Gluten Free King Cake

Store bought or home made? - Gluten Free King Cake
Photo by J. Stahl

In honor of Karneval, I decided King Cake was in order. Tuesday the children are celebrating at Kindergarten, so my husband and I put our heads together to get this made.  For whatever reason, baking with yeast never turns out well for me. However, my husband is able to make magic happen with yeasty goods.

So our plan was that he make the dough and bake everything while I worked on the decorating aspects. We modified the Gluten-Free King Cake recipe from Celiac Family.

Here are our modifications:

• 2 (.25 oz.) packages of active dry yeast
• 1/2 Cup warm water (100 – 110 degrees F) 
• 1/2 Cup + 2 tsp white sugar
• 1 Cup milk  (Alternatively, use Coconut, Rice or Soy Milk)
• 1/4 Cup butter (Alternatively, use dairy free butter)
• 2 eggs (can be substituted with flax-water mixture)
• 1-1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 2-1/2 Cups white rice flour (fine)
• 1 Cup potato starch
• 1/2 Cup tapioca flour
• 2 tsp guar gum (Alternatively Xanthan Gum, or Pixie Dust)

Nut Filling:

• 1 Cup packed brown sugar
• 1 TBSP cinnamon
• 1/2 Cup melted butter (or butter replacement)
• 1/2 Cup chopped walnuts

 Frosting:

• 2 Cups powdered sugar, run in the food processor and sifted again to remove lumps
  1/4 Cup fresh orange juice
  1 tsp butter, melted and cooled (or butter replacement)
  1 tsp almond extract
  2 tsp vanilla extract

 Additionally needed:

• three small sandwich-sized ziploc bags with 1/2 cup fine white sugar
• purple, yellow and green Wilton icing colors
• toothpicks and paper towels

Directions:

Mix all dry ingredients together, including yeast in your mixing bowl. Add eggs, one at a time. Add milk once the eggs are incorporated into the dough. Add the butter immediately after. You may or may not need the water depending on your weather and altitude.

Separate your dough into two balls. Roll out the dough on a large baking sheet with baking paper. Make your filling by combining all ingredients and place carefully in the middle of the dough in a long line.  Roll the dough together very carefully and pinch the sides together. Roll again very carefully while pinching the ends together so that they are on the bottom of the dough as you put the ring together.

It will look something like this:

Yeast has risen on this King Cake - Photo by A. Stahl

When both rings are done, rise carefully in the lowest temperature in your oven for an hour and a half. Remove from oven and heat the oven to 375°F/190°C.

When the oven has reached the appropriate temperature, fill an oven safe glass dish with water and place it on the bottom rack of your oven. Place one king cake inside and bake for 20 minutes. You may need to cover it halfway through with aluminum foil. (we did!)

When it comes out of the oven, it will look like this:

King Cake, finished baking - Photo by A.Stahl

 It has cracked a little, but this is fine. The icing and the sugar will cover this and no one will notice!
 Allow the cake to cool for about an hour. Allow the other cake to bake for 20 minutes while you begin making the icing and coloring the sugar in ziplock bags.

The icing is a very thin icing. For me, it is easier to decorate once I have removed it from the kitchenaid bowl and put it into a glass to more easily manipulate while pouring over the cake. I would highly recommend placing the cake back on the parchment paper as this will get very messy!

Carefully cover each cake around the ring with icing. Don't worry about being "cheap" at first. You can always fill in later with left over icing!

To make the colored sugar, simply use a toothpick to dip into the Wilton icing colors. At this juncture, you simply mix this in the plastic baggies by hand, making sure there are no lumps of dye in the sugar, and no clumps. It's easy work and you can quickly make it happen by asking your preschooler to help mix a bag or two. (wink!)

Put your colored sugar crystals into cups and distribute evenly on both cakes. There are many ways to decorate your King Cake with sprinkles or sugar crystals.  When you are finished, it will look something like this:

King Cake - photo by J. Stahl

You can transfer the cake onto a decorative plate or cake stand once the icing has quit dripping and the sugar has settled. I would recommend asking a friend or spouse to hold the pan while you use a spatula or cake knife and server to transfer it from the pan to the plate.

Since we had two cakes, one of them is for us to have today during lunch.  Here is how the filling looks when you cut a slice out.

King Cake filling - photo by J. Stahl

Enjoy!!

Slice of King Cake - photo by J. Stahl

Interesting articles I've read over the summer

Cat and Kitten, 2008  Photo by A. Stahl

I wanted to share a few interesting news articles that I've been reading over the summer. You see, I never really stop reading. I have friends who ask questions about "gluten free" or celiac disease, or whether or not a certain cross-reactive food is passed on in animal milk and that sort of thing... and I get the bug to go researching.

The only problem with this bug, is that I haven't been trained as a dietician or nutritionist, so I can only access whatever medical paperwork is publicly available or readily found via search engines. So, while these things are interesting, it's best to discuss these papers with knowledgeable gastroenterologist, dieticians and nutritionists who are well versed in Celiac Disease.

I read an eleven page document from The New York Times on "The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food" by Michael Moss. My take-away from the article was that we need to be very proactive and aware of the psychology of marketing and that if we are to partake of junk food, that we keep it to a very limited amount. Not because it is too sugary or too salty - but because it is so addictive and it can affect us for a long time to come.

The more interesting articles I was reading happened to do with the evolving spectrum of celiac disease. I've long believed that "gluten sensitivity" or "intolerance" happens to be part of celiac disease, even if it is as of yet, not recognized as such. Voilá, attitudes are changing in the medical community.

"Gluten Sensitivity (GS) is a state of heightened immunological responsiveness to ingested gluten in genetically susceptible people. It represents a spectrum of diverse manifestations, of which, the gluten sensitive enteropathy known as [Celiac Disease] is one of many."
Celiac Disease and Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity: The Evolving Spectrum

"It is now becoming apparent that reactions to gluten are not limited to [Celiac Disease], rather we now appreciate the existence of a spectrum of gluten-related disorders. The high frequency and wide range of adverse reactions to gluten raise the question as to why this dietary progein is toxic for so many individuals in the world."
Spectrum of gluten-related disorders: consensus on new nomenclature and classification

"Sub-clinical, or hidden, gluten intolerance is a health problem at epidemic proportions in certain populations in the United States and remains largely unrecognized by conventional medicine."
Dr. Daniel Kalish

Some acquaintances of mine were discussing some myths that were driving them crazy about Celiac Disease and I mentioned that wheat grass being gluten free was one of my major concerns, after seeing it featured in "Bedtime Stories" and another film ("Working Mom"?) as a safe option for Celiacs who wish to keep a healthy diet.

