From this:

To This:

took about a minute. I think the girls enjoyed smashing the gingerbread house as much as they enjoyed making it! Eating it on (or near) New Year’s Day helps the gluten-free gingerbread still taste delicious.

I’m so glad we finally made the gingerbread house this year! The girls had so much fun making it! It was a wonderful team effort – I made the dough, their grandmother made the template and the frosting glue, the girls decorated, and I took a bunch of pictures.

I highly recommend trying this project. It took time and effort, but it looked and tasted great. I wouldn’t suggest using canned frosting and graham crackers, though – it’s worth the extra time to bake this from scratch!

And now off to try to avoid eating little bits of gingerbread house while I am on a low-carb diet…

The girls are now in school, which is a monumental change. Another huge change that happened around the same time is that they can now have dairy. After 11 years of being comfortably moored in one place, we’ve starting a new journey, into waters that we haven’t charted or tested yet.

We’re zooming away from where we had been, like a motor boat speeding out of the harbor. A part of me doesn’t quite believe we can have dairy, and many of our favorite foods are still naturally dairy-free. However, now there are these new found treats – squeezable yogurt! Milk boxes! String cheese! Cheese popcorn! And “why, Mama, why won’t you buy me insert name of overly-processed, artificial edible food-like substance?” To which I reply that just because they can eat something, it doesn’t mean they will. Thankfully, many of the popular snack treats have natural or organic counterparts. I’m happy to inform my daughters, with a big smile on my face, that you can eat fruit in a roll without artificial colors, and the same is true for squeezable yogurt…

Is it the same? No. Do my kids complain about still being “different”? Yup. But you pick your battles, and keeping their bodies fueled with healthy foods is one of the battles I’m willing to fight. They don’t need artificial hormones, artificial colors, or overly-processed foods to be healthy or happy. If they want to be like the other kids, we’ll try to get something similar, or they can just start a new trend!

I remember reading a Celiac Disease book that told a story of a young man with Celiac who went to college. Rather than bemoaning that he couldn’t eat pizza or drink beer, he started a new group of wine-drinking cheese-eaters, and talked about how mature they all were. As with everything in life, it’s all in how you spin it!

So as we start to map out these new waters, we still have our map from where we have been, and we are finding that there’s a lot of overlap with where we are now. We just have some new things to add to our maps as well – and some of these waters are wonderful. (I’m still hoping we end up at a chocolate waterfall, myself…)

My daughters have been dairy free since birth. All three of them reacted negatively to the introduction of dairy into their diet, and have had GI trouble when they have accidentally ingested some dairy. So we’ve been avoiding dairy for the girls for 11 years, and I’ve been off dairy (with a few accidents) for 6 years.

However, since my girls will be ack! starting school soon, it was important to see if they have outgrown their dairy intolerance. I know what’s happened in the past, but had no way of knowing what would happen this time. We leaped into the unknown last weekend with a week-long trial of organic lactose-free milk. I was incredibly nervous and anxious and worried, trying all three kids on cow’s milk after spending so much time making dairy-free recipes and researching how to live without milk, it just felt wrong. But I worked past that feeling, and after a week, we’ve had no reactions!

Tonight we started with organic milk. As with before, I have no idea what to expect from this leap into the unknown. Either way, we’ll know what to do for this school year – either they are lactose intolerant or not, but at least we can worry less about dairy.

I wish, when making leaps into the unknown, that I could be as fearless as the girls are when they leap into a pool!

Our family has been living gluten-free due to Celiac Disease for over 6 years. Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye, barley, and very similar to the protein found in outs. This means that any food needs to be made specially – bread, pasta, cake, pizza crust, pretzels, cookies, etc. Finding the Betty Crocker gluten-free mixes was a wonderful surprise!

Over the past 6 years there has been a huge increase in availability of gluten-free products, but most of the GF products have been found in the health food aisle of the grocery store or in a specialty store.

However, gluten-free products are becoming more mainstream as the number of people diagnosed with celiac disease rises, as well as the number of people living gluten-free for other reasons. Last summer, General Mills introduced a new, gluten-free formulation of Rice Chex (they changed the sweetener from barley malt to another sweetener). In addition to becoming more mainstream, gluten-free products are becoming much more commonly available and found in most grocery stores.
Read the rest of the review

Such as, an artfully arranged and delicious recipe…

Happy Celiac Disease Awareness Month!
Happy Food Allergy Awareness Week!

