Helping Hamburger

Both the boys had water day today at school, so we decided something easy was in order for dinner.  That seems to be a recurring theme.  It’s also the theme that is missing from most dairy-free cook books, but we’ll return to that when we have a book deal.  We decided that it would be great if we could have helper for our hamburger, even if we can’t have the brand name one since it’s chock full of milk products.  

It’s not super healthy out of a box, but in this recipe, it’s not nearly as bad for you. Maybe not the healthiest, but it's quick, easy and the boys like how it tastes.  

Here’s what we did.

It looks better in person.  Hi, Gabriel!

Help!  My Hamburger is Tasteless and it Can’t Get Up!

Ingredients:

1 box Road’s End Organics Organic Dairy-Free Mac & Chreese (Cheddar Flavor)

1 lb lean ground turkey

2 Tbps margarine

1/4C non-dairy milk

1/2C Daiya “cheese”

Items to taste: onion, salt, pepper, garlic powder

Directions:

Cook Mac & Chreese (yes, that’s really the name) as directed.  While the noodles are boiling, cook your turkey in a skillet and add onion, salt, pepper and garlic to taste.  We went heavy on the spices, knowing that without these, it wouldn’t be very good, as the M&C on its own doesn’t have a lot of flavor.  After draining your noodles and but before adding your cheese sauce, add your margarine and Daiya to the drained noodles.  Add your sauce and mix until incorporated.  

There you have it, a helper for hamburger that passes the kid test.  We served it with wilted spinach.  Here’s that recipe:

Easy-Peasy Wilted Spinach

Ingredients:

1 package of pre-washed spinach

2Tbps olive oil

2 intact slices from a large, sweet onion (1015, yellow or white)

To taste: minced garlic, pepper, salt

Directions:  Add the olive oil, garlic and onion to your skillet and cook over medium heat until the onions begin to look translucent.  Add your spinach and cook uncovered until they “wilt,” or about 5-10 minutes.  Their color will be very deep and rich.  Serve. 

How easy is that?  Overall, this entire meal took about 15 minutes to prepare, and gave us all some comfort food at the end of the day that nobody turned their nose up at.  

Namaste to You, a Pancake, too & Chili's is My New Favorite Restaurant

So, last night the family decided to go to Chili's for dinner, after picking up a few things at a nearby store.  Chili's has never been one of my more favorite restaurants, but our experience there last night changed my tune.

Chili's
Our new modus operandi when going out to eat has been to get to know the manager, or at the very least, to spend a few minutes talking with the waiter/waitress to make sure that they understand our family's food needs, because it generally rules out so many options on the menu.  So, we followed our new tradition, and were prepared to spend a good bit of time going over the menu with the waitress, when she pipes up and says, "give me just a minute, I may have a menu for that."

Well, naturally, my ears perked up, because that would just be so incredibly different from anywhere we've eaten yet.  Sure enough, after three or four minutes, here comes the waitress, new paper menu in hand, and says, "we've got a menu for everything back there."

Now, that's AMAZING, because while most other restaurants that I have been to are more than happy to talk to you about their menu and any substitutions or changes that you will need to make to eat there, this restaurant actually had a printed menu.

So, after reading through, I had the dry rub ribs with corn on the cob and mandarin oranges.  The boys each had grilled chicken broccoli, corn and we all ate chips and salsa.  Was it the food the best I've ever eaten?  No, but it was more than decent.  And with their paper menu in hand, Chili's is my new favorite restaurant.  Thanks, Chili's, I really do want my baby back... ribs.

My Moo Rating:

Namaste Pancakes

This morning, the family got up for the day and decided that pancakes were in order.  This was our first time having pancakes since the great milk meltdown of 2012 (or is it The Great Milk-pression?).  We had been shopping a few weeks back at Whole Foods in Bellaire and had bought a pancake mix from Namaste Foods (that link will take you directly to the product on their website), so we decided to use that.

2 eggs, some soy milk, oil and 2 cups of their mix later, and we had a batter to try.  Well, you never cook ANYTHING without tasting first, so I dipped a finger in and... whoa, that's not something I want to eat... yet.  So, we added 1 tsp of salt, 2 Tbsp powdered sugar and 1 tsp of vanilla extract, and voilà, we had a perfectly respectable pancake batter.  I added a little extra "milk" for good measure, to make sure that the batter was at the right consistency and we went to town.  Everyone seemed very happy with the mix overall, though it does have an odd (but not objectionable) "backend" taste to it due to some of the different flours that go into giving it the right texture.  But once you put on the syrup, all things are better.  We'll definitely eat it again, but will always use our modified recipe.

My Moo Rating:

on its own merits

with our changes

Wow, that’s awesome. Really? Wow.

