The taste test

I was really worried when we first embarked on this adventure, that my kids (and husband), who am I kidding...and myself, would hate the gluten free food.  To the contrary, we have loved it. I have a few extra pounds I'm carrying around right now to prove it. But I was curious if others would notice a difference in their food, if we didn't tell them it was gluten-free.  In walks my lab rats, aka, my step kids.  My step children are 12 and 11 and we don't get to see them nearly enough. They came for a quick visit this weekend, and we didn't really say anything, at first, about our new diet. We have always eaten far healthier than in their Moms house, so more fruits and veggies didn't catch them off guard. Then I threw in some mac and cheese to see what they would say. They loved it, all they knew was it was homemade, nothing else, but they devoured it. Then I tried some pizza, also homemade, and they couldn't get enough of it.  Pancakes, "thirds please." The only comments I got was that they loved all the home cooking and they wanted more, more, more.  I'd say, based on this very scientific finding, that the gluten free was not only undetectable, but a big hit. When we did finally tell them about the gluten free, they shrugged their shoulders and had no idea what I was even talking about. 

Lots of people have been asking me about recipes and what I have been using to make this a success.  I have tried to keep things pretty normal as far as making sure that we are eating a lot of comfort foods, probably too many. Now I am going to start branching out a little more and delve further into my cookbooks.

Here is a picture of the staples that I have acquired so far:

These are all kid, friend, adult, tested and approved.  If you are looking to go gluten free, you need these.  If you plan to make your own bread, which I highly recommend for both taste and cost, then you must buy a bread machine with a gluten free setting. Like this one....

I have also found some help on the internet using places like pintrest. Amazon has some great cookbooks to download, and I have acquired a few gluten free cookbooks for my kitchen, none of which I love enough to share quite yet.  I don't want to spout recommendations without standing behind them 100%. But I'll keep testing out the recipes and make some recommendations soon. I am looking for some great baking recipes, especially for cakes and cupcakes. With Ryder's birthday around the corner, I am getting nervous I won't find one that tastes great. I do have a couple of boxed cake mixes that are good, but like most people, I prefer to make it from scratch if I can.

My Sweet Boy

2 weeks down....and what a HUGE difference we have seen in Zane.  We really started to notice a difference last Wednesday, but a few days of good behavior doesn't warrant a victory dance.  I'm not even sure that a week of it does. But, we take our blessings as they come.  This past week has been amazing. Zane was up and ready for school 15 minutes ahead of schedule 2 days last week. Considering there is usually a lot of rushing, and often times yelling, this was a big, big, deal.  Twice Zane has gotten in trouble for bad behavior, and instead of going into a 2 hour tantrum, he cried, as a normal kid would, and then got over it. Over and done with in under 10 minutes.  Let me repeat that for greater effect. We went from 2 hour meltdowns to 10 minute tears. What will I do with all this extra time? Zane has been focusing for longer on his projects and homework.  Yesterday he took it upon himself to make Valentines cards for his classmates. He cut, colored, addressed, taped, and bagged, 22 Valentines. It took him over an hour to complete his project, and the whole time he stayed at the table and focused. He completed the entire project 100% by himself.  AMAZING!!!!  He has also started to become a bit more thoughtful, maybe even affectionate.  Although I'm not sure if that's just me paying closer attention to all the good things he does, or if that's really the case, more time will tell. These are just a few glaring examples of the changes we have seen so far.  I am starting to think that it actually is the gluten free that is making the difference. I'm giving it 2 more weeks of this diet change before I give all the credit to the gluten free, but so far, it's looking like we may have found, and conquered, the major player in Zanes behavior. My challenge for this week....making heart shaped gluten free cookies for Zanes Valentines party so that he doesn't feel left out from the cookie decorating.  So glad that this fact dawned on me last night in the middle of the night, and not when I was standing in his classroom next week totally unprepared. 

Is the gluten free diet working.....

