#iPPP a la Girl Scouts

Back for #iPPP and it hasn't even been a whole year since my last visit!  Say what?  Only two weeks?  Call Guinness!

Life's been busy, busy, but last weekend, busy also meant tasty.  My sweet girl was working on her Snacks badge for Brownies (Girl Scouts) and got crackin' in the kitchen, creating a sweet treat and a smoothie.

Saturday night, for dessert, she made yogurt strawberry parfaits, layering greek yogurt mixed with a li'l honey, sliced strawberries, and granola.

And while the first set of parfaits were made gluten free, using Udi's vanilla granola, she needed to go one step further for her brother, who can't have dairy,  to join in the sweet treat fun and swapped out the greek yogurt for almond yogurt creating a GFCF parfait delight.  Looks nearly the same, eh?

Can I share the most random and yet helpful thing I learned over the weekend?  Thanks to friend Jenn visiting, I finally learned how to spell dessert and not get it mixed up with desert!  Dessert is spelled with two 's's because you want more and desert with only one 's' because you supposedly want less (since I'm not a fan of the heat, this totally works for me).  Told ya it was random...but, it will save me when spell check isn't nearby!

On Sunday, she blended up a smoothie, using frozen organic blueberries, frozen strawberries, frozen mangoes, fresh ripe banana, fresh baby spinach leaves, and coconut water.  We slurped up smoothie and then poured the left over mix into popsicle molds for desert this week.  Delish.

Coming back for an #iPPP visit with

G*Funk*ified & Jumping With My Fingers Crossed & Angela Amman

The Purple Orb

Once upon a time, in the Land of Tallers and Smallers, a young girl followed her mother into Whole Foods. She was given free reign and hopped her way through the produce department. Her long golden hair bounced off her back as she lept from sunny oranges to cherry red apples to prickly pineapples to green zucchinis to crimson red bell peppers.

As she danced about her favorite colors of the rainbow, her eyes set upon a deep purple orb. Small hands stretched out to grasp a mysterious vegetable, whispering her name.  She raised it high, calling out, "Please, Mama? It's purrrrr-ple! Please?!" Smiling her mother replied, "Yes, Princess." Into their basket went the gorgeous ball grown from the ground.

Returning to their castle, carrots, red onion, and the beautiful purple orb find themselves sliced and grated into a large bowl, where they meet up with two tablespoons of sugar.

While the vegetables soften under the sweet, the Taller places olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, and chopped green onion or shallot upon the counter for the Smaller Princess to make the dressing.

After a couple hours of the clock pass, the Smaller pours on the dressing as the Taller gives the Purple Cabbage Salad a thorough mix.

The Tallers and the Smallers - including one Princess - of this castle devour this crisp delight all year round.  And what left overs the Tallers can keep the Smallers from gobbling up, are even more delicious the next day, and the day after that.

The End.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Side note:  The Queen of this castle made this once before without sugar and while there was plenty of taste, it is far far crunchier.  The sugar softens the cabbage as it 'cooks' it and the King insists the sugar is necessary.  So, in this Land it all depends on who is slicing and grating when the vegetables first meet.  Thankfully, they can meet in the middle and keep the sugar to hopefully, a non-obscene amount - a li'l less than two tablespoons for a large batch when she makes it, a li'l more when he makes it.

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Surprising Superbowl Spread Requests

It was Wild Card weekend, aka the first round of NFL playoffs and my boy started thinking about Superbowl Sunday - from the big plays to the touchdowns to which teams might make it there to the food.  Yes, the food.

Last year, we munched on some yummy GFCF goodness, including trying Pioneer Woman's Shrimpo de Gallo for the first time.  I think he liked having a spread of munchies that were all safe for him to eat.

So, grabbing a cookbook, he went to his room to make a list.

I was quite impressed that with each item he was interested in, he was noting which ingredients he could have, as is, and which ones we'd need to either check for gluten or substitute something to make it GFCF.  This was a fantastic first!

Now, here's the surprising part - check out what my elementary school aged boy asked if we could make:

Citrus Spiced Mixed Olives

Pork Satay

Grilled Trout in Grape Leaves

Wilted Escarole with Garlic & Potatoes

Seriously?  Did he just ask for escarole??  Grape leaves?  And trout?

