Good for My Tummy

Favorite Kid-Friendly Dips

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 08 Feb 2015 16:43:00 +0000

The best way to get a kid to eat something is to make it bit-size and give them a dipping sauce. The trick is to consider the dip an important source of nutrition too. Avoid added sugar, additives, and processed oils! Some of our favorite dips:
1. Ranch Dip (Dairy free and made with olive oil) - http://www.gutsyfamilies.com/dairy-free-ranch-dressingdip
2. Herb Gravy (Nourishing Bone Broth!) - http://elanaspantry.com/herb-gravy/#more-15829

3. All natural Nut or Seed Butter
4. Fruit Dip (No added sugar/dairy free) - http://detoxinista.com/2012/10/salted-raw-caramel-dip/
5. Fermented Ketchup - (Probiotic Boost!) - http://www.foodrenegade.com/homemade-lactofermented-ketchu…/
6. Salad Girl Dressings - http://www.saladgirl.com/
7. Guacamole - You can make it yourself, but I usually buy Organic Wholly Guacamole
My kids have this set of mini bowls and plates from IKEA, and the bowls have became their dipping bowls. They are the perfect size! - http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40130165/

Apple, Carrot Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 20 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000

We celebrated my daughter's 5th birthday today with friends and family. She needed a cake that was grain, dairy, and sugar free, and she requested that it be an apple, carrot cake. I used this Paleo Carrot Cake recipe as my starting point and made a few adaptations to make it work for her party.

1 cup honey
1/2 cup melted coconut oil
12 eggs
1 Tbs. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/2 tablespoon ground nutmeg
1 1/8 cup coconut flour
1 1/2 cups shredded carrots (about 3 medium)
1 1/2 cups shredded apples (about 2 apples)

I peeled and roughly chopped the carrots and apples, and then I shredded them in my food processor attachment for my Ninja Mega Kitchen System. Mix all the ingredients together saving the carrot/apple mixture and coconut flour for last. For cupcakes, I baked these for about 25 minutes at 350 degrees.

For icing, I made this recipe for Salted Raw Carmel Dip. Typically, I make this to serve as a sweet dip with apple slices for a special treat for the kids, but I thought that the flavors would go well with the carrot cake too. It was a hit! The kids, and especially the all important birthday girl, loved it.

Sloppy Joes (GAPS and Paleo friendly)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 07 Apr 2014 22:59:00 +0000

Sloppy Joe's are a kid favorite at my house. I have to admit that I grew up eating Manwich Sloppy Joe Sauce and served it to my own kids. What's wrong with Manwich, right? Unfortunately, it is not GAPS legal for a couple of reasons. First, it contains high fructose corn syrup. Second, it is sold in a BPA lined can.

So what's a mom to do? Find a recipe and make it herself.

Here's the basic recipe that I use:
GAPS Legal Sloppy Joes

My kids love this! Although the first time that I made it, they picked around the peppers. The next time I made it I made the sauce separate from the ground beef so that I could puree it before adding it to the beef. Worked like a charm! I saute the onions, peppers, and garlic with ghee in a skillet. Then I mix this mixture along with the other ingredients for the sauce into a food processor to puree it. Then I just brown my ground beef in the same pan and stir in the add the sauce once the meat is cooked thoroughly. No more chunks and kid approved! I typically serve this with these Coconut Flour Biscuits or Paleo Sandwich Rounds and a green vegetable. In order to avoid BPA, I made this recipe with Bionature Strained Tomatoes which is sold in a glass jar.

Easy Dairy and Sugar Free Pudding

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 25 Mar 2014 14:49:00 +0000

What kid doesn't love the creamy texture and sweet taste of pudding? Here's a healthy alternative with an added superfood kick to make both mom and kids happy. This pudding uses coconut milk (or you can substitute any milk alternative) instead of dairy, banana as a natural sweetener, and chia seeds as a thickener and nutritional boost. Chia seeds are a great way to sneak in more omega-3 fatty acids, fiber, and protein into your kids diets. Check out these 10 Reasons to add Chia Seeds to your diet.

I started with this recipe for 3-Ingrediant Banana Pudding and simply added 1T of cocoa powder to please chocolate lovers. The cocoa powder also does a good job of concealing the chia seeds from any little food detectives just looking for a reason to refuse to try it. Garnish it with some fresh fruit, and you have a great kid pleasing snack.

