Back Again!

Well after almost exactly six months since my last post I've decided to pick up blogging again, this time with a new name! My blog is now called Gluten Free Cookin' Mama! After eliminating the top eight food allergens from my diet while nursing my son, we successfully added all foods back in, with the exception of gluten.

I've made some great, and some not so great recipes over the past few months and so many times I've wanted to start the blog back up to share them. Hopefully I can capture some great food tips, thoughts, and other randomness that will encourage and inspire you!

I'm so incredibly blessed to report that Sawyer has come such a long way from when we first experienced food intolerance issues when he was only six weeks old. Here's this guy at about six weeks:

And here's this guy now!

He's a gluten free champ, not by choice really, but I pray that some day he will outgrown his intolerance so he can experience all the foods God created for us to enjoy!

Coconut Lime Chicken

OH goodness! This was dinner tonight and it was SO GOOD! The original recipe that I altered can be found here.

Coconut Lime Chicken

2 boneless, skinless chicken breast*

3 tbsp. oil (I used grape seed)

1 lime, juiced

1 tsp. ground cumin

1 1/2 tsp. ground coriander 

2 tbsp. La Choy soy sauce

1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt

2 tbsp. sugar

2 tsp. curry powder

1/2 c. coconut milk

Pinch cayenne pepper

1 tsp. chili sauce

1/2 c. fresh cilantro, chopped

*There was plenty of marinade to do more than two chicken breasts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl combine oil, lime juice, cumin, coriander, soy sauce, salt, sugar, curry, coconut milk, cayenne, and chili sauce. Place chicken into ziploc bag with marinade. I only let the chicken sit in the marinade for about 15 minutes but you could marinate it however long you want in the refrigerator. Place the chicken and marinade in a baking dish. Bake chicken for about 45 minutes. Serve with sauce from the pan and top with chopped cilantro.

     
I also found these really yummy sweet potato puffs at the grocery store that we had with dinner as well. Yeah, kind of random... but they were awesome! And allergy friendly!

Hope you enjoy this silly picture of the little man! His new goofy face just CRACKS ME UP!

Sesame Noodles

Just wanted to share a quick dinner idea! We like to do a vegetarian meal once a week to help cut down on grocery costs but you could easily add chicken or shrimp to this dish! Check it out!

Sesame Noodles 

16 oz. package brown rice pasta (fettuccine style)

6 cloves garlic, minced

6 tbsp. sugar

6 tbsp. oil (I used grape seed)

6 tbsp. rice vinegar

6 tbsp. soy sauce*

2 tsp. sesame oil

2 tsp. chili sauce

6 green onions, sliced (I did not include) 

1 tsp. sesame seeds, toasted

*Make sure you get La Choy soy sauce- it's gluten free!

Cook brown rice pasta according to package instructions. The water turns really cloudy when cooking brown rice pasta.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan combine garlic, sugar, oil, vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, and chili sauce and cook over medium heat until sugar dissolves.

Pour over pasta and toss to coat. Throw in the sesame seeds. (I also tossed in a bag of broccoli.)

 
Super quick, super delicious dinner!

(Original recipe here from allrecipes.com) 

Bread Experiment

Seeing since it's been over a month since I posted, I've got some updates on Sawyer's progress! He has been doing so well with the solids since we started a couple months ago. We stuck with rice cereal through the month of December and on January 1 we brought out the purees! So far we've conquered sweet potato, apples, avocado, oatmeal, squash and banana. His little system just needed some extra time to adjust to solid food so now it's exciting to get rolling with the new foods again!

Last week we tried out oatmeal for the first time. I found this oatmeal cereal recipe and mixed in some organic apple juice for a little flavor. Sawyer's reaction was pretty funny! I tried to snap a few pics of Daddy feeding him but missed the really funny faces. He wasn't really a fan so we tried it again mixed with sweet potato and another time with banana and he liked it much better.

On Thursday I tried out a recipe for gluten free rice flour bread that I got from a friend. I called it an experiment because any gluten free bread type recipes I've tried have usually failed miserably so I didn't have high expectations. For the first time ever making this bread it didn't completely fail. It turned out to be too moist so maybe less liquid next time? Anyways, here's the recipe if you want to give it a shot!

