Klaudia - Clean Bill of Health!!

 

Clean Bill of Health!!

Well it has taken us over 18 months… but Klaudia finally got a ‘clean bill of health’ from the Doctor!! YEH!!!

As previously stated, we finally made the decision to remove the last remaining grains from K’s diet to see if it would help with her on-going tummy cramps, upset tummy, bad nappy rash and broken sleep.  I am so happy to report that by day 3, K had stopped complaining of any cramps/soreness and has since slept through the night (fingers crossed!!). K’s ‘upset tummy’ nappies have definitely slowed down and with that I can happily report that her nappy rash, although not completely gone, is well and truly on the mend!!

With making the decision to make K’s diet completely grain free, we felt the need to advise her GP and also get a checkup since the total diet ‘overhaul’.   On arrival at the Doctors, the response was completely overwhelming!! Every staff member that was there could not believe Klaudia today, was the same child who last visited only three months ago!! Usually, Klaudia would just sit or even sleep on my lap while we waited. Instead, Klaudia was joining in with Cayden to deliver a ‘puppet show’, reading books out loud and playing chasing (which had to be stopped). Whilst with the Doctor, he commented on how happy and active she was (as she proceeded to ‘hide’ in his bookshelf) and how her overall appearance seemed to be ‘glowing with health’!! He gave her a quick check of all her normal offending body parts – eyes, ears, nose, throat and chest and all were absolutely perfect!!!! To be honest, some days I feel a bit overwhelmed with the effort that I put into K’s diet, but that visit just reconfirmed how much it is worth it!! Regarding her ‘upset tummy’ symptoms, he believed things were still recovering and may take a few months before all symptoms disappear. With all these fabulous outcomes, we decided to continue on our current diet plan and hold off from visiting the dietician.  The plan is to reassess in another three months, or earlier if we come up against any problems!!

Best news ever!!!

I really can’t believe that despite all the antibiotics, creams and modern practices available, FOOD was both the problem and the fix!!  I guess my message here is to consider everything when facing battles with your body…..!!

Simple Tomato Sauce!!!

Whilst there appears to be a number of ‘pasta sauces’ that are Gluten free/ Grain free, Preservative free and Colouring free….. Until I start to feel more confident in my ability to ‘read ingredients labels’…. I feel safer just making my own….!!

 

Played around with a recipe and below is what I ended up with. I honestly thought that with one whole kilo of tomatoes I was going to end up with masses of stuff to freeze and use later… Unfortunately not the case!! I got one meal… However it was delicious!! J Will be heading back to markets on the weekend for heaps more tomatoes… Whilst fiddly, it’s a great feeling knowing its good!!

Tomato Sauce

1kg tomatoes

1/4 cup Grapeseed Oil

1 large red onion, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, crushed

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Hand full of fresh basil

1 tablespoon natural honey (you may need to add more depending on the taste you are after)

 

Use a knife to cut a small cross at the bottom of each tomato (to make easy peeling). Put them in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Stand for 1 to 2 minutes or until the skins start to peel off. Drain. Peel and discard skin (I used an actual peeler). Remove cores. Finely chop tomatoes.

Heat oil in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Add onion and garlic. Cook until soft. Add tomatoes, lemon juice, basil and honey.

Bring sauce to the boil and then reduce heat to low. Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally until almost all liquid has evaporated and sauce is thick….. Done.... unless your kids arn't overly impressed with lumps, you can then put it through the food processor as I did!

I actually used this to make my previously posted ‘Bolognese Sauce’…. Worked so well, kids ‘woofed’ it down before a video night… what more can I say J!!

 

This is the end result.... Before becoming 'Bolognese Sauce'!!

 

Recipes shared by friends of 'Cooking for K'

Following are some recipes shared by friends of 'Cooking for K'... so greatful!!!

Date Slice
shared by Sam Koenigkamp

 1/2 cup (55g) ground chia
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup lupin flour
... 2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
1/4 cup sunflower seeds, toasted
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds, toasted
1 cup dates (or any dried fruit), chopped (or whizzed up in a food processor)
1/2 cup coconut sugar
1/4 cup coconut oil (melted)
2 tsp treacle (honey or golden syrup would be fine)
1 egg, lightly beaten

1. Combine all dry ingredients and give it a good stir to distribute the baking powder evenly.
2. Stir in chopped dried fruit (because I process mine I sort of rub it in like you would butter into flour)
3. Mix in combine coconut oil, treacle and egg.
4. Spread into a greased/lined slice tray and bake at 180 C for about 20 mins.

