GFCFSFEF and low oxalate pancakes!!

These rock!  Going on the LOD and being free of every baking ingredient known to man-kind makes it a challenge to find a good pancake recipe.  I am big on avoiding rice whenever possible too, so these are actually rice-free too!!  I have been tweaking this recipe to make it hold up to good old fluffy boxed pancakes.  Sorry, these aren't quite as easy to make though.

We like a lot of flavor in our pancakes. These are hearty and flavorful and they fluff right up when cooking even without eggs or gluten!  We like the flavor enough to just grab one in our hand and eat it up.

They are nice and fluffy and they even cook just like boxed pancakes, if you leave the batter thicker.  No uncooked gluten-free goo here!

When I am batch-cooking pancakes, I like to make my batter a little on the thin side, because I like our pancakes thinner, to stretch further.  I usually will triple this recipe and freeze enough for three to four more breakfasts!  I just toss them in the toaster and voila, done in seconds.

Wisk the dry ingredients into a medium bowl
-1/2 C. black eyed pea flour (grind dry beans on grain grind setting in blender or food processor)
-1/2 C. pumpkin seed flour (grind in blender or coffee grinder)
-1/4 C. water chestnut flour (you can get this at Asian markets very cheap, it's a must for volume)
-2 Tbs chestnut flour (this gives an awesome hearty flavor to the pancakes)
-2 Tbs coconut sugar (or swap and add coconut nectar into wet ingredients)
-1 Tb garbanzo bean flour
-1 tsp baking soda
-1 tsp cream of tartar (I rotate this out by swapping it with apple cider vinegar occasionally, but I prefer the cream of tartar)
-1/2 tsp salt

In a smaller bowl, wisk the wet ingredients together
-1 C. water (I usually start a little less and add more as I need it so I have a desired consistency)
-1 Tbs vanilla
-2 Tbs oil of choice (we like macadamia nut)
-Add any substitute liquids (ie - coconut nectar or apple cider vinegar)

Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and wisk until smooth.  Let this sit for a good 15-30 minutes until the consistency thickens up enough, it WILL thicken over time!  This is usually when I turn the griddle on and let it slowly heat up to temp so it's good and hot when I start.  You will have flat flabby pancakes, if you try to cook them on a less then hot griddle.  I should have taken THOSE pictures so you can see how many times I have rushed and ruined the whole first batch, lol.

This is the finished product without doctoring, thick and hearty!  They can be used as bread, topped with ghee and/or VCO and fruit or even eaten just like they are.  My kids have had them each of those ways and they NEVER get bored of them.  With a diet so restricted, that says a lot.  We have only three breakfast options that we rotate and they always look forward to their pancake days!  They love to make sandwiches out of mango slices and their pancakes.

Camel milk ice cream?!

Yep, it's so easy, tasty and provides all the raw nutrients of camel milk in a fun, icy treat great for the summer!  The way I make our ice cream also means sugar-free tastiness!

I am an immediate gratification kind of girl so we use the Cuisinart ice cream maker which literally makes your pureed mixtures into soft creamy ice cream within 30 minutes so you can plan and make your home made ice cream or sorbet with little planning, as long as you store the freezer bowl in the freezer.  It doesn't require any added ingredients either.

Recipe (pretty darn easy!)
1/2 a mango
1 banana
1 C. camel milk (or any raw milk of choice)
1/2 C. coconut nectar
3 Tbsp coconut concentrate (Tropical Traditions)
2 Tbsp fresh lime juice (Santa Cruz organic juices)

After adding the mango, banana, and lime juice to your blender, add a little water to the 8 ounce mark (I didn't measure how much water this actually is, lol) then add the coconut nectar and blend like a smoothie.  Add the camel milk and gently blend (it foams very easily which is why I leave it out for the high powered blending).  Pour into your ice cream maker and there you have it!!  Easy, healthy treats!  You could also pour the mixture into ice pop trays for an easy ice-cream-maker-free idea!  It will make a nice creamy Popsicle!

Ignore the major bed-head in this picture, lol.  The kids thoroughly enjoyed their healthy morning snack!

It does melt fast, but the kids enjoy using a straw when the thick stuff is gone.  I am curious to see how it freezes and then scoops.  Some of the ice creams that use a lot of water tend to get very hard to scoop after freezing, but this has very little water so I am hoping for a better outcome.  They will have more this afternoon, so we will see! 

UPDATE - It's hard to scoop into when it's frozen, so it needs a lot of defrost time, but unfortunately that also means less time to eat it, because then it melts fast.  The fix for this is to add some sunflower lecithin to the recipe before blending which will act as an emulsifier.  =)

"This is the BEST play doh in the WORLD!"

