Cunsumer Report on Arsenic

Some very discouraging news has reached me through a fellow mother with a mission. There is now a consumer report that tells us that there is a level of arsenic in rice products that cannot be ignored.

 http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2012/11/arsenic-in-your-food/index.htm

This report goes so far as to warn that rice milk is not suitable for babies or toddlers. When I took my son off of cow milk, guess what I gave him? You guessed it. When he had a Toxic Element Profile done years ago, we were shocked to see that he did have a touch of arsenic in his system. Now we know where it came from. 

My family currently lives on rice. I have been feeding my family quite large amounts of brown rice in the form of stir fries and pasta for years, because it is the most affordable whole grain we could eat that is not contaminated with gluten. I am at a loss. There are other whole grains that are gluten, corn, and soy free. They are more expensive. They would require me to re-learn how to cook... again.

My current plan for this moment is to "Keep Calm and Carry On,"  and not "Freak Out and Scream." I find it more productive.

For starts, we are currently doing all we can to support our son's methylation cycle, which is our natural system for cleansing the body from toxins. He gets magnesium, folic acid, and B6 everyday, in addition to a slew of other good things. We will at some point do another Toxic Element Profile. It is unfortunately an expense not covered by insurance, but if we find heavy metals, his doctor can oversee a round of chelation therapy to help extract them from his body. We can test his brother, too. (On a side note, his brother has thankfully been drinking almond milk.) I will also at some point ease us into eating more of the expensive, corn free, soy free, and gluten free grains, and less rice. Some lemon doTERRA essential oil in our daily regimen will probably be cleansing as well.

The report mentions that there are producers that plan on doing testing and such, but really, the problem is not really the rice.Ultimately, this issue is a problem that engulfs us all, rice eater or no. When the water we drink and that our food is grown in is poisoning us, it is a global environmental issue. It is about our world and how we care for it. The more toxic our world becomes, the closer the level will come to our toxin tip, and the more health issues we will face. Autism has increased to 1 in 88. Imagine their toxin tip levels, which are lower than the general populous, and imagine what issues we will face if this all continues. 

I'll keep telling myself that 'Freak Out and Scream' is not productive....

Leftover Surprise

On a diet like ours, where there is lots of cooking from scratch, there is also alot of reinvented leftovers. It is almost mandatory to know how to remake leftovers to serve again the next day. Sometimes my "leftover surprise" is just ok, but this one was a raving success.

Last night I was not well, so I made something super simple. It was brown spaghetti with some marinara stirred in, and a side of peas. That was it, but it was easly and settled nicely.

Every morning Eli insists on pancakes with sunflower seed butter. He is pretty ridged in his routine when it comes to this. I am usually ok with this because it is a cheap way to eat gluten free, dairy free breakfast. This morning though, I was ready to shake up the routine alittle bit. I made the leftover pasta into frittatas. I saw it in an italian cookbook once. Eli loved it. My husband, who does not eat a special diet, (but who is always a good sport about eating it at home,) really enjoyed it as well.

I beat a medium egg in a bowl, added sliced green onion and added about a cup of the marinara gluten free pasta for each frittata. This I stirred together and fried up just like a pancake with some salt and pepper. Here are some fritattas I found on the web. These recipes are likely NOT special diet friendly, (although the last one may be!) It was fun finding them and being inspired.

http://honestfare.com/leftover-spaghetti-frittata/

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE2D8123BF931A35751C0A9639C8B63

http://onehungrymama.com/2011/05/recipe-kitchen-aid-leftover-spaghetti-chard-frittata/

http://valuskitchen.com/tag/how-to-use-leftover-pasta/

http://www.i-hate-cooking-recipes.com/leftover-spaghetti-frittata.html

http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2012/05/gluten-free-pasta-frittata-with-kale.html

Allergy Menu Specialists

I'd like to introduce you all to a brand-new business that I feel will become a valuable asset in the gluten free community. They are committed to training and certifying restaurant management and staff to cook for those with food allergies/sensitivities. I am very excited to see where this takes them. I for one could benefit from one website/phone app that tells me all the local places that are safe for me to eat with my gluten/dairy/soy/corn intolerance. As it is, finding a new place to eat is a chore, and my dinner dates with my husband have to be well planned in advance.

