A day of new foods

We've been on the GAPS diet for a month now and I've fallen into a rountine of regular meals that take minimal thought or effort. I no longer feel like I'm chained to the kitchen 4hrs a day or spending every waking moment thinking about the next meal or tomorrow and the day after.

I guess that's why I felt inspired to try a couple of new dishes today.

First up for lunch I wanted to try out the "pizza" recipe I found in the SCD book (I think?).

The base was made from grated pumpkin (recipe actually called for courgette but didn't have any), almond flour, eggs and cheese. Combined, pressed into a pie dish and baked till cooked. Then I layered on my usual pizza sauce and layered on cheese and baked for 10mins. Nathan liked it, but Danielle not so much (she ate the tomato and cheese topping). I would definitely try something other than the pumpkin in the base next time (or perhaps just a tastier pumpkin would do it).

Then for dinner I made a soup from my hot off the stove chicken broth - it was a bit of a flop which is a first. Nathan still ate it (this kid seems to enjoy all food lol) but Danielle didn't.

After dinner I put together a "baked honey apple slices" dish that I had from the SCD book. Oh wow! That was the tastiest thing I've had in ages. Apple peeled and sliced into a flan dish. Mix up 1/2 cup honey with the juice of one lemon (I used a big lemon). Pour over the apple and stir through. Sprinkle some cinnamon on top and dollop a few teaspoons worth of butter over. I then decided to turn it into a "crumble" type dish so mixed up some fine ground almonds with some desiccated coconut and sprinkled it over.

We decided that we have our birthday cake options sorted. OK, so not traditional cake and all that. But hey, we're far from traditional around here lol.

One child will have the homemade ice cream in a cake shape and the other will have an apple crumble. We figured we can get creative by decorating around the "cakes" (on a platter underneath the dish or something). Candles can still go in to each. Sounds pretty good to me anyway - hot apple crumble and ice cream.

More homemade

Well, I cooked up another batch of tomatoes this afternoon and came out with 5 servings for the freezer. Have had to move on to the upright freezer since I've got the underfridge one bursting at the seams. My tomatoes are definitely out-performing last years both in yield as well as size. I think we'll get them to last quite well especially since I don't seem to cook with tomatoes so much while on the GAPS diet (probably since I can't serve up pasta sauce on pasta at the moment which was a good staple meal a few times a week before).

I put another batch of yoghurt on as I used up the last 500ml for making some ice cream GAPS style.

2 cups of homemade yoghurt
1 ripe banana
2 tsp honey
1/2 tsp pure vanilla essence

It went down well, we'll see how it goes down when I serve it up for the kids birthday party in April lol*.

Today I also received some almonds I'd ordered through our organic co-op and decided to try out some almond milk. So I set a cup of almonds to soak in water for 8hrs.

I then drained them, added 3 cups water and blended till smooth. I drained it through a fine sieve and added a little vanilla essence (and popped the pulp into the freezer for using in baking). It tasted nice but slightly bland but I'm sure Nathan at least will like it. I am investigating growing my own almond trees (apparently you need two or there are some dwarf self-fertilizing ones available). To buy organically from the shop the nuts are $40/kg and through the co-op around $20/kg which is a significant difference but still pricey in the big scheme of things.

*I am also looking at how I can throw the kids a small joint bithday party as sustainably as possible (their birthday's are 6wks apart). I will be catering the food GAPS style and have quite a few yummy options so far but a few recipes that still need testing. I am looking at getting or making some little bright coloured paper lanterns instead of balloons that can be kept and reused another time, making a bunting for decoration, making some new funky table napkins instead of disposable and a few party games that don't include a bunch of junk for kids to take home.

Yesterday Nathan wanted to make his own scrambled eggs. He's been increasingly wanting to cook his own food (banana pancakes are becoming a bit of a standard recipe around here and then he figured scrambled eggs weren't so different). I did do a bit of extra stirring for him, but the rest was his work.



We also did a batch of fresh juice yesterday with the arrival of our new vege box. We used beetroot, apple, orange and pear. I was busy washing out the gear and turned around and saw this sweet little face playing with her image in the stainless steel of the juicer.


I picked these long forgotten and neglected carrots the other day. This lot survived the carrot fly but didn't get thinned hence the stumpy appearance. They were tasty though and the kids enjoyed munching through.


