Blue Pancakes

At the moment, I am pulling my hair out attempting to cater to the health and nutrition needs of 3 children with differing allergies and sensitivities.

 While wandering through the library, I stumbled upon a wonderful cookbook called “Allergy Proof Recipes for Kids”. I fell in love! The recipes in this book are simple, delicious, and relatively cheap to make – a combination that was a big tick in my book!

 

One of the recipes I found was for pancakes that were healthier than your everyday flour, milk and egg pancakes. Nervously, I gave them a go.

 

Brilliant!

They were soft, moist and – most importantly – did not have the consistency of rubber!

Blue Pancakes

½ cup blueberries or blackberries
1 cup white or brown rice flour
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
¼ cup flaxmeal (optional)
¾ cup alternative milk beverage
2 Tbsp oil
2 cups applesauce

1. In a food processor, combine all the ingredients. Process until smooth.
2. Pour 2 Tbsp batter into a hot non-stick pan, spreading the batter thinly around the bottom to make a hotcake.
3. When the purple batter begins to turn blue, flip and cook on the other side. Remove the finished pancake and repeat until all the batter is used up.

Pancakes can be frozen by placing waxed baking paper between each pancake and storing in a resealable plastic bag for up to 2 weeks. To reheat, microwave them at 30 second intervals.

 

Yield: approx. 10-15 pancakes.

 

Enjoy! They are delicious!

 

Frugal Baby Play

Today I'm feeling tired.

And a tired mummy is not a very creative mummy.

So to keep Mr T busy and stimulated, I came up with an activity that taught lots of skills, cost nothing, and kept him entertained for a VERY long time!

All I needed was a ball and a bowl.

My goal was for him to explore the sound of the ball rolling around in the bowl. Boy was I wrong! Mr T was not particularly impressed with my plan of events. He picked up the balls one at a time and threw them away, then turned the bowl upside down.

 

Mummy fail.

Until I had a brilliant idea. Why not hide the balls UNDERNEATH the bowl???

Bingo!

After showing him where the balls were and how to lift the bowl up, I stepped back and let him create his own learning.

I almost needed popcorn. The entertainment was priceless.

First, Mr T circled the bowl, pushing it around and growling when he was unable to flip it over.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next he tried banging on it.

He then spent almost 5 minutes pushing the bowl backwards and forwards, enjoying the sound of the ball hitting the bowl.

 

 

And repeat. Many times.

Eventually he just sat back and gave me this look....

 

 

So before you think that you need high tech, expensive toys to keep your little one entertained....look no further than your kitchen!

 

 

What items from around the home does your little one like to play with?

Beetroot Chocolate Tea Cake

In my quest to ensure my allergy kids get their daily doses of fruit and veg, I came across the idea of using vegetables in cakes.

Sounds weird, right???

I was sceptical too.

Until I tried this recipe. It creates a moist, rich tea cake that melts in the mouth. Not that my kids noticed that. Al that they cared about was that it was chocolate, and paint. Full stop.

Beetroot and Chocolate Tea Loaf

1 cup of white flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup of unsealed butter or dairy-free margarine, melted

1/2 cup of white sugar

1/2 cup of brown sugar

2 tsp of egg replacement

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 Tbspn white vinegar

1 drained tin of beetroot, finely chopped in food processor

1. Turn the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease the loaf tin and lightly dust with flour.
2. Sift the flour, BP, cocoa powder, BS, and salt into a bowl.
3. Melt butter or dairy alternative and pour into a separate bowl. Mix sugar, egg replacement and vanilla into the butter, whisking until it forms a creamy mixture.
4. Add white vinegar to the dry ingredients, followed by the butter mixture and the processed beetroot.
5. Gently fold together until the batter is fully mixed.
6. Pour into the prepared loaf tin and bake for 38-40 min.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Dairy-free Alfredo Sauce

We eat a lot of pasta. Its what the kids will eat so we all eat it. Its cheap, tasty and so versatile that we can adapt it easily to an allergy-friendly dish.

 

The problem isn't pasta. Its the sauce. Cupcake has been allergic to tomatoes since she was young. When I say she's allergic to tomatoes, I mean that she is allergic to the pesticides used ON the tomatoes.

 

Needless to say, she is afraid to eat tomatoes, tomato sauce or anything resembling a tomato.

 

But dry pasta is soooooo boring.

 

Enter: dairy free alfredo sauce.

 

 

Our local green grocer currently has enormous cauliflower for only 79c each!! When I say enormous, they're bigger than my head!

