Reverse Iron Chef

I am not a chef.  Sometimes I pretend like I am.  In all honestly I have learned a lot about cooking through the kids' allergy issues, but there are times when I am harshly reminded to not be cavalier in the kitchen.  Today is one of those days. 

Sometime this past week I agreed to a friendly Reverse Iron Chef with a fellow FPIES mommy and blogger.  We had a list of ten foods that we were allowed to use that was given to use by another FPIES mom who was asking for help in finding things for her FPIES kiddo to eat.  The foods were as follows:

1. apples
2.  pears
3.  peaches
4.  milk
5.  chicken
6.  sweet potatoes
7.  green beans
8.  peas
9.  carrots
10. brown sugar

My immediate concern is that five out of the ten foods are ones that are on my banned list so I wouldn't be able to taste them myself.  But I figured I'd let big brother taste them or daddy.  My idea was to put together a day's worth of food with the list.  Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and desert.  Since I put off trying to cook anything until today (the day our little contest thing was supposed to end), I only got through the breakfast portion today.  I figured tomorrow I would attempt lunch, Tuesday I would go for dinner, and Wednesday I'd think about desert.  So here is the only thing I could come up with as a successful breakfast:

A smoothie. 

My intention was to make some type of delicious sweet potato hashbrown.  In my mind it would be easy - grate the sweet potato, squeeze out the moisture, and fry it up in some butter.  Didn't work.  First my sweet potato hashbrowns completely stuck to the pan in the first spot.  I added some more butter and then they were WAAAAAY too buttery.  Fail.  Then I thought that maybe I could cook them in the toaster oven like I do Cutie Pie's frozen hasbrowns.  I shredded some more potatoes, squeezed out the liquid, greased the little cookie sheet, used a pastry brush to lightly spread butter on the top of the hasbrowns, and put them in at about 400 degrees.  The toaster oven filled with smoke before they got toasty.  Fail.  Then I thought about a pin I saw on pinterest about cooking hasbrowns in a waffle maker, so I started again.  Brushed some butter on the waffle maker, cooked for 8 minutes.  When I checked on them the outside was crispy looking, but the inside was a soggy mess.  Not very hasbrown-y.  Fail again.  Cutie Pie, big brother, and daddy were getting hungry for dinner at this point so I had to stop making foods no one would eat and focus my attention on dinner foods.

And then I thought about my smoothie.  Who doesn't love a good smoothie?  And with the ingredient list you could make a mean breakfast smoothie full of fruit and protein and calcium.  So here is my smoothie recipe.

Peach, Apple, Yogurt Smoothie

A handful of frozen peaches

A dollop of plain greek yogurt (I like greek yogurt because it has more protein than regular yogurt)

A couple ice cubes

A couple splashes of apple juice

Blend.  If it is too thick, add more apple juice.  If it is too thin, add more ice.  

Easy enough. 

Sometimes I Forget

There are days where my whole world is consumed by FPIES.  And then there are days like today - where I *almost* forget.  Good days like today where Cutie Pie is in a great, giggly, goofy mood.  There is no screaming in pain, no mucusy diarrhea, no projectile vomiting.  Days like today where she eats like a normal kid (okay, maybe not normal but at least she doesn't act like food is evil) and even takes naps.  Days where I read the ingredients on the cookie box and reeeeeeeaaaaaaaaally think about eating one myself.  Days like today when I start to doubt this FPIES thing is even real.  

Ironically, these are some of the hardest days for me.  Don't get me wrong, I am ecstatic that everyone is happy and healthy.  I know it is because we are super diligent about making sure Cutie Pie stays safe.  But I admit days like today are the hardest because I have to find some super self-control way down deep and resist the urge to treat her like a "normal" baby.  Resist giving her a graham cracker to gnaw on.  Resist jump-starting a new trial even though we are only on day four of our sunbutter trial.  Resist, resist, resist. 

And then I get scared.  The last time we were in such a good spot was right before our big quinoa fail.  I was doubting that she even had FPIES and thought maybe her other reactions were just coincidences.  And then it all came crashing down around us and she hasn't been the same since.  That was almost two months ago.  TWO MONTHS it took for things to get back to normal.  I am terrified of another reaction, another set back, more wasted time, and I'm afraid that by feeling good about where we are means I am somehow tempting karma to get us. 

But for now,  I will enjoy this peaceful afternoon.  At least for now, right in this moment everything is right in our world. 

