summer fun

oh my word, the days are just flying by.

it's not that we are even that busy, but i guess being a family of six is just that... busy when you aren't even trying!

it's been hot here. not as crazy hot as it was two weeks ago, but hot enough that the only thing i want to do is take the kids to the pool and swim! and that's just what we do most days. ben has been working hard to learn how to swim without floaties this summer.

my little fishies...









we still try to fit in treat tuesdays, watercolor wednesdays, and craft thursdays. sometimes they don't happen on the right day, and obviously i don;t always blog about it, but we are still spending time together doing things that are meaningful and important to the kids.

last tuesday we made peach cobbler using peaches from a friend's tree. i think i want a peach tree. my neighbors have one and the peaches right off the tree... amazing! so delicious. now they have nectarines that look just about ripe and i'm crossing my fingers that some of the branches grow about an inch more so they are on our side of the fence. i love nectarines even more than peaches!


peaches cut with skin removed


i love that my kids enjoy helping out in the kitchen


he's the only kid that didn't get kicked out of the kitchen though!


bubbling peaches in a pot


 prepping the baking dish


spreading the dough over the top


happy helper


fresh from the oven


served with a scoop of vanilla coconut bliss


ready to dig in!

this recipe and many other tasty gluten free treats and recipes can be found at gluten free goddess.

Gluten-Free Peach Cobbler Recipe

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Lightly grease an 8x8-inch baking dish or two large/four small individual gratin dishes.

Ingredients:

About 4 cups of sliced ripe peaches (peeled)
2 tablespoons organic light brown sugar or use raw agave nectar
2 teaspoons tapioca starch

Begin with the peaches:

Pour the sliced peaches into a pot and stir in the light brown sugar and tapioca starch till coated. Heat over medium heat until the peaches start to bubble a little around the edges. Turn the heat to low and cook for eight to ten minutes. This gives the peaches a head start in the baking department.

Meanwhile whisk together:

1 cup sorghum flour (also known as jowar flour) or brown rice flour
1/2 cup almond meal (also known as almond flour)
1/2 cup tapioca starch
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum
1/2 cup organic cane sugar
1/2 teaspoon bourbon vanilla extract


Beat in:

6 tablespoons of light olive oil or melted vegan butter spread
1 egg replacer (I used Ener-G Egg Replacer)
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups unsweetened So Delicious Coconut Milk, or hemp, almond, or rice milk

The biscuit dough will come together quickly- don't beat it to death. Just till smooth. It should be a wee bit sticky (not too wet and not too dry) like a biscuit dough/batter.

Instructions:

Spoon the hot peaches into the prepared baking dish.

Plop spoonfuls of the biscuit dough on top of the peaches.

Sprinkle with a little dusting of organic cane sugar.

Bake in the center of a preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, until the juices are bubbling, and the biscuit topping is golden brown and baked through. Cool for five to ten minutes before serving.

Serve warm.

Makes four servings.

Read more: http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2010/08/gluten-free-peach-cobbler.html#ixzz2Z9lGAdMR

 the topping tasted like a muffin. it really puffed up and took over. we ran out of peaches way before we ran out of topping. most of us liked this best warm with ice cream. i would love to try the peach crisp she has posted, too.

see, i need a peach tree. :)

treat tuesday #2, 2013 GF series

today's treat comes from danielle at against all grain.

when i think of summer, one of the things that pops into my mind is strawberries. juicy, sweet, delicious strawberries.


when i saw these strawberry shortcake cupcakes on pinterest my mouth watered and i knew it would be one of the first things i was going to make. i ate so many strawberries when i was pregnant with taylor that i developed a rash up and down my arms. my children share my love of strawberries, especially miss natalie. they also happen to love cupcakes, so this recipe was sure to be a big hit.

my benny beans helped me make today's treat. it was actually super simple. in fact, all you need are your ingredients and...

a blender!

a sweet little helper is optional, but highly recommended!







and wa-la! the batter is ready to be poured into muffin tins and baked.

i'd like to note that this recipe says it will make a dozen cupcakes and i only made a single batch, but got 18 cupcakes. i also filled my cups more than the recipe said to. i likely made a measurement error with the almond meal, but the cupcakes were delicious the way they were. when i make these again, i will be curious to see how many i make.



once our cupcakes cooled, we topped them off with italian meringue. this my first attempt at making italian meringue. i followed the recipe from against all grain, using honey in place of sugar.





