Super Amazing Slow Cooker Chicken & Pumpkin Pie!

To be honest I haven't posted any new recipes in the last couple weeks because I keep forgetting to take pictures of the food I make! I always think as I take the last bite of something, "Oh man, this would have been a good recipe to blog about..." Oh well, I'll try to get better this week because I have lots of great recipes I want to share!

Although these two recipes I'm posting today would have gone great together for dinner, I made them at different times but I wanted to share both! Like I said, I've been bad at remembering to take pictures so I only have one of the chicken recipe... This is right before I put the cover on and let 'er slow cook away.

The recipe is a little vague because I really didn't do any measuring, sorry for those that prefer precise measurements, you just gotta wing this one!

Slow Cooker Chicken

Whole chicken

Dairy free butter (I used Earth Balance)

Salt 

Pepper

Onion powder

Garlic powder

Thyme

Rosemary

Oregano

Basil

After removing the "guts bag" (which is super gross to me by the way), place the chicken in the slower cooker. Rub the entire chicken with butter, I didn't do any measuring, just slathered it on all sides. Sprinkle each seasoning over the chicken, again, just wing it! Place cover on slow cooker and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours.

This chicken turned out so tender and was so super simple to make as you can see! After I picked off all the chicken I used the bones and drippings to make chicken broth. I just tossed in some carrots and onion and filled the crock pot to the top with water then let it cook overnight. In the morning, I poured the broth through a strainer into a large bowl and placed it in the refrigerator. Later that day the grease had floated to the top, which I scooped off, then I poured the broth into containers and froze them for later use. I'm never buying store bought broth again, that was so easy!

Now, onto dessert...

Pumpkin Pie (Allergy Free)

Crust:

1 1/2 c. GF all purpose baking flour (I used Bob's Red Mill)

1 tsp. salt

1/2 c. canola oil

2 tbsp. coconut milk

Filling:

2 c. canned pumpkin

1 c. coconut milk

1 tsp. vanilla

3/4 c. brown sugar

1/4 c. cornstarch

1 tsp. dark corn syrup

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground ginger

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. ground cloves

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine flour and salt. In a separate bowl, wisk together oil and milk. Pour wet ingredients into flour mixture. Use a fork to combine into a crumbly mixture. Press crust into a greased 9 inch pie pan. Bake for 15 minutes then remove from oven and set aside.

Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees. Beat together all filling ingredients and pour into baked crust. Bake for 1 hour. Cool at room temperature and refrigerate before serving.

I love love loved this pie! The crust did come out a little thick but I really didn't mind. With Thanksgiving only a couple months away I'm sure I'll be making this one again!

 
As you can tell I couldn't even get a picture of a whole slice because I was too excited to dig in!

What to do with all the zucchini!?

I'm super excited that we're starting to get some produce from our little garden! So far we been able to enjoy green peppers, jalapeno peppers, and lots of yellow squash and zucchini! I found a recipe for zucchini brownies and made a few changes for my diet. Next I want to try these Zucchini Fritters!

Zucchini Brownies 

2 c. GF flour (I use Bob's Red Mill)

1 1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. cocoa powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1/4 c. canola oil

1/4 c. applesauce

2 tsp. vanilla

2 c. shredded zucchini

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 9x13 inch baking pan. Combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt.

Stir in oil, applesauce and vanilla. The batter will still be pretty dry but once you add the zucchini it will moisten up.

Stir in the shredded zucchini.

Smile at a cute chubby kid.

Pour into greased pan and bake for 25-30 minutes. Dig in! You are eating a vegetable after all!

I'd love to hear if you have any other great zucchini recipes!

No new updates really since I last posted. We're just working on being wheat free for another 4-6 weeks then I'll try adding egg back into my diet. Sawyer has been doing great now that we've been back off wheat for a couple weeks. It took a good week for the blood in his stool to completely clear up but we seem to be back on track now!

 

So long wheat....

Yesterday we had a great four month check-up! Sawyer is now 15 lbs. 9 oz.! He's getting to be such a cute chunk, he's got some major thunder thighs going on :) He had to have two shots and one oral immunization which made him gassy and fussy so it was a bit of an off day. On top of that, I think we may have a teether on our hands... he has drool pouring out like a waterfall and he loves to chew on everything! He's just growing up so fast! 

Well, after three wonderful days of bread, it's back out of my diet... On Tuesday, I saw a tiny speck of blood in his stool, then more on Wednesday. Thursday when he had his next poop, it had even more. Poor little guy! I called the gastroenterologist and told him what happened and he said to eliminate wheat for 6-8 weeks then move onto the next food group which is egg. It's kind of like starting over but this time I can have fish and nuts! I figure I've done this diet for two months, so whats a few more :) Thankfully there are so many gluten-free options available now. I hope this is just an allergy that he outgrows quickly! 

