I got the Meal Makeover Mom's cookbook and was ready to try a bunch of recipes. I figured if I'm going to reintroduce foods back into her diet, I want them to at least be the healthy variety. The first recipe we tried was the homemade mac and cheese. I'm not much on homemade mac and cheese. Sadly, I enjoy the box/powdered version. Alas, we are turning over a new leaf. We had baked beans and hot dogs as well. Jeannette said she liked the mac and cheese...sort of. My son didn't like it at all. Then again, they didn't like the baked beans either. They both did eat a hot dog!! Well whoop-de-do!!!
We also made homemade oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, Broccoli Tortellini al pesto, and Fudgy Black Bean Brownies. I will post these recipes as they were all decent. I had to tweek all of them to accommodate for Jeannette, but they still turned out fine.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Back to dairy and yeast
Now that we're back to our routine, I've packed a few different things for snacks and lunches. I'm still giving her the multi-vitamin followed by water with the u-tract and iodine mixed in. I just have to suck it up on the multi-vitmain and give her these supplements how and where I can.
For lunches, she's now having soy nut butter and jelly sandwiches on the smart white bread. For snacks, I pack cheerios and mini club crackers. These two items are on the lower end of the carbohydrate spectrum, although they do contain yeast and minimal amounts of sugar. I haven't found much that doesn't have yeast or sugar, so I'm trying to stay under a certain level. For carbs, I try to stay under 20g of carbs. For sugar, I try to stay under 10g, but that's extremely difficult. If I reach 15g, I'm not going to go crazy, but I just limit the amount of sugar throughout the day. I've gotten more lenient on the yeast, and dairy. I still try to be cautious of the sugar and gluten products. I definitely don't want her getting back into the old habit of sugar, sugar, sugar, but I'm 50/50 on the gluten free products.
The past couple of days, Jeannette has had an upset stomach. I'm wondering if it's from the dairy. She's been putting milk back in her cereal and I have to wonder if it's from that. I expressed to her my concern and that we needed to pay close attention to that.
Tonight for dinner, I was in the process of making Jeannette her shake when I spilled the whole dang thing on the counter. I had just finished putting all the supplements in and that's when I knocked it over all over the counter. I was so upset with myself. It's like a $20 shake that I just wasted with all those supplements spewed out on the counter. There was no salvaging it either. I had to mop it all up and start all over. Ugh!!! I was trying to hurry and look where it got me.
For lunches, she's now having soy nut butter and jelly sandwiches on the smart white bread. For snacks, I pack cheerios and mini club crackers. These two items are on the lower end of the carbohydrate spectrum, although they do contain yeast and minimal amounts of sugar. I haven't found much that doesn't have yeast or sugar, so I'm trying to stay under a certain level. For carbs, I try to stay under 20g of carbs. For sugar, I try to stay under 10g, but that's extremely difficult. If I reach 15g, I'm not going to go crazy, but I just limit the amount of sugar throughout the day. I've gotten more lenient on the yeast, and dairy. I still try to be cautious of the sugar and gluten products. I definitely don't want her getting back into the old habit of sugar, sugar, sugar, but I'm 50/50 on the gluten free products.
The past couple of days, Jeannette has had an upset stomach. I'm wondering if it's from the dairy. She's been putting milk back in her cereal and I have to wonder if it's from that. I expressed to her my concern and that we needed to pay close attention to that.
Tonight for dinner, I was in the process of making Jeannette her shake when I spilled the whole dang thing on the counter. I had just finished putting all the supplements in and that's when I knocked it over all over the counter. I was so upset with myself. It's like a $20 shake that I just wasted with all those supplements spewed out on the counter. There was no salvaging it either. I had to mop it all up and start all over. Ugh!!! I was trying to hurry and look where it got me.
Taco recipe
I don't know if I posted this before, but if not, this is a great recipe for tacos that Jeannette can eat. You can substitute the beef for turkey if you want to be even more health conscious.
