Care4autism

Initially when you start of on a GFCF diet, you just want to lay your hands on flour that meets the criteria. I was extremely happy when I found one such brand Orgran, in a Spencer’s outlet. Later, when I tried the  first GF flour mix and the first cake came out well, I wanted to share my joy with the readers.I had a slice myself everyday savouring the sweetness of gf flour mix victory, hahah.... Initially, one starts out with small trial batches of cookies, cakes….with a GF flour, but if you are thinking GFCF long term, then it is better to make your own flour mix for the following reasons.I still yearn for the day I bake a cake for Ramam with the frosting,the works............Back to the point Firstly, it is more economical.   Secondly, when you go in for a mix the various attribute of the different flours; make up for the deficiencies of single flour, in terms of taste, nutritive value, gumminess or the binding abilities. For instance, when you use only rice flour to ba...

When talking to an autistic child, these must be kept in mind. Come down to the level of the child as it is easier to maintain eye contact. Speak positively. For example instead of saying do not take my things, say hands quiet or for instance instead of saying do not leave this room, say stay in this room. Be specific in your praise. Instead of saying good boy, be specific and state good listening, good writing, good sitting, good stringing beads. Provide adequate information.   For example, instead of saying we are going bye-bye, state we are going bye-bye to hotel. Give a choice and ensure the choices are readily available. Would you like to listen to music or go on the swing? Label feelings. I am sad because the vase broke. I am happy you are sharing your things with Isha. Meaningless threats such as I will never speak to you, hold no worth. It is vague and cannot be enforced. Instead tell the child what to do such as clear up and go to bed. Be very clear in what you want the child ...

½ cup sugar ½ cup dates, cut 3 Tbsp dalda 11/2 cup walnuts 1 egg 1 cup grated coconut. Cream the sugar, dalda and the egg very well. Add the dates, walnut and coconut; mix well. Drop it on the baking sheet by the teaspoonful. Preheat oven to 350.c and bake for 15 minutes. These cookies taste even better the next day.

The vanilla cake mix cookies. 125g gfcf vanilla cake mix, 1/8 tsp baking soda, 1/8 c olive oil, 1/2c white sugar, 2pcs eggs, 25g Amaranth flour, 1/2 tsp Xanthum gum,1/4 tsp salt Mix gfcf vanilla mix, amaranth atta, baking soda, salt and xanthum gum. Cream olive oil, sugar and eggs. Combine. Set aside to rest, and see if the mixture will be gummier. Preheat oven 180.c for 15 min. Cook for 10 min for soft cookies and 13 min for crispy cookies. Store in airtight containers for a week The chocolate cake mix cookies   I similarly made cookies with chocolate cake mix. Who doesn’t like a chocolate cookie?   Again, the advantage here, being you can ensure it is GFCF. To my knowledge, I am not aware of any available GFCF brand of chocolate chips. Initially, I did try it with drinking chocolate cocoa powder, but it may    not be GFCF. Cream the sugar, olive oil and eggs. Mix the cake mix, baking soda, salt. Fold in the nuts in place of the chocolate chips. Take ...

                  Pasta is an all time favourite with Ramam. Depending on the quantity, it serves the dual purpose of a snack or dinner.   I use Orgran rice-millet spiral shaped pasta.   Cook the pasta with salt in water. Drain the excess water off and show it under running water. I make pasta the Indian way. Take oil (2tbsp) in a kadai.   Add ginger-pepper-garlic paste. Add some raw cashews to this. Fry one medium sized onion cut finely. To this add 2-3 medium sized tomatoes and cook. Make a puree of this. To the puree, add the cooked pasta and cook over low flame for 1-2 minutes. After you put out the flame, add a tsp of extra virgin olive oil and blend it in. Garnish with cilantro/coriander leaves and oregano.Looks like I  will need a crash course in photography!

Holi, is the festival of colours. Ramam celebrating Holi with his family

This is again a quick option. Take oil in a kadai, add cumin, and let it sizzle. Add half an onion, one tomato and ginger –garlic paste to this. Add salt and all the spices (turmeric, chilli and coriander powders). Mix chickpea flour and water. Add this to the to the onion-tomato mix and bring to a boil. Do this just before serving. Do not overheat it, as then the consistency changes and becomes semi solid. It is not advisable to repeatedly reheat it also. Garnish with coriander leaves

One can choose the vegetable of their choice, be it onions, cabbage, cauliflower florets, spinach, maybe even GFCF bread. Called Pakoras, these are easy to make. Make a batter of chick pea flour, with salt, asafoetida (just a pinch), coriander and chili powders. Adding coriander leaves and grated ginger to the batter is optional. For onion, cabbage and spinach mix the chopped veggies in the batter the proportion of veggies being more than the batter, so that on frying it just leaves a coating. For cauliflower florets, Dip it in the batter and fry.