Birthday Countdown

Cutie Pie's first birthday is in one month, one week, and one day.  My oh my how time has flown.  Lately I have been obsessing over trialing foods that will provide her with a birthday cake and fun birthday foods because, you know, she REAAAALLLLLY cares.  This week we settled on a sunbutter trial.  We are on day three and so far, so good.  She can't decide if she likes it or not.  On Friday I tried spreading some on her cheecha puffs and it was a no go.  Then I just put some on a plain spoon and let her suck on it and she seemed to like it a little.  Saturday it was a total refusal.  So then today for breakfast I made her a banana/coconut/sunbutter mush and she ate half a bowl!  It was chunky and thick enough that I could put some on a spoon for her and she could then feed herself without it sliding off her spoon.  Sunbutter would be a great pass for us.  It's high in calories, a good source of protein and iron, and let's face it - it is delicious!  Plus, I'm thinking I might be able to fix up some sunbutter frosting to top some muffin/cupcake/cake concoction and it would make a delightful mess for a smash cake!   I am imagining the pictures already.... 

Our goal for this week is to get into a routine of "eating" three meals a day.  I have a bad habit of just giving her a couple puffs or a toy or a sippy cup to play with while we eat because she makes such a mess and eats so little.  But with only a little over a month until she is one it is time to buckle down!  We did pretty good today, and actually she surprised me with how well she ate.  I do, however, think we need to get a dog to clean up the mess she makes!  I swear I spend more time cleaning up after meals than I do preparing them! 

I Am "That" Mom

I used to be an expert in everything parenting related.  Of course, that was before I had kids.  During that time I also worked in a daycare with infants and toddlers which made me even more of an expert and it was obvious that I knew what was best for those kids much more than their real parents.  I mean c'mon - it was my job.  It is true that I spent many more hours each day/week with the kids than their parents did, but as anyone who has had a child in daycare will attest, there is still no replacement for the ingrained knowledge of your child that comes from actually giving birth to them.  It wasn't until I had my kiddos that I understood.  

However, there was one mom in particular was notorious with us teachers for being completely clueless.  She was the mom who had to be completely overwhelmingly annoying in trying to prove she loved her kids.  I don't know if she felt guilty for leaving her kids there a million hours a week (no joke - they were at school before 8am and were the last ones in the school to be picked up at 6:30) or if she was trying to convince herself that she was a good mom, or if she was just lonely and had no one else to talk to other than us,  but everyone would cringe every time she came in the door.   She told me more details about her symptoms that led her to think she had Celiacs than I ever care to know.  When I ended up with a c-section with my son she stopped me one afternoon to ask how I was pooping because it was so horrible for her after her c-section.   We all thought she was nuts.  (Quite possibly she really was).  But anyway, one of the big things that made all the teachers cringe was the pride she had about needing to give her kids laxatives.  She obsessed over those kids' poops and gave them daily laxatives to help it along.  There were times that her daughter would have weird diarrhea and she'd still be giving laxatives and she always claimed the pediatrician told her to.  We all thought she was crazy.

But this week I became that mom.   Cutie Pie hasn't pooped in almost two weeks, except for a little bit last week after needing to use a suppository to help her along.  I talked to the pediatrician yesterday morning and he wants us to start giving her a daily dose of Miralax.  He explained that it's not really a laxative, it doesn't make you go.  Instead it pulls water into your digestive tract which softens it up and makes it easier to go.  He suspects that the iron supplement we are needing to give her for her anemia is making her constipated and she her colon has gotten so stretched out that her system is just out of whack.  So now to counteract the side effects of one medicine, we are giving her another one.  I feel so bad for her.  If she could just eat a balanced diet we wouldn't have to give her EITHER one.  I feel guilty that iron is one thing my milk doesn't provide for her.   I feel like there HAS to be a better way.  And mostly I just feel guilty for judging that one crazy mom. 

Coconut Flour Muffins

 Our trail for coconut has been going - eh - it's going.  I'm not sure what to think.  Cutie Pie is in the middle of a pretty bad case of constipation which we've seen with a couple other questionable foods.  I'm not sure if it is the eggs or the coconut, but just to be sure I whipped up some coconut flour muffins.  That stuff is PACKED with fiber so if anything is going to help her go, then coconut muffins will!   I found a couple recipes, tweeked them to fit our needs and came up with this:

Coconut Flour Muffins

1/2 cup coconut flour

1/2 + 1/8 cup sugar

1/2 t baking powder (I use one that contains potato starch instead of corn starch)

1/4 t salt

6 eggs

4 T coconut oil (works best if it is melted)

Directions:

Mix ingredients.  If it is too thick you can add a tablespoon or two of water/milk.

Bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes.  

Makes 12 muffins

Nutritional Info (supplied from SparkPeople recipe calculator)

Calories -  134     Fiber - 2g     Protein - 3.8g

They were actually really tasty!  They had a sort of egg-y taste and left a sweet coconut-y aftertaste.  Cutie Pie wasn't thrilled, but she isn't thrilled about most food.  Of course, she LOVED the cupcake paper.  That was apparently super delicious.