mightybookjr.com is FREE for a year with code “learntoread”. I don’t know when it expires but it worked today. $99 value.

and the Pinewood Derby.
Congrats Brendan on your Wolf Patch, your Gold Arrow Point AND 3rd place in the derby!!! 😀 It was a lot of fun!

There are few sit down restaurants a low carber can go to and feel pretty confident that their meal is really honestly low carb. You can makes educated guesses, of course, but the thought of hidden carbs just makes me uncomfortable going out to eat very often. Even things as simple as a hot dog or ranch dressing can vary from almost no carbs to 7!
We were surprised by a visit from my mother last week and the family decided to go out to eat together. It was my husband who suggested a mongolian grill type place and we ended up at Genghis Grill. We had never been before. We LOVED it! We went again last night.
Here’s how it works. You get a nice sized silver bowl to fill as you wish with whatever you wish from the bar. You start with meat- a low carber’s dream… chicken, awesome marinated steak, thin sliced beef, turkey, marinated fish, shrimp, pork- all carb free- and a few others with very small amounts of carbs such as scallops or ham. Pile your bowl nearly full!
Now add some seasoning… I like the dragon salt and garlic, my husband likes the curry and ginger. I season my meat liberally.
Now I add about a 1/2 cup of veggies… a ton of choices here too! I like onions for flavor, then a couple pieces of a lot of things: broccoli, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, green beans, cabbage, celery, snap peas, zucchini… and more. Another low carb delight! Don’t forget to grab a couple eggs to lay beside your bowl! They’ll stir-fry those in as well!
Next comes the tricky part… the sauce. I fill my metal sauce cup 2/3 full with garlic water and a bit of asian chili sauce (both nearly carb free). Then I personally like a bit of the chili garlic sauce. DH likes a bit of the red curry and peanut sauce. Don’t go overboard here and your meal will be a real low carb winner. I plan on bringing my own low carb teriyaki sauce next time! You can see which sauces have the lowest carbs on their website… but alas, they don’t give the portion size so you really can’t figure it perfectly.
Give your bowl and eggs to the waiting cook for stir-frying and tell him you don’t want any starch- please make it with BEAN SPROUTS instead. It comes out like a noodle bowl!!! They’ll happily oblige! And bean sprouts are one of the lowest carb vegetables there is!
When your meal is cooked and brought to you, top it with chopped peanuts and/or sesame seeds! YUM!
Cost: $8.99 lunch/$9.99 supper. Get a Khan’s Reward Kard and every 11th bowl is free. Sign-up online for a free birthday bowl too! www.genghisgrill.com

