What To Eat??!

People always ask what Emma Kate eats since she is GF, DF, and low sodium. At first I too thought there would be almost no options...but there are! And many kid friendly snacks too. Rather than list out all the different foods, I'll try to get most of them on here in pictures. Some of the foods aren't exactly low sodium, but they are not high- so we can work with them. And almost all of these items are GOOD! Not just good for being GF :-) (if you know what I mean!). I shop mostly at Kroger. They make it easy by having the separate health food section. The reason we eat gluten and dairy free... I have read enough about it helping prevent relapses that I convinced it's certainly something worth trying!

                      My new and improved pantry...the labels make things much easier. GF-DF-Low Sodium...everything in the right place! Especially if someone else is watching Emma Kate:

                                                              Great breakfast foods:

We have found almond milk to taste the best on cereal. Natural maple syrup is better for you and 0 sodium. Almond butter, 0 sodium. My daughter LOVES the enjoy life chocolate bars.

                                                              Great foods for lunch:

Rudis GF bread is the best. Kettle baked hickory honey barbecue chips are the ONLY ones I have found that are flavored that Emma can have. Some of the Nut-Thin crackers have dairy, so read ingredients always. Frog ranch salsa: only 40 mg in 2 tbls and very yummy!

Dinner:

Lots of GF and DF ice cream options. "Daiya" dairy and soy free cheese. Tofutti's cream cheese and sour cream. Liquid amino's for cooking. Tom's Red Mill corn bread. I normally don't like corn bread, but this stuff is GOOD! It reheats well too. I have learned that organic anything is almost always lower in sodium.

These are some great no and almost no sodium snacks. The little things are: raisins, applesauce, cliff fruit rope, Target brand fruit mash ups and fruit shreds. Larabars are mostly 5 ml with no allergens. Some have more sodium and dairy though, you have to check. My daughter loves the plain popcorn from Trader Joes.

These foods are SOOO good they deserved their own picture!

The Enjoy Life brand is such a life saver. And all their products I have had taste really good. They also make DF chocolate chips.

Aside from these foods about 1/2 of what Emma Kate eats is fresh fruit and veggies. Her favorite meat is fish, and she eats chicken regularly too. We avoid food dyes, limit preservatives, and buy organic as much as possible. This is important since the kidneys filter out toxins! We try to really limit soy and limit the chocolate (not sure if these had to do with her relapse or not). I also rotate our foods regularly.

Later, I'll post some great recipes I've found or come up with that the whole family can enjoy. Also, I'll post our guide to eating out (yes, it did take forever to make!), and the spread sheet I've created that categorizes all the different foods and if they are good or bad for Emma Kate (for many different reasons). I've done all these things in hopes of preventing future relapses. And if she does relapse, I hope these charts will help me to narrow down which foods may have contributed. I also keep frequent logs of what she eats, so I can determine what may have caused an increase in protein. I always wanted to be a nurse, so I guess I got my wish! Haha