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Read Those Labels!

I thought I read labels before, but now I am super-vigilant about it.  There IS so much junk in our food system.  One of my favorite food blogs 100 Days of Real Food shared this:
http://www.shape.com/blogs/shape-your-life/13-banned-foods-still-allowed-us
on facebook today.  Know what you're eating.  Read those labels!

Apple Pie Baked Oatmeal-For Dessert!

We actually made this last night as a dessert, but then ate it again for breakfast the next morning.  Dessert is hard to come by on an elimination diet, but after a few weeks, a fruity breakfast can fill in.

Gather the large cast of ingredients, and then you are set to go.  After that it's quick and easy!

I adapted the recipe from HERE, and then I didn't even get a picture of the final product, so you can head over there for a visual.  Sorry, the phone rang and then the kids chowed down!

Apple Pie Baked Oatmeal

Adapted from: http://www.nutritiouseats.com/apple-pie-baked-oatmeal/

 2 large Granny Smith apples, chopped

2 cups old fashioned rolled oats

1 teaspoon baking powder (make your own if you are avoiding corn)

1/2 cup chopped pecans, optional-we had to leave these out

1 large handful dried cranberries

About 10 pitted dates, chopped

2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground ginger

½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg

½ tsp kosher salt

2 cups unsweetened coconut milk beverage

2 eggs-or use 2 Tbsp flax seed, ground mixed with 6 Tbsp water and allowed to sit for 5 min

1/3 cup pure maple syrup

1/4 cup coconut oil, melted

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F and grease a large pie pan.

Combine apples, oats, baking powder, spices, salt, dried fruit, and nuts if using in a medium mixing bowl. 

In a liquid measuring cup, combine coconut milk syrup, vanilla, and eggs or flax gel.  Quickly add coconut oil and stir to combine and then quickly pour into bowl of dry ingredients and toss to coat.  Put in prepared pan and cover with foil.

Bake for 35 minutes, remove foil and bake for another 10 minutes.  Cool 10 minutes and cut into slices.  Serve with whipped coconut cream.  Yum!

Happy New Year & Waffles!

This...

has kept me mostly out of the kitchen for the last two weeks.  The foot surgery has been a long time coming, but it had to be done.  Unfortunately, it came right in the middle of our elimination diet.  Fortunately, Grandma was willing to come and adhere to the new kitchen regiment.  I stocked the freezer with the new bread and the pantry with our new staples.  But, this morning I felt good enough to whip up a quick breakfast and the kids had been begging for waffles for several weeks now.  The problem was, I couldn't find a recipe that would work, even as a base that I could change up.  However, this morning, I found exactly that.  

It was heaven sent.  It did not taste like wheat, but it was oh so good!  They were perfectly crisp and super easy to make. 

YUM!

Buckwheat Groats & Oats Waffles

Makes: 4 Waffles

Adapted from HERE

Add to high-powered blender in this order and blend on medium for 30 seconds or until smooth:

1-1/4 cup filtered water

2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted

2 tablespoons maple syrup

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 tablespoon white vinegar

15 drops liquid stevia

1 cup gluten-free rolled oats

3/4 cup fine brown rice flour

1/4 cup buckwheat groates

1/4 teaspoon salt

Then add:

1 tablespoon baking powder

And blend for another 10 seconds.

Grease waffle iron with coconut oil and bake according to your waffle iron directions.  Serve with maple syrup.  

A note of full disclosure.  My husband and I own a specialty kitchen store, The Kitchen Corner, and I did link to our website with the blender link.  Just felt like I needed to let you know!

Children

The events of last Friday in Newtown, Connecticut have affected me, just as I'm sure they have most of you:

shock, disbelief, anger, fear, anguish.  It is unfathomable that something like this could happen, let alone did.  I have a 5 and an 8 year old.  They go go a school with a layout very, very similar to the online photos of Sandy Hook.  My kindergartner is in that room right across the hall from the office. 

It is, as I said, beyond my comprehension that such an evil could happen in such a "safe" place in such a "safe" community.  But, I guess that's just it.  Our schools, our busses, our airports, our malls, our movie theaters, and on and on AREN'T as safe as we'd like them to be.  I'm not here to discuss gun control or legislation.  I'm not here to voice my opinion on "gun free zones," although I am slowly formulating what my idea of a solution might include.  I'm just here to say this:

Mental illness is real.  And it's hard.  It doesn't happen only to "bad" people.  It just happens to people.  Children, adults, religious and non.  In this human experience, you don't get to pick your own trials, or the trials of your own children.  I read an article shortly after the shooting, for which I will post the link below.  It is brave, insightful, and right on target.  If anything is sure to make a difference, to stop, or stem the flow of these horrific tragedies, surely it is accessible, affordable mental health that doesn't come with a scarlet letter.  

http://anarchistsoccermom.blogspot.com/2012/12/thinking-unthinkable.html

Bread!

