What's Cooking Wednesday | Pancakes & Muffins

This week's What's Cooking Wednesday is brought to you by Steph at The Kat Almanac, in honor of her little boy A's first birthday week!  Be sure to pop over to her blog and give A some birthday love!  

When A eat lunch and dinner, he usually gets some sort of version of what we are having. But for breakfast he has two favorites: pancakes, muffins, and bananas. So in the morning he usually gets either pancakes or a muffin and a banana.

The pancake and muffin recipes are so versatile I wanted to share them here!

Anything pancakes



Pancakes

1 cup quick cooking oatmeal or cream of buckwheat (you can also try Cream of Wheat. Haven’t done it myself but I’m sure it would translate well)
1 1/2 cup milk (I use almond milk)
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 c fruit or veggie puree (I’ve used banana and pumpkin with great success)
1 egg

Method

Make 1 c of your favorite oatmeal using either my instructions or those on the package. Add cinnamon. At the end of cooking, add in fruit or veggie puree. Let it cool about 10 minutes.
Take egg and whisk it in a seperate bowl. Add to mixture and mix well.

Grease a pan or waffle maker and use a 1/4 measuring cup to scoop out the mixture.
Cook on either side and serve it up!

I give A one per morning and this patch will make you plenty of pancakes. I freeze whatever else I’m not using!

Anything muffins

(Image found here.)

Anything muffins (I found the basic recipe here but modified it below)

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1 cup fruit or veggie puree (I used sweet potato or butternut squash. If you want to go the savory route, you can also add lentils, quinoa, or cous cous!)
1/2 applesauce
1/4 milk (I used almond milk)
1 egg

Method

Preheat the oven to 375 deg F (180 deg C).

Mix the oats, whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder and spices together in a bowl.
Add your puree, applesauce, milk and egg and mix together until the ingredients are all completely moistened.

Grease muffin tins (I used mini tins) and bake about 10 minutes.

I set aside what A will eat for the week and freeze whatever I have left over!

Enjoy!

Warning: Rant Ahead

SERIOUSLY, what is the deal with everyone wanting to feed other people's babies?

Maybe this is just a problem we have, but it seems like every time we share food with anyone, they want to feed E things from their plates.  Sometimes without asking.  When she was six months old, my father-in-law tried to give her root beer.  ROOT BEER.  Another time, I had to fish oranges out of her mouth when another relative gave them to her, without my permission and while I was in the restaurant restroom, before E had been exposed to citrus.  Even last week at church, the lady who holds E while I sing in praise band (and who knows of her dairy allergy) tried to give her a butter-soaked biscuit before church.

And maybe I am just being an irrational bee-otch about the whole thing, but this irritates the HELL out of me.  It annoyed me before we knew E had food allergies, and now it really pisses me off... especially because the offenders are almost always people who KNOW she is allergic to dairy and to whom we have repeatedly explained that we have to be hyper-vigilant about what we feed her because dairy is in everything.  It also makes me super paranoid that if I look away for a second, someone will sneak her food that she shouldn't have and she will be sick for days, all because someone thought they knew better than S and me.  

This rant has been bubbling under the surface for awhile now, but was prompted by dinner last night with my in-laws.  Once again, we spent the entire first half of our meal fending off their attempts to feed E random things (chocolate chip cookies, bacon off of FIL's cheeseburger, breaded chicken strips...) and repeatedly explaining that no, she can't have that, it has dairy in it, while they continued to push the issue and with S's mom shooting increasingly less-subtle dirty looks to FIL from across the table.*  Good times!

I seriously don't know why my in-laws (and everyone else) have such an issue with this.  Does E look like she is starving and needs you to feed her?  She has ranked in at least the 90th percentile for weight pretty much her entire life, so I hardly think that is the reason.  Do they think we are just crazy over-protective parents?  (Probably.)  That we are abusing E by denying her chocolate/butter/etc.?  Or that we are doing this just for fun-sies?  I really don't get it.  Even before having E, I would never offer a child food without asking their parent's permission first.

And I'm sure everyone means well, but SERIOUSLY!  Lay off the baby, she is not starving.



* side note:  MIL hates me and frequently shoots FIL dirty looks any time she disapproves of things I do and say.  Oh, and she hasn't spoken to me since before E's birthday party in November.  But that is another story for another post...

Totally freaked out

Last night, I woke up at 2:00 a.m., in the recliner in the living room, holding E (who was sleeping).  I have no memory of getting her from her bed or deciding to bring her into the living room.  And I have NO IDEA when or how we got there. 