Taco's
1 lb. ground beef (grass fed)
1/2 C chopped onion
1 8oz can organic tomato sauce
1 t chili powder
1/2 t salt
1/2 t garlic powder
Brown beef and drain excess fat. Stir in remaining ingredients. Cover & simmer for 10 mins.
Serves: 10 tacos
Instead of taco shells, we use Archer Farms organic tostidos chips from Target.
Taco's
1 lb. ground beef (grass fed)
1/2 C chopped onion
1 8oz can organic tomato sauce
1 t chili powder
1/2 t salt
1/2 t garlic powder
Brown beef and drain excess fat. Stir in remaining ingredients. Cover & simmer for 10 mins.
Serves: 10 tacos
Instead of taco shells, we use Archer Farms organic tostidos chips from Target.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Memorial Weekend Travels
For the second weekend in a row we traveled. I had a trial run on the first weekend, so this wasn't so bad figuring out what to pack. Jeannette ate her brown rice cereal with milk for breakfast and today she had brown rice with non-dairy butter, raspberries and chocolate coconut milk for lunch. On the car ride, she had some popcorn for a snack. I brought alone one single serving size bag of M&M's for her to eat. Won't kill her..right? She gets bored easily and when that happens, she eats. I always have to be prepared for her hungry cravings.
When we got there, we went out to dinner at a local Greek/Italian restaurant. I wasn't sure what she was going to have. I ended up ordering a grilled chicken sandwich and splitting that with her. I took half and cut up the chicken into bite size pieces. She seemed to be okay with that, but was still hungry. I allowed her to have 2 bites of Jarod's pasta (that happened to be saturated in butter. I hate that. Half the time I have to drain the bowl onto a plate b/c there is so much melted butter).
For breakfasts I brought her brown rice cereal, so she had that. While she was eating that, my friend walked in the kitchen with a bag of fresh bagels. Jeannette just gave me that "look". It was the pitiful puppy dog, lower lip sticking out, look. I said that she could have a small bit. She had 1/4 of 1/2 of a bagel with a little cream cheese. I explained again that she can't have too much of it because we wouldn't know how her body would react. She said she understood.
For lunch she had her standard rice cakes with soy nut butter and carob chips. I also gave her a chocolate brownie (her special brownies that we made at home). For dinner Jeannette had her special spaghetti sauce with brown rice pasta. After reviewing the day, there was a lot of brown rice foods going into that girls stomach.
On Sunday I made Jeannette pancakes. Again, like last weekend I didn't bring syrup, so I used their Log Cabin. It's interesting to find that a lot of homes prefer the processed, fake syrup over the pure maple syrup. I know I did for the longest time. The one thing I don't understand is why she can have pure maple syrup. The carb and sugar count are sky high. I read that it could be reintroduced in the 3rd phase, but I don't understand why and I still haven't found that answer.
Tonight for dinner, our friends ordered crab legs. I know that she's only supposed to eat crab on an average of once a month, but these were "special" occasions. It's not like we eat crab all the time at home. It just seems like we do because of the past couple of months. She ate a few crabs, but didn't overdo it. I melted some of her non-dairy butter to use.
We headed home on Monday and I wasn't really sure what we were going to do about Jeannette for lunch. We ended up stopping at a Chick fil-A. I knew McDonald's was out as well as Wendy's and Burger King (we never eat there anyway). I ordered her one chicken strip meal which came with fries and lemonade to drink. I didn't want her to have their chocolate milk and she doesn't drink soda. I could have done water, but I didn't. I don't know why I didn't. I knew that this meal was bad enough, but I just let it happen. I took the chicken and picked the breading off as best as I could. Prior to her eating the chicken, I made her eat a rice cake with soy nut butter first as I preferred her to fill up on that then the chicken. When we got home, after we unpacked, it was time for dinner. She ended up eating brown rice pasta with butter. I gave her some coconut ice cream for dessert.
