Smallest Kitchen Helper

A couple of weeks ago, I invited Nate to "help" me bake

he's been very interested in baking lately;)

And since we were on Christmas Break...

I had plenty of time to enjoy the moments

and clean up after him:)

More Wordless Wednesday at  NapTime MomTog, 5 Minutes for Mom,  Mama to 4 Blessings, Go Graham Go

and any other linkys I find !!!

Dairy, Egg and Nut-Free Funnel Cake

Sometimes I get tired of making the same 'ole stuff... so this weekend, with the fall weather outside, I attempted a fall treat...

funnel cake:)

It's feels fall to me because this the season around here for our state's fair and funnel cake is definitely a "fair" classic:) With food allergies though we usually have to miss out on the funnel cakes at the fair :( But now we can safely enjoy them at home!

I started by finding this very easy funnel cake recipe from Mom's Who Think. And then tweaked it to fit our food allergies, so our recipe looked like this;)

Funnel Cake

Ingredients:

1/4 cup of applesauce (or 1 egg)
2/3 cup  soymilk
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 1/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder

Funnel Cake Directions:

1. In a deep skillet, heat about two cups of oil over medium-high heat until hot. Test the temperature by dropping a pinch of flour into the hot oil. If it sizzles right away without smoking, it's perfect.

2. Beat applesauce (or egg) and milk. Mix all other ingredients in a separate bowl and slowly add to the egg mixture, beating until smooth.

3. Using a funnel, drop into hot oil working from center outwards in a web pattern. (You can use a gallon sized freezer bag instead of a funnel by pouring the batter into the bag, snipping off a small corner of it, and squeezing the batter into the oil.)

4. Cook for about 2-3 minutes, remove from the oil when golden brown and crispy.

5. Sprinkle with powdered sugar (or cinnamon sugar mixed) and serve.

I doubled the recipe since I didn't know who in my family would try it and how many (and what size) it would make;) Let's just say that the batter stayed fine in the refrigerator until the next day:) And everyone who tried them, loved them:)

Linking up to...
Tuesdays at the Table @ All the Small Stuff
Tasty Tuesdays @ Balancing Beauty and Bedlam
and

Works for Me Wednesday : Easy Sunday Dinner

I've always wondered what other families with young children go home to eat after Sunday church services.... I guess many go out or to their parents' house. But what do the rest of us do??

While Brian was a youth minister, we had a family invite us over to eat during service... just "out-of-the-blue"!! They had 4 children and I thought, "How in the world can they have a meal planned and ready for extra company?" But they did and we've adopted it (most Sunday lunches)!

On the phone with a friend this week and then having a church member call Sunday after church to jokingly invite himself for lunch... I thought I'd share this simple meal that can be quickly stretched for company:)

BREAKFAST!!!! LOL... nothing new, or different. I honestly won't have thought to serve breakfast for LUNCH, especially a Sunday Dinner:) But it's sooo easy to make some biscuits, scramble some eggs (for those that can eat them), cook some breakfast meat, make a fruit salad (from fruit in the frig) and EAT!!

The kids (and us) look forward to making biscuits and eating breakfast. They are always soo excited to help make the biscuits and set the table with a large variety of jams:)

I like not having to come up with another meal idea and being in the kitchen Saturday night and in the morning before church. I also like that we can throw an extra egg or two or make another batch of biscuits to share when we have company:)

Daddy was soo proud of his dough creation:) LOL... he loves to eat the little biscuits right from the oven... the kids and I like the dough!!

Yummmy... they came out PERFECT for everyone!!! Daddy pulled all the biscuits out of the oven at the same time so the last batch was lighter (and almost gooey in the middle) and the other batch was brown:)
Learn all sort of new things that work at Works for Me Wednesday !

The Chef:)

This week I've mentioned a couple of times how fussy Lydia has been.... I'm sure it's from teething and the HARD toddler years:) She's a little girl that loves attention and snuggles, so it just breaks her little heart when Momma is busy with her siblings. And this week I have been:) Anna's been working hard on her reading lessons and Christopher has been stealing the show with his potty training:)

So this earlier this week, Lydia and I baked together while the older two watched a show:) It was good for both of us.... sooo many times when we ALL try to bake it's WiLd.... but this was relaxing and fun:) I even had time to grab my camera in the process:)

Here is the little chef at work.... mashing the bananas.... for banana bread, of course:)

Hmmmm... must be around snack time because before I knew it she was doing this......













Look at those FULL little cheeks trying NOT to smile at the camera.... she's just too cute!!


*** We did finally finish... and plenty of banana made it into the bread:) And the bread is already FINISHED!! Didn't even last 2 full days:)

The Colors of FALL

The fields loaded with soybeans!!

