A Young Man with Autism Bakes Gluten Free

In this world of autism, we are constantly reminded of what these individuals cannot do. But sometimes, there are instances where they do achieve. Blake Herskowitz is one such individual. He is a young man of 21 years with severe autism. When I use the word, severe, I mean that he cannot speak and needs 24 hour supervision. He is unable to care for himself. However, Blake has found something that he loves to do and that he excels in: Baking cookies and cupcakes. 

Since Blake was three years old, he has been gluten and dairy free. In later years, he also gave up corn, soy, artificial colors and preservatives. He is not totally sugar free, but he does often bake products for himself that contain alternative sweeteners like agave. Therefore, much of his baking is gluten free. 

Blake is an example of what a person can accomplish if there is a motivation and determination to succeed as well as someone who is willing to take the time to teach them the skills. Every person who exists on this planet can find personal success and a purpose. It may take some time and trial and error on the part of the people that support them to figure out exactly what that is. 

Check out Blake on his website at: www.misterblakescakes.com

Yummy and Healthy Chocolate Pudding-Gluten, Dairy, Soy, Corn and Egg-free

I had a tough day. My son, Blake, had to get his teeth cleaned. "So?" You say. Well, the difference is that he is a 21 year old man with severe autism. Getting his dental work isn't a matter of just going to the local dentist. What's involved is a two hour ride two counties south, a 3 hour wait, general anesthesia, a long recovery, throwing up, and then an even longer ride home with a half comatose person who doesn't understand what the heck is going on. Oh-and we had to do the whole thing with my son being on an empty stomach-really the hardest part for him. 

But as hard as it was for me, it was even harder for him. The dentist recommended a soft diet for the rest of the day. So I wanted to make a treat for him. So I decided to try and wrestle up some quickie chocolate pudding. Watching him gobble it up after a long and stressful day, really helped us both to recover. So here is an easy recipe for you. And you don't have to wait for a difficult day to make it.

Quickie Dairy, Gluten, Soy, Corn and Egg Free Chocolate Pudding:

3 Tablespoons tapioca starch mixed with 2 Tablespoons of water

1 1/2 cups Coconut Milk

1/4 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1/4 Cup Evaporated Cane Juice

1/4 Cup Unsweetened Cocoa

2 Tablespoons of Agave Nectar-optional

Mix everything together in a pot. Warm up over medium heat stirring constantly (watch that it doesn't burn on the bottom). It will thicken quickly.

Once it is thick, remove from the heat. Pour into a glass bowl. Wait a few minutes until it has cooled. Taste. If you want to add a little sweetness, add some agave until it's sweet to your desire.

Cool in refrigerator. Enjoy!

Delicious Gluten Free Cookies for the Holidays-Egg, Dairy and refined sugar free, too!

With all the holiday baking, we are always on the lookout for an easy and delicious cookies. My family has found a new favorite. Interestingly, I found it while I was trying to bake for a friend of ours who is presently undergoing cancer treatment and needed a treat that was low in carbs for Thanksgiving. So I made him these. Since then, my family has wanted them every day. And they are quick and easy enough to accommodate them:

Almond Chocolate Chip:

1 Cup of Almond Flour

2 Tablespoons of oil of your choice

2 Tablespoons of Agave Nectar

1/2 Teaspoon of Vanilla

1/8 Teaspoon of salt

1/4 Teaspoon of baking soda

1/8 Cup of Dairy Free Chocolate Chips

Directions:

Throw all the ingredients except the chips into your food processor. Process until the ingredients are all blended through. Stir in the chips. Then drop by small teaspoons onto your cookie sheet. Bake on 350 for 10-12 minutes. Let them set up for 15 minutes or so before you remove them from your cookie sheet. This recipe should make 16 cookies.

Back By Popular Demand

Many of my readers have responded very favorably to the last blogpost that I did regarding the Best GFCF bread ever, and also requested additional great GFCF recipes. As I previously mentioned, this is not a blog that is designed to focus on food, but I guess since a lot of our kids are GFCF, I suppose a post here and there about some great recipe that I come across or put together is ok. Right?

Well I did come across a GREAT new GFCF recipe. Actually, it wasn't dairy free, but I reworked it and now it is. YEA! Blake and I made them today, and they are really yummy. Even my husband liked them. But we didn't make them for me or for him, We made them for Blake,and he loved them. What are they you ask? I'll tell you: GFCF Oreos!! And they are also free of soy and corn as well.

To be honest, a regular Oreo kind of turns my stomach. I apologize to those of you who are die hard Oreo fans out there. But just the ingredients gross me out. However, these Oreos taste really great! I would use the filling recipe even if I was making regular cookies. The reason that they are better is because the shortening that I used is Spectrum Shortening, which is much healthier than Crisco.

