Coke Chicken and Fruit Snacks

It's been a month and a half since I've started adding things back in my diet. What does this mean? I can eat wheat and eggs! Neither one has caused anything in Lucas to change, which is awesome! 

I am so thankful for a healthy {as healthy as he can be!} little bugger. Seriously. He's gaining weight amazingly, just packed away all his 0-3 month old clothes and some of his 3-6 month old clothes and pulled out his 6-9 month old clothes. It's a weird feeling packing away stuff not knowing when or if we'll pull it out again. We were going through some of Malach's things and found this hat... couldn't help but taking a picture!

But all of that makes me thankful, we're moving in the right direction. Much of what I'm making still is free of the top 8 allergins. Weird, huh? It's opened up a whole new door for me as far as snacks go, but since I'm not used to snacking I don't do it much and since I'm so used to cooking the way I do, I've kind of stuck with it. 

One indulgence I do have is toast with "butter" and cinnamon sugar. I use Earth Balance dairy free/ soy free butter. :) It really is so good! 

I wanted to share a super yummy, super simple dinner recipe I found here.

Coke Chicken

small whole chicken

onion, quartered

lemon, quartered

jar of BBQ sauce, we use Sweet Baby Rays

can of Coke, or dark carbonated soda

How to make this bad boy? Easy! Place chicken in crock pot. Cut onion and lemon in quarters and place on top of chicken.

Top with entire jar of BBQ sauce.

Top with entire can of Coke.

Turn on warm for 8 hours... mine started bubbling over right about then so you might want to keep an eye on it at this point or turn it to warm, it was definitely cooked by this point. 

The dark meat was by far my favorite! I think next time I do it I'll just throw in some legs and thighs and call it good. They were the best part. I could eat them all day... ok, maybe that's an exaggeration, but they seriously were delicious.

The next thing I'd like to share is the grape fruit snacks I found here. You can make them any flavor of juice you want really, we just happened to have grape juice in our freezer. So grape it was!

Malachi helped out with almost every step, it's very kid-friendly! 

Fruit Snacks

pack of gelatin (.25oz packs)

frozen 100% juice concentrate of your choice (we used grape)

That's it! We experimented with our ratio of gelatin to juice ratio and still thing we'll add a little less gelatin next time. Our second time making it, the best so far, was 1/3 a cup juice to 2.5 packs of gelatin. The blog we got this from said that if you just did 2 packs of gelatin that it would come out more like jello... we'll see! 

Here's the low down on the fruit snacks... pour your juice and gelatin in a sauce pan and stir over medium heat until gelatin is disolved. 

Pour mixture in to a measuring cup with a lip for easy pouring. Then pour in to molds, we got ours at IKEA, they are starfish and fish. 

Malachi thought it was pretty cool to eat sea creatures. :) Put in the refrigerator and let set 15-20 minutes. Then enjoy!!

I think next time we'll try white grape juice or cherry... I'm not going to lie, I partly do this stuff for me... they're really good!!

Simple Sunday Lunch

I can't believe it's been almost 13 weeks since I've started this journey. Some days are more frustrating than others, but for the most part, I think I've got this whole food thing figured out. I've learned where to go for certain items and where I can eat when going out. Whew!

I am thankful that three and a half weeks ago I was able to add wheat! As I said before it hasn't opened up a ton of stuff because soy is in everything! Have you ever looked at the labels on your food?! It's ridiculous! We haven't seen a difference in Lucas as since adding in wheat although it's pretty strange how he seems to have good days and bad days when my diet stays exactly the same. It's almost as if he has flare-ups... part of me thinks this may not be food related. We saw his GI doctor again, which literally was a waste of two hours of my life. We'll be looking for a new one shortly. But over all he's doing great, happy, playful... nothing more I could ask for.

He is a few ounces away from being 17 pounds which is insane! He's our little "chunker", that's what Malachi calls him. :) It's pretty cute.

I wanted to share our lunch today- one, because it's easy, two, because it's yummy and three, well... it's easy! It's Quinoa and Black Bean Salad Stuffed Bell Pepper- sounds good, huh!?

Quinoa and Black Bean Salad

1 c. quinoa, rinsed and cooked

1/2 can of black beans, rinsed

1/2 can of corn, drained

12 cherry tomatoes, quartered

1/2 onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 red bell pepper, chopped small

handful of cilantro, minced

1 lime, juiced

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tbsp olive oil

Seems like a lot of ingredients but when you're really just chopping them up and throwing them all together it's not much. 

Step 1- Make quinoa. For one cup on quinoa use two cups of water. Bring to a boil, turn down to simmer and cover for ten minutes. It should look like this when it's done.

Step 2- While that's working itself out start chopping! Tomatoes, onion, garlic, red pepper and cilantro all in a pile... so colorful and yummy!

Step 3- When quinoa is done mix in veggies you've just chopped and add in olive oil, lime juice and cumin as well as your half a can of black beans and corn. 