One of the things that has been the most interesting since we changed the diets of the boys has been the comments and questions that I have gotten from people after reading the blog or telling them what our family has been doing.  Well, being the shy, delicate flower that I am (stop laughing, Chrissy), I’ve been shouting from the rafters about this change and what it’s done for our family.  Chrissy has been, too, albeit in her more quiet, reserved, beautiful way.

So, to properly appreciate the yelling that I am going to do today, please find your closest church, auditorium, empty warehouse, or other large source of unimpeded space.  That’s okay, I’ll wait...

Good, now that you’re there, the biggest question that we have gotten is, “is the change really that dramatic?”  And to that I say a resounding "YES!"  It truly is that dramatic.  Before, when we would take our children out anywhere, it would be an exercise in frustration, leading to some truly awkward moments when we tried to “discipline our children into behaving.”

When your children are suffering from what amounts to a mind-disabling condition, it’s impossible to get them to behave and we, as parents who believe in loving discipline, were simply forcing them to ask the question in their heads, and sometimes out loud, “Why are we being punished?  We don’t understand.  There’s nothing that we are doing,” even though their behavior was truly unacceptable.  They just couldn’t fathom why in the world they were being punished because they had no sense of bodily control.  They couldn’t make their little minds conform to what they KNEW they should be doing and were being punished for it.  At the same time, we couldn’t know what was going on in their heads, and simply saw behavior that we viewed as “being ugly” or “out of control."

In reality for us as parents, it’s quite heartbreaking to look back on and has led to several tearful moments as we punish ourselves for putting our children through what we now see as a completely preventable condition.  But, for parents who are in the same boat, don’t punish yourselves.  Most of the modern medical community doesn’t even acknowledge that there truly IS an issue or an allergy when there is not an acute physically symptomatic attack or even a prolonged allergic reaction that can be measured.  Allergies affecting psychological development and behavior are just now being researched and talked about in mainstream medical communities.  The best thing I can tell you to do is pray, and listen for those people around you that God puts in your path that may see something you don’t.  Talk to your doctor, and rationally explain to them the situation and ask them if they would be willing to look into doing an elimination diet with your precious child.

As for the change from the perspective of someone else, here’s how my Mom puts it:

Before, during “wild-man” syndrome, the children were out of control, not responsible for their own actions and constantly moving and talking.  But, after the change, it has been such a miracle to get to see the personalities and control demonstrated by both children with no milk.  The first time that we were together for a meal in the same house, and Benton was able to sit through without getting up was just a 360 degree turn from where he had been.  The change with Gabriel was more subtle, thanks to his age, but was dramatic in its own way.  

Being able to see their personalities actually come out has been very enjoyable and I feel like I have been able to communicate with them better and they are better able to understand that we love them simply for who they are.  One thing you don’t have to do anymore is, you don’t have to worry about being able to take them into public.  They were fine in the store with me yesterday, they just wanted to go look at toys.  Which is totally normal behavior for their ages (6 and 9).  On the driveway, after they came to my house, they played outside on the driveway and weren’t fighting. They’d check in every few minutes and everything was “hunky dory.”  That’s how it should be.

So, yes is my answer.  Aren’t you glad that I’m succinct?  Have questions or comments?  Anything you want to see or hear about on this blog?  Leave a comment in the comments section below.

How Did We Get Here? AKA- Have You Been Drinking?

So, I've had a few questions since this morning asking for me to detail how we got to the point that we saw that milk might be the culprit in our boys' behavior. Well...

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... No, that's the wrong movie.

Once upon a time... Wrong book.

Hmm, let's see. Our life with our beautiful boys started in 2002 with the birth of our oldest son, Gabriel. He was absolutely adorable; bubbly and full of life. We started noticing at about the age of 3 that he was what a therapist would later refer to as "intractible," or incapable of accepting and dealing with changing conditions. He had a temper on him that would simply show up in situations that didn't really warrant anger, and he would lash out at family and friends for no reason. He was never a horrible child. On the contrary, he has always been a joy to be around and is a precocious, inquisitive young man, with artistic skills that are out of this world. But, things were never "normal." they were always a bit off-kilter, and we have had concerns for a long time that we were doing something terribly, terribly wrong.

His brother, Benton, came along in 2005, another perfect baby. Happy, precious and fun to be with. He has grown into the kind of child that can wrap you around his little finger until you pop and charm the socks off a rack of clothing at the store. But, shortly after his third birthday, he started in on what my mother coined the "wild-man syndrome." He would talk incessantly, simply babbling about absolutely nothing simply for the sake of babbling. He'd complain about how hard things were for him to accomplish or finish, even though his intellect is off the charts. He'd tell us how he couldn't read and then turn around and read a four syllable word on his own accord. He'd swing his right arm like a propeller, threatening to take off through the Sanctuary of our church or wherever he might have been. He'd go to bed, only to pop up again and again, like one of those horrible dolls that adults don't like, that look like a clown and simply (punch) won't (punch) stay (punch) on the (puncture, ssssssssssssssssssss-sss-s-s-ss-) ground.

