Everyday Living On The Autism-GFCF Diet
By CassidyS
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Introduction, Information on Blanched Almond Flour
Find all of my gluten free casein (dairy) free recipes at cookingglutenfree.blogspot.com
Hello! My name is Cassidy. I am married and have a 6 year old boy (Lance) and a 4 year old girl (Ava). Lance has been diagnosed with PDD-NOS, which is in the autism spectrum. We went on the gluten free casein free (gfcf) diet in June of 2009, also known as the autism diet. For more information on this diet click here.. Another great hub to visit is TurnOnYourSenses. The author is a pediatric Physical Therapist and Infant Massage Instructor. She specializes in, among other things, developmental disabilities and spectrum disorders. It is my goal to write a simple gfcf cookbook to help other moms with children in the spectrum-which is what this blog is all about. When we first started, the diet was daunting. I couldn't find any substitutes for flour. There are many non-gluten flours out there, but none of them can stand on their own and not many are very healthy. All the recipes I could find had at the least 3-4 flours in one recipe. Mixing the flours was very confusing, time consuming and costly, with each 1lb. bag costing anywhere from $3.50 to $5.00. I had about 15 different flours in my pantry with no idea how to use them and no way to adapt any of my old recipes. Then I came across blanched almond flour and coconut flour at elanaspantry.com. Almond flour is one of the healthiest flours with a low glycemic index (for blood sugar), lots of protein, and the texture works well in recipes. Buying almond flour retail is expensive so I always order mine from the link below-it is the cheapest I have found. It costs about $30 (including shipping) for a 5 lb. bag. Many other almond flours, such as Bobs Red Mill, is not ground as fine as the Honeyville brand and doesn't always yield good results. Best of all it tastes great and requires no mixing with other flours-I was hooked! Coconut flour is also a healthy alternative with high fiber and no mixing! Due to the sweetness of coconut flour, however, it seems to only work well in muffins and cakes. Sometimes, though, I do substitute some of my almond flour for coconut flour to increase the fiber and that seems to work well. In all of my recipes I use finely ground sea salt and all of my ingredients, including eggs, are room temperature. Room temperature eggs work better in gluten-free recipes because they'll rise better. I just run mine under warm water for a few seconds. The almond flour also works better at room temperature, otherwise the texture doesn't turn out as well. I know many people on the gfcf diet also limit or do no sugar. I like using agave nectar (which also has a low-glycemic index) and other natural sweeteners when it doesn't alter the taste or texture of the food. However, I do use some sugar. Besides, using agave nectar or specialty oils to replace dairy-free butter can be expensive, especially when you already spend so much on flour. I can't guarantee the outcome of any recipes that are altered, but if you do replace the sugar in my recipes just use about 2/3 C agave per cup of sugar and slightly increase the dry ingredients or decrease the liquids by 1/4 to 1/2. I am on a mission to find tasty, everyday gfcf recipes with simple ingredients using only blanched almond flour and coconut flour to make life just a little easier for other families dealing with the same trials. Besides baking, I also want to include easy, basic recipes that usually contain gluten or casein such as chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, pizza, taco seasoning, salad dressings, and much more.
Tomorrow is my grocery day, then onto baking. I want to have my recipe perfected so I can take them to Lance's therapy appt. on Thursday. Every Thursday Lance has an occupational therapy appt. where he does music therapy, also known as Therapeutic Listening. He has issues involving his senses (Sensory Processing Disorder) which is what the music therapy targets. He has special earphones and specially recorded music that target areas such as feeling your body in space, balance, coordination...normal everyday things that we take for granted. Once his body has become as regulated as possible from the music therapy we'll be better able to pinpoint his specific problems and work on them. He has made tremendous progress with his music therapy along with his special ed classes at the Purcell schools where he receives Physical Therapy, Speech Therapy, and additional Occupational Therapy. I want to take my recipes to his Thursday appt.'s so other people can taste test them-many of whom are on the same diet. So far, I haven't pursued publishing my book but I think Mrs. Theresa has a few places for me to start. For those of you who don't know Lance, I want you to know that he is very loving, tender-hearted, and smart. In fact, when he had his evaluation he actually scored a 6, which is out of the autism spectrum. 7 is PDD-NOS and 8+ is autistic. However, the neuro-psychologist told us he had significant red flags. And also he has an average IQ, which brought his score down. Only about 20% or less of autistic children have an average IQ and those children tend to slip through the cracks in testing then start displaying problems later-around the teenage years-because they haven't received the specialized attention they need. The psychologist felt that Lance was one of these children-High Functioning Autistic. Hence, she gave him a provisional diagnosis of PDD-NOS with a re-evaluation in one year. Once he turns 5 the testing will be more accurate and so will the diagnosis. If Lance had a different diagnosis of a 7, 8...severely autistic, I don't know if there's any way I could stick to the diet, much less practice my recipes. That's why I want to write this cookbook, to help moms whose children do have this diagnosis-so they can have an easy way to better help their children.
Blanched Almond Flour
- Gluten Free Certified Kosher Blanched Almond Flour
Honeyville's Gluten Free Kosher Blanched Almond Flour in the 5 pound bulk bag.
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Comments
Way to go Cassidy, looks great!
You make your mama so proud!
Thanks so much for the support! I'll be posting my first recipe soon.
Great job Cass - If there was a Mother of the Year, you would have my vote hands down!!
Thanks for posting info about the flours...last week I just started looking into not having gluten...i started noticing when I don't have carbs I feel so much better (I have a lot of stomach & related problems w/it..so this will help to know where to start. Does the coconut flour taste sweet? Also have you noticed if the diet has helped Lance? Look forward to your recipes.
