The GFCF Bento

happy :)

2006-08-22T11:56:00.000-07:00

After a week of crazy appointments and busy-ness I think that we are finally ready to get back into our bento lunches.

We officially started our homeschool "preschool" this week and we have a regular schedule for mine and Brennan's appointments so I hope to be more regular with the bentos now. We are still trying to work through appointments for Asher but the going is slow and the waiting lists are long.

On Saturday nights Curtis and I have a "date night" at home. We usually cook something we both like but don't normally have during the week since the kids are all casein free and Asher is gluten free too. So this weekend I made fettucini Alfredo. I had a little left on my plate and I left it out overnight by accident :(

Well Asher got into it on Sunday and both Sunday and Monday were rough. Sunday the tantrums escalated and stayed high through Monday. But Monday was harder because we saw him "shut down" a lot more, just being out of it and not wanting to connect. I am convinced there is a connection between casein and his behavior. I am not sure about the gluten yet. It is super hard to get rid of all gluten though, so that may be why we aren't noticing so much of a difference with that.

We had roast beef yesterday and I saved a few slices of it to make beef fried rice today. I got the recipe out of our bento book and it was quite yummy.

I sauteed the beef and green onions first, then I used the egg and fried the rice. I mixed the beef and onions back in and cooked that together. I set some aside for the kids and then added soy sauce in for Curtis and myself (still haven't gotten any more gluten free soy sauce). Cassidy and Brennan can have gluten too but I don't like to give it to them in front of Asher. I don't think he'd have noticed today though, because he was very pleased to have his bento. He really likes his bento at lunch.

Peaches and romaine lettuce rounded out this bento. One thing I am really missing with being mostly casein free is the "creamy" texture from dairy products. So I made a "creamy" salad dressing with a little bit of homemade mayo (for the creamy) and sesame oil for a good oriental flavor to compliment the rice. I was surprised that it turned out well.

I've been moving towards making condiments at home since noticing that most store-bought ones have distilled vinegar (and thus possibly gluten). Homemade mayo is quite easy and works well. I've also made a Creole mayo that I really like and tastes delicious with roast beef.

Last week the kids and I made a homemade ketchup (yep, store bought ketchup is a no no, sad for the kiddos). It's a fermented food and it came out suprisingly good! Curtis even approved :) I am going to try a homemade mustard this week, and probably homemade horseradish too.

mama out

2006-08-11T17:48:00.000-07:00

Today Brennan and I went to the doctor's office for our accident follow up (I'm still really sore :( so we were referred to the chiropractor) Since I was gone Curtis made two little bentos for the kids.

They are made up of tasty chips (100% natural corn tortilla chips), steamed broccoli, and avocado slices. The meat is corned beef ground up.

The kiddos really enjoyed it and they were excited to have "Daddy-made" bento.

Curtis' mom makes a really tasty sandwich spread with the corned beef hash. I am going to have to get the recipe and convert it for a bento because it's so good ;)

learning about condiments

2006-08-09T20:36:00.000-07:00

This tasty bento was inspired by a bento at Cooking Cute. It came out very good and I was quite happy.

At the same time, though I learned some valuable things that made my job as a gf/cf mama a whole lot harder :(

The salmon recipe is for an apple-horseradish glaze (follow that Cooking Cute link!)

Well as we've moved on through our gf/cf steps (see the sidebar on this page)we're now to where basically all of our food is gf/cf.

That also means condiments must be gluten and casein free.

Well if you take the time to read the back of almost all condiments you will notice that vinegar is listed there. Vinegar that is not specified "rice" "apple cider" "white wine" or some other innocent substance probably comes from wheat :/ It can additionally get even trickier because you have to find a non-wheat vinegar that totally non-wheat. So the apple-cider vinegar must be distilled from apples and can't just be "apple cider flavored."

This intense condiment realization hit me as I read the back of our horseradish bottle and noticed the big bad word "vinegar."

So our apple-horseradish glaze ended up being an applejuice glaze thickened with just a little cornstarch. The kids liked it and I liked it. You'll also notice that our rice isn't fried because we didn't have any gluten free soy sauce. It still tasted nice though, and the grapes and steamed broccoli rounded it out nicely :)

where we are

2006-08-08T10:27:00.000-07:00

today Curtis' mom is visiting and brought us a (gf/cf) lunch so no bento. I'm not sure if we'll have one tomorrow either because we may be out of town for the day. But I'll make one on Thursday.

Today I thought I'd give an update on how our gf/cf is going. Since there have been a couple of weeks that I've felt really bad I got off track with our 10-week plan, so I'm going back to week 7. We have been totally gf/cf with all meals and snacks since we did week 6, but the last three weeks are making sure that all gf/cf products are out of the home.

That means checking toothpaste and cleaning products, among other things. We do a lot of cleaning with vinegar, but a lot of vinegars have wheat! It's mind boggling, to think of everything that *might* have gluten or casein in it.

The gluten free is the hardest and I just don't think I can keep the entire family gluten free. So we're striving to make all family meals gluten free, but I'm not getting stressed out about gluten away from home (except for Asher).

We haven't seen the dramatic changes with eliminating gluten that we did with casein, but I know that gluten can hang around for a lot longer inside little bodies and it's in common things so I'm committed to keeping Asher gluten free for several more months before I pass any judgment...

here we go!

2006-08-07T13:59:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling better now and I'm ready to start making our bentos every day :D Today we had a friend over for lunch so I made six bentos! You'll also notice that Brennan's bentos have more food in them because he's really gotten into eating with the family :)

I've been meaning to try a recipe from Bento Boxes: Japanese Meals on the Go and I finally got everything together to try it today! I was super-pleased with how it turned out.

It's a recipe for nori-wrapped dumplings. The recipe called for ground chicken but I decided to use ground turkey. I mixed the turkey with several spices, a tiny bit of cornstarch and a little rice flour. Then I shaped them and wrapped a piece of nori around each dumpling.

They were sauteed in olive oil. I flipped them back and forth a few times and left a lid on them until they cooked through - it didn't take very long at all because they're pretty small.

They came out so nice and tasty! Next time I will experiment a little more with the seasonings to get some that is even better ;)

I made rice with fresh chicken stock. Normally I use brown rice but I'm trying to finish off white rice that we were given. I am trying to prepare all of our grains with homemade chicken stock because it's so full of nutrients and I really want to be sure the kids are getting nutrient-dense meals.

