NuLife Foods Ultimate "Cheese" Pizza and Veggie Meatballs

NuLife Foods Ultimate “Cheese” Pizza is also getting great reviews. Honestly I am having a hard time imagining that we are going to find a product they make that is bad. AND NO I AM NOT GETTING PAID TO SAY THAT!!! Ok they did send me a sample pack to try though, but trust me if my kids would not eat it, you would hear about it.

For anyone who has been waffling about taking them up on the trial pack offer, you will be sorry if you miss out on this deal. Even with the shipping cost it is worth every penny!!!

So I gave Emily 1/4 of a slice to try. When asked what she thought she said it was great! When asked compared to BJ's she said she preferred this one. I asked what she liked and she said nice crust, tasty sauce and good cheese. (I think I might have the next big food critic ob my hands) When I laughed and said the cheese was Daiya's she made a face, yet she is begging me to make the other two pieces which I planned on making for Austin's lunch in the morning! I guess mommy and daddy are not getting a taste of this hot commodity. Since I did not actually taste this, I can say the big thing I noticed was the crust was really soft, it is thin but felt almost like those pizzas they make on French bread. I can see why Emily would prefer this crust because those are a fun kid treat!!! Austin also devoured this pizza!! Now if we could just find some GFCFSF pepperoni, we would have the perfect pizza.

In the trial pack we also received NuLife foods Beefy Veggy Meatballs. The children gobbled these up. I love that they have squash in them. Personally I am a huge fan of the squash but the rest of the Primer’s not so much!!!! The fact that serving these to your children with spaghetti means you are getting 2 servings of fruit and veggies in one meal. I will say my husband said that they were “just ok” and that that they had something different in them. My husband has a huge aversion to squash so his comment was not surprising to me. I do think with a strong sauce I could serve these regularly and he would get used to it! He could use the extra veggies too!!

If you try these new products I hope you take the time to come back and tell me what you think of them!!!

Until next time, PITAup and make the world a better place for someone with Autism!!! The life you change may be your own!

*Please note any links that are in green and underlined twice are being linked by the blog, and are not being linked by me and do not represent anything I am promoting.*

We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility

We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It's easy to say "It's not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem." Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes. — Fred Rogers

We live in a time and a age that I am sorry, you can’t turn a blind eye and say this is not your child, not your community and not your world so by default not your problem.

Autism is a huge problem. Depending on whose numbers you are going on it is either 1 child in 91 or 1 child in 110. This is a problem, for that matter no matter what the idiots at the CDC say this is an epidemic and it’s not GOING AWAY. Polio was an epidemic at 1 in 3000; again I ask the question why no one notices the difference or why no one in our government cares. I know that answer, and its Money, the money our government makes off vaccines and other big businesses, but that is not this blogs purpose.

This blog is about what are we going to do to support those parents of those 1 in 110 children and especially those parents who get 2 kids with Autism. This is not an easy life, I only started blogging on April 6, and this is the 2nd blog I have written on a parent of a child or children with Autism murdering their child with Autism.

I am honestly sorry I listened to the 911 tape, it is truly heart breaking listening to this mom say she killed her two young children and reading the news reports that say she wanted normal children. I cried, I wept, and I still feel like a piece of my heart was broken 2 days later.

As a parent of 3 “normal children” and one child with Autism, we all want NORMAL kids, WTF; we do not take wire to our children that do not fit the norm. We do not kill them.

I will say that had we continued on the path we were on when we met Autism on June 15, 2004 maybe I would have on been on this path too, but I really do not think so. At the point I was at my child slept 2 hours a day, ran full force into walls, he was like the Tasmanian devil and dumped everything out in his path, he pulled everything out of the fridge when given the opportunity, colored non stop and we bought a case of paper a month, and we have not even got to his health. He also at almost 3 years old had liquid poop, like that of a formula feed child and only ate & drank milk, cheese, wonder bread, cereal, and macaroni and cheese. He also had a distended belly and looked like he had two black eyes. He looked like death was just hovering over!

At that point in my life I do not know what I would have done if I was a single parent or a parent who did not have 2 awesome teens who stepped up and let Ed and I sleep. I like to believe I would never become that sleep deprived or insane that I would kill my child.

I think the difference between this mom and me? I found help, real help, not some organization that said and still says they speak for me but instead buys office supplies and a Park Avenue office, but an organization that really helps families newly diagnosed to Autism and what to expect and how help your child and how to learn to get help from the system to help your child.