The problem is not that wheat grass is gluten free, but that the processing involved often causes the actual product to not be gluten free, and really that Celiacs need not be eating any of the grains (sprouted or not) provided from gluten containing grains because it is just too risky for accidents to happen. It took a lot of looking on my end to find an article that discussed these issues with wheat grass, and I found it at About.com's Celiac section.

"...while wheat grass and barley grass in their pure forms are considered gluten-free, it matters how they're harvested and how products containing them are produced.
...if a farmer allows some of the grasses to begin producing seeds prior to harvest, then that particular crop will contain gluten.
...if a manufacturer of supplements produces gluten-containing products alongside or on the same equipment as it's using for gluten-free labeled products, then those products can be cross-contaminated unless special precautions are taken, and they may contain gluten."
Are wheat grass and barley grass gluten-free?

What the article doesn't discuss is that there is a propensity of people with celiac disease to also be allergic to wheat, barley, rye or oats. If one doesn't know that they are additionally allergic, as well as intolerant -- this can cause some massive issues that are just not worth it.  If you do wish to go there, it is best to be sure you only acquire gluten free certified wheat or barley grass, and that you are certain you are not additionally allergic like I am.   It is very unpleasant if you are, and react as I have been.

Another article that I found was related to gluten traces in gluten free foods. This study was referenced in a recent DZG magazine and I went to find the actual article to read on my own. Basically, the DZG translated the article for a German audience, so I had the benefit of the study in both languages. Double plus! The study is entitled "Might gluten traces in wheat substitutes pose a risk in patients with celiac disease? A population-based probabilistic approach to risk estimation." and was put out by The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.  The "short" of the article is that there has not been enough study and that some Celiacs are more sensitive than others and will react to trace amounts while others do not. We need to adopt the 20mg/kg gluten threshold for the United States.


I have been hearing some things out there in cyber space about fermentation of grains making it gluten free or suitable for individuals with celiac disease. This is patently untrue, and mostly has been skewed from a few, very small sample-size studies.

Here are the basics:

"Because enzymatic breakdown of gluten proteins often leads to small, difficult to degrade, toxic peptides, the partial breakdown of wheat, rye, or barley proteins during seed germination or in the malting process probably will not usually eliminate toxicity even when there is no trace of the large original proteins remaining. Thus, malt extracts and other hydrolysates of wheat, rye, or barley proteins (including beers) might retain some toxicity. Nevertheless, when such extracts are used in a product in very small proportions, as a flavoring, for example, the amount of toxic peptides present in the final product might be so small as to be negligible. Again, however, good scientific studies are lacking."
http://wheat.pw.usda.gov/.../topics/Celiac.vs.grains.html

"The sourdough fermentation may enhance the recovery from intestinal inflammation of coeliac patients at the early stage of the gluten-free diet.
PURPOSE:
This study aimed at investigating the effect of corn, rice and amaranth gluten-free (GF) sourdoughs on the release of nitric oxide (NO) and synthesis of pro-inflammatory cytokines by duodenal mucosa biopsies of eight coeliac disease (CD) patients."
http://cassies-candida-carbs.blogspot.de/2012/03/study-on-fermentation-of-grains.html

There was a study done in Italy with 13 patients:

"The Italian study was designed to assess how 13 Celiacs responded to eating baked goods made with wheat flour treated with lactobacilli and fungal protease. The study, Safety for Patients with Celiac Disease of Baked Goods Made of Wheat Flour Hydrolyzed During Food Processing was published in the January 2011 issue of the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology."
"...methods used to assess gluten damage in the participants -- blood tests for anti–tissue transglutaminase antibodies and small bowel biopsy have potential for false negative results. "
Is fermented sourdough wheat bread safe for Celiacs?

"These results showed that a bread biotechnology that uses selected lactobacilli, nontoxic flours, and a long fermentation time is a novel tool for decreasing the level of gluten intolerance in humans."
Sourdough Bread Made from Wheat and Nontoxic Flours and Started with Selected Lactobacilli Is Tolerated in Celiac Sprue Patients

The only issue with the studies is that it is such a small sample size, it was not done with a double-blind and they did not test individuals with the rather broad spectrum of celiac disease. There is no long term study, and you could not sign me up for this test with the reactions I have. Heck, I'm reacting to gluten grains in the fields now!


The other interesting bit of research I went into was the myth of there being traces of gluten in dairy products from animals. Based on testing, no significant amounts of gluten peptides have been detected in cow’s milk.

However, Lactose Intolerance Can Be A Symptom Of Gluten Intolerance. That actually was one of the many symptoms I had as a teenager before we figured out that my entire health issues could be pinned on Celiac Disease.

Here's the research I was able to find:

• Gluten Peptides in Human Breast Milk: Implications for Cow’s Milk???
• When Dairy Intolerance Joins Celiac Disease 
• What About Dairy Sensitivity? 
• How is lactose intolerance related to celiac disease?
• Mucosal reactivity to cow's milk protein in coeliac disease.
• Capsule Endoscopy Detection of Ileal Mucosa Alterations due to Cow Milk Malabsorption in a Celiac Patient
• Mucosal reactivity to cow's milk protein in coeliac disease
• https://tinyurl.com/of79nce   
• Intolerance of celiac disease patients to bovine milk is not due to the presence of T-cell stimulatory epitopes of gluten.

Here's hoping that you had a wonderful Summer and are easing gracefully back into school.

Jennifer

Blintzes!

One of my favorite foods that I love to eat around Shavuot are Blintzes. My husband knows this recipe by another name, Palačinke. You may know it by another name, depending on your cultural background.

Note: This is not a GAPS or PALEO, but GLUTEN FREE recipe. Many Jewish holidays do not lend well to the GAPS Diet, and as our journey has started out, we're trying to work around these issues. Until we've worked them all out, I will continue sharing safe, gluten free recipes.

  The version that I enjoy involves four steps. First, you make the crepes. Secondly you make the filling and wrap it firmly inside the crepes. The third step involves baking.  The Fourth step - patience and a cold refrigerator.

The recipe really isn't complicated. We use the Schär Mix C for our flour mix, but I believe if you follow the directions, most any gluten free flour mix will lend to this. I would advise however, if you get this recipe in mind, remember that it will take several hours until pay-off, so you might want to make this in the evening if you plan on having it for breakfast, unless you plan on doing the pan-fry version. Those are pretty much immediate pay off.

The key here though, is to make your crepes and blintzes on the same day, or they'll make a huge fall-apart mess like mine did tonight. Normally, crepes are more forgiving than mine were. But, I let mine go a day and a half between making my blintzes. (whoops!)

See? They fell all apart.
That's ok though, my kids really will not care come morning,
and we'll have a BEAUTIFUL breakfast for Shabbat. :)

Anyhow,  there's probably about a thousand different ways (or more!) to make blintzes.

