A typical day for my kids is like this:
Breakfast:
French Toast – I just dip my homemade bread into egg mixed with almond milk, vanilla and cinnamon and fry it
Banana
Snack:
Rice crackers or rice cakes or cheerios (we use Nature’s Path Whole O’s organic and gluten free)
Lunch:
Scrambled eggs with pureed sweet potato with Salsa for dipping
Steamed mixed veggies
Homemade Gluten Free Bread
Apple
Snack:
Homemade Flax cookies or carrots or grapes
Supper
Baked Chicken or Meatballs
Steamed Veggies
Pasta (Tinkyada has great gluten free pasta)
Fruit

As you can see its really not that different from what other kids eat, there’s just no dairy and wheat products are replaced with gluten free. It just takes a bit more effort at first.

To help you out here are a few of our favorite recipes:

Since Tristan has been on the anti-yeast protocol I’ve been making yeast free bread and both kids love it!

Gluten Free/Casein Free/Yeast Free Bread

Mix together dry ingredients:
1 1/4 cups rice flour
1 1/4 cups cornmeal
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup ground flax seed
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Mix together wet ingredients:
1 or 2 grated carrots
1/2 a grated zucchini
1 grated apple
2 eggs
2 tbsp canola oil
3/4 cup almond milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 to 1/2 cup pureed or mashed sweet potato

Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients just until moistened. Grease a 5×9 loaf pan and pour in batter. Bake at 375 for 60 minutes.

Flax Seed Cookies

Mix together dry ingredients:
1 1/4 cups rice flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup ground flax seeds, you can use less if you like

Cream together:
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
2/3 cup brown sugar
Add:
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 egg

Add dry ingredients to wet. Form into a ball once mixed and refrigerate for at least an hour. Once the doughs firm form it into small balls and bake at 300 for 20ish minutes. I always keep an eye on these so I’m not certain of how long I bake them for. Now Odum says that my picture of the cookies makes them look like turds, LOL, the funny thing is he eats them by the handful!

Super Sneaky Maple Meatballs
Mix together:
1lb ground beef, chicken or turkey
1/2 cup pureed or mashed sweet potato or butternut squash
1 egg
1/4 cup maple syrup
finely diced onion – use however much you like, I don’t like too much so I probably use an eighth of an onion
finely diced mushrooms – I use 4 or 5
1/2 to 3/4 cup breadcrumbs – I usually just make my own by throwing bread crusts into my magic bullet
1/2 to 3/4 cup pureed or mashed veggies – if I have some steamed leftover veggies, or veggies that are just about to go bad I puree them up, spinach is a great addition!
1-2 tbsp Italian seasoning – however much you like
pinch of salt
pinch of garlic powder

I’m pretty approximate with this recipe. If it seems pretty wet because you’ve used lots of veggies add more breadcrumbs. Form into meatballs or loaf and bake at 350 for an hourish.

I tweak my recipes a lot, and all of these recipes where not gluten or casein free to begin with. So add in spices you like or veggies you like, have fun with it! And please add your faves too!

Here are my tips and tricks for the gluten free/casein free diet. My next post will include some recipes, too much to put everything in one post!

Two things to keep in mind:
1. It usually takes 3 weeks for casein to be completely out of your system and up to 3 months to get rid of gluten.
2. Check the labels on creams, lotions, supplements, soaps etc to make sure they are also gluten and casein free.

Also I’m not a doctor, dietitian or nutritionist, so please don’t take my word as gospel!

Casein
Casein is the predominant protein found in dairy products. It’s even in some soy products. I looked for soy cheese and yogurt and all of the brands our store carries has casein in it. When you’re reading labels look out for the words: casein, sodium caseinate, calcium caseinate or milk protein. Calcium carbonate is ok. There’s a really great cookbook, the Uncheese Cookbook that I took a few recipes out of that weren’t too bad. They use a lot of nutritional yeast, tahini and miso to mimic the cheese flavor.

In terms of milk for the kids we use almond milk, it even comes in chocolate. Rice milk and soy milk did not agree with the kids tummies so we don’t use those. And I’ve heard a lot of great things about hemp milk, although I haven’t seen it in our grocery store.

Gluten
Gluten is the predominant protein in wheat and is found in anything made with wheat and that’s a ton of products. Eliminating gluten was definitely the trickiest part, but we had the most success once we did. You really have to be a label reader with gluten as it shows up in the most random places, like soy sauce. This is a link to a the Canadian Celiac Association that gives you a list of safe, unsafe and questionable gluten products. I’ve found that since we started the diet with Tristan almost a year ago grocery stores have really widened the variety of gluten free products they carry. Cheerios, pretzels, cookies, pastas you name our store usually carries it.

