Smoked salmon chowder

Smoked salmon is one of my favorite things. I absolutely love the smell of it, the taste and texture. It also goes a long way in the kitchen. Smoked salmon on bagels was a great afternoon snack in my glutenous days but no longer. This recipe is an adaption of a salmon chowder I ate while on San Juan Island in Washington. I had a little taste bud disco with every bite and had to go home and make my own recipe. The original recipe I created had heavy cream and no corn and was as close to the real thing as you could get without sailing the Salish Sea to grab it yourself. Since becoming gluten, dairy and soy free I made a few adaptions and came up with this tasty version. For my husband's love of corn I added corn and it actually complements the chowder quite well. It is fine with or without it so change it up if you like. I also occasionally put bacon crumbles on the top to serve when adding corn. You can also switch this recipe up and use it for leftover chicken or ham. For that change, simply put shredded or cubed chicken or ham in the place of the salmon. How awesome is that? One basic recipe and tons of options. 

This is easy to make, low cost and quick to cook in one pot. Triple win!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 yellow or white onion, chopped
• 1/2 yellow or red bell pepper
• 1 rib celery, chopped
• 1/2 bag frozen corn kernels
• 1 piece of smoked salmon or 2 pieces of salmon, cubed
• 1 tbl garlic, minced
•  black pepper
• 1 tbl dried dill 
• 1 container of seafood stock (use chicken or veggie if option for chicken or ham version)
• 1-2 white potatoes

Prep: 

Chop the veggies and set aside. The potatoes should be peeled and chopped into small, uniform cubes. 

Cook:

Heat a small amount of grease or oil in the bottom of the pot and cook down the onions, bell peppers, celery and garlic. Once soft add the stock and bring to a boil. Into this place the potatoes. Boil over medium heat for 12-15 minutes. The potatoes should be soft at the end of this. Add the chopped up smoked salmon, dill and corn and cook for enough time to heat the corn.

If you made the salmon version it should be served with cracked black pepper and perhaps a little extra smoked salmon on top. If you opted for the left over chicken, omit the dill and add a little pepper and try some Cajun seasoning. For the ham, omit the dill and add a little crumbled bacon on top. 

Cheese

I find myself missing foods on occasion that I can't find a substitute for. Cheese is one of those things. For regular people there are substitutes for traditional dairy cheese. First choice is goat cheese or buffalo. If you want to go dairy free the soy option is available. After that there are great brands like Daiya which makes a dairy and soy free cheese that is palatable. It melts in a strange way and pretends to be cheese. It is better than nothing but I certainly don't recommend it if you have other choices. I have actually taken to liking my pizza sans cheese now.

For the occasions that I just can't live without it I will just sing this little ditty in my head. How amazing must it be to be able to sing a love song to cheese with an entire orchestra backing you up? It must be a gouda feeling. Sorry, cheesy, I know.

Find a little inspiration

Being gluten free sucks. Being soy free sucks. Being milk protein free sucks. Being all three is a holy hell storm of awful. It gets depressing, frustrating, annoying and generally just blows harder than Mount Vesuvius back in 79. I love when I come across success stories of people who have turned a cruddy situation into something positive. It helps me think that perhaps my kidlet will also be able to see the light and not always think of what he is unable to have but think of what he can do with what he can have.

This kid is my inspiration for the day.
Dominick Cura turned being a kid with Celiac into a thriving passion for baking and a successful business. Good for him!

http://www.kvue.com/news/consumer/192381021.html

Check out his blog for more information and recipes.
http://eternallyglutenfree.com/

Fun sticks

Maybe I am the odd parent out but I feel like I forget what to do with my kid sometimes. There are tons of possibilities for giggles, smiles and general adorableness that I keep missing out on because I get into routine. Not any more! I had this idea stewing in the back of my mind as a way to mix up my household chores. This is a much better version of that.

 I bought a bag of craft sticks and wrote on them with a Sharpie. Each stick has something fun to do with the kidlet. I was thinking of updating it to have color coded sticks for indoor/outdoor and also for amount of time so that I can direct him when he is older. For our son we often have to stay inside because he is not feeling well or his skin is too irritated to be going out for long. This is the perfect way to shake things up and escape the habits of indoor life. Once the summer sun shines down on our sleepy town I will have lots of sticks to add to the pile. I am thinking...pool time! 

