Breakfast-Gluten, Dairy and Soy Free
I'm not a huge fan of breakfast. I've never liked eggs, I don't care about waffles and until recently, wasn't a pancake person either. I like an Irish breakfast, mind you, minus the eggs. I eat sausage, bacon, toast. I love a pastry. Growing up, I ate cereal ALL THE TIME. Poptarts were my jam (and when I was pregnant, cinnamon Poptarts were my midnight snack of choice). I remember eating Cream of Wheat at my grandmother's a lot. We ate grits too. As I got older, I started eating oatmeal. Oh, and now, I am a huge fan of avocado toast. I wish Myers would eat avocado...in time perhaps.
Like many autistic children, Myers is a picky eater, as I'm sure you've gathered. He gets enough to eat, but not always all the right nutrition. He eats plenty of fruit. We're still working on veggies. The veggies he gets are from the organic pouches, and occasionally, I can sneak them into my baking. That's what we have discovered works best for Myers' breakfasts. I can bake on the weekend, and have something for him each morning during the week. It's taken a little while to find the best recipes, and we have come across one or two decent "mixes" for when I'm in a jam, but I do bake a lot. We've also found some (praise the Lord) acceptable donuts, because those are Myers' favorite. The child asks for donuts a lot. More on that in a few.
When baking, I have found that my favorite flour is Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 Baking Flour. Bob's Red Mill All Purpose is good too. I can find these at most grocery stores. Big Lots has them occasionally. Walmart surprisingly has a good selection of gluten, dairy, soy free options. I'll talk more about Walmart when I do the snack post.
We use Silk Almond Milk, typically the vanilla. I went through SO MANY NON DAIRY milks trying to find one. I don't know if Myers really likes this one, or if he just gave up on all the others I tried. We drank organic cow's milk before the switch. This has been hard on me too, because I like a glass of milk now and again. My name is Hannah, and I am a milk drinker. When the doctor in North Carolina told us to go dairy free, she talked about how some milks have pea protein and how we should watch out for that too. I bought carton after carton of options and what Myers didn't drink, I forced myself to, or I baked with it, because y'all, it's expensive!
For butter, we have found the best non dairy version is Country Crock Plant Butter. We typically buy the avocado oil one. It is SO good.
We still use regular sugar. If you plan on baking, you do have to check other ingredients (like your baking powder, cooking oils and vanilla) to make sure that they are also gluten, dairy and soy free. Remember, soy is everywhere.
Now the good stuff. My absolute favorite recipe for pancakes (which I add chocolate chips or blueberries to) is from Mama Knows Gluten Free. These come out so fluffy. I make them on Saturday or Sunday and I can put them in the fridge or freezer to last the week.
Recently, when we were in the mountains, Chance brought a box mix of Laura Lynn Pancake and Waffle mix from Ingles. Y'all, I was pleasantly surprised. These also are fluffy too!! I made some plain, and the others I mixed a strawberry compote in. Y.U.M. Side note, Myers likes strawberry milk, and because I give him so many liquid vitamins, it helps cover the taste, but the syrup in stores is FULL of junk. I buy frozen strawberries, cook them in a saucepan with a little sugar, mash them down if need be with my mashed potato press, let them cool, and then put them in the food processor just to be sure. You could strain them also if need be. This syrup is delicious!!
Public Service Announcement: I do not like the Bisquick Mix for pancakes or biscuits. I've tried pancakes and biscuits, and I do not like either of them. Feeling very Dr. Seuss here...I do not like them here or there, I do not like them anywhere.
I've baked lots of muffins that I do like, and I found I like Mama Shire's recipe. We haven't found mixes we like for muffins, but there are few cake mixes that work for cupcakes when in a hurry. I'll come back to that later, but King Arther Cake Mix and Simple Mills work.
For blueberry muffins that can be bought, once in a blue moon you can find Udi's Blueberry Muffins. I've seen them at Earthfare and they were at Walmart for a bit, but they have been impossible to find recently.
In the fall, I made a lot of pumpkin muffins. When pulling open tabs on Google, it looks like I used The Pretty Bee's pumpkin muffin recipe a few times. The thing is, I don't remember using any cane sugar. I do substitute a lot of things and make my own though, so maybe I did make them! When trying to bake gluten, dairy, soy free, you can look for recipes, even those that don't specify dairy free, and substitute. The thing is, dairy free milk doesn't bake the way cow's milk does, so sometimes you have to adjust the amount or cooking time, or both.
Earlier I mentioned that Myers loves donuts. This was tricky. I have found that there is ONE place (that I'm sure of) in Charleston that has gluten and dairy free donuts, but only on Friday. For the rest of the time, I bought a donut maker and I have done a few rounds of mini donuts that turned out okay, but they have been nothing to write home about. I wouldn't say they were the best, but again I found a recipe from Mama Knows Gluten Free. The little donut maker is cute, so I'll share that too. I found it on Amazon. Depending on the dough, you could make bagels in this thing too.
Luckily for us, we have found, on rare occasion, frozen donuts by Katz. We have had the powdered, glazed and chocolate. Glazed is Myers' favorite. They were in the mountains at Ingles, and in Charleston, we find them at Whole Foods.
Before all of the changes, Myers ate muffins and yogurt with fruit, like every day. We don't have yogurt anymore, but he's getting his fruit and pastry fill. Myers isn't a huge meat eater, so he doesn't get protein there, and he won't eat eggs (like his momma), but he does get peanut butter via sandwiches at lunch. He has the occasional organic pouch for breakfast too, so that gives him a little protein. Side note, I have made pouches for him...he won't eat mine, ever. They are easy to make though, if you have a food processor and reusable pouches. I bought these from Amazon a year or more ago.
Chance IS a breakfast eater, and when he has time, he'll do his bacon and eggs or whatever. We have offered Myers the bacon, sausage, etc., but he's shown no interest. Again, maybe in time. We understand that autistic children have issues with texture, taste, and all sorts of other things. Sometimes Myers likes to eat strawberries with his fingers. Sometimes, he HAS to use a fork. We are flexible with this and accommodate as best we can. Back to the sausage and bacon though...if you are gluten free, check the labels. Not all breakfast meats are created equally, and some will have gluten.
For more on snacks, lunches and dinners, come back soon.
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