{"id":1283,"date":"2008-10-13T21:28:52","date_gmt":"2008-10-14T02:28:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/womantalk.wordpress.com\/?p=1283"},"modified":"2008-10-13T21:28:52","modified_gmt":"2008-10-14T02:28:52","slug":"new-food-experiment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.womantalk.org\/?p=1283","title":{"rendered":"New Food Experiment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chad and I have just completed our first week of being dairy and wheat-free. And it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. Sure, we had delicious Kung Pao Chicken<\/a> tonight (with rice and steamed summer zucchini) and Pasta with Eggplant and Summer Squash last night (a Williams and Sonoma recipe with brown rice penne), but I had to say NO to orange almond torte on Wednesday at Bunco. And there is Halloween candy in the freezer. Sad. I think I need to go make some knox blox.<\/p>\n

Our reasons for this month-long food experiment are many. Christian has developed some mild dry patches on his legs and I’m just wondering if they might be related to a food allergy and not just the weather. I’ve been spending a lot of time with other mamas and it sounds like any skin rash or eczema is frequently associated with a food allergy. Since at the moment Christian lives solely on mama’s milk, it’s a good time to check things out, meaning, it’s easier to control my own diet than to control anybody else’s. I’ve considered myself lactose-intolerant for most of my adult life, although I appear to handle cheese and yogurt relatively well – it’s butter, cow’s milk, and sour cream that gives me a stomach ache, and I wonder if Christian has the same sensitivity. Bella did when she was younger. I know that Asian (and African-American) populations have a much higher rate of lactose-intolerance than others.<\/p>\n

And while I don’t think I have a problem with wheat, I suspect that Chad’s frequent head-aches might be related to wheat. I don’t have a reason why – just an intuition.<\/p>\n

So we decided to get rid of both – for an entire month – to see how we feel.<\/p>\n

Bella’s gloating that nobody can snack on “her” cereal (Pomagranate Blueberry from Trader Joe’s) or munch on her stash of fig cereal bars (also from TJ’s).<\/p>\n

But before we said farewell to wheat and dairy we had a regular smorgasbord of the stuff – and I mean, besides the two Key Lime Pies<\/a> and caramel sauce<\/a> I made last month, I also made four trays of these completely out-of-control-decadent Caramel ‘n Chocolate Pecan Bars (once for Bella’s cheer team, once for the staff at Chad’s library, and twice for us).<\/p>\n

Caramel ‘n Chocolate Pecan Bars<\/strong> (from a box of LandoLakes butter)<\/p>\n

Crust<\/em><\/p>\n

2 c flour (I used whole wheat once, and it worked fine)<\/p>\n

1 c firmly packed brown sugar<\/p>\n

1\/2 c butter<\/p>\n

1 c pecan halves<\/p>\n

Topping<\/em><\/p>\n

2\/3 c butter<\/p>\n

1\/2 c firmly packed brown sugar<\/p>\n

1 c chocolate chips<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Preheat oven to 350.<\/li>\n
  2. Combine all crust ingredients, except pecans, in a bowl. Beat until it looks like fine crumbs. Press into a ungreased 13×9 casserole.<\/li>\n
  3. Place pecans evenly over the crust.<\/li>\n
  4. Combine the butter and sugar for the topping ina\u00c2\u00a0 saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly until entire surface begins to boil. Boil, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Pour mixture evenly over pecans and crust.<\/li>\n
  5. Bake for 18-22 minutes, until entire caramel layer is bubbly. Do not overbake. (This is emphasized.)<\/li>\n
  6. Remove from oven immediately and sprinkle on chocolate chips. Swirl melted chips if desired.<\/li>\n
  7. Cool completely.<\/li>\n
  8. Cut into bars.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Chad and I have just completed our first week of being dairy and wheat-free. And it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. Sure, we had delicious Kung Pao Chicken tonight (with rice and steamed summer zucchini) and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recipes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womantalk.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womantalk.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womantalk.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womantalk.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womantalk.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.womantalk.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1283\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womantalk.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womantalk.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womantalk.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}