Honey Coconut Curry Chicken

I love curry. Brent not so much. But I squeeze it in our menu once in a great while :) Tonight I made a curry that really I just threw together so this recipe may not have the exact measurements I used but I'll try to come close!

Honey Coconut Curry Chicken 

1-2 tbps. olive oil

1 1/2-2 tbsp. curry

1/2 onion, finely diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 lb. chicken breast, cut into 1/2 in. chunks

1 1/2 c. coconut milk

1 c. canned diced tomatoes, drained

2-3 tbsp. tomato paste 

2-3 tbsp. honey

Heat the oil and curry powder in a large skillet for 2 minutes. Stir in onion and garlic and saute for 1 minute (I actually added a little chicken broth here because I didn't want the onion and garlic to burn from no liquid, again, part of my throw it together-ness). Add chicken and cook about 7-10 minutes. Stir in coconut milk, tomatoes, tomato paste and honey. If you want to thicken your curry like I did just mix 2-3 tbsp. of water with 1 tbsp. of cornstarch and stir into the curry. Simmer about 30 mins. Serve over rice.

I used a different curry recipe as a base but I changed a few things, so if you want the real deal, try this Curried Coconut Chicken recipe instead.  

Egg update: I've had eggs for four days now, no reaction. Hmmmf... well who knows what Sawyer reacted to in the bread but I guess I'll just stay away from Udi's GF bread. I don't want to say I'm completely in the clear, I'll give it two weeks before I'll say for sure he's good with egg.

I got my shipment of cloth diapers last week! Ready or not.... I'm still trying to get the right fit on him because he's peed out the top and sides. His last couple changes have been good so I think I'm getting it! Brent made me this super sweet "clothesline" for drying the diapers. 

Anniversary & Apple Crisp

This past Saturday my husband, Brent, took me out for date night to celebrate our six year anniversary! We had such a great time! I'm so blessed to have this amazing man that God hand-picked just for me as my husband! We went to a restaurant called Tucanos Brazilian Grill. Brent and I usually go twice a year because we signed up for the birthday club and we each get a free meal during the month of our birthdays. They have the most amazing food but I was a little worried about what I could have there. I called ahead to make a reservation and asked if they had any allergy information available. To my surprise everything on their salad bar has a sign indicating any allergy information! Then when we got there we informed our meat servers that I couldn't have dairy or gluten so whenever a certain meat would come around they would let me know if the meat had dairy or gluten. I was very impressed and it made so much easier to just enjoy dinner and not worry about eating something I shouldn't have!

This past Friday I was able to add egg back in my diet but we didn't have much success... On Friday morning I ate a couple slices of Udi's gluten free bread that has egg whites listed as the fourth ingredient and by Friday evening Sawyer had these weird white chunks in his poop and starting spitting up like crazy. I had some again Saturday morning and by mid-day his spit up was literally projecting from his mouth! Poor kiddo! I decided to avoid egg starting Sunday morning and he is doing much better. I feel like I still want to pin down his reaction to egg so I want to try eating just cooked or scrambled eggs in the next couple days and see how he does. 

Last night was our kickoff to Life Group! I'm so excited to be back in community with my brothers and sisters every week to dig into the Word together and just love on each other. Having a little one now makes it more challenging to be in God's Word so I know I need more accountability right now in my life. Even though most of the evening I was attending to the needs of a hungry and fussy baby, I still enjoyed the time I did have hanging out with everyone last night. I brought an allergy free apple crisp that I could eat and it turned out great so I'll share the recipe with you!

Apple Crisp 

10 c. apples, peeled, cored & sliced

1 c. granulated sugar

1 tbsp. flour (I used oat flour which is just ground up rolled oats)

1 tsp. cinnamon (I used 2)

1/2 c. water (should have gone without, or less)

1 c. quick cooking oats (I used rolled oats)

1 c. flour (also used oat flour here)

1 c. packed brown sugar

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 c. butter, melted (I used coconut oil, melted)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine sliced apples, granulated sugar, 1 tbsp. flour, cinnamon and water. Pour into greased 9x13 inch baking dish.
3. Combine oats, flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and coconut oil until crumbly.
4. Bake for 45 minutes or until topping is slightly browned.

Once again, I failed in the picture department but here's a picture before it headed into the oven. Trust me when I say it was beautiful and delicious when it came out!

