5 Tips for Preparing Special Diet Food

 It has been seven months since Ed started a therapeutic ketogenic diet for his brain cancer. By now it seems normal for Ed to be on a special diet. Even the two-year-old asks, when she sees me pull out a batch of muffins, "Are those for Dad?" knowing she won't get even a nibble.

I never imagined I'd be preparing meals for a special diet, especially a diet that allows for no cheating ever. Ed's diet requires consideration for every meal and every snack. No longer can we leave for the day without making a plan for what Ed will eat.

And yes, some days I hate it. But I've been doing it long enough that it has become much easier. While it takes time to prepare special food for Ed, it isn't difficult. It has become a natural part of life. Ed is quick to show gratefulness and I'm glad to do it for him.

I know there are many people who are on a special diet for medical reasons. Here are some tips that have worked for me.

1. Make a list of favorite meals: snacks, breakfasts, side dishes, lunches, dinners, desserts, travel food, etc. When you find something that works well, or when you adapt a recipe, write it down immediately. I often think I'll remember it later, but I never do. Flipping through these notes in future weeks is a tremendous help. I love that Ed is willing to try new things, yet he doesn't mind repeating the same foods again and again if they are favorites.

2. Use your freezer. This should be number one. If I have food in the freezer I'm never helpless; I will always have something to feed Ed.



Most of the recipes I make for Ed are individual servings to make sure the ratios are exactly correct, but I can still make multiples. For example, if I'm making chicken soup, I line up a few dishes and make three, one for now and two for the freezer. If I do that several times a week, I always have a variety of main dishes in the freezer for him to pack in his lunch or for an evening that I didn't have time to make a meal for Ed. Also about one afternoon a week I try to stock up on baked things such as crackers, muffins, or cookies. These recipes usually make numerous servings and are easy to freeze.

3. Keep your pantry stocked with food that is compatible with the diet. Nothing derails a diet like being hungry for a snack and not have anything that you can eat. Ed has showed extreme discipline for his diet, but I do what I can to make it easy for him by having nuts and keto chocolate on hand.

4. Find a cookbook or website that supplies recipes that exactly fit your diet. I think there is a cookbook (or a hundred cookbooks) for every diet known to man. You can adapt favorite recipes for your diet, but you'll save time and frustration if you find a cookbook that exactly fits your needs. Many cookbook authors have websites so you can try out their recipes and find a good fit before you invest in a cookbook that you may not use. Or maybe the website will be all you need.


For Ed's keto diet, I found that there are countless websites with keto recipes, but most are for weight loss or body building and rarely are they suitable for Ed's version of the diet. I found The Keto Cookbook was perfect. It was written for children with epilepsy who are controlling seizures with the ketogenic diet so it is super strict the right ratios for Ed. I use this cookbook daily.



5. Invest in some helpful tools and products that make you diet more doable. Of course this will vary with your diet needs.

For Ed's diet I found that small glass containers with plastic lids made by Pyrex or Anchor were so useful I've purchased several packs. I can use them in the oven, microwave, or freezer. I use the two-cup size for meals and the one-cup for desserts. I also like mini silicone spatulas for scraping out oil and silicone cupcake molds for making single servings of cookies, brownies, and, of course, muffins. But more than any other tool I use the My Weight kitchen scale. I have had this scale for years, but in the last months I use it several times a day to measure grams easily without losing food in a measuring cup.



Sometimes it is the little things. Ed was thrilled to find spiced mayonnaise. Since he eats so much mayo it is nice to have some Chipotle mayo for a change. I have found chia seeds make an easy keto pudding. Xanthum gum was a recent find that makes it possible for me to make gravies and chowders without flour or cornstarch. Your list of products will vary depending on your goals, but when you find something that works, celebrate. And stock up.

Do you have any hints for cooking a special diet? Some of you have been doing this for many years.

This post contains affiliate links. Your Amazon purchase through my links, though it adds no extra cost to you, has allowed me to buy many of Ed's special diet products at no cost. Thank you.

Bookmarks: Asia picture books

The continent of Asia is a place of contrasts. Crowded cities, rugged mountains, steamy rain forests, and arid deserts make up this area of the world. Any list of books will be inadequate, but here is a few books to help introduce your child to the people, food, and places in Asia.

Rice Is Life by Rita Golden Gelman, illustrated by Yangsook Choi

On the island of Bali in Indonesia, farmers are planting rice in their fields. Following the seasons, lilting prose describes the animals and people who live near the rice fields. Note: Brief mention of false gods.

Bee-Bim Bop! By Linda Sue Park, illustrated by Ho Baek Loe

You will smile as you read this fun book about a favorite Korean food made by a young girl and her mother.

