Sneaky Meatballs (Grain Free, Paleo and GAPS friendly)

The GAPS diet focuses heavily on soups and stews made with homemade stock.  Since my little ones' diets consisted primarily of finger foods before beginning the diet, getting them to eat soup was a bit tricky.  I also needed to hide the veggies in order to get them to eat cooked vegetables.  I started making them Sneaky Meatballs packed with veggies that I could serve in homemade stock to get them to eat.  These meatballs could also be eaten alone or served with your favorite spaghetti sauce.

Simply combine 2 lbs of ground meat (beef or turkey), 1 large carrot shredded, 1 zucchini shredded, 1 yellow squash shredded, and 1/2 a large onion shredded.

Just form them into balls and bake on cookie sheets for about 30 minutes.

They are great right out of the oven.  I typically make extra and freeze some for later use.  In order to freeze them, you'll need to first transfer the cooked meatballs onto a clean cookie sheet to freeze.  Once frozen, then transfer them to a large freezer bag to store.  Then you can pull out as many as you want at a time for a snack or meal for the kids.

Where have I been?

The simple answer is learning and experimenting.  I decided to enroll in the health coach certification program through Integrative Nutrition.  My goal is to create a health coaching practice to help families navigate diet changes and healing.  I've been working through coursework and continuing to make changes in my own family's diet.

Despite being gluten and dairy free, my teenage son was still having a difficult time with digestive issues and brain fog.  I'm not entirely sure whether the problem was trace amounts of gluten or other food intolerances or allergies.  Either way, we felt like we needed to at least try something a little bit more dramatic to make things better.  I had run across the Gut and Psychology Syndrome: Natural Treatment for Autism, Dyspraxia, A.D.D., Dyslexia, A.D.H.D., Depression, Schizophrenia by Natasha Campbell-McBride on several different websites, the center where my kids received therapy had recommended it, and then I came across it again in one of the supplemental lectures available through Integrative Nutrition.  I finally decided to take the time to view the lecture, and I immediately felt like Dr. Campbell-McBride was describing my son.  From a young age, he suffered from eczema, unexplainable, seemingly random rashes, ear infections, environmental allergies, asthma, etc. resulting in frequent rounds of antibiotics and steroids.  Yes, I was able to keep him alive and breathing, but he just got weaker and weaker.  It took a daily regimen of medications to keep him going, but he still suffered from digestive problems and was constantly sick.  While never diagnosed with a spectrum related disorder, he struggled with eye contact, was hypersensitive to touch, noise, and light, and became increasingly withdrawn.  After getting a celiac diagnosis, we did start to see some improvement in him, but many of the symptoms still lingered.  Simply eliminating the gluten did not repair the damage already done.  The Gut and Psychology Syndrome diet or GAPS diet outlined by Dr. Campbell-McBride focuses on not only eliminating the damaging foods, but also taking steps to heal the gut lining and restore the balance of healthy, beneficial bacteria in the gut to restore physical, mental, and emotional health.

Interested in learning more about how gut health impacts are overall well being?  Check out this short video:


Black Friday was the beginning of our GAPS journey.  After enjoying Thanksgiving with our family, we started the GAPS diet as a family which meant transitioning to a totally grain and sugar free diet with nourishing homemade bone broths and probiotic foods to heal our guts.  It hasn't been easy, and the first few days were particularly difficult as the entire family went through a detox process, but the results are promising.  My son is doing better, and finally seems to have relief from digestive pain and suffering.  He is also slowly coming out of the fog and becoming more socially interactive.  In addition, his brother and sister are showing fewer and fewer signs of sensory processing disorder.  My husband and I both look dramatically different.  He has lost 20 pounds in the past six weeks without trying, and both of us have clearer, healthy skin and complexions.  Something is differently changing in all of us.

So where do I go from here? My plan is continue my path to becoming a health coach and returning to sharing recipes on this blog from our new lifestyle.  Cooking grain free is new to me, but I've getting better and more confident in my new cooking style everyday and am excited to start sharing some of my great finds and recipe creations.

Easy, Kid Friendly Dinner

We had guests over yesterday afternoon, and I didn't have time for any preparations for dinner.  I needed a quick, fix for dinner.  Voila! In a just a few minutes, dinner was served.

 Just a few simple ingredients:

1 cup of quinoa cooked with 2 cups of water in a rice cooker
1 lb cooked ground beef
Mrs. Dash Tomato Basil seasoning to taste (or only other preferred seasoning)
2 cups of frozen peas (Or any other vegetable that you have available that the kids like)

First, start the quinoa in the rice cooker so that it can cook while you prepare the ground beef and peas.  Brown the ground meat and add seasoning (It would also be great with some onions as well).  Then just combine all the ingredients in bowls to serve.

Any suggestions on what to call this dish?  It's similar to the hamburger hash that I had as a kid just with quinoa instead of potatoes.  Not sure, but the kids love it!

Allergy Friendly Halloween

While for the most part, my children do not feel like they are on a restricted diet.  They aren't deprived, they just eat differently.  However, I have been a little bit worried about Halloween.  How do you stick to a gluten, dairy, soy, and dye free diet on the most candy-filled night of the year? Well, for the most part our plan is to make a new tradition.  Instead of trick-or-treating, we are hosting a Halloween carnival of sorts with some games for all the kids to play as they stop by on Halloween night including pumpkin mini golf, bean bag toss, spider ring toss, tin can game, and make your own halloween bracelet.  Our prizes include glow-in-the dark bugs, spider rings, small coloring books, stickers, and sticky hands.  My kids attend a Montessori preschool that encourages families to limit sugar and gluten in their children's diet, so we also handed out invitations to their classmates to  attend our carnival. The kids are very excited about hosting the carnival and handing out prizes to their friends.  In fact, maybe a little too excited.  I think that it's going to be a long day waiting for the fun!  Hopefully, all will go well, and the carnival will be a great success.