 

Dairy-free Alfredo Sauce

 

Ingredients:

• 1 large cauliflower or 2 smaller cauliflowers
• 1 carton of alpro soy cream or milk alternative
• 1 tsp minced garlic or 2 garlic cloves
• salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1. Roughly chop cauliflower and place in large saucepan along with garlic, salt and pepper.
2. Fill saucepan with water to 2cm depth and boil cauliflower until soft.
3. Let cool on the stovetop.
4. When the cauliflower has cooled, place in a blender or food processer along with soy cream, and blend until silky smooth. This took me approximately 3 minutes.
5. Store in freezer-safe containers for up to 3 months in the freezer or 3-5 days in the refridgerator.

 

There you have it! Nice and easy, and tastes almost the same as alfredo sauce containing dairy - and much better for you!

Dinosaur Eggs for Dinner

Here is the recipe for dinosaur eggs that I mentioned in the post "Frugal Friday - Family Fun for Cents". I'm sure they have a more adult name, but for the purpose of getting the children to eat them, we called them dinosaur eggs.

Dinosaur Eggs

Ingredients

• 250g premium beef mince
• one onion, pureed
• 2 icecubes pureed carrot
• 2 icecubes pureed courgette
• 1/4 c breadcrumbs
• 2 Tbspn oil
• 1/2 tsp oregano, dried
• 2c flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 25g butter
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Water, to mix
• Bought pasta sauce

Method
Using your hands, mix mince, breadcrumbs and puree's together. Form into small balls and put aside.

Melt the butter in a microwave safe dish. Sift flour, salt and baking powder together into a seperate bowl. Add oregano and butter. Using a breadknife, mix until forms a loose crumb.

Add water and knead until forms a scone dough.

Divide the dough into the desired quantities, making sure there will be enough to wrap around a meatball. Roll into balls and flattened until at least 10-15cm diameter.

Place one teaspoon of pasta sauce and one meatball on the centre of each scone disc.

Wrap the dough around the meatball and sauce, sealing on one side of the ball.

Place on baking tray and bake for 15-20 minutes at 180 degrees celcius or until lightly browned.

Serve and enjoy!

Frugal Friday - Family Fun on for Cents!

This week, Opa took Tinkerbell to the Bach for a sleepover. It was special time away from Cupcake, who, often through her natural exuberance, tends to steal the show.

To give Cupcake a little special Mummy and Daddy time, we decided to have a fun dinosaur themed night, based on the recent release "Dino Time".

This was $1 from the local Video Ezy on weekly hire.

 



I then had a look through my time-wasting friend, Pinterest, for dinosaur themed party ideas. Nothing was really sticking out, given we had a budget of....well....nothing. So I decided to get creative!

 

I decided, that since dinosaurs are green, I would make some green jelly and sprinkle some chocolate sprinkles on the top once it had set. Cupcake called it her "Dino Jelly". Then I made some meatballs wrapped in scone (biscuit for you Americans!) mixture and named them "Dino eggs". Add some watered down lime juice, and you have......

 

 

And look at the smile on her face!

 

All these things were made with items from in the pantry and freezer, so the cost of the entire evening was $1, time and lots of love.



Baby Discovery Bottle

This week, I have been teaching Toto about the concept 'in/out'.

 

To do this, I made a simple toy with items from around the house.

 

All you need is an empty milk bottle, scissors, and items to put in the bottle.

 

 

Firstly, I showed Toto where the toys were. Then I let him explore.

 

 

Following that, I showed him how to put the toys into the hole in the top of the bottle.

He struggled a little bit more with this concept - more with the co-ordination than with putting it into the hole. To help him, I guided his hand to the hole and he would let go of the toy. After a few times, he was able to do this alone.

 

 

After that, I let him play by himself. He enjoyed turning the bottle around and re-finding the holes to take the toys out and put them in another area.

 

Toto was able to extend himself further by taking toys out of the bottle, turning to a nearby basket, and depositing the toy into the basket, then returning to the discovery bottle and repeating the exercise.

 

What an entertaining half hour we had!

Counting Clouds

During the past week, we have been learning about weather (espeically clouds).

 

For maths, the children enjoyed this activity the most.

 

Again, to ensure total focus, I ensured that the materials were all available and organised in containers for ease of use.

 

There were a lot of skills that the children learnt in this activity, from fine motor skills, to number, and basic school readiness skills such as using the correct amount of glue.

 

Cupcake

 

• Is already able to recognise numbers 1-10 and count one-to-one up to 10.
• Needs to learn how to use runny glue (PVA) and show restraint with materials
• Struggles to show focus and follow instructions. This will be the lesson focus for her.

