What Nessa Eats (Gluten Free menus for a PICKY 3 year old)

OK, I'm going to put this here (and hence FB) for future reference. I'm writing it because I've had more than one friend ask me about this recently, and many more than that request gluten free info. So, there will likely be some additional posts after this as well.

First for your entertainment, I asked Nessa what her favorite foods are:
"Tacos and peach-strawberry smoothies"

She was eating Tacos at the time and I have no idea about the Peach Strawberry smoothies except that I have NEVER made her own ... but I will be Thursday as I told her we could have them when Shawn is gone on Thursday.

So, Shawn said, "what about Pizza and hamburgers?"
Nessa: "OK, I like tacos, pepperoni pizza, peach-strawberry smoothies ... AND THAT IS IT"

Well, we know that she eats other things but she really does LOVE tacos lately -- and that would be the wonderful hard shell corn tortillas like I grew up with (memories!) or soft corn tortilla wraps (recently discovered the sprouted ones by Food for Life and we all LOVE those because they simply taste wonderful, yes even I eat them).

I then asked Nessa about Breakfast, and she said "cereal." Well, that has been her favorite lately. Mostly Enviro Kids ones, but also Erwhon rice krispie like cereal (be careful both companies have both gluten free and non gluten free cereals). There are also a number of other GF cereals available at all of the grocery stores around here, but those are the main kinds we get. And we're kind of happy Nessa is finally eating all the cereal we bought awhile ago as otherwise she was on a GF waffle a day kick (Van's all natural). She also eats her toast w/ peanut butter (or sunflower butter as is the case currently) and/or jelly (usually simple Kinnikinnick bread straight from freezer to toaster). And sometimes I get her to drink a green smoothie (gasp).

Her favorite packaged snacks right now are the following:

• Smoreables from Kinniknnick We only found these recently and boy are we happy to have found a gluten free graham cracker!
• Glutino pretzels
• Jennies Macaroons
• Fruit Leathers (the organic ones at the co-op can't think of the name ... need to make more of these homemade)
• Edy's frozen fruit bars
• Enviro Kids "granola bars" really cereal bars ... and really any GF of these types of bars but the EnviroKids is what we get the most of and she is usually only allowed to have them when we're "on the road."
  

Remember Nessa is also Dairy/Casein free right now too ... so no more yummy cheese crackers (at least not until Enjoy Life food comes out with some like I've heard rumours of), but for those of you that do not have that worry, you may get addicted to the Cheddar Cheese Almond Nut Thins!!

Snack cracker I most like Nessa to have (other than those I make in the dehydrator with flax and other seeds and veggies): Mary's Gone Crackers (and yes she likes them as do most people that try them).

Favorite non-packaged snacks:

• bananas
• smoothies
• ham! (that kid will eat Beeler's ham almost any time we will let her)
• my homemade granola (this is new so we'll see if it lasts)
• grapes
• raisins (could be considered packaged I guess, but naturally GF)
• applesauce

MENU for the WEEK (compliments of daycare)
Monday
Breakfast-- Kinninnick English Muffins, apples, Vanilla Rice Milk
Lunch -- Pizza on GF crust, broccoli, pineapple, Vanilla Rice Milk (I'm not saying she eats all of it)
Snack -- GF crackers, juice

Tuesday
Breakfast -- Toast (Kinninick), pineapple, vanilla milk
Lunch -- Tator Tots and hamburger, green beans, applesauce, vanilla milk
Snack -- GF bread sticks (glutino ?) w/ dipping sauce, juice

Wednesday
Breakfast -- GF waffles, mixed fruit, vanilla milk
Lunch -- Peanut Butter sandwich, french fries (few different GF brands, including specific ore-ida ones such as Ore-Ida Golden (Crinkle, Fries), peas, pears, vanilla milk (note, if PB and fries seems odd it's because most of the other kids were having chicken patties, we told them it was OK to substitute PB sometimes like that ... she likes it better anyway I bet)
Snack -- GF graham crackers (Smoreables by Kinninnick)