This is much better after being in the fridge overnight. It lasts for ages, keeps you full as it's quite low GI, and in my opinion tastes fantastic. 


Spinach & Fetta Slice
shared by Michelle Keating

 *4 eggs
*200g Fetta cheese crumbled
... *2 tblsp Ricotta
*250g Frozen spinach(thawed & well drained)
1 cup shredded Tasty cheese

Whisk eggs, then mix in all other ingredients. Pour into a greased slice tin (i use a 20cm square cake tin) & i also put baking paper inside. Cook in Moderate oven for 30-40 mins or until slightly golden brown.

Gluten free, Grain free... all the way!

It’s been a bit between blogs!

Klaudia continues to look great, but has spent the week with on and off stomach cramps, diarrhea type nappies and crying/ broken sleep.  This in fact had been going on for a few weeks previously, but just increasing with intensity.  My husband and I had been ‘um-ing and ah-ing’ about whether it was due to a virus, teething or was it still her diet? In truth, it could be any and all, but knowing and living through Klaudias previous history and in researching grain intolerances … we have decided to reevaluate her diet and go completely grain free – this means to not only remove rice from her diet as previously advised but also quinoa. Please note we will be following this decision up with her Doctor at the end of the week.

It wasn’t until I actually started to think about the things I had been giving her to eat, that I realised how much I had been relying on these last remaining grains. Especially as we have to provide her ‘special lunch’ for childcare. An example of this would include:

-          Brown rice puffs or quinoa puffs for breakfast

-          Rice or quinoa with a meat sauce, or roast meat and vegies/ salad for lunch and dinner

-          Rice cakes, crackers etc
 

I couldn’t believe how much I had been using the stuff!!

To not include Gluten, Wheat and Grains in your diet is such a ‘mind shift ‘!!!From when I was a small child to even now, mainstream health and diet advice refers to the ‘healthy diet pyramid’.

A Balanced Diet - The Pyramid Way

 This clearly shows you should have more of this than anything else…. To not include Gluten, Wheat and Grains in my children’s diet just simply feels like I’m doing something wrong …. But obviously for someone like Klaudia and for many others, you just don’t have a choice!

So now we know what NOT to do, the next step is to understand better what we CAN do and how!! Obviously our biggest concern is to ensure we provide the most balanced and nutritionally sound diet possible.

My plan tomorrow is to make an appointment with a Dietitian and go from there. I will keep you posted on how we go!

Simple Vegetable Fritters

Simple Vegetable Fritters

Continuing to battle in the world of ‘hiding veggies’ from my 4 year old and 2 years old, I thought I would give this ‘Oldie but a Goldie’ recipe a turn. Obviously I have made a few changes to make it fit for K. I would have normally used Brown Rice Flour for this but unfortunately i dont think K is doing so well with 'Rice' anymore - more on that later!!

Next time I am going to try this with Almond flour as the texture of this recipe was a little soft in the middle. Otherwise you could play around with adding more veggies too. Still definitely worked as is though…

-          1 medium sized Sweet Potato finely grated. Approximately 400g

-          2 zucchinis finely grated. Approximately 400g

-          1 carrot finely grated. Approximately 150g

-          1 cup Potato Flour. I think you could use less if you added more veggies eg corn, onion etc

-          1 handful of fresh parsley. You could also add some of your other herbs and spices that you enjoy with veggies – dried or fresh.

-          ½ cup of grated tasty cheese. You could substitute this with more veggies if dairy free

-          3 eggs

-          Butter or Grapeseed oil to cook with

Peel sweet potato and carrot. Grate into a bowl. Add zucchini, flour, salt, parsley and egg into the bowl and combine.

Heat a large pan over medium heat. Add a little butter/oil. Add 1/4 cup of the mixture and cook for 5 minutes. I did three at a time but you could probably do 4 at a time. Turn and cook for a further 5-8 minutes. Repeat until you have used all the mixture.

Wah lah!!

What do you think??

Cheers
Jess

Crumbed and stuffed chicken breasts with options!

Evening all!!