 

• She was able to use restraint with the glue up until the last two numbers.
• Because she enjoyed the activity, her focus was excellent again, up until the last two numbers.

 

Tinkerbell

 

• Can rote count (using her memory) up to 6.
• Is beginning to count 1 and 2 items.
• Needs to develop one-to-one counting up to 4.

 

• To take the focus off school readiness skills, I squeezed the correct number of glue dots onto her page.
• She was able to count (with assistance) each cloud as she put it on the glue dots.

This activity was a great success. The girls both wanted to put their cloud pictures up on the wall to show Daddy when he got home. This is also teaching them to take pride in their work.

Book-making - Part 1

My girls love books. They love to read books. They love to make books.

I have lately found that Cupcake is struggling to cope with boredom when at home. This struggle is usually expressed through misbehaviour. So I decided to teach her some sight words and challenge her in an area she seems to excel - reading and languages.

Firstly, I chose four sight words for her to use from the Ready to Read series taught in New Zealand schools. The sight words were from the Emergent/Red level books and were words most likely to be used by Cupcake in everyday life.

like                     it                       the                      I

 

I then thought about what Cupcake liked that I could apply to colours. At the moment her passion is eating apples. She would eat them all day if she could. So "apples" was the chosen theme. Its important when teaching children to make the learning relevent to them. If they do not see a reason for the learning, they often put less effort into their learning. It must be real to them and contextual.

 

Thirdly, I needed to make it easy so that I would not turn her off learning. I did this by typing the words and printing them out. They were then sorted into a partitioned plate. If the activity contains not enough challenge, or too much challenge, a young child is less likely to take risks with his or her learning.

 

Lastly, I needed to make it her own. To do this, I taught her how to draw a simple apple and helped her to colour it in.

 

Here she is writing her first sight word book:

 

 

Everything was prepared and ready to use. If you are fumbling around for materials, younger learners are more likely to 'tune out' and lose interest in the learning activity.

 

She loves her new book so much, that she chooses to read it at least once a week during our bedtime routine. She is now reading it - not just to me - but to her siblings.

 

Success!

Quiet Time Workstations

Every day, at approximately 10am, Toto has a sleep. Not a nap. A sleep. 2.5 hours of bliss spent in the land of Nodd.

 

Except for when the girls are home.

 

Then, he wants to join in the fun. And the noise. And there is usually a lot of it!!

 

One day I was struggling with this (and a very overtired, grumpy 8 month old baby) when I came across a solution.

 

Workstations.

 

I talked with the girls and discussed their favourite quiet-time activities. Then we picked three, and set up a 60 minute rotation. The children had 20 minutes per activity, with special mummy time doing each one to keep them ontask.

 

Here they are:

 

Laminated Playdough Mats

 

 

Colouring Station



 

Puzzles

 

 

 

What quiet time activities do you do with your children?

Allergy Alert

Where to start????

 

We have had a crazy fortnight with the children. We took Toto to the doctor to find out where to begin looking at intolerances and allergies, and were referred to the same specialist Cupcake has been seeing at the Specialist Centre in St Heliars Bay.

 

Pretty straightforward, right? Ring the specialists, make an appointment, wait for the appointment, attend the appointment and get some answers. Right?

 

A few days later, Plunket visits to look at Toto and asks what weight Tinkerbell currently is. The children all started to plateau in their growth at approximately 9 months so we look at her old growth charts to get a view on what to expect for him. Hang on a second, you said she was 11.4kg?? But last time we weighed her 5 months ago she was 11.9kg. Oh dear....

 

Another doctors appointment made (happening tomorrow).

 

To make a long story short, we visited the specialist for Toto and certainly got some answers.

 

Toto

 

 

Toto is officially intolerant to oatmeal. Because his reactions are delayed and a skin prick test came back completely negative, the specialist does not think there will be allergies. He has a 7% chance of having the same allergies as Cupcake. So the way that we will go forward is to give him a piece of bread (causes eczema around Toto's mouth within the hour) every day. Hopefully that will help him become more tolerant of wheat/gluten. We are to avoid oats and start introducing him to egg, peanut butter and other high allergen food ASAP as per latest research findings.

