GFCF Recipes/ Sandwich Bread & Breakfast Bars

Here are two recipes that have made this process much easier.  When switching to a gluten free, dairy free diet, sandwich bread can be the hardest thing to replace.  I found a great recipe on another site, but couldn't find a few of the ingredients, so I gave it a go with things that were easier to come by.  It worked great so I decide to make some variations, and they came out great too!

Easy Gluten Free, Dairy Free Sandwich Bread

2 1/2 cups Brown Rice Flour
2/3 cups Cornstarch
1 Tablespoon Xanthum Gum (this I had to get from a health food store)
1 teaspoon salt

1 3/4 cup warm water
1 pack active dry yeast
1/2 cup unsweetened almond, soy or rice milk
2 Tablespoon vegetable oil
2 eggs

Variations
For herb bread:
1 Tablespoon Onion powder,
1 Tablespoon Garlic Powder,
additional 1 teaspoon Salt
2 Tablespoons finely chopped fresh herb of choice (I like rosemary)

For Cinnamon Raisin Bread:
1 Tablespoon Cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup raisins

In a medium sized bowl, combine yeast and warm water.  Set aside, allow yeast to dissolve completely.
In a large mixing bowl combine all dry ingredients and whisk together.
Add all wet ingredients to dry ingredients.  Mix at medium speed for 5 minutes.
(Dough should be the consistency of creamy mashed potatoes)
Grease bread pan.  Pour batter into bread pan and spread evenly.
Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm, dry place for 1 hour.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  Bake for 55 minutes.  When done, allow bread to thoroughly cool on a cooling rack before slicing.

Peanut Butter Breakfast Bars
The kids loved this!  I found the GF Kellogs Rice Krispies cereal at my local grocery store, hooray!  My bars looked a little lighter than this because the recipe calls for brown rice crispie cereal.

• 3/4 cup nut butter (almond OR cashew OR peanut OR sunflower butter)
• 3/4 cup sweetener syrup (honey OR GF brown rice syrup OR good quality Agave nectar)
• 1 1/2 cups roasted raw nuts and / or seeds (almonds, pecans, walnuts, cashews, peanuts, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds- use your favorites in any combination)
• 1 cup unsulfured dried fruit (cherries, cranberries, blueberries, apricots, pineapple, raisins- use your favorite dried fruits in any combination)
• 4 cups GF brown rice crispie cereal (I used gluten-free Erewhon Organic Crispie Brown Rice Cereal).
• 1/8 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation:

Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.  (I used a 9x13 pan to keep the edges uniform, worked great) 

Place nuts and / or roasted seeds and dried fruit in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse several times, just until the mixture is coarsely ground.

In a large saucepan melt nut butter with liquid sweetener over medium low heat. Stir and watch carefully to prevent scorching. When the mixture is smooth and bubbling cook for about 1 minute. Remove from heat. Add salt and vanilla and stir to combine. Use a large spatula to stir in nuts, dried fruit and cereal. Stir until all ingredients are coated with nut butter mixture.

Scrape mixture on to the prepared baking sheet. Use the spatula to evenly spread the mixture on the pan. Place a large piece of waxed paper over the mixture and use a rolling pin to smooth the top of the mixture. Cover with the waxed paper and refrigerate for about 2 hours before cutting the energy bars into whatever sizes you prefer.

Wrap bars in waxed paper and store in a covered container in the refrigerator.

Yield- About 16 -32 bars depending on how they are cut. I made 16 large bars by cutting the mixture in half lengthwise and then cutting each half into 8 pieces, about 1 1/2 inches wide.

http://glutenfreecooking.about.com/od/glutenfreesnackrecipes/r/glutenfreeenergybars.htm

GFCF Diet

With the holidays behind us and our lives slowly returning to "normal", I decided to start my family on a gluten free, dairy free diet to see if it would help Liam's development.  Despite a little protesting and drama from my big kids (husband included), I dove right in.  We are only on day 5, so in no way am I claiming to be an expert on this, but I wanted to share the experience while it's fresh.

The first 3 days I spent my waking hours researching recipes and ingredients, hunting through every grocery store in town and giving my KitchenAid mixer the workout of a lifetime.  I think I have literally purchased anything and everything labeled "gluten free" available in this area, except the stuff with dairy in it.  The funny thing is, my cabinets have never been so full of junk!  GF chocolate chip cookies, brownies, breakfast bars, chocolate almond milk, corn chips, etc.
Typically, our diet consists of lots of fruits & veggies, whole grains, low fat dairy and lean proteins.  Very little processed food or sweets.  I guess this was my way of proving to my family that this "diet" was not going to be the ricecake fest they feared.
The biggest hurdle was finding a substitute for sliced bread, as sandwiches are a lunch staple.  But I was lucky  to find a really easy sandwich bread recipe that I can substitute ingredients for regular sliced bread, herb bread or sweet breads.  Of course there were ingredients in the original recipe that the local groceries don't carry, but I made it work, and got a thumbs up from the fam. They are still bummed about the lack of cheese, but I'm working on that.

