Pita Bread.... fail....

Since my last update Sawyer did great with the addition of peanuts and tree nuts to my diet! No reactions to fish or nuts so now we move onto BREAD! I've learned a lot about eating healthier through this elimination diet and I've decided to incorporate only whole grains into my diet, no processed junk. But what I found when I went to buy bread at the store was that most breads were made with MILK and SOY! Rrrrr.... until I found the perfect bread at Costco... Aspen Mills Honey Whole Wheat bread. The ingredients are simply whole wheat flour, water, honey, salt and yeast. And boy was is it wonderful to bite into the first piece of bread!  

I was in a bit of a baking mood yesterday so I decided to try out a pita bread recipe I found online. The ingredients were super simple so I figured it couldn't be too hard... or so I thought...

Whole Wheat Pitas

1 pkg yeast

1/2 c. warm water

1 tsp. sugar

3 c. flour (I used whole wheat)

1 1/4 tsp. salt

1 c. lukewarm water

Step 1) Dissolve yeast in 1/2 c. warm water, stir in sugar until dissolved. Let sit for 10-15 mins until frothy.

Step 2) Combine flour and salt. Make a small depression in the flour mixture and pour in yeast water. 

Step 3) Slowly add 1 cup of lukewarm water as you stir the flour mixture.

  

Step 4) Knead dough for about 10 minutes, until smooth and elastic. This is where the mixer comes in handy, just use the dough hook and let the mixer do it's thing!

 

Step 5) Coat a large bowl with oil and place dough in bowl, turn to coat and let rise in a warm place for about 3 hours until doubled in size.  

Step 6) Break dough into 10-12 pieces and roll into balls, let sit covered for 10 minutes and preheat oven to 500 degrees. Lower the rack to the bottom of the oven, preheat baking sheet as well. 

Step 7) Roll each ball into a 5-6 inch circle about 1/4 inch thick. Bake for 4 minutes until the bread puffs up then turn over and bake for an additional 2 minutes. 

Round 1: Fail...

Round 2: Fail... (Well I got one to puff so I guess not a complete fail!)

Round 3: Fail...

Despite the fact that they did not puff, they were still pretty tasty. My guess is that I did not knead the dough long enough, maybe I'll give it another shot someday :) It's feels so great to be making progress on this allergy issue! This week Thursday we go in for Sawyer's four month checkup, four months! I can't believe how time is just flying but I love each new little thing he is learning to do, like reaching for objects and bringing things to his mouth, and giggling, my favorite :) Last night we took a walk around the park and saw this beautiful sunset! And of course I have to throw in a picture of my handsome little man. 

Sweet Pork Salad & Avocado Dressing

So some exciting news! Sawyer rolled over for the first time this past week! On Friday, while he was swaddled in his crib he rolled over so it scared me that he wouldn't be able to roll back over without his arms. And that's when the sleepless weekend began... We've been trying here and there to get him to sleep without being swaddled or with one arm out but it's been pretty unsuccessful. Yesterday was no different. We kept him unswaddled when we put him down on Saturday night and he woke up twice in the middle of the night and once I just ended up feeding him just to get him to calm down. All day he just cried in his crib every time we laid him down and would not sleep! We tried the swing, the vibrating rocking chair, rocking him to sleep, walking and bouncing him.... Finally after dinner we just gave in and swaddled him and he was out! After doing some reading on the Baby Center website, I was finding other moms who had the same problem but many just decided to continue swaddling because the baby's moro/startle reflex had not gone away yet. That was the light bulb for me! Sawyer still has that reflex and does not have complete control of his arms yet so he just keeps waking himself up by flailing his arms. It worries me a little to swaddle him while he can roll over but usually once he's asleep he stays asleep and doesn't roll around unless he's awake or trying to fall asleep. I've just kept a good eye on him until he's asleep and I'll just keep doing that until we can start working on sleeping unswaddled again.

So, the moral of the story is, it's all about trial and error and it's ok to not know what to do all the time. I wish I could have avoided all those missed naps and sleepless nights over the past few days. I've recently found myself in this trap of getting down on myself up for silly mistakes I've made. But in giving this frustration to God, He reminded me that I've never been a mom and I've done the best I can with what I know. Brent and I joke that the next one has GOT to be easier!    

I'm so proud of my little roller! He is really doing amazing and has seemed to survive Mom & Dad's mistakes pretty well!

So crazy Sunday got much better after 1) Sawyer fell asleep and 2) we had this yummy sweet pork salad for dinner! If you've been to Cafe Rio, it's sort of like their sweet pork, but has a little different flavor. We use the sweet pork for tacos too sometimes but I found this avocado dressing from Allrecipes.com that I wanted to try out. It turned out sooooooo good! I had a plate-full and then went back for more! But it's salad right.....? Hope you enjoy this salad as much as I did!

Slow Cooker Sweet Pork

3 lbs. pork shoulder roast

1 can soda (root beer, coke or dr. pepper are best)

2 c. salsa

2 c. brown sugar (or less if you don't want it as sweet)

2 tbsp. taco seasoning (or about 1 packet)

7oz. can diced green chilies

Place pork in slow cooker and pour in soda. Combine the salsa, brown sugar, taco seasoning and chilies in a blender or food processor and blend/process until smooth. Pour salsa puree over pork and cook on low for 8 hours. (I like to shred the pork at about 7 hours and then let it sit in the juices for another hour to soak up more flavor.)  