Eat a Rainbow

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 14:35:00 +0000

It wasn't too long ago that I had a family full of picky eaters who ate very few vegetables. All three of my children have symptoms of sensory processing disorder which is simply difficulty integrating sensory signals. It manifests itself in different ways in each child, but the one thing that they all had in common was food aversions related to texture. As a result, they all had a limited diet. I knew in my heart that we needed to make radical changes in our diet to heal, but I have to admit that it was a bit scary to think about taking away all of their beloved carbs that filled their tummies each day. The first few days were tough, and there was lots of whining and tears. Yes, many of the tears came from me as I struggled to stay the course with their diet changes. However, something almost miraculous began to happen about the third day. The kids began to happily eat large quantities of nourishing soup! When we moved to a new stage of the diet, they were excited to try new foods. Flash forward to today, and the kids are now eating a wide variety of fruit and vegetables. My teenager confided in me that he now "loves to eat" and "enjoys his food". In the past, I often struggled to get him to eat enough calories. My daughter even called herself a "broccoli monster" last night because she was going to eat up all the broccoli before anybody else got any. My little guy always loved fruit, but he never ate much else before the diet change. In fact, he had difficulty chewing and frequently choked on food. Now he's starting to eat crunchy, raw vegetables for the first time.

Our new family goal has been to focus on eating more variety of fruits and vegetables each day. I have been talking to the little kids about eating a rainbow of colors each day, and we frequently discuss what colors we have eaten so far in a day and what if any colors we still need to get. Yesterday, the kids wanted to create a food rainbow for lunch. They had so much fun picking out what food to use for each color and creating their rainbows to eat. In fact, they were so excited about it that they took a picture of themselves with their creations to share for show-and-tell at school to tell their friends all about eating a rainbow of colors. Here's a great handout from the Whole Foods Foundation with great ideas and recipes to teach this concept to kids. I also found the following books and products for kids to help reinforce their learning.

Simple Beef Stew (GAPS)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 12:11:00 +0000

One of the main components of the GAPS diet is nourishing bone broths, so soups and stews are a large part of our diet. These are simple and delicious! Our weekly Green Bean Delivery organic produce bin had multicolored carrots this week which made this stew not only tasty but also colorful. Becoming a member of an online produce delivery service is a convenient way to get your organic produce. My kids love opening up the bins and discovering what surprises we have to try. This simple stew was made with homemade beef stock. Here's a great video tutorial on How To Make Meat Stock if you need a little bit of guidance to get started. I added some leftover roast, chopped carrots, fresh green beans, and chopped onion to the stock and cooked them for about 20 minutes until the vegetables were tender. Then I just seasoned with some salt and pepper before serving.

GAPS No-Bake Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 23 Feb 2014 00:56:00 +0000

It's easy to focus on all of the things that we can't eat, but I try to get the kids to focus instead on all of the things that we can eat. We don't eat packaged candy and other sweets, but we CAN have many wonderful homemade treats that the kids love and appreciate now. One of their favorites are these GAPS friendly No-bake Cookies. I based my recipe for these cookies off of this Whole Food No Bake Cookie recipe. These don't last long at my house. As you can see, a little cookie thief snatched one before I could even get a picture.

1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup coconut oil
5T cocoa powder
1/2 cup Organic Sunbutter (Regular Sunbutter has added sugar!)
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup coconut flakes (Make sure you use unsweetened!)

Melt honey, coconut oil, and cocoa powder together over medium heat. Remove from heat and stir in Sunbutter and vanilla. Once mixed well, stir in the coconut flakes. Place by tablespoons on waxed paper and put them in the freezer for a few minutes to set up.

What do my kids eat? Day 7 of 7

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 15 Feb 2014 03:55:00 +0000

Breakfast:

Here's my attempt at heart shaped pancakes for Valentine's Day. I made my kid's favorite banana flax pancakes. They were not perfect, but the kids were happy!

Morning Snack:

I grabbed a couple of LaraBar snack bars on the way out the door to gymnastics this morning. The kids ate them in the van on the way home. These bars are made with whole food ingredients including nuts and dried fruit and are a great option in a "snack emergency" as my daughter says. While these are not safe for my teenage son with a peanut allergy, my little ones love them. Their favorites are the Chocolate Coconut Chew and Coconut Cream Pie.

Lunch:

I needed an easy lunch today since I had two cranky, tired kids as a result of an early morning and long gymnastics class. Leftovers to the rescue! They had some leftover "saucy meatballs" from last night's dinner and cucumber sticks.

Afternoon Snack:

Since today was Valentine's Day, we did have some homemade chocolate hearts for our snack along with some coconut milk.

Dinner:

For dinner tonight, we had roast chicken with carrots and mashed cauliflower. To make mashed cauliflower, I first saute half a small onion and a couple of cloves of garlic in coconut oil in the bottom of a large pan. Then I add about 2 cups of chicken stock and one head of cut-up cauliflower pieces to the pan and cook until tender. Finally, I use an Immersion Hand Blender to mash the cauliflower. While my kids will not eat either raw or cooked cauliflower florets, they love it mashed.

