Easy Gluten Free Living

I got an email from a newsletter reader over the weekend.  I thought it might be of interest to other readers of my blog.  So here’s her question and my answer:

Hi Mary,

 

I just found your website and am pretty excited! I have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia and have been reading and hearing a lot of things about gluten possibly exacerbating the symptoms of fibromyalgia. 

 

My question is that I love, Love, LOVE crackers – saltine crackers – plain, with cheese, spiced up with oil and spices, just to sit and snack on them makes me happy.  I looked for a gluten free saltine cracker recipe (to make crackers from scratch) on your website and just wondered if you have one or know where I could find one?

 

Thank you so much!           

I just wanted to bring to your attention, if you haven’t seen this yet or you’re not on Facebook.  The Celiac Awareness Tour is coming to a supermarket near you.

You can find their schedule by clicking on the link at the left.

They say that their mission is to hold a series of national events dedicated to providing information for those who live with Celiac disease or know someone who does and generally raising Celiac awareness.

Be sure to check out their schedule so that you don’t miss out.  Sounds like some good food, good information, and a good time.

If you’re in the Pittsburgh, PA area, the Celiac Awareness Tour will be in Monroeville, PA,Saturday, January 28, 2012 from 9:00 A.M to 3 P.M. at the Doubletree Hotel 101 Mall Blvd., Monroeville, PA 15146

I’m sure you’re wondering about the title to this post today.   If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you may remember that Courtney, my 7 year old granddaughter, was diagnosed back in December as gluten intolerant.  You can read about that here.

Well, Courtney came to visit from Kansas for 2 weeks at the end of July, and as it turns out she is not only gluten free, she is also lactose intolerant, and has an allergy to peanuts,  (fortunately, not as bad as some children that could die from peanuts), but bad enough that she cannot eat them at all.  So I had to go back to seriously “reading” labels, not just checking to make sure nothing had changed.

I have to say, that I think breakfast was by far the hardest meal to make.  I live on 10 acres, with 10 chickens and 1 rooster, so breakfast at our house is usually eggs, and before she was diagnosed, Courtney loved having the farm fresh eggs for breakfast.  Yeah, I could have fallen back on the cereal and Lactaid milk for breakfast, (and some mornings that is what she wanted), but I really wanted to give her something yummy. 

I actually found some frozen waffles (Van’s) that were gluten, milk, and egg-free.  They were really tasty. 

For lunch we had corn tortilla wraps.  I would steam the tortillas to soften them up and then top them with a variety of things.  One day we had chicken salad made with vegan mayonaise.  Yum!  I usually use Kraft Miracle Whip, but the last ingredient in that is…you guessed it, egg yolks.

I’m not a huge fan of peanut butter, but we always have it in the house.  (My hubby loves it on a spoon, and Charlie, my lab, likes it in his Kong).  Courtney of course couldn’t have peanut butter but she asked for Almond butter.  If you haven’t tried Almond butter yet, you have got to try it.  We had wraps with almond butter.

I made a gluten free/milk free, cream of chicken soup for my crockpot chicken dinner with Lactaid milk. 

Wow!  You parents that have gluten free/casien free children, my hat is off to you.  This is definately not easy. 

I’ll have more info about making food for Courtney coming soon, including a gluten free/milk free/egg free, ice cream recipe coming for you soon.

The following blog post is from my friend Ken Jones, author of The Complete Guide to Cooking with Quinoa.

“The first thing to say about quinoa is that it is a seed, not a grain. The plant grows to about 2 metres high and the seeds are born on flower clusters. The leaves can be eaten like spinach and in fact quinoa and spinach come from the same plant group. The most common type is the cream coloured quinoa but you can also buy red quinoa. The quinoa I grew last year was the rainbow variety which had a range of brown and dark red quinoa seeds.

Quinoa Nutrition Facts

Quinoa has long been a favourite for vegans because it has all nine essential amino acids supplements. Lysine in particular in crucial for repairing the body and bringing recovery to your body.. It also contains magnesium ,iron, copper, phosphorus and magnesium. What this all means in layman’s parlance is that it has one of the highest concentrations of these elements in the plant world.