This will be my last ‘crumbing recipe’ for a while – promise! J  Just really been enjoying the new found freedom of still eating the things we use to love, and knowing now that there won’t be any horrible consequences! Thought I would try and ‘fancy up’ the evenings meal being a Friday and the fact that we still haven’t found a place that we could all go out to dinner and order whatever we wanted without feeling guilty regarding K’s limits!!

Crumbed Spinach & Feta Stuffed Chicken Breast and Crumbed Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breast

4 chicken breasts – I used free range
80g fresh spinach – I’m sure frozen would work too!
Feta cheese
Tasty cheese
Butter
Toothpicks

Optional, To Crumb:

1 cup Potato Flour
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups of seasoned Almond Meal – I used mixed herbs, salt & pepper

- Preheat oven to 180.

- Prepare chicken breasts for stuffing - I sliced each breast from one side to almost the other to create a pocket. Another idea could also be to beat each chicken breast until thin and wide so can roll

- Cook spinach in butter on stove until done.

- I decided to do two of the chicken breasts as spinach and feta, and two as just tasty cheese. So I cut enough cheese to fit along the inside of each chicken breast pocket. Approximately two slices of feta per chicken breast (2) and one slice of tasty cheese per chicken breast (2).

- Add spinach to each of the two chicken breasts (2). Obviously I used it all cause I love spinach, you may not want as much!

 - Close up all of your chicken breasts with toothpicks to hold together.

Optional crumbing-

Note: I had been having so much luck with my ‘chicken veggie nuggets’ and ‘fish bites’ regarding the crumbing, that I had to keep going!! Looking back I probably could have just rolled each chicken breast in the seasoned almond meal until coated and it would have been great, if you don’t want a heavy coating I would just do this!! Otherwise….  roll each chicken breast through the potato flour, then follow with the egg,  and then follow with rolling in the seasoned almond meal

 - Place on an oven tray lined with baking paper, cook for 30 mins or until cooked through. If you prefer a ‘golden crumb’ on the outside, you may want to spray the outside with ‘spray oil’ to help crisp up.

I then served up with my legendary ‘stick salad’ (not!)… Consisting of carrot sticks, cucumber sticks, capsicum sticks and broccoli trees!!

Let me know what you think…

Have a great Friday night and wonderful weekend!!!

Jess

Easy Hummus - yum!

Following is a recipe for Hummus that I use all the time. The kids love the stuff, making the act of eating carrots, celery, capsicum etc actually easy!... I always give them their own serve in a bowl though as they are massive 'double dipping offenders'!

You can either use a can of chickpeas or dried chickpeas that you have already prepared. Remember, if using a can, check the ingredients as most have huge amounts of salt added. FYI Certified Organic Chickpeas generally will only have water added and are not that different in price. Another option is to prepare dried ones. Unfortunately to do this you need to plan ahead as they require soaking overnight. I must admit, I cant really taste the difference between a canned Chickpea or a dried one, except for the salt!

Anyway.....

Hummus

1 x 400g can chickpeas rinsed, drained or 400g prepared chickpeas
2-4 tablespoons of lemon juice. I start with 2 and then add to taste
2 tablespoons tahini
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1 garlic clove, crushed
Salt and pepper to taste

- Put everything into a food processor and process until you get the consistency you like as a dip. You may need to add a bit more water or lemon juice (slowly and in small amounts). Basically play around with it till your happy!! Easy!!

 

You can also use the hummus instead of 'tomato sauce' when eating grilled chicken or even steak.... dont knock it till you've tried it!! :)

 

Let me know what you think!!

Jess

 

In case your wanting to give 'dried chickpeas' a go.... this is the method I follow....

 

- Place dried chickpeas in a pot and cover with cold water. The chickpeas will expand so make sure you cover them by at least 10cm of water. Put the lid on your pot and leave over night
- When your ready, drain the water and rinse, refill with fresh water remembering to cover by about 10cm
- Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer and cook with the lid on until chickpeas are soft (approx 1.5 - 2 hours)
You can prepare extra and freeze, just try to drain them as much as possible first.
 

Done!

Klaudia's symptoms (looking back) part 2

Continuing on from my last blog about Klaudia’s symptoms (looking back), corn was definitely a problem… and by excluding it from her diet, her face was clear for the first time in months!! However K’s other symptoms continued…. most concerning being her poor health…!

It’s very interesting to point out that K’s Pediatrician at the time would not accept ‘corn’ exclusion was what had fixed her face as she had not ‘tested’ for it as an allergy….. It appeared that her issues had to be ‘text book,’ otherwise it couldn’t possibly be happening!! … ??!! 

