Anastasia has been asking me for weeks to make my doughnuts.  I finally got to it.  They are a little work, but the kids like them so much I have to make them once in a while.

Doughnuts

4 cups almonds meal flour

½ cup tapioca flour/starch

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon sea salt

6 tablespoons  ghee, butter or palm shortening

½ teaspoon vanilla

½ cup honey or agave nectar

½ cup water

1 teaspoon guar gum (replace water and guar with 2 eggs)

½ cup vegetable oil or avocado oil

1.      In a mixing blow, combine the almonds, tapioca flour, cinnamon, and salt.

2.      Set aside the almond meal.

3.      In a food processor, cream together the ghee, butter, or shortening, vanilla, agave nectar, and salt.

4.      In a small bowl, whip the water and guar gum or eggs until thick.

5.      Add the guar mixture or eggs to the shortening, blend for 30 seconds.

6.      Sprinkle into the shortening the almond meal mixture.

7.      Pulse 3 times and blend the dough for 1 minute.

8.      Using a tablespoon scoop out the dough and make it into a ball with your hands. Flatten the balls out a little and then put aside.

9.      Warm the oil for 4 minutes. Place the doughnuts rounds into the oil for a count of 15 on each side.

1.      After frying the doughnuts, place them onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake at 325 for 10 minutes to cook the interior.

1.   Top with jam, gluten free frosting or cinnamon.

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Making Pizza Crust

Dr Thomas O'Bryan

I recently found that this Dr. has been studying Gluten Intolerance for sometime. He has a great website thedr.com and a radio segment here; Gluten Sensitivity and Celiac Disease with Dr. Thomas O'Bryan http://www.blogtalkradio.com/undergroundwellness/2010/07/08/gluten-sensitivity-and-celiac-disease-with-dr-thom

Your Immune System

You know by now I am not a Doctor nor do I play one one TV. But I have done a lot of research over the past year into why Noah and Anastasia are just not getting better. In fact they have gotten worse.

The main problem is that no standard Doctor wanted to take us seriously that my children's whole being was being disrupted by food. There are no test for food sensitivities and the allergy test given by standard Dr's only relate to IgE reactions. These standard test are only showing immediate immune reposes to allergens.

I found a Naturalistic MD who is working with Delayed Immune Responses. Guess what? There is a test for this, and it has been around for 20 year. Learn more at ELISA/ACT Biotechnologies. I was ecstatic after 3 years to find someone who works with the whole immune system. This test show how every cell responds to outside forces causing you to have all sorts of problems like lethargy, dark eyes, pale skin, foggy brain ect.

My problem still is no one took me seriously 3 years ago. So I want to tell you what I have learned. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0ISW/is_245/ai_111496958/

Your immune system is very important to your whole body. It is working even when you are not sick so you need to take care of it. If you have a food sensitivity or you suspect you have a food sensitivity you need to immediately start to strengthen your immune system though diet vitamins and herbs. Talk to your naturalist MD on what vitamins and herbs you need. Also have your vitamin D level tested with a simple blood test.
Tops on your Dr's list should be multivitamins, vitamin C,D,echinacea and Fish oil. I have heard also to be careful of echinacea if you already have an autoimmune illness so always check with the professional your working with. Zinc supplementation is a much better option to support immune function for those of us who already have autoimmune disease.

The food sensitivity is weakening your immune system and is causing it to work over time. I feel the food sensitivity is the first step in an on coming problem. If you don't build up your immune system then your body starts to believe it is under attack and will start attacking normal incoming foods and environmental conditions. That is the stage Noah and Anastasia are on because no on told me to strengthen their immune system three years ago.
I am hopeful that because I took out their food sensitivities (all grains) and am now working with their immune system I can help to heal them from the inside out.

But without healing the whole system you are bound to go onto stage three, which is an autoimmune disease and even cancer.

This is a long process, but I am hopeful that next year this time the kids will be back to their happy selves

every day not just once in a while.

