Am I really seeing this right now?

Before we started this crazy journey a year ago my boy couldn't even be paid to be in the same room as a green veggie let alone get it near his mouth. So that should give you some perspective on my astonishment right now as I sit here typing the following words: He's over at the table eating cucumbers, raw, with a little honey mustard dip and yelling across the room to tell me how yummy the cucumber chips are. I cannot believe my eyes or ears right now. OMG I'm gonna pop...he just asked for more. I'm like a deer in headlights, not wanting to move for fear that I'll say something wrong and he'll stop eating them.

This amazing feat is brought to you today by the letter Z and the gold star goes to the ZINC supplement we've been giving him. Early on in my research I read about how a ZINC deficiency can mess with your kids taste buds. In short it makes greens and some other veggies and foods taste horrible. More specifically you can compare it to putting your tongue on a 9 volt battery. That tiny little mineral is responsible for many important things and adding it has made a world of difference for my boy.

Many children on the spectrum and with ADHD test with deficient levels of Zinc in their blood. Zinc is necessary for proper sensory functions. Children with low zinc levels will have sensory issues like poor appetites and limited, picky food likes. Zinc affects eye contact, hearing, auditory and motor processing skills, sensitivities to sounds or touch, and perception of pain. Until the Zinc levels improve it is difficult to improve the diet and appetite or work on these sensory issues in therapy. This should be especially helpful for children with super sensitive hearing.

Zinc is also needed for the body to properly put vitamin A to work. If there's not enough Zinc then the body will subsequently become deficient in Vitamin A. The most common side effect of a vitamin A deficiency is a lack of normal eye contact.

There were times with my son, last year before the event horizon, where I would sit right next to him and call his name 5 or 6 times....or yell and clap while saying it at the top of my lungs. There were times when I would chase his eyes with my head trying to make him make eye contact. There were times when he only ate like 6 or 8 different things. Those days are now gone for us, and today's little scene at the table with the cucumbers? Proof that for us...adding zinc was the right thing to do. In fact this was not one of the original supplements prescribed by our DAN! doctor. After testing was completed and after we had been on various other supplements for months I told him I wanted to add Zinc. The first question he asked me was "Do you have trouble with him limiting his diet or have trouble getting him to eat veggies?" I said yes and then he agreed it would be appropriate and told me to add a Zinc supplement. We give the Zinc at bed time and for us it was easy to add to a little juice and administer with a syringe from the drug store. He didn't mind the taste at all and I don't hear often of other kids disliking it either. For us it was an easy add that brought numerous benefits.

***After thought: There has also been some studies that have related low Zinc levels to Heavy Metal Toxicity. As soon as I find reliable study links I'll post them. We don't have issues so far with heavy metals so I don't know much about it.

Chicken Nuggets

Chicken nuggets can be a point of frustration for many kids on a GFCFSF Diet. They are used to fried, crispy, Micky Dees, or just down right refuse to eat any other than the right brand. We tried a few different recipes until I found one that my son likes. It ended up being an experiment I thought up and it worked out really well for us.

With my son, he was unimpressed by my first few attempts and they were always left on the plate right next to his veggies. He's a sensory seeker and has a history of liking spicy, sour, or sweet stuff. So I decided to look for ways to kick up the flavor and sensory input in an attempt to get chicken into his diet. This is what worked for us and now I make them on a pretty regular basis to keep in the freezer to put into his Bentos. If you're thinking this is the wrong way to go for your child's tastes then check out this link for home made Chicken Nuggets that are supposed to be just like McNuggets. http://gfcfrecipes.blogspot.com/2007/11/quick-and-easy-chicken-nuggets-just.html

I suggest trying my baked recipe first because it's just a ton faster and easier than dealing with deep frying and a healthier option for frequent meals. I've got this chicken nuggets link stowed away for a special occasion. Remember not to use the Fry Daddy that you got for Christmas that one year cause it's probably already been contaminated with Gluten. I know it sucks, just take it one thing at a time.


TLC's Honey Mustard Chicken Nuggets

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

1 lb. Chicken breasts cut into tenders or strips (make sure to read the label)
Best Foods Canola Mayonnaise
Spicy Brown Mustard (get one that reads like this: Vinegar, water, mustard seed, salt, tumeric)
Some sort of hot sauce (if you're kids into that, if not just omit)
Real Mapel Syrup or Honey
Salt and Pepper to taste
Bob's Red Mill GFCFSF All Purpose Flour
Arrowhead Mills or Bob's Red Mill Corn meal

So I just mix up the mayo, mustard, syrup, salt and pepper, and hot sauce in a bowl. Start at 2 tablespoons of each Mayo and Mustard. Around 1 tablespoon syrup or honey. Add 1/4 tsp. salt and pepper and give it a taste. Adjust any way you want, play with the proportions on the sauce until you like the taste. It's not an exact science and I typically don't measure anything just eyeball it into the bowl to save time then taste.