All-in-all it wasn't a horrible weekend. Again, traveling can be tough and I thought we did pretty well considering. It was hard to also keep our supplements and food contained, but we did the best we could without intruding.
When we got there, we went out to dinner at a local Greek/Italian restaurant. I wasn't sure what she was going to have. I ended up ordering a grilled chicken sandwich and splitting that with her. I took half and cut up the chicken into bite size pieces. She seemed to be okay with that, but was still hungry. I allowed her to have 2 bites of Jarod's pasta (that happened to be saturated in butter. I hate that. Half the time I have to drain the bowl onto a plate b/c there is so much melted butter).
For breakfasts I brought her brown rice cereal, so she had that. While she was eating that, my friend walked in the kitchen with a bag of fresh bagels. Jeannette just gave me that "look". It was the pitiful puppy dog, lower lip sticking out, look. I said that she could have a small bit. She had 1/4 of 1/2 of a bagel with a little cream cheese. I explained again that she can't have too much of it because we wouldn't know how her body would react. She said she understood.
For lunch she had her standard rice cakes with soy nut butter and carob chips. I also gave her a chocolate brownie (her special brownies that we made at home). For dinner Jeannette had her special spaghetti sauce with brown rice pasta. After reviewing the day, there was a lot of brown rice foods going into that girls stomach.
On Sunday I made Jeannette pancakes. Again, like last weekend I didn't bring syrup, so I used their Log Cabin. It's interesting to find that a lot of homes prefer the processed, fake syrup over the pure maple syrup. I know I did for the longest time. The one thing I don't understand is why she can have pure maple syrup. The carb and sugar count are sky high. I read that it could be reintroduced in the 3rd phase, but I don't understand why and I still haven't found that answer.
Tonight for dinner, our friends ordered crab legs. I know that she's only supposed to eat crab on an average of once a month, but these were "special" occasions. It's not like we eat crab all the time at home. It just seems like we do because of the past couple of months. She ate a few crabs, but didn't overdo it. I melted some of her non-dairy butter to use.
We headed home on Monday and I wasn't really sure what we were going to do about Jeannette for lunch. We ended up stopping at a Chick fil-A. I knew McDonald's was out as well as Wendy's and Burger King (we never eat there anyway). I ordered her one chicken strip meal which came with fries and lemonade to drink. I didn't want her to have their chocolate milk and she doesn't drink soda. I could have done water, but I didn't. I don't know why I didn't. I knew that this meal was bad enough, but I just let it happen. I took the chicken and picked the breading off as best as I could. Prior to her eating the chicken, I made her eat a rice cake with soy nut butter first as I preferred her to fill up on that then the chicken. When we got home, after we unpacked, it was time for dinner. She ended up eating brown rice pasta with butter. I gave her some coconut ice cream for dessert.
All-in-all it wasn't a horrible weekend. Again, traveling can be tough and I thought we did pretty well considering. It was hard to also keep our supplements and food contained, but we did the best we could without intruding.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Introduction back to bread
(May 26, 2011)
Today Jeannette ate pancakes again for breakfast. I was back into giving her the liquid multi-vitamin. She hadn't had it in 10 days because of the antibiotic. That multi-vitamin has so many restrictions that I just didn't want to deal with trying to figure out how and when she'd be able to take it. Based on the directions, I would have to show up at school everyday to administer the stuff. Because it had been awhile, I forgot that she was supposed to take that first, then drink a whole glass of water BEFORE she had breakfast. She corrects me and says that I did it wrong. She was supposed to have the multi-vitamin first. Gesh! My 7 year old knows her medications better than I do.