For the crepes, you will need:

100g Flour

2 Eggs

250ml Milk (If dairy free, simply use your milk of choice. We've done it both ways!)

1 TBS Vanilla sugar or vanilla flavoring

2 TBS melted butter (or non-dairy butter substitute)

a pinch of salt

You mix this together and go ahead and heat your pan. When it is sufficiently warm, go ahead and pour a bit of the batter into your pan. This will NOT be a thick batter. These will be extra thin and only take about two minutes to cook in the pan. It takes a little trial and error with the first couple, but you'll get it!

When you're done, just keep piling the crepes onto a plate. You'll need these later.

I've used three different fillings for this recipe.

For dairy free, I've used the following formula: 250g soft tofu, pureed; 1 egg 3 Tbs. sugar. 

For dairy filling #1, I used the following: 250g of Quark with 1 beaten egg white, sugar (to taste), cinnamon and vanilla flavoring dusted in to taste.

For dairy filling #2, I used the following: 250g Cottage Cheese with 4 Tbs Sugar, cinnamon and vanilla to taste.

Really, with this recipe, it's whatever YOU like. Many people add fruit as well, and some people do not use sweet fillings at all.

One way I found best to measure out the cheese filling, is to use a metal ice cream scoop. I got a smaller size (1TBS) measurement so I just use 2-3 of these and then roll each crepe before frying or baking. (This is the scoop I use: WMF 1881876040 Eisportionierer 4,5 cm)

This is Dairy Filling #1 mixed with one egg.
I decided to try something new.

You'll wrap these similarly to spring rolls, and from here - either fry them in a pan, or bake in the oven. I prefer mine baked in the oven.

This is about 3 tablespoons of filling.
You can fill six blintzes with this recipe.

You can wrap this way and roll, or wrap the bottom
and then roll the sides together before rolling further.

When you have finished rolling your blintz, it will look like this.
This is the shape it will keep once baked in the oven.

If you choose the pan fry option, this blog has great directions on how to keep it from coming apart. 

If you decide on the oven baking route, you'll want to go ahead and preheat your oven to 350°F., before you make all of the wraps and butter a 9 by 13-inch glass dish or baking pan for your blintzes. 

Buttered glass dish.
An easy way to do this is to save your butter wraps.
You would be amazed how much butter remains on those.

Once you've managed to squeeze in as many blintzes as you can into the baking dish/pan, you'll want to use some melted butter (or butter substitute) to cover the tops of the blintzes. Bake these for around 15 minutes in your oven.  Once the dish/pan has cooled enough that you can touch it, you'll want to put the blintzes into your refrigerator until they are quite cool.

When you are ready to eat them, dust lightly with confectioner's sugar, or you can make a sauce to pour over the blintzes. (Example sauce here)

Happy Baking! Remember this recipe next year at Shavuot.

Chocolate Cheesecake Muffins

Photo by Jennifer Stahl

It's that time of the year again, BIRTHDAY TIME! - I wish there was a way to prepare ahead for these, but each child at kindergarten pretty much has free reign in deciding what they want for their Birthday Brunch, so I'm kept in the kitchen a bit more than usual in May and June.

Today's recipe is Chocolate Cheesecake Muffins/Cupcakes. I say "Muffins" because that is what cupcakes are here in Germany. The only thing "muffin-y" about them, is their shape.

This recipe is not Paleo or GAPS, as I'm not sure if I could convert this one due to the fact it's the first time I've made it, and the chocolate batter has to be a bit runny. I'm not certain that a cup and a half of almond or hazelnut flour would lend to that as easily as my all purpose flour mix.

I do want to note that if you are baking this item in the UK or in the rest of the EU, you will need this guide to help you change over the measurements. And, as I mentioned in my previous post, I use something that's between Bette Hagman's All Purpose Flour Mix and Carol Fenster's General Baking Mix #1, which can be found here at CSA Celiacs Helping Celiacs.I'm sure whatever gluten free flour mix you are using with this will be fine.

I made minor tweaks to the Chocolate Cheesecake Cupcakes from Nestlé Tollhouse, in that I used 1 teaspoon (US) of guar gum, and I did not have any (and do not use any Nestlé products) chocolate chips from the United States.  I did however have a box of Schokoladen Raspeln (Grated Chocolate) and a few small chocolate chips from a gluten free cake mix that I didn't use. I also did not cover the cupcakes with any melted chocolate. I felt like that was overkill for a tiny brunch where my kids are sure to eat their two cupcakes + a little bit of their breakfast and be sugared up until lunch at One O'clock.

As far as recipes go, this was a rather simple and straightforward recipe. The only issues I personally have with it, is that the recipe does not really separate the directions into "This is for the chocolate cake" and "this is for the cheesecake". I had to read the recipe three times to be sure that all the ingredients were there and what they were being used for specifically.  That can be frustrating to new bakers, but for an INxJ, who trends towards the slightly perfectionist side, it is quite annoying.

Since I have only one Kitchenaid Mixer Bowl, I made up the chocolate cake mix first, and poured it into a liquid measuring cup. I figured this would lend to easier pouring into the cupcake molds.   My hunch was correct, and I'm terribly sorry I did not take a photo or two of these steps. My oldest was running around and asking if I was making "muffins" and whether he could have one, as well as whether I could turn on Disney Junior for him, so finding the camera was the least thing on my mind other than how I'd get these done in time, their lunch packed and them changed all before 9 o'Clock, when we should be in the kindergarten saying hello to his teachers.

The step of semi-melting the chocolate actually took two times microwaving at 30 seconds each in our microwave. So, keep that in mind - it will depend entirely on your chocolate and your microwave as to how quickly this part would be done.  I was a bit skeptical about it coming together with the cheesecake, but it did!

I did end up in a slight quandry wondering how to get the cheesecake into the cupcake molds, since there were no hints in that direction on the recipe. I decided that using a small ice cream scoop (this one: WMF 1881876040 Eisportionierer 4,5 cm) was probably the best way to go. If you're careful about how you measure it (not heaping scoops), it will spread cheese cake to all of the cupcakes. I was not careful and two of them are only chocolate.

The only thing that I would change in retrospect, would be to re-mix the chocolate batter with a spoon prior to pouring. I did end up with some extra chocolate bits in the bottom, so I spread those on top of the last remaining cupcakes and popped those in the oven while I was dressing the children.

All in all, I had the cake mixed in about 30 minutes, and it filled around 20 cupcake molds. I cooked them separately in the oven on top-bottom heat at 180° (350°F) for 18 minutes for the first batch, and 20 for the second. 

Photo by Jennifer Stahl

Isn't that lovely?  This was still cooling when I took this photo, but I did go ahead and try it after the photo was shot. YUM! 

