Week 4, Day 2: Baking

I spent the day grocery shopping and baking (including another batch of blackberry/blueberry/strawberry Wondie bars). My new fruit for the week is grapes and my new veggie is bok choy. Surely, my daughter can't be allergic to these.

I've been trying to find ways to mix protein powder into different foods so we don't need to drink 2 smoothies a day. For breakfast, I tried sneaking a tablespoon of protein powder into each blueberry muffin before baking them. I'm not sure who I thought I was fooling, because my daughter took one bite into her muffin and said, "I know what's in here: protein powder." By the end of the muffin, we both agreed we were used to the taste and liked it. Hooray - and - yikes!

I also baked a loaf of Orgran's bread. It came out bread-like, but it's really plain. I'm hoping to make sandwiches on it for something different. As a side with my soup, I dipped some bread into olive oil with salt and pepper, and that was good.



I had a realization today. When my daughter had a reaction to black beans, I assumed I should just take away all beans. My reasoning was that I didn't want to risk feeding her other beans and having her go through more skin reactions, and I didn't want to delay her schedule for testing foods, thereby making the ED even longer. The result was, I had even fewer meal options without actually knowing if she could eat other beans. Today, I found myself frustrated that I had put myself in this position.

So, I decided to add all beans except black back into her diet and see what happens (which is what her Dr. suggested we do in the first place). She had pinto beans with brown rice and avocado for lunch, and it was the quickest lunch I've prepared in weeks (hallelujah!). So far, no strong reactions from her. I'm so happy to have beans back as an option. And, so glad to have figured this one out sooner rather than later (with a little help from my husband - thanks!).

Week 4, Day 1: Pizza and a(nother) movie!

I realized last night that one new thing I've introduced into my daughter's diet in about the last week is vitamins. She had been out for a while so she wasn't taking them when we started the elimination diet. Because they are vegan vitamins, I never even thought to look on the label! As it turns out, they contain a long list of ingredients, including soy and pineapple. So, I've discontinued them. Hopefully I'll find a good replacement vitamin for her soon.

My daughter was supposed to start testing cheese today, but we are holding off until she is feeling 100%. In addition to some recent skin flare-ups due to either vitamins, squash, pineapple or beans, she also has had a persistent stomach ache and sore throat for about a week. I've also had the sore throat, and her doctor told us to wait on testing her as a virus could interfere with the allergy testing.

We made some pizza tonight for dinner, which was pretty good. We used Orgran's gluten free pizza and pastry multimix (the mix also makes scones). We made our favorite combinations, sauce with kalamata and black olives, mushrooms, as well as one of my favorites, pesto with sundried tomatoes. I think I ate too much. If we make this again, which I think we will, I will roll out the crust so it's thinner. Also, I noticed baking on a regular baking sheet gave a crispier crust than using a pizza board (the dough made enough for 3 small pizzas), which I liked a little better. My daughter ate about half of her pizza, then stopped liking it.



Also, she made it through her second movie without crying or getting so scared that she had to leave: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. She was pretty antsy, moving around during quite a bit of it, but she made it all the way to the end. I know that seems like an ordinary thing for many parents, but this really is only the second time it's ever happened for her. So, hooray for her! I guess there may be some connection between her food allergies and her emotions.

Week 3, Day 7: Banana Muffins (& first mini-freakout complete)

First, the freak-out
My daughter ended up having another reaction to food last night, and it made me wonder what new foods I had introduced in the past day or two. The answer: yellow squash and pumpkin. I had to search online to see if it's even possible to be allergic to either of these foods. Surprise! Yes. That's when I started having my first mini freak-out of this elimination diet. Soy allergy, I get. As a vegetarian, she has had a lot of soy since she was born and it's possible her system has been overloaded. Maybe an allergy to dairy, ok. But then beans (possibly the whole bean family), pineapple, and now squash and pumpkin? It's starting to feel as though she's reacting to new foods as quickly as I can introduce them, which isn't supposed to be happening, since we are still in our cleansing weeks.

I've removed all squash now too (butternut, zucchini, yellow and pumpkin are really the only ones we routinely eat). My husband reassured me that we're moving in the right direction, and that we won't know for sure which foods she is actually reacting to until we do her testing weeks. So, for now, I'm back on track. Whew.

Also, I realized that pineapple isn't part of the citrus family, so I'm not adjusting anything there as I had been for a day or two. I'm just learning all kinds of things on this diet!

