Happy Everything 2012

As 2012 comes to a close, here's wishing everyone a warm holiday season. My posts have been sparse this year due to projects and such. I'm hoping to accomplish more on this blog next February after my student teaching stint is up. I will be hosting Go Ahead Honey It's Gluten Free in July. Naomi is leaning her blog carnival toward a more primal theme in 2013, which means more grain-free recipes. Her blog, Straight Into Bed Cakefree and Dried, has a wealth of SCD/GAPS and grain-free recipes if you haven't seen it yet.

The Real Bears

Ever wonder what happened to those polar bears on the Coca Cola commercials? This version comes from The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). It's very cute.

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.

Roast Tenderloin with Parmesan Herb Crust- for Turkey or Pork (SCD)

I haven't meant to neglect this blog for so long. Just to give a snapshot of my life: this week I go in at 6 a.m. to open the store, run home to make breakfast and pack lunches, then go to the local school to substitute teach, then run to Abilene afterwards for store errands or the Boogers soccer practice. Life gets so busy sometimes. That's what I like about this recipe. It comes together in a snap. While it's roasting I can get other things done. I make enough for leftovers and lunches. You can half the recipe if you are cooking for one.

Roast Tenderloin with Parmesan Herb Crust- for Turkey or Pork (SCD)

2 Tenderloins, Turkey or Pork (about 1 1/2 pds each, or so)
Salt and Pepper
1/2 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
1 or 2 TBSP Herbes de Provence*
2 TBSP Cooking Oil or Cooking Fat (I used Olive Oil)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Season tenderloins with salt and pepper.  Combine cheese and herbs in a small bowl. Use a small roasting pan that will hold meat in a single layer. Pour oil in pan. Place tenderloins in the roasting pan and roll in oil. Press half of cheese mixture on one side of tenderloins, roll over and press the rest on the other side, covering all of the tenderloin. Roast 45 to 50 minutes until they test 160 degrees with a meat thermometer. Slice and serve.

*Herbes de Provence is an herb blend from the south of France. It is wonderful on poultry and is a mix of marjoram, rosemary, sage, savory, thyme, lavender, basil, parsley and sometimes fennel, chervil and garlic. If you can't find Herbes de Provence, than any combination of three or more of those herbs would work nicely.

This post is linked to Real Food Wednesdays.

Sports Heros with Food Allergies...What More Could a Mother Ask For?

Early into the discovery of my son's food issues I had all kinds of feelings going on. I was thrilled that diet made such a drastic relief in his autism and gi issues. Uncovering his food allergies and changing our diet, while not easy at first, was a huge blessing for us. Like any mother though, I had to wonder if this would make him feel left out or different than everyone else. I remember looking at what celiac and food allergy teenagers had posted on various message boards. The children whose families embraced the food issues and, for the most part, made an effort to incorporate the dietary needs into family meals, seemed well adjusted. The children whose families kept the meals separate seemed to feel quite lonely, and not just at mealtime but in general as well. My in laws, at the time, were trying to make things as difficult for us as they could.  I think part of that was the stigma they associated with it all. I was worried about how this would impact my son, but as time went on they adjusted as well. At Easter, little cousins wanted toys in their filled eggs just like Gordon's (proving that maybe it's the adults that want the candy in the eggs more than the kids). Last Valentines Day one in law even brought gluten-free cupcakes to his class party. Life, even though it's gluten-free and loaded with a few other food issues, is still as typical as it can be for my son.

Every year our school has an open house night the week before school starts. Students and parents get to visit the child's future class and meet the new teacher. This time, after visiting my son's class, he wanted to see his old kindergarten room. I assumed it was to say "hi" to his old teacher. He actually wanted to meet the new kindergartner with food allergies. He had heard there would be another little boy with food allergies and it was very important to meet him. It dawned on me that he needed to know he wasn't singled out (I have food issues too, but that's not enough).

I was excited to find this article in Baseball Nation called "Food Allergies: BSOHL Of The Future?", about three baseball players recently diagnosed with food allergies. Little boys tend to idolize sports stars, my husband loves to watch sports and big family get-togethers usually wind up with the men sitting in front of some sort of sport game yelling at the t.v.. So the idea that some of these players can't have some of the same foods he can't has this mom cheering.

Eggs in a Hoola Hoop (SCD, GFCF)

This egg dish has been floating around the internet for awhile and I finally tried it.

The ingredients are obvious: eggs, bell pepper rings sliced about 1/3" thick (yellow, orange, and red bell peppers are much milder than green), a little fat for frying, salt and peper. I cooked the pepper rings for about 2 minutes per side before adding an egg to each one.


