vegan gingerbread men

 I have been experimenting with recipes for my son who is allergic to egg and milk (among other things). I found (and played about with) a recipe for vegan gingerbread that worked pretty well and Levi loved it…….

Big bro helped with the baking…

 I am still looking for lots of great egg, soya and dairy free/vegan baking recipes so if you have a good one send it my way and I may try it out.

Recipe;

Gingerbread Biscuits (Allergy Free)

• 80ml sunflower oil/ olive oil/coconut oil (any is fine)
• 6 oz sugar (white or light brown)
• 60ml black treacle/molasses
• 60ml soya milk/orange juice ( I used the juice as my son cannot have soya yet)
• 12oz all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 ½  teaspoons mixed spice
• 2 ½  teaspoons ground ginger

In a bowl or food processor beat the sugar and oil for a few minutes. Add the treacle/molasses and soya milk/juice and stir in.
In another bowl sift all the dry ingredients and gradually add to the wet until you get a stiff dough and all the dry mix is used up.
 Put into a freezer bag and flatten out the dough with your hands. Refrigerate for at least an hour (or up to three days). You may need to rest the dough for 10 mins to soften if it has been in the fridge more than an hour.

Preheat oven to 175 c. Put baking paper on your baking trays.

Roll your dough to about 1/4 inch thick. I find the easiest way to do this is between two pieces of baking paper, it means you won’t need flour.  Cut into your desired shapes (patterns can be made onto the dough e.g. eyes with a cocktail stick) .Bake for 8 minutes (10 minutes if you like them a little crunchier).

Remove from oven and let them rest for 2 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack. Make sure they are completely cool if you plan to decorate.

Belgium by night

I tried to take a picture of a lovely night sky, it never translates as well to photo. But still fairly pretty.

 

my little pumpkin, birthdays and allergies

 I have been away far too long. The main reason lies with the little pumpkin (not the big orange one) in the picture above. Since around the time of the last post Levi’s skin was progressively getting worse, rashes were all over his body especially his face and he was vomiting, had red itchy eyes and was sometimes wheezy too (particularly after his bath we noticed).

  

 I visited my doctor and we were both convinced that allergies were to blame for the eczema. I was convinced that milk was a factor. It was when the skin began turning into wet weeping eczema that I was referred to the hospital. I was feeling despair that the eczema bath oil plus creams were not stopping his skin from becoming worse. I am glad I took the pictures as a record now as it got so bad.

 After then seeing a pediatrician and a dermatologist and eventually having some RAST allergy tests done it emerged that Levi was allergic to cows milk and potato. I was referred to a specialist dermatologist who then carried out some more allergy tests, this time scratch tests on his back. She tested for common allergens; milk and potato (to confirm), egg and peanuts which all came back positive. We were particularly concerned about the nut allergy. It then became clear why his skin had become so bad and why he had been wheezy after baths. The dermatologist realised that the bath oil he had been prescribed for his skin actually contained nut oil and even though I had reduced his bath time to once a week it was why his skin was becoming worse not better. The amazing thing was that as soon as we ceased using the oil and changed his milk his skin recovered to almost perfect in a matter of about a week. Anyway, he will be allergy tested again when he is one, and we will see if some of the allergies have become less/more sensitive or if they are the same. Then he may be able to eat more foods as at the moment he is avoiding so much “just to be cautious”. I am playing with the idea of starting another blog to do with levi and food allergies where I can also post any recipes I use. hmmmm

 His skin is almost perfect now, the odd little rash but nothing to worry about. He is happy and healthy and that makes me happy too!

 Ollie turned two in June and will start school in January (as is in Belgium). He loves his little bro but doesn’t always appreciate sharing his toys! I cannot believe how quickly things have gone, Ollie is speaking so much now, mainly English but some Flemish, I think it will come along very quickly once he starts school though.

chalky fun

 Today we had lots of fun with Ollie’s chalk board. He has had it since Christmas but not really used it so I brought it out from his bedroom and got the chalks out for some fun.

 Ollie was enjoying being a proper little artiste!

