Neil and I met with Chase’s team about his school situation next year. I am so nervous about sending him full day. I know I have very little control over it so I shouldn’t worry as much as I do, but I’m a mom — worrying is part of the job description. I do feel way better about it than I did last year. Washington Irving has been great to Chase.  He’s had a phenominal kindergarten year and I am sure they, along with us, will do everything they can to help him transition into first grade as seamlessly as possible.

They haven’t gotten teachers or TA’s nailed down yet but we talked about a few things like his writing and how the day works when your child has a TA — you know lunchtime/recess/when the TA takes a break etc… I feel good about it all and we will meet again at the first of the year before school starts to talk with his teacher and hopefully TA and set everything else up.

Anyway it all went well and I am breathe a little easier over the summer :0) 2 days left of school! YAYAY!!!!

So I have new news. I am going to be writing a monthly article for a Oklahoma Autism Newletter. I am super excited about it. It’s basically going to be on GFCF living, recipes, & nutrition. I just submitted my first article.  I also am going to be restructuring my blog as well. I will be seperating all my GFCF stuff from family stuff and adding more content as well as my articles there as well. So look for that change over the next few months. Eeee!! :0)

So I have been asked about Ghee alot. It’s a great alternative for alot of people avoiding casein and that even have dairy allergies. What is ghee you ask? It cooked and clarified butter that is then strained well to remove all of the milk protiens. What does it tast like? Well it’s basically lobster butter… It’s got a great concentrated buttery flavor. A little ghee goes farther tastewise than butter does. It yummy. The only real limitation I see to it is baking. Ghee is a semi-solid. Depending on the time of year, temp, humidity etc…  it can be liquid or solid.  Either way it melts super easy. So it’s not great for baking. When I am baking with ghee I will use about 1/3 to half of the butter required in the form of ghee and the other half to 2/3 in shortening. That way you get the butter flavor but the combo makes it more butter like in recipes….

You can buy ghee in a health food store or sometimes on the ethnic isle of a major grocery store and certainly online but you are going to pay a insane amount for it. I make mine at home. It took me a while to perfect, and to be honest I had help. In India people eat ghee like well we Americans eat butter. So who better to teach me than a woman from India. My husband’s coworkers had us over and his wife Kamlah (sp?) taught me all she knows about ghee, and she knows alot. So now I impart my learned wisdom with you….

Oh and one more thing — If you are just starting out on the GFCF (SF) diet wait a good solid 2-3 months before incorporating ghee to be sure that you are clear of all dairy so you can be sure that it causes no issues for you or your child….

Here goes…. FIRST OFF — RULES –

NEVER stir your ghee!!

LISTEN to your ghee

GHEE TAKES TIME. DON’T RUSH IT!!!! MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE TIME BEFORE YOU START!!!!

Saturday morning we went to a event called “Touch a Truck” at UCO. It was pretty cool. There were trucks of all types and styles from ice cream trucks to cement mixers, to UPS trucks, to Borden Dairy trucks.  They let the kids climb all in them and honk all the horns. It was pretty neat. Alex and Aiden loved it. Chase enjoyed sitting in a few trucks once he had earplugs and a snack to calm him down. The horns were a little much for him and me. EEK!! Here’s some pics :

We woke up Sunday to a rainy morning. The weather man said the sky would clear up so we all got ready and headed out to the zoo for a few hours. It was the perfect morning for it. There were more worker than actual patrons, it was like having the zoo to ourselves. Enjoy the photos :

Papa and Gigi got Alex his first bike for his 5th birthday. Aunt Amy got him a scootboard. A scootboard is a skateboard with a scooter handle that can be attached for learned, and detached later. He is very excited about both… Here are pics :

This post is all about Daiya! Pronounced “DAY- YA”. It means “loving kindness and compassion”. It’s a gluten free/dairy free/soy free cheese alternative that actually melts and STRETCHES even after it cools!! It makes these claims but I have tried and seen that it does work. It’s awesome!!!

So it melts and stretches like cheese, but does it taste like cheese? Well no not exactly — BUT if you’ve been dairy free and tasted the other alternatives — this is heaven in a cheese package. It’s not identical to cheese. If I made two gluten free pizzas only difference between the two being real cheese and daiya you would know the difference. However, if you can’t eat dairy it’s a pretty yummy substitute that has similar taste notes as cheese, enough that I would use it, and that my kids LOOOOVE it.

So basically it’s not cheese but it’s the next best thing if your dairy free. It will make going dairy free a little less painful. Now if they could only come up with a cream cheese that doesn’t look, smell, and have the texture of wall putty we’ d all be set… :0)

Below are pictures of pizza’s I made with the Daiya cheese. My boys have also had it on baked potatoes and exclaimed they were the best potatoes ever made… Convinced yet? Where do you buy it? Online at Cosmos Vegan Shoppe or at “The Health Food Center” at I-240 & Penn.

A friend told me about a pizza dough knock off and how she had subbed out regular flour for gluten free flour ingredients (Bob’s Red Mill Baking Mix). We tried it out and it was good. It didn’t have the elasticity I like but the flavor was pretty good. So I tweaked it a little more. Next time I will use my own flour blend. I have a feeling that will make allllll the difference. Here’s a basic run down of what I did this time though.

