Grainfree kids

[Seaweed]

Not sure if this should go in nutrition or here but my aim is to get recipes so I put it here. When we were away, I went grainfree. Kids were too pretty much but high starch as they ate quite a lot of hot potato chips. I noticed how much better I felt despite all my mental driving around & lack of sleep. So when we got home, we all went properly grain free. The kids still have potatoes but not that many & only old old varieties. There is a noticeable change in their behaviour already. We are now facing back to school in just over a week which mean packed lunches. We have rabid veges who comment on food in dd#2's class so she won't eat meat in her lunch. Altho' I think we are down to only 1 as 1 left so I may experiment. dd#3 is a starch addict which does not help.

So... I need some good kid friendly grainfree, starch free lunch grain substitute ideas. I will update the thread myself as I find things that work. I will start with posting a recipe for banana coconut flour waffles we did for breakfast. Not exactly lunch but I think it should be adaptable to make muffins. You could add things like vanilla, maybe some butter, some berries, some spices, some seeds or nuts, some cocoa to make chocolate muffins etc.

Mash 2 very ripe bananas, beat in 3 eggs, stir in approx 3 tbsp coconut flour. Throw in some baking soda or baking powder. Fry in butter relatively slowly to make sure middle is cooked.

[Serephina]

I find frittatas are an easy lunch idea and also freeze well. I usually roast a bunch of vegies in the oven - pumpkin, zucchini, carrot, onion - pretty much whatever I can find in the fridge! Throw in a baking dish, beat up a few eggs with some salt and pepper to taste and pour over. I sometimes crumble a little bit of goats fetta over the top, and finish with some cracked black pepper. For those that are dairy free as well some thin slices of tomato look nice on the top as well. Bake at 180 C until cooked and lightly brown.

Seaweed do you have a good recipe for buckwheat pancakes? I like them both sweet with some banana and maple syrup or savory with cream cheese and smoked salmon. I imagine they could be used as a bread substitute for a sandwich, or if you made them thin like a crepe they could be used as a wrap. Falafel would be a tasty vegetarian filling option.

Otherwise, what about hummus or other dips with vegetable crudites?

[Seaweed]

I know buckwheat isn't classed as a grain but it still seems like one to me so I tend to avoid it. I will experiment with making some type of pancake as a wrap. I am not sure how well cold fritata would go as I do have some problems getting the kids to eat it when it is hot even which is a pity as we have chooks. I actually really like fritata myself & those wrap things leave me cold. Way too like american fast food.

We don't do legumes. Too many years of veganism. ugh! They don't actively disagree with me that I am aware of except I get some kind of involuntary nausea just looking at them. dd#2 used to literally fart enuf green smoke to clear a room if she ate chickpeas when she was a toddler. Not to mention both dd2 & dd3 used to get nasty nasty colic if I ate legumes. Hence my lack of veganism & continued avoidance of them.

Tomorrow, I am going to try cauliflower cheese crust pizza for lunch & then leave some to see how it goes cold. Then the next day, I will trial coconut flour pizza base. The kids are big on pizzas. I also saw mention somewhere of someone making sunflower & sesame seed crackers that you really could use for dipping so I may need to play. Once I have gone shopping that is.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

I know buckwheat isn't classed as a grain but it still seems like one to me so I tend to avoid it. In my opinion, buckwheat is such a good seed to eat that to classify it as a grain will be a disservice to your children.


those wrap things leave me cold. Way too like american fast food.


Just remember that there are some "grains" with very high nutrients levels.

If you cook brown rice in gelatinous chicken stock in my opinion, it almost become a protein. Then make it into suschi.

[Seaweed]

The kids sometimes like buckwheat, sometimes don't. I bake with it at times so I will experiment. It makes especially good chocolate pepper cookies.

[Serephina]

Buckwheat is in the same family as rhubarb. I have some growing in the backyard and I would classify it as a seed, not a grain.

The cauliflower crust pizza sounds... interesting. Would love to hear how it goes.

[Seaweed]

Buckwheat is in the same family as rhubarb. I have some growing in the backyard and I would classify it as a seed, not a grain. Do you eat it or is it just a green crop?

I did some mashed cauliflower cheese with dinner instead of mashed potatoes. Except I cheated as we had roast chook & roast potatoes with the mashed cauliflower cheese & loads of salads. I didn't have any potatoes & the kids ended up eating most of the cauliflower cheese instead of the potatoes. Thankfully the ex came around to dinner & ate what was left. But yeah. Boil up a cauliflower & mash it like mashed potatoes with butter, cheese, salt & pepper - yum! Leave out the butter & maybe add an egg from memory & you have the basis of the cauliflower pizza crust.

[Serephina]

It's just a green crop. There's not nearly enough of it to harvest since one of my dogs (the one in my avatar pic) decided that he liked the taste of the leaves!

I've used mashed cauliflower as a substitute for potatoes on a cottage pie type dish, but never considered making a dough out of it. Do you add any other binders or does the egg and cheese hold it together?