***
And now, banana muffins



Inspired by my baking neighbor, I looked up a recipe for banana bread. The recipe only has a few ingredients, and I traded out Canola oil for butter, brown rice syrup for brown sugar, egg replacer for eggs (it has some citric acid in it, so that's my first known breaking of the rules for ingredients, but I'm ok with it). I used Orgran gluten free all purpose plain flour. The result was great! I made muffins instead of a loaf of bread because I didn't have enough flour to make the full recipe.

Week 3, Day 6: Pina Colada!

I usually mix up an avocado dressing for my salad, but tonight I was craving, strangely, tahini. So, I mixed some tahini with a little lemon juice, some olive oil, dried dill, water for thinning, and a clove of fresh garlic (I use a garlic press). I love fresh garlic (and its benefits!), and thought it would be nice to give my system a boost by eating some raw. The result was a really strong dressing. So much so that my mouth was burning towards the end. Not a dressing for everyone, but for me, it hit the spot.

For dessert, I made a protein shake separate from my daughters, so I could use up all of the remaining pineapple in the house. I'm not sure how it didn't occur to make my all-time favorite cocktail before - a Pina Colada!



Blend the following:
1 1/2 cups pineapple
1/2 cup rice milk
1 TB coconut milk
1 cup ice

When I was done, I kind of wished I hadn't used all the pineapple. This makes a perfect end of day treat. Strawberries or orange juice would be a nice addition too.

Week 3, Day 5: Pumpkin soup

Today we tried some pumpkin soup for dinner. My daughter wasn't too excited about it at first. I had her try one version with coconut milk and one without, and she preferred the version with coconut milk. She liked it enough to eat most of one bowl. I loved it and went back for seconds, adding some rice to it for more substance. The little chunks are carrot and apple.



The recipe comes from The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen. I quartered the recipe and used canned organic pumpkin as it's the wrong time of year to find actual pumpkins. I didn't have any celery. I added more maple syrup than recommended (about a tsp per bowl).

My daughter is feeling better now that we've removed pineapple from her diet, and I've greatly reduced her intake of orange juice in case citrus in general is problematic (I hope not! She loves both orange juice and lemons).

Week 3, Day 4: Pesto & No More Pineapple

For fun and something different, I picked up some coconut (from the bulk section at PCC) so my daughter could sprinkle it atop her fruit.  Both kids love it and are eating it straight, as well as adding it to other foods like baked potato and oatmeal. I keep it in a spice/sprinkle container.



Pasta primavera is quickly becoming one of my daughter's favorite meals for lunch or dinner: rice pasta (we use mostly Trader Joe's) mixed with oil, salt and pepper, kalamata olives, and veggies (here, just carrots). She does a great job eating her broccoli, and prefers it on the side rather than being mixed in. This was for lunch, so those are some kettle chips on the side.



One of my favorite meals is sun dried tomato pesto pasta:



Here's my recipe - its a basic vegan pesto sauce with sun dried tomatoes added in:

1 container fresh basil
2 TB olive oil
1 clove garlic, finely chopped (I use a garlic press)
handful of cashews
1 heaping TB sun dried tomatoes
sprinkle of salt and pepper

Add everything to the blender and blend. Add more oil if needed to keep the blender moving. Scrape down sides with spatula as needed until everything is crushed into a pesto paste.

Once the pesto is done, I mix it in a bowl with some rice pasta, then add another tsp (or more) of sun dried tomatoes from the jar (I use Trader Joe's Julienne Sliced Sun Dried Tomatoes in olive oil).

***

My daughter had another reaction to food today, this time I think it was because of pineapple. We hadn't had any pineapple in about a week.  I sliced one up and gave some to her on the side last night with her dinner, and then again for breakfast this morning with strawberries. As it turns out, last night she cried twice, and this morning she was forwarding through scary parts in her cartoon. Today, within an hour of eating the pineapple her skin had a reaction.

Week 3, Day 1: Horton Hears a Who!

We watched Horton Hears a Who! last night, and my daughter sat all the way through it without getting upset, which is saying a lot for her. She covered her head with a blanket during a few scary parts, but even then she was laughing. I'm wondering if her fearfulness before was in some way related to food allergies as her Naturopath had suggested, or if this is just an unusually tame movie? She agreed she'd like to watch another movie next week, so we'll see how that goes. Interesting!

