Gluten Free Bakery

One of our Families favorite destinations.....



4290 Stanley Blvd  Pleasanton, CA 94566
(925) 639-9977

My favorite is the Chai Cupcake with Cream Cheese frosting! Yummy!

Homeschooling a Dyslexic, ADHD, Celiac kid. Not So Hard! Continued, our story...

Homeschooling a Dyslexic, ADHD, Celiac kid. Not So Hard! Continued, our story...

 (Continued from May's Archives)

...And from the very beginning I knew there was more than just tears at preschool. I knew she was dyslexic! The roller coaster just got stuck upside down! 

   So you may be asking how could I possibly know at 3 she was dyslexic. We'll let me debunk that fact that dyslexia is just switching your b's and d's around, there is so much more to it than that. Below a few clues are mentioned. For starters we had a hard time with all of the alphabet, numbers and shapes. Colors weren't a problem. 

      Hold on, hold on, let me back the roller coaster a little bit. As a baby she often had chronic ear infections, a runny nose, a gassy tummy, and was very quiet. ( I know those of you that know her, could probably never imagine her as a quiet girl, but she was, unless she was agitated, then she fussed.) She rarely talked actual words. Since my background was in American sign language, I taught her key words that she often communicated with me. It concerned us that she didn't speak, she has a cousin that was born deaf and we thought maybe she could be too, or hard of hearing. So at 15 months we went to an ear specialist and it turned out she needed tubes in her ears. Well, when the doctor completed the surgery, he reported to us that she had more than 6 inches of yucky gunk infection compacted in her ear. He also let us know that she wasn't hearing correctly, because of the compacted gunk she was hearing like she lived under water. (This may explain her fascination with mermaids, LOL!) 

      What does this have to do with dyslexia, well I will tell you. First off,  it put her behind understanding audible language. The first two years of a child's life,  hearing words is so very important. She needed to be gathering words in her word bank, for all of the 15 months, but instead it was only visual information that she gathered,       (Can you guess her learning style?) After her surgery she began to hear, however, if we were to compare her to the average 15 month old she was extremely behind. Words were new to her. After the surgery a "whole new world" opened up to her ;)  She could hear, more important she could hear her own voice. (Our house became a much louder place.) At this point she often said things wrong. We thought nothing of it at the time. We thought is was cute! For example; she often said "whoop cream" instead of whip cream. No matter how often we corrected her, she always said "whoop cream" she still says it, but it's to get daddy's attention to squirt some in her mouth for fun. Clue #1.

      Anyhow, this part of the story alone, should tell the tale of the possibilities that there could be future problems.

      Moving on! So fast forward to preschool drop out, LOL! She spent 1 and 1/2 years in preschool before I pulled her. Even the head teacher, whom we all loved, noticed her lack of abilities that her peers were accomplishing, from letter recognition to cutting and fine motor skills. At home we began the frustrating task of learning our ABC's and 123's. Oh! It only took 2 and 1/2 years for her to get the letters, sounds and to write. Often with tears. Clue #2.

To be continued... must make dinner and other chores, talk to ya later gator :) 
xoxo ~ V

Here are some websites that list characteristics of dyslexia.

37 Common Characteristics of Dyslexia                                                         http://www.dyslexia.com/library/symptoms.htm

Dyslexia: Symptoms & Solutions What is Dyslexia?

http://www.bartonreading.com/dys.html#signs

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Gluten Free Crêpes with a Latin Twist!

Gluten Free Crêpes with a Latin Twist! 

        So in the almost three years of being gluten free, I would have to say I miss my flour tortillas the MOST! Being part Puerto Rican I have a need for my breakfast burrito!!! And frankly it doesn't quite taste the same with corn tortillas! I absolutely hate the GF flour style tortillas, yuck! (Can we say card board!) But until there is a better one out there, I had to find something to get my burrito fix, so I came up with Crêpes with a Latin Twist!


Ingredients:

Gluten-free crêpe mix
Ground sausage ( I used sage flavor)
Potatoes O'Brien (already has bell peppers and onions in it ;) yum)
Cheddar cheese   ( I use dye free, organic to eat, in the picture I used yellow cheese for effect )
Tappatio hot sauce (optional, but necessary on my plate)
Chopped Cilantro

Cook GF ground up sausage, potatoes O'Brien, stir in the chopped cilantro and set aside. Cook your crêpe as directed, add your burrito ingredients including cheese into crêpe, top with more cheddar cheese, cilantro and hot sauce (optional.) Now you don't need to scramble eggs or need a flour tortilla, great substitute if you miss those spanish burritos for breakfast!
Replace , Make, ENJOY!

Gluten Free Erupting Volcano Cake

Gluten Free Erupting Volcano Cake 

see Junes post for directions 

Yes, yes, I know not dye free, I made an exception this time.

Construction

Thank you for your patience, this blog currently under construction as I am new to this blog thing.. And I'm trying to figure out how I can include ADHD, dyslexia, homeschooling, and celiac disease all-in-one blog! Please be patient with me as there is more to come including more of our story and recipes.

<3    Oh yes and if you love the Ramona Quimby books, then our story is for you! Because I have an adventurous, imaginative Romana myself that goes by the name of Sydney!      <3

Volcano Cake Recipe

Valerie's Volcano Cake 

I made this cake GF. I Would not recommend the brand of gluten-free cake mix I used. Very heavy. 

Ingredients needed:

3 Boxes of cake mix (I did yellow) + baking  supplies

3 room temperature chocolate frost (I used dark chocolate)

1 Tube Wilton's Sparkle Gel, Green sprinkles, Water

Dry ice, Bunt pan, Pyrex bowl that is oven safe

Pom juice glass (Pomegranate Juice sold at Safeway)

How to assemble:

Make 1 3/4 of box cake batter, put in bunt pan and cook according to directions, you will have to cook longer if adding extra mix.

(Gluten Free mixes don't rise, that is why extra batter is required) 

I used my Pampered Chef mixing bowl with a Pom Juice Glass in the middle. Grease all pans and glass jar. Place glass in middle of glass bowl. Make sure your mixing bowl can be used in oven and high temperatures.

Put 1 1/4 of box cake batter in pyrex bowl with glass (creates instant hole, no cake wasted)  and cook according to directions, you will have to cook longer if adding extra mix.

Let cool.  I then sliced the bunt pan cake length wise and frosted in between each layer, I then removed the Pom glass, hole already created.  

 I then sliced the pampered chef cake length wise and frosted in between each layer. Stacking each layer and frosting the whole cake. 

I put the pom glass in the center of the cake, I used a fork to score the frosting to look like rough terrain. I also frosted the rim of the glass to hide the fact that the glass was higher than the cake. 

I took the red gel and made it look like lava oozing Down. I sprinkled green around the bottom because my daughter said it needed grass at the bottom. 

When ready to serve poor some water at the bottom of the jar. Use plastic tongs to gently place dry ice in cup. And now you have a cake that will make your kids squill with joy and say "I have the coolest mom in the whole world" my girls sure did! 

Enjoy!