[Seaweed]

There's a recipe here which even has a link to a zucchini crust too.
http://www.gofrolic.org/gofrolic/food_blog/Entries/2008/10/4_Cauliflower_Crust_Pizza:_All_local_and_gluten-free.html (http://www.gofrolic.org/gofrolic/food_blog/Entries/2008/10/4_Cauliflower_Crust_Pizza:_All_local_and_gluten-free.html)

[Seaweed]

I made some banana muffins with coconut flour by sort of following the pancake recipe. The diff was I used 100g of butter which I melted. You could sub this for deodourised coconut oil. Mashed in 2 bananas. Added 3 eggs & a tsp of vanilla essence. I then added approx 1/2 tsp of stevia herb as an experiment. Mixed in approx 3 tbsp of coconut flour & a bit of baking soda & then baked them in muffin trays. They went down very well. One day, I will actually make enuf so they get a chance to get cold! This amount made 6.

I am thinking about starting to cook the cauliflower for the pizza. Plan A was to do a zucchini crust, a cauliflower crust & a coconut flour crust & compare but it is such a beautiful day I may just have to go to the beach & ditch the kitchen. We can get some cockles while we are there & have them with salad instead & do pizza tomorrow.

[Seaweed]

I was only together enuf to make just the cauliflower crust pizza for lunch. It was super yummy. Alot nicer than any of the GF pizza bases I have tried. The kids agreed with me too. I need to work out how to make the crust a bit crispier as it was more of an eat with knife & fork dish than a pizza you could pick up. I did use colby not mozzarella as that was what I had so that could have made a diff. Basic recipe works out at 1c of mashed cauliflower : 1 cup grated cheese : 1 egg. Mix & cook till crispy looking. Then take out & add toppings & cook till they are done.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

There's a recipe here which even has a link to a zucchini crust too.
http://www.gofrolic.org/gofrolic/food_blog/Entries/2008/10/4_Cauliflower_Crust_Pizza:_All_local_and_gluten-free.html (http://www.gofrolic.org/gofrolic/food_blog/Entries/2008/10/4_Cauliflower_Crust_Pizza:_All_local_and_gluten-free.html)
did you use this recipe for the crust?

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

Looks good, and looks like the secret is to brown it well when you precook it.

[Seaweed]

Yes the cauliflower one. Sorry it works out to what I posted. I find it easier to remember like that than to look up a url. It was so yummy the kids were hassling me to make another one within an hour.

[Seaweed]

Looks good, and looks like the secret is to brown it well when you precook it. Cross posted with you. I did do that & made it thinner than they had said but it still lacked cohesion. I did use colby instead of mozzarella which may help. It definitely gets more tacky when it is cold but still not like a normal pizza crust. I will try to cook it more next time.

[ZGT Mummy]

I would love to do this but sadly it seems that in order for anything to be successful you have to use eggs. My son is anaphylactic to egg so it's a no go for us :(

[Seaweed]

You probably still could as the egg is only there as a binder & it is not very effective IME. Just leave it out & see how it goes. It will be more like eating a lasagne as you will definitely need knives & forks but the flavour should be the same.

[Serephina]

Thanks for the recipe Seaweed. :)

[Seaweed]

Tomorrow's experiment will be sunflower & sesame seed crackers. I will keep you posted!

[ema-adama]

I just tried the cauliflower pizza, and it was not cohesive. But it was really yummy. DS, DH and I really enjoyed the meal. Next time I am going to try making it thinner too. That blog has some yummy looking recipes altogether.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

I've got visitors coming tonight, and I'm not doing the cauliflower base, but I am doing one I've done before. This morning, I'm grating two potatoes, sprinkling them with salt, and will leave them in a sieve for the starch to drain out, which is does in bucketfuls - depending on the potato. Then squeeze the juice out. I'll grate an onion (and sniff some), and mix the two, and put in fridge. This evening, after a second squeeze I will mix the potato/onion, with finely chopped chives, a bit of salt and one or two banty eggs, and spread that on a base like the cauliflower was spread on, and press down, keeping it together. Brushing it with oil, and pre-cook until crisp. Then put the pizza ingredients onto it. This reduces the amount of cheese people get to eat, and the potato crust, when done properly, is crisp like Rosti.

You can keep the juice from the squeezes, and either use in soup, or add to bread dough, if you're not grain free.

[Seaweed]

I found a pizza recipe for a meat crust too which just uses mince & eggs as the crust. Not sure how the kids would go on that but I would be into it. You could maybe even put some ground up liver in as a way of having it where the taste would be negligeable. Not that I mind eating liver & my kids will also eat chunks out of the pan if I am having some.

[ema-adama]

MT - that sounds like a fantastic recipe to try. I was not too keen on so much cheese, but reckoned, once in a while that is OK. I'm gonna try your recipe next time. I am aiming for reduced grains - not sure grain free is an option for us right now, but certainly fewer grains.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

It was fantastic and everyone loved it. Make sure it's not thicker than 1/4 inch. I did use three potatoes thought, and added about 1/4 cup romano cheese though. I used two banty eggs which was a bit too much.

[Tici]

You've got me curious on this ..


