Thanksgiving Menu

This year was my first Thanksgiving since going gluten and milk-free. I am very blessed to have family members who are willing to work with me to prepare dishes that I can eat. My sister, Kim, saved some turkey drippings for me to make my own gravy. She also saved out a few yams before putting the butter on them. I brought my own butter and cooked them in a separate dish. My mom made a separate dish of mashed potatoes for me. She used my butter and chicken broth as the liquids for the potatoes.

I made some stuffing out of bread that I have made in the past month or so. I have purposely set aside a slice or two here and there for the stuffing. I just used my butter to cook the celery in, then used broth and seasonings. I also made 'normal' stuffing for the rest of the group.

I have read some horror stories about family members being less than understanding with food intolerance issues. I am so grateful to my family for being so thoughtful and considerate. Their consideration certainly made my meal a lot easier to enjoy. I had a separate spot to keep some of my food that was away from the 'forbidden' versions! I took pictures of my food just to prove to myself that a gluten and dairy free Thanksgiving dinner can look normal!

This was my spinach dip with rice crackers:


My Thanksgiving dinner plate:


My dessert, a lemon pie:

The 'pie' is just a recipe of lemon squares that I put into a pie plate to make it feel like I was eating pie. The other choices of pumpkin and pecan pies weren't tempting to me at all (now if there had been an apple pie available, I would have been tempted- but wouldn't have caved because I love these lemon squares!)

Lemon Bars
From Elana Amsterdam's Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook (with a few of my own modifications)

Crust
1 ½ cups blanched almond flour
½ teaspoon sea salt
2 Tablespoons oil
1 Tablespoon corn syrup

Topping
¼ cup oil
¼ cup corn syrup
¼ cup sugar
3 large eggs
½ cup lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8-inch square baking dish with oil and dust with almond flour.

To make the crust, combine the almond flour and salt in a large bowl. In a medium bowl, whisk together the oil, corn syrup and vanilla extract. Stir the wet ingredients into the almond flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Press the dough into the prepared baking dish.

Bake for 15-17 minutes, until lightly golden.

While the crust bakes, prepare the topping. In a blender, combine the oil, corn syrup, sugar, eggs, and lemon juice. Process on high until smooth. Remove the crust from the oven. Pour the topping evenly over the hot crust.

Bake fore 15-20 minute, until the topping is golden. Let cool in the baking dish for 30 minutes, then refrigerate for 2 hours to set. Cut into bars and serve.

Energy Gauge

For the past few years, laundry day has been Monday. I wash, dry and fold the laundry, then pester the boys for the next day to put their laundry away. Barring any big event going on, I have everything put away by Monday evening.

Since my energy level has been super low lately, I just can't get the laundry done in one day. I have noticed that I can look back at a given week and tell how my energy level was by how long it took me to finish doing the laundry. It has been normal lately for the laundry to be finished by Wednesday night.

Last week I finished laundry on Tuesday afternoon! This week, however, has been a different story. It is Sunday and I still have a load of towels in the dryer that need to be put away. I have a load of my clothes that are in the basket breeding wrinkles as I type. I just washed them yesterday. Thanksgiving kind of took a day away from my schedule, as I spent my energy preparing food (and mucking up the kitchen). (A BIG thanks to Daniel, Paul and Seth for washing all of the big pots and pans by hand. Paul and Seth had a great time- claiming that it was FUN!)

I can tell that I am tired by looking at the mess dirty clothes on my closet floor. Somehow I can't manage to put the dirty clothes in the laundry basket, they just stay where they land when I take them off. When my energy levels are decent, this isn't an issue.

I have looked back over the last several years and I have noticed a trend; when I don't feel well (either physically or mentally) two household chores really suffer- laundry and dishes. When I was experiencing my really bad migraines, I started using paper plates to cut down on the chores (and the noise- paper plates don't bang together loudly!) These are chores that I don't mind doing, but I find to be difficult to tackle sometimes. They are the never-ending chores of any household.