Honestly I want every parent to find what I have! It is one of the reasons why I created this blog and our local Mom’s Night Out group. I think just realizing you are not alone is huge in our world. If you are a parent of a child with Autism and have not found yahoo groups, let me tell you are missing out on a huge resource. 6 years ago when I walked into Autism there was really no local resources, I learned everything from yahoo groups. It’s actually how I found TACA. I found some Gluten free Casein free groups and started following Dana of Dana’s View and ended up in a local yahoo group.

Without Dana’s View my life would be completely different!!! I might be the parent in the story above. But I am not and I truly hope all my friends who do not have Autism in their lives pass my story on to people who do have Autism in their lives. I want people to know there is hope, there is a better way and that they can reach out and get that help. If you are in that place in Autism where you are thinking about hurting yourself or your children, instead reach out to one of us other parents and ask for help. Or call 911 or drive directly to the hospital and ask for help. It is out there and we all want you to have it.

I am going to close this with a quote from my fellow PITA Simran Garcia, “Yes Autism is overwheming but we can do this.”

So as usual, PITAup change your life and the life of someone with Autism!

*Please note any links that are in green and underlined twice are being linked by the blog, and are not being linked by me and do not represent anything I am promoting.*

Surfers Healing

Surfers Healing is an awesome organization that was founded by Izzy and Danielle Paskowitz, after their son, Isaiah was diagnosed with autism at 3. Like many children with autism Isaiah suffered from sensory overload. The ocean was the place where the family found respite. Izzy a former competitive surfer came up with the idea one day with Isaiah on the front of his surfboard, and Izzy steering from the back, the two spent the day surfing together. For the Primer Family we are very happy that surfing had this huge of a profound impact on Isaiah, because Izzy and Danielle decided they wanted to share this awesome therapy with other children with autism.

They offer this awesome experience free of charge to families. Surfers Healing provides lunch, healthy snacks and a ton of water! It is truly a magical day. In the Primer Household there is only one day that equals this day and that is the TACA Picnic, it is better then Easter, its better then your birthday and its better then Christmas, yes I said Christmas!!!

This year was our 4th year and it did not fail to deliver even though it was cold and overcast in San Diego. This year Austin had the privilege to surf with Izzy. It was near the end of the day and I can tell you every surfer out there was still energetic and ready to go. It was amazing to watch. The have perfected their system even for children who are afraid or are unsure what they need to do. The Surfers healing team has one or two people help the surfer and child into the water and on to the surf board. Once out, I am unsure how they work their magic, but they do. Then when they finally catch the perfect wave they come surfing in, some kids will be lying on the surf board, others will be standing with the help of the surfer and even some will come in hanging on the back of the surfer. It is truly amazing to see them in action. Where they find the people they do to come out is unknown to me, but let me tell you they are wonderful. They have patience, they have Autism training and they have surfing talent and some how they pull all 3 together at crunch time!!! And when I say talent, I do not exaggerate last year Austin had the privilege to surf with Sunny Garcia, who was as gracious as he is talented.

Surfers healing is truly one of the rare charities who are in it for the right reason. They don’t have a NYC Park Avenue office; they don’t spend an ungodly amount of money on office supplies. They spend their money on “wetsuits, surfboards, rash guards, life vests and other equipment that must be replaced every season. Food and drinks are provided to the kids and their families. Beach permits, insurance, and administration.” I am not sure how many of you have priced wetsuits, but I have and they are not cheap. I am fortunate and live in SoCal and have a mother that processes a talent for finding things at thrift stores and have yet to pay full price, but Surfers healing does not have that luxury they get to pay the going market rate!

So my challenge today is for all my friends who grew up with Ed and I and surf or enjoy our awesome Carlsbad beaches is to donate money to Surfers healing in Austin Primer’s name. Let the Paskowitz family and the Surfers Healing team knows that you appreciate the gift they have given Austin and our entire family. Show them the love, even $5 helps!!!

Until next time, PITAup and make the world a better place for someone with Autism!!!

*Please note any links that are in green and underlined twice are being linked by the blog, and are not being linked by me and do not represent anything I am promoting.*

"Qu'ils mangent de la brioche"

I will say it again, it’s a great time to be Gluten Free Casein Free Egg Free. I’ve been overwhelmed by all the new awesome products we have been trying lately. I hope these companies are hearing all the great feed back because it encourages them to get back to the recipe board and come up with new ideas and more things for me to try!