Return to Day 6

What do my kids eat? Day 6 of 7

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 14 Feb 2014 00:53:00 +0000

Breakfast:

Yes, some sausage again this morning along with a leftover butternut squash pancake from yesterday. The juice was a mixture of kale, carrot, and apple.

Morning Snack:

It's hard to not get caught up in the Valentine's Day spirit. We dipped strawberries in some homemade chocolate while it was still warm, and then chilled them in the fridge. Yummy! Fairly guilt free though since the chocolate only has coconut oil, cocoa powder, and honey.

Lunch:

Simple lunch today with deviled eggs and a mini-salad. Simply swap virgin olive oil for the mayonnaise and create delicious GAPS friendly deviled eggs. The kids love them!

Afternoon Snack:

I had hungry kids for snack time today. They each had two plates of sliced apples and Organic Sunbutter.

Dinner:

My kids call this "Saucy Meatballs". We just pour some Mariana Sauce (Kirkland Marina Sauce which happens to be sugar free!) over my chia seed and beef meatballs (1.25 lbs. ground beef, 1/4 cup chia seeds, and 1 egg). Add some peas and voila a simple meal.

Bedtime Snack:

Here's another of our favorite ways to incorporate calcium and vitamin D fortified coconut milk into our diet:

Pineapple Whip

The recipe calls for Almond milk, but I just substitute coconut milk because that's what we typically have on hand. We buy frozen pineapple chunks at Costco which makes this a simple treat to whip up.

Return to Day 5

Continue to Day 7

What do my kids eat? Day 5 of 7

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 13 Feb 2014 11:44:00 +0000

Breakfast:

Our juice this morning was made with beet, carrot, and apple. I made butternut squash and Sunbutter pancakes. I just use 2 cups cooked butternut squash, 1 cup Organic Sunbutter, and 4 eggs to make the batter and cook on a skillet with coconut oil just like regular pancakes. I added 1/2 a banana and and handful of blueberries to eat kids plate to help fill them up.

Morning Snack:

Snack at school today!

Lunch:

We finished up the pork soup today for lunch. I follow the motto, "Cook once, eat twice" or maybe even three or four times.

Afternoon Snack:

I surprised the kids this afternoon with an early Valentine's Day treat. I made a variation of these 3-Ingredient Energy Bars with 1 cup almonds, 1 cup dates, 1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes, 3T of cocoa powder, and 2T coconut oil. I formed the mixture into small balls and pressed them into heart shaped candy molds. All of the kids loved them!

Dinner:

I was able to get one more meal out of the leftover pork roast by making some homemade BBQ sauce to serve with pulled-pork and adding some steamed broccoli. I just made 1/2 batch of the BBQ sauce which was more than enough for dinner tonight. I have tried to save leftover sauce for later use in the past, but it didn't keep well.

Bedtime Snack:

We had a warm, delicious treat before bed tonight: baked pears with honey, coconut oil, and cinnamon. I used this recipe as a guide, but I did not peel the pears. The kids also had a glass of coconut milk with their treat.

Return to Day 4

Continue to Day 6

What do my kids eat? Day 4 of 7

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 12 Feb 2014 15:23:00 +0000

Breakfast:

Another busy morning, Dad made the kids breakfast while I was getting ready to do a lesson with my son's class. Juice and sausage patties again since it's easy and the kids love it.

Morning Snack:

Snack at school today!

Lunch:

I made a simple pork soup for lunch today with the leftovers from the pork roast that I made yesterday. I simply added some shredded pork, chopped onion, carrots, and celery to my pork stock with a little bit of salt and pepper. We had some friends over for lunch today, and the soup was a big hit.

Afternoon Snack:

Yum! Shared some banana ice cream with our friends during a play date this afternoon. It's super easy to make and a kid favorite!

Dinner:

My kids love Sloppy Joe's. Unfortunately, prepared sauce usually contains added sugar. It's pretty easy to make your own GAPS legal using this recipe. The first time I made it though my kids picked around the peppers and onions, so I started making the sauce in a separate skillet and pureeing it in the blender first to get rid of any chunks before adding it to the ground beef. Works like a charm for picky eaters! Now it's one of their favorite meals. I made these Coconut Flour Biscuits to serve with the meal. I just substituted honey for the agave to make them GAPS legal. While the Sloppy Joe sauce has strained tomatoes, peppers, and onions, it never hurts to add some more vegetables. I just warmed up some organic frozen peas.

Bedtime Snack:

The kids had some frozen berries again tonight before bed. Easy and nutritious is always a good thing!

