OUR PLANS MULTIPLIED

In the beginning, JD adamantly only wanted two children. I thought that four would be perfect. Once we caught God's vision of putting orphans into families, our plan was multiplied by God. We are currently blessed with 12 children; five biological, six adopted and one more waiting in Ethiopia. Our first adoption was from the U.S., the next three were from Liberia, West Africa, and our last two were from Ethiopia. We are supporting our 12th child in Ethiopia after her adoption could not pass court.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Food Issues

The last several months we have gone through some pretty extensive food allergy testing for Moriah. The verdict is that she is very allergic to eggs, gluten intolerant, casein intolerant and allergic to soy. (Gluten is all wheat products and casein is all dairy.) Since she is already a self appointed vegetarian, it is not leaving a ton of options.  We have ordered several gluten-free, vegan cookbooks and I am exploring the world of gluten-free foods on Amazon and at the grocery store Wegmans. After spending some major time (and major money) in Wegmans the other day, I am so thankful that they opened in our area. We don't have a Whole Foods or anything else, so I would have been driving a few hours away to find the selection that Wegmans offers; there were two complete aisles of gluten-free options. While it seems that it may be simpler to just cook the same for everyone, the gluten free items were two to five times higher than the regular items I buy, so it really isn't a reasonable option for our size family. 

I have read several other blogs that mention that they have children that require gluten-free. I am really wondering if they went through the testing (insurance wouldn't pay for it since it isn't a proven test) or they just discovered that their children improved when they did a trial try? 

Moriah made her first gluten free pizza today that also had cheese-free cheese (go figure!) and I made regular pizza. I also whipped up cinnamon rolls, bread and cookies which are all items Moriah didn't eat even before the new food plan. 

If anyone has any gluten-free wisdom for me, I would love to hear it! This is just one more thing to add to my already full plate. 


5 comments:

  1. I have a tag on my sidebar that links to low allergen foods. I can't use gluten free products because they usually contain rice or corn which I can't tolerate either.

    Rice and beans and nuts are going to be important if she won't eat meat. Combining them in meals will give her more complete protiens. Hopefully she can eat oats. I do a lot with those. I love granola and have mixed in pureed beans to make complete protien.

    Hopefully she's willing to try new stuff and that it helps her. Most of the older recipes are egg and soy free too.

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  2. Most of my family is gluten free as well. it's not fun at first, but it gets much easier as time goes on.


    Gluten is also in barley and rye as well as wheat and while oats are technically not sources of gluten, they all have gluten unless they are 'gluten free' because they're almost all processed in the same mills as wheat.

    Also, some diary free cheese has casein in it, but you probably researched that already?

    My older sister is severely allergic to eggs and gluten, so she has a few recipes, but she eats a lot of meat, so that's not very helpful.

    Anyway. I'm sure you guys can handle this. The rewards of being GF outweigh the hardships. :) My mom has been diagnosed with celiac since 2004, so she's been GF since then.

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  3. We are gluten free vegans who do very limited soy and only if it is organic/non-gmo soy. So, I'd be happy to email back and forth with you about what we're doing. I've been gluten free since Oct '08, dairy/casien free since Feb '10 and vegan since Jan '11. Clean Food by Terry walters is a favorite cookbook.

    I was able to do gluten free oats the first two years but they started causing reflux and then the IGG/IGEs started coming back that I was reacting so my doctor told me to stop eating. SO I'm a person with celiac who can't do oats.

    Our whole family is now GF/CF. My husband had been recommended to lay off gluten/eggs/dairy and dairy causes headaches for him. My 7 yr old son is very allergic to dairy. Year before last he didnt' gain or grow at all, in the last year since he went gf/cf he has gained 10lbs and grown at least an inch. My 5 yr old is gf/cf because the doctor said with a family history of celiac he's better off without gluten and said the whole family should be off dairy as well.

    We don't cheat and have found a few recipes we LOVE and eat all the time. My in-laws are actually vegan too, mostly, and started about the same time we did. Anyway, my email is in my google profile.

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  4. http://www.no-sugar-recipes.com/ I found this blog it's gluten free recipes...

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  5. Hi Jenny. I just read about this book online and thought about you. All recipes are gluten free, although I'm sure many of them will have some type of meat. Anyways, you might want to check it out.
    http://stephanieodea.com/books/
    The name is Make it Fast, Cook it Slow: 200 Brand New Recipes for Slow Cooker Meals on a Budget
    Laura

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