I am officially in my 2nd trimester! I really do feel better than I did during the first trimester. I don't feel nearly as nauseated and gross, but I am still really tired.

Seth keeps asking cute little questions about the baby. Time is a difficult concept for him to understand. He told me that he is going to learn to read so that when the baby is born, he can read books to the baby at bedtime.

And Now For the Rest of the Paragraph

Paul Harvey always delighted me with his radio series titled "And Now For the Rest of the Story". He would include interesting background information to national headline stories that really made the story come alive.

Unfortunately, I don't have any cool stories to elaborate on. Rather, I have paragraphs from a previous post that I need to finish.

I read through my last few posts and I was embarrassed because I realized that I started to put a thought down, and then moved on before really finishing the thought. My brain really is turning into oatmeal. My attention span is terrible lately. Those are my excuses for my lack of detail in my posts.

Seth's birthday post.
"Seth has been struggling trying to decide how grown up he wants to be. He has been trying to tie his own shoes. He gets dressed alone (I only intercept when he wears camouflage with plaid or tie dye)."

Since Seth was about 18 months old, he has been sleeping with a bracelet. It is one that Mark got from school on Red Ribbon week. It is a silicon bracelet like Lance Armstrong's "livestrong" bracelet. I have purchased about 10 of these bracelets so that we never had to worry about not being able to find one at night. He rolls the bracelet around in his fingers and sometimes rubs it across his lips.

Now, he can't decide from night to night if he wants his bracelet or not. He fluctuates between wanting his night light on (which is a cool globe night light, like the one on the movie While You Were Sleeping) He sometimes wants his music on, and other nights claims that he doesn't like music while he tries to sleep. He seems to want to let go of these things, but after two or three nights without the bracelet, he requests it and enjoys its comfort.

I'm not sure if Mark and Paul are teasing him about his night time comforts, or if he is just naturally experimenting his nights without them. It must be a rather confusing and difficult experience.

That Stinks

Seeing as how I am normally sensitive to smells, it is natural that pregnancy just compounds the issue. Fortunately, I am not as queasy now as I have been, but I am still just as sensitive to smells.

The other night I was craving fish sticks. I found some that are "Sherron friendly" and I bought them. Then I realized that I had to bake them and that my house would smell like fish. I figured that I could deal with it, so I started making dinner. I was making oven baked fries, so I put the potatoes in the sink to clean them off. I have washed many a potato, but never have I been so repulsed by the smell of dirt that was coming from them. I thought that maybe fish sticks was a BAD idea, but I didn't know what else to make. I opened the windows in the kitchen (it was a balmy 30 degrees outside), put a fan in the kitchen that pushed the air to the window, and I opened the door to the laundry room and turned on the ventilation fan.

I successfully made a fish stick dinner (accompanied with homemade tartar sauce that was delicious and oh, so easy to make) without gagging on the smells. Of course, Daniel wondered if I had invited penguins to dine with us because it was so cold in the kitchen!

I normally use unscented laundry detergents because the scented ones are too strong. I really do like the smell of most fabric softeners, but the scent bothers me and it bothers Mark and Seth's eczema. Daniel's friend stayed with us for a while when he was first divorcing and when he moved out, he left his fabric softener sheets. They are rated a scent of 3 out of 10, so I figured that it would be nice to have our towels and blankets smell good. I used half of a sheet and it was WAY too strong for me. I experimented and found that I can use 1/8 of a sheet for optimal scent and no ill effect on sensitive skin.

Not anymore. THAT is too much scent for me right now. That is insane!

When we have friends come over to play I usually wind up opening windows in the house because the scent of the fabric softener on their clothes is suffocating.

I am soooooo glad that I don't have any diapers to change right now!

The Birthday Boy

Seth turned 5 years old today. He has had a great birthday! We usually go out to eat as a family for birthdays, but Seth requested a 'stay at home burrito dinner'. I can handle that!

