Massaman Curry, Spring Rolls & Peanut Sauce

I rolled up some yummy spring rolls made of rice noodles, carrot, lettuce & avocado. I made a few for the kids without the lettuce. For dipping sauce, I mixed up a few TB of peanut butter, coconut milk, water, a tsp of brown rice syrup and salt. It was really delicious!

I then made a coconut soup. I loosely followed a recipe for Thai Massaman Curry, which is my favorite curry dish. I put some oil in a pan and heated with garlic and onion, then added chopped potato, carrots, peas, and coconut milk. I didn't have all the ingredients. I didn't even have Massaman curry paste, so I used the only ingredients I had that are in massaman curry paste, cinnamon and cumin, and a little salt. I brought it to a boil as in the recipe, then let simmer for 20 minutes.
It was delicious! Both my kids ate dinner, although my 2 yr old just picked through the spring roll, dug out the avacado and dipped that in the peanut sauce. They both liked the soup.

Diagnosis: Leaky Gut

We went to appointments with my daughter's Naturopath and Dermatologist last week, and here's what we discovered. They think what's going on is called "leaky gut". I have to say here that I haven't researched it that much and my understanding is what I could glean as my 2 year old son screamed during the appointment, so it might not be 100% medically accurate, but it's in the ballpark.

First I'd like to mention that my daughter had a full blood panel done about a year ago and the test did not detect that she was allergic to anything. She didn't even register as possibly allergic to anything.

The theory is that a chain reaction was likely caused by eating soy (which we have eaten TONS of since my daughter was little). Her body couldn't completely digest it or started developing an allergy to it because of how much we ate. Her body then started reacting by causing a rash and stomach aches. I think this started happening when she was about two and a half. It then took us about 2 and a half years to figure out that it could be a food allergy. At some point my daughter's body crossed over from reacting to just the protein in soy to all proteins without us knowing it. By the time we got to the elimination diet, her body was treating all proteins as an enemy, which is why she reacted to all foods we introduced (and some we didn't intentionally introduce) with the exception of sugar and chocolate. Most of the remaining foods she reacted to were acidic, which was making the problem worse.

As an aside, apparently when people are allergic to a food, it's the protein in the food they are reacting to. So, with a lactose intolerance, its the milk protein, same with peanut allergies, it's the protein that people are reacting to.

The good news is, there's a plan to treat her. Yay! We're on a modified diet for the next 6 months. Her diet has changed to allow all foods back with these few exceptions/modifications:

No Soy
No Gluten
No Whole Milk Cheeses
Once a week: foods she reacted strongly to, such as acidic foods and black beans (& most proteins).

In addition, she has been given two medicines to help her gut heal: digestive enzymes and intestinal support. The way we'll know if it's working is that over the next 6 months the rash and stomach aches should start to disappear. The doctor mentioned that we might do the elimination diet again once we think the gut has been restored to normal.

This diagnosis makes so much sense to me, I think it's going to work. It feels great to have both doctors agree on the treatment plan as well. Hooray!

If you want to read more about Leaky Gut, I just found a site that explains it pretty well.

Here's an excerpt:

Problems of Having Leaky Gut
Leaky gut is a condition that can directly lead to many other specific disease states, or indirectly aggravate or worsen other conditions. You may have leaky gut and not be aware of it. Many food intolerances and sensitivities are a consequence of a leaky gut to some degree. You may just feel run down, out of energy, have many food and chemical intolerances, or a multitude of other seemingly unrelated problems. Symptoms of leaky gut syndrome may include:

• aggression • anxiety • asthma • atypical sensory reactions • bed-wetting • bladder infections • bloating or gas • chronic joint, muscle, or abdominal pain • confusion • diarrhea or constipation • fatigue • fevers of unknown origin • fuzzy thinking or ‘brain fog’ • indigestion • memory problems • migraines • mood swings • nervousness • poor exercise tolerance • poor immunity • skin rashes

Wk 11 Day 1: Chocolate & Sugar Test (S'mores)

Well, the day finally came where we could eat chocolate and sugar again. I used to eat at least a few chocolate chips every day. After the first initial days of withdrawal from most foods I was used to (most notably, coffee), I haven't really craved chocolate or sugar, although I had thought about how weird it was that I was able to go so long without it. I wasn't really as excited about eating it again as I thought I would be.