Sandy-
I think the diet greatly helps Lance. Gluten seems to effect him a bit more than dairy, but we stay away from both. If he starts having more than the usual behavior problems I can usually trace it back to the diet. I really like coconut flour. Sweet-not sure. It's very light and fluffy, good for muffins and some cakes. It's not an exact science-lots of trial and error, but generally when replacing with coconut flour, you use about 1/4C coconut flour to every 3/4-1C flour and add the same amount of oil or coconut milk b/c it's very absorbent. I'm trying to perfect my blueberry muffin recipe and I'll post it when I get it.
I can tell a difference in Lance when he is following his diet. Also I have had Cassi's blueberry muffin and banana nut muffins and they were fantastic!
Awww....Good Job Cassidy!!! I have a client that's daughter has autism as well and is doing the gluten free diet and can tell a major difference!!!! Your a wonderful Mom and ur doing a great job with your babies...Lance is a stinkn cutie also I saw Regena's video of him helping Rusty. I love you and miss you! You guys need a vacation to Florida!!! :)
Thanks so much PJ-we love and miss you too. You can pass on one of my recipes to your client if you'd like it. Going to get on Facebook to see pict's and keep in touch.
Hi Cassidy! It's so awesome you started a blog! I love reading blogs! I just discovered them this winter! Can't wait to read your next post. Looking forward to seeing you guys again, soon!
What a wonderful idea, Cassidy! You rock!
Yeah, just add blogging to taking care of kids, including one that is in the autism spectrum, cooking like a crazy maniac, and teaching Zumba three times a week! It's amazing she can get so much done!
Hey miss cassy....you are AMAZING!!!!I am so proud to have you as part of my family...and Lance and ava are VERY FORTUNATE to have you to look after them and care for their every need and try to make their lives better....I know it's sooo easy to just run here and there to pick up silly things that we think don't matter...and MANY parents would not even put forth any effort....it takes energy and an amazing love...which you have had even before you knew this...anyway...I am very proud of you and will pass on any materials or recipes to anyone I know it would possibly benefit...love and hugs~~~aunt jenny~~~
Wow! What a great job, Cassidy, I'm impressed!
Hey Cassidy!! I will be following your blog for sure.Trev has a sensitivity to gluten. I tried some pre-packaged products years ago. They were terrible so I never pursued it further.Get those recipies rollin and I will let you know how we do. LOVE to all!!
Just to let everyone know, I had a piece of the gfcf poppyseed cake the other day and it was delicious! Pretty to look at too.
Enjoy reading your adventures. Your life sounds very full and very happy. Even when the kids do something wild, we laugh. Someday Lance and Ava will read this and be very proud you are their Mom.
You mentioned Thursday night pizza that we have heard raves about. How about sharing your pizza crust recipe?
So cool that you are sharing your recipes--our family needs to eat better so we will be following for sure!
Jeanie-
The pizza crust you've heard raves about is the Bob's Red Mill pizza crust. I just started trying my own pizza crust using almond flour a few weeks ago. Last week when we were sick I made about 6 pizza crusts but found a pretty good one. Once I get it more perfected I'll share it with you.
A great article! I look forward to reading more.
Can't wait to try the new receipes!!
Mary-
Thank you for contacting me via e-mail. You can give my hub site address to anyone whom you think will benefit. I hope you enjoy my sites and my recipes. If you have any comments or questions about any of my posts/recipes feel free to contact me again via e-mail or leave a comment on my hub page.
The mexican chicken with the gf cream of chicken soup is really good!
Hey tell Lance & Ava that Nanna & Pappa can't wait to see them this weekend!
I liked your lasagna, and I don't even like italian food!
Great info and wonderful blog - thanks for all you do!
Awesome information! You are now added to my hero list! I cannot imagine the time and energy it must take to raise Lance!
The content of this hub is pretty impressive! Well done for spreading the love! :)
Sandy-
Awhile back you asked if coconut flour was sweet & I wasn't sure. Well, after experimenting a lot with this flour I have found that it is sweet and has a distinctive flavor. I have tried to make many things with this flour but found that it only works well in things like muffins and cakes, because of the sweetness. If you just want to add more fiber to a recipe you can substitute about 20% of the flour with coconut flour and it works well, but when only using it, it needs to be a sweet recipe. I have also found that if it's really humid outside it seems to absorb the moisture from the air and is more moist!-interesting right.
Cassidy- Nice job! I am very impressed with your page. I appreciate your recipes you posted, and I am looking forward to trying them. I can tell a big difference in how I feel when I eat a gluten-free diet.
I bought some soy-flour a few weeks ago, and I made some cookies with it. My boys didn't really care for them, but I likes them. Have you made anything that you and your family really likes with Soyflour?
Please tell the family we said hello, Love you guys!
I have to say out of all the flours I've tried, I've never tried soy flour. But I do know that Kate E. has a good pizza crust recipe using only white rice flour (I'm still trying to perfect my almond flour pizza crust). So far, my family's favorite thing has been the blueberry coffee cake, and in that recipe you could probably substitute the almond flour for soy flour.
Love you guys also!
Shannon-
The poppyseed cake was also a big hit, very easy to make, and didn't require any specialty flours. Hope your family likes my recipes!
Believe me the Bluberry Coffe Cake is definately as good to eat as it looks!
That bread looks delicious, can't wait to try it!
this is a very insightful and helpful blog. I'll be looking up almond flour, as I am diabetic ( just found out a very short time ago) and love to bake so finding healthy choices and low G.I flour to use is a boon. Also ( for adults)almonds have propitiates that lower risk of heart attacks and strokes and a lot of other beneficial healthy propitiates so they are like one of the super foods, So I asume these propitiates would be carried over into the flour made from them.
Thanks for sharing your gluten-free experiences!
Maddi 2 years ago
Good job on the blog sis!!