Thursday
Breakfast -- GF cereal, bananas, vanilla milk
Lunch -- GF noodles (rice pasta) and sauce, mixed veggies, peaches, vanilla milk
Snack -- rice cakes, juice

Friday
Breakfast -- GF muffins (?? there are a variety of mixes this my have been another kinninnick one as most of the special daycare items are), peaches, and vanilla milk
Lunch -- Tacos, Mexican rice, corn, mixed fruit, vanilla milk
Snack -- jello, bananas, and juice

Favorite Suppers and other
Well, you've already heard she loves tacos and pizza. We do tacos at least once a week now, and pizza not quite that often (she uses the only GFCF cheese we can find here -- Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet). We also do A LOT of "Hamburgers and Fries" (often actually buffalo meat) and we do it with our own potatoes cut in wedges in the oven mostly. Sometimes if I'm cooking I'll do meatloaf (Shawn doesn't like it but Megan requests it) and I love that because then I can hid veggies in it!. We also do chicken in a number of ways but mostly Nessa only wants to eat the PLAIN chicken breast so if there are any "green things" or fancy sauces we cook hers separately or pick them off (I told her that her uncle Scott had to pick his own green things off when he was a kid!). And we do all sorts of potatoes from scratch with the chicken as well as rice or other GF grain dishes like quinoa. Recently I made a dish that Megan and Shawn loved so we'll do it again -- just chop chicken breasts into cubes, potatoes into cubes, (and sweet potatoes into cubes), and put some garlic, rosemary and olive oil to coat them and put in baking dish and bake all together ... I think that will become a standard one). We also do A LOT of spaghetti but most of the time Nessa just wants naked noodles anyway which makes no sense since she loves pizza sauce to dip things in otherwise. She also loves ketchup (Annies' Organics but Heinz is GF if you don't mind High Fructose Corn Syrup). GF pasta is more expensive than regular pasta but we still do it at least once a week. And there is always the Beeler's ham when it's just the two of us and I have a salad (might get her to eat some carrot sticks and applesauce with her ham). :-)

On weekends Nessa eats a lot of eggs and hash browns (homemade). We used to make a lot of Buckwheat pancakes back when I was eating pancakes but I can't remember the last time we made pancakes or waffles homemade since I stopped eating them.

I'm sure I'll think of more later .... I do have a few recipes I need to post in the next few days too ... like the Millet squares that everyone likes so much.

~Tami

P.S. I'm trying to gather a good list of resources to pass on to others so if you're gluten free and reading this, please comment with your favorite one or two resources (sites, blogs, etc.) as well as any of your own favorite foods!

Also, I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since we last posted ... that is what happens when deadlines hit at work! I hope to make up for it this weekend!

Yup, She's My Daughter

Shawn here. Yesterday I was helping Nessa get dressed, and we had a little disagreement about who should move so we'd be closer. I meant to say "You should move because you're the young person," but I actually said "You should move since you're the young girl." Nessa picked up on that immediately, saying "I can't be the young girl, because you're a boy." I was flabbergasted. It was impressive enough to realize she was capable of advanced relational reasoning at age three, but given how often her words get away from her, it was even more impressive that she expressed her understanding so succinctly.

And yes, she's excellent at splitting hairs. Her Grandma Jan will tell you she gets that from her Dad...

Sweet Dreams

Remember how I said that sleeping children are one of God's secret weapons? That weapon has extra powers when the parents have been away for a few hours ...

Saturday night when we came home from the theatre, I went to check on Nessa and found her sleeping so sweetly I had to take pictures ... or at least try (bad camera for taking night pics)

Notice the little "breathe right" strip? I bought them in desperation when she was having a hard time breathing at night last week. Of course in true Nessa fashion she now wants to wear one every night! Of course she only wants the green ones!

Look on the headboard and you'll see the entire lineup of what Nessa is now using most nights out of ritual ... the breath right strips, some rescue remedy, some "mellow" essential oil (lavender and sandlewood I think), and some saline spray. Now if only our sweet girl could be as obsessive about teeth brushing and saying prayers!

Commentary or just a tired girl?