Amy’s Kitchen was nice enough to send me food for the family to taste after I mentioned them in my blog about Daiya cheese. So on Saturday we took their new Gluten Free- Non Dairy Chocolate Cake (also egg free) with us to a party. We shared it with our friend Paige. Her and Austin devoured it!!! Quite a few PITAs taste tested a bite also. Everyone gave it rave reviews. To date the only Gluten Free Casein Free Egg Free cake I have had that was better then this is the ones the Lundy family makes and so far those are not on the market and you have to be a family friend to be privileged enough to have one made for you. !!! Another PITA pointed out that if you put 3 of these cakes together and frosted that it would be a regular cake pan size cake and could easily be decorated by the creative type. As I type this up Austin is finishing off the cake! Yum!!!! I can tell you from now on Austin will not be having to have GFCFEF brownies for his birthday cake!!! I’m betting Paige’s mom will not be paying $200 for GFCFEF cake and having to drive to LA to get it! Very very exciting stuff here in the Primer world!!!

This cake is very moist, a bit on the crumbly side, but that might have been my fault. The directions clearly state to thaw for 2.5 hours in the refrigerator, ours left the freezer and sat in the trunk of the car in the heat for 4 hours before we got to the party, oops!!! No matter how it is thawed I can promise you anyone who likes chocolate cake will enjoy this product! You can serve this and never bother to mention its GFCFEF, because no one will be asking until they see your GFCF family member eating it!!!

"Qu'ils mangent de la brioche", or as we say in English "Let them eat cake!"

If you try these new products I hope you take the time to come back and tell me what you think of them!!!

Until next time, PITAup and make the world a better place for someone with Autism!!!

“This is not my life”

As sit here listening to KSON, writing a different blog the DJ started talking about weight loss and wanting to go comfortably to the beach! It made me realize I have not made a proper blog about my absolute favorite product the bodybugg. I know this blog is generally about everything Autism related, but I think this is also Autism related.

When we get the diagnoses of Autism, moms tend to drop our lives as we previously knew it and we do anything and everything Autism related. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it can lead us to neglecting ourselves, which is a really BAD THING!!! Dad’s also do this when they become Dad’s. Dad’s then become the provider and need to do everything to keep their families afloat. When you get the Autism diagnosis this only gets intensified as our costs of living also go up. Even if you don’t do biomedical, your cost goes up for child care, for all the things your health insurance barely covers for a child with Autism like Speech Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, my favorite Vision Therapy, advocates, lawyers, etc! I could go on and on about all the things we pay for that people without Autism would never ever think about, but you get the point!! Also many mom’s I know with thriving careers end up taking steps down in their jobs if not quitting all together because all the things above also suck you dry of time.

I am just like you. I used to sit at home reading in all of my spare time about Autism and what I wanted intervention I wanted to try next and what I could only dream about affording next (right now that is Stem Cells in Costa Rica). I also neglected myself. I thought I did not have time to exercise and take care of myself.

November 8, 2008 the reality of the situation changed. My husband was admitted to the hospital and a week later we were preparing for heart surgery. He was 39 years old, at the time I kept thinking this can’t be happening, “this is not my life”. And for anyone who knows me, the statement “this is not my life” means something or someone is going to change!!! I also thought someone needs to live for the children, hell we have 4, this would not be fair to leave to Ashley and Nick to take care of the younger children, they deserve their own lives, at least as long as they can!!

One of the local PITAs I know had already been talking to me about this crazy product called the bodybugg. She started at a size 20, but with this product she had gotten down to a size 6 and lost an amazing 85 pounds and kept the weight off until she became pregnant. This is an amazing mom of two kids with Autism, who I know will lose it again just out of self determination!!! She sold me on the fact that there was no crazy fad diets, no eating crappy packaged foods that use crazy spices I would not use at home or or chemicals I would not subject my children to, and that you can eat what your family eats and even though it is basically calorie counting system, it is so much more. You strap this little devise on your arm and magically it tells you how many calories you burn every day. In the calorie counting world this is revolutionary, no longer is there any guessing of how many calories you burn you actually know how many you burn. Then you hook the bodybugg up to your computer and download that information to their website, which is included for 6 months. Once downloaded you put in what foods you eat and can compare the calories you actually burned to those you ate and drank. The goal is to eat 500 calories or what ever you amount you set as your goal less then you burn. Bodybugg has already put in many common foods calories into their system for you, including Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, El Pollo Loco, etc, and it also gives you the ability to add your own custom foods and even custom recipes. You can literally figure out how much a serving of Momma’s homemade Lasagna calories are in just a few minutes.

