Power Struggle

And, so it begins. Days of baking and cooking, cooking and baking. Loads of conflicting information about which ingredients are safe and which are not. Debate about whether or not we are eliminating ingredients with reported cross-contamination reactions, or if we are going to stick to the (bountiful) list of ingredients that actually contain corn or come from corn. And then cooking and baking, baking and cooking.

We thought maybe we'd found some hummus that Little Girl could eat. So that was lunch on Thursday - hummus & carrots, which she did not touch. Rice cakes with peanut butter; I think she just licked the peanut butter off, but oh well. At least she got some protein.

Since then her diet has consisted mostly of fruit. Daddy made some homemade bread that she seemed to like, but then stopped eating. I made, in 3 subsequent evenings, fried chicken (best I've ever had), Mexican chicken with rice and beans, and homemade pizza. And. She. Didn't. Even. Touch. Them. Not a bite, not a nibble, not a taste. "Uhn fhuuuuuut!" she said, demanding mango, honeydew, or a pear. As I write her approximation for "I want fruit," I reflect on how young she really is. She has trouble communicating her basic needs, much less something as subtle as a tummyache. But at the time, when my stubborn daughter refuses to even LICK the food that I have spent the last 4 days making her so that she can have something to eat, that doesn't occur to me. I am just defeated. All this work, all this love poured into the food so that she has something in her diet other than fructose and fiber. And she doesn't even KNOW if she liked it or not.

I am upset, I am depressed, I am overwhelmed.

I will get through this.

We will get through this.

On the bright side, Mama and Daddy have quite enjoyed some very yummy homemade dinners.

It hasn't been all bad - our baked goods have been mostly a hit. Below I'll place or link the recipes for the week, as well as the substitutions I made. They're great for everyone, even those without a corn issue.  I haven't made one bad-tasting thing. And comparatively, it's all been pretty easy and straightforward to make.

**As a disclaimer, I am quite new to this thing. As much as I have tried to educate myself, I may have unknowingly used some corny ingredients.

Graham Crackers from Kitchen Simplicity
I used 365 Whole Wheat Flour (not enriched) for all the flour in the recipe and skipped the vanilla. (Homemade vanilla from potato alcohol is OK, but not commercial.) I used Domino light brown sugar instead of dark, and used butter that, as far as I know, is corn-safe. After I rolled them out I used a circular cookie cutter to make them uniform. I froze half of these because it made quite a few crackers (4 dozen?).

Homemade Cheese Crackers from momables
Again, I used the 365 Whole Wheat Flour, "safe" cheese (though it seems that there's really no safe cheese, but that depresses me too much to think about right now), and "safe" butter. We  need to roll these out thinner to make them crispier and make the recipe go farther.

Breakfast oatmeal cupcakes from Chocolate Covered Katie
I used honey as my sweetener and skipped the chocolate chips and vanilla. However, many very sensitive people will tell you there is not one truly corn-safe ingredient in here. Yes, even salt can be corny. I didn't use them this time around, but I ordered some Lara's Rolled Oats which are guaranteed corn-safe and will use those from now on. I also plan to use some natural peanut butter (from dry roasted nuts and no other ingredients) in future iterations. This makes 24 cupcakes, 12 of which I froze.

Homemade veggie pouch
I steamed some broccoli and threw it into the food processor with a pear, half a banana, and a kiwi. Funneled it into a reusable pouch like this one and she said "mmmm mama!" This made about 3 pouches; I stored extra in a Mason jar in the fridge.

Homemade pizza
I used 365 Whole Wheat Flour and Red Star yeast in the packets with the crust recipe found at thekitchn, rose it for 1.5 hours, and then topped with exquisite pizza sauce blended with zucchini. Topped with pure grated mozzarella, and it was super tasty. Not that Little Girl would know. I made 5 pizzas and froze 4 of them for later use. Fingers crossed.

Fried Chicken
I soaked my strips of chicken in "buttermilk" (1/2 cup buttermilk with 1/2 tsp lemon juice) for 20 minute, then breaded them with 365 Whole Wheat Flour with paprika, salt, and pepper to taste. Fried for about 5-10 minutes (breading was golden brown) in grapeseed oil (100% pure, from Italy) and it was oh-so-tasty.  We plan on recreating this tonight and freezing the excess so that we can pull them out and bake them at a later date.

Mexican Chicken
I rubbed with chili powder, salt, pepper, and a little garlic powder, then sautéed in butter + olive oil, 5-7 minutes on each side.

Beans & Rice
I soaked 1 cup of organic black beans for about 7 hours, then drained and boiled with 3 cups of water for 1.5 hours. I cooked some organic white rice per package directions with a little salt, then sautéed the beans and rice together for a minute with a little garlic powder to mix.