Almost 2 full months in....

When my husband and I first decided to embark on the gfcfsf diet, I was nervous I would be unable to properly feed my family.  I attend school full-time, work part-time, am active in our church, and the boys play sports.  Where would I fit in all of the cooking and preparing, and cooking and preparing, and cooking and preparing (well, you get the point) that was required to live the diet fully.

The first few weeks really were a struggle.  It was difficult to not only prepare all of the meals (I really liked to microwave things or use packages to cook with), but it was also extremely difficult to get my boys to eat any of the food.

Both boys were addicted to grainy foods such as crackers, breads, pasta with no sauce, and chips.  They did like milk, as long as it was mixed half and half with chocolate.  The first few weeks invoked a lot of tears, a lot struggles, and even more trips to the bathroom to throw up whatever I just made them eat. 

I did some research on ways to "trick" my children into eating the food.  Well guess what...it didn't work.  I couldn't successfully get them to eat a pea even if it was drenched in chocolate syrup and rolled in sugar.  Many sites insisted that if I just kept trying, they would learn to like it.

I made supper tonight.  It consisted of turkey, steamed carrots (with a little bit of agave nectar on them), and applesauce.  My boys crawled up to the table, looked at their plate, asked how much I wanted them to eat (I always put extra so that I can tell them half or almost all), and then began eating.  No tears.  No fuss.  No throwing up or gagging or screaming or "falling" off the stool.  Nothing.  Just prayer and eating. 

Now if I'm being honest, there are still some things they won't eat.  It really doesn't bother me though.  If I can get them to eat most veggies but they still don't like cabbage or asparagus, I'm ok with that.  I will live with it.  I will continue to try to get them to like it.  But after a couple of bites per night I let them choose one thing they can skip eating. 

With all of the cooking and struggles I have learned a few tips.  We normally cook a large turkey every other week, then divide it into bags.  Some of the meat we store.  Some of the meat we immediately eat.  Most of the meat however is used for casseroles, mixed in with eggs, bell peppers, and onions for a morning omelet, or used to make soups.  It really cuts down on the amount of cooking I have to do.  Most casseroles are easy to prepare and are one dish recipes. 

The rest of the week we have chicken or fish (which is still called "chicken" in our house--what they don't know won't hurt them).  We bake lemon pepper chicken, fry up chicken bites, grill chicken, and any other ways we can figure out how to use chicken.  The fish is always baked with a little something extra on it like lemon juice or orange juice.  The boys never know the difference.

This week I am going to be trying some new recipes.  As I find yummy things to eat I will post them on my facebook page under "discussions".  Check us out on Facebook at "Evansville Gluten Free".