Getting Sawyer to sleep has been one of those tough things for us and we are slowly learning but this week we had a breakthrough! Sawyer fell asleep unswaddled AND on his belly! Wahoooo!

Baked Salmon & Oatmeal Cookies

Here's a couple great recipes I've made a couple times and though I'd pass along! We had this super simple salmon for dinner on Saturday night. I got the recipe here on Allrecipes.com, seriously my favorite recipe site!  

Baked Salmon

2- 6 oz salmon fillets

2 cloves garlic, minced

6 tbsp. olive oil

1 tbsp. fresh basil, chopped

1 tbps. fresh parsley, chopped

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

1 tbsp. lemon juice

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine the garlic, olive oil, basil, parsley, salt, pepper and lemon juice. Place the salmon fillets (I used one large fillet and had leftovers) in a baking dish and the pour marinade over the fish. Place in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes (I flipped the salmon halfway between my marinating time). Bake for 35-45 minutes until fish easily flakes with fork.

Now the cookie recipe I got from another mom whose son has allergies as well. I was so confused as to what to do before I decided to start the elimination diet and she was so sweet to answer a lot of my questions about how she was working through her son's food allergies. She is also blogging about her experience and shares this same recipe here!

Oatmeal Cookies

3 bananas, mashed

1/3 c. applesauce

2 c. rolled oats

1/2 c. raisins (I used dried cranberries)

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 papaya, cut in small chunks

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients.

The "batter" is difficult to form into a ball so you can either ball up or spoon out the batter onto a greased baking sheet.
 

Bake for 20 minutes, I smashed my cookies down right when they came out so they looked a little more like oatmeal cookies than oatmeal balls.

Store the leftovers in the refrigerator. I found it was easier to store them with parchment paper between each layer of cookies. Also if you heat them up they are much better as leftovers!

Here's my boys getting ready for bed. It's so sweet watching Daddy put Sawyer to bed, they sing songs and cuddle, it's so precious!

Barbecued Meatballs

Getting dinner done last night was a little difficult with everything we had going on but definitely worth it once it was done at 8:30pm! This recipe for barbecued meatballs really wasn't too hard to make and turned out great with my allergy substitutions. As I type this I'm enjoying some of the leftovers for lunch! It's always nice to find a recipe that still tastes good the second day, especially when this recipe made WAY more than I thought! So here ya have it...

 

Barbecued Meatballs

2 tbsp. ground flax seeds

6 tbsp. water

1 lb. ground beef

1 lb. ground pork

1 1/2 c. old fashioned oats

1 1/2 c. rice milk

1 onion, chopped

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. chili powder

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/4 tsp. pepper

Start off by grinding up a handful of flax seeds. I just threw some into my magic bullet and didn't really measure. Scoop out 2 tbsp. of the ground flax seed into a small bowl and mix with the 6 tbsp. of water. The flax and water combination will thicken as you let it sit for a few minutes which acts as an egg replacer. If you can have egg, you can just use two eggs instead of the flax. Store the leftover ground flax in the refrigerator.   

 Next combine the remaining ingredients in a large bowl and pour in the thickened flax (or egg). I also used the magic bullet the puree the onion.

Roll the meat mixture into one inch balls and place on a greased baking sheet. 

Bake the meatballs at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Top with your favorite barbeque sauce, mine is Sweet Baby Rays! You can also throw the meatballs in a bowl and roll them around in barbecue sauce. I thought this looked prettier :) 

I'm excited that next week Friday I get to try EGG! I'm hoping for some success this time around as wheat did not work out for Sawyer a few weeks ago. But little man is doing so well! I keep wondering how big those chunky thighs are going to get!

That's right people, Sawyer is wearing a cloth diaper! A couple friends have let me try a few different types of their cloth diapers to see how I like them and to be honest they really aren't that bad. So here's the scoop on where this crazy cloth diaper idea came from. Sawyer is a poop machine. He can really let 'em rip and most times the poop ends up all over his back, out the sides of his diaper, on my hand, on my face... don't ask. You see, the disposable just ain't cutting it. After two different poops in the cloth, they withheld the Sawyer Poop Test. I'm still researching prices and types of cloth diapers because there are so many different kinds, but we may be on our way to cloth diapering soon!

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!