Peter and the kitchen

As I've mentioned, Peter no longer takes medication for his ADHD.  Instead, he cooks and bakes.  The more I involve him in the kitchen, the more I find myself wondering if he even has ADHD.


Keep him busy, I've told myself over the years.  But often, this didn't alter behavior enough.  Now I realize he has to be busy doing something he's passionate about--like hunting insects, or cooking and baking.  The calming effect is marked, and the outbursts much fewer, following substantial time in the kitchen.  I'd call that therapy.

Earlier this evening Peter and Paul enjoyed hallway basketball.  My husband attached a hoop to the door at the end of the hallway, providing a winter outlet for exercise.  Vigorous.  That pretty much describes the hallway scene around here.

I started dinner during their game (nerf basketball), and Peter's radar didn't disappoint.  Interrupting their play, he appeared in the kitchen.  "Are you cooking?  Can I help?"

Above you see the vegetables he prepared for the steamer basket.

Here you see the salad he prepared.  I only washed the greens and cut off the cauliflower stems.  He did the rest.

He knows how to poke the yam and potatoes, readying them for the microwave.

While he worked it dawned on me that at eight years old, he could easily prepare a whole meal.  We will most certainly work toward that.  In order to succeed at whatever he chooses in life, he must learn to control his ADHD.  I believe the kitchen will be a big part of that, and I thank God for pointing us in the whole-food direction.  Creating food from scratch consumes much of the day, if one counts the three meals plus snack preparation.  My right-hand man stands ready to assist.  Or take over.

Lessons we're learning along our journey to whole, healthier food:

- Plan menus weekly to facilitate prep work--like soaking beans, or starting spaghetti sauce, or making corn muffins.

- When shopping, check labels carefully.  I found that the jelly and peanut butter in our cupboard both contain high-fructose corn syrup, which hasn't been studied enough, in my opinion.  It is highly processed.

- If you don't keep up with snack-food prep, you'll end up feeling like there's nothing to eat.  Fruit won't always carry you to the next meal, and cheese is an expensive option.  Plan ahead for snacks, as well as for meals.

Speaking of snacks--here's what left of the Chocolate Chip Oatmeal (And Bean) Cookies.  The second day, they were softer.  The kids devoured them.  We started with 45.  Okay...maybe I did eat eight of the 45.  But only because I couldn't find anything else to eat!  I didn't like them.  Really.

I researched fat substitutes and learned that applesauce or other fruit puree succeeds as a substitute for oil in cakes and muffins, but not as a substitute for the butter in cookies.  I think the bean puree is a good alternative, but in the recipe I used, it eliminated all but 3 TBSP of the butter--substituting 3/4 C white beans (pureed in blender with 2 TBSP reserved bean liquid). Also, the recipe reduced the sugar and increased the cooking time.  Lower fat recipes overcook easily, so it didn't make sense to bake them for fifteen to seventeen minutes.  I did 15 just to make sure I followed the recipe fully, and they were too hard (although for whatever reason, they were softer today).

My research also taught me that when taking fat out, one has to put flavor in--so next time I'll increase the vanilla extract.


Anyhow, I'll be tweaking both oatmeal raisin and chocolate chip cookie recipes this week, with a little bean fun.  Emphasis on a little.   I'll post the resulting recipes when they're finalized.

High-Fructose Corn Syrup links:

High-Fructose Corn Syrup Contains Mercury

High-Fructose Corn Syrup - How Dangerous Is It
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That concludes this update.  Good night, friends.  Thanks for reading!