Zucchini bread take 2

On my quest for the indestinguishable Zucchini bread I changed up the recipe. this time I used 1/3 c millet flour, 2/3 cup white rice flour, 1/2 cup GF Bob's All purpose flour & 1 tsp of Xantham gum (to replace the 1 1/2 c of wheat flour I used to use). On the plus side the chickpea flavor was much milder -I could still taste it slightly but much better this time. On the minus the texture was grittier which I think came from the white rice flour. I ordered almond flour, brown rice flour, and tapioca flours online yesterday so we'll try those next time. I also have some bananas I've frozen so I hope to try that soon too.

I tasted some GFCF bread this weekend that was not bad. It came from a cafe called Sherry Lynn's gluten free that is 5 minutes from my house. I have not stopped in there yet (as 1 loaf of bread is $13) but the taste I got from a friend makes me reconsider. I gave Victor a slice toasted & he ate it.

I'm not sure if its my imagination but I feel like Victor has been stimmimg more since we started the cod liver oil. I am going to mention this to the DAN when we see him next.

This weekend we tried fried fish & turkey that was breaded with corn meal & spices & Victor would not try either. :(

Quinoi spaghetti

Yay!!! I found a pasta he will eat.

Quinoi spaghetti style by Ancient Harvest. Color is yellower than regular pasta but with sauce he doesn't notice & the texture is perfect! He's eating it right now. Happy day.

Casein Free, new supplements

So basically like a day or 2 after my last blog we went casein free as well. I wanted him to be just gf for a whole month first but my husband already started the casein free thing with him which I wasn't aware of until I went to give him cheese! He did make a valid point that we are seeing Dr. Compain again on Nov 9 so it'd be good to have Victor completely GFCF for awhile before that so GFCF all the way!

Victor of course has a bad cold so it's so hard to tell if his recent extra stimminess is due to any supplements/diet changes or just because of his cold. He is doing these facial grimaces and body hunches & what we call monkey scratches. These kind of stims surface every few months and we have never figured out what is causing them. We did recently start the CLO which I had a bad experience with in the past so I am keeping an eye out on this to see if he gets less stimmy as his cold wears off or not. When he was about 2 I started Nordic Naturals CLO (strawberry flavored gel balls) & after a week I discontinued because he started having sleep issues & was stimmier. This time we are giving him 2tsp of this orange flavored oil. He refuses to take it from a spoon or syringe so I've been putting it into his PB or juice but that's also what I do for his Vit E so it's been hard to get in 2 tsp. I'd say that only 1 of the 4 days so far he's gotten the full dose. Plus when you mix it into juice, it doesn't mix well (being an oil) so a lot of it is sticking to the cup anyway. I don't even know how we are going to add the pro-Omega one next. Powders would be so much easier because you can put them on regular foods. oils are hard!

I haven't really cooked anything new. I have been to many different health food stores & took a road trip on Saturday to Hadley, MA to go to Whole foods & Trader Joe's. Neither carried anything that we don't have here at various stores so I won't be making that 2 hour ride anymore. We have several different small heath stores up here in Albany. At them I have found a ton of snacks that Victor will eat - he loves the Ener-G and Glutino pretzels, he loves the Jenny macaroons, the real foods corn thins.. and luckily for us Bamba is GF. For those of you that have never met an Israeli & therefor don't know what Bamba is - it's these peanut butter corn puffs that every kid in Israel eats all the time. They sell them in the US (I buy them in the kosher section of my supermarket) but you can also order them online. I heard they were created by a guy who's son had celiac's but not sure if that's actually true (not that it matters). If your child is not peanut or corn free - have them try it:

Gluten Free has started

I took Victor to Dr. Compain last Monday (9/14/09). He started us on B-12 injections, Zinc drink, Vit E, Cod Liver oil, pro Omega liquid & Co-Enzyme B Complex. We were to start one at a time every 4 days. We had some problems getting the Zinc into Victor the few days so I didn't count them. Once we had 4 full days of him drinking it in his juice I tried tso start Vit E. Again some issues but today he drank it all in his chocoalte milk for breakfast. I realize once we go casein free this won't be doable but hey maybe he'll like choc soy/almond/hemp/rice/soy milk! So we were told to ease into GFCF - first removing gluten & then casein. I think we're at a comfortable level now so I am considering today his first official gluten free day. He has a cold today so he's whinier & tantrummier (not a real word I am sure but I think you'll get what I mean). I hope he passes through this cold fast. Victor shuts down when he's sick. He spaces out more, stims more, cries more... sigh. But I can say in the past 2 weeks he has been more verbal. I can't imagine it was due to the one B-12 injection he had (of yeah I forgot to mention how we're waiting still for the batch to arrive so he's only had the one last Monday) but he has definitely been more verbal.

I have made a few things today. This morning I made zucchini bread. I took my recipe that I've been using for years & just switched out flour with Bob Mills' GF all purpose flour & added 1 tsp of Xanthum gum. Texture wise it came put great - same look, same feel so Victor stuffed it in his mouth no problem (he notices differences in foods like when you give him a honey nut cheerio instead of a cheerio he will start at it and examine it for awhile & then not eat it). He had no issue with the taste that I could tell since he ate it but I thought it had to much of a chickpea taste that just did not belong. My daughter Simone (17 mo NT) ate it up as well. I'm definitely going to try other flours & see if I could get that taste out but still I consider it a success! Victor also gobbled down the Van's french toast sticks I bought.

Some pics:

Lunch - I made pasta with turkey sauce from maize pasta. Victor did not even want to try a piece. This is typical when he's sick so I'm hoping that's all it is. Simone again gobbled it up no problem (I am not trying to get her to be GFCF but by default we'll all be eating less gluten!). again I thought it had a strange taste but with enough sauce I didn't notice it.

Dinner - Again tried the pasta - no go. tried french fries, no go. tried snacks - ate a few bits so I let him be.

I did make turkey nuggets tonight but I made them for tomorrow. I only made a small batch to make sure he'll eat them & if he does I'll make a extra large batch & freeze them. I tasted one & it came out really good. I crumbled up cracklebread & potato chips & added salt, paprika, parsley flakes, pepper, onion powder & garlic powder. oh & sesame seeds. yum

I'm all over the place here, I know. I'm not really good at blogging but I wanted to say my husband just tried the zucchini bread & said he didn't notice the chickpea flavor at all.

Last but not least I am baking bread right now. I am starting off with a mix to see what that's like. I am sure I will be trying out all kinds of different recipe's until I find one that is decent. I am using Bob's bread mix and substituted almond milk for regular milk. I keep Kosher so there's no point in making bread that I can't eat with meat (we cant mix dairy & meat) plus Victor will eventually be casein free as well so might as well.