Gluten Free... starting out

I took a year off from writing on this blog for personal reasons. I'm back. and I'm here to give helps and hints on how to shop, cook and eat GF.

Starting out GF is a hard choice. Many people will not understand why you are doing this. I am here to say... ONLY do this if it is medically necessary. My journey started with my doctor. After having various issues that seemed unrelated he suggested I try to remove gluten from my diet. I fought him on it for six months. But, I continued to feel horrid, to be unable to function, to experience a debilitating fatigue and to have problems with digestion. So, I gave in. Yes, I'm stubborn. I should have tried sooner. I see that God truly had to let me feel totally out of control and unable to function before I'd stop and listen.

So, I started eating GF and nothing happend. Or so it seemed. You see, for those who have full blown Celiacs or even just gluten intolerance, gluten actually kicks in an autoimmune response and ends with damge to the body...one of the most common areas of damage is the gastro-intestinal tract. The lining becomes damaged and is then unable to process other foods properly. So, if you truly have this issue then a day or two of eating GF (G-free or gluten free) will not suddenly leave you feeling like a super hero. In fact, it may take weeks, months, or even longer till you even begin to feel well.

For me I had inklings things might be turning around, but it wasn't till month four of this new life style that I started to see bits and pieces of improvement. By month six we saw big changes, but occasional crashes as well. Enter cross-contamination and/or unknowingly ingesting gluten. In the meantime, as I mentioned, others may not understand what you are doing or why. But, if you can persevere and truly do find improvement hang in there. I did this with much prayer and the love and support of my family. It was not an easy journey by any means, for more reasons than I care to discuss, but it was doable. Now, here I am almost 2 years later now and feeling so much healthier. For a while I was even biking five miles a day! A huge feat for someone who barely had enough energy to get up and eat breakfast a few years ago. Some set backs have occurred... as I mentioned, sometimes you unknowingly ingest gluten and it can take a while to return to health. You may have days you're just tired... like others are tired... and you're afraid it's starting over. There are other days you get too busy to balance the rest, diet and supplements, but it is doable.

Here are the tricks:

• if you are feeling sick seek medical assistance to rule out other possibilities
• if gluten appears to be the issue, find friends and family who WILL support you as you change your life style to remove gluten
• do research... my first vitamin supplements I took to help with what I was missing from whole grains had gluten in them. OY!
• keep reading. 
• shop with your phone in hand and don't be afraid to call and ask if something is GF. 
• If you're not sure... DO NOT eat it. Not worth it. Really. 
• Start asking around for ideas and tips... I can give you shops, restaurants and more to help, I found some online, some in person, some through books and some through asking others. 
• It's worth it to buy a separate toaster, separate strainer, and more. 
• Paper towels become your friend. Along with foil. 
• We have left over containers that ONLY hold GF free... from apple sauce to GF pasta... if it's in that container I can eat it. If not I leave it alone. 
• Try new recipes. 
• Give yourself time. First 6 months were hard. Next six months I ate a lot of prepared GF meals, meaning I felt left out at times, but also grateful I had food. Then I began to experiment with cooking, and now I'm working with the GF flours on baking from scratch. 
• Don't feel ashamed. You didn't ask for this, it's how you were made and God provides a way for you to still eat, and enjoy your food. 
• Keep learning. 
• Keep living. 
• Find other things that give you joy. 
• PRAY. 

Hope that helps. Feel free to ask, I'm happy to help. I'll be posting recipes and more here. I won't always have pictures... I'm not the best blogger, but I'll try to be a support! 

Blessings, Kim

Beef Hash

And no, I am NOT talking about corned beef hash. Oh my. No!

So, what happens when you cook a roast and veggies in the crock pot? Well, in our family the veggies all get eaten, but we always have roast left over. And, somehow reheating beef roast just doesn't seem right. So, I turn to an old family recipe, first taught to me by my mother. And, I love it for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Just be sure to have ketchup on hand!