I also personally bought a food scale; this really helped with any guessing of how many calories I was eating. A great example of this is my favorite local pizza joint (That Pizza Place in Carlsbad) does not have a calorie guide, I can’t put in how many calories of their pizza I eat, BUTTTTT I can weigh the pizza, and pick Pizza’s Huts comparable crust pizza and change the setting from slice to ounce and get a very good guess of how many calories I ate.

The one thing I really truly regret is that I did not do on day one of my life change was take measurements. Yes the measurements you don’t want to know, your waist included, YIKES!!! So the only true measurement I have on how much weight I have lost is pounds and my bra size. Ok even the pounds is questionable, I went by the last time I had been to the doctor, since I didn’t even own a scale when I started.

I am happy to report I have lost 45 pounds, 8 inches in my bust size (no cup size, just excess fat), and went from a very tight fitting size 16 jeans to a nice fitting size 6 since I purchased this on December 24, 2008 and kept the weight off for a year. I also did not give up any of my favorite foods or beer. Instead I did moderation of everything I ate. I also like to eat so I exercised, A LOT! The more you exercise the more calories you can eat. Don’t let that scare you. My best friend is a single mom, who works 30 minutes from home. She took this system and lost the same amount of weight from accounting for her food alone. Everyone I know who has actually done the product as designed has done the same. It is truly amazing.

Since going back to work, I have figured out a great trick, you can burn almost as many calories as exercising an hour at any time of day, if you do a good heart healthy exercise for 20 minutes in the morning. The morning is key word!!! The earlier you exercise the long your metabolism is on high and the more calories you burn through out the day. No I don’t have any scientific proof, but I have a bodybugg that says I am right and walking the supermarket does not count. You need to be almost to the point that you can’t talk walk while working out, just on the edge of winded, where your heart rate is up!!!

There is only one reason to not purchase this product, and yes its only one. The reason is that you do not have the inner strength to have accountability and try, so if that is you, please sit back down on the couch, get the High Fructose Corn syrup filed soda or nasty chemical poisoned diet coke and a bag of chips and watch your DVR, because this is not the system for you. I will say this is also not the blog for you, but hey a reader is a reader, so let’s not go crazy, so just sit back down and continue you to read, I have very impressive persuasive skills and one day I may get you to come to the healthy side!!

So let’s get back to the statement, “I also neglected myself. I thought I did not have time to exercise and take care of myself.”

I also thought taking time for me was “selfish”. Let’s get this excuse over and done with, exercise and good health is SELFLESS NOT SELFISH!! In this life of Autism we need as long of a life as possible because we don’t know what is going to come up next, budget cuts, teacher changes, special education director leaves, etc. We also honestly need the stress release exercise gives. It is great for helping with the depression, guilt and other life challenges Autism throws at us.

So as usual, PITAup change your life and the life of someone with Autism! You will thank me, I promise!!!

WOW!!! Gluten Free Casein Free has never been this good!!!

Wow! I'm speechless, well almost!

Come on this is me we are talking about;-)

Tonight’s dinner was absolutely Devine! In the Primer house we eat very little junk like foods at home and today we hit the motherlode as we indulged in Amy's Rice Macaroni with Non Diary Cheese, NuLife Foods Chicken nuggets and Chocolate Chip cookies.

Let's start with the Amy's Rice Macaroni with Non Diary Cheese (Daiya Cheese) Let's point out that many frozen foods once cooked look nothing like the picture on the box! That is not the case for this product. I followed conventional oven cooking instructions, since I prefer a good baked Mac & Cheese. After cooking and stirring it looked beautiful! I have to say it tasted even better, in my humble opinion! My two little taste testers agreed and practically licked their plates clean. I swear to you any restaurant out there could serve this and no one would ever know the difference! The funny thing is Emily who is 10 was hesitant to try it since she had already saw Austin eating it, so she was clued in that it was GFCF (and may I add soy and egg free). When I asked if she knew it was GFCF she looked at me a sarcastically said "um yeah I've been in this family awhile and Austin could eat it duh!!" (Wonder where she gets that smart arse attitude, lol). She did though eat every last bite! The only downside I see to this product is the calories and fat. The box is considered it one entree and it is 520 calories, 22g total fat (34% of your daily value if on a 2000 calorie diet), 5g saturated fat, and 740 mg of sodium (31% of your daily value). As a wife of a heart attack survivor (at 39) this is definitely a food that should be eaten in moderation. My suggestion is to halve it and serve as a side dish with a lean meat and lots of veggies, and a salad!

