Hump Day!!

And it's a gorgeous day to boot!!!

Yep, Mr C woke up last night crying, today he's been foul, bum is blistered again & his cheeks are rashed & red like a little fire engine! 

He's eaten well today though, Rice toast for breakfast plus a couple of bowls of the rice flakes. Lunch he had a bit of meat that we roasted the other night plus another piece of toast. 

Jam has been made :) Like everything else...so so simple. Just realised I didn't put it in the jars while it was still warm but it's ok cause I store it in the fridge.
Basically you take 2 large cans of fruit, we use pears cause it's low in salicyclates, drain off the juice, puree the fruit in a large sauce pan. Heat & add 750gm of sugar & teaspoon of citric acid, once the sugar has melted, add in one sachet of jamsetta & boil for 5 mins...that's it...easy as!

Jamsetta is found next to the preserving stuff in your supermarket, usually down the isle where containers are.

Didn't know what to give Miss A for morning tea today, whipped up a "mug cake" & gave her half...just left out the cocoa as that makes her "trip out"

 

Shopping Day!

Far out, was every man & his dog at Pac n Save today!

So I went with a list...lets see how I did.. 

Gluten Flour
Maple Syrup	Maple Syrup x 1
Rice Flour	Rice Flour $3.40
Epsom Salts	Epsom Salts x 1
Brown Sugar	Brown Sugar x 1
Yeast	Bread maker Yeast x 1
Spring Onions	Spring Onions x 1
Garlic	Garlic x 2
Frozen Beans	Frozen Beans x 1
Oat Milk	Oat Milk x 1
Carrot	Carrots x 4
Pectin/Jamestta	Jamsetta x 1
Pears 2x 825	Pears x 5 (410)
Sugar
Kidney Beans	Kidney Beans x 1
Eggs	Eggs x 30
Rice Noodles
	Freedom Foods Rice Flakes = $3
	Caster Sugar
	Tissues x 1 = $1
	Butter x 1
	Choco Muffin = DOH
	G/F Bread x 1
	Swede x 1
	Apples x 2.5kg
	Frozen Peas x 1

 Ok so it's sorta lined up. Rice Noodles were made with pea flour, didn't really need to get them, so didn't. Unsure on pea flour for Mr C. Also didn't get Gluten Flour, we use it for bread & it does last a while but expensive at almost $8. I didn't get the sugar cause the price felt a little steep so will see if it's on special next week, I got caster sugar instead cause then I can make a sponge for Mr C.


My total supermarket bill came to $74.13 & then the $3.40 from the specialist shop for the rice flour which will last ages. To me this felt like a big shop.


I always forget to add things to my list & I think I had accidently deleted stuff off cause I'm sure I had put eggs on it. I could not, not get the freedom foods rice flakes, they're normally twice the price & am tempted to go back & get more if I'm going past as Mr C tried them & loved them, which is always a bonus when you are using G/F products.


See no junk (except my muffin, which was yuck) No fizzy, no sachet drinks, no biscuits, no chips, no prepackaged food, no bread. See what a difference it actually does make in price. Will take $10 to the market this weekend & get simple vege's. Also there is no meat which yes will bump up your bill, my meat per kilo works out about $6.25 which is for mince right up to sirloin steak :)


So as you can see from the Meal plan/weekly food page we're having S.E.C tonight (Steak/Eggs/Chips)

Agggghhhhhh Miss A didn't eat her scone at lunch today and left it out at home & Mr C got hold of it!!! I think he ate half...so not looking forward to those repercussions!

Monday! Day before shopping day!

So today I was supposed to doing up my shopping list for tomorrow. I have been keeping a record of the things we run out of in my phone, decided to use my phone cause I don't very often forget to take it out with me, misplace it a lot at home but not out, so therefore will always have my list on me.

Poor Mr C can now tell me his bottom hurts, nasty rash, should take a picture for the paediatrians! So he's had a semi eating day today. Toast with marmite (not FS) for breakfast then he had toast with tomato sauce (again not FS) which reminds  me I need to make another batch of pear jam. 

Miss A also had toast for breakfast but only with butter. I gave her sandwiches for lunch plus some of the chocolate pudding I made for late night desert last night. We think that she's affected by cocoa...yep she was springing all over the place when I picked her up from school, couldn't sit still at home either even after ballet!! Parent interviews this week so I'll be asking what her behaviour is like, apparently she's gone down a maths group so will be following that one up! We haven't been very strict on her salicylate intake over the last 6 weeks & I think it's beginning to show in her school work :(

Anyway. Dinner was an eating success...

 Was suppose to be Sheppards pie but didn't have time to put it in the oven, so ended up being garlic mince, mashed potato & peas. Miss A ate it without a complaint & a huge amount too, Mr C, scoffed the peas & mince by himself, I decided to help him eat the mashed spud..he really doesn't like that stuff, not sure why! I got some into him anyway. He can have the left over spud for breakfast as potato cakes.

 

Garlic mince is easy peasy:

Couple of cloves of garlic, 

Spring onions or in this case we didn't have any so used leek

Saute that, remove from pan, brown mince, add back garlic & leek, thicken with cornflour & water, salt to taste...so so easy. Great base for heaps of recipes.

So tomorrow, I'm going to do my meal plan...go shopping & then come back & show you how much I've spent & what I buy.