I haven't as of yet put the cupcakes into the refrigerator, but they will be going in there soon. They've only been finished for the last thirty minutes.  I did try a piece after taking this photo, and it is very tasty. Not too sweet, not terribly bland or unsweet either. Definitely something for the person who isn't keen on cakes that are on the sweeter side like my last blog post on Coconut Cake.

For the dairy free among us, I've heard that you can use silken tofu (the very spreadable sort) to replace the cream cheese. In the United States there is a soy alternative for cream cheese, but I've not found anything like that here.  I'd not tried making cheesecake with silken tofu, so perhaps that is something I can try in future for those of you out there that need that option.

I hope this recipe is something that you also enjoy, and that you now know that making something like this isn't complicated or worth a panic attack over. (Believe you me, I've been there!)  I'm not sure when I'll be making this again, but I am saving this for future birthday or party ideas for the kids.

If you have any questions, feel free to pop them in the comments and I'll do my very best to answer them.

Coconut Cake - Gluten free version

Sadly, this is not a recipe I can boast of being GAPS or Paleo/Primal, but it is one that I can praise my good thinking skills on trying, and really enjoy. I've not had a coconut cake like this in years and really needed a treat for myself.

I was poking around the internet after pinning on pinterest a recipe for Coconut Poke Cake, which I am unsure if I can make gluten free or not. But, it made me think about coconut cake, which sent me in search of a recipe, and whether or not you can make cake flour gluten free, then whether or not you can freeze coconut cake or not. That became "I can do this!" and I cracked my first coconut since living overseas in the Caribbean, processed the coconut, let it stand in the fridge for three days before doing more and VOILÁ! I made coconut cake!

Look at it! Is it not glorious?  It is absolutely stinking wonderful!


I do want to let you know that if you have to make this dairy free, it will work - though I have not made this particular cake, I was making a TON of cakes dairy free last year, and it's totally possible with this recipe.  What you do need to keep in mind is that the cake might not rise as much and it may either cook faster, or need a little longer to get completely done.  It just will depend on your butter and your milk substitutes and oven temperatures.  My oven tends to run hot, so I have to keep an eye on everything, especially if I use the fan function rather than top-bottom heat.


  One thing you will find with me is that I view recipes as suggestions unless they are otherwise obvious that you cannot deviate - so you'll find a lot of kitchen chemistry in my recipes that are regular gluten free recipes. I'm still learning Paleo and GAPS, so I'm less likely to play around until I'm sure how it will turn out.

Without further ado, here are the recipes I used, and the tweaks I invented for my cake today.

I based today's recipe off of the recipe for Fresh Coconut Cake by Anna Williams at Epicurious and I found that my glass jar that holds my gluten free flour mix was mysteriously empty, so I went ahead and made new flour mix. I use something that's between Bette Hagman's All Purpose Flour Mix and Carol Fenster's General Baking Mix #1, which can be found here at CSA Celiacs Helping Celiacs.

I couldn't remember the weight measurement of an American stick of butter, so I double checked this site so I was sure not to mess that up. I used the formula at this site with my gluten free flour mix to make it into cake flour. Yes, I really did sift that stuff six times!  I added 1 teaspoon (no more than that!) of guar gum to the entire batter to ensure that it would not have a crumbly texture, but a true glutenous type cake result. If you are baking using UK measurements or EU measurements, you will need this guide for the recipe here today.

   I made a rather valiant attempt at seven minute icing (same recipe on the first link) and it just did not come out and I threw a royal tantrum (mostly tired from this being an all day production and also super hungry!) and sent myself to my room.

I do mean it by this being an all day production. I started at 11am and did not finish this cake until after 8pm.  I felt like this Pixar Chess Player during the entire production:

When I was done being all sullen and upset, I went and made a tweaked version of Wilton's Buttercream Icing.  By tweaked, I mean that I used only 200g of icing sugar, and about 4 tablespoons (I really don't measure this icing any more!) of butter that I'd cut up in tiny bits, and a good splash of milk (no idea how much - I go by sight and texture) and about a cup of dessicated coconut. (again with the guesswork!)  The result was a spreadable mess of icing, without too much trouble.

I refused to ice the whole cake, which you will see below, but it really did pay off in NOT doing so. We cut rather small pieces and will be following these directions to freeze away some of the cake. I'll call my father in law tomorrow and offer him a slice or two before we do that though.  I have more cake to make tomorrow for a birthday party at kindergarten on Thursday morning, and another on Monday. I have a feeling we will end up with a surplus of frozen cupcakes come Monday, but this could be a blessing in disguise.


Leftovers of the cake as it stands tonight:

I hope that you too will feel brave enough to try something like this and enjoy it as we've enjoyed this cake tonight, knowing that you can absolutely have something this wonderful while being gluten free!

Manic Monday

Image found via Pinterest

Here we are the week before Passover, and I'm having a Manic Monday. I had a look around my kitchen and apparently, being sick takes a whole new meaning to "let's not clean the kitchen this weekend". Ya'll, I don't know how to tell you this, but I generally will keep a kitchen floor you can eat off of. Honey, I don't think anyone's pet would eat off our floor at the moment. That's a scary thought.

I'm in the midst of finding the last of our leavened items in the house, and we have a bunch of dusting, deep cleaning, vacuuming and mopping to do. Thank G-d for steam mops!

We've used most everything up that we need to, I'm just ready for the rest of it to be over, as we're in the end stages of rearranging our house. Once I'm done in the kitchen and our new guest room / resting room, we will get started in our dining/living room, and then the bedrooms. We know for sure that there is no food in the kids' room, so we're down to the rooms that generally do have food in them, or did at one time.

I've been thinking about what I can blog about during passover, but truth be told - we will not be keeping a completely GAPS-y Passover. One of the commandments is that we eat unleavened bread during the week, so we will be having unleavened bread.  We will also be having angel food cake. So, here's me sticking out my tongue at that.

We did have a very interesting thing to pop up in reference to the Easter celebrations at kindergarten. The kids will need to have a bread bunny (something like this, this or this) brought for them that morning.  YIKES! It's during Passover. No yeast!! Not to mention I'm trying to keep their meals as GAPS as possible. How will I pull this off?

I know! The sweet potato rolls that I made before, I'll just modify them slightly to look like this. My mom had sent me the link on Pinterest. Problem solved. Bunny rolls that are not only unleavened, but GAPS friendly! What a load off my back.

Insanity of insanities, I've been sicker this last week than I had been before. The kids had fever, one had conjunctivitis, and the other had chest congestion. So, I've been on around the clock duty, which means I've had to knock back on any fancy baking or cooking - and I've gone back to the basics of GAPS: Bone and Meat Broth. Lots of it.