For lunch today, I packed her a soy nut butter and jelly sandwich, raspberries, and chocolate coconut milk. Today was the first day that she has had regular bread since this whole transition. I was a little nervous about giving it to her, but I thought it was worth a try. This bread that I found is called Smart Right Wonder Bread. Yes, it still has sugar, and it does have yeast, but it also has 5g of fiber per 2 slices. Even most wheat breads I find are only 1-2g fiber per two slices. Even Hungry Girl (a web-site I visit to get great low-fat, better eating ideas....http://www.hungry-girl.com/ ) promotes this bread. I heard that although it's "white bread" now, they are coming out with a wheat version. I also gave her jelly today. A double whammy! It probably wasn't the best idea, but I also wanted to see if I could re-introduce jelly. It's homemade elderberry jelly. I'm hoping because it's homemade that the sugar content is not through the roof as in store bought jelly! I could be wrong.
Today Jeannette ate pancakes again for breakfast. I was back into giving her the liquid multi-vitamin. She hadn't had it in 10 days because of the antibiotic. That multi-vitamin has so many restrictions that I just didn't want to deal with trying to figure out how and when she'd be able to take it. Based on the directions, I would have to show up at school everyday to administer the stuff. Because it had been awhile, I forgot that she was supposed to take that first, then drink a whole glass of water BEFORE she had breakfast. She corrects me and says that I did it wrong. She was supposed to have the multi-vitamin first. Gesh! My 7 year old knows her medications better than I do.
For lunch today, I packed her a soy nut butter and jelly sandwich, raspberries, and chocolate coconut milk. Today was the first day that she has had regular bread since this whole transition. I was a little nervous about giving it to her, but I thought it was worth a try. This bread that I found is called Smart Right Wonder Bread. Yes, it still has sugar, and it does have yeast, but it also has 5g of fiber per 2 slices. Even most wheat breads I find are only 1-2g fiber per two slices. Even Hungry Girl (a web-site I visit to get great low-fat, better eating ideas....http://www.hungry-girl.com/ ) promotes this bread. I heard that although it's "white bread" now, they are coming out with a wheat version. I also gave her jelly today. A double whammy! It probably wasn't the best idea, but I also wanted to see if I could re-introduce jelly. It's homemade elderberry jelly. I'm hoping because it's homemade that the sugar content is not through the roof as in store bought jelly! I could be wrong.
Antibiotics and Probitics
Since Jeannette has been on antibiotics, I've been trying to pump her with probiotics. I'm still trying to get her to drink this one probiotic. She turns her face up at it every time I pull it out! I keep telling her that once this is gone, we'll go back to the powder in the yogurt. I just know how important it is to be taking probiotics while on an antibiotic. The one thing that I've learned is that our primary care physicians should know that antibiotics, not only kill of bad bacteria, but good ones as well. Why wouldn't they recommend a probiotic? It doesn't hurt anything. It can only help! Now I know! Definitely have a probiotic along with the antibiotic and make sure the probiotic is taken at least 3x's a day.
Do you sometimes have breakfast for dinner? Because I can't get my daughter to get ready for school fast enough, I don't have time to make her eggs for breakfast, so I try to get her to eat them at other times. And those times happen to be at dinner. I also do that when I just can't think of anything else to serve. There is this one restaurant that we go to and I've asked them in the past if they could make Jeannette scrambled eggs. I've explained her food restrictions and they were more than accommodating. So I was making her eggs one night and she says to me, "mommy, I like the eggs at that restaurant. They make the BEST scrambled eggs! No offense mom, but they're better than yours!" I just had to laugh!
For breakfast, one day this week, I served her pancakes. I think she was just excited to not have to eat brown rice cereal again. I had made them over the weekend and froze the rest. I wanted to have another option during the school week besides just brown rice cereal. I'm getting tired of serving it as much as she's getting tired of eating it.
Do you sometimes have breakfast for dinner? Because I can't get my daughter to get ready for school fast enough, I don't have time to make her eggs for breakfast, so I try to get her to eat them at other times. And those times happen to be at dinner. I also do that when I just can't think of anything else to serve. There is this one restaurant that we go to and I've asked them in the past if they could make Jeannette scrambled eggs. I've explained her food restrictions and they were more than accommodating. So I was making her eggs one night and she says to me, "mommy, I like the eggs at that restaurant. They make the BEST scrambled eggs! No offense mom, but they're better than yours!" I just had to laugh!
