This is how we do it: sandwiches

Who doesn't love a sandwich? Rylan eats at least 2 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches a day. No joke! He has always loved a PBJ for breakfast, and looking back I suspect it was because of his dairy issues that he refused to eat cereal and milk. As a result of our sandwich addictions (because Les and I are equally addicted) we go through 4+ loaves of bread a week. Enter a gluten intolerance and $6.49 (tiny) loaves of bread....



This is how we do it- rice cakes (yes, zero nutritional value, I realize!!) for $1.50/dozen with peanut butter and jelly on top. Also yummy- peanut butter and banana or peanut butter and apples.



Ta-da!! :) Much easier on the wallet, and super yummy!




And clearly he isn't complaining....

And this, my friends, is how we do it.

This is how we do it: frosting

It's so hard to imagine a cupcake without frosting. But I can't stomach the thought of a $6 can of dairy free frosting for one gluten free cupcake. I know, my cheapness sometimes shows. :) And I've never tried the powder mixes and I just dont have a good frosting recipe. So, I had a different idea, and it works beautifully. Most importantly, Rylan loves it. Jelly. I put jelly/jam on top of cupcakes instead of frosting. Thanks to our PBJ addiction I have eleventy billion jars of freezer jam ready to go so I just plop a few spoonfulls of whatever is open on top of a chocolate GF cupcake. It's a thing of beauty, really. :) A week or so ago I bought a GF cupcake mix (for $5, ahem) and make 12 beautiful cupcakes out of it. I cooled them and froze them in separate sandwich bags so I just grab one, let it thaw and add jelly when we are ready to eat. And that is how we do it!


*I've realized I need to add pictures. Which means blogging from the computer and not my phone. And actually taking pictures. I'll get there. Someday.

How to "do" GF and DF at school...

School. That's a hard place to keep your kid safe from foods they shouldn't eat. Especially when said kid is 5 years old and not even sure what gluten is. About a month ago I had this crazy idea that Rylan's stomach aches might be cause by dairy. His dad, Les, has had issues with dairy nearly his entire life, so it wasn't that crazy of a thought. So, I marched Rylan in to preschool and informed his teacher that we were going to try out a diary free diet for a while and see what happens. She was very encouraging and said that there was another child in his class who was also dairy free. She even said she had pretzels in her desk for the rare occurances that the snack that day had dairy in it. And it went well. Dairy products are so easy to recognize and identify. Even Rylan knows what is and isn't a dairy product. Oh, to go back to those days!

After 2 weeks, the "issues" were not every day but still happening. We even had him at the ER one afternoon, almost positive he was having an appendicitis. I told Les that I had an even crazier idea- that Rylan might have a gluten sensitivity. Not even knowing the full extent that gluten was used in our lives, I KNEW it was going to be hard. And, again, I walked into the school and informed the teacher that we were trying GF out while still sticking with DF. I was armed with a $5 box of GF/DF "cereal bars" for the days that Rylan couldn't eat the class snack. That first week he had to eat his special snack every day. Who knew that preschoolers eat gluten for every snack??!! In his classroom each child gets a week that they are designated as the special person and that week they are in charge of bringing a snack for the entire class each day. The next week I think he was able to eat the same snack as the class one time. He has had such a great attitude about all of this, even the day that he had to eat a fruit cup while the rest of the class had cupcakes. That day I sent an email to the entire class asking them to inform me of when they were bringing in birthday treats so I could be sure to bring a GF cupcake for Rylan. I have gotten 2 responses.

Well, Rylan is special person this week and tomorrow is his birthday. Hooray for the GF/DF chocolate chips cookies I baked tonight and the fact that for one entire week he will be able to eat the same snack as the rest of his class!

Welcome!

Hello! Welcome to my new blog. I hope to use this space to share my family's experience with suddenly becoming a gluten free family. My 5 year old son, Rylan, was recently found to have sensitivities to both gluten and dairy, causing him severe stomach aches and diarrhea. Once we cut dairy from his diet he had fewer stomach problems. We then cut gluten as well and all of his stomach problems vanished. While I am thrilled that it was nothing serious causing his problems, I'm baffled at the thought of turning our entire family gluten free. This could be interesting. :)