Mix 1 part GFCFSF flour to 2 parts corn meal and set aside. Dip chicken pieces into sauce then dredge through the flour mixture. Set them to bake on a rack set over a baking sheet and bake at $00 degrees for about 20-25 minutes depending on your oven. This way of using flavor as a base coat keeps the chicken moist and the fat from the mayo helps to crisp the nuggets a bit. If you kiddo is needing something crispier then try finding some GFCFSF corn flakes or crackers and use that in place of the corn meal. Just crumble the flakes up a bit. The best way to freeze them is to cool them slightly on the rack you baked them on and then put the rack in the freezer for about 2 hours. After that I dump them all into a freezer bag for microwaving later.

Let your kiddos try it before you dip in chicken to see if they like the taste, and use this as an opportunity to get them excited about the new nuggets. At our house that looks something like this: "Hey you want to try this special sauce I'm making?, do you want to help cook? I'm making yummy chicken nuggets. Daddy loves chicken nuggets. I bet the dogs like chicken nuggets too but they can't have any because these are just for you!" This is a technique I often use to get him jazzed about whatever new thing it is I'm trying to get him to put into his mouth. I never intro a new food at the table, I always try to get some sort of dialogue going in the kitchen or grocery store that way he can anticipate it's coming. My son gets anxious about new stuff just showing up on his plate and then if it don't look right for whatever reason it ain't coming to the party. This little game of presenting food in a visual and verbal manner is like a double whammy and I'm rounding second heading for home. helps. Sometimes I'll just sit next to him and start eating something I want him to try then act like I don't want to share and that usually gets him interested too. Think outside the box and keep trying things. Persistence will get you closer to figuring out how to get the new foods into them. Remember the hardest part about the diet is finding replacements your kids find yummy but it can be done. Took a few tries at our house but now that we've got this recipe I always have a quick and easy lunch on hand. Next recipe on the horizon for experimentation is Mini Corn Dog Nuggets. I'll let you know how that goes.

Ahhh....Fudge!

For a few years I've had this recipe by Alton Brown for Peanut Butter fudge. It's very simple to make, only has 4 ingredients, and comes together after 4 minutes in the microwave. I've been craving it lately and wondering if I could replace the butter in the recipe to make it GFCFSF. Turns out you can. Here's the recipe from Mr. Brown, culinary genius.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/peanut-butter-fudge-recipe/index.html
All I did was make sure to swap out the proper ingredients. I used coconut oil to replace the butter and McCormick real Vanilla. It's a decadent treat that no one will guess is GFCFSF. You could also use Earth Balance Soy Free spread to replace the butter. The only thing is you will need to keep it in the fridge as coconut oil has a low melting point but it cuts pretty easy. It's addictive good in the freezer too if you cut them before they go in. Enjoy!

Watermelon Shapes

So recently I've been on a kick to get little man to eat more veggies and fruits. As we get further along with his Biomed his tastes are expanding. We have managed to get him to eat a few veggies on a pretty regular basis and I've launched an all out campaign to get him to eat more of them. The latest tactics are to get him excited about picking them out at the store and having him help me to cook them. This week he picked yams and watermelon. I made oven baked chips and french fries from the yams which he loved. Husband was commenting to me about how watermelons always seem to have a large waste factor associated with them and I totally agree. We've been trying our best not to let any food go to waste at our house lately, what with the economy being what it is and all. So I wondered if it could be frozen. Turns out ....yeah it can be frozen, and my son will eat it frozen or thawed. Now with my Bento craze being what it is at the moment I set out to make the watermelon cute for the Bento boxes. Believe it or not this visual style of presenting his food really encourages an enthusiasm for the entire meal including veggies so a little extra effort goes a long way to ensuring he'll eat a balanced meal.

So here's what I did. I used my electric knife to slice the watermelon (seedless) into thin-ish slices. Proper hardware to make your life easier is essential in a GFCF kitchen. Electric knives are around $20 and worth every penny! I grabbed a few different cookie cutters small to med sizes and cut out cute shapes placed them on a parchment lined pan and put them in the freezer. After they are frozen I threw them all into a storage bag and that way they won't stick together while in the bag. I used the scraps for serving first then just grab a bit of cuteness from the freezer whenever I need it for his bentos. The white seeds work well to decorate the shapes or to add eyes. The whole shebang took me maybe 30 minutes start to finish and now we've got a gallon size bag of tiny cuteness that won't go to waste. Watermelons are also an excellent source of vitamins A, C, and B6. They are also a great source of potassium, and low in sodium. Not bad for something that's a good popsicle swap. So... score one point for the Mommy Card and many big smiles on the little man's face come meal time.

Father's Day Feast

Since starting the diet I've found myself branching out into all kinds of ethnic foods. Husband loves Indian food and has inspired me to try lots of new things that I thought I would not like. The nice thing about Indian food is that much of it is naturally Gluten, Casein, and Soy free. It's all really growing on me too and now I crave certain Indian dishes quite often. Tonight we made a Father's day Feast for Husband and I made Dosa with Masala Filling and Cilantro Chutney. It's a common dish served at street food carts in India. It sounds pretty foreign but really its very yummy. You get a giant crispy Dosa which is like a crispy thin crepe made with ground rice and lentils, they fill it with Masala which is a potato and onion mixture, spiced with mustard seeds, salt, and turmeric. Then you top it off with cilantro chutney which is basically a spicy salsa with cilantro, lemon, garlic, salt,& ginger blended smooth.