I know my kids like great flavor and are willing to try new foods - actually, they usually beg for it.  But, even my husband and I did not expect a Superbowl food request like this one.

As of right now, I have no idea what we're planning on making, but Yowza - I think my boy just scored a Touchdown!

What will you be having come Superbowl Sunday?  And what teams do you think are going to make it there?

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The Little Red Bear across the Interwebs!

Guess who's guest posting over at Makes Fun today?  Yup, c'est moi!

Head on over to see if that Little Red Bear warranted my trepidation!

I'll see ya there!

WW ~ An Apple Tree's Journey

With only a few leaves to speak of, this grafted apple tree was transplanted from my Mom's into our yard over two years ago on June 1st, 2009.

Each one of its six branches will grow a different variety of apples.

It sat quietly in our backyard through 2010, while continuing to grow.

And in 2011, we began to see some action. We saw little pink buds begin to form on her branches.

Those li'l pink buds bloomed into small white apple blossoms.

 

We have these guys to thank.

Can you see him?

 

What we thought for years were weeds (because they grow like crazy, we never planted them, and no matter how many times we take 'em out, they come back), though we now know the little blue flowers my wee girl loves to make me bouquets from are Forget-Me-Nots, have attracted the local bees.

And those bees went to work!

All their pollinating grew us eight apples this year. An unknown wild critter got one. He must have stood on his hind legs to reach it, but we could book the apple eating thief from the teeth mark evidence he left behind.

And then...

 

...we got to pick our very first apple off our apple tree!

It doesn't get any more organic, farm to table, green, easy, or delish that this!  The kidlets shared this one for breakfast the morning we picked it.

And the other six? Their Dad turned that into a GFCF apple pie! While it turned out mighty delish, we're still fine tuning the recipe for that one. Hopefully, I'll have it to share closer to the holidays.

What's growing in your backyard (or on a balcony or inside your house if you are sans yard)?

Linking up with some rockin' awesome Wordful/ish Wednesday peeps!

Seven Clown Circus, Parenting by Dummies, Project Alicia, Live and Love...Out Loud, Angry Julie Monday

Sushi Making Makes Family Fun

Sushi!  There's a whole lotta sushi lovers in this house.  Add us up, 1 Me + 1 Husband + 1 Rockin' Awesome Boy + 1 Princess = Option 1: Enjoy Sushi Less Often or Option 2: A Wallet Busting Bill.

None of us particularly like either solution.  So, we came up with Option 3: Make Your Own Sushi Night!

I first got out the sushi cookbooks at the beginning of the summer when the kidlets started asking for it more and more and more, hoping to inspire them for some sushi making.  But, Hubs & I had never made it before, either.

So, for our first time taking the sushi making for a spin, we decided to go with more run of the mill ingredients.  And after a quick look-see at a YouTube video on rolling technique (I'd link ya up here, but Hubs pulled up the video & closed it before I could copy & paste, but an easy peasy search on there will work), we started rolling.

All rolls had an assortment of veggies (carrot, cucumber, red & purple bell peppers) plus a protein.  We rolled some up with egg, baked salmon, (mock, aka GFCF) tempura salmon, and salmon skin.

I had never had purple bell peppers before, but I've been seeing them everywhere lately, so I picked up a small one for sushi night.  We were surprised to see that it's white on the inside!

Sushi Making Night was worth far more than those pennies and dollars we saved by making it rather than going out.  The kidlets helped prep the food, they practiced their chopstick skills, and when looking around the table, it was easy to see that we were all smiling.

Such a fun evening, one that we will definitely do again!  Do you like sushi?  What's your favorite?  Have you made it at home or a party before?

* The only adjustments we had to make to keep the meal gluten & casein free was to make our own 'tempura' batter & use a gluten free Tamari Soy Sauce, which we keep on hand for Asian cooking.

 
MomTrends, stop by and see some photos from her summer vacation at Lake Como in Italy!

Get cookin' for a cause with 50+ Favorite Bloggers!

50+ of our favorite bloggers have come together to create a cookbook with their favorite recipes. And what's even better, it's all for a great cause, The American Red Cross!

I found out about this exciting book through one of my favorite bloggers, Holly of 504 Main.  She has donated her new recipe for Aloha Scones to the cause and the book.