 

 

Tinkerbell

 

 

Upon being asked whether Tinkerbell had shown any allergies, we mentioned the really horrible nappies she has experienced since having a 6 week bout of runny tummy when she was 15 months old. And the important fact that she also experiences this after consuming even small amounts of milk. The specialist confirmed that this could be her body having a learned lactose intolerance from that bout of sickness. But. Big but. I hate big buts. A lot of her symptoms are also signs of celiacs disease so we are to ask to have her skin prick tested, RAST tested, and also screened for celiacs. In the meantime? Take her off milk immediately. See if that helps. And get to the doctor.

 

 

Cupcake

 

 

So how is Cupcake going? I asked if I could please have the email of the immunologist who we saw at Starship Hospital. Why, can I help you, she asked? So I explained the long doses of antibiotics we've had her on and the struggle to keep her staph infections at bay. Apparently it shouldn't be returning so quickly. Really?? So we need to get her nose swabbed to figure out if THAT is what is causing the infection to continue. Certainly the easiest outcome.

 

 

Wow. A lot of things to get through in my busy little mind!

 

Can you see why things have been so quiet lately!!

 

Look out, dear readers, as I've got a lot to catch you up on what we've been doing!!

Ways to Stay Sane in a Crazy World

When I was planning my week on Sunday, I had a specific list of blog topics that I wanted to cover and what day I was to write them. Nothing could be simpler, I thought. Wow, was I wrong. I had it all planned. Todays blog would be about authors that my children enjoyed reading. A nice, light, educational post with a strictly PG rating.

And then it happened.

The crash.

A little background information

When I am pregnant I am sick. Not just throw up once or twice sick, but on medication sick. In hospital sick. Miserable sick. My hormones are in overload, which creates hyperemesis, an unusual and debilitating form of morning sickness. Nothing I eat stays down for nine months. The only way to get nutrition to both me and the baby is to take a colourful cocktail of drugs to suppress the nausea and allow me to keep at least half of the food I eat.

As if that isn't enough, the influx of hormones creates what I not-so-fondly refer to as my "black cloud". During pregnancy I suffer from antenatal depression. Coping becomes a daily struggle. Getting up is (some days) like climbing Mount Everest. I become tired, isolated and extremely down.

Usually this depression disappears on the birth of the baby. But not this time. This time I was so determined to cope. Not only cope, but to be a super mum. Not just ANY super mum, but THE super mum that other mums look at and think, "wow, she has 3 young kids and she can do it!".

But it didn't work out like that.

After 4 years of battling with depression and anxiety, postnatal depression finally got me. That or it was a combo attack of the depression and my performance anxiety as a mother.

But after 5 months of struggling, I finally managed to claw my way out from under this new "black cloud" and reappear in the world of the living again. I attended Church. Visted friends. Went to play groups.

The Struggle

This isn't usually something I am forthcoming about. I'm happy to let people know that I do suffer from "anxiety" (the stigma of the word "depression" brings too many judgemental stares and uncomfortable silences). But to tell people that I have a daily struggle to enjoy my husband, my children, my home, my life, is hard.

Harder still has been trying to tell myself that this won't last forever.

And so to today's post.

I know there are other people out there. Other people struggling daily to cope, to enjoy, to live. So I've decided to share my strategies to staying sane in this crazy world.

Ways to Stay Sane in a Crazy World

• Have a code word. For example, ours is "Push the button, Max!" If my darling hubby says that, then I know that I've entered an anxiety zone and need to do something to reset myself. It has to be something that he can say in public and not appear like a total loony (or make me to appear like one!). Something instantly recognisable.
• Go for a walk. If your children are with you, go to the park and just enjoy them. If you can, go for a walk in the morning sunshine, and think about the glory of God's creation as you pass flowers, letterboxes, trees, and people.
• Have a cuppa and read a magazine. It only needs to be for 10 minutes. Just enough to break the cycle.
• Ring a friend. Sometimes all you need is to know someone is there.
• Bundle the kids in the car and go window shopping. I usually buy them something special to bribe them with or keep them interested. All it needs to be is a $2 shop item. Go and dream. Look at gardening items, clothes, food, housewear. Whatever you like to dream about.
• Do some exercise. I get out to the gym without the kids when hubby gets home. Its just a break from your own four walls.
• Take a long bath (or a shower). Feel the water surround you. Flowing over you and taking your troubles and thoughts away with it.
• If a specific task is causing anxiety, complete it. Sometimes thats all it takes!
• Collect scriptures you can read when you are feeling depressed/anxious. I have mine in my bedroom. I can pull them off the wall and walk around the house praying and declaring their promises aloud. You are a child of God. He doesn't say you can have the things he's promised if you're a good girl. He says you have them because He loves you. Claim them.
• Turn on some inspirational music. If you fill your life with negative things that breed discontent and depression, you will feel discontented and depressed. Make a concious effort to put on music that makes you sing or dance. Perhaps worship. I have a collection of music from when I was a teenager that I just have to listen to to start tapping away. It instantly lifts my spirits.
• Get outside. Whether it is to pull weeds, hang washing, go for a short walk, whatever. Get out into the sunshine.
• Do something you can feel good about. Something creative. Make a card. Bake a cake. Anything that makes you feel like you've achieved something.
• Pick some flowers. If you don't have a flower garden (we don't!!), perhaps ask the next door neighbour if you could pick a few of theirs. Display them somewhere you often look.

