Absolutely cannot believe I haven't blogged since December!!! Life has been crazy. After 11 years in College Station, we up and moved to Houston in May. So, there have been quite a few things going on! We've moved into a house with beautiful natural light, which, to me, means beautiful food photos! So, the camera is out and I will be photographing and sharing recipes once again. In the mean time, I've been enjoying the "Oh She Glows'' cookbook. Vegan cookbooks are great options for people with dairy and egg allergies. She has quite a few recipes that also don't have wheat, so that's been awesome. |
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Since it seems most of the ornament dough on the web has wheat flour, I was excited about these ornaments my friend and sister-in-law told me about. They are out of this world fragrant and so easy!!! As I was making the dough I couldn't help but think it makes a great allergen-free and aromatic playdough (I realize allergen-free and aromatic don't usually go together). We will definitely be making these year after year. Cinnamon Ornaments
Heat oven to 200. Mix up the applesauce and cinnamon. Roll it between two sheets of parchment paper and cut out your designs. Use a straw to create a hole to hang them. Bake them on a cookie sheet, lined with parchment, for 2 1/2 hours. Your house will smell lovely! I'm back!!! Happy Holidays, folks! I'd like to post a few things I have made before Christmas rolls around. Seems like a few companies are manufacturing gluten-free rice crackers these days. We purchase the HEB brand but Nabisco is making some rice thins that are the exact same thing. And as I was whipping up a batch of regular, gluten-full toffee made with saltine crackers, I thought, "hey, I could so do this GF for jane!". So, I did. And it was mighty easy and tasty. I'm thinking these could be made vegan by using vegan butter, and they'd probably taste pretty darn good. I call this "crack bark" because once you start, you can't stop. :) It's also fantastic with GF pretzel twists as the base, in place of the crackers. Gluten Free Crack Bark
Preheat oven to 350. Spray a jelly roll pan with cooking spray or rub with olive oil/butter. Lay out rice crackers to cover the entire pan in one layer. In a small pan, melt butter and brown sugar together and then bring to boil, stirring constantly. Since I'm a by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of chef, I don't get the candy thermometer out, and thus my caramel always turns out a little soft (which is still delicious and my husband says he prefers it this way), but if you're not familiar with cooking caramel, you might want to get the thermometer out and research the different stages of caramel. If you're going to eyeball it, cook the caramel until it's frothy and then keep going...about to the point you think you've messed things up. Then hurry it on over to the pan and pour all over the crackers, spreading it out as you go. Pop the pan in the oven for 5 minutes. When it comes out, sprinkle on the chocolate chips and watch them start to soften up. When they are spreadable, use an off-set spatula to smooth the chocolate evenly. Let cool, or if you're very impatient like me, put it in the fridge or deep freeze for a few minutes. Break it up with a fork and scrape it from the pan with a spatula. You won't be disappointed. Here we are, almost exactly one month later since my last entry, and I thought I would do an update. We totally revamped Jane's diet starting October 4th, 2013, approximately 6 weeks ago. And what I can tell you is that it has been life-changing. I can't stress that enough. I'd say within the past year it has been one constant battle with Jane and her eczema and skin infections. The eczema flares up, the scratching intensifies, and BOOM, infection, which subsequently makes her skin itch like you can't imagine and the scratching at that point is absolutely uncontrollable. Trust me, it's not normal to actually google search "child straight jacket". She was doing so much harm to herself and we couldn't leave her anywhere or with anyone without her absolutely attacking her body. All day long, my husband and I found ourselves repeating, "Jane, stop scratching...". If I needed to shower and wouldn't be able to keep an eye on her, there was a good change she would be bleeding by the time I returned. Ointments, bandages, gauze, cotton gloves, missing school, missing church class, blood on fabrics and bedding and even sometimes the furniture! It was absolutely out of control. Out. Of. Control. The last skin infection is what sent me over the edge. When absolutely everything just goes haywire, you know there's an infection. It also has a distinct odor, but that's a whole 'nother weird topic for another day. She scratched up the back of her leg so badly that it was weeping and then the skin scabbed over and she couldn't bend her knee joint. Just thinking back to it is enough to make me emotional. Her skin problems and discomfort was consuming our lives. And suddenly I thought the only way we could really identify what was going on was to start over again. Blame it on the fact we have a baby that was just starting out with her first baby solid food: rice cereal. The light bulb went off - "let's start over!".
