FREE!!!

Now that I have your attention I want to share with you an amazingly wonderful resource that is also FREE! Yup, I said it. Now, I bet you are saying, "Nothing good comes free." Oh, how I disagree!

Last night Dave and I listened and watched a free webinar given by Julie Matthews, Certified Nutrition Consultant. If you have never heard her name before then let me strongly encourage you to visit her website for a few minutes. She is a Nutritionist who "specializes" in autism nutrition. Although I think that her insight and approach are helpful to those not on the autism spectrum as well.

When Dave told me that he had registered for this free webinar I was a bit skeptical. I thought that it would take an hour to download software that would probably give us a virus and that it would be difficult to follow and stay focused. I was totally wrong! It took less than5 minutes for me to download the software (and that included updating Java). The audio was clear and the slideshow was easy to follow. Last night's topic was a Q&A about the various Autism diets. Some (including Dave) typed questions into a live messaging system and Julie answered them. While I "knew" most of what she shared it was so good to get a refresher.

We have already decided to "attend" more of her webinars. Will you?

Pineapple Chicken

It is often hard to find GFCF recipes in mainstream cookbooks. But when I do I have to try them. Of course, I always tweak it and change it to fit what I have on hand or what I know my family would prefer. This is a recipe based on America's Test Kitchen's Pineapple Chicken Bake. I served this with Jasmine rice and braised Kale.

Pineapple Chicken

serves 8

8 chicken thighs (bone in and skin on)

salt and pepper

1Tbsp safflower or grapeseed oil

1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced

1 (20 ounce) can pineapple tidbits in juice

3/8 cup honey

1.5 Tbsp cider vinegar

1.5 Tbsp wheat-free tamari

1 Tbsp curry powder

1 tsp Tabasco (optional)

1.5 tsp cornstarch

1 Tbsp water

.5 cup slivered almonds (optional)

1) Preheat oven 450 degrees. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels. Trim excess skin and fat and season with salt and pepper.

2) Heat oil in a 12" oven-proof skillet add scallions and sauté until softened Add chicken skin side down. Once skin is medium brown and crisped up, turn chicken skin side up and slide skillet into the oven.

3) Drain pineapple tidbits, reserving 3/4 cup of the juice. Whisk the pineapple juice, honey, vinegar, tamari, curry powder and Tabasco (optional) in a medium saucepan or 8" skillet over medium-high heat. Simmer, whisking often, until the mixture has thickened, about 10 minutes.

4) Quickly dissolve the cornstarch in the water, then whisk into the honey mixture. Stir in the pineapple tidbits. Pour the pineapple sauce over the chicken, then sprinkle with almonds (optional). Return to the oven and bake until the chicken is fully cooked, 20 or so minutes more.

Try it and let me know what you think!! Or better yet, tell me what your family thinks!!

Roasted Ratatouille

I love the PBS cooking series, America's Test Kitchen. A few Christmas's ago Dave bought me the ATK Family Cookbook. It is awesome. It is in a binder format so I can remove the page I am using and not have a big bulky cookbook on the counter. It has so many great recipes with glossy photos. Everything from Baked Mac 'n' Cheese to Braised Brussel Sprouts with Shallots and Bacon. When we decided to go gluten free I was saddened by the idea that I would not get as much use out of this well-loved tome. But then something changed! One of the benefits we have received via the gf diet has been James's acceptance of more foods. We don't just eat string beans and potatoes. He will eat rice and kale and - yes - brussel sprouts! I began to notice a whole new side of my cookbooks I had never seen before... the vegetable chapters! Here is a favorite in our house. We enjoy it over brown rice or brown rice pasta.Relatively easy and not heavy in your tummy...

