glutenfreefriendlyfoods

We did it – we made it 1 year.  When I told my friend this she asked whether it’s been a long or a short year and my response – both.  It’s definitely been a year of ups and downs but overall she’s doing very well.

Most importantly her Celiac blood results are in the normal range and she’s off of all laxatives!!! She knows what she can or can’t eat, she’s very diligent about asking adults before she tries food and we’ve found plenty of food that she’s willing to eat.  We’ve learned how to navigate birthday parties, vacations, and other assorted days away from the house.  We dealt with school issues and are very hopeful next year will be even better.  We’ve met other Celiac families so she doesn’t feel alone.  We’ve fundraised and participated in a Celiac walk with friends and family.

Of course there’s been frustration and when I told her today was 1 year of being gluten free she asked, “Does that mean I don’t need to be gluten free anymore?” It broke my heart and we spoke about it, but she is only 5.

So what does this mean being 1 year Gluten Free? Not much, it’s 1 year out of a lifetime.  However, it makes me proud thinking of how overwhelmed we were this time last year.  We’ll continue to advocate for her so she continues to have the best life possible and tonight – we’ll celebrate with my new gluten free cake making skills 🙂

To say that I make a big deal out of my children’s birthdays would be an understatement.  I didn’t go crazy and invite hundreds of people; however, I want the perfect pictures (which I never get) and just want happiness throughout the day.  With this birthday being my daughter’s first gluten free I cared even more than normal.

1st – pizza.  When we picked the place to have her party I made sure my daughter could get a gluten free pizza.  When it was time to order pizza for the party, I placed the order for the kids, adults and for my daughter.  They refused to order the gluten free pizza for us.  The place they were ordering from has gluten free pies (which I had verified were celiac safe), but the birthday place wouldn’t order it for us.  We had to call the pizza place and order it separately.  When writing this, it doesn’t seem like a big deal but I was so upset, hurt, and angry.  All I wanted was for 1 day of the year to feel as though her disease didn’t exclude her from her friends.  (I had also debated ordering all gluten free pies but financially I couldn’t justify doing it.)  The owner of the gymnastics place didn’t understand why I was so upset and my only response was “you just don’t get it.”

2nd – the cake.  Prior to being gluten free we always bought a Costco cake and spent $20.  I refused to buy a gluten free cake from one of the local bakeries where they cost a fortune and I don’t really love how they taste. So instead I probably spent way more money than I would want to admit (to myself more than anyone else) but she had the cake that she wanted.

Stage 1 – figure out how the cake should look.  My daughter has opinions, lots of them, and I let her give me her wish list for the cake.  She decided on a baby blue cake with unicorns and princesses and flowers and a castle.

Stage 2 – youtube, youtube, ask a few people for help, and youtube.

Stage 3 – buy supplies.  I bought a cake turntable (probably not necessary but helpful), 2-12 inch round cake pans, Russian flower tips, piping bags, a 14 inch round bottom for the cake to go on (really helpful for transporting the cake), a box big enough to hold the entire cake, fondant, chocolate, and chocolate molds.

Stage 4 – practice.  I made way too many practice cakes and frosting.  The cake itself is Pillysbury Gluten Free Funfetti Mix, the frosting was homemade buttercream frosting.I first tried to put 2 cakes into the 12 inch cake pan.  The cake came out, looked good, I did the toothpick test and half an hour later it sank.   Another one overcooked.  I embarrassed myself by realizing I could find the area of the 12 inch pans and compare to the area of the rectangular pans to figure out the best cooking times.  (I am a math teacher so that should have been obvious).  I used different recipes for frosting to figure out which one produced the best flowers and the best spreading consistency.  For the flowers: 4 sticks of butter, 2 lb bag of confectioners sugar, 2 tsp of vanilla extract.  For the crumb coat and outside layer add 1/8 cup of heavy cream.

Stage 5 – chocolate cover lollipops and fondant.  Earlier in the week I created chocolate lollipops that I stuck into the cake for design.  I also used letter cookie cutters to write her name in fondant (pre-made).  And if that wasn’t enough I bought on etsy edible Disney princess stickers.

Stage 6 – the party weekend.  Unfortunately timing wise I had a bridal shower out of town the day before her party which disabled me from baking when I wanted.  Her party was at 4 on Sunday.  Friday night, after the kids went to sleep I made 3 cakes.  Saturday morning I leveled each of the cakes and made my first round(s) of frosting.  Each layer had the baby blue frosting in between with a light crumb coat of frosting on top.  Saturday night, after the kids were asleep I did the outer layer of frosting.  I hadn’t practiced this but putting the spatula under hot water really helped to smooth out the frosting.  Then I stuck on the side the Disney princess stickers and the small chocolate unicorns.  Sunday morning.  More frosting – I made 2 different colored flowers to outline the cake, both the top level and bottom, then stuck in the other lollipops, the fondant Zoey and the 5 candle.

