Sweet & sour sauce

Here's a good sauce to use with beef or poultry. It's very easy and made with stuff you probably already have on hand. Feel free to tinker with it too.

1/2 cup Heinz ketchup
1/2 cup Heinz vinegar (gf)
1/2 cup sugar or sweetener
1/2 cup water (more or less to adjust how thick or thin you want the sauce)

Mix in a bowl. That's it.

Sick tummy

Well, haven't been posting for a while. Kids have been sick. Actually, we've all been sick with a stomach virus -- a bad one. The experience was so bad with our littliest that it prompted me to post about how we handled a very touchy situation. Maybe somebody out there will benefit from this.

Our littliest is 3 and vomitted everything out of her system. She couldn't eat or hold water for more than a day and we became very concerned about dehydration. So, we tried this, and it worked.

We took a tablespoon of a roll and fed it to her, then a quarter cup of water. Set a timer for 20 minutes. Do it again. Repeat all day if necessary. Later, we switched to diced potatoes boiled in salt.

The little food is enough to keep the water down and eventually, the water will rehydrate the body, the food helps to settle the stomach and your kid starts to feel better. We did this for most of a day to keep water in her system. The second day we didn't adjust much. We started out the same and then upped the portions by 2x starting with lunch. We also added some cubed chicken pieces at lunch -- not a lot -- and some carrot.

It wasn't until the third day that we were able to add more food and unlimited water. But, again, this was a very bad stomach virus.

A flour mix for all baking

This is a very versatile flour mix. You can make many different baked goods using it. All start with the basic dry mixture.

BLOG UPDATE: Note, these are some of my first basic recipes. They are simple and crude. Yet, they are enough to get started and get cooking. If you're looking for something else, browse my blog for some of my newer bread and cookie recipes, like Lindsay's Bread or my All-purpose cookie mix. On this page, however, the Basic dry mix below is very versatile and can be used as a foundation for just about anything.

Basic dry mix
-------------
1/2 cup chickpea flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup potato starch
2 tbsp sugar
3 tsp egg replacer powder(Ener-G)
2 tsp xanthan gum
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sea salt

1 - Dinner rolls
Add:1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup water

Mix dry ingredients. Add oil and water. Beat with blender. Using WET hands, form circles and place on ungreased cookie sheet or in muffin tins. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes.

2 - Pie crust
(leave out baking powder)
Add:1/2 cup canola oil
1/3-1/2 cup water

Mix dry ingredients. Add oil. Beat with blender. Add 1/3 cup water and mix. If too crumbly, add 1 tbsp at a time until less crumbly and able to be pressed without cracking. Press dough into greased pie plate. Bake 1 minute at 450. Then make pie as instructed.

3 - Meat or veggie wrap
(leave out baking powder)
Add:1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup water

Mix dry ingredients. Add oil and water. Beat with blender until workable dough forms. Add a tablespoon or two more flour if necessary. Cut dough into four portions. Roll each out, one at a time, on floured surface. Slice each into two pieces and place meat or veggies on closest edge. Wet the edge with water, then roll up the filling in two complete rotations. Slice off extra dough. Wet edge with water. Place edge side down on greased cookie sheet. Brush tops with oil and salt. Bake at 400 for 10 minutes.

4 - Cinnamon cookies
Same as #3
(add 1 tsp baking powder)

Roll out entire dough and end with the longest section being the width in front of you. Brush with canola oil. Sprinkle with cinnamon and generous amount of sugar. Roll up. Seal edge with water. Brush top with oil and sugar. Cut into 1/2 wide cookies. Place on greased cookie sheet and bake for 5-10 minutes at 400.

5 - Crackers (like saltines)
Same as #3.
(Leave out baking powder)

Roll out entire dough into a near-square shape. Brush top with oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Use a pizza cutter to cut rows both ways. Prick crackers with a fork. Bake at 400 for 10 minutes on greased cookie sheet.
- variation: add onion or garlic powder to the dough.

6 - Pancakes
Do NOT use the entire dry mix recipe above. Use 1 cup of the gf flours (1/3 tapioca, 1/3 potato starch, 1/3 chickpea). Add 2 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp salt, 2 tsp baking powder and mix with 2 tbsp oil and 1/3-1/2 cup water. Pour batter 1-2 tbsp at a time onto hot nonstick pan with 1 tsp oil on it.

7 - Bagels
Same as #1.
Add 1/2 canola oil
1/2 cup water

Add 1 cup extra flour mix (tapioca, potato starch, chickpea) to the recipe. Heat broiler on high, set rack two rungs down. Boil pan full of water on stove top. Grease a cookie sheet with Spectrum shortening. On a floured surface, with floured hands, roll a ping pong sized ball of dough between hands until smooth. With a floured finger, poke hole through middle. With dough still around finger, smooth the dough on the bottom that's disturbed from the poking, then pull off. Repeat for all. Place on sheet. Broil small bagels for 2 mins then flip and broil another 2 mins. Watch closely. They should lightly brown on top but not burn. This will happen quickly. Repeat for all. Place bagels in boiling water for 2 mins then flip and another 2 mins. Meanwhile, turn off broiler and heat oven to 350. Place bagels on paper towel while doing the rest. Put bagels on cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 15 mins for smaller sized and 20-30 mins for larger, depending on size.

Here's an optional recipe that also works: Mix 1 cup gf flour, 2 tbsp sugar, 2 tsp baking powder, 2 tsp xanthan gum and 1/3 cup water. Then, follow same directions as above. The difference between the recipes is this: recipe 2 is a little chewier like a real bagel and recipe 1 looks more like a real bagel. Both are good and my kids will eat both. Try both out and take your pick.

Enjoy.

Dutch potatoes

This is a staple in our home since rice and corn are not allowed. The recipe is quick and easy. It's also healthier than fried potatoes.

