I give you "bread" rolls...
..and meat pies.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
My inner chef
This week I got just ever so slightly inventive.
I give you "bread" rolls...
..and meat pies.
Bloody oath.
I give you "bread" rolls...
..and meat pies.
Friday, August 24, 2012
Diet Apocalypse Survival Guide
Now I'm sure you've heard of zombie survival guides. And intergalactic hitchhikers will know of the importance of a good towel. But how do you survive an elimination diet? Well, dear reader, read on...
1.* Potatoes.
To be precise, fried, salted potatoes. They come in handy packs like this:
You might start out with a one-a-day limit for the kids. But a week in they'll be living on them :)
2, Pikelets/pancakes
Well, they're the same thing, really. One's just bigger and thinner. And you can make halfway decent ones with no gluten or dairy. And you can have golden syrup and/or maple syrup on them!
Oh yes, I've mentioned that we eat these everysingleday, haven't I?
3. Plain rice crackers.
You know, for when you run out/get sick of the chips.
4. Pears.
Peel 'em and you can eat 'em. They're apparently the most inoffensive fruit around.
5. Salt & pepper
Love them or live with zero flavour whatsoever.
6. Sugar.
See 5.
7. Magic cordial.
What better way to cushion the blow for fussy pre-schoolers?! Mix it with soda water and you have a very special fizzy drink.
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1/2 ts citric acid
Mix it over heat till it's all dissolved and you're done.
8. Vodka.
Seriously. (Mix with magic cordial - da bomb.)
There may also be times when a shotgun comes in handy.
*Do you also love lists? ;)
1.* Potatoes.
To be precise, fried, salted potatoes. They come in handy packs like this:
You might start out with a one-a-day limit for the kids. But a week in they'll be living on them :)
2, Pikelets/pancakes
Well, they're the same thing, really. One's just bigger and thinner. And you can make halfway decent ones with no gluten or dairy. And you can have golden syrup and/or maple syrup on them!
Oh yes, I've mentioned that we eat these everysingleday, haven't I?
3. Plain rice crackers.
You know, for when you run out/get sick of the chips.
4. Pears.
Peel 'em and you can eat 'em. They're apparently the most inoffensive fruit around.
5. Salt & pepper
Love them or live with zero flavour whatsoever.
6. Sugar.
See 5.
7. Magic cordial.
What better way to cushion the blow for fussy pre-schoolers?! Mix it with soda water and you have a very special fizzy drink.
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1/2 ts citric acid
Mix it over heat till it's all dissolved and you're done.
8. Vodka.
Seriously. (Mix with magic cordial - da bomb.)
There may also be times when a shotgun comes in handy.
*Do you also love lists? ;)
Mistakes: I've made a few
Most of my mistakes have stemmed from my inability to properly follow instructions or read labels.
1. Pears - skin on, skin off!
Pears with the skin off have almost no salycilates.
The problem with tinned pears, however, is that they're often packaged in pear juice, which contains pear skin and there's no telling how much of the 'sals' are there. Making delicious-sounding things like 'No-Tomato Sauce', pear chutney or pear jam, recipes often call for pears in syrup. Unfortunately the only pears in syrup I could find were Coles snack packs. And unfortunately I didn't actually read the label - not syrup, but juice...
2. Tapioca - Take 1, Take 2, ....
So tapioca flour is fine. It's kind of expensive, however, so I thought, hey, maybe I should buy some tapioca seeds and grind them up*.
Uh oh. I notice - before I open the packet - that there's preservative in there.
Then I think, gee, maybe I should check the tapioca flour.
Oh.. yeah.... Luckily potato flour is a good replacement in my bread recipe.
3. Cornfour/starch/maize/I'm confused
So apparently maize cornflour is ok, but maize flour is not. What's maize flour? Perhaps the fact that I don't know means I haven't used any..?
I'm guessing gluten free cornflour (i.e. not wheat-flour-dressed-as-cornflour) is ok. I hope.
4. Flavourful!
This was a deliberate mistake - Girl had a fever and was desperately miserable. I didn't have the heart to either seek out suppositories (much less administer them) or crush up paracetamol and figure out some way to make it palatable for her. So, yeah, I gave her this crap.
My biggest mistake, of course, was mating with a man with such a terrible family history of food sensitivities.
*I still have some half-milled brown rice. I gave up on that little experiment in my food processor.
1. Pears - skin on, skin off!
Pears with the skin off have almost no salycilates.
