Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Moving Up!

While we always have our ups and downs, things with Eli are generally moving up and it has been way exciting. Yesterday he brought his weekly note home from school saying that he followed almost all the directions and had only 4 minutes of non compliance during the previous week. (That is down from anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes.) Yipee!

He has been saying more small sentences. "I don't like it," and "No bath today," were two of the more recent ones I remember. So like a boy! And they were used functionally, too. The "I don't like it" was in reference to a shower, which he liked once he got in, of course. He had been watching Signing Time the day before, and it is so visual, I think that is where he learned that one.

He is just growing in understanding everyday, and "What is that?" is something I hear just about everyday!

I read a blog post yesterday that I thought was great. She really got it right on! Read Chef Penny's post here: Our Crazy Adventures in Autismland

Sunday, May 23, 2010

The GF/CF Lunchbox

I had a really wonderful opportunity last month to teach a little class about food sensitivities. I shared our family's stories, (see food sensitivities part 1 and food sensitivities part 2,) and demonstrated some really delicious chicken recipes that we have run across and found helpful with our son. One of the moms that was there asked me what I put in my son's lunches that he takes to school. I had a couple of ideas ready, and I thought I would post them here, along with afew other things I have sent him with. Some of these things will seem odd, like the pasta with peas stirred in, but since this is the main way that I can get green things down him, I take advantage of that, for sure. Every child will tolerate different things of course, but I hope that this list helps some parents out with ideas.

* I should probably mention that my son's lunches are more than just GF/CF. They are also corn, soy, sugar, additive, preservative, and coloring free.


Special things I make for his lunch


pizza
brown rice or Lundberg's brown rice couscous cooked in veggie broth, salted, with peas added
rice flour tortilla with filled with flavored re-fried beans
falafel
chicken nuggets (recipe adapted from eatingglutenfree.com)

Leftovers from dinner
making extra dinner is a great way to have an easy ready made lunch

chicken soup made with rice
chili
tortilla soup
stir fry
brown rice pasta (he won't eat spaghetti sauce, so he gets earth balance spread on his noodles with salt added, often with green peas or mix veggies stirred in.)

Other
things I add to above listed main courses

apple slices
carrots
raisins
peas
green beans
olives
cucumbers
green pepper strips
all natural potato chips
GF/CF muffins
GF/CF crackers (homemade 'fake' graham crackers or store bought rice ones)

I'm sure I am forgetting some things... I will add as I remember. I always send my son with his little klean kanteen full of filtered water as well as a healthy "suits his system" meal.

Monday, May 10, 2010

The Potato Starch Caper

We use potato starch ALL the time in our gluten free baking as opposed to corn starch. Our local health food store is called Good Earth, and we can buy potato starch there in the bulk section. When we buy flours/starches in the bulk department, I always worry that the flimsy little bags will get holes. I am happy to be creating less waste, and so I am just careful with them and normally we don't ever have a problem.

One day recently our little Eli was helping us shop at Good Earth. He had a child sized cart that the store provides, and he was pushing our items all around the store. When it was time to put the items up at the check stand, he had to do it unassisted. (He is going through a big "I do it myself" phase.) That was fine, until he decided to grab all three of our bulk flour bags at once. Two of them made it to the check stand, and one of them made it to the floor. The potato starch bag broke open, sending it all over the floor, and even on the black boots and the bottom of the pant legs of the woman in line.

I explained to the checker that our son had made a mess with a flour bag while trying to help, and I apologized to the poor woman in line. They were all really nice about it. It was cleaned up in no time, and we got another bag of potato starch. The woman in line was making comments about how cute our son is and seemed completely cool with everything. That is when the checker asked me if the woman was my mother! I don't know what she was thinking, but I guess the woman was about 30 years my senior and was being extremely nice about the whole thing.

"No, just a poor woman we covered in potato starch," was all I could say!