Southern Pulled Pork

No sauce needed to dress up this pulled pork! Anything that I can put in my slow cooker is all right with me since I have a little man to chase around and play short order cook for all day. This made a massive serving of pork was enough to be used for 2 dinners with guests, a lunch for two then leftovers to make lettuce wraps and pork tacos.

The rub:

• 2 tbl garlic powder
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 2 tbl cumin
• 2 tbl ground coriander ( I like smoked)
• 2 tbl oregano
• 2 tbl salt
• 1 tbl pepper

Ingredients: 

• 5-8 lbs of Boston butt or pork roast
• 1 jar of salsa
• 3 celery ribs chopped
• 2 bay leafs

Into the pot:

In the bottom of the crock pot place the onions, celery and salsa. On top of that place the pork and add the seasonings to the top. I mix all of the seasonings together in a bowl then apply them so they spread evenly. This may look a little strange and like you need liquid but it will be swimming in pork juices soon enough. Set the crock pot to low for 8 hours or high for 4-5. I turned my pork every hour to spread the seasonings around.

Serving:

Discard the 2 bay leafs and ladle out any extra liquids. Remove any bones or huge sections of fat. Take two forks and pull the meat apart into stringy sections. Enjoy. 

Crab and bell pepper stuffed mushrooms

Cheese covered and bread crumb filled mushrooms are a thing of the past for me. Here to stay is this gem of a recipe that I came up with while trying to satisfy my need to both making a nice appetizer and use up crab meat. I found a container of crab claw meat at my local grocery store and bought it to make home made sushi. The sushi was successful but then I had this 12 ounce container of crab meat left over. This was my invention...and what a tasty invention it is. I also used the extra fixins and added it to my hashed browns in the morning for a savory change.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 c Crab meat, washed and picked through
• 1/2 Red bell pepper
• 1/4 c Onion (white or yellow)
• 1/4 c Gluten free bread crumbs
• 2 tbl bacon fat or cooking oil
• 1 container mushrooms
• 1 tbl minced garlic or 3 garlic cloves, minced
• cracked black pepper
• 1 tbl Old Bay seasoning

Prep:

Heat oven to 350 F. Wash the mushrooms and pat dry.Remove the stems and set aside the caps.  Wash, chop and mince all ingredients.

Cook:

Mince the stems and add to minced bell pepper and chopped onion in a heated and greased pan. Cook down for about 4-5 minutes. Once the onions are soft, add the garlic and seasonings. Stir in the washed and dried crab meat. As a final step, add the bread crumbs and stir together. Remove from heat. Place the caps into the greased pan and cook about 3 minutes over low heat on each side. Remove and place in a baking dish. Fill each well with a spoon full of the cooked mixture. Pop into the oven for 15 minutes.

Almond Spiced Apple Cake

Making recipes on the fly either goes great or you regret that you every put on your pretend fancy chef's hat. I got really lucky on this one and it turned out fantastic. So fantastic, in fact, that I didn't get a good photograph of it before it was mostly devoured!

I love a great apple cake but they are ridiculously unhealthy. I once made one with my family that called for 2 cups of vegetable oil, 2 cups of sugar and more refined flour than was necessary to kill a room full of Celiac patients. This recipe skips the evil gluten and opts for a healthier approach to satisfying your sweet tooth. In my version I used farm eggs so my cake is much more yellow than would be had I used store eggs. I also had to compensate with a little extra flour since farm eggs tend to run a little bigger. Maybe the chicks are happy they get to run free all day eating worms and table scraps and aren't cooped up being sad. Or it could just be the breed. I like to think they are happier chickens and eggs.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c Oil. I used Canola but you can always use apple sauce
• 1/2 c Sugar
• 3 tbl Honey
• 4 Eggs 
• 1/2 c Almond Milk
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 1 1/2 c Almond Meal/Flour
• 3/4 c Sweet White Sorghum Flour
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 2 tsp Baking Powder
• 2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and chopped up
• 1 tbl Cinnamon
• 1 tsp Nutmeg

Prep:

Oven to 350 F. Peel, core, and chop the apples. Set them aside. Set out two bowls, one for dry, one for wet. In the wet bowl, cream the oil and sugar then add the eggs. Add in the almond milk, vanilla and mix until smooth. In the dry bowl, combine flours, salt and baking powder. Slowly pour the wet into the dry while whisking. If the mixture is too soupy, add a little more almond flour until desired consistency is reached.  Once together, add 1/2 of the apples and the spices. Grease a cake pan and pour the mixture in. On the top of the mix add the remaining apples. This can be filled pretty full since the cake doesn't expand a lot. I don't recommend making the container totally full or you will have a mess in the oven.

