Creamy Turmeric Tea

Mmm, this turned out really well and is a satisfying replacement for traditional hot cocoa.

I recently learned of turmeric's health benefits & have been looking for a way to incorporate it into my diet.

I used almond mik, turmeric, ground ginger & coconut sugar. I think cinnamon would be a welcome addition.

Recipe from Mark's Daily Apple

Bacon muffins

Yummy!! My friend, Kristen, shared this recipe on facebook, and boy did it sound good! So I made some today for breakfast tomorrow and snacks! :) Healthy fats, fiber, protein makes for a great muffin.

My Journey

I'm Mary, I have an amazing husband and four wonderful children, all with names that start with E. I started down the whole foods road about over 4 years ago, due to a wonderful friends' influence on a forum on www.thebabywearer.com . Thanks to her journey and the other awesome ladies on there, I learned about traditional foods and healthy fats. 


Two years ago in August 2009, I was pregnant with our third and started having more GI issues, causing me to lose weight. I became intolerant to dairy, gluten and corn and was already intolerant to soy. It turned out my baby was intolerant to all those things, PLUS (we found out when she was a few weeks old) rice. She's outgrown everything except rice, blueberries & bananas (as far as we know, we don't do gluten or oats in our home). I lost 56 lbs in 2010, while nursing E3, due to eating a Primal/Paleo diet (although I didn't know what it was called at the time). I looked the best I ever had & healthy, was wearing sizes I'd NEVER worn as an adult, and felt awesome. I even did the Insanity workout!


Shortly after E3 was born, the kids went dairy & gluten free with me. My oldest daughter had throat clearing issues when she had milk products and both of them had had eczema from the time they were babies.


My son changed. He became better able to communicate and his behavior went from tantrums all the time to being a pleasure to be around. It turns out he is on the Autism Spectrum with Semantic Pragmatic Disorder. SPD is very similar to Asperger's, but not as severe. It's the communication problems and many of the social skills, but he's not rigid in his schedule or rules, so doesn't freak out if we change things up. It's like he's come out of a fog. He's such a wonderful child to be with now! I hate to say it like that, but it's true. I'm tearing up, just remembering. We were feeding him poison for him. Chicken nuggets, gluten bread, etc. He couldn't communicate with us and was so frustrated. He's very bright and finished his first grade math and reading/language program a semester early. He's in speech therapy to help him learn some of the social skills he won't just pick up like neurotypical kids, and it's helped a lot.


My children, husband and myself are healthier. We rarely get sick (praise the Lord!). My older kids haven't taken antibiotics since about 2007, and my younger kids have never had them. My son and oldest daughter used to get lots of ear infections. Since starting chiropractic care, eating well, and trying to get lots of Vitamin D through the sun in the summer, and cod liver oil in the winter, they haven't had one to my knowledge. If they do start to get sore ears, we get them adjusted, and that takes care of it. We occasionally get colds and flu, but they're quick and not that bad, overall.


I am so thankful for what I've learned and the way we eat, because of the amazing changes we've seen in our family. 


I just had our fourth baby last month, and it seems she's intolerant to rice, also, so I'm back on the Primal band wagon full force. 


I choose Primal Blueprint www.marksdailyapple.com over Paleo because of the 80/20 rule (eat best 80% of the time, eat whatever 20%, though I try to be closer to 100%), the allowance of natural sweeteners like maple syrup, raw local honey, coconut sugar, and used to do stevia (but I'm allergic to ragweed and stevia is in that family or something, so I got allergy headaches from it).


Why eat foods that hurt me? I don't want to feel crappy or in pain, so I choose to eat this way for me, my family, and my little baby who can't choose what to eat herself.

Here we go again!

My little baby is having some issues. I'm pretty sure she's intolerant to rice as well as milk & soy proteins.
I've been wanting to go back to Primal Blueprint, but have been using my 20% on rice and corn in foods. I hope that she feels better quickly. I love her so much, it's hard when I know she's having troubles.

I wanted to talk about attitude again. I'm choosing to have a good attitude about the diet restrictions. Sure, it may mean a little more work for me, but now that I'm not pregnant anymore, I have energy and motivation to cook and look up recipes. I'm so thankful that I have experience, have found that paleo/primal works for our restrictions, and most of all, that I know what to do to help my precious baby feel better.

It's all about attitude. I could choose to have a bad attitude and begrudgingly do this diet for my baby (even though it majorly benefits me as well). I could choose to get an expensive formula that may or may not help. But I'm going to choose to have a good attitude and be thankful that it's a relatively easy fix for her (Lord willing, as long as it's not something other than intolerances).

It can be overwhelming, especially when starting out, but there's LOTS of support out there! Other moms have done it, loads of people are doing Primal/Paleo(disclaimer, I love the info, I don't believe in the evolution stuff, I believe that God created everything in six days, according to Genesis), allergen free products are easier than ever to find. Blogs, websites and recipe books are available all over the internet.
There are lots of things to be thankful for!

The first big hurdle of starting an elimination diet, in my opinion, is deciding to do it and do it with a good attitude. It's way more fun! :) And I'm here to help.

Xanthan Gum versus Guar Gum

When I first had to make drastic changes to my diet, due to my pregnancy, then little nursling at the time, I couldn't have corn, gluten, dairy, soy, oats. So I had to find something else to use as a binder in baking for my gluten free treats. Enter Guar Gum. Corn free and about a third the price of Xanthan gum, it's economical and works just as well. According to Wikipedia,

"Xanthan gum may be derived from a variety of source products that are themselves common allergens, such as corn, wheat, dairy, or soy. As such, persons with known sensitivities or allergies to food products are advised to avoid foods including generic xanthan gum or first determine the source for the xanthan gum before consuming the food."

Guar gum, on the other hand, is made from ground up guar beans. Much more simple and not at risk of triggering a reaction if you're allergic/intolerant to corn, wheat, dairy or soy (depending on what the xanthan gum was derived from). And did I mention it's cheaper? About a third cheaper! 

Chocolate Pudding!

I got my cacao powder and nibs via UPS yesterday, so wanted to try something with them! I turned to one of my favorite websites, The Spunky Coconut and searched "cacao". This Coconut & Raw Cacao Pudding
recipe came up, so I tried it. I'm out of hemp seeds (something I will be remedying Friday) and used sucanat, bc I'm also out of coconut sugar. Amazon is my friend and that's where I got the cacao, ordered coconut sugar and will be ordering hemp seeds from. This was really easy and fun. I think I'll use almond milk instead of water next time, though. Looking forward to having the hemp seeds in it!

After Baby Meal Plans

I have an amazingly wonderful husband. He takes care of me and the kids without complaint and does a good job. He's a hard worker and is supportive of all the dietary changes we've gone through.
I wanted to make it as easy as possible for him to feed the big kids after the baby was born, so I made up a list of meal ideas, along with snacks, and stocked up before the baby was born & on Day 2 of my labor, when we went walking at Costco and the grocery store to try to get things moving better.

I was so very tired at the end of my pregnancy, the idea of cooking was overwhelming. We ate a lot of Corn Chex (gluten AND rice free) and Chipotle. When I would feel badly about it, I, and DH, would remind me that it's not the way we normally do things, and we were still not on the SAD (Standard American Diet). What I now consider not as good food, is still not the worst food we could be eating. I tell you this so you know I'm definitely not perfect. I have my moments. But if we can choose better than SAD foods for our less than ideal times, when we need a little convenience, we'll be better off overall. And then, when things are settle down, get back to the way I want and should be eating.

I also stocked up on paper plates, bowls, plastic forks & spoons. I don't normally use them, but when it comes down to whether I'd like DH to do dishes or feed us, I choose feed us. We have no dishwasher except us, so it's not that we can even just pop dishes in the dishwasher. I refuse to feel badly about this. There are times in life when we need to do some things differently than normal. I'm thankful I have the option!

Here's the list I typed up, printed and taped to our fridge. I inlcuded the kids' allergy/intolerances, so if I needed to give it to DH's or my moms, they'd have an easy reference.

E1 & E2 Allergies: Gluten, Soy, Oats
E3 Allergies: Gluten, Soy, Rice, Blueberries, Bananas

Breakfast
Hot Cereal/Grits w/maple syrup
Quinoa - hot with maple syrup & pecans
Smoothies - Almond milk, Almond butter, chia seeds, etc.Pumpkin Smoothie
Muffins (gluten free, premade and frozen)
Eggs (not for E2), scrambled eggs with beef and Hunt's ketchup (me)
Cereal (Corn Chex)
Pancakes (mixes in basement)
Egg Muffins (diced ham, eggs, spinach, etc.)

Lunch
hotdogs w/frozen strawberries/blueberries & peas (3-4 frozen strawberries per kid; ¼ c blueberries per kid; ½-3/4 c peas per kid)
Cooked Trader Joe's Rice Pasta w/frozen strawberries/blueberries & peas (3-4 frozen strawberries per kid; ¼ c blueberries per kid; ½-3/4 c peas per kid) Corn Pasta for E3
Almond Butter & Honey in a bowl w/apples & carrots & peas (1 piece bread, open face; split 2 apples between 3 kids; ¾ c peas for each kid; 2 carrots per kid)
Almond Butter & Honey Sandwiches w/apples & carrots & peas

Dinner
Crockpot Chicken w/Carrots
Crockpot BBQ Chicken w/Green beans (this was not good, make it with a bottle of safe BBQ instead)
Maple Chicken (will post recipe soon)
Roasted Chicken with Green beans (no pepper on 2 pieces with bones for E2)
Chili (kidney & black beans, rinsed, 1 can each, giant can of diced tomatoes, 1 lb ground beef, browned)
Chicken Soup
Pasta w/green beans (make ¼ c E3's corn pasta separate in separate water or first)
Hamburgers w/fried eggs, avocado, frozen strawberries & Green beans (2 hamburgers per person, 3-4 strawberries per child, ¼-½ c green beans) This will require 2 lbs of meat.
Frozen Crockpot Meal
Stir Fry (meat & stir fry mix)
Eggs & Pancakes (mix in baggies downstairs) (2 eggs & 4 pancakes per child, except E2 won’t want eggs, probably)
Orange Beef Stirfry
Sloppy Joes
Snacks
Muffins (only 1 per child/snack time)
Fruit Strips (only 1 per child/snack time) (Archer Farms from Target)
Apples (2 cut up and distributed, Eveline doesn’t need as many as big kids)
Carrots and Almond butter (at table! only a little almond butter for E1, he doesn’t like it as much)
Popcorn