Return to Day 3

What do my kids eat? Day 3 of 7

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 11 Feb 2014 00:50:00 +0000

Breakfast:

Ugh, Monday morning craziness. Kick started the day with carrot, celery, and apple juice. Thank goodness we had some frozen sausage patties ready to go! Kids had some dried apples to finish off breakfast in the van on the way to school. Hectic morning, but we made it!

Morning Snack:

The kids were at preschool this morning. The school provides a raw fruit or vegetable, gluten free snack item such as pretzels or crackers, and small protein item (hard boiled egg, cheese, or nuts) for snack time options. The kids can eat the fruit or vegetable item provided and have a bag of almonds to snack on to fill in for the other items that they cannot eat. So far this has been going well. We are lucky that the school is very supportive of our diet change.

Lunch:

Today was leftover day for lunch. My son chose Italian Meatball soup, and my daughter chose a hamburger patty with some carrot sticks and blueberry basil dressing.

Afternoon Snack:

We splurged a bit for snack today and had these Almond Flour Brownies along with a glass of coconut milk. We had a surprise visit from Mamaw and Papaw this afternoon just as the brownies finished baking. Papaw enjoyed some brownie with us!

Dinner:

I started a pork roast in the crock pot this morning and cooked it on low all day to have for dinner tonight. The green beans were cooked in chicken stock to add flavor and a little bit of gut healing. I knew that the amount of green beans that I had would not be enough to fill everyone up tonight, so I also made some butternut squash pancakes. Now that we are on the GAPS diet, pancakes are not just for breakfast anymore. They make a great snack as well as a pseudo-bread substitute with meals. These are also a great way to sneak in some extra vegetables.

Bedtime Snack:

The kids had a bowl of frozen berries for their bedtime snack. These berries are great to have on hand during the winter months when it's harder to find fresh fruit. We also use them frequently for smoothies. Strawberries are on the Dirty Dozen List of the conventionally grown fruits and vegetables with the largest amount of pesticides, so organic is a must!

Return to Day 2

Continue to Day 4

What do my kids eat? Day 2 of 7

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 01:12:00 +0000

Breakfast:

Today's morning juice was carrot and apple. For a special treat, we had bacon with our eggs. Yes, bacon is on the avoid list in the GAPS diet book, but I was able to find some uncured bacon without sugar at Costco that is safe (Coleman Natural Uncured Hickory Smoked Bacon). Hurray! It's one of our favorites!

Morning Snack:

The kids call this loved snacked "Ants on a Log." It's just a 1/2 banana with Organic Sunbutter and raisins. You could use any nut or seed butter. Quick, easy and delicious!

Lunch:

I made Italian Meatball Soup for lunch. It is a beef stock based soup with a jar of strained tomatoes, a chopped onion, and carrot slices served with homemade Italian Meatballs with some hidden chia seeds. I use Bionaturae Strained Tomatoes. BPA in the lining can be problematic in canned goods particularly with tomato products due to their acidic nature, so I like that this product is sold in a glass jar. Italian Meatballs recipe coming soon! How do you get little kids to eat broth? Let them drink it with a straw! Less mess and more fun for the kids!

Afternoon Snack:

The kids finished up the Energy Balls that we made yesterday and had a handful of blueberries for snack.

Dinner:

Dinner was not exactly a culinary masterpiece, but the kids like it. We had baked spaghetti squash with Creamy Cauliflower Alfredo sauce and some leftover chicken. I substituted chicken stock for the water in the recipe to increase the healing power of the meal. According to Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, bone broth is important for "healing and sealing" your gut, so it is an important component of the GAPS diet . Therefore, I add broth into recipes whenever possible.

Bedtime Snack:

I told the kids that we didn't have much color for dinner, so they needed to choose a colorful snack. They decided to have a Berry Coconut Smoothie. Check out the simple recipe from this previous post.

Berry Coconut Smoothie Recipe

Return to Day 1

Continue to Day 3

What do my kids eat? Day 1 of 7

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 09 Feb 2014 02:09:00 +0000

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am currently studying to be a health coach at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. One of our assignments this week is to keep a food journal since this is a tool that we will use with clients. Since I am already tracking our meals this week, I thought that it would be great to share my journal to give you an idea of what a family with young kids eats on the GAPS diet. Check out my previous post if you want to learn more about the diet and why my family is following it:

Starting Our GAPS Journey

Since my primary focus is on my young kids, I'll share pictures of their meals and snacks. My husband, teenager, and I eat similar meals though typically with larger portion sizes. Here's the first day of my food journal:

Breakfast:

Most mornings we start the day with freshly made juice. Today our juice was a combination of carrots with greens and apples. The kids also had a couple of homemade breakfast sausages. I make a double batch of these and freeze them, so that I have an easy breakfast option on hand for busy mornings. Most purchased breakfast sausages has added sugar and nitrates, so they are not GAPS friendly.