Wheat products are probably the hardest thing to replace in terms of taste and texture. Glutino and Namaste have great tasting products. Tinkyada has great pastas, I almost wouldn’t know the difference. For bread always go for brown rice bread not white rice, the white rice bread tends to be super crumbly. For flour you can buy gluten free flour mixes but I’ve never really liked them. There’s one type of flour I don’t know which kind but it is just disgusting and its always in the mixes. So I go for the brown rice flour and it works great, I’ve never had any problems with baking.

For most of our favorite recipes I’ve been able to tweak them. I use almond milk instead of cows milk, rice flour instead of white flour and so far I’ve had a ton of success. Tristan is also an extremely picky eater, he never eats veggies, so I puree or mash lots of veggies and hide them in meatballs, pancakes, breads, muffins anything! A great site for gluten free and usually casein free recipes is the Gluten Free Goddess, she makes gluten free look gourmet!

The gluten free/casein free diet can seem really overwhelming to begin with. So if you’re feeling overloaded just take it slow and try removing one thing at a time, first dairy then gluten. And if you make a slip don’t beat yourself up. Tristan accidentally got into some homemade (with flour) playdough at a playgroup and had a huge regression. It was heartbreaking for me to see, but I realized just what a big problem gluten was for him.

Any more tips for going gluten and casein free?

Before I had Tristan I was pretty apathetic about breastfeeding, Odum on the other hand was and still is a hardcore lactivist! I was game to try it out and if it worked great. If not I was ok with formula feeding. I knew it was going to be a big adjustment to become a mom and I didn’t want to put any more pressure on myself. Today I am so pro-breastfeeding I’m almost at the lactivist level. Breastfeeding is so important for so many reasons. We’ve all heard the benefits for mom and baby but there are also great benefits for our planet.

Let’s start with the manufacture of formula. For the most part formula is made from cow’s milk. We’ve talked before about how detrimental dairy production is to the environment. The deforestation required for cow pasture and cow feed and air and water pollution from cow waste and flatulence.

Once the milk is obtained from the cow it undergoes processing in order to replicate breastmilk as closely as possible. This means the milk is altered and manufactured with flavoring, vitamins, proteins and other chemicals. The formula is then packaged in tin, paper and/or plastic. All these industrial processes just to create and package formula use energy and resources. Also think about all the gas used to get the milk to the factory and then the formula from the manufacturing plant to the retailers. Talk about tallying up a carbon footprint!

Once you buy the formula you also need bottles. The pollution caused by manufacturing and then discarding bottles and all the paraphernalia that goes with bottles adds up. You also have to use boiled water to make the formula, using water and energy. And think about all the water and energy used to clean and sterilize bottles. Yikes!

Now I’m not writing this to make anyone feel bad about formula feeding. You have to do what’s right for your family and what you feel comfortable with. I just didn’t realize just how eco-friendly breastfeeding was until I sat down and thought about it. And if you’re on the fence about whether to breastfeed or not here are some more great reasons to nurse your baby.

So, you’ve made the effort. You’ve de-toxed your bathroom cupboards and laundry liquid. You diligently reduce, re-use and re-cycle. Your fridge is full of organic produce and your car is gathering dust in the garage while you cycle everywhere. Pretty much done all you can right? Well there is still one very important thing left on that green list, and for some it is the most scary and impossible sounding extremism there is. That’s right, I’m talking about going veggie.

Vegetarianism and veganism have unfortunate connotations attached to them. The old image of the hairy arm pitted hippy or the earnest 15 year old girl are hard ones to shake. There is often a thought that a diet choice like this is a phase, one to be grown out of, like Goth clothes and Emo bands. There is also the thought that it is a “girly” thing to do, and few people appreciate that a man can be a veggie through his own choice.

True story. My husband happened to mention to friends that he had enjoyed a good steak at a pub a couple of years ago. The friends immediately pounced on this, offering to cook him a steak when he came over without me, his wife. The assumption being that he was only veggie when I was around!

For the record my husband made his own choice’s and journey in his own time.

So, why veggie? Well there are several routes to the same end:

The ethical vegetarian
Most people start out vegetarian because they don’t agree with the killing of animals for food. This can be controversial because many would argue that by still consuming eggs and dairy from commercial farms you still ARE killing animals¹. The next logical step for the ethical vegetarian is to become vegan and therefore cut animal products out of the equation all together.

