Paleo Thanksgiving Stuffing

Since I started doing the Advocare 24 day challenge, we have started to eat sort of a Paleo based diet.  I'm really, really loving it.  The boys are starting to make better food choices on their own, Chris is on board enough to appease me, and I'm totally loving how it makes me feel and how it's changing the way my body looks.  To date, I've lost 28 pounds.  Which is exactly what Katie weighed when we brought her home.  I've lost the equivalent of a Russian four year old former orphan. . . . That's a little bit crazy.  

I've started to think about what I'll make for Thanksgiving.  I certainly want to make our traditional foods, but will make some changes to the ingredients.  Chris' favorite part of Thanksgiving is the stuffing.  I make a stuffing with cornbread and biscuits. . . not exactly Paleo.  Or healthy.  I've got a pan of it in the freezer, so I certainly will pop that into the oven on Thanksgiving for Chris and the other people who don't want to eat a grain free stuffing.  I have searched the internet and found lots of Paleo Thanksgiving options.  I tried the stuffing from PaleOMG.com today.  Her website is ridiculous and is one of my new favorites.  And one of my favorite readers, Katie, thinks I should share more recipes.  

So, back to the stuffing...

Ingredients:

• 1 lb of ground pork sausage
• 5 slices of bacon, diced
• 5 stalks of celery, diced
• 1 sweet potato (next time I'll use 2)
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 1 container of mushrooms, diced
• 2 apples, diced (I used three, and I'm so glad I did)
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1 cup pecans, chopped
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/3 cup chicken broth

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Cover a baking sheet with foil and put the diced sweet potatoes on.  Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

2.  While the potatoes are cooking, get a big skillet and heat it over medium-high heat.  Toss in your diced bacon and let that start cooking down.  

3.  Once the fat starts to seep out of the bacon, add the diced celery, diced onion, and chopped apples.  

4.  Once the onions start to turn translucent, add the sausage and mushrooms.  Cook that down until the sausage is no longer pink.

5.  When the meat is no longer pink, transfer the entire contents of the pan into a large bowl and let it cool a bit. Beat the eggs and add to cooled mixture.  Add the chicken stock, sweet potatoes, chopped pecans, and cranberries and mix well.

6.  Transfer mixture to the foil lined pan.  You could also use a 9x13 pan, but I'm not in the business of making more dishes than I need to.  Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until it starts to get brown and crispy around the edges.

Turn around and see that your kitchen looks like this.  Or not - I hope that doesn't happen to you.

The smell?  Seriously amazing.  

I didn't trick myself into believing that I was eating traditional Thanksgiving stuffing, 

The next recipe I'm going to try from this website is the chicken tortilla soup.  But it doesn't have any tortilla.  I can't wait - literally looking at the pictures makes my mouth water!

Giving Thanks, Day 4 - Katie's Surgery

Before surgery, happy as can be, without any idea about what was going to happen.

Today I'm thankful for Katie's surgery to remove her tonsils and adenoids.

I'm thankful for it for the obvious reason - because medically it will be great for her to alleviate her apnea and help her breathe and hopefully speak easier.  More than that, however, I'm thankful for the time I've been able to spend with Katie through this process.  And I'm thankful that we refused to do the surgery in Russia and waited until she got home.  I cannot imagine her going through this alone, laying in a hospital bed without someone there with her.

In recovery, she was pretty pitiful.  She came out of the OR sitting straight up, not requiring any additional oxygen.  She was very calm, but pitiful.

She perked up when there was another little girl in the bay next to her.  The other little girl was not happy, and Katie was so nosey.

Poor little thing had such an itchy face from her meds.  She rubbed her nose almost raw.  

We were not long for the recovery unit and got moved to our room pretty quickly.  Katie had some eggs, mac and cheese, and six ice creams.  For real.

We even got to go to the playroom the same day as surgery.  We only stayed for a little while, because she started to get tired and a little grumpy.

What I'm most thankful for?  The time we have had to snuggle and cuddle.  Katie is a daddy's girl, certainly because she spends more time with him.  The last few days have been great for Katie and me.  

We've spent lots of time rocking together.  We snuggled in her hospital bed and watched movies on the iPad.  We rubbed each other's hair and sang "Itsy Bitsy Spider" over and over again.

