Hummus recipe

 Here is the recipe I use for my homemade hummus as promised. I season mine with fresh ground pepper, lots of garlic and some fresh rosemary. LOVE this flavor combination. If you have another flavor you prefer that's fine! Have fun and play around!

To start, I cook the chickpeas myself. I found the recipe and adapted it from in jennies kitchen . If you want to, you could use canned chickpeas. If you want to take the extra time and cook them yourself, I do think it's worth it. Here is what you do:

1 cup dried chickpeas, picked over & rinsed
5 cups water
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 bay leaf
2 cloves of garlic, peeled & smashed
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

 Add all the ingredients to a medium-sized pot. Bring to a boil, then cover, reduce heat to low, and let beans simmer until tender but still toothsome. This will take forty five minutes to an hour. When they are done remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Take out the bay leaf.

 Now put the chickpeas and some of their cooking liquid in a food processor, or high powered blender. Add 4 Tbsp of tahini. Add 1/2 cloves of garlic, depending on your taste and the size of the clove. Add about 1/4 tsp - 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper, again according to taste. Lastly add fresh rosemary. I generally add one or two sprigs worth. Process or blend until smooth. This will store around a week or two. It makes pretty big batch, so if you don't have hummus lovers at your house plan to share!

Green smoothies

 So far my morning has been quite busy! It started out early. All the normal tasks of a mom. Showering and getting myself ready. Getting the kids ready for school and lunches packed. Then since it is Tuesday I was off to the breakfast program where I volunteer one morning a week. When I got home I found out my sister was sick, so I offered to go man the phones at my dad and grandfathers lumber mill.

 I am NOT a morning person, but I have to tell you, this morning has been pretty great! It's stunning outside right now. We had our first storm of winter yesterday and the trees all have a coat of ice which has just began to melt. There is a beautiful shimmering white crust on the ground. I tried to get a few photos of the beautiful drive I had to Lucy's school and then to work this morning. I only had my iPhone so I didn't quite manage to capture the magic, but here are some photos.

  The beautiful views this morning really helped put in a great mood. I do however feel like my breakfast deserves a lot of credit too. Since this was such a busy morning full of lots of running around I whipped up one of the green smoothies I told you all about the other day. I wanted to take a photo and show you just how amazing they look! Ok, I know the bright green color might throw some people off, but please don't knock it until you've tried it! The green color was a little scary for me to, at first. Now I can honestly say it's one of my favorite parts of this smoothie. I look and it feel energized. It just looks so fresh and healthy (because it is!). Here it is, my yummy, healthy breakfast.

 For those of you who missed the recipe for this beauty at the bottom of a previous post, here it is.

 Green smoothie:

 1/2 cup pineapple juice

 1/2 cup coconut water

 4-5 frozen peach slices

 4-5 chunks of frozen mango

 2 handfuls of spinach

 1 Tsp flax oil

 Keep in mind that you can play around and make your own variation. Have some fun! You can use Kale or spinach for your green. Fresh ground flax seeds or chia seeds can be used instead of the flax oil. Other veggies are optional and the fruit combinations are endless! My advice? Just keep it simple at first. Enjoy the great health benefits in this quick and yummy breakfast. You can have a glass with your kids (Yes kids love these, honest, I've tested it out on mine) or pop it in a travel mug if you have somewhere to be.



Current favorite snack!

 On  fluke yesterday I decided to heat up some hummus. Actually, it all started with me trying to jazz up some store bought hummus. It was suppose to be garlic flavor, but to be honest I wasn't enjoying it as much as my homemade hummus.

 Sadly I haven't made any in a couple months because my blender cannot handle it and my food processor hasn't fared so well the last couple times. It actually shut off on me. Boo. Anyway, back to jazzing up the store bought hummus. I was going to add some rosemary, then decided to go with cumin because I only have dried rosemary. I have issues with dried herbs such as rosemary and thyme. I find they are stiff and you end up biting into them or getting them stuck in your teeth.