The healthy vegetarian
Vegetarianism and veganism are also often approached in this way. Many people believe that the eating of animals and eggs and the drinking of milk is completely unnatural to humans and causes chaos in our bodies. Add to that the unnatural way animals are reared today and there is a strong argument for the healthy vegetarian.

Myself?

I take a little from each category and refuse to label myself. As a family we eat no meat, fish, dairy or commercially bought eggs. We eat the eggs our rescue chickens give us as pets with benefits, but I would not breed chickens. I only take in the year old hybrids destined for dog food. I save a life, they give me 5 eggs a week each. So I could not say we are vegan, but we are more than vegetarian².

I first became vegetarian as, yes, an earnest 14 year old girl. Back then there was little available to the budding vegetarian and I had a mother who was determined to get me back “on track”. So no special meals were made for me, no extra food brought in. Not surprisingly after a few weeks of eating only carbs I caved and ate some turkey. Thanks mum!

After that I started doing my own cooking, mostly baked potato with cheese. I carried on like this for years, eating a bad diet of junk food and dairy products. When I got pregnant with my first child I got the most amazing urge to eat chicken. Looking back it was my body screaming out for more protein and vitamins and asking for it the only way it knew how!

As a family we ate meat again until a round 2004 when, after coming out of the fug of 3 pregnancies in 4 years, I started to feel uneasy about eating meat again. We took it slowly, we still ate fish for a while. Unlike before I now had the INTERNET!!! (cue fanfares, party poppers etc.). I started my own research on how animals were farmed and the impact it was having on our health and the environment.

Around about this time I developed adult onset Asthma and decide to give dairy free a go. I’m not cured but I am much better and can really tell now if I accidentally have some dairy. It also cleared up to the point of almost healing my eldest and youngest sons eczema.

So what do I think? I think that:

Animals have a right to a fear free life.

That eating fear can only harm your body.

I know what you’re thinking: “But we are meat eaters! Carnivores! How can a diet devoid of animal products be healthy!!??”
To answer that question I should point out that no, Humans are NOT carnivores. We are omnivores like pigs or apes. We have canine teeth sure, but so do horses. Never seen one of them in line for a burger I bet!

Let’s make a check list here. To be a carnivore you have to have at least some of the following:

• Sharp teeth – We have flat plant chewing teeth.
• Sharp claws – We have nails that are too flimsy to gut an antelope with.. although I have never tried so please let me know if you can!
• Short digestive tract – A carnivore has a short tract, where as a herbivore has a long tract. Guess which we have?
• Strong stomach acid – This is needed to break down the enzymes in meat. Our stomach acid is more consistent with a herbivores and much weaker, than say, a dogs.

So in the wild, with no spear or gun (or clothes, oops!) a human would find it near impossible to hunt for game, and if he did catch something he would find it very hard to eat. Looking at things from a natural point of view, humans only became meat eaters when they discovered fire and how to cook meat. As with all food (animal OR plant based) if we can’t safely eat it in its “raw” state should we really be eating it at all?

So am I apposed to eating meat? No.

Surprised? Don’t be.

There is one kind of meat I will happily serve up for my meat eating parents this Christmas. Wild shot game is the most natural and environmentally conscious meat there is. The animal is raised without interference in the wild. He is stalked by a hunter and shot. The hunter is then a prey animal, he has done nothing a wolf wouldn’t have done. The wild game animal will never have to endure the discomfort of factory farming or the long journey to the slaughterhouse followed by the long wait to be killed. He will never be pumped full of drugs or fed a diet he hasn’t evolved to eat. Game is far superior to organic free range meat. Even life on one of these farms is far from a bed of roses and the end result is always the same. There is no first class travel for these animals, no comfy holding pen at the slaughter house. They meet their end the same as the factory farmed beasts.

But your organic meat has no hormones! No drugs or chemicals! But what is fear but a chemical? Fear as they are manhandled onto trucks. Fear as they are manhandled off again. Fear as they wait for their turn and then more when they are dispatched. That’s a lot of chemicals coursing around your organic meats body for a long time before dispatch.

Like all areas of environmental awareness do what you can. If your family has a “veggie” day once or twice a week, you HAVE made a difference. Don’t look upon it as restricting your diet, but rather enhancing it with pure healthy foods and basking in the knowledge that you have taken another small step on the road to sustainability.

Notes:

1. In commercial chicken breeder factories where eggs are hatched in incubators, the male chicks (in the case of egg laying hens) are dispatched at birth. This can be done “humanly” in gas chambers but is more commonly done by tossing them into large bins or black plastic bags, for speed.

The male calves produced in dairy herds are either dispatched within a day or two of birth or are eaten as veal. In the UK veal is not widely eaten so calves a few days old are often loaded onto trucks and transported to Europe to be produced as veal.

