Crock Pot Chicken Fajitas with Lime Cilantro Rice

I made dinner tonight and just kind of flew by the seat of my pants, using some recipes as a 'base' and changing a few things up to suit our tastes. It turned out GREAT! Good enough to share and, bonus, it is very food allergy friendly.

Game plan: Get the crockpot part going around noon to get it out of the way. Around 4:30 shred chicken, return it to the crockpot and then get the rice in the rice cooker (or in a pan on the stove). Then, mix up the tortillas and roll them out. I like to divide the dough into 8 parts all at once, then roll out the next tortilla while the first one is cooking in the pan, and so on. Making the tortillas only takes about 35 minutes and it's SO WORTH IT!

Crock Pot Chicken Fajitas (adapted from Skinny Crock Pot)
1 lb frozen chicken breasts
1 each yellow, red, and orange bell peppers, sliced into bite sized pieces (or whatever you have on hand. I only used 2 b/c that's what I had and it still turned out great)
1 yellow onion, sliced
3 Tbsp's taco seasoning mix (adapted from http://www.thegraciouspantry.com/clean-eating-taco-seasoning/)

My version of the taco seasoning mix: 
2 Tbsp cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp (rounded) garlic powder
1/2 tsp chipotle chili powder
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/2 tsp sea salt

you will have a little seasoning left over, but not much.

***Place the chicken breasts in the bottom of the slow cooker. Cover with onion and peppers, then sprinkle the seasoning over the top. Cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 6-8. I started mine on high for about 2 hours and then flipped over the chicken breasts and switched it to low. When the chicken breasts are cooked through and ready to be shredded, go ahead and shred them and return them to the crockpot. Continue to cook everything together for about an hour to allow the shredded chicken to re-absorb some of the juices. When ready to serve, sprinkle with a little leftover lime juice from the lime cilantro rice below.

Lime Cilantro Rice (adapted from Our Best Bites)
1 C white rice, cooked per package directions (I used my rice cooker)
2 Tbsp Earth Balance Coconut Spread
Lime juice, to taste
Large handful of cilantro, roughly chopped
sea salt

***Cook the rice. When it's done, stir in the coconut spread, lime juice and cilantro. Salt to taste.

I made these Homemade gluten free tortillas using the bob's red mill gf flour mix, and find that I do need to add a few extra teaspoons of flour to get the dough the right consistency to roll out. I divide the dough into 8 equal(ish) sections, roll into balls and place, one at a time, between two pieces of plastic wrap and roll out. I lightly coat the bottom piece of plastic wrap with a little flour. This method has worked well to get the tortillas as thin as possible without them sticking to the rolling pin and tearing.


I served this with  my favorite salsa and sliced avocado. It was seriously so good. You have to try it!!

I apologize that there are no pictures. It was all gone before I could take any!

Olivia's first birthday party!

We had a small low-key family gathering to celebrate Olivia's birthday today. I made cupcakes and we just hung out with family, ate a few snacks, sang happy birthday and opened presents. Olivia was a little skeptical when I first brought her downstairs from her nap, but warmed up after a little while and very much enjoyed hanging out with her cousins!

mini-cupcakes!

Gluten free/vegan cupcakes!

Big sister Staci

Pretty girl in her special birthday outfit!

mmmm cupcakes!  

Decor

Thanks to all the family who came and made today a memorable one!!

Happy Birthday Olivia

Olivia,

I can't believe you are one year old today! Looking back at the past year, it has been a mix of elation, sleep deprivation, and joy.  You need to know that your big sister loves you with every fiber of her being, and so do your parents. You should know your big sister helped Mommy pick out decorations for your party. As soon as I finish writing this I am going to bake your birthday cupcakes and finish putting up those decorations Staci chose.

3/3/12--with your birthday balloons!

Right at this moment, you are sitting by me 'reading' some board books and making a mess of the Curious George matching cards. You are extremely good at entertaining yourself, and that's lucky because your big sister can take all of my attention from time to time.

--you are in 12-18mo and 18mo clothing
--you are walking everywhere
--you have 7 teeth, soon to be 8
--when Staci turns music on to dance to, you will rock and dance, too. You also love it when I pick you up and dance with you.
--You take two naps a day, and wake up frequently at night.
--You're a champion eater. You are doing great with eating table foods and still nursing 10ish times a day.
--You love books and toys that play music
--Your favorite food, besides momma milk, is applesauce and bananas. I think sweet potato fries are pretty high on the 'like' list as well.
--You can sign 'milk', 'please', and 'more'. I am mostly sure you are also doing your own version of 'all done' while also saying it a la "ahhhDAH! ahhhhDAH!"
--You will hold up a book and say, " bbbbuuh! bbbbuuhhh!" but then you did the same thing for the balloons. So, no clear first words yet, but I'm keeping my ears open.