The Bicycle Man by Allan Say

At a small mountain school in Japan the children prepare for Sports Day. The author shares this surprise of this special day from his memories soon after World War 2.

Monsoon by Uma Krishnaswami, illustrated by Jamel Akib

Bright paintings show every day life in northern India where a young girl watches for the clouds that will signal the beginning of the rainy season. Excellent introduction to life in India. Note: Brief mention of idol worship.

The Top of the World: Climbing Mount Everest, written and illustrated by Steve Jenkins

Non-fiction picture book on the history and challenges of climbing the tallest mountain in the world.

Monsoon Afternoon by Kashmira Sheth, illustrated by Yoshido Jaeggi

One rainy afternoon, a bored young boy is joined by his grandfather in sailing paper boats in the washtub. Lovely water-colors depict life in a warm household in India.

For the Right to Learn: Malala Yousafzai's Story by Rebecca Langston-George, illustrated by Janna Bock

Cartoon-like illustrations share the serious story of Malala's desire to help the girls of Pakistan get an education. Help children understand the plight of children who live in a very different culture than theirs and give them an appreciation for education.

My Little Round House written and illustrated by Bolormaa Baasansuren

Baby Jilu lives in the traditional nomadic home in Mongolia. Follow him through the first year of his life, watching the changing seasons and moving to new camps. Traditional-style illustrations give a charming introduction to a fascinating way of life.

The Chiru of High Tibet by Jacqueline Briggs Martin, illustrated by Linda Wingerter

The chiru are hunted because they have the warmest, finest wool in the world, but one scientist and his four friends are determined to help save the chiru from poachers. This is the true story of their journey into the rugged mountains of Tibet to find the chiru's birthing ground.

This post contains affiliate links.

Ordinary Winter Days

A glimpse of life for our family these last weeks - or months - some of these are before Christmas.

First snow excitement.

Daddy's dish washing helper on a Saturday morning.

Winter evenings call for stories.

Our children surprised us with a Christmas presentation complete with a nativity play and music.

Cousins and toe socks.

Christmas Eve game playing.

All I wanted for Christmas is to sit with my husband by the fire. So grateful that Ed is feeling so well these past months.

Strict diets are no fun - especially at holidays, but I tried to supply some special desserts for Ed.

Birthday girls. Is there anything more fun than four-year-olds?

And how did our baby get to two years already?

Finally enough snow for sledding - but my daughter tells me we haven't had a snowman yet.

We took a weekend trip to visit Ed's sister in North Carolina. 

On the way down we stopped to stretch our legs on some of the trails in Richmond along the James River.

Still snowy but a lovely day for January.

In North Carolina we found cousins, a pond, a boat, a raft = hours of boy fun.

Warm enough for a January picnic along the Roanoke River.

Where there were more rocks and water for the boys.

I love looking at these pictures. So much fun, ordinary life; we don't take it for granted. (Though we have bickering and tears and frustration that don't get photographed. Lots of growth still needed at our house.) 

Thanks so much for your prayers for our family. I almost can hardly believe that our family has had such a happy, healthy winter. Ed just finished his seventh round of chemo. Whether it is God's grace, learning to deal with the side effects, or some other reason, it seems that every round gets a little easier. Other than a little fatigue, Ed worked right through the week. So thankful.

And special thanks for your prayers for my infant nephew. Parker will be three weeks old tomorrow. He is making slow improvements with breathing, though he is likely to be in the hospital yet for a while. I don't think we realized how close we were to losing him, and we are so thankful for God's healing in his small body. 

But a long hospital stay is hard on the whole family so please continue to pray for them. My sister-in-law said that she never imagined that you could experience such peace in the midst of a trauma like this. 

Truly God's grace does carry us when we are too weak to walk on our own.

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. (Psalm 121:1-2)

Q/A: Homeschool Curriculumn

I'm often asked what homeschool curriculum our family uses. I hesitate to answer because I'm not saying that what I use is the best. I have little experience with the vast amount of homeschool curriculum choices available. I know how easy it is to hit the winter school slump and decide to throw out all your books and buy new ones. So writing about this topic, especially at this time of year, might only give fodder to a weary mom.

But I love reading book reviews and hearing what other families use. There is always a chance that I'll learn about the perfect curriculum that is fun, lovely, academically strong, easy to use, and of course, cheap. I've decided by now that the perfect curriculum doesn't exist, because they all require effort which can't always be labeled "fun."

We've been homeschooling for nine years now, and I suppose that puts me in the "experienced" category. For the most part we've stuck with the same curriculum for those nine years. We have some hard days including learning disabilities and motivational challenges. Every time I get that urge to dump all our books and try something new, I figure that we will bring our same weaknesses and character flaws to the next curriculum so we keep plugging on. There may be good times to change curriculum, but I don't believe in a magic potions.