The salad is green leaf lettuce and I whipped up a dressing really quickly with olive oil, white wine vinegar (a few drops), a tiny amount of Dijon mustard, and a little sesame oil to give it a sesame flavor. Grape tomatoes and some orange slices rounded out the bentos. Very good and it felt good to get back to making them!

taking a break

2006-07-29T14:24:00.000-07:00

I'm just putting a message across my little blog network that I was in a car wreck (but I'm ok!) and that's putting my blogging/updates behind.

Brennan (my youngest son) was in the car with me. He was completely safe in his carseat and I encourage any of you with little ones to keep them in car seats! I hope to be back to blogging next week. Thanks for reading :D

eggs

2006-07-20T13:52:00.000-07:00

Japanese bento boxes often feature quail eggs. They are quite cute - so tiny! Unfortunately I haven't figured out where to get quail eggs from around here. So when I decided I wanted to use eggs today I was stuck with plain old free-range eggs.

Speaking of those, I have always tried to buy very healthy food and have done a lot of research into healthy eating. But I haven't always purchased organic foods because of the cost. Now that Asher is having such a hard time I am really trying to purchase organic or natural when possible.

Even if it means we can't have quite as much as before (like no huge steaks) and have to make meats more of a side dish, that's ok. We are saving in the cost of buying dairy products, which aren't cheap, if you've never noticed. But I am trying to only buy natural meats and eggs, and natural produce as much as possible.

So today's bento featured eggs (Curtis' eggs aren't shelled because he was at a business meeting when I prepared the bentos and I wasn't sure he'd be back for lunch), hardboiled.

Another big Japanese food is plums. The make many things from plums, including a plum paste called umeboshi. It is very salty and said to be good for settling upset stomachs. I really enjoy plums and was pleased when my mom brought some along with her tomatoes and peaches. I think they look nice alongside the eggs in this bento.

Asher was raiding again this morning and had a couple of bites out of an apple before I got to him, so I salvaged the rest of the apple to use in the bento. Another peach is featured because, like I said yesterday, we have a house full of them!

I put broccoli in this bento for some good green coloring and the calcium. I didn't steam it and wish that I had now. The kids didn't seem to like it as much raw.

On a whim I added grapes and our "grain" of the day is kasha. I made only 1/2 cup of kasha today instead of a full cup and that worked much better for bentos. I also made the kasha without egg since we were already having eggs in the bento and it tasted just fine that way.

feeling better

2006-07-19T14:04:00.000-07:00

I feel much better today, so back to making bentos! Asher also seems to be doing better again today. As I've mentioned before, he is intensely interested in food and he likes to stand on his chair and watch/help with food. Today I asked him to get down and go put his monkey slippers under his bed (they were on the kitchen floor). He said "ok" then climbed down and put the monkey slippers away. I was so shocked I went and told Curtis. It was purely wonderful.

I liked today's bento. I've been wanting to add sweet potato into our diet for awhile and I thought it would go well with today's bento. I steamed the sweet potatoes soft and then drizzled a little olive oil over them. Another good way to make them is to slice them and put them on a cookie sheet. Brush with olive oil (or another tasty oil) and bake lightly. They turn out very well!

We are being overrun with peaches in our house so I am using a lot of peaches. I put a few blueberries in there to add some color and a little tangy taste. My mom gave us some absolutely gorgeous tomatoes, so I sliced a small one and put tomato and avocado slices into the bentos. I sprinkled a little salt over them. I put a dab of homemade mayonnaise in between my tomato and avocado because I really like my mayo!

I put some carrots in for a crunch. For protein I used ham slices. These are Hillshire Farms honey ham slices and I called the company to verify that they were gf/cf. The rep told me that they are, and that all Sara Lee brand products clearly state if there is dairy or if the product has been produced in a facility where dairy is used. Nice to know.

I thought I'd share a gf/cf snack idea that worked really well -- I blended up some bananas and coconut milk, then a different fruit with each batch. I poured this mixture into popsicle molds and froze. They came out wonderful and the kids loved them! We had banana peach, banana strawberry, and banana orange (I used orange juice). Very good, and the coconut milk gave a good texture and light flavor!

reaction :(

2006-07-17T11:03:00.000-07:00

We're having a brief bento break because I have been sick the past few days and feel really crummy. Thus not much going on in the kitchen for me. Hopefully I will feel better tomorrow and get back to the bento making.

We did have a bit of casein breech our dietary fortress however. I was going through the freezer Saturday night and found a box of ice cream getting freezer burn under several other things. I took the ice cream out and put it into the sink to melt overnight so I could wash it down and throw the box away.

Our Asher is 100% obsessed with food - as in, we could have just eaten a 15 course meal and he still hunts for food, and looks through cookbooks and food magazines for hours on end. So Sunday morning I had totally forgotten about the ice cream in the sink until I saw Asher covered in melted ice cream!

I immediately took him to the bathroom and washed him all over, and tried to rinse his mouth out, but he'd gotten some in. Curtis and I sat back and hoped that we wouldn't see a reaction. It seems our hopes were in vain.

Within just a little while of the ice cream (casein) ingestion, Asher was slamming his head into the wall. Hitting his head has been a problem we'd seen decrease greatly. His tantrums seemed up throughout the day.

Then last night I caught him up slapping Cassidy for no apparent reason. They share a room, which is right off of our den. All of a sudden I heard slapping and her crying and Asher screaming. I don't know what started him off. I'd checked on them only a few minutes before and Cassidy was asleep (Asher rolling around in his bed).

Then this morning he had gf/cf waffles for breakfast. I waited a little while to have my breakfast because my stomach has been really upset. When I sat down for mine Asher had a complete and total meltdown that involved throwing a wooden baby toy at me and then having a tantrum that lasted for about 30 minutes.

He's still been having tantrums and showing some aggression since we eliminated casein and starting working towards gluten elimination, but this has been totally unprecedented. I can only assume that getting that ice cream yesterday had something to do with it.

