Love.

Dough Girl.

Knowing my non-dairified aversion to most store-bought bread, my friend Penny suggested I come to her house to make some homemade bread, sans milk products. Making my own bread has always been a tad intimidating. My Mom made bread (without a bread maker) when I was little so I definitely love the homemade stuff, but, let's face it: Any recipe that has the words "... then let the dough rise ..." freaks me out. Don't ask me why. I have a fear of failing at efficient dough inflation. Anyway. I happily agreed and headed over there yesterday morning for a brisk walk followed by some bread making. Nothing like a workout followed by a pile of carbs!

(Random BOB Update: Loving it, still. Cub is leaning forward, which is why he looks crammed in there. I promise, he still has a lot of room! And Naomi, well, she doesn't mind it, either. Little foot.)

After our walk, Penny revealed the secret to her delicious homemade bread:

Wheat. As in, the real thing. In big buckets. I think my jaw dropped open when I saw this. I've been to Penny's house close to a bazillion times, and have never once seen her stash of wheat. I was impressed, to say the least. Sneaky Penny.

The wheat was poured into a grinder and then ground into wheat flour.

Next came some oil with some honey ...

... followed by some salt (Penny suggests sea salt as a healthier option, but this time around we used good ol' Morton) ...

... and with some yeast and some water added to the concoction, the dough was then blended.

I almost reached in and grabbed a handful. I'm not even kidding. Eight days without any sort of bread product, besides one serving of pasta, is a long time. For me, anyway. Unless rice counts.

We formed it into little loaves and let it rise (ta-da!) in her oven.

The finished product. Any weight I lost since going non-dairy was gained back in approximately eight minutes as I polished off half of this loaf. By myself. WITH NO REGRET.

Penny even showed me how to roll out some pizza dough with our, um, dough, so tonight mi familia ate homemade pizza. Can you tell which side is mine? :)

Pepperoni, chicken, bell peppers, a dab of homemade sauce, all piled on a delicious homemade whole wheat crust. Perfect.

And the token Katie-stuffing-her-face picture. The pizza was heavenly.

We have three loaves sitting in the freezer, ready to eat as we need them, so we won't need to buy any for a while. I love that this bread had simple ingredients as opposed to most store-bought bread, too (no offense to azodicarbonamide or ammonium sulfate, of course). For now, this is a great option (thanks, Penny!).

YUM.

Have a lovely day!

Wordless Wednesday: Dinner.

It was while I was stirring the Alfredo sauce that I realized I couldn't eat it.

Thankfully, diced tomatoes came to my rescue.

(My husband said the Alfredo was delicious.)

(I told him my tomatoes were better.)

Random Conversation Tuesday.

(At Taco Bueno, ordering food for my husband's grandparents, myself, and Cub.)

(Through the drive-thru.)

Taco Bueno Boy: Welcome to Taco Bueno, may I take your order?

Myself: Yes! I would like four tacos, please, and--

Taco Bueno Boy: Okay one taco anything else?

Myself: Um, I actually need FOUR tacos, and--

TBB: Okay four tacos anything else?

M: Yes! I would also like a chicken taco salad with--

TBB: Four tacos and a chicken taco salad? Anything else?

M: --Um, yes, I actually need that taco salad with no cheese or sour cream, please.

TBB: Chicken taco salad with no tomatoes. Anything else?

M: Um, I would actually like to have the tomatoes, but no cheese or sour cream, please.

TBB: Chicken taco salad with no cheese or tomatoes?

M: NO CHEESE OR SOUR CREAM. I WOULD LIKE THE TOMATOES, PLEASE.

TBB: Okay. Anything else?

M: Cheese quesadilla. And that's it.

TBB: Okay, one chicken quesadilla. Anything else?

M: Actually--nevermind. Sounds good. Thank you.

TBB: Have a nice day. Please pull around.

M: Thank you.

(At least the order was right.)

Adapting.

When my stomach is growling, this is typically what I reach for now. Celery and (natural!) peanut butter. Probably what I should have been reaching for anyway, but a little non-dairy prompting has helped in my decision-making.

I know, you all are probably sick of hearing about my dairy situation. Sorry.

It's just kind of the MAIN THING ON MY MIND ALL THE TIME, so I feel the need to write about it. Here's the update.

Naomi still has bad gas episodes, but they are fewer and farther between. Two days out of the past six days have been hard, which is amazing. We were getting to the point where every day involved lots of crying and pain, so going days at a time with a happy girl is awesome. I'm figuring out how to phase out dairy. While I was surviving on soy milk, I wanted to expand my selection a bit. After suggestions from several friends, I finally loaded up the kids and headed to Whole Foods in a nearby city to check out their options.

I turned the corner past the organic cookies and TA-DA!

A large spanse of milk that isn't actually milk. I was thrilled.

I loaded up on chocolate almond milk and vanilla coconut milk. And chocolate ice cream made with coconut milk and coffee creamer also made with coconut milk. I know, I know, I should really go with unsweetened milks, but I'm kind of tip-toeing into this new territory. These are unchartered waters for me! I need all the sweetened help I can get.

So, my mac 'n cheese has been replaced with grilled chicken. My chips are now sliced peppers with hummus. My midnight snack is a coveted chunk of dark chocolate, and if I'm especially needy, I add a cup of chocolate almond milk. My morning pancakes have been replaced with an apple. I've scoured the Internet for non-dairy recipes and have some yummy-looking chocolate cupcakes I can't wait to try.

While the changes are noted, as I mentioned, there are still some bad episodes. Naomi had a rough morning today. After church, I stood in the kitchen while she screamed and leaned my head on my husband's shoulder. Through tears I told him how discouraged I felt, how frustrated I was that despite the changes, sometimes it feels like they aren't enough. He put his hands on my shoulders and told me that wasn't true--that the baby she is becoming isn't the baby she was only a week ago. The bad moments will still come and go, but the changes are working, and I couldn't give up. I nodded and scooped her up and we snuggled together for a long afternoon nap.

He's right. The changes are helping.

And it is totally worth it.