Stage 7 – Enjoy.  The cake did not look professionally done, but it looked amazing.  Zoey was so happy and she had exactly what she wanted.  Mommy win.

The only thing I wish I had done differently was to take the cake out of the refrigerator sooner.  I took it out about an hour before the party and then there was about an hour until cake cutting.  The cake was still a little cold and I think it tastes better at room temperature.  The kids didn’t notice at all, everyone ate the gluten free cake, but it’s a note for next year.

Overall her first gluten free birthday was a big success.  She had a massive smile the entire time and she had the cake that she wanted! 

 

Passover has always been my favorite Jewish holiday.  My friends and family all disagree but I love the food and it becomes special to eat it for a week.  On top of that there have always been the kosher for Passover cakes in a box that I used to love to make.

Back to Passover.  The good thing about Passover now is that they have a bunch of gluten free kosher for Passover foods.  Unfortunately, I don’t love either of the two cereals I tried.  (I eat gluten free to support my daughter – not for any medical reasons).  However, the matzah tastes just as good.  I personally liked the Yehudah brand better.  My mom taught me how to make her chicken soup and using the matzah ball mix is more than good enough.  The only issue is that it soaks up all the liquid so it doesn’t stay as well.  We made my mom’s matzah farfel recipe, and like most things gluten free the consistency was off.  For next year we’ll use less liquid and less eggs.

Typically, I like to host a friend’s dinner for Passover.  But this year, I’ve been too focused on my daughter’s upcoming first gluten free birthday to worry about Passover cooking.  I’ve spent hours and dollars learning how to properly bake (still a box mix cake) that will be large enough for her party and decorated well enough to have everything she desires.  We’ve always done Costco cakes in the past which are pretty simple but now she’ll be getting a fully designed cake, and hopefully it won’t look like she made it herself.  (pictures will come after her birthday).  Next year I’ll have learned about the cake, I’m taking good notes so that next year will be much easier (and cheaper- I’ll have the supplies and won’t have to make so many trials).

My daughter went gluten free 8 months ago.  We booked a trip to Club Med in the DR a year ago, so pre-diagnosis.  No matter what traveling to an all inclusive with picky eaters is difficult.  Traveling with a 2 year old picky (gluten) eater and a 4.5 year old picky (gluten free) eater was just about as stressful as I could imagine.  Thankfully we had actually flown to Florida a few weeks prior.  In Florida we stayed at my grandmother in laws so I didn’t need to worry about the food once we were there, just the plane ride.  It helped us to realize that while our younger son eats gluten snacks, on the plane we wanted him to have only gluten free snacks, where washing hands isn’t easily accessible.

To get ready for our trip we packed an entire suitcase (not exaggerating) of food.  Veggie straws, pirates booty,  pretzels, meringues, cereals, mac and cheese, pasta, bread, and I’m sure some other foods we’re missing.  On the plane we had some freezer packs and brought her “chicken sticks” which is what we call Ian’s frozen fish nuggets, string cheese and yogurts along with some snacks too.  We had spoken to the hotel a few times and they assured us we would have a mini-fridge and microwave in our room and that the restaurants are all knowledgeable to make my daughter safe food for the week.

First snafu – we get our room, no microwave, more importantly no mini-fridge.  It took many phone calls and trips to the lobby to eventually receive one.  Thankfully they put our food in their fridge while we were waiting and our frozen food survived.

First win – the Nima. For those of you don’t know yet, the Nima is a gluten free tester.  You put a small amount of the food into the device and within 3 minutes it shows either a smiley face (less than 20ppm), a wheat symbol with low gluten (the food has between 20ppm and 100ppm) or the wheat symbol with high gluten which (greater than 100ppm). The Nima isn’t perfect, and it doesn’t claim to be.  If you’re only testing a small piece of food there obviously could be contamination on a different section that you hadn’t tested.  I knew this before buying the very expensive sensor.  However, I believed it would give me greater piece of mind so we went ahead and purchased it.

The head chef at the buffet restaurant we frequented most was extremely nice.  He made my daughter gluten free pizza from scratch, using a gluten free flour blend.  Unfortunately the Nima tested low gluten and we wouldn’t give it to her.  We then tested French Toast, made with the bread that we brought from home, and it came back with a smiley face.  Win! This chef had his day off and a new chef made French Toast with their brand of gluten free bread (I’m not sure why as we gave him ours) and it came back high gluten.  Win for my niece, loss for my daughter.  Each test costs around $5.  We went on this week long trip with 15 tests so we couldn’t test everything.  My husband, daughter and I had to make decisions to the best of our ability.