Did I say donated?  I sure did.  That is the best part about all these fantastic bloggers coming together to create this cookbook:  for a $10 donation, you can get this new cookbook and 100% of the proceeds are being donated to The American Red Cross.

You can read Holly's post about the 50+ Favorite Bloggers 50+ Best Recipes Cookbook or you can get clicky and head straight here to order: http://recipestohelp.bigcartel.com/

Orders are only being taken from 8/15/11 - 8/31/11, so make sure you don't miss out.  Tweet, Facebook, blog and help spread the word about this opportunity to make a difference!

ETA: I am not associated with this cookbook in any way. It's a cool way to contribute and am happy to pass the word on. :>

Autism & GFCF Links Update

In January I updated the Autism & GFCF Links page (just below my header) to include a few of the great autism bloggers and now, half way through the year, it's time to update with a few more resources.

This time, I've added a few allergy free (GF, GFCF, Dairy Free) bloggers & Twitter tweeps where you can click your way to and learn more.  I do hope you'll click on over for some wonderful resources!

Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Chicken

~ If you are looking for my TRDC RemembeRED piece, click here. ~

I'm pretty lucky.  Hubs is known to get creative in the kitchen and one random evening, he came up with this.  Baked bacon wrapped chicken breasts, stuffed with artichoke hearts and roasted red bell peppers.  Yum.

We were treated to his creative bit with what the kidlets call "Yummy Rice" (brown rice cooked in chicken stock with fresh garlic) and roasted broccoli.  And like all of our family dinners, it's GFCF (gluten & casein free).  Delish.

Hope you're having a smile worthy day! :>

 

Pinterest Inspired: One Bowl Wonder

I took a break from Pinning over at my favorite place to escape, Pinterest, to actually look at my boards and see what I've pinned.  And while looking at my food board, Tastebuds and Eyes, I saw that I had collected a few fresh corn ideas & recipes.

Source: italian.food.com via Karen on Pinterest

Already beyond the dinner hour and completely not in the mood to hit the store for specific ingredients, I decided to use these three as inspiration, rather than a recipe.

Source: sensiblelessons.com via Karen on Pinterest

Source: authenticsuburbangourmet.blogspot.com via Karen on Pinterest

I grabbed leftover ears of cooked corn, cut off their kernels into a bowl and headed to the fridge to see what else we had. 

I had already reheated the baked chicken & brown rice leftovers for the kids and there was about a quarter cup of rice and an ounce of chicken leftover, so while I was initially going for a salad, I threw them in.

Grabbed an organic red bell pepper, red onion, and avocado, sliced them up and threw them into this One Bowl Wonder.  And I dressed her up in lime juice and a little sea salt.

It was absolutely delicious!  I think it could be even better with some zucchini and chopped flat leaf parsley or cilantro, depending on your preference.

I will definitely make this again.  And you want to know what else is cool?  This delish dinner is GFCF (gluten & casein free) and since it was a One Bowl Wonder, there's minimal clean up!  Now that's what I call a perfect summer meal.

What have you been creating in your kitchen lately?  Are you Pinning on Pinterest?  Are you bringing your Pins to life, literally or simply inspired by?

Summer Fruit to Beat the Heat

After starting the month of June out with rain, Summer has come screaming in with some serious heat!  I like the sun, I can handle it warm, but when the temps climb to near triple digits, I melt into a puddle o' goo!

But, before I melted, I put all the fruit I had picked up at Whole Foods & Costco (can I just say how much I love that Costco is carrying more organic & even gluten free options these days?!) to work.

I love fruit salad in the summer!  An apple, watermelon, cantaloupe, blackberries, blueberries, and red grapes.  It's just missing strawberries & pineapple.  And, while I'm out of the former, I do have a pineapple just waiting to be cut into, but I'm holding on to that to throw on the barbeque on Saturday.

Everything, except the watermelon, is organic and tastes delish!  Did you see the new Dirty Dozen & Clean 15 for 2011?  It's the produce that sucks up the most pesticides, making it easier to decide where it's most important to invest your pennies in organic fruits and veggies.

What summer foods have been on your menus?  Is it hot where you live?  How are you beating the heat?

