Gluten Free Italian Meatball Loaves

      I love this time of year! The beautiful autumn colors that brighten all the trees in my neighborhood, the crunchy leaves that decorate my front yard and the rainy, chilly nights that call for warm fuzzy socks to keep me warm. In our house this means, a crackling fire in the fire place, a mug of hot cider and good ole comfort foods to fill our bellies! 

      My husband especially loves this time of year, because he knows I'm going to cook one of his favorite dishes. He loves meat loaf! I personally have never been a meat loaf kind of gal. Just the thought of ketchup on baked meat, yuck! (Can you tell I'm not a ketchup fan?) So I of course had to put my own Italian twist on the old fashion America dish and make it gluten free! I hope you enjoy it as much as my family does! 

Italian Meatball Loaves 

Ingredients:

2 lbs lean ground beef

3/4  to 1 cup gluten free bread crumbs * see note

3/4 cup gluten free pizza sauce

1/4 tsp plus a pinch of kosher salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

2 large cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 egg and 1 egg white

1 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Set aside Toppings

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup gluten free pizza sauce (warm before topping)

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Mix all the ingredients together very well except for toppings,(shredded mozzarella cheese and 1/2 cup of gluten-free pizza sauce.)

2. Divide and roll meat in to 2-3 inch even meat balls and place into a 12 cup medium muffin tin.  Make sure you fill all 12 cups evenly. You may want to place a cookie sheet under muffin tin just in case of spillover.

3. Bake for about 30 minutes or until meatball loafs are no longer pink in middle, and a meat thermometer reads 160°.

4. Remove from oven and sprinkle on desired amount of mozzarella cheese on each loaf, place back into the oven and continue to bake for about 2 minutes or until cheese has melted. 

5. Remove from oven and spoon on warm pizza sauce. Serve with potatoes and a seasonal green vegetable.


*How to make your own gluten-free breadcrumbs

Take 2-3 slices of  Udi's bread or you preferred bread brand. Toast the bread to a medium - dark, but not burnt. Let the bread cool and place in food a food processor and process till they become fine breadcrumbs. This will make about 1 cup of breadcrumbs.
To make it Italian bread crumbs add 1-2 Tbls of grated Parmesan cheese and about 1 1/2 tsp of Italian seasoning. I usually triple this recipe and freeze what I don't use up to 3 months.

Why the pizza sauce and not regular tomato or spaghetti sauce you ask? Pizza sauce gives it a little bit more spicy kick to it, without displeasing the kids sensitive pallets, and the more you read, the more you'll find out that I'm truly all about spice! 

Spicy Mamma signing off!  ;) 

GlutenFree Amaretto Chocolate Chip Scones

          We are currently studying the great Charles Dickens and the wonderful story, A Christmas Carol. Tomorrow our  homeschooling co-op will be doing a Victorian age tea with the kids. The kids will take turns being servants and sophisticated aristocrats of the Victorian age, which of course calls for something yummy to eat. So I set out to make scones. My friend Cher, from Aunti Gluten's Barkery, once told me, "If your going to make scones, make them with the GF Bisquick mix." And I did.

*Side note, the M’lis Vanilla instant meal, I love this product. It is a gluten, lactose, soy, sugar, artificial sugar free product. It is sweet and yummy, and we have tried many protein flavored powders, which were all gross. This one is by far the best! I use it as an extra meal of protein for my picky eater, who is a carb fanatic. Shhh! She just thinks it's vanilla milk! They have chocolate too.  : ) 

Where to buy M’lis..
http://alternativehealthspas.info/products/vanilla-cream-organic-instant-meal-replacement-shake

Gluten Free Amaretto Chocolate Chip Scone ~ Lactose, Egg, Soy, and almost ;) sugar free!

Ingredients:
• 2 1/2 cups Bisquick Gluten Free mix 
• 1/2 cup M’lis Vanilla instant meal, (this is why you will need no sugar, it is naturally sweet, have I mentioned yummy too!?)
• 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips (I use dairy free, soy free, gluten free Enjoy brand chocolate chips)
• 1 1/3 cups almond milk 
• 1 teaspoon gluten-free almond extract (I use Flavorganics brand)

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 400°F. Line cookie sheet with cooking parchment paper, (I also used stoneware).
2. In large bowl ( I use my KitchenAid with the flat beater), mix 1 1/3 Almond milk and 1 tsp almond extract. Slowly pour in and mix 1/2 cup M’lis Vanilla instant meal, and  2 1/2 cups Bisquick Gluten Free  until dough forms.
3. Use a spoon and fold in 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips.
4. Divide dough in half. On surface sprinkle sorghum flour, pat each half into a 6-inch round. Cut each round into 6 wedges. I used a knife with sorghum flour sprinkled on it to make cutting the dough easier. Place wedges 2 inches apart on cookie sheet.
5. Bake 12 to 14 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 5 minutes; remove scones onto cooling rack.

 Serve warm with a hot cup of tea!

My girls loved them and my husband too, who never liked scones before! I love the almond flavor, it really popped.  If you have an allergy to nuts, switch up the almond milk for rice or dairy and the almond extract for vanilla extract.

ENJOY!

Could there be a link between your child's learning disabilities and their diet?

"My belief is now -- and there is very good evidence for this -- is that the brain and the associated nerves are the number one site for gluten related disorders." 

