Quick Takes (with a giveaway!)

Joining Jen with a way too long quick takes today.

-1-

Would you like to join me for an exercise in self control? Go get some of this. Then set it on your counter. And tell yourself to only eat one slice per day. Can't do it? How about one slice per hour? No, that's too hard too? Then just do whatever you can to keep from eating the entire bag in ten minutes and reward your amazing iron will by....finishing off the entire bag. Then feel really guilty because that one pound cost five bucks.

Dried mango. It's so freaking good. A story to illustrate:

A few months ago Karen and Lauren came to visit. Funnest. weekend. ever. To divy up the food responsibilities, Karen offered to bring the alcohol (naturally) and Lauren offered to make a "decadent dessert". Well, since she has two kids and had to drive three hours to get to me, the dessert didn't get made. What did she do instead? She picked up three bags of dried mango. And then told me and Karen that it would be one of the best things we'd ever eaten and that we wouldn't even mind that she didn't make double fudged stuffed brownies with oreo topping and caramel sauce from scratch. And we looked at her like she was insane.

And then we ate the dried mango. And now we call it mango crack. And now I trust anything Lauren says.

-2-

Speaking of mango, can we talk about food allergies for a second? Or sensitivities would probably be a better word if you care about which words I use to describe food allergies sensitivities. I admit, I was one of the top skeptics when it came to the everyone-is-allergic-to-something-and-gluten-is-killing-us-all world we live in now. I honestly just didn't believe people when they told me their kids had all these allergies and that such and such food would make them sick. Now that Hannah and Paul both can't have dairy (which means no dairy for me while nursing. None. Not even a food with sodium caseinate listed as the 19th ingredient.) I'm obviously a believer. But now, it's gotten even worse.

I've jumped on the gluten bandwagon. And I don't know if I'll ever be able get off. To make a long and boring story short, I can't eat gluten if I want to feel decent. Now, if I want to feel bloated and miserable and lethargic everyday, then I can chow down on those cinnamon rolls and even allow a little flour in my soup as a thickener. But I don't want to feel like that. So I can't eat gluten. Or dairy. And that sucks.

I remember (this is where the mango comes in) a friend I used to work with (who had Celiac, thus couldn't have gluten) told me that after so long without it she could actually find pleasure in just smelling a loaf of bread or a brownie. That she didn't even have to taste it to enjoy it. She also thought frozen mango was about the best "dessert" on the planet. Holly, I admit I thought you were a bit crazy. Now I totally get you. Brownies smell great. And smelling them is way better than eating them and feeling like crap. And well, I just devoted an entire quick take to mango. So I guess that makes me a food sensitivity loser.

-3-

While we're on the topic of food, could you sweet readers help me out? I've been pretty much perpetually hungry since Paul was born. Nursing a 19 pound five month old and not being able to eat 80% of the food on the grocery store shelves will do that too you. I need snack ideas!!! And I need them bad. I might actually die if I eat any more almonds. Or peanut butter straight from the jar. Or hummus. Please, please, please! What else is there?

What are some snack ideas that fit all of the following categories?

a) Does not contain any gluten or dairy. Not even a trace.

b) Is edible (preferably yummy, but I'll settle for edible).

c) Will help me actually feel full/Is high in protein.

d) Doesn't involve more than six second of prep time.

e) Doesn't cost the equivalent of an entire bag of dried mango.

What's that you say? It doesn't exist. Well I guess I'll settle for 4 out of 5. Just help!

-4-

Is this post already too long? I better skip #4.

-5-

How about some Hannah quotes? Our best friends in town just had their first baby, an adorable and precious and sweet little girl named Ruth.

Hannah's in love. She talks about "Woof" all day long. Like yesterday, for example:

H, while crawling around and roaring: I a lion. You a tiger.

Me: And what's Paul?

H: He's baby Woof!

H, while watching two squirrels run around the backyard: Mommy look ("yut")! Two squirrels!

Me: Wow! I see them. Do you think they're friends?

H: No mommy. Not friends. Just squirrels.

And her response when she saw Paul's spit up all over the kitchen floor?

Mommy look! Paul made a smile face!

-6-

In a slight change from pictures of breast milk vomit, How would you like to completely change someone's life for the better and win a free purse while doing it? I've talked about my talented sister-in-law Kate on here before. She really is amazing. Better than Martha Stewart (and without that awkward topless sketch she did for Saturday Night Live. Or the jail time.)

She can do everything from flowers to party decorations to interior design to sewing. And man can she sew. Take a look at some of my favorites from her Etsy shop.

And she does custom bride and bridesmaid stuff for weddings. Like this.

Because she's amazing.

And she's offered to give away one of her purses from her K8 Made shop just because I asked her to! And now the life changing part. Kate entered a contest (by none other than Martha Stewart herself....) to try to win $10,000 to be used to grow her business. She wants to turn her hobby into a full time job and I really, really, really want her to get this.

So follow the rafflecopter rules below and enter to win the purse of your choosing (excluding diaper bags, but they're awesome so you should just buy one). Setting up an account to vote was fast and easy and I haven't received one single piece of spam. You're not obligated to vote for K8 Made, obviously. Vote for anyone you want. (But seriously, her purses are the best, soooo......) Then go back and vote six times a day to help make someone's dreams come true.

-7-

If you want an extra 5,000,000* chances to win, leave a comment with a snack idea that meets all my above criteria. Come on, do Ted a favor and help me stop complaining about being hungry all the time.

And dangit I can't figure out how to do the links in Rafflecopter for the life of me. You'll have to copy paste. I'm a blogging giveaway failure.

*those are just pretend entries.

a Rafflecopter giveaway