GFCF Pizza Dough (makes 2 large pizza crusts)

• 1 tsp Fast-Acting Yeast
• 1 1/2 cup Warm water
• 4 cups Bob’s Red Mill Baking Mix
• 1/4 cup Corn Starch
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Xantham Gum
• 1/3 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Additional 1/4 cup Water

1. Pour the warm water over the yeast and let it set up
2. In the mixer with the paddle attachment, mix flour, cornstarch, baking powder, salt, xantham gum
3. While running the mixer drizzle in the EVOO
4. Add the warm water/yeast mixture
5. If needed add an additional 1/4 cup water a little at a time until you have a nice large sticky dough mass.

Let the dough sit for a few hours at room temp covered tightly or cover and place in the fridge for up to 2 days.

When your ready for it, preheat your oven to 375.

Divide the dough, oil your pizza pan and spread your dough out. If it sticks to your hands, oil or wet your hands.

Top with pizza sauce and your fav toppings and bake for about 20 minutes until the crust is golden brown and the toppings are all hot.

++++ This is a really yummy crust. Next time I will use my own mix of sourghum, cornstart, & sweet white rice flour. Maybe mix in a little garlic powder as well. I will update you when I try that. Until then this is a super simple recipe that yeilds great results with easy to find ingredients. The kids loved and I would eat it too, I might miss “real” pizza crust but not that much. :0) ++++

I have had a few people talk to me about black bean brownies lately and I was finally intrigued enough to try them. I used THIS RECIPE. They turned out pretty good. I used organic canned black beans, ghirardelli cocoa powder & chocolate chips. Next time I will take a friend’s tip and bake them thinner or longer than suggested as they are pretty moist. I may play around with adding a banana for texture also… Overall though 2 of my 3 boys loved them so they were a hit as is.

Is is official!! Whole Foods themselves announced their plans to partner with Chesapeake and open a store in late 2011 here in Oklahoma City!!! I am officially SO SO HAPPY!! Here’s the link

WHOLE FOODS MARKET® ANNOUNCES PLANS TO BUILD STORE IN OKLAHOMA CITY NEAR CLASSEN CURVE DEVELOPMENT AND CHESAPEAKE ENERGY CAMPUS

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK (May 12, 2010) – Whole Foods Market (NASDAQ:WFMI), the world’s leading natural and organic foods supermarket, is coming to northwest Oklahoma City. The site was announced jointly today by officials from Whole Foods Market and Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK)

“After many months of speculation, we are pleased and excited to officially confirm the much anticipated plan to build a Whole Foods Market store in northwest Oklahoma City,” said Aubrey K. McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake. “Whole Foods Market is a leader in the expanding natural and organic foods business.  The Whole Foods Market brand has been built on consistently selling the highest quality natural and organic food products and maintaining high standards of quality,  customer service and community involvement. The fact that we have attracted one of the most coveted retailers in the country to our community validates the revitalization we have experienced in Oklahoma City the past ten years.”

Whole Foods Market recently signed a lease enabling Chesapeake to move forward with the construction of a 35,000 square-foot store along North Western Avenue between North Classen and N.W. 63^rd Street to anchor the next phase of Chesapeake’s development activities around its 50-acre Oklahoma City headquarters.

“The addition of a Whole Foods Market to the Classen, Western, Grand and N.W. 63^rd Street district contiguous to our corporate headquarters campus signifies a major step forward in our vision to create the most vibrant and dynamic urban environment for our employees and neighbors to live, work and play in Oklahoma. Without question, Whole Foods Market is the perfect complement to the upscale local retailers and restaurateurs in Classen Curve, south of the site where the new Whole Foods Market will be built,” said McClendon. “We are taking the retail, entertainment and business environment to a new level in Oklahoma City while simultaneously furthering a mission of sustainability and healthy living with the addition of a Whole Foods Market.”

Scheduled to open by year-end 2011, the new Oklahoma City Whole Foods Market will be the largest natural and organic supermarket in the state. In keeping with Whole Foods Market’s recently announced national initiative to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2010, the supermarket in Oklahoma City will be built to strict green building standards. The Oklahoma City store will incorporate an energy efficient design, alternative refrigerants and advanced eco-friendly systems.

“Whole Foods Market has watched Oklahoma City’s transformation these past ten years with great interest. The area around Chesapeake’s distinctive and beautiful campus, combined with Aubrey’s vision to create an eco-friendly, aesthetically beautiful and people-pleasing environment at Classen Curve, caught our attention,” said Walter Robb, chief operating officer and co-president of Whole Foods Market. “We look forward to bringing our innovative, dynamic food shopping experience to Oklahoma City.  As people who have followed our growth know, we do not take a cookie-cutter approach to our stores, but instead will design and build this store with products and ingredients sought out by the Oklahoma City community. We appreciate the genuine warmth we have experienced in Oklahoma City and look forward to serving the community.”

Tom Blanton of Blanton Property Company in Oklahoma City represented Chesapeake in the transaction.