So this whole elimination diet has been just like introducing foods to a baby. You start with simple, bland foods. Then you wait 2-3 days to be sure there's no negative reaction. It has been slow and tedious and it must have been divine intervention that we were even able to successfully navigate Halloween with a 6 year old who can't even think about eating candy in any shape or form. But we have made it! And the results are phenomenal. Does Jane still have eczema? Sure. And it's manageable. I don't think that's really going anywhere. Are some days better than others? Yes. Are there still environmental allergens and factors we can't avoid and thus, sometimes have flare-ups? Yes. But... Does she still wear gloves to bed? Does her teacher still tell me at pick up each day that "it was a rough day"? Does she have random scratching fits around her mouth right after she eats? Are we taking benadryl every day for random reactions? Am I getting calls from the school to inform me that she is miserable and feels uncontrollably itchy? Am I scooping goop out of the tear-ducts of her eyes every morning? NO!!!! Are allergy tests 100% accurate? NO!!!! So this blog post is to help anyone out there who is looking for guidance. If you or your child have strange syptoms that you even think might be food-related or food allergies, try an elimination diet. Wipe the slate clean and start all over again. And keep a detailed journal as you go! You must keep the food journal. It's not easy, especially with small children. Those first few weeks of literally just boiled rice and meats was hard and frustrating for everyone involved. But we made it over that hump and we are seeing some results and getting answers. Not eating out was a life-changer but we have saved gobs of money by not doing so, so that's a major plus. If there are social gatherings or we must travel, we take special foods for Jane. As I mentioned previously, we are using the elimination diet guidelines from Wholistic Pediatrics and I like their details and explanation. Here's a current list of what her elimination diet consists of: Rice (brown and white) Rice noodles (made of rice and water) Beef (boiled or grilled without oil) Chicken (boiled or grilled without oil) Pears Apples Apple Juice (Martinelli's pure apple juice with no additional ingredients) Honey Peaches (mostly frozen) Beans (Pintos and Black) Blueberries (fresh and frozen) Strawberries Squash/Zucchini Spinach (typically pureed and in fruit leather) Olive oil (yay!!!) Rice Crackers (consisting of rice, safflower oil, salt) Unsweetened Applesauce (apples and ascorbic acid) Onions Cheese (yay!!!) Clif Bar Fruit Twists (for splurges) YummyEarth Suckers (for splurges) Plain Almonds (peanut-free) -- I realize I'm walking the line with this one b/c of the other tree nut allergies and they say they "may contain" other tree nuts but I wanted to see if there would be any reaction. It's pretty wild to be able to tell you exactly what foods and substances have gone into my daughter's body for the past six weeks. Crazy. It's an extremely simplified diet but if you compare to my last entry, you can see we've been able to add some good things! I hope to test milk and GF oats in the next few days to really gets some more options for holiday cooking. It's killing me, not being able to bake fun things. Milk will be a huge deal that will open up a lot more options. I don't foresee any problem with milk and I think a lot of her reactions were results of cross contamination with wheat in other grains, such as corn, and in cereals. But....time will tell. :) And hopefully I'll be back to recipe posting in the next few weeks. Whew. This cutie pie is going on week four of her elimination diet (see previous post). It has been a pain but she is surprisingly patient about it all. She's currently eating only: Rice Rice noodles (made of rice and water) Beef (boiled or grilled without oil) Chicken (boiled or grilled without oil) Pears Apples Apple Juice (Martinelli's pure apple juice with no additional ingredients) Honey Peaches Beans (Pintos and Black) And today we added blueberries, which she was over the moon about! It's so amazing to see how excited she gets about the new things we are able to add in. She gets really excited about beans for breakfast. Beans! Wahoo! :) I have to say, the bean thing surprises and confuses me. She's very allergic to peas and lentils, and even chickpeas (hummus, anyone?), but she's totally fine with beans. Allergies are confusing. The skin infection is gone (hallelujah) and there's still quite a bit of the redness in her complexion, which started about a year ago. With that I would add I have edited this photo (above) and decreased the redness in her face. We will continue this diet for many more weeks until we really incorporate all these basics and then we will try to reintroduce milk and citrus and all of the other no-no's (from the PDF document from Dr. Berger in previous post). I keep a detailed food diary with what she's eating and any reactions she has throughout the day. All of her reactions seem to happen in uncontrolled environments, such as a friend's house or school, church, or even when we have friends over. The only conclusion I can make is that there's a sensitivity for her and a contamination of some sort going on. On this diet and at home, she's comfortable 90% of the time, which is a huge improvement. Got to look for the small improvements! :) Love this girl. She's tough. Well, due to some recent events (including a massive skin infection from hell!), for the past 12 days miss Jane has been on an elimination diet. It's hard. It's frustrating. It's so, so mundane. But she's amazingly patient for a 6 year old and for that, I am grateful and can take zero credit.