And, again, sorry... no photos. Some day I'll actually take photos step by step so this makes sense. In the meantime, should you have questions just email me.

1. take out leftover roast, put it, bit by bit, in the Osterizer blender OR a food processor and chop. The meat should look shredded. 
2. Next, take out some potatoes... how many? Depends on how much meat is left. One pound or less and I usually use 4 potatoes. Dice them into a smallish dice. All even. 
3. Now, take onion.. same idea. 
4. bring several tablespoons of olive oil to high heat (Pam doesn't work well for this). Add in the potato and onion. Stir for a few minutes, then lower heat, and cover. Cook for 5 minutes. 
5. Remove lid, stir and remove any stuck veggies from the bottom of the pan. Turn up the heat just a tad, and for the next 3-7 minutes, stir and start to brown the veggies. 
6. Add in the meat. The purpose here is NOT to cook the meat, it is ALREADY cooked, but rather we want to brown the bits a bit. Add a bit of a caramelized taste. 

When it's all heated, veggies nicely browned and meat is good take off the heat. Serve with ketchup. And, you're correct, I've added no seasonings because the roast was already seasoned. You can add salt and pepper to taste at the table. But, 

Don't forget to pass the ketchup. 

And the beauty of this? Gluten free and it uses leftovers!

Happy Eating, 

Kim

Philly Slices and GF Baguettes

So, while waiting at the Marsh deli line for GLUTEN FREE DELI... can I hear an "OH YEAH BABY!" (They even sliced it on the cheese slicer to keep it free from cross contamination... Marsh on Kinser Pike)... I saw this little display with recipe cards. Took two.


One was Italian Sausage and Spinach Rotini... family loved it! The other was Philly Slices... basically you take puff pastry, roll it out.. fill it with sauteed onion, pepper and garlic, sliced/shredded beef and shredded provolone. The vote was 2 for it and 1 "okay". We'll see... with my inability to handle wheat products I donned gloves to make this... that was interesting. And filling hit the floor, I'll be honest. And really... rolling puff pastry in rubber gloves? It's very interesting. The second roll I asked WeeOne and Mealsie (friend of MMH) to help roll it. Well.... that one sort of popped or leaked... anyway, the girls ate the cheese off the counter. So, not sure how frequently that will make it to the rotation.


In other tried attempts I made my first gluten free baguettes. Now, mind you, I had to make it sans corn, so I'm not sure how it was meant to taste, but my vote is "not bad." I piled on some chicken salad and enjoyed it for dinner this evening. The recipe I used came from Nicole and is found on this web site. For the flours I used a high protein mix of garbanzo bean, potato flour and white rice flour. Because I'm trying recipes for our church's communion I needed to make this very cost effective. Once I added up the costs, figured out cups of flour per pound (4.5 in case you ever need to know), tablespoons per 8 oz. (21-25 roughly), and then added up costs I came to a whopping $2.50 per loaf... without adding in electricity, power, salt, yeast, and vinegar... At the store a similar loaf would cost $4.00, so it's a savings. We'll see what the consensus is. The crumb is great, the taste is fairly good... I now recognize that extra tang in GF breads/rolls... frequently vinegar is used as an acid which is needed to help things rise since there is really no gluten present.

photo found on Living Without

A fairly successful day. I did, however, forget to take a photo... another vote for an IPhone.. ease of use and uploads...so, you'll have to trust me that this was an interesting looking bread. (Their professional photo of their final product is much prettier than my loaf!) But, taste my friends... probably between a 7 and an 8.
Happy Cooking!
Kim

I thought this was pizza night!

And indeed, it was. But, it wasn't the homemade pizza I had planned. Dear had an excellent day at work, and called to say we could celebrate at Buccetto's. Which is great because they have YUMMY GF pizza. They are very careful of how they prepare it and it's so tasty that frequently the family asks to share it with me. Not the most common thing said of GF food. 