I noticed that it really opened up what we could eat once we added sugar back in. I picked up some Kettle BBQ chips that I've been avoiding so far because of the sugar content. When I think about it, it's kind of vexing that so many foods include sugar. A little bit here and a little bit there adds up to too much sugar, in my opinion. I can see I'm going to have to think about this one as I look forward to phasing off the ED and into a less restrictive diet ahead.

Since we are on a camping vacation (in a motorhome) this week, I decided this would be a good time to test chocolate and sugar, so we could have some s'mores. To me, it's just not camping without them. I'm thinking of this week as a kind of break from our ED, without actually breaking from it, as we are keeping all (well, most) other "avoid" rules in place. I also thought it would be nice to bring some chocolate chip cookies, so I followed the cookie recipe on the back of the package of organic chocolate chips, substituting brown rice flour, tapioca flour and xanthan gum for regular flour. They turned out great! I'm not sure if it's the amount of time I've been away from chocolate or, perhaps sugar, but I found just one cookie was plenty each time I ate one, whereas before I could have easily eaten more. Maybe it's due to the rice flour? I'm wondering if it's more filling then wheat flour? I need to look into that.

So, now on to finding the ingredients for the s'mores. I found some ED friendly chocolate: Trader Joe's Fair Trade Swiss Dark and Theo's Organic Fair Trade Rich dark with 70% cacao. I didn't notice how thick Trader Joe's bars were - if you are headed out on a camping trip, I recommend Theo's even though it's a little more expensive (or even less expensive, use chocolate chips).

I found some gluten free graham crackers at PCC called, perfectly, S'moreables (pea starch, non hydrogenated shortening, potato starch, brown rice flour, brown sugar, sweet rice flour, tapioca starch, water, rice bran, sugar, blackstrap molasses, honey, glucose, salt, sodium bicarbonate, pea protein, vanilla, sodium carboxy methylcellulose, pea fibre, guar gum, inulin, soy lecithin, mono calcium phosphate). I must admit that I'm not exactly sure what some of those ingredients are, and it does include a tiny bit of soy, but I was feeling brazen, so I went for it.

Lastly, we needed marshmallows. I don't use the normal ones, since they have gelatin (animal bone) and aren't vegetarian. There are several vegan marshmallows on the market but most if not all include soy or some corn derivative, which is not too ED friendly for us. I decided to use Ricemellow Marshmallow Creme (Brown rice syrup, soy protein, natural vegan gums and flavors) because it had the shortest list of ingredients. Even though it has soy, I decided another small amount would be okay, because I believe our Naturopath has figured out what's going on with my daughter, and I guess I really feel I would be depriving my daughter to have her miss out on s'mores. Written out, it's not a very compelling argument to break from the ED, I admit. I wouldn't be doing it if we were early on, but I'm confident she isn't allergic to chocolate or sugar and she will be okay with a little tiny smidgen of soy. Wow, such excuses!

So, here's what happened. Our first day of the trip, my daughter was sitting outside with her brother for a few hours while I set up camp. Apparently in that period of time, they downed a bag of chips, a cookie each and some other snacks too (I hope some fruit). After dinner, we made a nice fire and made s'mores. Since we have marshmallow creme, instead of roasting marshmallows, we didn't actually use the fire to melt anything, and just sat near it while compiling our layers of graham crackers, chocolate and marshmallow creme. I made my daughter 2 small ones, the size of a quarter of a normal graham cracker each. However, she did use the Trader Joe's chocolate, which as I mentioned before, is pretty thick. Before bed, she told us her tummy was hurting, and around 3 in the morning she woke us up to let us know she didn't feel too good. After throwing up twice, she was fine. Needless to say we avoided making s'mores again for a few days, and even then only one small one per person. She didn't want any more marshmallow creme, and I used the thinner Theo's chocolate. I melted the chocolate onto the graham cracker in the oven which I hoped would somehow digest better.

