Gooey Puffed Grain Bars

I have to thank my friend Karen for this one. She gave me the recipe and I have used what worked in our diet restrictions in it. Of course Buddy doesn't really like them, but everyone else does. Squirt likes to eat one on her ballet class day when she will eat dinner late and burn lots of calories before. Her Daddy likes to grab one in the AM if he is running late for work and needs a quick breakfast. And Bubba likes to mooch bites from anyone who will share with him. Buddy takes one bite and is done. ((((sigh)))) at least I tried to give him a new food option. Anyway, I have no idea how many calories or protein grams are in one but they are loaded with both.

1 cup honey
1 cup date sugar
1 cup or more of nut butter of choice (I use almond butter or cashew butter)

Combine in microwavable safe bowl and microwave for three minutes stopping and stirring between each minute. Pour in puffed grain of choice and mix well (about 3 cups or less). I just eye ball it until it is the right consistency I want. More puffed grain for crunchier, less for gooier. I use 2 parts puffed organic brown rice and one part organic puffed millet (more protein).

Pour out into greased lasagna pan or other pan with lips and let cool completely. Cut into squares and store in ziploc bag.  These are waaaaay cheaper than buying protein bars and have so much less other 'stuff' in them. Simple and yummy.

Bread Recipe 2

I tried out a new version of a bread recipe today. I picked it up from Paula's Bread. I had been having trouble with my bread being a little too wet recently. I know that humid hot weather didn't help, but I needed a better solution. So this turned out great. I think the key was cutting back on the oil and honey.

3 1/2 cups very warm water (115 degrees or so)
1 Tbsp salt
2 Tbsp dough enhancer
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup oil
5 cups freshly ground hard red wheat flour
3 Tbsp yeast

Combine ingredients in mixer. Mix til just combined. Let sit with lid on and sponge for 20 minutes. Stir down and add about 5 more cups of wheat flour or less, adding one cup at a time until the dough cleans the sides of the bowl. The key is to add one cup of flour at a time at this stage. Let each cup become fully incorporated before adding the next cup. If the weather is dry it may take only 3 to 4 cups of flour. If the weather humid it may take closer to 5 cups. The texture you are looking for is when the bowl's sides look clean and the dough has formed into a ball but still looks pretty sticky. Then mix on setting 1 on the Bosch Universal Mixer for 4 minutes. Turn out onto oiled surface. Cut into four sections and form into loaves. Place in greased loaf pans. Cover and let rise until double in size. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes or until golden brown on top and sounds hollow when thumped. Turn out onto racks, cool and bag. Use right away or freeze. If using from the freezer simply leave on the counter to come to room temperature and then enjoy. Don't refrigerate this bread.

Chili - to add meat or not to add meat?

Chili

(to add meat or not to add meat that is the question..... )

I never even liked chili until I made this recipe. The original is the Rachael Ray's Veghead Chili  recipe. I have played with it and made it my own (as I so often do).

You can either add in a pound of browned ground beef drained or  following recipe and leave it vegetarian. Often, if I am short on beans, I will even cut back on the beans and use mostly ground beef. You can adjust the Vegetable Broth to accommodate the change in ingredients adding or not adding to get the consistency you like.

2 sweet peppers  diced (green, red or yellow)  I use whatever is cheapest
1 large onion diced
2 cans diced tomatoes
4-6 cloves of garlic minced
3 cans of beans (kidney, black or other)
1 cup vegetable broth (Pacific Organic Vegetable Broth is what I always use) Add to get correct consistency right before adding the spices.
1 Tbsp Cumin
2 Tbsp Chili Powder
1 tsp salt

Cut up green peppers and onion. Sauté  in  large pot in a little olive oil over medium heat. Cook until onions are translucent. Add in garlic and cook for another minute. Add in diced tomatoes & beans. Stir well to combine. Add Vegetable broth as needed for desired consistency (add less for a thicker chili). Bring to a boil and simmer for about 15 minutes. Add in cumin and chili powder and simmer on extra low until ready to serve.

We eat this vegetarian style over steamed brown rice for a complete protein. Or carnivore style without the rice and with the ground beef.

If you are doing this with ground beef. Brown your ground beef separately and add to your pot of onion and green peppers when you add the garlic. Then follow the steps from there adding in or not the beans if you want.

We love to eat this along with a fresh batch of Pamela's Cornbread muffins made with honey and sunflower oil or olive oil. (Of course Buddy usually has a hamburger and rice, since the chili has too many allergens for him. But he loves those cornbread muffins!)

Makes awesome leftovers and freezes well too. You can even freeze cooked brown rice separately to eat with it another day.

If I make this with ground beef, I simply set aside some plain beef for Buddy and fry a hamburger in a small pan on the side for him. Then he eats the brown rice and cornbread with the rest of the family and his choice of allowed fruit.