If you are living with food allergies, Celiac disease, food intolerances, or any other dietary restrictions, you are already used to adapting your menu. But what happens when one person wants to be a vegetarian? or you move into a home where people eat dairy? or your children have opposing allergies? or you have one kid who loves peppers and another who hates them? You learn how to adapt your menus so you can make (almost) everyone happy with one meal.

After 11 years on the food allergy/intolerance roller coaster I got on soon after becoming a mother, I’ve rethought my approach to food many times. I think that I was lucky, as I had been a vegetarian for several years before I became a mom, and so I was used to the idea of reading ingredients and cooking from scratch. Label reading is hugely important for food allergies/intolerances, and since I was already accustomed to looking for hidden ingredients, I had a leg up on the challenge of grocery shopping. Additionally, since I was not using many prepared foods already, it was easier to just change the ingredients in my cooking; I didn’t need to suddenly learn to cook.

The challenges I think any parent of a child with food restrictions needs to accept are Adaptability and Love of cooking. If you can accept those, you’re going to be ok. As a cook who had been very successful in the past, I had a very hard time accepting that some of my first gluten-free creations had to be tossed outside for the birds and squirrels. I had become too accustomed to being complimented on my cooking! This was also good preparation for when my kids got older… However, I now pride myself on making great food despite the food restrictions, and I’m hearing a lot of compliments again!

For Mother’s Day, I made a double batch of quiches, and made them in individual sizes so each person could have the ingredients she wanted. This meant that those who like soy “cheese” could have some, and those who like bacon can enjoy without upsetting the new vegetarian. Individual pizzas, quiches, mexican pizzas (tortilla, refried beans, ground meat, salsa, soy or dairy cheese), and tacos are some incredibly easy ways of letting each child eat the ingredients she loves.

One of my favorite adaptation methods is “on the side”. I loved When Harry Met Sally, and I’m afraid I may sound like Sally when I’m in a restaurant! However, at home I have embraced that concept with my daughters. We make salads with dressing on the side, of course, but also make Pad Thai with the shrimp, limes, and peanuts on the side, a risotto with meat and/or cheese on the side, a vegetable curry with meat and some veggies on the side, or make a meal of pasta or polenta with marinara or White Sauce and sausages or meatballs on the side.

I’ve told my daughters many times that they aren’t “allowed” to be picky because they have so many dietary restrictions. This doesn’t actually work, but it’s a good idea, and honestly they are much less picky than most kids I know! My daughters have been told that they can quietly push ingredients they dislike to the side when they are served their meal, but they cannot throw a fit. Again, it’s a good theory, and it does work with a lot of casseroles. I think that by doing quite a bit of “on the side” or individual meals, they might be more willing to accept a rogue mushroom or pea in their soup!

It’s amazing how a simple strategy, such as starting with one base and then expanding that for individual tastes, is a good way of making almost everyone happy. Set aside a section of the grill for the vegetarian, toast rolls on foil rather than the grill, so the grill doesn’t end up with gluten on it, and make everyone plain hamburgers, letting people add dairy or soy cheese once they are served.

When you start to think about meals in a new way, a way where everyone can enjoy a similar meal, you can find new ways to deconstruct dinner. A buffet of choices for pizzas or ice cream sundaes becomes more fun, not just a way to accommodate food allergies and pickiness! Shifting your perspective to fun rather than a chore can help you enjoy your meals, too – not just feel like you need to get through them somehow.

We hope all the moms have had a Happy Mother’s Day, from the Gaggle of Girls!

We’re trying to keep everyone happy here, which has the new challenge of MG deciding to be a vegetarian. I blame NannyOgg and her girls. Such bad influences!

Mama got some quiet reading time this afternoon, after a lovely breakfast of crabmeat quiche/pie and a wonderful morning of Church. BG helped her grandfather grill some amazing steak tips (portabella mushrooms and tofu for MG). Now, to contrast Mama’s “quiet reading” image, we just finished watching the Bruins playoff game, and enjoyed them winning!

