The best ever brownies

I LOVE chocolate! Before going gfcf, I had the perfect brownie recipe that my family LOVED. Even my husband who doesn't care for brownies really at all couldn't get enough of them. After finding out my dear CN couldn't have gluten or casein and deciding on our own to avoid most soy I had to find a new brownie recipe. My amazing mother in law bought me a basic gf cookbook (I just make them cf as well which isn't hard at all) that had a decent brownie recipe in it made with rice flour. I have tweaked and changed quite a few thing to make the PERFECT gfcf and soy free too brownies.

1/2 cup coconut oil, liquified
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup applesauce
1/4 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons rice flour
2 tablespoons tapioca starch
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum

Mix coconut oil and sugar. Add in eggs, applesauce and milk. Mix well. Add in remaining ingredients and mix until well combined. Pour into a greased 9 in round or square pan. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes. Enjoy!

Homemade cleaners

I am big on reducing the amount of toxins and chemicals my family come in contact with. Because of that I have started to make my own cleaners. Everyone knows the wonders of vinegar for cleaning but I wanted something to disinfect too. Well, hand sanitizer works in killing germs because of the alcohol content so why wouldn't that work for household cleaners? I have been using my own cleaner for a few months now and I think it works better than Clorox. Here's my recipe.
Equal parts water, vinegar and rubbing alcohol.
Simple as that! For dried on messes you may need to let it sit for a few minutes but to keep our family healthier I don't mind at all.

Amazing Banana muffins

I altered a recipe found here (just scroll down til you see it). I don't use gf mixes so I play around with flours until I find a combination that works. I also ground my own almond meal for this one and boy was it good! These never last long in our house. They are so moist and fluffy! I bet even your gluten loving friends will love these muffins.

Banana Nut Muffins

1/3 c. oil (I use canola but have used coconut in the past)
3/4 c. sugar
2 beaten eggs
2 large ripe mashed bananas
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. rice flour
½ c. millet flour
¼ c. tapioca flour
¼ c. potato starch
½ c. almond flour
2 tbsp. ground flax seed (optional)
1 tsp. xanthan gum
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar and milk sub to equal 1 cup liquid (I used vanilla almond milk this time but have had success using rice milk and coconut milk also)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease muffin tin. Set aside. Beat oil and sugar together. Beat in eggs one at a time. Stir in bananas and vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the banana mixture alternately with the milk mixture beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix well after each addition. Spoon batter into muffin tin. Bake 20-25 minutes, until muffins are golden and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

A love affair with coconuts!

Coconut is amazing for your health! It has antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal and antiparasitic properties to it. Well, on a cold day I love to drink hot cocoa and here is my favorite way to make it.

Coconut Cocoa

2 Tbsp. cocoa powder (I like the Nestle brand)
3 Tbsp. sugar
1 1/4 c. coconut milk, heated

Mix it all up and enjoy!

Lunch...my biggest challenge

Since going gfcf low soy I've had a really hard time with lunch. Planning for dinner hasn't been too bad. We mostly have a meat, veggie and usually rice or potatoes but lunch has been so hard! We used to eat sandwiches a lot. My oldest, CN, would eat peanut butter sandwiches almost every day (but not with jelly) and I'd usually eat a sandwich with lunch meat. Well, we've yet to find a gfcf bread we like so we've done without and lunch meat, well don't get me started on how bad that stuff is for you! It's loaded with things I can't pronounce which means it shouldn't be going in my body or the bodies of my husband and children. One idea that has really been useful for us is having breakfast for lunch. Scrambled eggs are one of my favorites and pancakes are definitely a favorite of CN. I just made a new pancake recipe for the first time the other day with teff flour (my new favorite). The recipe can be found here. For the milk I used one cup vanilla almond milk and one cup coconut milk and boy were they good! I made them for a home bible study and even gluten loving kids from other families devoured them! It makes a huge batch which is great because there is leftovers for the next day.

Getting kids to eat raw veggies

Well, getting kids to eat veggies period can be challenging but getting them to eat them raw! Yes it's possible and really I think it starts with the first foods you give them but even the best eater of pureed baby veggies can decide later they just don't want them. My oldest son LOVES peanut butter. Well, I have found a great snack for him is peanut butter with raw baby carrots. He loves it. He eats the carrots without even thinking and he's getting great fats and protein from the peanut butter. I do buy the natural peanut butter (currently we have the Jif brand but really whatever you want works well) because it's really not priced much different than other name brands and it has much less ingredients and no hydrogenated oils (which are trans fats and really bad for you). I wonder what else I can get him to eat with peanut butter?

My thoughts on organic

I know a lot of people who are gfcf are very into health foods and alternatives (you kind of have to be honestly) and part of that is organic food. I have become much more health conscious after going gfcf with my family and even have switched brands of non food items in order to use more natural products but when it comes to organic, I just can't bring myself to do it. I know all the pesticides are bad for us. I don't know anyone who would disagree; however, it's very expensive. I wash my fruits and veggies before cooking or eating raw of course so I figure I've at least reduced our consumption of the pesticides by reducing the reside left on all our produce. Quite frankly we just can't afford it and even if we could, I just feel that extra money could be put to better use feeding the homeless or giving to missions and organizations like Voice of the Martyrs. I think I'm doing good just to be eating fresh fruits and veggies and to find ways to get my kids to eat them too. I have nothing against anyone who decides that is the best way to spend their money. God has given to each of us differently in monetary aspects as well as convictions about keeping our families as healthy as possible. My convictions are regular produces washed off is better than no produce at all.

Welcome

Hi and welcome to my blog. I've thought about blogging for a few months now and finally decided to stop thinking and start doing. I wanted to start this blog to document my family's journey on a gluten free/casein free (gfcf) and low soy diet. It's an expensive diet and we live on a single income but God has granted us wisdom in how to make this diet cheap and fun! I want to share all my ideas, recipes and even some tidbits about the changes my whole family is experiencing for the positive on this diet. Just some brief background, no I do not have a child on the autism spectrum which is why most people are on this diet. My oldest is 2 1/2 and my youngest is about to be 1. My oldest son was tested for gluten and casein sensitivity at 2 years old after constant battles with yeast, extremely sensitive skin that was always broken out, many digestive problems and a few characteristics that are commonly seen in autistic children though he never did display enough characteristics to even come close to receiving a diagnosis. Well, lab work came back and he was very sensitive to casein (no surprise though given I had to remove this from my diet for a time while nursing him) and off the charts sensitive to gluten (totally did NOT see that coming). We went gfcf and decided low soy would be best given the tendency for people with difficult digesting casein to react to the protein in soy if used too much. It was quite overwhelming to say the least at first but with the strength of God and much research and time, things have settled down and I'm having a great time experimenting with fun, delicious, and cheap gfcf cooking and baked goods. I hope you enjoy!