Baking with Sun Butter

Since peanut butter has been banned from our house because of Lauren's peanut allergy, we keep an alternative on hand - sunflower seed butter.  It has the texture and smell of peanut butter, and has similar (but different) nutty taste.  Ironically, Lauren won't eat it - but Cole loves it; his favorite is sun butter and jelly sandwiches :)  I've been wanting to try using it in place of peanut butter for baking.


Yesterday, Lauren and I tried out this recipe for sun butter cookies, and I was pleasantly surprised with the results. I halved the recipe, and used Earth's Balance in place of the butter, and my egg substitute of 1T flaxseed meal + 3 T water (so Cole could enjoy them too).


They taste very similar to good old-fashioned peanut butter cookies.  I will definitely be making them again.  Even Lauren liked them; I'll convert her to a sun butter-lover yet...


Peanut-butter puffs, is another recipe that I've tried using sun butter as a substitute.  Saw it in an issue of Parenting magazine, and found a copy here.  We made these for a school potluck.


We all found it hard to eat just one.

Swimming Solo

Cole recently graduated from his 'Baby & Me III' swimming class, to the Starfish class. He's had 2 classes so far, and has been a little apprehensive at the start of each, but then cracks a smile and enjoys the rest. Mom and Dad are glad they no longer have to join him in the pool - ha ha. Lauren's class is in the neighboring lane, and hopefully that won't provide too much distraction going forward :)

Project Life | 2011 Catch Up

The two final weeks from 2011, since as I mentioned I got started on this early :)

Christmas week in Phoenix, packed with lots of activities, including a trip for Lauren to see the Nutcracker downtown.

New Years week in Las Vegas, where we saw the Rick Thomas magic show, had fun with Ama and Ankong, and ate lots of delicious food.

Getting Back on Track

We went to the YMCA today, first time in 3 months for me. Had to have my account reactivated. Embarrassing....

Starting 'Project Life'

I'd been looking for a simpler way to scrapbook, and came across Becky Higgin's Project Life in some of the blogs I frequent. I decided to give it a try, and purchased the core kit (cobalt edition) and several of the photo pocket pages on Amazon.

The kit arrived before the holidays, so I decided to get started early - here is my first week's spread. So far, I really like it, because I don't have to spend time planning a layout - just drop in some photos and jot down a few things on the journaling cards. I like also that I finally have a place for some of the other little items - like the kids' artwork, ticket stubs, etc. Now the question is, can I keep up? :)

Hide & Seek

Playing lots of hide & seek at Ama & Ankong's house. Can you find me? Psst, look closely at the pillows :)

Merry Christmas!

Ho Ho Ho

Both kids agreed to their Santa picture without me this year!  Still searching for a smile though....

Lauren told Santa she didn't know what she wanted for Christmas this year.  Cole told us he asked Santa for 'a cat!' Go figure. We told him he should have asked Santa if he would like a cat, since we are trying hard to reduce our cat count of two, to zero.  But then Cole tried to insist we only have one....

Thanksgiving Weekend

Pie heaven, courtesy of Mom.  The kids' favorite was the apple pie, the adults' favorite was the icebox pumpkin-mousse pie, recipe from the Nov issue of Everyday Food.


Next, up with the Christmas decorations and tree.  Santa brought this Frosty train last year, and the kids were so excited to set it up.  They can literally stare at it for hours.


And Cole decided to line the tracks with snowflake ornaments...

Operation Potty

There's no turning back now... Cole was excited to put on his big boy underpants this morning (and Lauren really wanted to pose in hers as well!)  We put away all the diapers, and he said 'No more diapers for me!'  We'll see how this goes :)


Hopefully we won't have to go through the whole stash by Sunday :)