Super Sundays!

Love lazy baking sundays. Not that I actually baked much LOL

Breakfast was toast, not sure I was sleeping in :)

Made scones, I use oil & make up my own baking powder as I get a metallic taste using commercial baking powders. Tried to make chickdemias or how ever it is spelt...epic fail :( Waste of a can of chickpeas.

Dinner was a hit, very simple.
Mince,
1 small Leek
1 Spring Onion (ones with the straight ends not bulbed)
1 carrot
1 C cabbage
1 can of Kidney beans
salt to taste.
Brown rice & add everything else in, season to taste with salt.


Served on brown rice. 

Mr C picks out the kidney beans :( I was wondering if kidney beans is the reason my iron levels are so good??? Off to google.

It's the weekend!

Weekend eating always seems to fall apart!

Well Ricies are now off the menu cause Mr C tipped the whole packet over the ground! Luckily he'd already had breakfast. 

Sandwiches for lunch with a salami, no wheat so Mr C could eat it but it does have E250 which is sodium nitrate...we usually avoid the nitrate series of food additives. Will put the full list on the recipe page.

Now dinner was an interesting affair...not the actual food as that was just boring Sausages & chips from the takeaway shop...but afterwards Miss A ended up with a itchy rash on her chest, so was it the sausages or the chips?? 

I really need to make more of an effort in the weekend! Will start with tomorrow...maybe!

And down.....

For every up there is a down <sigh>

Got woke super early by kids Mr C had the foulest nappy, so I guess those cookies weren't good for him :( I'll try them without the chocolate just incase it's that part. He's not good on cocoa/choco products.

I really need to take note of things earlier in the day, get to this time of day & the mind is a blank! 


After school snack, super simple waffles :)
1cup flour, 1 ts baking powder, 1 egg, 1 cup of milk or milk subsitute.
G/F version 1 egg, 3 TB G/F flour, 2 TB milk or subsitute. 
Just mix all the ingredients together. We have a waffle machine which has been worth it's weight in gold over the years!


Ahhh breakfast, ricies & pear syrup! plus toast with pear jam for both kids. Mr C had his wheat free version.


Not sure what dinner is going to be as it'll just be Mr C & I as everyone else is going to the rugby.

I unfortunately seem to be drinking copious amounts of coffee at the moment, certainly not FS, not sure why I'm bothering to drink it as I'm not feeling a caffeinee kick from it :(

Dinner was one of those quick simple fixes as the Hubby & Miss A were off to the rugby!


Mock cheesy pasta
Pasta obviously, what ever kind you want, we have to cook 2 lots, one wholemeal & the other Rice /Quinoa for Mr C
Sauce is a basic white sauce:
TB oil,
2-3 cloves of garlic,
TB G/F flour ( or normal flour),
1 cup of milk or substitute,
Salt to taste approx a teaspoon will give a cheesy taste, over do it & you get a salty taste.
We also add bacon or chicken or what ever meat you feel like. Tonight was bacon, we don't have an issue with Amines or if one of us does we haven't figured it out yet.


So again eating from the simple ingredients in our cupboard, my cheap sauce saves us a good $3-5 dollars? We tend to eat this once a week so that's a saving of $18ish over a month!

Parental issues

My parents took a long while to come around to the reason why we've chosen to eat the way we eat. They did feel that by not allowing additives & preservatives in our foods and also limiting the types of fruits and vegetables that we eat we were going to do ourselves some harm. 

We do not use any packaged, ready made food products. We make the majority of our food from raw ingredients. 

Yep..way more time consuming, you can't just pull a frozen pizza out or dump a can of tomato sauce stuff on mince & pasta.

We now in reality use far more vegetables that we ever used. I was pleasantly surprised about this. Vege's used to go mouldy or I'd  not waste money buying them! 

We only use salt for seasoning, I know exactly how much salt is in our diet...bet they couldn't tell as it's in copious amounts hidden in all those packaged foods. 

Yes we limit the fruit our kids get & the type they get. I do this for a reason, they end up silly, noisy, hyperactive annoying little so-n-so's, this is what happens to my kids, not all kids are like this but mine are. Miss A especially! My parents still do though feed her up on fruit, they're too scared to feed Mr C, and while she's great for them, we get left with the fall out basically 4 hours later, but we now have strategies for dealing with that.

I've just recently had blood tests & yes while I fall off the bandwagon reasonably often, 95% of the time I eat failsafe. My iron & iron stores were fantastic, I was amazed by this as the women in our family suffer thyroid issues & end up taking iodine suppliments so me at 35 with great iron stores is doing really well.

The main reason we are doing well nutritionally is because in using raw ingredients & avoiding nasty additives & preservatives we are allowing our bodies to utilise more of the nutrients that are contained in our foods.


I can't recall the last time I got sick, Miss A has not had any major time off school, Mr C with all his intolerance issues has not been sick either other than being mildly under the weather at times. 


Another bonus is we no longer have meal time battles!


My parents have mostly come around to the way we eat. They understand when we need to tighten up on the kids food intake & ask us what they can eat. I've found it far easier with them sticking to what I say with regards Mr C as they can see physical repercussions rather than just behavioural changes that Miss A has. 

We have now been using this diet as the plan on the way we eat for over 2 years now so it's becoming more of a way of life.