 

honestly, the meringue was not a huge hit at our house. it had a very strong honey taste, and we love honey, but maybe it didn't quite go with the cupcakes? i am anxious to make it again with sugar. the texture and consistency were perfect and those are just about the prettiest cupcakes i have ever made! i definitely need to make it again.

we left the remainder of the cupcakes unfrosted and ate them as muffins. also quite delicious!

Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes

Author: Danielle Walker – Against All Grain

Serves: 1 Dozen

 

Cupcakes Ingredients:

• 2½ cups blanched almond flour
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon sea salt
• ⅔ cup honey
• ⅓ cup coconut oil, melted
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon lemon zest
• ½ cup finely chopped strawberries 

Frosting Ingredients: 

• 2 egg whites, room temperature
• ⅓ cup honey
• ¼ teaspoon lemon juice or vinegar
• 1½ tablespoons strawberry preserves (freshly pureed strawberries will work too)

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Line a standard muffin tin with baking cups.
3. Combine the honey, coconut oil, eggs, lemon juice, vanilla, and lemon zest in the jar of a blender. Puree on medium speed for 20 seconds or until frothy and smooth.
4. Add the dry ingredients and blend on high for 30-45 seconds. The batter should be very smooth and contain no lumps. If needed, scrape down the sides with a spatula and blend again for a few seconds until all of the dry mixture is incorporated.
5. Gently fold the chopped strawberries in by hand. Divide the batter evenly into the muffin tin, filling about ¾ of the way full.
6. Bake for 16-18 minutes, until a toothpick can be inserted into the middle and comes out clean.
7. Let the cupcakes cool completely on the counter before frosting.
8. Frosting
9. Once the cupcakes have cooled, make your Italian meringue.
10. Bring your honey to a boil in a saucepan over medium-high heat.
11. Meanwhile, beat the egg whites and lemon juice until frothy and you can just begin to see trail marks from your beaters. When you lift out the beaters, you should see soft peaks.
12. With the beaters or mixer running, slowly pour in the boiling honey in a steady stream. Continue beating for 6-8 minutes, until the meringue is cool to the touch.
13. Gently fold in the strawberry preserves. Put the frosting into a piping bag for a pretty design, or spread onto cupcakes with a knife.

as i said before, i will be making these again. probably sooner rather than later! :) also, danielle's site turned out to be a goldmine of amazingly scrumptious looking GL recipes. i think i have found a new favorite website to follow!

what's your favorite flavor cupcake?

craft thursday #1: tissue paper luminaries

 i'm back today with another fun summertime activity!

we had some friends over last thursday, which is craft day at this house. the kids were over the moon excited to have someone else to play with and i was very thankful to have another grown-up to talk with for a couple of hours. i know you know what i'm talking about!

like lots of kids, my children love playing on the wii gaming system. i enjoy it, too. but sometimes it seems like that is all my kids want to do. "can i play on the wii?" when that question starts to sound like nails on a chalkboard, the answer is always "NO!" and usually "don't ask me again!"

our summer list, which i will share soon, has lots of fun activities, like craft thursdays, to help mix it up a bit. i'm fine with my kids playing wii as long as that isn't all they are doing.

with our friends over, the kids broke into two teams and had a little healthy wii competition. this game had the kids sitting, standing, jumping, twirling, and all of us were laughing like crazy. it was a lot of fun!



today's craft comes from four flights of fancy.

the link takes you to her "how-to" about making mason jar luminaries. the examples look very similar to my halloween mason jar luminaries, but are made with mod podge and tissue paper, instead of paint. the end result looks very similar when you are using a solid color, as in her examples. what caught my eye, was another picture of a mason jar luminary that i saw using tissue paper and mod podge, only the tissue paper was layered to create a patriotic decoration, so layers of red, white, and blue. you can view those luminaries at for the love of. i think they are beautiful. both links are to blogs that are written by the same person.

i thought creating tissue paper luminaries would be a fun craft to start the summer off with. and once again, i had everything on hand and didn't have to make any extra stops with my rowdy rugrats in tow. (and i mean that with a mama's sincerest love and affection).

we also had some friends join us for this craft and it was easy to pack up the finished luminaries and transport them home. 

to make the luminaries you will need the following:



we used half pint jars with a regular mouth. these were two samples i made to show the kids that you could cover the whole jar or only part of it. i also find i need to do the craft first by myself, so i know how to best guide kids in crafting and i am better equipped to anticipate and help with areas that might be tricky.

