Recipe Review - Zucchini Pizza Crust from The Gluten-Free Homemaker

I was the blessed recipient of a bag of zucchini and Linda of The Gluten-free Homemaker recently posted a recipe for Zucchini Pizza Crust. Our family is a crispy crust bunch so I added 1 cup of cheese to the crust instead of 1/2 cup. I also salted the shredded zucchini and let it sit in a colander over a bowl for about 45 minutes, then squeezing it to remove some moisture, so I did not add salt to the crust. Instead of tomato/pizza sauce I added 1 minced clove of garlic to 1 tablespoon of olive oil and brushed it on the cooked crust, topping it with cheese and prosciutto. The Booger pulled the topping and cheese off and just ate the crust (that's ok, he's still eating vegetables). Eddie liked how crispy the crust was. Thanks Linda!

Blog Neglect

I've been so busy lately I haven't had time to blog. But it's for good cause. The city park in our little town is desperately in need of upgrades, with no city funds to do it. A group of us mothers decided to form a group to raise money for new playground equipment. We started talking with others who also longed for walking trails, a pavilion... So we started a community group to raise money and fix up our park. It's a big project and I have been trying to get as much done before school starts. I'm in a busy, blurry tailspin, but at the same time it is so exciting to see the community coming together. Even kids are getting involved. A very worthwhile endeavor.

Here's a link to the Booger's TV interview: http://bigcountryhomepage.com/fulltext?nxd_id=517522

I started posting parks we visit at: http://playgroundsandpicnics.blogspot.com/
Another playground planning committee member has contributed too. We hope to design something unique for ours.

Of course I will be making SCD goodies for the bake sale.

Interesting Stuff from Other Bloggers

I used to try not to let a week go by without a post. This year has been too busy to keep up with. I just didn't want to let a month come and go without posting something. Luckily there are some facinating talks posted by other bloggers. If you haven't seen these blogs yet, you may enjoy them:

Kristina at the Intestinal Gardener provides a link to this TEDtalk by Jonathan Eisen. Mr. Eisen is "a pioneer in the study of microbial diversity" and his talk is about the importance of gut flora. He thinks of gut flora as another vital organ.

Sierra at Roos Clues provides a link to a TEDtalk by Dr Terry Wahl's. Dr. Wahl's used a grain-free high nutrient diet to overcome debilatating Mutiple Sclerosis. She also has a great book called "Minding My Mitichondria". (although not all recipes in the book are grain-free)

Tom Naughton of Fat Head posts his speech called "Crisis in Nutrition". Although it's about diabetes and obesity, it does an entertaining job of questioning politically correct nutrition.

I hope you are all having a wonderful summer. I hope to get some recipes up soon.

Chewy N'Oatmeal Raisin Cookies - (SCD)

This is really Lucy Rosset's Cinnamon Cookie recipe with minor tweaks. Four years ago my son was on a rotation diet and I made these with pecan meal instead of almond flour. The result reminded me of chewy oatmeal raisin cookies. I have found them to be even better with this ratio of pecan meal and almond flour.

The original recipe can be found in Lucy's Specific Carbohydrate Cookbook sold at Lucy's Kitchen Shop, Digestive Wellness, and Amazon. It is grain-free and junk-free. There is also a wonderful Garlic-Parmesan Bread recipe in this book that is one of our favorites.

Chewy N'Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (SCD)

4 TBSP. Butter, melted
1/3 Cup of Honey
1 1/3 cup Pecan Meal
2/3 cup Almond Flour
1 teas. Cinnamon
1/8 teas. Salt
1/4 teas. Baking Soda
1/2 cup Raisins

Preheat oven to 285 degrees. Butter a cookie sheet or place a piece of parchment paper on it (preferred). Mix melted butter and honey in a small bowl. Combine dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl (except raisins). Stir wet ingredients into dry. Stir in raisins. Roll into 1" balls, place on cookie sheet and flatten slightly with hand. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes until done.

This post is linked to Fightback Fridays and Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays.

"The F Word: Forgiveness" from One Human Journey

I know I haven't written much lately, I have been so busy, all with good stuff, but little time to post. I stumbled across a post called "The F Word: Forgiveness" from One Human Journey and I just had to pass this on...it's too lovely not to.

To understand why this topic is so important to me, a little of my background info (this isn't the most comfortable thing to talk about, kinda difficult, but this is why this post touched me so): My brother, now 42, has autism. He's very bright and yet he never reached his potential because my parents were never told he could have a potential. They were told the worst thing you could tell someone with a special needs child..."there's nothing you can do". So there they were with this kid, a rare condition, there's nothing they can do, no one in the same boat to even swap stories with, and they had to cope somehow. Like most parents of special needs kids there is no where to put the anger and negative feelings you may have to deal with. Their other child, me, was full of questions, giggles, and into everything, clueless to my parents need to grieve (or whatever it is they needed).  I think they tended to overreact to my annoying ways as a way to put those feelings somewhere. I always thought there was a bit of a black cloud over our family. I know if the doctors had told my parents to keep working with him to help him reach his potential, they would have done more and felt better.

When autism struck our family again, it was a big blow to my parents. Our son regressed into autism at age 2. But their heartbreak was soon relieved by our son's diet response and my Celiac diagnoses. They had finally gotten some answers  (gluten and gut issues) as to what was plaguing our family. The best news was there was something that could be done. That dark cloud seemed to disintegrate. My own dark cloud disappeared as well when I could understand what my parents had been through.

The other side of the family had a much different reaction, aimed right at me and our son's diet. Although we were working with a nutritionist, an allergist, and a gi doctor, they decided I was lying about the gluten and other allergy issues, and made comments about the potential for CPS to be called on me. No effort was made to learn anything about the diet or our sons health issues. This went on for a couple of months (this was 2008). My husband finally had to step in. There was absolutely nothing he could say on my behalf, so he had to explain they were insinuating him as well. I suspect some of them did what they did out of sheer meanness. But others, faced with the horrible news of autism, found it easier to demonize me than to deal with the autism (deja-vu for me).  One of those members didn't want to be stuck in the middle, while trying to avoid autism, and found it easier to jump on that bandwagon. Luckily things have calmed down and my mother-in-law makes the most delicious SCD baked goods for my son. I think she has really started to understand more. The others have varying degrees of acceptance.

It took a few years of struggling with shell shock to understand something very important: the power of forgiveness (especially when you can make no sense of someones behavior). I could be bitter or I could let it go, and living with the bitterness was just awful. The whole reason I am writing this is not to get any sympathy, or to get back at my in-laws (they are only human), those are the last thing I want. I just want to mention this because I think we all struggle with something similar, and those of us with compromised immune systems do not need this additional burden. I think resentment and negative feelings can undermine all of the work we put into trying to regain health. We also have to realize with autism, adhd, autoimmunity, cancer, etc...more and more people are forced to deal things that were never this common. Attacking someone else may be a coping mechanism.

I feel so blessed to stumble upon "The F Word: Forgiveness". Feeding our mind with healing messages can have same the powerful impact as feeding our bodies with healing foods, and maybe more.