotted spoon and transfer it onto a paper towel-lined plate. Pour any excess oil out of the wok.

Place the sauté pan back over medium heat. Add the prepared sauce to the hot pan (it should come to a boil almost immediately), then add the reserved steak and cook at a boil, stirring constantly, 2 minutes. Add the sliced scallions, stirring to combine.

Transfer steak and scallions with a slotted spoon to a plate and serve.

Pumpkin Pie Bars–Dairy and Grain Free!

 

These were a huge success! And the crust is so incredible, I am thinking of pairing it with my chocolate diary free cashew pudding to make a chocolate pie!

Ingredients:

Pumpkin Mixture:

1 can organic pumpkin puree, 1/4 cup honey or maple syrup, 1/4 cup full fat coconut milk (the kind you buy in a can), 1 egg, 3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice, dash of salt

Crust:

2 cups almond flour, 1/4 cup tapioca flour or arrowroot, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp baking soda, 1/4 cup honey or maple syrup, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/2 cup melted coconut oil

Preheat the overn to 325 and grease an 8x8 pan

Mix together the crust ingredients and press to the bottom of pan

Mix pumpkin mixture ingredients in same bowl (to save dishes!) and spread evenly over crust.

Bake for 45 min or until mixture is set. Refrigerate for a couple of hours

Enjoy!

“Creamy” Cashew Dip : Dairy and Gluten Free

 

This yummy creamy was originally labeled as a spreadable dairy free cheese. It doesn’t really taste that “cheesey” to me so I made some adjusted and just make it as a dip and it is super yummy and full of protein and healthy fats!

 

• 1 1/2 cups raw cashews
• 1/2 cup almond milk (to start)
• 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

 

Soak cashews for two hours so they blend well. Drain and put in a high power blender. Blend well. You can adjust consistency by adding more almond milk.

Parish Academy: Beginning Structured Learning

Chip and I decided that for preschool and possibly kindergarten, we will be homeschooling Elijah. I am excited that he can get a head start on learning and that I can take control of his curriculum! Since Elijah will be two and a half in October, I thought this would be a great time to start! Much of what I read encourages beginning early on memorization techniques and sight words. I began with the idea that I would come up with a different theme every week. Our first theme was The Beach since we stated in August. Since then, (we are on week 5) I have evolved into two curriculums that I have found online. One is http://www.abcjesuslovesme.com/ ABC Jesus Loves Me is one of the two free curriculums I use. The other is http://www.letteroftheweek.com/preschool_age_3.html. Both are bible based and free which is awesome. I use the letter of the week to create our themes and structure but I use ABC Jesus Loves Me for our bible stories and in setting goals. I find that these two sites compliment one another quite well. I also purchased a homeschool planner which is bible based and not only helps me organize our school week but my home duties as well. I highly recommend The Well Planned Day Planner to any mom trying to organize her life at home and especially those wanting to homeschool! It has a lot more organization than I need for a two year old which is actually awesome because it is an organizer that I can grow with and will work for our family as my children’s education evolves and once they start going to traditional school, which is currently the “plan”, I can use this to help me supplement their education.

One other element that I want to mention is our Preschool Prep dvd set. I found it on Groupon for half off but it would have been worth every penny to pay full price. Elijah loves the videos and has memorized about 20 sight words. I also purchased flash cards that go along with it and am planning on getting him the easy readers. These videos have been an amazing supplement our little “school” and Elijah has learned so much.  I prefer to limit television, even educational but the fact of the matter is with two infants that need lots of attention, having my preschool prep videos on hand is a great way to maximize Elijah’s learning time even when the twins need my undivided attention.

I got a few pictures of our first week of school. Elijah really seems to enjoy the structure and the projects that we do together and the twins love watching their big brother in action!

One of the tools I used for our beach theme was our own family photo book of Elijah’s first vacation which was at the beach! He really enjoyed seeing pictures of himself as a baby crawling around in the sand as we talked about the beach.