Breakfast and Dinner are actually going pretty smooth.  Typical breakfast foods for us are eggs, grits, smoothies, granola and sometimes turkey bacon.  So, other than making egg sandwiches on corn tortillas instead of wheat bread, not much has changed.  I did find a really good peanut butter breakfast bar recipe that the kids like.  Dinner isn't to bad either as I found a rice pasta and rice and potatoes are on the OK list.

Dining out is a beast of it's own.  We rarely eat out, but of course, we were invited out to dinner New Year's Eve.  We stuck to steaks, rice, sushi and veggies but 3 of us had tummy aches the next day, just sayin'.  We also had a birthday party and we brought our own bread and brownies, which went over really well and the kids didn't fight me for the cute owl cupcakes made for the birthday boy.

So far, so good.  Liam seems to be a little calmer, although, it maybe because we are all settling down after the holiday madness.  The true test will be the reports from his teacher when he goes back to school.  And other than the day-after-eating-out tummy issues, everyone else seems to be fine.  I know this will take time to see if it makes much difference in our lives and I am not expecting a miracle, but I am glad that we are all becoming more aware of what we are putting into our bodies and making a concerted effort to feel and understand the effects that our food has on lives.

I will post the recipes for the bread and breakfast bars in the next post.

Some Of Our Favorite Things...For Now

The more I learn about Liam's sensory issues and autism, the more therapy tools and toys I come across.  I also realized that any time the word "therapy" is attached to anything the price triples.  Here are a few things that I have either made or found for next to nothing.

First is our weighted vest hoodie.  Weighted vests can be really expensive as well as stick out like a sore thumb. I have found a few patterns on-line but wasn't too crazy about any of them.  Then this idea came to me in a dream, literally.

This is an inexpensive lined hoodie, I think it came from walmart.  I cut the sleeves off just past the seam.  I then hand stitched large metal washers to the lining from the inside (the washers are between the inner and outer layer).
This has worked really well for Liam, his teachers use it during story time and he is able to sit though the whole story.  His speech therapist loves it too.  The other kids don't realize that it is any different than their sweatshirts and because the washers are flat, Liam can lay down while wearing it.  I can also add washers as he grows.  Recommended weight for a weighted vest is 10-15% of the child's body weight, and should be worn for 20 minute increments.

I haven't tried it yet, but I think that by putting the washers in a quilt to make a weighted blanket would work as well.

The Body Sock. So far, Oriental Trading Company has the best price on these.  We just got one for Christmas and Liam loves it.

Liam's OT made a lycra swing.  It's awesome!  I'm having trouble finding lycra locally, so I'm going to order it.  I will post pics and directions for the swing asap.

Wrist rings! Another fun, inexpensive thing from Oriental Trading Company.

Our new favorite game is "car wash".  I hold all 6 rings up and Liam runs through them, over and over and over again :)

The Diagnosis

About a year ago I started noticing that my perfect, beautiful, amazing baby boy was not developing quite like his cousin who's about 2 months older.  They were both about 2 years old at the time and while my nephew was chatting up a storm, drinking and eating from "big boy" dishes and beginning the potty process, my Liam had not uttered a word, insisted on drinking from his sippy cup while laying on the floor and was terrified of the potty.  Of course, you never want to compare children, but there seemed to be a developmental gap between the two that was only growing.  Liam's physical milestones were right on time, however, some even early, so we decided that it must be a language delay.  Having had a lot of ear infections as a baby (which ceased only after regular visits to the chiropractor and eliminating cow's milk) we decided to have his hearing checked.

The hearing test came back normal, but we decided to just give him more time.  Until, my aunt (the mother of my severely autistic adult cousin) gently recommended early intervention.  Within a month, Liam was receiving Speech and Occupational therapy, having been tagged with SPD (sensory processing disorder).

I dove right in, reading everything I could get my hands on and implementing every little thing I could as suggested by his amazing therapists.  Liam made great progress... his speech began to progress, he is now interacting with peers and animals, and he's happy!  But, we still have a long way to go.  Recently, he transitioned from the Early Intervention program to the school system's special education program.  Which meant another battery of evaluations, meetings, paperwork and a new diagnosis.  Autism.

And this is where we begin.......