Emma's Trail Mix

Yesterday, Emma asked for something to eat as we were getting ready to walk around town to get some errands done. She had wanted pretzels and homemade peanut butter. When I suggested she put them both in the same container (for ease of traveling), she decided she wanted trail mix instead. I asked what she wanted to put in it, thus, Emma's Trail mix was created.

(I didn't think to take pictures yesterday, so when Emma asked for more today, I made sure to snap a few photos.)

Emma's Trail Mix
Ingredients:
1/4c almonds (we use raw almonds)
1/4c raisins
1/4c craisins
1tbsp chocolate chips (we use Enjoy Life mini's- gluten, dairy, soy, nut free)
15 pretzel sticks (Snyder's of Hanover Gluten Free)

Mix ingredients together and enjoy!

What We Eat

So in my post yesterday, I talked about why we are changing our lifestyle to exclude dairy and gluten. Did you wonder what we eat then? I sure did when I first made the decision. My first instinct was to go out and buy all the gluten free processed items I could find.

But that would defeat all of the work I have been doing lately to reduce the processed foods we eat (see the homemade goodies we made here and here).

So, out went all the gluten filled processed foods. Our pantry started looking pretty slim with a few of Jared's must haves (no bean hormel chili, chicken noodle soup in a can, granola bars, and crackers) and the few gluten free items we already had: tuna, olive oil, coconut oil, and canned tomatoes.

While our pantry is looking pretty slim (had a photo but managed to delete it),

our fridge is jam packed with fresh, whole, (some organic) foods. Yes that is cows milk up front. We try to keep Jared's food easily accessible. The funny looking jar next to it is soon-to-be almond cream cheese. It should be ready around lunch time.

There are tons of veggies: mix of spring greens, spinach, peppers, onions, broccoli, kale, cabbage, and more that I am forgetting about.

There are lots of grapes (they make the smoothies taste awesome), some cut up fresh pineapple, honey crisp apples and dried dates.

We have fresh, homemade: pb, cashew milk, almond milk, and hummus (and the soon-to-be almond cream cheese). All came out ok, but are works in progress.

We have meat thawing for great tasty meals. Last nights was salmon patties made with wild Alaskan salmon, kale, quinoa, and some spices. Very tasty. I also served some brown rice pasta (store bought) that Emma really likes, but I think I over cooked it (which is kinda hard to do).

Lunch yesterday for me and Emma looked like this:

For Mama- A chopped salad with, well, almost every veggie we have in the house, plus some chopped turkey, craisins, and cherub tomatoes. We love those tomatoes. I was only able to eat half of it, so I get to eat the rest today!

For Emma- Tomatoes (she already ate all but one) red pepper, carrots, spinach, craisins, and chopped turkey. Now, Emma doesn't really like spinach, but she loves it when we make a spinach and craisin roll up. Add in some turkey and it's even better!

She really does like it, despite what the face says. 

Is a gluten/dairy free diet easy? Um, not a chance. 

Is a gluten/dairy free diet healthy? Um, depends on how you do it. Just like with any other sort of diet, you can take the easy way, or the healthy way. We could rely on all the processed and prepackaged gluten free stuff and we would be no healthier (except maybe less farty) then we were before. 

We chose the healthy route. If I have to radically change my entire way of eating, might as well make it as healthy as possible. Emma and I eat about 90% (or more) whole, unprocessed foods. With the exception of 3 things I can think of (gf pretzels, Auntie Annies gf bunny cookies, and the rice pasta), all of our other foods we eat on a regular basis are whole (fresh fruits and veggies, fresh meat, nuts, and seeds). 

And we rely heavily on smoothies. We are in the process of figuring out our favorites, but we have a few that we know we like (recipes to come). Almost every smoothie we make has some sort of veggie in it-spinach and kale are the most common. 

We also add chia seeds to every smoothie. It's my secret ingredient. 

I like to sip at my smoothie while I do dishes or get stuff cleaned up in the kitchen. Sometimes Emma gets full, or isn't particularly hungry in the morning and wants to save her smoothie for later. Sometimes Da is on his way home when I am making smoothies and we save some for him. 

Without the chia seeds, the above mentioned smoothies start to separate and get gross looking. With the chia seeds, the smoothies maintain their awesome smoothie texture and mixed-upedness for a long time. 

Not only do I love them for their glue like properties, chia seeds are really healthy for you. 

Per 1 Tbsp serving of chia seeds you get (copied from the nutritional label):

4g      Dietary fFber

2g      Protein

64mg Calcium

1mg   Iron

40mg Magnesium 

2.4g   Omega-3

.8g     Omega-6

I add a heaping tablespoon full to every smoothie I make. As a dietary supplement, I believe the recommendation is 2 tbsp per day, but don't quote me on it. 

