Tuesday, March 9, 2010

One Week Later

We are starting to get back on the regiment of the GAPS diet, after the stomach flu, and we are finding a new normal. I now know why women stayed home way back when. I am in the kitchen about 8 hours a day just preparing for future food consumption. This will drop off here this week as I get our frig stocked with homemade condiments.

We are seeing language growth and comprehension. We are totally supplement free except for pro-biotic, fish oil and vitamins E and K. We will also be continuing with the B12 shots. We are a bit obsessive right now, but I can handle that. I don't want them on too many supplements right now because I want to be able to track how they are doing on this diet. If it gets to be too much we might add a few back in just to give us a break, but so far we are doing a little better then we were a few week ago on all of the supplements. Connor also seems to be starting to develop his language. I here new sounds this week and Edy's moodiness is almost non-existent. It was back a bit while on the honey, but she is so easy to be around now.

It took me over 2 hours to prepare dinner on Sunday.
I made buns and ketchup. My ketchup needs a bit of help and once I perfect it I will post the recipe here.
The buns were a pancake, but the kids and Darrin liked them. They did not have great flavor by themselves, but were good with the burgers.
I also made mayonnaise. Once you have homemade mayonnaise you will never go back. It is so much better than store bought, and you loose all the added junk.
For those who are concerned about the raw eggs in it, Ruth Enas told me that the acid that you use in the mayonnaise kills anything bad in the raw eggs.
You can find mayonnaise recipes online.

On Saturday we had Greek Chicken with Taziki sauce and salad.
I marinated the chicken:
Juice of one lemon
1/2 c olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, with the garlic press
1 T salt
fresh Greek oregano

Let this marinate for about 2 hours, best if it goes over night.
Grill.

Taziki sauce:
2 Cups Greek yogurt
juice from 1/2 lemon
1 clove crushed garlic
2 pickle cucumbers peeled, de-seeded and diced
Salt to taste
Mix ingredients and let sit for about 2 hours in the frig.

We tried some honey this weekend and had some regression. We will drop it for a few weeks after my Dad's birthday.
I did make the most wonderful custard.
Coconut Milk Custard:
5 eggs
1 C coconut milk (we use Trader Joe's because it does not contain guar gum.)
1t vanilla
1/2 t salt
1/2 t cinnamon
3T honey
mix ingredients together and pour into an 8x8 pan
make sure you have another pan that this pan will sit in.
Place the 8x8 pan in another pan and fill this pan half way with hot water.
Bake at 325 for 30 - 40 minutes.

This is good hot or cold. My kids LOVED it and so did I.
We are going to have this for my dad's birthday with caramelized apples on top and I am planning to make something like whipped cream with the "cream cheese" that I get from draining off the yogurt. I will have Amy take a picture so that I can post it.

We also had peanut butter pancakes this weekend.
6 eggs
3T peanut butter
1t vanilla
1T honey
1/2 t salt

Mix together and cook like a pancake using coconut oil.
The kids ate them up. We used a bit of honey for syrup.

I will keep them off of the honey for the rest of this week and see how they do on Saturday after eating it on Friday night. It might be that they can have a little on special occasions and we just over did it a bit this weekend.

4 comments:

Heather L. said...

I guess American diets have plummeted with women being out of the home working, etc. I know I struggle with wondering if cooking time is sometimes "wasted time". But, that's just a falsehood in the long run. Glad things are going better this week.

Alaina said...

Are you able to use agave in place of the honey for the recipes? I just got some and am trying to figure out exactly how to use it. :)

Monica said...

You never cease to amaze me. I'm going to try your mayo recipe. I just posted a ketchup recipe on my blog. I imagine that the sugar would be out, but the rest might work.

Miss you!

Andrea said...

Monica sent me over here - she says you've been using GAPS. And so I've been browsing to see how it's going for your family.
We just started Intro to GAPS in Jan. Could not find healing anywhere else. Our 2nd child (7yo dd) has auditory and sensory processing problems (minor but affecting behavior and toilet and homeschool) and our 3rd child (4yo ds) has been 'sickly' and sensitive to foods since he was one year old and has speech delays and low muscle tone. I think the 4th (although much healthier) was developing a sensitivity to dairy.
I am very serious and strict about the diet but find it VERY difficult to introduce things slowly or to figure out what nasty behavior is from die-off or new foods. 3rd child is not getting viruses anymore and speech has improved but still behaves very poorly.
For all the work and time I spend in the kitchen, even the littlest results are enough to keep me at it.
I plan to keep up with your journey and hope I can be of some encouragement to you, expecially in these difficult days of loss...
Blessings,
Andrea