I committed the cardinal sin of gluten free parenting

I DIDN'T READ THE LABEL!

Grace went to her well child check this week and is up to 60 lbs!! Yea! We all were so pleased. We talked about her eating and since Grace doesn't eat much meat she suggested a multi vitamin with iron in it.

I go to the store and look around - it is hard to find a kids vitamin with iron in it! None of the gummies have it and many of the regular ones don't either. I finally found some Sponge Bob ones that had iron and grabbed them.

Yesterday the kids wanted to try them so I opened them up and handed them out. Sam liked his, Grace ran in and wanted to spit them out - they tasted sandy (I tried one - not good.) Thankfully it tasted bad to her so she spit it out - RIGHT THEN I thought "read the label." Right on the label it said "Contains wheat." DAD GUM IT!!! Who would have thought a vitamin would have wheat in it?? Obviously not me. I made her spit as much as she could then we washed her mouth out w/o swallowing then brush her teeth.

Thankfully she was fine, we dodged a bullet but will be more careful from now on.

Gluten Free Birthday Cake!

Sam's 8th birthday was last Monday and he (very maturely) said he wanted a gluten free cake. I tried the Betty Crocker Gluten Free Chocolate cake mix - it was successful.

What I liked about it - it tasted good, was very easy to make, cut well and was easy to get the mix.

What I didn't like - it was pretty dry (we ate it with a glass of milk) It was flat (two tiers were the size of a normal one) and did I mention it was dry?

It was helped a lot by the icing. I think next time I will put icing in the middle or something moist like cherry pie filling or pudding.

That said - the kids LOVED it and ate it until it was gone! It kept for days, went in lunches and all in all was a hit with the kids - especially Grace. I think it comes down to "love the one your with." She loved the cake she could eat.

Peanut Butter Cookies

I made these for Grace right after she was diagnosed - she hated them because they tasted like peanut butter cookies (Duh!) I had to make some cookies for a meeting tomorrow night and looked for something I had the ingredients for on hand - that is when I remembered the cookies!

It is an old recipe - flour less and basic - and really good!

Gluten Fee Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

Cream peanut butter and sugar together, add the eggs and hand mix well. Make small balls (I use the small Pampered Chef Scoop) and put the traditional fork marks on the top. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes until golden and set. Let cool for a couple of minutes on the cookie sheet then transfer to a rack to cool.

I have seen other recipes that have baking soda or chocolate chips etc. but the basic recipe is the same - simple and easy.

Souper Salads!

When my sister Eileen was visiting this summer she went to Souper Salads and said it was great. She also said they had a gluten free menu!!

I myself have never been a fan of "All you can stand" buffets because I consider it to be a personal challenge (I have zero self control :) However I thought everyone could probably find something they liked. THEY DID!

Troy liked the soups, I liked the chicken salads and baked sweet potatoes, Sam (who is dairy free) found plenty to eat and Grace loved the fruit, puddings and sunflower seeds. The kids had an odd but balanced meal and everyone got to eat exactly what they wanted. For kids 10 and under it was less than $4.

Here is a link to the Gluten Free menu:

http://www.soupersalad.com/documents/GlutenFree_Menu.pdf

My favorite recipe site

I LOVE allrecipes.com! It is my favorite go to site for any or all recipes. Got a bucket full of squash - put squash in the search bar and you will have a ton of recipes pop up. Got squash and cheese and crackers - put the ingredients in "ingredient search" and it will pull up several choices.

Allrecipes.com also has MANY gluten free recipes - pancakes, cookies, pie crust, cakes etc. Another nice thing is the reviews - you can read the reviews and often they have helpful tips - you can also leave a review.

Here is one I tried recently that was really good:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Crustless-Spinach-Quiche-2/Detail.aspx

Check it out! You may find something you love.