Peanut Butter and Nutella Sandwiches

On Monday, I wrote about Zoe.  On Tuesday, I wrote about Elliot.  It only seems fair that I devote today's blog post to Avery, and thankfully, he said the cutest thing ever yesterday.

Each morning, Avery pours himself a tall glass of milk and makes himself a peanut butter and Nutella sandwich on whole wheat bread.  Then, just before bed, he does the same thing.

As I walked in on him yesterday morning making his sandwich, I warned him:

You better watch out.  You are going to turn into a peanut butter and Nutella sandwich if you keep this up, and then I will definitely have to eat you up.

I'm not worried, Mom.

Why not?

Because I'm not gluten-free.

What a kid!

 . . . tee hee!

Photo bombed!

Happy spring! 
 (even though it definitely doesn't look like or feel like spring out there)

Our GF Journey

Baby Girl and I have been gluten-free for three weeks now, and I feel great!  Unfortunately, Baby Girl's meds mask her symptoms; therefore, we really don't know what effect it is having on her, but judging from the differences I see in my own body, I am sure her body is pleased.  Initially, I joined Baby Girl on this journey for moral support, but the further down the path I go, the more I am convinced that this is a much healthier way of eating.  Since going off of wheat, the arthritis pain that has been worsening over the past year in my hands has disappeared.  Not lessened, not barely noticeable, it has disappeared.  I find it easier to wake up in the morning.  My mind is less foggy and more focused.  My appetite has dramatically reduced. I no longer go on insulin-fueled chocolate chip binges (even though I still enjoy my chocolate chips in muffin form) and here is the best part:  my waistline is shrinking.  Shrinking I tell ya!  Poor Mr. Level-Headed was eating his breakfast this morning and out of the blue, I whipped up my shirt and said:

Look at this stomach!  It is amazing!

In hindsight, I am sure he did not mind too much . . . tee hee!

 Anyhoo . . . 

 Like my dry shampoo, going gluten-free is going to be the game changer for this thing they call 37!  I can just feel it.

Now, this is not to say there haven't been any challenges.  The first three days of going gluten-free were miserable.  I was coming off a powerful addiction and I could feel it.  My head hurt.  I was irritable, and all I thought about was doughy goodness.  Then it stopped.  Now, I feel terrific and have no desire to eat it again.  Why would you when you can make all your favourite goodies with less-irritating grains like rice, corn or potatoes?  (The Wheat Belly doctor poo poos on all of these forms too, but we like them)  With the right recipes and sugar (as I reassured my sister Hilary, who follows a balance-in-all-things approach to diet, we are gluten-free with sugar, and this pleased her), you don't have to miss out on all your old standbys like pizza, cake, cookies, or muffins.   And now, my kitchen is officially stocked with not one, not two, but three gluten-free cookbooks (thanks to two gluten-free family members and a birthday Indigo gift card)

The other challenge is that being new to this diet-change, I am spending even more time in the kitchen. All day long, I am in the kitchen trying new recipes, preparing lunches and dinners, and washing up after these "experiments".  Recently, a friend of mine came to pick up her daughter and she remarked:

You are always in this kitchen.

I know.  HELP!

I kid.  Please do not rescue me.  In fact, I enjoy cooking.  I do not enjoy the clean-up, but I enjoy cooking, and I really enjoy eating good food and seeing my kids devour my latest concoction and having them exclaim: 

These are awesome, Mom!

What can I say: it gives me a high.

The final challenge I see is that eating gluten-free is more expensive.  The grains and the gluten-free cereals are a lot more expensive than wheat-based ones; however, you tend to snack way more when you eat wheat (this phenomenon has to do with insulin-spikes and its addictive qualities).  And it's true!. I have been experimenting with my two lab rats named Elliot and Avery.  On mornings they have whole wheat toast for breakfast or a sandwich made on whole wheat bread for lunch, they drive me bonkers begging for more food as early as thirty minutes after eating their meal, BUT when they have no wheat in their diets that day, the only snack they are looking for is our 4pm smoothie break. (I guess you could say 4pm is our Mormon Cocktail hour . . . tee hee!)  Therefore, if we take in consideration that my children are no longer snacking on granola bars, crackers or other pre-packaged snacks, then in the long run we are probably saving money.  Yay!  I get skinnier and we save money . . . see what I mean, this just gets better and better.

