Still no camera....

which means I don't have any new pictures to post, which means I haven't posted anything at all in a VERY long time! This blog really is mostly (ok, entirely!) about my two boys and what they're up to, and most importantly, pictures of what they've been up to. I have now been without a camera for over 3 months and I'm trying really hard to not get too emotionally distraught knowing that I have not been able to photograph over 3 months of my boy's, Dylan's in particular at this age, lives! That being said, I still want to blog about us and what we are up to. It's way too hard to "catch up" here when I wait this long between posts, so I'll just have to start blogging about other things, and about the boys, just without pictures.
As many of you know, I have been battling with Dylan's food sensitivities for quite some time now. What started as chronic congestion and excessive spitting up, has now been diagnosed as an excess of yeast in his gut. After many failed visits with "traditional" western doctors, we have now been seeing an amazing chiropractor who has been able to really help us make some progress together and get Dylan back on track! Within the first few weeks of changing my diet, both his congestion and spitting up completely went away! That being said, he still has too much yeast in his system and we're having a hard time getting that balanced out, so we are both now on a very restricted Candida diet, with a number of other eliminated foods as well. It's tough! It's tough for me anyway! Being a total food lover, cook, and baker, I have REALLY had to adjust my thinking in the kitchen and get incredibly creative!
So, I have come up with a number of really good recipes and meals over the past few weeks. Our diet has to be entirely gluten, dairy (butter, yogurt and kefir are ok), egg, sugar, fruit and corn free. Yes, completely free of all of those things. None at all! I figured since I can't share pictures with you, I'll share some crazy creative recipes instead :-)

Pancakes:
1 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut (1/2 pulsed into a flour in a food processor)
1/2 cup gluten free oats (pulsed into a flour)
1/2 cup Ener-G rice mix
1/4 cup flaxseed meal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 "eggs" Ener-G egg replacer (mixed as package instructs)
1 cup rice milk
1/2 cup plain kefir
2 teaspoons vanilla

Mix dry ingredients together. Mix wet ingredients together. Pour wet into dry and mix together. These took a little longer to cook through than a regular pancake, so I cooked them at a lower temp. than usual. They were really good! Dylan ate them plain, I smothered mine in butter, and Kalani got the real deal with organic maple syrup :)

I also made some zucchini pancakes, which were great for Dylan to feed himself, since he really prefers that these days :) I just shredded up some zucchini and a little onion, added some Ener-G rice mix, a dash of salt, a dash of pepper, a little rice milk and about 1-2 eggs equivalent of Ener-G egg replacer and fried them up. Yum!

Salmon Noodle Casserole:
I package small shell rice noodles - cooked according to package.
3 cans salmon
about 1 1/2-2 cups rice milk
1/2 stick of butter
olive oil
1/2 cup Ener-G rice mix
1 green bell pepper
2 stalks of celery
1 onion
garlic to taste
salt
pepper
Buf's Rub*

Chop up the veggies and garlic and saute in a little olive oil for about 5 minutes. Remove from pan and set aside. In same pan add the butter and rice mix and cook together, bubbling, for a few minutes. Whisking, add the rice milk. Cook until thickened a bit. Add salt and pepper (and any other seasoning you like) to taste. Add cooked pasta, veggies and salmon to the sauce and mix well. Toss it in a baking dish and bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes.

*Buf's Rub is my dad's amazing spice mix/dry rub. I use it on/in EVERYTHING! It is delicious on any meat, grilled or baked etc. But I also put it in anything I'm making if I'm feeling like it just needs a little something, but I'm not sure what. Use any spice mix, house seasoning, or dry rub you like, but it wont be quite as good as mine, without the Buf's Rub! ;-)

Turkey, Millet Moussaka... sort of? Not sure what else to call this one! Inspired by Our Life in the Kitchen
1 cup millet - cooked according to directions
1 package ground turkey - a little over a pound
2 1/2 red bell peppers
1 onion
1 zucchini
1/4 large eggplant
olive oil
garlic
salt
pepper
oregano
basil
1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup Ener-G rice mix
2 tablespoons arrowroot powder
3 cups rice milk

I had some leftover sauteed zucchini and eggplant that I used for this, if making fresh than chop them both up and saute together, with salt, pepper and garlic until tender, and set aside.
Saute red pepper, onion and garlic together until soft, about 10 minutes. Season with salt, pepper, ground oregano and ground basil. Cool slightly then pulse in a food processor until finely chopped, but not totally smooth.
Saute ground turkey and season with salt and pepper. When turkey is nearly cooked through, add sauteed veggies and red pepper puree to pan and cook together for a couple more minutes.
Put the cooked millet in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking pan and press down firmly. Add the meat mixture on top of that and press that down on top.
In a pan melt together butter and about the same amount of olive oil. Add rice mix and arrowroot powder and cook together, bubbling, for a few minutes. Add rice milk and cook until thickened, about 5 minutes. Season to taste.
Pour the bechamel sauce over the meat mixture and bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes.

