FEBRUARY FREEZER DAY

Mom and I had another Freezer Cooking Day yesterday. We got a lot done basically in just a couple hours. This month we made:

Lil' Cheddar Meatloaves

Italian Beef

Vegetable Beef Stew

Pancakes

I also made up some ready made smoothie freezer bags, but forgot to take a picture.

I am LOVING this freezer cooking idea! It has made my life so much easier!

SUPER BOWL PICNIC

We didn't go anywhere or have anybody over to watch the Super Bowl, and in fact, Jared didn't even really watch much of it! But for dinner we had a little "picnic" in the living room with some fun snacky football themed goodies.

Chocolate Covered Football Strawberries, Football Cheese and Crackers, Guacamole Dip in a football bowl, and .... popcorn (because Morgan requested it!)

Healthy meal, I know! :) But it's fun once in awhile, right?

Kelsey even got in on the festivities by tasting her own homemade baby food avacados.....She wasn't all that crazy about this veggie, though. (Truth be told, I'm not really either unless it's mixed with sour cream and salsa!)

FREEZER COOKING

First ever Freezer Cooking Day was a success. Mom watched the girls while I went to Walmart....twice. Yeah, I left my wallet at home the first time. Grrr. Anyway, while the girls napped, we hammered out enough Southwest Rollups, Breakfast Burritos, Lasagna Casserole, and Marinated chicken for me to have at least 2 meals of each, and Mom to have one meal of each. Later, I made pancakes as well to freeze. Whew. Tired, but so excited to have so many freezer meals ready for those nights I just don't want to cook!

This is what my kitchen looked like! At one point, Mom said, "I think we have used every single pan in your cupboards!" But I didn't mind. It was so worth it! Thanks, Mom, for a fun day! Can't wait for next month!

DAIRY FREE NO MORE!

Yes, that is yogurt that Morgan is enjoying for lunch today. We have slowly been introducing more and more dairy products, and we really are now to the point where I don't read any labels, and she pretty much eats whatever we eat. I don't have to pack food when we go places either now, which is SO nice! When we first started this trial / introducing dairy back in September, she was dealing with seasonal allergies as well, so it was sometimes hard to tell what was causing some of her symptoms: the food or the season! But now that she is over that, we haven't had any complications at all to her eating dairy / milk. I have yet to give her straight milk to drink, but other than that, she has been able to enjoy pizza, cheese, yogurt, ice cream, mac and cheese, and a bunch of other things. She of course is loving it all! We see the allergist again in Feb. for an update, but I see no reason at this point why we can't say we are "all clear." Hip, hip, hooray!

SNOWMAN BREAKFAST

Our Tot School theme this week is "S is for Snowman." So, I made a snowman out of pancakes for Morgan today for breakfast. She sat and ate the.whole.thing. Every last marshmallow and pretzel. She wouldn't let me have any of it. (I was planning on eating at least one of the pancakes.) She won't be hungry for lunch! :)

AND THE VERDICT IS.....YUM!

Morgan got her first taste of cheese today! Yep, you heard right...dairy! We got back the results of her bloodwork from last week, and according to the test results, she has no traceable signs of a milk allergy anymore! YEA!!!!!!!!!!!!! However, the allergist and specialist reminded us that "traceable" is the key word. They both said that just because the test showed it being gone, that doesn't mean her body is ready yet to fully embrace dairy. BUT, last year at this time, the "markers" were 1.24 (whatever that means.....I really don't know!), and now they are "not traceable," so in my mind, that is a big accomplishment! We are supposed to ease into it very slowly, giving her a couple bites of cheese for a few days, then a bit of yogurt, then increase the amounts a bit, then we can start introducing actual cow's milk if all goes well. Then, after a few weeks, we can stop reading labels and ...... oh, I see a whole new world opening up for her...and us! Okay, I can't jump ahead. We still have a long road to go. Remember, she doesn't have immediate reactions to the milk. Her reactions are delayed and can be very subtle and easy to miss. SO, this could take awhile. Plus, who is to say that she will like drinking milk? She LOVES her specialized Neocate that we call her "milk," so she may not want to switch. But .... we'll cross that bridge if we come to it.

I only gave her a few bites of cheese as the doctor said, and she immediately said, "Mo cheese pease!" She was a bit upset when I wouldn't give her any more. Well, at least she likes it! :)

Another first for her today was getting to eat a cookie! Jared wanted me to make cookies, but I didn't have any chocolate chips, so I used a bag of white chocolate chips I had and made chocolate cookies with white chocolate chips instead. As I was reading the recipe I realized that if I just used our "non dairy" butter for now, Morgan could have the cookies, too (minus the white chocolate chips). So, I made her a few cookies without the chips, and gave her one for dessert tonight. Oh my! A little bit of heaven for a girl who has had VERY LITTLE sweets in her life! LOL!

CRACKERS

Even when I'm sick, I still want my crackers! After my nap this morning, I seemed a bit more peppy again and wanted to walk around with my car. I kept going past the pantry, stopping to touch the door and look at Mommy and say "cracker!" Yes, I know exactly where Mommy keeps them now.

Also this morning during our Bible story time, Mommy was reading me the story in my Bible book about how God provided manna for his people in the desert. I kept pointing to the pictures of the manna on the ground and insisting they were "crackers!"