If I had to make a call today as to whether or not to stick with, or ditch, the diet, hands down I would stick with it. Not only for Zane, but for all of us. Have I noticed a difference in Zane?  Absolutely!!!! The past few days have been really great. He still has his moments, but they are fewer, less intense bouts of "going to the dark side." He has also been able to sit still a little longer while reading books with us. That's probably the biggest difference, is his desire and ability to sit and read. I'm not claiming victory, as I have learned through lots of trial and error that this could be a fluke, and that we may see a set back in the near future. I am, however, hopeful that this is the beginning of a permanent change. As for the rest of us, we have all noticed a difference. I don't know how to explain it, but I am feeling better. My body feels lighter (not in the lbs sense) and healthier. I have definitely noticed a better over all feeling.  Right now, things just feel good, for me, my family, for all of us.  So we are sticking with the diet with great diligence and commitment. I am excited to see where this takes us and how it helps us. 10 days down and we are hooked. I would say for anyone out there that has a child, or themselves, that has signs of ADHD, Autism, or any kind of behavioral issue, cut the gluten out. I have spoken to a lot of MD's and therapists, and read a lot of articles and books lately, and they all say to start with making changes to the diet. For many it's gluten, dairy is also a big culprit in behavior. It takes 30 days for all of it to get out of your system, so you have to be commited to a full 4-6 weeks to see if it will work for you, but it's worth it. Doing what is best for you and your family, no matter how hard, is always worth it.

Mom scored big for dinner.....

Tonight I made a new dish. Eggplant Parmesan. I used Quinoa linguini, with Classico pasta sauce.  I breaded the eggplant with gluten free bread crumbs, and the bread is our very own, yummy in our tummy, gluten free bread (we toasted it and added some garlic butter). This was a huge, HUGE, hit with all the boys. Even Ryder, the little one, at it, and he usually opts to go to bed rather than eat dinner.  Delicious!!! Everyone left the table full and happy tonight. 

Gluten free bread

Just an FYI, the gluten free bread we made last night was a HUGE hit.  The boys, all three, asked for seconds.  Score one (more) for team gluten free. Here is the "secret" to our delicious bread.....

We made it with butter and Milk.  The boys can't get enough of it.  We added garlic butter to it tonight to make garlic bread. Yum, yum.

One week down.....

Here we are, one week down, and a lifetime of learning and changing to go.  We had a great weekend, lots of gluten free adventures, some good, some OK, but fortunately, none of them were bad.  We made gluten free pancakes for the first time this weekend. They were delicious.  We tried the Bob's Red Mill gluten free pancake mix.  Hit the spot. We are, admittedly, pancake/waffle snobs. My husband normally makes them from scratch with whole wheat, apples, bananas, sometimes cranberries and orange, or any other strange a delicious combination you can think of.  We were a bit scared to try just plain, gluten free pancakes, but either our expectations were really low, or they were actually quite good.  We all devoured them.  Next stop is to try to add some fruit to them, I'll let you know how that goes.  We also made our first frozen, gluten free, pizza.  It was.....OK, we all ate it, but it by no means knocked out taste buds socks off.  I am now on a mission to find a pizza, frozen or not, that we can't get enough of.  I did have a frustrating moment yesterday when we got to ice skating rink, and my almost 4 year old decided he was hungry. (This after having had lunch less than an hour before). I was pretty proud of myself as I walked to the car to get the snacks that I had packed in there a week ago for just this very scenario, only to find that my stash of Gluten Free snacks was GONE!!!! I freaked out!!! Believe me when i tell you that there was NOTHING on the menu at the snack bar that the boys could eat, or that I would allow them to eat (yes, starburst are gluten free).  Turn's out that Zane had taken my treat box inside in an effort to help keep the car clean.  I ended up having to drive 20 minutes to Jason's Deli and picked up 3 more lunches (since I knew that skating for 2 hours would make for a starving boy) and it cost me $20.  UGH! Oh well, another bump in the road.  Our final gluten free adventure was making our first loaf of bread in our new bread machine.  I made my husband do it, for 2 reasons. The first, the directions were like reading an aeronautics book in Japanese, I just stared at it in disbelief that I was supposed to understand this.  The second was, secretly, if it tastes horrible, I can somehow blame him.  I bet your all wondering how it turned out......I'll have to let you know. It finished about 10:00 last night, and we haven't cut into it yet. 