She learned a good lesson, since it was likely the combination of all the extra foods in one day that upset her stomach. She now is starting to notice that even though foods taste good enough to keep on eating, she should only eat until her body is full, then stop, even when it tastes really good. I *thought* she knew that before, but she's talking about it more at mealtimes, so I guess she needed a reminder. Later in the week I decided to bake some s'mores cookies, crumbling chocolate chunks and graham crackers into the batter. Yum! I think I've learned a good lesson myself - camping is still fun without s'mores.

Wk 10 Day 3: New Flour Mix & Homemade Pizza Crust

We went back to Bolles organic farm and picked raspberries and blueberries. Of course, we made more scones again with the berries. I would find a new breakfast recipe, but honestly, these are so delicious, I have no motivation to find something new. I'm trying out a new gluten free flour mix from Manna Mills. It's supposed to be similar to Bette Hagman's *magic* gluten-free flour mix but it's sold in bulk so I'm guessing it's more reasonably priced. We used it in place of the brown rice flour and tapioca flour in the scone recipe. They came out great and a little bit chewy.

My wonderful sister-in-law came by and gave me her trusty recipe for pizza crust. It was the best one we've made. We just added homemade tomato sauce, 2 kinds of olives and sundried tomatoes.

Here's what I learned after making it: It was a little thick in places, so next time I will roll it out really thin. Also, there were a few ingredients I didn't have: gelatin (I need to pick up more vegan gelatin or agar agar) and dry milk powder or almond flour. Instead of adding flour to replace the dry milk powder, I added rice milk, which changed the consistency of the dough for the worse. I added more flour and fixed it, then put some plastic wrap over the top of the dough so I could roll it out since it was so sticky. I only used half of the batter, and the unused half firmed up nicely after sitting in the bowl. Anyways, I digress.

Auntie Marie's Gluten Free Pizza Crust Recipe Makes 2 14" pizzas.

Ingredients:
1-2 TB dry yeast
2 cups warm water
1 tsp sugar or honey (I used brown rice syrup)
2 1/2 cups brown rice flour*
1 cup tapioca flour *
1/4 cup dry milk powder or almond flour
3 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp salt
2 tsp unflavored gelatin powder
1 tsp Italian seasoning
2 TB olive oil
2 tsp cider vinegar

*I replaced both flours with Bette Hagman's flour mix and it was great.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

1) Combine warm water, yeast and sugar in a small bowl. Set aside for 5 minutes.

2) In a medium mixing bowl, blend flour, dry milk powder, xanthan gum, salt, gelatin powder and Italian seasoning. Add yeast mix, olive oil and cider vinegar. Beat on high 3 minutes.

3) Pat on greased pan or pizza stone. Bake crust only for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and add toppings. Bake 20-25 minutes.

Wk 10, Day 2: Tomato Test, Spaghetti Sauce

Since I've noticed my daughter has reactions often after eating pizza, we are working our way through pizza ingredients, hoping to find what she has been reacting to. This week we are testing tomatoes, which she does not like to eat at all. She's being a good sport, though, and eating enough to test.

My daughter LOVES olives, so I found an ED friendly sauce by Middle Earth Organics, Organic Tomato Sauce with Olives and Capers (organic tomatoes, organic black Peranzana olives, organic extra virgin olive oil, organic capers, organic garlic, sea salt). I didn't really like this one, it was kind of plain for me, but we ate it. I found quite a few ED-friendly ones by Rising Moon Organics at PCC that I'll get next time I want some prepared sauce.

For lunch, we had some spaghetti, and chips/crackers to dip in salsa. My favorite is Salsa de Rosa, mild (hand selected tomato, tomatillo, onion, cilantro, jalapeno, garlic, lemon juice, vinegar, salts) and my daughter likes it too.