Those were the words of my five year old after playing with his first home made "play doh" today.  Then he said, "You should put this in a store!"  They are both playing creatively in their own little worlds now, making "pizzas" and "cookies".

I never knew that I could make a play doh as good (better actually) as the real deal!  It's soft, fluffy, and pliable.  I didn't color mine, but I did scent it with pumpkin pie spice and vanilla though!  They don't seem concerned with colors, their creativity is running wild as it is.  Maybe the scent is bringing out the bakers in them.  And our two year old tried to take a big bite, ha ha ha.  You can color it with food color, or using something like peppermint extract will color and scent it at the same time.

The recipe
1 cup flour (I chose 50/50 garbanzo bean flour and white rice flour)
1/2 cup salt
1 Tbsp cooking oil
1 Tbsp cream of tartar
1 cup water

1. Stir ingredients together well in the pot you will use to cook the dough, but mix well before heating the pan.
2. Over medium heat, cook the dough, stirring constantly until it forms a ball. When it starts to pull away from the sides somewhat  and clump together and most of the wet looking parts look dry, it's ready to remove from the pan.
3. Knead the dough very smooth, but WAIT UNTIL IT COOLS!!  I made this mistake and it sticks to your hands, scalding the skin until you pull it off every finger!!
4. If it's sticky, continue adding flour and kneading until it's less sticky.  It will be less sticky once it's completely cooled off.  I don't know if it was the flour combination I chose or if it was because I mistakenly didn't add enough salt, but it took a LOT of flour to get rid of major stick.
5. Store in an air tight container or zip lock baggie.

I made a double batch, thinking my two boys would need more to play together and it was not necessary so I want to save you the trouble of making the same mistake I did.  One batch is more than enough.

It also was very hard to manage in such a large ball of dough, so I found it easier to break it into palm-sized balls while kneading it, I would just dip it into the flour and knead, repeat, until it was a good consistency. 

Since I just made it today, I don't know how long it will last, but I will report back when it has gotten too hard to play with. 

Enjoy the peace and quiet you get while they play endlessly!

UPDATE - Since the day we made this "play doh" it seems like keeping it in the closed container holds moisture and allows it to get very sticky.  You can probably add more flour and mix it in before playing, but leaving it to air out a bit before playing helps a little too.  I'm not sure, if my blunder of not adding enough salt caused this, since salt would absorb moisture, so carry on and I hope those who have tried it can give me some feedback on whether their recipe lasted after the first day or so.

Veggy burgers and lemon avocado dip

Oddly enough, our two year old Gavin won't eat avocado or daikon by themselves, but put the two together with this dip recipe and he gobbles it down faster than I can slice it!  He dips the slices of daikon into the lemon avocado dip, like chips and dip.

I have a few variations of this dip, so I will give you the original recipe as it started and the simple one I made today for these photos.  I prefer using more lemon juice and then sweetening it up a bit, like the recipe from today, but you can make a spicier version of the original too.  My boys also use this dip as a dressing on salads and, if you want it to be easier to pour, just add a little water until you like the consistency.

Both of these recipes below are low oxalate.

Original lemon avocado dip/dressing
1 avocado
1/2 of a cucumber peeled
1 clove of garlic
2 Tbs red onion
1.5 tsp dried dill


Today's lemon avocado dip/dressing
1 avocado
1/4 c. lemon juice (fresh squeezed, not from concentrate)
1-2 inches of a large daikon root (you could use onion instead)
2 tsp xylitol (or choice of sweetener)
1.5 tsp dried dill

Blend and add water to consistency preference

Veggy burgers (this recipe can actually be made raw by dehydrating instead of baking)
3-4 c. winter squash (butternut is good in this, but any will work)
1 c. soaked garbanzo beans
1/2 c. soaked pumpkin seeds
1/4 c. soaked wild rice
1/8 c. oil
1/3 c. onion
2 cloves of garlic
3 Tbs GF aminos or GF tamari - I use Coconut Secret Aminos (optional)
1 tsp basil
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp thyme
just enough water to pulse the mixture into a chunky but pasty consistency

This makes a fairly large batch of "burgers" so it can be cut in half or you will need to blend it in two batches after mixing the ingredients in a bowl first.

1. Preheat oven to 355
2. Pulse all of the ingredients together in a blender or food processor 
3. Spoon/shape into burgers on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper
4. bake for 30 minutes or when they are firm and the edges brown (if they are more watery, more time is needed)
5. Let cool so they will set better

They freeze great and can be reheated in the toaster oven!

Cauliflower....cookies???

Let me explain first, hahaha.  Our boys are on a low oxalate diet and carrots are high oxalate, so when I found a simple carrot cookie recipe, I decided to use something similar in consistency and loved the idea of sneaking a veggie into the cookie, which is something I try to do frequently!  These are not very sweet, but you could increase the sweetener, if you would like.  They are very tasty like they are though and feel free to swap out ingredients (like carrots for the cauliflower or a different flour), if you would like.  You don't taste the cauliflower at all.