In other food news, I recreated a lost chicken and cabbage dinner, and made Phat or Pad Thai recently, and updated that recipe with pictures. Cooking for complimentary adults can be a heady experience!

Hide and seek is fun with kids, but not so much fun with food. It’s amazing what you can find hidden in your food, allergens where you don’t expect them.

I discovered while breastfeeding my third daughter that corn made her congested and ill, so I spent a year avoiding corn, until she (thankfully!) outgrew it. Avoiding corn is not just avoiding popcorn, corn syrup, corn on the cob, and corn tortillas, but corn as a “hidden” ingredient. If you haven’t read The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan, I can clue you in on the first quarter of his book – corn is in everything.

If you eat a lot of prepared foods, you are eating a lot of corn – and I think you’d be surprised at how much. Even if you don’t eat a lot of prepared foods, you’re still eating more corn than you think. Don’t believe me? Let’s try this experiment – go find 4 things in your pantry or fridge:

1. a drink
2. a condiment
3. a form of protein
4. a starch (ie: bread, crackers, etc)

Make sure that you can find the ingredient information, we’ll come back to that in a moment.

Recently, there has been more awareness of high fructose corn syrup, so we are starting to see a move back to cane syrup (aka sugar) in juices. I was thrilled to buy a bottle of Ocean Spray Cran-Grape, and see “no corn syrup” on the bottle! Of course, there was still “hidden” corn in the drinks, but avoiding corn syrup continues to be one of my goals, though it’s not always achieved.

This comes to mind today because I received two corn-related alerts. Melanie at My Little Patch of Sunshine is having a giveaway (enter by the end of tomorrow!) related to the new Pepsi Throwback, Mountain Dew and Pepsi made with sugar rather than corn syrup, available for 8 weeks. Meanwhile, Modern Mom’s “must have” for today is reusable and disposable plates & utensils for kids, made out of corn. Ack! I wonder if all the processing makes the corn no longer an issue for people with corn allergies… Definitely something to ponder, and given the rising prevalence of corn turned into eating utensils, yet another thing for the corn-sensitive to watch out for!

Now – back to your food, and the corn in it. Read the ingredients. See if you can spot the corn in there. Do you see corn syrup, corn starch? Quite possibly. In addition to those ingredients, I’m willing to bet that you have hidden corn in at least 3/4 of the foods you chose. Compare your ingredients to the 7 hidden corn words after the jump… Read the rest of this entry »

Folks who have known me for a while know that my kids spend a lot of time in the kitchen with me. Some of this is because we have food intolerances and dietary restrictions, and some of it is because my mother always had us in the kitchen, too. My girls have been adding ingredients to my cooking since they were toddlers. Can it be frustrating? yes. Is it messy? yes. Have I ever needed to completely redo something? yes. Is it worth it? absolutely!

I’ve found that the girls become more invested in meals they help make, which means they are less likely to make a fuss about the food. And that’s always a good thing! BG and MG are great at reading recipes and measuring, while LG (5 1/2) is a very enthusiastic stirrer. I can now delegate a lot in the kitchen to the girls, and they are thrilled to be a part of the cooking. I do kick them out when I am been incredibly busy or short on time, but I try to do that infrequently. The more the girls follow our recipes and cook with me, the more they know. With their food restrictions, they will always need to cook for themselves, so it’s best to start early!

BG, who is now almost 11, made up her own new recipe a couple months ago. It started one night when she wasn’t particularly interested in the dinner I had been planning. So, rather than simply whining, she created a new dish, which we ate that night. We learned quickly that it is smart to rinse black beans very well, otherwise your entire meal turns a bleh charcoal grey. Since then she’s made some adaptations, and now her recipe is up at the recipe blog – it’s called Sausage, Beans, and Potatoes. Not the most exciting name, but it’s a meal that BG created and can make almost entirely by herself!

With some supervision and guidance, a microwave, an oven, and a stove, kids can start experimenting with recipes. I know very few kids who wouldn’t leap at the chance to try making dessert. Once you have them hooked, also encourage them to slice fruit or veggies for a salad, and then you can step up to adding seasoning for a soup or sauce… Kids can be so much fun in the kitchen, and it’s a great way to spend time together and eat healthy, homemade foods!