Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Baby is Already Making it's Debut!

11 Weeks


I forgot to post this last weekend but this was Valentine's Day when I was 11 weeks and starting to show already...more like the chubby phase but still never showed this early with the last 2!  Maybe that had something to do with being so sick my last two pregnancies I always lost weight in the first trimester because it was so difficult to keep anything down!  I am now 12 weeks!  I have been sick a few times but nothing I can complain about considering my past pregnancies.  Just really tired all the time,  


We had an early ultrasound because we couldn't get a heartbeat at my midwife appointment...same thing has happened with all 3 pregnancies...

Heart rate was 168 bpm so I'm thinking it's a girl right?  
I'm happy either way since I love both my girl and boy but it's fun to speculate!
It was an awesome Valentine's Day, my hubby and I don't really ever celebrate the holiday but we had this ultrasound and brought the kids and they were showering me with love and affection throughout the ultrasound, so excited to see the baby! They kept trying to kiss my tummy while it was covered with that ultrasound jelly!


Thursday, February 14, 2013

Gluten Free Boston Cream Donuts. Doughnuts


donuts.doughnuts.donuts

Gluten Free Dairy Free

Boston Cream Doughnuts 

With Whipped Coconut Cream



I have been away from my blog for a long time now!  It started with the computer crashing and losing the adapter to upload pics from my camera to my computer.  I am still having that problem as I'm using a crappy little tablet laptop that I don't enjoy but one of these days I'll get a new computer.  We have had a lot going on so it hasn't been top priority.  Things are mostly the same, Homeschooling is keeping us busy but we love it (most days) and the house is still on the market so that's awesome....not.  We need to get our butts from Nebraska to Georgia asap (although we love our home and peeps here!  that part is REALLY sad)  I have been really reluctant to leave as I grew to really appreciate the Omaha area over the past 2 years...It has a lot to offer for families without the traffic and other issues of living in a really large metro area.  But without further adieu let me get onto the Gluten Free Dairy Free Boston Cream Donuts (or doughnuts however you like to spell it) filled with whipped coconut cream!   

So far on this GF DF lifestyle I've been pretty positive about things and don't think too much about what I miss eating and can't have.  I've enjoyed figuring out how to eat well and usually feel like all the stuff I might miss eating was bad for me anyways.  HOWEVER!!!  I've been struggling lately..BECAUSE I'm PREGNANT!(which you can read about in my last post)  And I'm not vomiting non-stop this time around and instead actually have an appetite and suddenly it's hit me and I miss all kinds of my old favorite treats.    Especially donuts and in particular, some boston cream style donuts that used to be sold at my high school in Regina, SK when I was in 9th grade that instead of the typical custard pudding inside, had an explosion of whipped cream inside....they were my favorite!  So today we made gluten free dairy free donuts for the first time and attempted to bring back my favorite donut memories.

These Donuts turned out very yummy!  My only disappointment is that there was't as much of the whipped coconut cream inside as I thought I had put in there.  But is worked out because I had quite a bit extra whipped cream still in the bag so when we eat our donuts and get towards the middle where there was virtually no cream, we just piped some more onto it while eating and that did the trick.  

For the Donuts
I used a recipe from my new GF cookbook 1000+ Gluten Free Recipes

You can view the full recipe online HERE on pages 607-608

The only differences when I made the recipes was substituting potato starch for the corn starch because I'm trying to avoid corn right now.

Coconut Whipped Cream (dairy free whipped cream)
The Coconut Whipped Cream was very easy and heavenly!  I don't know why I waited so long to try making it....I want to just eat it for breakfast with a pile of strawberries!  To make the coconut cream I put a can of thai coconut milk in the fridge for a day.  After opening I drained out the liquid and what was left was the cream.  I put the cream in the mixer and whipped on high and added maybe a tablespoon of powdered sugar...maybe less...it wasn't very much. Then I filled a ziplock that had the corner cut and a icing tip inserted with the coconut cream.  Next I used a knife to cut a hole in the side of each donut, then inserted the icing tip into the hold and squeezed the bag to fill the donuts with the dairy free whipped cream.

Chocolate Frosting
For the Chocolate Frosting on the donuts, I used the Chocolate Syrup recipe from The Flying Apron cookbook that they use to top their macaroons.
It's a combination of dairy free chocolate chips, water, canola oil, and sea salt.  A Dairy Free Ganache would also be really yummy and work well to dip the donuts in and you can view my recipe for that here. (just make half the recipe or less though or you will have a lot extra.




Here are the gluten free donuts after a warm rise


This was the first donut, it burnt immediately, the oil was way too hot and I had to let it cool back to 375.
 

Frying the donuts the right way at 375 for 2 minutes or less total.


Drain them on paper towel.

Meanwhile made the whipped coconut cream
 

Put it in a large ziplock with a frosting tip on the end to pipe into the donuts for that gluten free boston cream donut goodness!

 Gluten Free Boston Cream filled donuts, ready to be dipped in chocolate.  (sorry the pictures are so bad it was dark)



Make a double boiler for the chocolate sauce / ganache
 Melt the chocolate chips and stir till smooth, then added the water, canola oil and sea salt.  Or you could add dairy free milk at this point to make ganache.  