2. The classifications of vegetarian are commonly:

• Lacto, ovo vegetarian – One who consumes no meat or fish but does eat dairy and eggs.
• Lacto vegetarian – One who consumes no meat, fish or eggs but will eat dairy.
• Ovo vegetarian – One who consumes no meat, fish or dairy but will eat eggs.
• Strict vegetarian – One who consumes none of the above including all products containing gelatin and other animal by products.
• Vegan – One who consumes none of the above including honey. Will also reject all leather, fur and skin products.

Most people fall into a mix of two or more groups. What group(s) do you fall into?

Cows drink gallons of water, literally, and to produce 1 pound of beef they require 2500 gallons of water. And let’s not even get started on the poop, every year 11 billion pounds of manure, sludge and slurry waste are produced by livestock. And I thought I had dealt with a lot of poop in the last 3 years with 2 kids! The reason the waste is so bad for the environment is because it turns into volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOCs are organic chemicals that are gaseous and usually have a bad effect on air quality (think smog). One of these VOCs is methane which is a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. The livestock industry is responsible for 20% of the methane in the atmosphere. Think about that the next time you take a bite of that burger! And then think about how much of an impact it would be if everyone would go veg for just one day a week.

Now I love my meat. I was brought up in a meat and potatoes home and I love chicken and I love prime rib burgers. But since we started the gluten free casein free diet with Tristan I’ve had to completely change the way I cook. I’ve had to tweek all of our favorite recipes to do without dairy and wheat. I cannot tell you how difficult that has been at times. We where cheesealholics! I still am, I can’t get enough cheese, I put it on everything. I’ve found a lot of great websites and cookbooks though to help me through this new journey of cooking. My favorite gf/cf website is Karina’s Kitchen, and many of her recipes are also veg.

So the latest recipe I tried out was a lasagna-ish type dish: Spinach Mushroom Lasagna, from The Kid Friendly Autism and ADHD Cookbook. Although if you don’t use cheese and meat can it really be called lasagna?

Ingredients:

• 4 cups marinara sauce
• ¼ cup olive oil divided
• 1 pound mushrooms chopped
• 1 onion diced
• 4 cloves garlic minced
• 2 tsp salt divided
• 1 pound chopped spinach
• 1 can chickpeas
• 1 can red beans
• water
• gluten free lasagna noodles

Heat 2 tbsps of the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add mushrooms and cook until they release their liquid. Add the onion, garlic and 1 tsp of salt and cook for 10 min, stirring occasionally. Add the spinach, reduce to low heat and simmer until heated through.

Drain and rinse the chickpeas and beans. Pulse in a food processor (magic bullet works great) with 1 tsp of salt. Add the rest of the oil and process until smooth; add water until the puree is creamy and spreadable. Mine looked a little like cream cheese.

Spread the marinara sauce on the bottom of the baking dish, I just used our favorite pasta sauce. Add a layer of noodles. Spread the chickpea puree on the noodles, top with the veggie mixture, I then topped this with some zucchini I had leftover. Repeat this two times and then bake at 375F for an hour.

Surprisingly I enjoyed this. The chickpea puree had a really nice flavor and texture. Not surprisingly Tristan started to cry as soon as he saw what was for dinner, ah my picky kid! One day he’s going to eat everything in sight, I know it! Maya on the other hand ate it up and kept asking for more! So going veg doesn’t have to be painful, you just have to have an open mind and stomach!

Veggie dish anyone?

If you are unfamiliar with the premise behind this diet it is basically how it sounds, you can only eat food that is grown within 100 miles of where you live, or 161 km as I prefer. The premise behind the diet, among other things, is that you’ll be benefiting the environment by not supporting foods that are shipped great distances by plane and truck, thus reducing your carbon footprint (there are other benefits as well, visit 100 mile diet to see what they are).

Getting back to the talk, someone in the audience spoke of a study that claimed the 100 mile diet was in fact not beneficial for the environment. The reasoning behind this claim was that people on the diet would be driving much greater distances trying to find all the foods they need and would therefore be producing much more green house emissions than what they normally would produce if doing their shopping at the local grocers. Thus the excess emissions caused by people on the diet would be greater than the emissions used to ship all their food from out of the country to their local grocer.

Unfortunately I couldn’t get the source of this study from the audience member (they didn’t remember), but I’m quite intrigued to find out so I’m currently looking for it and when I find it I’ll be sure to post what it says.

The question that I have is could this be true? Would the carbon footprint of someone on the 100 mile diet really be bigger than if they were not on it?

What do you think?