Yeegads. Toddlers.

How are you at planning things? If you can manage to keep a stocked pantry of "things I can safely eat", and another set of "supplements I have to take" you can do this. I'd also keep some rice products around for the times you think you just can't stand it anymore and have to have something, because at least rice does not have gluten. Also dark chocolate.

I also keep at least four boxes of tofu in the fridge at all times. Tofu is the perfect, plain thing to eat as a bread substitute. I also make myself bake almond meal bread once a week, (it makes toast!) and make sure I make almond meal pancakes at least once on weekends. The almond meal pancake base can also be used for pizza base when cooked as one piece in a cast iron skillet. The almond meal pancake also, with a little bit of change in flavorings, can be used as a mock tortilla base for navaho tacos, or as a shortcake base for fruit with honey and whipped cream. It is a very versatile item, and with practice can be whipped up fairly quickly. I have a blender dedicated to grinding almonds, I just throw in a handfull and whir away every time I need some.

The trick is to keep a LOT of staples on hand. This is easy to do now with the bulk foods bins in groceries. I buy very large amounts of almonds, raisins, walnuts, etc. in bulk, so I don't run out. I always have a zip lock bag of something with me when I go somewhere.

I find Lunch is the biggest pia. Breakfast is easy, dinner is easy, grilled or roasted meat with vegetables, give the other(s) a starch product, but lunch...salad, salad, salad...because there is such a difficulty in finding quick, non starchy meat items. Thank goodness lettuce now comes in bags. Try to cook extra meat items all at once so you can have a leftover hamburger or whatever for lunch really helps.

The sugar/carbohydrate cravings go away IF you religiously supplement with calcium and magnesium and a multivitamin, and eat enough good fats. When your body is feeling it wants carbs, it's actually a calcium craving being expressed. This is a calciumsucking disease. ( for one thing, mineral absorbtion problems in gut from damage) Your kidneys sense the blood levels going awry and think "send more or I'll rob the bones" but it's expressed as hunger and sugar cravings. Eat sugar/carbs, tempory satiation, then WHAMMO, blood sugar drops, insulin, worse cravings, bad cycle. (remember the Atkins guy? He was right....) I think the guys get the "fat" thing but we women have to undo the "fat is bad" programming and learn to eat the stuff again.

If you go to the same grocery all the time, make it the grocery with the most items available that are friendly to your needs, even if you have to drive a greater distance. If you are not great at memorizing the layout take a notepad with you and make a map of the basic aisle contents, if they don't have a store map. Then write a basic grocery list, and then redo the list in the order of the store aisles, so you can shop easier. Make copies of that master list or print it off on the computer's printer. Each week, check off what you need. I can carry lists of stuff in my head and remember store layouts, but that's me and I don't have small children with me.
I despise stores with a passion that have confusing price coding (like "club card" stores) or the aisles laid out poorly, and they don't get my business, because they want you to do impulse buying, and I take this grocery shopping seriously. If the right stuff is in the house, you are more likely to eat it.

Motivation...you know you will feel better once you do this, and this is a long road we have.

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I've been tinkering with an almond meal bread recipe from sc diet. org lately, here it is. It has no dairy. It goes together fast. It is way less eggy and has more "crust" and is more like cornbread for those of us who want toast texture. I wish I had tried molasses earlier, it really helps the flavor.

Fast Round Pan Bread, no dairy, less egg

Prep:

One 8" cast iron round pan, pre heated on stove with olive oil

Oven, broiler on to start, shelf about 6" down.

Almond meal, grind in blender

1 1/4 cup almond meal
1 egg, beaten
some water, about 2 to 3 tablespoons, to bring mixture to thick batter consistancy
teaspoon honey, aprox., don't have to measure
teaspoon molasses, aprox.
aprox. teaspoon to tablespoon of olive oil

teaspoon of vinegar. do have to measure
3/4 teaspoon of baking soda, ditto
about a 1/4 teasp. salt

flavorings:
about a teaspoon of anise seed
a good pinch, about a 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon of chinese five spice powder


Mix all ingredients together. To save time, I measure the almond meal and the leavening carefully, but just use my eye for the rest. The amount of water to get a thick batter will vary according to how dry the other ingredients are, the size of the egg, and your humidity. Pour the batter into the hot, pre-heated 8" oiled skillet on the stove. Now, watch it a minute as the bottom cooks. When bubbles start rising to the top thru the middle, and the edges start to set up, take the pan off the stove and put it under the pre-heated broiler.
(if this was a pancake, you'd finish it off under the broiler, but it's not)
Let the thing set a few seconds under the broiler, and then turn the broiler OFF, turn the oven setting ON to bake at 350ºF, and CLOSE THE OVEN DOOR.
Set the oven timer for 10 minutes.
Let the bread sit in the oven for that time, and then check to see if it is done. The top should be nicely browned, the middle firm but springy, and a knife inserted should come out clean. If not done, return to oven for another 2 minutes and check again. Usually, the residual heat of the broiler will cook this bread before your oven bottom heat comes on.

Makes one small round pan of almond bread

To serve, cut in wedges. Wedges can be split for toast.

(this recipe, halved, is very close to the famous Nut Flour Pancake, and with less leavening and leave out the molasses and spices makes a pizza base)