Author: Dre

Categories
Allergies Food Health and Nutrition

Decadent Whole Wheat Chocolate Cake

After my last post about real food vs what passes for food sometimes, I thought I’d post a recipe of one of our favorite indulgences.  Because, yes, I do think it’s good for my kids to be exposed to sweets so they won’t go nuts for them when they’re older, but it’s going to be on my terms for as long as possible!

I’m of the opinion that even treats can be good for you – or if not necessarily good, at least better than what is standard in our fine, fine country these days.  My kids love the healthier versions of “junk” food that I serve them as a treat, and I think you will too!

I first started experimenting with recipes for “wacky cake ” (cake made without egg or dairy) about 2 years ago, right after we learned of Blythe’s corn and egg allergies .  I’ve finally come up with a recipe we all love, which happens to be free of egg, corn, soy and dairy – and it’s even whole grain, to boot – while still managing to be utterly delicious.

I made this cake and frosting (which isn’t dairy-free, fyi) for my husband’s birthday yesterday, and it was a huge hit at our table.  Try it!  I think you’ll be surprised at how good healthy can taste!   

On a side note: ignore all product specifics if you don’t need to make the cake safe for the food allergic, any old stuff will do – other than the whole wheat flour and cholesterol-free oil, that is!  And, as always, if you are food allergic – double check the product labels in case of changes.

Dre’s Decadent Whole Wheat Chocolate Cake (or Cupcakes):
*Corn – Egg – Soy & Dairy – Free*

Ingredients:

*  1 1/2 cups Wheat Montana Prairie Gold 100% Whole Wheat Flour (trust me – there is a huge difference between using this particular whole wheat flour and others I have tried. Use it.)

*  1 cup  Florida Crystals Natural Cane Sugar 

*  3 Tablespoons unsweetened natural Cocoa (I use Whole Foods  or Trader Joe’s brands)

*  1 teaspoon of baking soda

*  1/2 teaspoon fine-ground sea salt

*  1 teaspoon organic vanilla extract

*  1 teaspoon organic distilled white vinegar

*  5 tablespoons Capullo cholesterol-free Canola Oil

*  1 cup of cold water

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 F.  Spray your cake pan (I use a 9″ round springform pan) with Pam Organic Olive Oil cooking spray . 

**If making the frosting as well, put a medium sized glass bowl and your beaters in the freezer now, too.**

In a large mixing bowl, mix flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt.  With a medium/large spatula, make a large hole in one third of the mixture.  Turn the spatula over, and using the stick end, make two smaller holes in each of the other thirds of the mixture.  In one small hole, pour the vanilla.  In the other small hole, pour the vinegar.  In the large whole, pour the oil.  If it looks like an odd little face staring up at you, you’re doing it right.  Pour the cold water over the top and stir until moist.

Pour your mixture into your pan, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the cake springs back when touched lightly.

For cupcakes, bake 15-20 minutes – mine are usually perfect at 18 minutes exactly.

When done, place cake pan on a cooling rack, remove outer springform and let cool completely before frosting.

Dre’s Chocolate Whipped Cream Frosting
*Corn – Egg & Soy – Free*

Ingredients:

*  1 cup Horizon Organic Heavy Whipping Cream

*  1 teaspoon organic vanilla extract

*  2 1/2 tablespoons Florida Crystals Natural Cane Sugar

*  2 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened natural Cocoa (again, I use Whole Foods  or Trader Joe’s  brands)

You remembered to put your medium sized glass bowl and beaters in the freezer about 20 minutes ago, right?  Go ahead and take them out now.  Pour everything into the bowl and start whipping with your mixer on a medium speed.  Beat until stiff peaks form, but be sure to stop before it gets “gummy”.  Gummy frosting still tastes good, but it’s harder to work with.

Frost your cake however you’d like and ENJOY! 

Your family won’t even realize they’re getting a full serving of whole grains with every slice.  Now that, my friends, is a tasty treat!

Categories
Food Health and Nutrition Kids Parenting

Food vs “Food”

Alison’s cousin came to stay over the weekend, and I found myself exasperated at the child’s refusal to eat any of the food I had to offer.

She’s always been a picky eater, and believe me, I get the whole picky thing.  As a child, and actually through to my early twenties, my hypothalamus failed to notify me when my body needed fuel.  As a result, I never felt hungry.  And if food looked funny, smelled funny, or felt funny, I didn’t eat it. 

So, yeah.  I get it.  My history of pickiness is the reason we have a household rule that the kids have to try at least one bite of everything I put on their plates, healthy or not.

However.  In my opinion, this not-quite 7-year-old’s eating habits go beyond being picky.  She will not eat anything that is not deep fried, unless it’s ramen noodles or  a peanut butter and jelly sandwich – and even then, it has to be on white bread, no crusts. 

Her visit was unexpected, and so I had nothing to feed her int he pantry.  Blythe and I had to make a quick run up to the corner market, otherwise girlfriend was going to starve the whole time she was here.  And yes, I told her that I was not happy about spending $20 on “junk” because she won’t eat a damn banana or whole wheat noodle.