Well, there are my coping strategies. I hope they've helped. Perhaps you could help others by sharing some of yours in the comments section!

Exploration Baskets

What is Heuristic Play?

 

Heuristic play is a term that was introduced in the 1980s by child psychologist Elinor Goldshmeid. In a nutshell, it allows babies and toddlers to explore the properties of a range of objects in everyday life. The objects are from real life (not the plasticy purpose-designed toys we buy from shops).

 

Heuristic play allows children to engage all of their senses in a rich learning activity. They are able to make decisions about what object to explore further,

 

I'm a big believer in Heuristic play through treasure baskets and sensory bins. Up until now, I've not given Toto organised playtime, just allowing him to explore the world around him as he learns to move around the house. But now it is time. I'm secretly jiggling with excitement!

 

Here is Toto looking through his first exploration basket:

 

 

What is the Adult's Role in Explorative Play?

The role of the adult is to give their full attention to the baby during this playtime. You are there to extend them if necessary, but primarily remain as unobtrusive as possible. An exploration basket should never be available 24/7, as this does not encourage baby to fully engage in the activity. I like to bring the exploration basket out 2-3 times a week for no more than 15 or 20 minutes at a time. This means that baby will not bore of the objects in the basket, and are given free time to explore at their own speed.

 

What Baby Learns

make choices

how objects feel, taste, sound like, and look like

develop concentration/attention span

how to pick up / move an object

developing fine motor skills

strengthening hand muscle tone

object manipulation - pushing, pulling, up/down, in/out, scrunching, tapping, shaking, etc

and lots more......



 

What Objects Can I Use?

Paper/cardboard - egg cartons, boxes, books

Metal - large screws, measuring cups, teaspoons, curtain ring, tea strainer, whisk,

bells, small bowl, jar lids

Textile/Fabric - cloth book, small teddy, leather, knitted toy, ball of wool, bags of herbs/lavender,

ribbons, feathers, carpet pieces

Natural Objects - pinecones, raffia, wooden blocks, wooden spoon, flower, driftwood,

loofah, large stones, sheepskin, wooden beads, rope, coconut shell, etc

 

And many more!!

 

How do I Organise Them?

You can put them in the basket/bowl according to type of material or choose a theme. This week, our theme is "kitchen objects" so Toto is exploring teaspoons (metal and plastic), whisks, measuring cups, rubber pastry brush, cardboard boxes, etc.

 

What do you think you could use?

Winter woes

This week has just been one of "those" weeks. We started off with S having a little bit of a fever and a cold, and ended up with 3 sick children and a sick Mummy - all with the same virus! Cupcake had developed a chesty cough, fever and wheeze. She then gave it to Toto, who decided not to do things in halves and has developed his fourth bout of bronchiolitis in less than four months!!

So not a lot has been done in this household.

And all of a sudden it is Monday again.

Wow.

Doesn't time pass quickly!

To celebrate the end of the week (and try keep Cupcake quiet as she is on a prednisone high) we decided to introduce....

Family Fun Night!

The girls are quite enamoured of my monster totes and monster pencil cases that I have been making. So we decided to have a monster themed family fun night. It was quick, cheap and easy. Perfect for a Mummy who had been stuck inside all week with sick kids. And more importantly, it was a change!

Introducing....

 

The food!

Its not very clear here, but we had green(ish) coloured popcorn.

 

 

My attempt at making Mike Wazowski cupcakes

 



The movie snuggletime!

 

Pillows on the floor and a blanket to snuggle under with Daddy (Mummy was cuddling a crying baby during the entire movie)

 

 

This is what Toto did while we watched movies (when he wasn't cuddling Mummy and crying)

 

 

The Craft!

 

We found a picture of "Boo" from the movie, cut out her face and stuck a picture of each family  member underneath, so that it looked like the girls' were in the monster outfit. Picture was a colouring page from google images.

 

 

 

  

A frugal, fun success!