 Next I used the side of a huge chalk to cover the board and Ollie dipped his hands in water and got to work. I must say he enjoyed this task the most.

 Notice that the handles have been taken off of our cabinet, it is the only way to stop that toddler!

 Cute little hand prints

Afterwards the hungry boy had meat (veggie) balls and pasta. Not sure he is ready to give Levi any tips on clean eating just yet!

lovely

 This morning I saw this tree painted on someones house in Leuven, I would love to do this on our house but I think the hubby would say nay to that idea!  Levi and I were spending a day out paying medical bills and doing a little shopping while Ollie was at creche.

 When Ollie returned from creche he was clutching a pretty flower (I think it is a type of lilac, but I am happy to be corrected, I would quite like to find one for my garden, it smelled gorgeous). Apparently he had picked it off a bush at creche and said it was for mama.

 This is the best type of gift.

 Thanks Ollie. Daddy got a couple of Dandelions from the lawn, which spread seeds everywhere when he picked it, Daddy got more weeds as his gift.

shadow inspiration

I have been having some fun with my camera and photoshop. Seeing these flower shadows gave me some ideas for future projects. I hope to get a better camera soon, although I rather like the grainy appearance of these pictures. I also love the muted colours.

Easter

 For breakfast I made these cool eggs. What a fab idea!

 Also, some hand-painted egg cups, I didn’t want to leave Levi out, but Daddy ate the extra egg. The supposedly permanent paint ran on the Dad one, so not sure how long these will last.

 The easter egg hunt was the best part of the day, Ollie was very excited by all the chocolate eggs. I was loving the little basket he made at creche. Not sure why he felt the dead daffodils needed to be collected too!

 Ollie seemed worried that we were going to take away his little eggs as he clutched as many as possible in his hands and guarded them fiercely.

“Don’t you touch my eggs Daddy!”

 Other news is that Levi is learning to eat. Something he is not finding too difficult, bless him

lunch under the confetti tree

I used to call these confetti trees when I was little, I would shake the branches so the petals flew all over the place and all over me. If there weren’t so many people walking around the gardens I think I would have done with this tree.

Levi and I sat on the bench and he had lunch.

So pretty!

Growing things….

 

 How lovely that after that cold cold Winter it has suddenly seemingly warmed up over night. After two years of mainly being pregnant and too tired to tackle the huge garden I am finally getting to grips with the things that need doing. That is slightly unfair as Carl is doing lots too, so that should be “we” are getting to grips with it. 

 I have, since last Autumn been composting all our fresh fruit and veg waste. One reason is that it seems silly to throw it all away when it can be used in the garden, it reduces the cost of our household waste too which is a big plus what with nappies coming from two under two.

 I am no composting expert but have attained a basic understanding from looking on line. Things I can and do compost are;

• uncooked fruit and veg waste
• egg shells
• used tea bags
• plant waste from the garden (I do not compost weeds though)
• Autumn leaves
• grass cuttings
• shredded paper

 I tend to put these in in any order and then every now and then Carl goes and turns it all over, see below.

 It is interesting seeing the amount of waste we create and how the compost bin seems to have hardly filled at all. When we used our green wheelie bin we created a whole big bin of waste every week that we had to pay to get rid of. So making something for free that will improve the quality of our plants is great. 

 There are so many things going on in the garden at the moment. We have just received three raised beds from here, a very appreciated Christmas gift, and plan to grow vegetables in them. I put one together this morning and it was shockingly easy. I cannot wait to eat something I have actually grown myself. We have all these seed packets waiting and it seems bizarre that they will become fully grown veg for us to eat! I will be eagerly taking pictures to document how get on.

Thankyou!

 A very big thankyou to Monika over at red 2 white for this lovely gift. This thankyou should have come earlier but I have spent a week with family in England and then had lots of distractions! I have already pinned the brooch to my denim jacket, it looks perfect! And I don’t think I will ever be able to use the soap, it will remain something lovely to look at!

 Go check out Monika’s shop, she is very talented and makes many varied and gorgeous things!