Ka Boom! Crack! It was quite a thunderstorm which hit our area last night. Ten minutes into the storm, we lost power. Since it was right around dinner time, we decided to take a drive away from the storm and eat dinner at the closest Happy Wok or buffet.

Three hours later with the power restored and the kids in bed, I thought "Oh no! My chicken is defrosted completely and I don't know if it will be safe to cook for dinner tomorrow night." (*So who wants to waste money or good food, anyway?) Well, forget tradition! I will use serve it for breakfast along with some pineapple.

I was worried the kids would balk or that even serving it for breakfast might not be the safest idea in the world. But it looked and smelled unspoilt, so I grilled it up and seasoned it with some simple steak salt and placed soy sauce at the table. Neither child wanted the soy sauce, but both children loved having chicken for breakfast.

For lunch, I tried a new lentil salad recipe (lemon juice, walnuts, dried cherries, salt, lentils, olive oil, etc). Unfortunately I didn't like it. Thank you frozen Ezekiel bread and frozen gluten free Rice Almond bread. I quickly whipped up some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches along with one grilled cheese sandwich. Ah well, I will search this recipe site for better lentil recipes.

More than once I have had no choice but to allow an avoid into my son's diet (celiac). With multiple food allergies, it is becoming more and more difficult to stay 100 % btd compliant. I am feeling a little stressed about his health, and I hate to see us back track after so much progress. Eventually I just have to conclude that I simply don't have enough time to research the perfect menu. So, concurrent with Erika's and Suzanne's recent blogs, I think I need to be at peace with our beneficials.

I will continue to hope that I can find a calcium enriched totally compliant beverage for my 2 year A nonsecretor celiac, but I will not be sweating it out anymore!

On the bright side, my 2 year old has much more energy than before the gluten free diet and my five year old is eating fresh blueberries for the first time in his life. Life is pretty good.

With beautiful 90 degree weather, working all day in the kitchen is not as glamourous as it used to be. However, I still have cooking ideas rolling around in my head, so I will share those with you.

#1) If you are going to make waffles or pancakes, then make bread using your bread machine at the exact same time.

#2) Make those neutral dishes a little healthier by adding beneficial ingredients. Try sauteeing onions and garlic and adding them to northern beans. Add a little salt, olive oil, and plenty of green PEAS or blackeye peas to the mix. (I haven't tried this, but I think the flavor of peas and beans would work together.)

Oh dear, I was just informed that if I want to get my daily walk in for the day, that I must take it NOW. Be back soon.

My sons and I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I found it very convenient to fix, as I did not know exactly what time dinner would be served. There is a two-hour window here, and it tasted delicious whether one cooks it for 6 hours or for 8.

Two frozen Cornish hens (if my hubby had been with us at dinner, I would have used two crock pots and cooked four hens)

One can of gluten free chicken broth (or water or white wine)

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper (an avoid, but ok in small amounts)

Onions

Garlic

Thyme

Basil

Bay leaf

Baby carrots

Chili pepper (avoid for an A secretor, you can leave it out or add it to individual dishes)

Olive oil

Arrowroot powder as a thickener (optional)

Set your crock-pot to low. Pour in some olive oil and then add onions and garlic. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, chili pepper, basil, and thyme. Add the bay leaf. Add frozen hens into crock-pot any way they will fit! Pour in your chicken broth (plain water is also ok, or certain types of wine) and then add carrots. Sprinkle liberally with all of your spices but leave out the garlic and bay leaf. Adjust top to fit snugly and walk away for six hours.

Using a meat thermometer, test for doneness. I found ours to be done at six hours, but kept on cooking for seven. It’s almost easier to use clean fingers to tear the meat off of the bones versus the traditional fork and knife.

I saved the broth and can’t wait to use it tomorrow with some white rice. I have a spinach salad I need to make as well, so that will work for my “must have greens” addiction.

The kids loved it! Good eats everyone.

Thank you for that tip! I have to admit, my soy sauce, white beans, rice pasta and at the last minute - pea concoction did not please my taste buds! I will try grinding the white beans up with mustard powder and olive oil on a rice cake (gluten free.) I do miss some of my old grains, but it is so hard to pull out three seperate loaves of bread and then spread them with something everyone likes. I think I need another "muffin mania" morning. It would be easy to make three different yet compliant muffins for everyone and store them in our freezer.

I ran across another spice combo that I am going to try tomorrow.

saute:

onions

garlic

salt

lemon pepper

thyme

and of course - white northern beans. I am having trouble imagining this one, so we will see. Thanks everyone!