I am so super freaked out.  I assume I was sleepwalking, which I have never done before in my life.  But what if I hadn't just come sit in the living room? What if I had tried to do something else and accidentally hurt E?  I can't even let my mind go there because it is too terrifying and upsets me too much.

Has this ever happened to anyone else? Can I do anything to keep it from happening again?  I am so freaked out right now.

What's Cooking Wednesday | Sweet and Spicy Crockpot Chicken

This week's What's Cooking Wednesday is brought to you by Steph at The Kat Almanac.  Enjoy! 

So B likes his root beer. Or I should say he likes fancy root beer. Before I got him a soda stream for Christmas, I used to frequently pick up this Hansen’s Root Beer. I accidentally picked up diet one day. And it tasted like butt. So it sat in the fridge for what feels like forever. Until today. Today I decided was the day to get rid of this pop!

Now I know starting off a recipe with an ingredient that I have previously stated tasted like butt is probably not a good idea. However, trust me. It was good! Just the the right amount of sweet and spicy. And you don’t have to use root beer. Any kind of dark pop would be fine: Coke, Pepsi (if you are into that…. I’m a Coke girl can you tell?), Dr. Pepper would all work fine. Pair it with some grits and zucchini and you are good to go!

Sweet and Spicy Crockpot Chicken

Ingredients

Chicken breasts (use however much you need… if you have too much liquid that’s ok)
2 cans of dark pop (I used root beer)
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp dry mustard
1/2 tbsp cayenne (go easier if you don’t like the spicy)
1 tbsp sesame seed oil

Method

Take your root beer and add it to a crockpot.



Then plop your chicken down in there.

Then comes the spices.



Yes we buy cayenne in bulk. And yes it gets it’s own container. What can I say? The south has definitely rubbed off on us!

Then my secret weapon: sesame seed oil! Seriously if you don’t have this, go out and get it. It adds a really great smokey flavor! I drizzle it directly onto the chicken.



Then cover your crockpot with a really cool cookie sheet. Oh, you have a lid for your cookie sheet and don’t use a cookie sheet? You must be real special.

Just let this hang out for about 4 hours on low and it will cook up perfectly!



This is what happens when you take a cookie sheet lid off: massive amounts of steam!!

When it is done you can either take the whole breast and plate it like so



or you can shred it…. my favorite vehicle for chicken! And in the background you can see B’s favorite method: a taco! Yes friends, feel free to toss it in a taco!



Enjoy!

 

Teething, Dairy, and Sleep Plan: Day 17

E has had quite an eventful 24 hours.

We've discovered a possible reason why her sleep had regressed these past few days... She's been growing FOUR molars!  We knew she had been teething, but last night discovered she has not one, but two, molars popping through!  And she has two more that are so swollen they will surely erupt any day now.  Poor girl!

Also... it seems she has been "dairy-ed" again.  Her little stomach is so upset.  I feel SO bad for her, and don't know how this could have happened again.  Since the great dairy-carrot incident, I have read every label of every food product to pass her lips.  I have a list of the names of "hidden dairy" ingredients in my phone to check against ingredient lists.  We haven't eaten in any restaurants, where she may have consumed questionable ingredients.  The only thing I can think is that she must have eaten something at the Superbowl party we went to, even though I was the only one to feed her and asked our friend (the host) about dairy in all of the food before giving her anything.  I just don't know what else I can do, short of not letting her eat anything that I haven't read the ingredients list of or personally prepared myself.  But I can't let this keep happening... Other food-allergy sufferers, how do you handle this?

On a positive note, E slept from 8:00 p.m. until 2:00 a.m., uninterrupted, last night!  SIX WHOLE HOURS! Then she only woke one more time before waking up for the day around 6:00 a.m.  WHOOHOO!!!!! 

Sleep Plan: Day 13

The Sleep Plan is not working.  E is not sleeping.  No one in our family is sleeping.  And that makes us all very, very miserable.

After much discussion, S and I are changing the sleep plan and our expectations, for now.  Maybe we will try again in the future, but for now, we are abandoning the "cry it out until she falls asleep at all costs" portion of the sleep plan.  Its just not working.  She will cry for 3+ hours and still not sleep.  Or, fall asleep standing up because she won't even lay down.  She is SO stubborn.

