What's for lunch?

Lunch time!Atty's is the monkey plate...on this day I gave him raw veggies because he can have more (certain kinds) of the raw verses cooked, I tweaked it a little and gave him slightly less then a cup of raw veggies so that I could give him a few thin slices of apple. Normally he can have 1/3 of a small apple as a serving or 1 cup of raw veggies. I have to pick them off of a list of acceptable vegetables. I gave him olives for fat and butter "candies" (each one being a tbsp of butter). Turkey sausage is some thing he really loves right now and I add oil to them to increase his fat intake. I also poured a little oil over the veggie sticks. I always give him a smaller plate because it makes it look like more.

Butter "candies" are just butter melted with Stevia and a flavor extract. I pour the mixture into ice cube trays and put in the fridge (or freezer) to harden. I put them on a tooth pick to make them like a sucker. I found this adorable heart shaped ice cube tray that I've been using and I want to see if I can find a good deal on some summer themed trays as well, to change it up a bit. He was just eating cubes of butter, but he doesn't seem to be very enthusiastic about that anymore. He tends to like a certain food exclusively for a while and then abruptly stop liking it. Which is a little nerve wracking when there isn't much to choose from on this diet.

He always eats one type of food on his plate at a time, then when he's finished he moves on to the next. He gets really upset if you offer him something else before he's done with the first thing. I am having to work on getting him to self feed again because he is capable most days but doesn't want to. He will pick it up and hand it to me and say "help me". I'm glad he's using his words (we've been working hard on that) and want him to continue to communicate verbally. But I get frustrated also because if he can pick it up and hand it to me he can certainly put it in him mouth! For a couple days he was really throwing horrible fits and refusing to feed himself, but I keep gently insisting and he seems to be self feeding more and more each day.

Two things he eats a lot of right now. I literally thank God every day he continues to like avocado. Seriously. We had to take him off of the heavy cream because of his reaction and it makes it a lot harder to get enough fat into his diet. Avocado is such a great fat for his diet, so I am very thankful that he hasn't tired of it so far.

Here are the fats that I rely heavily on. Lots of butter, grape seed oil and extra virgin olive oil. I wish he could have coconut oil but the one time we tried that (about a year ago) he had a reaction in the form of a body rash, and I've been afraid to try it since. His dietitian would like to try it again once his seizures settle down and we are in a good routine. It would be awesome if it worked for him because it's another good fat, and it's pretty yummy in flavor.

This is what was left over. Pretty typical. Not big on the veggies right now, but I keep offering because eventually he will nibble on a thing or two. It's a good thing that he likes to eat the same things over and over again...makes it a little easier. So that's what a normal meal looks like for Atty right now...exciting right?

I attempted to make a pan baked bread thing (with almond meal as the flour substitute)...like cornbread...only not. He humored me and ate a little. I'm going to attempt to make flax seed crackers next from a recipe his dietitian gave me. Wish me luck!