The problem with tinned pears, however, is that they're often packaged in pear juice, which contains pear skin and there's no telling how much of the 'sals' are there. Making delicious-sounding things like 'No-Tomato Sauce', pear chutney or pear jam, recipes often call for pears in syrup. Unfortunately the only pears in syrup I could find were Coles snack packs. And unfortunately I didn't actually read the label - not syrup, but juice...
2. Tapioca - Take 1, Take 2, ....
So tapioca flour is fine. It's kind of expensive, however, so I thought, hey, maybe I should buy some tapioca seeds and grind them up*.
Uh oh. I notice - before I open the packet - that there's preservative in there.
Then I think, gee, maybe I should check the tapioca flour.
Oh.. yeah.... Luckily potato flour is a good replacement in my bread recipe.
3. Cornfour/starch/maize/I'm confused
So apparently maize cornflour is ok, but maize flour is not. What's maize flour? Perhaps the fact that I don't know means I haven't used any..?
I'm guessing gluten free cornflour (i.e. not wheat-flour-dressed-as-cornflour) is ok. I hope.
4. Flavourful!
This was a deliberate mistake - Girl had a fever and was desperately miserable. I didn't have the heart to either seek out suppositories (much less administer them) or crush up paracetamol and figure out some way to make it palatable for her. So, yeah, I gave her this crap.
My biggest mistake, of course, was mating with a man with such a terrible family history of food sensitivities.
*I still have some half-milled brown rice. I gave up on that little experiment in my food processor.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Cacao-CHING!
Before being rudely interrupted by unsolicited sweets, we had started our first challenge - salycilates - a couple of weeks back.
Boy has been stable for a good week now, so we're about ready for another go. But, after just 4 days on salycilates last time, it was looking like Girl may have been reacting. Being tactically minded as I am, and knowing that a failed challenge means weeks of returning to baseline in between, I decided to change our game plan this time.
So we're bypassing salycilates and dairy, for now, and on to amines.
And amines means ripe bananas and CHOCOLATE! No milk chocolate, but still.
See you in a week....
Boy has been stable for a good week now, so we're about ready for another go. But, after just 4 days on salycilates last time, it was looking like Girl may have been reacting. Being tactically minded as I am, and knowing that a failed challenge means weeks of returning to baseline in between, I decided to change our game plan this time.
So we're bypassing salycilates and dairy, for now, and on to amines.
And amines means ripe bananas and CHOCOLATE! No milk chocolate, but still.
See you in a week....
Friday, August 17, 2012
Another day, another...bloody...pikelet
We had pikelets for breakfast this morning, as we have almost every other morning since we began this diet. They used to be a lovely treat for the weekend, but no more.
For dinner, we had rissoles, rosti and steamed veg. Yesterday it was rissoles, mashed potato and steamed veg. The night before that it was crumbed chicken pieces, mashed potato and steamed veg. And before that? Fish, potato bake and, you guessed it, steamed veg.
And for seasoning, we have salt and pepper. That's it. Oh, what I'd give for a pinch of spice, a splash of soy sauce or even that floppy leftover sprig of parsley on the restaurant plate.
We have at least a few days yet before we can break the monotony again. Boy is doing well, but Girl is a bit off her game - it could be some sort of illness, it could be a continued reaction to the salycilates... who knows? So we wait.
I had my showdown with Boy's teacher on Wednesday. She was running late and I was on my way out, having given up on waiting, when she finally turned up.
I expressed my anger, frustration and annoyance. She was apologetic and sympathetic. She hadn't realised it would matter - just a little chocolate and lollypop. Telling her that he should only eat what I've prepared and "here, for morning tea he can have this apple, if you wouldn't mind peeling it for him" wasn't explicit enough, perhaps? (I suspect she just forgot about it entirely.)
So now she seems to get it. Boy told me he went into the other kindy class and there was food there but he didn't have any of it because it would ruin his diet! And the poor love howled after missing out on a cupcake that one of the mothers had brought for all the kids to eat on the way home.
"When will we figure out what's wrong with my tummy so we can stop this diet?!"
Soon, I wish it would be soon...
For dinner, we had rissoles, rosti and steamed veg. Yesterday it was rissoles, mashed potato and steamed veg. The night before that it was crumbed chicken pieces, mashed potato and steamed veg. And before that? Fish, potato bake and, you guessed it, steamed veg.
