Friday, February 25, 2011

Pizza Waffles

So it has been three weeks since I last blogged and I bet you wonder what happened to me. Well those of you who follow me on Twitter know that we have been sick. Not just sick though, sick with the flu kind of sick!
It started two weeks ago, I had a normal day, went to my son's basketball game, cleaned up the kitchen, got in bed at 10 pm and BAM, literally all of a sudden I felt miserable. I had a raging fever, everything ached and I could barely get up to get some tylenol. My fever raged for 3 days, taking two double strength tylenol every 4 hours. It was more difficult since my husband was away travelling. My little girl stayed by my side and took care of me. She even got herself dressed.
So I started to feel better and we all went to visit my Mom for the weekend. Everyone was fine, we stayed for 2 days and on Saturday night we started to pack up to go home. My 3 year old little girl was playing happily, giggling, and off we went to drive home.
We got home and my little girl said she was freezing, shivering, crying, HUH? You were fine 30 minutes ago.  She bundled up on the couch and seemed so sad. Well this would begin the longest 6 days of my life. Baby girl had the flu and so had I. Her fever stayed at 105 for 6 days straight. This would not have been so bad if she would take some medicine, but no, that would be too easy. She refused to take any meds whatsoever. She would not let a drop get past her lips.  She would not take a chewable Tylenol, nothing.  We went to an urgent care place the second night at midnight, and the nurse there told me that with her 25 years of experience she would be able to get her to take some Motrin.  Oh wonderful I thought...... she took her temp 104.9 and grabbed her and tried to put a syringe of motrin in the back of her throat. That medicine stayed in her mouth a whole 30 seconds and then she puked all over the know it all nurse. The dr was very reassuring, told us it was the flu and that it was not dangerous to have a 105 fever at all. Sure it isnt...... I did not sleep for the next 6 days, watching my poor baby burn up, worrying about her little body and how it could handle this horrible flu.

So we have been fever free for 3 days now and looking forward to a healthy rest of 2011~
While we were in bed for so many days I found myself dreaming of food.  I came up with a great idea, what if we put pizza dough in a waffle machine and then turned it into a pizza waffle. Easy peasy and totally yummy!!
I let each person in our family choose white or whole wheat dough.  Trader Joe's sells a great fresh pizza dough in white, whole wheat and herb. These packages of dough make 2 perfect pizza waffles.
Just so you know, this is such an easy dinner and also customizable! Each person in our house made their own dough choice and of course toppings too.

Take your bag of dough and divide into 2 pieces. Flatten out your piece and press into a hot waffle machine.  Let it cook as long as one waffle would cook.  Take the pizza waffle right out, put it on a piece of foil and add your sauce, cheese, spices and any toppings. Then put your pizza under the broiler for a few minutes until everything is melty and smells amazing. Eat it and enjoy!! This could not be easier.
Leave me a comment if you try these yummy pizzas and what toppings you put on your pizza!
We have experimented all weekend with our waffle pizzas and we came up with something new!

Grilled cheese waffles! 
 We will continue to experiment and report back with more of our creations.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Better Breakfast for your kids!

When I switched our house to healthy foods years ago the one thing my kids really missed was sugary cereals. I would often buy them because they were on sale AND I always had great coupons for them.  One of my sons favorite cereal was Cinnamon Toast Crunch. He loved that cereal. He could eat 3 or 4 bowls in a row.

So I took away all the bad cereals and replaced them with healthier choices. We like Annie's, Kashi, and Cascadian Farms best.  Cascadian Farms recently came out with a new flavor. It is called Cinnamon Crunch. My son says this cereal is even better than the Cinnamon Toast Crunch he remembers. The ingredients are clean and no added flavors, colors, or preservatives.

One serving is 1 cup. Each cup has 110 calories, 2.5 grams of fat, 0 saturated fat, 3 grams of fiber, 8 grams of sugar, and 2 grams of protein. Each serving also has 10-25% of may vitamins and minerals. I do not let me kids have this everyday but a few times a week is fine!!
What cereals do you feed your kids?

Cascadian Farms did not provide me with any cereal, I buy a box at least once a week at my local health food store.