Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Care Free too?

May 12, 2013 kristenannLeave a comment

While we are still awaiting the actual results from the naturopath on exactly how intolerant we all are, I’ve already been cutting way down on dairy for the kids and myself and I’m happy to report that a. it’s been easy and b. I see good results. My oldest is less clogged in his sinuses, my youngest’s cheeks are looking smoother (he has that pinkish-slightly bumpy stuff on his cheeks that adults get on the back of their arms. No doctor has ever been able to say why, just that it’s something a lot of people have. The naturopath though says it’s a food intolerance and we’ll fix it~ yay for getting to the root of the issue!) and I’m less bloated without dairy in my life. For my oldest, I have switched to almond milk, the vanilla kind (Blue Diamond unsweetened vanilla) that is in the refrigerated section and he likes it just as well as regular milk. For cheese, I’ve switched to goat cheese for quesadillas and cinnamon toast. The goat cheeses were recommended by my friend who is already dealing with a house of four with food intolerances. She gave me two to try from Trader Joe’s, both carrying the Trader Joe’s name: one is a hard cheese called Goat’s milk Gouda cheese. It comes in a fairly big triangular cut and is surprisingly inexpensive. This is what I’ve been shredding for quesadillas lately and my oldest loves it, plus I’ve been slicing it for crackers and it is delightful. The other cheese is a spreadable goat cheese medallion, which comes in small individually wrapped circles. Both cheeses are mild, but the spreadable one is somewhat more like butter than cheese when spread on toast, which is how I ate is yesterday with my salad at lunch. My friend recommended I top the cheese on toast with some cinnamon sugar, so I tried that for my boys and it was a huge hit with my oldest. I’m still working on my youngest on trying new things, but I’m sure it won’t be long before his palate is less picky. For yogurt I’ve been eating Redwood Hill’s goat yogurt or So Delicious’ coconut yogurt. I like the goat kind better because it has a healthier protein to sugar ratio and the taste is more like regular yogurt that I’m used to. The coconut yogurt is good, but less protein and sweeter. I have a feeling that might be what my kids like better though and it would be good to have as many diverse foods as possible in their diet so I’ll have them try it. I asked a couple of employees at Whole Foods what they saw people buying the most of, and they said the almond yogurt, but it has different texture that you have to get used to. I tried it and did not like it at all. The texture is indeed very odd~ not smooth and creamy at all, but to each his/her own. So, that’s how the dairy experiments are going right now.

Here’s a chocolate chip cookie recipe I modified from the Flying Apron cookbook. It’s gluten-free and vegan and so incredibly delicious you’ll never notice the difference. By the way, neither of my kids really like the taste of coconut, but the amount of oil I used in this recipe leaves such a mild coconut taste it’s hard to even figure out what that extra little something is unless you know. And the boys adore these cookies. With that said, use whatever ingredients you have. I don’t believe in that whole “baking must be precise” myth. Experiment!

Gluten Free, Vegan, Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients:

2 cups brown rice flour
1.25 cups + 1T gf oat flour
1 cup garbanzo bean/fava bean flour (it’s a Bob’s Red Mill blend)
1t baking powder
1/2t baking soda
3/4 sea salt
1/2t cinnamon
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup coconut oil
1t vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
1 cup almond milk
1 cup dairy free dark chocolate chips (I like the smaller ones found in bulk sections)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add all dry ingredients up to and including the cinnamon in a bowl and mix with a spoon. Blend the sugar and oils together in a (bigger) bowl with a mixer. Slowly add the almond milk and dry ingredients to the sugar and oil bowl, alternating the ingredients until well blended. Then add the chocolate chips and mix until well-distributed. Scoop dough onto lined cooked sheets and bake for 17-20 minutes. Enjoy!

