Monday, May 9, 2011

Gluten Free Menu Plan Monday In Retrospect and Eczema Update

So, we've officially been on a gluten free, dairy free, egg free, coconut free, and nightshade free diet for almost a week, and gluten free, dairy free for longer than that. This was an experiment to see if it would help my son, Ike's eczema, and I have to say, I'm already stunned by the results.
In order to make this experiment more accurate and to pinpoint exactly what it is that is helping or hurting the eczema, I continued to use the disposable diapers I was using when he broke out in his bad rash. (If I switched back to disposable and the rash went away, I wouldn't know if the healing was because of the diaper switch or the food elimination.) I also didn't put on any special creams.
The rash, I'm glad to say, went entirely away! No more trace of any skin issues. Until I served something with tahini in it. He started getting a rash again the next day. So now sesame is suspect, so we added that food to our list of no-nos. And then the rash started healing again and was mostly better... Until on Friday, Ike ate some leftovers of Mikes pita pizza that he brought home (gluten, dairy AND tomatoes!) and then Saturday his rash got worse again. Fortunately he just had a bite or two of the pizza, so the rash didn't get terrible, but now it's already on the mend.
It's amazing to see what a difference the food we eat makes to our system...


I've officially weaned Ike, so I'm being a little less vigilant with myself about the foods I eat- I'll allow myself to eat peppers and tomatoes- but am still avoiding gluten, dairy, and eggs, because I've noticed that my stomach has felt a lot better than it has in a while, and (maybe this is just placebo effect) I have felt emotionally better than I have in a while- no underlying current of depression.

For the most part, I'm making foods for the entire family suitable to this strict diet, but occasionally, I'll make a food for Ike to eat, take out a serving or two for him, and then add something with nightshades, like the curried chickpeas below which had yellow peppers inside.

Instead of doing what I had planned to eat, this week the menu plan is in retrospect- what I ended up serving. Yes, I know, not all the meals are well rounded. Especially breakfast. But I'm still trying to figure this thing out.

Snacks have been fruit, veggies, rice cakes with spreads, and popcorn.

Monday:
Breakfast- rice with cinnamon and sugar (shopping desperately needed to be done)
Lunch- rice noodles with lentils, sauted onions, mushrooms, beets, cabbage, and carrots.
Supper- "Mac and Cheeze"- Homemade pasta made from millet and brown rice flour, boiled cabbage strips and carrot shavings, topped with vegan cheddar sauce made with sunflower seeds, tahini, brewers yeast, etc...


Tuesday:
Breakfast- millet buckwheat rice and apple muffins with homemade peanut butter
Lunch- "Mac and Cheeze"
Supper- Rice noodles with fried mushrooms, zucchini, and lentils

Wednesday:
Breakfast- Banana, sesame milk and pear milk shakes
Lunch- Rice noodles with veggies and lentils
Supper- Brown rice with cranberry beans, fennel, celery, and carrot sauce, pickled turnips

Thursday:
Breakfast- Shakes
Lunch- Brown rice with cranberry beans and veggie sauce, pickled turnips
Supper- Rice vermicelli with peanut sauce stir fry with gizzards, carrots, cabbage, bean sprouts

Friday:
Breakfast- Bananas and melon
Lunch- Rice vermicelli with stir fry
Supper- Miso soup with swiss chard, scallions, seaweed, and shitake mushrooms, homemade humus, kohlrabi salad, buckwheat, broccoli and asparagus with mushrooms, and Italian style chicken wings.

Saturday:
Breakfast- Rice cakes with peanut butter
Lunch- Artichoke with mustard sauce, humus, kohlrabi salad, buckwheat, broccoli and asparagus with mushrooms, chicken wings
Supper- Leftovers

Sunday:
Breakfast- Polenta, apples
Lunch- Kohlrabi salad, chickpeas, polenta
Supper- Rice with chickpea vegetable curry


What did you feed your family this past week? What are you planning on feeding your family in the near future?
Breakfast ideas that are gluten, dairy, egg, coconut, sesame, and nightshade free and don't take forever to prepare would be greatly appreciated!

Linking up to Menu Plan Monday.

1 comment:

  1. Hi, I was told by an expensive Naturopath to give my daughter lots of protein for her eczema. She can't have dairy, gluten, nuts, eggs and possibly coconut/nightshades. I buy sheeps yoghurt for her breakfast each day and mix in chia seeds, gut relief powder, probiotics, omega 369, flaxseed meal. Thinking of making my own goats milk kefir instead because sheeps yoghurt is soooo expensive!! GAPS diet has proven to cure eczema so looking into that also. :o)

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