I realize that these are not recipes that you'd probably be inspired to try, unless you too are on some crazy restricted diet. And I also realize that most of us don't just happen to have the unusual mixes and replacers and things that I now have in my pantry. But, if you do happen to have any food allergies or sensitivities or are on a restricted diet of any kind, yourself, than these recipes may just be helpful or inspiring to you! If nothing else, I just wanted to share because I was proud of myself for coming up with some really yummy things to eat :) I'm surviving without pastries and chocolate. Barely. But I'm making it.
You can take the food out of my kitchen, but you can't take the passionate cook that I am, out of me!

Christmas

So much time has passed, and there are so many "reasons" why..... but the main reason is that I no longer have a camera, so I have not had the pictures to motivate me to post here. I know, still not a very good "reason". And I am working on getting a new camera, but I just can't quite settle on which one I want, and am planning to invest in a decent one, so I don't want to make the wrong choice. On that note, if any of you (uh-hum, I know for sure that I have a few wonderful photographer followers out there... ) have any suggestions for me, please share in my comments!

Anyhow, here we are on Christmas Eve. Me and my crazy, silly, beautiful boys.



I hope all is well with all of you, during this special time of love and happiness. Be light! Be merry! Be joyous!

Adding

On our way to the car, after a few fun hours at the annual API of Orange County potluck, Kalani said to me, "there were two boys, and one girl, which means there were three of us."
Wow! Simple math, I know, but math! I was shocked and amazed to hear him add two and one and tell me that it equals three! Amazing boy he is. I just love that guy.

Fall :: Transitions

Fall has come, even here in sunny orange county. The weather has cooled down quite a bit, enough to wear long pants and even a sweatshirt here and there! Still in my flip-flops every day though ;-) I love fall, always have. It feels homey and cozy to me. Calmer, in some way, then the hot days of summer. Fall is also a time of changes, changes in so many ways.

In the midst of all of my personal changes and turmoil, if you will, we have had some wonderfully amazing changes this fall also! Kalani has started school! He loves it!!! He started at North Huntington Beach Community Nursery School (NHBCNS) three weeks ago. This school is THE BEST! I hesitated for the past year plus about getting Kalani into preschool because I was just so uneasy about all of my options; too expensive, too "oc-ish", and most importantly, too against my beliefs and what I've worked SO hard at for the past almost 4 years. We have a few friends that have been going to NHBCNS for a while now and have always heard rave reviews. The distance was keeping me away; its about a 25 minute drive, each way. I still do not love the drive, especially 4 days a week, but it is so worth it! I can't even explain and go into detail about all the perfectness that this school is, because I wouldn't know where to start or stop. But it is perfect. Perfect for us anyway :-) Kalani's at school Mon-Thurs from 12:30-3:30 which is a pretty huge change from not being in school at all. He's adjusted wondefuly though and loves every minute of it. He woke up today (Friday) and asked if he was going to school today. I said no, not for the next three days, and he replied, " awwww, I really want to go to my school today. Let's go see if it's open anyway!" Enough said.

So no pictures of school yet, sorry. Lots of new pics of other fun fall stuff and those two adorable boys I've got though!

A Sunday family hike at Crystal Cove.


Great Grandpa Lincoln's swiss army knife...


...and a Star Wars spy watch. Kalani is ready to work!

Cutest hat on the cutest baby ever.

Soakin' up the early fall rays.


We took our annual trip to Tanaka Farms for the Pumpkin patch tour - but this time it was with Kalani's class from school! First field trip ever! :-) He still loves the wagon ride around the farm the best. But I think having all his buddies along for the adventure sure made the trip that much more fun.

Kalani's first ever "class picture".

picking pumpkins

D and a green bean.


hmmmm.... which one should I choose?



Found just the right one :-)


Dylan is sitting up on his own and LOVING it! He sits and plays for minutes on end! ;-)

and yes, he really is almost always this smiley :-)

the three of us.