A Timmie's kinda day!

Today I had to drag the kids around to renew my van insurance. Yes I now drive a mini van and I know I said I hated them, when baby number 3 was coming it was a must and I'm OK with that. Besides, its the driver that makes it cool right??  Anyhow, we went to the Dollarama afterwards and picked up a few things for Canada Day, and on the way home I decided to spoil myself with a XL Tim Horton's English Toffee since it has been so long since I have had one. (Sorry Keurig, i cheated on you).

As always by the time we get home the kids are almost starved to death and can barely walk.  Am I wrong to assume that they can go 1.5hours in between feedings? I mean the 7 1/2 month old baby can. So I dragged out the section plates and started to prepare. First things first, a yummy smoothie!! Ashton picked strawberries from the garden and washed and put them in the blender.

~vanilla yogurt
~blueberries(frozen from last years garden)
~raspberries ( frozen from last years garden)
~frozen banana( frozen from last years garden) OK maybe not
~green food powder
~water

I'm really trying to focus on the kid's health I love that they are willing to try most things and even more so if you make it fun. Today we had foods I already know they like so I just made it a little bit more fun to eat and considering how malnourished they were from going 1.5hours without eating, I had make sure it was filling.

~Gluten free waffles
~cucumbers cut all "wibbly wobbly" as the kids say.
~star cut watermelon!!
~and don't forget the dill dip! perfect for waffles.(not kidding, Sierra used hers all on the waffle none on the cucumber!!!)

Sir Ashton enjoying his lunch while watching the clouds roll by out the window and the birds eating at the feeder.  Well maybe just eating and nothing else. (shrug)

Little Miss Sierra dipping her waffle in dill dip!

Lil Tank loves him some watermelon!

I think chocolate power balls is going to be in the making tonight!! Mama is craving chocolate!!!!!

And to add, a little kiss to the baby bunny we tried to rescue and didnt make it. RIP little bun bun!!

Why do they have to destroy the soap!!!!

I don't know about yours but when my kids shower they love to play with the soap. They squish it, and chisel it out with their finger nails as if it was some sort of carving competition.  Once the kids go to bed then its time for Mama to have her shower in peace, and I actually look forward to this. That is until I step in the shower on all those little pieces of soap that coat the shower floor make it very hard for my soft little feet to grip the floor.  Now we have a small cubical shower so this is to our advantage at this point because at least we have a wall to hit and hold us upright somewhat. Imagine the damage to the back of our heads if it was a regular tub!!! "There is no great loss without some small gain" is my favorite quote and it plays true to this!  So my solution to this ridiculous problem, make kids sized soap!!!! So here is what you need......

1. 2 "guilty of carving" children

2. soap moulds, brick of shea butter soap, colouring and essential oils( see jar of melted soap above)

3. pour into soap moulds and let cool

 4. while cooling prepare the carvers some lunch to help kill time (and allow me to sit on computer/facebook and drink coffee). Isn't that what all stay at home moms do?? I'm just trying to fit in here.

5. Remove soap from moulds and dream about how its going to feel stepping into a safe shower after the kids have been in there.

This is kids safety soap!

Making Almond Milk!!!

Making almond milk is super easy!!!!  We use 1 cup raw almonds and soak them over night or for 6-8 hours. They will get all puffy from the water and that's perfect! `

 Then we rinsed them off and dumped them into the blender. Then add 3 cups of water to the blender. You can add vanilla or any flavoring if you choose at this time.

Blend it all up really well. Now I don't have a professional blender but that means it just might take a bit of extra time to blend it up.

Then I like to dump it into a bowl lined with a tea towel but you can use cheese cloth if  you prefer. Scoop up the corners of the towel and squeeze to get all the milk out.



I keep the pulp to use later in Chocolate power balls as an extra add in. I just jar it up and put it in the freezer.

 And Voila!!!  Almond milk!!!! A great dairy free alternative! Great for using in baking, cereal, smoothies etc!

Who doesn't love a green smoothie?

The kids have been battling a virus of some sort these last few days.  Ashton ended up with a ear infection and Sierra has had a low grade fever and a bit of a sore gland in her neck.  Now I'm getting the cold and to try help boost our immune systems, I made a batch of green smoothie!!! 

We loaded in our ingredients

~blueberries (buried at the bottom)
~mango
~frozen banana
~fresh kale (picked 5 minutes before in the rain)
~green food powder for an extra boost

blend it all up and done!!!!

Even Hudson slurped his!!!!  He wanted more!!!

Im a sneaky sneaky woman!!!!

Lately I have been craving junk (i know what else is new) but because we cannot have junk because it all has gluten in it, I have had to research!  Now I used to follow a blog that has since closed and they were raw vegans, and holy hannah did she have some great foods to share! In fact its kinda how I became obsessed with section plates!!  Anyhow, this is where I first saw these chocolaty, soft, yummy looking balls. Now its not often that I think balls are appealing but these ones are!!!! I found the recipe again from this blog site.  http://www.elanaspantry.com/chocolate-power-bar-balls/  and she nails it!!!!  So here we go!

So in the food processor I blended, medjool dates,chocolate chips(gluten free dark), walnuts and I added almonds and some hemp hearts for fun. mix it all up until its doughy.

Roll into balls.

They remind me of little "Eat more" balls!!! I like to put mine in the fridge to firm up abit.

And while they cool in the fridge we play with our ginormous balloons!!!!!!! Always fun until the wind comes up and sweeps the balloon away and then we cry about it for a little while. Mean while I snicker to myself thinking about what the people think when they see this huge balloon floating by their heads or windows. This entertains me! I'm sick I know.

