Week 4, Day 3: Our first sandwiches & hummus

We made our first sandwiches today. I toasted the bread, but it was pretty crumbly. My daughter requested sunflower seed spread and jam. We didn't have any sugar-free jam, so I mashed up some strawberries and that worked just fine. There's also a new chip we're trying out: Trader Joe's Veggie Chips. They aren't organic, but I was feeling a little lax this week. For my daughter, the sandwich was a success.



I made essentially avocado salad on bread, and I thought it was fine, but I think I prefer just a salad. The bread has the look and consistency of angel food cake, and doesn't really have any flavor.



We made some hummus since garbanzo beans are back on, even if just a few servings a week. I started out using this recipe a few months ago, and now I just mix ingredients without looking at the recipe. Invariably, my husband saves my hummus by adding more oil, salt, pepper and cumin. I always think I've added enough, but his hummus is always better.



For dinner, I wanted to eat some veggies but also wanted a new sauce. I thought it would be fun to try making Steph's tofu sauce (without the tofu, of course) from PCC, since my daughter loves it. I think I have the recipe around here somewhere (they give out recipes at the deli counter if you ask) but the amounts are crazy large since they are creating enough for a store, so I just mixed up a little of each of the ingredients, based on the order from most to least: orange juice, sesame oil, ginger, brown rice vinegar, olive oil, garlic. The recipe also calls for tamari, but because we are avoiding soy, we couldn't add that. I added some salt to try and make up for it. For sure, this sauce is tons better with tamari, but once all the veggies and pasta were mixed up, I thought it tasted pretty good. However, my daughter who liked one bite of it during the tasting portion, lost her love for it once I served it. I am going to try this again once I get some coconut aminos, which is supposed to be a great soy-free alternative for soy sauce. If that works out, it will be a great help.



I found some new vitamins for my daughter that are not actually 100% elimination diet friendly, because they contain sugar (organic evaporated cane juice), but after searching and finding some form of sugar in all the vitamins I found, I decided these were the safest. They're called Yummi Bears Organics Multi-Vitamin & Mineral and I found them at PCC (but the amazon price I just found is almost half the price!). Free of yeast, wheat, milk, eggs, soy, salt, tree nuts, peanuts, shellfish, allergens, gluten, casein, gelatin, artificial flavors, artificial colors and preservatives. My daughter LOVES them, so hooray for that.

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 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 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?