And wow, tomorrow is the last official day of summer.

Getting things in order

It must be because we're on the other side of summer that I'm feeling the need to get in and get things in order for the coming winter.

I love all seasons - I don't really have a favourite one nor one that I despise. They all bring joy and have their beautiful moments. I think the kids have been feeling something similar by wanting to light the woodburner and read stories or fall asleep in front of it at bedtime. We ordered in firewood a few months back and it's all stacked and waiting...

This weekend we knocked off a few maintenance type jobs and general sorting that's been hanging around and creating a source of irritation whenever I remember it needs doing.

So, Simon fixed the kids swing and the hammock which were both in need of repair - ok, so not major save the world type jobs, but it gives them an outdoor outlet that gets them out in the garden, climbing in the trees etc and hopefully this time it won't come down (sorry Johanna, I feel terrible that poor M was on it at the time!).

Then he moved on to repairing a pipe under the house. We'd noticed a funny hissing sound in the bathroom for a few weeks but not really thought too much about it. It was only when I was in the front garden during the week that I peered under the house through the baseboards and noticed that one of the pipes was leaking water everywhere! So he figured out what he needed, had to hire a special tool to do the job and we're back to no-leaks. What a sense of achievement for him to add another skill to his list.

Meanwhile, I worked on...

Weeding the front garden and pulling out the old sunflowers (and put the heads into the chicken's coop) and everything else in there bar a couple of herbs/flowers. I intend on putting my winter brassica's in there - but am a bit concerned that it doesn't get natural water since it's under the eaves, so will need to be diligent about watering even during winter. I will also need to add a load of compost as the sand seems to have risen to the surface again.

I then did a bit of inside decluttering and organising.

My linen cupboard got a sort out and scaling down in size - I don't buy linen, but we seem to get gifted a few swimming towels for the kids every year and I thought it was time to get rid of some.

Then I moved into the storage cupboard in the laundry and it's amazing just what resorting does for creating more space.

I then tackled Danielle's wardrobe. Her cupboard seems to be the place where I chuck and store all surplus clothes and bits and pieces that have no home.

So I pulled out things, made up a box of clothes that are too small, toys that they've outgrown and managed to clear a space in her room by putting a small cupboard in there that was in the corner of her room.

I then got into my own clothing drawers and got ruthless. It's been a few years since I did that. There was a drawer at the bottom that is where all the clothes that don't get worn but I'm not yet ready to let go end up for a while. Well, that pretty much got emptied out today along with well worn and manky t-shirts.

Then...the front porch got a sort out and my seed raising area tidied. I then sowed some seeds into one of the propogators. Sadly, after all of this, my seeds have STILL not turned up, so I bit the bullet the other night and ordered some more Ecoseeds.

Arghhh, that feels good!

By request...Lentil Patties

OK, so I'm not very specific with my recipes anymore, they are kind of a throw together and whatever is on hand gets used.

This was the original recipe though...

1 cup of lentils (I use red) soaked for 10mins and rubbed free of starch, rinsed well
2 carrots grated
1/2 cup parsley
3 spring onions
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp lemon rind
1 egg
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
Oil for cooking

Boil the lentils until cooked (red lentils only take about 10mins). I have been boiling mine up in chicken or meat stock and just cooking till they absorb the liquid (I guess I use about 500mls of liquid).

Depending on what you have on hand (I don't have any parsley at the moment and spring onions only sometimes arrive in the vege box) I will substitute in onion (which I will chop finely and saute till soft with the garlic), or silverbeet/spinach chopped finely or grated courgette etc. I don't use breadcrumbs but add in some nut flour to thicken slightly.

Combine all ingredients together and if it is a batter type consistency I just drop if off a spoon into the hot pan.

Homemade tomato sauce

AKA Ketchup

Just another one of those super easy, super quick recipes that I would never have thought to have made myself.

Since store bought sauce has sugar and a variety of other additives, I found a ketchup recipe in the SCD book that looked promising.

1 cup of cooked up tomatoes
1 tablespoon of vinegar
honey to taste

Whiz up and serve. I froze the rest into serving sizes.

OK, so not really much like the good old Watties Tomato Sauce, but a pretty good alternative when dinner calls for a sauce. I'm sure I can work on adding some spices (perhaps allspice as per the baked bean recipe?) etc to add a bit of extra flavour.