So I've had this recipe typed up for a while but just haven't posted it yet. It's a super yummy beans and rice recipe that I made when I was low on groceries and looking for a quick dinner fix!

Black Beans and Rice

4 tsp. olive oil

1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
5-6 cloves garlic, minced
2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can diced tomatoes

1 1/2 c. chicken broth

3/4 tsp. thyme

1 bay leaf

1/2 tsp. oregano

Salt and pepper to taste

Saute the pepper, onion and garlic in olive oil until vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes.

Stir in the beans, tomatoes, broth and seasonings.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens. The recipe says it should take about 45 mins. but I simmered mine for close to 2 hours and it really didn't thicken much.

While the beans cooked up I got to use my new rice cooker that my super awesome hubs bought me!

Season with salt and pepper and enjoy!

Pita Bread.... fail....

Since my last update Sawyer did great with the addition of peanuts and tree nuts to my diet! No reactions to fish or nuts so now we move onto BREAD! I've learned a lot about eating healthier through this elimination diet and I've decided to incorporate only whole grains into my diet, no processed junk. But what I found when I went to buy bread at the store was that most breads were made with MILK and SOY! Rrrrr.... until I found the perfect bread at Costco... Aspen Mills Honey Whole Wheat bread. The ingredients are simply whole wheat flour, water, honey, salt and yeast. And boy was is it wonderful to bite into the first piece of bread!  

I was in a bit of a baking mood yesterday so I decided to try out a pita bread recipe I found online. The ingredients were super simple so I figured it couldn't be too hard... or so I thought...

Whole Wheat Pitas

1 pkg yeast

1/2 c. warm water

1 tsp. sugar

3 c. flour (I used whole wheat)

1 1/4 tsp. salt

1 c. lukewarm water

Step 1) Dissolve yeast in 1/2 c. warm water, stir in sugar until dissolved. Let sit for 10-15 mins until frothy.

Step 2) Combine flour and salt. Make a small depression in the flour mixture and pour in yeast water. 

Step 3) Slowly add 1 cup of lukewarm water as you stir the flour mixture.

  

Step 4) Knead dough for about 10 minutes, until smooth and elastic. This is where the mixer comes in handy, just use the dough hook and let the mixer do it's thing!

 

Step 5) Coat a large bowl with oil and place dough in bowl, turn to coat and let rise in a warm place for about 3 hours until doubled in size.  

Step 6) Break dough into 10-12 pieces and roll into balls, let sit covered for 10 minutes and preheat oven to 500 degrees. Lower the rack to the bottom of the oven, preheat baking sheet as well. 

Step 7) Roll each ball into a 5-6 inch circle about 1/4 inch thick. Bake for 4 minutes until the bread puffs up then turn over and bake for an additional 2 minutes. 

Round 1: Fail...

Round 2: Fail... (Well I got one to puff so I guess not a complete fail!)

Round 3: Fail...

Despite the fact that they did not puff, they were still pretty tasty. My guess is that I did not knead the dough long enough, maybe I'll give it another shot someday :) It's feels so great to be making progress on this allergy issue! This week Thursday we go in for Sawyer's four month checkup, four months! I can't believe how time is just flying but I love each new little thing he is learning to do, like reaching for objects and bringing things to his mouth, and giggling, my favorite :) Last night we took a walk around the park and saw this beautiful sunset! And of course I have to throw in a picture of my handsome little man. 

Sweet Pork Salad & Avocado Dressing

So some exciting news! Sawyer rolled over for the first time this past week! On Friday, while he was swaddled in his crib he rolled over so it scared me that he wouldn't be able to roll back over without his arms. And that's when the sleepless weekend began... We've been trying here and there to get him to sleep without being swaddled or with one arm out but it's been pretty unsuccessful. Yesterday was no different. We kept him unswaddled when we put him down on Saturday night and he woke up twice in the middle of the night and once I just ended up feeding him just to get him to calm down. All day he just cried in his crib every time we laid him down and would not sleep! We tried the swing, the vibrating rocking chair, rocking him to sleep, walking and bouncing him.... Finally after dinner we just gave in and swaddled him and he was out! After doing some reading on the Baby Center website, I was finding other moms who had the same problem but many just decided to continue swaddling because the baby's moro/startle reflex had not gone away yet. That was the light bulb for me! Sawyer still has that reflex and does not have complete control of his arms yet so he just keeps waking himself up by flailing his arms. It worries me a little to swaddle him while he can roll over but usually once he's asleep he stays asleep and doesn't roll around unless he's awake or trying to fall asleep. I've just kept a good eye on him until he's asleep and I'll just keep doing that until we can start working on sleeping unswaddled again.

