Gluten in the Air?

So the giant pancake breakfast did not go well. She didn't have any pancakes but puked back at the car anyway. She also hated the live music. Not sure why. Now she is telling us that the music hurt her tummy. Kids and their wonderful logic.

Expanding My Food Horizons

I've mentioned that at times, Princess Becca (PB) can challenge my preconceived notions of what constitutes an acceptable food choice. Tonight, she did it again--with a little help from her father this time...

We were busy going through the motions of our snacktime conversations:

"I'm HOOONNGRY," PB whines.
"What do you want, baby?" I ask her. I don't expect a usable answer yet.
"Something yummy."
"OK. Like what? Do you want turkey? Or some ham?"
I don't get a verbal response, just a glare.

This is where daddy chimes in. He's not always home for these exchanges, and so the game of "feed Becca" still has some alure to him. (When he's home with the kids, they get two food choices. Take one or don't eat.)

"I used to eat ketchup on my soy-nut butter sandwiches," he tells our daughter.

I gasp and utter an "Oh gross!" before I can stop myself. I immediately know two things:
1) There was never any soy-nut butter in my husband's childhood.
2) He is absolutely sincere that he put ketchup on his ~peanut~ butter sandwiches.

Despite the stomach-churning idea of those foods entering my mouth together, I feel guilty for my reaction. We encourage PB to think outside the norm as she chooses foods that work for her, within her dietary constraints.

Becca gauges my level of disgust, and sides with Daddy (thank goodness for reverse psychology). "Yeah! I want that." she says.

I put a muzzle on my sensibility and give my husband a look. He knows that I will never, ever, be the one to make her a soy-nut butter and ketchup sandwich. They head to the kitchen together for a little father/daughter bonding over their favorite red condiment. I find somewhere else to be until the sandwich is gone. And yes, she really did like it. Daddy loves being right.

Where We Are Today

Becca's petite size is a source of constant worry for me. She was always little (being a preemie) but in the past year she has really slowed down. She hasn't gained a pound in longer than I can remember. I thought for sure it would turn around now that we are aggressively treating the celiac and the dairy intolerance. However, we are still waiting for the scale to budge.

For reference, PB is currently 30 lbs. My father checks her weight daily. When she finally hits 31 lbs we will have a little online celebration. I promise to decorate the blog with something very festive. For now, we'll keep letting her drink the lard through a straw.

Of COURSE I'm joking. Sheesh. I can't believe you would have even considered that I was serious.

(Honey, hide the lard before DFS shows up would you?)

Wish List Foods--Nutritional Shake

Before we decided that dairy was causing much of Becca's elimination troubles, we let her drink Boost almost daily (because it is gluten-free). Now, we are really wishing we had an alternative to keep her going on car trips, or at other strange times when a gluten-free meal is not readily available, or when her tummy is cramping too bad to eat solid foods.

Does anyone know of a nutritional drink--chocolate flavored of course--that is both gluten AND caseine (dairy) free? If not, I'm going to start trying to come up with a recipe of our own. I'd welcome ideas from other parents of GFCF kids, or from nutritionists!

Oh, and I do want to mention that powdered mixes would be fine. We can always shake it up with a little rice milk from those individual serving packets.

Cold Bacon

Becca is never hungry in a normal sort of way. She is all or nothing. When she is not hungry, good luck getting anything down her except water and juice. But when she IS hungry she will wear you down in her efforts to keep eating, eating, eating.

So after I have pulled out, heated up, mixed together and served thirteen different foods in an hour's time, I get a little less rigid about our food boundaries. My dad has often caught me at these moments, and raised serious objections about the things I'm letting her choose.

Tonight, for instance, is one of PB's hungry times. But in addition to being ravenously hungry, she was maddeningly picky. I opened the fridge door and read off the list of items (for the tenth time) available for her dining pleasure. Ah-hah! Hiding in the back was a small batch of pre-cooked bacon.

We had a winner. I take the bacon to the microwave to warm it up.

"I want it cold!" says the little princess.

It takes me less than two nano-seconds to decide on this one. My eyebrow raises, but just barely. I rip out two pieces and fork them over. She walks off chewing happily on her prize, and I am content knowing I just saved myself fifteen seconds of microwave time and three minutes of blowing on hot bacon to cool it back down. Ain't I smart?

Home Made Gluten Free Chicken Nuggets Recipe

I found a recipe on the web for making chicken nuggets that are "just like" McD's. Unfortunately it was full of gluten, "just like McD's."

So we reworked it for a gluten-free version (and changed up the seasonings) and the result was a hit with everyone in the family. The only thing that still needs some tweaking is the breading, which turned out a little bit grainy. If anyone plays with this recipe and develops a good variation PLEASE post it as a comment.

Gluten Free Chicken Nuggets Recipe:

2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 Egg, beaten OR egg substitute prepared according to package directions

1 Tbl water

Gluten-free seasonings to taste (paprika, sea salt, powdered onion, garlic, white pepper, etc)

OR

Gluten-free beef bouillon powder

2 c. gluten-free all purpose baking mix (ie Bob's Red Mill)

Oil for frying -- Grapeseed or Canola

In a small bowl, beat the 1 Tbl water into the egg. If using egg substitute have it in a small bowl ready for dipping. Pour the two cups of baking mix into a separate, medium-sized bowl. Lightly season baking mix with salt and white pepper, or whatever other seasonings your family prefers.

Cut the raw chicken into pieces and drop into your blender, or just throw it whole into a food processor. Season the pieces with the buillon or your own seasonings and then pulse together until chicken forms a paste.

