Monday 31 October 2011

More weekend pizza parties

We're all sick. First strep a few weeks ago, then influenza last week and now this week its just regular old colds.

In between all the sickness we had two pizza parties on the weekend. First up Andrew's work team followed by the Lingenfelters & Becketts.

We were introduced to a very fun card game called Dutch Blitz. Easy to learn and it plays very fast.

The weather has turned cold and as such the pizza oven season may be nearly over. We've switched from shorts and tshirts to jeans and jumpers. Henry is still in denial and demanding shorts and tshirts. I had to force him to wear a jacket as well as shoes and socks. But he kept strong on the shorts despite the 35 degree weather!

Tuesday 25 October 2011

the gluten free journey continues

So, we're on week 3 of our gluten-free lifestyle.

It's all going well so far. Eating at home is proving to be do-able. Some days I have spent all day cooking breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. And then cleaning up.

Hopefully now that there is a small build up of frozen meals the cooking will abate somewhat.

Going out to eat is not so fun but we'll get there and now I'm keeping a list of places we can go to. At Sweet & Savory last week I shared Jodi's flourless chocolate cake and it was excellent [but the only GF item on the dessert menu]

We've had a few slip ups. Henry snatched some goldfish at preschool, Andrew ate a crunchie (?!?!) and Lucy bought an icecream sandwich at the cafeteria.

On the whole I think we are eating better, healthy food. Above you can see the peach parfait I made for breakfast using fresh peaches, yoghurt and TJ granola. The kids weren't impressed but I thought it was awesome.

Wednesday 19 October 2011

Tuesday 18 October 2011

Weekend pizza party

We had a fun pizza party on the weekend! The weather is perfect at the moment for pizza - evenings are cool, crisp and getting earlier.

The family wore Andrew's Pizza gear and we hung the sign on the gate.
Henry sat on a stool and supervised all the dough rolling.

We tried out our first batch of gluten-free pizza dough and it was excellent! We used Bob's Red Mill Pizza Crust mix as a base and then modified it to get it to Andrew's Pizza standard.


Thanks to the Holmes, Pennys, Townsends, Nichols, Vegas, Dyers and Goods.

Of course the next night we cooked a lamb roast in the oven for dinner!

Thursday 13 October 2011

New wardrobe for Henry

I am in a spring cleaning frenzy!

Before tackling the pantry, I cleared out Henry's size 2 clothes and put in the size 3 & 4 clothes.

Thanks to my generous benefactor, Erica, Henry has more than enough clothes for the next few years.

Next onto Lucy's wardrobe. That girl's legs keep growing longer and longer.

Wednesday 12 October 2011

Gluten Free: The results are in

We got our test results back from the lab.

A 'normal' result is 10 or below.

Andrew came in at 36. This means he is gluten sensitive.

I came in at a whopping 194!

I'm glad we already did the hard work and changed over to gluten free on Monday as I'm not sure I could have done it otherwise. Who wants to do something because they HAVE to? We made the change willingly and happily. Now I know that science backs me up but it wasn't the results that made me change.

Lucy is doing a super job with the change. Henry doesn't understand and was caught sneaking goldfish at preschool yesterday!

Tuesday 11 October 2011

Gluten free: Snacks

One of the things worrying me about going gluten free was this: what would happen if i was suddenly hungry and I hadn't prepared any snacks? would I look in the cupboard and find nothing to eat? [note: because I am still nursing Flissy I am hungry ALL the time]

So I browsed through the list of websites in my gluten-free book to check out what was on offer.

It turns out that I can get a lot of food through Amazon's (wonderful) subscribe and save program. Not just snacks but flours and grains too.

So last week a rather large box arrived with the following items:
  • multigrain crackers
  • puffed rice
  • agave nectar
  • lemon wafers
  • pretzel twists
  • breakfast bars, apple
  • millet rice cereal
Of course there were many items of each. Good thing I've cleared up the pantry!

We also have lots of fun stuff from Trader Joes!

Monday 10 October 2011

Gluten Free: D DAY!

Today is our first gluten free day. I am totally freaked out!

But we're eating our favourite meal tonight - teriyaki beef. The only change I have to make is to use gluten-free soy sauce. No big deal right?!?

Stay tuned, there is breakfast, lunch and snacks to deal with in between.

Last night as a final hurrah we dined out at Indochine (we also had a gift voucher to use). So we filled ourselves with gyoza, cha gio and pad thai which was followed by coconut cake, coconut ice cream and mango with sticky rice.

Although still recovering from this virus I did manage to clean and tidy the pantry. Everything is gluten free now (see photo left).

Friday 7 October 2011

We're still here

Alive but not kicking. Still pretty sick with coughs and headaches. Andrew and I have both been to the doctor and we just need to rest now. Not sure how much of that goes on with 3 little ones!

Tuesday 4 October 2011

Water kefir

One of the new things we are trying out is water kefir.

It is a lacto-fermented drink.
Water Kefir Grains are a combination of live bacteria and yeasts which exist in a symbionic matrix. Many of the bacteria used in yoghurt are found in the 'grains' and this is an easy way to get pro-biotics into your body.

I am making one batch every 48 hours.

To the latest batch I added lime juice to create 'limeade' which was immensely popular with everyone in this house. In fact there was lots of crying and begging for more.

Check out the details at Cultures for Health.

Monday 3 October 2011

Weekend camping (and sickness)















We had a pretty low key weekend as the majority of us were sick.

Somehow that fact didn't stop Andrew, Lucy and Henry sleeping in the tent and making s'mores for dinner. The positive part is that the kids slept in until 7:30am!

We had a quick trip to Pender Pines for some plants but there was a disappointing selection. The kids enjoyed feeding the fish and visiting the emu however.

Back to bed now to get rid of this cold.

Saturday 1 October 2011

Gluten Free: Planning update

I'm stuck on Number 9 - Make a 2 week GF menu plan (incl. breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks)

It seems like a monumental task and I don't want to go there. I'll tackle it straight after writing this.

On a positive note we have been eating out our freezer and pantry. Last week we cooked up a green bean casserole to use up our (sadly gluten-full) fried onions.

We also tried out the gluten-free brownie mix and pancake mix from Bob's Red Mill. The brownie mix is AWESOME, the pancakes so-so (probably because Andrew dramatically changed the recipe)