He wanted a giant cookie cake, so I put cookie batter in a spring form pan and made a giant cookie. He loved it!

He really wanted to have a friend party, but knowing that I can't handle a big crowd of 5 year boys right now, we decided to invite 2 friends over for a birthday lunch.

 Cody Burke, Seth, and Nathan Barlocker

Seth has been struggling trying to decide how grown up he wants to be. He has been trying to tie his own shoes. He gets dressed alone (I only intercept when he wears camouflage with plaid or tie dye).

I have been wearing my bear socks lately and Seth loves them. He will come up and hug my foot or cuddle with my foot. "Mom, you are so lucky that you have cute socks".


Seth is a daddy's boy lately. He has been following Daniel around the house while imitating what Daniel does. Seth even set up a computer in Daniel's office. He sits on the floor and types away, imitating Daniel. The awesome thing about it is that for the most part he doesn't bother Daniel.


A few weeks ago Seth started throwing major fits when it was time to go to bed. He would complain that his stomach or head hurt, or that he needed a drink, or that he was scared in his room and needed to be downstairs to feel safe. He would go on and on while Daniel stayed next to him and tried to comfort him. These fits would go on for 15 minutes until Seth was completely worn out and went to sleep.

I told Daniel to ignore his fits and leave the room. That has helped diminish the fits, but not eliminate them. The other night Daniel was sick, so he went to bed early. I was tucking Seth into bed and he started throwing his fit. Our conversation went something like this:
Seth: I'm soooo thirsty.
Me: We'll get you a drink in the morning.
Seth: My head hurts.
Me: You need some sleep. Your head won't hurt in the morning.
Seth: Owie, owie, my tummy hurts. I'm soooo hungry.
Me: I will make an awesome breakfast tomorrow. You'll have to wait.
Seth: Where is dad?
Me: He's in bed.
Seth: Is he asleep?
Me: Yes.
Seth: (a brief pause) Okay. Goodnight Mom.

When I related this with Daniel he laughed and felt embarrassed that Seth had played him so well. What a funny little kid!

I absolutely love Seth. He is a lot of fun to be around. He rarely gets into trouble and when he does, he really doesn't like being disciplined. There is something about Seth that reminds me of my cousin Russell. I adore Russell and so does nearly everyone who knows him. He is charismatic and Seth has that same quality. Since Seth is still wearing size 3T pants, he just might take after Russell in vertical challenges too!

Happy birthday Seth! I love you!

Wunderbar!

Daniel told Seth that he was "wunderbar" (the 'w' is pronounced like a 'v', so it sounds like Vunderbar). Seth asked what that means and Daniel explained that it is wonderful in German. He looked at Daniel and said, "Mom is wunderbar!" What a sweetie!

A few days later, Seth was getting ready for bed in our bathroom with Daniel. Seth was imitating everything that Daniel did, it really was quite cute to watch. He even used our mouthwash! Daniel told Seth that he was wunderbar and Seth said, "No dad, mom is wunderbar, I am cute-er-bar!" Indeed you are cute, my little Seth!

Normally I have had most of my Christmas shopping done by the first of November. This year has been quite different as I haven't known what to get my boys for their gifts and they are getting old enough now to care what they get. I finally figured out what to get them and I had a good energy day yesterday, so I went to Toys R Us and got nearly everything that I wanted to get. I still have a few things to purchase, but I have the majority of everything done! Yeah! That is wunderbar!

I just realized that December 1st is coming up soon. I started a tradition last year that I want to do again, so I need to get cracking! We celebrate the 24 days of December. I put 24 presents under the tree and every night we open one. I have a mix of things in the gifts, like Christmas books (that we already own, or new ones), our nativity set, cookie cutters to make cookies with, little novelty items like candy cane pens, or winter activity notebooks, paper to make snowflakes with, or things to make new ornaments to hang on our tree.