 
(not the best picture, sorry)

when i gave the directions to the kids, i made sure to emphasize the two most important rules (after i remembered what they were!):

1. use minimal mod podge--you don't want a drippy, cloudy mess
2. paint the glue only where you immediately need it--basically, paint as you go!

i do not think you can over-emphasize these, because chances are they are going to go in one ear and out the other!

i also modeled how to paint and add tissue paper. my sample jar with red, white, and blue was only half way complete, so i modeled adding to that. just a quick little demo, because i had anxious crafters waiting!



the kiddos were free to make what they wanted. we talked about who they were making this for--was it a gift or for their own house? what colors did they want to use? if it was for someone, did they want to choose colors that person liked or did they want to go with a theme? i really wanted the kids to have fun with their crafting, but to also be intentional with their planning and creating.










(loudon was done so quickly, i didn't get a picture of him!)

in the end everyone made a luminary for themselves. some were a little more intentional with their planning and creating than others. :)

bristol cut out shapes from the tissue paper to make items that represented hobbies her family members have. loudon used only his favorite colors. taylor, zach, and ben just picked different shapes and colors and glued them on. zach covered the jar, taylor and ben left spaces.

no matter, i enjoyed watching the kids working on something other than getting to the next level in a video game!

if you are nervous about putting a candle in these, you could use the battery-operated candles. I saw a photo somewhere of this same type of craft, but they painted the metal lids of the mason jar with acrylic paint and closed the top. inside were battery-operated candles and the result was very pretty... like a stained glass lantern.

what kind of luminary would you make?

watercolor wednesday

this summer we've added a new activity to our calendar. welcome to watercolor wednesday!



i love watercolors. they are so simple to use and easy to clean up. i find that when we watercolor, it's such a stress free activity that i can actually sit down and watercolor with my kids. i call this watercolor therapy, because when we are done, we are all happy and relaxed! well, maybe we are just happy :)

watercolor projects are easy to find. a quick search on pinterest and you will be up to your eyeballs in lovely, fun, color. this was by far the easiest list to make when planning our summer activities.

today's project comes from my favorite blog, where i get most of my ideas and inspiration... whatever. when i saw this on pinterest, i had already bookmarked a different circle painting project, but i liked meg's much better, so we went with it.

it was fairly easy to set up. i only have small sheets of watercolor paper, so i prepped enough paper for the boys to each make two. i used the rim of a half pint mason jar, watered down black acrylic paint, and a paint brush to make the black circles. i just painted and stamped, painted and stamped. i'll admit, i was a little stressed in the beginning... smudged lines, paint splatters, incomplete circles... but it's art and it's all good. soon i was in a groove and enjoying this part of the process.

while the paint circles dried, we made a starbucks run. i may or may not have had paint splatter in my left nostril, unnoticed until after we got home.

the kids were very happy to sit and watercolor.











they like watercoloring as much as i do. in fact, natalie goes a little crazy for the watercolors. the boys were having a (mostly) nice discussion with each other and natalie starts taking my supplies and when i tell her no, those are mine and i point to hers, she demands i give mine to her saying "that's not a good choice mom!" when i don't give in, my sweet two year old called me "stinky." seriously?! i wish i were kidding.




all in all, watercolor wednesday was a hit, it's always fun to see how everyone creates such different pieces, even when the canvas is so similar.


ben's pictures


zach's pictures


taylor's pictures


the girls' pictures


beautiful colors

i hope you will be inspired to add a little color to your life today!

treat tuesday#1, 2013 GF series

our hands are clean and we are ready for some summer treats! this summer my boys wanted to bring back treat tuesdays. who wouldn't, right?!
 
i've read a lot about how the food we put in our bodies can effect us, mentally and physically... short-term and long. i find that it's pretty easy to locate supportive evidence that eating a certain kind of diet can do this or that... pretty much whatever you are hoping to cure or make better, there's a diet out there to make it all better! it can be difficult to sort through fact and fiction, and being that i am not a dietary expert and don't always get the science behind the claims, sometimes i just have to try out something that interests me.

cue this summer's treat tuesdays.

this summer we will be making all things gluten free (GF).

i have been eating gluten free on and off since october and then consistently since march. honestly, i just wanted to see if i felt better for it. i wasn't feeling poorly to begin with, but i was curious to see if i would somehow feel better. i can't say that i feel any different eating a gluten free diet, but i can say that i now feel downright miserable if i eat something with gluten. enough so that i just may be gluten free for life!