I'm off to pour myself an iced coffee and go blow bubbles with my little Princess (who is getting sooo big!).  Hope your day is a smile worthy one! :>

Sushi Gone Wrong

Writing along with Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop using the prompt:  Describe a food you abhor.

The evening began with a food I love.  A delish sushi meal had just been consumed.  And even though the person sitting across from me was unwilling to try sushi, not even a bite of a California Roll, as innocuous as they come, I enjoyed my favorite pieces of nigiri and sashimi.  And then it happened.

We had paid our bill and were just about to leave when the two gals at the sushi bar, who seemed to be trying one of everything on the menu, turned to me and said, "You have to try this!"

I wasn't really listening to them before that, but the looks on their faces screamed that I might be in trouble on this one. 

I had just given the 'how do you know you don't like sushi, if you don't even try it' lecture, so I knew there was no way I was getting out of it.  And since I'm not overly fond of hypocrites and didn't want to blatantly be one, I knew I had to eat it, even though there was every bit of evidence that I wasn't going to like it.

I picked up the yellow piece of nigiri sushi.  And then just as I was about to pop it into my mouth, the gal who had insisted I try it ever so kindly informed me, "It tastes like the smell of the Monterrey Bay Aquarium or the smell of a cat litter box."

Joy.  Though I was completely not thrilled at the prospect of trying it, I was more aware of that Hypocrite label I'd be wearing brightly if I didn't go through with it.

And into my mouth went the sea urchin.

And yes, it did taste like the smell of a cat litter box.  And no, I've never had it since.  And no, the Hypocrite label wasn't sewn on me that night.  Mission accomplished.

Got Artichoke?

We do!  Wee girl & I picked up a 2 1/2" artichoke starter plant from a local organic farm (well, the plant was started at a local organic farm, which we bought at Whole Foods) last year and planted it in our veggie garden.  And apparently, that little arti plant really liked its new home!

It started so small and now, it's almost up to the top of the fence with a half dozen artichokes growing on it.  The initial plant was $2.50 and with the price of artichokes today (saw some on sale at Safeway for $3 each the other day), if we even get one good one off of it (though it looks like we'll have many more than that), it will have paid for itself in full.

Pretty cool, huh?!  We think so.  We're also nurturing our boy's strawberry plant, in hopes it produces more yummy fruit for the third year in a row now.  And our graphed apple tree blossomed for the first time this year and already has little mini apples growing on it.  All of this and we haven't even planted any new vegetables yet.  Yup, pretty cool.

What's growing in your garden right now?  Anything new you plan to get into the ground or a pot this month?

Friday Evening Fun {at home}

List the menu for your last meal.

Well, I wouldn't necessarily call what we eat on Friday night a meal, but it's dinner!

Friday nights are movie nights for the kidlets.  So, I made them their GFCF pizza (with the appropriate mozzarella Daiya 'cheese' shreds this time) and while Finding Nemo graced our screen, Hubby threw some toppings on a cheese pizza that he picked up at Safeway on his way home.

And I hopped on to Twitter to go where all fun people go on a Friday night, #wineparty! (And no, wine is not required. I don't generally drink it, despite living surrounded by vineyards!)  It's a fabulously fun place to hang on a Friday night when you're home and feel like chatting.

Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

Pizza's done.  I pardoned myself from #wineparty for a few minutes to eat with the family (I *might* have snuck a few tweets in there! Shhh....) and watch a little Finding Nemo (love the jelly fish & sea turtles...Dude!).

Hubby had thrown red onion, bacon, red bell pepper, olives, and chopped artichoke hearts on top of the plain cheese pizza.  (Everything goes better with bacon, artichoke hearts & red onion, don't ya know?! :>)

And yes, after dinner, I went back to #wineparty.  But, my computer is in the living room, mere feet from the kidlets.  When they select a new movie to watch, I'll watch with them, but when they've watched the same movie three weeks in a row, like they did with the uber cute How to Train Your Dragon, a gal's gotta have somewhere to turn!

What does a Friday night look like for you?

Writing along with my friend, Lizz of Am I a Funny Girl? for Saturday Seven again this week!  Stop by and say hello!  :>

Disclosure:  I might break a few "rules" in life, but I follow the FTC's! The movie links are affiliate links.

