Apricot-French Chicken and Quinoa

The girls loved it!

This was my first attempt at making dinner after I found out my 3 new food allergies. I adapted this recipe from one a very good friend of mine had given me years ago.

10 chicken tenderloin pieces

1 jar of apricot preserves (I used Cascadian Farms because it was all fruit and no corn syrup)

1 bottle of french dressing (Of course you know I made my own! I used the recipe in the Betty Crocker cookbook and used my tomato-free ketchup for the ketchup in the recipe.)

chopped onion with a little onion powder (The original recipe calls for onion soup mix, but I can't eat that so this is what I came up with.)

Throw it all in the crockpot and cook it on low all day. I served it over quinoa and it was really good! You can see how the girls liked it.

Chebe

This morning I made the Chebe cinnamon roll mix and my older kids went crazy over it and gobbled them up! I was so excited to read the ingredients and see that we could still eat the mix. I replaced the egg with my arrowroot egg replacer and used coconut milk creamer for the milk. They turned out pretty good!

Frustration!

So, I found out yesterday that I am now allergic to wheat, rice and soy. This makes a grand total of 17 food allergies for me. This has been good news and bad news for me. It is good in the sense that I now get why I have felt so crappy and since I have eliminated these things I have stopped itching. I swear itching is just pure torture! It's also good because now I have the same allergies as my son and I no longer have to worry so much about what I have touched before I touch him. Spontaneous hugs and kisses are back!

What frustrates me is that I feel like I am having to start over with planning dinner. I have felt discouraged. I am also realizing that it's going to be even more difficult to save money when buying groceries. Which is a major issue when you only live off one income like we do.

My excellent and supportive husband is fine with the idea of making our house as wheat and rice free as possible. I have also discovered quinoa which is working out well. My son and I made a trip to Costco tonight and I actually found quite a few things he and I can both eat. That gave me hope.

At least I found out after my birthday (which was Monday) so I got to eat my very yummy dark chocolate cake.

Here We Go Again!

So, after feeding my youngest child (who is 10ms. old) yogurt for the first time, she broke out with whelps on her face all around her mouth. She also cried and did not sleep well for over 3 days after that and had some serious tummy issues. I called our allergy dr. immediately and got her in for an appointment. We went yesterday and she tested positive for milk and egg. The egg reaction site was so large that the dr. prescibed an epi pen for her. My little baby needs an epi pen!

I am so glad I took her in now and did not wait. I fought with doctors for several years to get my son tested and finally, right before he turned 5, we found out what he was allergic to. If we had known when he was younger, it would have saved a lot of needless sickness for him.

I post this to encourage parents who are suspicious of a food allergy to get their child tested. My son's pediatrician at the time would not listen to me and did not want to test him. My son went an entire week without eating when he was 2. He would only eat about 4 foods until he was 5. He had complete melt downs at nearly every meal, especially if you introduced a new food. I don't mean a screaming toddler fit. He would completely shut down and scream for over an hour at times. We would have to take him out of the kitchen and put him in his room so he could calm down. It was exhausting.

I had several people try to tell me he had autism. I took him to a feeding clinic and was told I was letting him manipulate me. Even my first allergy dr. here in Birmingham did not want to test him after I had already tested positive for 14 food allergies. If you are worried your child has a food allergy and your dr. will not listen to you, please go to one who will listen. Your child's health is too important to take one dr. at his or her word.

My son is a completely different child now. Finding out what was really going on in his body has made a world of difference.

Tomato-Free Marinara Sauce

I forgot to take a photo, but this sauce turned out great! I even prepared it for some of our extended family who could not tell that it was not tomato based at all!
http://www.livingwithout.com/recipes/gluten_free_tomato_free_marinara_sauce-1771-1.html

It was so nice to sit down and eat spaghetti as a family! First time in nearly 4 years! I've also used it as pizza sauce and it was excellent! I haven't had a pizza with sauce on it in nearly 4 years as well. I was very excited to find this recipe.

They Say It's Your Birthday...

I made cupcakes for my son's birthday party at school and thought I would post a picture. They turned out really well and all the kids in his class could not believe they were wheat-free. They were all covered in chocolate icing from head to toe!
For the cake I use Bob's Red Mill chocolate cake mix and for the icing I use the icing recipe on the back of the Hershey's Dark cocoa powder. They were delicious!

Tomato-free Ketchup

I was really tickled to death to find this recipe online. I have been eating plain hotdogs or cheating and using a little mustard or ketchup just to have it bite back in the end. It's been nearly 4 years since I've had a condiment I can eat! Woo-hoo!
Here's the link:http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Tomato-Free-Ketchup
It was super easy to make. I used beet juice instead of 1/4cup of beets because I already had some in the freezer and did not want to open up a whole can for this when I didn't need the whole can. My son is also allergic to tomatoes and he liked it too.