i am also curious to see if a gluten free diet will have any impact on the behaviors of my son with ASD and my son who is possibly likely ADHD. having been GF for so many months, my family already gets at least 50% of their meals without gluten. the biggest challenge isn't finding or preparing GF products, it's paying for them (so expensive!) and then there is the convenience factor--eating out GF is especially challenging. try  convincing taylor (autism spectrum disorder) that eating a hamburger without a bun is acceptable, because in his brain, it totally isn't! i can buy GF hamburger buns for home, but when you are out and about and want to spontaneously stop by in-n-out burger, i would be setting myself up for a world class tantrum. no thank you!

so that is the back story on how i came to plan for GF treats this summer... just in case you were wondering!

finally, i am no top-chef. i am handy in the kitchen, but i do not create my own recipes. i scoured pinterest high and low for delicious-looking GF treats. talk about torture during my late night snack-attack hour! i have not previously prepared any of these treats, so i will provide recipes, links to the original sites where they are posted, and provide you will some honest and fair evaluations. let me know if you try something and how you liked it. OR if you have a suggestion for an upcoming treat tuesday, leave a comment and tell us what you would like to see us make!

i hope you enjoy my GF series!

today's treat is not only GF, but dairy free, as well. it's  nothing fancy, but a family favorite. chocolate chip cookies! it also happens to be the only treat i filed away that i had all ingredients on-hand for. no shopping with four kids required. bonus! it comes from michelle at i heart wellness. check out the site for lots of other healthy recipes and more!

Vegan Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/2 cup Brown Rice Flour

1/2 tsp Sea Salt

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Xantham Gum

1/2 cup Grapeseed Oil

1/4 cup Earth Balance Soy-Free Vegan Butter (melted)

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

1/2 cup Maple Syrup

1/2 cup vegan Chocolate Chips (or more!)

Mix dry ingredients in a medium bowl.

In separate bowl, mix all wet ingredients.

Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix well.

If the dough is too crumbly add a bit more melted Earth Balance.

Fold in chocolate chips.

Bake cookies for 11-13 minutes at 350 F.

 

with lots of little helping hands, i like to have everything pre-measured and set up assembly-line style.


natalie is the youngest, so she helped first.


ben helped next. i also plan out the easiest tasks for the youngest helpers. i really try to keep it as clean as possible! i'm not a neat-freak, but we have plenty of other messes all over the house!


zach started adding the wet ingredients. note: we did not use a separate bowl! it worked out just fine this way. he looks very nervous holding the full cup of oil.


i was happy taylor joined in to help. he said "i'll help if i get a sample." ha! taylor is adding the earth balance spread, which is not melted, but at room temp. this also worked out just fine.


watching the kids helping each other melted this mama's heart. just what we needed after a day of what seemed like non-stop bickering, yelling, and throwing things at each other (them, not me!) 


i showed the middles how to make a cookie ball and let them go at it while i cleaned up the dishes.


fresh cookies from the oven. these came out looking just like they did when they went in.


cooling off for that sampling i promised taylor.


zach suggested we flatten the second set, so they'd look more like "real" cookies. hehe!


time for a taste-test! i had already sampled my cookie, to make sure it wasn't still too hot, and as i expected these are quite crumbly, so the kids ate them outside! yummmm!



here is what the kiddos said about these cookies:

taylor: "edible. tastes like a chocolate chip biscuit."
zachary: "a little crumbly, but not too crumbly. i like them the way they are!"
benjamin: "perfect."
natalie: she wanted more, what more can i say?!

taylor's comment sounds a little rude, but it wasn't intended that way. it was important to him that i use the word "edible" in his review, and while you might be thinking that is a criticism, it's totally not coming from my very literal young man, who is just trying to say "you can eat them!" i thought his description about a chocolate chip biscuit was perfect. these are not sweet or chewy cookies and do have a biscuit quality to them. also, he is a huge fan of biscuits, so this is a pretty nice compliment coming from him.

so this week's treat was a hit! if you plan on making these, i suggest you add more than the 1/2 cup of chocolate chips. we used 1 cup. while that seemed like a lot when the boys were making cookie dough balls, i think the warm, gooey chocolate chips are what binds this cookie together! while we haven't tasted them cool, i'm guessing they are best when eaten warm. i am dreaming about a 2nd cookie served with a scoop of my vanilla coconut bliss ice cream tonight after the kids are in bed. mmmm! i also have a little extra dough that i saved for serving as a topping over vanilla ice cream... homemade chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream! since there are no eggs in the batter, this is a safe cookie dough to eat. love that!

now, go make some cookies!