More cooking

Since Joanna's coeliac diagnosis I spend ALOT of time cooking. Bought gluten free food is hideously expensive (I'm talking about products that use gf flours, not the stuff that just happens to be gf) and not usually very nice.

In a typical week I now cook breakfast 4 or 5 mornings a week (only boiled eggs or pancakes - nothing too exciting!) and try to plan dinner to have enough left over to do lunch the next day. I go through cycles of being ok with all the extra work (extra when compared to my previous gluten consuming life) and cycles of feeling like I would rather gouge my own eyeballs out with a rusty fish hook than cook anything. ever. again.

I try to keep extreme fed-up-ed-ness away by trying new recipes fairly often. I find that I'm particularly keen to find good recipes to replace foods that Joanna might otherwise not get to have.

We had these burgers tonight with the bread rolls from this book (best gf bread recipe I've found, and boy have I tried a few!) and it was great, except that I'm pretty sure I'm not tolerating the xanthan gum in the bread recipe well. Arghh! The bread still tastes good without it, but doesn't have much spring to it. Looks like we'll have to put up with that though.

I've also cooked a few things from the Women's Weekly Gluten and Allergy free cookbook - the banana bread and the pizza scrolls are really great.

I'm always on the lookout for new things to try - does anyone know of anything that's worth a go?

Dizzy

I did a somersault this morning for the first time in I don't know how many years. I think it will take me awhile to recover. Better call the Australian Gymnastics squad and let them know I won't be taking up that position after all.

An epiphany

Having a three year old boy is almost exactly like having a pet. A cute, lovable, insane, incredibly naughty pet. I'm hoping he morphs into a real person sometime in the next few years.

5 things I like about text messages

1. You don't need to have a good reason to text someone
2. You can contact someone without having a long conversation
3. They're portable (provided you remember to charge your battery!)
4. You can stay in touch with people who don't feel like having phone coversations (eg overdue pregnant friends.... I know I didn't answer the phone for days at a time when I was overdue!)
5. You can get away with terrible spelling

Want to add anything?

Three months!!

The newest member of our family is three months old today (unless you count the cockroaches, dust mites etc - which are sort of family members in that they live in our house and eat our food - which are probably less than 3 months old) and being the bad bad blogger that I am I haven't even posted about her yet.

She is the most gorgeous and lovely baby... no, I'm not biased, she really is! She's cuddly and smiley and happy (or maybe it's that the general cacophony around here drowns out her crying so I don't notice it) and generally good fun to have around. Mind you she doesn't have much to complain about - her older brother and sister make it their life mission to keep her happy and entertained.

She's just learned to grab things (usually with a look of great surprise on her face that there is SOMETHING IN HER HAND!) and loves lying under her toy frame or in the bouncer, swatting at the toys. She's quite happy to do this for a long long time - I'm hoping this is because of her placid nature, not just because she has the memory of a goldfish and doesn't realise she should actually be incredibly bored. She adores the baby in the mirror and reserves her best smiles and squeals for her. I'm sure she thinks she can talk - she will have quite a prolonged conversation with anyone who's up for it (esp the baby in the mirror) and actually says "goo" which I think is funny!

Oh yes and she has a name - Miriam Susanna, which I like (obviously) although I have had some strange reactions from other people (including a long story about someone's horrified reaction when someobody else called their daughter Miriam - not sure quite what they expected me to say!!). What else? She is a giant baby (7kg exactly at 12 weeks) and has a very pointy head which I'm sure is because she needs the extra brain space.

Ok enough blathering on, here are some pics. I'm currently between computers with regards to pics, so these will all be recentish ones. Maybe I'll post some newborny ones later.

Smiley

Struggling to lift her massive cheeks