Gluten Dairy Free Pumpkin Pancakes

Jeff and I arrived home last night after five days away.  As most parents can understand it takes a village to raise children.  We left our kids in very capable hands and off we went for five glorious days to picturesque Prince Edward Island.  One of our main reasons for going to PEI was to visit friends.  We share a milestone year with these friends; Jeff and I attended their wedding 10 years ago, a week before our own wedding.  Since 2006 we've seen each other for a few hours so we all felt it was time.  Long overdue but we all picked up right where we left off.

Our Thanksgiving dinner seemed like it should of been taken out of a Foodie magazine, and every bite was delicious.

 One thing Jeff and I love to do is eat, and vacationing pretty much revolves around our next meal.  The past month I have taken it upon myself to try and  heal my gut (to put it bluntly).  As wonderful as that sounds it has been quite the task, more for my will-power than anything else.  I needed to decide for myself that i couldn't live life anymore not "feeling well" and try to heal my body through food.  I heard it once said, "God won't usually do something for you that you can do yourself".   Yes it may seem harsh but yes I can decide what i eat, and what I put in my body.  Our world is full of amazing produce that we are meant to eat.  The more "whole foods" I eat the more my body craves, it's pretty exciting.

 So needless to say I was little bit skeptical about the timing of the trip and my 180 frame of mind but within 3 days of eating from the healing foods plan I started feeling so much better.  My friend told me about this healing food guide by Dr. Axe; his website is so helpful and has tons of recipes, ideas and helpful information.  This has really helped me figure out which foods trigger my symptoms.  I would encourage you if you are not feeling as good as you think you can,  do yourself a favour and try even a month of clean eating.  Its actually surprising how many things I can eat.  When you cut out the processed foods it allows for creativity to grow.

So this was day two....

 And that was our appetizer.

 Our final night we ate at 21 Breakwater, our friends restaurant and boy was it amazing.  I took a few detours from my plan for this meal but what I found was when it comes to eating it really matters what you do most of the time.  The next morning I was right back on my no dairy, no gluten and back to eating whole foods.

 Mussels.  Enough said.

 Their house burger, which was unlike any burger I've ever tasted; served with the most amazing fries and garlicky mayo.  I hardly had words....and they served it on a tasty gluten free bun.

 They sent us off with the most delicious herb-filled omelette I've every had, what a great send off.  Simple but thoughtfully delicious.

So needless to say the kids were a little happy to see us.  This morning was a great family time and it all started with a healthy breakfast even the kids loved.

We mixed all the wet ingredients together.

We used the gluten free flour we had on hand, next time I would like to try it with coconut flour.

The batter seemed quite thin so we added in a 1/4 cup of oats as well.

The kids waited patiently for their breakfast as they sat and coloured.

Ready to serve, they turned out great. We will definitely be using this recipe again.

I ate these pancakes with raspberries and maple syrup.  Yum!  Now I just need to find more recipes to use of the remaining pumpkin puree!  That's a good "problem" to have.

Autumn is here!

Fall is in the air and with that came a huge milestone. Aubrey started grade 1; our baby girl is growing up.

She did so well. We are proud of our girl.

Another highlight of our week was Jeff's birthday. The kids were so excited. Liam woke up singing happy birthday daddy.

One of our family favourites is the breakfast sandwich. Grilled ham, melted cheese, a runny egg and a perfectly toasted English muffin; yum! We also love the addition of thinly  sliced tomato and spinach leaves.

We celebrated Jeff's birthday at the breakfast hour; including "cupcakes" also known as banana muffins. This is what you do with shift work; improvise! 

Tonight started out a little quieter than usual; just me and Liam. I was cleaning up from our dinner and when I came around the corner I found him like this! He was flipping the pages and giggling to himself. What a sweet heart.

After dinner I whipped up my favourite fall treat; chocolate zucchini muffins.  I went on my own blog to get the recipe; I found that humorous!  I ended up having only 1 cup of shredded zucchini so I added a bit of shredded carrot too.

I baked these at 350F for 40 minutes. 

This is the best recipe I've ever found for chocolate zucchini muffins. I couldn't of even told you there was carrot either. I used one cup of zucchini and 1/2 cup of carrot.

Now to relax; what a week it has been. I am so grateful as I sit and reflect on all the amazing things; some would seem big and some may seem small but I choose to see the miracles in the middle of it all. 

Night!

Perspective!

So life has been a little chaotic for our household; sickness galore.  But perspective is a beautiful thing.  There is always someone who will step up and take your worst day and exchange it for their best day.  I try to keep that in mind when going through tough things.  I try to get my mind off of myself and be a blessing to others especially when times are tough.

Monday started with Liam waking up with a full blown rash after a few days of fever.  Poor little man.  After a few hours I wasn't sure at this point what was wrong with him so I took him to Emerge with an under-the-weather Aubrey in tow.  Before I left the house I put biscuit dough in the fridge and got the crock pot on; with help from Jeff.