The cookie itself uses Teff flour, which we used in the Greatest GFCF Bread ever. So here is another good use for that flour. It also incorporates white rice flour and sweet rice flour. Sweet rice flour is also known as glutinous rice flour, and it can be a little hard to find. They have it on amazon.com, but I was a bit in a rush to make these, so I located it at an Asian supermarket. And the difference in price was startling. It was $2.99 at the supermarket vs $6.56 on Amazon. However, if the convenience of using Amazon outweighs running all over town, I will tell you, you will get a lot of cookies from the bag of flour.

Note the sugar in the cookie: I stayed with 1/2 organic cane sugar and 1/2 coconut sugar. I'm just starting to get into using coconut sugar. It's a great sweetener as it is lower on the glycemic index. Also, the confectioner's sugar I use is the organic powdered sugar which is corn-free. If you don't care about the corn, you can use regular confectioner's sugar.

I made these just a tad too big, so they look a little like whoopie pies rather than cookies. Blake wanted two, but they are too big for that. I usually give him two cookies at a time.

So let me know if you like them. By the way, the original recipe is calculated in weight not volume which is a much better way to measure. But if you don't have a kitchen scale or you just don't like measuring by weight, let me know, and I'll convert it for you. You can email me at valerie@snaccers.com

Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Oreos
adapted from Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef
October 21, 2010

Yield: I only got 10 sandwich cookies out of this recipe, but mine were too large. I would most likely be able to get double the amount with a smaller cookie.


For the cookies:
80 grams sweet rice flour
60 grams white rice flour
35 grams teff flour
2 grams (1/2 teaspoon) xanthan gum
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (we used Dagoba organic)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar (we used 1/2 cup organic cane sugar and 1/2 cup coconut palm sugar)
140 grams Spectrum shortening
1 large egg

For the creamy filling:
58 grams Spectrum shortening
4 tablespoons Spectrum shortening
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Preparing to bake. Preheat the oven to 375°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat.
Making the cookie dough: Put the sweet rice flour, white rice flour, and teff flour in a mixing bowl. Add the xanthan gum, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Mix together with a wisk or fork until blended. Add the shortening and egg and mix well using a handheld or stand mixer. Once it is all blended, it may still look dry, however, it will stick together when forming the cookies

Baking the cookies: Scoop a rounded teaspoon of batter and form a ball. Gently, flatten the dough in the palm of your hand. After you have flattened, smooth the edges of the cookie dough disk to make it evenly rounded. Place the dough disks onto the prepared baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. (These will not spread, but you do not want them to touch each other.)
Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 5 minutes, then turn the baking sheet 180 degrees. Bake until the cookies are crisp on the edges with just a touch of softness in the center, about 5 more minutes. Take the cookies out of the oven. After a few moments, transfer the cookies to a cooling rack. Allow them to cool completely.
Repeat with the rest of the dough.

Making the creamy filling. Blend all the ingredients together with your mixer. Clean the beaters first, of course.

Assembling the cookies: Spread the blob of creamy filling toward the edges but not entirely there. Gently, press the second cookie down onto the filling and watch the filling reach the edges.

Continue until all the cookies are little chocolate sandwiches with a creamy filling. Oreos.

Eat and enjoy!

My Drug of Choice

I don't drink coffee. I drink herbal tea only. I don't imbibe alcohol, I don't
smoke pot and, my some miracle, I'm not on any antidepressants either. But it finally occurred to me that I do indeed have a drug of choice. It may not be the most conventional type of drug, but it does definitely induce a chemically-based high.

If you're my husband and you're reading this right now, and you are probably
guessing that it is chocolate chip cookies. I have to be honest, good cookies of any type runs a very close second. Well maybe not second-maybe fourth after my family.

I got in the car this morning to take my son to school. Nothing uniquely
different about this ride to school versus any other day. Blake and I buckled
up. I turned on the Navigation, a requirement of you know who. He can't possibly ride in the car without the map of the GPS being front and center. Flipped on the CD player
to the same CDs, same tracks as always (The Eagles: Long Road Out of Eden, or sometimes Santana or Bob Marley). And now comes my drug fix: I look in the rear view mirror, and I see Blake laughing and smiling and rocking out to the tunes on the CD player.






The truth is that I have a really strong addiction and it's not to any
chemical that I ingest. My drug of choice is a smile from Blake. And I don't
delude myself to thinking that it's not a chemically reaction. I am sure that
endorphins are running wildly through my body at the time creating a feeling of
euphoria that I get when my son is happy, smiling and laughing

So yes I'm hooked on him. I'm hooked on his joy. I'm hooked on his elation at
the little things of life like turning on the radio in the car, and when he
starts rocking out in the backseat I look in my rearview mirror and catch a
glimpse of his life when he's at his best.

Of course there's a flipside to this story. As Blake is bipolar, there's a lot
of days or minutes where his demeanor doesn't exude happiness. And then the
chemicals in my body exerts some other chemical, probably adrenaline, which
isn't as pleasant as endorphine.

