The New Blog

This blog started about SCD and I want to keep my original posts because the SCD diet is so good - even though it did not work out for us, it helps a lot of people. If you are considering SCD for your child, please visit www.pecanbread.com. It is a great site with lots of information.

We've been back to gfcfsf (gluten-free, casein-free, soy-free) for a long while now. We used to be off of eggs too. I keep searching for a place to find recipes that appeal to my kids and look and taste good to me as well. It is not easy. As with most things when it comes to recovering a child from Autism (or another auto-immune disorder) or managing an allergy, it is a continually evolving process. This is where we start again.

We are three years into our diagnosis now and we're still hanging on. There is no easy or quick fix but there is slow and steady improvement. Each new word and leap is a tremendous gift. Mr. C. turned 6 the other day and he is a love. We try new things and he continues to grow and learn and change. I'll post recipes here and share what we are doing...maybe it can help someone else in their journey.

Pizza Pizza

This is a stage 3 recipe because of the almond flour, but it is the closest I have come to a real-looking pizza. The sauce is made with boiled down tomato juice, garlic, oregano and ground beef. I also season ground pork to make sausage...my son goes bonkers for it.

The orange "cheese" on the pizza is grated butternut squash. Doing it again, I would saute it before putting it on the pizza and cooking the whole thing. There was a bit of a raw taste to it. That being said, my son loved it and it made his school pizza party fun instead of making him cry.

Keeping on Track

I haven't been blogging in a while...Mr. C got sick and hit a two month regression that was so bad that I had a huge crisis of faith. I have now pulled bananas and honey and things are getting better. I have also pulled eggs, which are one of his IgG foods. He is only a one + for them, so hopefully we can add them back in a few months. He is also a one + for avocadoes, but I am still letting him have one or two a week. (He will eat a whole one in a sitting.)

This means that my scd lunchbox looks different these days. Letting go of the bananas almost broke my heart. Seriously.

Today, I sent meatballs, applesauce (his only remaining fruit), and a muffin made of squash, pureed green beans, almond butter and vanilla. It is more of a bread-like muffin than a cupcake, since there is no honey in it. He likes them though, so I am grateful. Pecan butter muffins made of squash are also a lifesaver. I added too many veggies and the last batch ended up like goop, but I will remedy that next time...

Things are getting back on track and I am so relieved. Part of my crisis involved me loosening up on a few things, like adding cooked broccoli to his diet, but it has not affected him poorly, so we will keep it in. We are also CRAZY for zucchini noodles - I am making them twice a week. I will post a photo next time... They rock.

On another note, when I was going through my crisis, I spoke to a mom from Washington who works for ARI and has a recovered son...they have been SCD for 3 years. This was a huge boost. I will stay the course.

SCD Lunchbox

Every day, I pack a lunch for Mr. C to take to preschool. Here's what I usually send:

1. A BPA-free straw bottle with legal diluted juice
2. A spotty, ripe banana
3. Hamburger patty or meatballs (these vary between beef, chicken, turkey)
4. Almond butter muffin/squash muffin/egg bread
5. Cup of applesauce or homemade jello

Today is valentines, so I sent some little nut butter cookies too. They were an experiment, but the kids like them.

I was going to take a photo, but I use waxed paper bags, so it is hard to tell what it all looks like anyway...

SCD Dinner, A Couple of Ways

Now that we are getting into somewhat ore advanced stuff, food is getting more exciting.
I was inspired by scdgirl's spinach frittata and decided to make chicken stuffed with spinach.
Here is the recipe:
1lb baby spinach leaves
2 cloves garlic
2 chicken breasts
4 pieces of prosciutto (Volpi is a legal brand)

Cook the garlic in a few tablespoons of olive oil on medium for a minute or two and add the spinach until well wilted. Once it is well cooked, blend it in a food processor/blender. (If you are early in SCD, pull the garlic out before blending. If more advanced, you can mince it before cooking and include it with the spinach.)

Meanwhile, slice the chicken breasts in half horizontally so you can flip it open to have two flat pieces. Pound until even thinner and place a piece of prosciutto on each one.

