The GFCF Adventure!

We went to a holiday party tonight and one of my son's friends (they are both 4 1/2) gleefully broke her roll in two pieces and placed one half on my son's plate. She said, "Here, a Christmas present for you!" and she smiled like she had bestowed the Frankincense and the myrrh! I tried really hard not to over react. I wanted to sand blast his plate, to make sure it was crumb free, but I was really aware of my son watching my reaction, so I asked him, "Is that something you can eat?" He looked at me and looked at her and then said sheepishly, "No, I can't eat that." Then there was a long conversation with the little girl about how some people can't eat certain things. We started listing off the things that my son can't eat - but for everything I said that he couldn't eat, he told her something that he could eat - completely without prompting - and that was when it occurred to me that I might be doing a better job raising him than I am raising myself.

I'm always trying to put things in terms of what he can do instead of the opposite... but there I was listing all the things he couldn't eat, while he reminded me of all the things he can eat. Later on in the night he suddenly launched himself at me and gave me a huge hug and a slobbery kiss as he said. "I love you Mama!" right before he ran off to play with his friends. I was reminded of what an adventure we are on. And adventures aren't always easy - but they are always worthwile!

Gluten Free - The Easy Way

Okay, call me lazy - but my son has been gluten free for 2 years now and I have yet to buy guar gum. Does anyone even know what guar gum is? I went looking on the web last night to see what the other gfcf moms are cooking this holiday season - and I remembered why I stopped looking on line to see what other gfcf moms are cooking. Because I'm pretty sure that they have more time than I do. I don't have time in the morning to make pancakes from scratch - there are a lot of mornings where I don't have time to add water to the GFCF pancake mix that my son loves - so instead he gets toast and eggs.

I do cook, but most of what I cook takes 15 minutes or less to cook - that's how much time I have, realistically. Yes, over the last two years there have been times when I have ventured to "cook" something - like when I attempted to make hummus from scratch - my son loves hummus and the company that we buy it from changed the recipe and added, cultured dextrose, which makes our kid a little nutty. So I tried to make it myself - after 3 very messy attempts (all of which yielded fabulous tasting hummus that my son refused to eat because the texture was different) I found another brand of hummus that doesn't have cultured dextrose. The new hummus comes in individual serving sizes in a tetra pack so it doesn't have to refrigerated - perfect for Disneyland, car trips and my son's earthquake survival kit at school. And the best part? Instead of standing over my food processor, I have time to spend with my lovely, beautiful child. I'm good with not owning guar gum!

A GFCF Answer to Decorating Christmas Cookies!

All week long all my son has talked about is decorating christmas cookies - he even found cookie cutters in the kitchen drawer where I keep all of my "preGFGC" cooking utensils. I sat and decorated a gingerbread "cookie tree" with my son thinking this would satisfy him - It was a Wilton kit with real gingerbread and we had the whole talk before we started about how we weren't go to eat anything. It went fine but when we were done he said he wanted to decorate cookies he could eat, like his friends at school.

Now I have to say this is a double edged sword because to hear him voice the words - it kills me - I have been waiting so long to hear him speak about his friends and to notice what they do - I just want to give him what ever he wants to celebrate the words!!! But my saner brain knows that a great deal of the reason why he has words and notices his friends is BECAUSE he doesn't eat like them. So for days I have been trying to come up with a healthy way that he can make and decorate and eat gfcf chistmas cookies. Oh, and did I mention that we are also corn, potato, sugar, yeast, artificial color, flavoring and sweetner free as well? There are many great GFCF cookie mixs out there -full of sugar - and decorations are a Feingold artificial color nightmare!

Then tonight it came to me in a fit of desperation as my child stood in front of me with a Christmas Tree cookie cutter and Star cookie cutter, begging. Pizza Dough! I'm telling you that Namaste Sugar-Free Pizza dough is a GFCF mom's best friend. No, I am not on their payroll, but I would like to buy stock in their company.

I made a quick 1/4 batch of pizza dough and we rolled it between two pieces of parchment paper - My son gleefully cut out two stars and two christmas trees and we threw them in the oven - While they cooked I made some egg free turkey nuggets and heated some carrots, broccolli and red, green and yellow peppers in the microwave. In ten minutes we pulled our "pizza cookies" out of the oven and let them cool. My son frosted them with tomato sauce (Trader Joe's Marinara) and decorated them with broccoli, carrots and peppers. He was literally jumping up and down with glee! I threw some nuggets on his plate and dinner was cooked in less than 15 minutes start to finish!The best part is that he was sooooo happy. We will definately cook more "Pizza Cookies" soon.