Elijah has been able to count to ten and beyond for some time but we are now working on applying counting to objects. I found some awesome websites where you can design your own worksheets. The first week we applied counting to three sea shells which Elijah was then allowed to color.

One of our art projects was making colored “sand” using salt and sidewalk chalk. we then layered it in a jar.

The finished product

Our Bible story was the Story of Jesus’ breakfast by the beach. One morning, Elijah and I acted out the story using his swimming pool, a fishing net and then ate our “breakfast by the beach”

Catching fish just like Jesus’s friends did!

Salisbury Steak : Dairy/Gluten Free Option

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup safflower oil
• 1 large onion, grated (about 1 1/3 cups)
• 2 slices white bread – I use Udi’s Gluten Free
• 1/2 cup Almond milk
• 2 pounds ground sirloin
• 2 garlic cloves, minced (1 1/4 teaspoons)
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley ( I use dried)
• 2 teaspoons plus a dash of Worcestershire sauce
• Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch, plus 1/4 cup for dusting ( I actually use tapioca starch)
• 1 1/2 cups beef broth

 

Heat a medium saute pan over medium heat. Add 2 tablespoons oil and 1 cup onion. Reduce heat to medium-low, and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are golden brown and caramelized, about 35 minutes. Set aside

Soak bread in milk, flipping once. Finely chop. In a large bowl, combine the remaining 1/3 cup onions, the sirloin, garlic cloves, bread, egg, parsley, 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Mix with your hands to combine. Divide meat mixture into 6 oblong patties (about 5 inches long and 3/4 inch thick). Dust with cornstarch.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add remaining oil, and reduce heat to medium. Cook patties, 3 at a time, for 6 minutes, without moving them. Flip, and cook until cooked through, about 9 minutes. Set aside on a plate. Repeat with remaining patties.

Make the gravy: Add cooked onions and 1 teaspoon cornstarch to same skillet, and stir for 1 minute. Raise heat to medium-high. Pour in broth and a dash of Worcestershire sauce, and whisk until broth is clear and slightly thickened, about 3 minutes. Remove pan from heat, and return patties and juices to skillet, spooning sauce on top.

Lemon Chicken

4  chicken breasts
flour to dredge (Optional…sometimes I coat in flour, sometimes I skip this. In the original recipe, you are advised to brown the chicken but I tend to skip this step in favor of saving time)
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup chicken stock
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp oregano
3 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp salt
2 tsp pepper
Veggies for bottom of pan(peppers, carrots, onions, mushrooms, etc)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. cover the bottom of a 9x13 with veggies of your choice. Place chicken breasts on top. If you chose to coat in flour, do this first otherwise just put them on naked. Mix the remaining ingredients together and pour over chicken and veggies. Bake for an hour or until chicken reaches an internal temp of 165 degrees.

Gluten Free Molasses Cookies

1/2 cup coconut oil (buy here)
1/2 cup coconut sugar
1/2 cup blackstrap molasses
1 egg
1 cup almond flour
3/4 cup sorghum flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp fresh grated ginger (I use those frozen cubes that you can find in the veg section of the grocery store.)
1/8 tsp nutmeg

Combine all the ingredients in a high power blender and mix well. It will be thick so you will have to stop several times and scrape the sides with a rubber spatula.

When it is well mixed, drop small scoops on a cookie sheet lined with silicone mat. Be sure they are about 2 inches apart. Bake at 350 for 12-14 minutes.

Rory and Patrick are Seven Months Old!

Here we are again, another month come and gone and my babies are seven months old. (wiping a tear away). I just love the baby stage so much. I love all the stages but the baby stage just seems to go by so fast and I am doing my best to savor the sweetness of the first year. I find it hard to believe that this time last year I was just now getting to know my babies a little better, finding out at a sixteen week elective ultrasound that we were having two sweet boys. And now we are only five months away from one year old! These two awesome little boys are growing and developing at rapid speeds. Every day it seems there are doing something new.