Cook:

350 F for 40-50 minutes. The first 30 minutes are uncovered and the rest covered to prevent too much browning of the apples. 

Bacon wrapped bell pepper meat loaf

Bacon wrapped bell pepper meat loaf

This one takes the cake for tastiest and easiest. This is part comfort food and part fancy presentation food. I love that this uses food that I already have in the refrigerator so I don't have to go shopping for anything special to pull this one off. 

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1/2 package bacon
• 1/2 cup chopped bell peppers (all 3 colors)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 dashes Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp chopped chives
• 1 tbl parley, minced
• 1/4 cup gluten free bread crumbs (optional)
• 1 egg
• Cracked black pepper. I forgo the salt since the bacon adds enough. 

Prep:

Turn oven onto 400 F. Wrap muffin tins with a piece of bacon each. I used large muffin tins but you can also use smaller ones. Keep in mind that the loafs will shrink a little in size once cooked. Chop up the 4 extra strips of bacon into bite sized pieces and add into the bowl. In a separate bowl, mash all of the ingredients together into one happy jumbo patty. Grab a handful of each and make into a small baseball. Press one into the center of each bacon well. 

Cook:

Pop into the oven for 40 minutes, turning once. If using standard sized muffin tins, cook about 30 minutes. After done, remove from the muffin tin and set on a rack so they don'e soak up all of the grease.  

Mole chicken and salad

Mole crock pot chicken

I don't know about you but I tend to get stuck on one note when it comes to Mexican food. Restaurants offer the same list of foods regardless of the origins of the owners, chefs, staff or locations. You are guaranteed to find tacos, enchiladas, burritos, fajitas and nachos. These are all pretty much the same group of similarly spiced shredded meats poured over, wrapped in or piled on top of some variation of corn or flour. Real Mexican food is vibrant, nuanced and regional. Watch one episode of Rick Bayless to see the variety that is available. He does a great job of sharing the beautiful Mexican culture to the American audience. Most of our recipes are a tomato/cumin/cilantro balance and get pretty dull after a while. To put a little spring back in your step, try this mole chicken. When I told my husband that I put chocolate chips in the sauce the look on his face alone made it all worth while. Traditionally, this would get a heaping of ancho chilies and ancho sauce but it is always packed with soybean oil. Instead, I use extra ancho chili powder and call it good. 

When shopping for chocolate chips that are dairy, soy and gluten free, try the Enjoy Life brand. (Enjoy Life Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips, Gluten, Dairy, nut & Soy Free, Mini Chips, 10-Ounce Bags (Pack of 6) ) They are delicious and reasonable. 

Ingredients:

• 1-2 lbs boneless/skinless chicken- I used thighs, you can use breasts too
• 1 white onion, chopped
• 1 large can crushed tomato
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbl sesame seeds (I prefer toasted for a bolder flavor)
• 1 can green chilies
• 3 tbl sunflower butter or almond butter
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 4 tbl ancho chili powder (again, I used toasted)
• 2 tbl ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 3 tbl chocolate chips or shaved chocolate

Prep: 

Into the crock pot put the onion and garlic. Pour the can of crushed tomatoes on top and the add all of the chilies, sunflower butter and spices. (everything but the chocolate) Mix all together and submerge the chicken. 

Cook: 

Turn on the crock pot on low for 4 hours. After that, it is ready anytime. Prior to serving, put the chocolate chips in and stir. This adds a nice rich flavor and texture. Shred the chicken and serve with a heaping of sauce. I love this on its own or rolled up in homemade corn tortillas as a sort of enchiladas. This also goes great with a lime salad. 

So easy a caveman could do it

This fantastic video goes over the history and evolutionary basis for the Paleo diet. It does a great job of explaining the foundations of the diet and how it began. 

Shepherd's Pie Paleo Style

Shepherd's Pie 

Shepherd's Pie is such a lovely dish that makes me think of cold nights in the UK watching snooker and drinking a pint or two. It is nostalgic for me and also fulfills my comfort food quota without the after effect of the guilt and bad gut. Technically a shepherd's pie requires lamb so I always use lamb. (Using any other ground meat makes a cottage pie but most American's don't care.) Being the uptight chica that I am means that I have to make it right or not at all. So my additional ingredients kind of removes it from the shepherd's pie definition but I will feign ignorance this time.  I happen to also love Cornish pasties but since I am not making a shortening and wheat filled pastry any time soon, I will get my rutabaga fix out in this incarnation. When I was shopping for the recipe I needed a proper Worcestershire sauce. While you only need 2 tsp of the stuff, it is pretty much liquid gold. Without it, you are missing the key flavor. It took me a bit of sleuthing to accomplish, but I found a gluten and soy free sauce. The Lea & Perrins Low Sodium Worcestershire sauce happens to be safe for consumption. Don't forget to keep it in the refrigerator after opening. I never knew this growing up...good thing we didn't use it often. We had been keeping it in the cupboards for years! 

