I am excited to announce...

I am very happy to share that I am officially a Registered Holistic Nutritionist. I am a graduate of the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition. Our graduation is on June 27 th and I look forward to celebrating with an amazing group. I look forward to continuing this journey and can't wait to see where it takes me. I was a stay at home Mom for 10 years and I was not sure what I would do when the kids were both in school full time. My children inspired me to follow my dreams. I have loved having the experience of learning from amazing teachers and other students. I am looking forward to celebrating with my class in a few weeks.

Gluten Free Muffins and Fresh Juice

I made muffins the other night with a gluten free mix I picked up from the bulk barn. I used almond milk instead of regular milk and it worked well. I asked the kids what kind of the muffins they wanted and they wanted fruit muffins so I added the frozen mixed berries to the mix and blended them in the end. I also sprinkled cinnamon on the muffins before baking them. I love my new baking liners I got from my sister in law for my birthday.

We made fresh juice with our breakfast on the weekend. We juiced carrots and beets and mixed them together, yum!

Cookies

On the weekend we baked some gluten free, dairy and egg free cookies from my new cookbook. I really enjoy the recipes from the Gluten Free Almond Flour cookbook. We made the snickerdoodle cookies with almond flour. I really enjoy the taste of almond flour and the recipes are easy to make.

What are your favourite kind of cookies?

Adjusting to the new eating plan

We are all adjusting to Connor's new way of eating and doing better then I thought. It has been a challenge to find gluten free food that does not have corn in it. I picked up a few things that were gluten free and I did not read the label and served them learning quickly there was corn in them. I did not realize how many foods it was in, I really did not think we ate corn enough to worry. Other then that I have been able to serve him foods free of wheat and gluten grains, dairy, artificial flavours and colours, chocolate, soy, pork, grapes and oranges. This week may be difficult for him. His class is having a party for his english and french teacher on Tuesday and I know there will be a lot of food that he can not eat. One of Connor's good friends has celiac disease so we are sending in treats that are safe for them. I am hoping having special treats will make it easier for the foods he can not eat and that he is not the only one not able to have what the other kids are bringing in.
I will share this week the recipe for homemade granola bars since it got the most votes. Thank you to everyone who voted. Have a great week everyone and check in this week for some recipes, snack and meal ideas.

Grocery Shopping

To give you an idea of some of the things I will be making I thought it would be easier to take a few pictures when I got home from grocery shopping. All of these are from either natural food pantry, bulk barn or farm boy. I was so impressed going to bulk barn seeing all the shelves stocked with organic items, gluten free items and even the bins had selection of gluten free items. The gluten free pizza, muffin and waffle mix were even on sale. I have made the pizza before and it was a great crust, we all enjoyed it. The tea is the best tea I have ever had and Connor loved it. The blend of berries is so yummy and the tea bag is really neat.

I had some groceries at home so just stocking up on some things that were safe to eat for Connor's new plan. Connor loves to eat and was very worried he would not be able to eat much and things wouldn't taste good. He went to bed that night saying he loved everything he ate that day and it was the first day his stomach did not hurt. His skin was not bothering him that night either. If this new diet will solve the health problems he has had since September I will be a very happy Mom. It has been a long, frustrating season with many doctors appointments with no answers and doctors are as baffled as us. We are meeting with a new doctor next week and we hope we are closer to getting him better.

So far for dinner we have had chicken, roasted asparagus, and boiled red potatoes with parsley and a pasta meal with gluten free pasta, organic pasta sauce and salad. They were "safe" meals that our whole family enjoyed. I also made him lemon bars made with almond flour that he loved.
Have a great weekend.

Allergy Testing

I took Connor to get some allergy testing done since he had not had it done in almost 4 years. It was an interesting appointment and I feel closer to being able to help him with some recent health problems he has been experiencing. Some of these items are new and some were things that showed up when he was tested years ago. The list is a bit overwhelming right but as I reminded Connor, and need to remind myself we need to focus on what he can eat. My mission to making real food that tastes great will become even more of a focus. He can not have wheat, barley, corn, rye, dairy, pork, grapes, oranges, chocolate, msg, eggs, food dyes or preservatives. Even though he has not been eating most of these things it was still a lot for him to hear and that he should not have them at all.
My plan is to hit some stores today to find some food he CAN eat and to try to keep things as normal as possible. It will be an adjustment for us at first but we will find a new normal and figure out special occasions, school parties, going to friends homes, etc as we go along.
The foods he can eat that we will be focusing meals and snacks around are all vegetables, all meats except pork and deli or smoked meats, all fruits except oranges and grapes, all nuts and seeds, legumes, rice, quinoa and gluten free pasta. I will bake with almond,oat, rice and buckwheat flour mostly.
If you have any experience with children's allergies/sensitivities I would love to hear from you. What works for you, do you have any favourite brands, recipes.

Connor and Kelsey in the kitchen

I came across these older pictures of Connor and Kelsey when I was going through my pictures. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did looking at them again.