Next up is the NuLife foods chicken nuggets, these are GFCFSFEF. If you are looking to replace McDonald nuggets these are not the nuggets you are looking for, for that matter you are never going to find those! McDonald's food is not food! At the San Diego DAN conference in 2008 one of the doctor's hit the nail on the head and said there is no such thing as junk food, there is junk and there is food and McDonald's is just that JUNK! The number one reason these won't replace McD's is they are breaded, not battered. I tasted these at the PITA mom's night in Orange County in June and can tell I understand why Ron from NuLife Foods describes these as their most popular product! They are very kid friendly. Austin had snuck 4 of them before I even served dinner! Let's just say that is a good sign he loved them! Emily also gave them rave reviews. They are 250 calories for a serving of 4. I will say both Austin age 8.5 and Emily age 10 each ate 8, but I know my friend’s boys, age 9 and 6 normally eat 4 nuggets at dinner.

Last but certainly not least are NuLife Food's chocolate chip cookies. These are GFCFSF unfortunately not egg free. So all reviews for this product will be from the non GF members of the family, Ed, Emily and I all give them 3 thumbs up! I might have also moaned when I ate my first one, but I really like fresh baked cookies and rarely have them. My sister Tanya also tasted one; her comment not knowing I had not made these from scratch was that I used a little too much butter substitute. I am unsure if this is accurate as I was afraid to over cook them. The directions said how long to cook, but my experience with cooking cookies is Toll House and you cook until the edges are golden or 1 2 3 gluten free where they taste like toll house but if cooked until the edges are golden crumble once cooled. So I went on the cautious side and under cooked! Ed said they were as good as any gluten filled cookie on the market so this is also getting really high praises from the Primer Family! I would buy these and use them regularly if Austin was not egg free and could eat them.

Until next time PITAup and make the world a better place for someone with Autism!

*Please note any links that are in green and underlined twice are being linked by the blog, and are not being linked by me and do not represent anything I am promoting.*

Old Favorites

Since I have some new parents who follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and read the blog, I thought I would review an old favorite since they recently introduced some new flavors. These products are all GFCFEF, not soy free. The have an awesome Allergy Alert for those who worry about cross contamination. I love companies that do not make you search for answers like this! They have this alert on several of their web pages.

Kinnikinnick animal cookies, for once this is a GFCFEF product that got it 100% right the first time!!!! Kinnikinnick animal cookies are just as disgusting as the original animal cookie and that is a GREAT thing! There purpose and usefulness are awesome from a parent's perception! Kid’s first and foremost love them. Animal cookies are a great teething cooking for smaller children. The mush up properly causing very little chance for choking and get all over toddler hands and then all over your clothes and you look like you rolled in a vat of talc or chalk. Ok the last part might not be awesome, but it’s a right of passage in parenting. These disgusting little cookies are winning big raves with all the PITA kids even the not GFCFEF kids! The kids that hang out in our smaller sub PITA group (our group that hangs out together every weekend, kids ages range from 13 months to 10 years old). Everyone will eat these puppies, I mean animal cookies!!!

They have also just come up with two equally unappealing versions Graham Style and Chocolate, which all the children love as well. As a parent I'm all for these disgusting treats if all the kids are, I just wish they were soy free. I think in my world sf and ef are not compatible but companies who cater to our community need to realize GFCFEFSF is where it is at! When we started the diet 6 years ago GFCF was recommended today by our local support group Talk About Curing Autism now, but today the tacanow.org website recommends everyone start GFCFSF. In my experience on this journey there is at least 25% of us that add in egg free due to allergies or IgG tests that recommend it. Egg allergies are huge now days due to many vaccines that have been grown on eggs and IMHO cause allergies to eggs! I think in a few years the majority of parents and support groups will be suggesting starting with GFCFEFSF.

Until my next time, PITAup and make the world a better place for all our kids, but especially those with Autism