Dry ingredients
1/2 c. black eyed pea flour (I just use the grain setting on my Blendtec to turn these into a flour)
1/2 c. garbanzo bean flour
1/3 c. arrowroot or tapioca flour (be aware that tapioca is corn-based)
1/2 tsp cream of tartar or 1/4 tsp unbuffered vitamin C crystals
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (we eliminate this ingredient since it's high oxalate)
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 c. cauliflower pulsed in a blender so it looks like small kernals, like rice (or substitute grated carrots)
1/3 c. raisins or dried cranberries

Wet ingredients
1/4 c. coconut nectar (you could substitute agave or honey)
3 Tbs oil
3 Tbs apple or pear sauce
1 tsp vanilla (optional)

PREHEAT OVEN TO 325 degrees
Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper

Mix wet ingredients in one bowl and dry in another then
combine.

Fold in cauliflower and raisins/cranberries.

Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 15 minutes or until light brown then move to a rack and cool.

Store in a paper bag and use within a few days.

Recipe, you won't believe it - ENGLISH MUFFINS!!

I experimented with a recipe I found for GFCF english muffins, but they weren't yeast-free (which means the kids couldn't have them) so I tried something different.  I wasn't perfect with this recipe, because I was just experimenting and really didn't expect it to work, silly me!  So in the pictures, you will notice that the tops are a bit puffy (picture below of them cooling on a wire rack), because I didn't smooth them flat, lol.  Unfortunately, they aren't egg-free, but you could use egg-replacer instead of the eggs.

Whisk dry ingredients together

1 cup sorghum flour

1 cup potato starch or tapioca starch (arrowroot is not appropriate for the flavor of this recipe)

1/2 cup millet flour

2 teaspoons guar gum or xanthan gum
1 1/4 teaspoons fine sea salt

In a blender mix the wet ingredients

2/3 cup water

1/2 cup plain hemp milk (or other non-dairy milk)

1/3 cup water kefir grains

4 tablespoons oil

2 tablespons raw honey

2 eggs

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.

Mix thoroughly. It should be more like a thick muffin batter than a bread dough.  

Spoon the batter into 8 english muffin tins, which works out to about 3-4 tablespoons each, then smooth them over with a wet finger.  You will see from my picture below, that I don't have english muffin tins, so I folded aluminum foil into strips about 1-2 inches tall (again, I was not precise with this either, lol) and then used a round container about the size of english muffins to make them perfectly round.  Place these on a silpat liner or parchment paper on a cookie sheet and bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees. 

Recipe - can you guess?

What does every GFCF soy-free individual miss and crave?  The one meal completely engulfed in gluten and casein.  Oh wait, it's no secret, there is a picture right there...

We loaded this baby up with Daiya mozzarella cheese, spinach, mushrooms and Applegate Farms pepperoni.  The crust is made from almond flour and is VERY easy to make!  It was out of this world!

You can even make the crust mix in advance and bag it up for easy access then add the liquid ingredients last minute, roll it out and dress it up.  We chose to make our own sauce, because again, it's a very easy recipe from Elana's Pantry and tastes just like the pizza parlor sauces, rich and tomato-y...that isn't a word, is it?

Crust
1 1/2 cups blanched almond flour
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp grapeseed oil
1 large egg

Mix the wet and dry ingredients separately then combine.
Place the dough ball between two pieces of parchment paper and roll the dough 1/8 inch thick, this will make about a ten inch pizza. Bake on 350 for 15-20 minutes while you make your sauce.

Sauce  (makes 1 cup of sauce)
7 ounces of tomato paste
1/4 cup of water
1 Tbsp Italian herbs
1 tsp sea salt
1 Tbsp minced garlic

Bring ingredients to a boil in a sauce pan (must be where the word sauce pan came from, hehehe, ok sorry) then decrease the heat to simmer for 10-15 minutes until it thickens.  Spread sauce over your crust.

Add your toppings and heat until the cheese melts.

Finally caved and bought it - the Excaliber!

I've been eye-balling all these fabulous recipes that require a dehydrator, wishing I could find another way to make them, oh how the kids would love the crackers, burgers, breads and cookies!   Well, the ONLY way is with a dehydrator, since it blows very low temperature air around the food keeping the enzymes in tact and provides more readily available nutrients.  So essentially you can still "cook" a food and it's still considered raw!  This sounds so appealing especially for my nutrient-deficient kids with gut issues.  I still plan to post a thread about raw foods and all the unbelievable benefits they offer, when I get around to having the time to pull all of my data together.