Roasted Ratatouille

Serves:6-8

1 globe eggplant (1 lb), peeled and cut into 3/4 in cubes

2 medium zucchini or summer squash (1 lb), cut into 1/2 in cubes

1 red onion, halved and sliced 1/4 in thick

1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes, drained with 1/2 cup juice reserved

1/4 cup olive oil

5 cloves garlic, sliced thin

1 tsp minced fresh thyme or 1/4 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

1 1/2 Tbsp red wine vinegar

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 375 degrees. Combine the eggplant, zucchini, onion, tomatoes with reserved juice, oil, garlic, thyme, salt, and pepper in a large bowl and mix well. Spread the mixture into a 9x13 inch baking dish. Roast until the vegetables have softened and are browned in spots, about 1 hour, stirring throughly halfway through the cooking time. Sprinkle with the vinegar before serving.

Chicken with Potatoes and Olives

Dave's grandmother bought me a subscription to Woman's Day several years ago and must keep renewing it because it continues to arrive in my mailbox every few weeks. Usually the recipes are not very helpful without major doctoring up. But a recent edition had several slow cooker recipes (which I am always on the look out for) and some were unknowingly GFCF. This one looked particularly easy and tasty. Enjoy!

Chicken with Potatoes and Olives

Serves 6

3 large all purpose potatoes, cut bite size

1 large green pepper, cut in narrow strips

1 medium onion, chopped

1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce

1/2 cup dry white wine

1/2 cup pimiento-stuffed olives

1 1/2 Tbsp each minced garlic and olive oil

1 Tbsp tomato paste

1/2 tsp each salt and pepper (or to taste)

1 bay leaf, broken in half

6 each chicken drumsticks and thighs (about 3 lb each), skin and exces fat removed)

1. Have ready a 4 1/2 qt or larger slow cooker.

2. Put all ingredients except chicken in slow cooker; stir to mix. Add chicken; stir to coat.

3. Cover and cook on high 5 hours or on low 8 hours, or until the chicken is cooked through and tender and potatoes can be easily pierced. Discard bay leaf.

Verdict:

I used a 6 qt slow cooker and it fit really well which makes me thing that a cooker smaller than a 5 1/2 might be too small. Secondly, don't think you are making things easier by buying leg quarters! They are more difficult to trim for a bunch of reasons: they have back bone attached, they have more fat to remove and they don't fit in the pot as easily. That being said, next time I think I am going to try just thighs. They are easier to trim and don't have as many bone pieces to fish out of the kids bowls. The original recipe said to peel the potato but I didn't want to lose that extra nutrition. I sliced the olives in thirds to make them stretch and so the kids wouldn't be intimidated by the large green olive-eyes staring up at them. (Note: if you are casein free check the olive labels. Most of the stuffed olives I saw had sodium lactate which can be a milk by-product. I went with Wegman's Red Pepper stuffed Green Olives.) I didn't salt off the bat because the olives are so salty but in the end we added salt at the table. So next time I will do that too. Also next time I think I will do more veggies: different colored peppers, more olives (maybe black and green) and possibly peas too. The twins loved it and Kayla had seconds. They had never had stuffed green olives before and after one leery bite Kayla wanted more!

Let me know what you think!

It All Happens For a Reason

See, we were supposed to have John's 2nd birthday party Saturday. We had planned it months ago (June to be exact). We booked the pavilion in the park. We planned the menu. We alerted all our family and friends to save the date. And then it rained! Actually it started raining back in April and hasn't really stopped since. (Ok, it has stopped but it also feels like just when the weather got nice it rained again.) So, Dave and I had decided that (despite the fact that the forecasts were calling for rain on Saturday) we would go ahead with the plans for the party Saturday. Friday after Dave got home from work I grabbed my reusable shopping bags and headed out... out to get all the party favors, food, decorations, EVERYTHING! I went to the party store, Wal-Mart and then was headed to Wegmans when Dave called on the mobile. "Should we postpone the party?" "The park is already booked by someone else for Sunday." "Could we have it at our house?" "What are you nuts?" This conversation (or a close facsimile of this conversation) commenced for about 10 minutes while I sat in the parked car in the lot at Wegmans.