What's in the Pantry or Fridge? (Before GAPS Diet)

I was thinking about writing down a basic menu for the week of what my little guy eats and how I cook it along side everyone else's meals.

But before I do that, here is our basic pantry and fridge items. I have listed them in how I put them in meals for Buddy.

Just to recap our allergens. We rotate sugar, spelt, sheep milk, oranges,  pears, tomatoes, chocolate, and cinnamon.

We avoid goat or cow milk, wheat, soy, barley, sorghum, legumes and a number of fruits and vegetables. See our allergen page for more specifics.

Breakfast Foods:
Eggs (cooked any way he wants, but no cheese or milk)
White Corn Grits
Organic Oatmeal sweetened with agave nectar or organic sucanat or maple syrup
Rice Pancakes with maple syrup or agave nectar or honey
Rice Waffles
Spelt Bread (only on spelt day)
Any of these cereals with Almond milk
Glutino Honey Nut O's  (does have sugar, so we rotate)
Enviro Kids Gorilla Munch (also has sugar)
Puffed Brown Rice
Orange Juice (rotated)
Almond Milk either Almond Breeze unsweetened in the shelf stable Quart or Vanilla Unsweetened refrigerated half gallon.
Lunches and Dinners-

Deboles Rice Pasta with a meat and fruit

Organic Brown Rice with a meat and fruit

Kroger Organic Plain Applesauce (goes like water around here between my two boys)

Shelton's Turkey Hot Dogs  (rotate due to other ingredients not the turkey) with a carb and fruit
( I loved the Applegate Farms Organic Turkey Hot Dogs but we can't get them here. They do have onions and sodium lactate from beets. But they are dairy free, casein free & gluten free)

Ian's Gluten Free Chicken Nuggets with Cascadian Farms Organic shoes string fries or crinkle cut fries and Heinz organic Ketchup (edited to say that Tomato has now be taken off of rotation)

Gluten Free Pantry French Bread Mix This is our staple bread, because it is sugar free and I can make it without any rotation allergy ingredients. My little guy eats this about six out seven days in a week. It is really easy to make and if you slice it and place plastic between the slices, you can pop a slice out of the freezer and microwave for about 35 seconds- comes out like fresh soft bread.

Any nut butter (see Puffed Grain Bars recipe for more info)- Peanut Butter, Cashew Butter or Almond Butter  with honey, apple butter, or all fruit  (edited to say All Fruit now has maltodextrin in it and that makes me nervous, even if it is gluten free. Something that far processed can't be good for you.)  honey on Pamela's French Bread or Spelt bread or even as a pancake sandwich on Rice Pancakes.

Beachy's Apple Butter comes from Salisbury PA (I love this!!!! It is just apples, cider and spices. It does have cinnamon which we have to rotate, but it the BEST apple butter you have ever tasted!)

Polaners All Fruit Blueberry - No it is not organic, but it is sugar free. It is sweetened with pear juice which we rotate. So Buddy eats this on Pear day.

Pamela's Corn muffins made from mix (we all love these with spicy chili or red beans) Buddy eats them with anything! I make them dairy and sugar free.

Hamburgers grilled or fried with just salt and garlic powder

Kettle Lightly salted potato chips (great with lunch)

Kroger Brand corn chips (that are cooked in corn oil) Buddy actually prefers these over potato chips.

Lots of apples, blueberries, peaches, cherries, bananas, grapes, dried apricots, and raisins. (as much of any kind as he wants any day). I buy frozen peaches, cherries and; blueberries in bulk and pull out what I need.

Plain Sheep Yogurt with pure liquid stevia and frozen fruit. (we rotate sheep milk)

Snacks and treats-
Glutino Original Crackers
Blue Diamond Almond Nut Thins
Pamela's mini chocolate chips (treat! has sugar)
Pamela's Dark chocolate chunk cookies (also treat, has sugar)
Jennies Coconut Macaroons Sugar free. These things are awesome!
So Delicious coconut ice cream vanilla or chocolate (chocolate is rotated) Awesome, awesome stuff!!!!!

We love any of the So Delicious products but we can really only buy the Coconut Ice Cream in our little town. We did find the coconut yogurt at a big city Whole Foods while on vacation. Buddy chowed down on it. I love that it is sweetened with agave nectar, so we don't have to rotate the vanilla flavor.

OK my brain is fried now. Hope I didn't forget anything. There is always the edit button.

(Edited to note:  this is no longer how we eat or what is in our fridge and pantry. We are now totally grain free and following the Gut and Psychology Diet aka GAPS Diet for our whole family as of August 2011. See my posts on GAPS for further info and this post describing how we eat now.)