Food allergies · food sensitivities

Food Allergies vs. Food Sensitivities

May 7, 2013June 12, 2013 kristenann1 Comment

It’s a shame we have grown used to calling food sensitivities “allergies” because they are in fact different. Not that the name really matters to the person suffering from a reaction to a certain food(s), but when people are just starting to figure out they are eating something or several things that make them feel bad, it is important to know the difference because doctors do not always explain this. Food allergies are actually much easier to test for. If your body has an allergic reaction to a food, it shows up in blood tests. (Don’t ask me how~ I’m no doctor.) But if you have a sensitivity to a food, it may or may not show up in traditional tests, and unfortunately, most likely it will not. In that case, if you suspect dairy for example, you should take all dairy out of your diet for at least a week (that means all dairy, check your supplements’ ingredients as well as all the food labels in your house.) If you feel better after a few days, then you are most likely sensitive to dairy, or whichever food you are testing. Another option is to find a naturopath who specializes in food sensitivities and he/she can help narrow down the possible triggers and perform a different kind of blood test than the ones regular doctors use. It’s easy to be relieved when the doc tells you that you don’t have any food allergies, but the unfortunate truth is, if you suspect something is not the best for your body, it probably is causing more problems than you even realize. Here in our house we are in the midst of uncovering new food challenges, and I’m strangely excited about it. If I can make my kids feel their best, with more (steady) energy, then some kitchen challenges are worth it. I know it won’t be easy for a couple of weeks, but I’m so excited to see the fruits of our labor that I can get through a rough patch no problem. Still, wish me luck :0).

I just read this article about food intolerance that were found by a nutritionist, which is another good place to turn! And here is another great article on food sensitivities that gives clear steps on where to start the investigation.

ecology

Happy Earth Day

April 22, 2013March 1, 2014 kristenann2 Comments

I love this time of year when the plum tree outside our bedroom window blooms. In the summer when we sleep with the window open I often am awoken by rustling in that very tree, and when I peer out I find bright raccoon eyes peering back at me. We share the plums. Actually, they get the lion’s share because picking the tree requires a ladder or sharp claws, and simplicity wins every time.

This is what’s blooming in the front yard, along with lavender, rosemary, and some rogue tulips.

Earth day is celebrated in over 192 countries now, according to Wikipedia, but I wish it were more. More countries and more celebration. I asked my boys when they got home from school if they discussed Earth Day and both said nothing was mentioned. Sad. They have a captive audience at schools, surely someone cares enough to explain what Earth day is…? My older son told me this weekend that I was an “Earth Helper” so he must have gotten that from somewhere~ I had assumed school, but maybe not.

I had a strange thought today that I’m not even sure how to put into words, but I was thinking about Earth Day and the Earth and just how insanely we take it for granted, and I wondered, if just maybe humans had started off as Earth worshipers instead of Sun worshipers if perhaps we would have evolved with a greater respect for the Earth. I realize there was a time when people did worship the earth in ways, Gaia and all that, but we seem, as a species, to always be looking up and out, as though there has to be something bigger and brighter out there…

And we forget to look under our own feet, where amazing things are happening.

I guess I just thought if religions got involved in being conscious of how we treat the earth, something good might happen. People might listen more, and if all religions started working towards the same goal, maybe there wouldn’t be so much to fight over. I’m not saying we should replace all religions with Earth centered gods or anything, but it’s something all religions could get behind and it would be a good thing, for many reasons. A shared, concrete mission instead of endless squabbles over this and that. Not that being a conscious earthling requires religion at all, it’s just a thought I had…that maybe when the future species of the future world look at our human limitations, they will see our tragic flaw as our first instinct was to look at the glory of the sun instead of the soil between our toes.

Food allergies · gf bread · gf foods · gluten free · gluten free bread · Gluten free eating · gluten intolerance · gluten intolerant

Absence and Gluten Free products

April 18, 2013 kristenannLeave a comment

There are a couple of reasons I haven’t been blogging much lately. One is that Spring Break hit with such a flurry of activity that I’m now nervous for what summer will bring. Kids need so much stimulation! At least mine do~ they also need a reason to be outside, which I kind of understand considering we don’t live in the sunniest part of the world, but it still bothers me that when it is sunny they aren’t rushing out the door right away. Yesterday when they got home all they wanted was to sit and read and write instead of go to a park, which I can’t really argue with except it was gorgeous outside, so I put out a blanket and let them read and write in the backyard at least. My younger son ended up helping me put new soil in our garden and clean up the yard a bit, but my older son is writing his umpteenth book and when his creative juices are flowing, there’s no stopping him. And that leads to the other reason I haven’t been blogging much lately, I too am in the midst of another writing project (like mother like son) and have been putting the finishing touches on it lately. It is something I’m passionate about, and the best part is I’m working with my very talented friend who is doing the art work. Hopefully I will have some more info and pics next week. But in the meantime, I do have a couple of gluten-free product recommendations. The first I found at Trader Joe’s about a month ago and it seems like a new product:

It is in the refrigerated section and comes in a two pack. It’s very tasty as a pizza crust or garlic bread which is how I ate it last night~ put some pressed garlic into a tablespoon of olive oil and added some Tuscan Salt and oregano, mixed it all together and spread it on the bread then baked in the oven at 350 for about 10 minutes. Very good.

Another item I have always passed over because it looked too expensive was Manini’s gluten-free bread mix. The other day I realized each bag is enough for 7 or 8 loaves~ that changes the price equation quite a bit! I am very happy I tried it because it is delicious bread and easy to make, all of which is quite good news since I still have five or six loaves to bake up from the bag! The directions call for a loaf pan but I used a pizza pan instead because I wanted as much hard crust as possible, and that worked out fabulously. I definitely recommend trying the mixes, plus they have several to choose from so you can suit different tastes.

One last thought, Earth Day is Monday~ does anyone have any traditions?

baking · celiac disease · gf foods · gluten free · Gluten free eating

Gluten Free Biscuits

March 27, 2013March 27, 2013 kristenannLeave a comment

These biscuits taste as traditional as a gravy-dipped southern morning. Thank the wonderful cooks at Jovial for this recipe, and try their Einkhorn versions too. I used gluten-free oat flour, brown rice flour, sorghum flour and tapioca starch, but feel free to experiment, or just use up what is in your pantry. These are made with kefir which is chock full of those oh so very important probiotics, so once you use some in this recipe, you can add the rest of the bottle to smoothies, mix it with flavoring like cinnamon or chocolate (or both!) or drink it straight. The only thing about these biscuits is I find them hard to cut in half without a lot of crumbling action, which also means they are a bit hard to toast. The broiler works best, but they are also just good straight out of the fridge where I am storing them. Here’s the link: Jovial’s recipe for biscuits.