Decision: I would finish getting what I was going to get and then we would call all our family and friends and tell them that we were in fact psycho pushing the party to Sunday. Some couldn't make it, others who couldn't come on Saturday as originally planned now could come. All in all it was a good time had by all... but that is not the moral of this story.

After I hung up the phone (feeling rather depressed) I trudged into the store to make my reluctant and bitter purchases. I picked up some bananas and grapes (because we always seem to run out of these). Then headed around to the Gluten Free section of the store. Wegmans (in my opinion) has one of the most diverse and best-priced Gluten Free sections of any supermarket around. I needed everything from Peanut Butter Panda Puffs to Gorilla Munch; Glutino pretzels to Bob's Red Mill Pancake Mix. I was loading up my cart with some of the boys' favorite GF items when this women joined me in the aisle. She looked rather damp (remember it had been raining since April) and her body language spoke volumes. She was talking (quite loudly) to herself and kept sneaking glances into my cart. (Now I should mention here that I am the person in the store that will answer your questions even if you are not asking them to me. I hate nothing more that to see a fellow consumer struggle to find an "associate" who should know the answer and yet never seems to know anything. So if you happen to be asking questions either out loud to yourself or to another person in your party, and no one gives you an answer you better believe I will speak up!) I did the socially appropriate thing at this point: smiled and made eye contact. This says, "I am friendly and open to have a conversation with you, if, in fact, that is what you desire."

She desired.

Not only did she desire but she necessitated. She said she noticed that I was putting a lot of GF items into my cart and thought that I might be able to help her find some things and to make some suggestions. We began talking. I told her why we chose the GFCF diet for the boys. She shared her new found Celiac diagnosis. We talked shop and it was great! I told her about the gluten free tours that Whole Foods has... and then I mentioned Trader Joe's. Before I could finish saying the name she told me that she had been making the 45-60 minute drive to TJs in southern Jersey. When she finally stopped talking I told her that there was a TJs opening in 2 weeks less than a mile from where we stood. (I kid you not) She started jumping up and down in the middle of the aisle. She began shrieking and laughing! She had tears in her eyes! Once she regained her composure she looked me in the eyes and said, "I debated whether or not to come out tonight. I really wanted brownies but didn't really feel like trudging out into the rain. Now I know why I came. I had to come so that you could share that with me!"

I showed her where the gluten free freezer section was (for Vans waffles and Bell and Evans chicken tenders) and then we said our good byes. I stood there for a few minutes reflecting on what God had just done... you see, what I didn't tell you was that the 10 minute conversation with Dave in the parking lot was more like a 2 minute conversation followed by a 5 minute yelling match followed by an intentional hangup followed by another 3 minute yelling match followed by a truce and apology. Had it not rained, had we not had to reschedule, had I not been so depressed... I would have been in and out of that aisle of the market long before she got there (Dave added bananas and grapes to my list while I was on the phone with him) and I never would have gotten the chance to, even if for a moment, bless her. I know it might sound funny but that is exactly how I see it. It was a blessing. Not only for her but for me too. It was only after that happy moment (you really would have thought she had won the Publishers' Clearinghouse Sweepstakes) that I realized that my life has been so blessed and has been such a blessing. Each little connection that I make has given me knowledge and perspective and I, in return, have given as well. So whether we had the party at home or at the park. whether Dave's sister and her family could come or not, whether the grass was cut or overgrown didn't really matter. What matters is how we use what we have been blessed with to bless others.

