Pictures

Wondering where I've been? I was able to attend the annual M.O.P.S. (Mothers Of PreSchoolers) convention held in Nashville, TN this year. Ben held up the fort (and the GF diet!) while I was away for 4 days without the kids! Last year it was held in Grapevine, TX as you can see here.

Here are some funny pictures of Andrew. Even though he's attempting to cut out his nap, he still can't quite make it all day without one.




Sunday afternoon Ben fell asleep on the couch and Andrew wanted to be with him. So what's a 3 year old to do? Climb right on top of sleeping daddy and lean over and watch his face and...fall asleep in the process. Haha! He slept practically upside down for 45 minutes!

No Gluten!

Last night I made a BBQ chicken sandwich meal (just like shredded BBQ beef but with chicken) and it dawned on me to check the ingredients on the BBQ sauce label. We love Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce and 'modified food starch' was listed. I've read somewhere online that modified food starch can sometimes contain gluten so unfortunately I didn't feed the yummy dinner to Austin (and Andrew) but gave them an alternative that was just as yummy. I emailed the BBQ sauce company and they quickly replied by this morning saying "Sweet Baby Ray's Products do NOT contain any gluten!" WHOO HOO!

New loaf of GF bread and cute video

Today I made my 2nd loaf of GF bread. This time I tried another box mix and it came out MUCH better. The color looks more like typical bread and it's nice and moist. Here's a picture of the box. It gives you options on which ingredients you can use but for this loaf I chose the milk, whole eggs, and butter. The other option is water, egg whites, and vegetable oil.



Once we had finished dinner, Austin started rocking himself to sleep and I quickly grabbed my ancient camera with no sound and videotaped it. =) The food in front of Austin is his GF bread with peanut butter on it. He ate the peanut butter off the bread cause I gave him the heel. Silly kid.

GF Diet update

For now on I've decided not to post daily on Austin's food schedule but to post when we come upon a solution, problem, or discovery. Here's the latest:

Problem: Tonight I had planned on making a pot roast with potatoes, celery, and carrots. Gluten free, right? Right. Yeah for another gluten free meal! Well as I was preparing it, I read the ingredients of the seasoning and go figure the seasoning has gluten in it. Boo.

Solution: I have a package of single serve ham steaks in the fridge that only need heating before serving! Thankfully, Austin won't care a bit.

Discovery: Two days ago, Austin did something he's NEVER done. Do I chalk it up to him growing up and changing or could this be a subtle change from his diet? Hmmm.

I was sitting on the couch watching the news and Austin walked up to me, climbed up on the couch, wiggled himself under my arm, wrapped his arm around me, and snuggled. For the first time ever. Even as an infant, Austin hated snuggling. He had to face out at all times or he'd cry. When Austin is sick, he does lay around a lot BUT the only way he allows us to snuggle with him is for us to cover his ear with our hand. (strange I know but he loves it). We can't put an arm on him, play with his hair, nothing. This time he loved it. =) I sat there for 20 minutes, loving the change!

Hopefully there will be more to come!

Gluten Free Day #5

Forgot to post Day #5 so here it is!

Breakfast: WHOO HOO! We finally had success! I gave Austin the Envirokidz Leapin- Lemurs GF cereal (peanut butter and chocolate flavored) and he LOVED it!

Lunch: ate leftover GF pizza, GF pretzels (which taste exactly like regular ones), and yogurt

Dinner: Kelbasa and baked beans (one of our family's favorite meals and it just happens to be gluten free!)

A friend who is also on the GF diet let me borrow her Gluten Free, Casein Free Diet book and I love it!! It's easy reading and is written by a bunch of parents who's kids are on the diet. It's full of helpful tips and things you wonder about such as 'what to do on vacation', 'how to handle Halloween candy' (for casein free mostly), etc. Some of it is a little confusing cause she'll recommend not eating an item and then it takes me a minute to realize it's because it's dairy. We're not doing that diet just yet!

This book was written by parents who live in our area and it states on the back that it's $15 so if anyone is interested in purchasing it, I can see if I can get one for you.

Gluten Free Day #4

Today was a better day, food-wise. Still no real success with breakfast. Austin ate the GF toast this morning with peanut butter and he ate a 1/4 of it. Trying a different GF cereal tomorrow. *sigh*

Lunch today was the same as usual.

For dinner, my sis decided to come over with her kids for a playdate. We planned on having pizza so I racked my brain at what to give Austin since he couldn't eat the pizza dough. I decided to try our local health food store in search of a gluten free pizza so he wouldn't feel left out. When I walked into the store (never been in it before) I was overjoyed! The gluten free section was a good size AND they had a freezer section too! Another tip from me: Check your local health food store!!!! Yes, some items were more expensive but I found 3 kinds of GF pizzas! While I was there I also purchase cereal and cheese crackers. Dinner was a huge success! He loved the pizza and ate 3/4 of it! (It was slightly bigger than a Pizza Hut personal pan pizza)

Another helpful tip: Quaker's Quakes Rice snacks are gluten free! I bought Austin the caramel ones today but have yet to see if he likes them. If not, I know I do! =)

Gluten Free Day #3

We did pretty good again today. Still not much success regarding breakfast but that was mostly my fault. I ran out of GF bread so he had to have cereal instead. I'm going to pick up some more GF cereals tomorrow and see if he prefers something else. Isn't the guessing game just fun?!? Lunch was spent at school and I haven't heard anything negative so I'm not worrying about that yet. Dinner tonight was hot dogs (need to go grocery shopping!) which is always a hit. Austin never ate a bun before the diet so this wasn't any change for him.



I made my first loaf of GF bread with my new breadmaker! It does look a little strange on the outside but I tasted it and I even like it! If any of you are thinking about trying the diet, I'd highly recommend finding what works for your family regarding breads. Some make their breads by hand but frankly I don't have the time to do it! I'm lucky if my house is picked up sometimes! So, if you're like me, get a breadmaker and don't bother with the store bought bread. The first kind we tried was called Tapioca bread from a grocery store called Hannaford. Don't bother. Just step away from the breads and don't look back. You'll thank me for it. =)

Now that I have a whole loaf of GF bread, Austin will try it in the toast form tomorrow.