I also add in a teaspoon of Vitamin C powder and 5 drops of liquid Vitamin D. We are working on getting other vitamins into our smoothies, but I haven't figure out the best way to do that yet. 

To each individual smoothie (once I pour individual cups) I add 2 capsules of probiotics to help heal our guts and keep them healthy. 

Emma and I like to drink ours with a straw. Jared drinks his so fast that he's sad when it's gone. Maybe he should follow our lead :)

I am working on a resource page for gluten and dairy free related information, but in the mean time, here are three websites I find the most helpful with meal planning and general info on this new way of life for us. 

http://www.adventuresofaglutenfreemom.com/

http://www.nourishingmeals.com/

http://www.thespunkycoconut.com/

If you have any good resources for living a gluten and dairy free life, please share them in the comment section.

Thanks and have a great day!

Where We've Been

Still here, only 4 weeks left till graduation. I would love to say that we have been busy packing the house up, but instead, I have been obsessing over food.

As I mentioned (in passing) in this post, Emma and I are eating gluten and dairy free. This is not our first time trying either gluten or dairy free.

We first started our dairy free changes in 2010 after Emma had 2 rectal prolapses within a month. The post I linked too is really long and parts are a bit gross, but I will recap here

- August 2010 (4y, 8m old)- Emma has 1st prolapse. Her doctor prescribes laxatives and "more fruits, veggies, and whole grains." We already ate a bunch of that, but added more. Things seemed o.k.

"Whoola Hooping"

August 2010

-September 2010 - Emma has 2nd (larger) prolapse. Received a referral to a Pediatric GI doctor, the wait is 2 months. I decided to cut dairy from her diet to see if that helps things at all, while also drastically reducing her laxative.

"Fun in the Mud"

Nevada, IA Jeep Show

September 2010

*Did you know that the more a person takes a laxative, the more their body depends on the laxative to poop? Can you imagine someone needing to rely on a laxative from the time they were 4? I couldn't so I only used it when I thought she absolutely needed it. Which wasn't very often.

"Dancing with Cousins"

NH October 2010

"T.V. time"

NH November 2010

-December 2010 (the day after Emma's 5th b-day)- Met with the pediatric GI doctor. Took x-rays and poked her tummy. "Give her a laxative daily and feed her more fruits and veggies. Oh, and she is fine to go back on dairy". Seriously? Again with the fruits and veggies? The x-ray did show that she was full of poop (haha, we already knew that!), so we did laxatives for a few days till she seemed to be empty, but after that I stopped them 

"Happy Birthday Baby!"

Tangled 3D

December 21, 2010

-January 2011- At some point during January, we ran out of soy milk, so we figured might as well see how she does with cows milk. A little milk on her cold oatmeal for breakfast, and by dinner time she had the sniffles. No fever, no other symptoms. So, I started researching dairy issues. Turns out one of the symptoms of dairy intolerance is stuffy nose. 

As Emma was having a hard time falling asleep that night because she couldn't breath, and the fact that she-no lie- went through an ENTIRE box of tissues the next day, we decided that dairy was out. Up until recently, we would be a little lax here and there and let her have a bit of cheese (or mac and cheese once a week), but there was to be no drinking of cow's milk. 

-February 2011- As I was researching dairy intolerance, I came across gluten intolerance. All of Emma's symptoms were on the list. Plus some of the autoimmune markers run in our families. I called up the doc and asked to have Emma tested for celiac disease. It was done but the results came back negative. If only I knew then what I know now... Anyway. I still decided to try the gluten free diet for her. I followed along so she didn't feel left out of anything. 

January, February and March of 2011 ended up being pretty crazy and the gluten free diet fell to the wayside. It wasn't until this past March that our lives seemed to really settle back down. 

I don't remember exactly when I noticed it, possible as far back as when Emma and I were in NH from Sep-Dec of 2010, but Emma started having really grody farts. So bad, I dubbed them "trucker farts" because all I could think of when she let one rip was some fat greasy trucking dude leaning over to let one go. 

Yeah, they were as bad as the image portrays. 

Finally, at the beginning of this year, I couldn't take it any more. I needed to know why she had farts that were worse than any adults I had every  heard. I eventually had enough energy and I started researching again. 

"Sparkling in the New Year at a friends house in AZ"

January 1, 2012

"Tasty homemade gluten filled (i.e. Whole Wheat) tortillas"

February 2012

-March 2012- All my research lead me back to celiac disease and gluten sensitivity/intolerance. I decided to just go for broke and cut both dairy and gluten from her diet (because many people who have problems with gluten, also have problems with dairy and other foods). 

This isn't really the recommended route to go because you need to be eating gluten in order for your body to be reacting to it. All the tests that can be preformed to test for celiac disease or gluten intolerance need to be done while on a gluten filled diet.

