A long day...

So, JG got sick w/ his first cold of the school year & stayed home Thursday & half of Friday, and we continued to lay low through the long weekend. He never ran much of a fever, and I never gave him any medication - just ran the humidifier a couple of nights. He still sounds a little nasally today, but he went to school all day. What I find disheartening, though, is that a nice long weekend that most of us would love actually wreaks havoc on JG. The lack of routine is just so hard on children on the spectrum!

The last few days have included some major meltdowns - the kind that wear me down to a puddle! In fact, as I sit here blogging, I'm having a beer & trying to come down from the day. It's hard, especially when you know that you'll probably have to face the same thing the next day. I know that all of you Aspie parents know what I'm talking about, for sure, and probably some of you other parents, too!! I need to look back at my own blog & read about the day that we had the "awakening" - when JG apologized to his little sister & wrote a letter to God! I need to read it & be reminded that there will be more of those kinds of days to come. We're just at the  beginning of this path to healing!! "Awakened" days will multiply & meltdown days will diminish!! That's my prayer for JG today.

All of the whining being said, I warned ya'll that I wouldn't have much shopping this week - so what should I tell you about? Recipes? Menu? Maybe a little of both!

Breakfast: Rice Chex, Rice Dream milk replacement, & orange juice

Lunchbox: Thinly sliced pork tenderloin (grilled on Sunday), leftover          sauteed red potatoes, whole green beans

Snack: Mareblu nut clusters, a plum, and Juicy Juice

Afterschool Snack: Luigi's Italian Ice Philly Swirl Stix NEW DISCOVERY!

Dinner: Homemade White Bean & Ham Soup - In the crock pot combine 1lb. dry white northern beans (previously soaked); 1 whole onion, chopped; 2 stalks of celery, diced; 1 carrot, diced; 2 cloves of garlic, minced; 2 bay leaves; salt & pepper to taste; and some leftover ham, diced. Cover w/ plenty of water & cook until the beans reach your desired texture. 

*This is the kind of recipe that makes it clear that I threw things together & left it, but it turned out soooo yummy! Even my bean hating, non-Aspie loved it & ate 2 bowls!!

This Week's Shopping

I have a dear friend that gets a laugh out of the fact that it seems like I am always "at the store" when she calls. Her jests are not too far off base! Mind you, most of those shopping trips are rather small. With the GF/CF eating style I have found that it's very difficult to "stockpile" items in my pantry, b/c we typically just eat meat, fruit, & veggies. You wouldn't want to stockpile fresh items like produce b/c some of the items could spoil before you use them, and meat (predominantly "green") is too expensive to stock up on! And have you ever noticed the limited amount of coupons that are floating around for fresh foods?!

This time last year I was a coupon queen!! We didn't eat a large amount of convenience foods, and there were a lot of coupons that were useless to me back then. However, I still managed to save "mucho dinero" w/ the coupons that remained after my weeding through! Now,... good luck on finding coupons for fresh organic meat & fresh produce!! Yes, every now & then I'll have some good luck & find some in a copy of my Kiwi magazine or in the Sunday circulars, but it is extremely rare! With all of that in mind, I've gotten a really bad attitude about how those of us who live on a tight budget are strong armed in to eating unhealthy. Or, at the very least,  I feel comfortable in saying that it is quite difficult for a frugal family to eat healthy. I'll refrain from discussing my conspiracy theories!

All of that rambling being said, I have developed some tricks to feeding my GF/CF family frugally. And yes, Coco, it means I make multiple trips to the local stores! Here are some examples w/ this week's shopping:

On Sunday I went to Sam's Club to pick up a few staples that I had found the week before. Mareblu Naturals makes a yummy nut cluster, Blueberry Pomegranate Trail Mix Crunch, that is peanut-free, gluten free, & dairy free. My non-Aspie son thinks that they taste like blueberry waffles! I also picked up a Sam's Club brand spiral sliced ham that is certified gluten free, a big bag of corn tortilla chips ('cause taco salad is just so yummy & can easily be GF/CF), and a bag of romaine hearts. On my last trip to Sam's a couple of weeks ago I also picked up some frozen berries for smoothies, frozen whole green beans, hummus, organic baby carrots, and Multi-Seeded Crackers. I've also spotted a good deal on some chicken & apple sausage that is certified gluten free, but I haven't been able to bring myself to buy that large of a package of sausage!  

After Sam's I stopped at one of our local farmers' markets & bought a bag of red potatoes, some sweet potatoes, a bag of onions, cantaloupe & some peaches. Then I stopped at Publix for our Rice Dream, orange juice, Van's Waffles, Juicy Juice, and a few other essentials. That was it for the day,... but then I made another stop by one of our other grocery stores today! I only got 7 items at Bruno's, though - paper products (recycled) & meat! And, to be honest, those items, added to the ones that I already had, will cover us for another week or so.

Menu:

Monday breakfast: Van's waffles w/ fresh cut fruit salad
           lunchbox: leftover grilled sausage, fruit salad
               snack: nut clusters & Juicy Juice
              dinner: ham, potato salad, & green beans almondine

Tuesday breakfast: Van's waffles w/ fruit salad
             lunchbox: ham, potato salad, fruit salad
                 snack: nut clusters & Juicy Juice
                dinner: leftovers! (red beans & rice or ham & potato salad)

Close of Day 2

There is no perfection in life, so you won't ever catch me striving for that elusive ideal. (Though I have been known to set the bar at a rather unattainable high point at times!) So today's accomplishment of having JG leave for school w/ a smile & return home w/ a smile was a sign of good things to come!! We had an appointment w/ his chiropractor this afternoon, and JG was talkative & made eye contact w/ she & her staff. The appt. also gave JG & I an opportunity to have some alone time & chat about his day. Everything was positive!! Woohooo!!!! And then we even finished all of his homework when we got back home!

Things took their usual turn to the grumpy side of life around dinner, which of course sent the two of us to our own private table. As he ate dinner, I once again gave him his melatonin, then he & B watched a little TV & fell asleep w/out a fuss! My prayers are that he will not wake up as terrified tonight. Dr. Nikki, our chiropractor, suggested that I teach JG some prayers to say whenever he wakes up w/ his bad dreams. I had never thought of that! Have any of you fellow Tribe Moms out there tried that idea?



Our menu today was quite unimpressive, but we got through another day of GF/CF on the go!
Breakfast: Chex Cinnamon Cereal, Rice Dream rice milk, & orange juice.
Lunch: leftover ham & homemade potato salad w/ ice water to drink. (Yes! Again!!)
Snack: boiled egg (which he didn't eat) & sliced apples w/ a Juicy Juice.
Dinner: chinese take-out, w/ JG dining on rice, chicken & sugar snap peas, & a spring roll.
I can't say w/ absolute certainty that his meal was completely GF/CF, but I made the best choices possible. After all, I couldn't poke ham at him AGAIN!!

Quote of the day: I was so proud of M, b/c she withstood A LOT of errands today w/out a case of the grumpies! When I told her how proud I was, she said "I'm proud of you too, Mommy!"