Keep checking the restaurant guide. I am adding new listings almost daily.

Gluten Free Restaurants

I have spent a lot of time this week worrying about the weekend and our historical habit of eating out. Where do we eat? What do we eat? and how do we know if they are actually preparing it in a gluten free environment (to avoid cross contamination).  Every gluten free person I have talked to this week has been more than happy to share this information, I have even spent some time online exploring different restaurant options. I will post a list of them below. The only answer I don't have is the cross contamination element. We have all heard stories about restaurants and their less than stellar health practices, so asking them to please keep all your food 100% away from the rest, probably won't happen. It may not be a bad idea to stick with restaurants you know and trust. This is especially true if you have celiacs. In our case, a little cross contamination is not ideal, but won't send Zane into medical distress.

Many restaraunts that you go to can modify things to be gluten free. Like wrapping a burger in lettuce (In-N-Out does this) but here are some restaraunts that have catered menu's for the gluten free. If you know of more restaurants that have gluten fre menu's please share and I will gladly add them to this list.

Olive Garden (this one surprised me) http://www.olivegarden.com/Menu/Gluten-Allergen/
BJ's Brewhouse http://www.bjsbrewhouse.com/menus/gluten-menu-options
Boston's Gourmet Pizza's offers Gluten Free Crusts!!! http://www.bostons.com/uploaded/File/Allergy%20and%20Nutritional%20Manual.pdf
Outback Steakhouse http://www.outback.com/menu/pdf/glutenfree.pdf
Jason's Deli http://www.jasonsdeli.com/menu/gluten-free-menu.pdf
Mooyah (lettuce wrapped burgers) www.mooyah.com
Jimmy John's (it's called an unwhich becuase it's wrapped in lettuce) http://jimmyjohns.com/menu/nutrition.aspx
Firebirds  http://firebirdsrestaurants.com/nutri-Folder/GlutenFree.pdf

Frankly, this list is a little sparse. Let's see if we can't find, or convince, more restaurants to start doing gluten free. 

A not so great gluten day

Today was a true test of my conviction to make this gluten free lifestyle a success.  I had a very, very, stressful day for a multitude of reasons.  And as with most of the women I know, I deal with stress in 2 ways. The first way is by working out. The second is by eating. Generally speaking I workout so that I can eat whatever I want.  What I want is usually something very unhealthy, like cake, or chips and dip. When I'm stressed I never go for an apple or carrots, or something that is whole and healthy and usually delicious. As I said, today was extremely stressful. On a scale from 1-10 it was probably a solid 7 or 8. My first step to combat this stress was a 2 hour workout. The endorphins really helped my mood. But as with any great high, it wore off....just in time for lunch. All I wanted for lunch was ANYTHING other than what we have in the house, I wanted carbs, and lots of them, as well as something sinfully sweet.  What did I settle on (after about an 1.5 hours of self talk)? Apples with peanut butter. I won't lie, it definitely did NOT hit the spot or do anything to settle my cravings for all the yummy, full of gluten, items that I wanted.  I now realize why it is that people told me I would lose 5 lbs in the first week of being gluten free. It's because in my very narrow gluten free world (only narrow because I don't really know what I am doing yet) there just aren't enough options to calm my cravings.  By 3:00 when I had retrieved Zane from school I had had eggs for breakfast, an apple and peanut butter for lunch, and a 2 hour workout.  For all you athletes out there, you know that this is not enough food.  For dinner I was determined to make a great meal. Last nights chicken nuggets left a lot to be desired.  I was on a mission tonight to make something that was earth moving.  Barbeque grilled chicken and oven roasted vegetables.  Holy guacamole it was AWFUL!!!!!  The veggies were soggy and tasted pretty bad. The chicken was OK, but dry. I had to bribe the boys to eat their chicken and we decided to ditch the veggies for some strawberries with confectioner sugar.  I'm feeling very defeated today. But I am happy to say that I stuck 100% to our gluten free ways.

Read the labels!!!!