Not wanting Emma to have to make such crazy changes on her own, I committed to eating only what she is allowed to eat. 

It took about a week before we noticed that she stopped farting. When she does occasionally fart, she will look at me and say, "That was a normal fart" with a big smile on her face. She's right. Now her farts are what you would expect from a petite 6 year old (not a 50 something fat trucker). 

Turns our she isn't the only one feeling better. I have so much more energy, I've lost 5 or more pounds, I don't feel bloated, and I just feel better. 

I did slip up once in the first 2 weeks without even thinking about it while Jared and I were out to eat. I had some noodles at a sushi place and for the next 3 days, I was so lethargic I would have to lay down after walking about 20 steps. If I was sitting on the floor (trying to play with Emma) my body was too heavy and I had to lay down. Thankfully it passed, and I am now much more vigilant. 

We have been making an effort to get outside more (seeing as we seem to have more energy)

Smoothies every day

Self Portraits 

Homemade gluten free noodles- They were a little thick, but still pretty tasty. 

And our new (to us) work horse to help make every day as healthy as can be. The Vita-mix. So expensive, so worth it. 

We make smoothies everyday, at least once. Just about every day we have smoothies for breakfast. Some days we will also have a smoothie for snack or lunch, depending on what we have in the house. 

One smoothie is always a greenish smoothie, meaning we throw some veggies in it. 

Jared and Emma have started requesting that instead of me serving salad (a beautiful chopped salad that looked awesome and tasted even better), that I should just throw a few hand fulls of the salad into a smoothie and serve it with dinner. 

So I do green smoothies more nights than not. I still eat my salad, because I love to eat my salad, but I am happy that they happily consume some salad, even if its in a smoothie. 

Wow this is a long post. If you made it this far, thanks for hanging in there and letting me vent a bit! I will probably be writing a few more posts about this because I feel everyone needs to know about gluten and the problems it can cause. For now, I will leave you with a book recommendation.

Even if you don't have kids, I highly suggest you read this book. It is a fairly easy read, nothing crazy heavy, but there is some awesomely scary connections between what we eat, and how we feel and act. It really is an eye opener and a great starting point for figuring out if the foods you (or your child) are eating is causing more harm than good.

Check your library. If I had the money, this is one I would buy and hand out to everyone I know and love. 

But, seeing as I am not made of money, I will just urge you to borrow it from the library instead. 

Until next time, have a great day!

What We Did - Feb 6-12, 2011

It is so good to be home.

This week has been busy, but we are still finding time for learning and crafting, our two favorite things to do.

While I was gone I got a deal through Groupon for a $20 gift certificate to Amazon.com for $10. A deal like that is a no brainer (especially when I have a wish list with about 150 things on it).

After agonizing over what I should get Emma, I settled on a balance scale (or Pan Balance). Emma got it yesterday and was really excited to try it out. I know a $20 scale  isn't going to be super accurate, and it is off just a tiny bit, but I am happy with it. 

The two things I like the most about it are the big pans, and the easy set up. The scale does have little weights on the top so you can adjust it to make it more accurate, but I haven't bothered with that yet. 

A fun project idea I got from Ordinary Life Magic. Emma got a little frustrated when some of the buttons kept spinning around the wire, but she got the hang of it. She liked the project, but has not desire to do any more :)

I really enjoyed it. I think I might have to start keeping an eye out for cheap buttons. I like the idea of making some sort of button ornament like this for each season/ holiday. It was quick, easy, and relaxing (until I realized we where about to be late for a Dr. appointment-oops!). 

Another cute, but not as quick project that we did (also from Ordinary Life Magic). I still need to finish up with a mane and tail, but this is as far as we got today before we both got distracted by shiny things.

Cooking for Isaiah 

We did some cooking this week. Well, I do some cooking every week, but Emma helped this time. She will be helping more often now. We are in the process of switching over to a gluten/ dairy free diet (I will explain more about this later in the week) and I think having Emma help me cook the foods will make her more likely to at least try the foods.

She did enjoy helping me. She loves to crack eggs and is getting pretty good at it. When she cracked the second egg for this recipe she didn't get any shell in the bowl. 

Although we enjoyed making these, we where not particularly happy with how they tasted. I think it is because of the fritos. We will try it again with a different coating (probably next week).

We made some gluten free brownies right after this and she had fun with that too. They actually taste pretty good!

I used up some scraps and made this hat. Emma claimed it as her own. To read a bit more about it, check this out. 

We did some computer time. Lots of computer time. Emma now has her own little desktop and it is the first thing she does every morning. Here she is playing Super Why.

Some silliness happened (lots actually, but not a lot of pictures to prove it). Da has a super heavy coat for his uniform. When he got home from school one day, he said to Emma, "Do you want to see something really silly?" 

He can actually see through the faux fur. 

I hope you have had a great week also!