Dr Rodney Ford     http://drrodneyford.com/



Could there be a link between your child's learning disabilities and their diet? Is it quite possible! There has been studies that have supported food allergies and a link to neurological disorders. Consider taking a closer look at your child's diet. Could the 8 common allergies be the bad guy? I often tell my sweet girl when she wants to indulge in food that is knowingly bad for her body and mind. "That food makes you go Kookoo for coco puffs, we don't want that, do we?"

She usually will tell me "NO!" And look for something else. Kids learn to listen to their bodies. You will be surprised at them when the light bulb goes on and they reject the food that is like poison to them. The human mind and body wants to be healthy, even if they are Nine years old!


8 Common Food Allergens 

• Milk
• Eggs
• Peanuts
• Tree nuts (such as almonds, cashews, walnuts)
• Fish (such as bass, cod, flounder)
• Shellfish (such as crab, lobster, shrimp)
• Soy
• Gluten (Wheat, rye and barley)

Here are a few articles that support links to gluten and neurological disorders ... 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-david-perlmutter-md/gluten-impacts-the-brain_b_785901.html

http://surefoodsliving.com/celiac-disease/how-gluten-grains-can-impede-scholastic-achievement/

http://www.glutenfreechoice.com/neurological_effects_of_gluten_sensitivity

GLUTEN SUMMIT

THE WORLD’S FIRST GLUTEN SUMMIT
COULD CHANGE YOUR LIFE!

Dr. Tom O’Bryan of theDr.com has gathered 29 of the world’s experts and opinion leaders on the topics of gluten-related disorders, nutrition and healthy living for a series of online interviews taking place for FREE from November 11-17, 2013.

---

During the summit, you will:

• Learn about the latest research on gluten-related disorders;
• Understand why we MUST call more attention to them;
• Gain improved knowledge of proper diagnosis/treatment methods;
• More frequently ask, “Could this health issue be due to gluten?”

The goal of The Gluten Summit is to shift the scientific discussion and clinical recognition of gluten-related disorders forward by five years. Meaning, we want the conversation between patients and doctors that will be happening five years from now to happen now.

http://theglutensummit.com/

Tips and Tricks for the Dyslexic Reader

I thought I'd Get off the gluten-free kick for a moment and show you some tips and tricks that I use to read with my dyslexic child.

The other day I had someone tell me how it's not good to label our children. Yet, society labels everything!

 "Don't label your child dyslexic, that will just hold her back."

But my philosophy is, if you label something then you can identify the problem areas and use tools and wisdom to help overcome that label. I happened to be a label over-comer myself. I am a successful homeschooling, stay-at-home mom, who also teaches homeschooling classes on the side, and diagnosed my own child with Celiac disease, (not the doctors.) I managed not only to figure out Gluten Free dietary issues, but also food coloring, soy, and other things that made my kid go cuckoo for cocoa puffs. And I did that, all while being labeled dyslexic. 

Now although the two of us are dyslexic, and we can sometimes struggle, that is no excuse to fail. I don't allow her or myself to use that as a crutch. Nor do we use the words "I can't." We are allowed to say things like "I'm struggling right now," or "this is difficult," but the phrase            

 I can't shouldn't be in our vocabulary, because God made everyone smart, we all just tick in different ways.

So on that note, I thought I would share with you some the things that I do at home to help my girl stay on track with reading.

First off I took her to the eye doctor and had her eyes checked, I speculated that she might need them. It turned out that she did need reading glasses, so we took care of that, and it has made a little bit of a difference.

I happen to have a snug-a-bug, who loves hugs and kisses and to be held constantly all day long. How does that work when you are homeschooling? Well when it comes to reading we both sit in the same chair. I sit behind her, while she kind of sits on my lap. I take my left arm and I wrap it around her, weighing her down, (remember she is ADHD and sitting still is very difficult for her.) 

You might say that's a little helicopterish mom of you. Lol! However she loves it! If I don't have my arm around her or even on her shoulder, she is not comfortable reading and she will often pull my arm back around her. This actually is a really great thing when you're dealing with an ADHD child. But it also helps a dyslexic child, it makes them feel secure because you are so near, right there helping them.

The next thing we do while reading is use a pointer, we use a princess wand, cause after all she's a princess ;). 

I hold the pointer and point to the words she needs to be reading. If we come across a word that she has miss read, I tap the word silently ( letting her know that she needs to retread it.) If I do have to say something, I try not to use words like, wrong or no. Rather I say, " try again" or "sound it out." I often have to redirect her to the first letter in the word. I do my best to use positive words that encourage her to know that she is more than capable of reading it. 

Other things that I have use to help her stay on track are colored layovers and a 3x5 card marked with a highlighted line. She also loves reading to her dolls, so I always allow one stuff toy or doll at the table that she reads to. 

We have a reward system in play as well. Kids need instant gratification. Every time she reads to me she receives a star. We read 3 times a day. Once she gets a total of 12 stars, she gets to pick from a list of prizes. So every couple of days she is being rewarded. I do this on purpose because I want her to love reading and love the rewards that she gets from reading. Right now the reward is tangible but later in life she will gain the knowledge and the imagination from reading and it will be a rewarding itself.

Example: 

30 min of TV

Face painted

Frozen yogurt

Prize from the prize box $1 store items

Video game time etc.

There are lots of different ways of helping your child, you just have to find the right niche that works for you and your child, so don't give up,. Just keep reading!