With school rounding the corner for Grayson, I want to provide healthy (and of course, gluten and casein-free), yummy and fairly normal looking snacks for him to take to school.  What better way to do that than providing raw foods bursting with live enzymes and bio-available nutrients?!  The only way to make them though, is with the use of a dehydrator.  In my research, I found the Excaliber to be the best bang for your buck and it has a nice warranty too.  So I placed my order hesitantly, because any machine that I have to spend over $100 for makes me cringe....fast forward....delivery day.  I couldn't wait to open it up and start using it, which of course I did, however, I didn't think about the drying time of my new project.  I just jumped right in, so anxious to try a raw cracker recipe for the kids.  Let's see, if I started it dehydrating at 4:30pm and needed about 10-12 hours of dehydration, that leaves me with a project completion time of ummmm, oh boy, 2:30-4:30am!!!  I did a little more reading and also found that, if I adjust my temperature to around 110 degrees, they could just dehydrate indefinitely, they wouldn't "overcook".  Phew.....After a weekend of chelation around the clock the last thing I want to do is set my alarm clock for the wee hours of the morning for CRACKERS!  I like this dehydrator and all, but no thank you! 

So this morning I woke up to nice crunchy LIVE crackers!!  Here they are, I call these Nuts for Veggy Crackers, because they are 50% vegetables and 50% nuts!

 
























The kids would love to gobble these up in one sitting, I guess they are good?  I also saved the edges that crumbled and fell apart for sprinkling on top of veggies and salads.

Oh, you want the recipe? Silly me, of course, here you go!  You can blend any combination of nuts and vegetables.  The nut and vegetable ratio should be 50/50.

This recipe requires a dehydrator

-2 cups soaked nuts (these are almond and walnut)
-2 chives
-1 large or 2 small cloves of garlic
-2 kale leaves, spines removed
-2 carrots, chopped
-some fresh chopped rosemary
-1 1/2 tsp himalayan sea salt
-a touch of fresh ground pepper

I also added my nutritional yeast "cheese topping" to 1/3 of the batch to make savory cheese crackers. The cheese topping is just a blended mixture of nutritional yeast, ground walnuts and sea salt, tastes just like grated parm!

Blend all of the ingredients in a food processor or a strong blender.

Spread the mixture out on the dehydrator trays (on nonstick liners or parchment paper) about 1/4 inch thick or less and use a pizza cutter to make lines where you will break the finished crackers.

Dehydrate at about 140 degrees for the first 2-3 hours, then 110 for the remainder of 10-12 hours, depending on how crispy you like them. I did it for well over this time and they were still a nice consistency, not too crispy. 110 degrees is a good safe temp for not overcooking. Flip them halfway to prevent spoilage.

This is how much this size recipe made.

Chef Grayson shares some of his favorite foods with you

The fun part about raw foods is that the kids can make it!  Two of Grayson's favorite foods are salads with home made dressings and veggie wraps made with collard greens as the wraps.

This cool mint salad is made with cucumbers (which are soothing natural gut healers), tomatoes, fresh mint and parsley (natural cleanser), lemon (alkalizes the blood) and olive oil is so refreshing.  I also like to add a sprouted grain, in this case we chose quinoa.  As Grayson says, "Easy peasy lemon squeezy!"

 

 

For the wraps, you can essentially fill them with anything!  We chose celery, cucumber, carrots, red cabbage, purple onion and fresh basil.  All you do is cut a large collard green leaf in half, removing the stem, line the inside of the wrap half with a dressing or sauce of choice, we used our raw GFCF ranch dressing (recipe in an earlier post) then lay sliced veggies and herbs along the center of the collard green, with the curved side at the bottom, take that curved edge and pull it slightly up over the veggies and start rolling it from one side until it looks like like a mini burrito.

Simple raw food "cereal"

I'm sorry I don't have a picture of this one, my kids gobbled it up too fast!!  We all really loved this recipe and it's very easy.  One important piece of the recipe though, is to remember to soak whole buckwheat groats the night before, but it's so easy to do, just toss it into in a jar with a lid and enough water to cover the groats before you go to bed then when you wake up, it's ready for breakfast.  Grayson decided it tastes like apple pie, and he's absolutely right, so I am going to name it Apple Pie Porridge!  This is light and totally refreshing, plus it hits that sweet tooth so many kids (and adults) have.

APPLE PIE PORRIDGE

- I used 1 shredded apple and 1 shredded pear, but you can use 2 of either, the apple is what gives it the tartness though.
- Use the pulp from making a nut milk (we make daily hemp milk so it was perfect and I don't like to waste the pulp anyway!)
- A handful of dried cranberries, goji berries or raisins
- Cinnamon
- 1/4 cup soaked, drained buckwheat groats (they become soft and are easier to digest this way)
- If you choose, you can add extra sweetener, but we choose not to, it's sweet enough with the fruit.  A good extra sweetener would be: honey, coconut nectar, stevia or xylitol.