kids

Making Kids into Readers

March 19, 2013January 10, 2014 kristenannLeave a comment

First of all I must say there are people way more experienced in this than I am. Teachers, librarians, tutors and specialists for example all are eager and able to help kids become better readers, or help them learn to read at all. I happen to have tutored in AmeriCorps for a year in the America Reads program, taught ESL to both children and adults for several years, and have had measurable success with both my own sons, so I thought I’d write this in case these tips help anyone else out. When my oldest was a baby and toddler he did not have the usual interest in books that most young children show. His attitude was, if he couldn’t rip it apart, what good was it? This frustrated me and I would not let it go, (did I mention I was an English major?) so, I started getting every book on vehicles that our library had, and then ordered them online through our library system, KCLS, which totally rocks by the way. His biggest interest was vehicles, and those books were at least holding him captivated for a few minutes at a time. As the library ran out of vehicle book options, I widened the search to anything construction, tool related, or worker-man related. His attention and interests grew. I was then able to get animal books, silly stories of all sorts, and anything with a superhero theme and he loved them. Soon, he would look at books, without tearing them to pieces, for as long as I would let him. He never was able to sit through a library story time, but a love for books was good enough for me. After learning to read he really resisted chapter books, so I started getting easy chapter books on CD for the car. Their favorite series at that time was The Magic Treehouse series by Mary Pope Osbourne, and sure enough after listening to the books on CD they were the first chapter books my oldest picked out on his own to read at school, because they were familiar, and also because the books have some pictures in them which he found fascinating after hearing the CD versions and creating his own pictures in his head. From then on, he has been an avid reader and generally has several books going at once~ something I never could do myself but he seems to manage it fine. My younger son struggled a bit with learning to read in Kindergarten, much to my surprise because he started memorizing books at a very young age, which is the first sign of learning to read. Over the summer before first grade I dedicated time every day to teach him to read myself, and it worked. He started off first grade as a very good reader and has continued to improve. Here’s how I did it which is how we were taught to do it in AmeriCorps when I worked in a struggling school: First, let them read a short book that is easy for them. If they don’t know how to read at all, then this will be a book with one or two words per page with pictures to help. Next they read a slightly challenging book for them. This whole process should be around 20 minutes, and it should be fun. When they are finished you can give them a sticker or whatever motivates them. It is best to do this with a series that gets progressively more difficult, like BOB books or something like that. For example if they have already read books 1-5 of a series, and book 6 will be the ‘challenge’ book of the day, the student can pick any book, 1-5, to read as the ‘easy’ book for that day, then they read book 6 as the challenging book. This helps in memorizing words, which might sound funny b/c reading is often all about phonics when learning, but memorization is what makes fluent reading. You aren’t sounding out every s-i-n-g-l–e word of this, for example, I hope. Guessing is also a valid technique that one should not discourage. If the picture shows a dog going through a door and the child reads dog as door, that’s a good mistake, not something to freak out about (which I’ve seen a fair number of well-intentioned people do~ “Your just guessing! Don’t guess!”) because we have a lot of weird words in the English language and guessing is something that helps figure out some of those crazy words, like night, laugh, have and cough to name but a few. We continue to listen to books on CD in the car, and one reason is that it focuses the kids’ attention on something other than each other, which if you have more than one child you know exactly what I mean. (Poke, poke, he’s on my side! etc.) A friend got in the car the other day while we were listening to something and she remarked, “It’s so quiet!” and I promise you that is not a statement often heard around my kids. The books on CD do serve another purpose besides peace-keeping though, and that is to introduce harder books to the boys than they would normally pick out on their own. We have listened to the whole Harry Potter series (as my older son also read them) and also classics like the Narnia books and Treasure Island. This continues to be a good way for the boys to feel out a book or an author and decide if they want to then read the same book, the next in the series, or maybe not at all. That goes for the books I read at night to them also. Often my older son will continue to read the same author after I have finished a book, while my younger son still tends to pick short chapter books that can be read in one sitting. Lastly, I get them all kinds of books from the library that I think they might like, even if they aren’t exactly something that is great literature. It’s more important they like reading in my opinion, so I get them books to make them laugh or are interesting to them, and I get the good literature in them by reading aloud or books on CD. So, those are my reading tips~ what are yours?

celiac disease · gluten free · gluten free lifestyle · gluten intolerance · gluten intolerance diagnosis · gluten intolerant

Probiotics for Food Allergies and Intolerances

March 14, 2013 kristenann1 Comment

Yogurt and Kefir are great ways to get probiotics, and they make yummy smoothies

My sister sent me this article the other day and I thought it worth sharing. It is called What Really Causes Celiac Disease? and it has a different message than I have seen before. It basically (and I’m giving a very small synopsis of this) says that traditional thought on Celiac disease is that some people have the gene for it, and of those people, some of them have the disease triggered by something. In other words, not everyone with the gene has the disease, so: gene + the trigger = Celiac. They are now thinking there is more to it than that, in fact billions more. “Billions?” you may ask, but yes, when discussing probiotics we get into big numbers. Unfortunately, the modern diet and the modern obsession with antibiotics and antibacterial everything means those big numbers are dangerously low. (Probiotics are things like acidofilus and bifidus which create yogurt and other foods.) This article singles out bifidus as an important player in keeping our digestive systems healthy and allergy/intolerant free. They are still learning about the connections between probiotics and dietary issues, but in the meantime I am going to take in as much as I can, and certainly make sure my kids do too. So far they do not seem to be gluten intolerant like I am, but I’m going to take any step I can that might help keep it that way.

kids

Healthy kids still moving (whether I like it or not…)