Morning Snack:

Our simple snack this morning was apples slices with SunButter Organic Sunflower Seed Spread for dipping along with a glass of coconut milk with just a little bit of honey to sweeten it. Many of the prepared butters have added sugar, so be sure to read the labels carefully. Regular Sunbutter has added sugar, but the Organic version is simply roasted organic sunflower seeds. Sunbutter is also a great option if you happen to have a nut allergy in the family since it is processed in a peanut free facility. My kids eat quite a bit of Sunbutter, so we have an automatic shipment from Amazon to save money. We save over $3 a jar that way.

Lunch:

The kids had cut-up hamburger bites and a mini-salad with lettuce, carrots, cucumber and Salad Girl Blueberry Basil dressing for lunch. The kids needed a little extra motivation to finish their salads, so they also had a homemade chocolate robot candy for a treat once their salad was gone. The kids love the Robot Pattern Candy Mold that I purchased from Amazon.

Afternoon Snack:

Chocolate Banana Smoothie: For 4 servings, simply blend 4 cups of unsweetened coconut milk, 2 bananas, 1 avocado, 4T cocoa powder, and 2T honey. The kids love the smooth, creamy texture that the avocado adds, and I love that they are getting healthy fats, fiber, and an abundance of nutrients from them. Check out the many benefits of eating avocados:

What are the health benefits of avocados?

Dinner:

I made chicken soup for dinner. I started a whole chicken in the crock pot in the morning to have ready for dinner. I used the chicken stock and meat from the leg quarters and wings for the soup saving the white meat for lunch tomorrow. To make the soup this evening, I just added some finely chopped onion, carrots, and celery to the stock and cut-up chicken pieces.

Bedtime Snack:

I made 3-Ingredient Energy Balls for a snack tonight. I blended up 1 cup of whole almonds, 1 cup of dried apples, 1 cup of dates, and 1T cinnamon in my Ninja Master Prep Blender (QB900B) and then formed the mixture into balls. The kids call these apple pie bars. I use Blue Diamond Whole Natural Almonds to keep them safe for my son with a peanut allergy. We had some leftover to save for a snack tomorrow.

Continue to Day 2

Sugar, Sugar Everywhere!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 03 Feb 2014 15:42:00 +0000

The most surprising thing so far being on the GAPS diet is that there is sugar in everything. I knew that we'd be giving up the obvious sweets such as cookies, cakes, and candy, but sugar is added to pretty much every packaged, pre-made food, dressing, or condiment. I spent a couple of hours at Whole Foods one morning reading labels trying to find some alternative sauces, dips, and/or dressings because my kids love to dip their food. Frankly, I didn't have too much luck. No ketchup! I tried making some, but it wasn't very good. How was I going to get them to eat?

About the only thing that I did find were Salad Girl Organic Salad Dressings. They use a sunflower oil base and are sweetened with honey and fruit concentrates. I originally bought some to try thinking that it was just for my husband and I to use for salads. I guess that the kids missed dipping because they wanted to try it with their carrot sticks that day. They loved it! They now dip pretty much everything in these dressings. Just about every day they eat a bowl of carrots, cucumber slices, and spinach leaves that they dip in dressing. They also like to dip cutup meat, chicken, and turkey. Our favorites so far are Lemony Herb, Blueberry Basil, and Pomegranate Pear.

It is very difficult to eat out on the GAPS diet, but when we do we usually order salad. Unfortunately, we haven't found a restaurant yet with any dressing without added sugar. Even balsamic vinaigrette typically contains sugar! We have just started bringing our own dressing with us. This Evriholder Dressing to Go Salad Dressing Container is great for packing lunches or bringing your own dressing with you to restaurants.

One other thing that I was able to find that day at Whole Foods was some spaghetti Sauce. Yes, most of the canned sauces have added sugar, but the Whole Foods brand 365 Organic Everyday Value Pasta Sauce is sugar free. I simply brown a pound of grass-fed beef to add to the sauce and serve it over baked spaghetti squash for an easy meal which has become one of the kids' favorites. Not all of the Whole Foods sauces are sugar free, make sure that you check the labels to find the right one.

I was able to find a couple of other sauce recipes that have worked out well for my family. I made this Soy-Free Soy Sauce to serve with stir fry. I made this BBQ sauce recipe for ribs. My family loved it! I tried to save some of the extra sauce for the kids to eat later that week, but it had a strong vinegar taste by the next day. It's a great recipe for a special meal, but it doesn't keep well.