Here is just a sneak peak at all the gluten-free goodies we have been enjoying:

The boys call these Godzilla squares: chocolate and plain  Rice Krispy squares melted together (we used gluten-free rice cereal)

Blueberry muffins using rice flour

Lasagna replacing noodles with spaghetti squash . . . to die for!

Fudge!

Meatballs using potato flakes rather than crackers to hold them together

Cheese muffins

Cupcakes using Duncan Hine's gluten-free cake mix . . . yummy!

Pizza with a rice-flour dough

Pancakes using potato flakes and rice flour . . . awesome!

POPCORN!  Sniff, sniff . . . we had to say farewell to our beloved machine because my brother wanted it back.

Chocolate Chip muffins . . . Amazing!

As you can see, we are really not missing our wheat.  Next week, I will be on the hunt for a yummy gluten-free bread recipe . . . wish me luck!  Oh, and if you are interested in going gluten-free, please do some research and don't make the decision lightly. You really need to make sure that your diet is not missing out on essential nutrients and you should also be warned that after going off of wheat for a period of time, reintroducing it into your system is difficult  and can be downright painful.  There, that's my disclaimer.

Have a great day!

Exploring Our Options

One of the greatest blessings in my life right now is that Baby Girl is feeling better, and last night, she finally returned to soccer.  I couldn't wait to tell Mr. Level-Headed about how good she looked out there on the gymnasium floor, and even more noteworthy, how huge her smile was.  I can't help but tear up whenever I think of all that her little fourteen year old self has had to endure, but listening to her laugh and talk a mile a minute last night and seeing her bop around the kitchen, high from her after-soccer buzz, warmed my heart.  My Baby Girl is back, and I pray she is here to stay.

Unfortunately, from everything I have read and heard from others who have fought their own battles in the trenches of Ulcerative Colitis, this is far from over, and that terrifies me.  Recently, I heard of a young sixteen year old girl, who like Zoe did not respond to many of the medications and has just been recently told that the next step for her is surgery.  Like Zoe, she is a beautiful, intelligent, and athletic girl, but unfortunately the medications have never been able to keep her in a state of remission long enough.  As we begin Zoe's weaning off of Prednisone and the super-drug, Remicade, I am fearful of what may happen, and so we are exploring all of our options.

Everything I read and everyone I talk to with colitis, tells me one thing: diet, diet, diet!  But, what do the doctors tell me:  this disease has nothing to do with diet . . . huh?  So, in a desperate attempt to get Zoe well again, I focused all of my efforts on following the doctor's recommendations to a tee.  Thankfully, that has worked for us (with only one major hiccup) and Zoe is now symptom free.  However, now as I look at the bottles and bottles of medication she must take every morning and evening (and will continue to take even after the above-mentioned weaning of two drugs), I have to wonder if there is not a more healthy, more natural way to remain symptom free.

 And according to all of my research, there is . . . diet, and in particular a gluten-free diet.  Now, I almost cringe saying it because gluten-free has become the buzz word of the 21st Century and is currently at the epicentre of the most recent fad diet, but after everything I have read, there really is something to all this.  After talking to many people, reading many blogs, and finally, reading Wheat Belly by William Davis, MD, I am convinced that going gluten-free may be the key for our family.  According to this book, wheat is not the problem.  It is all the genetic modifications that wheat has undergone in the last fifty years that has caused the problems.  Notably in the last fifty years autoimmune diseases like Asthma and Colitis (both of which Zoe has had) have sky rocketed, along with Celiac Disease, Diabetes, Lupus, Autism, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Gastrointestinal cancers. It is an eye-opening read, and it makes sense, but is it doable?  Thankfully, Mr. Level-Headed and Baby Girl are on board with me because this is going to be a challenge. Also, our paediatrician at the IWK is very open minded, and I am sure he will work with us on this as well.  

Our culture and wheat are tightly woven together.  Wheat is what moved us from being hunters and gathers to farmers, a switch that sparked the evolution of humanity.  Wheat is in almost all of the foods we eat, ad it predominates our grocery aisles.  We don't just eat food to sustain us; we eat food to comfort us, and I am a devoted lover of comfort.  I am a lover of wheat!  But, if this can put Baby Girl back on the path to health WITHOUT, or at least a reduced amount of medications, we are going for it!  Wish us luck.