She's such an amazing little love, and I'm so lucky to be her mama.  I loved being in the hospital with her, getting to take care of her while she was feeling bad, making her know that I would love her all the time, not just the easy times.

She was feeling pretty good the next morning and we quickly found out we'd be going home that day.  

We just spent time hanging out, rocking, and snuggling.  Neither of us slept well in the hospital, so we both were tired and feeling snuggly.

As her meds kicked in, Katie was feeling great!

She sang a lot of songs and did her Dora paper dolls that our sweet friend Misty brought for us.

She was tired when we left, but she was so excited to go home.  She kept saying, "Dada!  Dada! Go, go, go!"

I'm not sure if it was adrenaline or just her medicine, but she was super silly when we got home.  

Today?  She was back to feeling a little sad and clingy snuggly.  But I was OK with it, because she would come to me instead of just soothing herself.  Anyone who has adopted knows how important that is.  She didn't want to make herself feel better - she wanted her mama to do it.  This is something that is so natural for babies and children who have been in families forever; notsomuch for a five year old who was by herself for the first four and a half years of her life.  

So today I am thankful that Katie had to have surgery, and that it has made her realize even more that I am her mama, and that I love her and will always take care of her.  

Even if that snuggling meant that this was my view for forty-five minutes today while we sat on the floor in the kitchen. . . 

Giving Thanks Day 3 - David

Today, I am thankful for David.

My first baby, David saved me from a life of selfishness.  I never thought I wanted babies.  Until I had David.  My life I'm supposed to live started the day his did.

David is smart, creative, fun, witty, and silly.

It is not always easy to be David's mother.  Or Henry's.  Or Jack's.  Or Katie's.

But I am so thankful that I get to be.

David has taught me how to take care of babies.  He has taught me how to be more assertive, more proactive, and more confident in my ability to tell you what my child needs, not vice versa.

He taught me about the cretaceous time period and about Tourette's Syndrome.  One I wish I never had to learn about.  He also taught me that a diagnosis doesn't, in the grand scheme of things, mean a whole lot to me.  And that I don't care if it means a whole lot to other people.

He taught me that I really don't like Star Wars, but that I love Back to the Future.  That we both love to read, especially to each other.  That he loves to snuggle and the more blankets the better.

He taught me that Christmas isn't the same when your children are experiencing it, but it is 1,000 times better.  

David has taught me that the things I never anticipated he would like are most often the things he likes the most.  And just when I think I have him figured out, he changes the entire story.

He has taught me that I can be much more "go with the flow" than I thought, and that when I would rather yell at him a hug works better.

I am most thankful to David for making me a mama, which is my favorite job ever.  He taught me that I can be a good mama, even when it's not easy.  Maybe especially when it's not easy.  He has taught me that it's often not easy to be a mama, but that life on the other side of not easy is pretty sweet.  And for that, I am particularly thankful.

31 of 31 - Halloween 2012

Take two with this. . .  apparently it saved as a draft the first time instead of posting.

We love some Halloween around here!  It was very difficult this year to get a photo of everyone on the porch and all looking at me at the same time with their eyes open.  I love, however, Katie looking up at David in this picture.  And I love the mismatched business we have going on with their clothes, Katie's leggings underneath her nightgown, David's Crocs with his socks, and Jack in his raincoat with some stuffed rabbit he dug out of a toy bin on his way out the door, and our porch steps that need to be painted.  This is our real life, not a polished, posed picture!!

David had a "Vocabulary Parade" at school on Halloween, and he dressed up like the solar system.  We spray painted yellow a colander we got at Dollar Tree, and David worked diligently for several days to paint each of the nine styrofoam planets (and Earth's moon!) to look as realistic as he could make them.  He was so proud of his planets, and they look fantastic.  We then put the planets on wire and fed them through the holes in the colander.  I made an elastic chin strap for it, and his planets were in orbit around his head.  He just wore black pants and a black shirt, and he loved it.  I am so proud of how hard he worked on this project.

Jack was SO excited to be Frodo Baggins for Halloween.  Because every four year old wants to dress like a character from Lord of the Rings..... His pants are just a pair of his own pants that I cut, his white shirt is one we had, and his belt, vest, and jacket were Goodwill specials.  The vest was a jacket, and we cut the sleeves off.  We used one of the sleeves to make a sheath for his sword.

