Still here

Yes, I am still here. It's been 2 months of boring, gluten free eating. Not really, but it has become almost second nature to our family. There was the time when we ordered pizza and didn't even consider that S couldn't eat it until we excitedly told the kids and S started in with tears. There was also the time that we went to a restaurant with a gluten free menu and she turned the tears on as the rest of us devoured garlic cheddar biscuits. Yes, we can be insensitive at times, but it is a part of life she will have to get used to, and we shelter her from it 95% of the time. Other than those sad times, we've gotten quite used to removing glutens from our S's diet, making sure she has great choices when we eat them, and trying to be prepared for most circumstances. Is it easy? No, but it is doable, which is more than I thought possible a few months ago.

I decided today to make a better effort at getting my 3 year old on the GF diet. She's been having some tummy issues and she is so hyper, I am hoping this might help. I have completely slacked with her on previous attempts, because honestly, it's hard to constantly watch what she eats. The girl loves getting treats, and people love to feed her. She is tiny, and has these big eyes that you can't resist. I may have to hang a sign around her sweet neck saying "don't feed the child". Seriously, it's much easier to tell an 11 year old she can't eat something and trust her. We just got back on the wagon today, and she already ate regular pizza. Oh well, tomorrow is a new day and we'll try to do better. All the kids are on board, so it should be a little easier, right?!

New Year's Resolutions?

I am not one of those people that typically makes New Year's resolutions. I am quite simply horrible at goal setting. Actually, that's not quite true, it's not the goal setting that I necessarily have trouble with, it's the follow up involved later on to see if I've accomplished those goals. I've learn to accept my limitations and just don't set them, it's easier that way. But, this year - I set goals! They aren't goals that I need to chart and track my progress, but rather small changes that I hope to make in my life. One of those is to eat more healthy foods. I am doing it for my husband's benefit as well. He's been practically begging me to cook more healthy foods for a long time, and honestly, I just fall back to lazy things again. I have a particular fondness for fried vegetables. :) Anyway, in pursuit of that goal, I've been researching raw food and whole food recipes. Do you know the most amazing thing in all this? The recipes for these amazing foods are gluten free naturally. No substituting rice flours to make them seem like the real thing. We also gave in and purchased a dehydrator. I cannot wait to try it! I will be making a ton of snacks for my gluten girl - and affordable, ridiculously healthy ones at that!

A Christmas GIft

We celebrated Christmas with some of our sweet friends last night. I still can't believe today is Christmas eve. What an amazing time we've had this year! Anyway, we were blessed with perhaps the best present a gluten intolerant girl can receive - food! Lots and lots of sweet snacks and even fluffy, delicious bread! Can you imagine the time spent for someone that has no food allergies to go through recipes and ingredients to make these goodies? We are truly blessed. I can't say that the fudge lasted more than a couple of hours, my kids literally inhaled the sweet stuff. If you have someone in your life that has recently been diagnosed, might I suggest giving them a batch of goodies? I think the joy will be immeasurable - especially at a time of year where food tends to be everywhere.

Merry Christmas to all!

Oatmeal!

We've recently discovered, quite by accident, that my girl can eat oats! I made some chocolate drop cookies for a bible study and she couldn't resist trying one. Then two, and a ton more. We waited and waited for her tell tale belly ache but it never appeared. Since then we've eaten tons more with no issues. Thank you, Lord! This has opened up a new world of food for her, and made my life much easier. We are now eating oatmeal for breakfast most mornings instead of the same boring cereal day after day. I also made some granola to have as an alternative. Box cereals contain so much sugar and other ingredients that I am at a loss about, so this makes me a happy mommy to be feeding them all something healthy that happens to be gluten free.

There's an app for that!

I don't have an iphone. I really don't even want one. I do, however, really, really, really want an itouch. Now, I want one even more. A friend of mine has the iphone and showed me the most amazing app. It's called "red laser". All you have to do "scan" the bar code of any food by taking a picture with the camera and it will pull up tons of information on the product, including any allergens. Can you imagine how much easier this would make my grocery shopping? If there was a food in question I could just scan and know if it was safe for my girl to eat. Simply amazing.

