Cookies

Since my boss wanted cookies for his birthday I device to see what I could do. He has recently decided to go gluten free, and has type 2 diabetes. Needless to say, I took the challenge. Here is my fun recipe. 

1/2 C butter
2/3 C white sugar
2/3 C agave nectar
2 eggs
4 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 C almond butter
3 C oats

Preheat oven 350°F. Cream butter and sugar. Add agave and continue to cream together. Add the eggs, vanilla, and baking soda. Continue creaming. The eggs are a binding agent here so the more they are crammed the better they will hold stuff together. Add the almond butter and oats. Put on cookie sheet and bake until browned.

They puffed up really big in the oven then fell. I'm still baking them and added a bit of gum to the second batch as the first spread out a lot. Apparently almond butter doesn't bind quite as well as peanut butter.

On other notes, A tried to paint her tongue blue with kids crest tonight. She won't be doing that again soon. She has mellowed out after moving up at her current school. G tries to creep these days and will pull up on anything. Everyone at the school says he's really advanced... This works me because clearly they haven't dealt with kids on the early end of the spectrum. There is a 14 month old who can barely stand though and that seems more normal to them...

May Flowers

I know I've been bad the past few weeks about blogging. G is trying really hard to crawl and chase after his big sister. Both kids seem to genuinely enjoy each other. A will look in on him at school just to make sure he is there. When she pokes her head around anything and is spotted by G he gives a face splitting grin.

So far work is work for both the adults these days. Chris did take this past Wednesday of for a church tech conference. It went well and he learned a few things.

Our weather has finally decided to become spring. The trees all have the new green/yellow look to them. We are trying herbs again this year. Maybe if we don't have the wettest summer on record again they may actually grow. With all the trees turning green all of our allergies have kicked into high gear. We give A a daily dose, G gets what he can through me and Chris takes a claritin or two.  G and I are both coughing because I can't take much with nursing him.

G is interested in food in as much as it's a different texture and fun to gnaw on carrots, but not really good at getting much in himself yet. He still has the tongue thrust reflex that shoots everything out of his mouth. We keep trying to give him avocado, banana, and other easily misshape food as we have them. He gets minimal amounts in him. It is enough to freak his teachers at school out a little, but they freak out about everything it seems.

A turns three in a week! Going back and reading some of those posts from three years ago is kind of interesting. Hard to believe what can happen in three years.

Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks.

Weekly Re-cap

We have had a busy week. G is definitely allergic to gem things. Poor guy will get a rash on his arms from thinking about touching the deck. However, he lives to be outside and play. It doesn't seem to bother him that much.

A stayed home with daddy on Monday and Tuesday of this week. They had fun and finished up the second light saber.

Biltmore and Eggs

Yesterday we made it to Biltmore. We had a lot of fun playing around the farm and in the gardens. There were lots of two legged kids and four legged kids around. A got to pet several goats that were only 2 weeks old. She also petted some very pregnant goats.

As all of our coffee cups now have to be washed, I'm just going to put a few pictures here.

Oatmeal Muffins

Since I discovered that I can have oats I try and put them in anything I can. The fact that G likes them as well also helps these days.

Since we were dating Chris has tried to convince me that an oatmeal raisin cookie is the perfect breakfast food. Well, I haven't ever been a fan of raisins so that is a problem for me.  Last week I discovered a fun oatmeal raisin muffin recipe. This week I altered it to have chocolate chips instead of raisins.  Both versions of the muffins have earned praise for taste, so here is the fun recipe.

1/3 cup butter
2/3 cup oatmeal
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup water
1.5 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup milk
1 egg
1/3 c oats
Cinnamon
Allspice
Vanilla

Preheat oven to 375°F

In a saucepan melt butter. Add in the original 2/3 cup of oats and half of the brown sugar, cinnamon and allspice.  Caramelize the oats then add the water and rest of sugar.  Stir that until it gently boils. While it is cooling mix the rest of the dry ingredients together in an appropriately sized bowl. Mix the egg and the milk in a separate container. Mix all of it together and add whatever goodies (raisins, chocolate chips, etc) in with gentle folding. Put in muffin pan and bake until it is done. :-)

Other than baking fun, we've been enjoying a lot of time outside. We finally have warm weather in the afternoons. Both kids have enjoyed our deck.  We even have started allowing A to ride her tricycle or blow bubbles out there alone.

Palm Sunday has come and gone. This is already holy week. We will see what this week brings. Hopefully all is well by you as you prepare for Easter.

Not much, but a lot at the same time

Sprung Spring

We've had both snow and ice and 80 open the window weather this week. Tonight I let miss A play by herself outside a little while we waited for Chris to get home. She did well, but it still makes me nervous to let her do that. So, we all went outside after a while to enjoy the sunshine. Thankfully this weekend is supposed to be sunny so that I can line dry diapers! The natural bleaching power of the sun never ceases to amaze me.

Here is a picture of Chris helping G stand. G is bound and determined to crawl, and is quite fast when he decided to go somewhere.