Wk 9, Day 5: Asian Pasta Salad

Today was pretty warm, so I wanted something for dinner that required minimal cooking and could be eaten cool. I was torn between Italian or Asian pasta salad, and my daughter said she was in the mood for soy sauce, so that made it easy. I found this recipe. I heated the pasta up just enough to warm it so it became soft, then my daughter waited for it to cool to room temperature before eating it. I made a quick version of the recipe, using our favorite veggies, broccoli and carrots.

Ingredients:
1 package gluten-free/rice pasta (I bet linguini or angel hair would be really good)
1 cup carrots (sliced or shredded)
1 cup broccoli, slivered
3 TB sesame oil
2 TB coconut aminos (in place of soy sauce)
2 cloves garlic
small chunk of fresh ginger, diced
dash of salt and pepper

Directions:
Cook pasta and drain.

I put the veggies on the stove top to steam over medium heat for just as long as it took me to mix everything else up, less than 10 min. They were slightly soft but not overdone.

Put 1 TB sesame oil in a wok or pan, add garlic and ginger and cook until light brown (but not burned). Add cooked pasta and add 2 TB coconut aminos, 2 TB sesame oil, dash of salt and pepper, and steamed veggies. Toss and serve.

Note: I made this with about 1/3 the amount of ingredients because that's all the pasta I already had cooked. It was enough for about 2 servings, and was delicious. If we had more pasta and veggies, I might have added more coconut aminos and sesame oil.

Wk 9, Day 3: Gluten test, oatmeal cookies

We tested gluten over our 4th of July weekend. I thought that would be a fun one to test, since I was fairly certain neither of us were going to react, and we could get all the benefits of getting to eat regular flour with the addition of crackers, toast, etc. We were gluten-free for a month or two earlier this year. After weeks of eating gluten-free, my daughters rash returned, so we stopped eating gluten-free as it seemed to have nothing to do with a possible gluten allergy. As it turns out, we both reacted to the test this weekend. I had a more stuffy nose, stomach gurgles and diarrhea, my daughter's rash flared up on half of her normal spot after the first day, and by the third day, her rash was full blown. She had stomach aches on and off, but no emotional reaction that I noticed. What is this about?

I had assumed that during the ED, we would go many weeks with no reaction to foods, maybe notice some emotional changes with some foods like sugar, but walk away with a very clear idea of what food(s) are causing the rash on her body and some enlightenment on foods that negatively (or positively) affect her moods and energy. At this point, the list of foods she might be allergic to is growing: gluten, soy, black beans, pineapple, pumpkin, squash, possibly cheese and other beans. It's difficult for me to believe she is actually allergic to all of these foods. This reminds me of my sister-in-law when she went through this process but didn't yet know she had Celiac disease. She tested high on an allergy test to a ton of foods because her body was reacting so strongly to the gluten allergy. Once she realized gluten was the issue, removed gluten from her diet and let her body clear out, she tested normal/not allergic to most other foods.

Despite our physical reactions, we did have fun getting to eat homemade tortillas, sandwiches, veggie burgers on wheat buns, and other gluten-filled goodies. On the 4th, we made red, white and blue scones with strawberries, blueberries and coconut sprinkled on top with regular flour.




























Oatmeal Cookies
I adapted a recipe from allrecipes.com, with some ED-friendly changes. The flavor was fantastic, but they fell apart very easily. I'm pretty sure I'll be trying these gluten-free sometime soon.

3/4 cup Canola oil
1/2 cup brown rice syrup
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 eggs (used egg replacer)
1 1/4 cup unbleached flour
2 3/4 cups rolled oats
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 good shakes of cinnamon
1 shake nutmeg

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

1) In a large bowl, mix together oil, brown rice syrup and maple syrup. Whisk together egg replacer with water as instructed on the egg replacer box and add to mixture.

2) In a separate bowl, mix together flour, oats, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg. Add to liquid ingredients. (note: this recipe came out a little wet for me so I added about 1/4 cup more flour and a sprinkle more oats. it ended up being very crumbly, so next time I might not add any more flour or oats).

3) Spoon onto greased baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.

Wk 8, Day 1: Coconut Aminos

We've started using Coconut Secret's Coconut Aminos as a replacement for soy sauce. I love it! It really does taste like soy sauce. Not only are we adding it straight over stir frys, but also I'm using it as an ingredient we've been missing in macaroni and cheese and different sauces.