Christmas baking party

My gluten girl asked me to have a Christmas party for her friends. We are doing a bunch of fun activities, but she wanted some time just for them. I was not so keen on the idea. I could only think of the work that would go into it, as well as the huge issue of food and what to make. She loves to cook, so we knew we wanted to make it a baking day. The question was, what on earth can we bake that is gluten free and easy enough for all the kids? I finally agreed and told the kids they could each invite 2 friends. That may not seem like much, but when you consider I have 5 daughters the numbers really start adding up!

I frantically searched for a couple of days, and finally decided on Peppermint Meringue cookies. We made them a couple of years ago as gifts and they were delicious. I also found some easy ornaments they could all make together with very little help from me.

The big day arrived with the girls eagerly anticipating their friends' arrival. I had a friend coming over as well so we could work on some of our Christmas craft gifts. Wouldn't you know that after all my careful planning the girls wanted nothing to do with baking or crafting? I ended up making tons of caramel popcorn and Peppermint cookies, all devoured by the girls who didn't lift a finger to help! At least they were all safe gluten free goodies! Our guests didn't even think about the foods being GF, which was one of the best parts for me! I want my girl to enjoy all the fun things she did before, without worry of them being an alternative.

Dining out

We recently went out for a family Christmas shopping day and decided to brave the waters of a restaurant that claims to have a gluten free menu. It's only the second time we've done this so it was a bit intimidating and we weren't sure what to expect. We were all tired and didn't really want to take a chance on getting sick, so we were thankful for this option. I requested their menu upon arriving and they had a copy ready for my girl to browse. We all placed our orders, and I requested that her salad be delivered during appetizers so she wouldn't feel left out of the feeding frenzy her sisters were involved in with the bowl of chips and salsa. It took 20 minutes for the salad to be brought to our table. It was delivered with big crunchy croutons on top. I know, this may not seem like a big deal to some, but to a little girl that's been anxiously awaiting her salad it was almost enough to bring her to tears. We sent it back and the salad was replaced very quickly. The rest of the meal went without incident, and we all enjoyed the delicious food - even more so knowing it was a healthy option. The moral of this story? Even when a restaurant claims gluten free foods, you can't trust the servers to understand the intolerance and have to ensure your desires are followed. It can still be a pleasant experience, and even better, we didn't have to do the dishes after our 5 little piggies!

E Mealz

I used to be completely in love with a meal planning website prior to going to gluten free. I had a weekly menu as well as a grocery list to drastically reduce the time spent on my menu planning. An added bonus? The meals were delicious! They were based on the sales at our local grocer, which made it even better. Then, we had to change our diet and I sadly canceled our account. Imagine my joy when a friend called me recently to say she had heard of a meal planning site that offered a gluten free menu! I was even more joyful when she shared with me that it was e-mealz! I immediately signed back up and have been happily using their menu plan. I admit, some of the meals don't suit our family, but the majority do, and the benefits of having a complete, healthy meal laid out for me are beyond expression. No more menu planning for me!

I posted a link up button on my side bar if you'd like to give them a try :)

Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving went wonderfully. My daughter was able to enjoy her favorite foods with no fear of a tummy ache. We had dinner with my in-laws on Friday and it wasn't as successful. We tried to avoid obvious offenders, but something snuck in (or wasn't shared when prompted), and she was sick. Although, I think she would say it was worth it for the wonderful time of fellowship with our family. The hardest part is that when you explain the factors of being completely gluten free most people think you are taking it to the extreme or overreacting. "You can't share mayonnaise?". Ha! "A bread crumb can't possibly make you sick!". So, recipes that would be gluten free in our home aren't coming from a gluten filled kitchen.

We have moved into our Christmas decorating and baking season. I haven't started baking yet, but my first goodie will be peppermint meringue cookies. They are completely gluten free, and a regular treat in our home, which is what we like - things to be normal. I'll share recipes and pictures once we get started. Hopefully, you'll enjoy them as much as we do!

Trials and errors

I love to cook. I once dreamed of opening a bakery with all my delicious desserts to tempt customers. That was back in the days of only 2 children. In God's infinite wisdom we were blessed with more daughters, and my dreams of baking were put on the back burner in place of necessity. You know, things like boxed mac and cheese and frozen pizzas since that was all I could manage most days. When we learned of the diagnoses of gluten intolerance I was very overwhelmed at the prospect of having to cook everything. I think overwhelmed might be an understatement. I was completely devastated. After about a week of letting it all sink in, I started to get seriously excited about cooking, awakening a desire that had long since been extinguished. I have actually come to enjoy creating many of our dishes, and now, I don't even consider the time invested - it's obviously worth every effort to keep my girl healthy. We've also switched to a more whole foods diet, without even knowing!

