Gluten Free and Dairy Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Guys! I'm so sorry I've been a bit slack on the blog front. A mix of settling into a new kindy routine and Jeremy teething has just got me wiped out. Anyway my insta-story game has been pretty good though, so if you want to keep up with our adventures, make sure you follow me on insta! 

I made these on my insta story yesterday and got such a good response I thought I should share the recipe here! I kind of freak out when it comes to gluten free and dairy free baking as I'm just not very experienced working with these substitutes and I often find the ingredients necessary like almond meal and gluten free flour can get a bit pricey. I loveeee these cookies because they are gluten free and dairy free, they are melt in your mouth delicious, they use ingredients most kiwis have in their cupboards and they literally take 2 minutes to whip up. 

This particular batch i have adapted to be breast milk boosting by adding some flaxseed and brewers yeast. If you are a breast feeding mum, soak 2t flaxseed in 2T warm water for like 5 mins and add that with 3T brewers yeast to the mixture at the end! 

Also one more thing to note is that these are just so incredibly soft and crumbly when they come out of the oven so make sure you are super careful when shifting them from the baking tray to the cooling rack 

These aren't on the weight watchers list as they are quite sugary, so I will be experimenting with a refined sugar free version soon but for now, just indulge xx

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (DF,GF) 

1 cup smooth peanut butter

1 cup white sugar

1 egg

1/3 cup dark chocolate chips

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees celcius

2. Soften peanut butter in the microwave for 30 seconds

3. Add sugar, egg and chocolate chips to the softened peanut butter and mix till combined

4. Portion out cookies using an ice-cream scoop

5. Bake for 15 mins

6. Transfer to a cooling rack very carefully so that the cookies harden

How To Survive A Road Trip with a Breastfed Babe and A Terrific Two Year Old

I have friends who just refuse to travel with young children. To be perfectly honest I totally get it. It is no easy feat. If they are miserable, all the time, effort, energy and money you put into the trip, is all for nothing. And then I have other friends who are absolutely insane and travel the world with their young children. Now them, I envy because of all the amazing adventures they have and the fact that they are brave enough and carefree enough to do so. Me, I like to sit somewhere in the middle. Travel the world with young children with long haul flights, different weather, different food and different toilets, probs not. Travel our beautiful country, New Zealand with young children, sure why not! Actually someone the other day that we have done quite well with our domestic travel, having just a young wee bub. In Jeremy's short life of almost 6 months he has done 2x almost week long trips to Auckland, 4 days in Christchurch and 5 days in Wellington. I like to think that's a pretty good effort on our part. 

Now Wellington. When we locked in Queens Birthday Weekend to go and visit Josiah's Nan in Wellington I don't think I had quite thought through the fact that meant an approx 7 hour roadie with a two and a half year old and five month old. As it got closer to the trip I'm not going to lie there was quite a build up of anxiety. I just had to think back to the first time we took Shyra-Beth from Auckland to Rotorua and it took us about 5 hours because of the amount of times we had to stop for boobie, nappies, spillies, burpies, you name an ies and we stopped for it. I think it might be a first time parent thing because this time it was a bit different. But to see the memories and connections made between nan and our kids, the trip was defo worth it! 

Now here are a few disclaimers: 

1. Josiah's mum came with us, so it was incredible having the extra set of hands and having someone in the back to entertain the kids. Now if there are just two of you, one can totally still sit in the back 

2. We pre-planned our stops. Google maps placed 5.5 hours of driving from our house to nan's. Factoring in weather (we had heavy fog for about an hour of the drive), bladders, naps and food it took us approx 7 hours. We stopped at places that had toilets, coffee and a safe place for the toddler to blow off some steam. If you saw my insta stories you would have seen Shyra running circles around a rock in Waiouru. 

Not going to lie I feel a bit stupid doing this post because a lot of it is common sense. But a lot of these tips I picked up from other mums or just thought through and they seemed to really help, so hopefully it does reduce pre-holiday anxiety! 