So with that disclaimer, here is what we are currently using for our homeschool curriculum with students age 13, 12, 10, and 8.



Math

We've used Christian Light Education math since first grade with our first child. We now have a eight, seventh, fifth, and third grader. I wanted to stay consistent with a math program since math builds on previous concepts. I love how easy CLE's math is for me to teach. I knew that math was going to be my weak point in teaching and CLE has been perfect for me. I like the practical examples for using math to help answer the question "When will I ever use this?"

My children don't particularly like math - but I don't think they'd like any math program. Next year I'm thinking of switching my oldest to Teaching Textbooks since I'm not confident of my ability to teach high school math, but to my shock my daughter stated that she likes CLE math and doesn't want to change.


Grammar

Our children use Daily Grams starting in 3rd grade. I love that each day has one worksheet with punctuation, capitalization, sentence combining, and other grammar skills so there is consistent practice. Daily Grams does not have any real teaching; it is basically a review worksheet book. But I teach each concept as it comes up in the worksheet. We add some basic review of parts of speech and last winter I did a two-month session on sentence diagramming for my two oldest children. This method of grammar has worked well for us but might not be ideal if you are less confident in teaching grammar.


Spelling

I have some children that can spell as good or better than I can and others that trip over simple words. I think that for some students spelling will just come naturally and it is nothing that I have done as their teacher. I use a mix of All About Spelling and Spelling Power. I like that in both books I can work with the child at their own level. In the last few months I've seen a jump of improvement in my struggling spellers so I try to rejoice in their success and not think about their grade level.

Writing

I've used various writing resources and haven't found my perfect curriculum. Maybe I'm too opinionated about what constitutes good writing. It is a little frustrating to tell my children, "Your book says...but I don't agree." But it does give some good conversation about writing. Right now I'm just assigning writing projects and teaching writing skills as I think of them or as they come up. I love writing, but my haphazard method probably lacks. This year we've been working on short research papers.


Bible

We begin using CLE's Bible curriculum in about 3rd grade. I like to keep my children together for convenience when possible so they don't always use their own grade level but sometimes combine with a sibling. My older children are learning to use the Strong's Concordance this year which I think is valuable.


History

I wrote about our history study in a previous article so you might already guess that this is my favorite subject. We are presently using CLE's Changing Frontiers with the whole family. We love reading stacks of books and immersing ourselves in a time period. We've been studying history in a four-year, chronological rotation. This year we are studying the time period from the Civil War to Modern Times.  Next year we'll return to Bible and Ancient history to begin our third rotation through history.


Science

We study science together as a family using Apologia's Young Explorer series. In past years we've studied Astronomy, Anatomy, and Zoology. This year we are using their Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics book. It has been the perfect introductory course for our family. Next year my older students will need to enter high school courses and we will no longer study all together. I'll miss it.

Extras -
Spanish - Rosetta Stone
Keyboarding - Bruce's Unusual Typing Wizard - a free online typing program

I'd love to hear what curriculum you would recommend.

And if you are that weary mom in a winter slump, my best advice - bundle up the children, and yourself, and go for a walk. We've been trying to walk a mile every day and it makes a huge difference in my view of life.

This post contains affiliate links.

Lift Your Glad Voices

I always thought that survivor guilt was silly. Why waste time on guilt that you survived and another didn't? But sometimes emotions don't make sense.

I thought I was prepared, but Jess' funeral was harder than I expected. Ed and Jess share the same disease, yet Ed is feeling remarkably well while Jess' 25 years seem pitifully short. And only God knows the number of Ed's days.

I know that in God's time even several hundred years of life is ridiculously brief. Eternity is endless, and Jess gets a head start in enjoying the glories of God's presence. Jess' goal was to be faithful until death, and she made it. The rest of us have more living to do - which means more pain ahead.

But "Jesus hath cheered the dark valley of sorrow...For Jesus hath risen, and man shall not die." (From Lift Your Glad Voices)

Yesterday was Ed's 41st birthday. I told him that I hoped he'd have a really good year. His immediate reply was that whatever happened, he was going to have a good year. Ed has taken Jess' death even harder than I have, but he also has a firm faith that God will carry us like He did Jess.

I searched online to find some of the music that was sung at Jess' funeral. She loved to sing, and the words of these songs share Jess' message to us who are still living.

"The Lord is My Light and My Salvation" - Jess' favorite song




"Somewhere in the Skies"




"By His Hand" - Jess' Testimony



"Lift Your Glad Voices" - Maybe the last song that Jess sang in her earthly body



If you are reading by email or feed reader, you may need to click over to the Home Joys blog to view the videos.

January is National Hot Tea Month