11/16- Kayley’s first illness. 🙁 Runny and congested nose, fever, vomiting. Poor kid. I did notice however that she is +1 to dexterity. She can manipulate her pacifier and turn it in her hands to the correct direction and watches as she brings it closer to her mouth to see if it is coming in the correct direction. I’ve moved into Kayley’s room with her at night. I don’t know when I’ll try to get her to sleep in her crib but now just doesn’t feel like the right time.
11/17- I don’t think I mentioned that the boys started cub scouts. Tonight was their 4th meeting.
Andy is actively learning to read now. We are working on letter sounds and _an and _at words. Yay!
11/18- Kayley rolled from her tummy to her back for the first time since that fluke roll 2 months ago. She really, really likes ice cream too. 🙂
11/20- Bren got his first scouting award today, the Bobcat patch. He was so happy his mouth hung open, haha!
11/23- K ate her first meal from my plate tonight- carrots and taquito meat, haha.
11/24- K is rolling around pretty good now- thank god for not being “stuck” on her belly anymore!!!
11/25- K’s 1st pumpkin pie
11/26- K’s 1st time in a doorway jumper- wheeee! 😀
11/29- K’s 1st hamburger, french fry and yogurt
11/30- K’s 1st pancake! K’s first night (I think) sleeping 10+ hours without a bottle. Lots of pacifier popping however. We’re getting there.
12/1- K can sit for about 5 seconds now 🙂 K really likes Kiwi Banana with lemon baby food. 😀
Another no bottle night- yippeeee!
12/2- K likes Cheeto Puffs, haha!
12/3- I just rocked and sang my baby to sleep. I’m going to miss this. She is so precious. The song? The Big Mac jingle… hahahaha!
12/6- K does not like mashed potatoes and gravy. What is up with my kids?!
12/7- Kayley likes to shake her head back and forth likes she is saying no. It’s cute. 🙂 Brendan asked for a spy gear set and the boys have been pretending to be spies for the past couple days. They’re cute too. 😀
12/9- If positioned carefully, Kayley can now hold her own bottle! 😀
12/10- Kayley’s first sippy cup. WOW- she does great though she didn’t drink a lot! I think the handles make it even easier to hold than the bottle. Also her first lemonade 😀 Also her first yeast roll! She gobbled the roll, the lemonade gave her sour faces, lol.
12/11 Baby’s first spaghetti! Angel hair with a really mild cheesy tomato sauce- she loves it!
12/13- K’s first pickle spear! Kayley activates her jumper’s piano with her face- lol!!! She’s practicing yes and no head motions.
12/17- K is eating a whole jar of food now- 2x a day. Size 4 Pampers now.
12/18- Bren and Andy’s favorite game now is to collect all the pillows, blankets and couch cushions in the house and build a defensive wall in their room and defend it, LOL!
12/20- Andy read his first story today!! Kayley weighs 17.2 lbs on my scale. Kayley kisses her Glo-Worm doll on the lips now- awwww! K’s first whole taquito!
12/21- Happy 7 months Miss Kayley Bucket!!
12/25- Merry Christmas!
12/30- I made K laugh by covering up her car seat with a blanket and surprising her by grabbing and tickling her feet! lol
12/31- K really bounces a bunch in her exersaucers now!! She loves it when she can bounce and play in one outside!!
1/1/2011- K celebrated New Year’s Day with us while B and A stayed with Mimi and Papa. The quiet and the time to get things organized has been very nice. K sucked on her first hunk of meat- beef fajita- and loved it!!
We’re Low-carbin’ again starting today. 🙂 Holidays are over and I didn’t gain it ALL back… that’s always good!
1/3- K loves real chicken too! She also grabs my face and pulls it towards her and gives me open mouthed kisses! Awwww!
1/4- Kayley’s well baby dr appt. 28.25 inches & 17 lbs 4 oz
1/5- Make baby ecstatic with baby food pizza, lol! Take 1/2 of a Beech Nut stage 3 Squash & Zucchini jar and add 3 spoonfuls of pizza sauce and a spoonful of dry rice cereal to thicken. YUM!
1/8- Kayley smacks her lips! So cute!
1/9- Kayley likes sweet potatoes with brown sugar and cinnamon and also avocado now!
1/11- Andy read his 2nd story! Brendan wrote his first poem!
1/15- K says mama! I think she even means me!!! We’ll see if she keeps it up- it might be her first word! I think both boys said Da-da first!
1/16- Darrell says she says hi now!
1/20- K got up on her hands and knees for the first time today and rocked back and forth. She wants to go!!! Brendan went to work with Dad today!
1/21- Andy knows _at, _an, _ag, _ap amd _ad words now. He can read about 50 words. He surprised Darrell today with “Hi d-a-d!” Haha.
Brendan learned his very last multiplication fact- it was 8 x 8 = 64. Next he learns problems like 45 x 8. Cool!
Happy 8 months baby girl!!!
1/24- K’s lip-smacking has morphed into tongue clicking!
1/25- K will pull a blanket over her eyes when playing Peekaboo! 😀
1/26 LOL Brendan met and “Evil Scout” today. He thought about that all day and finally asked Dad why he is evil… lol, EAGLE not EVIL!!!
Andy can read 5 stories now! 😀
1/27- K’s first 6 oz bottle… even though she mostly still drinks 4 oz at a time. She likes broccoli with cheese and baby puffy cheetos thingies. Cheerios bore her, lol.
1/28- K pulled herself up to a sitting for the first time.
2/1- K like to hide under pillows! She is soooooo close to crawling! Brendan starts cursive writing today!
2/6- I put Kayley on the edge of Andy’s bed with her feet on the floor and she was able to hold on and stand there by herself!!
2/10- K waves hi/bye!!! She also uses her knee to scooch her forward on her belly on the floor instead of rolling places. She had her first accident too- she pulled a toy cash register off of a couch and onto her forehead- ouch!
2/11- Kayley clapped AND said “YAYYYYY!” for Cathy today!! Grandma Diane and Papa Don surprised us with a visit!!
2/13- After 2 really cranky days then a day of chewing on Mimi’s metal bracelet, K popped her first tooth through the gums! It’s the bottom center, to K’s right side.
2/15- WOW! Kayley is sitting on DH’s lap, clapping and saying “Yay Dada!!!”