Little Hudson had avocado to eat while mama made power balls.(I'm not going to even tell you what I was going to write. You use your imagination!) Afterwards the jolly green giant had a watermelon Popsicle!! yummy!!!!!   We had also made blueberry, mango, watermelon, and kale popsicles yesterday. The kids ate them so fast that I didn't even get a picture!!! I'm so sneaky! They don't even notice the kale!!!!!


Well that's all for now until the Internet stops acting up.  Hopefully I will get to post the Almond milk later!!!        

Hives, gluten free and garden harvest!

So here we are again with our mysterious hives on Ashton. The poor guy. They are huge, they are itchy and they are hot. I wonder how many years we will deal with these before we really find out whats wrong or what is causing them.

and they have gotten even bigger since this picture. Today though they seem to be going down. No we do NOT give him benedryl!! The last time Ashton had benedryl he was up and running for 22hours!!!!!!! I am no spring chicken anymore, I cannot keep up to that! So for now he will only get the benedryl cream!

We have also been having some great gluten free meals and of course some not so great ones! But I will share a few good ones from the last couple days.

~gluten free waffles cut into hearts and flowers drizzled in maple agave nectar.
~organic strawberries with gluten free yogurt to dip!

~ organic strawberries
~gluten free bread with jam
~organic banana with natural peanut butter
~organic gluten free yogurt

My lettuce garden is producing ridiculous amounts so I had to go out yesterday to harvest some. Needless to say both of my big sis's got a bag of lettuce, spinach and chard!!!! And thank god my kids love to eat salad because its gluten free and we have alot of it!!

Well off to feed and school my little ones before we head to the zoo!

Begining of the Weekend!!!!!

Yesterday I spent the day going through all the cupboards and getting rid of anything that is not "Celiac friendly" and ended up giving away 4 boxes of food!!  What a mess this kitchen was!!!!  So after I cleaned up the mess it was time for our beloved hockey team to win the 4th game of the Stanley Cup!!!! I decided to make ................................................. Sushi!!!!

Now I have never made sushi before and its new to me that Brett even likes it. Now I'm not a true sushi lover, I only eat the veggie rolls! hehe  but either way I was making them!! It was quite messy for a newbie but none the less it turned out pretty good.

an inside out veggie roll with cucumber, carrot and avocado inside!!! mmmmmmmmm

My sister brought some as well so we had a bit of everything. minus the fishy ones!

    And of course the Canucks won the game!!!!!  Wooo hoooooo!!!

And here is a quick look at breakfast in our house!  I cannot pick up Ashtons bread order until Tuesday so no bread for him until then.  But he had a yummy gluten free breaky all the same.

Well off to Ayla's first birthday party!!!!!!!

Ashton's bitter sweet day.

So today was Ashton's follow up at the doctor. I was a bit surprised at the results of his blood work but at the same time relieved to have an answer to the years of ongoing health problems.  Ashton has Celiac Disease.  I'm happy, I'm sad.  We can help him now but at the same time he will have to live with this his entire life. 

    We begin with emptying the house of non gluten free items. The whole house will be GF(gluten free) so that he cannot sneak the forbidden items and to keep it fair to him.  So my sisters are about to get some free food!!!  I am a little known for my extensive pantry stash!(blush)   Next Ashton will be having a bowel biopsy at Children's Hospital which he is nervous about and has a ton of questions. Poor little dude.

So here we embark on a new way of life!! I will need to sharpen up my cooking skills, and learn how to convert our family faves to GF.  So friends, let this be a warning that when you come to our house for dinner, it will be GF!!!

We ended this day with a trip to the zoo!! Auntie Debbie came with us and we had dinner among the animals which was great fun!!! A very yummy garden salad with blueberries,strawberries and raspberries for dessert! Hudson had apples n apricots and prunes!! mmmmmm!

 I got a shot of a mama monkey nursing her twin babies!! ok toddlers. They were toddlers.  I wanted today to end on a positive note for Ashton's sake though he doesn't understand exactly what he has yet. I love that boy!

This is going to be a trip!!!

    So I have decided to blog again but I really want to just share our some daily happenings in our home so that you may have a good laugh and to remind me of these good times even on the hard days. 

    Right now we are really trying to focus on eating healthier as I want to teach the kids good healthy eating habits and it also helps keep me on track!!  Mother Nature and I are playing Tug of War and I'm winning!! She is trying to pull me to the unhealthy side and I'm using all my mental power to reach the "holy hannah that is one fit hot mama" side.  Cross your fingers that I make it.  So be prepared to see meals that we have!

Yesterdays lunch was very yummy!!! I'm so thankful to have kids that love to eat raw veggies!!! Because man can we grow veggies here!!!!!!

*low fat cottage cheese
*multi grain bread with cream cheese
*salad(right from our garden!!) topped with whole wheat pasta
*small dish of raw pumpkin seeds

My monkey's gobbled this up in no time!!!!!

Yesterday for Ashtons schoolwork we dug in the compost and picked out the best worms! Ok we picked out every one we saw, no worms was passed by.  We are making a worm farm!!! I want Ashton to be able to see the worms tunneling around in there so today is assembly day!!! It also teaches him worm composting as we need to feed the worms our food scraps!  We lived on acreage when I was growing up so this stuff is all to normal for me and I love it!!!!  I want my children to know about the world through trying and seeing, not just reading about it.