GFCF Chicken/Turkey Nuggets

This is a kick butt GFCF recipe that will have them begging for more. This recipe includes eggs if you or your little one are egg free see yesterday's post for the egg free version (also kick butt good). I do this recipe with pre-cooked chicken or turkey - for three reasons. 1. It makes it really quick and easy. 2. It's a great use for left overs - Thanksgiving turkey has never been so easy to get rid of! 3. It allows me to make bigger, thicker nuggets - the meat is already cooked so it's just a matter of making the outside crispy!

Ingredients

Cooked, boneless chicken or turkey
Namaste Sugar-Free Pizza Dough Mix
1 egg
Canola Oil
Salt to taste

Directions
Cut up the meat according to how your child prefers it (some kids love strips, others like chunks)
Beat the egg in a bowl. Place about a 1/2c of Namaste Pizza Dough Mix in another bowl.
Dunk the meat in the egg, one or two pieces at a time. When the meat is coated with egg transfer it to the Pizza dough mix bowl, coat it with pizza dough. Heat some canola oil in a heavy frying pan on medium heat then transfer the meat to the frying pan. Flip only once when crispy brown on the first side. Cook until both sides are crispy brown. Drain on a clean white dish towel. Salt to taste. Serve warm and prepare to hear a chorus of "Yum!"s.


More recipes and tips to come!

Gluten Free Casein Free Chicken Nuggets

Okay - you have decided to go GFCF - But what do you feed your kid? Never fear - This recipe will be a staple, even my husband loves them!
There are 2 different versions one with egg one without - today the egg free!

Egg Free, Gluten Free, Casein Free Chicken Nuggets

Ingredients:
Canola Oil - for frying
Boneless Chicken or Turkey sliced 1/2 thick or less
Namaste Sugar Free Pizza Crust mix
Salt to taste

Directions:
Make sure the meat is fairly uniform in thickness, rinse and pat dry. Cut the meat into strips or chunks (whichever your child prefers), put about 3/4 of a cup of the pizza dough mix into a quart sized zip lock bag. Place some of the meat into the bag and close securely. Shake the bag until the meat is completely coated. I have my child do this and we sing "Shake your Turkey" to the KC and the Sunshine Band's "Shake, Shake, Shake" tune. He loves it.

Heat some canola oil in the heaviest pan you own. Make sure that you keep the heat at medium so you don't set off the smoke alarm like I do! Place the coated meat into the pan once the oil is hot. There should only be enough oil to cook one side. Let them cook while you shake another batch. Turn the cooking meat when the top side is almost completely white and the bottom side is crispy brown. Only flip once. When both sides are done let them drain on a clean white dish towel and add salt to taste. The first time you might want to crack one open just to make sure the inside is done - if it isn't you need to reduce your heat. Serve after they have cooled slightly.

If you drain them sufficiently they travel well - I take them to birthday parties and on car trips with a cold pack. You can microwave them to heat them up - 20 seconds does the job.

We make chicken nuggets occasionally but we make turkey nuggets all the time - I buy Trader Joe's sliced turkey cutlets and cut them into strips - it takes seconds to get them in the pan. We purchase the Namaste Sugar Free Pizza Dough mix at Whole Food's Market and Lassen's Health Foods. The Pizza Crust Mix also makes great bread sticks and a pretty decent pizza crust - It is a god send!

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The Gluten Free Casein Free Pantry

Every child is going to have different preferences and dietary restrictions, but I thought it would be useful if I told you what we keep as staples in our home and where we buy it. Please make sure that you read the ingredients for yourself in case your child is sensitive to things mine is not.

Here is our Must list everyweek:

Shelton's Gluten Free Nitrate Free Turkey and Chicken Hot Dogs (we purchase at Lassens Health Foods, they are also available although $2 more at Whole Foods Markets)
Shelton's Gluten Free Turkey Sausage Patties (Whole Foods Markets)
Food For Life Gluten Free Yeast Free Brown Rice Bread- toasted its GREAT! (Whole Foods Markets)
Trader Joes Marinara Sauce in a can (Trader Joes)
Namaste Sugar-Free Gluten Free Pizza Dough mix (Whole Foods Markets)
Namaste Sugar-Free Waffle and Pancake Mix (Lassen's Health Foods)
Spectrum Organic Non-Hydorgenated Vegetable Shortening- we add salt and use this as a margarine that is soy free (Whole Foods Markets)
Zacky Farms ground turkey and Chicken Breast/Thighs (Sam's Club)
Trader Joe's Organic Apple Juice
Trader Joe's Brown Rice Cakes
Thompson Organic Raisins (Trader Joe's)
Fresh Fruits and Vegetables (Organic when possible)
And for treats:
Breads from Anna bread and pie crust mixes - (www.glutenevolution.com) or if you live in the midwest you can probably get it in your grocery store - The banana bread is the best gluten free thing ever - you can cook it in a cake pan for birthday cakes - our non gfcf friends love it.
Ener-C- Gluten free pretzels - ONLY if YOUR CHILD CAN HAVE SOY AND YEAST - we no longer are able to have these but they were a favorite when we started the diet.

