Day 4

It already seems like we've been doing this forever - not because it's easier, but because everyone is ready for it to end...and I don't think the dishes ever will.

Breakfast (Stage 2/3)
Eggs with cooked carrots on the side
Some had it scrambled in ghee, others had it over-easy with the yolks just barely cooked through.  They SHOULD be eating them raw or soft-boiled, but they won't and right now I just need to get some food in them.  Between my four boys they ate 15 eggs for breakfast.  It makes me want to cry.  We drive an hour and a half each way to get free-range, organic, pastured eggs at $4 something a dozen.  I just might be driving up more than once a month to stock my fridge.

I forgot to include broth with this meal.  We were rushed to get out the door for church.

Lunch (Stage 1)
Meat patties, green beans and spaghetti squash
I had some leftover meatball meat so I formed small patties and boiled them in broth.  After 20 minutes or so I added some frozen green beans and cooked until they were soft.

Baked spaghetti squash (cut in half) in the oven at 375 degrees for 40 minutes or so.  We served it with a bit of ghee and salt.

The meat patties were a huge hit and they wanted more than I had prepared.  Green beans were okay (I loved them) and they ate most of them.  One son had seconds.  Spaghetti squash was a bust.  They'd probably like it better with some sort of sauce on top.  The meat patties and green beans had some of the broth left which we added to the plate, but it wasn't the "one cup per meal" it should have been.

Dinner (Stage 1 except for the eggs which are Stage 2/3)
Boiled steak strips, broccoli, butternut squash soup and a fried egg
I cut up a few small steaks and boiled them in salted water (with half a sliced onion) for 25-30 minutes, covered.  Broccoli was boiled in salted water until fully cooked, but not mega mushy.  One of the things I learned while living in Brasil was to cook eggs until the white were firm and yolk was pretty runny, then place it on top of rice or meat or whatever to create a sort of 'egg sauce'.  My 5-yr-old said, "It's kind of gross but kinda yummy."

For the soup:
2 or 3 quarts of beef broth
3 to 4 cups butternut squash, cubed
1 huge carrot, sliced
1/2 onion

Boiled until soft then pureed with immersion blender and salted to taste.  I'll be honest, the only reason I'm giving this recipe was because it was GROSS and I don't want to you ever think this is a good combination.  Maybe it was because I used beef broth instead of chicken?

I had sauerkraut juice and garlic with my dinner.  I had garlic 3 times the first day and had a massive headache so I decided to do 1 garlic-in-soup a day for the first few days, then 2, then 3.  My sauerkraut just barely finished which is why I didn't have it earlier.  I'm having a HARD time getting sauerkraut to work.  The kids won't touch it so I need to find a different way to get probiotic food into them.

Reactions:
The 5-yr-old is basically on a hunger strike.  He'll eat the eggs, sometimes.  He used to eat meat without a problem and now he won't.  He "hates" soup and "all squash is gross".  He loves carrots but not if they are cooked.  It's getting hard to find anything he'll eat and he cries a lot.  Most likely we'll move him to Stage 3 or 4 tomorrow or the next day.  While I understand that moving too quickly isn't the best idea, I have to balance that with him getting enough to eat and his emotional well-being.  He's also the child with the least problems so we're not very worried about speeding him up.

The 10-yr-old has told me for 2 nights that he's really tired.  I can't tell if it's because he's not getting enough to eat, or that he's having a healing crisis, or that he's eating something that is bothering him, or that his body is adjusting to good food and now he is actually sleeping.  He always has a hard time falling asleep, but not lately.  Good thing, bad thing?  His eczema, which is horrid, is starting to clear up in some areas, other areas look just as bad as before.  He has A LOT of it though so it may take a while.

All of the kids want to know when we'll move on, what they can eat next, etc.  We never really talked about food before and now they talk about it all the time.  It's getting really hard to get them to drink broth.  They're starting to look at soup as one of the most evil things on the planet.  Energy levels are good though.  BMs are good.  No real reactions that we can see (other than above).

I'm cranky but I think that's because I've never seen so many dirty dishes in my life.  It's like Thanksgiving every meal.  Every pot/pan I own gets used every meal.  I have to wash them constantly.  I also didn't anticipate how long it would take to cook all the foods.  I bake/cook from scratch all the time, but this is a whole new level.  The emotional aspect is something I didn't expect either.  Having the kids cry and complain and talk non-stop about when it will end is very trying.  But we will keep forging ahead.  I know it will be worth it in the long run.

Day 3

We decided to tiptoe into Stage 2 today.  Everyone is feeling well, no bowel issues and the littlest guys are really struggling with soup, soup, soup so we thought we'd try some eggs.  I did a sensitivity test on everyone's wrists last night - ghee on one, egg yolk on the other.  All clear in the morning!

