SCD Cupcakes

I recently made SCD cupcakes and since they can be tricky, thought I’d share them with you.

I used the same SCD cake recipe I used here, but omitted the lemon flavoring since I was out of it.

And I used not only the same SCD buttercream frosting recipe that I had used for the SCD birthday cake, but the actual batch of SCD buttercream that I had made for that cake.

Having the extra stored in small containers in the freezer made creating the cupcakes a breeze. The trick is to thaw the frosting, then re-whip it before adding it to the piping bag.

Instead of creating frosting-based flowers, which would not have held up well without continual refrigeration, I piped a basic twirl, then decorated the cupcakes with fresh flowers.

How have you decorated your SCD confections? Leave me a comment. I’d love to hear.

25 SCD Snacks

With kids home from school for the summer, finding SCD snacks can be hard. And if your SCD kid is prone to losing weight, as mine is, it’s especially important to have snacks on hand.

I’ve compiled a list of ones we like, including some calorie-dense snacks as well as some lighter fare. Assume that the items are homemade unless specifically stated otherwise.



1. Dried fruit and nut butter
2. Fresh fruit and nut butter
3. Vegetables and guacamole
4. SCD chips and guacamole
5. Cheese sticks
6. SCD cookies (like Ginger Bear Biscuits, Healing Foods, page 207; or Brownies, Healing Foods, page 196; or Monster Cookies, Breaking the Vicious Cycle, page 132)
7. Coconut date balls (Healing Foods, page 53)
8. Gelatin made with SCD juice
9. Popsicles made with SCD juice, yogurt, and/or fruit
10. Almond butter packs
11. Boiled eggs and SCD mayonnaise
12. SCD waffle sticks (or shapes cut out with cookie cutters) and honey and/or nut butter
13. SCD muffins
14. SCD cupcakes
15. SCD Caramel Toffees (although these must be kept refrigerated) (Healing Foods, page 54)
16. Skewers (or cute Bento toothpicks) of ham or turkey, and cheese, and SCD pickles or olives
17. SCD fruit leather
18. SCD ice cream
19. SCD slushies (blended frozen fruit, juice, and ice if needed)
20. SCD smoothies (blended fruit, yogurt, juice or coconut milk, and nuts)
21. Sardines served with SCD cheese crackers
22. Farmer’s cheese (described in Breaking the Vicious Cycle) and honey
23. SCD Pretzels
24. SCD Carrot cake (Healing Foods, page 204; or Breaking the Vicious Cycle, page 127)
25. Crispy eggplant chips with marinara dipping sauce

Hope you’re having a great summer and that this is helpful. If you have favorite SCD snacks I’d love to hear about them below.

Low-carb SCD Bento, or Where to Score a Phenomenal Menu Planner

Photo used under Creative Commons from gamene

Without whining about all of the details, I’ll tell you that I spent 17 hours this past weekend cooking. Am I crazy? Probably. But when my husband mistakenly said earlier this weekend that I was “enthusiastic” about my daughter’s diet, I had to correct him. “I’m not enthusiastic; I’m desperate.”

Those of you who have kids with behavioral and/or digestive issues know that the reward of the hard work of a successful dietary endeavor is no comparison to having a child who’s out of control, unable to attend class, or sit in a car seat, or worse yet losing weight due to malabsorption.

My daughter has been on the SCD for three years and for the first time, getting her to stay on the diet is becoming problematic now that she is in kindergarten. My heart goes out to her. I know that she wants be like other kids, but within the past few weeks she’s started getting snacks from her table mates at school, sneaking her sister’s food at home, and most embarrassingly, stealing a forbidden candy from a store while my husband was distracted paying the bill. Ouch! So much for my perfect parenting award.

I’m hoping to redeem myself, and make her life a little easier, by upping my game when it comes to the lunches and snacks she takes to school. She can be picky when it comes to food, especially in her lunch—while her friends are watching—and that in combination with the restrictions of easily transportable, ready-to-eat SCD food, led me to contemplate Bento.

Never heard of Bento? Me neither until recently. But what kid wouldn’t love supremely cute lunch boxes filled with scenes of forest animals, or comic characters—not just lunch, but art? Granted, traditional Bento foods are not SCD, gluten-free, or even low-carb, but I’m on a mission and I won’t let that stop me.

I’ve found a phenomenal Bento site, chock full of resources, including recipes, pictures (definitely the most helpful), and equally as important for thinking ahead—and for getting one’s family to stick to the plan—is a meal planner. I have been using meal planners of one sort or another for years, but this is the Holy Grail of (on paper) meal planners.

It’s a full week, with breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks for each day, along with extra space for notes and a shopping list, but the best part is the Bento lunch section. It is organized graphically, which means that the lunch section looks somewhat like a mini Bento box and each section is proportional to how much of that type of food: protein, carbs, vegetables, fruit/snacks, you should include in your lunch. Obviously, for the SCD Bento, one has to alter it a bit.

If you would prefer more Americanized Bento lunches for kids, check out bentolunch. The Bento photos in the masthead alone are worth the visit, but you’ll want to make sure to check out the What’s For Lunch weekly post where commenters leave pics of their cute Bento lunches.

If you have a cute SCD, gluten-free, or low-carb lunch site or picture to share, I’d love to hear about it in the comments.