Cooking For Isaiah by Silvana Nardone week Day 6.

I have been enjoying  Silvana's cookbook, Cooking For Isaiah as have the rest of the family, we have yet to find a recipe we don't like! Friday morning  I made the Blueberry-Lemon Sourdough Pancakes and my husband loved them, they are light and fluffy with a hint of lemon from the lemon zest...so good!

Thursday evening for dinner we had her Sloppy Joe-Stuffed Potato Skins, another delicious winner! We all loved the flavor of the sloppy joe filling, I'd make it to put on gluten free hamburger buns if I ever find some I like. The roasted, crispy potato skins took it over the top! I don't know about you, but I love me some potatoes, I'd eat them every day if I could :)

Last night I made the Chicken Potpie Soup for our dinner, I substituted two cans of water chestnuts in place of the mushrooms that were called for in her recipe, because several family members do not like them. You will notice in my picture, that there are crumbled, ruffled potato chips on top of the bowls of soup, it's not a mistake or substitution on my part, it's actually part of the recipe, and I love it! The kids thought it was fun having chips on their soup and loved the flavors too. My younger son, Aiden thanked me for making it and everyone gobbled it all up!

For dessert last night, I made the Chewy Chocolate Chunk Cookies, but substituted semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of chopping up a semi-sweet chocolate bar into chunks...I'm lazy that way :) If asked what my favorite dessert is, I would have to say a good chocolate chip cookie. Sure I like pies and cakes and other goodies but I always seem to make chocolate chip cookies the most! These did not disappoint, they were crisp on the outside and tender, chewy on the inside and gooey if you ate it warm out of the oven...yum! Perfect with a tall glass of cold milk or dairy free milk!

This morning for breakfast, I made the Griddled Corn Cakes with Strawberry Syrup. Wow, these are good! Very easy to make and they come out light and fluffy with a hint of sweetness. The Strawberry syrup pairs perfectly with the corn cakes, I had my doubts as did my kids, but we trusted Silvana, she hadn't let us down yet :)  I happily watched my picky husband clean his plate and thoroughly enjoy every bite.

This wraps up Cooking For Isaiah by Silvana Nardone week, I enjoyed her recipes immensely, they were easy and tasty and all of them winners with my family, you can't ask for more than that! I wholeheartedly recommend her cookbook and encourage you to check your local library to view her book before deciding to purchase it, also please mosey on over to her website and try some of her many free recipes. Silvana's Kitchen

Cooking For Isaiah by Silvana Nardone week Day 3.

I had meant to post again yesterday, but we had an ICAP field trip to the San Diego Safari Park (formerly called The Wild Animal Park) and were gone all day. I had completely forgotten about this field trip and thankfully my husband reminded me Monday evening. I had just enough time to whip together some Mom's Banana Bread from Silvana's book Cooking For Isaiah. We like to take snacks and drinks with us when we go to amusement parks, the food there is just too expensive for our family of five. Well, I can honestly say, we were not deprived! This banana bread is so good, my picky husband who does not like bananas but enjoys a good banana bread, liked this one. It's so moist and perfectly sweetened, it was hard not to eat more than one slice!

Monday evening I made the Macaroni Salad with Sun Dried Tomatoes and Olives from the cookbook. I knew I was going to love this recipe, sun dried tomatoes, celery, black olives (substituted for the kalamata olives) and pasta together make yum! I did use penne pasta in place of the elbow macaroni her recipe calls for, just because it's what I had on hand. I was not disappointed, the result was a delicious, creamy, crunchy, tangy pasta salad, another winner!

I hope you are enjoying my review of Silavana's cookbook, Cooking for Isaiah! I know I am :)

Cooking For Isaiah by Silvana Nardone week!

I'm starting something new on my blog, I hope you like it. I will be dedicating a week of posts to a particular gluten free cookbook and sometimes I will feature a non-gluten free cookbook if the recipes can easily be made gluten free. My first week will be all about Cooking for Isaiah by Silvana Nardone. I wrote about her pizza and brownie recipes a couple posts back, be sure to check it out if you have not already!

This morning, the kids and I enjoyed her smoothie recipe, Isaiah's Fruit Smoothie. The ingredients complimented each other perfectly, it tasted like something you would buy at Jamba Juice, it was so good!

Smooth and creamy and full of flavor...Spring in a glass!

Thumbs up from the kiddos

Watch out for brain freeze :)

Stay tuned for more mouthwatering posts this week! Do you have Silvana's cookbook? If so what recipes are your favorite?

Wanted, dead or alive...mostly dead!

As my oldest son was getting ready for bed last night when he spotted a bug, but when he left (screaming) and came back with his father, it was gone. So he made this sign and posted it on the wall by my desk hoping that I (or anyone) would be on the lookout for the missing bug, probable species: Earwig.