Avocado Dressing

1/3 c. olive oil

1 clove garlic

3/4 c. cilantro (I didn't use the cilantro)

2 avocados, peeled, pits removed, cut into chunks

1 cucumber, peeled and cut into chunks

1 lemon juiced

salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend/process until pureed.

I used my magic bullet which worked well to puree the dressing. It turns out a pretty green color and was just the texture I was looking for to satisfy my craving for a ranch-like dressing!

Here's a picture of Brent's salad because I dug into mine too fast to even snap a picture!

Oh and we also used the first green pepper and tomato from our garden! They were super tiny but tasted great! I'm surprised by how much better food from the garden tastes than food from the store!

Oh Glorious Peanut Butter!

Our appointment with the gastroenterologist yesterday went great! He was very helpful and very thorough in explaining more about food allergies in children. One concern that I had was his stools are still pretty mucousy but he said that is all part of the healing process. Once the blood is gone, you'll see mucous and then finally a normal stool. It was great to hear that Sawyer is on the mend! And more exciting news was that he recommended I start slowly adding some foods back into my diet!

The doctor gave me an order to add foods, first starting with fish and shellfish. Well, I'm not a big fish fan and I haven't had any fish, except tilapia which is one type that is fine to eat on the elimination diet. So I made the executive decision to skip to the next food group, peanuts and tree nut. Let me just tell you, I have REALLY missed peanut butter! It has always been a staple in my diet; peanut butter and crackers or celery for a quick snack is my favorite! So you can image the joy I felt as I dug into this delicious plate full of celery and peanut butter, oh my... 

    

I will be adding peanuts and tree nuts to my diet for two weeks and monitoring any changes in his stool then hopefully work my way to the next food group. The doctor said most allergies he deals with in children end up being a dairy allergy. We'll see what happens as we work through the list! 

Sawyer's second little buddy, Abel entered the world yesterday! Here's a picture of the two little guys and the mamas when we went to visit them last night. 

Great news!

So for about four or five days now Sawyer has had no blood in his stool! Praise God! I've been waiting for this day for 6 weeks! Also, I got a call from the children's hospital and an appointment opened up tomorrow for the gastroenterologist so I'm looking forward to getting some advice on how and when to start adding foods back into my diet. I'm still a little concerned that he still has a lot of mucous in his stool, so I'm thinking it could either be another food allergen or that his intestines still need time to heal. It makes me so excited though that at least the blood is gone so there is some healing going on! I also got a call from the pediatrician this morning saying that the results from the stool sample they tested were negative. I have no idea what the name of the bacteria was that they tested for, but thankfully we can rule it out! 


We went to visit Sawyer's new little buddy, Johnathan today! Here's the two kiddos hanging out earlier. I can't believe Sawyer was that little three months ago! Really, just crazy how fast they grow... 

Oh and one more thing, I found this great deal on Bob's Red Mill gluten-free all purpose flour on Amazon for $3.06 each (with subscribe & save). Well at least I think it's a great deal from what I've seen so far! I used it to make some allergy-free banana bread the other night and it worked great. Much better than the brown rice flour experiment with the lemon cake. 

Allergy-Free Brownies... Hooray!

Although I'm challenged by this diet, God is so, so kind in bringing this amazing allergy-free brownie recipe before my eyes! It uses bananas instead of eggs so it's a little banana-y but still very yummy, and besides chocolate and bananas pair great together :) I also used applesauce to cut down on the oil and they still turned out super moist!

Allergy-Free Brownies

2 c. Bob's Red Mill GF all purpose baking flour 

1 c. sugar

1/2 c. cocoa powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1/2 c. canola oil 

1/2 c. applesauce

2 ripe bananas, mashed

Preheat over to 350. Combine first five ingredients. Stir in remaining ingredients. Bake in greased 9x13 in. pan for 25-30 mins. 

I was super impressed that brownies could be made allergy-free and taste so great! I brought some to a friend who is on a gluten-free diet and she almost cried, ha!  

I also have a little update on the complete blood count we had done on Sawyer a few days ago. I got a call back from the pediatrician's office last week letting me know that his eosinophil count, which I found a little more out from here, was double the normal level which can indicate an allergy. So the combination of the blood in his stool and the abnormal blood count, we're pretty sure we've pinned it down to an allergy. I haven't heard back about the stool sample we brought in though.  

So I've been off wheat, dairy, eggs, soy, fish, shellfish, peanuts and tree nuts for 4 1/2 weeks now, with no improvement and I'm kind of feeling like, where do I go from here?... I've considered taking out corn or another common food allergen but I feel like taking more out of my diet would be more than I can handle and really just a shot in the dark. My plan right now is to continue off the top eight for another 4 weeks until Sawyer's appointment with the GI specialist on July 30 and hope that we start seeing some improvement soon. 

God is teaching me an amazing lesson in obedience! I was reminded during the message at church this weekend that God's Spirit dwells in me (1 Corinthians 3:16) and it is not by my strength, but His, that I will push through this very challenging season. My boy is doing so well otherwise, he's starting to roll on his side, grab his toes, and flashes an incredible smile with a little shoulder shrug that just warms my heart! Here's the little handsome man on an evening stroll with Mama the other night :)