Enjoy!!

Update, here is a picture!  We made it again and this time I remembered to snap a shot.  This one doesn't have the dried fruit in it.

Our favorite raw dish so far - "pasta" alfredo

Tonight we made our first entree and all I have to say is OMG....I didn't know raw could be SO good!!  Of all things, pasta alfredo, with no pasta or dairy in sight!  I had no idea it could be so surprisingly good!  It even looked JUST like a pasta dish.  The kids gobbled it up and wanted more.  I could have eaten the entire bowl myself!  Ok enough babbling, here are pictures and the recipe.  I would say, if you are even considering raw, this should be your first recipe!!

- 4 small or 2 large zucchini
- Olive oil (we chose to use grapeseed oil)
- Fresh rosemarry and basil
- Sea salt
- 2 Tbsp Hawaiian Mellow White Miso (I used gluten-free soy sauce)
- 2 cups brazil nuts (we used a 1/4 of brazil and the rest cashew, because you CAN get too much selenium and we already supplement with it)
- 1 cup water
- Lemon
- Chopped tomatoes (optional)
- Sliced olives (optional)

Use a mandolin to create thin slices of "pasta" with the zucchini and then use the knife to cut "pasta noodles" then marinate with a squeeze of lemon, oil and sea salt.  (A trick to the noodle slicing is to pile pieces of the sliced zucchini and roll, then slice it) Let that sit while you prepare the sauce. 

In a blender combine: water, several squeezes of lemon, nuts, a few dashes of sea salt, miso, some finely chopped rosemary and blend until smooth. Adjust water and oil to desired consistency then pour over zucchini noodles and add chopped tomatoes, olives and a dash of olive oil and sea salt.

You'll notice that I didn't put any of the toppings on it.  To be honest, I totally forgot.  I was so engrossed in the amazingly yummy taste of the sauce, I completely forgot to do anything other than pour it over the zucchini and serve it!!  Well, of course, I stopped to take a picture too, he he he.  

And here are my kids enjoying it, thoroughly!

RAW-some food!

I have been exploring the concept of raw food for some time and finally took the plunge and bought a few simple recipe books.  I am loving the way it feels to eat mostly raw all day!!  The recipes are so easy, we are making easy tasty dips, creative salads, dressings and snacks that the kids love and ask for.  We never plan to be 100% raw, because I do believe in animal protein, although it is from natural, organic and grass fed sources only, especially for growing children.  Here are some pictures of my newest raw fun foods.

These look like cookies, but they are power bars made from nuts, seeds, dried fruit and honey, then placed in the sun to dehydrate a bit.  The kids want these every chance they can get!  Oh and that is my home made hemp milk (from a previous post) in the background.

This is one of the many dips/dressings we have made using cashews and spices.  It is a ranch dressing believe it or not!  This one disappeared faster than I expected, and a few others have followed, a garlic pesto made with sunflower seeds and sweet mustard dressing.  The ranch dressing actually encouraged my very picky veggie-hating two year old to gobble down TWO, yes you read that right, two bowls of salad for dinner!!

This morning I made a "cereal" out of pears, walnut pulp (after making and straining walnut milk), cinnamon and honey.  We have even been sprouting, the kids actually sit and eat sprouted lentils like they are M&Ms!  No joke! 

It's easier than I thought to get raw foods into the kids, most of the recipes involve throwing some ingredients into a blender, I can do that!!  Make it look like a cookie and they are fans!  ha ha ha

Here are the recipes for the two pictured above:

Raw ranch dressing:
‎-1 cup cashew butter (I just blended 8 ounces of raw cashews with some grapeseed oil)
-1/2 cup water
-3 Tbsp lemon juice (fresh squeezed, about half a lemon, but I think it needs more)
-1 tsp raw cider vinegar
-pinch of salt
-1 tsp Italian seasoning or dried dill
-1 clove garlic
-1 stalk celery

Blend until smooth and creamy.

Raw energy bars:
Choose a combo of up to any five seeds/nuts and use 1 cup of each (mine are: sunflower seeds, almonds, pumpkin seeds and sprouted lentils) other options are pine nuts, soaked buckwheat, walnuts, cashews, and so forth. Blend in a powerful ...blender like the Blend Tec or Vitamix, just enough to chop them up into a thick powder.

Put the mix into a bowl, add a 1/4 of agave or honey with some water to moisten them for stick-factor, add in dried berries of some sort like goji, cranberries, mulberries, raisins, currants, etc.

Then you can make very compressed balls out of them and press them flat with your hands or use cookie molds so they can be pressed firmly into the mold. I laid them out in the sun to "dehydrate" a bit which firms them up and gives them a harder texture. That's it! 