Man might not be able to live on bread alone, but in our family we have been finding it somewhat lonesome to live without bread at all.  I've tried a few recipes so far, without success, which is why I haven't mentioned them here.  But, last night we had a breakthrough!  I made a recipe that I adapted from here (a blog-new to me-that I'm loving!) and it really turned out great.  It tastes nothing like wheat bread and nothing like Gluten Free bread.  It's nutty, and tastes somewhat like corn, although it has none of that in it either.  I stood there over the bowl with the guar gum measured out (the whole Tablespoon!) thinking, this can't be right.  But it was.  We had toast for breakfast!  It was definitely right!

Coconut Flour Bread

2/3 cup coconut Flour

1 cup sorghum Flour

1 cup +1 tsp tapioca flour

1 cup brown rice flour

1 tablespoon + 1/8 tsp xanthan gum (or guar gum if you need to avoid corn)-I used guar

1 teaspoon baking soda

4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground chia seeds

1-2 Tbsp ground flax seeds

  

1/3 cup applesauce

4 Tbsp coconut oil, melted

1 tablespoon vinegar-white or apple cider

2 ¼  cups non-dairy milk (I used unsweetened coconut milk)

A couple Tablespoons water, if needed

Preheat oven to 350° F and grease 2 medium loaf pans or 1 large loaf pan.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine dry ingredients and use paddle or whisk to stir them until they are fully combined. 

Combine milk with vinegar and let sit for a few minutes.  Then add applesauce and whisk to combine.  Quickly add melted coconut oil and quickly pour into mixer, which you have turned onto low with that third hand you have that wasn’t already busy ;)  Turn mixer to medium and mix until combined.  The batter will be very thick, but if it is dry and crumbling, add water and mix until combined. 

Divide between loaf pans.  This made two short loaves in medium loaf pans.  You could also do 1 large loaf in a large loaf pan.   I am going to try to scale it for a 2 loaf recipe next time I make it. 

Bake for 45-60 minutes, until crust has formed, and loaf feels springy when touched on top.  Check with a toothpick inserted into center of loaf.  If it comes out clean, take loaf out and cool on a cooling rack.  

Enjoy bread again!  Yum!

Eliminate!

It's time to pare it down, people!  Today is the first day of the elimination diet.  We've been pretty strict the last two weeks about sticking to the anti-inflammatory diet, but now IT'S TIME!  The sooner we start this, the sooner it will be over and we will know (I seriously hope!) what H's food allergies really and truly are.  I am predicting: Wheat, Dairy, Soy, Peanuts, and Almonds.  I am hoping that it turns out he is not allergic to dairy.  Oh, how I miss cheese and cream!  I could give up milk easily-even in recipes, but cream and I are having a harder time separating!

For the next 6 weeks or so, here are the do's and don'ts.  They are almost identical to those found in Is My Child's Brain Starving, although we have a few additional restrictions.

NO Foods:

• Dairy 
• milk, cheese, ice cream, cream cheese, etc. 
• Casein, lactose, whey
• Wheat 
• Durham, semolina, whole wheat, white bread, wheat bread, pasta, flour, Kamut
• Gluten 
• all of the above under wheat and also: rye, barley, cross-contaminated oats, gliaden
• Corn  
• I would need the rest of my natural life to list all the possible ways corn is used in food.  Chances are if you don't know what an ingredient is, it's dervied from corn (or wheat or soy). Here are a few that surprised me: baking powder, xanthum gum, millet-related to corn, stevia that has been formulated to be cup-for cup for baking.
• Yeast 
• commercial or natural
• Eggs 
• all parts of the egg, also lactalbumin
• Peanuts
• Tree Nuts
• Although not technically a requirement, we are very suspicious that H. is allergic to almonds and are choosing to avoid tree nuts as a precaution.
• Soy 
• non-fermented soy products-although I have not been able to find a fermented one that doesn't contain wheat yet.
• Chocolate
• Citrus 
• oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruits
• Strawberries
• Sugar 
• all refined sugar (sucrose)
• honey-for now
• molasses
• Our goal here is to consume as little added sweetener as humanely possible
• Oils
• Trans Fats
• Vegetable Oils
• Margarine
• Fried Foods
• Beverages
• Coffee
• Alcohol
• Sugary drinks including juices
• Water is the preferred beverage
• Food additives
• colors, flavors, preservatives
• including: nitrates, BHA, BHT, aspartame, MSG

YES Foods:

• Grains
• Rice: preferrably brown
• Amaranth
• Quionoa
• Oats
• Teff
• Buckwheat
• Vegetables
• All are OK.  No restrictions!
• Protein
• Meat
• all types OK, except those that have been processed including cold cuts and hot dogs
• Poultry
• Fish
• Beans/Legumes
• all are OK except soy and peanuts
• Seeds
• Roasted first
• Oils/Fats
• Coconut Oil to be used when heating
• Olive Oil to be used when cold (like dressings)
• Sweeteners
• Pure Stevia
• liquid or powder
• Very small amounts of pure maple syrup
• Beverages
• Water should be 1st choice
• Herbal teas
• Rice or coconut milk, unsweetened
• Spices/Condiments
• salt, pepper
• All herbs and blends that do not include citrus
• Vanilla extract