Tonight's meal was meat patties (with carrot, onion, silverbeet and garlic) served with honey-roasted pumpkin pieces and broccoli.

My head is in a pretty good space now with coming up with ideas for meals and easily whipping something up without wandering around the kitchen in a daze trying to figure out what to feed us all. I've got a pretty good standard base of recipes now and am quite happy that full on meaty meals still only feature about 3 times a week. We have upped out fish eating and have a couple of vegetarian meals a week too.

Making a batch of lentil and vegetable patties has become a bit of a standard "snack" for Nathan (Danielle's not so keen on them, but then he's the hungry one and she's happy with other alternatives without needing the "bulk") that also doubles as breakfast the next day.

Another basket

I've finally been able to pick enough to fill my basket again.

I was surprised to see this lovely yellow courgette hiding under a leaf.

Here is one of many lurking out there in the undergrowth...

A big ole batch of tomatoes

Today I realised I'd accumulated quite a few tomatoes that gave me enough to cook down to freeze. It was hosing down outside, so was good to have a few inside domestic duties to get into which broke me from the hum-drum of washing, tidying and cleaning.

Last year I made them into a tomato fondue which I used for pizza sauce, pasta sauce in spaghetti bolognese etc - but since I've found myself all "cooked out" recently, decided to just cook them down plain and freeze into portion sizes that I can flavour up later.

I got about 4 cans worth from this batch.

And the kids enjoying some freshly cooked tomatoes...

And while I was in the mood I set another batch of beans to soak overnight to make up tomorrow. Yay, looking forward to easy lunches around here again for minimal cooking. Even though I have no store bought option at the moment due to the extra ingredients, if I were buying organic baked beans by the tin this works out at about the same cost while I am able to use my own home grown tomatoes.

We tasted our new batch of yoghurt today and I found it had a lovely tart taste which when done with a shorter culture time seems to not have so much. So, so far a success.

Homemade Baked Beans

Finally got around to doing these for tonight's dinner. Totally not my kind of thing, so think I'll pass lol. But the kids enjoyed it and declared them just like the "other" ones.

I didn't have a few of the ingredients that most of the recipes called for like molasses and allspice (and I wanted vegan ones and most recipes seemed to include pork bones or something), so made do with what I had. Fortunately my kids don't mind plain food.

300gm haricot/navy beans well covered with water and soaked over night
1 medium sized onion finely chopped
3 cloves garlic
2 T olive oil
2 tsp salt
pinch of stevia powder (sugar for those that can eat it)
400gm tinned tomatoes

Drain the beans after being soaked overnight. Put into a large pot, cover well with water and boil for 30mins.

In a pan heat the oil, fry the onion and garlic until very soft, add the salt, stevia and tinned tomatoes and reduce slightly to a thick sauce. I whizzed it up with the stickwhiz to make into a smooth sauce. Add in the cooked beans and toss till coated and serve.

This was totally modified and most recipes called for baking it in the oven as well, but I wanted them to resemble tinned beans, so kept them like this. I now have a left over portion for the freezer.

I can't believe this is also the first time I've used dried beans for any recipe...but then we don't tend to eat a lot of beans anyhow.

A bit of homemade...

So, I'm totally in the groove of making my own chicken and beef broths now.

I've been making my own yoghurt in the yoghurt maker for a few years, but today put on a batch to sit for 24hrs and ready to try out on the kids in a few days (have had to buy some calcium powder since the kids are getting way under the daily required amount at the moment).

I have plans for making my own baked beans now since the store bought ones contain sugar and maize flour which are both not allowed at the moment. The haricot beans (the only "legal" beans on the diet) are currently soaking and will be ready to cook up tomorrow. If successful I think I'll make a big batch and freeze into lunch portion sizes as an easy meal.

GAPS Day 8...

Breakfast: leftover patties and fish from last nights dinner, fried egg, a small chunk of cheese (first part of the dairy challenge).

Snack: dried banana, pear and peanut butter

Lunch: Fritatta - eggs, pumpkin, onion, kale, garlic, leek, salmon

Snack: almond milk, cashews, brazil nut

Dinner: Soup - chicken broth, 1/2 cabbage, 4 x onions, rosemary, thyme, salt, pinch stevia, balsamic vinegar

The dinner was a surprise. It really looks unappealing to me when on paper, but it is SO tasty and the kids scoffed it down.