We've had lamb/beef bone broth, and we've had chicken bone broth. This is where I do break from approved GAPS foods, I have no issues with using rice. We typically will use Basmati or Jasmine, and I cook it in bone broth in our rice cooker, and will usually steam vegetables in the veggie basket at the same time, unless we're making a steamed fish dish. I also have no issues with potatoes, as we tend to use them in a similar fashion. If they aren't made with broth, we make a broth gravy or will bake them, fluff, stuff and top with other healthy items. I also am looking at introducing millet, amaranth and quinoa. Bad non-GAPS-y me.  However, these are gluten free seeds that are high in nutrition that is very difficult for me to get otherwise.

Why I depart from GAPS on this - well, I do not think that any one grain, root or other food item should be the sole focus of a meal. Variety is key.  And when there are issues of malabsorption, you don't get to be so picky when you do not react to those organic grains. I will not be using them as main features in our meals, but as something to highlight on special holidays and perhaps Shabbat.

Which is why I was so excited this weekend to see this news item:

Quinoa and Orthodox Judaism's relevancy problem

The question of long-term vitality of Judaism may ultimately come down to the question of relevance and whether Orthodox Jews are seen more as keepers of the faith or gatekeepers of the faith.
http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/the-fifth-question/quinoa-and-orthodox-judaism-s-relevancy-problem.premium-1.509725

If you don't have a free account with Haaretz and are interested in news from Israel, you can register for 10 free news stories a month. That is just about the right amount for me, to be honest, as I scan many of their issues via Google News, and know exactly what I want to read.

So yay! It's not just Sephardim who are eating Quinoa this year after this ruling. I'm interested to see if this will also count in Millet and Amaranth or not in the coming years. This is a relevant and interesting subject to me as someone keeping gluten free, as keeping an Ashkenazi non-gebrokts and strict anti-kitinyot Passover is too strict for our dietary needs. But, we can easily keep up with a Sephardi Passover, and get everything we need that way. I've done it both ways, and there was just much more freedom with the Sephardi Passover for us, and it has been a much more enjoyable experience all around. You can read about those differences here and here and here.

Honestly, I think this is the first Passover season that I have not experienced panic-y feelings about. I'm not worried about my kombucha, milk kefir or the fact I have resting grains of tibicos in my fridge. We've scrubbed the fridge down and kashered it already, and we've done the same with our oven. All that is left, is our microwave oven and our toaster, once we get the other items cleaned up and out.

Image found here on Pinterest.

I found myself an interesting unleavened bread idea that I will be testing out today.  It was shared on Google Plus (I can't remember who shared it originally) and was listed as a possible item to try for Saint Patrick's Day. I figured save it for Passover, so we'll be making it up to test tonight. I'm praying it works. You know how it is sometimes with gluten-free recipes!

While I have not been feeling particularly chatty this past week, I did see some interesting things come across the blogs I follow for discounted and free kindle books, and it looks like a couple came in that would be interesting for those following a GAPS-y or Paleo/Primal lifestyle. They are not all free, but they are at a pretty good price to learn more about things without breaking your bank. Trust me, I know all about that last $3 being "too much", so if you can't afford it on your version of Amazon, just put it on your wish list and get it when you can. Choose your hard, and don't push yourself where you do not have to. OK?

If you click the images, you will be taken to the Amazon page for these kindle books. Please do note, I have NOT been paid for the reviews of these books, I simply found them interesting and I only get a very small kickback on people purchasing these books. If they are free, I don't get anything.  The reason I am sharing these books is because I found them helpful and they are not break-your-bank expensive.

"This brief guide will give you everything you'll need to know to begin incorporating this healthy and natural elixir into your life.

Discover the origins of the fermented Kombucha tea.
Find out the many health benefits you can enjoy.
Find out the best places to buy Kombucha
Classic Recipes to make at home
Other fermented foods and much more."

"Making kefir in your home kitchen is easy and inexpensive.  In How to Make Kefir - A Beginners Guide you will learn:

• How to make a delicious, healthful beverage bursting with probiotic power
• How to make dairy, water, coconut and nut milk kefir
• How to store your kefir
• How to care for your kefir "grains"
• How to troubleshoot kefir gone wrong"

"You are about to embark on a culinary journey with quinoa (keen-wa), the new miracle seed that will add a boost to any healthy diet, or change those diets that aren’t so healthy. This report not only teaches you how to cook quinoa, it also provides thirty of the best recipes one can find to showcase this delicious seed. "

"In this concise and detailed manual to the Paleo diet, you will learn exactly what you need to eat while utilizing the Paleo diet, what type of activity you should engage in, and exactly what to expect while on the diet. "

"30 Days Of Amazing Paleolithic Lunches hands you paleo recipes that are super easy to prepare yet very delicious.  It shows you that preparing healthy meals does not have to be boring and time consuming."

"This guide teaches you how easy it is to add nutritious whole foods to your lifestyle through a simple juice.

Juicing Recipes for Beginners - Delicious Juice Recipes for Losing Weight Feeling Great and Improving Your Health is the latest from the Best Selling author of Raw Food Diet for Beginners, Susan Ellerbeck."

"99 Delicious Paleo Recipes offers great recipes for those who are on the Paleo diet or just wants a healthy way to eat. The Paleo diet is the diet of our ancestors. The Paleo diet is a simple and healthy way to lose weight by eating foods we have been designed to eat. Who thought that eating like the cavemen would taste so great!"

"If you want to avoid gluten, this book will help you to cook the best meals for your grain free diet. Our grain free gourmet cookbook will give you dozens of the best grain free recipes for your grain free cooking. You can find delicious lunch and dinner recipes, recipes that will help you to fill up on healthy food that just so happens to be grain free!"
<-- This one does not seem to be Paleo or GAPS, so you'll need to modify some of the recipes.






I hope and pray that these are helpful to someone, even if they are no longer free by the time you see this post.

Another interesting thing I've been up to this weekend was watching a documentary called "Genetic Roulette: The Gamble of Our Lives". If you have not seen it already, please do watch it!! It has a lot of helpful information. The only inaccuracy I found in it was the chef that mentions that x years ago there was no Celiac Disease aka wheat allergy. A) Celiac is not Wheat allergy and B) It has been around for over 2,000 years. . . so take that end with a grain of salt. Otherwise, this documentary was one of the best I've seen on the issue in a long while.

What all have you guys been up to out there in GAPS-y land?

What brought us to the GAPS diet?

I've been wanting to write this post for about two weeks. The sad thing is though, I've been at a loss for words. I've sat there speechless, trying to type, trying to talk about it, and nothing was coming.