The hardware that makes the Dosa doable on the home front is an electric crepe maker my sister gave us. Its about $40 on Amazon. I always recommend investing in the appliances that will make your life easier and save you time. The one I have is a dedicated GFCFSF appliance and it just plain kicks major tail. Check the bad boy out.

For those of you who don't want to buy the appliance out just yet, you can try a test batch. Add more water to make the batter really thin and spread them on a pancake griddle to cook.

The crepe maker comes with the applicator pan for easy Dosa making. Just flip the unit over and dip into batter then set back down to cook. These Dosa wrappers are a perfect replacement for flour tortillas. They can be made crispy or soft and pliable. I'm running a freezer test now and will update on how they defrost later. Anyway these have so many applications for the GFCFSF kiddo...think peanut butter and jelly roll up, breakfast burritos, enchiladas and even hot dog roll ups. Tonight we had the traditional filling with them but the leftovers are split between the fridge and freezer so we'll be experimenting more with them this week. Here are the recipes for Dosas, Masala Filling, and Cilantro Chutney. I mostly took someone else's recipes and tweaked them to my family's taste. A word about Urad Dal, it's a type of split lentil and you can buy them at any Indian grocery store online, locally (Chico is the closest to me I think), or possibly from your local restaurant. We fill up anytime we're in Sacramento or Woodland which is every few months. These are defiantly worth a try.
DOSA

1 1/2 cups rice
1/2 cup Urad Dal
1 tsp. Salt

Add rice and Dal to a large bowl and soak 6 hours or overnight. Drain. Grind to paste in blender and add water to bring to a thin batter. You'll figure out quickly what the right consistency is. Thinner than pancake batter. Cook using desired method. I use the bad boy so I just dip and let it sit till done about 2 minutes. I stack them up if I want them soft and pliable and I cool them on wire racks if I want them more crispy.


Masala Filling:
2 large potatoes
1 medium onion (chopped)
1/2 teaspoon yellow split peas (I left this out this time)
1/2 teaspoon mustard seed
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1-2 green chili (I diced one small Jalapeno)
1 tablespoon oil (Canola oil or other GFCFSF oil)(Vegetable oil is almost entirely soybean oil by the way)
salt to taste

Boil potato slices till tender then chop and set aside. Heat oil. Add mustard seed, peas, onions and spice.
Fry for about 5 minutes on medium heat or/until onions are turned into golden brown
Add potatoes and mix and cook some more Serve
Add filling inside Dosa and roll. Serve hot with Chutney.
I had to tweak the directions a bit but to their credit here is the originator of these recipes.
http://www.indianfoodforever.com/snacks/masala-dosa.html

Cilantro Chutney:

Here's the original recipe link and below was what I actually adjusted the recipe to for our house. The original recipe calls for equal parts mint and cilantro. Couldn't find Mint yesterday without a separate trip to Holiday market so I skipped it this time, yummy both.

http://www.culinarycafe.com/Sauces-Marinades/Mint_Cilantro_Chutney.html

1 cup Cilantro leaves

1 small Jalapeno seeded

1/4 cup onion

2 large cloves garlic

2 tsp. ginger root peeled

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. sugar

3 tsp. lemon juice

water to bring it together 2-6 tablespoons

Place all in the blender and blend till smooth. Serve with Dosa and Masala filling. Yum.

Hello Out There

OK world....I hear you. Over the past few weeks I keep meeting other parents of children on the spectrum here in the Redding, CA area. This is of course good for me since we recently moved to the area and I don't know many people here. I am quickly realizing that many of these parents haven't heard of the benefits of Biomedical Intervention for our kids with Autism or if they have heard of it don't know much about it. It's becoming more apparent to me that a good local resource or portal if you will to the world of biomedical intervention is despeatly needed. The parents I've been meeting are very eager to learn what they can do for their children and I've recently put a good amount of effort into answering their questions, taking phone calls, sending various links via email, and sharing my local resources for GFCFSF foods. I'm a person who appreciates efficiency in all its various forms so my mind naturally got to work on how to get the word out in a more efficient manner. After a few rejected ideas and lots of people telling me that I should write a book I finally settled on a blog. Usually when I think Blog I think diary. I've never been able to keep up with one. Even in my tortured starving artist faze when I was writing often I only managed a weekly entry at best. Maybe though if I just post the links you need to get going and present to you just the best of what I've found and done for our son....then that would at the least save me lots of time and at best help another human being. Maybe I'll make friends...that would be awesome.... you'd all understand what I'm going through because you live it too. And maybe I'll post a recipe or two when we try one. Or random GFCFSF product reviews? See where I'm going with this? I can post up to 10 fixed pages on this site so I will detail there what you need to get started and keep your sanity and just add new posts when the mood strikes. I encourage you to read everything here but take things slowly especially when entering another site I've linked for you because it's easy to get overwhelmed out there and hit the breaks. So hello out there world, welcome, and I look forward to your comments, questions, and acquaintance.