Some seed sowing and apple eating...

This evening after a long busy day at the Chinese New Year festival and a super yummy dinner we headed down to the garden. Nathan and I sowed some seeds (beetroot, silverbeet, peas and cauliflower - the only available seeds from the *still* missing seed bag). While we were down there we rescued our poor apple tree and tamarillo tree from being dragged down with the convulvulus/bindweed. We then picked one of the yummy looking apples off our tree. We planted the tree at the end of winter - and I'm sure I've read somewhere that the first years fruit is meant to be picked off to allow the tree to grow - but somewhere along the way I forgot that so got to pick the apples. So yummy! And Nathan actually loved the idea of picking an apple and eating it as is (he usually requests that I cut and core the apples for eating).

GAPS day 7...

We left the house at 10am this morning, so needed to pack an entire days food (aside from buying a couple of drinks). This was the first time I've had to do this (and I thought packing for gluten free eating was challenging lol).

Breakfast: scrambled egg, dried banana and watermelon

Snack: apple slices with peanut butter

Lunch: banana pancakes, left over meat/vege patties, boiled egg, banana, pear, fruit juice.

Dinner: pan fried fish with fresh herbs and lemon juice, patties - pumpkin, silverbeet, onion, garlic, courgette. Avocado, tomato, broccoli for the kids and salad for me and Simon.

Snack: cashew nuts, watermelon, fresh squeezed orange with vitamin C and 3/4 tsp probiotic powder

Ahhhh, a satisfying day...

They seem to be few and far between at the moment, but today just felt like one of those lovely home days where plenty was done, people were busy, happy and content. I felt motivated (the key here I suspect!) to cook and provide food, get into the garden*, potter around the house, get on top of the dishes, laundry and general mess.

Just after 9am, the kids and I got out into the garden (Simon works Saturday). I wanted to dig over the 2nd vege bed to prepare it for tomorrow's afternoon planting (meant to be in line with the moon). I dug it, sprinkled some seaweed fertilizer on it and tomorrow will spread it with compost to be lightly dug through.

The kids got busy bouncing on the tramp, climbing trees, collecting tomatoes, gathering cicada skins, and Nathan built another teepee and collected some water from the trough and watched the baby mozzies swimming around - I sat down with a cup of herbal tea and my book on a blanket and enjoyed the fresh air.




I cooked lunch and provided snacks all day BEFORE the kids were saying they were hungry and catching me out in a moment of feeling a need for a rest - hmmm, I think this is what I need to be a bit more prepared with. It makes my life easier in the long run if I am prepared rather than getting things in the moment when the kids are already hungry. The only foods I really have to offer them as ready-to-eat is fruit, nuts and carrot sticks with peanut butter which only cut it for so long. I suspect what happened today if I now have a few options to work with that will become my "regulars" and it's just taken a week to collect together a few easy ideas without having to put in too much mental energy into it.

This afternoon we read stories, the kids coloured and I got to read for a bit with a cup of tea, I put on to cook a chicken broth from our roast the night before, we were going to make playdough and I decided to use up some of the gluten free flours in the pantry and ended up with this strange gloop instead. Was a pleasant surprise that kept us all busy for about an hour. It was fun!



(and yes, the clean up was a challenge lol)
Danielle's picture with positioned cicada skins and kidney beans.

I had made a mental plan earlier on what I was going to make for dinner, so half the job was done lol. While cooking dinner I provided snacks to the kids who were watching a DVD of Alice in Wonderland and this bought me time until dinner was made.

I used to do all this stuff, but suspect with the changes in routine, changes in food and general blahness within myself has just meant these things have slid a bit (and perhaps those vitamins and minerals I've been taking for the past 3wks have stared to kick in too). Yay for having energy instead of wanting to sleep all day.

* Wahhhh! I went looking for my bag of seeds to get ready to sow tomorrow but can't find them! I had them a couple of weeks ago when I went through and pulled out some packets (which I have sitting on my side table - phew) but can't find the bag which usually lives outside on the porch on my seed raising table. Unfortunately (gulp), my recycling bin sits right next to it and I wonder if by mistake when I put the seed bag away whether it fell into the bin and got put out...so hope I'm wrong there. But this house is quite small and limited places for things to be put that it's looking kinda bad. I probably had several hundred $$ of seeds in there. Boo hoo.

