A Dietary Expirement

Our family has been almost completely dairy free for almost a year.  Our little Gretta kept having skin rashes and digestive issues that prompted us to have her tested for food insensitivities.  The only thing that came up was pasteurized dairy so we decided to go dairy free.  On occasion we've enjoyed a little raw cheese but otherwise we don't use dairy.  Our goal has always been to gratefully accept whatever is offered when we are out.  However, Gretta complains of belly aches after dairy so we try and really avoid it. 
This fall as one of my children started experiencing allergy symptoms and a skin break out a friend suggested that it may be gluten so we are on day 4 of her not having any dairy or gluten and by golly her skin is clearing up!  So we are going to do an experiment in no dairy and no gluten in our diets for a few weeks and see how it effects our family.  I plan on reviewing here how it is going and what sort of recipes we are using.  Here is tonight's review. 

Dinner:  chicken rice tetrazzni with mushroom gravy and mustard crumbs from the cookbook Cooking for Isaiah, maple roasted acorn squash and salad.  Squash is a huge hit with our kids so that went over well.  The children did not really enjoy the tetrazzini, but Pete and I did.  We will not make it again as Pete wasn't thrilled about it and none of the children really liked it.

Dessert:  Chewy Chocolate Chunk Cookies from the Cooking for Isaiah cookbook.  I used Earth Balance margarine in place of the shortening and a mix of chocolate, white chocolate and butterscotch chips.  This was a hit!  I made them to bring to church so the kids could have a cookie with their friends.  I loved these.  In this cookbook there is a baking mix and pancake mix you pre-make.  It makes the prep for baking gluten free easy. 

So far so good.  I had one child pretty upset she couldn't have some french bread with garlic butter, but was happy to have the garlic butter on our sprouted bread so other than that hiccup it's been going well.  We'll see how tomorrow goes.....