Allergy Menu Specialists can be found at www.allergymenuspecialists.com

One of the many services that this business offers is recipe conversion. I think this could be an extremely valuable asset to a parent of a child who is a biochemical intervention candidate. Children with autism often insist on "sameness," and going GF/CF is such a huge change. Being able to convert some of their favorite recipes to ones that have very similar taste and texture and fits their new diet could be a sanity saver. Plus, both the owner and the main culinary consultant of this business are very familiar with the dietary requirements of some of our children with autism. They are aware of our challenges, and are striving to fill our needs.
Click here to view the company's video about this new service.

Kitchen Gadgets

Here are some recently acquired kitchen gadgets of mine:


manual grain grinder

I bought the hand grinder at the Provo Macey's for $50. Quite a steal, really. Orem Macey's in Utah Valley charges $69 and I heard the Pleasant Grove charges $79. The whole idea was to save .70 cents on white rice flour and 1 dollar on brown rice flour per pound. Quite a significant savings when taking into consideration the price I can buy the rice for in bulk on a good sale. This does take time and some arm, but for the money it is a great grinder. One day I will be getting a good electric model and using this manual one for emergency/back-up purposes.



apple corer/peeler/slicer

I also got this apple/corer/peeler/slicer gadget at the Provo Macey's grocery store. It was just under $20. I am really really hoping to make some apple sauce this year. I used one of these gadgets to make applesauce with a friend years ago, and have wanted one of my own ever since. Homemade applesauce is so very heavenly! Both gadgets are Victorio brand.

It seems as though I blog quite alot about food or related topics. What can I say? I am always thinking about food. I am always planning, cooking, and cleaning, all because of food. It really is the whole aspect of cutting gluten and other common foods, and then trying to eat this way on a shoe string budget. (Or at least as cheaply as possible, while doing my best to get good nutrition down my family. Trouble is, gluten free/dairy free can be an expensive way to eat.) I am always looking for ways to cut down on the grocery budget without compromising fresh fruits/veggies and without making us bored to death of our food. I have looked into several strategies.

Generally, couponing to save money on groceries does not work really well for me. Usually, coupons put out by manufacturers are not for food that we would normally eat, or for what we should on our diet. However, my husband does get sent to work with lunch food that I used coupons on. (He does not have the diet issues of our son and myself and it helps him resist the urge to buy extra snacks while on the road.)

GF/CF mixes are a no go for me. They are convenient, they save tons of time, but really, they are horrid for my budget, (very expensive,) and usually contain one or more of our "eat seldom and with care" list. (Corn, soy, and sugar are among the "eat with care" list.) I do not even buy flour mixes. I mix my own flours. If rice, I grid it myself, too.

Canning is something I have taken to this season. When you know people who can hook you up with free fruit for the picking, that is a great way to fill the pantry. True, it is not the same as eating fresh, but there are many wonderful, tasty, and nutritious things that can be made from my stockpile.

My ultimate solution for our diet/budget situation: eat simple food, and make everything from scratch. Eating simple is for my sanity, our health, and our budget. Making it all myself insures that I know what is in it, and that I am spending even less.

Cool Summer Salad

The other day I had a need to develop a recipe for a "summer salad" to share at a potluck. This was the result. I was very happy with it. What a great allergen-free treat that is nice and cool-- great to have on hand in hot weather when you're craving ice cream, popsicles, and jello!





Healthful Pineapple-Orange Gelatin Salad

1 box Knox unflavored gelatin (1 oz, 4 envelopes)
1 can frozen Dole juice concentrate, Pineapple Orange Banana flavor
2 tablespoons sugar or honey
3 cans mandarin oranges in mandarin orange juice, (not corn syrup,) 10.5 oz each
1 can pineapple tidbits in pineapple juice, (not corn syrup,) 20 oz each





Prepare juice as directed on frozen juice can package. Open cans of fruit and drain juice into prepared juice, (optional.) Use prepared juice to prepare 1 recipe “Fruit Juice Knox Blox” on the back of the package of Knox gelatin, cutting knox blox to 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch squares instead of 1 inch as package directs. (Gelatin will take 3 hours to set in the refrigerator before it is ready to cut.) Scoop little blox into bowl and stir in drained canned fruit. This recipe is way versatile. Experiment with your own juice and fruit combinations, or try embedding fruit in the gelatin. Your family won’t even know it is good for them!