Katie had a Halloween party at school, so Jack wore his costume to pick her up.  And I can completely see why people think they're twins.

We did trick or treating on the square by my office.  At one house Jack met Samwise Gamgee and Gandalf!  He thought they were real, I believe, because he was quite apprehensive.

Katie liked the trick or treating, for the most part, but was anxious about all of the people and did not like scary costumes.  I kept telling her, "It's pretend!  It's pretend!" and she kept pointing, nodding her head, and assuring herself, "Dedend.  Dedend."  

We had a bumblebee, two ninjas, and Frodo Baggins.

Katie was also quite worried about the "man" under this firetruck.....

After trick or treating on the square, Jack and Katie stayed home with me and handed out candy while Chris and the big boys took a spin around the neighborhood.  Jack enjoyed giving the candy out as much as he enjoyed receiving it.  When we ran out, Jack wanted to get the candy he collected trick or treating and pass that out!

I hope you had a great Halloween!

Giving Thanks, Day 2 - A Great Surgery!

Today, I am so thankful Katie had a great surgery yesterday! Her doctor initially thought she may need to spend the night in the icu because of her apnea and small airway. However, she was a rock star! No additional oxygen, and she was drinking and had an ice coke before we even left the aftercare unit. She ate well after surgery and we're waiting for discharge now!

Giving Thanks

Last year over at The Real Housewife of Bedford County, I blogged in November about giving thanks.  I have a lot for which to be thankful.  I'll kick it off this year by being thankful for Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.  

Katie and I will be there today and overnight (hopefully just one night!) for surgery to remove her tonsils and adenoids.  This is a surgery I've been through twice already - once with David and once with Jack - so I'm not nervous at all about it.  We have a great doctor who is very experienced with children with Down syndrome, and particularly with children with small airways (which Katie has), so I am confident that everything will go well.  I am thankful that Vanderbilt is here and is such a fantastic resource for us, and particularly thankful that our doctor is in Nashville and will be the person operating on my sweet girl.  I wish we never needed to use the services of Vandy, but since we do I am thankful we are able to!  

Say some prayers for my girl to have a successful, complication free surgery and a quick recovery!

30 of 31 - Orphans No More!

One of my favorite, and unexpected, results of adopting Katie is the amazing friendships I have made with other adopting or adoptive mamas.  The international adoption experience is big unique ball of emotion - good, bad, stressful, excited, frustrated, et cetera - that is best understood by someone who has experienced the same process.  I have been so fortunate to have made several fantastic friends through Katie's adoption, and that is not something I anticipated would come through this process.  I'm so, so thrilled to be able to introduce the TWO new daughters of my sweet friend Jennifer.

Please meet sweet little Emily!  Emily was actually one of the babies we sponsored as a Christmas Angel last year.  She is two and is the sweetest little ball of baby.  I am so excited for her to go home to her mama and daddy at such an early age, because she will never remember anything else.  She is going to have such a wonderful life, and I cannot wait to see her thriving at home.

And meet sweet Dariya!  Dariya, also called Dasha, is a sassy, spunky, smart, sweet, amazing six year old.  I am so proud of Jennifer and Brandon for several things, but one biggie is for adopting a six year old.  Lots of people are scared about adopting an older child (and anything over 2 is considered older in terms of adoption).  The older children so often get overlooked because people want a baby.  And I get that; I really, really do.  Jennifer and Brandon don't have any biological children, and they have chosen to start their family by adopting a two year old and a six year old. . . nothing like jumping right in!  Having adopted an older child, I can absolutely attest to the fact that the rewards of such an adoption are worth the challenges.  And there are some - Katie has had experiences that have shaped her life and her personality, and I have had no control over those.  We are working through that, every day.  Some days it's more work, and some days it's none, but any post-institutionalization child will have residual emotional and behavioral issues.  Jennifer and Brandon are literally changing Dasha's life and giving her one.  She is such a smart little muffin, and she is going to do so well at home with her parents and her sister.  She has a huge personality just waiting to be unlocked, and it will be an amazing process to follow.

Huge congratulations Jennifer and Brandon.  I am so proud of you, and so happy for your girls and the amazing lives they are going to have.  

If you'd like to follow Jennifer's blog, please visit her at JenniferLovesLobsters.blogspot.com!