The frustrating part here is, I have plenty to say, but it just was not coming. Probably because I've had a lot of issues going on at the moment and the house was cluttered, and I can't think when things get all cluttered and jacked up. So I sat around and wondered to myself. I figured, screw it. I have no idea what I am nervous about. Even if people don't believe me, it doesn't make our truth any less truth, right?

So here goes nothing.


Since my youngest son (now 3) was born, we've had issues with him spitting up/throwing up. For the longest it was just "happy spitting" and we worked out any short-term food intolerance he had while I was nursing. After I quit, we went about a year or so of cyclical vomiting.  I had saved a whole lot of links on what that is while I was investigating, but my laptop bit the dust around the holidays and we got ourselves a new one to replace it since I am always on the internet keeping busy, researching and talking with people.

I'll try to reproduce some of what I found on the syndrome and share it here.  This was helpful for me to better understand my own cyclic vomiting when I was a teen, and when I was pregnant with both of my kids.   I ended up printing that out, along with this, this, this, this, and this.  It was around this time last year that I pressed my husband into helping us get an appointment at the pediatrician and push for a diagnosis. What was going on is not normal, when intervals went from every other month to every month, to every couple weeks to every week.  The kid is growing well, but it was terrifying.

I started investigating the Paleo/Primal diet in February. I wanted means for my husband to lose the weight he gained in the 3 years we had begun to have children, and I needed to desperately shed the pounds I had gained due to my diet being thwarted in my pregnancy and the horrific event that became what we dealt with rather than the ideal birth that I knew I could do if I was not having so many pregnancy complications. I had weaned my son around 18 months and could do no more, but get myself healthy.

The cycles of vomiting that my son had were increasing. We went to the pediatrician and pressed him hard to give us some kind of answer or send us to a gastroenterologist if he could not. To diagnose CVS, you have to see a gastroenterologist and a couple other doctors to rule things out. So, we got a referral to the gastroenterologist.

I waited. Then, I brought everything I had printed and I asked if it could be a hernia, reflux, the fact I have celiac and both kids have reacted and I've kept them gluten free their entire lives, but that he was exposed in utero and we had a very difficult pregnancy and had a traumatic C-section and spent three days apart. I mentioned the fact that I know this is not normal and there are no specific foods causing this. One day he might throw up a peanut butter sandwich, but he'll never do it again. One night it might be spaghetti, but he'll not do that again for another 12 times throwing up. It might be a banana, or medicine, WATER, Tea... never anything definitive, never anything that would be logged more than twice in a total random occurrence.

The doctor wrote me off. I was more than pissed off. I was past livid. I knew it would happen, because a) I'm American b) I'm proactive c) I know where to look for medical info and I'm not unintelligent when it comes to things concerning myself or my children d) I project as a strong intelligent woman which = "She's been at Doctor Google all night." to many doctors.

I had a child that was not just vomiting, but having diarrhea for a week after each cycle of vomiting. It had gone from loose stool to liquid that wasn't staying in disposable diapers. I was terrified. We did blood tests and his IgE was very high, and his IgA was rather normal. We knew it was something autoimmune going on plus whatever else it was, but this was where my mommy radar was pinging and I couldn't pinpoint where or why.

I kept pressing for answers. He wanted me to pursue a Fructose Malabsorption Diet.  After going through all the stages possible of being totally angry, I became indignant.


He thought I was making this up, and my kid would respond to this if it is what is in his opinion the right thing.. Bring it on baby. I'll do the crap out of this diet and prove I'd already ruled that out and I'm not stupid. We kept a nice log of things, I investigated the heck out of that, and we got referred to a dietician.

I found that the FODMAPS diet fits well with the Fructmal diet, and I kept asking questions on the celiac forum that I am on, in addition to the Christian mothering forum I am on.  I got some great input, though I was just completely overwhelmed with all the printing (about a ream of paper) I had done, all the reading I had done, and just was so over what I had to bring with me to the meeting with the dietician and the fact my inlaws had to pick up our kids while we drove to the city to have the meeting, which would cost only G-d knows what... to get the same answer I already had.

I know how this sounds, I'm so full of myself. No, actually, I'm not. But when I'm sure, I'm sure, and I'm hardly ever wrong. . . which is part of how I had to function almost my entire life. I'm working on breaking out of that mold some, and I'm a bit less INTJ and more INFJ now.  So, my feelings were taking over the rational side and I was getting angrier and angrier, because I could see, as the primary caregiver and primary nurse of my child - this was just the wrong path entirely.

The more I read before meeting the dietician, the more I felt like I was having a break from reality.


Several weeks after our meeting with "The gastro from hell", as I was calling him at that point... and a few other things. I quit my derisiveness and got down to business. Fine, I can't prove him wrong with my list of his diet, and how often he has been throwing up, what he's eaten in those occasions and the fact that I had cyclic vomiting since I was around eleven myself - I'll meet the dietician. What the hell do I have to lose?  Not much really, except maybe another angry outburst when I get in the car and go home; or perhaps, an ally.

The very frustrating thing?  I could not call the doctor at regular hours for a phone consult like our pediatrician. He was only in on mornings he had surgery (endoscopy and such), and then he was only in from 2-5. He had phone consults for one hour, one day a week. Just thinking about it makes me twitchy, as we still need to try and reschedule to do a swallow study.

We were told that until we met with the dietician, make no changes. It was a week long wait... with almost every day at that point being part of the never-ending cycle of vomiting.


Finally, the day of our appointment arrived!
I gained an ally. She was surprisingly knowledgeable about Celiac disease and the reason for our diet. She LISTENED when I explained what we were going through and the process of elimination that told me that the Fructmal Diet was NOT where we should be headed, but I agreed with her, we will try it and prove the doctor wrong. I asked her why on the internet, in the gastroenterology websites, dietician websites and blogs I found, there were such discrepancies as to what was or was not allowed on the diet. Answer: Not everyone tolerates the same amount of fructose, so it is trial and error. You begin a total fructose free diet for 2 weeks.. Then you slowly introduce fructose while putting lactose (milk sugar) on said food item to minimise it's affect, and aid in digestion.