March 14, 2013 kristenann1 Comment

For several years I’ve been advocating for my kids to walk to school more, as opposed to sitting on the bus for 20+ minutes to then sit for 6.5 hours at school and of course sit another 20+ minutes again for the ride home. They would occasionally humor me, but mostly they fought it b/c it was “too long” (1.3 miles) and it “exhausted” them. That is until this year. Now that they are in first grade and third grade they actually are the ones driving our morning walks. In fact I find myself having to fight the urge of whining, “but it looks like rain…” more and more as they want to either walk or ride their bikes most days now. (And it pretty much always looks like rain this time of year in the greater Seattle area.) I prefer them walking since when they are on bikes I have to run to keep up, and I don’t get to have a conversation with them, or practice spelling words or multiplication tables~ all things I like to do when walking. Although if they do ride bikes we get there in record time b/c neither one of them likes going slowly whatsoever, so it is a good option on days we are running late. Honestly I think wearing those pedometers from geopalz is what changed their attitudes, although now they only wear them about half the time. The pedometers got them walking more, and now they find they like the walk~ it’s pretty cool when things actually work out the way they are meant to. Goodness knows when raising kids that is a rare occurrence.

gf bread · gluten free · gluten free bread · gluten intolerant

Easiest Gluten-Free Peasant Bread Ever

February 25, 2013February 27, 2013 kristenann15 Comments

While browsing food blogs the other day I stumbled upon this peasant bread recipe which looked like a good candidate for gluten-free baking. One reason is that it is a no-knead recipe, which works well for gluten-free flours, and the other was that the ingredient list was surprisingly short and simple. My bread did not turn out as prettily as Alexandra’s, but it was easy and the tastiest gluten-free bread I’ve had since, well, ever. I replaced the four cups of flour with: 1.5 C of gluten-free oat flour, 1 C millet flour, 1/2 C tapioca starch, 1/2 C Brown Rice Flour, and 1/2 C sorghum flour. I added 1 teaspoon xanthan gum and replaced the butter with olive oil for greasing the Pyrex bowls which are used in baking this bread. (You can use a different pan, but I went ahead and used the Pyrex bowls and am glad I bought them as I’ll be making this bread recipe again and again.) The crust turned out crisp and golden, while the inside was soft and delightful. Truly a more than pleasant peasant bread.

celiac disease · Food allergies · gf foods · gluten free · Gluten free eating · gluten free food · gluten intolerant · Uncategorized

Gluten-Free Blueberry Cinnamon Scones, Ginger Cookies, and Soup

February 20, 2013 kristenann2 Comments

These blueberry cinnamon scones are, more or less, from the Flying Apron’s cookbook. I used different flours (gluten-free oats, sorghum, and brown rice) and added cinnamon sugar to the tops. My youngest and pickiest child who normally only likes scones with a hearty dose of icing really loves these. They have a nice texture and density~ lighter than you might expect considering how thick they are. I did see this recipe on another site but cannot tell if that site has permission to share it, so I am not going to provide the link, though if you really want to make these scones and don’t have the book, you can find the recipe online. The Ginger Wheels from the same book on the other hand, might be a bit harder to find, but the book is worth the money just for these cookies, if you ask my children anyway. They are like molasses cookies with a zing of ginger, can be used for gingerbread men or nade just as wheels for easy, year round use. I’d post a photo but my kids scarf them down way too quickly for a photo op. If you really want the recipe, comment with your email address and I’ll send it to you. Here’s a gluten-free soup recipe which I can link to from here and it is a weeknight wonder. My husband is not a big chicken fan, but he loves this Tortilla Soup from PCC’s recipe page. I’ve only recently started eating chicken broth and tiny bits of chicken in soup and have to say this is the only recipe with chicken I like at all. (I’ve just never liked chicken~ I’ve tried, but it’s not my thing.) Since you add tortillas on top when serving, I just might get a spoonful or two into my youngest! No guarantees, but I’m going to try. I did add a leek to this soup because soup is just always better with leeks, and really it could handle more veggies in it (a chopped carrot or a chopped celery stalk, or both would make it even healthier.) It isn’t that spicy so you can dial-up the heat with more of that jalapeno it calls for, and I imagine black beans instead of chicken in a veggie broth would make a tasty vegan version. Keep the recipe in mind for your next taco night at home~ it’s sure to please.