Hemp milk recipe

My cousin has actually sparked this post.  When she told me that she has decided to try gluten free for her son and that she is avoiding some dairy, I shared my hemp milk recipe with her.  I realized than that I never shared this on my blog!!  Shame on me!  It's such an easy recipe and by using this in place of commercial hemp milk or all other commercial substitute milks, you are bypassing the yuck factor...what is the yuck factor you ask?  Preservatives, thickeners, refined sugars and cross contamination!  You pay an arm and a leg for this junk and you are using something that has been created to have a shelf life in a box, unrefrigerated....can you say yuck?!  Not to mention, it tastes nasty compared to the good old QUICK home made recipe I am about to share with you.  But before I do that, let me just share some information about the benefits of hemp, versus those other high carb, sicky sweet milk subs like rice milk and soy milk....

For starters, hemp has the perfect blend of omegas 3 and 6, and aren't we all looking for healthier ways to add omegas to our diets??  I know I am! Hemp milk is bursting with varied range of amino acids, important nutrients and trace minerals that make it the complete protein package. Hence, the best option for growing children.  Hemp seed is one of the plant kingdom's most concentrated, complete and balanced sources of essential amino acids (EAA's) and essential fatty acids (EFA's). Hemp seeds are high in essential nutrients including chlorophyll, magnesium, potassium, sulfur, phytosterols, ascorbic acid, beta-carotene, calcium, fiber, histidine, iron, potassium, phosphorus, riboflavin, niacin and thiamin.  It contains linoleic acid which is inflammation reducing, therefor it is great for those with arthritis, eczema and allergies.  Hemp also helps maintain an ideal blood sugar balance, reducing hypoglycemic symptoms.

Then there is the added benefit for those who are eco-minded, it uses less water in the growing process and NO pesticides, because hemp is naturally pest-free!  Hemp nut is the most nutritious and easily digestible food on the planet, the only complete source of all the following: protein, essential amino acids and essential fatty acids. Hemp is the only food which supplies all of our dietary needs in one source -- the only food which can sustain human life without any other source of nutrition.  Now, would I be willing to try living off of hemp alone, most definitely not, but it sure makes using it as our "milk" source an easier decision!  Check out this fabulous amino acid profile...

Hemp seed contains all 10 essential amino acids, the building blocks of protein. Hemp seeds contain 33% pure digestible protein, providing readily available amino acids for building and repairing tissue. Hemp seed protein is comprised of 65% high-quality edestin protein, the most potent protein of any plant source, 35% albumin protein and glutamic acid. The globulin edestin in hemp seed closely resembles the globulin in blood plasma, and is compatible with the human digestive system. It is vital to the maintance of a healthy immune system and is also used to manufacture antibodies. Albumin is a protein manufactured by the liver that is supportive of liver and kidney health.  

For those using soy as their alternative milk, check out these facts.  Soy protein contains high levels of enzyme inhibitors blocking the uptake of trypsin and other enzymes the body uses for protein digestion. Eating a diet high in enzyme inhibitors, such as those contained in soy, can result in chronic amino acid and protein deficiencies.

So with that said, here is my easy, no frills hemp milk recipe!  Tweak it to your particular taste buds.

- 1 tablespoon of organic shelled hemp seeds
- 8 ounces of filtered water
- I like to add about 1.5 teaspoons of xylitol to sweeten it up, this is entirely up to you

Blend, strain and enjoy!   Feel free to also add some variety with a teaspoon of vanilla, a sprinkle of cinnamon, some cocoa for chocolate milk, fresh strawberries for strawberry milk, go on....get creative!

RECIPE - a staple in our house - pancakes

With a year of GFCF (among many other "frees") under our belt, I have had a LOT of time to experiment with pancakes! Pancakes are a favorite and with the limited breakfast options we have, we NEED them and they must be healthy, hearty and easy to make. The other great use for pancakes in a gluten free diet is to replace bread for sandwiches. Other than muffins and cookies, it's the only bread-like substance in Grayson's diet.

We have tried all of the gluten free flours out there in pancakes and our favorite, by far, is teff. Teff is native to Northern Africa, but is now grown in the US primarily in Idaho. If you are culturally savvy you will probably know that it is the primary ingredient used for injera bread which is served as your utensil with Ethiopian or Eritrean food. It has a bit of a nutty bitterness to it when used alone, somewhat like a sourdough bread. There are also three types of teff, white, brown and red. The red is more nutritious and less bitter but the white is used more often and is the choice for injera bread. I use Bob's Red Mill red teff.

The low down on teff is that it packs more protein than wheat, has a high concentration of nutrients like calcium, thiamin and iron and is very high in fiber. The iron from teff is easily absorbed by the body, calcium (387mg) in one cup of cooked teff is about 40% of the USDA recommended daily allowance, and has twice as much iron as wheat and barley! Teff is an energy enhancing grain which makes it favorable for athletes.