Here is where I found all of my helpful information:

Dr Rodney Ford: Fructose can make you sick
Grow Youthful Health at any age: Fructose Malabsorption
Diet.com Fructose Intolerance
HealthHype.com: Low Fructose Diet in Fructose Malabsorption
HealthHype.com: Low-FODMAP Diet – Foods to Avoid in IBS and Bloating
HealthHype.com: Nutrition Guide for Fructose Malabsorption
Life Goes On... Fructose Malabsorption Diet
Bikram Butterflies: Fructose Malabsorption, Redux
www.ibsgroup.org/brochures/fodmap-intolerances.pdf
http://fodmapsdiet.com/background/
The FODMAPs Approach — Minimize Consumption of Fermentable Carbs to Manage Functional Gut Disorder Symptoms By Kate Scarlata, RD, LDN
http://www.gapsdiet.com/uploads/FAQS_Listing.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FODMAP
http://www.alive.com/articles/view/23452/fructose_malabsorption
http://www.eat-real-food-paleodietitian.com/support-files/Paleo-FODMAP-food-list.pdf
http://gapsdietjourney.com/2012/09/fructose-malabsorption

The DZG (German Celiac association) has a flyer about the diet.
Then I found a different explanation . 
The DGE sort of backs that up as well, that it's a 3 stage diet, massive fasting in the first few weeks, trials and then going from there.
This GI's site is saying we're talking now 5-6 small meals a day.
This list is saying completely different foods, allowing items that are on the no-no list on all the other lists (tomatoes and such). It has a pdf to print and know how much of what to eat. But, this Austrian PDF has a whole other food list. This PDF gives more technical stuff than I saw on the other pages, especially on the 3 stages of the diet.
Found this recipe booklet with info from a Dr's office - but none of it is options we can do with it being dairy and gluten options. Some of it looked like it met the stage 2 and 3 version of the diet only.
This PDF was another techie manual, but seemed more helpful. 9 pages! I'm impressed.
So far this looks the most helpful - as does this 7 page PDF  in the same vein.
Another PDF I found in German.
Paleo Mom and Chris Kresser had some info.

An acquaintance of mine recommended Practical Paleo: A Customized Approach to Health and a Whole-Foods Lifestyle -- which I sadly cannot afford at this time. But, it spurred on further investigation. It began looking more and more like this diet is a modified GAPS/Atkins diet.  I was told since I was such a great researcher, keep pooling my research abilities and bring what I can find to the next appointment we would have with the gastroenterologist.

The Gastroenterologist had basically told me and my husband how stupid I was. He would talk to my husband rather than to me, as if he knew what was going on or what the doctor was talking about. He didn't. I was the one answering, and the doctor was playing up the "doctor god" card, as well as showing his completely misogynist side. He really was being a complete ass the entire time we were with him for that first appointment. We had brought our son along so he could see the human problem, rather than reduce him down to a few slabs on a microscope to analyze and he had instead decided to ask us if our son was right in the head.

 Yes, why, yes he is. But, we had to come when he has his nap and wake him up when we took him out of the car, and he loved everything on the doctor's desk and is a very hands-on extroverted personality.  He kept asking to touch things. He insisted he needed down off our lap, and then would turn around and beg us to hold him. It was insanity!  But this is what I was dealing with on a daily basis in addition to his chronic cyclic vomiting.  He had gotten to the point he never wanted to leave the house, and had started carrying around his own bucket. IF he got the least bit nauseated, he would scream "Bucket! Bucket!!" and run.

 He still does this, but it is not nearly as bad as it was last year.

To tell you how well our meeting went with the dietician, this is what I wrote about the experience:

So, we had our meeting. We were there over an hour talking, and I'm shocked - I did a good deal of it... and I didn't sound stupid or not so educated as far as German goes, but you could tell I wasn't up on all my technical German and I got stuck a couple times with terms not sure if I had the right term or not, but we worked it out.

Apparently, here's the thing - the reason for all the varied lists is that each Fructmal person won't be able to tolerate the same thing as the others.

So, we do the three stage diet. BUT - unlike all the lists, we are allowed all vegetables except tomatoes (it's a fruit! - I knew that though). We need not worry about cooking or eating them raw or whatever - just make sure to eat with meat and bread etc.

I will have to look over our breads and see what he can have over the week. No baking from scratch unless it has no sugar or I can use grape sugar to make it. Which reminds me, I have a question about Kombucha as teas are allowed as long as they are not fruit tea.

It's going to be kind of like Paleo / Gaps, without fruit. Nuts are allowed.... but we have to be careful and get more natural peanut/hazelnut/sunflower/almond butters that have no sugar in them. So that counts out the ones we eat all the time.

Otherwise, she said it sounds like we have a great handle, and given our symptoms and family history it sounds crazy to do this diet, but it's up to the GI and we'll play as he sees fit and see how we do after the strict fast from sugar.

...So we start the diet tomorrow with a food diary, and we'll see how long it takes for him to have another bout of his vomiting.

I think the nutritionist was a bit shocked I was up on my game and knew what she was talking about and had studied up.

Here we go... let's start this roller coaster already.
September 3, 2012

 Well into the diet, he threw up again. I ended up only cleaning up what I had to and retaining the towels in case the GI wanted samples... and he eventually asked us to take stool samples for testing. OMG, I slathered that sample thingy full. I wasn't just giving him a little stool sample on a test stick, I was giving him enough he could run whatever he wanted. *cue maniacal laughter*

People kept pressing me from February forward, to try the GAPS diet. I kept saying no, it looks too complicated (it was at the time), I couldn't afford the extra kitchen appliances I would need (food processor, dehydrator) and I didn't have the room in the house to do any fermentation. (I do and I don't now - we are still working on that!)  I was eating rather clean, why if I did paleo, did I really need to look at GAPS?

I'm looking at one of the threads where I was asking about Paleo v GAPS and now I remember all the panic and what was going on. Oh my word, how could I have forgotten? Must have been the sleep deprivation! There were many weeks I was subsisting on 20-25 hours of sleep. This is with a kindergartner who was in his group 5 hours a day, 5 days a week, and a child that was next to me or on me 16-18-ish hours a day. (When he wasn't being sick or asleep.)

My husband had a gallbladder attack at the time we were pursuing all this testing in February of last year. In addition, they did testing and found he has high liver values, indicative of possible Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease or something equally as scary, and we'd done several bouts with MRSA appearing randomly on his hand and him seeing a Dermatologist. His family doctor kept telling him "you're fat" (ok that is how it was filtering to him) and that he needs to lose weight. We all knew that. He was getting bigger and bigger and looked like he was pregnant with twins or triplets. This was of course, very terrifying, considering what we were going through and the fact he is 6'3" and we cannot weigh him at home to monitor progress at all. We'd also gone through two bouts of Mononucleosis (not me, him with me doctoring him) that year, and me trying to solo parent two high needs preschoolers while he lay in bed and moan and have a man cold.  I'm not belittling his plight at all, but I had no backup and it was not only terrifying, I was barely hanging on by a string. My rope had frayed and there was nothing below for me to land upon.

To tell you how terrified I was, I wrote this on the first of March last year:

His cholesterol is "OK" for his overweight. His heart is taxed (duh) and so is everything else. He's not eliminating toxins like he should... He's not getting what his body needs to "make it go" and work at optimal levels - he's getting what his body likes, and then starving himself 3/4ths of the time to lose weight. He's now packed on weight like a bear. He labors to breathe, he labors to walk, he keeps talking that he'll be in a wheelchair soon.