Here's the recipes from around the web:

Flower Power Eggs from Apron Strings

Fried Eggs in a Bell Pepper Ring from Food Renegade

Roasted Bell Pepper Egg in the Basket from Z's Cup of Tea

Bell Peppered Eggs from Back to Her Roots

Eggs Fried with Tomato in Bell Pepper Ring from Enjoy Your Cooking

Bell Pepper Egg-In-A-Hole from Shutterbean (Use SCD legal toast)

My Funny Valentine

Valentines day is suppose to be for lovers, but to doctors it's business as usual. Gordon and I had our bi-annual appointment today with our gi doctor. It was a routine check-up and we were seen by a newer nurse practitioner. When she asked how I was doing I told her about my slight gluten-ization at Thanksgiving that had thrown me off a bit. I suspect it made me more susceptible to a cold and possibly the bout of food poisoning. I've finally had my energy level back to normal the past couple of weeks and have been trying to catch-up on everything. I've just been very burpy and such (not sexy, I know). She asked if I was taking a probiotic (nice surprise), and I said yes. I told her about my history with the SCD. I had been able to add a few non-SCD things back to my diet for awhile, but I'm thinking I might need to just eat strict SCD for a bit and see if it helps. She didn't bat an eye and said to at least give it a try for a month. I couldn't believe the SCD was being discussed in a mainstream gi doctors practice! The coincidence...it was Dr. Sidney V. Haas who developed the SCD diet and was convinced the wrong bacteria feed on certain carbs to cause gi symptoms. The "V" stands for "Valentine" as he was born on February 14, 1870.

Food and Bugs - Two Different TED Talks

There are two different TED talks here that I found very interesting. Both talks are fascinating and easy to understand. TED talks have a short format, under 18 minutes I believe.

The first one is from Stephan Guyenet on "The American Diet: a Historical Perspective". He discusses the different composition of diet today versus about a hundred years ago. There has been enough of a change to raise a few eyebrows. Stephan also has a blog Whole Health Source.


The second TED talk is from Bonnie Bassler on "How Bacteria Talk" (just scroll down to the little TED screen). Ms. Bessler is a microbial geneticist at Princeton University.  In the late 1990's she was studying the glowing bacteria in angler fish (if you've seen Finding Nemo, this is the monster fish with the "pretty light"). She tried to figure out how they all knew to glow at the same time. Up till then, for the most part, bacteria were not considered intelligent enough to communicate with each other. She discovered that not only do they communicate, they are multi-lingual. The have an intra-species language and a sort of universal language that most bacteria seem to understand.

2012 and Interesting Article on Gut Flora and Rheumatoid Arthritis

One of my favorite 2011 photos, my son and my mom

I did not mean to take an unintentional blog hiatus. I was accidentally glutened at Thanksgiving. It was only slight, somehow I ingested a crumb. I only hurt for a couple of days but was a little off and brain foggy. I think it would have passed quickly but it was the holidays.... If I had stayed away from sweets I would have been fine. It was not the time for "just a little won't hurt thinking". Our dry windy winter weather had me in and out of a couple of sinus infections that had me dragging. Then I had a nasty bout with food poisoning. When the day of body aches went away I woke up feeling so clear headed, something I had not felt in a couple of months. The next day I got up and felt draggy again, dreading that the sinus infection had returned and feeling a bit defeated. When I stepped outside the sky was an orange grey hazy color. So I was happy to know it wasn't just me, I was responding like everyone else to the lovely dust bowl that blew in... I'm ready for Spring. Usually I do a post at the beginning of each year looking behind and looking ahead. This one is a little late, but better late than never.

I am hoping to do a few interview posts this year. There are more and more grain-free cookbook authors and SCD stories coming out, it's nice to get to know the people behind them. My husband and I own a small business, which is slow and struggling at the moment. I thought I could take advantage of the slow time and I am attempting to put my own research down into a book. It's so daunting, we'll see how far I get. If I don't get a book done, at least I'll have some great stuff to post here, so either way it's a win-win. Since I will be spending more time researching, I hope to come across more articles to pass on to you. On today's hunt, when I googled "THE GUT AND RHEUMATIC DISEASES" a whole mess of interesting stuff came up including this one, The Microbiome and rheumatoid arthritis. I haven't had time to muddle through all of it, but I was glad to see they making more connections with RA and gut flora. There is a connection with maternal RA and autism and now both are starting to show abnormal gut flora. Maybe this will move us more in the right direction than just blaming genes.

To ring in the New Year (a bit late I know) here's a photo of a bulletin board project I did in 2011: