Sick day!

Last night about dinner time, our littlest herbivore got sick.  UGH!  As soon as I got her settled and felt comfortable leaving for 30 minutes, I ran to the grocery store for rations.  Lemon-lime soda, little noodles, cleaning supplies (we try not to use paper towels but when somebody gets sick I have no problem using disposables), bananas, bread, etc.  You know, stuff to follow the BRAT (Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, Toast) diet.  There went my plan of using up pantry food and not hitting the store again until payday.  Oh well, going with the flow!

Fortunately, the bug seemed to be very short-lived (knock on wood) and Punky was up for some solid food by lunch time today (we tested her stomach this morning with saltines).  I relied on an old standard, what my mom always made us when we were sick but able to stomach solids: little noodles in chicken broth.  But, uh, no chicken broth, right?  Unless you use these awesome little nuggets of goodness:

I wanted to make a substantial amount of broth, so I used 4 cubes to make 8 cups of broth.  As soon as it came to a boil I added angel hair pasta that had been broken into small pieces.  The pasta now mimicked the "little noodles" my mom used to make us (Skinner Fideo Mediano, but our grocery store didn't have any in stock).  My kids have learned to appreciate a mug of little noodles as fantastic comfort food.  They were all delighted to slurp their noodles down with some saltines on the side.

Review by the kids:  They all ate happily, and said the "Not Chick'n" broth tasted just like the real thing.  They actually used straws to slurp their noodles and said it was the perfect way to warm their bellies on our first fall day (yay for Texas cold fronts!).  There was nothing left in the pot or their mugs after lunch.

Review by the mom:  The broth was fantastic, and I'm glad we found it at our grocery store and decided it would be a good pantry item (it was also endorsed by a v-friend, who said she orders it from Amazon).  The angel hair was a great sub for the little noodles.  I'm glad I didn't get discouraged when I couldn't find the old standard. 

Recipe review: Banana muffins!

I got lucky.  I googled "vegan muffin recipe" and this one was the first on the list.  That seems to keep happening.  The first one I tried is the one that we're going to stick with.  I did find one other one, but the muffins fell and were too dense.  We still ate them, just took us a bit longer to scarf them down.  This one is the one I went back to when Punky had to take snack to preschool.  I love that my kids want to help, and we had fun baking these vegan banana muffins.

(The first time I made them I added pecans to half of the muffins, and I loved them.  This time we left the pecans out completely because I wasn't sure how the kids would feel about them.)

Punky couldn't wait for the muffin to cool so she could gobble it up!
She had one as a bedtime snack and one for breakfast the next day.
Then another for school snack.  They were delicious!

Refreshing strawberry milk!

A couple of weeks ago, my girlies went out to lunch with some family members while I was hanging with friends.  My sweet Punky ordered chocolate milk—and then everyone remembered that cow's milk was a no-no.  Yes, I said that I would let my kids eat/drink what they wanted, but what I didn't disclose is that Punky hasn't really tolerated straight dairy since she was a tiny Punky.  Everybody knew that the chocolate milk might make her feel yucky, so they intervened.  She was NOT happy.  Poor girl didn't understand why her cousin could have the milk and she couldn't.  At home she drinks chocolate milk, why not at the restaurant?  Later that afternoon, my mom called to tell me what happened and asked that I please make Punky some special milk that night.  I didn't have any chocolate milk, but I had fresh strawberries, so we improvised.

Ingredients:
almond milk (or soy, if that's your thing)
fresh strawberries (greens & all)
1/2 tsp vanilla

Place all ingredients in a blender, liquify.  Pour into a "fancy" jar and add a straw.  Everything tastes better through a straw.

Bonus points for using fresh strawberries!  Double bonus for keeping the greens on (they can't taste the greens but they can use the vitamins)!!

On the 11th day...

And on the 11th day, the three year old has a breakdown realizing that there is no turkey & cheese in the house.  "But I need turkey and cheese not made out of animals!"  Sweet girl.

To the rescue....

Daddio heated the hot dogs stove-top in a skillet.  They had the right flavor and a very similar texture to a hot dog...without all of the hot dogness of a hot dog.  You know what I mean. ;)

These will become a refrigerator staple now that I know Punky will eat them when all else fails.  Whew!  Crisis averted!