Topping this tasty beauty off is sweet potato rounds where traditionally there would be white potato mash. I love a good potato mash but it really isn't that great for you. Instead you can substitute the sweet potatoes or make a cauliflower mash with a nice dose of garlic and s&p and no one will know the better. Enjoy- it gets even better the second day.

Ingredients:

• 1lb ground lamb
• 2 carrots, sliced into small pieces
• 1 sweet potato sliced into even rounds
• 1 rutabaga sliced into squares
• 5 cap mushrooms, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary, chopped fine
• 1 sprig thyme, chopped fine
• 1/2 - 1 cup red wine
• 1 onion chopped fine

Prep: Heat a skillet and brown the lamb while you prep the veg. Cut up all veggies and herbs and set aside in nice pile. Turn oven to 400F

Cook: In a pan cook the lamb until nearly done and break up into pieces. Add the mixed vegetables and herbs and cook for another 5 minutes. Pour in the wine and Worcestershire sauce and cook on medium for another 5 minutes.  Once a lovely sauce has formed around the tasty meat and veg, pour into a baking dish. Top with the slices of sweet potato or whipped cauliflower. Bake in a 400F oven for 20 minutes uncovered followed by 10 minutes with a foil top on to steam soften the sweet potatoes. 

Breakfast

Crust-less Veggie Quiche

What is the difference between a quiche and a frittata? Well, we had a lengthy discussion this morning about that very thing and this is our conclusion. Frittatas are started on the stove and finished in the oven on broil. The quiches, besides the obvious crusts, are completely oven cooked. Next time I try this I will be making a meat crust out of prosciutto. 

Ingredients:

• 6 eggs
• 2 pieces of deli ham or leftover ham
• 3-4 mushrooms
• 5 cherry tomatoes, the seedes and goo washed out
• 2 carrots
• 1 zucchini
• s&p

Prep:Pre-heat oven to 325F and grease a casserole dish. Slice and wash the mushrooms and tomatoes into bite sized pieces. Roll the ham and slice into strips 1/4" wide. Use a cheese grater to cut up the carrots and zucchini. Crack the eggs into a bowl and whisk with the s&p. 

Cook: 

Pour the eggs into the casserole dish and pour the veggies in. Mix thoroughly and add the ham. Mix again. I like to make a pretty top by putting some of the mushrooms and tomato on top but you can mix in if you like. Place in the oven for 35 minutes. Enjoy! 

Don't forget to add your favorite ginger! Mommy's helper was too adorable not to add to the recipe. He loves sitting on the counter and helping me cook. He loves getting to eat the pieces of carrot, ham and tomato more than anything. This kid is 100% Paleo and healthy as can be. 

7 Spice Soup

Seven Spice Asian Chicken Soup

 This soup is an adaption from one seen in my favorite Paleo recipe book. Sadly for us, that recipe has 4 high histamine ingredients.  I am absolutely loving her recipes and am trying to adapt them for our lifestyle. I omitted the lime, fish sauce, and soy sauce in this recipe and kicked up the spice with my husband's favorite seasoning- 7 Spice. We found this spice on the table of our favorite Sushi restaurant and had to have some for our selves. Not being able to translate the title Shichimi Togarshi was a bit of a problem but thankfully the owner pointed us to a great Asian supermarket. Thankfully, the internet is here to save you! House - Shichimi Togarashi 0.59 Oz  The spice is sesame seeds, orange peel, ginger and red chili pepper, Japanese pepper, and nori. By my count that is 6 but maybe I can't count. Perhaps the chili pepper has two parts.

Ingredients:

2 tbl sesame oil

2 boneless, skinless chicken thighs or a breast with rib meat

5 cups yeast free chicken stock

1 tbl House Seasoning

1 carrot

1 red bell pepper

1 head of broccoli 

1 napa cabbage

3 baby bok choy or 1 large bok choy

Prep:

Wash, dry and chop the cabbage and bok choy into bite sized pieces. Chop the broccoli and bell pepper. Set aside. Mix all of the liquids together and set aside in a bowl. Chop the chicken into bite sized chunks and season with the House Seasoning or other asian spice mix. Shred the carrot with a peeler into fine shreds.