Coincidentally, I had lunch with a long time acquaintance of mine. She was telling me that her son is moving out of her house into a group home in a couple of days. She is absolutely panic-stricken. I totally understand. Aside from the concern she has about how her son will manage in a brand new environment, she is overwhelmed about how she is going to handle it. Her son has been her life for so many years. She kisses him goodnight every evening. She has help with him, but manages every aspect of his existence. She has had the same caregivers for years and years. They are her friends as well as her support. She is concerned about what her life will be after he moves out. We both recognize there will be a period of mourning the old life, before embracing the new one can happen.

We talked for several hours. She knows it will be hard. But, she also knows that it has to happen. One day, we will all be needing to allow our son or daughter with autism or other special needs, to move out of our home and into a place that will be their home for when we are no longer able to take care of them. It's hard to fathom for most of us. But it is a part of the process.

But for the next few years, at least. I hope to still be able to get my "fix."

Sometimes I feel like I'm getting Alzheimer's

I know that I am not getting Alzheimer's. I have googled the signs and symptoms enough times to realize that. Still, there are some days that I just can't remember why I walked into a room or if I locked the door or who I was just about to call. I have read over and over again that these occurrences are just part of the normal aging process that people in middle age start to get. But still it's disconcerting. Especially because caregiving for a special needs adult requires so much memory: doctor appointments, medicine schedules, school or daycare requirements, grooming details, automatic vitamin deliveries, medication refill reminders. Well the list goes on and on.

I am really extremely organized. I have done everything I can to create schedules, appointment reminders in my phone, Post-Its galore. I have pill organizers, visual schedules, white boards for the other caregivers to alert me to items they are running out of, and other tangible tools to keep it all straight. And for the most part, these strategies work well.

But what has me boggled is how much it is necessary to rely on these tools. As time progresses, the need will increase, I realize that. But what will happen when the day comes when I don't remember to input all of these appointments into my phone or setup the daily medication dosages. Who will do it?

A couple of times, when Blake was younger, I brought him to a respite home for overnight visits when I had to travel for work. Both times, they screwed up his medication. And these were nurses. Sorry to sound paranoid, but this really happened. I think I still have Post Traumatic Stress from these occurrences.

So who will do it?

I just read something on a listserv that I haven't been able to stop thinking about. On the subject of what will happen to our children when we are gone, a parent wrote in that he basically doesn't worry about it, because he will be dead. I thought that maybe he was just some random person with a unique way of looking at things. But then a couple of parents wrote in that they agreed with him. I was so shocked that I started thinking about it. Is it possible that there are many people who feel this way, but just don't express it? Perhaps, they don't worry about what won't affect them directly? Do you think this is the case?

I know you can accuse me of over-thinking on this subject: Who will take care of our kids when we are gone. But in my defense, that is my job as a blogger and a writer. Right? But are there so others who just say whatever?

We've Come A Long Way Baby-Or Not

Having an autism ribbon tattooed on my arm has made me a walking billboard for autism awareness. Especially because it is summer, and I am wearing a lot of sleeveless shirts (good excuse to show off my new tat). Lots of people come up to me and say, “Nice tattoo.” Then I ask them if they know what it stands for. Guess what? I would say that it’s running about 70/30. Meaning that approximately 70% of the people that comment on my tattoo do not know what it means. Some people have guessed that its purpose is to raise gay pride awareness. Oops.

More than being able to identify the meaning of the ribbon, I'm still explaining what autism is. You would think with autism affecting one out of 54 guys and one out of 88 individuals in general, pretty much everybody would know what autism is by this time. Nope. I guess I'm going to have to go back to the time when I used to send families little cards that would talk about autism issues so that they could hand them out to people when they would look at our kids like they needed a good spanking.

I suppose my assumption that everyone knows about autism is due to the fact that autism consumes my life. I know what the ribbon stands for-how come you don’t know? Well, I decided to give my little arrogant attitude a test: I went online and I researched awareness ribbons. Then I checked to see which ones that I could identify. See if your score compares with mine.

Note: several of the colors stand for several causes, so my list below is nowhere near inclusive

Purple: Domestic Violence, Alzheimers and Lupus Awareness. Did I know this? Nope

Green: Cerebral Palsy, Celiac and Kidney Cancer Awareness. Again, my score was 0.

Red: Aids and Heart Disease Awareness. Shame on me. Didn't know this one either.

Pink: We all know this one, right. What a great example of a wonderful public awareness campaign. Statistics of the incidence of breast cancer are around 12% of women will get breast cancer. That equates to approximately 1 in 8 women.

Turquoise: Ovarian Cancer-If you read my book, you will know why I am kicking myself about not knowing this one.

And my favorite: Grey: Zombie Awareness. How could have not recognized this one? Oh, and also, Diabetes.

So this little exercise told me a lot-about myself as well as the society I live in. We ALL need to open our eyes to others. We can't live in our own little universe. Yes, I have a child with autism, but there are many other people out there with lots of other issues as well.

And most importantly, we need to continue to increase public awareness of autism. Our job is not done. Not that I am advocating that you go to extreme measures and embellish your body with an autism ribbon, however, I will take advantage of these hot summer days to continue to flaunt mine in hopes of spurning some conversation.