Giving Up Grains

My Collin

 Collin is our 8 year old who was diagnosed with autism at the age of 20 months. I have learned and constantly learn so much from this child. Much of which involves food as Collin has been on a gluten free, casein free diet since he was 2 years old. 

The diet brought about many positive things like SLEEP and focus and a happier boy and family all together. In Novemeber 2009 I attended a Robb Wolf Paleolithic Solution seminar  which lead me to the decision that our entire family needed to eat gluten free. As a side note I had another child who was 3 now who had been a REALLY tough baby due to not sleeping and a lot of throwing up and fussiness. Ryan could not tolerate milk and I eventually took him off gluten as well. Anyway, our whole family ate gluten free for a year. After that year passed I know there was still something not right with our son's diet. Collin had been off dairy, off soy and off gluten for years at this point but his belly was distended and his bathroom trips were not regular or normal! I asked my husband if he wanted to attend Robb's seminar as he was coming back to Atlanta agin. He said yes and he went to Robb's Seminar in October of 2010 and came home with Robb's new book "The PaleolithicSolution:The Original Human Diet". He had also had a short conversation with Robb about Collin and Robb stated that we needed to get Collin off the other grains.

So here I was once again about to take a huge chunk of Collin's diet away. No gluten free pretzels, gluten free toast, gluten free crackers, gluten free ice cream cones. No more popcorn, gluten free cupcakes or potato chips. But we did it and it was fine. KID ARE REALLY ADAPTIVE. So many people say to me "I could never do what you do because my kids would never agree." Well they do. It was really only about three day of suggesting other options at any request for crackers, chips,popcorn ect. So now our entire family eats a grain free diet. I spend a lot of time in the kitchen trying to" paleofy" recipes or dream up new snacks for the kids which is why I started this blog. We have all seen posative results in eating a grain free or Paleo-ish diet and Collin looks and feels better and better. I hope these recipes and information help others who think they can't do it. Your really can, and nothing makes me more happy than when we are in the market and my just turned 5 year old says "Mom, I need a healthy snack. Can I get some beef jerky and a bowl of cut up fruit?" True story!!!

Collin is still autistic but the changes in his focus and behavior have been major all due to proper food choice. I am very happy that our family has chosen to eat for a longer healthier life.

French Fries

So, Collin (age 7) still loves french fries. I have taken all chips (corn ships, potato chips ect..) out of his diet(everyone's diet)but I still make homemade fries for him and fry them in coconut oil. I really wanted to get away from white potatoes all together but this diet has been a progression and going really well so far. Sweet potatoes had not worked in the past. Ryan liked them but not Collin. BUT, this past week-end at the Whole Foods Market I remembered they had a variety of sweet potatoes including a white sweet potato. It is not the season for the white sweet potato BUT I found a JAPANESE SWEET POTATO. It is purple in color on the outside and whit-ish on the inside. I bought two to try.I sliced them into french fry shapes, fried them in coconut oil and the kids LOVED them. Woohoo! I went back to buy a bunch more and I am going to try slicing and freezing them as to have them on hand or when they are not in season. They are a little tough to slice. (I used a mandolin) and can break off if you're not careful but all in all it was very easy to do. The boys ate every last one of them. They eat them with organic catsup and I think they tasted much better than white potatoes and now we have a vegetable on the table that is paleo with out the lectins, saponins,and enzyme blockers that potatoes have.

Coconut Muffins

I have been wanting to cook with coconut flour more often so I bought a cookbook called "Cooking with Coconut Flour (A delicious Low-Carb, Gluten Free Alternative to Wheat) by Bruce Fife, N.D. I have made a few recipes and this one I like the best so far! Coconut Muffins 3 eggs 2tbs butter or Coconut oil, melted 1/3 c sugar (which I left out) 1/4 tsp salt 1/3 tsp coconut extract 1/4 c sifted coconut flour 1/4 tsp baking powder 3 tbs flaked coconut Blend together the eggs, butter, sugar,salt,and coconut extract. Combine coconut flour and baking poweder and whisk into batter until there are no lumps. Pour batter into greased muffin cups. Sprinkled grated coconut on top(I mixed mine in the batter). Bake at 400 degrees F (205C) for about 15 minutes. Makes 6 muffins. I would double the recipe and still pour into 6 to 8 muffin cups just because these were quite small.

Organic Grass Fed Beef

Trader Joe's now has Organic Ground Beef that is 100% grass fed. The manager told me this is what they are going to carry now. It is not frozen and 5.99 per pound in GA. Very good!!!

My favorite EASY lunch.

This is one of my favorite lunches. About once a week my husband will bake a bunch of chicken breasts. We just throw them in a baking stone dish with some grape-seed oil and sea salt and pepper or a gluten free poultry seasoning. He will use the chicken to throw into salads or prepare as pictured here. We just cut up the cooked chicken and slice up some avocado and put a little balsamic vinegar on both and enjoy. If you didn't have time to bake the chicken, you could even get a rotisserie one already cooked.I find organic ones at Harry's Farmer's market or Trader Joes. I love this quick lunch and just wanted to share! This is faster than any fast food restaurant out there! My four year old eats the chicken with a little Ken's Steakhouse Honey Mustard (gluten free) and some fruit and a little avocado too.

