I can't be sure, and I don't think I will ever really know, but I am pretty sure Little Girl was corned last week. I don't know how it happened, or when or where, but from the moment she woke up on Saturday until the moment she woke up on Monday, I was trying to find where this little beast had stashed my real daughter.
It sounds crazy - or at least it did to me when I first heard that a food reaction could cause behavior changes. But I have seen it in my own child, and heard about it in children and adults alike. I saw the 180-degree shift in Little Girl's behavior after we removed corn from her diet, and the huge leap in development that happened at the same time. And, in retrospect, we all bore witness to the downward spiral that was this last corn explosion. I've seen it, so I believe it.
As a baby, she got the reputation of being a "diva" and the title of "cryingest baby in the family." We went along with it at the time, and just kind of grinned and bore it. But knowing what we know now, we feel a little bit guilty about that. Things could have been different. Wouldn't anyone be clingy and weepy if they were in a constant state of pain? Wouldn't anyone have a short fuse if they felt pukey all the time?
Words were slow to come; she finally said her first consistent words around her second birthday. While she crawled and cruised from about 7.5 months, she didn't walk until 13 months - around the same time we discovered and addressed the corn issue. Then, apart from typical toddler meltdowns, things seemed to be developing pretty well. I don't know when the snowball started, but at some point the behavior went downhill. The coughing while eating began again. Only when she started puking were we able to look back and see that things had been rolling downhill for awhile.
After the blowup it took about 2 weeks for us to remember what a delightful child our Little Girl is. I mean, she really is a great kid. So she has some personal space issues. So she tries to ride her baby sister. But she really is a funny, loving, bright kid. Her language, which has developed at a really good clip since December, just exploded. She started naming her colors. Counting. All stuff she couldn't do before, and I attribute the leap in development to her body finally being able to do something besides fight corn.
And then, this weekend happened. Meltdown after meltdown. Tantrum after tantrum. Hour after miserable hour of fighting, bargaining, yelling, limit-pushing. Time outs, time ins, breaks, you name it - if it was in our parental repertoire, we tried it. It was a losing battle. "Mama's sleeping, let's not wake her up." Lost her mind. "No ice cream for breakfast - you can have it for dessert for tonight." Lost her mind. "Put the knife down, you don't want to cut yourself." Lost. Her. Mind.
And I'm not talking a little crying jag. I'm talking 20 minutes of screaming, crying to the point of gagging, snot in her hair, and walking into walls. Every single time she was redirected. If it wasn't for the previous week or two, I would have chalked it up to normal toddler stuff. But, seriously. This is not my child.
And then this morning she woke up with a smile, a hug, and the ability to follow instructions. My angel is back.
I don't know the culprit, and I probably never will. But I am SO nervous that we are going to have to be even more restrictive, and I just don't know how we would do it.
Corn, corn, go away.
Monday, March 3, 2014
Sunday, February 23, 2014
School Bake-cation Week
Like any teacher, I take advantage of school vacation weeks to rest, relax, sleep in, and completely detach from any responsibility.
Oh, wait.
I have children.
And pretty much no teacher does that anyway.
I am making the most out of this week, though, by finding as many easy recipes as possible that we can make throughout the week so that we can have yummy, healthful meals and convenient snacks.
Here are some of our favorite recipes from the week:
Snacks
Granola Bars (adapted from Minimalist Baker)
1.5c rolled oats
1c chopped cashews (or any nuts)
1/2c coconut (optional)
1c pitted dates
1/4c honey (or maple syrup, or other liquid sweetener)
1/4c peanut butter (or any nut butter)
You can really add anything else you want - chocolate chips, raisins, or other dried fruit. I can see myself making lots of different variations on these.
Preheat the oven to 350. Toast the oats, nuts, and coconut for 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. Process the dates in the food processor until they come together in a ball. Put the toasted mixture in a bowl with the dates. Heat the honey and peanut butter on the stovetop, then pour it over the top of the rest of the ingredients. Get your hands in there and mix it up really well. Press it into a parchment-lined pan and chill.
Sweet & Salty Crackers (adapted from Against All Grain)
1 cup almond flour
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons cold water
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons dried apricots
3 teaspoons roasted salted pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
Preheat the oven to 350 and mix everything but the last tablespoon of pepitas in a food processor until a moist, slightly chunky dough forms. It probably won't come all the way together into a ball. This probably took about a minute. Add the rest of the pepitas and process until you're satisfied with the consistency.