  After adding the cumin and tasting it, I decided it did need some rosemary after all. I think it was mostly because I was remembering fresh homemade garlic and rosemary hummus I made this summer. As most of you probably realize, adding herbs to cold items doesn't lend well for flavor. The herbs don't seem to be able to infuse the food as well as if it were warm. So I threw in some rosemary and some fresh ground pepper (don't worry I hadn't added much cumin) and popped the hummus in the microwave for a few seconds.

 Once I had heated it well I stirred it again to make sure the heat and seasonings were evenly distributed. It smelled A-MAZ-ING. I grabbed my grape tomatoes out of the fridge and dipped away. OH MY! It was so yummy. It reminded my of something. I knew I needed bread. Since bread was out of the question I grabbed a few corn chips and dipped away. Want to know a secret? creamy warm hummus tastes a lot like spinach and artichoke dip. Seriously! Who would have thought? Way less fat, yet just as creamy and delicious!

 My point? Hummus, go get yourself some! Or better yet, cook up a batch! I'll even post my recipe tomorrow. It's delicious. Delicious with everything from carrots and grape tomatoes, to bread or corn chips. Even better? My kids like it, and it's on the list of "safe" foods for them to take in school lunches!

The new normal

 Yesterday I talked about the many food allergies and intolerances we have recently had to deal with.  I have to be honest. Before our journey with these issues began I was one of those parents who got annoyed with other kids food allergies. I had very little understanding or respect for just what those kids and their parents were dealing with. I could only think of how it affected me and my children. I never gave any thought to how much those other parents must worry. I never thought about how hard the simple things like family get togethers could be for someone with an allergy to wheat, gluten or dairy.

  One thing that was frustrating for me is the nut allergy issue. I think it's a bit different in the states, but here in Canada all schools have banned peanuts. Our local school has banned all nuts and strawberries. This can make it difficult to pack a healthy, well rounded, simple vegan lunch. Some days I just want to be able to do a good old peanut butter sandwich for Jacob. However, I cannot.

  I have slowly come to terms with not being able so send nut products. It does make baking a little harder. I would normally send homemade granola bars with almond butter or peanut butter in them. Many of my healthy muffins call for nuts. It is what it is though and I have had to make the necessary adjustments to recipes when I plan on sending them to school with Jacob or preschool with Lucy. Yes even preschool has nut bans here!

  One of the things that makes me a little upset is that schools have gone so far to accommodate certain allergy issues but not others. I understand they ban items that cause anaphylactic reactions, which makes sense as much as I hate it admit that when I'm having a stubborn redheaded moment. I am talking more about what they offer at the school cafeteria. I would like to see the cafeteria be a little bit more sensitive to those with dairy issues. The only thing my son can buy as a vegan is French fries. You guessed it, he doesn't buy often!

  I'm not suggesting I want him to purchase his school lunch all the time. I like packing it at home so I know what he is eating. Lets be honest though, kids like to be included in all aspects of "normal" school life. When he sees his friends buying lunch he would like to buy lunch too. They have a "healthy" meal option each day, which always includes meat and dairy. They offer pizza almost daily and fries. Generally a meat sub (as in sandwich) or something similar as well.  As you can see, not vegan friendly. My children are not the only non meat eaters or kids with dairy issues at the school, although I admit the numbers are very low. Rural Canada doesn't produce many vegetarian/vegan kids.

  Is it too much for a mother to ask to see some salad on the menu? Maybe a veggie stir-fry? How about a veggie burger? I could even deal with that. Every time I have tried to find the right person to talk to about this issue I hit a brick wall. I guess our cafeteria is run by an outside party. They are separate from the school. This has proven to make contact with the head person difficult.