What's an elimination diet? About two weeks ago I was scouring the web, entering different phrases into google search and trying to find some answers for our little girl. One thing I haven't explained in detail is the amount of skin issues our allergy-sufferer endures. There's lots of eczema, scratching, sensitivities to fabrics, discomfort in our hot, southern climate, and infection. Ohhhh, the infection. Trust me, I could go on and on with this topic alone but that's for another day. I know I'm not alone and there are others dealing with these same problems. Anyway, back on topic. I stumbled across a PDF of interest with specifics on an elimination diet and what all it entails. I love the theory behind it; ultimately starting all over at square one with foods, much like when you introduce foods to a baby. Jane was having random itchy fits from day to day and six years in to this and with hundreds of foods in her daily diet, we were scratching our heads (but not in the eczema-ish way) as to what she was reacting to. Most of her discomfort and reactions take place around her mouth and neck. So, enough was enough and we have now cleaned up her diet and she is currently eating nothing but rice, pears, apples, boiled chicken/beef, and broccoli. You can find the elimination diet information here. We have a good amount of autoimmune disease in my family and in addition to Jane's food allergies and severe skin issues, I find Dr. Berger's theory quite intriguing. I love that there are doctors out there trying different approaches to things, looking for the root issues. We are slowly adding things back to Jane's diet but it will be a long process. And we're okay with that, because if it gives us clearer answers as to what things bother her, it's worth it. If you think it's easy, it's not. It has been really hard. I love to cook and bake and especially this time of year, all I want to do is cook pumpkin bread and yummy soups. So it hardly seems fair to make delicious dinners for the rest of the family and then put a hot, bland bowl of rice and apples in front of Jane. On the other hand, I realize there are many people and civilizations who eat this "elimination diet" every single day of their lives not by choice but because that's what they have and they're grateful for it. And we would all be better off if we ate how Jane is eating right now. So, there's that. But it's not fair. And for a child who has already had to adjust to so many things not being fair, taking away her "special" foods that kind of lessened the unfairness (GF oreos/GF ice cream cones/GF pizza), it's pretty much lame to the 10th degree. You better believe I'm already dreading halloween and the school celebrations and all the candy she is going to want and the frustration she is going to feel! I have some ideas and plans though, and I'll be back with those. Stay tuned. Puppy chow is a family favorite around here. Traditional puppy chow has peanut butter (and it's magical, I tell ya). This recipe is an easy substitution, using nutella in place of the peanut butter, and it's definitely still magical. People have asked if I've tried other nut butters and the answer is no. Not yet. I would like to try it with Justin's Vanilla Almond Butter and see how that goes. The nutella works beautifully so I've stuck with it. Puppy Chow
Melt the chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl at 30 second intervals, checking regularly to prevent overcooking. Once the chips on the inside perimeter of the bowl start to soften, stir the chocolate until smooth. If the chocolate is still lumpy, microwave again for 30 seconds and try again. Once the chocolate is smooth, stir in the 1/2 cup nutella until smooth. Pour half the chocolate mixture over the cereal in one baggy and half in the other. Zip the bags and shake shake shake. Open them up to be sure chocolate is evenly dispersed and then pour half the powdered sugar in each bag and shake shake shake (make sure they're closed well or you'll have "snow" all over your kitchen and clothes!). Enjoy! Weekends around here usually mean big breakfasts! This is where the gluten free bulk flour mix comes in handy. Waffles/Pancake Batter:
Combine ingredients and cook as desired - works great for pancakes or waffles. I also use this exact batter for a pot pie topping. It works beautifully. I'll post that in the new few weeks as it cools off. :) I'm a believer that no food should be completely off-limits. All things in moderation, right? And sometimes, like on a rainy Friday evening, you just have to fry up some chicken for your family. And nobody can be left out, so you might have to fry up some GF chicken. I'm not going to insult you by giving you instructions to fry chicken, because frying chicken is like making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich...you just know how to do it. It's a staple. Well, ok maybe not a "staple" like it is to this Texan woman but there are a gazillion tutorials and recipes in cookbooks and on the web that I don't need to waste space here with the how-to's. But I will tell you what I use. Fried Chicken
Soak the chicken in buttermilk while you prepare the oil and other ingredients. For about two cups of flour I use a generous amount (2 Tbsp) seasoned salt. Stir the salt and flour together and add pepper. Take the chicken out of the buttermilk and dredge in the flour mixture and add to the frying oil. Some people might say the chicken in the above photo is overcooked, but I love all things crispy and this is just like I fry it every time. Tyler Florence recommends serving chicken up with freshly squeezed lemon, so I thought I'd give it a try. This is a fun treat to make on occasion and it just really hits the spot. There's nothing like homemade fried chicken made with love. Please hang in there with me while I post old content from my old blog. I took some rainbow crispy rice treats for Jane's 5th birthday celebration at school. They are super sweet but the colors are awesome and the kids absolutely loved them. You simply follow the traditional recipe but substitute rainbow rice cereal for plain rice cereal. Wheat-free and egg-free!! Crispy rice treats can also be made dairy free but substituting vegan butter, which I have not personally tried. I have however substituted coconut oil in place of the butter and they are delicious. I couldn't even taste a difference. |
Just a mom and cooking enthusiast on a journey to help other food allergy sufferers along their way.
And trying to find my own way, too. The food allergies I cater to specifically are: Archives
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