We noticed as time went on that both the boys continued to show symptoms of ADHD in addition to some emotional "issues" that didn't quite add up. We didn't have a family history that would lead to those kinds of issues, and sometimes we would have problems, and other times they would be perfect angels. My wonderful wife and I continually bashed our heads against the wall, trying to figure out what the issue was.

Within the last two months, though, we had finally come to the end of our rope. We couldn't go to church without having other people stare at us. We were afraid to take our children to dinner because we never knew whether we were going to get Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde. It was awful. While discussing the possibilities of what the problem COULD be, I had two people (my mother and one other person) suggest that the problem could be a food allergy. I myself am allergic to red dye, but we don't have a history of milk allergies in our family. How could that be it?

Then, one day, a new friend of mine, a co-worker, Kenneth (a very gifted musician), told me about his son, Quinn, who had exhibited symptoms of ADHD and let me know about how his band-mates had gone through an intervention with him. He simply made the suggestion that milk might be the culprit in our case as well. Well, God hit me on the head with a 2x4 at that moment, reminding me of the two other times that I had been told it could be food. This time, I decided to listen, instead of simply saying, "it's a possibility."

After hearing that, we went to my mother's house, where she had some soy milk. We tried it, kept them off of milk products for the day and waited to see what would happen.

Well, less than two weeks later, our world is very different. Gabriel doesn't get angry for no reason, he can concentrate better, his grades are going up and he has had an E in conduct since we removed milk.

Benton has responded by actually being able to sit through a meal in his chair, whereas before, he'd get up and wander, or run, or worse, bother other people in a restaurant, telling us, "I have to listen to my body." We haven't heard that statement once since we removed milk. We don't have to get on to him about not sitting down during meals, he offers to help around the house or EVEN (dare I say it out loud) simply starts helping for no reason.

It's been a miracle in our house. It could be in your house, too. Just for a moment, I'd like to talk to all the parents out there whose children have ADD, ADHD or are exhibiting symptoms of those. Before you investigate drugs for your kids, investigate their foods first. It's a much cheaper fix, allows their brains to develop more normally, and can provide you with some wonderful skills for parenting and helping your children grow naturally.

Milk... sometimes it DOESN'T do a body good.

Chicken, Cereal and the Dreaded Milk Monster

Okay, so one of the first things we started doing was researching what blogs and resources we could find that would help our family.  Fortunately for us, there’s a lot of them out there.  Unfortunately, there’s a lot of them out there.  So I’m culling through them, seeing what sticks, weeding out what doesn’t, and creating a blog roll that we can have as a go-to-resource for awesome information and recipes.

One of the other weird things we’re finding out is just HOW MANY PRODUCTS on the shelves of our local store have milk in them.  I knew when this started that we would have trouble going to restaurants, as you can’t control what they make their food with.  That problem was easy enough,  I just use my outgoing superpowers and go talk to the managers to find out what doesn’t have milk/butter/cheese/lactose/satan in it.  But worse is going to your local supermarket expecting to find products that are clearly marked, only to find out that there are exactly 1,856,934 ways to say “milk products.”

Let’s play a little game.  Which of the following products has milk in it?

Milk

Ice Cream

Fresh Chicken

Breakfast Sausage

Canned Tuna Fish

Ice cream

Eggo Waffles

NutriGrain Bars

Is it: a) none of the above
        b) less than half
        c) more than half
        d) ALL OF THE ABOVE

If you answered anything other than D, you’re wrong.  Every single item that I listed there has milk in it, in some form or fashion.  Sure, you can buy versions of those products that don’t have milk in them, but it’s still shocking to think that typical brands of these products sitting on store shelves today use milk or milk products to make their items “creamier,” “more plump,” “fresher-looking,” “longer-lasting,” or, my personal favorite, “tastier.”

Really?  Do we really think that adding milk to tuna fish is going to make it better or tastier?  What, does it cut the taste of the fish out of the can of fish?  Do we honestly think that adding a cow to a fish is somehow going to get us something other than a fish dish?  Really, great marketing, guys.  Way to go.

Shopping takes three times longer when you have a food allergy in the house, but it’s totally worth it to make sure my boys act like little boys again.  God bless their sweet little hearts.  I’m finding that I feel better, too.

I thought it was strange a few years ago when I felt like God was telling me to go “paleo.”  It seemed odd at the time, and I adopted the bathing portion of the paleo idea.  Little did I know he was trying to tell me to change how we ate as well.

Oh, yeah, the cereal part of the post title.  So, obviously, we changed milk brands to drinking almond milk.  It’s wonderful.  But I have to say my favorite change so far has to be the vanilla flavored almond milk with breakfast cereal.  A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.  Definitely the best change so far.  Definitely, definitely.  It makes the cereal explode with flavor in your mouth.  Try it, definitely try it.