Gluten Free Menu Plan

Sorry about the late post, but here's my menu plan for the week!

Monday: Chicken Cacciatore with Lemon Mushroom Risotto   

Tuesday: Chorizo & Black Bean Soup, Fritatta and Spring Greens

Wednesday: Sweet & Sour Pork and Vegetable Fried Rice   

Thursday: Leek and Potato Soup, Leftover Vegetable Fried Rice








Friday: Gluten Free Pasta in a Garlic, Mushroom and Tomato Sauce          

Menu Plan to Be Posted Later Today

All of these Sunday holidays are throwing my menu planning off track!  I will get a menu plan up this afternoon or this evening, hopefully with some photos to accompany the dishes.  Be sure to check back later!

Happy Mother's Day!

To all the mothers out there who have wiped up more snotty noses and dirty bums than they care to think about, this day is for you! 

I hope everyone has a wonderful Mother's Day filled with hugs and kisses and love from the ones you brought into this world, as well as the ones who are grateful that it was you, and not them, who had to do it.

To my own mom, I love you and I thank you for everything.  Being a mom isn't easy, but you never made it look hard.

                                                          HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! 

Saturday Seven List: Last Minute Mother's Day Activities for Kids

Tomorrow is Mother's Day, and if your family is like my family, it means that there will be a family gathering, and children looking for things to do while the adults are busy getting a meal ready.  Here are a few activities to keep small children entertained without much effort or many supplies.

1- Do it yourself jewellery boxes/treasure chests:  Any dollar store hinged, plain wooden box will do.  Using whatever materials you have on hand, let the kids go wild decorating their boxes.  Paint, crayons, stickers, buttons, felt, ribbon, fabric, etc. can all be used to great effect when decorating the boxes.

2-Pie plate cymbals:  We made these at the mom and tot class I take my son to, and he loved it.  Take two aluminum pie plate liners and two pipe cleaners.  Poke the pipe cleaners through the middle of each plate to make handles and voila, cymbals.  The fun part comes when it's time to decorate.  We used stickers, but markers or paint could be used by older children.

3- Card stock doorknob hangers:  Using a piece of card stock, cut out a rectangle with a circle near the top big enough to go over a doorknob.  Write _________' Room on the hanger (or have the child write it) and then allow the child to decorate the hanger using crayons, markers, stickers or any other lightweight material on hand.  Older children can write a little message on the hanger as well.

4- Pipe cleaner garden:  Use clean glass jars with the tops removed as the holder.  Using pipe cleaners as flower stems, tie a not a the top of each pipe cleaner.  Using construction paper, cut out flower shapes and push the pipe cleaner through the middle.  Arrange pipe cleaners in the glass jar, using gluten free modeling clay to keep them in place if desired.  Have the children decorate the outside of the jars by painting or placing stickers.

5- Mother's Day Mural:  If you're like me, you have a roll of paper lying around for painting and drawing.  If the weather is nice, take it outside, tape it up to a fence or a wall and let the kids go nuts making a mother's day mural as a back drop to the celebration.  Provide crayons instead of paint to keep things clean.
  
6- Tried and true picture frame:  Most of us have ugly picture frames lying around the house.  Provide each child with one, and let them create an "I love my mommy" personalized frame.  Cover with fabric or tissue paper, paint, sticky jewels, etc.  Let the child choose which photo they want to put in the frame, and be sure to display it in a prominent place in the house. 

7- Garden Stepping Stone or Pet Rock:  If you have a garden, let the kids create personalized stepping stones using rocks.  Paint the child's name across the rock and give them a chance to decorate it using paint.  No garden?  No big rocks?  Create pet rocks using small stones.  Paint two eyes and a big grin, and let the kid decorate the using permanent markers or paint for older children.  For little kids, my go to is always stickers.

In the interest of getting back into shape, I have decided to combine my goal to lose weight and get fit with one of my longtime goals of running 5K.  I've downloaded a free running program designed to get my booty off the couch and on the road running 5K in two months.  We'll see how that goes. 

I'm a little concerned about doing this by myself, because if I'm being honest, I don't always have the most motivation in the world when it comes to exercise.  I'm hoping that the program, which combines a mixture of walking and jogging over the period of the program will help ease my body into being able to handle the challenge.  I've tried running before, but I've never been able to run long distances with any success. 

This has always been something I've wanted to overcome.

I'm terrified of putting this out there because I'm afraid that I might fail in my attempt, but I refuse to allow that fear to stop me from trying.  So, my intention is to document my progress periodically on this site.  Hopefully there will actually be progress to report!

This also means that I have to find three days a week to give myself at least 30 minutes to exercise.  That alone time in itself might be all the motivation I need to continue!

If there's anyone out there who is looking for some online motivation to start/continue with a running program, let me know!

The Aftermath of Being Gluten-ed

On Tuesday, my son was fed a quarter of a slice of bread at the daycare centre he goes to three days a week.  A staff member served it to him accidentally.  Click here to read the post.  Yesterday morning when I posted, he had already had one diarrhea before heading off to daycare, and I posted that I hoped that would be the end of it.  Knowing all along, that of course it wouldn't.

The thing with being gluten-ed, as I like to refer to his ingesting gluten, is that unlike an allergy where the reaction is often almost immediate, the effects of gluten drag out over several days.  With my son, it usually begins with a rash, and progresses from there.  He has been on a prescription anti-allergic for the past few weeks, so the rash was suppressed, but the rest of the effects began strongly yesterday, and have carried into today.

Yesterday at daycare he had diarrhea that was so bad the staff had to change his entire outfit.  His eyes watered and his nose was stuffed, and he began to drool from breathing through his mouth.

Then there is his behaviour.  The gluten exposure changes his behaviour drastically.  He becomes whiny and defiant, unhappy about everything.  He was so whiny last night we finally just put him to bed.

This morning it was more of the same.  He stays home with me on Thursdays, and this morning he refused to participate at all in his mom-and-tot class, lying on the floor and rolling a truck back and forth for over 30 minutes.  The rest of the time he just wanted to be on my lap, watching the other children play.  Normally he sings and does crafts, playing with his friends.

Additionally, his appetite goes off the charts since nutrients aren't being absorbed.  Today, he ate a bowl of gluten free cereal, a gluten free waffle, a banana and two cups of rice milk for breakfast, followed by 1 cup of strawberries, another banana, a sandwich bag full of veggie chips and two packages of fruit gummies for his morning snack.  Then an entire box of fish sticks for lunch, followed by soy yogurt.  He's only two years old.  He gets so hungry he begins to cry and beg for food, something he normally never does.

All by noon.

This of course was interrupted by another bowel movement so horrendous that it was both up his back and down his legs, soiling even his socks, not to mention his shirt, his pants, his arm, my jeans, our couch and the floor.  As soon as I got that cleaned up and a new diaper on, it happened a second time.

All this because of 1/4 of a slice of bread, two days ago.

I'm so angry I could spit.  And heartbroken that my baby is suffering needlessly.  It wasn't a case of incorrect labeling, or a misunderstanding, or accidental cross-contamination in a prepared dish.  It was a result of carelessness on the part of the people I pay to care for my son.  An accident, but a careless, unnecessary one that should have been prevented.

Wordless Wednesday

With the munchkin, April 2011

Update on the gluten situation from yesterday's post:  He's been on a strong anti-allergic, so the usual rash didn't appear except for  a little on his face.  He was uncomfortable and bloated, but other than the one diarrhea, so far so good.  It usually takes about a day, so we'll see how today goes!

I Answer Calls From the Daycare with Dread

This afternoon I received one of the dreaded daycare phone calls:  My son had ingested something containing gluten.

I know that these things happen, but sometimes the call annoys me more than other times.  Particularly when the contamination was completely avoidable.

Like today.

At the beginning, when they were still feeding him and trying to accommodate his needs, sometimes there was confusion on their part about which foods were safe, particularly when one brand is safe and another isn't.

Sometimes, there was cross-contamination from utensils, toasters, counter tops, etc.

So, in an effort to cut that out, I began providing all of his food in reheat-able containers to avoid the cross-contamination.

Still, the children eat together at tables.  Sometimes my son grabs for something he wants off someone's plate and shoves it in his mouth quickly.  I don't want him sitting at a table alone, but he's only two and so doesn't always understand why he can't eat everything that his friends eat. These things happen.

I know there are crumbs that may go astray, residue from playdoh paints that contain wheat that may somehow end up on his fingers or in his mouth.

But today..... today a staff member served him bread.  And then someone realized what had happened.  After he had shoved the piece in his mouth and eaten it.

So when I saw their number on the phone, I dreaded picking it up.  They only ever call when he's sick or when he's ingested gluten.  When I asked if he had grabbed the bread from someone's plate the response was "No.  Someone served it to him."

I think I said OH.

I like the people who are in charge of my son's particular room, and they are generally quite vigilant, but there have been more than a few incidents of cross contamination.  Most of the time when a "floater" or a replacement cook has somehow cross-contaminated his meal.

But that's not my son's fault.

The daycare has a printout (11 pages) of acceptable and unacceptable foods.

They have instructions on how to avoid cross-contamination.

They have all been briefed on what my son can and cannot eat, and how to avoid cross-contamination.
 
Tonight, there was only one diarrhea before bedtime.  I'm hoping that's the end of it.

Fingers crossed.

IF YOU LIVE IN CANADA: VOTE!!!!!

Well folks, today is the day- the Federal Election.  The day you get to do what people around the world are dying, literally, to do- vote in a peaceful election.  Please don't take that right for granted.  Cast a ballot, have an impact on the election and on the shape of government in your country.  Don't let someone else decide for you who you want to represent your interests in Parliament. 

Take a gluten free snack along in case there's a line-up, and go exercise your democratic right.

VOTE!

Gluten Free Weekly Menu Plan

 Monday: Beef and Veggie Kebabs, Spanish Rice

Tuesday: Strawberry Chicken Salad with Walnuts, Steamed Broccoli 
and Cauliflower in a herb butter dressing
(I chopped and prepared the salad ingredients, they just need to be assembled on the bed of spinach.  The broccoli and cauliflower I'll prepare Tuesday)

 Wednesday: Coconut Curry Soup, Steamed Rice, Mango Salad
and Beef Rolls
(Mango Salad ingredients, prepped and ready to go.  The rice is ready, just the coconut broth and the beef rolls to go)

 Thursday: Vegetable Soup,  Gluten Free Pasta Primavera   
The soup is still cooking, so forgive the photo.  Gluten free pasta I generally make the day I want to eat it, because it doesn't keep as long as wheat pasta.






Friday: Leftover Vegetable Soup, Chicken drumsticks and mixed
vegetables