  I want to take a time out for one minute to say that our school does amazing at trying to encourage kids to eat healthy, as in fruits and veggies. They also have this amazing program called paw fit, in which the kids run or walk laps around our new track every morning! In an age where gym classes are being cut at many schools I appreciate our school working hard to add physical activity instead of cutting it out. They also offer a breakfast program for all the kids every morning. They do a lot of positive.

  Back to my point. Now that my kids have allergies we have to deal with I better understand what these other parents go through. It is really hard to monitor everything that goes in the kids mouths everyday. It is hard when they are at friends houses or visiting family. Thankfully none of their allergies are life threatening. We have been very blessed in that way.

  Eating out is not something we do often as a family. It tends to be something that Trev and I do for a date. The kids get restless in restaurants and it ends up being more stress then it's worth. The few times we have taken them out since going vegan, we have been able to find items for them to eat without much trouble. Sometimes a little imagination has been needed, but we have managed just fine. Eating out with a wheat intolerance? Well that's a whole different story!

  Last Sunday Trevor and I attempted to go on a date. Our usual date as I mentioned before would be a nice dinner out. The problem? Every vegan option I would normally go for at the "sit down" restaurants contains wheat! Pasta is our usual go to. We like to go to East Side and enjoy pasta, salad and bread. Obviously that was out. Any place where I could get a veggie stir fry was a big temptation for Trev in the meat department. We didn't want fries. So we ended up going to Thai takeout. Not the healthiest, but it's what we could find! I guess I'll be a cheep date from now on since I'll be sticking to salads when eating out most of the time.

  That was probably the lowest moment for me during the last week in dealing with my own personal food allergies and issues. Realizing something that was once fun, eating out with friends and family, is something that will now be a challenge. I am a huge food lover and losing wheat from my diet has taken a lot of joy out of food for me. I'm hoping that's a temporary thing. For now I'm sticking close to home, because home is safe. I control what we eat here.

  That said, the weekends have been a little sad. Trevor, being the amazing father and husband that he is, makes breakfast on Friday, Saturday and Sundays. He even lets the kids get involved and help out. His go-to's include cinnamon buns, pancakes, waffles and crapes. See the problem? Our tradition of nice family breakfast has been rained on! This morning he did take a crack at making me wheat free gingerbread pancakes. They were not half bad. I still miss wheat though!

  Breakfast in general has proven to be the hardest meal of the day. I would normally grab a healthy muffin from the freezer, or make some toast. Those are not an option. At least not until I manage to make a yummy wheat free bread and muffin! My breakfast of choice these days has been a green smoothie. Green smoothies are amazing! Packed full of good for you nutrients, energizing, and well, green. The color freaks Trevor out a bit, but even he has to admit the taste is awesome.

  I have been having green smoothies for the past several days. If it's a busy evening and I have to jet off somewhere before having dinner, I have even enjoyed a green smoothie for dinner. They are truly going far to repair my dull, pale competition and give me some pep in my step. My only complaint is my current blender. It can't process the chia seeds and flax seeds I would like to add. I'm coveting a Vitamix. I recently had a smoothie made in a Vitamix at Costco. There were not even strawberry seeds left. Awesome! Someday people, someday I will own one.

  Here is my favorite breakfast and dinner green smoothie. Keep in mind, if you don't have a high powered blender you may want to avoid the chia seeds and flax seeds, or just grind them up prior to adding them to your smoothie.

Green smoothie- Breakfast

2 handfuls of organic spinach
1 teaspoon of flax seeds OR one teaspoon of flax oil
4-5 peach slices (frozen)
5-6 chunks of frozen mangos
1/2 cup pineapple juice
1/2 cup coconut water (organic and pure)

Blend until smooth and enjoy!

Green smoothie- Dinner

1 handful of organic spinach
3-4 cherry or grape tomatoes
3-4 baby carrots or carrot sticks.
1 teaspoon chia seeds
1 banana
several chunks of frozen mangos, apricots, peaches
1/2 cup pineapple juice
1/2 cup coconut water (pure and organic)

*You can also add a few frozen strawberries if you want. I didn't like the flavor combination of the strawberries with the veggies. But that's just me.
 