I tried out these juices for my son, healthier way to keep him hydrated and nourished, this summer. Cocktail 2 apples 1 medium beet 2 oranges 3 carrots Peel the fruits other than apple. The apple peel   has a lot of nutritive value. Slice them. Juice all these fruits in a juicer. Pomegranate   drink 2 small   pomegranate 2 oranges 2 pineapple rings ¼ lemon 1/4 inch ginger It tastes yummy. Juice all of these fruits and ginger. Vegetable juice 1 apple sliced 4 medium carrots ½ lemon, peeled ¼ medium cucumber, peeled.   Process in a juicer and serve. I add date syrup to all of these just before serving. There are more interesting recipes on www.soymilkquick.com/

300g boneless chicken 1 medium onion 1 cup potatoes cubes 1 cup halved carrots 2-3 beans 4-5 curry leaves ,shredded 2 tomatoes1 cup coconut milk spices –turmeric powder, coriander-cumin powder, chili powder, garam masala salt to taste Cilantro for garnish. Cook the veggies and chicken with excess water until cooked.Take 3 tablespoons oil, add cumin let it sizzle. Fry onion till translucent, add tomato and fry. Add salt, curry leaves, and the above spices to it. To this add the veggie-chicken broth and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the pieces of chicken and vegetable. Now add coconut milk, cook for 1-2 min till everything blends in. Garnish with cilantro. Serve with hot rice/roti.

The circus visit was a huge success considering the debacle it was last time, around 2 years back. My husband had gone with our little prince Ramam, (Yep, we have changed his name) it was a damp squib. Things were different this time, maybe because I was around this time….. LOL. Firstly, this time we got the front row seats and maybe this helped to hold his attention. Secondly, we ensured he had eaten alright before leaving so that he clamours a lot less for all the stuff the hawkers pedal. They do so much of pressure selling, it‘s hard for the child to resist.Thirdly the magician did some water tricks that held his attention, the trapeze also interested him. Fourthly, we had taken the night show, so it was much cooler. He even shook hands with the clown. We were in there for almost 21/2 hrs. All of this for a fruit juice, 1 packet of popcorn and 1 packet of chips. Not bad at all. He was a lot more patient  this time around. My daughter also did her bit and kept prodding him to look he...

I think this is more about "me" handling GFCF .Usually the breakfast is one of these idli, dosa, ada with chutney.   Keep varying the chutney. Lunch and dinners are the basics with rice, roti, sabzi, dal, salad.   ·          Planning ahead like soaking the dals for the sprouts /batter/meal times, planning to ensure everybody in the house has a common meal such as parathas. It makes it less cumbersome also as you need one gravy to go with the parathas.The child is aslo comfortable as he is not being singled out. ·          Having some quick n’ easy recipe handy such as besan ka chila, besan dal. ·          Have a day in the week marked for baking, or any GFCF work in the kitchen and go easy on the regular cooking. Ensure the ingredients needed for the baking are stocked before hand. ·          Sometimes the leftovers are tastier the next day hahaha. For example make good use of leftover batter for uthappam, left over aloo (potato) sabzi (curry) the dry one for your bon...

It is important for me to have these essentials in my kitchen at all times. ·          Batter for idli/dosa/ada. ·          Organic Tulsi tea( lost count of the gallons my son must have had) ·          Boiled potatoes 1-2 in number ·          Rice Parboiled and the regular variety such as sona masuri, basmati , kolam, ponni……. ·          Dal /pulses 3-4 in number .The more important ones being Toor dal (yellow lentils), Urad dal, Whole and split),Rajma(red kidney bean). ·          Flours-Raagi/ millet, singahdia, and an all purpose GFCF flour, Chick pea flour (besan). ·          Sago ·          Coconut for the chutneys, I cannot run my kitchen without it. ·          Tamarind ·          All the spices ·          Ghee ·          Oil ·          Vegetables. Amongst these again, onion, tomato ginger, garlic, coriander, curry leaves must have at all times. Apart from that vegetables that go into a salad cucumber, carrot, radish…Also this keep some additional 2-3 veg...

We have successfully introduced the concept of Junk weekend with our son. On the weekend he gets to binge on off the shelf goodies that are within the permissible limits of GFCF. The Indian market has a plethora of GFCF sweets and savories. Like for example kaju katli. I checked this with some shops in Pune, now again in Jabalpur. I went online and also checked the recipes for Kajukatli. That was a real find. Again it matters; you pick it up from a reputed shop, because a little mixing and adulteration is not uncommon. Also the chiwdas, mixtures, south Indian murukku, banana and tapioca chips for the savories’ can be off the shelf buys. One cannot be sure of the ghee in the market, because it might not be casein free. It might not be as safe as making it at home with your own ingredients, but sometimes the excitement of picking up a goodie from a shop is something else. It is something like homemade versus hotel food, which is why we have classified these under super junk, for those sm...