OK, so GAPS food Days 5 and 6...

Day 5:

Breakfast: carrot sticks with peanut butter and pumpkin/vegetable soup from the freezer

Snack: apple and pear with honey, brazil nut, almond milk (oops, had illegal ingredients, but will start to make my own), dried banana (a yummy treat I found for the kids to satisfy an urge for some sweetness), 1/2 peach. Banana pancakes, apple slices with peanut butter.

Lunch: tinned salmon, tomato, fruit strap

Dinner: Roast chicken with carrots, pumpkin, onion and broccoli. Watermelon.

A bit overloaded with fruit but it was shopping day and new fruit/veg box had arrived the day before...

Day 6:

Breakfast: Banana pancakes, dried banana, 1/2 peach

Lunch: Patties made with mashed pumpkin and silverbeet, egg, LSA nut mix to thicken, chunks of chicken from last nights dinner cooked in olive oil. Watermelon.

Snack: carrot sticks with peanut butter, brazil nut, cashew nuts

Dinner: Dahl - split green peas cooked in chicken stock, tomato, courgette, spices, garlic. Meat patties - mince, onion, garlic, carrot, courgette with egg. Watermelon.

Vitamins, minerals and food sources

This evening I've been working on putting together a list of where we currently get our nutrients from.

I much prefer to get naturally occurring sources of nutrients rather than through supplements but haven't before really weighed up whether we got enough.

So after a bit of googling I came across this fairly comprehensive list of fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds and what nutrients they each have. Then those lists cross reference with the vitamin and mineral lists. So it makes it fairly easy (but time consuming) to make up my own spreadsheet of foods that we currently eat as part of the diet and taking typical serving sizes that the kids eat as well as what the daily recommended value is for each nutrient. Once I've compliled my list I'll then go back on what the kids are eating on a day to day and identify any gaps.

I know that we're low on calcium at the moment, but hopefully once I get the fermented yoghurt in OK and then the cheese we should be on target again.

The lists don't currently include meat and dairy products, so I will add those in separately.

GAPS diet Day 3 and 4

Well variations of all the allowed foods were eaten for breakfast and snacks. It's lunch and dinner which take a bit of planning and thinking. And of course, my old rule of only going to the supermarket once a week still stands - so even when I think we're getting to the bottom of things and surely there isn't a meal in the cupboard, I manage to surprise myself and turn out something successful.

Due to Nathan's hunger, food seems to be a continual thing around here. He seems to need to eat about every half hour which can be tiring (for me lol). Daily they are getting their Cod Liver Oil in orange juice, vitamin C powder and now probiotic powder too to aid in healing the gut).

Nathan's menu yesterday...

Breakfast: Banana and a brazil nut

Snack: Carrot sticks with peanut butter, scrambled egg in olive oil

Lunch: vegetable soup made in homemade beef stock - pumpkin, leek, spring onion, carrots.

Snack: Left over lentil patties from yesterday, banana, cashew nuts, kiwifruit

Dinner: Chops cooked in the crockpot - coated in honey, mustard, ginger, stock from soup, rosemary. Kids had theirs served with avocado and tomato and Simon and I had sauteed cabbage, carrot, ginger and garlic.

Today...

Breakfast: pumpkin vegetable soup from the freezer

Snack: Banana, nectarine, carrots sticks and peanut butter

Lunch: Panfried fish with herbs, garlic and olive oil.

Snack: scrambled egg in olive oil, brazil nut, carrot sticks.

Dinner: Fritatta - eggs mixed with pumpkin water, pumpkin, silverbeet, spring onion, onion, garlic, courgette, tinned salmon, olive oil.

Well, so far so good! Today we saw some success of the diet (without going into too many details lol and even little Miss D has benefited by losing a pot belly (as in bloated) that she's had forever even though this wasn't initially for her, only I didn't really twig that anything was up - so double yay).

So hopefully we're onto something here as far as gut healing and I'll maintain the diet for a few days and see that things remain like this. Then my next food to introduce will be some yoghurt that will be cultured for 24hrs.