So, the moral of the story is, it's all about trial and error and it's ok to not know what to do all the time. I wish I could have avoided all those missed naps and sleepless nights over the past few days. I've recently found myself in this trap of getting down on myself up for silly mistakes I've made. But in giving this frustration to God, He reminded me that I've never been a mom and I've done the best I can with what I know. Brent and I joke that the next one has GOT to be easier!    

I'm so proud of my little roller! He is really doing amazing and has seemed to survive Mom & Dad's mistakes pretty well!

So crazy Sunday got much better after 1) Sawyer fell asleep and 2) we had this yummy sweet pork salad for dinner! If you've been to Cafe Rio, it's sort of like their sweet pork, but has a little different flavor. We use the sweet pork for tacos too sometimes but I found this avocado dressing from Allrecipes.com that I wanted to try out. It turned out sooooooo good! I had a plate-full and then went back for more! But it's salad right.....? Hope you enjoy this salad as much as I did!

Slow Cooker Sweet Pork

3 lbs. pork shoulder roast

1 can soda (root beer, coke or dr. pepper are best)

2 c. salsa

2 c. brown sugar (or less if you don't want it as sweet)

2 tbsp. taco seasoning (or about 1 packet)

7oz. can diced green chilies

Place pork in slow cooker and pour in soda. Combine the salsa, brown sugar, taco seasoning and chilies in a blender or food processor and blend/process until smooth. Pour salsa puree over pork and cook on low for 8 hours. (I like to shred the pork at about 7 hours and then let it sit in the juices for another hour to soak up more flavor.)  

Avocado Dressing

1/3 c. olive oil

1 clove garlic

3/4 c. cilantro (I didn't use the cilantro)

2 avocados, peeled, pits removed, cut into chunks

1 cucumber, peeled and cut into chunks

1 lemon juiced

salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend/process until pureed.

I used my magic bullet which worked well to puree the dressing. It turns out a pretty green color and was just the texture I was looking for to satisfy my craving for a ranch-like dressing!

Here's a picture of Brent's salad because I dug into mine too fast to even snap a picture!

Oh and we also used the first green pepper and tomato from our garden! They were super tiny but tasted great! I'm surprised by how much better food from the garden tastes than food from the store!

Oh Glorious Peanut Butter!

Our appointment with the gastroenterologist yesterday went great! He was very helpful and very thorough in explaining more about food allergies in children. One concern that I had was his stools are still pretty mucousy but he said that is all part of the healing process. Once the blood is gone, you'll see mucous and then finally a normal stool. It was great to hear that Sawyer is on the mend! And more exciting news was that he recommended I start slowly adding some foods back into my diet!

The doctor gave me an order to add foods, first starting with fish and shellfish. Well, I'm not a big fish fan and I haven't had any fish, except tilapia which is one type that is fine to eat on the elimination diet. So I made the executive decision to skip to the next food group, peanuts and tree nut. Let me just tell you, I have REALLY missed peanut butter! It has always been a staple in my diet; peanut butter and crackers or celery for a quick snack is my favorite! So you can image the joy I felt as I dug into this delicious plate full of celery and peanut butter, oh my... 

    

I will be adding peanuts and tree nuts to my diet for two weeks and monitoring any changes in his stool then hopefully work my way to the next food group. The doctor said most allergies he deals with in children end up being a dairy allergy. We'll see what happens as we work through the list! 

Sawyer's second little buddy, Abel entered the world yesterday! Here's a picture of the two little guys and the mamas when we went to visit them last night. 

Great news!

So for about four or five days now Sawyer has had no blood in his stool! Praise God! I've been waiting for this day for 6 weeks! Also, I got a call from the children's hospital and an appointment opened up tomorrow for the gastroenterologist so I'm looking forward to getting some advice on how and when to start adding foods back into my diet. I'm still a little concerned that he still has a lot of mucous in his stool, so I'm thinking it could either be another food allergen or that his intestines still need time to heal. It makes me so excited though that at least the blood is gone so there is some healing going on! I also got a call from the pediatrician this morning saying that the results from the stool sample they tested were negative. I have no idea what the name of the bacteria was that they tested for, but thankfully we can rule it out! 


We went to visit Sawyer's new little buddy, Johnathan today! Here's the two kiddos hanging out earlier. I can't believe Sawyer was that little three months ago! Really, just crazy how fast they grow... 

Oh and one more thing, I found this great deal on Bob's Red Mill gluten-free all purpose flour on Amazon for $3.06 each (with subscribe & save). Well at least I think it's a great deal from what I've seen so far! I used it to make some allergy-free banana bread the other night and it worked great. Much better than the brown rice flour experiment with the lemon cake.