Sneaky Meatballs (Grain Free, Paleo and GAPS friendly)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 14:45:00 +0000

The GAPS diet focuses heavily on soups and stews made with homemade stock. Since my little ones' diets consisted primarily of finger foods before beginning the diet, getting them to eat soup was a bit tricky. I also needed to hide the veggies in order to get them to eat cooked vegetables. I started making them Sneaky Meatballs packed with veggies that I could serve in homemade stock to get them to eat. These meatballs could also be eaten alone or served with your favorite spaghetti sauce.

Simply combine 2 lbs of ground meat (beef or turkey), 1 large carrot shredded, 1 zucchini shredded, 1 yellow squash shredded, and 1/2 a large onion shredded.

Just form them into balls and bake on cookie sheets for about 30 minutes.

They are great right out of the oven. I typically make extra and freeze some for later use. In order to freeze them, you'll need to first transfer the cooked meatballs onto a clean cookie sheet to freeze. Once frozen, then transfer them to a large freezer bag to store. Then you can pull out as many as you want at a time for a snack or meal for the kids.

Where have I been?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 17:20:00 +0000

The simple answer is learning and experimenting. I decided to enroll in the health coach certification program through Integrative Nutrition. My goal is to create a health coaching practice to help families navigate diet changes and healing. I've been working through coursework and continuing to make changes in my own family's diet.

Despite being gluten and dairy free, my teenage son was still having a difficult time with digestive issues and brain fog. I'm not entirely sure whether the problem was trace amounts of gluten or other food intolerances or allergies. Either way, we felt like we needed to at least try something a little bit more dramatic to make things better. I had run across the Gut and Psychology Syndrome: Natural Treatment for Autism, Dyspraxia, A.D.D., Dyslexia, A.D.H.D., Depression, Schizophrenia by Natasha Campbell-McBride on several different websites, the center where my kids received therapy had recommended it, and then I came across it again in one of the supplemental lectures available through Integrative Nutrition. I finally decided to take the time to view the lecture, and I immediately felt like Dr. Campbell-McBride was describing my son. From a young age, he suffered from eczema, unexplainable, seemingly random rashes, ear infections, environmental allergies, asthma, etc. resulting in frequent rounds of antibiotics and steroids. Yes, I was able to keep him alive and breathing, but he just got weaker and weaker. It took a daily regimen of medications to keep him going, but he still suffered from digestive problems and was constantly sick. While never diagnosed with a spectrum related disorder, he struggled with eye contact, was hypersensitive to touch, noise, and light, and became increasingly withdrawn. After getting a celiac diagnosis, we did start to see some improvement in him, but many of the symptoms still lingered. Simply eliminating the gluten did not repair the damage already done. The Gut and Psychology Syndrome diet or GAPS diet outlined by Dr. Campbell-McBride focuses on not only eliminating the damaging foods, but also taking steps to heal the gut lining and restore the balance of healthy, beneficial bacteria in the gut to restore physical, mental, and emotional health.

Interested in learning more about how gut health impacts are overall well being? Check out this short video:

Black Friday was the beginning of our GAPS journey. After enjoying Thanksgiving with our family, we started the GAPS diet as a family which meant transitioning to a totally grain and sugar free diet with nourishing homemade bone broths and probiotic foods to heal our guts. It hasn't been easy, and the first few days were particularly difficult as the entire family went through a detox process, but the results are promising. My son is doing better, and finally seems to have relief from digestive pain and suffering. He is also slowly coming out of the fog and becoming more socially interactive. In addition, his brother and sister are showing fewer and fewer signs of sensory processing disorder. My husband and I both look dramatically different. He has lost 20 pounds in the past six weeks without trying, and both of us have clearer, healthy skin and complexions. Something is differently changing in all of us.

So where do I go from here? My plan is continue my path to becoming a health coach and returning to sharing recipes on this blog from our new lifestyle. Cooking grain free is new to me, but I've getting better and more confident in my new cooking style everyday and am excited to start sharing some of my great finds and recipe creations.

Easy, Kid Friendly Dinner

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 10 Nov 2013 16:45:00 +0000

We had guests over yesterday afternoon, and I didn't have time for any preparations for dinner. I needed a quick, fix for dinner. Voila! In a just a few minutes, dinner was served.

Just a few simple ingredients:

1 cup of quinoa cooked with 2 cups of water in a rice cooker
1 lb cooked ground beef
Mrs. Dash Tomato Basil seasoning to taste (or only other preferred seasoning)
2 cups of frozen peas (Or any other vegetable that you have available that the kids like)

First, start the quinoa in the rice cooker so that it can cook while you prepare the ground beef and peas. Brown the ground meat and add seasoning (It would also be great with some onions as well). Then just combine all the ingredients in bowls to serve.

Any suggestions on what to call this dish? It's similar to the hamburger hash that I had as a kid just with quinoa instead of potatoes. Not sure, but the kids love it!

