Recipe / Photo: Tiffany Pidruchny It’s the time of year for all things food. Halloween has just passed, Thanksgiving is around the corner and Christmas is less than 6 weeks away! I am a self-professed food lover and have always been but it was in my 20’s when I decided to clean up my diet and find ways to make all of my favorite foods healthier. It was a fun and rewarding venture and one that I have not been reluctant at all to share with the world through my blog and in my cookbooks. As a special needs mom, I have also felt it important not only to choose whole, natural, non-GMO ingred ..read more

Although my daughter is non-verbal, a language that her and I both share is our love of food and making recipes together. She is always eager to help with recipes and this is one of our favorites that is simple to make and a winner with whoever we share it with: Mini Peanut Butter and Jam Thumbprint Cookies. Peanut butter and jam is a classic and in this cookie form with no added oil or refined sugar and adorable bite-size portion, it is sure to become a classic recipe in your collection too!       Mini Peanut Butter and Jam Thumbprint Cookies (Dairy and Egg Free) Makes 3 dozen mini cookies In ..read more

Everyone knows one crunchy friend.  The one who used cloth diapers, made their own baby wipes and even makes dog food treats.  I am not the crunchiest Momma out there, but I am pretty far gone.  I am also house bound with my son, so we missed all the wild, crazy clear-the-shelf-shoppers hoarding supplies in event of a local or national quarantine.  If I had gone shopping, I would have been alone, over in the section of store largely over looked by the bleach crowd.  I, gasp, am not a bleach person.  I am also not a commercial store bought cleaning product gal for the most part.   For those o ..read more

The smell of pee slapped me hard in the face.  “Oh John, come on buddy, get up, let Momma change your bedding okay?”   I was already balling up the quilt above John as I spoke. John, completely unaware of his situation, slowly moved.  I stripped his tee-shirt and sweats he was wearing, pulled off a very full Depends, tossed that near the door, and realized I had nothing to wash him with before I redressed him. “Just stand here“: I was already pulling off the mattress protector praying the sheet under it was dry. If it was, I didn’t have to strip the bed, just put down a new protector. My eyes ..read more

Growing up, Thanksgiving meant dozens of people would come to my parents’ house for a meal that was as elaborate as one on any cooking show you can imagine.  Each year, my mom would fret over new recipes she wanted to try but family would “complain” that she had to make their tried and true favorite, so the traditional dishes she and my dad lovingly prepared for days would continue from one year to the next.  The day was loud, crowded, and I can still hear my grandmother playing piano over it all.  It was a tradition that I imagined seeing my kids around the table for, but then I became a spe ..read more

Last year the Center for Disease Control reported that dating violence amongst high school students is commonplace with 1 in 11 females and 1 in 15 males experiencing physical violence and 1 in 9 females and 1 in 36 males surviving some form of sexual violence in their interpersonal relationships. 26% of women and approximately 15% of men will be victims of dating violence before their 18th birthdays.   1 in 5 people who are 12 to 19 years old with a disability reported experiencing dating violence in this same time period.  This is twice the rate as youth without a disability.  The Arc’s rese ..read more

I came across this book the other day. It had just come up during a conversation a short time ago wherein I was doing my best to hide my disbelief that my eldest could not recall the “required” bedtime book I read to him so long ago. Twinkle, twinkle, start so bright, Winking at me in the night. How I wish that I could fly, And visit you up in the sky…. Admittedly, my disbelief also held a hint of disappointment… I had worked so hard at singing the words of this story in such a way to make it even more exciting, enhancing the anticipation of the next page to come. I rhythmically relayed the ..read more

Homework conversations in my house sound like this:  My Kid: “This math problem is frustrating.”  Me: “What’s frustrating about it?”  My Kid: “It’s asking me to give the percent of the shaded area.” Me: “Ok”   My Kid: “But the problem doesn’t give me the color of the rectangle. So, is the shaded area the white area or the gray one? How can I give the answer without all the information? The answer to both possibilities is in the multiple-choice section! “ Me: “I see your point.”  Copyright : budabar ADHD minds see many possibilities and are easily perplexed by the lack of imagination prese ..read more

It has been years that I’ve been having stomach issues. At first it was slow going in the symptoms; and, I had a lot of other life things to distract me from me. Slowly my symptoms of bloating and stomach pain started getting worse. It became a joke of sorts… until the day it just no longer was. We had a celebratory meal for Father’s Day after which I doubled over in pain for what seemed like eternity, and the next day I decided I was done with gluten and milk. I finally faced what had been nagging at me, that one or both of those was doing me in and I was gong to stop consuming them. For a ti ..read more

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, today I wanted to share a delicious dairy and gluten free chocolate recipe for you all that is also no-bake and filled with wholesome ingredients.  I am a food lover and have always been but it was in my twenties when I decided to clean up my diet and find ways to make all of my favorite foods healthier. It was a fun and rewarding venture and one that I have not been reluctant at all to share with the world through my blog and in my self-published healthy cookbooks. As a special needs mom, I have also felt it important not only to choose whole, natu ..read more