So you know all those words on labels that know one knows what they mean, like Tritcum vulgare. It means WHEAT people!!! (or other gluten enemies) Why these companies feel a need to be sneaky is beyond me, but here is a link to Dr. Oz's website that has a list of these words that, if on a label, you can't eat. http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/gluten-glossary-what-watch

Also, keep in mind that gluten can be found in things like soap, make-up (lipstick), hair products, and many other items that would knock your socks off.  Assume that gluten is in every product that you use, and check the label first. Depending on your sensitivity level, this may or may not be a big deal to you. Also keep in mind that labels have to tell you if the product was made in a facility that also makes products that include that wheat. Again, your sensitivity level is what will determine how far you take the gluten free changes in your life.

Day 3

So here we are on Day 3.  So far so good, I can honestly say that it hasn't been too hard to eat gluten free.  We have made beef with broccoli (delicious), chicken nuggets (edible, but not yummy), and Mac and cheese, which turned out to taste way better than the regular shells and cheese that we are used to. We had an egg blunder this AM, but thankfully I had bought a box of gluten free cereal earlier in the week. The boys loved it (cereal is a novelty in our house)  I on the other hand thought it was pretty bad. But thankfully I did not have to eat it, as I opted for a smoothie (which the boys also had some of).

My biggest fear right now is what the weekend will bring.  That is the time that we are out of a routine, and we are so super busy that we literally forget about food until we are so hungry and tired that we end up eating out. Or worse yet, for a gluten free family, is the social functions. We seem to have a birthday party or gathering of some type almost every weekend.  This is the part I dread. Being prepared enough to bring our own food, and watchful enough to make sure the boys don't grab those delicious looking chips that are full of gluten.  This coming weekend is our first gluten free weekend, it should be interesting. We have one birthday celebration, and probably a waffle party. 

Every day I seem to learn something new. Today I have leaned 2 new things, when looking at gluten free products, look at the sugar content. Many pre-made gluten free products are loaded with sugar. My son's cereal bar that I gave him for snack at school today....17g of sugar.  Next step for us will be even more whole foods.  I can't in good conscience give my kids that much sugar.  The second thing I have learned is that there are so many substitutes for regular white or even whole wheat baking flour.  I'm up to about 12 different kinds of substitutes. Because in order to replace the consistency and texture and design of flour, you need multiple substitutes.  Today I went to make 4 different bread mixes, and despite my 12 different flour substitutes that I have, I did not have all the right combinations for any of the recipes that I looked at.  I about threw my new cookbooks in the fire out of shear frustration.  Thankfully I got yet another new cookbook today called Gluten free on a shoestring (thank you Amanda) and it appears to simplify a lot of these recipes (and best yet, cuts costs).  It's like the difference between a Martha Stewart (or Julia Child) cookbook, and Rachel Ray.  It's dummed down for those of us that aren't naturals in the kitchen. 

Below is a photo of my cupboard that holds my cooking and baking essentials. Keep in mind that this gem of a cupboard is an additional 2 feet deep to the right. And it is chaulk full of almost all of my so called essential items that my cookbooks have told me i need. Heaven help me.  There is so much crammed into this cupboard that I had to make a list of the items in it, and paste it to the outside of the door so that I know for sure whether or not to waste my time looking through all of this to find something that I may or may not have. 

My first "oh crap" gluten moment

I sent an email to Zane's teacher yesterday morning to let her know that we are now a gluten free house and to ask her to please let me know when her class was having any sort of birthday celebration so that I could make sure to send Zane with a gluten free treat. The last thing I want is for Zane to feel left out and to develop any kind of resentment about this new diet. (which, by the way, I am trying really hard not to make it seem like anything has changed. I'm pretty sure he isn't fooled). Thank goodness for technology and the ability for my phone to instantly tell me when "I've got mail" because at 1:00 Zane's teacher sent me an email telling me they were having cake balls for a birthday snack at 2:00. Ummm, yeah, I certainly didn't want to try and figure this out with an hours notice. There was no way I was making anything from scratch. So I grabbed Ryder, went flying out the door to Whole Foods, which although it's close, it's not close enough to warrant making a trip there for one item. But for the Love of Zane, I was doing it. Thank goodness for wonderful, smart, gluten free friends that had already shared some important information with me......Whole Foods has delicious gluten free cupcakes.  Sure enough, they had them, boring, yes, my choices were vanilla with vanilla frosting, or chocolate/chocolate.  I chose Vanilla and made it back to the school with about 3 minutes to spare.  The upside was that the cupcakes came in a pack of 4, so we all got to indulge in a cupcake.  The downside was that the cupcake really looked super boring and all the other kids had really cool ones.  So my lesson that I learned today was this....when in desperate need of a cupcake, buy the cupcakes from Whole foods, scrape the frosting off, and use the tub frosting (most of which is gluten free) put food coloring and some sprinkles on it and....TADA!!!!! You have yourself a cute (or in Zane's case "cool") cupcake for those special celebrations.

