Gluten Free Friday Kickoff!

For the past couple of months I have been getting used to the idea that my life is now gluten free. It has been a hard transition and I am still learning a lot about how to be completely gluten free. I became gluten free after reading my friend Carrie's blog, Organic and Thrifty, and more specifically a book she recommended called "Why do I Still have Thyroid Symptoms? When my Lab Tests are Normal" My hair is no longer falling out, my vision is no long blurred throughout the day and my energy level is definitely up. If I do cheat and have some gluten I can definitely tell so I try to stay on the straight and narrow. I am grateful that I do not have severe symptoms from eating gluten.

So for my first Gluten Free Friday recipe I have made over one of my families all time favorites.

Coke Roast

Ingredients

2-3 lb roast
2 boxes of Pacific Natural Foods Organic Cream of Mushroom Soup
2 packets of Road's End Organics Gluten Free Quick Gravy mix
24 oz of Coke (full sugar not diet)
5 Carrots
5 Celery Stalks
1 Large Onion
15-20 Fingerling Potatoes (not pictured)
10-20 Button Mushrooms

Chop up all the vegetables and place in the bottom of your crock pot. Place roast, fat side up, in the crock pot on top of the vegetables. Combine soups, gravy mix and soda in a mixing bowl and pour over your roast. Turn crock pot on low and cook for 6-8 hours. Flipping the roast about 1/2 way through the cooking time helps it to cook evenly.

Once the cooking time is up I usually make some gravy out of the juices and sauce mix. To do this I put 2 tablespoons of butter along with 2 tablespoons of gluten free flour mix in a pan on the stove to create a roux. Once the roux looks right I add as much of the juices as I need to make enough gravy for our family. I also add beef bouillon to this mixture to taste.

Enjoy!

I now invite you to link up one of your families favorite gluten free recipes. And please remember to use my button on the bottom of your post so that others can link up as well.

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Well Hello My Friends

Wow, long time no blog. Lets just say life got busy and the ole blog got neglected. I have had tons of ideas for the blog that have been swirling around in my head and now is the time to just dive in and get started. So in the next few weeks expect to see some new happenings on my blog. I have been knitting up a storm, decluttering before our next military move and taking care of sick kiddos for the past few weeks. I have also been laid off so I now have a lot more time to do crafty stuff and keep my blog up to date.

The traveling monsters are coming to an end here soon but I hope to at least post a few pictures of the adventures of my twins in the next week so you can see where they have been and how much fun they had on their travels. I will also post about our visitors and their adventures with us.

I have recently been told I needed to go gluten free so I have started altering some recipes so that the entire family including myself can enjoy them, I hope to post at least one recipe a week that I have altered to fit my new gluten free lifestyle. I am going to call it Gluten Free Fridays and I hope those of you who are also gluten free will link up your favorite posts on the subject, so get your recipes ready!

Another thing I have been thinking about a lot lately are the tips and tricks my mom taught me before she passed. I hope to share one a week here with all of you so that you can benefit from her wisdom as well. This is so I can keep a record of them for my children as well. So be thinking of the tips and tricks your mom's, grandma's, aunts and friends have taught you.

Hope this blog post finds you all happy and healthy!

Violet Arrives in California - Traveling Monsters

Violet has arrived in California with her foster family and she seems to be having a GREAT time. She was telling the family about her sister Viola who is currently on her way to Canada and she got a little sad so her foster mommy got her a treat, I think she is in love! We are looking forward to hearing from her soon!

Meet Pemberley - Our First Monster Exchange Student

Pemberley came to us from Texas and seems to be having a great time seeing all the greenness of Washington. She was so excited about the trees she just couldn't stop climbing them....

She got a little carried away and almost fell all the way out of the tree.

Luckily for her the girls were right there to catch her and give her some love.

I think she was trying to tell me she would like some tea, so I quickly made her a nice warm cup!

Violet and Viola - Traveling Monsters

When I saw a group of gals over on the Danger Crafts group on Ravelry talking about doing a group of traveling monsters I jumped at the chance to join in. I ended up joining both the domestic and international groups so I made two monsters. My two monsters ended up being twins that I affectionately named after my grandma Violet and her twin sister Viola.

Violet and Viola's first adventure was to see the play Oliver with their human sisters Lippy Lou and Lynner in Seattle. They had a great time and got to ride in a bus and see the space needle all in one day.

On the bus with Lippy Lou

They spied the Space Needle before anyone could show them.

Waiting for tickets at the ticket window.

Lippy Lou and Violet playing around while waiting for the bus to come back to get them.

The sisters sharing a tearful goodbye. Violet headed out to Canada while Viola was on her way to Sunny California, she left just in time too it is awfully cold here in Washington.

And there they go, with their journals so we will get to hear all about their adventures while they are away.

Lippy Lou and Lynner are so excited to meet the new monsters coming our way soon!!

To continue with the knitting theme....

Wow it's been a month, a whole MONTH since I posted last. I have been super busy mothering my 4 munchkins, knitting, playing, traveling, training, visiting, getting ready for school to start. Just to name a few.

My goal this month is to knit five new projects without buying any yarn and so far I am going to make and maybe even exceed my goal. I am hoping to keep this trend up until the end of the year to use up some of my stash. My current goal is to stock up on handmade baby gifts to have on hand for when friends have babies. It seems that every time I turn around someone I know is either really close to giving birth or just finding out they are expecting so I want to get some stuff made up so I am not in a last minute panic to make a gift.

Last month I was given the opportunity to test knit the Girlie Girl dress by Michelle Guilmet-Buck. It was love at first sight and upon completion was I was still smitten. Here is a picture of of my first complete dress, it has made it's way to California to be warn by Emaline who made her way into this world on 8/9/10. What a great birthday!

I loved the construction and ease of this dress so much I decided I needed to make one more. I changed the colors up a little bit this time using my favorite color combination of pink and brown and because I started it in September I used my stash yarn. The pink is from the first dress and the brown was some stash I laying around. This dress will be going in a box to be given as a gift at a late date.

You can find these projects on Ravelry here and here.

Knitting Knitting and More Knitting!

Over the past few weeks I have been knitting A LOT, I love to knit and I love when projects come flying off the needles. Here are some pictures I have taken of the last few projects.

Shrug Bug Set

The yarn used in this set is Spud and Chloe Outer in Rocket. I adore all of Spud and Chloe's yarns and this time was no different. The sweater pattern is by Gina Bonomo and is called....you guessed it... Shrug Bug. This was a quick and easy knit that I will be doing over and over and over again. The hat I just made up the pattern for myself, if you have questions about how I did it let me know! The button was purchased on Etsy @WoodenArtist I really love the buttons in their shop and will use them again!

Bitty Bump Set

This set has the Bitty Bump sweater also by Gina Bonomo which was equally as easy to knit and super fun. It was made with Spud and Chloe Outer as well but this time in the Sunkissed colorway. The hat is also a pattern I just made up on the fly.

When I was out shopping today I found some super cute jeans by Osh Kosh that matched both sets PERFECTLY so I just couldn't pass them up!!

Stay tuned as I will have some other knit items showing up really soon!