My favorite is the "Lean Machine." Their menu reads: " about 1/3 the fat of our regular pizza, a thick crushed tomato sauce full of herbs & spices, sprinkled with fresh Parmesan & Romano cheese..." I also ask for them to add spinach which makes it even more amazing! It's super yummy, low cal and GF. What's not to like? 


So, the baguette/pizza dough experiment has been pushed ahead to tomorrow. The family will be having Philly Beef Slices and I'll be having, I hope, some GF garlic bread from my made-from-scratch recipe, along with a leftover GF chicken/apple/maple sausage. YUMMO!


Happy Eating Everyone... recipe will follow for the baguette. And hey, this blog might be just the reason to buy that new IPhone... that was how we spent the earlier part of the evening.. shopping at the phone store. Didn't buy, but had fun looking!

Shalom, 
Kim

Welcome to the blog!

I know I know. Another. Blog. Again. I'm nuts!

Well, I may be nuts, but I was thinking about all the cooking I have to do. About eating gluten free. About cooking for gluten-eaters and non-gluten-eaters. About the ways I like to mess with recipes and make them my own. About how sometimes I just don't want to blog about something deep, about homeschooling, about my thoughts, or my art, or childbirth. So, I figured I needed a new blog. A new look. A new start. After all, it's a new year.

SO, on this blog you'll join me in my adventures of cooking. You'll learn about our food allergies, gluten intolerance, how to change up ingredients, my favorite places to shop, find recipes and eat out. If you like food I think you'll like my blog. I'll also try to post weekly menus here, with the occasional photo as I think of it.

And, to that end, here's this week's menu, in no particular order.

• Spinach Sausage Casserole (or Breakfast bowl for the gluten intolerant)
• Philly Cheese Slices
• Potato Rosemary Soup (gluten free)
• Creamed Tuna on potato chips (quit shuddering, it's a comfort food, gluten free and fun every now and again)
• Left-overs (yes, I plan for leftovers, helps the fridge stay clean!)
• Pancakes and sausage (Dear is loving pancakes currently and who doesn't like breakfast for dinner sometimes?)
• Homemade pizza (Gluten free and non)

There you have it. Now, if I get my hiney in gear I'll put up a recipe page as well so you can find recipes with ease. I have photos tonight because the blog is new and the idea was in my head. Not sure how frequently this will happen, but I love photos so I know what the food is "supposed to" look like.

The spinach sausage casserole was a HUGE hit. Simple ingredients: sweet Italian sausage, mozzarella cheese, rotini pasta, Parmesan cheese, onions, green onions, garlic, sour cream, spinach. That's it.

fresh out of the oven

ready to eat with a nice cold glass of milk

Breakfast bowl also fairly easy: thinly slice potatoes, olive oil, diced onions, browned crumbled gluten free sausage, eggs, cheese of your choice.

allowing the eggs to cook through in the fry pan...

tastes great with a nice glass of grapefruit juice

Doesn't this just say "yummy" and "comfort"?!

I also, very carefully, whipped up some granola for Aaron's return to Texas. It's found in the "Whole Foods for the Whole Family" cookbook by La Leche League. I have an OLD version, but I'm betting it may be found in the new as well.

• 5 c. oats
• 6 c. of a variety of things. I use 3c. whole wheat flour, 2c. powdered milk and  1c. quinoa.(because it's what I had on hand)
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. almond flavoring
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 c. canola oil
• 1 c. honey
• 1/2 c. water

during the baking

Preheat the oven to 250. Put the oil and honey into a large roasting pan. Put in the oven and let warm as the oven warms up. Meanwhile start measuring. When oven is preheated take out pan, add in ingredients and stir. Bake in slow oven for 2 hours, stirring every 20 minutes. When cool, stir in raisins or chocolate chips. Our family ALWAYS chooses chocolate chips. YUM!

after it's all crisped up... note the yummy nuggets

 Happy Eating!
Shalom,
Kim