From what I've read, casein reactions tend to fade within a few days, and hopefully this will be true for Asher. Hopefully I will also feel better.

more beans

2006-07-14T10:46:00.000-07:00

I've featured a lot of beans lately because they are pretty easy to get ready as long as they have been cooked. Even making beans from scratch is easy because most beans freeze well. So you can cook an entire batch and freeze the surplus. Beans are part of today's bento again =D

I got buy one, get one free fresh strawberries, so I was very generous with them today. They're so tasty and sweet! I added in seedless black grapes. I love the taste of grapes. They bring back summer memories from when I was a child. My mom had this nifty little grape container. It was two parts: one part was slotted so you could wash the grapes. The slotted part fit into a solid section and then you put the lid on them. I always liked it. I should find one for us ;)

I added in carrots for a veggie. I should have put some greens in there too, but I didn't think about it until I had them done. The green would have looked nice. I like adding carrots because they are tasty and sweet enough that they don't really need a sauce to go with them.

I fried the little corn tortillas in my butter substitute oil (1/3 cup sesame oil, 1/3 cup coconut oil, and 1/3 cup olive oil - yummy). I really like the way they taste when they are lightly fried. Honestly I don't like them plain, but heated in a little oil they become very good.

I put the black beans into the still-warm pot and cut some green onion shoots up over them. I added a little salt and lemon juice and let that mixture heat through, then used it to fill the tortillas. The black that you see over my bento is some of the juice from cooking the beans, because I really like it.

I also added a little kimchii to my bento and to Asher's bento. Nobody else in the family wanted kimchii today, so we had it all to ourselves!

Just two

2006-07-13T13:30:00.000-07:00

Today we only have two kids. My parents took Asher to the beach for his birthday, and he's getting treated to a (gf/cf) lunch there. So I only had two kids to make lunch for, and Curtis and I. Thankfully Curtis is eating again ;D It has been a peaceful day. It makes a big difference not to have an Asher to keep track of! I miss him already, though :p

Yesterday I cooked a full cup of kasha. I realized that was really too much for one day's bentos. From now on I will only cook a half cup for bentos. But kasha, unlike brown rice, does keep well in the fridge and taste fine after it has been refrigerated. So I pulled out the kasha I'd made yesterday to use today.

I used our gf/cf hotdogs on top of the kasha. Some days I'm thankful that hotdogs exist. We're using the Hebrew National brand right now, but when we get to Earthfare next month I'm going to buy some that are additive free, because I don't like preservatives going into my kiddos.

I dressed up the kasha slightly with some pinto beans I had in the fridge. There were too few of them to be of much use, but they were perfect in the kasha. I added some pepper and a wee bit of salt.

The rest of our snap peas were featured in this bento, along with the wonderful watermelon and Curtis' favorite, oranges. I know for a fact we have been eating a lot more fruits and veggies with our bentos than before, and I think my digestion likes it! I still want to add some more fermented treats in, however.

quick!

2006-07-12T13:15:00.000-07:00

I made up this bento very quickly. We had a hectic morning. Curtis was in a lot of pain and decided to go to the doctor. Taking care of him and three kids is pretty exhausting. My brother came and took him to his appointment so the kids and I got the house cleaned up a little.

When he got home, Curtis didn't feel like eating so I just made up some quick bentos for the kids and I. I used tempeh, which is a fermented soy product. I really like it, but some say it is an acquired taste. I think it goes very well with tomato sauces, so I usually make BBQ tempeh or put it in spaghetti sauce. I didn't want to do that today, however, so I made up a sauce.

I heated up a little coconut oil (maybe a tablespoon worth) and poured in some orange juice and a little lemon juice. I let those heat together at the bottom of the pan (not much of either juice, just enough to cover the bottom.) Then I added in the tempeh slice and let them heat through a little. They absorbed up some of the juice to be a tangy-sweet citrus flavor. It worked well.

I made kasha with the tempeh. Kasha is so quick and easy to make and it has a good flavor. The only downside to it thus far is that it makes a big mess on the floor ;) I just salted the kasha lightly today because I didn't have any stock thawed to cook it in.

I sliced peaches to go with our meal and added some romaine lettuce. I made a homemade salad dressing. I've been making a lot of condiments homemade because I worry about "natural flavors" in store bought ones containing gluten or casein.

I used a little olive oil with some wine vinegar, lemon juice, and a tiny amount of Dijon mustard beaten together in a little mixing bowl. I just used a fork and it took only a couple of minutes to make a fresh dressing! The dressing was good drizzled over the kasha, too.

not today :(

2006-07-11T22:42:00.000-07:00

Well Curtis sprained his ankle really badly last night. We were planning to take the kids to storytime at the library and then go grocery shopping, but with his sprain I took the kids to storytime alone.

After that I was pretty tired and didn't feel like navigating the grocery store alone with three kids! So I came home and made some quick turkey tacos, but I didn't put them into bentos. Curtis had a couple of buddies come over this evening to help with the kids and I made the grocery run alone. More bentos, coming up! (give Curtis some healing wishes)

on the round

2006-07-10T19:24:00.000-07:00

I liked this bento a lot. It was fun to put together. It's pretty simple but it was good. I like bentos because they can bring together several simple ingredients to make a tasty meal.

I used rice crackers and peanut butter to make little sandwiches. The crackers said that the only ingredients were rice, water, and salt, but Curtis was looking at the package later and said that it may have traces of dairy in it. I guess that they are manufactured in a facility that also handles dairy products/powder. I won't buy that brand again, and I hope that these crackers were uncontaminated.

The kids really liked the little sandwiches and I like the taste of rice crackers (like rice cakes.) The snap peas went well in the bento and were very easy to get ready. I just washed them and snapped then end/tough string off of them and popped them in. I put some orange slices in there for color and flavor and added some pinto beans to finish up the meal. I got the idea of adding a little portion of beans from
our bento cookbook. I really like the helpful little ideas in the book!

breaking the mold

2006-07-09T17:09:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to get away from just lining things up straight in the bento every day, so today I tried to do a little fun design. I can't say it came out spectacularly, but the kids approved and that makes me pretty happy.

This bento features another recipe from our shiny new bento book - a bean and rice dish. It used black-eyed peas and rice. I was able to substitute brown rice for the white rice the recipe called for easily.

The beans and rice has a little spice to it because it calls for a bit of pepper. I liked it and it was a good change. I made the rice fresh because I still haven't figured out a good way to make big batches of brown rice and have it taste good when I use it :(

I rounded out the bento with some carrot slices salvaged from two carrots that Asher got hold of. Asher's main purpose, interest, and fascination in life is with food. It's unbelievable how much of this child's life revolves around food.