This morning we started out with our favorite breakfast - Flying Apron's "Berry Oat Wondie Bars". They're like granola bars with fruit. This batch we made with mango, peach and blueberries at my daughter's request. I probably should have peeled the skin off the peaches, but they are these little organic white peaches that didn't seem to have much on them as it was. I think they taste good, but I prefer just berries in this dish. My daughter liked this combo, but suggested no peaches next time.



One more week of cleansing to go, and then we can start testing foods for allergies. I'm feeling so good eating this way that I'm starting to think about what parts of this I'd like to continue once the allergy testing is done. But, I do miss coffee. Not sure if I want to give that up permanently or not.

Week 2, Day 6: New Snacks & Breakfast for Dinner

I went grocery shopping today and bought tons of yummy fresh fruit and veggies. Even though its most of what we eat, I still get really excited about it because it's so good for us.

I found a few snacks for my daughter (and me). Since she's being such a good sport and loves snacks, I thought it would be a good idea. I found 2 kinds of chips:

Terra brand Sweets & Beets (Sweet Potato & Beet Chips)
Kettle Baked potato chips (lightly salted)

My daughter was very happy about the Kettle chips. The Terra chips, not so much. I agree with her, but they are something different to try. I also bought some of Trader Joe's Freeze Dried Blueberries. We've tried these before and we like them.

For dinner, the whole family joined us (and ate!). Blueberry pancakes (Namaste Foods, Waffle & Pancake Mix) with maple syrup, garlic fried potatoes and fruit salad. My daughter helped by mashing all the fruit together in the bowl, so we would "get to taste all of the fruits in each bite."  She ate it all and had seconds. Hooray for another dinner she likes! The pancakes are a little more chewy than normal ones (my husband ate a few, but he wasn't too impressed), but with maple syrup and fruit on top, and being ok for us to eat, my daughter and I thought they tasted pretty darn close to the real thing.

Week 2, Day 6: Mushroom Stroganoff & no more black beans

Well, shoot. My daughter had more signs of an allergic reaction this morning, so I talked to our Naturopath and it she agreed we should stop black beans and test them during one of the testing weeks. Bummer. This child loves black beans. It makes me suspicious now of all beans and other foods in the category, such as lentils. And we were just getting her to like hummus again. Hmm.

For lunch, I used up some remaining marinara sauce from earlier in the week, and added my new favorite ingredient, coconut milk. Loved this soup! It reminds me of a Thai tomato cream soup I used to buy at PCC. My daughter tried it, but as she's not a fan of tomatoes, she didn't like it. At least she tried it.



For dinner, I made mushroom stroganoff. I really liked it, and reminded me of a tofu quiche I used to make for my daughter that she loved. Apparently it was too different for her. She did eat some, but then preferred plain pasta with olive oil, kalamata olives, shredded carrots and salt & pepper.



Here's the recipe for Mushroom Stroganoff:

2 TB oil (I used Canola)
3 mushrooms
1 clove garlic
dash of salt and pepper
1/4 onion
1-2 cups vegetable broth (I like Seitenbacher Vegetable Broth and Seasoning.  It's not organic, and the only place I've seen it is Central Market.)
1-2 tsp gluten-free flour, for thickening

Saute oil, garlic over low heat. Add chopped mushrooms, dash of salt and pepper and onion and cook for a few more minutes. Then add soup broth and cook for 10-15 minutes until broth cooks down. I used an immersion blender to blend all ingredients. I ended up with enough stroganoff to cover 2-3 servings of pasta, so I added more broth, cooked another 5 minutes, then added some flour to thicken it. Mix cooked gluten-free noodles into the pot until heated, then serve.

Week 2, Day 5: Maple Muffins!

For dinner, we had what is a pretty standard dinner in our house, but usually includes tortillas: black beans over brown rice, steamed broccoli and carrots.



My 6 yr old ate everything on her plate and asked for seconds. 2 yr old wasn't too excited about the dinner without the tortillas. We used up our weekly allotment of black beans, but how fantastic she ate all her dinner and liked it!

For dessert, we made another recipe from Flying Apron's cookbook for Maple Berry muffins (we're allowed to have a small amount of maple syrup). We didn't have any fresh berries, so they're really just maple muffins, but delicious all the same. Perfect timing too, since my daughter has a birthday party to celebrate at school tomorrow. She can bring one of these and join in on the fun. Also, she has a birthday party to celebrate this weekend, so she can bring one again for that. Hooray!