Day 1

I've spent the last 5 days getting ready to go gluten free.  To some people that may sound silly, i mean, a lot of households are gluten free, and they probably didn't need 5 days to prepare for it.  But as I started on this adventure I realized that for the most part, we eat pretty well. Lots of fruits and veggies, etc. But the gluten is in the details, like most breads, pastas, salad dressing, sweets, it's pretty well hidden in all the things we love to eat.  Making the change as far as taking gluten out didn't scare me, it's the need to be prepared, and on top of our meal planning at all times.  I'm not a super organized person. I am super busy at all times, and we do tend to grab a meal out once or twice a week out of shear convenience due to our busy schedules. Well guess what, that is all pretty much out.  I need to make sure to have gluten free snacks in the car, or in my purse, at all times, and enough of them to hold over my starving boys until I can get home a cook a meal. Oh boy!!!!  So for 5 days I have been reading and preparing, talking to friends that have taken this leap themselves, and finding out many, many, secrets to making this a success.  Including a few gems of information about restaurants in the area that serve gluten free items. That made my day.

So here we are at 4:00 on day 1. Breakfast was pretty normal. Scrambled eggs with, onions, red, yellow, and green peppers and a sprinkle of cheese. on the side, oranges.  For lunch I had pick Zane up from school for a Occupational Therapy Evaluation. I made him a homemade lunchable, complete with turkey, cheese, and gluten free crackers. A side of strawberry's and we were good to go.....or so I thought.  The crackers tasted like "burnt popcorn." So all he ate were a few strawberry's and some cheese. Now it's 4:00 and he and I have been battling it out for an hour and a half.  He refuses to drink his juice concoction that contains his homeopathic medicine.  So he's hungry, and tired, and hasn't had his very important medicine, and I have a huge headache and pretty much feel like the worst parent ever.  Let's hope the Hubby gets home from Jury Duty soon so I can catch a break. For dinner, I am attempting to make beef with broccoli. I have never done stir-fry before, so this should be interesting.

The cause

5 days ago my son Zane's pediatrician told me that we needed to cut gluten from his diet.  I wasn't all that surprised by this news as Zane has a lot of sensory issues.  He is a brilliant, loving, little boy. That when off his schedule, or overwhelmed by his environment, turns into the devil himself.  He goes into a fit of rage that can last for hours.  No, he isn't ADHD, or Autistic, or anything like that.  He does have a medical issue where he doesn't produce serotonin. We treat that with homeopathic alternatives. This adds to his already over sensitive self, because once he "goes to the dark side" as I call it, it can take hours for him to come back. We have had every bio medical test you can imagine done on Zane.  That's how we found out about the serotonin.  And through allergy testing, we found out that he has a sensitivity, but not an allergy, to Gluten. Now from what his Dr told me, and what I have read recently. Even a sensitivity to Gluten can make a person seem crazy. I spent Weds, Thursday, and Friday of last week completely freaking out about this necessary and inevitable change.  I shopped Sprouts, a lot. Luck for me they were having 25% off all gluten free items.  I thought Kib, my husband, was going to flip when he saw the bills. He handled it with amazing grace. So there I was, shopping, reading, shopping some more, throwing out most of the food in my house, feeling like I was going to lose my mind. Half the time I felt like a horrible mother for not somehow knowing I should have made this change sooner, and the other half of the time feeling really great about myself for taking on this challenge.  So this is my experiment, and experience, in becoming a Gluten free house.