Since going casein free and working towards gluten free we've seen some positive changes, one being the way he manifests this intense love for food -- now he wants to help prepare every single meal. Though having an Asher stuck to me like glue can get mildly annoying, it's better than having him take food from anywhere he can get it every 2 minutes.

He still does occasionally try to take food though, and got two apples today. He was trying to hoard them away and had a few bites out of each when he got caught, so I trimmed and chopped them for our bentos. Carrots and romaine lettuce finished up today's bento!

what is a gluten free casein free diet?

2006-07-09T07:09:00.000-07:00

What are Gluten and Casein?

Many people have never heard of gluten or casein. It is important to understand what these substances are before you are able to understand what the diet is and why it exists. Both gluten and casein are proteins.

Gluten is a plant protein. It's most well known for being in wheat, but it's also found in barley, rye, triticale, spelt, and kamut. There is debate about whether it is found in oats or not, but most people who go gluten-free stay away from oats just to be safe.

There are many, many, many derivatives with gluten in them. Malt, grain starches, hydrolyzed vegetable proteins, textured vegetable proteins (TVP), grain vinegars, most soy sauces, grain alcohols, and many "natural flavors" all have gluten in them. Vitamins and medicines often have gluten fillers and binders.

As you can see, going gluten free is not easy, because it is in many of our foods. It often means cooking from scratch much more than most people are used to. It also means finding substitutes for such common things as sandwich bread and pasta. It also requires careful reading of other labels, such as shampoo, which often has wheat protein as an ingredient.

Casein is a milk protein. It is found in milk and all milk products, such as cheese, yogurt, cream cheese, sour cream, heavy creams, half and half, kefir, buttermilk, and ice cream. It is also in common additives such as caseinate and whey. Meal replacement and supplemental drinks such as Ensure and Pediasure often have casein in them. Casein is found in surprising places, such as in hot dogs.

Now, what is the gluten free/casein free diet?

On the diet (gf/cf is the abbreviation) you eliminate all gluten and casein from the diet. In fact, you completely eliminate it from your life, which means changing personal care products if they contain gluten or casein. Common things like play dough also have to be replaced with gf/cf varieties.

Going gf/cf often means calling manufacturers to find out exactly what is in the "natural flavors" listed on packages, because that term often disguises gluten or casein. A lot of trouble can be avoided by making products from scratch. Condiments are a big worry because they often contain gluten and casein. It's pretty easy to make mayonnaise and ketchup at home. Gluten-free soy sauce can be purchased at some stores.

You must seek out substitutes for the gluten and casein products you are used to using. There are a variety of milk substitutes, including soy milk, rice milk, almond milk, and a milk called DariFree, which is based on potatoes. Be careful when buying these milks as some contain gluten. I also recommend not over-using soy substitutes because soy itself is a big allergen and it has a lot of hormones in it (be especially cautious of over-doing it in young children).

Potatoes, rice, and corn tortillas make good substitutes for a lot of bread products. Rice noodles have a pretty good texture and work well with pastas (make sure that rice is the only ingredient). Buckwheat has no gluten in it, and a tasty dish called Kasha can be made from it in minutes. Kasha works well with many dishes because you can use any kind of stock to make it and influence the flavor. Quinoa is another good grain to use (and has a very high protein content.)

There are flours that are gluten free, and some yeast brands are gluten free. Gluten free bread, pancakes, and waffles are an art, but can be made. Rich flour, amaranth, and potato starch are ingredients commonly called for in these breads. You can also find cookie and cake recipes. Some grocery stores carry frozen gf/cf waffles, which are great for breakfast. You can even make gluten free breading substitutes so you can still enjoy chicken nuggets and fried okra!

Fruits are a good sweet substitute. Smoothies can easily be made by substituting coconut milk for the cow milk or yogurt usually used. I haven't yet tried it, but I hear delicious homemade popsicles can be made with coconut milk and fruit blended together and frozen.

Another important aspect of the gf/cf diet is rotation. You have to be sure that you are not over-using any substitute because that could cause the body to become sensitized/allergic to that food. So don't do rice, corn, or potatoes every day. Vary your meals!

Why do the GF/CF Diet?

Some people eliminate gluten because they have a food allergy called celiac disease. Having gluten literally tears them up inside. A doctor can test for this disease, usually a short biopsy. It must be done while the person is still eating gluten.

Casein/dairy products are often eliminated by people who suffer from chronic congestion because these products are known to cause mucous build-up. Removing dairy products can often help a chronic bed wetter.

Many people go gf/cf to heal a "leaky gut." Leak gut means that something, often processed foods, has caused the intestines to be more permeable than they should be. This allows larger substances into the blood stream. Gluten and Casein can move through the intestinal wall without being broken down properly and cause many problems in susceptible individuals.

Many people choose to go gf/cf for a certain period (usually around a year) to allow the gut to heal. Then they slowly reintroduce only naturally prepared foods (such as soaked grains and organic, raw dairy products) to see if there is a reaction.

Some people go to the gf/cf diet to help with neurobiological problems in their children, such as ADD/ADHD and autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In people with this neurological wiring, gluten and casein crossing the blood/brain barrier can be converted into opiod or peptide substances, which then act on the brain in ways similar to heroin. Removing the gluten and casein from the diet of these children often results in dramatic improvement in their symptoms.

As you can see, going on the gluten and casein free diet is not the simplistic diet in the world! But the benefits are often numerous. Even if it is only used to heal a "leaky gut," many people enjoy good results.

Our family is following a plan to go gf/cf in 10 weeks. You can find the plan here: GF/CF in 10 Easy weeks

If you'd like more information on how gf/cf can help with ASD, and tons and tons of recipes and other resources, I highly recommend you go here: TACA's GF/CF Info

brown burgers

2006-07-08T23:45:00.000-07:00

I like using beef in the bentos because there's a good variety of recipes I can use beef in. But it's so...brown! I like for my bentos to be nice and colorful, but the beef on top of the grains are just so blah, lol.

Anyways, this bento is hamburger cut up (I use all-natural frozen patties that I fry up just before I make the bentos.) I used boiled red potatoes to complement the burger. The potatoes are drizzled with olive oil and lightly sprinkled with salt. The adult bentos have onions that I fried just a little too long in the beef fat. I need to watch more carefully so we just get a light glaze on them.

I had to use the broccoli or else I was going to lose it, so broccoli in today's bento. It worked well and gave a good color. At Curtis' request I steamed it, which brought out the vivid green even more.

