Not a First Date Meal

Although this is yummy, it's very messy. So unless you're the "take it or leave it" kinda person on the first date, you may want to steer away from this one. 

BBQ and Pineapple Chicken on a Lettuce Wrap

three chicken breast

Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sause

can of pineapples

romaine lettuce

carrot

Pretty simple and straightforward. I used my crockpot for this one. Set it up in the morning and then it's ready by dinner time. I put the chicken breasts in first, topped by the BBQ sause and topped it off with can of pineapples, juice and all. 

Turn on low and 8 hours later shred chicken. The messy part? You eat it with the lettuce. Place a romaine lettuce leaf on a plate and top with chicken and pineapple. I garnished with peeled carrots, just for some color and extra crunch. Plus, it was my way of convincing myself that I was getting my meat and salad in one. 

I had a friend over for lunch today and realized that I didn't have anything for lunch. When you eliminate all this food and have to prepare almost everything, it's hard to come up with "quick" meals for lunch. That's why I used three chicken breasts, so I have a bunch left over that I can eat on corn tortillas tomorrow for lunch or another lettuce leaf. My lunches are usually some sort of salad, but every once in a while it's nice to mix it up. 

Do you have any easy lunch ideas? Let me know!

Finally a Dessert!

If you like bananas, chocolate and coconut then you'll love this! If you don't like chocolate or coconut, you'll also love this because you can omit them and add something else. This dessert is so simple and so delicious. Plus, despite the name ice cream there is no milk or soy in it. I quiz my two and a half year old now on what I can eat or what I cannot eat. I ask him, "does this come from a cow?" Milk is easy. Cheese is a little harder, but he's getting it. After asking him about the ingredients I used he said, "Mommy, you can eat this!!" Success!

Banana, Chocolate and Coconut Soft Serve Ice Cream

four bananas

1tsp vanilla

1tbsp cocoa powder, or chopped up baking chocolate (optional)

1 handful coconut (optional)

1tbsp peanut butter (optional)

1/4 c chocolate chips (optional)

How to make it? Simple. Freeze bananas. I've heard it's best to peal and cut them then freeze them as then you can just toss them in a blender. My frozen bananas were more a, "oh crap, bananas are going brown I should throw them in the freezer". So the whole thing went in. Cut bananas and put in blender or food processor.

Add vanilla, chopped baking chocolate and coconut. I obviously didn't use the peanut butter {since I cannot eat peanuts and sunbutter isn't worth the price, in my opinion} or the chocolate chips {since they have milk in them} but have read that both these things are excellent add-ins if you can eat them. 

Blend or process away! 

This makes a yummy, creamy treat. I'm sure that if you wanted to put it in a tupperware, put it back in the freezer and then scoop it out it would resemble more "regular" ice cream, rather than soft serve. I didn't want to wait, so I just poured it from the blender to my dish. 

I made three additional dishes, cling wrapped them and stuck them in the freezer for a quick snack later. I hope they make it until tomorrow, but between my two and a half year old {who loves this treat!}, husband and myself, they may just not. :)

"Quick" Meal Fix

So, it was 4:30 and I realized I didn't prepare anything for dinner. If you've cut all the things I've had to cut out of your diet yo know one thing, you have to prepare pretty much everything! 

I feel incredibly blessed to be living in a day and age where the internet is literally at my finger tips and I can put in things I have and end up with something yummy. So that's what I did. There were three main things that led me to tonight's dinner. First, I bought some frozen tilapia last week {tilapia is my favorite fish} and decided tonight was a good night to use it. Second, I have had two sweet potatoes sitting in my refrigerator for a while, so thought it was time to use those too. Third, we just filled our propane tank so it is a good night to grill!

This is what I came up with:

Grilled Tilapia with Mango Salsa and Grilled Sweet Potatoes

Tilapia:

1/3 c. extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp lemon juice (I actually used lime)

1 tbsp minced parsley

1 clove garlic, minced

1tsp dried basil

1tsp ground black pepper

1/2 tsp salt

2 tilapia filets

Salsa:

1 large ripe mango, diced

1/2 red bell pepper (I didn't use this)

2 tbsp minced red onion

1tbsp minced cilantro

2 tbsp lime juice

salt and pepper to taste
tomatoes (I added these because I had them in the refrigerator)

To make it you simply whisk together top ingredients and pour into ziplock bag. Add your tilapia and let marinate for an hour in the refrigerator. While that's marinating, combine ingredients for salsa. After about an hour has passed heat you grill to medium. Lightly oil grill and add tilapia. Cook until no longer translucent in the middle, about 3-4 minutes per side. Top with mango salsa and enjoy!

Grilled Sweet Potatoes with Cilantro and Lime

2 sweet potatoes, unpeeled

salt to taste

pinch of cayenne pepper

1/4 c of extra virgin olive oil

ground pepper

1/4 c chopped cilantro

Boil potatoes in large pot until soft, not fully cooked. Slice potatoes into eight parts and then in half if you'd like. Since your grill is already on medium you're set with that. Combine salt and cayenne in a small bowl and brush on potatoes along with salt and pepper to taste. Place on grill and cook, turning about every minute and a half so that all sides are cooked all the way through. Transfer to plates and immediately season with cilantro. I totally forgot about the cilantro when all was said and done, so we did without. 

This colorful dish both looks and tastes delicious! I found the tilapia recipe on pinterest, which ended up being from this website and the sweet potatoes I found on one of my favorite places to look for recipes, The Food Network. :) I didn't take pictures along the way since I didn't realize I had to make dinner until almost 5 o'clock. But the end result speaks for itself!

It's been two weeks since I've been on this "diet" and we haven't seen any improvement to Lucas. By now everything should be out of my system and we have at least another two weeks until it's out of his. We're not adding any foods back in until his four month appointment on July 10th, so I'll press on and continue to share the things I come up with. Thanks for joining me on this crazy journey.

Everything Tastes Better With Coffee

Ok, I don't mean everything tastes better with coffee in it... I mean everything tastes better when I have a quiet time while enjoying a big mug of coffee in the morning. Today was one of those days. Earlier I had mentioned that I put rice milk in my coffee (I definitely wouldn't recommend this!) and I later tried coconut milk (wouldn't recommend this either!). Finally I got to Vitamin Cottage, our "local" health food store. I say local because it's a drive away and with two little boys it seems like an eternity away. But I couldn't take drag coffee in the morning anymore so I made the treck! And boy, oh boy was it worth it!

This is how I began my morning along with my journal and Bible. It is amazing how different my day was with this lovely duo. 

On to the food! I've been eating a bunch of leftovers, so there wasn't much to write about. Plus, last night I heated up the grill (this is my favorite tool (?) to cook in the summer) and right before I put on my chicken the tank emptied... so I had cereal for dinner. Lame.

I'll post later about the dinner I was going to make because it's DELICIOUS!

I'll start with breakfast/snack.

Homemade granola, a recipe I found from this blog. It also has a recipe for granola bars. I was going to make them but ran out of honey, and I need a butter substitute, and I didn't have gluten-free flour. Clearly, couldn't make them. Next time!

3 cups oats
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup flax or hemp seed
1/2 cup coconut
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup honey
1/6 cup water
1tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350degrees F. Combine dry ingredients and mix well. In a separate bowl combine liquid ingredients and mix well. Add to dry ingredients and mix well. As you can see there is lots of mixing going on. Pour mixture to a 9x13in baking dish or cookie sheet. I used a baking dish because that was easier to control. Put it in the oven and stir after 10 minutes. Continue to stir every 5-7 minutes until brown. It took another 21 minutes for mine to be done, so three times of seven minutes.

I added this to my cereal this morning and it was delicious! Just the right amount of crunch, sweetness and nutty taste (I used hemp seed which has a nutty taste without actually having nuts).

Next lunch.

This salad was even better than the last. Probably mostly due to the use of avocados. I'm pretty sure avocados make everything better. 

chopped cabbage

carrots

cucumbers

tomatoes

avocado

I made a different, simple salad dressing this time.

Old Vine Shiraz Vinegar

olive oil

pepper

Simple, right?! The shiraz vinegar made it. I don't think I'll ever go back to pre-made salad dressing. Seriously, there are some things I'm glad I "have" to try. This is one of them.

Last, but certainly not least, dinner.

This is what we had tonight, turkey and spinach meatloaf. Sounds simple. It is! Plus, it's dairy and egg free.

2lb ground turkey
1 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 onion, chopped (I used 1/4 onion, not too big a fan)
1/2 cup spinach (frozen or fresh, I used frozen because it's what we had)
salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 350degrees F. Mix all ingredients in bowl. (Or you can just use your loaf pan, that's what I did, why wash another bowl!) Top with additional catchup and place in oven for 45 minutes. Done. Yum. I'm usually not a big fan of meatloaf but this was very good. It even got the praise from my two and a half year old. He said, "mommy, you're a great cooker." That has to mean it was good!

You may notice that I haven't mentioned anything about dessert... ever. Well, that's because I haven't had any in over a week! I finally broke down and got gluten free all purpose flour so hopefully in the next few days I'll have a yummy recipe to share with you. Hopefully.

If you know of any, please share them with me! I'd love to hear them.

Snack Dilemma: Solved!

Ok, I know I could just grab one of the many apples that is sitting on my diningroom table... but sometime I just don't want to! I want something with more flavor, something like I used to be able to have! 

I found a few snack recipes that, when slightly modified, I was able to have! Praise Jesus!

The first snack is a recipe that I found from this blog, which has lots of sugar free recipes. I add the sugar and substitute the other stuff. I don't know why, I just really like her stuff. :)

Baked Oatmeal (instead of granola bars)

2 eggs (substituted for 1/2 a banana and 1/2 tsp of baking soda

1tsp vanilla extract

2 c applesauce

1/2 c honey

5c old fashioned oats (sub. steal rolled oats)

1tbsp ground cinnamon

3tsp baking powder

1tsp salt

2 3/4 c milk (sub. rice milk)

Toppings: apples and rasins

Preheat oven 350degrees F. Mix eggs, vanilla, applesauce, sugar in a bowl. Add in oats, cinnamon, baking powder and salt, mix well. Pour in muffin pan and top with whatever you're using as your topping. Bake 30 minutes or until done. Mine came out pretty soft and more like an oatmeal muffin than a granola bar, but still delicious.

The second snack surprised me! It's baked Garbanzo (chickpea) beans. This was easy and really does taste like a nut, not a bean. So good, so easy and so healthy!

Crispy Cinnamon Garbanzo Beans

1 c dried garbanzo beans

2 tbsp olive oil

2tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

Soak beans overnight, pat dry in the morning. Preheat oven to 350degrees F. Toss beans with oil and sugar. Spread on un-greased baking sheet and cook for 45 minutes or until beans are no longer soft. Immediately toss in cinnamon and salt. Cool and serve or store in air tight container.

The third snack is home made chips and guacamole. If you've looked on many store-bought tortilla chip bags there are many oils used. My bag says this: canola oil and/or safflower oil and/or soybean oil and/or sunflower oil... REALLY?! So there is a chance that there is soybean oil in the chips, but there may not be. Lame. Can't take that chance so I made my own.

Corn Tortilla Chips

corn tortillas
salt, to taste

Preheat oven to 400degrees F. Cut Tortillas into six equal parts. Place on cookie sheet 1/2 an inch apart from each other. Bake for 8 minutes. Done.

Guacamole

avocados
onion
tomato
fresh cilantro
cayenne pepper
garlic powder
cumin powder
salt

The amount of ingredients depends on how much you want to make. If I'm making it for a snack for myself, I usually use one avocado and then everything else to taste. This and the chips are a perfect pair! I'm sure you could make salsa to go with the chips too. I didn't just because salsa doesn't have avocados in it, and I'm kind of obsessed with avocado. :)

I am thankful for the snacks I've discovered and, honestly, I think I would make all of them even if I wasn't so limited in what I can eat- they are that good! I hope you enjoy!

Gagging, Almost Throwing up

Haha, yes, this happened. Not to me, but to my two and a half year old. This is going to be a tough adjustment on him too. If dinner is super easy, I'll just make myself an alternate version of what I'm making my family. Last night just wasn't the night for that.

Black Bean Busque Soup over Brown Rice

(with fresh cilantro on top!)

It was delicious! At least I thought so. After finishing my bowl I went to feed Lucas. When I returned Eric, my husband said, "He had four bites. Then he gagged. He literally almost threw up." Ok, guess no more black beans. Sorry kiddo, you're going to have to get used to some amount of beans as they are a good and cheap way to get protein. 

The Black Bean Bisque Soup I used is by Imagine Bistro. They make an array of deliciously healthy soups. I threw brown rice in a rice cooker {a friend let me borrow for the next month!} for an hour and forty-five minutes. In the last 15 minutes threw the soup in the pot with an extra can of black beans, rinsed. When it was all done, topped it with cilantro and some delicious Life Should Taste Good Lime Tortilla Chips. Perfect! I didn't even gag.

Yesterday I was able to gain some wisdom from my friend Keeley, who in my mind has this whole food thing figured out. She's a great cook who knows how to not only make good quality food, but for cheaper than I ever could on my own. Some things were simple, like how to make a salad dressing since almost every salad dressing known to man is on my "can't eat" list. Other things, to me, were bigger, like where to shop, what things to look for etc. I feel a peace about this now that I didn't have before. This is the friend who lent me her rice cooker.

I also gained a sweet and easy lunch salad that I had for lunch today... cabbage, veggies, guacamole and home-made dressing. Simple.

Cabbage:cut  to whatever size you like best

Veggies: red and green bell peppers and cucumbers (or whatever you have around)

Guacamole: avocado, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, cumin, salt and fresh cilantro

Salad dressing: 1 part white wine vinegar, 1 part strawberry jam, 3 parts extra virgin olive oil

So delicious! 

In the crock pot for dinner is honey BBQ chicken. Sweet Baby Ray's is gluten free so it works perfect! I also added honey to make it a little sweeter. Served on gluten free bread for me and regular whole wheat for the family. Beautifully delicious!

My picture of the complete meal was blurry, thus no picture... but you can imagine. :) 

Great Gratitude, and Food

First, I wanted to say thank you to everyone who has given me words of encouragement as I begin this journey for my little guy. Also a huge thanks to anyone who has had to do this, or something like this before or presently and is willing to share wisdom and recipes with me. I will take you up on that!! 

Yesterday lunch was my first meal without everything I cannot eat. What did I have? Nothing. Yes, that's right, nothing. I had some cooked chicken in the fridge that I was going to eat, but when I pulled it out, it had mold on it. Awesome. There literally was nothing in my house that I could eat and both boys were asleep so there was no way to make a grocery store run. 

Dinner on the other hand, was delicious! This is what I made...

Grilled chicken with Mango Salsa

(amount of ingredients depends on how much you want to make)

Mango, chopped small

Cilantro

Red Onion

Lime Juice

Pepper, to taste

Chicken fresh off the grill

After the little boys were asleep I got to go grocery shopping. This was a much harder tast that one might imagine. I was looking for very specific items of which I have never looked for before. It was kind of like a treasure hunt, just less fun. Some of the staple items I got were Dream Rice Milk, Organic Rice Puff Cereal (it's just brown rice, puffed... yum... can be used as cereal or bonding agent for turkey-loaf), chicken, ground turkey (3lbs which I left out on the counter overnight and had to throw away, grr!), avocados, and gluten free bread.

After an hour and a half (to my defense I did try a new grocery store in hopes for a greater selection of what I could purchase) and almost $100 later I was set... and depressed. I knew that this endeavor would be more expensive, and I did have to buy some things that I won't have to get every time (like rice flour, yum!) but until I was standing at the checkout watching my total rocket that it all sunk in. 

But today is a new day! I got to start off with my new cereal, Crunchy Maple Sunrise, which is gluten free, and rice milk. I also managed to put rice milk in my coffee. Not too sure I'll be doing that again, but it was worth a shot. I thought my Tinker Bell mug would have helped, guess not. Maybe I have to learn to drink it black... or die of exhaustion. 

That's all I've got so far... until tomorrow (or the next day...)!

Getting Started- Day One

So first, some background. About a month and a half ago we noticed that Lucas' poop was dark, almost black. Since he was only 6 weeks old with yellow seedy poop we knew this wasn't right. He also was having trouble passing gas. He would strain, wimper and then a full-man-sized fart would come out. After taking him to his pediatrician and getting his poop tested we found out there was blood in it, thus the darker color. Great. I was instructed to go off dairy and that would hopefully solve the issue. 

Have you ever done that?! It's way harder than it seems it would be. 

So two weeks of dairy and his poop turned to the normal yellow seedy color it should be. We took in another "sample" to make sure all the blood was gone. It wasn't. Darn again. After another episode of a few days with the dark poop, in the midst of continuing dairy-free, we decided to see a GI (gastro-intestinal) specialist to see if there was anything else we could do. Well, there isn't really. Besides taking drastic measures. He took me off dairy, soy {which is in everything!} and peanuts. His point was that taking me off anything else could effect the quality of breast milk and if things weren't looking better in two weeks that we would start Lucas on a hypoallergenic formula. Definitely not something I wanted. But really, I'd do anything for my baby.

Would I really do anything? That led me to today. Lucas had his two month well visit with Dr. Brian Gablehouse, who is now one of m favorite people in the world. He advised me to cut out the top 8 allergin foods {dairy, egg, soy, wheat, peanut, tree nut, fish and shellfish} and in two months we'll slowly start adding them. He wanted to see me continue breastfeeding Lucas if that's what I wanted, which it is, and even gave me some names of things his wife used when she went through this with his son- cookies, cereals and other snacks that I thought I'd have to go without. 

So, this is my journey and I invite you to come along with me!

It's only day one, and I already haven't had time to go to the grocery store to supply my new diet, so I'm going to have to be pretty creative with lunch. :) I'm going to share my experiences, how Lucas is doing and some {hopefully} yummy recipes I find along the way. I can't promise I'll write every day. Honestly, who could with a 2 month old and a 2.5 year old. Especially when I'll be doing so much cooking now! 

Would I really do anything?! For this little guy... anything!