My New Store!!

I am so excited that I just opened my new hair bow store on etsy, Curly Girly Bow-tique(http://jandrmom2009.etsy.com/). I am selling hair bows, hair clippies, baby snap clips and korker bows. This started out as just a hobby to make bows for my daughter, but somehow grew into selling the bows. I am planning on participating in two craft shows this holiday and I am currently selling on etsy. I also do custom order, so if you are interested, please visit my shop!

New Baby Snack

Today I took a trip to Whole Foods and saw that they carry Healthy Times Teeting Biscuits. I have wanted to buy these for Mr. T, but I thought I was going to have to buy them online, so I was pleasantly suprised that I can pick them up at Whole Foods along with my chocolate chips. Mr. T has really been taking to table food the last couple of weeks, so I thought he was ready for these. I tried teeting biscuits with my first son, but we had a major issue when his face broke out in hives since the ones he tried contained milk and he is allergic to milk. Healthy Times teeting biscuits do not contain milk, eggs, peanuts, treenuts or soy, but do contain gluten. Anyway, Mr. T loved the teeting biscuits (I was glad I put one of our large shirt bibs on him, because he was a MESS! )

I Did it! I finished the Cincinnati Half Marathon!

I have wanted to run a marathon for several years now, but everytime I thought seriously about doing it I either had an injury or I was pregnant (or just had a baby!). So in May when my husband went to the Flying Pig Marathon expo I saw that they were holding a half marathon in Cincinnati without hills. My husband ran the half marathon of the Flying Pig and about halfway through there is a giant hill. Well I registered both of us for the race and I began training Memorial Day weekend (I have been running almost everyday for the past 10 years and have only missed maybe three-four weeks in those 10 years when I had my three kids and when I started to develop a stress fracture in my foot). Well this morning I finally met my goal and finished the half marathon in 1 hour and 48 minutes. I came in 262 overall and 13 in my age group and my husband ran it in 2 hours and 20 minutes (he only ran five times since May when he finished the Pig, which he said was a really bad idea- he realized he really needed to train for it!) I was very proud of myself since I think that time for an old 32 year old lady who has three kids, one of which I had 8 months ago via c-section. So now I think I may attempt the 1/2 Pig in May (we will see- that hill up Mt. Adams is still not calling my name). But now I can say "I did it!"

Menu for the week of October 24th

Well hopefully we have another calm week like we did this past week. Here is what I am planning on making this week:

Sunday- Beff Stroganoff- we did not get to this so it is a carry-over. The recipe link is posted on last week's menu

Monday- Avocado Chicken Tacos- from $5 Dollar Dinners (http://www.5dollardinners.com/2010/09/avocado-chicken-tacos.html)

Tuesday- Spanish Rice with Ground Venison

Wednesday- Herbed Chicken on Vegetable Confetti- from $5 Dollar Dinners (http://www.5dollardinners.com/2010/08/herbed-chicken-vegetable-confetti.html)

Thursday- Parents house for dinner

Friday- French Dip (this is the plan, but it is contingent on whether I can find onion soup mix that is free of our allergens- I went to Meijer yesterday and the two that they carried had soy and/or milk in them, I am planning on checking Kroger and then if they do not have it Aldi, if I cannot find it, then plan B is Pot Roast with roasted veggies)

French Dip
1 Pot Roast
1 bottle of beer (I am trying it with a non-alcoholic O'Doules)
1 packet french onion soup mix

Place all in a crock pot, cook on high several hours until you can shred beef. Serve on good fresh rolls.

Saturday- Leftovers

Fake Peanut Butter and a Yummy Snack!

This week I have been craving something sweet, but different from the chocolate chip cookies that I make several times a week (I have a sweet tooth but also a chocolate tooth!) While I was at Kroger searching for nutritional yeast in the health foods section (which I could not find) I decided that I wanted peanut butter. They had a couple different kinds, Soynut butter is out since I can't have soy, so I opted for Sunflower Butter. It is really good. It does not taste exactly like peanut butter, but it is really good and tasted very similar, but it does have a little bit of a grainy texture, which if you eat it cooked in something or with something else you can't tell. The next day for lunch I tried it in a "peanut butter" and jelly sandwich, which was really good, but my kids weren't really keen on it. Then Sunday I used it to make Food Allergy Mama's Snickerdoodles- my kids loved these (it took a while to convince J to try them, but after that I could not get J to stop eating them!)

Here is the recipe:

Snickeroos (Food Allergy Mama's Baking Book, by Kelly Rudnicki, page 160)

1 cup dark corn syrup (I only had light so that is what I used)

1 cup sugar

1 (15-ou) Creamy soy nut butter (I used Sunbutter)

6 cups crisped rice cereal

2 cups chocolate chips (I used Enjoy Life)

Spray a 13 x 9x 2 inch baking pan (all the spray that I have found has soy in it so I use non-stick foil to line the pan).