All that being said, there are still some nights that I just. don't. want. to. do. anything. Especially come up with a meal from scratch that is gluten free. It's those nights that the wonderful frozen food section has come to my rescue. We've only experimented with a couple of things, due to the cost, but they are still life savers. To that end, I thought I would share my finds with you, in the hopes of saving you some money (and perhaps time on one of those nights). Our favorite so far has been a frozen pizza by Glutino. Unfortunately, our local grocer has already stopped carrying the variety we enjoy, so we tried another, Amy's. It was not nearly as good, and not worth the price. We've also tried the frozen rice bread. We tried it plain, we tried it toasted, we tried it covered in peanut butter - it was still un-edible. Hubby and I had a date night the other evening and I was in a hurry, so in desperation I grabbed a box of french toast sticks, made by Glutino. They were fabulous! My girl ate to her hearts content and loved every bite. My husband even snagged a couple and said they were delicious.

That's our recent trials and errors, hope they can bless you!

Another Cookbook

I was recently blessed by a friend at church loaning me a gluten free cookbook that her family has been using. It had many pages turned down which made my idea search a bit easier :) This book is a much simpler, kid friendly cookbook with a ton more recipes than the first one I purchased. Many of the recipes are simply conversions of our everyday favorites. I also like the fact that the ingredients called for are fairly typical, not exotic things that I rarely purchase (or want to spend money on). I like it so much that I have it saved in my cart on amazon.com to purchase very soon! All of the recipes are aimed at children, advising them to ask for an adults help in preparing certain items. That being said, I thought it was perfect for me! I do think I could simply tell my older girls what we were having for dinner and they'd be fine preparing it without my help. So, if you are looking for another option in Gluten Free recipes, definitely take a look!

Just so you know, this is not a paid endorsement, I simply wanted to share this resource in hopes that you find something to make your journey a little easier. If you click on the cookbook image above you'll be taken directly to Amazon.com .

Holiday Baking E-Book

Yes, I fell off the face of the blogging earth. I just haven't had much to say lately! Today, I found something well worth blogging about! I just came across this Holiday Recipes ebook and had to share - the recipes look simply delectable and simple enough for the girls to help. Those are two requirements for most holiday baking around here! Anyway, here is the link -


I showed my daughter and she was thrilled at the prospect of baking, a truly cherished tradition for us. Thank you, The Baking Beauties, for making this free for all of us!

Menu Plan Monday

I'm back to a Monday Menu Plan! It seems that Friday's are turning into super busy days around here, and Monday's are my computer and catch up days. We survived the fall festival at church by not eating the buns. We've even managed to sort the candy and find many gluten free options. Unfortunately, we did get a belly ache the next day which I am assuming is from the candy that my oldest assumed was fine and ate a bunch before realizing. Thankfully, her attitude about it was wonderful.

I made the decision to remove #1 (my oldest) from her cooking class. They are making quite a few dishes that contain gluten, and it is not fun for her to participate and not eat the creations. On top of that, the other kids all take part so she feels somewhat left out. I thought this might be an issue and I'm surprised it took 3 more classes before she became upset enough to change. It's a fairly big decision since she will be moving from the group with 6th & 7th graders to 4th & 5th graders. We prayed about it and all of us feel it is the right choice. Thankfully, we have some wonderful people leading our co-op and they were completely supportive of our decision.

I am in the process of starting to plan our Thanksgiving dinner. I normally plan it fairly far in advance simply to catch the sales on foods, but this year I have to plan early because it is so much more in depth. My oldest wants pumpkin pie, so I am going to make one for her, but I have to find a good crust recipe to go with it.

Here is our menu plan -

Dinner menu

Monday - Tostadas
Tuesday - Beef Stew
Wednesday - Baked Ziti
Thursday - Baked Chicken w/ rice pilaf
Friday - Dinner party
Saturday - Baked omelet w/ bacon
Sunday - Roast

Menu plan Monday!

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a bit - we've all been fighting off colds.

My daughter had her first sleepover since becoming Gluten Free and I think it went exceptionally well (at least as far as the food!). She brought her own pizza, cookies, and cereal. She said she didn't feel uncomfortable at all eating her special foods. I was so proud of her! Again, preparation is key.

