Mmmm!

I'm quite happy.  Today my lazy self found some sourdough bread at Fred Meyer's that doesn't contain yeast.  What does that mean?  It means it was leavened the traditional way, fermenting the wild yeasts on the flours.  This makes it Traditional Food friendly.  I bought two loaves. 

Tonight I get to indulge in one of my favorite treats:  toast with butter and peanut butter.  Yummy-yum.  You need to try this if A) you love bread and B) you love butter and C) you love peanut butter.  My mom taught this snack to her kids and I've passed it to mine.

And the best part is this bread hasn't given me any heartburn the way grain products usually do.  I'm so excited!

Dinner from the Backyard

BuggaBoo and Doozer have gotten pickier about their food as of late.  It's been slowly coming on and it's annoying.  Pickier eaters make for a more expensive food budget; that doesn't work for us.

So we've set up a positive reward system for them.  As a team we pick four food for the kids to work on.  Each food has ten spots next to it for stickers, for a total of forty stickers.  These kids aren't allowed to shun a food, but once the sheet is filled they get a special prize.  This time around BuggaBoo and Doozer decided to work towards a new dessert.

Why ten tries?  It takes a person 10-15 tries in a short amount of time to like a new food.  Nearly every food can be likable. 

This time around the kids are working on lima beans, peas, corn, and dandelion greens.

Hold up, dandelion greens?  Yup!  They're free and grow profusely in our backyard.  They are also very nutritious.  I also want to work more foraged foods into our diet.  Dandelions are great for beginners, so the kids get to help with the harvest.  And they're useful in many different ways.

So far I've used the greens and the unopened buds.  Last night we had dandelion, cat's ear, and bok choy (all from the backyard/garden) sauteed with garlic with sunny side up eggs cooked on top.  Today I picked and cleaned the buds for pickling, first soaking them in a brine solution to cut down on the bitterness.  They're pickling in the fridge right now.  I hope to use them in potato salad.

Tonight dinner was homemade dandelion pasta.  I first found a recipe for spinach pasta, then I subbed the dandelions for the spinach.  I blanched the clean greens, drained, and then pureed them in the blender with a bit of water.  Since I had picked so many greens I doubled the recipe, and I'm glad I did.  I served the pasta with an "alfredo" sauce with lima beans tossed in.  That was the kids were able to get two stickers for one meal.

The pasta was a huge hit.  The kids ate it all and asked for more.  They asked me to make it again.  Doozer even thanked me for dinner.  The three year old, thanking me for dandelion pasta.  I was blown away.

The pasta didn't even have a hint of bitterness.  It was also very hearty and chewy, I was surprised at how little it took to fill me up.  I'm a really big eater, so this was great for me. 

I want to play around with a gluten-free version.  I found this millet/tapioca pasta that looks like it might be a good springboard.  And I would feel better about the pasta for the kids if it was gluten-free, since we all seem to do better on a gluten-free diet.

Tomorrow or such I'll let you know how the dandelion buds turn out.

Yes

Math and the Ready Mind

BuggaBoo found a first grade math book today.  Since he loves math he's been pestering his father and I for direction.  We've shown him how to deal with the equations and set him free.

He just finished a page of 16 questions.  Double column subtraction with no borrowing.  He scored 13 right out of those 16 questions.

Goes to show that kids will soak things up when they're ready for them.

Convos with Doozer

She's been sick the last few days, poor sweet one.  We've been snuggling a lot, which leads to interesting conversations.

While watching Dual Survival with me and witnessing a porcupine being hunted:

Her:  "I want to hunt a porcupine.  Tomorrow.  It will be delicious.  And I want to eat a baby."

Me:  "You want to eat a baby?"

Her:  "No, not a baby!  It will cry too much.  I want to hunt a giraffe.  And I want to eat a giraffe."

Me:  "Okay, we'll have to see about that."

Her:  "I'm not sick anymore, I can eat it!"

She is still sick, by the way.  She'll be in the middle of vomiting and still insisting that her tummy feels better.

On the other hand BuggaBoo has a bad habit of becoming demanding and whiny while ill.  I would use the term "man flu," but I actually find that distasteful and hateful.  But, geez, that boy can really complain!  I do think it's due to the fact that he still has issues with vomiting.  The best we can figure is he just has hair-trigger queasiness. 

You know how you can feel nauseous but still force it down?  I remember doing that all the time as a kid (and when I was making kids!).  Well, it seems as though BuggaBoo just doesn't have that ability.  Once he starts vomiting he doesn't stop.  So we keep some Zofran on hand and use that once his stomach is entirely cleaned out.  We wait until he dry heaves a few times to make sure if it's food poisoning or something like that it has a chance to get out.  So, usually after 12 hours of vomiting we'll dose him with the Zofran. 

Actually, we just did this with him.  Last Saturday he started puking at bedtime.  After vomiting 10-12 times that night I finally gave him a pill at 6am and crawled into bed with him to try and get some sleep.  After 4 doses of the Zofran we weaned him onto more typical remedies for upset stomach.  Once he's over the hump those usually work.  And this time he was only out of commission for 5 days instead of the usual 10.  Much better.

Contrast that with Doozer, who threw up yesterday, but acted mostly well all day besides napping and going to bed early.  She ate lightly.  Tonight she threw up, but I'm pretty sure it's because she had some yogurt curdle in her stomach.  She also went to bed at 4pm.  But, still, she's always in much better shape than BuggaBoo when she's sick.  I don't get how two siblings can be so different from each other.  And none of BuggaBoo's test explained anything.

Oh well, I guess I should wrap up yet another post about puking.  It's a popular thing around here.

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

Ah, the day we celebrate St. Patrick part of driving paganism from the land and replacing it with Christianity.

Hmm.....

Anyways, it's a good excuse to eat corned beefs with cabbage and red potatoes.  For full effects share with good friends.

Enjoy!

Dee-lish

Dee-lish, at 0:18.

Hanging out with my sister and trying a new concoction.  Base recipe found here.

1 cup double-strong decaf coffee.  'Cause it's 6pm, yo.
3/4 cup coconut milk from a can
3 tablespoons raw sugar
1/2 teaspoon maple nut flavoring, because I was out of vanilla AND almond.  Verdict:  exquisite
pinch of xanthan gum to prevent seperation
1 cup ice, because I doubled the recipe and I couldn't fit 3 cups of liquid and 4 cups of ice in my blender

Blend, pour, enjoy.

Ooooooh, enjoy.