You are so much fun. I love you with all my heart. I love watching you grow and every new stage is always my 'favorite stage'. Your big sister says you are her best friend.  I hope you call each other your best friends for the rest of your lives.

allergy update

This blog has been neglected! Since the last time I updated, we received Max's IgG food panel as well as Staci's IgE food panels. For Max, he is also highly intolerant to gluten, sesame seeds and cranberries. My test results only showed sesame seeds and cranberries.

Staci's IgE food panel showed a level V reaction to peanuts on a scale of I-VI, 0 being the least reaction and VI the highest. When I spoke with the allergist she said Staci was so allergic to peanuts she should not even sit next to someone eating them. I am so thankful Staci's reaction when exposed, up to this point, has been immediate puking. I didn't realize the severity of her reaction. IgE means that we just don't know what her reaction to peanuts would be next time, and it's very possible it could be anaphylactic shock, which can quickly lead to... I can't even type it out. But let's just say my world would end and I would never get out of bed. Ever. So, we carry an epi-pen with us everywhere and have one in the medicine cabinet as well.

Her IgE food panel also came back at a level I for soy, wheat, and whole eggs. Very similar to what the IgG panel showed which I thought was really interesting. Because they showed a minor reaction, I was told to add soy to our elimination diet and to try reintroducing it once we are done and see how she does. I have never been so nervous about anything, ever. And I used to be a musical theatre major and have to get up and sing in front of LOTS of people. And my peers. By myself. So, that's saying a lot.

Olivia crawling through the 'cave'

We have been gluten free/egg free/dairy free/soy free/peanut free for almost 3 months now! It has been a learning experience for me but also very fun. Maybe that sounds crazy but I HAVE to look at it that way to survive. Honestly, I do.

I'll be sharing a list of my favorite blogs and recipes when I find the time! When I'm not cooking, I'm generally playing with my kids. Olivia loves crawling through the cave and then clapping for herself when she gets to the end! ;)

Olivia Walks!

Here, if you watch Olivia's right hand as she walks over to the Duplo's you can see her do her version of the sign for 'milk'. After she picks up a block, she pats her tummy with both hands. This is her version of the sign for 'please'. Staci finds this all really, super, amazingly hilarious!

What do Staci's test results mean?

From the articles I have found on the internet, the IgG antibodies test is simply a screening test. It does not mean that Staci definitely has these allergies. The main point of contention I have, is that while it's true these tests are not fool-proof, they have a pretty high correlation with allergic symptoms. This article states that IgG antibodies to wheat gliadin have a 91% correlation with a positive diagnosis of Celiac's Disease (CD). I found this to be particularly alarming. Then, I read another article that basically says there's a high amount of false positives with this test, but it doesn't state what it considers to be a 'high rate' of false positives.

After receiving Staci's results, I wasn't able to get in to speak with our doctor for almost a week. Let me say this here---> that was a completely crappy thing to do to a mom. You cannot tell someone their 2.5 year old is allergic to everything they are eating and then leave them high and dry for a week. I doubt any doctors read this, but in the event that you do, please take a few minutes out of your day to call your patients when they receive news like this! By the time I saw my doctor the next week, I had convinced myself that Staci, her dad, her grandfather, and a few other people in our lives all had CD.

Based on this one test, we have the option of removing gluten, dairy and eggs from our diets (peanuts have already been removed) for a few months and then doing the blood tests again. This will allow her gut to heal and see if she is following the diet effectively. If the test results came back normal, we would be advised to slowly reintroduce these potential allergens and see how she does. My issue with this is that if Staci does, in fact, have CD, wheat and gluten could never be re-introduced. The tests for CD will not be accurate if you have removed gluten from your diet, so I feel an extreme urgency to find out if CD could be the culprit behind all of Staci's allergies.

IF Staci does have CD, it could be what is causing her other allergies (dairy and eggs). In other words, once her body heals, we may be able to have yogurt, butter, oooh and ice cream again! It is less likely she will outgrow her peanut allergy, but that is less concerning to me.

So, since gluten intolerance and CD run in families, Max and I both had our blood drawn this week as well. We should have those results hopefully before the end of the year. I also had some more blood work done on Staci (which was awful) and we should have those results next week. At this point I don't know what I'm hoping for, but it will be nice to have some answers.

I could go through the 15 other if/then situations running through my head, but for now with Staci we are doing our best to be gluten/egg/dairy/peanut free and will cross the next bridge when we come to it. I will update the blog with her (and our!) results as I receive them.

My kid is allergic to everything

Ok, maybe not EVERYTHING. But honestly? Pretty darn close. Let's start at the beginning.

As a little baby, Staci was a huge spitter. By which I mean, she spit up ALL the time. There was never a feeding after which she did not spit up, so much so I would change my shirt and her outfit no less than 4 times a day. Her spitup finally started to decrease around 7 months old, but even then was pretty severe. I read many places that some babies were just spitters and that she probably wasn't spitting up as much (volume-wise) as it appeared. Looking back, she probably spit up anywhere from 1/2oz-1oz after each feeding. That is probably why I had such an oversupply with her. She never had a problem gaining or growing, and never expressed any discomfort from the spitting so I just figured she loved to nurse and was eating too much, coupled with my super fast let-down reflex causing her to swallow more air than the average breastfed baby. I could never notice any sort of pattern to foods I ate that didn't agree with her because the spitting was so frequent. She didn't seem to have any problems with gas and her stooling patterns were normal to that of a breastfed baby.