His immune system is SHOT. He gets sick all the time since November.

I'm trying to work from a positive area on this, but it's getting to the point of "tough love" with him and just changing his diet and being as supportive as possible, but not backing down. I'm scared for our kids. They see how he eats and now my oldest is kicking a fuss at dinner time to eat like daddy.

Considering I really do everything around here, this is terrifying. It's not an option. I'm scared to death he is going to have a heart attack, or keel over because of his liver. IF he needed an organ, he's not someone that would even go on the list because of his weight and habits.

It's just such a mixed bag and so sad and frustrating. He's the breadwinner, and something bad happens, we're out in the cold.

Yes, I was terrified. I still am to a degree, but he is much smaller than he was, though he is still quite large.   To top it off, while my sister was here, we were all dairy free for over a month and continued that until well after all our testing with the gastroenterologist and we had proof that it was not dairy that was an allergy, but that it was somehow triggering the youngest's bouts with CVS.

There was talk of tonsil surgery... but he had to lose weight. (I also conveniently forgot about that and will be asking him again since he was sick more than I was this winter!)

April 25th, I wrote:

I'm a bit überwältigt about it all.. in every way one can be overwhelmed. I'm trying to do the Gaps Underwhelmed way of doing this, but even with just getting things together, the changes, the investigation everything requires, the needing to get a couple other cookbooks and knowing what is for sure ok for each stage is just so much!

BABY STEPS.

I've got everything I have printed thus far on everything Gaps related sorted and in a big binder by subject and stage. (that's my step today) Then I have recipes in the back. I'm hoping there are some websites out there that have ideas per stage of how to encorporate some of these things, because I am just looking at the list of allowed foods and going "uh, wouldn't it just be easier to go from stage one to full gaps and back it up step by step eliminating foods? - I'm just not sure.

I've been reading where people do it so many different ways. 30 days - 60 days- 90 days- step 1-6, each a month and then full gaps... I don't know what would be better/easier for us, so I really just have to step back and keep up with stage one and investigating as I go.

...I think the part that makes it so overwhelming is that DH keeps asking me "Hey, what's for dinner?" as if it will change very much in the beginning. It really doesn't, and I think that is what is overwhelming to me - I have to tell him that until I have more information, it's still soup and broth and such.

We're kind of half stage 1 and half "I still don't know what I'm doing so we're keeping part of our normal diet"... It's all I can really do right now - which sounds like something awful and like I'm justifying cheating, which I am not. I just have to bring DH round to the whole idea slowly, because he hates change, and until I'm certain what is on/off the list due to our finances being tight (hence no new cookbooks), I can't just jump in with both feet and not look back right yet. I am looking forward and seeing a light at the end of the tunnel though, which IS good.

Three days later, I had my water kefir (tibicos) and kombucha. I'm still making kombucha!! I have my tibicos dehydrated and am waiting for the right time to revive them again. By my parent's anniversary in May, I had my Milk Kefir, which is still brewing, and the only fermented drink that my husband will try.  (cue me shaking my head and rolling my eyes)

I asked him to try both the water kefir and the kombucha, but his answer was simple: no!


I have not tried asking again.

By October of last year, we had our definitive answer on what was wrong with my youngest, without any further testing.

We ended up that it was not Fructmal at all. Got set up for an upper endoscopy... the wait time was 6 weeks, got a call last week that moved us up to this week though. Endoscopy was yesterday. Very nerve wracking but we know a bit more about where we stand.

Hiatial hernia and small hole in the diaphragm/esophagus. Some iron/ferritin deficiency... and we're waiting on the rest of the blood tests they had to stick him in the foot for, plus the biopsies from his esophagus, diaphragm, stomach and duodenum.

From what I am reading about hiatial hernias, we did well to remove milk products in March/April, but we need to remove/reduce some other items. I will have to see if we are or are not facing surgery in the future.

This is very nerve wracking and sad at the same time to have an almost 3 yr old facing all of this.

So, here we are a year later and a crazy amount of sorting and printing of recipes later, and a blog to keep me accountable. We are back to dairy products, though trying to limit it some (he is however drinking milk almost daily as of this month) - and we are more GAPS than I would have forsaw last year.

We were given a gift of a food processor/blender which I love and use almost daily, and our kitchen is being re-arranged to be come more efficient. We also are having some success rearranging the house and getting rid of some of our excess items.  I'm trying to do 2 GAPS meals a day, and we are keeping up with bone broth two to three times a month. I make meat broth every other month when I take a few chickens and boil them. I then de-bone the chickens and strain the broth off of it and freeze each one in baggies for use later on in the month.  Hopefully I can post about that later.

I didn't write about my health issues in all of this, as I was more terrified of what was going on with the children and my husband than I was about myself. By last summer, I was undergoing testing at my primary care physician's office and found out that my iron was very low. It was the lowest it had ever been, so we were going to pursue iron infusions in September. Between September and November, I was at one or another doctor's office every week.  We were at the doctor so much, I forgot to schedule my yearly appointment at my OB/GYN. In fact, now that I think of it, the same thing happened in 2011, and I've missed two appointments with him. Whoops.

So, as soon as things calm a little here, we need to a) schedule another appointment for a swallow study, and b) schedule me an appointment, and bring all the information I have from my PCP to let the OB/GYN know what has been going on. Maybe I won't get too stern a talking to? One can always hope, right?

In June of last year, my husband and I celebrated our 5th anniversary. (we have two, but that was our 5th for the church wedding - long story there!)  When we came back, we saw that there was a gym being built in the City I pick him up at from time to time when he comes home from work. It was not too far for us to drive to daily, and the price for a yearly contract wasn't bad. They'd have pool-related sports, a lovely indoor gym with machines, Zumba, Aerobics, Yoga.. you name it. We signed up.

They opened their doors the last weekend of September, and I began going in October 4-5 days a week. I took a break in December when everyone was so sick, and I began back this month, as I got sick and was unable to go in January and February. I'm back to 2-3 times a week, and I've been thoroughly enjoying my yoga classes.  I've not lost any pounds, but I have lost one dress size.

We've changed our diet almost entirely, though my husband is still sneaking around and buying sweets or chips here and there. It's a work in progress!

I hope and pray if you have made the choice for the GAPS diet, or perhaps Paleo/Primal, that your trip to the diet was not as eventful as ours, or as stressful and heart-wrenching. I'm still reading up on the GAPS and Paleo/Primal diet. Next on my list is The Whole 30 Book. A lovely lady gifted me a copy, and I've not had time to read it yet.

This is our story. Your mileage may vary.  What brought you to the GAPS diet?