Remove the dough, make it into a ball, and place it between 2 sheets of parchment paper to roll out. Make it pretty thin - I did 1/16-1/8". Cut as desired, top with salt if you wish, and bake on 350 until desired crispiness is reached, about 5 minutes for the thinner ones and 8-9 minutes for the thicker ones.
Paleo Sandwich Bread
We used this recipe from Against All Grain. It didn't rise or really turn out looking anything like the photo on the site; more like a nutty banana or zucchini loaf. It's great with some salted butter, but I'm not sure I'd be able to eat anything sandwich-y on it. Munchkin loved it!
Then we used this recipe from Elana's Pantry. We are waiting to try this one, but I'm excited for it!
Chocolate. Wow.
OK Maybe I just made this for myself. ButterBeliever has a great recipe for coconut oil chocolate. I sweetened with honey. (Some say pretty much no honey is corn-safe, but I have used it in many recipes.) I also added Madagascar vanilla, because I decided the Ghirardelli cocoa powder had so many declared cross-contaminants, it was bound to have corn - so Baby Bear doesn't get any. The chocolate came out melt-in-your-mouth fudgy and it will not last long in my fridge!
In the future I will use safe cocoa, safe-as-I-can-find honey, and homemade vanilla. And I bet it'll be even better.
Entrees
Slow-Cooker Fajita Chicken
Butterfly a chicken breast and rub it with taco seasoning. Place it in the slow cooker with 1/2c water and fresh salsa, peppers and onions. Cook 6-8 hours. Serve with super-simple rice and beans, which you can find here. This time I added some lime juice. I wanted to add cilantro as well, but since it was glistening in the produce section, I presumed it had been sprayed with something corny and stayed away from it.
Buttermilk Fried Chicken
We are going to use the same recipe we used here, but since we are trying to use fewer grains we tried almond and coconut flour instead of wheat flour. Almond was the winner!
Ravioli with Meatballs
This was truly a labor of love. The ravioli recipe from Taste of Home is great, but very time-consuming. It is next to impossible to get the pasta sheets thin enough with a mere rolling pin. Before I attempt this recipe again, I will be investing in either a pasta roller or a ravioli filler for our stand mixer. The meatballs and sauce are a family recipe, so I won't be sharing those here!
Bacon Wrapped Apple Chicken
From Wellness Mama. Stupid easy and SO tasty. At this point we had pretty much given up on the idea of Baby Bear eating anything we went to the trouble of making, so we just used the barbecue sauce we had. But, I am pretty sure we could whip up a homemade corn-free barbecue sauce for this.
Oh, wait.
I have children.
And pretty much no teacher does that anyway.
I am making the most out of this week, though, by finding as many easy recipes as possible that we can make throughout the week so that we can have yummy, healthful meals and convenient snacks.
Here are some of our favorite recipes from the week:
Snacks
Granola Bars (adapted from Minimalist Baker)
1.5c rolled oats
1c chopped cashews (or any nuts)
1/2c coconut (optional)
1c pitted dates
1/4c honey (or maple syrup, or other liquid sweetener)
1/4c peanut butter (or any nut butter)
You can really add anything else you want - chocolate chips, raisins, or other dried fruit. I can see myself making lots of different variations on these.
Preheat the oven to 350. Toast the oats, nuts, and coconut for 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. Process the dates in the food processor until they come together in a ball. Put the toasted mixture in a bowl with the dates. Heat the honey and peanut butter on the stovetop, then pour it over the top of the rest of the ingredients. Get your hands in there and mix it up really well. Press it into a parchment-lined pan and chill.
Sweet & Salty Crackers (adapted from Against All Grain)
1 cup almond flour
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons cold water
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons dried apricots
3 teaspoons roasted salted pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
Preheat the oven to 350 and mix everything but the last tablespoon of pepitas in a food processor until a moist, slightly chunky dough forms. It probably won't come all the way together into a ball. This probably took about a minute. Add the rest of the pepitas and process until you're satisfied with the consistency.