The child does not consume anything with any nutritional value.  N-O-T-H-I-N-G.

I know I go above and beyond when it comes to serving whole, nutritious foods in my household, and I also understand that not everyone eats that way.  If it weren’t for Blythe’s food allergies, I’d probably even allow my kids to eat a deep fried this or that on occasion. 

My in-laws insist that Alison’s cousin’s greasy food habit is normal, and my kids’ love of fruits, veggies, and whole grains is an oddity. 

It’s hard for me to believe that in this age of information, serving kids nothing but hollow foods is standard.  But then again, childhood obesity is at an all-time high, and you can’t go to a restaurant without seeing corndogs and chicken nuggets on the children’s menu.

So help me out, my friends.  Where on the spectrum does your family fall? 

Do your kids refuse to eat anything that isn’t fried or sugar filled?  Are your kids fruit and veggie junkies?  Or do they fall somewhere in between, in a happy medium?

Categories
Kids Life in general

Boundaries

Recently, my mom took Alison to the library – two book worms, engrossed in words – one of their favorite activities.

They came home earlier than expected, and my mom said it was either that, or barf on the library floor.

It seems there was a girl child, somewhere between Blythe’s age (3) and Alison’s (6) who was sent to the children’s section of the library for some “alone time” while her guardian – whoever that may have been, for that person never made an appearance in the hour they were there – attended to other things in the adult section of the library.

Don’t even get me started on that, by the way.  A 4 or 5 year old child, left to her own devices in the children’s section of the library, for an hour or more?  It’s something I cannot fathom.

Anyway, the child in question did not know how to read.  She saw my mom and Alison reading books, and asked my mom, obviously a Grandma but no less a stranger, to read her a Sponge Bob book. 

My mom looked around for her guardian, and saw no one.  Since Alison is beyond needing to be read to, and the child looked at her with pleading eyes, she agreed.

The little girl proceeded to crawl up into a hesitant stranger’s lap for story time.

At first, my mom didn’t mind.  But as they read, the child’s fingers wandered to her nostrils.  The further the girl’s finger went into her nose, the more uncomfortable my mom got.  She has never been one to tolerate nose picking.  But what do you say to a child you don’t even know about the hazards of boogar picking?

The child pointed to Sponge Bob with the nose-picking finger, and my  mom suppressed a gag.  She was touching books, the same books her grandchildren read, with a boogar-laced finger.

Since my mom couldn’t gag and read aloud at the same time, the child grew impatient, and began to rub her snotty finger on my mom’s leg, begging her to continue reading.

Thankfully, it was a fairly short book, and my mom got through it without actually vomiting on the child or the library carpet.  The little girl announced her need to pee, and ran off to the bathroom – again with no guardian in sight.

My mom looked at Alison, engrossed in a book. 

“Pssst” she whispered. 

Alison looked at her.

“We need to get out of here right now.”

“But I’m not done with my book,” Alison replied.

My mom looked at the clock.  She had three to five minutes, at best, to get the hell out of there before the nose-picker came back.

“We need to go now, Alison, and I’ll explain why in the car.”

Alison looked at her half-read book, unaware of my mom’s mounting panic.  “Can I just finish this one?”

My mom shook her head.  “I’ll take you to Burger King and get you a Kid’s Meal if you’ll walk away right this minute.”

Alison knew a good deal when she saw it.  They hightailed it out of there.

And in the car, my mom explained why they needed to leave while the child was in the bathroom. 

My mom, you see, was torn between a child that clearly needed some adult attention, and her own phobia of Other People’s Boogars.  Blythe’s boogars, Alison’s snot – those she can handle.  But some stranger kid’s nose pickings?  There is no way. 

She knew if they were still there when the little girl got back, she’d end up covered in them, because she simply cannot say, “no” to a sad little girl who wants to be read to.

And if she did, she knew that she’d continue to gag.  She saw no other choice but to run away.

When they got home, my mom immediately removed her boogary pants and put on clean ones. To my surprise, she didn’t burn them.  Because when I was a kid?  That’s exactly what she would have done.

Categories
Surviving

Butterfly in Waiting

My Sweet Little Blythe,

Today you are three years old. 

You have lived 1095 days on this Earth, and you have taken every single one of them by storm.

You changed the world the day you were born, baby girl, and you continue to change it with every breath you take, every word you speak, every step you take.

I look back on the past three years and I am in awe of your intelligence, your grace, your joy.  None of us knew who you would be, my love, as we waited to meet you on the day of your birth.  I could never have imagined the wonderful person you are becoming.

You have taught me so much.  I thought I knew what love was, sweet Blythe, but from you I have learned the true meaning.

You are hope.

You are courage.

You are strength.

I see you, my little Butterfly in Waiting.  You are aching to fly, willing your wings to grow faster, bigger, stronger.