Unfortunately, Mr. Earwig is still evading capture, but we are still on the lookout and hopeful :)

I love my silly kids!!

How can a deaf Mom hear her babies when they cry?

I've had a few people ask me this and I'm sure there are some who were curious but were afraid to ask thinking they might offend me. As I've mentioned before, I love to talk and questions like this don't offend me in the slightest! First let me say that, I'm very fortunate to have a husband that hears normal and not only that, he is very attuned to his kids when sleeping. If one of the kids cough in a weird way, he jumps out of bed and runs to them to make sure they are OK, it absolutely melts my heart that God gave this kind, loving (and he'll want me to include manly) man to be my husband.

When I had my first child, I was very nervous that I would not hear him when he needed me, but that turned out to not be the case thankfully. At night we put him in a bassinet near the bed, and at first I slept with my hearing aid on for a couple of weeks, but as time went on I became more relaxed with our routine and trusted my husband to wake me up to feed him during the night. When he outgrew the bassinet, we tried putting him in his crib, in his room, but I didn't like that, having him so far away, my intuition wanted me to have him close by. At this time we all took a trip with my husband to Indiana so he could attend training there for his job. We ended up putting Kade in bed with us and he slept so well, in fact we all did. So when we arrived back home, I started putting him in our bed to sleep between my husband and I (with his consent of course). Luckily for us, Kade was not much of a mover when he slept, so we didn't worry about getting kicked in the face or other parts of our body :) We all slept well and Kade started sleeping through the night, but when he awoke hungry, I would wake up and know that he was awake and hungry before he would start crying, it was Mommy radar or something. During the day, we would take naps together and I would sleep with my hearing aid on just in case the Mommy radar didn't work. Kade slept in our bed until I was well along in my pregnancy with our second child, then my husband would snuggle with him in his new firetruck toddler bed until he fell asleep.

When my husband was at work during the day, I would always keep Kade close by in a bouncer or on the floor to play with toys or I would play and talk or sing to him. Sometimes he and I would go for walks in his stroller and I would constantly check on him to make sure he was happy or if he needed anything. I never felt comfortable just leaving him in a room by himself to go do something because I could not hear what was happening in the room. I have tried to use baby monitors, but I could not hear the sounds very well, so I ended up giving it away to another mother who could use it. I have taught each of my children from the time they could talk that they had to look at me so I could read their lips to understand them. Now they are older and well trained in that regard, I don't have to be so vigilant about paying attention to everyone in case they might be speaking to me, they know to come up to me and wait till I am looking at them before speaking.  Life as a deaf Mom is more relaxing now than it was when they were babies, they are all very close to each other and watch out for each other as well. God has given women a strong, unique, unexplainable bond with their children and it's there whether you are deaf, blind, mute or normal, it's an awesome gift!

Now my oldest child is one year away from becoming a teenager...how a deaf Mom gets through that, I have yet to learn :)

Cooking For Isaiah by Silvana Nardone: A book review

 

I would like to introduce you to a gluten-free cookbook I have been enjoying immensely, Cooking for Isaiah by Silvana Nardone, her recipes are simple yet delicious and she has the best gluten free pizza crust I have ever made or tasted! Because of her son, Isaiah's food allergies, Silvana had to learn to cook in a whole new way to make food that her son and family would eat and love....now thanks to her cookbook, we can eat and love her wonderfully, creative recipes too!

The page to her Pepperoni Pizza recipe...I'm always writing my little tweaks in my books :)

This is my version of her Chicken Sausage, Peppers and Onions Pizza.

I made my version of her Pepperoni and her Chicken Sausage Pizzas...so good!

Are you drooling yet? :)

The best gluten free pizza ever!! The Pepperoni was delicious too, it got eaten too fast for me to take the picture lol

The page to her Super Fudge Brownie recipe...

I added walnuts to her recipe, that was all it needed. They are indeed super fudgey...so good, you would never know they are gluten free!

Her cookbook contains recipes to many baked goods, pancakes, waffles that are either sweet or savory, which she creatively uses as sandwich bread. She also has a recipe for bread slabs that are mouth watering! Cooking for Isaiah also contains recipes for salads, soups, main dishes, pastas and desserts, it's well rounded with plenty to choose from in each category. I admit I have focused on making the pizzas and desserts more than the other recipes, but I will definitely get to them soon.

I have used Namaste Perfect Flour blend in place of her flour blend with excellent results, if you don't care to mix a bunch of different flours together, although that way is definitely more cost effective. I hope you have enjoyed my review, I love sharing with the world when I find something that is truly terrific!

Drop by Silvana's blog Silvana's Kitchen and check out her free recipes and enjoy her warm, friendly posts.

Do you have her book? If so, how do you like it?