My favorite fruity friend watermelon rounded this bento out. I loooooove watermelon and it was very good =D So nothing fancy today, but it was good and filling.

week 4

2006-07-07T20:42:00.000-07:00

No bentos today. We ended up house sitting for a few hours this morning. Curtis had a friend that needed somebody home to wait on the cable guy to hook up the internet, so we went to that friend's house. When we got back we just made a quick pot of spaghetti.

We used rice noodles and that actually turned out really well. I may incorporate that into a bento sometime. We used an organic jarred sauce that Curtis' mom gave us (gf/cf) and it was really good.

Today starts Week 4 of our 10 week gf/cf plan, and so today our lunches and breakfasts are completely gluten free. I can tell that this is going to get very challenging, especially eating out.

We have noticed some good results though. Like I mentioned before, Cassidy's bed wetting is down drastically and hopefully will be over soon.

Asher's eye contact has increased dramatically, as well as his willingness to speak to people outside the family. His speech still does not seem to be as clear as it once was, which is worrisome.

This week has brought a major breakthrough, however, in that we are seeing imaginative play in Asher, and it is his own play. Before he would parrot Cassidy as she made up a game, but he never played pretend on his own. He didn't really play with toys either. But in the past few days he has all of a sudden started pretending. He's still not playing well with toys, but I can see it starting.

We are excited about getting the gluten out of his system totally to see if there are more changes. I'm hoping that it might help with the tantrums and screaming :/

But I am pretty sure that the diet is the big thing that is helping him. After we get through the 10 weeks and give him some time to clear his system we will at least do a casein challenge, which means introducing some casein back into his system. If the behaviors reappear, we know the diet did in fact help. I'm pretty sure it's helping, because we're seeing dramatic eye contact improvement and then this week the playing, like I've never seen my little boy play.

new recipe

2006-07-06T16:39:00.000-07:00

Today I used a recipe from our bento book and I was very happy with the way it turned out. It was delicious!

The recipe was for meatballs, which I have fond memories of making with my grandmother. Of course these are a bit different from my grandma's meatballs, but making them still brought back memories.

The recipe called for breadcrumbs, so I decided to experiment and used potato flakes. Being a processed food, I'm not sure how completely healthy these are. Maybe I'll try and figure out a homemade alternative. But regardless, the potato flakes worked well as a substitute for breadcrumbs in this recipe.

I fried the meatballs in a little bit of peanut oil, as per the directions. I'm not really used to "deep-frying" foods so it was a bit of an experiment for me. I think it worked pretty well, even though I didn't completely submerge the meatballs in oil.

Anyways, the meatballs have onions, ground beef, salt, pepper, eggs, and potato flakes in them, and they're fried in peanut oil. I let them drain after I took them out of the oil. They were really good.

This bento also featured mashed potatoes (made from the aforementioned potato flakes), which I made using just water and a little bit of the oil (about 2 tbsp) from cooking the meatballs. The oil gave the potatoes a light flavoring that was pleasing. They were not quite as creamy as potatoes made with milk. I will have to keep experimenting.

I also had apple and broccoli in the bento. We had a special treat on the side of our bento today. Curtis made egg drop soup to go with lunch today. It turned out well. It wasn't as bright yellow as what comes from restaurants and we decided they probably use food dye, which we don't want Asher (or Cassy or Brennan, or us) to have anyways.

The lunch was delightful. The soup was a nice addition and we'll definitely add that winter bentos when the weather turns =P Now I need to search for some thermos containers!

simple

2006-07-05T23:34:00.000-07:00

This bento was pretty quick to put together and I think that it turned out well. I love all the colors it has in it. Good bentos should have a wide variety of colors. This yummy bento is pleasant to look at and it was pleasant to taste.

I made refried bean tortillas again. These are corn tortillas that I fried in a little olive oil. The frying makes them very tasty. The refried beans are just regular refried beans, and they are not fat free. As I've said before, I think it's important for children to get fat from good food in their diet so they can absorb the nutrients they need.

That's romaine lettuce in there. I keep meaning to rotate with green leaf lettuce or another deeply colored variety but I forget when I'm at the grocery store. We ate this lettuce plain because I didn't make a salad dressing. I'm wary of all store-bought dressings now to the point where I just make it at home. It's not hard and I'll share recipes sometime.

The corn is lightly salted but other than that it's not seasoned. It had a good sweet taste to it. The tomatoes are just tomatoes ;) I like tomatoes. I had to get a little sweet something in there so I snuck in the last of our strawberries.

happy 4th!

2006-07-04T11:32:00.000-07:00

happy 4th of july to all :) if you're not stateside, I hope that you had a good day too =D We're off to a cookout, so no bentos today. See you tomorrow!

pickled okra...yes, please!

2006-07-03T21:18:00.000-07:00

Traditional Japanese bentos usually had a pickled vegetable on the side. Pickled foods (fermented foods) are very good for you because they aid digestion and help the gut. I haven't featured a lot of fermented foods yet, but I plan to explore them some more once life slows down a bit.

Today I did include a piece of pickled okra with everyone's bento because we only had a few left in the jar ;) Our friends the Hebrew National gf/cf hotdogs made a reappearance.

A highly successful wheat alternative also took center stage today. The "grain" in the bentos is kasha. I originally tried it with supper a couple of times and it was a big hit. Kasha is buckwheat. Buckwheat is not actually a grass grain, like wheat is, but it's counted among the cereal grains. It has no gluten.

Kasha is quick and easy to prepare, and can be made with stock bases to give it flavoring. It has tiny grains and is a little messy, but my family has loved it.

I rounded out the bentos with a little romaine lettuce, baby carrots, and strawberries. I also added some apple in there. This was a good bento. I love the way fruits add a sweet little treat in there :)

just taking it easy

2006-07-02T18:15:00.000-07:00

No bentos the past few days because things have been crazy and then lazy. We’ve had a lot of medical appointments for Asher’s evaluations this past week, and then we had his birthday. And Cassidy had a little checkup. So life has been hectic.

Yesterday we just relaxed. We had a friend over and enjoyed sandwiches for lunch. We’re on week 3 of our 10 week to totally gluten and casein free. This week we’re totally taking all gluten out of breakfast, and this will be our last week having gluten with lunch.