He’s growing up, isn’t he? 😀

LC Creamy Buffalo Chicken- yum!!!
canola oil
5 XL chicken breasts
salt
garlic powder
1 egg, beaten (.6)
2 T any 1 carb ranch dressing (1)
8 oz Philadelphia cream cheese, warmed a bit (8)
5 T Wing Time buffalo sauce (2.5)
Sprinkle chicken with salt and garlic powder. Fry chicken breasts in canola oil until browned on both sides. Transfer to aluminum foil topped baking pan. Bake at 375 until chicken is done.
Whisk last 4 ingredients together in bowl. Top baked chicken completely with entire amount of sauce.
Bake for 10 minutes more.
Serves 5 at 2.5 carbs per chicken breast.

Andy on our new static shocking machine…err, trampoline:

Kayley on her knees, she’s about to crawl any day now!:

Fun with shaving cream, haha:

I made the apple pie filling with finely diced granny smith apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, water and a hefty mixture of a little cold water and equal parts flour and con starch mixed together. Cook til apples are soft. It has to be THICK.
I used a large spice lid to cut circles out of pie crusts and pushed them down in a mini cupcake pan, filled with cooked filling and baked 13 minutes or so around 350.
The cake mix is butter pecan. Bake as normal except push a mini pie into each before baking.
The frosting I call Cinnamon Brown Sugar Buttercream- the standard Wilton butter cream recipe except I added brown sugar (1/2 cup) and cinnamon (about 2 t) to the butter and melted them together then re-chilled it before use. If it’s too cinnamony for you, add more powdered sugar. Frost using a very large and open star tips- the ones that are bigger than standard tip size. Trust me, with the right tip it’s easy!
They got rave reviews!! 😀

Had to invent a cookie seeing as it is Valentine’s Day! They’re pretty good!

112 g or 1 packed cup Bob’s Red Mill almond flour (12)
3 pkts Truvia
1 egg, beaten (.6)
2 tsp almond extract
2 pkts Truvia
1/2 bar ChocoPerfection dark or milk chocolate, grated (1)
Mix first 4 ingredients together. Shape into 14 balls- use cooking spray to coat your hands. Flatten to 1/8th inch on nonstick aluminum foil covered cookie sheet with a flat bottomed cup sprayed with cooking spray and dipped into remaining Truvia. Re-dip into Truvia between each cookie. Sprinkle cookies with leftover Truvia.
Bake them at 325º for 11-14 minutes or until golden brown around the edges. Take out of oven and IMMEDIATELY sprinkle tops with the chocolate. Wait 5 minutes then spread the melted chocolate on top of each cookie with the back of a spoon.
Makes 14 cookies, 1 net carb each.
Happy Valentine’s Day!