Cook:

Heat the sesame oil over medium heat. Add the chicken and cook about 4-5 minutes. Pour in the liquid and bring to a boil. Once boiling add the carrots, broccoli, red bell peppers, cabbage and bok choy. This takes about 3-5 minutes to cook down.  You can always alternate with Rooster sauce or other spice. 

Our story

I was in the grocery store with my adorable boy in the front of the cart and the man stocking the shelves told me to recognize that this was a great time in my life and to cherish it. I was totally with him until he added that it only goes downhill from here and that he would love his 23 year old daughter to be an infant again. I felt horrible because if it only goes downhill then I want off this ride! Not much compares to the frustration of being a caregiver to someone who has communication issues. Babies do communicate, we just don't always meet on the same wavelength. I mentioned my experience on Facebook and a friend said that she missed her kids being this young. I felt even worse. Is it true? Is this the best time of our life? I think no. Others do too. This Ted talk is great because it speaks the truth about the happiness factor of adding children to your family.




I wanted to share our a taste of our life until now. This is part of an email I wrote to The Alpha Parent for her Triumphant Tuesday. The blog is a fantastic site and source of inspiration for any breastfeeding family. Oh, it does take a family to keep it up. Without support, the ship will sink. 

(Check out the Alpha Parent's Timeline of a Breastfed Baby, Breastfeeding Requires Effort)

We planned to have a natural childbirth and breastfeed. Planning and doing are not always the same thing as I came to find out during labor. My son was past due by 2 weeks and weighed 10lb 8 oz at birth. He was so large that he got stuck and broke his collarbone on his way out. To say that I was grateful for the epidural during the 26 hours of labor and 4 hours of pushing is the understatement of the century. After he was born our plan of having him laid on my chest and being able to breastfeed him right away was stalled by tests and my weakened state. He was taken by the infant care unit and they placed a line in his arm for an IV and he was given a long list of tests to make sure he hadn't been injured further. He was beautiful and I was barely conscious.   I couldn't even swallow sips of water without choking because I was so exhausted. With time I was excited to regain some strength and have my son with us and thought that we would just breastfeed naturally. After all, I was built to do this so how hard could it be? Well, as they say nothing worth doing is ever easy.

Because my son was so large and I was so weak we were told that I needed to supplement. I fought it but the lactation consultant was not in that day and I had to go off of the advice of the nurse who was all too happy to give my son the free formula. I knew he was large but would I have a newborn who really needed 3 ounce servings? According to the nurse I did. So, we supplemented. The nurse brought me a pump to try to stimulate my milk coming in but we didn't make nearly as much as he was drinking. It was depressing, I spiraled into the baby blues quickly. I felt inadequate and under-prepared for motherhood. After we were discharged I wanted so desperately to never see a bottle again but he was so hungry and the milk wasn't coming in fast enough. Had I known to just put him to the breast so I could build my supply we might have had more success sooner. 

Latching difficulties began early on. My son was so eager for food that he latched hard and it was extremely painful. I kept seeing the consultant and it wasn't until my mother-in-law commented on my husband being a tongue tied baby that I realized that he had the same problem. From there we had to find a doctor to clip it for us. It was so very obvious when he opened his mouth. You could see the very tip of his tongue was attached and when he cried out it curled up on both sides making a V. Since breastfeeding is not always the normal feeding method in America, the doctors are no longer looking for tongue tied infants so he was overlooked. We spent 3 weeks trying to get it fixed and it wasn't until we had to show up at the hospital and show him latching improperly and my pain with his latch that they took us seriously and we were sent to maxillofacial surgeons. For something so simple, it was becoming extremely complicated. Standing in a room filled with doctors for something that should be a quick fix was absurd. I once again felt helpless and defeated. To complicate matters worse, feeding was so difficult that he was being bottle fed more than breast fed so my supply wasn't where it should have been. It took weeks to make up for lost time. 