I may have been called crazy a few times but my daughter survived the trip without getting sick. I think that’s a pretty big win. 🙂

There’s so many times I just want to complain, complain and complain some more about the difficulties of my daughter having Celiac Disease.  I’m typically a positive person so I don’t want to be like that.  So I will take the approach I take with my students (I’m a middle school teacher), if I am going to complain about something, I will make sure to share a triumph.

My daughter is in pre-k and she has an enrichment every day after school ends since I’m not there soon enough to pick her up.  On Monday she had Little Wizards where they made pretzel dough!  Yes, my Celiac daughter made pretzel dough.  She is so amazing and won’t eat anything without checking first that it’s safe (although sometimes she doesn’t realize all adults are not equal).  She isn’t as good at checking when working with supplies.  The dough baked, then they offered her a piece to which she asked if it’s gluten free.  Teachers then have the realization they messed up so they quickly wash her hands, twice, and apologize profusely.  As frustrating as it was, mistakes happen, and I’m just so thankful that my daughter is a mature 4.5 year old who has realized she feels better since becoming gluten free.

Other school activities drive me crazy.  All I ask is to be given notice when there will be a class-wide gluten treat or activity so we can provide a gluten free alternative.  Tomorrow marks 100 days of learning and they’re having a celebration.  We were given a week’s notice to make a cake – perfect, exactly what we’ve asked for!  My husband then asked if there were any other activities we needed to know about and was told no….until this morning.  They’re going to make Fruit Loop necklaces tomorrow.  After an exchange, her teacher agreed to buy Cheerios also.  My daughter is the girliest girl who loves drawing in bright colors and while the rest of the class could choose between Cheerios or Fruit Loops, she wouldn’t have a choice.  That made me so angry.  Thankfully, I found the fruity Cheerios in our supermarket (they don’t always have them) so she will never know my stress throughout today.  Anything to make my little angel happy.  (And just adding my son too – even though this blog isn’t about him.)

Here’s a picture of my daughter’s Pillsbury Funfetti Cake! Pink and Blue Frosting then mixed together to create purple as per my daughter’s request!

New idea –  When I started this site I thought it would be a place for people to have easier access to everything helpful being gluten free.  However, I’ve found so many other resources that I can’t dedicate the time to my original idea.  But being a mom of a celiac daughter is stressful so I want to write, to help me out and maybe help others.  (So if you actually read this please comment!) So now once a week I will dedicate to writing a post.

We recently (a few weeks ago) had our 6 month gluten free checkup.  The amount of stress leading up to it was so incredibly high.  There’s been 2 or 3 times in the past few months where we think she’s been glutened but it’s impossible to know.  I constantly worry whether what we do is enough for her.  So I don’t understand the labs at all, I just know that her transglutaminase IGA was over 100 and the doctor told us that could mean 101 or 199.  I tried not to quantify my expectation for her 6 month blood test but the truth was I had in my head I wanted this number to be under 50.  My friends and husband warned me that I was setting myself up for disappointment a fair hope is just to be under 100 so we now have a benchmark number.  They were wrong and it is down to 30.3! Under 20 is considered normal although ideally under 5.  But we got down to 30.3!!!!! I cried as soon as I read that.  I was so incredibly happy.

So how do we do it? Every celiac family is different and everyone needs to do what works for their family (both mental and physical health).  We were told my son should still eat gluten and my husband is a very picky eater and so he eats gluten.  I eat gluten free 99% of the time although I am not completely careful with cross contamination for myself unless it is something my daughter would try of mine.  It makes her so happy to know that I support her.  I started eating gluten outside of the house but now I only do on rare occasions when I feel bad making a scene of being gluten free when I don’t have a medical reason to be.  Although I do drink beer, since she’s 4.5 and years away from being allowed to try it.

We started with buying new non-stick pots and pans, cutting boards, and cooking utensils.  We made a gluten free shelf in our pantry and label everything we can.  We keep our toaster but cleaned it out well and everything goes on tin foil in our toaster, both gluten and non-gluten.  We bought new kid plastic plates/cups/bowls for my daughter although most of the time she now eats from our regular ceramic dishes.  Her leftovers are only in glass containers.  We always pour out communal foods so gluten hands to reach back in.  We take out more peanut butter than we need onto our plate so that we won’t double dip.  We wash hands…..a lot.

As time has passed we’ve started to become more gluten free.  Items in our mind that should be gluten free we buy brands that would be safe for our daughter – sauces, marinades,  spices, potato chips, french fries, etc…  We got rid of a lot of our old non-stick pots and pans. The majority of what we cook is naturally gluten free except for pasta which we use a stainless steel pan for.  And our pantry actually only has 1 shelf with gluten.

Anyway, back to the original thought that her checkup was a major success and we made it work with a gluten household.  Her iron levels on the other hand…but we’ll leave that for another day!