Ingredients
5-6 potatoes
sea salt
paprika
water

Peel potatoes and wash. Cube the potatoes or cut into any desired form - strips, wedges, big chunks, small pieces, diced, etc.

Put into large pan. Sprinkle 1 tsp sea salt over potatoes. Pour 1 cup water over potatoes. Cover with lid. Cook on medium high for 20 minutes or until tender. When water's nearly gone, sprinkle 1-2 tsp paprika over potatoes and then stir for 1 minute to mix paprika in and "dry up" some of the potato juice.

Eat.

Oven "fried" chicken

OK -- this is really easy.

Ingredients:
Chicken legs and wings, cut up.
Chickpea flour
Sea salt
Paprika
Hot pepper powder
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Canola oil

Heat oven to 400. Wash chicken. Toss 1 tablespoon oil over chicken in a bowl. Hand toss to coat.Mix dry ingredients in bowl. When oven is hot, toss chicken and coat in the dry mix. Coat generously. Bake in oven for 10 minutes. Turn, drizzle oil sparingly on top of chicken. Bake 5 more minutes.

Very good.

Shoo Fly Pie

If you've never had this Amish pie, you're missing out. And, it lends itself well to a GFCF version of the original recipe. The pie is in three parts: crust, filling and topping.

Crust
-------
1/2 cup chickpea flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup potato starch
2 tbsp sugar - Wholesome Sweeteners
3 tsp egg replacer - Ener-G
2 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 cup canola oil
1/3-1/2 cup water

Mix dry ingredients. Add oil. Beat in with blender. Add 1/3 cup water and mix. If too crumbly, add 1 tbsp at a time until less crumbly and able to be pressed without cracking.

Topping
---------
3/4 cup GFCF flour (1/4 cup sorghum, 1/4 cup chickpea, 1/4 cup tapioca)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar - Wholesome Sweeteners
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
2 tbsp Spectrum organic shortening

Mix together until crumbly.

Filling
-------
1/2 cup blackstrap molasses - Golden Barrel (unsulphured)
3/4 cup boiling water
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 egg yolk (I subbed with Ener-G (1.5 tbsp powder/1 tbsp water)

Mix together well.

Directions:
1 - Press crust dough into greased pie plate.
2 - Bake 5 mins at 450.
3 - Pour filling and topping in layers into pie crust. Leave enough topping aside for one layer.
4 - Bake 10 mins. at 450. Pull from oven.
5 - Add leftover topping.
5 - Bake 20 mins more at 350 or until firm.

Enjoy.

The cause of autism?

This likely is interesting to anyone reading this blog. It might explain why you have to eat this way. This article ran worldwide and you can easily find it on the web. I've reposted the version from the Globe and Mail.

Chemicals may be damaging kids' brains
SHERYL UBELACKER
Canadian Press

Environmental exposure from hundreds of industrial chemicals could be damaging the developing brains of children worldwide, but few of the potentially toxic compounds are regulated because too little is known about their effects, researchers say.
In a paper published on-line today in The Lancet, two specialists in environmental medicine (each of whom has spent decades studying the effects of lead and mercury exposure on fetuses and children) compiled a list of 201 industrial chemicals they say have the capacity to cause irreparable damage to the developing human brain.
Lead author Philippe Grandjean, chair of environmental medicine at the University of Southern Denmark, said he and co-author Philip Landrigan of New York's Mount Sinai School of Medicine had similar experiences while studying the neurotoxicity of lead and mercury.
"First, things were seen in adults," he said, then in children exposed in early childhood, or those whose mothers were exposed during pregnancy. "And then we wondered: Is this only happening with mercury and lead?" Dr. Grandjean said in a telephone interview from Copenhagen.
The two researchers undertook an extensive review of published data on chemical toxicity to create a list of those agents most likely to harm the developing brain. Their tally of 201 compounds includes everything from arsenic to benzene and phenol. About half the chemicals are ubiquitous in industrial processes and products and could make their way into the environment through air, water and food.
But because there is a dearth of research on the effects of these chemicals specifically on children, their use has not been regulated in the same way as mercury, lead and PCBs.
The researchers argue that the lack of international regulation is putting children around the globe at potential risk, and they worry whether exposure to such chemicals could be behind such conditions as autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. (The causes of these conditions remain unknown.)
Calling the potential for harm a "silent pandemic," the researchers are urging governments worldwide to begin strictly controlling these chemicals, instead of waiting for years of testing to provide definitive scientific proof that they are either harmful or benign.
"What we are saying is we cannot afford to wait decades because that way we will expose another generation of children to toxic chemicals that will affect their brains permanently," Dr. Grandjean said. "We cannot afford to do that."
But Warren Foster, director of the Centre of Reproductive Care at Ontario's McMaster University, said there is no data to support the idea that chemical exposure is harming children or that conditions such as autism are caused by such pollution. While Dr. Foster has high regard for the two researchers and calls the goal of their review "lofty," he said their suggestion that industrial chemicals are causing neurotoxic effects in fetuses and young children is "a hypothesis that requires testing."
"The kids actually have to be exposed," Dr. Foster said. "Simply because things are in the environment does not necessarily mean that children are exposed, or are exposed to the concentrations necessary to create the neurotoxicity."
"I don't think it helps them to create fear when we don't have evidence of a problem."
Still, Dr. Foster concedes that until there is definitive evidence of their effects, people should be cautious in limiting exposure to industrial chemicals -- for instance, by not heating food in margarine tubs that can produce harmful compounds.
However, he's more concerned that governments could start banning chemicals based on insufficient data, only to replace them with compounds about which nothing is known.
"We still need coolants, we still need plasticizers, we still need flame retardants, we still need solvents," he said.