So, we have made some slight changes to our plan:

• Strict wake-up time of 8:00 every morning. -- No change.
• First nap 2.5 hours after she wakes up. -- First nap (attempt) 60-90 minutes after she wakes up.  [Note: she has not napped in 13 days, other than last weekend when she fell asleep in the car while we were driving to visit my friend.]
• Nurse her before her nap.  Then, put her down for her nap awake and do not return for 60 minutes.  If she is still awake after 60 minutes, the "nap" is over, and we try again at her next scheduled nap time. -- No change.  
• Repeat same routine for her afternoon nap at 2:00 p.m. -- No change, although sometimes we bump it up to 1:00 p.m. if she is extremely grouchy.  But she always goes down between 1:00-2:00. p.m.  (Not that it matters, since she doesn't sleep anyway!)
• Regular bedtime routine and have her in bed by 8:00 p.m.  I will nurse her before bedtime, but we will put her down awake.  At night, we can go in to reassure her/soothe her as often as needed, but we cannot pick her up until 60 minutes pass.  After 60 minutes, we can pick her up and rock her, etc., but must put her back down awake. -- No change, however, now, after 60 minutes, we go in, physically lay her down, and soothe her to sleep (either by patting/stroking her chest, or just sitting next to her without touching until she falls asleep).  It literally only takes 2-3 minutes and is a compromise we are willing to make, in order for all of us to get some sleep.
• Only allowing her to nurse twice per night.  Since she is used to nursing all night long, I hate to just cut her off cold-turkey, so we decided to cut her back gradually.  For the first week, I will let her nurse once after midnight and once after 4:00 a.m.  Next week (assuming she is still waking multiple times...) she will only be allowed to nurse once, and only after 2:00 a.m.  Each time she nurses, she must be put back down awake.  -- No change.
• NO SLEEPING IN OUR BED NO MATTER WHAT. -- No change. 

We've been doing this plan the past several nights and it is working much better for us.  E has been sleeping from 9:00ish p.m. until 7:00ish a.m. and only waking 2-3 times, which is better than before.  Also, when she wakes up at night, she is quickly soothed back to sleep by me or S patting/stroking her chest.  Of course I wish she would sleep all night without waking, but this is still SO much better than before!  And, perhaps most importantly, she has not slept in our bed once since we started all of this.  Hooray!

So, for now, that's the new plan.  Who knows, maybe the original plan would have worked for us eventually, but we just couldn't take it any more.  We are hoping that by giving E an hour to soothe herself before intervening, she will eventually figure it out and just go to sleep on her own.  Until then, though, we are happy to step in for a few minutes if that's what she needs.  

Anyway, that's where we are at with the sleep training.  I know others might not "give up" so easily, but for now, this is working for us, and that's all I can ask for at this point.  :-)

What's Cooking Wednesday | Honey Sesame Chicken

Yesterday, S requested something "chickeny" for dinner.  I wasn't really quite sure where I was going to take that, until I remembered I had pinned this crock pot honey sesame chicken recipe.  It did not disappoint!  I made a few slight changes, and was quite pleased with how it came out. 

What You Need:

• 4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 3/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce
• 4 TBSP sesame seed, divided
• 1 tsp chili powder (or more to taste)
• green onions, sliced (for topping)
• rice, prepared (for serving) 

What To Do:

Toss the chicken breasts in your crock pot.  (Mine were frozen solid, and I just threw them in there anyway.)

Gather the rest of your ingredients.

 

Chop up your onions and garlic.

 

Throw the chopped onions right on top of the chicken. 

Combine the ketchup, honey, brown sugar, soy sauce, chili powder, garlic, and 2 TBSP sesame seeds in a bowl, and mix to make a sauce.

Pour the sauce on top of the chicken and onions.  (Use a spatula to spread it around and coat the chicken as best as you can.)

Cook for 4 hours on high, or 6-8 hours on low.  

Then, remove the chicken from the crock pot and shred it into small chunks.

Return the chicken to the crock pot and mix it around, so that it is coated in the remaining sauce. 

Let the chicken soak in the sauce while you prepare your rice and slice up your green onions.

Serve over rice and top with green onions and the remaining sesame seeds.  

YUM!

Also, since this recipe is dairy-free, I served E up a toddler-sized portion.

She DEVOURED it.  

This is what was left... of her second serving (plus some random chopped up green beans). 

So, there you have it...  An inexpensive, quick and easy, kid-friendly dinner!  I will definitely be making this again at our house. :-)