And for seasoning, we have salt and pepper. That's it. Oh, what I'd give for a pinch of spice, a splash of soy sauce or even that floppy leftover sprig of parsley on the restaurant plate.
We have at least a few days yet before we can break the monotony again. Boy is doing well, but Girl is a bit off her game - it could be some sort of illness, it could be a continued reaction to the salycilates... who knows? So we wait.
I had my showdown with Boy's teacher on Wednesday. She was running late and I was on my way out, having given up on waiting, when she finally turned up.
I expressed my anger, frustration and annoyance. She was apologetic and sympathetic. She hadn't realised it would matter - just a little chocolate and lollypop. Telling her that he should only eat what I've prepared and "here, for morning tea he can have this apple, if you wouldn't mind peeling it for him" wasn't explicit enough, perhaps? (I suspect she just forgot about it entirely.)
So now she seems to get it. Boy told me he went into the other kindy class and there was food there but he didn't have any of it because it would ruin his diet! And the poor love howled after missing out on a cupcake that one of the mothers had brought for all the kids to eat on the way home.
"When will we figure out what's wrong with my tummy so we can stop this diet?!"
Soon, I wish it would be soon...
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Hell & Starvation Redux
Hmmmm. Next time mummy maybe I just shouldn't tell you....
----------------------------
In a previous life I was an editor. Now, some financial analysts are excellent writers but, on the whole, they're not known for their prose. The ones that could string sentences together would often construct dry, turgid essays. And they were forever repeating themselves, leading many to use my least-favourite 'device' in their titles - redux*.
For this blog post I considered:
To hell and back again
Boy's teacher did a bad, bad thing
Hell hath no fury like a Mummy conned
... and so on
But I've settled on the redux title because a) I'm in a shitty frame of mind and b) sod it, I don't have an editor to do my work for me.
But, Mummy, why? You ask. Why must it be redux? Well, a funny thing happened on the way home from school on Friday. Boy announced - very pleased with himself, he was - that the other kindy teacher had given him some chocolate and a lolly at lunch time.
WHAT!!????
He detected my displeasure, leading him to mutter that perhaps he'd best not tell me next time.
There had better not be a next time. Being of lazy disposition, I did not turn us around and march back there to confront the teachers - I will do that next week - but this little indiscretion has set us back.... Back all the way to square one, in point of fact.
So, there were a few changes on the agenda this morning. Now, what normally happens in the morning is that Justababy wakes me up and I lie there in the (always, always) futile hope that she'll just drift off again if I keep my eyes closed and determinedly ignore her jumping on me. Then, once I've given up, I pass her over to Daddy so I can get an hour or so shut-eye before he has to head off to work.
This morning, however, I was rudely interrupted - and this is despite the ear plugs - by extremely loud, shrill shrieking from Boy demanding honey with his breakfast and screaming his displeasure at the reinstitution of The Diet.
I have a feeling his teachers will be hearing about it too...
*Or sometimes it was groundhog day, but you get the picture.
----------------------------
In a previous life I was an editor. Now, some financial analysts are excellent writers but, on the whole, they're not known for their prose. The ones that could string sentences together would often construct dry, turgid essays. And they were forever repeating themselves, leading many to use my least-favourite 'device' in their titles - redux*.
For this blog post I considered:
To hell and back again
Boy's teacher did a bad, bad thing
Hell hath no fury like a Mummy conned
... and so on
But I've settled on the redux title because a) I'm in a shitty frame of mind and b) sod it, I don't have an editor to do my work for me.
But, Mummy, why? You ask. Why must it be redux? Well, a funny thing happened on the way home from school on Friday. Boy announced - very pleased with himself, he was - that the other kindy teacher had given him some chocolate and a lolly at lunch time.
WHAT!!????
He detected my displeasure, leading him to mutter that perhaps he'd best not tell me next time.
There had better not be a next time. Being of lazy disposition, I did not turn us around and march back there to confront the teachers - I will do that next week - but this little indiscretion has set us back.... Back all the way to square one, in point of fact.
So, there were a few changes on the agenda this morning. Now, what normally happens in the morning is that Justababy wakes me up and I lie there in the (always, always) futile hope that she'll just drift off again if I keep my eyes closed and determinedly ignore her jumping on me. Then, once I've given up, I pass her over to Daddy so I can get an hour or so shut-eye before he has to head off to work.