Quinoa carbohydrates are slow releasing which means that it satisfies your hunger for longer. For diabetics this is ideal as you can maintain the correct blood sugar levels for longer with high level carbohydrates such as quinoa.

Quinoa is almost a “complete” food and was used by the Incas tribe by mothers while pregnant as well as when nursing infants. (It is thought to help improve the quality of milk mothers produce while feeding). Quinoa has plenty of Calcium, Fat, Iron and phosphorous and a high amount of vitamin B2.

Sprouted quinoa has more fiber because the seed germ has sprouted from the seed. This germ gives a good level of fiber when cooked in the standard way. When it is sprouted the fiber is more because of the large white sprout. You can mix sprouted quinoa with chopped raw vegetables for a healthy salad full of fiber and goodness.”

I hope this helped give you some more information on Quinoa.

Ken offers a lot of information about Quinoa in his cookbook, The Complete Guide to Cooking with Quinoa.  His bonus’ include a quinoa diet plan, that I am going to be starting in a few days.

Jenni askes:

I have not been tested for gluten allergy, but it is suspected. I am trying to avoid gluten to see if it helps me to feel better. I have found this to be very difficult. I never knew there was gluten in so many items (salad dressing, for example). Unless the above person really did his/her research, isn’t it possible that they may come across some gluten (or cross contamination) throughout that two week trial? This could account for there not being any change in symptoms.

I am finding that on the whole, I think I do feel better and have more energy. However, I still have episodes of diarrhea. I am guessing that I still am getting small traces of gluten somewhere. (That salad I had at McDonald’s, for instance). I did have one day in which I had almost normal bowel movements. It was wonderful. I was like, “So this is how the rest of the world feels 24/7? WOW!” But then, diarrhea the next day.

I’m still trying to stay hopeful. Looking for advice as to what I can cook for myself (and family of 4 children + husband) that will not be too shocking for them. I know it is a lifestyle change, and I need to learn how to cook differently. I guess I just am feeling overwhelmed and do not know where to begin.

Any suggestions you may have would be greatly appreciated.   

Jenni,

Let’s answer your questions/comments one at a time.  Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been really deserted on this blog the past month, I know.  Let me tell you what I’ve been up to and where the heck I’ve been.

As some of you may know, I have a full time J.O.B. outside of my blog and gluten-free classes.  I work with my husband at our Locksmith shop, and I also babysit 2 of my granddaughters.  Eilidh, age 3 and 3/4ths, and Mhairi, age 9 months.  So I have a lot on my plate to start with. 

Add to that, my son-in-law talked me, (more like roped me), into running an estate sale for him.  So I have been working on that… finding, pricing, and generally getting everything ready for the sale, since back in March.  Since I was doing this completely in my spare time, it took longer that I had hoped.  Every day off and every spare minute and weekend was consumed with getting the Estate ready for sale.

I finally got everything ready to go and the estate sale was held on the Friday and Saturday of  Memorial Day weekend.  It went very well and I have been spending my spare time since getting rid of and selling everything that didn’t sell.

I am happy to say that I almost have all of that cleaned up and ready to get back to work here on my blog.

I have a lot of new information for you all, several product reviews and some contests also.  As always let me know if there is anything you’d like to see here.

 

Carolyn Woodie says:

May 16, 2011 at 9:48 am

I went to purchase Ortega taco mix based on your list and noticed in the ingredient list that it has maltodextrin in it. I’m new to this GF, but I thought that we could not have maltodextrin. Am I wrong?

Wow Carolyn, you opened up a can of worms. 

Read the rest of this entry »

If Mom is a coffee lover this dessert will blow her away.  Top her dessert cup with a spoon of whipped topping and sprinkle the topping with chocolate sprinkles.

Full of Cream Coffee Dessert Read the rest of this entry »

If  the kids are making this for mom, have dad cook the steak.

Herbed Steak Salad Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been more than a little crazy at my house the past week.  I won’t go into details, but for the next several days I’m going to be offering you gluten free recipes for your Mother’s Day festivities.  I hope you enjoy them.

Made With Love Chicken Salad Read the rest of this entry »