Rory has had quite the month. About two and a half weeks ago we were in San Antonio visiting my parents. My aunt and I had taken the twins to see my grandmother and while we were there, my aunt noticed that Rory had sprouted his two first teeth! Now I like to think that I keep myself very aware of my children’s development and I KNOW I am constantly checking them for new teeth so I can anticipate discomfort. Rory had shown NO signs of pain or discomfort nor had I felt even the slightest bump on his gums so these teeth literally must have sprouted overnight….but there they were. First teeth always make me a little sad as I mourn the sweet gummy smile. I love the jackolantern grin that goes along with new teeth two but oh how I miss that gummy smile! Rory’s teeth are still just for show as he continues to be exclusively breastfed.

Rory has been quite a “Mama’s boy” since birth but lately he is especially unhappy if I walk away from him, even if I get up from the floor just to sit on the couch a few feet away. His no longer newfound freedom of crawling is not wasted on the desire to stay close to me. I will walk into the downstairs playroom area to change Patrick leaving Rory in the living room and I will hear his protest then look down to see him (successfully) following me. I would have to say that my attachment parenting with this one was a success. He is well attached….as he should be at this age. He is also quite a big fan of his big brother and it is totally mutual. They are starting to play together which is so sweet. Elijah has this garden playhouse that we brought back down to the living room recently. My parents got it for him when he was six months old and he and Rory love to play in it together. Rory and Patrick also play nicely together with the busy zoo. Rory is a very active little baby and he loves interacting physically with others. I’m wondering if we may have a little athlete in him.

Rory’s growth has slowed as it tends to do around this age. He is tipping the scales at 15 pounds 14 ounces. I’m not sure about length but I’m pretty sure that is increasing because he is looking leaner to me lately. It must be all those extra calories he is burning from all this crawling! He really wants to pull up but he hasn’t figured that out quite yet. He does this sort of downward dog/upside down “V” position that makes me think he really wants to figure out how to stand. He will walk when holding on to my fingers and always has this HUGE smile on his face when he is doing it. Rory loves love LOVES his baths. As soon as he sees the water he starts kicking his feet wildly and as he and I sink into the water (we co-bathe) the movement just gets faster and the smile bigger. He is a water baby just like his brothers.

Some of Rory’s favorite things are Mama’s milk, busy zoo, garden house, his big brother, Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke, Happy by Pharrell, being worn (especially in my natibaby wrap conversion mei tai!), baths, cuddles (he is a total cuddle bug!)  swimming pools, dancing and bouncing, being naked and his nightly massage. He DOES NOT like mama walking away….and really that is it. He is a pretty happy guy and if I am with him, paying attention to him he is really nothing but smiles. He is really such a joy and a blessing to our home and I love his sunshine personality.

Patrick: Early in this month, Patrick started crawling and has quickly caught up to his twin brother in efficiency and determination. He seems to really enjoy the freedom crawling has given him and will make his way clear across the room in no time at all to capture his purple chewy octopus (a favorite toy of his) or chase down the cord to my computer (unfortunately another favorite). Although he is quite the chewer, chomping down on anything he can get his hands on, I have seen no sign of emerging teeth. I am grateful I get to enjoy his gummy smile a bit longer. Elijah did not get his first tooth until about 8 1/2 months so we really COULD have a while longer to wait which is fine with this mama, desperately trying to hold on to babyhood a little longer! Although about a week ago, Patrick had a low grade fever (around 100-101) and was super fussy through the night which is unusual. I thought for sure we were dealing with a tooth cutting through but morning came, the fever subsided and we still don’t see even a bump on the gum line.

Patrick continues to be my deep thinker, studying everything from afar and close up with this contemplative look on his face.  I sometimes feel like he and I have conversations with just looks although he loves to “chat” and frequently says Mama. His verbal attempts seem to be very intentional in that they are sort of soft and conversational with less of that “big emotion” that we see in his twin. Though Patrick does have some big opinions about what he likes and does not like and will get easily frustrated when we are unable to understand his communication.  For example, if Patrick is fussing and you try to give him a pacifier…and that isn’t what he wants…..he will purse his lips and turn his head while shrieking. “Nope, Mama try again” he seems to say. Patrick still seems to be a gentle soul and lover of animals. He still adores Wrigley and will gently pet him and touch his face without needing any prompting. Wrigley is always a surefire way to make my smallest boy smile and laugh.