Last night we made a mixture of Sunbutter, coconut milk, coconut aminos and salt. We were aiming for a kind of peanut sauce. I also made a coconut curry. Nice to have some new options for dinner sauces.

Week 6, Day 6: Burgers and Fries, Fried Rice & Sweet Potato Fries

Wow. It's hard to explain how excited I was to find a burger that we can eat. I was at Central Market, about to buy some more protein powder, when I realized I was pretty sure it's about 7 bucks cheaper at PCC (note: I re-checked, and the PCC version is not organic, so that's why), when I was struck with a hunger for veggie burgers. I wandered over to the frozen section and looked at the options, then saw Sunshine Burgers, which I've been eating on and off for a year or more. I picked them up and read the package, and lo and behold - 2 of the 3 kinds are ED friendly. Actually, all 3 are, but their Southwest flavor has black beans, and since my daughter reacted to those (I think), we are avoiding them.

We tried the first of two kinds tonight, Sunflower's organic Garden Herb burgers (organic cooked brown rice, organic ground raw sun-flower seeds, organic carrots, organic herbs and sea salt.) We had a side of fries, Alexia organic Yukon Gold Julienne Fries with Sea Salt. The ingredients include citric acid. I remember reading something about citric acid being a no-no online, but I really need to check the info from our doctor. I felt it was worth it to avoid washing potatoes and pulling out the mandolin slicer to make my own fries. My daughter was thrilled with the fries, of course, but was only so-so about the burger, even with the avocado, which she likes some days and not others. She agreed to finish the burger (8 grams of protein!) in exchange for another round of fries. I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to bribe my children into eating food with rewards of other food, but I'm okay with it today. I pondered making gluten free biscuits to create hamburger buns, but I decided to play with the kids instead. It was worth it! And, I looooved dinner. It felt good to eat something that seems normal.



Last night I made some garlic and ginger fried rice and sweet potato fries. Super yummy and a hit with both of us.

Week 6, Day 4: Rice pudding

This morning I decided to make something different for breakfast, to try and distract my daughter from the fact that she is no longer eating cheese.

I made rice pudding, roughly based on this recipe.



I mixed together 3/4 cup cooked brown rice (I was thinking about how much oatmeal we usually eat, but I forgot that oatmeal expands, so it didn't turn out to be as much for both of us as I had thought it would be), 3/4 cup rice milk, 1 TB maple syrup and heated on stove top until most of the liquid was absorbed by the rice. Once off the stove top, I added a little cinnamon and salt. Both my daughter and I liked it. I served it with a protein smoothie, vitamins, water, and half a banana. We were good and full.

I took of picture of her lunch because she assembled it, and it's a nice simple balanced alternative to her usual lunch of pasta primavera. We use raw nuts and seeds, and today I sprinkled a little salt on the seeds, as she usually won't eat many of them without it, and then, what's the point?. That goopy stuff is sunflower seed spread, which really is pretty good when you dip crackers or carrots in it. Almost like peanut butter, but not quite. And, a little cup of applesauce. I think I might try making some peanut butter cookies soon, substituting the sunflower seed spread for peanut butter.

Week 6, Day 1: “Happy Cheese Day!”

My daughter woke us up this morning, excited for "Cheese day". Our Naturopath advised us that 2 slices of cheese with each meal 3 times a day (for 3 days) is the correct amount for testing dairy. We bought 2 kinds of organic cheese for testing: pre-sliced mild cheddar and a block of mozzarella. We melted 1 slice per meal over pasta or potato, and she wanted to just eat the other slices by themselves. She was so excited this morning, she was giddy. It has been about a year since she has had any cheese. My husband talked with her this morning about how we need to watch for energy or emotional reactions today, and so after breakfast she let me know she felt great, and right before dinner said, "I know you want to know how I feel, not how excited I am, but how my body is feeling from eating cheese, and I want you to know my body is feeling great."