This morning, however, I was rudely interrupted - and this is despite the ear plugs - by extremely loud, shrill shrieking from Boy demanding honey with his breakfast and screaming his displeasure at the reinstitution of The Diet.
I have a feeling his teachers will be hearing about it too...
*Or sometimes it was groundhog day, but you get the picture.
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Oh happy day!
Tomorrow, tomorrow, I'll eat you, tomorrow.....
------------------
It's been two weeks and five days and tomorrow we start our first challenge. Which means broadening our diet ever so slightly. We're starting with salycilates and I've already stocked the fridge with watermelon, rockmelon, strawberries, onions and capsicum. We can also enjoy some honey, peppermint tea and spices - Ooooh la la!
To challenge gluten, dairy, salycilates and amines, we uber-load on the foods for seven days, then take three days off. If we pass - no symptoms in this period - we can move on to the next challenge. If we fail, we stop and wait for five symptom-free days before trying something else.
I've chosen salycilates first so we can add some flavour to our meals. I also have a game plan. Dairy next, then amines - why? Because the test for amines is mostly ripe bananas and chocolate. And if we've already passed dairy, that means milk chocolate. Oh yeah.
Then we'll try glutamates - only a three-day challenge - and if we pass that we can have tomatoes.
We'll leave gluten till we've done all these, since it's the one we expect to fail. I'm hoping there are no surprises along the way.
We'll leave the additives till the end. And coffee till the very end. Sorry Daddy.
------------------
It's been two weeks and five days and tomorrow we start our first challenge. Which means broadening our diet ever so slightly. We're starting with salycilates and I've already stocked the fridge with watermelon, rockmelon, strawberries, onions and capsicum. We can also enjoy some honey, peppermint tea and spices - Ooooh la la!
To challenge gluten, dairy, salycilates and amines, we uber-load on the foods for seven days, then take three days off. If we pass - no symptoms in this period - we can move on to the next challenge. If we fail, we stop and wait for five symptom-free days before trying something else.
I've chosen salycilates first so we can add some flavour to our meals. I also have a game plan. Dairy next, then amines - why? Because the test for amines is mostly ripe bananas and chocolate. And if we've already passed dairy, that means milk chocolate. Oh yeah.
Then we'll try glutamates - only a three-day challenge - and if we pass that we can have tomatoes.
We'll leave gluten till we've done all these, since it's the one we expect to fail. I'm hoping there are no surprises along the way.
We'll leave the additives till the end. And coffee till the very end. Sorry Daddy.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Every cloud...
I used to comfort eat...
----------------------
Well, it's been two weeks now. We're still alive, though I'm heartily sick of cooking, cleaning up and then starting all over again. We now face five days at this 'baseline', before we can start the challenges.
We haven't really been out lately - when we do, I have to do extra preparing, cooking and cleaning up ahead of time so we have food. Then I must hover anxiously over the kids to make sure they don't eat anything they shouldn't. Even still, at our one outing this week Justababy managed to scrounge a partial biscuit dropped by another child. I think I snatched it off her before she ingested any.
Daddy helpfully asked me what vegies we were having with dinner - The same bloody ones we have every single meal!!! I don't know if it's that I'm withdrawing from something, but I'm super grumpy all the time. It seems so unfair that I'm the one doing everything when I don't have any food problems!*
Anyway, the silver lining today was some bread** which actually didn't taste half bad. With heartfelt thanks to an "Internet Friend", from this recipe.
*It's all Daddy's fault and his dodgy genes.
**Take 6
----------------------
Well, it's been two weeks now. We're still alive, though I'm heartily sick of cooking, cleaning up and then starting all over again. We now face five days at this 'baseline', before we can start the challenges.
We haven't really been out lately - when we do, I have to do extra preparing, cooking and cleaning up ahead of time so we have food. Then I must hover anxiously over the kids to make sure they don't eat anything they shouldn't. Even still, at our one outing this week Justababy managed to scrounge a partial biscuit dropped by another child. I think I snatched it off her before she ingested any.
Daddy helpfully asked me what vegies we were having with dinner - The same bloody ones we have every single meal!!! I don't know if it's that I'm withdrawing from something, but I'm super grumpy all the time. It seems so unfair that I'm the one doing everything when I don't have any food problems!*
Anyway, the silver lining today was some bread** which actually didn't taste half bad. With heartfelt thanks to an "Internet Friend", from this recipe.
*It's all Daddy's fault and his dodgy genes.
**Take 6
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