1. Haakaa Pump 

I know I've already written about this beauty but seriously, one of my main concerns with this roadie was the fact Jeremy cluster feeds like there is no tomorrow and I really didn't want to have to stop every hour to feed him. I did the majority of the driving on our way down and much to Josiah's shock and horror I attached the pump before driving so lalala within the hour I had filled a good 50-70ml. This was so good, because Jeremy started screaming in the middle of the dessert road with no place to stop so all Josiah had to do was pour my milk into a bottle I had in my bag and my mother-in-law fed it to him in the back. This satisfied him till our next stop where I gave him a proper feed. While I was feeding him, I had the pump on the other side catching the let down, and we did exactly the same thing the next time he started crying in the car! 

I don't know about you but I absolutely can't handle a crying screaming baby in the car. The feeling of helplessness is awful, especially when you can't stop. This wee contraption helps to eliminate that problem! 

2. Lamaze Scrunchy Book

A friend bought this book for Jeremy and he absolutely loves it. It literally entertains him for like 20 minutes, which might as well be an eternity when it comes to Jeremy. You don't have to have this exact book but with babies if you are wanting a compact multi-function toy this one is pretty good. The plastic bits are great to chew on, the bright coloured animals are entertaining and the best part is the scrunchy noise. The little hoop at the top is also really good because you can attach it to the capsule so they can't throw it away and scream! 

3. Water Wipes 

I always buy these any way but they are amazing to have on a roadtrip, especially when you have borrowed your father-in-laws straight out of the showroom Mazda CX5. Being chemical free, we used them to wipe snot of faces, milk spills from tops, mud from gumboots that got on the seats and of course to change nappies

4. Guess How Much I Love You 

Shyra-Beth loves reading, so packing books in the car was a no-brainer but facing a children's library of what looked like a million books I had to be smart with my choice. I chose this book because its one of her favourites, it's got just the right amount of word to picture ratio for a two year old and it's got actions she could do sitting down. You could choose any book, but the above are just a few things to bear in mind, that entertain two year olds! 

5. Whittakers The Full Eighty

This was a necessity for the grown ups. This is a limited release from Whittakers and it is delish! Josiah is a dark chocolate fan, I'm a milk chocolate fan so the fact that he likes this milk chocolate based treat is a massive win for me. I like finding all the different wee bits they have in there. Also it's good bribery to get the toddler back in the car, when she didn't want to leave the Adventure Playground in Levin. If you are ever going through Levin, that is definitely a place worth stopping at! The playgroup is huge, well maintained and has so many different activities for all ages. Definitely one of the best playgrounds I've ever been to

6. Babu Organic Cotton Swaddle 

I grabbed a few of these at the baby show last year and they were by far my best purchase. I use these as actual swaddles for Jeremy because he is an escape artist and this is the only non velcro, non zip swaddle that contains him. But what I loved about it for this trip was that because of it's size it was a great cover cloth while feeding. Also because it is organic cotton I didn't have any worries when I used it to drape over his capsule while he napped in the warm car, during the drive. Having an organic, breathable fabric I knew he wouldn't overheat or get too uncomfortable and wake up! 

7. Magnetic Drawing Board

We got this for Shyra-Beth for her birthday last year. This is I guess the knock off of the original magnadoodle but it was just such a life-saver in the car. Firstly the pen is attached via string to it so you don't have to try and pick up a pen from the floor in a moving car. Secondly it is endless entertainment! We got Shyra to draw the things she could see- sheep, cows, trees and of course her favourite "The North Mountain" aka Mt. Ruapehu, because I might have fibbed and told her she might see Queen Elsa there

These are just a few ideas, if you have any other road tripping fool proof ideas with kids, please comment I would love to hear them! If you notice.. the key thing here is there is no mention or iPad's or apps! We did result to about 10mins of Paw Patrol on the phone at one point but other than that we were totally tech free aka we all ran out of data