Blend until smooth and enjoy!
 

I'm Back!

  Hi everyone, I'm so sorry I've been MIA recently! Things have been a little crazy here. It has been a busy few month full of lots of big changes for our family. As always, big changes with kids are a little harder. We have also just been plain busy with the crazy back to school schedule! Jake and Lucy are both in extracurricular activities this year. Combine that with all the committees we are on and the volunteering we do and it makes for some very full weeks. However that's not what I want to talk about.

  We have discovered the reason behind Jacob's MANY headaches and migraines. Many people have argued with me over the past few years and told me that a young child of six does not get migraines. Really? Because I have gotten them since I was that age. I still do. I know the signs. It's not normal for a child to get a headaches everyday. One that generally leads to him throwing up. It has kept him from leading a normal happy carefree life. After two years of trying to get somewhere with our family doctor I finally took matters into my own hands. We went to see a NAET certified allergy specialized.

  After the initial consultation we discovered that Jacob is allergic to whey and casein. The two main milk proteins. He is also allergic to refined sugars. Finally! An answer. This is why my little guy has been dealing with headaches and stomach aches  nearly everyday over the last few years! Everyone's first reaction was oh no! how are you going to cope with that?! My reply? Very easily! One of the biggest bonuses of baking and cooking our food from scratch is that I can easily control what goes into our food. I have wanted to go vegan for awhile, so I figured I would just do this with him.

  Lucy had also been complaining about her tummy hurting a lot. We decided to take her in to the clinic as well. Guess what she was allergic too? Food dyes! She also had a dairy intolerance. An intolerance and an allergy are two different things. That is why she was having different symptoms then Jacob. Different but no less painful and upsetting. Avary is still too young to "officially" diagnose but Lori (our NAET practitioner and natural doctor) says she shows many signs of a dairy issue as well. 

  I know your not going to believe what I say next, but here it is. Since all our children have issues with dairy my meat and cheese loving husband decided to go vegan!! Okay, to be completely honest, the movie forks over knives might have helped a little bit too.  Bottom line is, we have now been vegan for four months.

  Here we are four months into our journey and the kids are doing a lot better. Some foods they struggle with not being able to have, but over all they are being real troopers! Trev is doing wonderful. He has taken on this challenge and is seeing some great health benefits. He has increased  energy, has lost weight and says he feels a lot more alert and has greater mental clarity. That's amazing! I'm so proud of him!

  I have also been a little jealous! I've been eating the same food as him and yet I've been gaining weight, or rather, appear to be. I have had no energy and have been feeling generally worn down and blue. I knew there had to be something wrong. If I'm eating what the rest of the family is, why am I not seeing the benefits?!

  Back I went to Lori. For myself this time. Guess what? Turns out that I too have a dairy intolerance (which I figured, dairy never really sat right with me). But wait. I cut that out four months a go. That's what your thinking right? That's what I was thinking. I also have an egg allergy. Again, I haven't had those for four months. Then she uncovered it. I have a wheat intolerance. Not gluten. Just the wheat. That was pretty much the worst news ever. I LOVE whole wheat and multigrain everything! LOVE IT.

  However, as much as I may hate it, I do have a wheat intolerance.  Do you know all the ways that can mess up your body? Allow me to educate you a bit. It can cause: Swelling (remember the appearance if weight gain I had?!) joint pain, depression, "stomach problems" (to be polite), indigestion, lack of energy and many more. The symptoms I listed were most of what I have been struggling with. Everyday I have just felt unwell.

  So now that I know what's causing me to feel awful I need to eliminate it from my diet. Trust me when I say that is WAY easier said then done. Wheat is everywhere!! The only items without wheat are the gluten free products. They happen to be very expensive. Also it's worth mentioning that any gluten free product that is precooked or baked is loaded with eggs. So that cancels out me being also to cheat and purchase some baked goods to get me started. This is going to be a jump right in and figure it out thing.