We spent most of our day out in the sunshine, and it's been a while since we've done that, so I wanted to make sure she wasn't dehydrated. I had her drink 2 glasses of water with dinner. After dinner, in the bathtub, she started crying. The initial reason was that her brother picked a "movie" from a stack of DVD's she selected to watch tonight - he picked Charlie and Lola, which is quite tame and she said she doesn't like it and feels very frustrated and sad that she doesn't know why, even though she put it in the pile for him to pick from. Then she said she was crying (which she still was) because she misses her protein powder because it makes her body feel good (we aren't taking it because her cheese consumption covers her daily requirement of protein), then said her tummy was hurting. She started coming up with non-cheese related excuses why this could be. Too much water too quickly. Too much to eat. Then I talked with my husband, and we did the same thing. Too much sun today, not enough sleep last night. Uh-oh. I know it's possible (I mean, I think it's possible) that her tummy could be hurting from trying to process cheese for the first time in a year. Also, from drinking too much water too quickly. But honestly, if I had to guess, I would say this is definitely a food reaction, since her temperament has been fairly even for weeks (although, come to think of it, she did have a giant tantrum last week that is completely out of the ordinary for her). But the emotional reaction of crying in addition to her upset stomach makes me wonder if tomorrow we are going to start seeing some physical reactions to cheese.

Week 5, Day 3: Spring rolls & A-ha!

Well, I learned a few things today. I was about to start making an Indian curry dish for dinner when my daughter came over to urge me to make something different ("yuck! curry..yuck!") so I looked around our pantry and came up with spring rolls. I've been avoiding making these, or any Asian food because we can't use soy sauce or peanuts, which are apparently two of my favorite ingredients now that I can't eat them.

So, I spent the following hour and a half making spring rolls - well, searching the internet for soy-free sauces and making spring rolls intermittently, and trying different variations of canola oil, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, salt and coconut milk to come up with a sauce my daughter would eat. She sampled and we came up with one she liked (all ingredients minus coconut milk). I poured the sauce into a ziplock bag, then added lettuce, cabbage, cucumber, carrots, and cooked rice noodles into the bag to marinate. I then added ingredients to a rice spring roll wrapper, added a little avocado and I thought they tasted pretty darn good. I made some for my daughter minus cabbage and lettuce at her request. She ate one roll, then told me she was full. And also, didn't like them. Meanwhile, I was cooking a separate soy sauce noodles and veggie dish for my 2 year old, which he ultimately pushed away and didn't want to eat.

I would have taken a picture of the spring rolls, but I was so hungry I ate them before I had a chance to get a picture. However, here's a picture of the remaining ingredients I made when I was cleaning up and made one final large spring roll for tomorrow:



My goal for next week is to be more organized about what I'll be cooking ahead of time. Also, I'm learning that as much as I like to let my daughter voice her opinions, she doesn't like a good amount of what I cook, regardless of whether she suggested the dish or not, so I should just make whatever I want. It's taking me a little while to actually get that it's okay for me to just prepare a healthy dinner of my choice, taking their preferences into account, and say, "Eat it if you're hungry. Otherwise, go play."

Here's a few links I found while making spring rolls today. I found some yummy recipes I'd like to try out at some point:

Raw Vegan Spinach Manicotti

Chia Pudding

Soy-free soy sauce recipe

Book of Yum (GF, Soy-free Vegetarian recipes)

Vegweb Spring Rolls

Week 5, Day 2: Raspberry Scones & Tortillas

I'm planning to wait out week 5, since my daughter had another rash breakout a few days ago. I'm not sure what was the cause, but it might have been something from a party she attended. She received and used a Tootsie Roll flavored lip balm with ingredients too small to read, and I'm wondering if that was the cause. She also had some green peas (from her restricted list) that day, and some non-organic potato chips (other than being made from non-organic potatoes, they were safe). In any case, I am most comfortable waiting out this week before testing cheese, of all foods. It's the one food that appears to have caused most of the initial damage to my daughter in terms of physical reactions, and I really need to make sure she's reacting to it when we test it, and not something else, like lip balm.