Doesn't that look SO good! 

Step 4 and 5- Chop the top off a green bell pepper, cut out insides and put Quinoa and Black Bean Salad inside.

Some recipes I've read say to cook your green bell pepper in the oven to soften it, maybe then you eat it with your fork? I didn't feel like doing that so left it cold and crispy. I still ate it at the end... kind of like a bread bowl, but better for you... and nothing like a bread bowl really.

This meal is easy, light and filling {yes, it's possible to be those two things at the same time}.

Breakfast/ Dessert Whatever You're in the Mood For!

Three weeks ago I added wheat back in to my diet... what does this mean? Basically it means my cereal selection opens up, I can have more types of chips {great} and I can drink beer. :) All in all, not too bad. L man is still super gassy, but we haven't seen blood in his stool in almost two months so I'd say it's a success! In a week from tomorrow we add eggs and I'm sure I'll come up with some yummy egg included recipe to share. For now, enjoy this one! {It's still wheat free just because there's no wheat in it... not on purpose!}

I found this on pinterest from this blog. It says that it's a breakfast oatmeal casserole, but I just made it and am devouring it and I've already had breakfast. :) I had to make a few changes as her "dietary restriction" is gluten free and that is the one thing I can now eat! So I added regular oats and then changed other stuff... I'll highlight that as I go along.

Baked Oatmeal

2c. steel cut oats (I used regular old-fashion oats)

1/3c. brown sugar (I used 1/4c. honey)

1tsp baking powder

1tsp cinnamon

1/2tsp salt

1c. raspberries

1/2c. chocolate chips (Enjoy Life brand that is dairy, soy and nut free)

2c. milk (unsweetened coconut milk)

1 Egg (1tbsp ground flaxseed + 3tbsp water)

1tbsp vanilla extract

3tbsp butter (1 1/2tbsp olive oil)

1 banana

So there are lots of changes, and since I don't know what it's "suppose" to taste like, the changes didn't matter. You could also use whatever kind of berry you want, or what you have. Next time I'll probably add more than one kind of berry and maybe some seeds for some extra yumminess. 

Step 1- preheat oven to 370degrees F

Step 2- greece your baking dish. You can use a pray, but since that has soybean oil in it I just rubbed some olive oil in the bottom of my dish, this works great!

Step 3- mix all your dry ingredients together. If you're using brown sugar you'd add this here, if not, hold off until your wet ingredients. Once dry ingredients are mixed put them in a 9x13inch baking dish.

Step 4- mix all your wet ingredients together. I used the same bowl since my dry ingredients were already in the baking dish. One less bowl to wash... excellent! 

Step 5- pour your wet ingredients over your dry making sure to cover all of the dry ingredients.

Step 6- bake in oven for 35-40 minutes or until the top is brown and oatmeal is crispy.

The final product can be cooled, cut and enjoyed or simply scooped from the baking dish with a fork and eaten. I chose the ladder of the two options, but will perhaps become more civilized now that the "taste testing" is done!

Pork Chops with an Apple and Cherry Sauce

I'm not usually a big fan of pork, but this was amazing! 

Pork Chops with Apple Cherry Sauce

3 pork chops

1lb cherries, pitted and diced

1 tbsp dijon mustard (recipe below)

3tbsp Olive oil

White wine vinegar

3 tbsp dry white wine

Salt and pepper to taste

1/2c. Chicken stock

1 Apple, peeled and diced

2 cloves of garlic, diced

Dijon Mustard

1tbsp yellow mustard

splash of white wine vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

pinch of garlic

When I was checking out the ingredients I could have I noticed that dijon mustard, at least the kind I had in my pantry, had dairy or egg in it. At the moment I can't remember and it doesn't really matter. I thought, I think I can make this... and I was right! It really was a matter of figuring out the main ingredients on the bottle I had and mixing them together myself omitting what I couldn't have. There aren't exact measurements on anything because I totally just guessed and tasted as I added things. Yep, that's how I cook... watch out!

To make this meal first cook the pork. I learned that to fry something well you need to let your pan get hot, then add your oil, then let it get hot before you put whatever you're frying on it. Takes some time, but it's worth it! I browned my pork on both sides and put aside. 

I wish I had taken more pictures, but there was so much to do that, honestly, I just forgot until the end. Oops! 

I then added, to the same frying pan, all the other ingrediens and simmered until the cherries and apples became soft. Then I added the por back in and cooked until pork was done... I'm going to say it was about 7-10 minutes. I made this a few days ago and honestly can't remember. However, it's quick enough that you wouldn't leave the room so you can keep an eye on it. 

Doesn't that look so good! The cherries and apples seep into the rest of the liquid permeating their flavor throughout. 

I added some apple sause, who doesn't like some good pork chops and apple sause?!

After I took this picture I thought... hm, this should really have some greens with it. Oh well! Next time. Here's to an {almost} balanced meal. My sister-in-law said that she had something similar but with blueberries. I may have to try that!!