We have seen some effects from the diet on the kids. Asher seems to be making more eye contact and taking interest in other children. Cassidy has kept her bed dry many nights. It’s a little stressful trying to explain to everyone (grandparents, restaurant staff, etc) but it’s worth it to see the small steps. Look forward to bentos again with the week starting 

2006-07-01T21:05:00.000-07:00

Here's the book that we got. I'm liking the way that it is set. There's no intro to the book, nothing to read through. It just jumps straight into the recipes.

There are several recipe sections. I think my favorite feature is the way there are mini sections to help you put meals together. You can look through the recipes for complete bento boxes and that's very cool.

But there is also a section just on a main dishes, and there are several pages at the end of bento fillers. These fillers are things you can keep on hand to round out your bentos. I like that. It makes it easier for me to pick out what I want to put into my bento.

last minute and so sleepy

2006-06-29T17:56:00.000-07:00

Another last minute bento here. We have little gf/cf sausage dogs as our main protein. The rice is leftover from the stir-fry we had yesterday with Curtis’ parents. I tried to dress it up a little with some sesame seeds and sesame oil. It didn’t work too well.

I’m not sure what to do about the “left over rice” problem unless we’re eating something with a very heavy taste like the Asian citrus dressing.

For now I will probably have to cook small portions of brown rice fresh when I want it in our bentos. We also had yummy sliced apples and strawberries in these bentos.

One good thing about making these – I end up giving the family a much larger variety of fruits and veggies. Cucumbers made an appearance again because we still have so many of them! We also have a ton of apples, so expect to see plenty of apples in the coming days.

Brennan loved this meal so much that it wore him out just eating it ;) I looked up to find him like this. He was very easy to put down for a nap after lunch today!

happy 3rd birthday asher!

2006-06-28T14:53:00.000-07:00

Our Asher turned 3 today, so we lazed around the house and enjoyed Grandma and Papa coming over and treating us to lunch. No bentos today, but Grandma was thrilled to see our pictures. She gave us the kids’ bento boxes!

We did get in the book that I ordered: Bento Boxes: Japanese Meals on the Go. I am very excited about it. Look forward to seeing some new recipes appearing inside our bentos! I’ll also give some updates about how the book it :D

So What's a Bento?

2006-06-27T17:37:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is Asher’s 3rd birthday, so we took him to have sushi at Sakura, our local Japanese restaurant today. No bentos for lunch! Instead I’ve explained a little more about what a bento is:

My family loves Japanese culture and one of the things we really like about it is the food. The Japanese are very particular about the presentation of their foods. They like for their meals to be pleasing to the eye as well as to the palate.

In Japan a packed lunch is called an obento, or a bento box. They are very common and can even be purchased at the 7-Eleven store. However, making a beautiful bento box is still the pride of many Japanese mothers, who make elaborate bentos for their children to take to school.

Most bentos have dividers in them to keep foods separate. The bento in this picture is a store-bought bento from the airport in Tokyo (picture courtesy of Wikipedia) complete with dividers. Some are double or triple-decker boxes that you stack one compartment on another. Bento boxes for children are often small plastic boxes adorned with popular characters. Adult bentos are often decorated in traditional Asian designs, though adults may enjoy character bentos as well :)

Bentos often come with a decorative cloth bag to carry them in. Some have matching chopstick or utensil holders to go with the bento. Some children’s bentos have utensil holders built in.

If a bento doesn’t have compartments or doesn’t have enough, small foil dividers are often used, or the food is placed into the bento neatly. Tiny bottles can be filled with soy sauce or other condiments. These are often available at Asian markets and are usually filled with a small syringe.

Rice is the traditional bento box staple. It’s often served with fish or meat and a pickled vegetable. Nowadays many things can be served in bento boxes. My family is enjoying trying out different ideas and looks forward to growing our bento collection!

I love watermelon!

2006-06-26T20:24:00.000-07:00

Mmmm today was a good bento. I used homemade roast beef (I really don’t like the additives and such in the packed roast beef sandwich meat.) I tried really hard to thin slice the roast beef just like the sandwich meat but I didn’t get it quite thin enough. I will try again next time, lol! I actually made this roast beef last week and just thawed the leftovers overnight for bentos today.

We had roast beef over red potatoes and my personal favorite, avocado slices. There are so many good things about avocados, so we eat a lot of them! That’s romaine lettuce in there. I want to try and vary our lettuce a little. The sweet treat of the day is watermelon and it was sooooo good!! I absolutely adore watermelon. As a child it was one of the only things I would eat when I was sick, and I have fond memories of my mom searching high and low to find out of season watermelon.

We enjoyed Creole Mayonnaise with the roast beef. I made this from scratch and I thought I’d share the recipe. It’s from Nourishing Traditions, which is, hands down, the best cookbook ever.

Creole Mayonnaise

2 egg yolks, at room temperature

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons whey, optional (I left this out because whey has casein)

1 teaspoon Dijon-style mustard

1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1/4 teaspoon Tabasco sauce

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil or sunflower oil, or a mixture (we like the sunflower oil because the olive oil has such a unique flavor of its own)

Place all ingredients except oil into food processor and blend thoroughly. Using the attachment that allows you to add liquids drop by drop, add oil with motor running. Check for seasonings. You may want to add more salt or lemon juice. If you have added whey, let the mayonnaise sit at room temperature, well covered, for 7 hours before refrigerating. With whey added the mayonnaise will keep at least 5 weeks, refrigerated; without, for about 2 weeks.

spicy and sweet

2006-06-25T16:11:00.000-07:00

Another bento that had its origins in leftovers today. I made a bean and rice salad with a citrus dressing for supper last night (get the recipe here.)

The salad came out tasting very good. It was a great solution for the tastless rice fiasco I had the other day. The citrus dressing gave the rice plenty of flavor and the mushy texture wasn't very noticeable.

It was very good and all in the family approved. There was enough left for us to enjoy for lunch today. Bentos have fairly small portion sizes but they always seem filling. I think this may be because there is a wide variety of foods, colors, tastes, and textures in a bento.

I put some orange in the bento to compliment the dressing. We had some apple slices because I sliced half an apple for the kids to take to children's church this morning (because I didn't want them to be faced with a non-gluten/casein free snack). I used the other half of the apple in the bentos. And we had one lone banana so that went into the bentos too.