This is our menu plan for this week. You can probably tell I wasn't feeling so hot when I made this plan, hence the many easy meals. I'm thinking a few will change once I get more energy. I'm only posting dinner. Everything else is "fly by night" until we are well. :)


Dinner menu
Sunday - black beans and yellow rice with cornbread
Monday - hot dogs and baked beans
Tuesday - shrimp fritters
Wednesday - beef stew
Thursday - cornbread sandwiches and soup
Friday - steak and potatoes
Saturday - Church fall festival, eating there!

I've checked out a couple of more cookbooks from the library and I haven't been as excited about them as with my first one. I'll let you know if I find anything wonderful. The thing that bothers me about all these GF cookbooks is that their recipes depend on the book's specific flour recipe, which costs additional money to make when I already have mine. I would like them to be more generic so I could use my own mix.

Hope everyone has a blessed week!

Some days

There are days when I am so blessed to know I did all the right things to keep my precious girls healthy. Other days I forget to check a label and don't realize it until a stomach ache appears and we pinpoint a specific item. Then there are days like yesterday when my oldest has a belly ache and headache and we can't figure out anything she's eaten to cause it. Those are the times that frustrate me. The only possible culprit we can figure is that she had touched a cracker before eating her own snack - is her belly really that sensitive? Evidently, yes. She skipped her Wednesday night AWANA because she was feeling so bad. It just breaks my heart on days like that.

Still progressing

The menu planning has been an enormous blessing. My daughter doesn't get anxious at meal times anymore trying to figure out something safe to eat. I have it hanging in our kitchen and there are no surprises! We had a last minute dinner party this past weekend and the GF kids managed to avoid glutens - hallelujah! It is possible!

I made my first GF flour mix from a recipe in the new cookbook. I am completely blown away at how much better it tastes than the ready made brand. It was outrageously expensive to buy all the ingredients for it, but I'm thinking it will eventually be much more cost effective. I think it ended up being $24 for everything, but I should be able to make many more batches. It was definitely more moist than the store bought. I've made a bunch of ziploc baggies of it and have it stored in the freezer - evidently it has to kept that way or it will go bad very quickly.

I haven't attempted any more bread. I'm rather afraid of wasting such expensive flour on another catastrophe.

Menu Plan 10/17-23

I have been posting my menu plans at the beginning of the week, but since I am trying to use coupons I am going to be doing my menu plans and shopping at the end of the week (today or Saturday), so this is when I'm going to post it. My menus are based on the sales at our local Publix - my favorite store. I may even try to keep a record of my grocery bill here - perhaps it will keep me accountable. Also, you will notice I'll not typically post breakfast and lunches on weekends. My husband is home those days and our schedule is so crazy that I can't plan anything - so it's fly by night on those days.


Breakfast menu
Sunday -
Monday - pumpkin muffins
Tuesday - cereal
Wednesday - berry corn muffins
Thursday - cereal
Friday - toast
Saturday -


Lunch menu
Sunday -
Monday - GF macaroni and cheese
Tuesday - pancakes
Wednesday - Bob's red mill biscuits & eggs
Thursday - rice cake sandwiches (normally peanut butter & honey)
Friday - pizza
Saturday -

Dinner menu
Sunday - black bean pork chops (slow cooker)
Monday - tostadas
Tuesday - chicken waffles (never made them last week)
Wednesday - potato bacon egg pie (never made it either!)
Thursday - pasta
Friday - slow cooker bbq
Saturday - chicken tenders with fritos for crust

Another day

I took the kids to a park yesterday for a playdate with a couple of other families. I had to run in the store to get drinks and a snack for everyone. I glanced over the labels and grabbed 2 bags of chips that I thought were great choices. You know where this is going, right? We were thoroughly enjoying them until I say in BOLD print that they contained wheat ingredients. How on earth did I miss that? Thankfully, only myself and the little munchkin had eaten them. Un-thankfully, her attitude reflected that for the rest of the day. Sigh.

I made rice and bean corn enchiladas last night and all the kids devoured them and asked for more. I love when that happens! I'm looking forward to lunch when I get to eat the leftovers! The older kids had AWANA, so I made a box of Betty Crocker Gluten Free chocolate chip cookies while they were gone. They are delicious! A bit crumbly, but still good enough for me to eat 4... It was very nice to just crack open a box and cook for a quick snack. It made 2 dozen, so it was more than enough for our entire family.