And in case you're wondering - the random Brazil Nut (yes singular lol) is for Selenium which our New Zealand soils are low in. Other sources of selenium seem to be via wheat and legumes which do not feature in our diet pre GAPS and certainly not now (yes we eat meat, but it's more a precautionary thing rather than me knowing that he's deficient).

GAPs Diet

So, today was the official 1st day where I have kept to the rules all strict and proper. I was kind of doing OK previously at different stages, but now my single "fast food" that was my saviour needs to be cut. Tinned baked beans. These have got us through the years with being gluten free - open up the lid, dump beans into bowl and hand to child - no heating even. Even portable when going on outings. But, the beans have a little sugar added as well as cornflour to thicken, so they need to go for now. The only other tinned items I am using is salmon and tomatoes until my own ripen.

I think I mentioned previously that we were advised Nathan had a mild egg allergy, however the paediatrician wasn't concerned due to him not reacting with it. After much research it seems that the test is not exactly reliable and no two paediatricians seem to agree what to do with results that come back as "mild". Since he is on steroids we aren't able to have allergy tests done because allergies are "masked" due the immune suppression. So best way is to do our own food eliminations, note for any subtle changes, perhaps protein even appearing on the urine strip that I do with him every morning.

Nathan is on the strict diet, me and Danielle are probably doing it 90%, and Simon maybe 70%. The three of us eat porridge or muesli with milk for breakfast and Simon is currently making his way through eating up what is left in the cupboards/freezer that the rest of us aren't to eat during the day - so he takes that for his lunches for now. As you can see, the meals are very random and kind of bitsy to fill him up while trying to offer a range of nutrients at each meal.

YOU MIGHT NOT WANT TO READ FURTHER IF YOU ARE VEGETARIAN

Yesterday's menu with only one tiny slip...

Breakfast: Apple slices spread with peanut butter (pure peanuts with only salt added)
Homemade ice block cubes made from fresh squeezed orange juice
Cashew nuts

Snack: 100% fruit straps
Banana (needs to be ripe to avoid starchiness)
Cod Liver Oil in orange juice and extra vitamin C

Lunch: Banana pancakes (mashed banana, egg, drop of vanilla essence and fried in olive oil)
Meat broth - about 2 tablespoons
Baked beans - a couple of tablespoons - but will be removed
Fresh tomato cubes, avocado and some tinned salmon

Dinner: Soup - homemade beef broth, lentils, onion, carrots, leeks, garlic, tomato.

Day 2...

Breakfast: Left over soup from last nights dinner - meat broth, vegetables, lentils
Scrambled egg without milk
Cashew nuts
Kiwifruit

Snack and lunch ran together: Banana pancakes, apple, banana, OJ with CLO, vit C and introduced some probiotic powder (1/4 tsp), salmon, fresh tomato, cucumber, avocado with lemon juice.

Dinner: Lentil patties (was going to just serve lentils alongside the meat dish but decided to make them into patties and incorporate more veges into the meal) - lentils cooked in chicken broth, spring onions, garlic, fresh herbs, carrots, lemon rind, leeks, eggs to bind, some LSA mix to thicken (ground linseed, sesame, almond) and cooked in olive oil - Nathan ate about six of these!
Bolognaise meat sauce - mince, tinned tomatoes, onion, carrots, spinach, olive oil.
Guacamole (had a ripe avocado needing to be used up) - avocado, tomato, lemon juice and chili powder.

Food, food, food

Well, the past month has been spent learning as much as I can about nutrition and how key all the vitamins and minerals are and how they interact - if you up one, another will be affected - not new stuff, but delving down into it more has given me a wider understanding and appreciation about it all. I've also been looking into different diet options most applicable to what we're dealing with here and a means of getting our nutrients via food sources rather than relying on supplements (although I have got myself on some to deal with the stress of it all LOL!).

When Nathan was 2.5yrs old he was diagnosed with Coeliac disease (an autoimmune disease which means he can't eat gluten without his immune system damaging his intestines and the lining inside them which then means his body won't absorb nutrients and becomes malnourished). It's not an allergy or an intolerance as he doesn't necessarily get ill when eating the gluten but it is still causing internal damage. Coeliac's is effectively "cured" by avoiding gluten. However, during the process of having had a "leaky gut" I believe that this has never been healed properly as other foods can cause aggravation such as dairy products or any other food intolerances while healing the gut from the damage of the gluten being in the body - And sheesh! Neither of my kids have required any drugs in their wee body's till now, not even any antibiotics to mess up gut flora. We haven't been aware of any of any intolerances, but I have never been satisfied that his gut ever really returned to "normal".