Breakfast (late Stage 2)
Soft-boiled eggs mashed with ghee
Well, you are supposed to start with a raw yolk in a bowl of soup but I knew that wouldn't fly so I went for the next step which is soft-boiled.  Only I don't know how to do that very well and accidentally medium-boiled them.  It still worked and they ate them with gusto.

I had leftover beef soup from yesterday with 1 clove of crushed garlic and a raw egg yolk.

Lunch (Stage 1)
Chicken w/acorn squash and peas
To heat the cooked chicken I boiled it in salted broth.

The acorn squash was cut in half then deseeded.  Place upside down on a shallow pan with about 1/4 inch water and bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until soft.  I added a touch of ghee and some salt to each portion.

Boiled frozen peas until mushy.

Dinner (Stage 1)
Broccoli Meatball Soup
Since the meatballs were such a big hit last night we decided to repeat.

I started with a pot of chicken stock and added 1 cooked acorn squash (I cooked extra at lunch) and about 1/2 cup leftover cooked peas.  Boiled with 1/2 an onion, chunked, and 1 summer squash, also chunked.  When it was soft I pureed with an immersion blender.  I brought it back to a boil and shaped the meatballs and dropped them into the broth.  They dropped to the bottom then after a minute or two they'd pop back up.  They simmered, covered, for 20 minutes or so then I added some frozen broccoli (I defrosted first and cut off all the stalks).  I didn't mean to let it cook until the broccoli turned to mush, but I got distracted.  It was basically pureed when we served it...I would have preferred the broccoli to be a bit firmer and greener!  The meatballs weren't as flavorful as last night - I think it makes a difference to boil them in well-salted broth as opposed to pureed squash soup, but they still ate quite a bit.

Reactions:
Everyone did well today.  We're still letting them have a bit of juice now and then, but I got sneaky today and added chicken broth to the juice.  I used a ratio of half and half room temperature, unsalted broth and they never knew.

I'm feeling a bit achy, but I can't tell if it's the diet or that I've been on my feet cooking non-stop for the last 3 days or that I'm training for a 5K.  Maybe I'm just old.

Day 2

Our last puke of the day was around 8:30 am.  The 11-yr-old and 5-yr-old didn't eat breakfast - they woke up, used the bathroom (or puked) then went right back to bed and didn't wake up until 1:00 pm.  The 7-yr-old ended up taking a two-hour nap this afternoon.

Breakfast
Beef soup consisting of:
a large steak w/bone (about 2 pounds)
3 large carrots, grated
1 turnip, diced
1/2 a head of cauliflower, stalks removed
1 onion, diced
a few handfuls of cubed butternut squash

I put the beef in the crockpot (raw) with all the veggies and let it cook overnight.  To serve I ladled soup into the bowl then broke off a hunk of meat and shredded it.  One of the boys said it tasted like grass and the other only picked the beef chunks out.  My husband and I both thought it tasted great.

Lunch
Leftovers
Husband and I ate the soup from the morning.  The boys that were awake ate the beef soup from yesterday afternoon.  I also boiled up some broccoli and peas.

Dinner
Meatballs on top of Red Mountain
My boys all looked at it funny, but it was seriously yummy.  We even invented a song for it -

On top of Red Mountain
All covered with broth
I lost my poor meatball
When somebody coughed.....

Meatballs
1 large carrot, peeled then pureed
1/2 onion, pureed
1 to 2 pound ground beef
1 to 2 tsp. sea salt (pepper would be good too, but only one of my kids likes it)
1 to 2 cups beef broth

Mix carrots, onion and salt with the ground beef.  Bring the broth to a boil in a large pan.  Once it's boiling, form the beef mixture into meatballs and gently place into pan.  Reduce heat, cover with the lid and let simmer for 30 minutes or so.  I took the lid off after that and let some of the broth evaporate (reduce) so it wasn't quite so soupy.

For the Red Mountain -
I brought a large pot of water to a boil, added a bit of salt and then the following:
1 beet, chopped
3 large carrots, chopped
several handfuls butternut squash
1/2 head cauliflower, stalks removed
1 zucchini - big chunks

I added the beets, carrots and squash first.  After they had softened up a bit I added the cauliflower and after 5 to 10 minutes added the zucchini.  When they had all been boiled into submission I drained the pot and added a bit of chicken broth.  I attacked them with my immersion blender until they were totally pureed.  The result was a deep red pile of mushy veggies (with a green fleck here and there - I should have peeled the zucchini).

To serve I put a pile of Red in a bowl then scooped a few meatballs on top with some broth.

They devoured the meatballs.  I could have easily doubled the batch and they would have eaten them too.  It was more work to get them to eat the Red Mountain.