Allergy Friendly Halloween

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 31 Oct 2013 16:16:00 +0000

While for the most part, my children do not feel like they are on a restricted diet. They aren't deprived, they just eat differently. However, I have been a little bit worried about Halloween. How do you stick to a gluten, dairy, soy, and dye free diet on the most candy-filled night of the year? Well, for the most part our plan is to make a new tradition. Instead of trick-or-treating, we are hosting a Halloween carnival of sorts with some games for all the kids to play as they stop by on Halloween night including pumpkin mini golf, bean bag toss, spider ring toss, tin can game, and make your own halloween bracelet. Our prizes include glow-in-the dark bugs, spider rings, small coloring books, stickers, and sticky hands. My kids attend a Montessori preschool that encourages families to limit sugar and gluten in their children's diet, so we also handed out invitations to their classmates to attend our carnival. The kids are very excited about hosting the carnival and handing out prizes to their friends. In fact, maybe a little too excited. I think that it's going to be a long day waiting for the fun! Hopefully, all will go well, and the carnival will be a great success.

In addition, I also have a couple of treats for the children such as YummyEarth Organic Lollipops and Mott's Medleys Assorted Fruit Flavored Snacks.

Homemade, Dairy Free Chocolate Recipe
For an extra special treat, I made them some homemade, dairy free chocolate. It's simple to make with just coconut oil, honey, and cocoa powder. You just melt 1 cup of coconut oil on low heat, remove from heat once melted, stir in 1/4 to 1/2 cup of honey (to desired sweetness), whisk in 1 cup of unsweetened, powdered cocoa, and pour in a glass pan or candy molds. I put the molds in the freezer for a few minutes to solidify the chocolate. Since coconut has a low melting point, these chocolates need to be stored in the refrigerator until ready to eat.

Drop Sugar Cookies (Gluten and Dairy Free)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 26 Oct 2013 22:27:00 +0000

I wanted something sweet today that was easy to make and didn't require a trip to the store. I also wanted to try out a new gluten free flour blend that I found at Costco recently. I simply modified an old drop sugar cookie recipe to make it gluten and dairy free.

1 1/3 cups gluten free flour (Namaste Perfect Flour Blend)
3/4 tsp gluten free baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup coconut oil
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp gluten free vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350. 2. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. 3. In large bowl, beat coconut oil, sugar, egg, and vanilla until light and fluffy. 4. Add flour mixture and beat on low just until combined. 5. Drop by rounded teaspoon on ungreased baking sheet. 6. Bake 10-12 minutes until edges are lightly brown. Makes approximately 24 cookies.

Freezer Muffins

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 19:12:00 +0000

Not only do my kids have multiple food issues, but they are also picky and sometimes down right stubborn about what they will eat. Sound familiar? I like to sneak fruit and vegetables along with healthy fats into muffins. Shhh! Don't tell them that they ate zucchini today. I always make a double batch and freeze half of them for later whenever I make muffins. They make a great snack to have on hand. You can just pop them in the microwave for 1 minute to thaw them, and they taste like they are fresh from the oven. It's my teenagers favorite after school snack.

Here's some of our favorite muffins recipes:

Banana Muffins - I just make this recipe, and bake in a muffin tin. Lately, I have been substituting the canola oil with coconut oil and replacing the sugar with 1/2 cup of honey. These are the kid's favorites.

Zucchini Muffins- Just make this as muffins for a grab and go snack. I use coconut oil instead of vegetable oil and use my own gluten free flour mix (3/4 cup Sorghum Flour, 3/4 Brown Rice Flour, and 1/2 cup Potato Starch). I also leave out the nuts because we have a peanut allergy, and I worry about cross contamination with other tree nuts.

Pumpkin Muffins - Since the kids prefer muffins, I just make this recipe as muffins. To keep it dairy free, just substitute coconut oil for butter. I have been using some frozen pumpkin puree that I have on hand from last season instead of canned pumpkin, but either one will work fine. I also have found that you can reduce the amount of sugar to 3/4 cup. I'm planning to experiment with alternative sweeteners such as honey or agave nectar next time. I use the same flour mix as above (3/4 cup Sorghum Flour, 3/4 Brown Rice Flour, and 1/2 cup Potato Starch).

OMG, My Body Really Hates Gluten

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 11 Sep 2013 19:10:00 +0000

I have been "glutened" twice in the past couple of weeks, and I have been feeling completely miserable. My typical symptoms include a few hours of intense stomach pain followed by several days of digestive issues including constipation, bloating, and gas. Then the fun includes flu-like body aches and pains, and a return of my joint pain. All the while, I struggle with anxiety and just plain moodiness. Unfortunately, my daughter was included in one of the occasions, so not only did I feel bad but I also had to try to manage an unhappy little girl with many of the same symptoms. Yuck!

