Gluten in my belly!

GF friends, don't hate me. I ate gluten today. Lots and lots of it. We're trying out gluten for one week for Chunks. I'm eating it, he's eating it, we're all eating it! After 7 months of no gluten (ok fine, I cheated once a month or so) we've been given a week long free pass, sort of. Here's what we're dealing with...He can't be tested for Celiac until he's 2 years old. The test is wildly inaccurate and even more so in babies. If he has true Celiac then we're off gluten for good as a family. Up until this point I let SweetPea have bread for sandwiches and occasionally she gets Cheddar Bunnies because Chunks is too young to understand anyways. Mr. F has the luxury of going out to eat or keeping his own stash of glutenous goodness somewhere in the house. But, Chunks is getting older and I'm not going to make him watch everyone else eat it. But, he may not have Celiac. Maybe he just has a baby intolerance like he did with dairy and he'll out grow it. Or, he might always have an intolerance, it's really hard to say. The reason I'm trialing gluten this week is because some of the research that I've done suggests that babies be given small amounts of potential allergens while they are under 1 yr old and still mostly breastfeeding. Which, means now. He only eats dinner and the rest is nursing, but as he gets closer to 1, he'll begin to eat more real food and my window will pass. If they eat the allergen while being breastfed their little bodies are able to better cope with the problem food and are less likely to have the allergy later in life. So, we'll see how he does this week and then we'll know where to go next. If he reacts badly then we'll stop eating it again and have him tested later in life. Gluten takes about a month to leave your system, so I'm really not looking forward to this next month if he does poorly. Mr. F thinks he's outgrown it all together, we'll see!

To be perfectly honest, giving him gluten, even only for a week, terrifies me. I still remember the hours on end of screaming, how he couldn't sleep lying down, how by the time he was 5 weeks old, he had only pooped a handful of times (sometimes going up to 2 weeks in between), how his face looked when his stomach hurt like he was pleading with me to just make him feel better for a moment. I remember him being in so much pain, he began to refuse to eat because going hungry felt better. I know this sounds like I'm being melodramatic. I know lots of you have had difficult, colicky babies and I'm not trying to have a contest. But, it was SO bad. Little Chunks had 3 pediatricians and 2 lactation consultants stumped. So, we turned to "alternative" sources, namely food. I'm eating small amounts of dairy again and I've been able to eat all nuts fruits and vegetables since December. All that's left is gluten. So, DEEP BREATH...here we go...

I'll probably get sick later tonight. I should have eased myself back into it slowly, but I'm not good at that. I was walking through the grocery store and saw the most beautiful organic Portabella mushrooms (for $3!) and just had to have them. I already wanted to make bruschetta tonight so I decided to make my grandpas fettuccine alfredo and then add my own twist with the mushrooms. Unfortunately the store was out of basil (ugh) and I my seeds haven't sprouted yet, so the brushetta turned into garlic bread. As I was chopping, I began to remember one of my favorite Italian restaurants in San Diego, Arrivederci. It's in Hillcrest and so delicious and also quite adorable. My favorite dish there is a wide noodle pasta with a creamy Marsala wine sauce and huge chunks of mushrooms. So, I decided to make my own recipe using that dish as a guide complete with real pasta noodles and heavy cream. Don't hate me, I'm totally going to be sick tonight.

Here's what you'll need:
2 Tb olive oil
2 Tb butter (or Earth Balance)
2 Tb flour (i used brown rice flour)
1 shallot
juice of 1/2 lemon
3 large cloves garlic minced
2 Large Portabella Mushroom heads and 1 package of baby bellas all sliced very thin
4 oz heavy whipping cream
3 oz Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup Marsala wine
1 Tb fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste
pasta

Cook pasta of choice according to package directions. I used fettuccine because it's what I had on hand. Be sure to add a little salt and a splash of olive oil to the water before boiling.
Heat oil and butter in a saute pan until melted. Add flour. Continually stir until slightly browned and has a gummy texture. Add shallots and cook on medium until soft and translucent. Add garlic and cook until fragrant. Turn heat to low and add mushrooms. Add lemon juice and wine and saute until soft.  Add cream and bring to a boil, then simmer for 3 minutes until sauce thickens. Add pasta to the pan and finish cooking it in the sauce until the pasta is cooked. Add cheese and parsley and toss.
 I hope you like it as much as I did. It tastes exactly like the restaurants version, even Mr. F said he could, "taste the Arrivederci-ness in it" which made me so happy!