3 hours at the grocery store...and GF chicken nuggets

Last night we went grocery shopping. Thank goodness I went with my mom and left my husband and two little ones at home or else I would have gone crazier than what I was feeling. I spent 3 hours in the store looking at every single ingredient. It's amazing all the names that "gluten" hides behind. I knew the pretty common names like durum, couscous, semolina, bulgar, spelt, etc. But, it was a big pain in the butt because before I went shopping I wrote a list of other "common" ingredients that can cause issues: starch, dextrin, malt, maltodextrin, fillers, natural flavor. Practically EVERYTHING has natural flavor in it. >:-I Needless to say, the majority of my shopping cart was stocked full of organic fruits and veggies. I don't think I can go wrong there.

As I have mentioned before, my son LOVES spaghetti. If I left it up to him, that would be all he would eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Apparently, even most spaghetti sauces have gluten in it! I broken down and bought the expensive $9 bottle of spaghetti sauce. Yeah, I know I could make my own from scratch. But who are we fooling? I'm a mother to three children. I homeschool. I nurse two out of three of those children. I cook, clean, wipe poopy butts all day, do a few loads of laundry and in between all of that, I manage to find time to shower. Sometimes. I also thought about making my own noodles with zucchini. I saw an awesome recipe by substituting out noodles for zucchini. But, I don't  have the fancy-shmancy tool to make it look like noodles. Iain is ALL about texture, so I'm not certain that it would be successful to begin with. SO, I bought some brown rice noodles. Just to try. If he likes them, then I will order more from Vitacost to save a little money.

Overall, it really wasn't too difficult to shop. I really didn't change any habits. I already read labels when I go to a store. I still kept the mentality that everything in a grocery store really is not healthy for us. But, I also recognize that I needed to compromise with my son. I understand why he is so picky now and that certain textures bother him for a reason. My husband put it all into perspective for me. He told me that certain textures can feel worse than if someone were to run their finger nails on a chalk board, or took a fork and scratched a ceramic plate. It's just as painful as biting your tongue or getting a paper cut or stubbing your toe. I don't want my child to be in pain because of the foods he eats. Anyway, my bill came to $68.47. Not bad. But, I also have not made it to the farm yet to buy the rest of our produce and meats. That will add onto our grocery bill another $40 at least.

By the way, how come I never knew about the awesomeness of PIRATE BOOTY?!?! Right now, Kroger has an entire shopping cart full of clearanced Pirate Booty for half price. I'm going to stock up on it tonight. I couldn't get enough of it. It made a nice snack. My son enjoyed it. Actually, all of us enjoyed it.

Once I got home, I had to feed my family. Obviously. Everyone was "starving". Yeah right. My son really enjoys McDonald's chicken McNuggets. It's a rare treat that he gets, and I noticed that if I play something up like it's REALLY important or fun and exciting, he shares in the excitement, too. I told him I was making chicken McNuggets just like the kind from McDonald's. He was anticipating them the whole time they were cooking. He even helped me make them :) Sadly, I can't use the breadcrumbs that we all really enjoy, so I had to modify the breading. No biggie.

1 1/2 lbs. of chicken breasts - cut into "McNugget" shapes
Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Cornmeal
Italian seasoning
Sea salt
Pepper
Paprika
Free range, organic eggs
EVOO

Heat the EVOO in a castiron pan on medium heat.
Mix together the cornmeal, seasoning, salt, pepper and paprika together in one bowl. In another bowl, mix the eggs. Take your chicken pieces and dunk them in the egg, and then in the cornmeal mixture. Then fry it up.

I also made french fries and homemade canned green beans to go along with the nuggets. It's not the healthiest meal by ANY means, but like I said earlier, I need to take my son's consideration to heart. I want him to transition into this so it's not so shocking to him. The nuggets were really tasty! He wanted a second helping of them, even. It is VERY rare that he ever has seconds. He's like a little bird and will pick at his food and say he's full after a couple of bites. This meal might be a new favorite, and I'm okay with that. He's getting his protein and vegetables minus the gluten. That's the important issue at hand at this moment.