Everyone seems to be feeling better now.  We did get some juice and have been giving tiny, tiny amounts of it.  And making them drink lots of water.  We also (gulp) bribed them to eat more veggies by saying, "If you eat 5 bites of broccoli you can have more juice" and so on.  It was seriously just a swallow or two but it was enough to get more food in them today.  I have a slight headache, but that could be due to little sleep last night and cooking all day today.

Day 1

You'd think since I have posted so much that we've been through the diet.  Well, we haven't.  All my postings thus far have been my attempt to organize what I've learned so Intro won't be so hard.  Yesterday, June 30, was Day 1 for us.

Breakfast -
Beef Soup consisting of:
beef broth
beef chunks picked from the soup bones
1 onion, diced super small
1 turnip, diced
several handfuls of baby carrots, cut to bite size

Everyone ate it more or less cheerfully.  I added a clove of garlic to my bowl, but not the kids'.  Also, I made the soup the night before and put it in the crockpot on low.  It was ready when we woke up!

Lunch
Butternut Squash Soup and boiled broccoli
The soup was pretty basic - some chicken stock with some water and butternut squash chunks all boiled until I could puree the squash.  I put some boiled, shredded chicken in the bottom of each bowl and ladled the soup on top.  We added salt at the table.

For the boiled broccoli  I added a few cups of filtered water to a pan with the chopped broccoli (stalks removed) and some sea salt.  I boiled until very tender, then drained and served.  It was surprisingly good.  One son had 3 helpings!

Snack
boiled, salted meat
One of the kids (5-yr-old) wanted a snack so I took some already cooked/boiled beef from the freezer and simmered it in salted water until they were warmed through.  He ate it in a bowl with a fork.  Several of the other kids picked at some pieces as they walked through the kitchen.

Dinner
Chicken "noodle" soup with green peas on the side
chicken stock
1/2 an onion, diced
a few handfuls of baby carrots, cut bite size
1/2 a spaghetti squash, peeled, de-seeded and then cut into chunks
the leftover soup from lunch (about 2 cups or so)

I put the squash in uncooked and let the soup come to a boil, then reduced heat to a simmer.  Once the squash was tender I mashed it with the backside of the spoon to make it separate into "noodles.  You could also bake the spaghetti squash in advance, but I didn't plan ahead.  I put boiled, shredded chicken in the bottom of the bowls then ladled the soup on top.

The peas were frozen and I just boiled them in salt water.  Some of the kids added extra salt at the table, others didn't.

Reactions:
Husband said the soups were good and it was "much easier than he thought".  The kids kept asking when we'd move to the next Stage.  I put a list of foods we could eat now and that seemed to help them.

I had a massive headache by bedtime so I took an epsom salt bath.  The headache didn't go away so I used my essential oils and that did the trick.

5-yr-old woke up during the night, puking.  He threw up 6 or 7 times throughout the night.  It COULD be because I let him eat some raw carrots after dinner.  He was sobbing that he was "so hungry" and I caved.

7-yr-old threw up this morning.  And 11-yr-old is threatening to do so.

I read up a bit on vomiting during Intro, especially with kids.  It could be a 'shock' to their system to go to such healthy foods.  It could be a reaction to a specific food.  It could be a stomach bug.  It could be that their blood sugar dropped because they aren't eating as many carbs as they are used to.  Dr. Campbell-McBride* says to try apple or orange juice in very small quantities if blood sugar is suspected so we'll be giving that a go today.  And we're going to try REALLY hard to make sure they eat more of the veggies in the soup and not let them just pick out the meat.

*this is her full statement from http://gaps.me  "Vomiting can be a sign of hypoglycaemia: as we cut out many carbohydrates in a person with an overgrowth of yeast, it is easy for the blood sugar to drop too low. In that case give your child some apple or orange juice and see if it helps. Freshly pressed juice from apple or orange with carrot is best, but if the situation is urgent use a commercial juice. If this measure helps, then use this juice in as small an amount as possible to remedy the nausea and vomiting, when it happens (ice lollies or ice cubes, made in advance from freshly pressed juice, may provide immediate help). In the long run stick to the diet and make sure that your child has plenty of animal fats: they will regulate the blood sugar level. Allow your child to eat often and in small amounts (to graze) to keep the blood sugar steady, rather than insisting on set meal times. As the die-off subsides, so will the nausea and vomiting. Ginger tea is a known remedy for nausea; use it as a drink between meals."

Stage 1 - Recipe Index

Here are some recipes that will work for Stage 1.  I have not tried them all, but as we do I'll post reviews.  I have done my best to make sure that everything works for this stage, however, I may have made mistakes.  Let me know if you find any!

Some of the recipes come from the Reversing Food Allergies (RFA) class, but you can find similar recipes online.  I have linked to alternatives when possible.  Other recipes come from an ebook I purchased from Home, Health and Happiness (HHH) which gives you recipes and lists and such for the GAPS intro diet.