Yum

My three year old, Kyndall, doesn't have any idea what she is supposed to eat. If someone hands her a snack, she eats it - without question. Today at co-op (we homeschool), I brought her a snack of gummies, but due to a mis-communication she was given cheerio-s. Complete accident, but it made me aware of what to do for our next class. She has been so sweet since switching her to the gluten free diet. It's been 3 full days and I've seen a dramatic change. Within a couple of hours of eating gluten she gets very cranky. We went to the ball park tonight to watch hubby play softball and someone gave her a bag of crackers, which she devoured before I could stop her. She crashed about 15 minutes later with a tummy ache. I think we are definitely on the right path - for her attitude and health, but we shall see.

We did great again today - the baked ziti was a hit (it was actually penne pasta, but close enough). I have to make 2 pans since there isn't as much pasta in the GF box. I make one gluten full, and one free for the 3 of us. I make it first so there isn't any "contamination", and I use my beautiful new red strainer just for GF foods. I have stuck exactly to our menu plan, and yesterday was food heaven around here. The hash brown waffles were unbelievable - I ate so many I lost count. Seriously. That. Good. On to dinner - the shrimp fritters will become a staple in our house, as well as the cornbread salad sandwiches. The sandwiches probably don't sound appealing, but my carnivorous husband requested them as a meal in themselves. Oh, and the berry muffins for breakfast - so good. I was in the kitchen most of the day, and it was really nice. I enjoyed every minute of it. To top it all off, Shayla told me that eating gluten free isn't bad at all. How's that for a compliment from an 11 year old picky eater? Yup, I was a rock star yesterday - all by the grace of God! I prayed every time I tried to cook worried that the $8 bag of flour was going to flop in a recipe. It's too expensive to experiment with, but what choice do I have?

GF Menu Plan Monday 10/11-10/17

I haven't posted in a while. I've had nothing worthy to say since every day was full of gluten joy. We were home only one night, the rest of the week Shayla chose to have all kinds of foods that are absolute no-no's. We also had a yard sale 2 of those days and I have no idea what she consumed while I was busy. She was paying for it dearly by this weekend - lethargic, moody, continual belly ache. She felt so good for the first couple of weeks being gluten free that she forgot how bad she felt before. It seems to get progressively worse the more she eats, so that first donut might have been worth the pain, but by Friday night when she chose pizza after her salad she was almost unable to stand the sickness. So, back to square one. I compiled a wonderful menu based on the cookbook I purchased and we will be enjoying it's amazing recipes starting tonight. I am not listing the recipes today, but if you would like one please email me, I'd love to share! Our menu plan always changes throughout the week based on my level of exhaustion, but this gives me an idea of what I have on hand so I can cook without calling my neighbor and asking for yet another missing ingredient.

Kyndall (our 3 year old), and I are also strictly on the GF diet. I've been very good with making wise choices on her foods, but at church yesterday she walked out holding a cup of cheerios. Once again, it comes down to being prepared. Next time I will be bringing a bag of snacks for her that she will like enough to eat instead of throwing a fit for the helpful, innocent volunteers.

Ok, here are the menus.

Dinner menu
Monday - Shrimp fritters with cornbread greens stack (basically a cornbread sandwich with salad as the filling
Tuesday - Baked ziti, salad
Wednesday - Black bean and rice enchiladas, shredded lettuce, sour cream, salsa
Thursday - pizza made with Bobs Red Mill dough, salad or green veggie
Friday - ham and tomato cornbread sandwiches with jalapeno mayo and fries
Saturday - Steak on the grill, mashed potatoes, salad
Sunday - chicken and waffles with maple bacon gravy

Breakfast menu
Monday - Berry corn muffins
Tuesday - cereal
Wednesday - eggs
Thursday - banana crepes
Friday - cereal
Saturday - ham & chive crepes
Sunday - cereal

Lunch menu
Monday - hash brown waffles with eggs
Tuesday - rice cake sandwiches (normally peanut butter & honey)
Wednesday - frozen pizza (we found a great gf one)
Thursday - toasted ham sandwiches
Friday - rice cake sandwiches
Saturday - sloppy joe filled potatoes
Sunday - potato bacon egg pie