Breakfast for dinner

One of my favorite quick and cheap dinners is breakfast. The kids love to find out we're having pancakes and bacon or waffles for dinner. And really, sometimes it's just nice to have pancakes whenever you feel like it!

The kids went to Grammy and Pa-pa's for a bit tonight, so Christopher and I had breakfast for dinner. Instead of pancakes, though, we had western skillet omelet. Neither of my children will touch eggs, so I save this one for when they're gone!

Western Skillet Omelet

1/2 bag frozen hasbrowns (cube style)
1 t. seasoning salt
1 T. olive oil
1 green pepper diced
1/2 can diced tomatoes
1 green onion, sliced
4 eggs

1. Heat oil in skillet over med. heat. Add half a bag of hashbrowns and seasoning salt. Cook 10 minutes and add peppers, onion and half a can of diced tomatoes (freeze the other half for next time). Cook until hashbrowns are tender. Reduce heat to low. Make four wells in the hashbrowns. Crack one egg into each well. Cover and cook until yolks are set (about 15 minutes).

This is such an easy recipe and one of my favorites- I have leftovers in the fridge for morning! The original recipe calls for fresh tomatoes, but I find that canned diced tomatoes give it a lot more zing and it's so much easier than cutting tomatoes!

Two great sides

Every good meal deserves equally good sides. Tonight, we had humburgers grilled on the stove. We also had seasoned potatoes and noodle rice pilaf. YUM!

Seasoned potatoes

3 medium potatoes
3 T. dairy-free margarine
2 t. lemon pepper seasoning

Slice potatoes into 1/4 inch thick slices. Melt margarine and mix with lemon pepper seasoning. Pour over potatoes and toss to coat. Bake in a single layer at 400 for 20 minutes.


Noodle Rice Pilaf

2 T dairy-free margarine
1/4 cup broken egg noodles
1/2 cup rice
1 1/3 cups chicken broth

In a saucepan, melt butter and brown noodles and rice until golden brown. Add broth. Return to a boil and reduce heat to low. Cover and cook 15 minutes or until liquid is absorbed.

Tonight's meal was a yummy one!

Long neglected

It's been a while since I've been here! A month, to be exact! It's hard enough keeping up with one blog, let alone two! I promise to keep this more up to date!

In the past month, we've found out that dairy was the cause of Kate's GI issues. After an ultrasound of her gallbladder, we were able to rule that out. Two weeks of pepcid after that helped pave the way. Now Dr. B has her completely dairy-free and she's doing great! She hasn't had one single GI upset since we took her off of dairy. Before that, she was getting sick every 2-3 days. YUCK! She's slowly getting used to not having her cheese. She's decided that she likes rice milk on her cereal, so that's a big plus! Her daily cheese "fix" in her lunchbox and milk on her cereal were really her only dairy consumption, so here at home, it hasn't been that big of a lifestyle change. Preston had requested dairy-free chocolate for Christmas from Santa, and he followed through, bringing both of them chocolate Santas. Kate was over the moon (she loves chocolate) to get to eat chocolate again. Preston didn't care for it because it tasted like his dairy-free chocolate chips that he happens to like. ???

We made it through all of Christmas with plenty of goodies. The kids made sugar cookie cutouts and I turned them loose with the piping bags. They loved it! We also made marshmallows and they were delicious! They had to be rolled in sugar because they were so sticky, and they kicked the crud out of Peeps! I bet they'd make some awesome s'mores! They're definitely something we'll make again!

Day 4

Today was the fourth straight day of Kate being 100% dairy-free, and if the past four days are any indication that things are on the upswing, then I'm totally optimistic! In those 4 short days, I have seen an amazing transformation in her behavior alone. She's not as agitated or uptight, and doesn't constantly pick fights with Preston- a blessing in it's own right! She's easier to get along with, and it's so nice. If you've ever read Doris Rapp, MD's book, "Is This Your Child" you know how food allergies don't always take the "normal" path in terms of reactions, and can often cause behavior problems.

Food wise, she's also doing well and adjusting to not having her dairy products. I make sure to pack her lunch very full so that there's lots to choose from to fill her up- she's also eating like a horse just because she's 10. I think she's realizing that most of the foods she already ate were dairy-free, so this hasn't been that big of a change. Breakfast is the hardest because she always had French toast sticks or Eggos, but she's been happy with toast and Pop-Tarts. The rest of the meals are all dairy-free anyway so they're no different.

I still worry that this may not be dairy related, and may be something GI and not even allergy related at all, but I find it kind of odd that it always happened after she had eaten dairy. Our plan now is to stay dairy-free. Once Christmas break rolls around and she's out of school, if she's still doing well, I'm making an appt. with her ped. so see what she thinks the next step should be. I don't know if she'll want us to try Lactaid and re-introduce dairy or see an allergist. We'll see.