Puffed rice preparation Take oil in a kadai.   Add mustard seeds, curry leaves and let it splutter.   Add fried chana dal to this. Mix in the puffed rice. Blend in salt, chilli powder (optional), and chat masala. This is a quick n’ easy snack. Easy to rustle up in few minutes.

  Chikki is a traditional Indian sweet, made from nuts and jaggery. Our little hero is not so ok with Jaggery, (molasses) and so I have tried it with honey and date syrup .Melt the honey over low flame and when it begins to get a little sticky, add the nuts and blend it in. Pour it into the moulds as this was a trial batch I had poured it into greased small square shaped steel plates. Garnish it with a little grated coconut. Leave it to harden overnight. With date syrup, again heat over low flame. When it becomes to boil, I added ground peanut powder and blended cashews to give the chikki variations. The honey version is a little sticky and tends to stick to your tooth. So lo! Two variants of our own desi energy bars from your desi girl. If you have a peanut allergy problem, you can also add raisin, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, walnut and apricots .The darker chiiki is using date syrup.The chiki needs to be refrigerated when stored,for subsequent use. 

3 cups flour-sorghum flour,Sunira foods ¼ th Baking soda ¼ tsp salt 2tsp ground ginger 1tsp ground cinnamon ¼ tsp ground nutmeg ¼ tsp ground cloves 1/4 th cup olive oil+2 tablespoon (This is a substitute for butter in the original recipe). I have used extra virgin olive oil ½ cup granulated white sugar 1 large egg 2/3 cups organic molasses/Jaggery. I have used organic jaggery granules and made the syrup mixing it with water and heating over medium flame to get the consistency Cream the sugar and olive oil until well combined. Add the egg and molasses beat till fluffy. Gradually add the flour mixture with the spices, soda and salt. Blend the ingredients well. Wrap the dough in a plastic wrap and leave overnight. On a lightly floured surface roll the dough out and use a cookie cutter. Bake for 8-12 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack. I went wrong twice once with the quantity of ginger, adding a little extra. It leaves a very strong ginger flavor. The second...

½ cup ghee ¼ th cup white sugar 1 egg separated ½ tsp vanilla extract, again there is a gluten free vanilla extract, or try making your own with vanilla sticks. 1 cup organ all purpose flour (140g) 1/8 tsp salt, in some recipes you find kosher salt being used. The grains are larger; it is additive free (iodine free) and tends to make the flavours clearer. 1 cup Orgran All-purpose flour 3/4 th cup nuts .I use walnuts or almonds. ½ cup jam. This is optional if you want a longer shelf life. In a bowl whisk the ghee and sugar until fluffy .Add the vanilla extract and egg yolk and beat.In a separate bowl whisk the flour and salt. Add the ghee batter to the flour mixture and combine. If the dough is soft, refrigerate for 30 minutes in a plastic wrap. In a small bowl beat the egg white till frothy. Make balls of the dough; roll it in the egg whites and then the nuts. Bake at 180 degrees for 12 minutes on a greased cookie sheet or till the nuts tend to become brown. Some cookies tend to brea...

1/4 th cup ghee 1 egg beaten 1/4 th cup white sugar Grated rind of 1 lemon ¾ th cup sorghum flour               Cream the ghee and sugar in a bowl. Beat in the egg and lemon rind. Add the flour, blend it in. Let stand for 3-4 minutes. Roll the dough on a floured surface and cut the cookie in a shape you desire. Bake on greased sheet for 12-15 minutes at 180 degrees. The original recipe uses rice flour. Also check out finger millet biscuits in an earlier post.And hey, there is another interesting comment I came across on GFCF (what else) while surfing, which goes something like this. There are taboos on speaking on few subjects, namely sex, religion and politics in a polite conversation. You can now add autism remedies to it. That goes to say there are parent s who swear by GFCF, and some who rubbish it and a whole lot of other bio medical interventions. Each one to oneself.

                           Pappadum is an Indian preparation, available in most Indian stores. It is a thin wafer liker preparation that can be made with rice, black gram flours also. It is generally deep fried but also can be micro waved. I had some tapioca growing in my back yard, but it may also work with ready to use tapioca flour available in market. The tapioca is to be cut, cleaned and chopped into small pieces. After letting it dry in the sun for couple of days. I get it ground in a mill. I l would like to give a word of caution. I discard the initial lot say 1-2 kg, to ensure it is gluten free. I do the same with rice flour. My uses the discarded portion for her rangolis. It is a popular art form using white powder and colors to make beautiful colored sand like paintings. Talk of resource management.Whew! For 5 cups of the flour I use 10 cups of water. Bring the water to boil, add salt, chili powder, and a...