Dip the donuts in the chocolate sauce / ganache





The next morning I got a better picture.  Once I bit into it I realized that there wasn't as much cream inside as I had thought.  But I had a bunch of extra whipped coconut cream still in the ziplock bag so I just piped a little more whipped cream onto the donut.  









Monday, February 11, 2013

My Christmas Present

I know this is a little late and after the fact, but I haven't blogged in a while so I thought I'd fill ya'll in!

For Christmas this year my husband wanted to get me a new sewing machine so I could be done with (and possible smash to bits with a hammer) my old brother sewing machine that I got on BlackFriday at Walmart for $50 a couple years ago. I am surprised at how much I actually did make with that machine but I swear everything took2-3 times longer because of the constant problems....anyways....so by the time Christmas came we hadn't purchased a new sewing machine yet because I'm still trying to figure out what I want.  

So for the sake of having something wrapped up and under the tree for me on Christmas, my husband has this tradition of going to the Dollar Store with his dad and brother on Christmas Eve and picking up some random things.  As a joke, he bought my mom a home drug test since she lives in WA and marijuana was just legalized there along with the fact that my mom usually has her essential oil diffuser running in the kitchen and the guys always tease her that it looks like a bong.  So that was funny to watch my LDS mom open on Christmas morning as a gag.  While she opened it and was laughing, I was handed a small gift from Tyler that said on the tag "Don't say I didn't give you anything for Christmas!"  and as I opened it up, it was a pregnancy test from the dollar store!  It was a total joke. I my have said something along the lines of "TYLER!" and quickly stashed it away in embarassment. I had forgotten about it until a day or two later he was about to go out to a shooting range with his Dad and Brother and before he left made a comment "Wouldn't that be awesome if you used that test and you actually WERE pregnant?!?"  I laughed like it was impossible and made some comment like "I'm pretty sure I'm not!" and didn't think much of it...until an hour or two after he left his comment came back to my mind and curiosity got the best of me, even though I really didn't think I was.  I took the Dollar Store Pregnancy test and this is what it read


Two lines....that means positive!  I was super excited and surprised but at the same time realized it was a DOLLAR STORE TEST so it doesn't count.  So later on I picked up another test from Walgreens and this time did it when Tyler was with me since I've just told him I was preggers the last 2 times and he'd never seen a test before.  The next one seemed to be a dud....nothing was happening. I started to get frustrated and shaking it up and down to get that pee to run down towards the results box since it wasn't doing it on it's own...we were about the give up and throw it in the trash...when finally the plus sign started to appear!  

So, even though I still haven't picked out my new sewing machine, I can't say that Tyler "didn't get me anything for Christmas" that's for sure!

A little back story-We originally wanted to start trying towards the end of spring 2012 but then we found out we would be moving to a new state and decided to wait until after we were moved and settled...which we thought would take like 2 months to sell our house and buy our next but obviously things haven't gone that way.  As the months passed we both still had it strongly on our hearts and finally not long ago, decided...you know what? it could be a year or more by the time we sell our house move and are settled and it could take up to a year to get pregnant after that!  It took 8-9 months to get pregnant with our 2nd. So we decided to place it in God's hands as his timing has proven time and time again to be much better than our own timing.  So we weren't TRYING, but we were just not worrying about it and trusting the Lord.  I was so surprised and didn't think it was possible because we had barely made that decision to put it in God's hands so that is why we were surprised to have a + result so soon!  And I am very thankful because I know what it's like to get frustrated when it's not happening right when you want and I know plenty of people wait a lot longer than I did with my 2nd so I am NOT taking this for granted at all.  

Also, the other concern we had and why we originally held off on baby #3 was because my past 2 pregnancies were HORRIBLE!  I was so sick I always lost weight, could barely function for more than half the pregnancy because the sickness was so terrible...and when I wasn't puking all day then I had debilitating migraines.  Our concern was how am I going to take care of 2 kids, homeschool one of them and keep the house clean for showings when I am that incapacitated!  But we gave it all up to the Lord and amazingly I have only been sick 2-3 times...both times revolved around a migraine but I have been to a chiro a couple times and that also seems to be helping.  And rather than puking my guts out non stop like I did the last 2 pregnancies....I actually have to eat like every 1.5-2 hours or else I start to feel crappy. I am not used to having a real appetite like this, especially eating while pregnant and not puking right after every time.  

I'm a little over 10 weeks right now and the only major complaints I have is being really really tired....oh and as my 5 year old informed the nurse at my prenatal visit with my midwife as we went over my medical history and symptoms she piped in "AND she has a lot of tutti frutti!" the nurse was confused and I was turning red. She asked her what Tutti Frutti meant and J plugs her nose and says "you know, pee-eww! like the baby has a poopy diaper or something!" then the nurse looked at me confused as I was laughing and I said "She's trying to tell you I have more gas than I used to!"  

And on that note....I figured I'd share our Christmas Family Portrait.  My two younger brothers in the back not standing next to any females are available :)