So, with now dealing with the nephrotic syndrome (which appears it could be another autoimmune issue - but an unknown in our case) I have decided to really crack down on our diet and see if there is a food source that needs looking into.

The purpose of the diet has many benefits - we could locate a food intolerance (and even possibly the trigger for the nephrotic syndrome), we heal the gut in the meantime using a gut healing diet (to the point where he may even be able to tolerate some gluten foods again - will believe it when I see it), we shape up our diet and cut out any processed foods (wowzer, I always talked about eating a made-from-scratch diet but didn't really take it all too seriously until I thought the state of the world would finally force me there), it puts Nathan's body in good shape for dealing with any illnesses which might come our way (he is now immunosuppressed due to the steroids) and of course we are now effectively eating local, fresh and in season. Yay!

So as mentioned previously we are going on the Gut and Psychology Syndrome diet which is based on the much older Specific Carbohydrate Diet. There are a few subtle differences and I have been swinging between the two over the past few weeks because one seems slightly easier than the other, but then we were still having issues - so I'm going to stop dithering around bringing in new foods, then forgetting what I've done etc (and going to stop the urge to bring in "illegal" foods which I had been doing to a small degree as well). The GAPS diet focuses more on drinking meat broths (containing gelatin) which is the key to the gut healing but the SCD doesn't really focus on this so much. The introductory diet would mean that you only drink broth for several days - but there is no way I could imagine asking the kids to do that, so we have just leapt into the main diet eating from the "allowed" list and ensuring there is plenty of broth being eaten as part of the meals I am making. Essentially the diet means "low starch" as this is a problem for an already damaged gut with out of balance bacteria levels.

No potatoes, no grains, no dairy (unless fermented) and no added sugar (and limited sweet fruit).

It's surprising how many options we still have though. Once I got my head around not having the starch to bulk out the meal (unfortunately the part that makes cooking CHEAP!) it hasn't been too hard. One thing that I'm not so chuffed on is that it does mean that we are eating meat a lot more than previously. I am trying to incorporate several vegan meals a week but really only have lentils and white beans to work with.

Fermented foods are also key to the diet and the gut healing due to their probiotic nature. Once I stabilize our diet a bit I will bring in some 24hr fermented yoghurt (which gives the bacteria time to "eat up" the lactose which often causes problems with dairy intolerance). The diet is also big on fermented vegetables - haven't gone there yet though lol. In the meantime I am giving him a probiotic powder to help balance out his immune system and bacterias in the gut.

So, excuse the slight morphing of the blog if it's not of interest as it takes a new slant for a wee while as I discover new recipes, take a journey into fermentation and perhaps a few nutrition 101s.

Starting the garden from fresh

That's what it kind of feels like really.

After harvesting all our potatoes and onions and pulling out all the plants that had gone to seed I am really only left with my pumpkin, beans and corn growing, the tomato patch and a few spinach and chard. Most other things either got too neglected and disappeared or I just didn't get any seedlings going.

I did notice today though that my courgette plant is *finally* growing a few fruit. Weird really, coz last year my courgettes were a boomer and produced really well. I am putting it down to the fact that last year's plant was on a vege bed that had been fertilized by the chickens (it's quite noticeable around the garden really - it's happened with the corn - one patch was chicken poo free and much shorter and the other two had the chooks on them and gone wild).

Over the past week though I've been planning on where I'll get the winter garden going (over winter only one side of the garden gets all day sun and fortunately it's also the side that doesn't flood). So the chickens have been on one patch so far, and tomorrow we'll move them off the second patch. I loaded up the first patch with my own compost today and will dig and load up the other tomorrow (just gotta keep the chickens off them since they strew it all around again lol). I plan on sowing the seeds with the kids next weekend which according to my OrganicNZ magazine, that next Sunday is the best day for sowing seeds. I do plan on trying to garden with the moon this year.

When digging out the compost I found these two avocado plants growing inside (oops, mustn't have been a very hot compost me thinks). Anyway, I've potted them up and will see if I can get them to grow in my backyard. Not too sure what my area's like for them, but won't know until I try.