Super Heroes

In an effort to eat better and (hopefully) heal James's intestinal problems, we have been eating so much better this last year and a half. Do you remember as a kid when your parents would place a plate of food in front of you that made you want to run screaming to the hills? Well that is what I feared would happen here. As an infant anything with carrots in it made him throw up and anything with pear gave him reflux... true story. So we were always careful to see what kinds of responses he would have to other foods. Since he had so much difficulty expressing what he was feeling or thinking it was even more important for us to pay attention to his body and what it was telling us. (This is where I gained much of my poop knowledge!) For so long (I can't even remember how long) the only vegetable that James would eat were string beans. They had to be sauteed in garlic and a little bit of olive oil. They had to be whole and he had to be allowed to eat them with his fingers. I think there were a lot of texture issues in play here. He also has a lot of oral defensiveness and was close to 2 before he would really use a spoon. I was a little worried because I thought that surely he was going to be malnourished. So as we embarked on this endeavor to add more nutritional powerhouses into our meals. Kayla loves broccoli. And when I say loves I mean she would choose it over McDonald's Chicken Nuggets! When we order pizza we have to get it with broccoli and mushrooms or Kayla puts up a stink. So we decided to start with broccoli. At least we knew that one child would love. Well, since we had already done a few things to begin to return James's intestinal system to a more normal state it only took him a few dinners with broccoli to really get the hang of it.

We are firm believers in slow and steady. What I mean by this is that we never expect James to eat an entire serving of anything the first time he encounters it. In fact the first time he is only required to accept it being on his plate. Then he must touch it at the next meal. When he is offered it again he must pick it up and touch it to his lips or tongue. Then he needs to take a small nibble. By the end of the week, Lord willing, he is fully accepting and enjoying this new food.

The broccoli was no exception. This one didn't take as long as other to get used to since he had been exposed to it often in the past. So all this to say that if you think that yours is the only kid who won't eat vegetables, rest assured that you are sadly mistaken! And... there is hope for a nutritious future!

Here are just a few of the mega-benefits of broccoli: vitamins A & C, fiber, indoles (can help inactive estrogens that can promote the growth of tumors), sulforaphane (stimulates cell to produce cancer-fighting enzymes), and beta-carotene (another cancer fighter). But did you know it has protein? It is also rich in calcium, iron and magnesium! Now that is my kind of Super Hero!

But wait there's more... Broccoli Sprouts. Ever heard of them? I hadn't until we started working with a nutritionist for James. So I did a little reading and here is something that I found and wanted to share:

"Researchers estimate that broccoli sprouts provide ten to one hundred times the power of mature broccoli to neutralize carcinogens. A sprinkling of broccoli sprouts in your salad or on your sandwich can do more than even a couple of spears of broccoli. This is especially good news for those few people-particularly children-who refuse to eat broccoli. Check www.broccosprouts.com to learn more about this nutrition-packed veggie and where you can buy it." from SuperFoodsRx

I have many more Super Heroes to share with you and hope to do so on a regular basis...

Tom's Bread

Tom's Bread

1 1/8 cup chickpea (garbanzo bean) flour

1 cup + 1 Tbsp Tapioca flour/starch

1 cup corn starch

3 1/2 tsp xanthum gum

1 1/2 tsp salt

3 Tbsp brown sugar

1/4 tsp creme of tartar

3 eggs

3 Tbsp oil (I use canola)

1 1/8 cup warm water (not boiling but hot enough to be uncomfortable to touch)

1 packet of yeast

Combine eggs and oil and scramble.

Combine dry ingredients (except yeast) and mix well.

Pour wet ingredients into bread machine pan. (Make sure the paddle is in the pan before you do this!)

Scoop dry ingredients on top of wet.

Make a small well in the top of the dry ingredients and pour yeast in the well.

Set Bread Maker to the basic bread setting. The recipe I have recommends using the medium crust setting. I did this in my machine for the first time and then decided the crust needed to be lighter and adjusted.

I buy Bob's Red Mill Garbanzo Bean flour at Wegman's. It is about $2 a pound. I buy Ener-G Tapioca Flour also at Wegman's. It is also about $2 a pound.You can buy almost any cornstarch. Argo usually says it is gluten free. I keep all of the ingredients for this bread together in one spot. I keep the sugar in an air tight container and all the flours too. Using these only for GF baking ensures that there will be NO cross contamination!