I’ve been cleaning out the pantry all week; removing old food that I know we won’t eat, and organizing all the rest into mason jars. I’m happy with the results! I wish I’d taken a before picture - it wasn’t pretty. While cleaning out all the foods that contained additives and nasty ingredients, I was adding in many new to us foods that are gluten-free and used in gluten-free baking. Garfava flour, sorghum flour, millet flour, white rice flour, brown rice flour, guar gum, tapioca starch, oh my!
After a week of living in Gluten-Free Land, my head is swimming. Living gluten-free is a lot harder than I thought it would be. And gluten-free baking? Yeah, that’s even higher on the toughness scale. Gluten-free batter has a completely different texture than “regular” wheat flour batter and the muffins have a tea biscuit texture, rather than a muffin texture. I received my gluten-free casein-free cookbooks in the mail, and now it’s time to try out some recipes! Tomorrow I’m going to attempt pear muffins - my own recipe from a mixture of a few different recipes. They’re even sugar free, so if they turn out good, I’ll be posting the recipe! Wish me luck.
For the past week it’s been raining, so I’ve been reminiscing back to last weekend, when we were able to go for a walk on the beach and even dip our feet in the surprisingly warm water. It felt so good to walk along the beach, breathe in the fresh air, and wiggle my toes in the sand. Kiki had so much fun collecting treasures to bring home - most of them rocks. She is very interested in starting a rock collection, and I smile every time she talks about it. I remember back when I was her age and I, too, had my own rock collection. So many rocks of different shapes and sizes. I always prized the rocks that glittered in the sun.
Before we left, she insisted on writing “Bie Bie (bye bye), See Ya Soon,” in the sand.
Kiki was diagnosed this past week with a disorder that really has got me thinking about the foods that we eat. We try to eat a vegan diet, but not very strictly. Well, now we must strictly eat vegan, but along with that, we also now have to eat gluten free meals. I basically have to donate half of my cookbooks and try to adopt a new mentality when it comes to preparing meals. My local library only has 1 gluten free cookbook, so I’ve turned to online resources. I’m going to be buying this cookbook today, along with this one. I’m on the lookout for any gluten-free & casein-free cookbooks that are kid friendly, so if you have any suggestions, please let me know!
I’ve given myself a challenge that I want completed by the end of the week. I want a gluten-free and casein-free pantry. I’m going to be pulling every item of food out of our pantry and I will be putting back only foods that my daughter can eat. While I am able to eat gluten products, it wouldn’t be fair to eat them in front of my daughter, so I’m going to be adapting to this diet as well. I’ve been trying to stick to a raw foods lifestyle, so I believe that this is a blessing in disguise.
Another little side project that I have for myself is that I want to put every pantry item into a glass mason jar. As of right now, it’s half and half. This photo over at Apartment Therapy has really inspired me! Isn’t their pantry beautiful? The clean lines, the jars full of whole grains and non-processed foods. It’s so simplistic and beautiful.
Photos of my progress will be posted soon!
A friend of mine is in the middle of moving and we decided to drop in and view their new house over the weekend. She has 3 beautiful little girls and Kiki always enjoys playing with them.
While the Easter egg dyeing was interesting the other night, the little miss didn’t really enjoy it. She is 6 years old and wants instant results. I can’t say I blame her - I, myself, found that waiting a few hours for the colours to set in was a wee bit torturous. So, I went digging through my box of goodies last night and I pulled out 4 undyed play silks that I’ve been meaning to dye up for her nature table. I then found my container of Kool-Aid packets that I use for dyeing play-dough. When Kiki came home from school yesterday afternoon, I surprised her with the idea. I’m not sure who was more excited; me or her.
I chose to do green (3 packs), blue (4 packs), orange (3 packs) and purple (4 packs). For reference, Knitty.com has a Kool-Aid Dye Colour Chart on their website. I decided to do the stove-top method, since the microwave requires plastic wrap and we don’t buy that. Plus, we try to use the microwave as little as possible.
You will need:
- 3 or 4 packets of Kool-Aid for each playsilk
- distilled white vinegar
- measuring cups
- wooden spoon
- stainless steel pot
- water
- glass bowl
- rubber gloves (optional)
In a bowl, soak the playsilks in hot water and 1 cup of vinegar while you prepare the dye mixture on the stove.
In a large pot on high heat, add 4 cups of water (or more if needed - you want your playsilk completely covered with water once it’s in there), 2 cups of vinegar and 3-4 packets of Kool-Aid in your desired colour. Stir the mixture to remove any clumps of Kool-Aid. Bring this mixture to a boil.
Wring out any excess water from the playsilk, then add it to the pot, using the end of a wooden spoon to push it down into the liquid until it’s fully covered. Boil the playsilk in the liquid until all of the colour is absorbed and the liquid is clear - about 15 minutes.
Rinse the playsilk out in the sink with hot water for 2 minutes, then change to cold water. Keep rinsing (squeezing and swirling) until the water runs clear, usually about 2 minutes. The warmer colours, such as red, purple and orange may take a much longer time to rinse clear.
Hang the playsilk up to dry. It doesn’t take long - ours dried in 20 minutes outside.
On a side note: If your playsilks should become dirty, try to wash them by hand. They are delicate and the edges are hand-sewn together, and there have been reports of the edges coming apart in the washing machine.
Have fun!!.
Last night, we embarked on a new journey; dyeing Easter eggs the natural way. It’s something I’ve always wanted to try. It was completely different than dyeing with the kits you get in the stores or food colouring. The longer you let the eggs soak, the deeper the colours. I’m not sure if we did something wrong, but all 3 of the eggs in the photo above were soaked for 3 hours - not exactly instant satisfaction. Kiki was very frustrated and kept asking, “Are they ready yet?” I felt really bad that they took so long. Even though they took hours to dye, the results are worth it. I think they’re so beautiful! This is a nice change from the almost neon colours usually found on dyed eggs at Easter time.
The yellow egg is dyed from Tumeric, the pinkish ones are from cranberries, and the blue/purple ones are dyed with grape juice.
Writing a secret message on the eggs.
Tumeric
Are they ready yet?
The instructional video that we used can be found here.
We participated in Earth Hour 2010 last night. Kiki had many questions, and we sat at the kitchen table talking while she ate a snack. We got onto the subject of what we were thankful for. Kiki thought for a few moments, and then said her list. In her own words:
- Bubbles
- Fluffy (our cat)
- The beach
- The radio
- The flower light in my room
- Mommy
- Myself
- People being kind to me
- Santa and the Easter Bunny
- Baby Adeline
It really made me smile to hear her list. Before we knew it, the hour was over. We plan on doing our own little Earth Day in the near future - a whole day without using hydro, rather than just an hour. Kiki is excited to try it out.
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