Believe it or not this is all it takes to create a varied diet that my child loves and thrives on.

Stay tuned for GFCF recipes using the above indredients!

Keep it Simple

When you are switching to a gluten free casein free diet - keep it simple. I know tons of people who go out and buy hundreds of dollars worth of gluten free cookies and crackers only to find that their child spits it out screaming in horror.

In the beginning there needs to be a taste bud shift. This is true for anyone changing their diet - my husband recently went off sugar -the first week we kept it simple, in the second week I gave him an apple (he's not a big fruit eater) he moaned the entire time he was eating it telling me how good the apple was. The point is that if I had given him the apple the day after he went off sugar, he probably would have turned his nose up - and he's an adult! When comparing an apple to a Snickers bar, unfortunately the Snickers is going to win. But once his taste buds had a chance to be "cleansed" suddenly an apple was a HUGE treat. The same is true for our kids - only more so. They are creatures of habit, their taste buds are more sensitive and some of our kids have texture and temperature issues as well.

When switching their diet don't fight city hall - If you know they won't eat cold things - don't force the issue during the diet change.

Start by making a list of what your child will eat. For some of us it is a short list. When we switched to GFCF my son ate Macaroni and Cheese, Chicken Nuggets, Hot Dogs, pickles, cheese and crackers, toast, yogurt, mashed potatoes and french fries - as well as brocolli, carrots and mashed squash. If you look at the list it's a GFCF nightmare.

In the first week I did what most parents do, I feed him protein and potatoes. If that's what you need to do to get them started, do it. But just keep in mind that you aren't going to be able to do that for long. But to get started, do it. For the first week my son lived on chicken and potatoes, or chicken and french fries (if buying french fries from a restaurant make sure they are gluten free - McDonalds are not - the last I heard In and Out were) we also fed him Shelton's Gluten Free Chicken and Turkey Hot Dogs (found in our local health food store - also available at Whole Foods Market for $2 more than at the health food store.) Do the best you can nutritionally the first week, but get through it without introducing a lot of new foods. Tomorrow we'll talk more about what gluten free products are worth buying in the second week.

To GFCF or not to GFCF

I am a Mom. This comes before everything else. I also happen to be a Mom of a fabulous four year old boy with Autism. I don't get a lot of time to talk face to face with other "autism Moms", I tend to do most of my conversing via the computer. But whether it is face to face or cyber, it seems like the topic of conversation always comes back to the GFCF diet. It makes sense, for those of us who have our children on the diet it is our daily reality. For the families who are not on it there is an ongoing conversation about the merits and the actual feasibility of it.

I will tell you honestly that when we finally came out of denial about our son's autism, I was so desperate to do anything that would help that I would have sung naked hanging upside down from a rope if someone had told me there was a 10% chance it would help my son. So when someone said, "You could try the Gluten Free, Casein Free diet, there's no conclusive evidence that it helps, but you can try it." - I was only too thrilled to have something to do. It made sense to me - I have multiple food allergies, wheat being one of them, so gluten free was actually easy for me. It was a big adjustment for my son, but I already knew the ins and outs of a gluten free diet so I wasn't stressed about what to feed him, and I knew that he would adjust quickly. Dairy free was a whole other ball of wax, but by the time I realized how challenging it was going to be, we had already seen such improvement in our son that I knew we were in for the long haul.

I am a fan of the GFCF diet, I love to help other parents figure it out. Please know that I do not sit in judgement of those of you who have not tried it. All of our kids have different issues, so it would be impossible for me to tell you - This is easy, why aren't you doing it. But I will tell you that I vehemently believe that it is worth a try - a good "college try" - to see if it works for your child. My mother laments about the diet - "Isn't he ever going to get to eat ice cream? What kind of life is that." My answer to her is simple - He can have ice cream at any time - but at what price? Without ice cream he can speak and look people in the eye, walk down a sidewalk, hold my hand, ask questions, have friends, with ice cream in his body he can't do any of those things, what kind of life is that? That is our truth. When we started the GFCF diet our son was down to a 5 word vocabulary, which he used sporadically and compulsively. Within a week of starting the GFCF diet he was adding 5 words a day to his vocabulary. It doesn't work that way for everyone, some people see little or no change, others see the benefits after being on the diet for 6 months. All I can say is I would have been thrilled with only a little change. Progress is progress. And at the end of the day, the diet is healthy, much healthier than the average child's diet. So what do you have to lose?

I ask Mom's that all the time and their answer is usually about fear - Fear that their child won't eat, fear that they won't know what to feed their child, fear that is will be a huge waste of time that will garner nothing. My mission is to make it so easy that every parent can at least try it.
Everyday I will give tips and advice about how to get and keep your child on the GFCF diet with no stress and all of the benefits!

Stay tuned for daily GFCF tips, advice and recipes!