A few behaviors that stood out today-she started crying when she noticed a pot she made me was tipped over and emptied out on the deck. On the activity side, she stacked 3 thick couch pillows on top of a bed, then stood on them so she could touch the ceiling. She also had a rash flareup that I only associate with eating soy. Are these related to food moving out of her system almost 2 weeks into the elimination diet, or just a 6 year old being herself? I wonder if it was something she ate on her restricted list, like the beans?

Week 2, Day 4: beyond physical reactions to food

I was told by my daughters Naturopath that allergic reactions to food manifest both physically and emotionally, and that during the testing phases I should take note not only of any physical changes affected by introducing new foods, but also any emotional changes. In addition, she reminded me that food is energy and so I should also note what high and low energy shifts happen related with changes in food. She also mentioned that food allergies can cause brain swelling, which can alter one’s perception of the world, perhaps in her case making the world appear more scary than it would appear otherwise.

Intrigued by the idea that the body sends emotional signals regarding food allergies, I have been pondering this concept in the back of my head since we started. After the first few days when both my daughter and I felt pretty awful (low energy, me with a caffeine withdrawal headache, her a bit more emotional), I started noticing that she was starting to take a few more physical chances. For example, she’s been on roller skates (and falling down) in the house almost every day since we started, sometimes she carries large objects around on the skates – one day it was a guitar. At the playground, she’s starting to try more daring moves. At the same time, I noticed that I’m allowing her to try things without telling her to “be careful” as much. After all, the child is 6. It’s probably about time!

The last few days she’s been more emotional than usual, crying and frustrated. I’m not sure if this is due to food changes or not (I had to remind myself we have been told to clean ourselves out for 3 weeks before testing because it can take that long for the food and symptoms to leave our bodies) , so in the meantime I’m trying to give her lots of space to express whatever she needs to.

I was recently listening to an Alan Watts podcast in a series on Taoism that I’ve found very useful during this process. He said “the more liberty you give, the more love you give, the more you allow things in yourself and in your surroundings to take place, the more order you will have.”

***

For dinner tonight, we had butternut squash soup with coconut milk, salad, and potatoes. Sweet potatoes with cinnamon, salt and nutmeg. Mashed potatoes with oil, salt and pepper, and baked potatoes with salt and pepper. I figured, its one veggie she really likes, and it would be nice if she would eat a full dinner. We had kale/raspberry/banana/rice milk/flax seed/rice protein smoothies earlier in the day, so I figured a potato-heavy dinner would be ok. As it turns out, she really only ate the salad, baked potato and the mashed potatoes. I’m discovering that what she likes one day she doesn’t necessarily like the next.



6 yr old’s version of dinner



My version: soup & salad with avocado/oil/lemon dressing. Loved it!

Week 2, Day 2: Done with the kitchen

I feel like I live in the kitchen, with breaks to get to the grocery store. So, I decided to spend Sunday in the kitchen prepping foods for the week in hope of spending less time there during the week. We'll see if that pans out.

For lunch, I pureed up some remaining butternut squash, added some soup broth, cumin and garlic. The result was pretty simple, but I'm a bit of a connoisseur of plain foods. However, I then put a few spoonfuls into a bowl and added a spoonful of coconut milk. The result was really delicious! I kept the ingredients separate and gave my 6 yr old the taste test. She also preferred it with the coconut milk and ate a bowl of it. Hooray for one more thing she will eat!  Also helpful to add the extra calories, as her Dr. had mentioned that I might want to add coconut oil or other oils to her food, because she might not get enough calories on this diet.



What to do about dinner? My 6 yr old loves breakfasts, likes lunch, but dinner is the most difficult meal. I made spaghetti using just tomatoes, olive oil, basil and garlic. She doesn't like tomatoes in any form, so I knew she wouldn't like it, but I did. She ate her pasta primavera, broccoli and her smoothie, but she didn't love it.

Week 2, Day 1: Breakfast Bars, Mac & "Cheese"

Today we started with a recipe from Flying Apron's gluten-free and vegan cookbook for "Berry Oat Wondie Bars". I'd write the recipe here but I'm not sure what the rules are for posting other people's recipes. These bars are awesome! It's basically gluten-free oats, brown rice syrup and fresh berries and tastes like granola when you cook it. We used blackberries, strawberries and raspberries. 6 yr old loved it, and so did my husband. 2 yr old wasn't interested in trying it.



For lunch, my daughter requested mac and cheese again, so I made it for her, happy she will eat it. She had that with a side of our new-found potato chips from yesterday, and some mango and peach.