In a medium saucepan boil the corn syrup and sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Stir in the soy nut butter until thoroughly combined. In a large bowl, combine the cereal and the soy nut butter mixture, press the batter into the prepared baking dish.

Place the chocolate chips into a microwavable dish and heat on high 45-60 seconds, or until melted. Using a spatula, spread the melted chocolate over the batter. Let the mixture cool completely and cut into 1 inch squares.

Menu for the week of October 17th

Thank goodness for slow(er) weeks! This week we have a much needed slow week- that is until Saturday. Saturday my husband and I are running in the inaugural Cincinnati Half Marathon. I have been training for it since Memorial Day weekend (my husband has not really trained much at all- he has run maybe five or six times- he got bored after he ran the Flying Pig Half Marathon in May). Immediately following the run we have to take J to his last soccer game of the year (we can't miss it since my husband is the coach) then we have a birthday party to go to.

Sunday- Hamburgers


Monday- Slow Cooked Curried Coconut Chicken ($5 dinners: http://www.5dollardinners.com/2010/10/curried-coconut-chicken.html)


Tuesday-Chicken Fried pork chops- I am going to bread the pork in panko and then pan fry them


Wednesday- Beef Stroganoff ($5 dinners: http://www.5dollardinners.com/2010/03/beef-stroganoff.html)


Thursday- Chicken Taco Soup- This recipe is a favorite and really easy!

1 chopped onion
2 tsp minced garlic
1 can chicken broth (if you cannot have soy be sure to check your labels!)
1 can chili beans
1 can black beans
1 can corn
2 cans diced tomatoes (if you like it spicy you can use tomatoes with green chilies)
2 chicken breasts- cooked and chopped
2 tbsp taco seasoning

In a big pot saute onion and garlic in oil until translucent. Dump all the other ingredients into the pot and cook at least until hot. Top with tortilla chips


Friday- Spaghetti- my husband and I will be carbo loading this night, on Saturday we will both be running the inaugural Cincinnati Half Marathon


Saturday- Birthday party and marathon day- leftovers or whatever we have the energy for!

Menu for week of October 10

Sunday- Spaghetti sauce with gnocchi
Monday- Couscous with chicken
Tuesday-Taco salad
Wednesday- Ham and bean soup
Thursday- parents
Friday- Meatloaf (I am very excited about this meal- it is a meatloaf free of eggs and milk, hopefully by Friday we will have a cooler day- we have been having days over 80 degrees, which is not meatloaf weather!)
Saturday- Grilled pork

Meatloaf recipe:
http://www.razzledazzlerecipes.com/beef-recipes/boston-market-meatloaf.htm
1 cup tomato sauce
1 1/2 tbsp BBQ sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 lbs ground sirloin
6 tbsp flour
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
dash garlic powder

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine tomato sauce, bbq sauce and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Heat mixture until it begins to bubble, stirring often, then remove it from the heat. In a large bowl, add all but 2 tbsp of the tomato sauce to the meat.

Use a large wooden spoon or your hands to work the sauce into the meat until it is very well combined. Combine the remaining ingredients with the ground sirloin; flour, salt, onion powder and ground pepper. Use the wooden spoon or your hands to work the spices and flour into the meat.

Load the meat into a loaf pan. Wrap foil over the pan and place it in the oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, take the meatloaf out of the oven and remove the foil and drain the fat.
Using a knife, slice the meatloaf all the way through into 8 slices while it is still in the pan. This will help cook the center of the loaf. Pour the remaining 2 tbsp of sauce over the top of the meatloaf, in a stream down the center. Don't spread the sauce. Put the meatloaf back into th oven, unocvered for 25 to 30 minutes or until it is done. Remove and allow it to cool for a few minutes before serving.

Fried Food, Yum!

Well I finally made used the McCormick's Beer Batter and Hush Puppy mixes I mentioned a couple weeks ago. I used the beer batter mix to make fish and shrimp and also made the hushpuppies. They were both really good for being free of milk, egg, treenuts, peanuts and soy (they weren't quite Long John Silvers or Captain D, but I never expected them to be!) we used McCormick's cocktail sauce for the shrimp, but I really missed my tarter sauce! I am sure this will be something that we will have again!

Menu for Week of October 3

Sunday- cousin's birthday party

Monday- Fish and fries and hushpuppies

Tuesday- Sloppy Joes

Wednesday-Homemade bread and veggie soup with carrots and fennel from my garden (I have been trying to get two fennel plants to grow large enough to use, I have fertilized them a ton and chased away a very hungry catepillar!)

Thursday- parents for dinner

Friday- Tacos

Saturday- Mediterrean Chicken Quinoa (from the five dollar dinners http://www.5dollardinners.com/2010/08/mediterranean-chicken-quinoa.html) We have been trying to feed Mr. T baby food for the last couple of months and he won't have anything to do with it. All he wants to eat is paper and anything he can put in his mouth himself. He really enjoyed couscous at my parents' house last week so I am going to try Quinoa on him!