There was one food, however, in particular that I could not consume. Chocolate notciably increased her spit up. In fact, if I ate chocolate she did not spit up. She projectile vomited her entire feeding. So, as much as it stunk, I gave up chocolate for the first 10 or 11 months of our nursing relationship. At that point, she had started to eat some solids and I tried it little by little, and she seemed to do ok with it.

Starting solids with her was an adventure. I chose to follow baby led weaning and added in some purees here and there. I quickly learned purees were not good for her, because she would always puke when I put her down for her nap. I just thought it was her normal spitting up, but now I think her stomach just wasn't mature enough to handle the solid foods. She didn't get teeth until she was 13 months old, and that is one of the most reliable signs a baby is ready for solid foods. Basically, I think she just wasn't really ready for solids until then.

Around 8 months old, I let her have a small piece of cheese. She proceeded to rub it all over her face in an effort to get it into her mouth. In a matter of minutes, her face broke out in hives and her eye nearly swelled shut. I watched her carefully for any signs of breathing trouble but no signs appeared. We had an appointment with the chiropractor that afternoon. I remember driving the entire 25 minute trip with my hand touching her, to make sure she was breathing ok and not showing signs of distress. Our wonderful chiropractors gave her some homeopathic remedy for the type of allergic reaction she was having and I do think it helped. From that point on, every time I tried any kind of dairy with her (yogurt, cheese, cow's milk, even goat's milk) she would either puke immediately, or in the event she refused to eat it, would get all snotty and crazy and upset. I thought she was just being stubborn about the yogurt b/c 'people who can't have dairy can still have yogurt'. That may be true for many who are lactose intolerant, but as you will see below, her allergies are to milk protiens.

Finally, around 16 months old, I was eating yogurt and granola (one of the only things that sounded good when I was in the early stages of pregnancy) and she wanted to try it. I hadn't given her any dairy in a while so I let her try it. She did fine! I was so psyched! As things progressed, yogurt became one of her favorite foods. I also found that I could add milk and cheese in small amounts to recipes like meatloaf or meatballs with no immediate or noticable reactions.

Around the same time, she tried peanut butter for the first time. I let her have a small bite of a peanut butter cracker I was eating and she immediately started crying and drooling like crazy. I just figured she wasn't ready for peanuts yet. I let her try it a few more times and every time, no matter how small the bite of peanut butter, she would always cry and/or spit up. As she got older, this turned more violent. I only tried peanuts about 4 times before I realized she absolutely could not have them. I thought I'd wait until she was 2 or so. The Easter before she turned 2 she ate some peanut butter in a piece of candy at a family event before I even knew what had happened. Her reaction was so immediate and so violent I haven't given her any since. She puked 4 times from one small piece of candy. I just kept thinking she would outgrow this reaction as she had seemed to with dairy, which is why I kept reintroducing it. I learned my lesson that Easter.

While all of this is going on, Staci had a rash come and go frequently. At first I thought it was yeast. We cloth diaper so I thought it kept coming back because the yeast was living in the diapers. It was so bad it bled on more than a few occasions. I took her for a second opinion and was told it was bacterial. Each time, the rash cleared up with treatment, so I just figured it was something we would have to battle with her. It didn't seem to matter if we were using disposables or cloth, so we kept using our cloth. And typically, it would be bad for a few days and then fine for weeks at a time. Now, I think it *could* be dermatitis herpetiformis, which is a rash that is associated with celiac's disease. It might not be. Maybe it really is recurrant yeast and eczema. Skin rashes are very difficult to diagnose. The next time we see it we are getting it biopsied to find out for sure.

The most recent time her rash flared, it was extremely dry, almost felt scabby. It covered her entire bottom. She also has keratosis pilaris-like bumps all over the backs of her arms, her legs, and the back of her hips. I took her to the Dr, and asked if we could get some allergy testing done. Our family Dr did a IgG food panel, and we found she has strong reactions to all dairy, eggs, gluten and peanuts.

All gluten, wheat and peanut reactions were in the IV-V range. What do these results mean? I'm going to go more in depth in the next post on what these results mean and what the next step for us is.

I also had some muscle testing done at the chiropractor and she determined Staci had a vitamin E deficiency. She said it seemed more like a deficiency than a toxicity, and gave us some homeopathic supplements (inflammatone) as well as a fish oil supplement. Staci's skin does seem to be doing better with these supplements, but that is not surprising to me as fish oil is really wonderful for your skin. Also, when something or somethings were so obviously affecting my child and her well being, I knew I needed some more concrete, science based testing done.

My head is still spinning a week and a half after we received these test results. More on what they mean and what our next step is in the next post!