Aside from the following, I'm sure I'll be throwing together all sorts of random soups, just making it up as I go.  Please let me know if you have any recipes or ideas to contribute to this stage.

Butternut Squash Soup (RFA, HHH) – no butter, no cream, no spices

Carrot Ginger Soup (RFA) - no butter/ghee, not sure on lemon zest, no cream

Chicken Soup (RFA) - no celery 

Kimchi – (RFA, HHH) as juice only 

Sauerkraut – (RFA, HHH) as juice only 

Cortido – (RFA, HHH) as juice only

Beet Kvass – as juice only

Meat Patties or Meatballs (HHH, GAPS book) - only salt & pepper, no binder, just meat or veggies

Summer Squash Soup (HHH)

Carrot Soup with Squash (HHH)

Meatball Veggie soup (GAPS book)

Broccoli and Garlic Soup 

Chicken noodle soup (no celery)  

Fermented beets – juice only 

Pink Soup - no celery, parsley or mustard powder
Fish Soup (GAPS book)
Roasted Eggplant Soup - use a healthy fat instead of vegetable oil, no cream or cheese
Ground Beef Soup

Here is another idea for serving food during Stage 1 that does not involve soup.

What does Stage 1 look like?

You will be on this stage for 1 to 7 days, or until the diarrhea (if you get any) clears up.

• Start each day with a cup of mineral or filtered water, warm or at room temperature, with a slice of lemon. Don't eat the lemon though, it's just for flavor (and to relieve constipation).
• meat stock (beef, poultry, fowl or fish)
• homemade soup with meat and/or veggies (use the meat stock as the base)
• boiled meat - separate or in the soup
• juice from fermented veggies - start w/1 tsp. a day, can add to soup, stock, water, however you can get it down!  Gradually work your way up (see below)
• ginger, mint or chamomile tea with honey (if you want)
• Add crushed garlic to your soup the last minute or two. You can also crush it right into your bowl then add the hot soup.

A few things to consider:

You can eat lots of soup or eat the foods separately. You could cook up some of the Stage 1 veggies and put them on the plate (whole or pureed) with some boiled meat and broth in a cup on the side or poured over the top sort of like gravy.

Stocks, broth and soups must be homemade and you should not remove the fat. You NEED the fat right now.

The only seasonings you can use are sea salt and pepper.

Do not use a microwave to heat your food.

Drink warm stock all day long, with meals, between meals, whenever.

It might be a good idea to have a crockpot full of soup on warm all day. Whenever someone is hungry you'll have food instantly ready.

You MAY be able to add yogurt in this stage. Do a sensitivity test and make sure it is well-fermented (24 hours). If you tolerate yogurt, try adding whey, sour cream and kefir. These work very well if diarrhea is a problem.

Eat as often and as much as you want. Really.

A daily detox bath might help relieve some aches and can help with constipation. Epsom salt, apple cider vinegar or baking soda all work well - use one cup of each, but use them separately.

About the juice from fermented foods - Start with 1-2 tsp. a day for 1-5 days, then 3-4 tsp. a day for 1-5 days and so on.  You eventually want to get to the point where you are adding a few teaspoons of probiotic food into every cup/bowl of soup or broth/stock.

Stage 1 Intro - Foods Allowed

Stage 1

Artichokes – fully cooked

Beef – boiled only

Beets – fully cooked

Black pepper

Bok choy – fully cooked

Broccoli – fully cooked, no stalks

Brussels sprouts – fully cooked

Carrots – fully cooked

Cauliflower – fully cooked, no stalks

Chicken – boiled only

Coconut oil

Collard greens – fully cooked

Duck – boiled only

Eggplant – fully cooked

Fish – boiled only

Garlic – fully cooked

Ginger root – fresh in herbal tea

Goose – boiled only

Green beans – fully cooked

Green peas – fully cooked

Herbal teas – ginger, mint or chamomile w/only a little honey between meals

Herbs – fresh, only salt and pepper

Honey – raw, only a small amount in herbal tea between meals

Kale – fully cooked, all fibrous parts removed

Lamb – boiled only

Lemon – only a small piece in warm water as morning drink (helps w/constipation)

Onions – fully cooked

Peppers – fully cooked

Pheasant – same as other fowl listed

Pickles – lacto-fermented juice only

Pigeon – same as other fowl listed

Pork – boiled only

Pumpkin – fully cooked

Quail – same as other fowl listed

Shellfish – boiled only

Spices – salt and pepper only

Spinach – fully cooked

Squash (summer or winter) – fully cooked

Tomatoes – fresh or puree (no additives), fully cooked

Turkey – boiled only

Turnips – fully cooked

Vinegar – in making stock

Watercress – fully cooked

Yogurt – homemade, 24-hr fermented, start slowly to see if tolerated

Zucchini – fully cooked