Happy Birthday to The Pure Baby's brother!

The Pure Baby (PB)'s older brother celebrated another Happy Birthday!  With that came another GFCF and Feingold Diet birthday cake.  PB's brother wanted a beagle cake, in honor of our 14-year-old beagle :)

I used another Wilton cake pan, along with (again) King Arthur Flour gluten-free chocolate cake mix and quite a lot of cocoa powder (for the frosting colors).

The dog cake pan was used for the groom's cake at our wedding, back in the beagle's tiny puppy days :)  I did not make the cake then, though, and it definitely was not GFCF or Feingold!

Happy Birthday to The Pure Baby!

The Pure Baby (PB) celebrated another super birthday and enjoyed his GFCF/ Feingold Diet Elmo cake :)

Inspired by my expert-cake-decorating mother, I made the Elmo cake using the Elmo Wilton cake pan, King Arthur Flour gluten-free chocolate cake mix, and India Tree natural decorating colors.

I completely adore King Arthur Flour gluten-free mixes - and buy them online by the case. Its much cheaper than in the stores, and I love having a good supply in my pantry.

I've been using India Tree natural decorating colors for my oldest son's past eight years on The Feingold Diet. While the colors may be a little more challenging to work with, they are safe and healthy - containing no petroleum or other nasty chemicals.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!  Have a wonderful holiday with your family and friends :)


Our family will be having a gluten free / casein free (GFCF) plus Feingold Diet Thanksgiving!  This is our first GFCF holiday in a few years, and I am overjoyed at the great improvement in GFCF foods and recipes :)  GFCF food actually tastes yummy! 


Here is our pumpkin pie recipe, for the delicious GFCF (and Feingold Diet) pumpkin pie we will be enjoying tomorrow on Thanksgiving.  Our sample pie was amazingly *just like the real thing*!  So, tomorrow we will proudly share our pie with our extended family.

Pumpkin Pie
2 eggs
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin  (I used organic canned pumpkin from Whole Foods).
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup coconut milk  (I used organic canned coconut milk from Whole Foods, but the refrigerated So Delicious coconut milk is a likely excellent choice as well).
1 pie crust  (See below).

Preheat oven to 425.  Beat eggs.  Add all ingredients, except  for coconut milk.  When fully blended, add coconut milk and mix.  Pour into unbaked deep dish pie crust.  Bake 50-60 minutes, or until set.


Pie Crust
1/2 cup garfava flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup potato starch
2 tablespoons sugar
3 teaspoons egg replacer powder
2 teaspoons xanthan gum
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/3-1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 450.  Mix dry ingredients.  Mix in oil.  Mix in 1/3 cup water.  If too crumbly, add 1 tablespoon water at a time, until less crumbly.  Press dough into a greased pie dish.  Bake 1 minute.    

Going GF/CF!

I'm going GF/CF.  I'm finally giving the diet a try - for me :)

GF/CF = Gluten Free / Casein Free.  Basically, that means avoiding all dairy products as well as certain grains:  wheat, barley, rye, kamut, spelt, and possibly oats.  Thankfully, the oats avoidance is easily remedied by the use of gluten-free oats.

Given that a large majority of autism moms have their own health (often auto-immune) problems, I should really expect to benefit from the GF/CF diet.  And I do see that I am benefiting!  Since starting on Monday, I am already seeing a great improvement in my nasal allergy condition :)

I have FOUGHT hard against doing this diet - for years!  Our oldest son has spent a good number of years on the GF/CF diet.  I've done so much special diet cooking, yet I have really, REALLY not wanted to be on a special diet for *me*. 

Our son's first DAN! (Defeat Autism Now!) doc said, based on my testing, I needed to go gluten-free.  At that time, I was way too wound up in being overwhelmed with major behavior problems of a 4-year-old on the autism spectrum.  I just could not and would not address my own health problems.  Since then, I've been to other practitioners who have repeated the same advice - go gluten-free.  So, I just decided to finally do it.  And why not make it more fun by going CF as well, you know?

So far, it really isn't too bad.  Since I am not on the Feingold Diet as well, GF/CF is easier for me than for our oldest son.  I've not delved into lots of baking yet, but I've found the Pamela's GF/CF baking mixes to be quite excellent as well as the Van's GF/CF frozen waffles.  For dairy substitutes, I've used Almond Breeze milk and Earth Balance margarine.  I bought all of this at our local Whole Foods Market, but many large supermakets also have an impressive GF/CF inventory.