I found that by putting the activities under the tree, we actually got around to doing them! Every year I have wanted to make ornaments or make cookies and we just never get around to doing it. This system requires planing the activities out, but it is worth it! The family time that we share doing these projects is priceless.

I number the presents so that I can plan to make cookies on a night that we don't have piano lessons or scouts. On nights that are busy we do a gift that isn't time consuming.

We really had a lot of fun with this last year, so I am anxious to do it again. This year, however, I will make sure that every 3rd gift isn't a book because Paul wound up opening nearly every book!

This tradition that we have is wunderbar!

Just Because I Can Doesn't Mean That I Should

I have been dairy and wheat free for nearly one year now. I've had the occasional bites of things I shouldn't and I have paid the consequences. It has been a tough process figuring out what foods my body can or cannot tolerate. It has been difficult being around so many foods that I can't eat. I have left the grocery store in tears several times because a lot of foods that seem safe, aren't. (Like Pringles- they have wheat added!)

Anyhow, over this past few months I have figured out how to adjust some recipes to be GFCF (gluten free casein free). I received a magazine with a lot of holiday recipes and I went through each recipe to see how I could alter it. Then I made a list of ingredients I would need to make everything and I went to the store. As I was driving home with my groceries, I realized that nearly every recipe was for a dessert. I still had half a pan of brownies left. I certainly don't need to make more desserts right now. Luckily, most of the food items are non-perishable, so I have stored them in the pantry and I am waiting to have a reason to make my next recipe. Yes, cravings count as a reason around here!

Daniel found a brownie and a cookie mix from Betty Crocker that are GFCF. The brownies are delicious. The texture and everything is right. Some mixes are made out of garbanzo bean and fava bean flours and they taste terrible. This is a rice and tapioca flour mix. Much better!

I discovered a mix for white bread this week at Harmons. I was hesitant to try it, but it turned out great! The mix isn't terribly expensive- which is unusual! Each loaf costs about $1.75. Seriously, I have been so happy! I have had a lot of pb&j's and BLT sandwiches this week. I never thought that I would be able to feed my BLT craving. I've had BLT salads and BLT pizza (weird, I know), but to have it in sandwich form was AWESOME! Too bad I didn't discover this when tomatoes were fresh out of the garden!

Now that I am finding ways to make foods that have been off limits for the past year, I am finding myself thinking "just because I can doesn't mean that I should!" Moderation in all things, right?

October Review

Here is a review of things that we did in October.

We went to Cornbelly's with Seth's preschool class. Since a handful of big brothers came along, Seth decided to hang out with the big kids instead of his class. We all had fun!

Ryan, Tanner, Paul, Mark, and Seth

Finally, a picture of me! Mom and Seth taking a lunch break.

Mrs. B's Preschool class


Kim and I took our kids to Murray to feed the ducks.


I'm glad that we had a lot of bread, because we had a LOT of ducks to keep happy!


Kim and I took our kids to the Riverton Hospital open house. Paul, Jessica, Nathan, Kevin, Mark and Seth. Afterwords we went to Jumpin' Jacks.



Halloween Night
This is one of the traditions that I didn't let slide this year- Witches Brew. It is homemade rootbeer with dry ice. I love to play with dry ice! We didn't carve pumpkins because the thought of the smell of pumpkin made my stomach churn. The boys didn't even ask about it, so I'm not feeling too bad!


Mark was a dementor from Harry Potter (thank you, Kim, for the costume!) Seth was a ninja and Paul was an army man (thank you, Uncle Nathan, for the awesome costume!). Yes, I realize now, that his beret is on the wrong side. He lost his beret last night and looking for a black hat in the dark proved difficult. We couldn't find it this morning when we looked. Oh, bother. I'm really trying not to be upset about him loosing it.

I'm glad that I took pictures of what we have done because it has helped me realize that this month hasn't been all that bad!
I'm looking forward to a great November!