Easy Dinner

Tonight I made a quick EASY meatloaf. This is so very versatile. I used about 1/2 pound of ground turkey, 1 pound of organic ground bison and 1/2 pound of organic ground grass fed beef. I chopped up about 1/2 an onion, added parsley, crushed fresh garlic, some organic tomato sauce,some salt and pepper and then 1 egg and a couple tablespoons of almond meal. I molded it into a "bread loaf sized" baking dish and baked it for 45 minutes on 350 plus a little more time on 400 to brown it. Delicious! You could add many other chopped veggies like carrots, spinach, peppers...anything really. I just used what I had available tonight. I then steamed broccoli and made Elana's Pantry Ranch Dressing to go over it. Dairy-Free Ranch Dressing ¼ cup grapeseed oil vegenaisse 1 tablespoon lemon juice, fresh squeezed 1 clove garlic, pressed ⅛ teaspoon minced scallion pinch celtic sea salt Combine all ingredients in a small mason jar Shake well to serve over salad Or to use as a dip refrigerate to chill and thicken What a great easy dinner. I love these dinners because they are kind of like a "clean out the fridge" dinner. Just about any ground meats (pork, bison, beef, turkey,veal) can go into meatloaf and just about any finely chopped veggies too.

New Found Paleo Website and Nut Flour Website.

My friend Jenny introduced me to this website.It is called Paleo Plan. (www.paleoplan.com) So far I have used it for recipes but it is an excellent website that sends you menus, makes grocery lists, contains a blog and back logs all it's recipes. I am diggin it! Here is another one I am using. www.nutsonline.com They have an excellent price on nut flour. A 5 lb. bag is $23.00 including tax and shipping. That is less than half of what I would pay in the stores here in GA. Check it out!

These crackers were fabulous!

Thanks again to Elana's Pantry, I made some really great crackers. These are Elana's Pantry Rosemary Fig Crackers. Rosemary Fig Crackers 1 ½ cups blanched almond flour ½ teaspoon celtic sea salt 1 teaspoon rosemary, minced 3-4 dried figs, chopped 1 egg 1 tablespoon olive oil

1. In a large mixing bowl, stir together almond flour, salt, rosemary and figs
2. Mix in egg and oil until well combined
3. Roll out dough between 2 sheets of parchment paper until ⅛ inch thick
4. Cut dough with a knife or pizza cutter into 2 inch squares
5. Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes until golden brown
6. Cool and serve

Yummy Dinner!Chicken with Sauteed Spinach and Capers.

[caption id="attachment_231" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="Chicken Piccata-ish and pan fried spinach."][/caption] I was not in the mood to follow a recipe last night so I threw this together last minute. It was amazing. I cut chicken breast in half to make them thinner then rinsed them in water and dredged them in almond flour with gluten free seasonings. I then pan fried them in a few tablespoons of olive oil and grape seed oil. I removed them from the pan and added a few tablespoons of lemon juice, a little more oil, and a bottle of capers. I let that simmer down a bit and then poured it into a glas bowl to sit so I could reuse the pan. I then threw in a bag of fresh organic spinach and a little more olive oil and 2 crushed cloves of garlic. I stirred this until the spinach just started to wilt and all the flavors were coated on the leaves. The we poured the capers over the chicken and ate the spinach on the side. Delicious and quick!

Very Meaty Jambalaya

I adapted this recipe from Cooking Light. I used Cauliflower rice instead of grain rice. I also used chicken and sausage and the recipe called for shrimp. I think all three would be GREAT! We loved this dish. It is even better the next day.

Ingredients • 1  tablespoon  olive oil • 1  cup  chopped onion • 1  cup  chopped red bell pepper • 1  tablespoon  minced garlic • 1 12 oz package aidells Cajun Style  Andouille  sausage, sliced • 1  head of cauliflower • 1 plus teaspoons  paprika • 1  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper • 2  teaspoons  dried oregano • 1  teaspoon  dried thyme • 1  bay leaf • 2  cups  fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth • 2  tablespoons  tomato paste • 1  teaspoon  hot pepper sauce • 1  (28-oz-ounce) can no salt-added diced tomatoes, undrained • 1  pound  Springer Mountain Farms chicken cut in cubes * half pound peeled and deveined shrimp (optional) • 2  tablespoons  chopped fresh parsley

Preparation -Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add chopped onion, chopped bell pepper, minced garlic, chicken and sausage; sauté 5 plus minutes or until vegetables are tender and chicken is cooked. Chop head of cauliflower into smaller pieces and pulse in food processor into "rice". Add  the next 6 ingredients (through bay leaf); cook 2 minutes. Add broth, water, tomato paste, hot pepper sauce, and diced tomatoes; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes. Add shrimp;(if your going to have shrimp) cook 5 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes. Discard bay leaf. Stir in parsley.