I thought nothing could ruin dinner faster...

Brussels sprouts, blech.  As far as I was concerned, the only thing worse than those little nasty cabbage like sprouts were lima beans.  Actually, lima beans still rank at the bottom of my list!

As a kid, Dad loved them.  I don’t think anyone else was much of a fan.  Though, my distaste for those gruesome balls of green was far greater, I think.

And what’s worse?  They were usually from the freezer. 

Oh wait, it gets worse still.  If they were served on my plate, I had to eat them, all of them.  My taste buds cried out in horror.

It’s not as if I was a kid with a limited palette.  While most kids’ favorite food item was from the more standard fair of pizza, tacos, or spaghetti, I loved seafood, a mean stir fry, and even shucked oysters on the rare occasion I visited family in Virginia.

But, brussels sprouts?  No. Thank. You.

Brussels sprouts were on my hit list back then and continued to reside there well into my thirties.

I was madly shopping for our 2010 Thanksgiving dinner and by my fourth grocery store, I still had not picked up a vegetable when I saw this gorgeous baseball bat sized stalk with dozens of green bulbs climbing it.  So struck by its beauty, it took me a few minutes to realize what it was.

I’d come upon those dreaded brussels sprouts, presented in its organic state and suddenly I couldn’t take my eyes off of them.  As much as the flaming orange, red, and yellow bell peppers sang out to me, or the comforting cry of our favorite friend, zucchini, called, or the green bean Thanksgiving standard whispered my name, I was deaf to all of them.  My eyes were locked on my target and would not deviate until I gave in.

I left wondering what on earth I was doing. Had I lost my mind?  Seriously, had I just ruined our Thanksgiving meal?  And my goodness, what would my husband think?  He couldn’t stand brussels sprouts just as much, if not more.  Considering he was cooking, I thought I was crazy not to factor his distaste for them into the equation!

To my surprise, he started laughing when I pulled out that big green, bulbous stick…I mean, stalk.  He quickly had the kids giggling as well.  And suddenly, he was game to give brussels sprouts one more try.

We opted to roast them as we had yet to miss with that method.  And just in case they were as hideous as we remembered, he fried up a couple strips of bacon to crumble on top.  He rationalized that everything is better with bacon.

Thanksgiving day, everyone watched the sprouts come off the stalk, one by one, as if it was a grand new spectator sport.  Those of us in the peanut gallery had many a how-to opinion to offer.  And then they were off the stalk, halved, misted with olive oil, sprinkled with a wee bit of salt, and into the oven they went.

Sitting down to the dining table for dinner with a beautiful turkey, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, the most scrumptious dressing, and those roasted brussels sprouts.  I was apprehensive, to say the least.

We grownups, having been tainted by nasty balls of green on our plates as kids, had to put on brave faces to try our first bites.  But, the kids, who had been so excited by our new brussels sprout adventure, they dove straight in.

Eyes widened.  Could this really be?  Our surprise was palpable.  And our conclusion was drawn with that first cautious bite.

Move over artichoke!  Move over zucchini!  Move over bell peppers, cauliflower, Japanese eggplant, spinach, crooked neck squash, and all varieties of tomato!

Move on over and make room for another favorite vegetable to join the ranks!

Brussels sprouts.  No bacon needed.  Who knew?!

Thanksgiving 2010 Brussels Sprouts

Roasting them was the key for us and bacon never again necessary!

This tale o' brussels sprout was in response to the RemembeRED prompt to write about our favorite fresh fruit or vegetable, from The Red Dress Club.

The Random Approach to Memory Lane ~ Saturday Seven

List the foods that are always left in the fridge when everything else has been eaten.

I'm writing along with friend Lizz of Am I a Funny Girl? again this Saturday and she's pulling prompts from a book of lists randomly.  And yes, this certainly looks random!

Though, random can get a gal thinking.  I don't think our fridge is ever really empty.  We might be out of essentials or items that will bring complete dishes together, but definitely not empty.  So, for once, I thought I would follow Lizz's rules and list seven guests our fridge always has:

1) Mustard!  Lots and lots of mustard. 