Each night as you lie in the dark, drifting off to sleep, I sing your favorite song, the one you heard in a movie  once and have loved ever since.  It reminds you that one day, you will get to do all the things you dream of doing.

Caterpillar in the tree
How you wonder who you’ll be
Can’t go far, but you can always dream.

Wish you may and wish you might.
Don’t you worry, hold on tight.
I promise you, there will come a day…

Butterfly fly away.  Butterfly fly away.

Every day that passes brings me closer to singing you the second verse.  I hold you tighter and closer to me, hoping to memorize your smell, your voice, your touch. 

You are only three years old today, Blythe, but before I know it you will be ready.

You are becoming a butterfly right before my eyes.

Butterfly fly away.
You’ve got your wings now, you can’t stay.
Take those dreams and make them all come true.

Butterfly fly away.

You’ve been waitin’ for this day.
All along, you’ve known just what to do…

Butterfly fly away.  Butterfly, butterfly, butterfly….
Butterfly fly away.

You are your Daddy’s Cupcake, but you are my Butterfly in Waiting. 

You will not be tamed, baby girl.   You take my breath away, right here on the ground.  

I cannot wait to see you fly.

All My Love,

Mama

Categories
Life in general

A Little Lesson in Humiliation

Before I tell my utterly embarrassing story, I must ask: Have you gone over to comment on my Buckets for the Cure  post, yet?  If not, you should – the BlogHer Ads network is donating $1 to Susan G. Komen  for EVERY comment made on my post, as well as on the other Buckets for the Cure posts, which you can find here .

Seriously, your comments have never been worth so much, so go !

And now for my little life lesson.

Blythe is now attending that little preschool I found for her, for a few hours one morning a week.  I try to stay pretty close by, just in case.  One of these days I’ll feel comfortable enough to actually go out of shouting distance from the school, but I’m just proud of myself for actually leaving the premises now instead of reading a book in my car right outside.  Yes, yes I did do that at first.  I’m only just a little bit neurotic.

This morning, my errands included going to the gym and grocery shopping.  I decided to try out a store I’d never been to, because it’s literally within walking distance of Blythe’s school and I figured, hey, why not?  The closer, the better, in my opinion.

In the dairy aisle I randomly ran into someone I knew in high school – someone I was actually happy to see, even if I was wearing sweaty gym clothes.  We spent some time catching up, exchanging contact info, and setting up a time this summer when we’re going to get our families together.

After our chat I had to hustle up to the cashier so that I wouldn’t be late picking Blythe up from preschool.  She scans the stuff and I’m proud of myself for being 30+ dollars under budget (probably due to the fact that the store had  no organics and I’ll have to go elsewhere to spend my “extra” $30).

I slide my credit card through and it asks for my PIN.  I tell the lady I’m paying with credit, not ATM, and should I slide it back through?  Um, no.  They don’t take credit cards.  They take ATM cards, cash, and local checks.

This is where I digress a little and tell you that I pay for everything with a credit card.  We work that thing for every reward point we can, and the credit card company keeps track of the categories of our purchases, so that we know exactly how much we’re spending on everything without any work at all on our part.  We pay it off at the end of every month, so there’s no interest, and we buy the majority of our Christmas gifts with the reward points we earn.  It’s our system, and it works for us!

So, anyway.  I don’t have an ATM card – on the rare occasions that I need cash, I go in to the bank.  I also don’t carry a check book, because, hello?  Haven’t you seen that commercial where the world stops spinning when someone pulls out a checkbook?  Checkbooks are so two decades ago.  Mine is in our filing cabinet for when I have to pay a bill that I can’t pay through our bank’s automatic billpay service.

Back to this morning.  I’m staring at the cashier, speechless.  I mean, what major retailer doesn’t take credit cards?  This one, apparently.

I look at the time.  I have exactly 5 minutes to get to Blythe’s school.  There’s no time to go to the bank.

I dig around in my purse.  I actually have some cash for once, but I’m $27.30 short.  The cashier tells me to start handing back the things I don’t need.

Immediately the movie Terms of Endearment comes to mind – that time she’s trying to pay for groceries but is a few dollars short and her kids think their candy is more important than her midol  and she looks like she’s about to slap them into next week.

I have no idea how to go about putting back nearly $30 worth of groceries, the clock is ticking, and the customers in line behind me are getting annoyed.  I seriously consider running out of there empty handed.

Then I hear a voice behind me – it’s my old friend, and she’s offering to pay for my extra $27.30 worth of groceries.  I thank her profusely, apologize a hundred times, and bag my groceries with a beet-red face. 

I don’t care how close it is to Blythe’s preschool, I won’t be shopping there ever, ever, ever again.

Let’s recap, shall we?  I haven’t seen my old friend in years.  The one time I do see her, I’ve got my hair in a messy pony tail, no make up on, and my clothes are visibly sweaty.  I probably even stink, although fortunately the flies haven’t yet found me.  And now I need her to pay for my groceries because I don’t have enough money.

I’m taking bets on whether that family get-together ever happens.