Remove the dough, make it into a ball, and place it between 2 sheets of parchment paper to roll out. Make it pretty thin - I did 1/16-1/8". Cut as desired, top with salt if you wish, and bake on 350 until desired crispiness is reached, about 5 minutes for the thinner ones and 8-9 minutes for the thicker ones.
Paleo Sandwich Bread
We used this recipe from Against All Grain. It didn't rise or really turn out looking anything like the photo on the site; more like a nutty banana or zucchini loaf. It's great with some salted butter, but I'm not sure I'd be able to eat anything sandwich-y on it. Munchkin loved it!
Then we used this recipe from Elana's Pantry. We are waiting to try this one, but I'm excited for it!
Chocolate. Wow.
OK Maybe I just made this for myself. ButterBeliever has a great recipe for coconut oil chocolate. I sweetened with honey. (Some say pretty much no honey is corn-safe, but I have used it in many recipes.) I also added Madagascar vanilla, because I decided the Ghirardelli cocoa powder had so many declared cross-contaminants, it was bound to have corn - so Baby Bear doesn't get any. The chocolate came out melt-in-your-mouth fudgy and it will not last long in my fridge!
In the future I will use safe cocoa, safe-as-I-can-find honey, and homemade vanilla. And I bet it'll be even better.
Entrees
Slow-Cooker Fajita Chicken
Butterfly a chicken breast and rub it with taco seasoning. Place it in the slow cooker with 1/2c water and fresh salsa, peppers and onions. Cook 6-8 hours. Serve with super-simple rice and beans, which you can find here. This time I added some lime juice. I wanted to add cilantro as well, but since it was glistening in the produce section, I presumed it had been sprayed with something corny and stayed away from it.
Buttermilk Fried Chicken
We are going to use the same recipe we used here, but since we are trying to use fewer grains we tried almond and coconut flour instead of wheat flour. Almond was the winner!
Ravioli with Meatballs
This was truly a labor of love. The ravioli recipe from Taste of Home is great, but very time-consuming. It is next to impossible to get the pasta sheets thin enough with a mere rolling pin. Before I attempt this recipe again, I will be investing in either a pasta roller or a ravioli filler for our stand mixer. The meatballs and sauce are a family recipe, so I won't be sharing those here!
Bacon Wrapped Apple Chicken
From Wellness Mama. Stupid easy and SO tasty. At this point we had pretty much given up on the idea of Baby Bear eating anything we went to the trouble of making, so we just used the barbecue sauce we had. But, I am pretty sure we could whip up a homemade corn-free barbecue sauce for this.
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
And now you want us to go away for 4 days?
My dad's birthday was last week. My grandmother's is this week. So, naturally, my mom and I decided it'd be a great idea to take the babies to Missouri for a little birthday surprise. The tickets were bought before we recognized the corn welling up inside my little monkey. And then the world of our food turned upside down. On the heels of this upheaval, we needed to try to figure out how to get through 2 3-hour plane rides and a 4-day trip to a place with no Whole Foods or local farms, in the middle of a cold, cold winter.
So, we baked.
We made some bread, cheese crackers, graham crackers, and oatmeal cupcakes. (I call these latter treats "muffins" because I can't get over how it sounds to give a cupcake for breakfast.) I packed tons of these, cut the graham crackers into cute little shapes (airplanes for the flight and hearts for Valentine's Day were a favorite), and included some peanut butter and applesauce pouches (with no citric acid or ascorbic acid), and supposed I'd get anything else at the store when we arrived.
Turns out that all I was really able to get at the store was fresh fruit, apple juice, and eggs. All of those are actually of questionable corniness, but I did the best I could with what I had.
Little Girl did great. For all the times she doesn't listen, doesn't understand, and just plain acts out... well, fortunately she doesn't do that when it comes to corn. I'm sure it's because this has been our mantra for nearly 18 months now, but when we tell her that she can't have something because it has corn and will make her tummy hurt, she says "OK" and walks away. At one point during a party, I gave it to her straight: "Little Girl, there's a lot of food here and a lot of it would make your tummy hurt - you need to ask Mama before you eat anything." And that's just what she did.