You know what I think is really funny?  Growing up, I couldn't stand mustard!!  I used to tell people that even eating a mere speck of mustard would give a person a fatal disease called, "Mustardania" (I used immense creativity in naming that, don't ya know! ;>) and so I just couldn't eat it.....I didn't want to die of such a horrible disease!  And now?  I {heart} mustard!  Yes, I know, I'm easily amused, but it does make me laugh.

2)  Sauerkraut.  I wasn't too fond of this either growing up, but now pork chops are just not the same without it.  My boy wants sauerkraut on almost any sandwich that's made with almost any kind of left over meat these days.  Ask him what he wants on his sandwich and the answer is almost always, "{Insert whatever kind of meat or hot dog here}, mustard, sauerkraut, and lettuce" and sometimes he adds ketchup and slices of tomato to that list.  And after his first bite, he tells his Dad (maker of said sandwiches), "That sandwich is DA BOMB!"  Cracks me up!

3)  Pickles.  Now, I love a good dill pickle.  But, my kidlets are pickle junkies, I kid you not!  Until we started removing things from our boy's diet  (gluten, casein, soy, and as many preservatives and dyes as we can), I had no idea how much *junk* is in pickles!  Go into your standard, run of the mill grocery store and look at the five shelves stocked full of a zillion different kind of pickles and read the labels.  They are mostly filled with ingredients that I cannot pronounce, aka preservatives, and dyes.  It absolutely amazed me!

4)  Horseradish.  Fresh, grated, and/or creamed.  I'm not a fan of uber spicy foods from either peppercorns or chili peppers, but I do love some horseradish kick!  Try adding some to your next meatloaf.  Horseradish looses its pungency when heated, so it's not spicy at all, but definitely flavorful.  I also love to add it to mayonnaise and/or mustard when making a sandwich.

5)  Milk alternatives.  Our boy likes rice milk, and that's what he usually drinks, but I'm not so much a fan of the stuff.  I keep coconut milk and the delish almond milk for smoothies and some baking.  Almond milk is offered in several varieties and our favorite is the unsweetened vanilla.  If you haven't tried it yet, you're missing out!

6)  Lemon juice.  I almost always have lemons on hand, but I keep some lemon juice as well for when I run out of the fruit itself.

7)  Cheese.  I know.  Cheese?  After the casein free milk alternatives?  What I lump into the cheese category, also includes his cheese alternatives!  And while we often run out of one kind or another, there usually is some kind of cheese in there.

They (you know, those "they"s out there) always say we have strong memories tied to food.  But, never would I have thought that the prompt, "List the foods that are always left in the fridge when everything else has been eaten." would take me down memory lane.  Yet, it did just that.  And I'm glad I followed!

What food memories do you have?  What foods did you grow up not liking that are a staple for you now? 

I'm still smiling thinking about my son's "DA BOMB" sandwich and since we're approaching the lunch hour here, I think I'll go make him one now.  Hope your weekend is a great one!

Bethenny's Mock-A-Mole

Oh wow, Wednesday snuck up on me!  Scooting back a couple of days...

We had a wonderful weekend here! Jenn (that great friend who sews and has given me & wee girl several of her fantatsic tote bags) was up here visiting.

It was a chill weekend, but we played lots of Toy Story Mania! on the wii....I think us grownups had just as much fun, laughing until tears fell, playing at night as the kidlets did during the day!

And I introduced Jenn to one of my favorite guilty pleasures, Bethenny Frankel. I think she's hilarious! We toasted with her Skinnygirl Margaritas and tried out Bethenny's Mock-A-Mole recipe. It came out really tasty, though Jenn said she'd like to kick up the heat the next time she makes it. (I'm sure she kept it tame for my taste buds...not a huge fan of the super spicy. :>)  The best part?  Another delish dish that is already GFCF & needs no converting.  Win!

Can't wait 'til she can come visit us all again!

Do you remember this photo of my sweet girl's sweet lashes I took last month?  I submitted it at i Heart Faces for their February People's Choice Favorite Photo Challenge.

It's my first time clicking along with them and would LOVE it if you would be willing to click over there and vote for us!  We're (my pic, her face) #174 and all you have to do is follow the link over there and click on the little word "Vote" under pic #174.

That's it!  Easy peasy, no signing in or up or anything else. Thank YOU sooooooooo much! :>