Something I haven’t written about too much on this blog is my daughter’s gluten free diet. I decided it was time. She had severe reflux as a baby and would cry with belly pain. I know I know, how could I possibly know she was in pain or that it was her poor little belly bothering her. Call it mother’s intuition, or whatever you want, but I just knew. I became ‘that’ mom; the one knocking on doctors’ doors demanding that they really ‘look’ at my daughter rather than write her off as being demanding, needy, or simply colicky. She never slept well and would eat and eat and eat but not put on weight. By about a year and a half, I requested the blood test for Celiac’s Disease. The blood test is unreliable under the age of 2, but I wasn’t about to put her through a scope. As I was warned that it would, the blood test came back negative, however, she did have other markers for the disease. I decided that day (along with her doctor) that she would start a gluten free diet. Because she needed to be gluten free, we were all going gluten free at home. That said, you can bet that when out of the house, the rest of us devour ‘real’ bread like it’s the last thing we are ever going to eat. That was one of the best decisions I ever made as a parent. She began to thrive. She no longer cried in pain, she began sleeping much better, and most importantly started gaining weight. She is now back to a fantastic weight and height for her age and is a perfect 2 year old. I will most likely get her tested again in the future, but for now, this works for us.
So for dinners, I am constantly scouring Pinterest looking for fun ways to make living gluten free at home doable. Given the availability of gluten free options for pasta, crackers and bread, it really isn’t too hard. However, it’s still fun to explore and create new recipes to maintain this ‘new to us’ lifestyle! One of my favorite grains (ok I think it’s really a seed?) is quinoa. We use it in meatloaf instead of bread crumbs at times, and although it makes the loaf a bit more dense, it’s very tasty and adds even more protein to the recipe. For tonight, we are eating it in a tabbouleh type salad as a side dish (on top of chicken).
Ingredients:
– 1 cup of cooked quinoa (red or white)
– 2 tbsp lemon juice
– 1 tbsp olive oil
– 1 tsp salt
– 2 tomatoes
– 1 nectarine
– 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
Directions:
1. Whisk the lemon juice, olive oil and salt together in a bowl.
2. Add cooked quinoa to the liquid and stir.
3. Finely chop the tomato, nectarine and cilantro and add to the quinoa.
4. Stir all ingredients together, cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.
That’s it! Super easy and delicious!
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