To add to the list of 'what else can possibly go wrong now', I got thrush. Bad thrush. We had to diagnose it and fight to be taken seriously with it. I had cracks on my nipples that were painful, deep and everywhere. Half of the latches would result in my baby having a mouthful of blood. The other half I just closed my eyes and prayed for the feeding to be over. I felt like I lived in fear of feeding my son. I was taking Percocet to deal with the pain because it was so bad. We had been given antibiotics in the hospital when he was born and that had depleted our systems. To treat the thrush, they gave me more antibiotics, creams and drops for his mouth. 3 weeks consisting of 2 rounds of the treatment and no change. I didn't want to shower because the water was horrible on my chest, I wanted nothing to touch me, it was excruciating. I was also feeling deep pains in my breasts once he started feeding and these lasted until up to two hours after feeding. Since my son feeds quite a bit, that made the pain a round the clock event. I became even more depressed  That is when I decided that if I could just make it to 6 months, I could stop there. I was determined not to quit. My husband's mother breastfed him until 3 so I had an amazing role model and she had sent me a copy of "The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding" which I read cover to cover three times during all of this. I still use it as a reference guide and give it to new parents.

I did hours of research online regarding thrush and found that a simple over the counter dye could treat thrush. Why had I not heard of this? Why had my doctors and lactation consultant not heard of this? The answer was very simple. There is not money to be had by drug companies when people can fix their own problems. I bought a bottle of Gentian Violet online and used it. Within 24 hours, the latch pain was over. The burning was over. The only thing left was deep throbbing pain. 

My lactation consultant, who I was seeing every single week and calling constantly was a gem. She was determined to help me through it all. She had asked me how committed I was and wouldn't quit looking for answers to my questions. At this point, we pretty much already had a Bingo. I had survived:

---supplementation by the hospital staff, 

---bad latches, 

---thrush, 

---mastitis,

---a plugged duct (from my baby being so large that the chest carrier was pushing down and plugging things), 

---peer pressure from unhelpful friends and family who said it wasn't worth all the hassle and another who said that breastfeeding "wasn't normal. That is why we have formula so we don't have to be so stuck in old ways."

---one inverted nipple (ouch!)

---difficult birth and large size

---tongue tie and incompetent medical staff

---and an unknown deep throbbing persistent pain

When the pain wouldn't leave my lactation consultant started asking me to do a series of tests. I was supposed to look at the nipple and watch for color changes. I had to try feeding after warming my breasts and after cooling them off. She then asked me if I had ever had trauma to the breasts. I had been in a car accident at the start of my pregnancy. A woman was on her phone while speeding and had hit me head on. The seat belt was so tight that it created huge bruised sections of my breasts. She had figured out the last barrier....Raynaud's 

What in the heck is Raynaud's Phenomenon? My doctor asked the same thing. Not a single doctor at my hospital had heard of it for breastfeeding. The lactation consultant we had been seeing said that she had only ever heard of one case of it before and had to print journal studies out for our medical staff to read through. The car accident severely damaged the breast tissue and I need blood pressure medicine to act as a vasodialator to stop the pain. Whenever it gets even a bit chilly the whole area shuts down and the pain starts. To counter this, the vasodialator keeps the veins open and the pain stays away. I was put on the smallest dose and eventually worked up to the maximum dosage 4 times a day. Additionally I have to keep warm. Anytime it gets cold the pain comes back, the nipple goes bright white and the breast starts to turn blue and white. With the warm weather it is not so bad but once the cold air hits it is a downhill slide. I took to heating rice filled bags to lay over myself during feedings to ensure warmth. 

So, it ends there right? I fixed the thrush, the Raynaud's and all the other supply and pain issues. It can't get any worse from there. 

Wrong. What is life without a little adventure? 

Through an elimination diet  and the guidance of our doctors, we have discovered that my son has multiple protein intolerances.  For me that means that I literally cannot bottle feed him. We saw the doctors again and was prescribed the most expensive formula on the market. One shipment billed our insurance $1998.00. We tried it out and our son still vomited it profusely. We were told he had FPIES but after more research with our elimination diet we determined that he was gluten/dairy/soy/pea/coffee intolerant. The coffee is a side effect of the gluten thanks to similar molecular structure. The pea is a derivative of soy so that creates that problem. 

The reality was is that I am his only way to get nutrition for a long time. Thank goodness I was built to do this! My son was born a healthy eater which will not be a problem since I am an avid gardener but I as his food supply have to follow his diet. So for now I have a strict diet of no processed food whatsoever.  No dairy, no meat, no vegetable oil (soybean derived) no beans, no peanuts (soy family) and no eating out at all. If I cheat on my strict diet, my son pays for it in horrible gas, bloating, bleeding intestines, irritability and weeks of diarrhea. I just can not do that to my sweet child just because I want a cheeseburger. 