I added kimchi in to Curtis', Asher's, and my bento. I love kimchi, the spicy taste is soooo good. Fermented foods are very good for the body. Asher likes spicy foods but Cassidy does not. It was a good addition to this bento. Be sure to make sure that any fermented foods you purchase are casein free. Some have lactic acid - call the manufacturer to verify that the lactic acid is from a non-dairy source.

Romaine lettuce rounded out this bento. We served dressing at the table. It was a nice lunch. I love coming home knowing that there are tasty bentos waiting for me in the fridge :)

leftover bento

2006-06-24T14:46:00.000-07:00

Today's bento is mainly leftovers. Curtis was quasi-out-of-town helping a friend with some moving. So it was just me and the children here for lunch. We had a few things waiting in the fridge and I decided now would be a good time to use them.

I used potatoes that we'd fried in a little olive oil and salted lightly. That's Spam cubed and fried in there with the potatoes. Get regular Spam if you buy it, because the lite and variety versions have more additives. It's good to have around just in case there's nothing else to eat ;)

We had the rest of the tomatoes from the other day and some tasty chopped broccoli. Curtis got us some fresh strawberries and they were a very good addition to this bento!

I made a quick dipping sauce for the broccoli right before we sat down. I just mixed a little lemon juice with some (casein free) mayo.

For dessert we had some soy ice cream to celebrate Cassidy staying dry for 5 nights in a row. It tasted pretty good, but had a slightly different texture than dairy ice cream. We don't do processed sweets for the kids very often but it was a special treat.

yum yum!

2006-06-23T17:28:00.000-07:00

Today marked the end of our first week on the gluten free/casein free in 10 easy weeks plan. It has gone well and has been pretty fun to explore. I don't miss dairy products/products with casein as much as I thought I would. I'm not even craving milk chocolate, lol! We haven't seen a noticeable change in Asher, which is what we are really going for. I know that it can take a few weeks, however, so we're sticking with it.

I am impressed with Cassidy, who has wet the bed almost every night long after she potty trained at 21 months old. She's 4.5 now and has been dry the last four nights in a row. I'm amazed, frankly. I had been told that eliminating dairy would help but I was skeptical. If she continues to stay dry I'm going to think that it's more than coincidence.

We had extra-tasty bentos today. I had Curtis make sushi rice for us to enjoy with this bento.

I purchased frozen, uncooked shrimp (buy a natural or organic brand if possible). I quickly thawed the shrimp under cold running water. While they were thawing I heated up some coconut oil, lemon juice, green onion, and a little minced garlic in a skillet on the stove.

When the shrimp were totally thawed I sauteed them in the mixture on the stove. When they were completely pink I added in a little coconut milk (about 3 tablespoons.) I made rice balls (my primitive attempts at Onigiri -- Japanese rice balls) and put them into the bentos. I put the shrimp into the bentos and then poured the remaining mixture over the rice balls.

Cassidy has half of a peanut butter sandwich cut up because she insists she doesn't like shrimp (she eats foods that have shrimp flavors.) She got two small cuts of a shrimp to eat (which she did without complaint) and the sandwich half. I'm not sure what I'll do in this situation when we're totally gluten free, but I'll figure that out then ;)

We had cucumber again and sliced avocado. I only used half of an avocado, and I'll use the other half in another bento. I thawed a few frozen peach slices under running water and added them for a sweet treat. I'm curious to see if other frozen fruits will work as well.

This bento came out really well. The coconut lemon shrimp was so good :) And the flavoring worked wonderfully with the rice. I was very pleased with this bento and will use the idea again.

why are we going gf/cf?

2006-06-23T14:48:00.000-07:00

Why in the world would someone eliminate gluten and casein? There are actually many answers to this question and people choose this route for many different reasons. I love dairy products and always have. In addition, I think that they are very healthful in their natural state (learn more about dairy at the Weston A. Price Foundation).

I think that grains are also good for our bodies in moderation and prepared in a traditional, whole state -- look at the Weston A. Price Foundation for more information on this too.

So I'm not among the many who are cutting out milk because they think it's evil and the cause of all health woes, nor am I someone seeking to eliminate all "carbs" by cutting out wheat and other grains.

Some people choose to go dairy free and wheat free for dieting reasons. Some people cut out milk because it causes congestion. Some people are lactose-intolerant, but they can tolerate the casein (milk protein) added to foods. Some people have celiac disease, which means that they have a food allergy to gluten. They must stay away from wheat and other grains that contain gluten.

So why is our family going gluten and casein free? It's for our son. Many, many families report that their children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) respond well to eliminating gluten and casein containing foods. Our son is showing some signs of ASD and we are having him evaluated. Waiting lists are long and evaluations take time, however, and we're not willing to wait for an official diagnosis to take proactive steps for our son.

The gf/cf diet is something we can implement at home for our child now, while we wait on professional opinions. Though we pray Asher will not have an ASD diagnosis, we are choosing to waste no time with strategies that could help him. Visit the links below to learn more about gluten free and casein free diets. I've also included a link to going gf/cf in 10 weeks, the plan we are following with our family.

TACA's GF/CF Info This is my favorite resource. It has a lot of different resources pulled together in one place and is a good starting point.

GFCF Diet.com I find this page hard to navigate but there is a lot of good information and tons of parent testimonies on it. They also offer a starter package of gf/cf information that looks very helpful.

10 Easy Weeks to GF/CF The plan that my family is following. I like the clear layout on this page.

Additives to Watch for Oh so important for reading labels. It can be overwhelming and cooking from scratch is probably your best bet, but this list is pretty exhaustive if you're wondering about the ingredients of a packaged product.

mexican inspiration

2006-06-22T14:15:00.000-07:00

Even though bentos are a Japanese meal (the term coming from "O-bento" or a packed meal) I know that our bentos will have some other flavors ;) We're pretty big fans of Mexican foods around here too, so this bento hails in naptime with a little south of the border flavor.

These are corn tortillas. Corn is gluten-free. Some children have corn sensitivities too, but we haven't seen that in our kids yet. If we begin to see a reaction we'll seek a corn alternative too.

I fried up the tortillas in a little olive oil, which makes them so good! I'm concerned that our children get enough fat in their diets. Children need fats to thrive. I'm not totally convinced that fats are really as horrible for adults as the food industry has tried to convince us. I think that healthy fats are vital to all human beings. It's the junk foods that cause problems. Frying the tortillas in a healthy oil gives them flavor and adds the fat my kids need to absorb vitamins and have energy to grow.

