Food and Preschool

Lately, I have realized how much wheat we consume. We eat bread, pasta, cookies, crackers and the list goes on and on. While, I am definitely not going to cut out all flour, I do want to minimize it just a little bit. Tony, will be the one I have a hard time convincing. I made almond butter the other day, and Gabe seems to like it. I like peanut butter better if I am going to eat it plain, but it has a milder flavor than peanut butter and is great for baking. I also bought a huge bag of almonds from SAMs club yesterday and will be attempting to make my own almond flour. Here are 2 recipes that I have tried and really enjoyed!


http://www.pbfingers.com/2012/07/29/almond-butter-pancakes/


http://detoxinista.com/2012/02/flourless-peanut-butter-chip-cookies/
If you make 16 cookies, you or your child will be getting a whole tablespoon of almond butter or whichever nut butter you chose! Score for those picky eaters who you swear are surviving on 10 calories a day.

My parents have 6 hens now, and they lay 3.5 dozen eggs every week. Free cage free eggs!  I love free!

Gabe will not eat rice, but he will eat pasta. I may try to make or purchase brown rice flour pasta. Maybe I can sneak it past Tony...maybe he won't read this post and have an idea that it may happen.

Not that it's healthy, but I made chocolate coconut ice cream. It turned out pretty good once my ice cream maker was frozen all of the way. I used honey to sweeten it, and it probably could have used more.

http://livingwellonless.com/2011/06/13/dairy-free-coconut-milk-ice-cream-you-wont-even-miss-the-dairy-i-promise/

On a separate note. You would not believe how the 2 year olds in my class don't just jump into finger painting. A little boy in my class kept asking if he was supposed to put his fingers in the paint. YES! Put your fingers in it! You are 2! Be messy! We are working on our listening skills. Today, I took one of each of their shoes and placed them around the room. Then, one at a time I asked them to find a shoe that was not their own. That was hard for them to grasp, but they got it and they matched the missing shoe to its original owner. We are going to paint with ice tomorrow since we are learning about the letter I and there will be clothes pins inside the cubes for them to hold onto. We are also talking about clothing...I thought the clothes pins worked well. I think I will also take some clothes and see if they can sort them into piles based on if you wear them when it is cold or hot. The busier we are, the shorter the day seems to be, and I feel like I am reunited with my Little Love Muffin that much faster! I do enjoy teaching those twos though.  I feel accomplished when they are able to sit still and listen for a few minutes or when I give them something that is developmentally appropriate.  I know moms will think that the artwork I have them do looks ugly, but I rejoice in Gabe's scribbles and spots that he does at home.  He hasn't brought anything home from school that I haven't said to Tony, "Gabe did not do this. This is an adult scribble. Or A one year old will not place letters on a piece of paper in a straight line."  He did come home with blue paint on his shirt today, and that made me a little excited for him. They wrote that he had finger painted.  I hope they let him do it.  I know it's messy, and sometimes it makes it more difficult to let children do their own artwork, but isn't that the point?  It is supposed to be theirs!