Is it worth it? Even if I could formula feed him? 

Absolutely. I have zero reservations about making a sacrifice for my son that will actually lead to a longer life for our whole family. Do I miss ice cream, the option of  free time and nights out with a babysitter feeding my little guy....not as much as I value the gift I am giving him. I know, without a doubt, that I am doing the best possible thing that I can possibly do for my child. I am giving him the gift of a future that is limitless because he has a start that can't be bottled. 

Gluten free pregnancy

As a parent of a child who is sick or has even even had a boo-boo, you wonder what you could have done to prevent it. A recent article in Eating Well magazine reviewed the potential implications of a study published in the Journal of Pediatrics in 2012. The article stated that babies born in the summer have a higher rate of Celiac disease. 

That is big. That is more than just a little line about the statistics of being diagnoses..that is hope for understanding the root causes of Celiac and gluten sensitivity.

My son was born in the summer on a day so hot it broke records. I was oblivious to the heat while stuck indoors trying my best not to scream at doctors as my son took his sweet time coming out. During my pregnancy I was horribly nauseated during the second trimester. Horribly nauseated. My doctor prescribed liquid Zofran to help me keep anything down. I stopped gaining weight and was becoming rapidly dehydrated. I felt awful. He literally wrote me a note to eat only Ramen noodles, ice cream, sports drinks and kid's multivitamins. Not even kidding.  That was about all I could keep down. After a month of this, I progressed to managing to keep pizza down. I chowed down on Pizza Hut's finest every day for a month. I literally threw every other thing up. It was misery. Pizza everyday is only a dream if you are either a teenage mutant ninja turtle or a teenage boy. Basically I loaded up on everything gluten soy and dairy during my pregnancy and skipped the healthy bits for about 3 months. It wasn't that way the whole time though. I ate exceptionally well the first and third trimesters when I was able to keep my food. 

Basically, I ate tons of gluten during my pregnancy. Why is this a problem? Well, it may have lead directly to my son's chances of activating his Celiac genes. If this study shows one thing it is that there is a pattern to why some kids have Celiac and others do not. It may also show a path to stopping the activation of that gene for future children. 

The gene is everywhere in so many ethnicities.  Celiac disease isn't just for white folks anymore. Non-Hispanic whites take the lead but others are gaining ground. (1)  The DQ2 and DQ8 gene are everywhere and yet only 1-2% of people that have the gene will develop Celiac disease. If there are so many people out there with the gene un-activated, why? If the rates of gluten sensitivity and Celiac disease are skyrocketing in the last two decades....why? Good questions. My thought, which is mirrored in some dietary communities, is that genetically modified crops are making our bodies think of our modern diet as poison and is acting accordingly. That coupled with increased awareness and testing makes for a boom in gluten sensitivity and Celiac disease. Another mother, Robyn O'Brien, on a quest to research what made her child sick was a speaker in the TEDx Austin series. I highly recommend her video. It resonated with me because my son is gluten/dairy/soy intolerant. 

I often hear from people that they were on antibiotics prior to the problem appearing or that they had a child with colic and that things like that are normal. Well folks, let me tell you, it is not normal. Children cry. They don't do it to manipulative, they do it to communicate. If they cry because for hours it is probably because something is wrong. Take the time to find out what is bothering them. Too often we ignore children because we don't speak their language. They are trying desperately to tell us something and we need to listen to them. Babies don't come out craving Whoppers or chicken nuggets shaped like dinosaurs  They crave their mother's milk and then real food. They want to be held, to be loved, to cuddle, to coo, to be a part of our world. They will eat what we eat. One of the best ways to ensure we raise healthy eaters is to eat well during pregnancy, while nursing and during their whole lives. When children are raised in a healthy food environment they will eat that way. If I never pull my car into a fast food location my son will never know what it really is. Sure his friends will be eating that junk at some point but he will not.  The La Leche League has great resources to help build healthy eaters. 

Check out your local farmer's market, grow a garden or simply walk the outside of the grocery store. The less time spent in the middle packaged isles the better. Do it for your self, for your family and for the child you are raising. When a child reacts to a food it usually creates a distressing situation that they cannot properly express. Prior to the immune system fully developing their response is behavioral and gastrointestinal  For our son he looked like he had an eczema rash that came and went with food. We had him allergy tested multiple times and he was always negative. Other families may be fine until one day, like for Robyn O'Brien, sudden onset of allergies appear. Take the time to educate yourself on what you need to know. In our world of rapidly increasing food allergies and intolerances, knowing how to save a life with an EpiPen is just as important as knowing the Heimlich Maneuver. 