Please, as I go on to tell K’s story, at no point do I want to come across as ‘dismissive’ of the various medical professionals we have consulted!! I truly believe that without them, K would not be with us today. There were quite a number of times K ended up in hospital with very serious symptoms like severe swelling to her face/ hands/feet, an inability to breath properly, cellulitis all over face and the worst time being when her ‘white blood cell count’ was completely off the charts - for no apparent reason!!! With each stay, the various antibiotics administered and treatment of the symptoms I believe saved her life, it was just that we could never work out why they were happening in the first place!!!

So, knowing ‘corn’ was a problem….where to next. Again, Klaudia has NEVER tested positive to any allergies and trust me; she has had blood tests taken for almost all of them! It was becoming apparent that we needed to work with people ‘outside’ of the mainstream medical profession and after a few different consultations,  no one was still able to give us a definitive answer or at least a direction, so off we then went to a Naturopath.

Unfortunately this experience still wasn’t as great for us as it has been for a lot of others; however the Naturopath definitely got us looking in the right direction.

We took K to see a Naturopath recommended by our local Health Food Shop. The Naturopath conducted a test on K for 140 different sensitivities….. 68 of them came back with a 'high' response and most of the others came back 'moderate'!! At the time I was so relieved that something had actually shown up and felt we had our answer. The Naturopath then proceeded to sell me supplements worth over $400, told me to avoid the things highlighted in the report and sent me on my way! It wasn't until I got home that I started to wonder 'how on earth am I meant to give an 18mth old all of these supplements.... and what on earth do I feed her'?? I then tried to call her back and she never returned my call!!

It was here that I decided to go back to my GP, Naturopath’s report in hand, and together we started to look at what the results may actually mean. Otherwise, if I had just stuck to the Naturopaths instructions, K would have literally starved.  Finally it felt like we were heading in the right direction. So I then got back in contact with Tania Hubbard from www.glutenfreegrainfree.com.au  and Tania suggested we try removing gluten from K’s diet… and we haven’t looked back!!

To make it clear, the following is a summary of the most on-going symptoms K presented:

·        Her eyes would water or would ooze pus (swabs taken never indicated an ‘eye infection’)

·        Chronic rash down left size of her body that would quiet often become infected

·        Chronic nappy rash, this would sometimes spread to up her back and down her legs… this would quite often become infected

·        Chronic diarrhea. Please note here that I had already taken K off Cow’s milk due to our older son having an issue and I never being able to tolerate it (upset stomachs). K couldn’t handle Soy either and therefore was on Almond Milk (Rice is far too full of sugar!). The pediatrician again chose not to recognize this, and so I did what had helped me! Unfortunately towards the end of last year, K fractured her arm as a result of falling off a small block at school…. It was hear that we tried and succeeded with transition to ‘goats milk’ for Calcium value

·        K had never slept through the night

·        No immune resistance to anything! As an example to how extreme this was, If we went out to lunch somewhere and someone in the room wasn’t 100%, the next day Klaudia would spike 39-40+ degree temperatures which would then develop into either throat, ear, or chest infections – a combination of them – or all of them at once! K was chronically ill

·        K’s tummy was often sore, bloated and hard to press.  She also had trouble wearing shoes as her feet would quite often be swollen and by the end of the day she would complain her feet would hurt

Now… the following is a summary of some of the changes to K without gluten:

·        Her eyes no longer oozed pus!!

·        The rash down her side became just a small ‘hive’ looking mark under her arm

·        The nappy rash still comes and goes but she finally gets relief

·        The diarrhea is gone. I wouldn’t say she is ‘normal’ but without being too graphic, it’s no longer ‘water’… (Happy to be graphic directly to anyone who wants to talk about K’s symptoms!)

·        K slept through for the first time ever about 3 weeks after we removed all traces of Gluten. We still can have bad nights, but at least we are finally having good ones too!

Now.... the following is a summary of the most AMAZING changes to K without gluten:

·        Her immune resistance!!! As I tried to describe before, K was ALWAYS sick and needing antibiotics as her body just couldn’t fight! It wasn’t until about two weeks after making the change that my husband and I realised…. No mad rush to the Doctors, no antibiotic administering rituals (this could be 4 times a day at 5ml each time!) We could not believe it!! I am writing this as I’m ‘touching wood’ so as not to jinx us but seriously – unbelievable!!  To date, K has had a few viruses but has managed to slowly fight them herself!!