So tonight Shawn is working late and I opted to let Nessa stay up to "watch" the President's Press Conference with me. I hyped it up by saying we could eat some banana ice cream while we watched and we could snuggle up in our jammies ahead of time. Well, Nessa opted not to put her jammies on (well, she had her nightgown on only to her wait over her jeans), but she sure remembered the icecream part...and then we settled in to watch...

... apparently President Obama talking about economics isn't as exciting as hearing him talk while on the campaign trail (oh, wait Megan fell asleep during a debate I let her stay up and watch ... never mind).


The best time to take pictures of Nessa is when she is sleeping though, so of coruse I did! Do you love the headband? I can't even remember where it first came from, but I've had it for years and mainly use it in my stash to keep my hair out of my face while washing my face. Nessa has decided that it is her headband now and wears it as often as possible, and of course she puts it on by herself. It's SO cute!

I had asked her to lay next to me (I was sitting right next to her), and she just looked at me sweetly and explained that she WAS laying next to me. So I had to specifically ask her to lay her head on my shouldar or lap ... she declined, and that is SO Nessa.

By the way I think that the fact that even older children are adorable when sleeping (babies are a given) is God's secret weapon in assuring that the next generation survive. :-)

I just LOVE that sweet little hand!

Christmas Thank You Shout-Outs ... part two of many (Heidi, Ben, Jake and/or Marcus)

Tami here with more Christmas Thank You Shout Outs --

These were the great gifts that Nessa received as part of the gift exchange the cousins do on the Groth side...but I can't remember which one of Heidi's boys actually had Nessa's name (oops). Either way it was a great and much-appreciated gift -- THANK YOU!

Curious George is still a favorite, so this new book was especially appreciated!


And if you look closely you can see Nessa holding the great clothes that were also part of this wonderful gift. I'm sure if you look at our photo stream over the winter you'll see Nessa wearing this great shirts A LOT. She loves them and likes to wear them a lot.

Below is a picture of Nessa wearing the flower shirt on Christmas ... after a big day at the zoo she ended up falling asleep in the chair while watching a video ... sadly the great flower shirt doesn't always have such magical powers. :-)

Christmas Thank You Shout-Outs ... part two of many (Grandma and Grandpa Groth)

Don't let the cheesy smile fool you, Nessa LOVES her Cinderella sweatshirt! Nessa has been wearing her sweatshirt(s) from Grandma Karen nearly every day this winter!




And here is Nessa holding tight to all her goodies stashed in the great Toy bags Grandma found!


Of course this post would not be complete without an official thank you to Grandpa and Grandma Groth for ALL of the wonderful gifts we received at Christmas (whether they were Christmas gifts or not) -- from little things like the great scarf to the BIG things like the WONDERFUL time spent in the timeshare in Brownsville. And while there aren't great photos to share, Megan LOVED her gift cards too (So far we've had one awesome night at Barnes and Noble and many hours since then watching videos and reading books that she got that night.)

THANK YOU!

~Tami (and family) :-)

New Years 2009

After returning from our Texas trip we were tired, but not too tired to make it to the Big Event La Crosse New Years Party (at Logan this year). It was a blast, and it was made even more fun by being joined by good friends. :-)

Below is a pic of all the kids after we got home that night.

Nessa had so much at the craft tables at the New Years event that she decided (with mom's help) that she would have a "Craft" birthday party this year. In fact she'll be having her first birthday party in a few years, and her first ever kids birthday party. And mom is a little worried at how fast that date will be coming up ... wow, Nessa is almost 4!!!

Christmas Day 2008: Brownsville Zoo

So have we told you all where we were on Christmas? ;-) Now that I'm finally getting my pictures uploaded from the various cameras to my computer and various websites (check Flickr for more pics), I thought I should remind you that Christmas Day for us was gloriously sunny, and yes the girls were able to wear shorts on Christmas.

We spent the day at the Brownsville zoo, and it was great fun, and simply a joy to be outside in the sunshine. :-) Below are Nessa and Max -- first in the baby animal area and then stopping for a moment to pose for us.
~Tami