I'll grate an onion (and sniff some)

Is this because you love the smell or is it good for you? Ive searched high and low and can't find anything on smelling onions being good for you.
Some very weird stuff comes up on google when I typed in a few different terms. :chuckle:

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

No i'ts because grating an onion, sprays around the fumes more and provokes crying quicker.

In the restaurant, when we grated horseradish in bulk, we used scuba diving gear, hosed it and us down afterwards, and even then, when we took it off, we would get a head clean out. But at least we'd finished the job by then.

[Seaweed]

Ive searched high and low and can't find anything on smelling onions being good for you.
You know I am sure I read somewhere that actually snorting the juice was good for something like sinus. I am sure it is my memory being confused as the thought is not pleasant. I always leave the root end on when I chop onions as that seems to help.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

I'd rather snort SA any day, than onion juice.

[gilima]

LOL, reminds of a time 15 years ago when my sister in law came for a visit from switzerland and we both had toddlers at the time and my nephew got this cold and cough and she came into the kitchen and grated an onion, put it in a cheesecloth and hung it next to him while he slept. It does clear mucous :)
mt, that recipe sounds great, I am going to try it, wonder how it would work with my homemade pizza sauce??

[ema-adama]

With onions, my mum always used to chop an onion, wrap it up in a scarf and we would go to bed with it on our necks if we were coming down with a sore throat.

The funky smell in the morning was quite something, but nothing a shower couldn't handle. I can't remember if it worked or not.

I have yet to try the potato onion mix. It sounds like a latkes recipe, only baked and not fried.

[gilima]

yes to the similarity to latkes :chuckle:

My sister in law from switzerland used to use a dr. of anthroposophy (phew, I am sure I spelled it wrong) and went by the philosphy of Steiner, so I think the onion remedy was one ofthem.

I tried the grain free "honey nut bars" someone recommended here from The nourishing gourmet.com and they are just tooooogood!!!! I had about half before I let anyone else taste. I used some different seeds and nuts than the recipe but it is a sweet, filling and very rich bar!

[Seaweed]

The grain free crackers were a huge sucess. I messed with various combos & then I found a recipe. So what I did was ground up approx 2c of nuts & seeds. I used 1 1/2 c sunflower seeds & 1/2 c of sesame & some extra pine nuts I had lying around as the 1/2 c of sesame was slightly scant. Then I mixed in enuf water & a few pinches of salt to make a dough. Then I cooked them in discs in the bottom of my muffin tins to make circular crackers. They held together really well & are nice & crispy. The trick is not to make them too thick & to brown them without burning them.

[Seaweed]

Bumping this as we are still happily eating sunflower & sesame crackers with cheese for lunch so they have been an awesomely good recipe. I have also been making cocoa nut balls & some sort of made up lara bars which are so nice. Plan A for tomorrow is to make some almond macaroons are well. I will post the recipe if they work. I am studiously avoiding the honey nut bars for now as they make me want to eat the whole tray & I am not needing to!

[bbrandonsmom]

Have you guys found any cookbooks/webpages that you like? Something that gives meal ideas, or what to stock in your pantry? If I have a recipe to work with it's easier for me to plan out and make a change. I've been slowly cutting out the grains here at our house.

[Seaweed]

There is alot of stuff on the net if you google paleo diet. Girl Gone primal has some really good recipes. It depends as well if you are cutting out dairy as paleo is generally dairy free. We don't but stick to cultured dairy. What I try to find is recipes which naturally are grainfree as a pose to ones specially designed to be grainfree. I try for us to eat seasonally so it often depends what is available before I can work out what to cook anyways. The odd substitute is handy tho such as fried grated cauliflower instead of rice. The sunflower sesame crackers are awesomely useful too. Everything else, I stick to meat or fish or eggs with copious fruits & veges as the base. I to & fro about nuts for myself but the kids are especially partial at the moment to slices of apple sandwiched together with almond butter. In terms of cook books, I have garden of eating but never use it. I love the cuisine mag website but their recipes need adapting.

[Paper Cut]

Hubby and I are Paleo as well (but more modern Paleo -dairy etc) Cauli is such a versatile vegie... I make mash out of it (replaces mashed potato - potato in general really) by cooking some, then adding butter, cream cheese, whole grain mustard, salt.. then hitting it with the stick mixer... really nice... also Cauli rice as above (run it thru the food processor raw) Large chunks of cauli dusted in curry powder and fried till crispy.

It was easy going grain free here... I just stopped buying it! so there was no choice.. mind you we don't have kids yet, at least when we do they wont even be exposed to all the crap we were brought up on.

[Seaweed]

We do mashed cauliflower with cheese as well. So totally yummy! I usually just do it with whatever cheddary type cheese I have around. Occasionally I do it with blue cheese if I am feeling rich. I do still cook maori potatoes every now & then but not as a staple. They have much slower releasing sugars than the modern supermarket potatoes. Mashed pumpkin is good too.

[Paper Cut]

mmm potatoes I just cant do.. even low GI spuds like the maori ones spike my insulin (not diabetic just monitor it to know what foods dont work with me) and the fact they are low GI means they spike it for LONGER which is worse in the grand scheme of things. I seem to be fine with Kumara, pumpkin I find far to sweet to eat (sickly)