Rice Flour Bread (bread machine recipe)

1/3 c. rice milk

1 c. warm water

2 tbsp. flax combined with 6 tbsp. water (or 2 eggs)

1 tsp. apple cider vinegar

4 tbsp. oil

2 tbsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 1/2 c. brown rice flour

2/3 c. white rice flour

1 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum

2 tsp. quick rise yeast

Add the ingredients to the pan in the orders listed for your bread machine. Mine is wet ingredients first so that is the order I listed them above. Warm the milk in the microwave for about 30 seconds before adding to the bread machine pan. I didn't have white rice flour so I used all brown rice flour (which could have made the bread so dense). My bread machine is pretty old school and I wasn't sure what setting to use so I chose the "Whole Wheat" cycle... again, part of the experiment.

The end product came out to be a dense, short loaf of bread, but nonetheless, bread!

Sliced up it was not edible unless I toasted it well to remove a lot of the moisture. But once it was toasted it really wasn't too bad.

I found a gluten free bread ebook for free on Amazon today that I started reading. She has a lot of great tips for bread making so I may try one of her recipes next.

But while we're on the subject of failing recipes... here's a banana pancake recipe that I tried out that definitely flopped. The pancakes looked so pretty and yummy on her blog! Maybe you can try to make some adjustments and see if you can find success!

Banana Oat Pancakes

3 small bananas, mashed

2 tbsp. coconut oil

1 tbsp. lemon juice

1 tsp. honey or maple syrup

2 tbsp. flax combined with 6 tbsp. water (or 2 eggs)

1 c. oat flour (ground up rolled oats)

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

Stir together bananas, coconut oil, lemon juice and honey/syrup. Beat in flax mixture/eggs. Combine remaining dry ingredients in a separate bowl then add to wet ingredients.

The batter is pretty thick so you may need to spread it out a little when you pour it into the pan.

And........ here's what they looked like. Flat.

Does it help if I add chocolate chips and bacon???

Well, yes. The pancakes failed. But I still have two cute boys that always make me smile!

Almond Joy Drops

Another sweet treat to share! This is a super simple recipe that makes a big batch of cookies that are stored in the freezer for those chocolate cravings I get once in a while all the time... Hope you enjoy them as much as I have!

Almond Joy Drops

3 c. shredded coconut

1/2 c. cocoa powder

1/2 c. honey

3/4 c. coconut oil, melted

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Spoon onto a baking sheet covered in parchment paper. The mixture was very crumbly at first but once the coconut oil started to solidify again it became easier to work with.

Pop the tray in the freezer and store frozen cookies in a freezer bag or container. These can be enjoyed straight out of the freezer- you know how fast those chocolate cravings can come on!

I've been having a tough time trying to figure out how to feed Sawyer solids since his body has had a tough time adjusting since we started a couple months ago. After talking to another mom she encouraged me to give a call to Sawyer's doctor and see what his advice would be. I decided to call the gastroenterologist to see how long it would be to get an appointment and God blessed us with an opportunity to take a cancelled appointment for the very next day! The GI doctor was impressed with Sawyer's growth but said his system is just going to be delayed from healing after the allergic reactions early on. He said to stick with just rice cereal twice a day along with a powdered probiotic to mix in the cereal once a day for a month. At the beginning of January he said we can start very slowly with pureed foods.

We are on day three with the probiotic and Sawyer seems to be no where near as gassy as he has been and he is sleeping very well! Selfishly I want him to be eating more solids so I don't have to nurse as often but that time will come and I'm sure I'll be sad when it does. Until then, I'll continue to feel exhausted, but all to the glory of God! I was really encouraged by this devotional I read the other day:

"I drew them with gentle cords, with bands of love, and I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck. I stooped and fed them. Hosea 11:4 NKJV

What a picture of humility! What a picture of motherhood! We spend years drawing our children with gentleness and love. We take the burdens and cares of their world upon our shoulders. We take the yoke of their sin and mistakes upon us. We stoop and feed them.

Sometimes as moms we feel like we have emptied ourselves for our children...and that is a good thing. Romans 5:8 says, 'God demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.' Jesus emptied Himself of everything for us. And He did it for us before we came into a relationship with Him, striving to live godly. When we were in our sin and wanting nothing to do with Him, Christ died for us, and that demonstrated His love for us.

For some reason before we have children the idea of dying to self seems more spiritual, and we look for opportunities and people for whom to lay down our lives. Then we marry and have children and feel like we aren't able to do for God what we once did. We can feel like we have lost our identity and purpose. Sisters, we must see that this call of motherhood on our lives is the closest opportunity to be like Christ we will ever have on this earth. We lay down our lives for our children while they are yet sinners. And we keep laying down our lives until every last one of them comes to Jesus. What an amazing privilege! What an amazing honor!"