Then spoon some of the spinach puree on top of each one and spread out. Next, roll them up. You can tie them, but I did not find it necessary.

Next, put them in a pan with a little heated olive oil so they won't stick and bake them at 375 for about 25 minutes or until chicken is completely cooked. Carefully turn once when halfway through.

Put on a plate and slice so that the inside shows. My non SCD husband freaked out over these, as did both kids. I know some kids are not into spinach, but they can't wait for me to make this again. The squash next to it is just acorn squash baked in water at 350 until super-squishy. I then just scoop it out of the rind.

Pan-roasted lamb chops
This is a fancy-pants meal but is good for a SCD special occasion.
Cut up a lamb rack into individual chops and salt and pepper them. Cook some garlic in olive oil in a large pan, lay each chop in and cook at 400 degrees until browned. Flip once with tongs while cooking. The veggies on this plate are all cooked until very soft but still able to hold their shape. The zucchini on the plate is peeled and not very big, but I usually take the seeds out too. The squash "fries" are just oven-roasted at 400 until brown and soft on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. We are not at a point where we are ready to do crispy ones yet.

Stage 2 Meatloaf
I was inspired by Nuttymeatfruit to do meatloaf the other day. We are limiting eggs and are not up to almond flour or ingesting onions yet, so I used:
1lb ground beef
1lb ground pork
4 cloves finely minced garlic
1/2 cup pureed carrots
1/2 cup SCD ketchup
salt to taste
thyme (maybe 1/2 tsp)

Cook garlic in olive oil on low heat until very soft. Mix together with other ingredients and place in oiled pie dish or glass dish. Bake at 375 until cooked through. I saved a little ketchup to smear on top for looks. My husband liked it so much he took it to work the next day.

Here's the finished meatloaf:

Fruits and Veggies in SCD's Early Stages

It can seem counter-intuitive to be eating fruit on a yeast-free diet, but SCD is pretty amazing in that the cooked fruit and veggies early in the diet are quickly digested and do not seem to feed bad gut bugs.

So far, we are having luck with very diluted (65% water) grape juice, apple cider and jello. I use grape juice for the jello and both the kids like it. It was a lifesaver on the intro diet. The kids also drink plain water, but Mr. C really feels the juice is a treat. The trick is to make sure that he does not see me diluting it. Once the jar is less than half full, I fill it with water and it makes life much easier.

Mr. C also loves bananas, so having one of those in his lunchbox is a huge treat - I am vigilant about making sure they are super-ripe. The less ripe ones are more starchy and can feed yeast.

Early in the diet, I was worried about getting enough veggies in. Even though we all like applesauce, when other veggies are pureed to that consistency, the kids don't like it. They also did not like the soup. Even though it was disappointing, we just moved on and will try again. One great trick has been taking cooked, peeled, seeded zucchini and adding it into the apple or pear sauce. I tried it with squash too, but that did not go over as well. Back to the drawing board. Well cooked green beans are also good, as are sticks of butternut squash cooked into oven fries. Those are a huge hit! The scdgirl's carrot pancakes are also winners, but I need to figure out an egg-free version.

I am making egg-free squash brownie cupcakes this afternoon - I will post photos and the recipe later...

Mr. C's SCD Birthday Cupcakes and more

Here's a photo of Mr. C enjoying his SCD cupcakes. This was the almond brownie recipe from Pecanbread made into cupcakes and then the "buttercream" frosting.


I have also been having luck with Pecan brownies...my non SCD husband loved them! I just took the Pecanbread recipe and replaced the peanut butter with pecan butter that I made by putting roasted pecans into my food processor. We are early into the diet, so I don't plan on doing peanut butter anytime soon. We started with pecans because they are the easiest to digest...I think the kids would prefer almond butter though.

Here they are as brownies:


Here they are as muffins/cupcakes:


Here is my first photo of chicken en papillote. Those are just carrots, salt and shallots on top of the chicken...if they are too advanced, just take them off after cooking...



Here they are going into the oven:


I forgot to take a photo at the end...that will come later...