 In addition, I also have a couple of treats for the children such as YummyEarth Organic Lollipops and Mott's Medleys Assorted Fruit Flavored Snacks.

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Homemade, Dairy Free Chocolate Recipe
For an extra special treat, I made them some homemade, dairy free chocolate.   It's simple to make with just coconut oil, honey, and cocoa powder.  You just melt 1 cup of coconut oil on low heat, remove from heat once melted, stir in 1/4 to 1/2 cup of honey (to desired sweetness), whisk in 1 cup of unsweetened, powdered cocoa, and pour in a glass pan or candy molds.  I put the molds in the freezer for a few minutes to solidify the chocolate.  Since coconut has a low melting point, these chocolates need to be stored in the refrigerator until ready to eat.  

Drop Sugar Cookies (Gluten and Dairy Free)

I wanted something sweet today that was easy to make and didn't require a trip to the store. I also wanted to try out a new gluten free flour blend that I found at Costco recently. I simply modified an old drop sugar cookie recipe to make it gluten and dairy free.

1 1/3 cups gluten free flour (Namaste Perfect Flour Blend)
3/4 tsp gluten free baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup coconut oil
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp gluten free vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350. 2. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. 3. In large bowl, beat coconut oil, sugar, egg, and vanilla until light and fluffy. 4. Add flour mixture and beat on low just until combined. 5. Drop by rounded teaspoon on ungreased baking sheet. 6. Bake 10-12 minutes until edges are lightly brown. Makes approximately 24 cookies.

Freezer Muffins

Not only do my kids have multiple food issues, but they are also picky and sometimes down right stubborn about what they will eat.  Sound familiar?  I like to sneak fruit and vegetables along with healthy fats into muffins.  Shhh!  Don't tell them that they ate zucchini today.  I always make a double batch and freeze half of them for later whenever I make muffins.  They make a great snack to have on hand.  You can just pop them in the microwave for 1 minute to thaw them, and they taste like they are fresh from the oven.  It's my teenagers favorite after school snack.

Here's some of our favorite muffins recipes:

Banana Muffins - I just make this recipe, and bake in a muffin tin.  Lately, I have been substituting the canola oil with coconut oil and replacing the sugar with 1/2 cup of honey.  These are the kid's favorites.

Zucchini Muffins- Just make this as muffins for a grab and go snack.  I use coconut oil instead of vegetable oil and use my own gluten free flour mix (3/4 cup Sorghum Flour, 3/4 Brown Rice Flour, and 1/2 cup Potato Starch).  I also leave out the nuts because we have a peanut allergy, and I worry about cross contamination with other tree nuts.

Pumpkin Muffins - Since the kids prefer muffins, I just make this recipe as muffins.  To keep it dairy free, just substitute coconut oil for butter.  I have been using some frozen pumpkin puree that I have on hand from last season instead of canned pumpkin, but either one will work fine.  I also have found that you can reduce the amount of sugar to 3/4 cup.  I'm planning to experiment with alternative sweeteners such as honey or agave nectar next time.  I use the same flour mix as above (3/4 cup Sorghum Flour, 3/4 Brown Rice Flour, and 1/2 cup Potato Starch).

OMG, My Body Really Hates Gluten

I have been "glutened" twice in the past couple of weeks, and I have been feeling completely miserable.  My typical symptoms include a few hours of intense stomach pain followed by several days of digestive issues including constipation, bloating, and gas.  Then the fun includes flu-like body aches and pains, and a return of my joint pain.  All the while, I struggle with anxiety and just plain moodiness.  Unfortunately, my daughter was included in one of the occasions, so not only did I feel bad but I also had to try to manage an unhappy little girl with many of the same symptoms.  Yuck!

Cross contamination can be a major problem if you happen to be one of the unlucky ones who are highly sensitive.  We are completely gluten free at home, but I'm discovering that eating food from restaurants or homes without gluten free kitchens can be even trickier than I thought.  My first "glutening" happened at a party.  The host graciously provided hamburgers with gluten free buns for us, along with fresh fruit and vegetables, and even made "gluten free" cupcakes.  Somehow something must have been cross-contaminated though because my daughter and I both started having stomach pains within a couple of hours.  Just about the time that I was starting to feel better from the party incident, it happened again.  This time from a salad bar. Thankfully, it was just me though.  Check out this great link if you need more information about how to prevent cross-contamination:
Safety Tips for Avoiding Cross Contamination.  To all of my friends and family, I apologize ahead of time, but I will be asking lots of questions about any food that my family eats or just bringing our own food to social events.  We have to stay healthy to function.

So what do you do if you get accidentally get "glutened"?  I am by no means offering medical advice, but we have found a few things that seem to help get through it.  For my family members, the inflammation from the gluten exposure causes constipation, so we immediately start taking MiraLax.  I have also found that focusing on eating as clean as possible and including anti-inflammatory foods helps as well as drinking lots of green tea.  We also take anti-inflammatory medication such as ibuprofen or naproxen sodium to reduce inflammation and reduce the body ache symptoms.  This past time, I even tried using activated charcoal since I had read on many blogs that others found it helpful in detoxifying their bodies after a gluten exposure.  I'm not sure yet whether it was helpful, but I plan to use it right away the next I start experiencing gluten symptoms.  I have also been reading about GlutenEase a product designed to help in the digestion of gluten.  While it is NOT a cure for celiac disease, it does appear that some find it helpful in recovering from an accidental exposure.  I read on several blogs that others have found it helpful to take it before eating in situations where cross-contamination is a threat.  I have some on hand to try.

What works for you?  I'd love to hear if you've tried any of these methods or have other tips to share on dealing with accidental "glutening".