 

We were nicely scooted into a holding room of sorts for quarantine.  Not knowing how long we would be there, an hour and forty-five minutes seemed rather quick when the Dr. walked in and looked at Liam.  Within one minute we were told he has hand, foot and mouth. 

With no medicine required but a perscritpion of time, time and more time to heal,  we headed home. Even still I was so thankful for the little things.  A room all to our selves which seemed to be sound-proof;  I don't think people would of enjoyed our sing-a-long as much as we did.  I was also thankful for the parking spot right outside the Emerge door and the parking guy who made sure I wasn't in a "secret" towing zone.   When I got outside with the kids ready to leave, my parents were waiting at my vehicle ready to plug the meter if it needed it.  I felt very blessed and oh so loved.

I walked into a chili smelling house and got the chilled biscuits out of the fridge and into the oven. It was awesome!  WIN!

 

Fast forward to yesterday and I took an incognito Liam to the pharmacy to see what I could do to soothe his rash.  Nothing!  But the pharmacist was oh so sympathetic, compassionate and helpful.  We couldn't just go home empty handed so we picked up some essentials like tart shells and whipping cream!

He seemed to be on the mend momentarily; smiles, rash and all!

Aubrey got home from daycare and she was feeling great so we made home-made pizza (only touch your own please!).

 

While the kids were eating I baked off some tart shells, whipped the cream and added it to some lemon curd I had leftover from my friends wedding cupcakes.  I couldn't possibly throw that out!

After the tart shells cooled I piped them full of lemony cream. 

 

I thought of the bright idea to buckle Liam into his car seat and show him a movie while we drove around the West End giving away tarts.  

Aubrey loves when we go on these deliveries, her smile tells it all. 

 

We got home just in time for bedtime and the kids went down amazing.  Everything was looking up and I went to bed feeling positive.  At 5AM Aubrey woke up with "bumps".  Feeling rather defeated I tucked her into bed with Jeff and headed to my spot as I do most mornings.  I wrote in my journal; "You are good, you are good to me, and you are good at being God....your ways are higher than mine, Thy will be done".  I then opened my First5 App and this was today's devotional.  

 

It was so encouraging and such a confirmation but I was so glad that I didn't let my feelings win and I had already given it to the One that can do something about my anxieties.  It's an amazing thought; He loves my kids even more than I do.

 

 

Wedding cupcakes; lemon meringue cupcakes

So the wedding cupcake process started a few weeks ago. I wanted to do something special for my friend lauras wedding 2.0.  I made cupcakes for her  original wedding back in December when her and Cory had a rather quick wedding to include her ailing father. Since his passing Laura and Cory decided to have a second wedding of sorts to include additional family and friends. 

I decided a few weeks ago I should test out the new recipe I found online before I attempt to make to make 90 cupcakes for the actual reception!

 http://comfortablefood.com/lemon-meringue-cupcakes/

This lemon curd was the easiest curd I've ever made and it was oh so delicious; perfectly tart! Jeff couldn't believe the process and that it didn't require a double boiler. He also couldn't believe I used "real lemon" from the bottle (just to see how it would work). He was dumb-founded thinking his palate had betrayed him since he couldn't tell the curd wasn't made from fresh lemon juice.  For the wedding cupcakes I did end up using juice from fresh lemons but going forward I wouldn't hesitate to use "real lemon" if lemons are $1.29 a piece!

Moment of truth!

Eaten cold or room temperature they sure were delicious. Perfect balance of tart and sweet and the cake had a pound-cake quality about it. I also loved the flavour from the torched meringue. 

I was so excited to make these for the wedding. I made a few adjustments to the recipe from the comments I saw on the website and they were right on point.

I added 1 egg yolk to the lemon curd and followed the directions as stated. I also baked the cupcakes for 30 minutes at 325F. In my muffin tins each recipe made 15 cupcakes and I had leftover curd; which is never a bad thing....trifle anyone?!

So here we were yesterday, the bridesmaids. We had such a fun time together. Once the day actually arrived it was very clear that our friend was having a torn sense of things. Of course she'd give up the whole party just to have her dad back. So we did the only thing we could do and rallied around our friend. We were all there for one reason, to be with our friend. There are some things in life you'll never understand but with compassion and love you can do the "Jesus-thing" and just "be there".

This was the tribute Laura's mom added to her bouquet in honour of her dad. Such a beautiful reminder.

So wedding cupcakes 2.0 turned out great. I would most definitly make these again. I also would use that cake recipe again if I needed a "white" cake recipe. The lemon zest and vanilla added great flavour and the pound cake-like texture is always enjoyable.

Congratulations again Laura and Cory; we love you!

It was so nice that Jeff and I could be at a wedding together (well sort of; I waved to him from the head table!).

This morning this was my view for a good hour and then I headed upstairs for a two hour nap at around 8:30am. I am so thankful for vacation days!