My daughter asked me to make more Wondie bars for this week's breakfasts, and as much as I truly love them, I think I'm ready for a break and something new for breakfast. I looked to The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen for something new, and picked Raspberry Scones. It did require a trip to the grocery store for xanthan gum, different flours and shortening (Spectrum Organic palm oil), but I decided I should really start buying these items since it looks like we could be eating this way for quite a while, perhaps through the summer. We used coconut milk and skipped the vanilla. These turned out so delicious! I think they are the most decadent treat we've had so far on the ED, and I think anyone, restricted diet or not, would enjoy these. The whole house had a nice raspberry coconut smell.



My daughter was excited when she learned we could eat shortening, as that means we can try making tortillas, one of her favorite foods that her grandma taught her to make. I tried one batch with brown rice flour that didn't have very good flavor, then tried another batch with gluten free all-purpose flour, and that batch was pretty good, although I never quite struck the right balance between too dry (crack when rolled out) and too wet (stick to the counter when rolled out). I'll post the recipe once I find the right balance.

We stacked macaroni and cheese sauce (for cheese), mashed potatoes and pinto beans on top. I think avocados and a side salad would have been a nice addition, but my daughter wasn't too interested in either of those. All in all, a successful day!

Week 4, Day 7: Frosting & Pollen Allergy

I made some frosting today roughly based on a Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen recipe. I mixed 1-2 TB canola oil, maple syrup and arrowroot powder. I love that they recommend adding crushed beet (squeezed through a garlic press) to add a pink color! How creative, since we are avoiding artificial colors. My daughter was very happy with the frosting which was good on the gingerbread cookies we made a few days ago (which are vanishing quickly, because I keep eating them). Also, I noticed a cake (on the same page as the frosting recipe, above) I could make on this diet, except for the cocoa powder and vanilla. I might try it, if there's an occasion. Maybe 4th of July? We'll see. We used to eat dessert almost every day, after lunch and after dinner. I'm kind of liking this excuse to eat considerably less goodies.

Also, I found out a likely cause for my daughters coughing, stomach aches and sore throat. We went to her pediatrician yesterday and they swabbed her nose and discovered she is allergic to some kind of pollen that's in the air right now. Apparently, post nasal drip can be responsible for stomach aches. The doctor said it could just be spring pollen and clear up by the end of June, or she may also be allergic to summer pollen. The way she suggested we figure out which it is, and to verify that in fact this is what's causing all of her symptoms is to put her on Claritin. However, when I checked with our Naturopath, she said we should hold off on using Claritin for as long as possible as it will interfere with the elimination diet. So, we'll wait on that. It's good to know that a pollen allergy is a possible cause of the worsening cough and mild stomach aches, although it would be great to verify this and give her some relief from it. At this point I'm hoping it will clear up on its own in the next few weeks.

Week 4, Day 5: Gingerbread cookies

We are waiting out this week in hopes that my daughter will be back to 100% by Saturday so we can start her testing phase. In addition to her flare-ups over the past few weeks, she has also had a bit of a cold, which her Naturopath said could interfere with the results of the testing. We've come this far, so I'd really like to be sure about whether or not she's reacting to foods during the testing phase.

In anticipation of a party she has coming up this weekend, we baked some gingerbread cookies. One of the party activities is decorating sugar cookies, and I thought it would be nice if she could decorate (and eat) cookies too. I asked her if it was okay that she would be decorating a different kind of cookie, and she responded, "Yes, it's ok, I mean the point is to decorate something. It will still be fun." Sometimes I think I come up with things to worry about,  because clearly this child isn't concerned about being different.



So, I followed a recipe from vegweb, substituting gluten free all-purpose flour, rice syrup for molasses, skipped all ginger (because we were out of powdered and I didn't want to risk fresh ginger being too strong for my daughter). It made a good firm cookie for decorating, but doesn't have much flavor. My daughter sampled one tonight and said, "they're ok", which I will happily accept. I'm going to make some frosting for her to bring so she can decorate them with raisins, and anything else I come up with between now and the party that seems like it could be glued to a gingerbread cookie.

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 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.