The SCD for Autism and ADHD

Today I would like to take the time to recommend a fascinating new book by long time SCD author's Pamela Ferro and Raman Prasad.  The duo has taken on the challenge of explaining the in's and out's of adapting the SCD diet to deal with those on the Autism spectrum and ADHD.  Their book is titled: The SCD for Autism and ADHD:  A reference and dairy-free(DF) cookbook for the specific carbohydrate diet.

What is the main difference from other SCD books and cookbooks you may ask?  Well, first this book moves away from traditional SCD by prohibiting dairy.  Limiting dairy, even for those not following the SCD, has been found to help many with Autism and ADHD and this book helps to meld the two diets together.

The other way this book is different is that it integrates the backgrounds of mainstream medicine through Pam's background along with others in the field.  There has been a huge increase in university studies into the SCD and gut bacteria over the last few years and along with this more and more doctors, hospitals, and nurses are realizing that the SCD is not fiction any longer.  This book is a wonderful example of this collaborative and looks to the future of the diet and how to tweak it in order to meet the needs of different disorders.

The book gives the reader a huge wealth of knowledge on the subject of both disorders and the reasoning for going SCD-DF.  It also has many delicious recipes that span multiple regional and ethnic cuisines and tackle going dairy free with ease.

The book is well written, organized, and easy to follow with carefully thought out recipes.  The pictures are also excellent and compliment the food perfectly.

Please let all your friends who know someone who suffers with these disorders to look into this book.  Together we have the knowledge and power to change the face of these disorders and make healing a reality.

Two steps forward, One step back~

Tucker

Crunchy Energy Bars

These bars are super easy to make and in my opinion put other bars like Lara Bars to shame.  Think salty, sweet, and crunchy compared to thick and pasty.  I almost always make a batch of these before an outdoor trip because they provide plenty of quick energy and are tough enough you can just throw them in a bag with some other food and they wont get crushed.  Sometimes I like to add a little kick to the bars by adding a dusting of cayenne.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup cashews
1/2 cup almonds
1/2 cup walnuts
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds (optional)
1/2 cup shredded coconut (I like the large flake variety)
1/4 cup honey ( I like 1/4 cup but you could use 1/2 cup if you like it sweeter)
2T Butter or coconut oil/manna (The coconut oil tends to make them a bit greasy)
1tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped dried fruit (raises, dates, etc.)
Dusting of cayenne (optional)

Method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Rough chop the nuts using a knife or food processor.  Do not over chop.  Think about cutting a cashew into 1/3-1/4 no smaller.  Add the chopped nuts, seeds, and coconut to a large bowl.  In a bowl or measuring cup mix together the honey, vanilla, and butter/coconut product.  Heat honey mixture in microwave if needed to get to a more liquid state.  Add to nuts and mix.  Add salt and mix again. 

Spread nut and honey mixture onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Bake for 10 minutes, re-spreading the mixture once to cook evenly.  After 10 minutes mix in the 1/2 cup dried fruit and bake for another 10 minutes stirring once.

Remove the mixture from oven and pour into a large bowl.  Do not let it cool on the parchment paper as you will not be able to remove it without sticking.  Let mixture cool until you can easily handle it with your hands, yet not cool enough that it is rock hard.  This should take about 10-15 minutes. 

When cool, form into bars with your hands by compressing the mixture between your two hands.  You need to use pressure to initially hold the bars together until they cool.  I like to form bars that resemble a Clif Bar.  About 1/2" thick X 3" long and slightly oval shaped.  You however, can make any shape you want just realize they will become hard when cool so ball shapes aren't easy to eat.

Let shaped bars cool in room temp for about an hour then toss into fridge.

Have a wonderful winter season!




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Lemon Cream Pie

Hi everyone and hope you are feeling as good as possible!
I wanted to post a recipe that I adapted a few months back from a cream pie article in one of the Cooking Light magazines.  The magazine had a whole section on different cream pies and most of them looked to die for.  After first dismissing the section because I figured nothing could be realistically made SCD, it was only later, a few weeks later that I looked again at the recipes and at their ingredients and realized I could most likely get pretty close using and replacing a few key ingredients with SCD ingredients.  After a little tweaking and testing I came out with a pie that tastes (in my opinion) pretty dang good.  Here we go.

Lemon Cream Pie-

Pie Crust:
1 1/2 cups almond flour
3 T butter (soft)
1 T honey (using local honey from your area can lessen seasonal allergies)
1/8 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
Mix everything together.  Press into a 9 inch pie pan and bake @ 350 degrees until golden brown.



 Lemon Filling:
1/2 cup honey (I use slightly less)
1 T Lemon zest
1/4 cup lemon juice
3 T coconut flour (to thicken)
1/4 t salt
2 large eggs (be nice to the hens and use free-range)
1 cup scd yogurt
1/4 cup dripped scd yogurt (use cheese cloth or other method)
Combine the above ingredients over a double boiler and whisk until hot and slightly bubbly.  It takes a while...
Once you have seen a few bubbles and the mixture is hot, remove from heat and stir in 2 T of butter.  Add one packet of gelatin to a bit of water (just enough to cover) and let sit 1 minute.  Then add gelatin to lemon filling and stir. Let mixture cool a bit then pour filling into pie crust and place in refrigerator.

Whipped Cream Topping: 
1 1/2 cups yogurt made with half n half or whipping cream (whipping cream holds up better but I thought it was just to rich).
Honey to taste
1 egg white (optional)
Using an electric hand mixer beat the topping until soft/medium peaks form.  Add on top of chilled pie filling and return to refrigerator.  Eat once the pie has totally chilled. 1-2 hours.

Enjoy!

Other than cooking the weather here in Idaho is turning to spring (slowly) but the skiing up in the mountains has been great.  The weather down in the valleys has even allowed for some rock climbing and bouldering during the sunny days.
Here is a video I recently put together showing some of the fun we have been having: