Chocolate Coconut Slices

So it has been a while since I blogged here....hopefully you will forgive me since I am including a super yummy GF/CF recipe on my first blog post back.

Here is a link to a gram to cup conversion: http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/Cup-to-Gram-Conversions/Detail.aspx
Here is a link to the original recipe: http://learnwithp.blogspot.com/2010/05/chocolate-coconut-slice.html  This blog is definitely worth watching, I love all the information Z posts here.  Good food, green ideas and general greatness.  I do love this blog.

Here is what I did with the recipe:
GF/CF Chocolate Coconut Slices
3/4 cup skimmed coconut milk(the thick high fat top off the coconut milk)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg(slightly beaten)
1 t GF vanilla
1/2 C brown rice flour
1/2 C millet flour
1 t GF baking powder
2 T cocoa powder
3/4 C coconut(I use an organic unsweetened thinly cut coconut)

Icing
1 C powdered sugar
2 T cocoa powder
1 T skimmed coconut milk again
1 1/2 T hot water

Beat coconut milk, sugar, egg and vanilla together.  Add the flours, baking powder and cocoa.  Stir in the coconut.  Bake in a greased pan, I actually used a pie plate, for about 20-25 minutes.  Spread icing while still hot.  Sprinkle coconut over top of icing.

These are still hot and cooling on the counter right now so I have not yet tasted it.  I will be back later with a taste test and a picture.

we tried it....holy crap it is awesome!  Brad even loved it and he is always a little less than enthused with GF/CF recipes.  and here it is is in all it's glory...after we ate half of it.  I also took a picture from the side so you could see the yummy cake-y texture under all that frosting.

Squash Pudding Pie

Another recipe I think I mentioned was the squash pudding pie.  The NE suggested this as a breakfast food. Great protein, eggs, and of course getting veggies in the morning is a bonus. 

This was really yummy.  The kids ate it for breakfast and then we had plenty left over for a few snacks after dinner.  I drizzled some raw honey on it for the "snack".  It has an ok texture.  Brady was not overly enthused with it.  He liked the outer parts that were a little less creamy like the middle.  I am making one later with half butternut squash and half sweet potato.  mmmm 

It is low in sugar and fat, and dairy and gluten free.  The NE also mentioned that you could make a crust for it from almond flour or something else similar and gf/cf.  It comes from The Garden of Eating cookbook.

Squash Pudding Pie

3 cups baked or simmered and mashed squash
3/4 cup blended unsweetened coconut milk
1/4 honey, agave nectar or maple syrup
3 whole eggs or 6 egg whites or 1/4 cup dried powdered egg whites blended with 3/4 cup water
1 1/2 tablespoons arrowroot starch powder(I used tapioca starch)
2 teaspoons apple pie spice or pumpkin pie spice (I used cinnamon and fresh nutmeg)
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla or maple extract
1/3 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon additional honey, agave nectar or maple syrup or 1/4 teaspoon white stevia extract powder

preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In food processor, Vita-Mix(oh how I wish I had one!) or hand food mill(I used a blender), combine all ingredients except stevia until smooth.  Mixture should be thick.  If too stiff to blen then add 1/4 cup water.  Taste.  Add 1 more tablespoon honey or the stevia if a sweeter taste is desired.  Pie will become sweeter and more concentrated as it bakes.

Pour into an oiled 10-inch deep dish pie plate.  Smooth with a spatula.  Bake in center of oven until firm, slightly golden and dry around the edges, about 60 minutes.  Allow to cool, cover with foil and refrigerate.  (Pie will firm up in refrigerator)

Cut into slices and serve.  Use within 4 days or freeze.

This next one I make I think I am going to make in a larger 10x13 rectangle pan so that I can cut it into bars and and freeze individually.

I have a few other recipes I do want to share here.  Typing them out proves to be time consuming for me for some reason.  :)  I guess when I am blogging my thoughts those just flow...recipes take more thought I guess.  more later!

Millet....not just for the birds!

This is gonna be a quick one...

I never meant for this blog to be so much about food but I find that I want to share this somewhere.  As we go GF/CF and continue to try new thing I want to share them so that anyone else walking that line may be able to get some help/ideas too.

We made millet this morning as a hot cereal for breakfast.  It was pretty simple to make and cooked while I emptied the dishwasher.  I got the kids a drink and some apple to start the morning because my children seem to wake up starving.  I put 1.5 cups of almond milk and 1.5 cups of water in a pan with a pinch of salt and started it boiling.  Then I added a cup of millet that I had rinsed with water.  Let that cook for about 30-40 minutes. 

I tasted it and honestly was not terribly excited by it.  I did add 1/2 cup of coconut milk and about 1/8-1/4 cup brown sugar.  On each serving I put a small drizzle of raw honey.  The littles have eaten 3-4 bowls each.  One of Brady's sensory issues I have noticed is that he cannot seem to stand mushy foods.  I was wondering how this would go over because of that.  There is enough "crunch" to the cereal that he is apparently ok with it.  I am really glad.  Josey ate 2 bowls as well.  I believe that the kids like it.  :)  

Perhaps next time I will add a little less sugar and just do the coconut milk and drizzle of honey and see how that goes.  I need to remember that the kids are not as used to the sweet as I am.  ok...off to start the day.  We have a friend coming over this morning and I need to get a few more things done.

ok...so first things first. a funny story to tell on myself a bit. 
Going gf AND cf is probably more of a mental thing for me but I am mourning things that I had finally gotten ok with being gf that I am now scratching because of the dairy.  specifically pizza.  I know that there are almond milk and rice milk cheeses, and probably others, but they won't melt like dairy cheese.  Sometimes finding a substitute is just not worth it.  So I have been craving pizza.  I packed the kids lunches the other day so I decided to stop on the way home and grab a mini pizza from Pizza Hut.  Yeah...feed the kids awesome and eat crap Gretchen...great idea.  *insert rolling eyes here*.  I know that I need to eat better and I believe that if I quit eating the stuff that I will eventually quit craving it.  I just need to be better about resisting...ok...back to the funny stuff.

I eat the pizza and the breadsticks.  Take Josey to pre-school and drop her off and then head on home.  I ended up laying down with Lucey to get her down for nap.  I completely crashed.  total carb overload.  I could barely keep my eyes open.  I knew I had to make it to get Josey on time so I kept waking and checking the clock but we are talking eyes open barely a sliver.  I was tired, it had been a long weekend, but seriously I think that all the carbs, all the bread items I have not eaten in a long time, caught up with me and just knocked my ass out.  I did get Josey on time, thank goodness, but I was tired for the rest of the day.  It was in interesting and unintentional carb experiment.

ok...so to share a couple of recipes with you guys. 
Yesterday I made some fig bars and the batter to a squash pudding pie, which is now cooking in the oven for breakfast. 
The fig bars are pretty good but I think next time I will use a little less sugar than it called for.  It was a super easy recipe and I was able to make it gf/cf with little to no effort.  I will list the ingredients I used, to make it gf/cf.  I used vegan buttery sticks instead of butter and the Enjoy Life brand of cereal in crunchy flax and crunchy rice.  The recipe called for 3 cups of crispy rice cereal but I used the two different types since flax has great nutritional properties to it.  The recipe also suggested rolling the fig bars in powdered sugar afterwards but I decided to skip this step overall.  I was thinking though that unsweetened finely chopped coconut would be a great option though.

Crispy Fig Bars

• 1/2 cup Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks
• 3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
• 5 oz figs, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 cups crunchy flax cereal
• 1 1/2 cups crunchy rice cereal
• 1 tsp vanilla

1. Grease an 8 or 9 inch square pan
2. melt buttery sticks in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  stir in the brown sugar and figs.  cook over medium heat until mixture thickens, stirring occasionally.  about 10 minutes.
3. stir in the cereal and vanilla until well coated.  firmly press into the pan and let stand for 2 hours.
4. cut into bars in sizes to your liking.

I cut them and then put them in the freezer to keep for our trip to FL coming up soon.  I did try them and Lucey tried them as well.  We both enjoyed them although as I said I think I would put a little less sugar in them.  The figs are naturally sweet.  I also put my figs in a small food processor to cut them.  They stick together but it works.  I kind of dredged them in the sugar to separate them a bit before heating them.  Here are they are in the pan as I was cutting them and bagging them for freezing.

I am going to post this and will come back later to talk about the squash pudding pie and the other things I intend to make today. 

hmmm....interesting

I met with a nutritional educator the other evening.  Josey has been gluten free for about a year now.  With all the concerns about Brady and his development and speech and the possibility of him being on the autistic spectrum I decided to start feeding him gluten free as well.  Since that would mean I would be feeding two kids gf then I decided to just go all gf in the house basically.  I wanted to meet with someone who could help me to make sure that while eliminating gluten and dairy I was still feeding us as balanced as we would need.  I also wanted to gather some more information on supplements and learn more information about the autism "diet".

Typically an autism/ADHD diet also includes the exclusion of casein which is a protien found in dairy products.  Now I am not going to try to educate anyone on this because I am just learning it all myself.  The NE I met with explained some of it but I really need to read more before I start trying to share too much on the subject.  Basically what I can tell you though was that I thought I would just take the gluten free step.  I was not too sure I could cut out dairy.  That scared the hell outta me.  We eat a lot of cheese and yogurt.  I love to add sour cream to recipes and tacos are a staple around here.  Who eats a taco with no sour cream?  Well I guess we will be. 

According the NE 65% of kids will respond positively to a gf/cf diet.  Unfortunately leaving the casein is going to leave us with a somewhat inconclusive result.  She suggested a 4 week elimination period.  I meet with her again next Wednesday night and she will give me our meal plan.  I am looking forward to seeing what she has put together.  I love to cook but have been too timid when it comes to GF cooking.  I am ready to start to learn more and try new things. 

Tomorrow I have it on good authority that the Easter Bunny will be bringing the children some beach towels, swimsuits and that type of thing.  I think that we will be avoiding candy...maybe all candy this year.  I may look at some stuff but honestly trying to eliminate dyes, HFCS, dairy and gluten means that there is not too much to choose from and sometimes I make exceptions but I think that we need to really consider how often we make exceptions you know?  yeah...I am a hard ass and my kids may hate me for it but I an just doing what I think is best for them. 

You know overall I am proud of the improvements Brady is making.  His new words are awesome, check out the blog about the kids.  I am still struggling some days with being positive and praising anything as a word.  Having the ST here helps me to remember.  She is always praising him with "good talking Brady", and "I hear your voice.  Good job."  that type of thing.  So I try to mimic that when she is gone.  and it is good.  he just needs to work on moving his mouth, using his tongue and lips and whole mouth when talking.  I will try to get more video of him talking.  He just does not move his mouth hardly at all. 

On with our Saturday...Take care everyone!

gluten free yumminess!

ok...so I have more to say but I wanted to post these recipes real quick like for anyone interested.  These are totally yummy.  I got them last night at a gluten free/dairy free cooking class.  These are probably my favorites from last night. 

Enjoy...I will be back sometime this weekend to say more.  :)

Gluten free granola


3 ¼ cups gluten free oats
¼ cup sesame seeds
1/8 cup milled flax seed
2 cups chopped pecans (use raw unsalted)
1 cup finely shredded unsweetened coconut
1 cup honey
½ tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
3/4 cup melted butter or oil of choice
¼ cup flattened rice or flattened quinoa flakes (optional)
2 chopped medjool dates (remove pits)

Mix dry ingredients together. Add liquid ingredients and mix by hand. Spread into a large baking dish. Bake at 300 degrees for about 30 minutes. Stir frequently to avoid burning around edges or bottom.

Chia Seed Coconut Cream Topping

1 cup (raw) cashews
1 ½ cups rice or almond milk
1 ½ cups coconut milk
2 tablespoons honey
1/8 -¼ cup chia seeds

Place the cashew, honey and milks in a blender or food processor and blend on high speed until smooth. Place the chia seeds in a large jar or container, pour the cashew mixture into the jar and shake well. Place in the refrigerator overnight. You can also blend the chia seeds in with the rest of the mixture. If left whole they may plump up similar to tapioca pearls. If blended they will just help to thicken the mixture.

I also want to include a link to Laura Schmitt, NE which is who I got these recipes from. 
http://www.lauraschmittne.com/

Struggles

So I am a pessimist at heart I think. I always look at the negative. not something I am proud of...just the truth.
You ask me how I am and regardless of how good or bad the day was I will say, "eh. ok" I could have won the farking lottery and will still probably be like that. just how I am.

As a mom this is a daily struggle/battle for me. Daily. It is a battle I lose often. Too often. I try to remind myself to point out the positive things that Josey does. To not just reprimand her. Some days I do great. Other days I fall short.

With everything going on with Brady I am once again challenged to be positive. The case worker, L, was over yesterday. She was going over the goals for Brady, talking about strategy. One of the things we are to do is to encourage any and all vocalization. I get why. I understand that he needs to be encouraged to talk because his communication is so poor that he could get easily frustrated if we are always correcting him. I do understand the logic behind it. That part is actually fairly easy for me. I can just go with him. I feel a little silly sometimes making it sound like "uh" is whatever item he is choosing but I can do it.

Where I am stubbing my toes right now is on the idea that any attempt at a word should be counted. Again...I want him to succeed. I want him to communicate and will do whatever I have to do to help him out. I just want to make sure that "uh" does not always count for "duck".

Logically I know that will not be the case. They are not going to cut him free from EI with him still grunting and such. I guess I am impatient and pessimistic at heart and need to quit being that way. Trust the process Gretchen...trust the flipping process. :)

On an another note...we have made it almost one week with the kids 100% gluten free now. Brad and I have still had some things because there are still some gluten foods in the house, obviously, but the kids have had none since Sunday. not too bad. not too bad at all.