And the trees behind them whose leaves are beginning to change their color!!

A neighbor's tree that stands in such bright contrast to the evergreens around it:) Do you see the cotton behind the tree??

The colors (and smells)of fresh baked goodies from our oven that everyone can enjoy!!!

Toddler Tantrums

Anyone who has called recently has heard IT..... the pitiful cries of a little 16-month-old girl desperate to have control of the phone.Or mid-morning the cries of a toddler wanting her paci. Or this afternoon during lunch the wailing of a hungry/tired child who isn't happy with her food selection and is NOT getting her way. We've hit IT.... the whinny stage before the terrible twos. This is when Toddlers know what they want, expect to get it immediately and then pitch a fit when they don't get it!!!

We've been at this stage before. And unfortunately I always feel like I've got my hands tied behind my back. If I give in they're spoiled and if I let them cry then I'm a mean parent. So for these tantrums we've decided to ignore the fussing..... and honestly they do stop crying and usually are quite pleasant (and even eat their dinner, at least part of it).

SO if you call and there is pitiful crying in the background, remember that it will end soon:)And from not getting what they want, when the want it, especially from whinny....soon the crying will be over and we'll have pleasant conversations again:)

We've also have had a funny phenomenon happening lately. When Anna is out with Brian or napping and the two youngest ones are the only ones to keep the dynamic of their relationship changes.... or maybe I just see it more. Yesterday while Brian and Anna did some visiting, I had Christopher and Lydia. Christopher really rose to the occasion and "took care of" Lydia. He was sweet and tried to help her outside and tried to play with her. Instead of grabbing balls out of her hands he would try to play catch with her. It was really funny to see:)

Don't get me wrong, he usually is sweet and tries to help, but it was almost like he tried to be her "big brother". And Lydia who usually winces when she sees Christopher running to her, waiting for him to tackle her, enjoyed the "extra" help from her big brother.

The picture is of him "helping" me bake cookies today. His job was to crush the pecans.... which he enjoyed doing:)

Our Canning Project

A little man with dish pan hands and a dirty little face from baking some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies before we started the canning job:)

All three of got to work on the strawberries.....Christopher washed, I cut off the tops and Anna tried to mash. We did a couple of cups like that and then they were finished:)

Yay, for strawberries:)

Here's the "finished" project. They sealed fine but they haven't set (firmed up yet). So for now I made a good looking batch of strawberry syrup :( Brian was a little excited about having something yummy to put over pancakes.....

Preschooler Snack/Craft - YUmmmY

For Christmas the kids got a subscription to a magazine called High Five. I grew up reading Highlights and this High Five is the preschooler version of Highlights. They have a couple stories, "games", a craft and a snack/craft (something the kids can help make a eat). So far I've been able to edit the snack a little bit so that the kids could do it:) This morning we worked on March's issues snack...Chocolate Dipped Pretzels with Sprinkles!!! The kids can have some brands of semi-sweet chocolates!!




After we made them, Anna decided that she wasn't going to eat them..... although she LOVEs chocoaltes and pretzels :) So I figured besides my sweet toothes - Lydia and Christopher- I would be stuck eating most of them. Brian isn't crazy about most baked choclate treats because he finds some chocolate treats to be bitter. BUT he tried one when they had cool and hardened. He's been trying to keep his hand out of the pretzel bag all day :) Yay!!! He even made a funny comment about how fun to discover new milk-free, peanut-free foods.......

Lydia likes them :)

Ministry to the Home that Extends Beyond the Home

One of the biggest struggles for me with motherhood has been the limitations. Of course with the the new limitation have been other opportunities and a new crew to minister to (the kiddies). It seems that I do a lot more when I focus on theose small things that I CAN do for others instead of thinking of all the opportunities I've had to "miss".

So this morning I got my crew working hard.....hard on some Banana Bread for a neighbor and friend who is sick. Of course, I could have had this done in a matter of minutes without all the extra dirty utensils...but my crew is also my ministry so why not teach them to show a little kindness and learn how to serve others, too.


There is some learning involved as well...this was the first time I let Anna push the buttons on the microwave!!

Christopher is a very serious cook....he was a very good mixer and enjoyed dumping the ingredients in.

Anna and I little more about measurements... yay for practical Math!!

Since we didn't cook with the eggs the kids got to eat some of the "extra" batter....yummm!!

I made some mini muffins with some of the batter and so the kids got to "test" their cooking.....it gave them a treat for all of their work:) And look Lydia even woke up just in time for some warm muffins.


As I was typing this post, Brian said one of the sweetest things about the kids working on the bread was Anna's excitement when he walked through the door after visitation. She excited asked, "Daddy did you give the bread to Miss Patsy?" Genuine concern that our sweet friend had gotten her bread.