Milk and Cheese

Since I am writing my cookbook "Cooking Totally Gluten Free the Grain Free Approach" I have been looking at other common food problems.
One is milk and cheese.
Most people believe milk and cheese can't be tolerated because of the lactose.
I believe after watching my children eat, it is more likely the grain from the feed of the cows getting into the milk. Think of this, when a human mother is nursing all the nutrients and food flavors gets in the breast milk. We are cautioned not to drink alcohol or coffee to keep our milk pure. I had one nursing friend who had to give up all dairy while nursing because what she was eating was affecting her babies digestion.
My observation of my children is that when they have a non organic, non grass feed dairy product they are sick with common gluten sensitivity within 5 minutes. But when they consume grass fed dairy there is not a problem in the world.

Of course if you are allergic to the lactose don't change a thing and always talk to your Dr first. Remember to check Allergy and illness to see the differences.

About Cheese. I believe our cheese should come from grass fed cows as well, but I found this information on cheese that is worth mentioning if you are looking to get rid of the lactose.
From the website http://www.indiadiets.com/diets/Eat%20to%20beat%20illness/Lactose_intolerance.htm
* Cheese may be better tolerated than milk due to a lower lactose content.
* Cheese is also well-tolerated because during the cheese-making process, most of the whey is removed (and the lactose with it). In mature, ripened cheese, lactose disappears entirely within three to four weeks.
* Specific kinds of cheese which you can reasonably expect to tolerate fairly well include cheddar, Colby, Swiss, Parmesan and cottage cheese.

Almonds

Always remember that my information is based on online research and is just my opinion. Always check with your Dr. first.

I started to use almond flour because it had so much more taste then rice flour. Then we realized the children could not eat rice or rice flour and almond flour became our only choice for bake goods.

I found that it is very easy to work with and filled with nutrients. 2 cups of Almond flour with 1/2 cup tapioca will make a great baked good. Never tried it in a bread form.

I was concerned about using it in my Cookbook "Cooking Gluten free the Grain Free Approach" because it is often referred to as a nut.
I want the cookbook to be as friendly to others as possible so I was looking for items all can enjoy.

The problem with nuts is that there are about 3 million American allergic to nuts these days. Most people with peanut allergies will stay away from all tree nuts.

So you see I was worried about using the almond flour. I know I can't help everyone and that 3 million is only 1% of the over 3 hundred million people living in the United States today but it still made me think.

The point, is I wanted to know what Almonds were so once again I looked it up online.
Here is the deffinition of Almonds

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almond)

Almond tree with ripening fruit. Majorca, Spain.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Rosales
Family: Rosaceae
Genus: Prunus
Subgenus: Amygdalus
Species: P. dulcis
Binomial name
Prunus dulcis
(Mill.) D.A.Webb
Almond, nut, raw Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy 2,418 kJ (578 kcal)
Carbohydrates 20 g
Sugars 5 g
Dietary fibre 12 g
Fat 51 g
saturated 4 g
monounsaturated 32 g
polyunsaturated 12 g
Protein 22 g
Thiamine (Vit. B1) 0.24 mg (18%)
Riboflavin (Vit. B2) 0.8 mg (53%)
Niacin (Vit. B3) 4 mg (27%)
Pantothenic acid (B5) 0.3 mg (6%)
Vitamin B6 0.13 mg (10%)
Folate (Vit. B9) 29 μg (7%)
Vitamin C 0.0 mg (0%)
Vitamin E 26.22 mg (175%)
Calcium 248 mg (25%)
Iron 4 mg (32%)
Magnesium 275 mg (74%)
Phosphorus 474 mg (68%)
Potassium 728 mg (15%)
Zinc 3 mg (30%)
Percentages are relative to US recommendations for adults.
Source: USDA Nutrient database

The almond (Prunus dulcis, syn. Prunus amygdalus Batsch., Amygdalus communis L., Amygdalus dulcis Mill.), is a species of tree native to the Middle East. Almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of this tree. Within the genus Prunus, it is classified with the peach in the subgenus Amygdalus, distinguished from the other subgenera by the corrugated shell (endocarp) surrounding the seed.

The fruit of the almond is not a true nut, but a drupe, which consists of an outer hull and a hard shell with the seed ('nut') inside. Shelling almonds refers to removing the shell to reveal the seed. Almonds are commonly sold shelled, i.e. after the shells are removed, or unshelled, i.e. with the shells still attached. Blanched almonds are shelled almonds that have been treated with hot water to soften the seedcoat, which is then removed to reveal the white embryo.


There is some more great info and pictures on the following link