·        K is no longer ‘bloated’. I had no idea how bad it was until now when I look at her, her tummy is no longer her most prominent feature!

·        Her shoes fit!!! Again, no longer swollen!

·        K not only is happy, but she ‘looks’ happy!! K’s hair has thickened and grown, her eyes sparkle and she is sooooooooooooo active and busy. K has finally hit ‘10’kgs and appears to have grown about 2cm since the change!

K is now embracing the world of ‘terrible twos’ with both hands…. And we love it!!!

K still has a number of symptoms which we are trying to work through. We believe they are also related to food. There are also a huge amount of questions regarding why our ‘modern day allergy tests’ did not pick up Klaudia’s extreme responses to Gluten….. But that’s for another blog!

 

Cheers

Jess

Easy Bolognese Sauce

Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!!

Following is my really basic Bolognese recipe which then forms the basis of a number of meals I make for the fam!! It freezes really well and is so handy on the nights I have worked as dinner is pretty much done. I will usually do a batch of this at the beginning of each week, interchanging between chicken mince and beef mince… the recipe below makes a couple of meals depending on the size portions you need. Seriously, this recipe is very, very easy, delicious and so wonderfully versatile!!

Bolognese

 500 grams mince (beef or chicken)

1 large onion

2-3 cups of finely grated vegies – whatever needs using in the fridge! Generally I use zucchini, carrots, sweet potato and broccoli… this is such a wonderful way to ‘hide vegies’!!

2 cans diced tomatoes, I make sure they are ‘organic certified’ and the ingredients are literally diced tomatoes and tomato juice

½ cup of water

1 clove garlic (crushed)

2 teaspoons mixed herbs or sometimes I use fresh basil and thyme if available

Grapeseed oil

Pepper to taste

-          Add some oil to a pan and heat on medium

-          Add the onions and garlic and fry until onions become translucent

-          Add the mince and brown

-          Add the vegies, herbs, tinned toms and 1/2 cup of water and bring to the boil

-          Reduce the heat and simmer for 20 mins . turn the hot plate off and allow to cool

-          Once cooled, I then blend the mix up through the food processor (or blender) to disguise all the vegies

Some of the different meals….

- ‘Spaghetti Bolognese’ I usually serve with some basmati rice, rice noodles or quinoa as K does not appear to have a reaction to them.

- ‘tacos’ using an iceberg lettuce, peel off the leaves and cut down to size to use as the ‘shells’. Then add Bolognese, grated cheese, avocado and Greek yoghurt. Sometimes I just wrap the bolognese in lettuce and call it 'San Choy Bow' (to give the kids some culinary diversity! :) )

- stuffed capsicums – recipe to be added soon

-vegie lasagna – recipe to be added soon

I’m sure there are heaps more options too… would love people to share ideas!!!

Enjoy!

Jess

Banana Bread - banarific!!

 

Was speaking with my sister today and she mentioned she was baking 'Banana Bread' and I thought - YUM, I want some too!!.... Plus I had a number of 'those’ banana's sitting in the fridge that are perfectly fine but look awful, so no one will willingly eat them!!!

Sooooo, had a great recipe from our 'previous life', changed it up a bit and gave it a go!! I am actually eating a piece as I type and must say - not to bad! Probably next time I will include a few spices like cinnamon and nutmeg to give it a bit more 'body' but overall pretty good!!

 

Banana Bread is always great in the kids lunch box. It can also help to make up an easy 'on the go breakfast'.... and its tasting fabulous with a nice cup of tea made by my husband!! :)

If you make this, let me know if you make any changes and how it went... Enjoy!!

Banana Bread

 

3 ripe bananas

3 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon honey

60g cold butter

2 cups almond meal

½ teaspoon salt – I used ‘Himalayan fine Salt’

1 teaspoon baking soda

 - Put bananas, eggs, vanilla, honey and butter in a food processor and mix together

- Add almond meal, salt and baking soda and mix

- Line ‘bread tin’ with baking paper and add bread mix

- Bake at 180 for approx. 55mins

- Let it cool before cutting (I always struggle to do this but it definitely cuts better!!)

 

**Ive seen that most blog's sharing recipes include a photo! thought I'd give it a go... ta da!!!

Cheers

Jess