5 Months

Yesterday, C turned 5 months old!  I really can't believe it, it seems like he just turned 4 months old last week.  He still has no hair, but is as cute as ever.  I get SO many comments on his big brown eyes, people call him owl baby.  I thought that was funny, so I had a friend of mine make him an owl hat:

She can make ANYTHING you can think of, and does custom orders!  Here's her shop, and her facebook album with some more pictures.  

C is doing really well, and growing like crazy (as you can see from the picture, he's a bit of a chunker)! He's laughing and cooing and babbling and blowing raspberries all the time.  He loves his daddy, and if my husband starts talking or moving around in the same room while C is eating, he'll pull off to stare at Daddy and see what he's doing.  

We have his allergies pretty well under control; I've eliminated the top 8 allergens from my diet (dairy, soy, wheat, egg, peanut, tree nut, fish, and shellfish), and thankfully it seems like that has done the trick.  I've tried challenging each of those foods (I didn't challenge peanuts because he'd had a reaction to everything up until then and I didn't want to put him through any more when I was pretty sure he'd react, and I don't eat seafood, so the fish/shellfish thing is easy for me), and he's reacted to everything I've challenged, so we're sticking with those eliminations and they're helping a lot.  I have a happy, healthy baby, and I'm below my pregnancy weight!

It's been rough getting used to this diet.  I have to cook pretty much everything from scratch to make sure that there aren't any allergens hidden in the ingredients, and I've had to find substitutions for foods.  Rice flour for flour, using 1/4 cup of applesauce in place on an egg in baking, spaghetti squash or rice pasta in place of wheat noodles, corn tortillas instead of flour, tahini paste instead of peanut butter (for the record, tahini paste does NOT taste good by itself, but I use it in Muddy Buddies and the chocolate and sugar cover it up well), and so on.  I miss my milk a LOT, and cheese on all my food, but I think I'm coping well.  

I'm nervous about the holidays.  We're going to be visiting family, so not only do I have to bring my cloth diapers to launder (C gets rashes from disposables), but I have to figure out how I'm going to feed myself.  I feel bad telling other people what they can and can't cook when I'm a guest (I prefer to eat at home before we go places), and I can't really trust food without cooking it myself or reading ALL  the ingredients used.  You wouldn't believe how many spices/sauces use soybean oil!  I just feel like I'm going to be a burden, so I'm going to have to find a Trader Joe's or a Whole Foods when we get there to get myself food.  

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday EVER, and I'm not going to be able to eat anything!  I'm going to try and cook as much of the traditional holiday foods in an allergy-friendly way.  We'll see how everything goes.

I can't believe my little boy is growing so quickly.  Here's a picture, but I couldn't get him to sit still for a second, so he has a blurry arm that he was waving around and kicking, lol:

Trader Joe's

I took a trip to Trader Joe's today, and got some awesome stuff!  The TJ brand of soft-baked snickerdoodle cookies are free of the top 8 allergens, and they're SO delicious!  They don't even taste like substitute-cookies, they taste like real, soft, chewy, yummy cookies!  Wow, that was a lot of exclamation points, lol.

I also tried some of their brown rice bread.  It has good flavor, but is a little dense; not light and fluffy like wheat bread.  But, I'll take it!  I also got some brown rice four tortillas, which I haven't tried yet.  I got some gluten free brownie mix and pancake/waffle mix!  They call for an egg, but I'll substitute apple sauce.  OR, the lady working at TJ (who was immensely helpful) said that sometimes she uses canned pumpkin for an egg substitute.  How delicious does that sound?  Pumpkin waffles, or cookies, or whatever?

Today was a really good food day for me.

Spaghetti... Squash

Pasta is one of my favorite foods EVER.  Unfortunately, it's no longer a part of my diet, and rice pasta is $$$.  Now that it's fall, squash is all over the produce section.  So I thought about making spaghetti, with spaghetti squash!

Ingredients: 

• Spaghetti Squash (half a squash was a large serving for me, so a whole one would probably serve 2)
• Pasta Sauce (I just used jarred marinara, you can use whatever you like)

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 400* 
2. Cut squash into quarters, once across the middle, then split in half
3. Use a spoon to clean out seeds and "guts"
4. Put quarters flesh up on a cookie sheet and bake for 45 mins to an hour
5. Meanwhile, heat up marinara sauce
6. When the squash is done, use a fork to shred flesh and make "noodles"
7. Toss in sauce and serve

This turned out really good, and it's super easy! 

Sauteed Squash

This is a great snack or side dish.  I use half a squash for a small meal for myself, and it would probably be enough for 2-3 servings as a side dish.

Ingredients:

• Squash of your choice (I prefer butternut)
• Olive Oil
• Seasoned Salt
• Garlic Powder
• Onion Powder
• Pepper

Directions:

1. Peel squash with a carrot/potato peeler (If you're using something like a spaghetti squash where this is difficult, skip this step)
2. Cut squash into roughly-same-sized cubes (you can cut off skin if you skipped step 1)
3. Put in just enough oil to coat the pan, and add squash and seasonings (you can change seasonings depending on what you have and what you like)
4. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until squash is soft all the way through and is just beginning to look translucent.  If you have bigger pieces that aren't cooking well, turn the heat down to medium-low and cover the squash to let them steam a little.  
5. Serve and enjoy!

This is fairly quick and very delicious and filling.  I've made the squash savory, but I'm considering trying a sweet squash in the future (saute with some margarine, add vanilla, cinnamon, and sugar?).  If I try it and it turns out, I'll post the recipe :)