Some gluten free meal ideas

In our house we have four children 10, 5, 2, and 3 months. We also have a daddy who is the pickiest man on the planet whose only fruit is fuji apples and only vegetable is cooked carrots and he's picky about the texture and quality of each of those. It's not easy being in charge of feeding all these people! But my hope is that I can help you figure out what to feed your family by telling you what we eat around here these days. Keep in mind that our allergy set and tastes may not mesh well with yours all the time but most recipes are so open to variation that you can still eat all the same things and have it taste totally different than what we've eaten.

I had been in a rut with making the same dishes over and over again until we learned that gluten was getting the boot so most of these recipes are new to me and I am never surprised when something turns out like garbage. My cooking success is spotty. I fill my house with smoke on a regular basis. I have also learned that photographing food is really hard! And it's hard to remember to do before you eat. So grant me some grace on the photo aspect.

Last night we enjoyed tilapia made with some variations on this recipe. I don't own cast iron so I went by some of the reveiws that said to use preheated glass. I've made this recipe several times and never preheated the pan before and it truly made no difference at all. So don't bother with that step. Use whatever bakeware you like. I used glass this time but have used Simplylite bakeware in the past. We're not big fish eaters but all my kids gobble this up as long as I don't try to serve it too often. I used frozen tilapia filets, bottled lime juice and no zest, and soy free Earth Balance spread. I've used regular Earth Balance sto make it dairy free and both taste great. Last night we served it with orange slices, brown rice, and steamed mixed veggies.

Another meal that served recently was a slapdash modification of Italian panko and parm crusted pork chops. I've made it as stated and it was great. I've made it just omitting the parmesan cheese and they were great. This time around I made it with brown rice flour in place of the panko and almond milk instead of the egg. And it was probably the best I've ever made it. I think it helped that I went a little heavier with the seasonings but the brown rice flour crisped up so nicely that we were all wishing we had more. I served it with gluten free mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli, and applesauce. I've seen a lot of pork dishes with apples but my husband doesn't like sweet with meat so I thought some applesauce on the side couldn't go too far amiss and it was a really good compliment.

We've also recently tried this recipe for Paleo Breakfast Bites. It's not the clearest recipe ever but I used 10 eggs with a little salt and onion powder to make twelve "bites" and it worked pretty well. I added frozen sausage crumbles to all of them and half of them got a mix of frozen onion and mushrooms. I'd love to try them with red and green peppers and spinach like she recommends. I'm not a huge bacon fan but, if that's your thing, go for it champ! I buy pure canola oil spray at Sam's club and it works really well in every application I've used it for thus far. I know that to be purely paleo I should be using coconut oil or ghee but that's an extra two minutes greasing muffin tins that I just don't have in my day.

For lunch one day this week I made up a quick pad thai using Thai Kitchen rice noodles and a bag of frozen stir fry veggies and a sauce loosely based on this Pad Thai recipe. I didn't have the ingredients to actually do this recipe justice and I really want to try it correctly some day but for the sauce I made I used fish sauce, sesame oil, brown sugar, and a tiny pinch of red pepper flakes. I liked the bite they give but I have gone overboard on other dishes and regretted it so make sure to be careful with the red pepper if you aren't sure how much heat you want. You can always add more at the end if it isn't hot enough for you. I did have chili oil but it is soy based so I wasn't able to use it. I ate way more of this than one person should in one sitting but it was so good!

Alright, that'll get you started on a few new dishes to try. Let me know if you think of any good modifications or if one of these is your new favorite. I have a whole pinterest board full of stuff to try

Walking into the cave, part 3

Just last week we took B to see her doctor to try and figure out a game plan. I knew that blood in her stool was a sign of gastrointestinal distress, just as I knew that mucus could be a sign of the same. I knew my baby wasn't feeling well and wasn't the happy, giggling baby I knew she could be. I just didn't know how to get her back to that good place without sacrificing my own health and well being for way too long. We have a lot going on in our lives right now that I can't fix or change and this was one problem that I was not willing to accept so I needed a course of action.

Our pediatrician was initially thinking he was going to do an x-ray of her belly to see where the bleeding was coming from but after asking some questions and feeling B's abdomen, he decided that an x-ray wasn't going to tell us anything and we had a lot of choices for tests to run or not run, now or down the road. We chose to take some blood via heel prick (B was not a fan but she's a good bleeder) and run a couple tests. One of those tests was a CBC panel and I didn't catch the name of the other. These tests took about 15 minutes to come back and showed us that B is having some sort of immune response with elevated leukocytes and elevated kidney function. The doctor said that her numbers were not really out of bounds for a healthy baby fighting even a cold bug but that something was going on. The second test showed extremely high potassium levels but he checked with another doctor in the practice and they believe their machine needs to be calibrated because another patient had gotten similar results but then tested normal at another lab.

We talked about other allergy panels but both agreed that drawing blood from an infant for highly inaccurate tests was not how we want to handle things at this point. We talked about prick and patch tests but again, inaccurate and no fun for a baby. The doctor said that if we get to a point where there are just too many things hurting her, he might recommend switching to a highly broken down formula at least for a little while to help her reset. But when my body is fully capable of producing the amount of milk she needs, it would be so hard for me to switch to formula even for a little while. I know that it's not about my feelings but I'm not ready to give up the bond we are able to maintain while nursing and the comfort it gives her.

So his suggestion and our plan of action at this point is to cut out gluten and see if that makes any difference. Like all other food eliminations, we expect it to be a couple weeks to a month before we truly see any change because the proteins need to work out of my system and then out of her system. We're not going to make any final decisions about whether or not gluten is the issue until she goes back for shots at the end of the month and then we'll look at other possible issues. There is something called FPIES that is my ultimate fear for her, in which she basically cannot tolerate any food proteins. FPIES can be a temporary diagnosis or a lifetime problem. But we're not there yet. We're here. We're accidentally embarking on the paleo diet at the same time that this mama starts to get back to some form of exercise to get rid of the flabby belly that having my fourth child has left behind. We're starting a real food way of life with a daddy man who doesn't eat fruits or vegetables without a fight and a crazy toddler who can't have dairy proteins. We're changing the way we eat with a five year old who hates everything I put on her plate and a ten year old who has established favorite foods that I may never make again. It's a good thing wine is gluten free and I don't have to cut it out so far.