Heat 1 and 1/2 inches of oil on medium heat in frying pan, or use a deep fryer. Make sure oil is new, or has never been used to cook anything with gluten.

Roll chicken paste into ball shapes (a rounded tablespoon of chicken each). Dip the ball into the baking mix and coat well. Flatten the chicken in your hand until it resembles a chicken nugget and is of even thickness all across. Dip nugget into egg mix to coat and then back into baking mix. Set aside on a dedicated plate until you have a batch ready to go into the fryer.

Deep fry the nuggets for five minutes, turning once if they are not fully submerged. Remove to plate to cool. Serve with dipping sauces or plain.

See attached picture of how ours turned out! If you don't want to go gluten-free, just substitute plain old flour for the baking mix.

Bad Day

So today is a bad day for PB (Princess Becca). She's puking again and has an itchy mouth this time. I think it must be a food allergy that didn't show up on the last skin tests. I'm starting a food diary and we'll see if we can find the pattern.

I would just take her to the allergist right away, but CHP+ has dropped us again because they are unable to handle their own renewal processes. Please everyone say a prayer (or keep your fingers crossed if you're not into praying) that we can straighten out the insurance situation and also identify Becca's latest triggers.

What Doesn't Becca Eat / Having Becca Visit

For any who are interested, here are the current dietary restrictions we follow for Princess Becca:

Gluten
Dairy
Peanuts
Nitrates/Nitrites (preservatives)

In addition we try to minimize the following:

Food coloring
Sugar
Artificial sweeteners

If you're planning on having Becca over for a visit, we're glad to help with food ideas or to send meals along.

Gluten-Free Vegetable Soup

Even if I don't have time to make everything from scratch, and I don't have the money to buy everything prepared, I am finding ways to do "hybrid" cooking.

So tonight, for instance, we took a can of organic, gluten free vegetable soup and threw it in a soup pan to heat. That one little can of soup costs almost $3, and since it's not condensed it's really only meant to feed one.

Enter the creative portion of this whole endeavour. A quarter-pound of cooked hamburger, with a couple of tablespoons of fresh herbs and 4 cans of water, goes into the soup pot. Then a chopped zuchini from my aunt's garden takes the plunge, followed by a 1/2 cup of dry gluten-free macaroni noodles.

The results? The soup is still safe for Becca, is chock full of nutrients for everyone who eats it, and costs barely more than the original tiny individual-serving. Best of all....BECCA LOVES IT!

Emotional Roller Coaster

Any of you who know Becca also know that it is an understatement to call her a drama queen. Lately, though, it has been even worse than usual. In random bursts of massive emotional upheaval, she can bring the entire house to its knees.

I googled the terms "celiac, gluten and emotional" and found lots of threads that confirm my suspicions. People with celiac who get into gluten can suffer serious emotional symptoms that sometimes dwarf the physical ones.

So next time Becca cries buckets because we are washing her favorite pajamas, or gets herself into an extreme state of hyperactive oppositional defiance over pointing with her index finger instead of her middle one (YES she is really fighting us on this and I am horrified), I'll be sure to reevaluate our day and her diet. I bet we'll find a tummy ache somewhere in there as well.

Have I mentioned how much we hate food allergies and intolerances? But we will someday have the healthiest menu on the block. Someday--when we get this all figured out.

Maybe We Should All Go Gluten-Free

As I look around the kitchen, my mommy-laser-vision is focusing in on a million potential sources of cross contamination for Becca's unwitting consumption. There's the toaster that leaks breadcrumbs, the spilled pasta water on the stove top, the vague film of someone's lunch that's covering the table, and I'm pretty sure that knives which have been used to spread jelly on wheat bread have been reinserted into the jelly jar to get just a "little bit more."

So far we haven't experienced any major disasters, but I just feel like we are inviting it by sharing our food prep space this way. I've had other celiac families tell me that it's really just easiest and safest to keep the whole family on a gluten-free diet while in the house. I've been resistant to the change, however.

For one thing, how in the world would a family possibly afford it? Becca's gluten-free diet alone is almost equal to the food costs for the rest of us combined! And in the second place, poor CJ already has a restricted diet of his own with his tree nut/peanut/strawberry/shellfish allergies. And much of Becca's GF/CF food is made with almonds or other nuts.

On the other hand, we have found lots of acceptable alternatives (like the new brownie and cake mixes) that we all get along with--except for that little problem of price. I know I should try to minimize our gluten-containing foods, at the very least.

So is it about to be bye-bye for Sarah Lee in our house? Maybe one of these days. I'm considering heading out for a lotto ticket...

Roast Beef for Dinner

"Mom...I'm hungry."

A normal complaint in any household, but for us it is a non-stop mantra. Becca really is ALWAYS hungry. Usually we don't stop at fast food restaurants because they are so unpredictable. But tonight the baby was screaming at the top of her lungs, and Becca was whining her own sad tune..so, I cut across two lanes of rush hour traffic and pulled into the first restaurant we passed. It happened to be Arby's.

"Can I have turkey?" was Becca's request.

"You mean roast beast?" I asked. My husband is responsible for none of our children knowing what roast beef really is, so we all speak in terms of Dr Seuss.

I'm not in the mood to ask the young thing manning the drive-through window if the beef was gluten free, so I ordered it without a bun and had it packed up in a plastic case. Poor Becca had to smell her dinner all the way home so I could check it on the computer.

The good news? Arby's advertises on its website that the roast beef is gluten free! Yay! The bad news? Roast beef is not sufficiently insulated by a plastic box to retain any heat for a delayed meal. Becca scarfed it down anyway.

Score one for Arby's!