Sarah has had a huge growth spurt! Just last year her winter PJ's were size 7/8. Now they are 14/16! LOL She could have probably wore a size 10/12 but only for this winter ( all 2 weeks of it )
My Little Elf :)
I t just amazes me how much she has grown. When we adopted her she weighed 19 pounds at 5.5 years old. Now she weighs 68 pounds at almost 11 years. She is still small for her age but she is quickly catching up. In fact Sarah, Selah and Sam are all around the same weight and height!
Sarah still eats basically only puree' foods. I'm on my third Ninja /Magic Bullet. She usually eats whatever we eat, just put through the blender with a little added liquid. Tonight we had BBQ chicken, mashed potatoes, baked beans and green beans. Then she had ice cream for dessert! She does move her food around in her mouth and chew a little. If we are out, I can get her soups or softish foods and mash them up for her. She basically eats food the consistency of oatmeal. When we first got her, everything had to be liquid or she would choke.
For breakfast she eats Grits and applesauce.
Sarah also likes pureed eggs with bacon and sausage. It smells good but looks absolutely awful! She will ONLY drink Caprisun juice. She likes the pouches and the tiny straw but I can't trick her to try anything else unless i want to spoon it into her mouth! I buy the organic ones when they are BOGO at Publix.
For lunch she usually has left overs from the night before or one of her frozen meals.Then she gets a banana and a can of fruit pureed together for lunch. I puree containers of food for her. When I make something like spaghetti, I make more and then puree it into single serve containers and freeze it for her. That way she has meals for when we have something that is not a food we want to puree like pizza!
For supper she eats whatever we are having unless it's sandwiches or pizza. She has 2 Activa yogurts for supper. I cook alot in the crock pot, those type of meals are easy to puree.
My "go to meals" are
Crock Pot
Mexican chicken
Taco chili
regular chili
BBQ chicken
beef stew ( every great once and awhile)
Spaghetti/Pasta
spinach lasagna
Taco
chicken & dumplings (haven't tried this since going gluten free)
Meatloaf (just bought GF breading)
chicken and rice
chicken noodle soup
All the above are very easy for Sarah. She eats gluten free along with the rest of us. Frankly I can't tell a difference in any of us except Jon and I don't feel as sleepy/stuffed after eating. I'm trying to redo some recipes to make them GF. Walmart has wonderful over ready GF lasagna! OH MY! It's so good-can't tell the difference.
I cook with chicken....so much chicken. Even with chicken I have to make sure that it's low fat. I usually only use breast meat, every now and then I do cook some chicken legs with a special spice on them but they are so much higher in fat. I also use ground LEAN chicken in place of hamburger meat. It has to be the "fit & lean" 100% from the breast or it'll have as much fat as hamburger has!
People always say it's so expensive to eat healthy. It absolutely is not! I figured up how much last night's Taco meal cost. 2 pounds of ground chicken $5.49 each pound. Can of fat free refried beans $1 can of organic black beans $1.19 Yellow rice packet $2 Taco shells $2 Salsa $3 Fat free cheese $2.49 (bought at BOGO sale so actually $1.24) = $21.41 divided by 6 = $3.55 Plus we have more than one meal out of it, plenty of left overs and a couple of containers for Sarah in the freezer! Sometimes I add a salad, last night I did not.
Jon and I ate lunch at a Mexican restaurant this past week and the cost was about $21 for just the two of us!
I love to eat out but I also love to eat at home. When we eat at home I can control what goes into the meal. And I know I save money, plus it's so much easier for Sarah. There are a few restaurants that we can't go to because there is nothing I can mush up for her. Traveling is challenging.
I always keep on hand applesauce, grits, oatmeal, cans of fruit, cans of soup, fruit pouches,& Caprisun, for Sarah. All of that is easy to take with us so I keep it in her bag in case we end up somewhere and have nothing she can eat. I shop at Publix and I love their BOGO sales. They will only allow 4 deals at a time but I can always come back the next day for more!
Sam eats everything we do basically. He hates sweets other than a few fruits. You couldn't make him eat ice cream! Every now and then he is interested in something like that until we get him a taste-then he acts like he was given poison!! He'll gag! One of his doctors was very interested years ago about his aversion to sweets. He will drink sweet tea and soft drinks. But he mostly drinks juice or water.
Selah takes all her food through gtube. She has a good formula that has REAL food in it. I had to fight for it but it's been great for her. She also has some baby food daily-usually prunes. She gets cranberry juice and Aloe Vera juice during the day along with water. I'm very happy with her nutrition. I feel she is satisfied and getting very healthy food. for a year she was on pedisure and she looked swollen and gained too much weight.
It has been challenging to meet the girls' needs but I feel we have it worked out for the best for them. With them both being on a liquid diet, we have to ensure they get the right kind of nutrition, not empty calories!