I filled the tortillas with refried beans (not low fat!) I put diced tomato on the side to look pretty ;) There's a little mango in each bento along with carrots and cucumbers. You'll see a lot of cucumbers in the next few days because we were just given a ton of them!

I made a dressing for the cucumbers with a little olive oil, some red wine vinegar, and a few sun dried tomatoes stirred in. It took me only a couple of minutes to whip it up. It was good drizzled of the bean tortillas as well.

We've been drinking rice milk or water with our bentos. Fortified rice milk offers the calcium of milk and it has a pleasant flavor. It doesn't have the protein or fat of milk, however. I've been trying to make sure I include a protein with each meal so the kids get what they need.

rice experiments

2006-06-21T16:30:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to figure out how to make rice once a week and letting it last. With certain meals we're using sushi rice, but I want to use brown rice some too. Sushi rice is white rice and polished (and therefore nutritionally devoid.) White rice is traditional in bentos and for certain meals I like that.

I tried making a big batch of brown rice and freezing it. I didn't season it or do anything to it. I wasn't very pleased with the results. The rice was somewhat spongy and a little tasteless. Usually I'd dress it up with butter, but that has casein in it.

I may try making a week's batch at a time and putting it in the fridge, and experiment with different ways to season it.

This bento features the mentioned not-so-great rice along with cooked beef patties. I choose all-natural beef in frozen patties to make it easier for myself. I prefer to use all-natural meats and produce when possible. I fried onions to go with the beef in the adult bentos.

I also put grapes, oranges and broccoli into the bento. I love broccoli and picked it because it has calcium in it. Calcium is important and without dairy products in our diet I am trying to be sure we get enough.

I liked the way the kid's bentos ended up looking. One important aspect of bento boxes in Japan is that they are aesthetically pleasing. I think that mine haven't looked too terribly pretty yet, but I am learning ;) I think that the kids looked nice, and there is a range of colors -- another important part of bento making.

This was Brennan's birthday bento, our little fellow turned 1 today! His bento celebrated that with his very first citrus food :D

midwife inspired :)

2006-06-20T11:17:00.000-07:00

This bento was inspired by my midwife, who doesn't eat much bread. She always had her tuna salad on a bed of lettuce and I decided to try the same thing. It was a great hit with the kids, who proclaimed the tuna salad to be on a "boat."

I made the tuna salad with a casein free mayo (many are, just check the label.) It has tuna and onions in it (you should check to make sure your tuna is gf/cf as well.) The "boats" are just romaine lettuce leaves filled with tuna salad.

Baby carrots and avocado slices made another appearance. I used red potatoes, or new potatoes, depending on what you call them, for the bentos today. I boiled them in a small pot of water until soft enough to pierce with a fork. Then I pulled them out and sliced them.

I drizzled the potatoes with olive oil and salted them lightly. They came out very tasty and complimented the tuna salad well. I rounded the bento out with a pickle for everyone. We are pickle fans! If you do home pickling, be sure to use a salt or vinegar brine instead of whey, which has casein. At the store pick kosher pickles.

mmm rice

2006-06-19T17:08:00.000-07:00

Here's day #2 and bento #2 :) We are following the 10 week plan to transition to totally gluten free and casein free. Weeks one and two are focused on getting casein out of the diet and gluten is still allowed (you can see an excellent outline of the 10 week plan here.) This bento has gluten in it.

This tasty bento has sushi rice in it. Curtis prepares the sushi rice for us using a traditional recipe. The recipe uses refined sugar. Though it's not much I'd still like to figure out a healthy replacement for the sugar.

We also have sliced avocado and sliced mango in it, yum yum! I put a few slices of banana in each bento as well. The banana was an afterthought...when we got up this morning we discovered Asher had feasted on half of it. I wanted to salvage what I could of the banana so I decided to slice it for bentos ;)

I put some leftover spicy chicken strips into our bentos. Cassidy doesn't like spicy so her bento doesn't have them. And crab strips, yummy. It made a very filling bento. We enjoyed soy sauce with this bento. Be sure to buy WHEAT FREE soy sauce, as most soy sauces are brewed with wheat.

Ideas for making this bento gluten free: use grilled or sauteed chicken strips. Olive oil makes a good butter replacement for sauteeing. Lemon juice gives chicken a light, wonderful flavor.

PLEASE NOTE: Imitation crab meat often has gluten in it!! Make sure there is no wheat in the imitation meat you buy, or buy only real crab meat.

the first bento

2006-06-18T10:50:00.000-07:00

I was excited about my first bento. I have really been wanting to try making bentos for awhile. Our entire family is very interested in Japanese culture. I play FFXI online which has a huge player base from Japan, and we play on mixed servers. I've always liked Japanese food but playing FFXI has increased my interest for learning more about the culture. I love the idea of bentos and I've wanted to do them for my kids.

I've been waiting to buy bento boxes for our family, but we've yet to have enough extra to splurge on five at once. Then Curtis' parents came to visit and brought a unique little gift for each child - a little food box, an American quasi-bento! The kids were thrilled and so were we (Curtis' mom didn't realize just how much we'd like them!)My mom gave us some tupperware she cleaned out of her cabinets, and I decided to use two of those containers as bentos for Curtis and I, until we can get official "bentos" for the family.

We've also just started to implement a gluten-free/casein-free diet. The bentos give me a great opportunity to be creative in figuring out just what to feed our family. I'll talk more about this later. Now, on to the first bento!

This bento has romaine lettuce, baby carrots, grapes, apple, and hot dogs. The hotdogs are Hebrew National brand, which are casein free and can be found in most grocery stores. I tried to make them into little octopi, like you see in many Japanese bentos. It didn't work very well so I will have to try again. We had salad dressing when we ate the bentos. I want to get some of the tiny dressing and sauce containers that are used in traditional bentos. They allow you to actually place your sauce right into the bento box! The tiny bento is for Brennan, who's still learning the adventure of eating!

Hello (Konnichiwa)!

2006-06-17T07:03:00.000-07:00

This blog will be devoted to one of my favorite things -- bentos. My bentos are special because my family is making the transition to being casein free and gluten free. We are following 10 week plan to go completely casein and gluten free. In the coming days I will explain more about bentos, caseinn and gluten free diets, and the process our family is going through (and why).

I'll also post pictures and ideas from our daily lunches -- our Bentos!