Patrick enjoys being worn but also likes his independent time physically separate from Mama. He likes to explore the world with his eyes as well as his hands and likes the freedom facing the world. He enjoys his Mama time but really loves his Daddy and brothers as well. He is pretty content with whoever is holding him as long as they let him look around and face them. Patrick loves to look at faces.

Patrick has had some more sleep challenges this month. If he goes to bed after Rory (with Mama), he is often a chatterbox and I have to run him out of the room until he calms down so he doesn’t wake his brother. It s not that he is fussing, he just wants to talk. And this is often when he will choose to practice saying “Mama”. I thought I could resolve this by putting Patrick down and letting Rory stay up a little later but then Patrick wakes up in the middle of the night and starts his vocal play once more. The saving grace has been the pack n play in the living room. I will often use that to separate the babies at night so they don’t wake one another up. Naptimes are separate too. If they need to sleep at the same time, I will put one in the rock n play in the master bedroom. I know that eventually they will need to sleep in the same room at the same time and figure that we will start working on that once they outgrow the rock n play….which is probably pretty soon. Eeeek.

Patrick’s growth this month has not slowed as much as Rory’s and they are now just a pound a part with Patrick weighing in at 14 pounds 14 ounces. Still my small guy, but not looking so small to this Mama anymore. Though he can still squeeze into some 3 month outfits. We are getting a lot of wear out of baby clothes this time around.

Patrick has become quite the champion nursling, no longer struggling with a weak latch. His continues to be exclusively breastfed and the plan is to delay solids until he and his brother are a year old. At that point we will start our babyled weaning but I plan on full term nursing which I hope for us means until about two.

Initially when Patrick came home, it was brought up to us that we needed to keep an eye on him for developmental issues and he was even evaluated at about six weeks (he passed with flying colors!). As I watch him grow and develop it is becoming clearer by the day that this is not a concern for us. He is meeting all of his milestones ahead of schedule and has such a strong and determined little body and mind. I will probably still have him reevaluated around nine months (I am a type A personality after all) just to make sure we are still on track but I feel confident that our strong, brave boy has overcome the odds and shows no signs of his birth trauma.

Some of Patrick’s favorite things are his purple octopus, Mama’s cell phone, Mama’s milk, Wrigley, Daddy, his brothers, tummy time mat (though it is now a crawling time mat), sitting at the table in his high chair, talking, baths, mirrors, nightly massages, going outside to watch his brother play and swim, music especially Happy by Pharell, kisses especially on his neck and tummy. Patrick does not like diaper changes, not being understood or getting dressed.

It is just incredible how I see these two totally different little personalities emerging! Even as I photographed them for their seven month photo shoot, you can see the difference in the looks and demeanor!

 

My cousin made the boys these hats and I LOVE them!

Such a jovial smile

Elijah is just the best big brother! He loves the twins so much.

Such a sweet gentle boy

My “tiny male Angela” as my friend calls him.

I love that gentle smile.

Howdy

Full of smiles this morning

I’m totally bias but what a beautiful baby I have!

Eyes for big brother

Contemplating….

This baby just melts my heart

Mama, you are so funny!

Okay one more big brother snuggle!

Big smiles from my Rory

Such a happy baby!

My sweet guy.

SO full of big smiles

There are those two tiny teeth peaking through!

Rory loves to laugh!

Love his crazy hair!

His hair sort of looks red in pictures. Sometimes it looks blonde. Sometimes brown. It will be interesting to see what color it turns out to be.

A serious moment between giggles.

Sweet boys, the past seven months has been such a beautiful and exciting adventure. I could have never imagined that I could love so much three totally different people. My boys (including their Daddy!) are my life and it is a beautiful life. God has blessed our family immeasurably and I am so grateful for the joyful little beings that fill our home with such love.