Here's the recipe for the macaroni and cheese. It's a standard vegan one that I picked up years ago and adjusted for our new restrictions. Does this version taste just like regular mac n cheese? I don't think so, but it's been a while since I've had a non-vegan version. My 2 yr old loves it more than regular mac and cheese, and my husband likes it too.

The original recipe includes 2 TB soy sauce, but since we're off soy I omitted it, but if you can use soy sauce, the recipe is better for it. (Update: we are now using Coconut Secret's Coconut Aminos as a soy sauce replacement and it works great!)

I package gluten-free pasta.

1/2 cup Earth Balance soy-free vegan butter (or canola oil)
1/2 cup gluten-free flour
3 to 3 1/2 cups boiling water (depending on desired thickness)
2 TB coconut aminos (or soy sauce)
1 1/2 tsp garlic salt (or fresh garlic)
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
dash of turmeric
1 cup nutritional yeast (large flakes)
1/4 cup oil
dash of paprika

Cook pasta to desired tenderness and drain. Set aside.

Heat butter with flour over medium low heat. Whisk together until thickens, then add water, coconut aminos, garlic salt, sea salt, turmeric. Cook until thick and bubbles, then add nutritional yeast and oil. Adjust thickness using water and nutritional yeast.

Once sauce is to desired thickness, add rice noodles (or noodles of your choice). I usually stop the recipe here, but if you're in the mood for a casserole, put your cooked noodles in 9x13 casserole pan, pour about half of the cheese sauce over the noodles and mix together. Once mixed, pour the remaining cheese over the top of the noodles and sprinkle with paprika. Bake for 15 minutes at 350. Put in broiler to brown "cheese".

For dinner, I tried butternut squash slices, cooked with olive oil, salt and pepper. They were soft and mild-tasting, but not a hit with either child. I should have heated at a higher temperature until it turned golden brown as instructed, but 2 yr old was asking repeatedly to eat, so I just called it done and served it.

The green smoothie went over pretty well with the kids (pineapple/strawberry/banana/kale/ice/protein powder). I made a tahini/dill/lemon/olive oil sauce that I loved on my salad. 6 yr old didn't like it, 2 yr old liked it over his slivered carrots, for a few bites (he thought it was hummus).



My husband took some of the leftover squash and pan-fried it with more salt and pepper, and it tasted like french fries. The kids were already asleep, but I'm pretty sure they would have liked it.

A little who/what/where

I've just ended week 1 of an Allergy Elimination diet with my 6 yr old daughter. I'm pretty sure she's allergic to soy, and suspect dairy is also an issue. She's a vegetarian, and I'm a vegan. (My husband eats everything, so we called it in the middle with the kids). He's a little concerned about what will happen if our veggie daughter ends up with both soy and dairy allergies, but I think we should just wait and see what happens.

So, my daughter is on the diet for allergy testing. I'm on it to test myself for allergies and to offer her some moral support. And, I'm not sure why-but it just seems like an interesting thing to try. I decided to write about it online because while I've found some foods she will eat, I haven't found much she enjoys eating. I'm hoping someone else has ideas for what 6 year olds like to eat that fit within the restrictions below.

The diet is being supervised by a Naturopath. It's fairly typical for an elimination diet:

• 3 weeks of cleansing followed by new foods introduced 1 per week.


• Disallowed Foods: corn, refined sugar (including agave), soy, nuts (except cashews), chocolate, dairy, eggs, wheat, additives, coffee, tea, alcohol.


• Restricted foods: because my daughter is almost certainly allergic to soy, her intake of beans and peas in the same family are restricted. No more than 3 servings per week from each category of beans, peas, carob & lentils.


• Use as many organic foods as possible

Pretty much, I can sum up our first week  like this: we ate a lot of plain fruit, veggies, rice and rice pasta. We tried some mixes for pancakes and muffins, and found a few crackers (Brown Rice Snaps/Vegetable flavor) and chips (Potato Flyers, The Original). We use a rice protein supplement (NutriBiotic Organic Rice Protein, plain) 2x daily in smoothies, which helped tremendously after our first day when we were very low on energy. I'm personally finding a good amount of variety-curry sauces over veggies, spaghetti, pesto, salad, lentils, quinoa, soup. Unfortunately my daughter isn't crazy about any of these-yet. She did, however, eat (and claim to enjoy!) some of my vegan mac and cheese today, so there's hope!

I'm feeling really good energy-wise, and optimistic about what will be another two or three months of figuring this out.