Fun facts about teff - It is one of the smallest grains in the world measuring only 1/32 of an inch in size, in fact, it's name is derived from the Amharic "teffa" which translates to "lost", as in - it can be lost if dropped! ( Amharic is a Semitic language spoken in North Central Ethiopia) 150 teff grains are equal in size to one wheat kernel. 3000 grains weigh only 1 gram. Teff is used to make home brewed alcohol, is grown in Ethiopia as forage for cattle and has been used in adobe construction. Sounds like a Jack of all trades to me although I will stick with the pancake route.

Ah yes, pancakes, that is the point of this post, isn't it? So here is the recipe I have been experimenting with and have finally come to my ideal gluten, casein, egg, soy, rice-free pancake.

1 1/2 C teff flour
1/4 C quinoa flakes
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 C milk sub (I use hemp, but chocolate almond is really tasty too!)
3 tbsp oil
2 tsp xylitol

Mix it all up and drop it on a hot griddle. These are hardy and dark. We love the chocolate almond milk, but I know that some people avoid almond milk for either nut or soy sensitivities. The quinoa flakes don't change the flavor like quinoa flour does in higher quantities, it just adds some bulk to the recipe, because teff alone can be too flaky and flimsy for pancakes.

These are not very sweet, which makes them ideal as a bread substitute so adding more sweetness might be preferred by some people. So here are some great variations to this recipe. If you are adding these things into the pancake, blending is the key, because anything too chunky makes the pancake not cook through well. These could also be drizzled on top.

-blended zucchini (or any veggies)
-blended berries in or on top of the pancakes
-blended apples with cinnamon
-blended banana and chopped nuts
-organic blended pumpkin and cinnamon

I make double batches, separate them with wax paper and store them in the freezer double-bagged in freezer bags. Reheating is a snap in the toaster! They are great when you need to be on the road too, just hand a pancake (or two or four if it's my child) to junior and go.

RECIPE - Turkey Roll-Ups

If you are like me, you are probably always searching for new and exciting recipes. With a limited diet like Grayson's, that is quite a challenging feat! Lunch seems to be our more challenging meal, oh and snacks, ugh! I try to make food fun when I have the time. Here is a simple recipe that always goes over well, the toothpicks make it a fun food! I even enjoy this one, he he.



Ingredients:
Applegate Farms smoked turkey deli meat (prepackaged)
avocado
cabbage (or lettuce of choice, we love raw cabbage)
grape tomatoes
dressing of choice, we use an all natural honey mustard
bacon is a nice addition although we didn't use it this time (forgot, whoops)

I like to dry off the turkey meat, since it is packaged in some minimal fluid, then all you do is line the turkey with the ingredients all in a row, roll, pick and slice!

Here is Mr. Man himself, ready to grab his plate and go. I had to hold him back to take the picture above, he had his hands all in the pictures!! He ate two plates full of this faster than I could clean up the mess!

"FAST" food...huh?

Conjures up thoughts of speeding through a drive through window while the kids scream in the back, because you were at the grocery store, or TJ Maxx for entirely too long, right? WRONG! For those of you who share in the experience of diets like ours, you know that couldn't be further from the truth!

To me, fast foods are the kind that don't require open flour-covered cookbooks, measuring cups and spoons, and hoards of ingredients in my peripheral vision. It's anything that can be heated up quickly without having to do much more than hit one button on the toaster oven, YEAH - that's what I'm talking about!

I have been getting creative with quick and fun. Anything that is being tried for the first time requires even more creativity. How do we get him to eat such variety? The way we take the attention off of "WHAT" is being served is by putting the attention on "HOW" it's being served. I make smiley faces, I shred or cut veggies into strips for hair, make eyes, a nose and a big smiley face! Works EVERY time. He also likes dips, so anything new placed next to a familiar dip gets approval too. Don't underestimate the power of HELP. Kids love to help cook, so give them a job, something that makes them feel proud and part of the project, they are more likely to eat something they just prepared themselves. I know what you are thinking, yes, it will take you a tad longer to get through preparation, but if you are batch cooking, you are only doing this once in a while and what is better than a kid who is happy, feels confident and helpful and gets some one-on-one mommy time all while making a great meal?? My little guy smells herbs, stirs batters, dumbs ingredients, "chops", gets me utensils and measuring cups, helps clean up, taste tests (best job, of course) and he gets very into it! I also make a big deal out of his "chef"ness, ha ha ha. Whenever he eats something he likes now, he says, "Mommy, you are a good chef!" ha ha ha KIDS! Gotta love 'em! I eat up this attention, because I know in just 10 very short years, he will be more interested in girls, friends and hobbies than his mommy. Take advantage of this time you have together, it's short lived and SO precious!