  I have to admit. Since getting diagnosed a week a go I have had many different emotions. Uncertainty, anger, frustration, loss, relief, acceptance and hope. I wish I could say they were in that order and that I have paused on hope. However that is not the case. Sometimes I still feel a little cheated and overwhelmed.  I am however, looking toward the future. I am starting to feel better physically and that makes me feel hopeful that I CAN do this. I can figure out this new diet.

  I also have to mention that having to give up my beloved wheat has taught me how our kids must feel having to give up the dairy they were use to having and the candy and freezes they love! In some ways it has helped me better relate to their struggles and be a little more patient with them if they are struggling with a bad craving. I have a lot of admiration for how well they are coping with this big change in their lives.

  Since there seems to be a shortage of vegan blogs that have recipes excluding wheat you can count on me blogging about the recipes I'm going to have to create. I know, I know, how will I ever cope having to spend countless hours in the kitchen baking and experimenting? Don't worry about me I'll manage just fine ;) I promise that they will still be yummy, even for you non vegan, wheat loving readers.

  If any of you have tips, or advice please share! Also any recipes or blogs on the topic would be really appreciated! Until next time, which I promise will not be so long, night all!

Oatmeal breakfast cookies

 I had a little mishap in the kitchen this afternoon. What was suppose to be a healthy oatmeal cookie took a bit of a different turn.

 After baking a couple batches of sandwich buns and a double batch of granola bars, I decided to make some cookies. As I was getting ready to add the sugar I really looked at the recipe and simply couldn't bring myself to add the one full cup of sugar. I stopped what I was about to do and took a minute to think.

  I studied the recipe and decide to just try something different. After thinking about it for a couple minutes my mind began to race with all the possibilities. I'm pretty happy with what happened. The end result was yummy but not overly sweet. Probably not a great dessert cookie, but perfect for those morning when you need something quick as you run out the door.

  Did I mention that these yummy wholesome bites pack a pretty healthy punch? They have flax which fights cholesterol, Chia seeds which are full of fiber, Omega-3's and protein and oats, which are a great source of fiber among other things.

 So here it is, Oatmeal breakfast cookies!

Oatmeal Breakfast cookies:


1/2 cup canola oil
1 medium banana mashed
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup milk (or soy, almond, or coconut milk)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup unbleached flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 cups quick oats
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup nutmeg
2 Tbsp flax seeds
2 Tbsp chia seeds
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

**If you like your oatmeal sweet, or are looking for a more traditional cookie sweetness, add 1/4 cup brown sugar to your wet ingredients**

 Gently stir together the wet ingredients. In another bowl mix the dry ingredients together. Slowly combine the two mixtures until mixed well.

  Roll one inch balls and flatten to half an inch between your palms. Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

  Bake at 350 for 12-14 minutes.

  Cool on a wire rack.

 You can enjoy these fresh or freeze them (once they are cooled) and grab a couple on your way out the door.

 Enjoy :)

Bringing the campfire snacks inside!

Tonight's snack was S'mores cups. It's perfect weather for S'mores, but not quite campfire time. I found this little gem on pintrest and thought I'd give it a go. Kids loved it! They had a friend over to play and watch a movie and they all cleaned it :)

I altered this a bit to use just the basics.

S'mores cups:

Graham cracker crumbs
Chocolate (I just used Easter eggs chopped up)
Marshmallows

Layer graham cracker crumbs, chocolate and then marshmallows in a small glass jar. I used small mason jars. Place in preheated oven (preheated to 350) on a cookie sheet, and cook until marshmallows are toasty brown. Remove, allow to cool for a few minutes, wrap glass in tea towel to allow little hands to handle and serve!

Enjoy!