Dairy-Free Almond Butter Banana Smoothie

Mmmm, these were good! The whole family enjoyed. I was happy to make Miles a little treat now that he's eating better post weekend concussion, literally. I feel so bad for him. No more sock skating on the tile floor. :(

Anyways.....you will want to try these.

1 frozen banana
1 tablespoon chocolate almond butter (or chocolate or plain peanut butter)
almond milk
spinach

That's it! Enjoy. :)

Alternative Baking Company

Our local coffee drive-thru is now selling another great allergy-free treat, vegan cookies! We had not tried this brand before, but they worked! I didn't think to take a picture until the cookie was gone, ooops. But Miles and Graham loved this. There were a few chocolate chip cookie varieties that we can try. This is the same place that we drive through for Stacy's Pita Chips for the boys...and lattes for mom. We love Graba Java! :)

Dairy-Free Cake Rice Crispie Treats

We made these for Valentine's Day. We finally got around to trying the "cake mix" version for rice treats, which includes adding 1/2 cup of dry cake mix to the marshmallow and butter mixture before adding the rice. We used dairy-free Duncan Hines Strawberry Cake Mix. You could also use Duncan Hines Dairy Free Devil's Food, Spice, or Yellow Cake Mixes. I never noticed that Strawberry was dairy-free until recently. Miles was excited.

3 Tb Fleischmann's Unsalted Margarine
1 10 oz package of marshmallows
1/2 cup dairy-free cake mix
6 cups Rice Crispie Cereal

Melt first two ingredients in a large pot. Add cake mix until smooth. Then stir in rice. Press into a greased cake pan.

To get the cutter to work well, I kept it wet with water. That really helped keep the treats from sticking to the cutter...my best tip for these!

The dairy-free icing piped on was Pillsbury Classic Vanilla. I think our sugary treats like these are going to be few and far between from now on. We had a horrible dentist visit today. :(

Homeschool: Week 18

January 23-27

PHONICS:
Blend: cl
Words: clip, cluck, clap, clock, clam
Families: est, ust, mp, end
Words. nest, west, best, vest, rest, dust, must, just, rust, hump, bump, pump, dump, lump, jump, stump, clump
Service: off
Writing: cl, st, mp, nd

Miles and I hung out in his "library" when Graham was sick, watching television. We finished our library book about inventions. And then Miles worked on his transportation sticker book for awhile. He likes this little spot.





MATH:
MUS: 15B-15F
The boys love playing Uno. Jeff is good about playing with them, and I'm trying to join in more in the evenings.



ART:

The boys found wire at church and decided to make rings like mom and dad's.


PHYSICAL ED:
Miles is playing 6 weeks of indoor soccer. His first season indoor after several outdoor seasons. He of course loves it. I'm not bragging (or maybe I am), but he scores in every game. We have a very good coach who is trying to teach Miles to use his left foot. :)

Dairy-Free Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipe from Betty Crocker. I made these for a small group this week.

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar (I used half white sugar, didn't have enough brown)

1 cup butter or margarine, softened (Fleischmann's Unsalted Margarine)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg (1 tbs ground flaxseed + 3 tbs warm water substitute would work!)

2 cups quick-cooking oats

1 1/2 cups Gold Medal® all-purpose or unbleached flour (I used 1 cup white, 1/2 cup wheat)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt (you may want to double the salt since the margarine is salt-free)

1 cup chocolate chips (Enjoy Life Chips)

• Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, stir brown sugar and butter until blended. Stir in vanilla and egg until light and fluffy. Stir in oats, flour, baking soda and salt; stir in chocolate chips and nuts.
• Onto ungreased cookie sheet, drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart.
• Bake 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.

Valentine's Decor

Here are some of the Valentine's decorations up this year. It's just a lot of little things.

The kitchen shelf has a handmade LOVE piece of art that I did with Stampin' Up supplies. Those are my gorilla glue candle holders...candlestick + vase.


Another gorilla glue glass project sits on the kitchen table and holds the felt flower ball I made last year.


The kitchen island has our gumball machine filled with allergy-free red and pink candies, Mike and Ike's.


The speakers have milk glass filled with balls I made last year. There are t-shirt balls, ribbon balls, and yarn balls. Last year they sat in a cloche. This year they really pop on the white.



Last year I wrapped a wooden heart in red twine. I hung it from the living room mirror.


I strung paper hearts in the frame at the bottom of the stairs.


The bathroom shelf looks a lot like last year.


I framed some designer paper and glue dotted some paper hearts on the glass.


Valentine's Day is a week away! :)

I am linking to:

Dairy-Free Chocolate Peanut Clusters

I am just realizing what all we can make now with the peanut allergies gone. My sympathy to all of you who can't enjoy this triumph yet. Today the boys and I made chocolate peanut clusters using dairy-free Enjoy Life chocolate chunks. We just melted the chocolate in the microwave for 30 seconds, stirred in some peanuts, spread the mixture on wax paper, let it cool, and broke it into pieces.

Truth be told, I bought these peanuts for the Super Bowl but later realized they were low salt. Since Jeff isn't much interested now, I'm finding other ways to use them. :)

Homeschool: Week 17

PHONICS:
Introduce Blends: st, gr, sp, br
Add to Families using Blends: stick, Stan, stand, still, stop, stock, stuff, stack, Greg, grill, spit, spin, spun, speck, spill, spot, spent, brick, Brad, brand, brag, Brent
Service: was
Writing: br, gr, ?, sp, br
Reading: On the Trail
Punctuation:


MATH
MUS: 15A

Graham picked this up off the shelf instead of painting like Miles. I loved the initiative and the concentration! He stuck with this through several puzzles. I love watching his little fingers squish all the pieces together just so when he's done...making sure there's no space.


Since Miles doesn't quite write his numbers correctly, I'm trying to start Graham a little earlier. So far he enjoys tracing and writing them. Dry erase markers are always fun, too. Check out that tongue.


FIAR: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

I wasn't sure how much the boys would dig the poetic style to this book, but they loved it. We paid a lot of attention to the pencil art, and that really intrigued them.


Miles even asked to make his own version. Here is his pencil sketch of snowy woods with a colored image of the man in the poem. I absolutely love this! The ear muffs are a great touch. :)


We made snowflake baked tortillas. Mmmmmm!


SCIENCE:

We went to the IL State Museum with some homeschool friends. The children's room is fantastic. The boys did some fossil digging, looked through powerful microscopes, and Miles took apart and reassembled this foam skeleton. I am so proud of his desire to learn and explore.


Graham also paid very good attention to the tour guide.


ART:

Miles wanted to watercolor paint after he gave pencil sketching a try. He tried to do black and white paint with a splash of color, just like in our FIAR book. But he got a little frustrated that it was harder to do with paint than with pencil, because paint is his favorite.


PRACTICAL LIFE:

Miles loves homemade bread and asked if we could make it every day. So I thought it would be fun to teach him how to make it. We wrote out a "kid friendly" recipe card so he could make it later "by himself". We shared this first loaf with our Bible Study so we could have a reason to make more soon. In the next few days, Miles did make a batch pretty much by himself. I just had to make sure he used the right measuring cups and spoons. But it turned out great, and this may be one of his new "jobs". :)


BIBLE:

Jeff and I teach the Sunday School class once a month. So I took some pictures the last time we were in there. We are so glad the class is "food-free" so Miles is safe in there. It only took 6+ years for us to finally feel good putting our kiddies in a church room without us. At our church, Miles will be back in the service with us soon. But for now, he is enjoying this time with his friends and learning about Jesus. It's a sweet time for all of us.