 
I hope that encourages you moms out there that feel the same way. At the end of the day, the smiles from this boy make it all worth it!

Pizza!!!

I did it! I made gluten-free, dairy-free pizza! It may not have been perfect but it satisfied my craving! I used a combination of a few different recipes to pull this one together so I'm pretty shocked it came together so well. I found a gluten free crust recipe then combined that with toppings from a chicken alfredo recipe and a dairy-free "alfredo" sauce recipe. You'd never guess what the alfredo sauce was made from... Cashews! Take a look!

Dairy-Free "Alfredo" Sauce 

(not tree-nut free)

1 c. raw cashews

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 onion, chopped

2 c. water

1 tbsp. lemon juice

1 tsp. sea salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

Boil cashews for 10 minutes to soften for a smooth sauce. Meanwhile, saute the garlic and onion until soft. Toss boiled cashews, onion, garlic, water, lemon juice, salt and pepper into the blender and blend for two minutes.

And there you have it! A dairy-free alfredo sauce that will knock your socks off!

Gluten-Free Pizza Crust

1- .25 oz. package active dry yeast

1 c. warm water

1 c. sorghum or amaranth flour

1 1/4 c. brown rice flour

2 tbsp. ground flax seed

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. dried oregano

1/2 tsp. dried basil

1 tbsp. honey

1 tsp. apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Dissolve yeast in water and let sit for 5 minutes. Combine the flours, flax, salt, oregano and basil. Add yeast mixture, honey and vinegar. Stir well to combine. I had to use my hands to get the crumbly mixture into a ball.

Press or roll dough onto a flour pizza pan. This was my only problem with the finished product, the crust was way too thick so next time I'll make sure to roll the dough much thinner. Parbake the crust for 5 minutes before adding toppings.

I cooked up some diced chicken then spread a layer of the alfredo sauce followed by the chicken, spinach, diced tomatoes and another layer of alfredo.

Bake the pizza for about 20-25 minutes until toppings are lightly browned.

Like I said, the crust was too thick but other than that it had great flavor!

Here's little munchkin man loungin' in his exersaucer today. What a goof!

My new favorite place

Well, it's been over five months since we've started the elimination diet adventure and to be honest, I'm in a bit of a rut. I've definitely have the hang of what I can and can't eat and thankfully we're down to just wheat and dairy! But, I want pizza. I want a krispy kreme. Yes I feel so much better from eating healthier and yes I those foods are bad for me but it's just where I'm at right now.

So enough of the pity party, let's talk about what's been going on the last few weeks! Pinterest has been a great source of inspiration for dinners. Only problem, I keep forgetting to take pictures so I can share them here! I'll keep working on that!

I do however have to share about the place Brent and I went last night on our date called Sub Zero Ice Cream. I am in love! So basically it's ice cream that is flash frozen right before your eyes! To start, you choose from a list of cream bases, which includes a non-dairy coconut milk base! Then you choose your flavor, which I chose peach. And finally you choose any mix-ins, and I chose raspberries. They stir the base, flavor and mix-ins together in a bowl and then flash freeze it into ice cream using liquid nitrogen. It's seriously the coolest thing! Here's a couple pictures of the place and my delicious, frozen creation.

 

 
Just staring at that picture makes me want to back now! I'll work on getting pictures of some of the "pinteresting" recipes I'm planning to make this week :)

So it's been almost a month since Sawyer has started solids and we've seem to run into a few problems. We started with pureed avocado and then once he figured out his swallowing reflex we moved onto chunks of avocado, cooked sweet potato and banana over the course of a couple weeks. He started getting really bad gas so we took out solids for a couple days and then decided to try rice cereal. My intention was to avoid rice cereal and purees after doing some research on baby led weaning. There's a lot of advice out there on the what, how, when and why to starting solids and it can be a really confusing! But with Sawyer's sensitive system I'm not sure what's going to be best for him. Even now with the rice cereal he is still having a lot of gas. We've been trying gas drops daily for almost a week to try and help. I'm not worried about him not getting enough nutritionally because breastfeeding provides all the nutrients he needs at this age, but he has an interest in food that I want to allow him to explore. I'm hoping things will start getting better for him soon! Here's a fun picture we snapped one of the nights he was eating avocado. Love those faces!