It makes me sad that, at 2 1/2 years old, she should have to deal with this. Little kids hear "No" enough; she shouldn't have to live in a constant state of deprivation where she can't eat ANYTHING the people around her are eating. It will be better once we have a routine of cooking and pre-making things so that she can have more of a variety - because heaven knows she was sick and tired of cheese crackers and graham crackers by the end of the last 4 days. But for now, it seems like everyone else is eating something much yummier than what she can have.
My sadness, though, is tempered with pride that my little girl can be so mature and understanding of her issue. For all the times she can be difficult, when it counts, she makes it just a little bit easier.
So, we baked.
We made some bread, cheese crackers, graham crackers, and oatmeal cupcakes. (I call these latter treats "muffins" because I can't get over how it sounds to give a cupcake for breakfast.) I packed tons of these, cut the graham crackers into cute little shapes (airplanes for the flight and hearts for Valentine's Day were a favorite), and included some peanut butter and applesauce pouches (with no citric acid or ascorbic acid), and supposed I'd get anything else at the store when we arrived.
Turns out that all I was really able to get at the store was fresh fruit, apple juice, and eggs. All of those are actually of questionable corniness, but I did the best I could with what I had.
Little Girl did great. For all the times she doesn't listen, doesn't understand, and just plain acts out... well, fortunately she doesn't do that when it comes to corn. I'm sure it's because this has been our mantra for nearly 18 months now, but when we tell her that she can't have something because it has corn and will make her tummy hurt, she says "OK" and walks away. At one point during a party, I gave it to her straight: "Little Girl, there's a lot of food here and a lot of it would make your tummy hurt - you need to ask Mama before you eat anything." And that's just what she did.
It makes me sad that, at 2 1/2 years old, she should have to deal with this. Little kids hear "No" enough; she shouldn't have to live in a constant state of deprivation where she can't eat ANYTHING the people around her are eating. It will be better once we have a routine of cooking and pre-making things so that she can have more of a variety - because heaven knows she was sick and tired of cheese crackers and graham crackers by the end of the last 4 days. But for now, it seems like everyone else is eating something much yummier than what she can have.
My sadness, though, is tempered with pride that my little girl can be so mature and understanding of her issue. For all the times she can be difficult, when it counts, she makes it just a little bit easier.
Thursday, February 13, 2014
The Script
Here is a conversation I have at least weekly.
Well-Meaning Person: So, what's going on with Little Girl? She's sick?
Me: She's been getting sick. She has a corn intolerance, so if she eats anything with corn in it she kind of loses her mind. If she eats enough of it she throws up and is just miserable.
WMP: Corn? Wow I've never heard of that before. How'd you figure that out? Were you feeding her a lot of corn and she just got sick?
Me: No, it turns out corn is in pretty much everything in the world - especially processed convenience food that you can buy in a box. It builds up in her system over time so it starts slowly. But eventually she vomits.
WMP: Oh. Are you sure it's corn? Maybe she just had a bug. Or maybe she was just in a phase.
Me: No, it's corn. When we eliminated corn, the symptoms went away and when she eats corn by accident they come back. Her behavior even changes.
WMP: Really? Are you sure she's not just being a 2-year-old? Have you talked to her doctor?
Me: It's hard to tell sometimes in the moment, but usually with prolonged freakouts we are later able to attribute them to an accidental corn exposure. You'd probably change your behavior if your tummy really hurt too. We did talk to her doctor. We got lots of tests and gave her lots of medicine (which probably had corn in it) and saw lots of different doctors. She didn't get better until we eliminated corn.
WMP: Allergic to corn huh? So no corn on the cob for her, right?
Me: Yeah. Or tortilla chips. Or regular chips. Or candy. Or pizza. Or granola bars, bananas, cereal, really anything I don't make myself with safe ingredients.
WMP: Wait. All that stuff has corn in it? Bananas?
Me: Yeah. Watch King Corn. It was an eye opener.
WMP: So will she grow out of it?
Me: I don't know. For now, we are adjusting because we want her to feel well and be happy.
WMP: I hope she grows out of it!
Sometimes I call the intolerance an "allergy" depending on my audience. I find the word "intolerance" often causes the listener to tune out and write me off as that mom. But, since my child won't have an anaphylactic reaction to corn, I usually choose to use the proper term so as not to minimize the life-threatening nature of a true allergy.
Mostly, the only problem with this conversation is that I have it all the time and it almost always goes the same way. So I'm kinda sick of it.
