Little Breakthroughs

The past few days have been very hectic. Trying to figure out what to feed Holland with what's in my pantry. How to pack gluten-free food for soccer games or co-op days. I've bought many tiny bags of gluten-free snacks and a 24 oz bag of pancake mix. This puny bag of Pamela's cost me $6.89. I loved making pancakes and waffles and breakfast-y food. I've heard this is the best pancake mix (sorry Bob; no competition) but hope to be able to duplicate it if it's a success. Otherwise we're going to end up spending two or three times the normal amount on food.

It's not that he's a super-picky eater. Romania fits that bill more than Holland. He loves fruit and vegetables. He told the gastroenterologist on Monday that his favorite food was corn. Go figure. Corn. Not hot dogs. Or pizza. But corn. I'm also rediscovering the art of the smoothie. The best book is "Jamba Juice". This is the only way I can sneak plain yogurt into my kids. Their favorite smoothie so far is cranberry juice, strawberries, blueberries, plain yogurt and raspberry sherbet. That's the ticket! Putting ice cream in a smoothie. Today, Holland and Egypt and I made smoothies. They each drank about a cup and then we made popsicles with the rest. We saved them for an after-dinner treat and they all thought it was dessert! Sweet. I even told Holland I'd let him eat a smoothie popsicle for breakfast. Big smile on that one. I'm such a cool mom.

We've all been kinda pouty after Holland's diagnosis because we thought we'd barely (if ever) be able to go out to eat. (Well, I was probably more pouty than super-hero. He's probably thrilled we're not spending money on restaurant food!) Not many restaurants are gluten-free friendly. Red Robin. Nope. Spaghetti Factory. Forget it. But with all my poking around on the internet, I've found lots of bloggers blogging about gluten-free stuff. Recipes. Restaurants. This one blogger mentioned the best pizza she'd ever eaten (gluten-free!) Of course, I kept reading and it was located in Arizona. Bummer. Maybe we could visit there. I think I have relatives in Arizona, right mom? I decided to check out their website anyway. Maybe they had recipes or other links. I scrolled down on their 'locations' page and had to read the word "Oregon" twice. No.... there couldn't really be the "best gluten-free pizza ever" located in Portland?!? And guess what? It's only a few blocks from super hero's office! I'm already planning an afternoon of lunch when Romania has a Friday off. I also decided to check out other pizza joints. There's an awesome pizza place where we had our "Happy Adoption Day" celebration. Holland really liked their pizza. On the left-hand side of their website was a list and the words "gluten-free" popped out. They actually have an entire gluten-free menu coming out. Should be available on October 1st. (Do they take reservations? Because we're going!) The little blurb about the new menu showed how much they know about cooking with wheat and gluten-free flours. They have separate equipment; separate baking areas and are training the employees how to handle the food so there's no cross-contamination. They even hunted down a gluten-free mozzarella. I'm impressed. I don't even care what it costs. We are eating pizza on October 1st.