1.The American Journal of Gastroenterology

doi: 10.1038/ajg.2012.219 “The Prevalence of Celiac Disease in the United States” Authors: Alberto Rubio-Tapia, Jonas F. Ludvigsson, Tricia L. Brantner, Joseph A. Murray, and James E. Everhart

Lemon salad

Lemon Salad or Lemon Bean Salad

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 -juice of lemon
• 3 thin slices of red onion
• 1-2 carrots
• 6 cherry tomatoes
• handful of walnuts
• cracked black pepper

Prep:

Boil water for beans and carrots and set aside a bowl of ice water for blanching

Chop handful of walnuts. Slice tomatoes in halves carrots into smaller sticks. Slice the onion into very small rings.

Cook:

Boil carrots for 2 minutes. Add beans and boil another 2-3. Remove and promptly place in bowl of ice water to blanch. In a small bowl whisk the juice of 1 lemon with the olive oil. Add cracked black pepper. Toss the veggies in the juice. Serve as is or place over salad. 

Crockpot chicken

Crock pot white wine chicken

Ingredients:

• 5 boneless, skinless chicken thighs 
• 1/2 diced white or yellow onion
• 1 rib of celery chopped
• 1 sweet potato-sliced with a mandolin or cubed
• 2 cloves garlic- smashed
• Herbes de Provence 
• 1/2 c white wine/vermouth
• cracked black pepper
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 cup baby carrots or 2 regular carrots cut up
• 3 mushrooms- sliced

Cook: Layer the veggies on the bottom, chicken on top of that. Sprinkle the herbs over the chicken then layer the sweet potato on top. Pour the wine around and cover. Cook on low for 6 hours or high for 3. 

It is that easy and delicious. I paired this with a nice arborio rice that I made with the juice from the crock pot and vegetable stock. I served it with the lemon salad for a nice crisp side note. Enjoy.

Keeping a budget

I have never been good at keeping to a budget. I am stellar at writing up a budget. I am great at seeing exactly what we need to allot to what parts of the household funds, but I cannot seem to keep on track with a grocery budget. For that matter, the little things that peek out at me through store windows used to eat up my sense as well. But that was old Tabitha and times have certainly changed. They say that nothing changes you more than having a child but I can honestly say that it pales in comparison to having a child with health concerns.
I have reached out and had to find new cook books to help me change my way of thinking. I spent 29 years working on my perfect beer mac n cheese, my homemade bbq bacon and chicken pizza, my feta cheese and spinach chicken spirals over pasta with a homemade pesto sauce....I could go on for hours. When we realized that gluten was definitely out forever my husband lamented that he had finally after 4 years of serious effort managed to perfect his sourdough bread recipe and technique. On the bright side, he is kind of a baking expert so that helps make translating gluten free recipes a cinch.

I started buying cookbooks that were allergen free. Not knowing exactly which products were the culprit, we simply removed the top 8. Sadly, we didn't really make progress because I was still eating processed food that had gluten. Once we figured out that gluten, diary and soy were our culprits, I was able to tweak my cookbook searches. I found a few Paleo books and now I am on a mission to make our weekly budget work with our dietary needs. I will be writing a few reviews of the cookbooks I find along the way in future posts.

This week, I am starting with Weeknight Paleo by Amber Beam of Paleo Savvy.

I am starting with Week 6's menu which includes cooking mahi mahi, steaks, chicken breasts, and scallops.
For this our grocery bill totaled $111.71. I learned a few things after scouring the bill to figure out why it was so darn high. I used the book which cooks for 4 people. My appetite isn't THAT big. I could have shaved $20 off the bill by knowing that. Still, that leaves me with a $90 bill that doesn't cover breakfast or lunches. Time to make more out of the money.

As a note for MSPI families: Don't let your kid get a hold of the receipt. Those nasty little buggers are printed with soy ink. While this is supposed to be better for the environment  it wreaks havoc on kids. My poor son imitated his older brother the cat and chewed on a receipt while I wasn't looking. I didn't think anything of it (no judging!) until his face got spots. Then he started itching his eyes...then he started screaming. We suspected the ink issue only because the day before he had his way with the newspaper. I only knew it was soy ink because a few years back while working on my garden I read that our local newspaper was not good to use in a garden because of the ink.