Here are some of my "fast" food ideas and keep in mind that this often requires bulk prep initially, but that can be done once in a while and then I freeze the rest for easy defrosting and/or toasting.

Teeny-weeny meatballs - I use ground turkey (you can use any ground meat, even combine multiple meats), and in place of egg and bread crumbs, I use quinoa flakes and water, then I spice them the way he likes (lots of garlic and sea salt, some cilantro which is a natural metal-mover). I make these bite sized, he loves eating anything round and small and with a toothpick! EASY PEASY! Freeze them up and serve them fast! These can be eaten alone, made into a meatball sandwich, put into pastas and rices, etc.

Chicken strips - This simple recipe involves just pounding chicken breasts thin, slicing them into strips, spicing and cooking. I under cook them just slightly so they don't dry out when being reheated, but they heat up so easily in a toaster oven.

Believe it or not, pancakes and waffles are a HUGE favorite for any meal of the day. You can top them with whatever you like, even turn them into peanut butter and jelly sandwiches since bread is a no-no on this diet. We just batch cook double-batches and freeze with wax paper between each one. They are easily transportable for hitting the road in a hurry or they can be elaborate and fun with smashed raspberries and honey on top....you decide.

Muffins - These kid-favorites can be "fortified" with veggie purees of all kinds! Get creative and offer a lunch-muffin. You can toast or not and offer a spread or not. Your kids will think they are the luckiest kids in the world, afterall, who in their right mind offers their kids muffins for lunch?! he he he, sneaky! I don't know who is happier here, kiddo or mom. Another great freeze and heat idea.

Pesto - I like to make various style pestos then I store the extra in small containers in the freezer. These are good as quick pasta sauces (we reheat already cooked pasta with an oil based pesto in a pan right on the stove), spreads for sandwiches, use as a base for grain dishes. I like any combination of cilantro, basil, nuts, and green leafy veggies with tons of garlic (a natural antiviral, antiseptic, anti fungal, antioxidant), blend them in a blender and store. It's that simple!

Breaded fish bites - but not with bread! We use corn chips or cereal flakes that are safe for Grayson, I smash them to pieces, literally, and add spices and a little flour (amaranth or quinoa for added protein)...then use almond milk and a touch of arrowroot starch to bind the flakes to the chicken. We prepare these in bulk, as well. Salmon is a favorite of Graysons. He dips it into his favorite honey mustard dressing. Be sure to choose low-mercury fish like salmon, cod, tilapia, etc.

Turkey/ham/chicken wrapped avocado - This recipe offers the use of toothpicks AND dip, what kid could want more?? I take Applegate Farms sliced uncured deli meats and brown them quickly in a pan on the stove so they are almost crispy like bacon (some kids may like this cold, but mine likes everything cooked apparently), then wrap it around a slice of avocado, cut them into bite sized chunks, stick a pick in them, they are done! Choose any dip you like, we use honey mustard. This isn't a recipe you would freeze, of course.


Those were the main dish ideas, here are some side/snacky ideas:

Crunchy chick peas - these bite-sized balls are a hit here! Just take garbanzo beans (we use canned and just rinse them) toss them in an oil of choice and spices (again, the garlic and sea salt is a favorite, but we also do a sweet version) then bake them on 350 degrees for 50 min, YES that is 5-0. They will get crispy and rattle around. Who needs potato chips when you can have the protein boost of these tasty, portable bits! Toss them in a snack baggie for a snack on the road! Add them to your own "trail mixes" with nuts, raisins, GFCF chocolate chips, seeds....get the point?

Salads - Any left over grain side can be used to make a cold salad during the day just by adding dressing! Veggies and grain stir fry = ensalada! We also use green salads a LOT, I chop them up small (kitchen shears rock!) with all of his favorite veggies, plus a chopped up piece of pear and then he can scoop it up with a spoon, no fighting with big annoying leaves! Remember to top your salads with nuts or seeds (providing you can have them, of course!), in fact, walnuts offer much needed Omega-3's.

Sweet potato fries - Everyone loves fries, need I say more? I have a recipe for a zesty topping that you brush on before the last 5-10 min of baking (switch to broil and put them in the middle of the oven and WATCH them, they burn fast) Here is the list of ingredients, you toss them together in a sauce pan, bring to a boil over medium heat then simmer and cook for about 10 more min while the potatoes are baking in the oven (skin-side down wedges) on 350:

Honey garlic sweet potato wedges
1/3 cup Heinz Tomato Ketchup
1/3 cup GF Soy sauce (or Braqq's Liquid Aminos)
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp each finely grated lime zest and lime juice (Grayson can’t have this - we use citric acid instead)
6 cloves garlic, minced