But there are a few other things that bother me.
1) Too few people have heard of a corn intolerance or allergy. That's no one's fault, but I do hope to raise awareness.
2) Too few people truly realize the hold that corn has on our lives in the United States. Again, watch King Corn. The upshot: there is absolutely no money in growing corn other than what the government will pay corn growers. Therefore, corn is CHEAP and thus used for purposes other than what nature intended. It's used to take shortcuts. Corn is found in places it has no business being.
3) This is where I start to get fired up. The question, "Did you talk to her doctor?" suggests to me that we somehow took matters into our own hands and there are people who know better than us who should be handling the situation. We did take matters into our own hands, because those people didn't know better and couldn't help us. They don't see our child every day or even once a week, and if it hadn't been for my veggie puff discovery, and our independent investigations, things would be a lot worse now.
4) "Well, I hope she grows out of it." I know people who say this mean well. Of course they don't want her to live a life of deprivation or be in pain. But it bothers me to hope or wish that our child will be anything other than how she is. I feel that loving my child means to accept that she has a corn intolerance (or insert other characteristic there). I will help her make the most of it, but wishing the intolerance away isn't going to achieve anything. One day she will get to a place in her life where she can decide on her own whether or not to try eating corn again. She will know the corny foods and the possible reactions because we will have educated her on those things. If she grows out of it, great. But I don't "hope" or "wish" she does. I accept and love who she is now without waiting for her to change in a way that's more convenient for me. She is my corny girl, and we have gained a wealth of knowledge through this experience that I would never want to un-know. Thank you, Little Girl, for being just the way you are.
A Brief PSA: A Human Is Not An Adjective.
Here's what I mean by that:
The children I've heard referred to so many times as "autistic kids" are actually CHILDREN with autism.
A "cancer patient" is a PERSON with cancer.
A "dyslexic" is an INDIVIDUAL with dyslexia.
A "manic depressive" is a HUMAN with bipolar disorder.
My kid has an intolerance to corn. But intolerant to corn is not what she IS. My daughter has a speech delay. But speech-dealyed is not what she IS. She IS a beautiful, funny, sweet, humorous CHILD. She gets on my nerves sometimes. All kids do. That does not mean she is "bad," or "bratty," or "spoiled." She is a TODDLER who is learning to navigate this world.
The PERSON comes before the disability, life circumstance, or characteristic.
Please, please think about this when you speak about someone who is different from you, or different from what you are used to. Words are powerful and adjectives become labels. Put the person first.
The children I've heard referred to so many times as "autistic kids" are actually CHILDREN with autism.
A "cancer patient" is a PERSON with cancer.
A "dyslexic" is an INDIVIDUAL with dyslexia.
A "manic depressive" is a HUMAN with bipolar disorder.
My kid has an intolerance to corn. But intolerant to corn is not what she IS. My daughter has a speech delay. But speech-dealyed is not what she IS. She IS a beautiful, funny, sweet, humorous CHILD. She gets on my nerves sometimes. All kids do. That does not mean she is "bad," or "bratty," or "spoiled." She is a TODDLER who is learning to navigate this world.
The PERSON comes before the disability, life circumstance, or characteristic.
Please, please think about this when you speak about someone who is different from you, or different from what you are used to. Words are powerful and adjectives become labels. Put the person first.
Monday, February 10, 2014
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.
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.
Saturday, February 8, 2014
Pins and Needles
Baby Girl just coughed in her sleep. I was sure she was going to puke. We are in the car, driving back from a great evening with our friends and their new baby. We left at bedtime, thinking the kids would be good to sleep on the way home and then go to bed and sleep well when we get there.
But, from the back seat came those adrenaline-provoking coughs, and I was sure we were going to have to pull over and change her clothes, clean off her face, hands and car seat as best we could, and bathe her when we get home at 9pm.
Luckily she is fine, for now. But this is what goes through our minds every time we hear that little toddler cough come from her bedroom. Immediately our brains rewind over everything she's eaten in the last 72 hours to see if anything could have possibly been contaminated.
Eosinophilic esophagitis builds up gradually, so after she has been corn-clean for awhile it won't be as terrifying. Her esophagus will heal, and future small corn exposures will not have such a dramatic effect - at least in our experience. But until then, we are on pins and needles.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)