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.

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!

Eli is 5!

After having a bit of technical difficulties, it is so great to be able to post a couple of pictures of Eli's birthday from earlier this month. He was so excited about his birthday this year. I wrote it on the calendar for him, and he showed everyone that came to the house his birthday on the calendar.

Eli read a book about Thomas the Tank Engine's birthday about a week before his. He decided that because Thomas had balloons and silly hats for his birthday party, that he needed them for his birthday party, too.

The desserts we have for birthdays at our house always require a bit of planning. Usually we avoid sugar for him like the plague, because his stomach is so sensitive to it. For birthdays among the three of us, however, we make an exception for small portions of the birthday treats for him. They are always GF/CF, of course.

If you were looking at his cake closer and right-side up, you would see it is a homemade cake with a simple glaze that was baked in pan the shape of a simple train engine. I found the recipe for his cake in my cookbook, "Cooking Free" by Carol Fenster. The recipe is called "Apple Spice Cake." I chose this one because it was lower in sugar than the other recipes I saw. Of course, like always, I made it my own way by eliminating walnuts and raisins and adding a small can of crushed pineapple. EVERYONE complimented us on the cake, not just my sister in law with celiac! It was moist and yummy! We served it with Bryer's all natural vanilla ice cream and we had a small serving of Berried Treasure sorbet from Ben and Jerry's for Eli.

Another fun thing we did for Eli's birthday was take him to the arcade. Yes, that was major over-stimulation, (he was jumping up and down excited!) but he had a blast and had no melt downs. Here's a pic of his dad helping him play skee ball for the first time. We played everything, even air hockey, (where he would score on himself and then say, "I did it!") Near the end he had singled out the racing games as his favorite. Some of them were car racing games and some were motorcycle ones. That's my five year old. All boy!

Eli's birthday was a reflective time for me. When my husband and I got married, we figured that by the time we had a five year old we would probably live far away from our college town, own a house, and have more than one child. In our family we are constantly reminded that life simply does not always happen the way we plan it, and it is ok. Life is much more like a journey than it is a destination, and we have so much joy in that journey together!

Pizza Recipe

This is our favorite pizza recipe. It is gluten free and yeast free, which is important for Eli's special diet. I am also gluten intolerant, but unlike Eli I do eat some dairy products. Usually I will cut one third of the pizza off after the first bake, before I put the toppings on. Eli gets the third with no cheese and Jason and I eat the rest.

Modified from "Pizza with Easy Tomato Sauce," page 153 of The Kid Friendly ADHD and Autism Cookbook by Pamela J Compart, M.D. and Dana Laake, R.D.H., M.S., L.D.N.

1 1/3 cups garbanzo bean flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup tapioca starch
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon oil
1 1/3 cups water

Blend all ingredients thoroughly, beating for two minutes. Cover pizza pan with parchment paper. Spread out the dough using a wet spoon back. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Take it out and add sauce and toppings. I use Muir Glen Organic Pizza Sauce. (It is sooo yummy!) Bake for another 15-20 minutes. It will brown very well around the edges.

Little Lifesaver in a Jar

I'm not talking about the candy. I'm talking about the little jar of stuff pictured above--- Ghee! This great stuff has been a lifesaver for me with my son's GF/CF diet.

I went to my local Good Earth store one day looking for this because it was the mysterious ingredient in some of the recipes in this book. One of the managers knew what and where it was... it ended up being clarified butter. I almost passed it up... butter is not ok on my son's diet. She explained that clarified means that all proteins are removed... meaning no casein is in it.

Why is this so great? Well, on top of GF/CF my son limits his own diet quite a bit. Margarine, even canola marg is out of the question. No one should eat hydrogenated fats. Bottom line is that this Ghee stuff helps my son accept some foods he normally wouldn't. I stir a teaspoon of it in his GF noodles with some steamed veggies and some salt. He won't eat spaghetti, but he will eat this. (I love it that I can get some veggies down him this way!) At $8 a jar it sure is not cheap, but this little jar has lasted a long time and has flavored many meals of pasta and vegetables and some of brown rice. :)