Going dairy-free is not easy

Being dairy-free for Preston has always been pretty easy. He's never really had dairy, except for accidental exposures, so he doesn't know what he's missing. Kate on the other hand, is not doing so well on her dairy-free regime. She desperately wants milk. DESPERATELY. I feel bad for her! She went to a Girl Scout even yesterday. I packed her lunch and a snack (thankfully everyone had to pack a lunch) to make sure she was covered. Well, this was a cooking event, and apparently they had to try what they made. They made omelets, sandwiches, and smoothies. Guess which one she tried... The smoothie. And guess what happened... She woke up in the middle of the night throwing up. Again...

So we had a little talk today about how important it is to stay away from dairy until we figure this all out. Tomorrow is nacho day at school, and I stressed that she is NOT to pawn any of her friends' nachos at lunch. I also added a little ultimatum in there as well... if she comes home throwing up because she ate their nachos, she's doing all the clean-up herself!

Please pray that we survive this! I am SO sick of throw-up!

I love Preston's school!

Just a few short months ago, before Preston went off to Kindergarten, I was a basket-case. I was terrified of sending him off to be in someone else's care all day, every day. And it wasn't just because I'd had him home with me for just short of six years, but sending an allergic child off to school is a whole other story! Christopher insisted he would go to public school, like Kate, and that he'd be fine. I on the other hand, had some serious fears. I feared he'd be stuck at a table all by himself at lunch and be cast as the loner. I had fears of life-threatening reactions and so many teachers, unaware of his allergies. I had registration forms to the private schools, all ready to be filled out the second I found something wrong.

But, the day came and I had to send him off. As worried as I was, I felt peace. I had done all I possibly could to prepare him, his teacher, and the school staff. He had his medic alert necklace, the school had his Benadryl and Epipen on hand. His teacher knew that he was not to eat or touch any food that I didn't send in. The school nurse informed me that every teacher in the school would be notified of his allergies, and all knew what to do in the event of an emergency.

Early in the morning on the first full day of school, his teacher called and asked about a food project they were doing, and wanted to know how she could make it safe for him. It was a jello painting project, and they were using a safe brand, so I gave the go-ahead. This wasn't the only time his teacher called with similar inquiries. When his birthday rolled around, I was given permission to bake my own treats and bring them in for him, instead of them being store-bought. I got a call today that one of the children in Preston's class was having a birthday, and they asked if I could bring in a treat for Pres.

All my worries were for nothing. There's always going to be that nagging little fear that something could happen, but I don't worry like I used to. He's in a great school, with great staff. I love how there's always a teacher by the front doors each morning, opening them for the children and greeting them by name. I love how they're always so friendly after school when I pick him up, and when we see them outside of school. It's great to feel comfortable. It's great that he loves school.

Another one bites the dust

Maybe that's not exactly the best way to phrase it, but it looks like Kate will now be going completely dairy-free, at least for the time being.

Kate has always been my picky one. Long before Preston came around, she was hooked on cheese. She LOVED it, lived for it. Since cheese served as a big caloric intake for her, as well as fat since she didn't eat much meat, we really couldn't take it away from her. So she was allowed to eat cheese and yogurt, mainly at school, but I would let her have cheese at lunch if she ate it with a fork (no milk on her hands).

Lately, Kate has been having some "digestive" issues, and having them on a fairly regular basis. These episodes tended to pop up on Monday mornings after she had eaten cheese bread at my grandmas on Sunday night. Maybe "eaten" isn't the most accurate term, either- more like gorged herself. Yeah... Then last night we went to Pizza Hut to use a free coupon Preston had earned at school. Ironic, yes. Pres had his Burger King, and Kate ate free off the buffet, and after a long day of Christmas shopping and Girl Scouts, I wasn't about to cook.

Lo and behold, Kate woke up today with stomach pain. She whined and tried to get out of school, but she only has one more day before she reaches her 6-days a semester limit for being absent, so off she went. The school called around 10:00 to say that Kate was in the office with a stomach ache and no temp. I told them she'd eaten too much cheese and that she was just fine. She made it through the day, but just minutes ago, I had to go upstairs for the second time to clean up puke.

So starting immediately, Kate is completely dairy-free as well. I'm pretty confident that this will solve her issues. The child that once tolerated dairy so well, seemingly overnight about a month ago, started having issues with it. Now it's taking less and less for her to feel bad. I can't say it's an allergy, but with Preston, it's a very real possibility. I'm thinking lactose intolerance due to only GI symptoms, but we'll see. Won't this make packing school lunches for Miss Pick so much fun?