Cross contamination can be a major problem if you happen to be one of the unlucky ones who are highly sensitive. We are completely gluten free at home, but I'm discovering that eating food from restaurants or homes without gluten free kitchens can be even trickier than I thought. My first "glutening" happened at a party. The host graciously provided hamburgers with gluten free buns for us, along with fresh fruit and vegetables, and even made "gluten free" cupcakes. Somehow something must have been cross-contaminated though because my daughter and I both started having stomach pains within a couple of hours. Just about the time that I was starting to feel better from the party incident, it happened again. This time from a salad bar. Thankfully, it was just me though. Check out this great link if you need more information about how to prevent cross-contamination:
Safety Tips for Avoiding Cross Contamination. To all of my friends and family, I apologize ahead of time, but I will be asking lots of questions about any food that my family eats or just bringing our own food to social events. We have to stay healthy to function.

So what do you do if you get accidentally get "glutened"? I am by no means offering medical advice, but we have found a few things that seem to help get through it. For my family members, the inflammation from the gluten exposure causes constipation, so we immediately start taking MiraLax. I have also found that focusing on eating as clean as possible and including anti-inflammatory foods helps as well as drinking lots of green tea. We also take anti-inflammatory medication such as ibuprofen or naproxen sodium to reduce inflammation and reduce the body ache symptoms. This past time, I even tried using activated charcoal since I had read on many blogs that others found it helpful in detoxifying their bodies after a gluten exposure. I'm not sure yet whether it was helpful, but I plan to use it right away the next I start experiencing gluten symptoms. I have also been reading about GlutenEase a product designed to help in the digestion of gluten. While it is NOT a cure for celiac disease, it does appear that some find it helpful in recovering from an accidental exposure. I read on several blogs that others have found it helpful to take it before eating in situations where cross-contamination is a threat. I have some on hand to try.

What works for you? I'd love to hear if you've tried any of these methods or have other tips to share on dealing with accidental "glutening".

Fun GF Pasta for Kids

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 31 Aug 2013 18:18:00 +0000

I found this pasta for the kids last night at the store. Quick, easy lunch today with some prepared pasta sauce. They loved it! They had lots of fun finding letters, spelling some words, and eating all of their food.

GF Bread that Kids Will Actually Like

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 26 Aug 2013 23:02:00 +0000

Udi's gluten free bread varieties score big points for convenience, but the taste is definitely far from fresh baked bread. If you're looking for a bread that might please some of your pickiest eaters this one may just work: GF White Bread for Bread Machines. Not only does my family love this bread, but it receives rave reviews from my gluten eating guests. I have made a couple of adaptions to the recipe since my family does not eat dairy or soy. I use Silk Coconut Milk instead of buttermilk and substitute sorghum flour for the soy flour. We love sorghum flour! It tastes great in baked goods and adds a nutritional boost with an abundance of fiber, protein, and minerals. Check out the health benefits of sorghum. Just like most gluten free baked goods, this bread has a short shelf life. With a family of 5, a loaf is typically gone within 24 hours. If you want to keep it longer, then I would suggest slicing it and freezing it until ready to eat.

Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes - Hold the Dairy Please

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 25 Aug 2013 23:28:00 +0000

The results are in... Dairy is out! Through our trial elimination with dairy, we did discover that the kids appear to do better without dairy. I have to admit that I feel better as well. My son wanted meatloaf and mashed potatoes for his birthday dinner last week, so I made a trial batch of dairy-free meatloaf and mashed potatoes. My dad and his wife also came over for dinner, so I had a good set of taste testers. Let's just say that my dad is not exactly adventurous with food. I didn't tell him that the dinner was both gluten and dairy free until after the fact. He admitted that he didn't notice any difference. Success! I made my Quinoa Meatloaf with Silk Original Coconut Milk instead of milk. For the mashed potatoes, I simply substituted Smart Balance Light Buttery Spread with Flaxseed Oil for the butter and coconut milk for the milk. While coconut milk does a slight coconut favor, it was not noticeable in either dish.

So why coconut milk? There are several milk substitutes available including soy, rice, almond, and coconut. We chose to primarily use coconut milk because of it's antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral properties that can boost the immune system. Check out the Health Benefits of Coconut Milk. This is definitely a plus when you have a family with sensitive tummies and a host of other allergies that weaken their immune systems. I cook with the original flavor and the kid's drink the vanilla flavor. While soy milk does provide more protein along with the calcium, it also has many adverse health affects so I try to avoid it. Almond milk may be an OK option too, but my kids wouldn't drink it. I try to use rice milk in moderation because of it's high sugar content.