For breakfast, one day this week, I served her pancakes. I think she was just excited to not have to eat brown rice cereal again. I had made them over the weekend and froze the rest. I wanted to have another option during the school week besides just brown rice cereal. I'm getting tired of serving it as much as she's getting tired of eating it.
Back Home
This weeks menu is no different than any other week....Dang it!!! One night she had soy noodles. I hadn't given them to her in awhile. They have this slimy texture to them. She doesn't love them, but it's a way around the "pasta" issue. They are called Tofu Shirataki noodles. They come in spaghetti size and fettucine size. She likes the spaghetti size better. You have to drain all the liquid and rinse the noodles thoroughly. After that, you can microwave them or boil them. The important thing to remember to do is to try to dry them as completely as possible. This helps eliminate the slime factor. When smothered with marinara sauce, it's a little more edible. When it's only served with butter, it's a little tougher to eat. She's gagged once or twice. Bless her though for eating them. I honestly don't know how she does it. I just know myself, and there is no way in hell I'd be eating half the stuff she's eating. I just couldn't do it. I know I'm the one that has control over her eating. I just don't have control over myself. Yes, I'm the one that controls the food I buy and the food I eat, but I just don't have it in me to police myself. Maybe I have a yeast problem too. Maybe that's why I can't stop eating sugary foods! If I had to, could I detox myself?
One night when I made her shake, we had a little incident. I think she was coming to the end of her rope with these shakes. Sometimes when I make the shake, I put in the chlorella. I don't always put it in because it turns the shake a funky brownish/green color. It's very unappealing. Well, she complained that she couldn't drink it because of the color. I'm not sure if it even tasted different. Honestly, I haven't even tried these shakes. I'm too chicken to try them. I'm afraid I might throw up! Anyway, while she was supposedly drinking this shake, I ran upstairs to do a chore. When I left the kitchen she had drunken 1/4 of the shake. While upstairs I heard the water running in the kitchen, which is unusual. I knew right then and there what Jeannette was doing. She was dumping that shake down the kitchen sink. When I got back downstairs, the shake was almost gone. Now I was only gone for 5 minutes. In all the days and weeks that that girl has drunken these shakes, she has NEVER finished it in 5 minutes. If she expected me to think she drank that thing, she was sorely mistaken. When I asked her about it she said, "I don't know what you're talking about." When I asked her again and told her I heard the water running, she just stared down into her remaining shake. She wouldn't even look at me. I asked her to finish her shake and then go to her room. Can I prove it? No. Is mother's intuition usually right? Yes! But you know what? I would have done the same thing if I had to drink those horrible things.
One night when I made her shake, we had a little incident. I think she was coming to the end of her rope with these shakes. Sometimes when I make the shake, I put in the chlorella. I don't always put it in because it turns the shake a funky brownish/green color. It's very unappealing. Well, she complained that she couldn't drink it because of the color. I'm not sure if it even tasted different. Honestly, I haven't even tried these shakes. I'm too chicken to try them. I'm afraid I might throw up! Anyway, while she was supposedly drinking this shake, I ran upstairs to do a chore. When I left the kitchen she had drunken 1/4 of the shake. While upstairs I heard the water running in the kitchen, which is unusual. I knew right then and there what Jeannette was doing. She was dumping that shake down the kitchen sink. When I got back downstairs, the shake was almost gone. Now I was only gone for 5 minutes. In all the days and weeks that that girl has drunken these shakes, she has NEVER finished it in 5 minutes. If she expected me to think she drank that thing, she was sorely mistaken. When I asked her about it she said, "I don't know what you're talking about." When I asked her again and told her I heard the water running, she just stared down into her remaining shake. She wouldn't even look at me. I asked her to finish her shake and then go to her room. Can I prove it? No. Is mother's intuition usually right? Yes! But you know what? I would have done the same thing if I had to drink those horrible things.
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